Family Tree - April 2016 PDF

FamilySearch Tutorial: Find Ancestors In 200,000 Old Books
W W W. FA M I LY T R E E M AG A Z I N E .CO M
M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 1 6
Genealogy
Websites
Guide for 2016
Insider Tips For Ancestry.com,
Findmypast & MyHeritage
Top Sites For Tracing
German Roots
50 Family History
Databases You Didnt Know
Are Free
US $9.99
CAN $10.99
04
Search Online Newspapers

From the Old Country
Easy Ways To Back Up Your Research
25274 02003
Display until April 25, 2016
Set Up a Family Website In 6 Steps
contents
feature articles
cover photo: Al Parrish; photo illustration: Julie Barnett
60
33
march/april 2016 volume 17, issue 2
18
24
10
42
66
GENEALOGY WEBSITES GUIDE 2016

24 Foreign Affairs
42
| By
Rick Crume
Old newspapers genealogical bounty isnt limited to US kin.

Well show you how to research ancestors in online papers of your familys
homeland.
33
Triple Threat
|
By Sunny Jane Morton
10
Free Samples
|
By Dana McCullough
Just like the grocery store tempts you

with those yummy free tastes, genealogy websites offer tantalizing freebies
to whet your research appetite. Try
these 50 delicious databases for free.
How do the big three genealogy

sites measure up to each otherand
to your research needs? Well compare
records, searching and more.
18
Speaking Their
Language
| By James M. Beidler
The language barrier can really put
a crimp in your German genealogy research. Get help tracing your
Deutsch ancestors names and places
with these online tools.
33
<family
e.
>
contents
columns & departments
GENEALOGY WEBSITES GUIDE 2016
24
60
Going By the Books
|
By Dana McCullough
and Diane Haddad
Learn how to mine the record,

indexes, local histories and more in
FamilySearch.orgs free, digitized collection of family history books.
66
HomeSweet
Home.com
| By
42
Total Coverage
|
By Denise May Levenick
Create a custom, comprehensive

insurance plan to back up your
valuable family photos and genealogy
research les.
4 Out on a Limb
| By Diane Haddad
A letter from our editor.
David A. Fryxell
Its easy and inexpensive to set up a

family history website thatll put you
in charge of your clans online dream
home.
60
48
Under the Big Top
|
6 Tree Talk
Readers respond to
Family Tree Magazine.
72 Photo Finish
Our new nal page features old
family photosthis month, of
ancestors with then-cutting-edge
technology.
By Lisa Louise Cooke
72
Choosing family history apps can be

like watching a three-ring circusbut
not when you let our apps ringmaster
direct you to the best genealogy tools
for your mobile device.
54
Breaking Out
|
By Lisa A. Alzo
Reap the rewards of expanding your

online family history research to these
23 not-just-for-genealogy websites.
IN OUR NEXT ISSUE
Family Tree Magazine (ISSN 1529-0298) is published seven times per year: January/February, March/April, May/June, July/August,
September, October/November and December by F+W, A Content + eCommerce Company, 10151 Carver Road, Suite 200,
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Family Tree Magazine 3 M A R C H /A P R I L
2016
Find ancestors hiding in the census

Polish, Czech and Slovak genealogy
Military service records guide
Available April 26 on newsstands and

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On large genealogy websites, its often more effective to skip
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Wolkey and Wookie.
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In March, Family Tree
Magazine Podcast host Lisa
Louise Cooke and guests talk
top websites and apps for your
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in iTunes or at <familytree
magazine.com/podcast>.
The note-taking tool Evernote

is ideal for organizing your
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accessible from anywhere.
Our course shows you how
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outonalimb
Gray Matter
MARCH/AP R IL 2016
VOLUME 17, ISSUE 2
3 MY 4-YEAR-OLD SON and I were
in the car the other day when, after

several minutes of uncharacteristic
silence, he asked me, Mommy, did
everything used to be black and white?
Its political debate season (although
when is it not political debate season?),
so thats where my mind went. Had we
accidentally left the news on?
I borrowed my moms standard
response to how-on-earth-will-Ianswer-this questions from kids: What
makes you ask?
It was in the book. The houses and
people and everything were gray and
black and white.
It turns out hed seen an album with
old pictures of his great-grandma. This
I could explainhow a long time ago,
cameras couldnt make pictures in color.
And instead of taking pictures with your
phone, youd use a camera with a little
door that opened for lm. He accepted
this knowledge about as well as the fact
that when Mommy and Daddy were
little, we actually had to wait for our
favorite shows to come on TV.
If you started doing genealogy after
the 1990s (a group I fall into) you might
Publisher and Community Leader Allison Dolan

Editor Diane Haddad
Art Director Julie Barnett
Editor/Content Producer Andrew Koch
Online Community Editor Vanessa Wieland
Contributing Editors Lisa A. Alzo, Sharon
DeBartolo Carmack, Rick Crume, David A. Fryxell,
Nancy Hendrickson, Sunny Jane Morton,
Maureen A. Taylor
F+W, A CONTENT + ECOMMERCE COMPANY
feel similarly when long-time researchers talk about using a Soundex index or
an enumeration district map to nd the
right census microlm, then searching
for names line by line.
Genealogy technology keeps moving on, making ancestor information
easier to discover. But mastering the
new databases, search tools, family
tree websites and apps takes a little
work. Thats why this special websitesfocused issue has become an annual
tradition at Family Tree Magazine: We
want to help you make the most of
todays technology in your search for
your familys colorful story.
CEO Thomas F. X. Beusse

CFO/COO James L. Ogle
President Sara Domville
Senior VP, Operations Phil Graham
VP, Communications Stacie Berger
VP, Advertising Sales Dave Davel
Advertising Sales Representative Jill Ruesch
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DIANES TOP 3 TIPS

from this issue
1 Even if you prefer to keep your research offline, post at least
a skeleton tree online to serve as cousin bait.
2 You can search genealogy subscription sites using the computers at local FamilySearch Centers or at many public libraries.
3 Keep in mind that the many dialects our German ancestors
spoke could lead to transcription errors or spelling variations in
US and foreign records.
4
2016
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treetalk
Readers respond to Family Tree Magazine
Crime and Punishment
After his murder conviction, George C. Tisdale

was held rst at Washingtons McNeil Island
Penitentiary, then across the country at St.
Elizabeths Hospital (right) in Washington, DC.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Division, LC-USZ62-104691
This is the story of one of my

ancestors who went to the Yukon for
gold and ended up being accused of
murder, sent to prison and later to an
asylum, where he was unjustly held.
George Charles Tisdale was born Feb.
28, 1867, in West Wawanosh, Ontario,
Canada. He and his brother Joseph left
for the West about 1897. George was a
miner in the 1901 census for Dawson
City, Yukon Territory, with a salary
of $250. He also was in a directory of
Alaska Yukon Gold Rush participants.
According to family stories, the
brothers owned a furniture store and
funeral home in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Several had heard that a brother was
accused of murder in the Yukon, and
supposedly another brother, Fred W.,
had gone to Alaska to help.
Researching this, we learned of
Georges murder conviction in 1911.
Several papers picked up an item about
the crime, including the April 20 Oregonian, published in Portland. It stated
that George Tisdale had shot and killed
Joseph F. Plante, said to be the son
of a Canadian bank president, in a
cabin south of Georgetown, Alaska, on
March 17. Five other men were in the
cabin at the time of the shooting, and
Tisdale was among three who ed.
The May 8 Alaska Citizen gave more
details: The victim, 28-year-old French
Canadian Joseph Plepin (pronounced
Plount), was shot twice. George traveled to Georgetown, reported the incident as self-defense and was jailed. He
said he didnt understand the French
the other men were speaking, and
believed his life was in danger, especially from poison. Unaware of Plepins condition, he appeared on the
verge of collapse.
George was found guilty and sentenced to McNeil Island Penitentiary.
Later he was transferred to Saint Elizabeths Hospital, an asylum in Washington, D.C. He remained there four years
after his prison term had expired with
Did George really
commit the mur
may never know.
no court hearing. A publication called

the O.E. Library Critic summarizes the
case in its August 1926 issue: Another
inmate, a sane man whod managed to
secure his own freedom, helped George
obtain a court hearing that declared
him of sound mind. But hospital staff
seized him from the courtroom and
held him for observation. A congressmans intervention nally freed him.
We know little about what happened
to George after that. Weve found no
death record. A family photo dated 1932
shows him at the home of his brother
Henry in Grand Forks, ND. A nephew
remembers seeing his mothers address
book with Georges address in Whitehorse. George appears on a 1930 ship
manifest traveling there.
Several congressional meetings
regarding Saint Elizabeths Hospital
mention Georges illegal imprisonment.
Did he really commit the murder? We
2016
may never know. I hope he was able to

live a happy life after returning home.
Jeanette Dunigan Traverse City, Mich.
Great Resource
I just wanted to thank you for
this months issue (December 2015). Im
reading the article Finding the Missing about Holocaust records. This is a
great help, and I hope to nd information about my own family. The articles
are such a great resource. I teach a class
at church each Sunday on helping people nd their relatives. Thank you.
Annette Unrau Adams via Facebook
American Indian Roots

Id suggest another technique to
supplement an unexpected DNA result
indicating Native American ancestry
(Lost in the Shuffle, July/August 2015).
Indentured servitude was a common method by which English men
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treetalk
FACEBOOK FAN MAIL
WHATS YOUR BIGGEST

GENEALOGICAL CHALLENGE?
Determining the father of my greatgreat-grandmothers children. All
were listed as illegitimate. We have
family lore, but no proof. Darcy
Maloney
Learning why my families moved to
specic parts of the country. Patty
Gilbert
I cant nd anything on my German
family except my great-grandfathers
death certicate. Lynn Mc Laughlan
Barnes
Finding the father of my great-grandfather, born in slavery. His father was
white. A.J. Hickman
Finding information about my greatgrandmothers birth in Indian Territory.
I have a date, but not much else.
Kimberly Venturi Yavorski
Getting organized! What programs
to use, how to showcase papers and
Our Facebook fans flexed their funny bones

and came up with clever captions for this
prop plane picture. Here are our favorites:
photos and how to save them for

generations to come. Cindy Harcourt
Finding out if a tale of my grandfather
having a sibling who died is true.
Gina Pezzullo
Trying to nd what happened to my
great-grandfather after his wife died
in childbirth in 1895. The baby, my
grandmother, was sent to a couple as
a nurse child. Julia Duly
Finding where in Ireland my husbands
great-grandfather was born, and when
he immigrated. Tambra Byrne
Finding a connection between Charnick
Tharp in Washington County, Fla., and
Charnick Tharp in Twiggs County, Ga.
Cheryl Tharpe Dula
Finding my husbands great-grandmother and who her parents were.
She disappears for some time, then
reappears married. Renee Matthews
Join our community at <www.facebook.com/familytreemagazine>.
were imported into the colonies. This

is particularly true of Virginia and to
some extent North Carolina. Men were
typically late 20s to early 30s in age
when released from indenture. A man
at that age with no capital beyond his
trade, and perhaps a few tools given
him, has marginal marriage prospects. Because more men than women
traveled to the colony, young women
wouldve married young to men who
owned land. Even a man without land
wouldve worked from a young age to
PLANE SILLY
accumulate wealth, making him more

attractive to young women than a man
released from indenture at age 30.
As a result, a newly released indentured man often would head into the
back country, where obtaining land at
a low price was still possible. There, he
would encounter native maidens. When
marriages occurred, the woman was customarily given a Christian name to use
when the couple entered settler society.
If you find a male ancestor who
seems to be fairly old (30 as opposed
The debonair pilot swept

the young lady off her feet.
Regina Hall Schwartz
Your check engine light

was on.
Carol Yates Wilkerson
Clear prop!
Patrick Kerber
When the pilot couldnt

find his key, the flight crew
turned to Plan B.
Jennifer Smith
to 20) when rst encountered in colonial records, and if that man married a
woman with seemingly no connections
to a settler family, then she may be an
American Indian despite having an
English-sounding name in records.
Rick Pittaway via email
TALK TO US
Wed love to hear your research stories, family memories and thoughts about this issue. Email ftmedit@
fwcommunity.com or leave a note on Facebook <www.facebook.com/familytreemagazine>. Letters may be edited for space and clarity.
2016
Y TRE
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MAR 11-13, 2016
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Lisa Louise Cooke
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Dealing With Your DNA Matches

