TIP OF THE WEEK –   Courthouse Research, Trial Run

Never been to a county courthouse to do research? Think it may be in your future? Why not practice in your local county seat?  Even if your ancestors and their county courthouse are quite distant from where you live, your experience and knowledge of your local courthouse and the whole research process will make you more comfortable and efficient when it comes time to making that trip to the courthouse of your ancestor’s home county.

Interview the archivist (big city),  talk to the Recorder (small town), or the Tax Assessor. In your particular locale, their titles may differ from these.  Find out who posted the earliest probate packet (recorder) or ask where the tax records are for 1939. Then go look at them! Happy hunting.

 TIP OF THE WEEK –   Family Tree DNA Tests on Sale

During the entire month of December, Family Tree DNA (FTDNA.COM), is having a substantial sale on their most popular DNA tests. Family Finder, the autosomal DNA test, is on sale for $59; this is a $40 savings from the regular $99 price.  The mtDNA Full Sequence test is marked down to $179, a $20 savings,  and the Y-DNA37 test is marked down $30 to $139.  Some of the combination tests for male or female lines are also on sale. The Family Finder + mtfullSequence has been reduced to $228, a $70 savings, and the Family Finder + Y37 is now $188, an $80 savings. Sale prices will be in effect until 12/31/2016.

TIP OF THE WEEK –
 Do you know about GEDmatch.com?
 

GEDmatch is a free repository website for people who already have taken tests at any of the DNA testing sites such as Family Tree DNA, Ancestry, and 23andMe. While free, donations are appreciated.

Testers first register on GEDmatch with their email and create a password, then download a copy of their autosomal DNA raw data file from their testing sight such as Ancestry or FTDNA, then upload that file to GEDmatch where it is processed and added to the large database.

The best two reasons for uploading to GEDmatch is you’ll find additional matches with folks who tested at sites other than the one you did and GEDmatch has a number of data analysis tools.

For plenty of detail on the site, watch the “GEDMatch Basics” video at Youtube

When you’re ready to try your hand at the download and upload of your raw data file to GEDmatch, you can find a short video on that at YouTube also.  If you feel uneasy or intimidated by the process, stop by the SGS library on Technology Tuesday and talk to Lisa Chan.

 TIP OF THE WEEK – HeinOnLine Wants to Give Back
 

Since it’s launch in 2000, HeinOnLine,  an internet database service by William S. Hein & Co., Inc., a Buffalo, NY publisher specializing in legal materials, has won award after award.  Now they just got a huge shout out from Judy G Russell, the Legal Genealogist.

William S. Hein & Co., Inc. describes their newly launched collection,  Slavery in America and the World: History, Culture & Law,   as “monumental, unique, (and) culturally significant,”. Judy concurs.  She calls it “fabulous”. This collection is all known legal materials on slavery in the United States and the English-speaking world.  And it’s free to everyone! You will need to register for access, but that’s a simple process.

To read more about William S. Hein & Co.  and the collection, check out Judy’s latest blog entitled “Shining a Light” at :

www.legalgenealogist.com/2016/10/13/shining-a-light/

If you are interested in using the collection, you can register for access at :

https://home.heinonline.org/slavery/

TIP OF THE WEEK – DID YOU HAVE ANCESTORS in
 19th CENTURY, WHITMAN COUNTY, ANYONE?
 

The Whitman County Genealogical Society(WCGS) has published a new book :

“Whitman County, Washington Territory:
Gleanings from Selected Newspapers
with Every Name Index (1877-1886)”

As described by WCGS, their “243 page spiral bound book with laminated covers compiled by Mary Bybee Simonsen in cooperation with WCGS, contains 194 pages of gleanings, plus an index of over 5,000 different names.  There were many newspapers in Whitman County from 1877-1886, but most gleanings were extracted from the Palouse Gazette, the Washington Democrat (both Colfax, W.T. newspapers), and the Palouse News (a Palouse City, W.T. newspaper), plus a few other area newspapers.  The extractions were done from microfilm at Washington State University Holland Library in Pullman, WA.  Every readable issue of these newspapers during this time period was reviewed for possible gleanings.  Most gleanings are from records, such as births, marriages, divorces, deaths, and land records, plus other interesting items related to the area.   Some articles, especially land records, were too faint to read, so the gleaning was edited.  Full articles may be read at a facility having these microfilmed newspapers.”