Kerry Scott
Genetic Mismatch:
DNA Conicts in Your Family Tree
Blaine Bettinger
Spreadsheet Secrets
to Organize Your Genealogy
Shannon Combs-Bennett
Birds of a Feather:
Migration Patterns and Ethnicity
David A. Fryxell
FamilySearch Family Tree Crash Course

Dana McCullough
GENEALOGY WEBSITE GUIDE 2016
FREE
samples
Just like the grocery store tempts you
with those yummy free tastes, genealogy
websites offer tantalizing freebies to
whet your research appetite. Try these 50
delicious databases for free!
BY DANA MCCULLOUGH
10
2016
3 HAVE YOU EVER gone to the grocery store on a Saturday
just to enjoy the free samples? Theyre actually one of the

most lucrative marketing strategies around. Shoppers love
free food and discovering new goodies. The companies providing the treats love the attention (and extra sales).
Subscription genealogy websiteswhere annual costs of
membership can add upoffer similar freebies to nonsubscribing visitors. Anyone can browse the virtual aisles of these
sites and snack on free sample databases. Some databases
include indexed images, and some indexes link to images
(sometimes free, sometimes fee-based) at other websites.
Weve scoured the web and contacted website insiders to
nd paid sites free databases that are most useful for Family
Tree Magazine readers. Some of the databases have a narrow
focussuch as a single citywhile others contain millions
of records. Several are free to search on multiple sites. But
searching a bunch of databases simultaneously from a major
genealogy website makes for a one-stop shopping experience
with powerful, exible search interfaces. And you probably
wouldnt have stumbled across those records on another site,
anyway ( just like you wouldnt have tried that exotic organic
yogurt unless someone handed it to you in a Dixie cup).
In making our selections, we prioritized collections that
connect you to digital record images, but several handy
index-only collections are included as well. In most cases,
youll need to register or log in with a free account on the
subscription website in order to access the databases (and
especially any associated images). See page 13 for instructions on getting to the databases on each site. Happy snackingbut be warned, these free samples may leave you hungry
for full access to these websites.
PANTRY STAPLES: US GENEALOGY RECORDS

1880 US Census Ancestry.com
The 1880 US census was the first to include individuals
relationships to the head of household. The census forms
also provide each persons name, sex, race, marital status,
birthplace, parents birthplace, occupation and more. Search
results link to record images.
1940 US Census Ancestry.com, Archives.com,

Findmypast, MyHeritage
The most recent extant US census is also searchable for free.
You can search more than 134 million records by name, as
well as location, birth year, family member, keyword, relation
to head of household, marital status, street, occupation, gender and more. Results link to record images.
US Naturalization Records
WorldVitalRecords
This database is essentially an index to several groups of
National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
<archives.gov> naturalization records from Maryland, southern California, eastern New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Louisiana. Matches provide the persons name,
birth country, NARA publication number and title, as well
as the type of document (declaration of intent or petition
for naturalization). This information links to record images
on Fold3, where youll need a subscription to view them.
US Social Security Death Index (SSDI)

AmericanAncestors, Ancestry.com,
Archives.com, Findmypast, MyHeritage,
WorldVitalRecords
If your ancestor had a Social Security number and passed
away more than three years ago, he or she may be included
in this index (most entries are for deaths after 1962). Indexed
entries may include the persons name, birth date, death date,
last residence, Social Security number and when/where it
was issued. As you can see, most genealogy websites have
free SSDI indexes, but some may be updated more frequently
than others, even with older data.
LOCAL FLAVORS:
REGIONAL, STATE AND CITY RESOURCES
AK: Fairbanks, Alaska Cemetery Records
Ancestry.com
Search this index to cemetery records by name, birth date,
death date and keyword. The database contains 5,600 names
of people who were buried during the 20th century at Fairbanks Clay Street and Birch Hill cemeteries.
CA: California Birth Index,

1905-1995 Ancestry.com
Covering more than 24.5 million births in California, this
database lets you search the index by name, birth date, birthplace and mothers maiden name.
CA: California Mortuary and Cemetery

Records, 1801-1932 Ancestry.com
Search results link to digital images of index cards with vital
records information. The collection covers nearly 50,000
records from books covering northern California, as well as
San Francisco, El Dorado and Tehama County cemeteries.
TIP: Many subscription sites offer free access to additional

databases during holiday weekends or special anniversaries
of historic events. Sign up for email notifications or follow
the sites you want to search on social media to learn when
special offers of free access are available.
11
Content varies by card, but typically includes the deceaseds

name, birthplace, age, birth date, death date, location of
death and location of burial.
LA: Louisiana Freed Slave Records,

Search more than 4,000 records of slaves from Louisiana
who were legally emancipated. Information was extracted
from various sources and archives. Search results may
include the document date, slaves name, slaveholders name,
who freed the slave, reasons for manumission, if payment
was made to free the slave and more. Sometimes family relationships of freed slaves are included.
MA: The Boston Jewish Advocate Wedding

Announcements, 1905-2007 Ancestry.com
For one-stop shopping with the most

powerful, exible search interfaces
in the industry, search indexes from
multiple sites simultaneously at
Ancestry.com or MyHeritage.
NV: Nevada Marriages, 1860-1987

Ancestry.com
A search of this index turns up summaries of wedding

notices, and may include the bride and grooms names, parents names and residence, as well as the date the notice was
published. To view the original announcement, locate a copy
of the appropriate newspaper at a library, archive or website.
Most records in this index come from county courthouse

records and four Episcopal churches. If your ancestors
county is included (not all are), you can use the information
bride and groom names, marriage date, marriage location
and source of the indexed informationto locate or request
an original copy of the source listed.
MA: Gloucester, MA: Burials in Gloucester

Cemeteries AmericanAncestors.org
NY: New York Marble Cemetery Records,

NYC, 1830-1937 Ancestry.com
This database gives you access to more than 2,200 cemetery

records from 1720 to 2003 from nine Gloucester, Mass.,
cemeteries. Search results provide a transcript of the record,
including the persons name, cemetery location and age at
time of death.
According to Ancestry.com, New York Marble Cemetery is

the oldest extant nonsectarian cemetery in New York City
and has never had headstones. Indexed entries of the 2,090
burials provide the persons name, birth year, burial date and
vault number.
MA: Massachusetts Society of the Cincinnati

AmericanAncestors
NY: New York Wills, 1626-1828

AmericanAncestors
This database isnt about the city in Ohio. Rather, membership in the Society of the Cincinnati was open to officers of
the Continental Army, Navy and Marines, as well as officers
of the French Army and Navy who fought with the American
Army during the Revolutionary War. Massachusetts officers
eligible to join the society are included in this database.
Where available, under Original Text in search results, click
the Show/Hide Text link to see the record transcript, which
includes a biographical sketch of the society member.
More than 24,000 names recorded in wills in New York

between 1626 and 1836 are searchable here. Search results
include images of original book pages. Listings typically
include the deceased persons name, his wife and/or heirs
name, and the names of children and the executor or witnesses to the will. Some listings also may mention property
holdings or other information.
New England: New England Ancestors

Magazine AmericanAncestors
This magazine was published by the New England Historic
Genealogical Society (NEHGS) from 2000 to 2009. Ancestors
may be mentioned in case studies, research how-to articles,
announcements of genealogies in progress, DNA studies and
descriptions of items from NEHGS manuscript collection.
On the search form, use the Keywords eld if youre looking
for a particular article title. Use the elds for rst and last
name to see if your ancestors were mentioned in any magazine issues. Search results show images of magazine pages.
12
2016
PA: Pennsylvania Archives Fold3

Search a variety of documents compiled in series of volumes published in the 1800s. The volumes include colonial records, military rolls, tax lists, church records, land
boundary disputes and more. The collection contains nearly
118,000 records.
PA: Philadelphia Bank Immigrant Passage

Records, 1890-1949 Ancestry.com
This database provided in partnership with JewishGen has
approximately 139,000 records of immigrants who received
assistance paying for their passage to America. If you nd
your ancestor in this index, you can request a copy of the
record from the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center <www.

philajewisharchives.org> or view the record on microlm from
the Family History Library (FHL) <www.familysearch.org>.
RI: Rhode Island Roots AmericanAncestors

Each issue of this newsletter-turned-quarterly journal from
the Rhode Island Genealogical Society contains at least one
compiled genealogy, as well as transcriptions of original
sources and indices to various genealogical records. Search
by name to nd specic ancestors or surnames, or use the
Keywords eld to search article titles. Results show newsletter/journal pages.
SC: South Carolina Estate Inventories and

Bills of Sale, 1732-1872 Fold3
If you have ancestors (free or enslaved) from Charleston,
this database of more than 34,000 records could be worth
a search. It contains images of estate inventories used for
probate and tax purposes, as well as bills of sales and other
related court records. Those searching for enslaved ancestors should also search by slaveholders name, as the slaves
name may not have been indexed yet.
TX: Houston Chronicle Obituaries,

This index contains the name of the deceased, death date,
age at death, obituary date and section and page of the obituary. To see the actual obituary, use the index information to
locate a copy of the newspaper in print or on microlm.
UT: Utah Cemetery Inventory Ancestry.com
Find Your Freebies

Target your online searches to specific databaseslike the
fabulous 50 freebies mentioned hereby pulling up a search
box for just that database. For just about any database
mentioned here, enter its title and the name of the genealogy
website in your web browser (such as 1880 US census ancestry).
A link to that database should appear among top results. Or
start with the sites home page and follow these steps:
AMERICANANCESTORS <www.americanancestors.org>:
Roll over Browse and select Databases. Either page ahead to
select the collection you want from the alphabetized list or
enter a title keyword to filter by database name.
ANCESTRY.COM <ancestry.com>: Roll over Search and
select Card Catalog. Enter the name of the database in the
Title field or a couple of keywords in the Keywords fields (the
Keywords field requires less precision).
FINDMYPAST.COM <www.ndmypast.com>: Click Search,
then you can either select a records category and drill down
to the right database, or select A-Z of Record Sets, then filter,
search and/or scroll until you find the database you want.
FOLD3 <www.fold3.com>: Click Browse Military Records.
Select the war of interest, then choose the database title under
Publications (youll clearly see the ones marked Free).
MYHERITAGE <www.myheritage.com>: Go to the
SuperSearch page at <www.myheritage.com/research>. Use
the category filters on the right to drill down to the database
you want.
WORLDVITALRECORDS <www.worldvitalrecords.com>:
Click View All Collections, then either filter by location or scroll
down to browse all collections.
Search more than 350,000 burial records of Utah residents,

including early Mormon pioneers.
WA: Washington, Marriage Records,

Some search results in this database of more than 4.3 million
marriage records contain associated record images.
TASTY RATIONS: MILITARY RECORDS