The book sells for $25 or it is also available on CD in PDF format for $15; taxes and shipping included. Contact address for WCGS : PO BOX 393, Pullman, WA 99163.  See WCGS pages posted on the Washington State Genealogical Society Blog for additional information and order form at:
http://wp.wasgs.org/tag/whitman-county-genealogical-society/

TIP OF THE WEEK

FindMyPast Special Introductory Rate!

The FindMyPast website has announced a starter rate of $34.95 for a one year subscription, which they report will give access to more than 2.9 billion records.  This represents a 70% discount from the ordinary 12-month option of $114.50.  Among the records that come with this subscription are UK and Irish censuses, the free collections of US census and Irish Roman Catholic church registers. The Starter Package also has a collection of US birth, marriage and death records, including a range of California births and marriages, New York marriages and South Carolina deaths.  There are, as well, records of folks leaving the UK  (1890-1960), passenger lists from various states, and a collection of historic US newspapers which often contain valuable information for genealogical research.  The FindMyPast 360-year marriage record collection cannot be accessed with this Starter Package but is available with the more costly premium subscription. This website is of special interest to those involved in English and Irish research but increasingly includes much American information. For information consult findmypast.com.

Tip of the Week – LEGACY FAMILY TREE WEBINARS

Remember the article  in the last eNews! issue about using a RSS Reader such as  feedly  so you will never miss updates from your favorite bloggers, vendors, and more?  This week, we suggest adding the fantastic Legacy Family Tree Webinars to your  feedly  : familytreewebinars.com

Legacy Family Tree Webinars partners with popular presenters to produce live, interactive lectures and the majority are available to view for free for at least a week after the webinar has initially aired. Over 400 past lectures are also available on demand for just $9.95 a month or $49.95 a year.

Plus at present, in the Webinar Library: Free section, you’ll find 74 webinars available on demand, absolutely free, with no registration required: familytreewebinars.com/archived_webinars_free.php

In this free section, you’ll find the very popular “Family History for Kids” by Devin Ashby. It had 1,200 viewers at first broadcast and provides 90 minutes of inspirational suggestions to help you share the gift of family history with the young people in your life:
familytreewebinars.com/download.php?webinar_id=222

Legacy Family Tree Webinars  also offers an option to add webinar broadcast dates to your Google Calendar. Google Calendars allow for alerts to be sent to your computer or through email so you can be sure to be in front of your screen at the appropriate time to participate.

Why not check it out? Coming up September 15th, at 5 pm PDT is Judy G Russell (JD, CG, CGL), known as the Legal Genealogist, presenting “The Treasure Trove in Legislative Petitions” ; remember it will be free for a week.  For more info and registration –  familytreewebinars.com/webinar_details.php?webinar_id=366

Tip of the Week – DO THE LEG WORK

It’s true that the popularity of genealogy has exploded since all the on-line resources available have made it so much easier to gather information on our ancestors, but let’s not forget that some of the best things can only be found if you’re willing to do some good old fashioned leg work.

This summer I traveled back to the Midwest and interspersed my visits with the living with side trips seeking answers about the dead. In two states, I visited five cemeteries, two genealogy societies, the Cuyahoga County Archives, and a small town library.  From each place I walked away with a treasure, often not the information I was seeking, but something totally unexpected. Something not available on the Internet.

I found headstones for children that never lived long enough to show up in the census, I learned my great-great-grandfather, listed as a musician in the 1885 Boston directory and 1900 Ohio census, was a professor of music that played cornet as well as violin,  and my favorite find was in a filing cabinet in the basement of a small town library. This cabinet was full of folders much like the Surname Vertical Files we have at SGS. In there I found transcriptions of Civil War Letters between a brother and his sister, my son-in-law’s ancestors.

The brother was a young Union soldier. His personality really shined in these letters. It was fun to “get to know him”.  He always closed with a “Give my love to the family and any inquiring friends and save a good portion for yourself. Your affectionate brother, John F Brown”. It was sad when I found that 6 months after the letters stopped he died in Georgia as a POW in Andersonville Prison.

You are encouraged to come into the SGS Library and check the Surname Vertical files as well as the Family History Collections. Try visiting the small cemeteries,  libraries, and historical societies near where your ancestors lived. Maybe there are some unexpected treasures waiting there for