American Battle Monuments
Commission Fold3
More than 242,000 records cover individuals with ties to
24 overseas military cemeteries and 25 other memorials.
Results take you to individual memorial pages. The original
American Battle Monuments Commission database is at
<www.abmc.gov/search-abmc-burials-and-memorializations>.
Bounty-Land Warrants Applications

Index Fold3
Indexed are hundreds of thousands of bounty-land warrant applications for soldiers who served in the War of 1812,
Indian Wars and the Mexican War. You may nd information

about the soldiers rank, military unit, year(s) of service, state,
warrant number and whether the application was approved.
Index of Revolutionary War Pensioners

AmericanAncestors
This index includes approximately 80,000 pension and
bounty-land warrant application les for soldiers and sailors
of the Revolutionary War. Most records date from 1800 to
1900. The database is provided on AmericanAncestors in
collaboration with Fold3. Search results provide a Fold3 ID
number, pension number, names of individuals included on
the record and state. To access the full digitized application
le, subscribe to Fold3 and use the Revolutionary War Pensions database.
Korean War Casualties Fold3

These records include more than 27,727 Army personnel
who died and more than 82,000 Army personnel who were
injured during the Korean War. Records include prisoners
13
of war and soldiers missing in action. Records include the

soldiers name, service grade and branch, place and date of
casualty, type of casualty, year of birth, state and county of
residence, unit number, race and more.
Medal of Honor Recipients, 1863-2013 Fold3

If your ancestor received this prestigious award, he may be
in this database of more than 3,400 individuals. You may
nd the recipients name, rank, organization and perhaps,
personal data.
Navy and Marine Corp Officers,

1775-1900 Fold3
Records here include the officers name, service dates, rank
and death date. The 25,000-plus records were compiled by
the Navy Department and published in 1901. Results include
record images.
Revolutionary War Pension Records

WorldVitalRecords
Search pension and bounty-land warrant application
files for men who fought in the Revolutionary War. The
11.7-million name database covers les from 1800 to 1900.
Search results provide a basic transcription; viewing record
images requires a subscription to Fold3.com. Theres also an
option to browse the record index/transcriptions.
Service Records of Confederate Soldiers

WorldVitalRecords
Search this index for information on ancestors who served
in the Confederate army during the Civil War. Records here
cover individuals from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Viewing record images requires
a Fold3 subscription.
Cyndis List Turns 20

In genealogy-years, the Cyndis List website
b it <cyndislist.com>
di li t
is but a babe. But in internet-years, this popular family history
website full of links is a venerable old-timer. In March, Cyndis
List celebrates two decades as the premiere directory for online
genealogy resources.
If youve ever searched the web for genealogy information,
youve certainly run across this site. Founded in 1996 as Cyndi
Ingles list of favorite family history web links, the site has grown
to more than 330,000 curated resources (including many of
those listed in this article). Most of them come from Ingles
online searches; others are submitted through the sites Submit
a New Link form. Theyre vetted and cross-referenced into 200plus alphabetized categories, from Acadian,
Cajun & Creole to Writing Your Family
History. About 131,000 unique visitors
Convinced
seek help from Cyndis List each
your ancestors arrived
month, generating nearly 400,000
on an alien spaceship?
page views (according to <www.
Cyndis List even has
siteworthtraffic.com>).
a category for that:
Cyndis List is my first child,
Outer Space.
laughs Ingle, a resident of Puyallup,
Wash. My son Evan is my second.
The internet was still in its infancy as a
family history research tool when Ingle conceived the idea of
collecting and sharing family history websites with her local
genealogy club. In the summer of 1995, I went online for the first
time and made a list of everything I could find for genealogy, she
remembers. It was one page long.
The printed Cyndis List was an immediate hit when it made
its debut in 1995, as a handout at the annual fall Show and Tell
14
2016
Three years after teaching herself HTML and launching Cyndis List, Cyndi
Ingle (left, in 2016) was featured in Time magazines 1999 article about
Americans growing interest in genealogy.
Meeting of the Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society

<rootsweb.ancestry.com/~watpcgs>. Ingle quickly expanded her
list to a six-page article for the societys journal, offering a thenmind boggling total of 1,025 sites.
By March 1996, shed taught herself HTML (a website coding
language), published her personal website and migrated the
printed list to an online edition. Cyndis List of Genealogy Sites on
the Internet was born.
Ingle had filled a burning need. The pre-Google <google.com>
internet was full of genealogy information, but it was unorganized
and hard to find. I once read that the Internet is like a library with
its books strewn all over the floor, Ingle says on her site. Cyndis
List served as a virtual card catalog to the top family historyrelated Web pages, according to the June 2002 Family Tree
War of 1812 Pension Files Fold3

Nearly 2 million records include full pension application les
for soldiers and sailors, widows and children. Applications
may include key genealogical data such as the servicemans
rank, residence, age or date of birth, and time of service.
A widows application may include her residence, maiden
name, date and place of marriage, names of children and circumstances of her husbands death.
World War II Army Enlistment Records Fold3

Another hefty database on Fold3.com, this collection contains more than 8.8 million records of men and women who
enlisted in the Army during World War II, including records
from the Womens Army Auxiliary Corps. The information
may contain the enlistees residence, education, enlistment
date and location, military specialty and even his or her
height and weight.
ETHNIC FARE: IMMIGRATION AND

INTERNATIONAL RECORDS
1851 Scotland Census Extract MyHeritage
Search more than 224,000 records by name, birth date and
place, residence and keywords. Results provide a record
transcription with the persons name, age, birth and death
information, names of individuals who lived in the household, marital status and source information. Similar free
indexes exist for Scotlands 1841 and 1861 censuses.
1930 Mexico National Census Ancestry.com

Search more than 12.8 million records to find a persons
name, age, head of household, birthplace, marital status, religion, occupation, address and more. View record images (in
Spanish) from your search results for free. Note that records
for the Distrito Federal (Mexico City) arent included.
Early on, Cyndis List was one long page with

Magazine, which called the site the Net's best-known
The Genetics,
dozens of links added each day. A users comment
genealogy portal. Researchers wanting to know
DNA & Family Health
soon led to category pages for faster loading.
about census records, early-1800s orphanages
category became
In 2006, Ingle redesigned the site with cleaner
or Irish registers could find the information they
part of Cyndis List
navigation. A 2011 redesign and upgrade gave
needed by starting at Cyndis List.
Cyndis
List a content management system,
In 1999, Ingle appeared on ABCs World News
in 2001.
making it easier to maintain and navigate. Funds
Tonight with Peter Jennings and NBC Nightly News
come from advertising, an online store, donations (via
with Tom Brokaw, representing the countrys rapidly
a PayPal link on the site) and Ingles own pocket.
growing group of ancestor searchers. In 2000, she was
Now a full-time career for its creator, Cyndis List is often
featured in USA Today and People magazine.
described as the world's largest one-woman family history
But the media moment many veteran researchers recognize
resource. Though shes had part-time help in the past, Ingle now
as genealogys arrival in the mainstream was the April 19, 1999,
Time magazine. Its cover declared How to Search for Your Roots, works single-handedly to search the internet for new genealogy
resources, confirm and repair links, answer emails and categorize
with search appearing on a website button with a pointer. The
and cross-reference information to make it easily accessible for
article, Roots Mania, carried a photo of Ingle wrapped in a quilt
every level of genealogist.
her fourth-great-grandmother sewed. It reported that her website
Shes also active in local and national societies, a sought-after
received 2 million visitors each month.
speaker to genealogical groups, and the author of four books,
Ingles interest in genealogy was sparked before the web had
including Planting Your Family Tree Online, Netting Your Ancestors:
become a genealogists launchpad: A high school family history
Genealogical Research on the Internet and Cyndis List: The Book. In
assignment led to old stories and photographs and a desire to
learn more about her ancestors lives. Ingles career in information 2007, she added blogging to the mix <cyndislist.blogspot.com>.
technology was a perfect fit with the evolving world wide web,
This 10-to-12-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week gig has left little
and she was quick to discover opportunities for genealogical
time for her own research, which youll still find on that personal
research utilizing this fabulous new information-sharing tool.
site launched in 1996 <cyndislist.com/cyndi>.
All that effort has enabled others to pursue their ancestors
LINKING UP
farther than they thought possible. Cyndis List remains one of the
best bargains for online genealogy research. When youre stuck
1996 Cyndis List launches with 1,025 links
on an ancestor, feeling adrift in your search or you just want to
2001 site hits 100,000-plus links and 20 million visitors
see what other resources are out there, browsing the categories
2011 site offers 250,000 links; receives 43 millionth visitor
on Cyndis List can lead to big breakthroughs.
2016 Cyndis List categorizes more than 330,000 links
Denise May Levenick
15
American Colonization Society Fold3

This Washington, D.C.-based society was established in
1817 for free people of color living in the United States. The
society sent free African-Americans to Africa, often to Liberia. This database has more than 347,000 records from the
society, including letters, news clippings and annual reports.
Search results link to record images.
Amistad Federal Court Records Fold3

This is an index to court proceedings related to the schooner
Amistad, which the US government seized in 1839. The ship
ddition to free indexes and records, subscription sites may

fer complimentary family history tools, though subscriptions
may be required to get the most out of them:
ACCESS TO ONLINE CATALOGS: Through
AmericanAncestors, you can access the New England Historic
Genealogical Societys online catalog of its library collections.
(Search the library catalog separately at <library.nehgs.org>.)
At Ancestry.com, you can search a catalog of NARA collections
that are now available on that site <search.ancestry.com/
search/db.aspx?dbid=1572>.
ONLINE EDUCATION: Learn from online how-to articles
and resources. Archives.coms Expert Series <www.archives.
com/experts>, though no longer adding new content, has
dozens of how-to articles. Ancestry.coms Learning Center
<ancestry.com/cs/HelpAndAdviceUS> offers free tips and
advice. Youll find free Research Guides on topics such as
major US immigration ports, German civil registrations,
Ancestry.com search strategies and more. The site has two
more key resources on its wiki: The Source: A Guidebook to
American Genealogy (3rd edition), edited by Loretto Dennis
Szucs and Sandra Hargraves Luebking <ancestry.com/wiki/
index.php?title=The_Source:_A_Guidebook_to_American_
Genealogy>, and Red Book: American State, County and Town
Sources (3rd edition), edited by Alice Eichholz <ancestry.com/
wiki/index.php?title=Red_Book:_American_State,_County,_
and_Town_Sources>.
TEASERS TO RELATED RECORDS: As you search free
indexes at Ancestry.com, MyHeritage and other websites,

additional databases with related content will be suggested
along with your results (often on the right side of the web page).
Subscriptions are required to fully access these.
TREE-BUILDING TOOLS: Build your family tree for free
online at Ancestry.com <trees.ancestry.com/tree>, Findmypast
<www.ndmypast.com> or MyHeritage <www.myheritage.
com>. The latter also offers a free downloadable version of its
Family Tree Builder software <www.myheritage.com/familytree-builder>. Use it to keep your master family tree on your
own computer and sync it regularly to your online tree.
Australia Convict Index, 1788-1868 Fold3

More than 160,000 people were forcibly transported to
Australia from the British Isles and colonies after being
convicted of crimes. This index of nearly 50,000 names was
compiled from several sources. It includes the convicts
name, age or birth year, birthplace or place of trial, occupation, marital status, ship and arrival year.
Brandenburg, Prussia Emigration Records

Ancestry.com
r More Free Treats
16
had been illegally transporting kidnapped Africans to sell as

slaves, but the Africans revolted, won control of the ship and
were ultimately freed. Search results link to record images.
2016
This index to more than 61,000 names is a great collection to search if your ancestors emigrated from Germany
to the United States in the 1800s and early 1900s. Search
results show the emigrants name, age, estimated birth
year, place of origin, destination and year of emigration. It
also includes the persons standing (such as occupation
or relationships). Your search results may help you locate
original records on microlm.
Canadian Headstones MyHeritage

Search this database of more than 951,000 records by name,
birth year, death year and place, and keywords. Results show
a headstone photo, burial information, birth and death dates,
and a link to view the full record on the free CanadianHeadstones.com site <canadianheadstones.com>.
Dachau Entry Registers Fold3

Search this collection for more than 150,000 prisoners held
at Nazi concentration camps in Dachau and Flossenburg, as
well as records in Mauthausen Death Books. Records may
include prisoner names, serial numbers and other details.
England & Wales Free BMD Indexes

Ancestry.com
Here youll nd three free, separate indexes to English and
Welsh civil registration records for births, marriages and
deaths. All cover records from 1837 to 1915.
Irish Immigrant Advertisements in Boston,

1831-1920 AmericanAncestors
Approximately 45,000 advertisements were published in the
Boston Pilot newspaper beginning in 1831 by friends or family in search of missing friends. Records are searchable by
rst or last name and last known residence. They may also
include name, place of origin, ship and immigration route
and may mention family relationships or missing persons
circumstances. Search for dates after the immigrants arrival
in the United States in the Years search eld. Results link to
record images.
JewishGen Online World Burial Registry

Ancestry.com
Scotland, Selected Births & Baptisms,

1640-1860 MyHeritage
More than a million records in this database contain information on burial records and specic cemeteries. The free
data is provided courtesy of a partnership with the JewishGen website.
The information in this index includes more than 19,000

records, which come largely from parish registers in the 17th
through 19th centuries. Search by the ancestors name, birth/
baptism year and place, fathers name, mothers name and
keywords. Similar databases exist for Scotland marriages and
banns (c. 1650-c.1855) and deaths and burials.
Lithuania, Birth Records from Various Towns,

This index to about 20,000 birth records from 20 Lithuanian
towns contains the childs name, parents names (including mothers maiden name), date of birth, Hebrew date of
birth, place of birth, place registered and comments. Original
records are on microlm at the FHL.
Netherlands Burial Records MyHeritage

Covering more than 1.6 million photographed and indexed
gravestones from the Netherlands, your search results here
provide the deceaseds birth, death and burial information,
along with a link to the full record on the Graftombe.nl website <graftombe.nl>.
Online Familieberichten (Dutch Death Notices)

MyHeritage
Search more than 1 million death announcements from
national newspapers, prayer cards and funeral cards. Search
results provide a transcription with the persons name, birth
date, death date and location and age at time of death. Results
also provide a link to the full information (which may include
burial and spouse information) available on the free Online
Familieberichten website <www.online-familieberichten.nl> .
When image scans of records are available, you can request
volunteers who run the Online Familieberichten website to
email you a scan (which is also free).
Piotrkw Trybunalski, Poland Births,

1808-1875 MyHeritage
Access more than 27,000 Jewish birth records from Piotrkw
Trybunalski, Poland. According to MyHeritage, alternate
names for this location are Petrokov, Petrikau and Piotrkow.
Search results provide a transcription of the record, including the persons name, gender, birth year and parents names.
MyHeritage also has similar databases (though with fewer
individuals included) for marriages from 1808 to 1870 and
deaths from 1808 to 1888.
Poland, Jewish Records IndexingPoland

Birth Records, 1550-1993 Ancestry.com
Find birth information such as year of birth registration,
town, parents names and more in this index to more than
600,000 birth records on microfilm at the FHL. Use the
microlm number in your search results to request the lm
from the FHL.
Slave Registers of Former British Colonial

Dependencies, 1813-1834 Ancestry.com
After Britain outlawed the transport of African slaves to its
colonies in 1807, many of the colonies began to register the
lawfully enslaved (who arrived before the trade became
illegal). This database holds information on nearly 3 million
slaves in Britains Caribbean, Central American, African and
other colonies. You may learn the slaves given name, age,
gender and nationality, as well as the slaveholders name and
place of residence. Results link to record images.
Da na M c C u l l o u g h <www.danamccullough.com> is the
author of the Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch.org (Family Tree
Books) <shopfamilytree.com/unofficial-guide-familysearch>.
MORE ONLINE
Free Web Content
Free family history software <familytreemagazine.com/article/
family_tree_software>
Free online genealogy databases <familytreemagazine.com/article/
free-databases>
Podcast: genealogy freebies <familytreemagazine.com/article/
episode61>
For Plus Members

41 family history freebies <familytreemagazine.com/article/
41-free-online-genealogy-tools>
Where to nd free genealogy downloads <familytreemagazine.com/
article/no-purchase-necessary>
21 essential research supplies and resources <familytreemagazine.
com/article/tools-of-the-trade>
ShopFamilyTree.com
10 Simple Strategies for Using FamilySearch.org on-demand webinar
<shopfamilytree.com/10-simple-strategies-for-using-familysearchorg-ondemand-webinar?source=igodigital>
Making MyHeritage Work for You on-demand webinar
<shopfamilytree.com/unofficial-guide-to-ancestry>
Unofficial Guide to Ancestry.com <shopfamilytree.com/unofficialguide-to-ancestry>
17
SPEAKING
THEIR
LANGUAGE
18
2016
The language barrier can really put a crimp

in your German genealogy research.
Get help tracing your Deutsch ancestors names
and places with these online tools.
BY JAMES M. BEIDLER
3 GERMAN CAN BE tricky for non-native speakers, and

The short course in German phonetics (theres a lonits easy for words to become lost in translation. This was the ger version in The Family Tree German Genealogy Guide
case when I was trying to visit an ancestors hometown: the <shopfamilytree.com/the-family-tree-german-genealogy-guidetiny village of Elsoff, now part of the German Land (state) u4833> ) is that several consonants frequently are interNordrhein-Westfalen. During my rst two trips to Germany, changeable: the b and p; d and t and th; g and k and c; and
I queried my hosts about going to Elsoff, only to be told it was (because of pronunciation differences) the German w and
too far. My map told me different. But not wanting to be the the English v.
stereotypical ugly American, I didnt press the issue.
For vowels, the number one source of confusion is the
Later, I mentioned Elsoff in an email.
German umlaut. An umlaut, generally
Seeing the name in print must have
written as a pair of dots over the vowels
made up for my terrible German accent,
a, o, u and y (the last usually appearbecause the hostess told me that when
ing only in the Swiss German dialect),
The many dialects
I asked about the town, she thought I
affects the pronunciation of the vowel.
of German used
said Elsass, the German name for Alsace,
The use of umlauts is a shortcut for putwhen I was actually trying to say Elsoff.
ting an e after the vowel. You may see a
in Europe create
Alsace, now part of France, wouldve
surname or place name Americanized
indeed been quite a distance from my
either without the umlaut, or without the
a smorgasbord of
hosts home. No better evidence than
umlaut and an e added: Klckner might
this has shown me how easily German
become Klockner or Kloeckner. Another
place and surname
names and places can become garbled
German-language peculiarity: A double
and misunderstood.
s is frequently represented as an Eszett,
spellings in the
Thats why its important to learn
which looks like and is rendered much
about the language your German anceslike (and often mistaken for) a Roman
records youll nd.
tors spoke. In this excerpt from my new
script uppercase B. The surname Thoss
book, Trace Your German Roots Online,
Tho in Germanmight be transcribed
well cover easy-to-use online tools
as Thob or even Thop.
that help you ungarble German perWhenever you encounter a new Gersonal and place names. Some of these
man surname or place-name in your
resources deal with surnames and phonetics, while others genealogy research, think about it not in terms of the spelloffer map and gazetteer resources. Theyll help you nd the ing but rather as a set of spelling variants, using phonetics to
names of your German-speaking ancestors and the places esh out the universe of possibilities for the name.
they livedthe keys you need to dig further back into your
This is especially true for new place names, particularly if
family history.
you dont immediately nd them on a map (or youre unsure
whether youve indeed found the right town). Jot down a
list of possible spelling variants so youre attuned to all posSounding it out
Only a foolish person immediately says But my ancestors sibilities when searching databases for records or browsing
name wasnt spelled that way when confronted with a through documents.
For a quick-and-dirty recap of how letters are pronounced
record that uses a different spelling from what the researcher
is accustomed to. When you consider the many dialects of in German, use About.coms German Language Web page on
German used in Europeand that many American records the German Phonetic Spelling Code <www.german.about.com/
were created by English-speaking clerks, enumerators or tax library/blfunkabc.htm>. While this is primarily a code used for
collectorswell, thats a recipe for a smorgasbord of place spelling out letters for use in broadcasts, it gives the basic
and surname spellings in the records youll nd.
sounds that will help you with German in general, too.
19
A much more sophisticated online look at German phonetics is part of the University of Portsmouth in Englands Paul
Joyce German Course. Joyces Guide to German Pronunciation <www.joycep.myweb.port.ac.uk/pronounce> details how to
come up with the most likely pronunciations of various German names. Joyces guide illustrates pronunciation rules in
depth, covering every German letter as well as combinations
of letters.
Getting around language barriers

Websites for German genealogy will essentially t into one of
three categories: written in English, written in German and
requiring translation, or written in German with an English
version of the site. Combine this with the fact that many of
the records youll be accessing are handwritten or printed
in German, and you face a potential linguistic roadblock.
You can circumvent this obstacle by improving your German
language skills or your skill at nding translation resources.
When confronted with language barriers, translation
resources are key. First, try Googles simple Translate feature <translate.google.com>, which lets you translate a word,
phrase or passage from German to English (or between
any of the hundreds of other languages available). Google
Translate, however, gives translations that are rough at

times and fail to account for many contexts. You may want
to double-check Googles translation on other translation
websites such as BabelFish <www.babelfish.com> . Online
German-English dictionaries, such as BEOLINGUS <dict.
tu-chemnitz.de> , Dict.cc <www.dict.cc> and Linguee <www.
linguee.com> also can provide valuable translations for words
youll likely nd during research.
If youd rather take translation matters into your own
hands, the web offers a variety of services to teach yourself
German. Some of these apps, podcasts, articles, courses and
sites include:
DEUTSCHE WELLE <www.dw.de/learn-german/s-2469> ,
free online course as well as a free podcast called the Audiotrainer <www.dw.de/learn-german/audiotrainer/s-9677>
DUOLINGO <www.duolingo.com> , free iOS and Android
app
LANGUAGE SURFER: HOW TO PASS THE GERMAN A1 TEST
<www.languagesurfer.com/2013/08/19/how-to-pass-the-german-a1-test>, free website
LEARN GERMAN BY PODCAST <www.learngermanbypodcast.com>, free podcast
MANGO LANGUAGES <www.mangolanguages.com> , free
iOS and Android app
MORE ONLINE
Free Web Content

Glossary of German genealogical words <familytreemagazine.com/
article/german-glossary>
Common German names <familytreemagazine.com/article/
common-german-names>
Surng for surnames
Understanding German language and surnames
<familytreemagazine.com/article/understanding-germanlanguage-and-surnames>
For Plus Members

Deutsch Lands: Guide to historically German regions
<familytreemagazine.com/article/deutsch-lands>
Quick Guide: Finding Germans in FamilySearch.orgs IGI
<familytreemagazine.com/article/nding-germans-infamilysearch-igi>
Surname spelling lesson <familytreemagazine.com/article/
spelling-lesson>
ShopFamilyTree.com
Trace Your German Roots Online <shopfamilytree.com/trace-your-
german-roots-online>
The Family Tree German Genealogy Guide <shopfamilytree.com/the-
family-tree-german-genealogy-guide-u4833>
German Genealogy Cheat Sheet <shopfamilytree.com/digd-
german-genealogy-cheat-sheet>
20
MINDSNACKS <www.mindsnacks.com>, $4.99 iOS app

NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR GENEALOGICAL STUDIES <www.
genealogicalstudies.com>, $89 online course
SLOW GERMAN <www.slowgerman.com/category/absolutebeginner>, free podcast
SURVIVALPHRASES.COM: GERMAN <www.survivalphrases.
com/german>, free website
2016
In addition to trying out phonetic variants of surnames, some

online tools let you get an idea of where those surnames are
found in todays Germany. While theres no guarantee that
the highest concentrations of a surname in modern Germany
will be an exact match of those names historical concentrations, these databases do give you a starting point for a
geographic hypothesis on your family origins when other
records havent borne fruit.
One such website is Ken McCreas GermanNames <www.
germannames.com>, which charges nominal fees for maps and
German postal code listings of surnames. A book of surname
maps for the 500 most frequent surnames also is available
from the same author.
Another tool, the Geogen Surname Mapping site <legacy.
stoepel.net> (shown on the opposite page), generates three
types of data on surnames:
RELATIVE DISTRIBUTION: gives the number of instances
of the surname per million phone book entries, which adjusts
for the potential of a lot of instances of a surname purely
because of an areas population
The Geogen website <legacy.stoepel.net> produces maps showing the distribution of surnames in Germany. Roll over a county (Landkreis) to see its
name. According to this map, the surname Dierkes is most highly concentrated in Vechta, Steinfurt and Hxter.
ABSOLUTE DISTRIBUTION: puts the actual numbers of
entries into groups
PIE CHART: shows the percentages in which the surname
is found in current German states
To begin searching Geogen, call up the site and type the
surname youre interested in into the box (for example,
Rathmacher). After the site processes, click on the links
under the Surname Map tab to generate the maps and a pie
chart. The Community tab shows notes left by other searchers, if any. Select the Links tab to see a number of potential
spelling variants and the number of entries for each. In addition, this tab offers maps of the surname in other European
countries and the United States, as well as other web links.
Note that the site may not work in all web browsers. If you
have difficulty using it, try another browser.
Mapping it out
Because of the many changes to political divisions in German
lands, you must always think about your ancestors hometown not only in terms of where places and boundaries are
now, but also in terms of thenwith then possibly referring to multiple time periods. A number of websites will help
you bridge this gap between today and yesterday, hopefully

leaving you with no town unfound. Some have actual maps;
others are gazetteers (essentially, encyclopedias of places).
A good tool is Meyers Gazetteer of the German Empire,
which is also called Meyers orts- (short for the German Meyers Orts- und Verkehrs-Lexikon des Deutschen Reichs) and
is searchable on Ancestry.com <search.ancestry.com/search/
db.aspx?dbid=1074>. Compiled in 1912, this resource lists the
type of place (town, community, etc.), state, population and
more for parts of Germany lost to neighboring countries
after World War I. Its in German gothic script and contains
abbreviations; Ancestry.coms database information and the
TIP: The many dialects of German could lead to

transcription errors or spelling variations in records both
foreign and domestic. See <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_
dialects> for more on the local varieties of German.
21
Plotting Your Ancestors Village With Kartenmeister

Once you find the name of your German ancestors hometown, youll
want to pinpoint the location so you can start researching church and
other historical records in the right city or village. The Kartenmeister
website helps you locate more than 71,000 places in what was once
eastern Prussia (this includes areas that are now Poland and Russia).
Follow our example to get started with Kartenmeister:
Niederung
2 Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the search boxes

and enter a family name or a German or Polish city, county or
province in the appropriate field. Well type Niederung in the
box for German City Name/Ortsname. Hit Submit.
1 Go to the Kartenmeister home page at <www.kartenmeister.com>. 3 View your search results. Kartenmeister returns three
results for Niederung, all in the Kreis (county) of Schlochau.
4 Click on a result to bring up a grid

with information about the town. The
first Niederungs Polish/Russian name is
Zdrojki and it was in the German province
Westpreussen. Today, its in the province
of Pomorskie (the Polish voivodeship of
Pomerania). The Catholic and Lutheran
parishes were in Prechlau. Clicking the map
link shows you where the town is (or was)
located.
For more details on Kartenmeister and
the information it provides, go to the home
page and click the link for English. Under
Border Changes, youll find an overview of
how German borders changed after the
Treaty of Versailles ending World War I.
22
2016
Find even tiny towns and villages in the 1883 Atlas des Deutschen Reichs (Atlas of the German Kingdom), known as
Ravensteins Atlas. Its digitized and searchable on the University of Wisconsin website <uwdc.library.wisc.edu/
collections/German/Ravenstein>.
abbreviation table at <www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/

Abbreviation_Table_for_Meyers_Orts_und_Verkehrs_Lexikon_
Des_Deutschen_Reichs> can help you use it. It provides the
map coordinates, jurisdictional information, foreign or former names and other details about the towns, parishes and
other places you search for.
But as far as historical maps go, among the most-detailed
and accessible is Atlas des Deutschen Reichs (Atlas of the German Kingdom) by Ludwig Ravenstein, published in 1883. The
University of Wisconsin digitized this atlas, made it searchable and posted it online at <uwdc.library.wisc.edu/collections/
German/Ravenstein>. Once you nd a village in Ravensteins
atlas, you can compare the area to a modern-day map.
To use the Ravenstein atlas, go to the home page for the
atlas on the University of Wisconsins website. Youll likely
want to begin using the atlas by keyword searching, so click
on Search the Full Text. In the search box, enter the name
of your ancestors village. By default, the site will search for
that term in all titles in the universitys German Studies Collection. Instead, narrow your search to the Ravenstein Atlas
by using the pull-down menu to select Atlas des Deutschen
Reichs. Then view your results, which are organized by the
section of the atlas where they appear (for example, I entered
Sprendlingen and received two entries). Then access the
pages from the PDF link at the top of the results page.
If you cant nd information on your town (or you want to
manually browse the atlas pages), return to the atlas home
page and click Browse the Atlas. On the resulting browse page,
choose one of the sections of the map, labeled Ia (northwest
Germany) through Ix (southeast). Then click the thumbnail
image to load a PDF of the map in your browser (or right-click

on a PC or control-click on a Mac to download the le). You
can zoom in and out and pan around to nd the town. Note
the names of nearby towns and the state or province.
Another site worth mentioning is Kartenmeister, a comprehensive database for villages in the former eastern Prussian areas, which now lie mostly in Poland. See the sidebar on
the opposite page for more on using this site.
For maps of modern Germany, you can try using Google
Maps <maps.google.com>, although theres a caveat: Even if
the name you type applies to multiple towns, the engine will
nd one village with that name while ignoring the others. A
workaround is to search for neighboring villages instead, if
you know any. The German National Tourist Board <www.
germany.travel/en/index.html> has a variety of maps among its
arsenal of resources. But the best online modern-day maps
are served up at ViaMichelin <www.viamichelin.com>.
With all these language and geography resources, you probably feel like a race car driver waiting for the green ag to take
off. Understanding some basics about your ancestors language and hometown is the rst step in journeying to the old
country. So, Damen und Herren: Start your engines.
James M. Beidler is the author of the

Roots and Branches syndicated genealogy column, as well as The Family Tree
German Genealogy Guide and Trace Your
German Roots Online (from which this
article is excerpted). Order your copy of
either book at <shopfamilytree.com>.
23
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Old newspapers genealogical
bounty isnt limited to US kin.
Well show you how to research
ancestors in online papers of your
familys homeland.
BY RICK CRUME
The chart that starts on page 27 lists some of the largest

online collections of foreign newspapers. Some require a
paid subscription, but many are free. Others are available
only through participating libraries. Check the websites of
university and public libraries in your area or call and ask
if they subscribe to a particular newspaper collection. For
links to even more online newspapers, see ICON: Newspaper
digitization projects <icon.crl.edu/digitization.php>, Wikipedia
<en.wikipedia.org /wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_online_newspaper_
archives> and XooxleAnswers <www.xooxleanswers.com>.
3 IF I HAD to rank the most important recent technological developments for genealogists, online newspapers would
be somewhere near the top. You have the amazing ability to
scour millions of newspaper articles for an ancestors name.
And not just American titles: Newspapers from around the
world, some dating back to the 18th century, are now online.
Most collections of foreign newspapers offer full-text
searching, and many are free. Because few foreign newspapers are available to borrow on interlibrary loan, online access
is a tremendous boon. These old pages might hold references
to immigrant ancestors before they left home or stories about
American relatives traveling abroad, serving in the military or
doing missionary work. Our guide will show you where to nd
foreign newspapers online, offer guidance on searching and
suggest tools for overcoming language barriers.
24
Search and nd
2016
The same search strategies you use for American newspaper archives work with foreign ones: Search on a last name
or a full name. Put quotation marks around a name to nd the
exact phrase. Try different versions of the name, such as John
H. Pennington, J. H. Pennington and John Hudson Pennington.
To zero in on the most relevant matches, especially if youre
looking for a common name, add a keyword, such as a place, an
occupation or other term associated with the person.
To make newspapers searchable, optical character recognition (OCR) software is used to convert page images to text.
Where pages are faded or printing was poor, OCR can misread the words and mess up your searches. So if your search
doesnt turn up anything or the site doesnt support full-text
searching, try browsing the papers. For instance, if you have
at least an approximate date and place of a marriage or death,
peruse pages of papers published around that time for a marriage notice or an obituary.
Some overseas newspaper websites offer interfaces in
more than one language. Look for a British ag you can click
to access an English-language version. If there isnt one, use
Googles Chrome web browser <google.com/chrome>. When
you visit a foreign-language site, Google will ask you if you
want to view a translated version; click Translate. (Or you
might need to click a symbol shaped like two squares in the
address bar to translate the page.) If the newspapers are in a
foreign language, use search terms and place-name spellings
in that language. Use Google Translate <translate.google.com>
for help translating foreign-language articles. If you need a
better translation, you can ask for help on a message board
such as those at Ancestry.com <boards.ancestry.com>.
Familiar territory
Several big websites you might already be familiar with have
newspapers from multiple countries:
ANCESTRY.COM <ancestry.com>: Ancestry.com has newspapers from Canada and the British Isles, as well as the
United States. Some are searchable text versions not linked to
page images, including The Times of London (1788 to 1833);
newspapers published in Winnipeg, Manitoba, between 1893
and 1977; and papers from Edinburgh, Scotland, between
1771 and 1829 and in 1909.
Its the opposite situation with the collection Ireland,
Newspapers, 1763-1890: It includes titles from whats now
the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, but you cant
search themyou have to browse page by page. Belfast Newsletter (Birth, Marriage and Death Notices), 1738-1925 has
images of the pages plus a searchable index to birth, marriage
and death notices from 1828 to 1858. The site plans to add
notices from other years. The three matches for my McMorris relatives include a marriage notice for Sarah McMorris,
daughter of John McMorris, to Robert Monteeth. A Presbyterian minister married them at Donagheady in 1844.
Ancestry.coms main search form covers the searchable
newspapers. But to search just newspapers, select All Collections from the Search tab, then look under Stories & Publications on the right and click on Newspapers.
NEWSPAPERS.COM <www.newspapers.com>: Launched in
2012 by Ancestry.com, this subscription site offers papers
TIP: If a newspaper site wont let you download an article,

take a screenshot. To find the Windows Snipping Tool, click
Start, then All Programs, then Accessories. On a Mac, hit
Shift+Command and use the crosshairs to select the article.
The marriage of my Welsh relative William Morgan to Gladys Jones is

described in detail in the Oct. 17, 1918, Radnor Expressright down to the
brides blue dress and matching hat.
from the United States, Australia, Canada, Panama and the

British Isles, including 16 Irish newspapers. You can search
the full text of the papers and view images of the pages. A
search for the name of my Welsh third-great-granduncle
Evan Jones, who lived in London from 1808 to 1819, produces
84 matches from those years in the sites British newspapers.
The rst two are my guy. The Times notices from 1813 tell
how the belongings of the bankrupt Evan Jones, a draper on
Drury Lane, would be sold and the proceeds divided among
his creditors.
FINDMYPAST <www.findmypast.com> : The large collection of newspapers here is digitized and fully indexed. Once
you select Newspapers & Periodicals from the Search tab,
look on the left to choose from four collections. British newspapers include thousands of local and regional publications
from England, Scotland and Wales. The large Irish collection consists of 100 papers from the Republic of Ireland and
Northern Ireland. PERSI (the Periodical Source Index) references genealogical and historical periodicals from North
America, Great Britain, Ireland and Australia. Some of these
references are linked to articles. US & World newspapers
include publications from the United States, Canada, Europe,
Asia, South Africa and Jamaica.
My Morgan ancestors lived on a farm called Maestorglwyd (also written as Maesdorglwyd) in the parish of
Llanigon, Breconshire, Wales. Instead of searching on
Morgan, a common Welsh name, I searched on the moreunusual farm name. A keyword search of the British newspapers collection for Maestorglwyd produces no matches,
but Maesdorglwyd turns up an 1852 article in the Hereford
Times: a notice my third-great-granduncle William Morgan
of Maesdorglwyd placed as executor of his brother-in-law
Benjamin Jenkins will.
GOOGLE NEWS ARCHIVE <news.google.com/newspapers> :
In addition to many digitized newspapers from the United
States and Canada, Google includes a few titles from Latin
America and Europe. To search, enter your terms in the
box beside Google News and click on Search Archive. For
example, to nd articles about my Slipp relatives from New
Brunswick, Canada, I searched on Slipp New Brunswick.
That produces 22 results in American and Canadian newspapers, including some obituaries.
25
Looking for an obituary for Emma Elizabeth Harris, who house t for the reception of a large, and genteel Family
died March 27, 1986, in Vancouver, British Columbia, I tried Any Person desiring to see the Premises, may apply to Mr.
searching for the exact phrases Emma Elizabeth Harris and Pennington, at the Hot Wells.
Harris Emma. This didnt turn up an obituary, but a search
PROQUEST HISTORICAL NEWSPAPERS <www.proquest.
on Emma E. Harris produced a match in a 1953 Spokane com/products-services/pq-hist-news.html> : Available only
paper that reported she was secretary of the American Asso- through subscribing libraries, this collection offers 11 major
ciation of University Professors.
English-language newspapers published in Canada, EngYou cant limit your search to a specic newspaper here. land, Scotland, Ireland, China, Hong Kong, India and Israel.
Google has stopped adding to or enhancing this collection, While all are nationwide, they feature many local news
and searches seem less reliable than in other newspaper items. For example, Im researching the Clark family of Balcollections. If you have at least an approximate date, its linagh, County Cavan, Ireland. I ran advanced searches on
worth browsing for an article. Google News Archive lists both spellings of the town and the last name: Ballinagh AND
the dates each newspaper covers,
(Clark OR Clarke) and Bellananagh AND
but it doesnt show where they were
(Clark OR Clarke). Although I didnt nd
published. So if you cant tell from
anything special on the Clark family, I
the title, you might have to do some
came across articles about Ballinagh resMost collections of
research to determine if the archive
idents, including 19th-century reports of
has a newspaper for the right city
estate settlements and court cases. These
foreign newspapers
and time period. For a list of Cananewspaper accounts could be valuable
dian newspapers in the Google News
substitutes for many lost Irish records.
offer full-text
Archive, see Canada Online HistoriAs you can see in our chart, several
searching and many
cal Newspapers <sites.google.com/
other websites have newspaper archives
from multiple countries. To nd newssite/onlinenewspapersite/Home/can>.
are free.
papers on the free HathiTrust site, rst
The Archive has several Vancousearch on a country, such as England
ver newspapers and one of them,
or Germany, then refine the results by
The Vancouver Sun, covers 1986. So
Original Format to Newspaper. Compact
I clicked on that title, then on the
Memory, Early Hebrew Newspapers
decade, 1980s, and the year, 1986.
and Historical Jewish Press have Jewish
There were no issues from March,
but I got lucky in the April 1 edition: Browsing through the papers from various countries. Old Fulton New York Post
pages, I found Emmas obituary on image 25. Google News Cards, known for its huge collection of New York newspaArchive doesnt let you download articles, so I used the Win- pers, also has titles from other states, as well as Australia and
Canada. To search newspaper archives from several coundows Snipping Tool to save the obituary.
tries at once, try Elephind <www.elphind.com>.
NEWSPAPERARCHIVE <www.newspaperarchive.com>: This
site has a sizable newspaper collection from all over the
United States and four Canadian provinces, plus London and Country time
Dublin. It has some issues of Stars & Stripes, an American Some online newspaper archives focus their collections on a
newspaper for military serving overseas. A subscription to particular region or country, which can narrow searches and
the large genealogy site MyHeritage <www.myheritage.com> make results easier to wade through. Those include:
includes access to NewspaperARCHIVE. MyHeritage also
CANADA: The dozen Canadian newspaper sites listed
automatically searches NewspaperARCHIVE for articles in our chart are all free. One, Peels Prairie Provinces, has
that mention people in your family tree.
newspapers from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and
I wanted to nd newspaper references to William Pen- Saskatchewan. My great-great-grandparents Jarvis A. and
nington who worked as master of ceremonies at formal balls Elizabeth Grant settled along with most of their children and
held at the Hotwells in Bath and Clifton (near Bristol), Eng- grandchildren at Lewisville, Alberta, in 1902. Thats near the
land, in the late 18th century. Using NewspaperARCHIVEs city of Wetaskiwin, so I limited my searches to The WetaskiAdvanced Search, I searched for the last name Pennington win Times. A search on Grant AND Lewisville produced
combined with the word Hotwells, ceremonies or Clifton. In matches on nine articles, including obituaries and wedding
my tests, NewspaperARCHIVE often produced irrelevant notices pertaining to the family. Searching on J. A. Grant (in
matches and error messages. Now and then it worked and quotation marks to nd the exact phrase) turned up his wife
my search on Pennington and Hotwells produced 27 mostly Elizabeths obituary from 1906.
relevant matches. An ad in the Sept. 20, 1788, issue of The
Most of the sites listed in our chart let you search digitized
Bristol Journal describes a country mansion for rent, with a newspapers and view images of the original pages. Daniel F.
26
2016
Major Online Foreign Newspaper Collections

COLLECTION
ACCESS
YEARS
COVERED
COUNTRY OR REGION COVERED
MULTINATIONAL
Ancestry.com <ancestry.com>
$*
1700s-early
1900s
Canada, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland
Compact Memory <compactmemory.de>
free
1768-1965
German-language Jewish newspapers
Early Hebrew Newspapers
free
1856-1931
Jewish newspapers from Israel and elsewhere
Elephind <www.elephind.com>
free
1787-2015
Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore
Findmypast <www.ndmypast.com>
$*
1710-2015
Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany,

Great Britain, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan,
Northern Ireland, South Africa
Google News Archive <news.google.com/newspapers>
free
1738-2009
Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, Mexico,

Poland, Scotland
HathiTrust <www.hathitrust.org>
free
1700s-1900s England, Germany
Historical Jewish Press
free
1843-1987
<jnul.huji.ac.il/dl/newspapers/eng.html>
Jewish newspapers from Israel and elsewhere
<www.jpress.org.il/view-english.asp>
$*
1607-2015
(included
with a
MyHeritage
Data plan)
Azerbaijan, Canada, China, Denmark,

France, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, South Africa, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, United Kingdom, Uzbekistan;
Stars & Stripes only for Algeria, Egypt,
Germany, Italy, Morocco, Tunisia
Newspapers.com <www.newspapers.com>
Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Northern

Ireland, Panama
Old Fulton New York Post Cards <fultonhistory.com>
free
ProQuest Historical Newspapers
through
1800s-1900s Canada, China, England, Hong Kong, India,
subscribing
Ireland, Israel, Scotland
libraries
NewspaperARCHIVE
<www.newspaperarchive.com>
<www.proquest.com/products-services/
pq-hist-news.html>
1700-2007
Australia (1862-1918), Canada (1854-1954)
AFRICA
through
1800-1922
subscribing
libraries
Angola, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho,

Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique,
Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe,
Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland,
Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe
free
1865-1875,
1890-1995
British Columbia
free
1524-2012
Quebec
free
1841-1998
Canada
Connecting Canadians <www.connectingcanadians.org> free
1919-1981
Canada
1784-1896
New Brunswick
African Newspapers, 1800-1922

<www.readex.com/content/
african-newspapers-1800-1922>
CANADA
BC Historical Newspapers
<open.library.ubc.ca/collections/bcnewspapers>
Revues et Journaux Qubcois <www.banq.qc.ca/

collections/collection_numerique/journaux-revues>
Canada Gazette
<www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/canada-gazette>
Daniel F. Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital

Statistics <archives.gnb.ca/Search/NewspaperVitalStats>
free
The Globe and Mail
through
1844-2012
subscribing
libraries
Canada
pq-hist-news.html>
Island Newspapers <www.islandnewspapers.ca>
free
Prince Edward Island
1832-1990
(scattered)
* free at most FamilySearch Centers
27
Johnsons New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics is different. It includes an index you can search and transcriptions
of select articles, but no page images. The index has 640,994
names from birth, marriage and death notices and local news
items in 76 newspapers published between 1784 and 1896.
That makes this one of the most important resources for
New Brunswick genealogy and a real gold mine for someone
like me, who has a lot of ancestry in the area. John Slipps
obituary in the Religious Intelligencer provides key details: It
notes he was born in Hampstead on Aug. 24, 1785, and died in
Cambridge on Sept. 16, 1860, of dropsy in the chest. He married Hannah Merritt in 1809, and they had 13 children, six of
whom have gone to the grave before him. References in this
database note if the original article provides more information.
EUROPE: Many newspapers published in continental
Europe are online, some dating back to the 17th century. The
Europeana Newspapers site has papers published in 16 languages from 18 countries.
Historic German Newspapers Online by Ernest Thode

(Genealogical Publishing Co.) is a helpful guide to about
2,000 newspapers on dozens of websites. One section lists
German-language newspapers by place of publication, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Poland, the United
States and others. Once you nd a promising newspaper, refer
to the alphabetical list of newspapers in the second half of
the book for the website and dates covered. When looking for
news from your ancestors hometown, Thode recommends
you check at least three sources: the daily paper of the closest
large city, the regional paper for the county seat, and the government paper for the area (such as Bavaria, Baden or Hesse).
Thode says Google Books German site is the most extensive digitizer of old German newspapers. Bound newspapers
are digitized right along with books. In search results, look
for matches with words that are common in newspaper titles,
such as Zeitung (newspaper) and Blatt (paper or page).
Another key site, ZEFYS (Zeitungsinformationssystem), has
COLLECTION
ACCESS
YEARS
COVERED
Manitobia: Digital Resources on Manitobas History
free
1859-present Manitoba
free
1769-1992
Nova Scotia
free
1885-2001
Alberta
free
1810-2014
Ontario
free
1871-2013
Western Canada
<manitobia.ca/content/en/newspapers>
Nova Scotia Historical Newspapers Online

<librariesns.ca/content/newspaper-digitization>
Our Future Our Past: Alberta Newspapers

<www.ourfutureourpast.ca/newspapr>
Our Digital World Newspaper Collection

<ink.ourdigitalworld.org>
Peels Prairie Provinces

<peel.library.ualberta.ca/newspapers>
through
1894-2011
subscribing
libraries
Canada
pq-hist-news.html>
Southern Alberta Newspaper Collection
free
1898-2011
Alberta
Aftenposten <a.aftenposten.no>
free, $
1870s-1905
Norway
ANNO: Austrian Newspapers Online
free
1568-1944
Austria and other countries
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: Toronto Star
<www.uleth.ca/lib/digitized_Collections/sanews.asp>
EUROPE AND ASIA
<anno.onb.ac.at>
free
Bavarica
Germany (Bavaria, the Palatinate and some

areas that were once Bavarian)
<bavarica.digitale-sammlungen.de>
free
1771-1910
Finland
Digitale Krantenarchief <aalst.courant.nu>
free
1836-1992
Belgium
LEmeroteca Digitale <emeroteca.braidense.it>
free
1759-2003
Italy
European Library Newspaper Collection
free
1618-2015
Austria, Croatia, Estonia, France, Germany,

Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Serbia,
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom
DIGI: National Librarys Digital Collections

<digi.kansalliskirjasto./sanomalehti>
<www.theeuropeanlibrary.org/tel4/newspapers>
28
2016
newspapers from Prussia, especially official gazettes, and

from the former East Germany.
Until the end of World War II, most German-language
newspapers were printed in Old Gothic type, called Fraktur.
Some of the letters are so similar, such as lower-case i and j, f
and s, and m and w, that OCR often interprets them wrong. To
catch those errors, you might try swapping the letters in your
search terms or using wildcards. When it comes time to read
the articles, use the alphabet chart in our German Genealogy
Cheat Sheet <shopfamilytree.com/digd-german-genealogy-cheatsheet> and see the examples on Brigham Young Universitys
website <script.byu.edu/Pages/German/en/intro.aspx>.
GREAT BRITAIN: Several large, mostly fee-based English,
Scottish and Welsh newspaper collections are online. The
Gazette, a free official public record, has published lists of
bankruptcies, naturalizations and public notices for 350
years. Recent issues include many wills and probate notices.
Welsh Newspapers Online, a free site from the National
Library of Wales, has 1.1 million pages of newspapers.

Searching on Maestorglwyd OR Maesdorglwyd, the name of
the Morgan farm, I got four matches. One, from the Oct. 17,
1918, Radnor Express, is a notice of the marriage of William
Morgan of Maestorglwyd to Gladys Jones. Descendants of
the Morgan family still lived on the same farm almost 100
years after my ancestors left it.
IRELAND: Irish Newspaper Archives, the largest online
archive of Irish newspapers, provides access to 55 papers
from all over Ireland and Northern Ireland dating back to
1738. Researching the Clarke family of the townland of Bellananagh, Kilmore parish, County Cavan, I started searching
on just the name Clark and got 5,000 results. By default, the
site found matches on Clark and Clarke. Then under Rene
Search, I entered alternate spellings of the townland (Bellananagh Ballinagh Belinaa) in the box for Any of These Words
and added a date range from 1800 to 1870. That narrowed
the results to 71, including a Nov. 14, 1851, Freemans Journal
YEARS
COVERED
COLLECTION
ACCESS
Europeana Newspapers <european-newspapers.eu>
free
Gallica: La presse quotidienne <gallica.bnf.fr/html/
free
1900s-early
2000s
France and French-speaking countries
Gazette de Berne <gazettedeberne.unibe.ch>
free
1689-1798
Switzerland
Google Books <books.google.de>
free
Koninklijke Bibliotheek (16181995)
free
1618-2011
(mostly
1940-1945)
Netherlands, Indonesia, Suriname and other

Dutch colonies
free
1700s
1900s
Sweden
National Library of Sweden <tidningar.kb.se>
free
1830,
1863-present
Sweden
Neue Zrcher Zeitung <zeitungsarchiv.nzz.ch>
1780-present Switzerland
Norwegian Portal for Digitized Newspapers

(Nasjonalbiblioteket) <www.nb.no/aviser>
free
1763-2015
South Asian Newspapers, 1864-1922 <www.readex.

com/content/south-asian-newspapers-1864-1922>
through
1864-1922
subscribing
libraries
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
ZEFYS Zeitungsinformationssystem
free
1617-1946
Germany
1710-1959
England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland,

Wales
und/presse-et-revues/les-principaux-quotidiens>
<www.delpher.nl/nl/kranten>
Kungl. biblioteket
<magasin.kb.se:8080/searchinterface>
Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, France,

Germany, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg,
the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania,
Serbia, Slovenia, Spain, United Kingdom
Germany
Norway
<zefys.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en>
GREAT BRITAIN
British Newspaper Archive
<www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk>
British Newspapers 1600-1950 <gdc.gale.com/

products/19th-century-british-library-newspaperspart-i-and-part-ii>
through
1600-1950
subscribing
libraries *
England, Scotland, Wales, and a few from the

American colonies and the Netherlands
29
COLLECTION
ACCESS
YEARS
COVERED
Findmypast: British Newspapers 1710-1953
$*
1710-1953
England, Scotland, Wales
Fold3 <www.fold3.com>
$*
1785-1921
England
The Gazette <www.thegazette.co.uk>
free
1665-present England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland,

Wales
The Guardian (1821-2003) and

The Observer (1791-2003) <media2.proquest.
England
com/documents/guardian_observer.pdf>
through
1791-2003
subscribing
libraries
Newspapers.com <www.newspapers.com>
1700-1921
England
The Scotsman
through
1817-1950
subscribing
libraries
Scotland
<media2.proquest.com/documents/hnp_scotsman.pdf>
The Scotsman Digital Archive <archive.scotsman.com>
1817-1950
Scotland
Welsh Newspapers Online
free
1804-1919
Wales
free
1737-1800
Northern Ireland
1738-1925
Northern Ireland
free
1750-1800
Ireland
1763-1890
Ireland
Irish Examiner <www.irishexaminer.com/archive>
free
1841-1969
Ireland
Irish Newspaper Archives <irishnewspaperarchives.com>
1738-present Ireland, Northern Ireland
IrishNewspapers.com <www.irishnewspapers.com>
1738-1980
The Irish Times <www.irishtimes.com/archive>
1859-present Ireland
Irish Times (1859-2012) and

Weekly Irish Times (1876-1958)
through
1859-2012
subscribing
libraries
<search.ndmypast.com/search/british-newspapers>
<welshnewspapers.llgc.org.uk/en/home>
IRELAND AND NORTHERN IRELAND

Belfast Newsletter Index (17371800)
<www.ucs.louisiana.edu/bnl>
The Belfast Newsletter (Birth, Marriage

and Death Notices), 1738-1925
<search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=2193>
The Dublin Gazette

<en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dublin_Gazette>
Ireland, Newspapers, 1763-1890

<search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=50008>
<media2.proquest.com/documents/irishtimes.pdf>
Ireland, Northern Ireland
Ireland
LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN

free
Caribbean Newspaper Digital Library

<dloc.com/cndl>
1800s-1900s Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, Cuba, Guyana, Haiti,

Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, Puerto Rico and
others
<www.readex.com/content/caribbean-newspapersseries-1-1718-1876-american-antiquarian-society>
through
1718-1876
subscribing
libraries
22 islands, including Cuba, Jamaica and

Puerto Rico
Hemeroteca Nacional Digital de Mxico
free
Mexico and others
Caribbean Newspapers, Series 1, 1718-1876
1722-2006
<www.hndm.unam.mx>
through
1805-1922
subscribing
libraries
Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala,

Mexico, Peru, Venezuela and others
Australian Newspapers <trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper>
free
1803-2007
Australia
PapersPast <paperspast.natlib.govt.nzt>
free
1839-1948
New Zealand
Latin American Newspapers, Series 1

and 2, 1805-1922 <www.readex.com/content/
latin-american-newspapers-series-1-and-2-1805-1922>
OCEANIA
30
2016
1894, the same newspaper announces

death notice for William Clarke, who
Penningtons father-in-law transferred
died at his residence at age 96.
the railroad contract to another manIn 2015, Ancestry.com launched the
ager. An article from El Correo Nacional
IrishNewspapers.com subscription
de Bogot, reprinted in the March 5,
website, which hosts 39 newspapers
1894, Panama Star and Herald, reported
from Ireland and Northern Ireland
John H. Pennington had ed after being
dating from 1738 to 1980. Some of the
charged with bigamy.
papers here also are on Ancestry.com.
These newspapers reveal how PenThe Dublin Gazette was the official
nington viewed even a massive failure
newspaper of Britains government in
as a temporary setback on the road to
Ireland between 1705 and 1922. You
riches. According to El Guatemalteco
cant search it online, but the Wikipedia
in February and March 1896, the Guaarticle on the Dublin Gazette <en.wikitemalan government granted him tax
pedia.org/wiki/The_Dublin_Gazette> has
concessions to build a grand hotel in
links at the end to download issues of
An ad in the Sept. 20, 1788, Bristol Journal,
Guatemala City. The four-story structhe publication as PDF les.
describes a lovely country home for rent and
ture of stone and marble would feature
LATIN AMERICA: Latin American
instructs interested parties to contact my
modern hydrotherapeutic baths. PenNewspapers, Series 1 and 2, 1805-1922,
relative, Mr. Pennington.
nington was ready hire architects and
a part of the Readex World Newspaper
Archive, provides access to more than 280 newspapers pub- building experts in New York, reports the April 2, 1896, La
lished in Central America, South America and the Caribbean Estrella de Panam. But the July 25 El Guatemalteco reports
that the government withdrew the tax break after construcand written in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French.
My second-great-granduncle John H. Pennington lived in tion hadnt started within the required ve months.
After several years working in the Central American fruit
several Latin American countries. A search of this collection
for Pennington produces 447 matches. I clicked on the Dates trade, struggling to keep fruit fresh for American consumers,
and Eras tab to limit results to 1888 to 1909 (starting about Pennington got an idea: banana our. In September 1903, La
the time my relative began doing business there and ending Lucha of Havana reports that J. H. Pennington, president of
with the year he died), reducing the matches to 107. Thats a the Tropical Fruit Co., had patented a process to make our
more manageable number and captures references to John H. from bananas and had a small factory in Cuba. He invited
Pennington, J. H. Pennington, Mr. Pennington and Seor Pen- reporters to sample banana-flour cookies, pancakes and
nington. Many of the other matches are ads for Dr. Williams other goodies. Here was a new way for Cuba to prot from its
Pink Pills for Pale People, accompanied by a fulsome testimo- most bountiful fruit. But despite the initial hoopla, 1904 and
1905 articles in La Lucha suggest that sales never took off.
nial from a New Pennington, Ind., resident.
Now that the archives of many foreign newspapers are
The 32 articles pertaining to John H. Pennington provide
fascinating insight into his personal and business dealings. online, its time to search them for your ancestors stories of
Several Panama newspapers report that the Colombian gov- success and failure.
ernment awarded his company a contract to build 300 miles
of railroad. Engineers were on site in May 1893. But the Sept. 7, Contributing editor R i c k C ru m e spent a year studying
1893, La Estrella de Panam observes that construction wasnt in Bogot, Colombia, and was surprised to learn his secondgoing well. A later edition blames mismanagement. On Jan. 11, great-granduncle John H. Pennington had lived there.
MORE
ONLINE
Free Web Content

Understanding German dates
<familytreemagazine.com/article/
german-dates>
Overseas birth records
over-there-1>
Top old newspaper websites of
2015 <familytreemagazine.com/
article/best-historical-genealogywebsites-2015>
For Plus Members

Digital newspapers search guide
and video <familytreemagazine.
com/article/research-genealogy-inonline-newspapers>
Family Tree 40
international genealogy blogs
around-the-world-in-40-blogs>
Online translation tools
say-what>
ShopFamilyTree.com
Genealogists Instant Translation
Guide <shopfamilytree.com/
genealogists-instant-translationguide-at-a-glance-glossaries>
German Newspapers in America
video class <shopfamilytree.
com/german-newspapers-inamerica-w8728>
The Family Tree Guidebook to Europe
<shopfamilytree.com/family-treeguidebook-to-europe-u8146>
31
DISCOVER YOUR
EASTERN EUROPEAN
ANCESTORS
THE FAMILY TREE
POLISH,
CZECH
& SLOVAK
GENEALOGY GUIDE
Ho w To Tr ac e Yo ur Fa
m ily Tr ee In Ea st er n
Eu ro pe
et the tools you need

o research your ancestors
n Galicia, Silesia, Bohemia,
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ther areas of Poland,
he Czech Republic
nd Slovakia.
race your Eastern European
mmigrant ancestors
ocate your ancestors
hometown in Europe
access the best online
esources for Polish, Czech
and Slovak records
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ecords
earn essential history of
he region
AVE 10% by using code

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<shopfamilytree.com/the-family-treepolish-czech-and-slovak-genealogy-guide>
LI SA A. AL ZO
To order by phone, call (855) 278-0408
How do the big three genealogy sites measure up to each other

and to your research needs? Well compare the sites records,
search features and more.
BY SUNNY JANE MORTON
33
3 THREE MAIN CONTENDERS have come to dominate
the world of commercial genealogy websites: Ancestry.com

<ancestry.com> , Findmypast <www.findmypast.com> and
MyHeritage <www.myheritage.com>. Each is a heavyweight
in historical records content. Each has dedicated fans who
subscribe for full seasons of intense genealogical action or
pay-per-view for records.
So which site should win your subscription dollars? Who
emerges the victor when all three are in the ring? It depends
on the genealogist whos refereeing the match. Today, its
you. So grab your striped shirt and get ready to make some
tough calls in the ongoing battle between three very worthy
opponents. Oh, and youre also putting up the prize purse, in
the form of your membership dollars. But you get to take the
winner(s) home with you for six months to a yearor at least
for 30 pay-per-view credits.
Meet the contenders

Big genealogy websites offer a lot of content and features, but
it can be hard for users to get around the site and gure out
if it meets their needs. We spoke with representatives from
each company, who in turn consulted colleagues who shared
expertise in specic aspects of each site. Lets start with an
overview of our contenders:
ANCESTRY.COM is the most-recognized genealogy brand
in the United States, thanks to its veteran status, huge record
count that includes full runs of popular US records, and marketing efforts including a high-prole sponsorship of Who
Do You Think You Are? International collections cover 67
countries. Ancestry.com is the only site that integrates DNA
into the research process. The corporate family includes sister sites Archives.com <archives.com>, Fold3 <fold3.com> and
Newspapers.com <www.newspapers.com>.
FINDMYPAST offers deep reach into UK records. The site
started with British birth, marriage and death registers to 1837,
and now includes a range of government records, along with
British and Irish newspapers. Findmypast, a company owned
by UK-based DC Thomson, has expanded records coverage
and marketing efforts into the United States and Australia.
Partner and subsidiary sites include ScotlandsPeople <www.
scotlandspeople.gov.uk> , the British Newspaper Archive
<www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk>, Genes Reunited <www.
genesreunited.co.uk> and Mocavo <mocavo.com> (which is
being merged into Findmypast at press time).
MYHERITAGE began as a family networking and treebuilding website from Israel-based MyHeritage. The site still
shows unbeatable strength in these areas, as well as in the
powerful, creative search technologies. Its strong and growing
international fan base gives it another edge in the ring: It currently serves customers in 42 languages, and its trees are the
most internationally diverse in the industry. In its corporate
corner are Geni.com <www.geni.com> (a unified family tree
website) and World Vital Records <www.worldvitalrecords.com>.
34
2016
If youre wondering why the FamilySearch website isnt

in this match-up, its because the sites owner, Utah-based
FamilySearch, is a nonprot that doesnt compete for subscription dollars. It has partnered with all three of the commercial sites covered here to supply them with historical
records in exchange for access to the sites record indexes,
technologies, investment in FamilySearch digitization
efforts or other terms. For the purpose of this contest, imagine FamilySearch.org as the front-row fan holding up foam
ngers for all three contenders.
Breaking records
The core strength of a genealogy website is its historical
records content. (Note that when most websites supply
a record count, theyre referring to the number of names
recorded in a collection, not to the number of documents it
contains.) Total number of records, geographic strengths and
rate of record addition can change quickly and be difficult
to assess. All three sites offer free memberships and a range
of subscription options, but for comparison purposes, well
cover the records and features available to top-tier subscribers (see the opposite page for pricing details).
For historical records, MyHeritage comes in third place
with 4.2 billion names. Findmypast roughly doubles that to
nearly 8 billion. Another doubling of the number brings us to
the staggering 16 billion-plus records on Ancestry.com.
Were adding records at the rate of 2 million per day on
average, says Ancestry.com spokesperson Matthew Deighton. Over the last ve years the average has been more than
1 billion records added annually. He adds that Ancestry.com
is the largest digitizer of historical records each year and
that the company focuses most of its resources into digitizing
content thats unavailable elsewhere online.
Findmypast is growing quickly, too. Company research
expert Alex Cox says the site adds millions of records each
month and will add more new records in 2016 than ever
before in the companys history.
MyHeritage doesnt give specific statistics, but according to public relations manager Aaron Godfrey, millions of
records and family tree proles are added to the site each day.
The sites trees and related user-submitted records also
can be counted separately from historical records. For now,
Findmypast doesnt rank in this category because users cant
TIP: Search records on all three of these contending

sites using the computers at a local FamilySearch Center
(see <www.familysearch.org/locations> to find one
near you) or at many public libraries.
KEEPING STATS
ANCESTRY.COM
12 billion; collections listed
Historical records
FINDMYPAST
nearly 8 billion; collections
at <search.ancestry.com/
listed at <search.ndmypast.
search/cardcatalog.aspx>
com/historical-records>
MYHERITAGE
4.2 billion; to see collection
listings, click on categories

at <www.myheritage.com/
research>
Trees
Unique features
70 million, with 6 billion
proles
you can build a tree here, but
cant yet search others trees

leader in unique UK records
globally diverse trees
DNA testing provider
and newspapers
Periodical Source Index
unique search technologies
DNA/family tree integration
$149 for six months of
Ancestry World Explorer
family websites
companion desktop
(from <www.mackiev.com>)
Site info and help
billion proles
leader in US record content
companion desktop software
Best access subscription price
28 million trees with 2.6
software
$199.50 annually for
Findmypast World
$179.40 annually for
a Bundle plan, which

combines Premium Plus
and Data plans
<blogs.ancestry.com/
<blog.ndmypast.com>
<blog.myheritage.com>,
ancestry>
<help.ancestry.com>
<www.ndmypast.com/
<helpcenter.myheritage.
yet search trees (this feature is on the horizon for 2016).

MyHeritage subscribers can search about 28 million trees
that include 2.6 billion individual proles and 200 million
photographs. Ancestry.com slightly more than doubles most
of those numbers, with about 70 million trees containing
around 6 billion proles and 300 million photos, documents
and stories.
Core strengths
Heavyweight numbers of records and trees are most effective when that weight is well-distributed, and you can nd
records of most interest to your family history, geographically and chronologically.
PRIMARY COLLECTIONS: The three contenders all host
core US and UK contentbasic, popular record groups with
broad coverage. All have the Social Security Death Index
(SSDI) and population schedules for US censuses up to 1940.
The same goes for English censuses up to 1911 and indexes
to English and Scottish births and christenings dating to
the 1500s. All have received millions of records through
partnerships with nonprot site FamilySearch.org. Ancestry.
com describes these as a very small portion of our overall
increase in records.
MyHeritage includes among its search results digitized US
newspaper pages dating as far back as the 1600s from partner site NewspaperARCHIVE <www.newspaperarchive.com>.
Findmypast offers many of the same papers as well. Each
site has additional, exclusive newspaper content, toosee
below for more details. Ancestry.com has limited newspaper
frequently-asked-questions>
com>
content, with more on a sister site, Newspapers.com <www.

newspapers.com> (available through a separate subscription).
US RECORDS: Genealogists with deep US roots benet
from Ancestry.coms enormous and unique US collections.
Ancestry.com hosts the only signicant collection of special
census schedules (slave, mortality, agriculture and more)
and incorporates user-submitted census corrections into the
search process. State and territorial census data are rich, as
are state- and county-level vital and church records. Its collection of US city directory entries now surpasses 1.5 billion.
In 2015, Ancestry.com released its Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, covering 49 million
people and including birth dates and -places and parents
names (which dont show up on the SSDI). It also launched
an enormous and still-growing collection of US wills and
probate records, with more than 170 million indexed records
from all 50 states. These records result from a partnership
with FamilySearch, though the records arent indexed on the
FamilySearch site. The United States is the companys largest
area of records content investment.
Findmypast is now home to 850 million US records (and
more coming soon). In addition to core census and vital
records, it focuses on immigration and naturalization documents that point back to the United Kingdom. Its impressive
makeover of PERSI (short for Periodical Source Index), the
index to genealogical content in US and Canadian periodicals, increasingly includes digitized content.
UK RECORDS: Findmypast is the still-unbeaten online
records king for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern
35
SEARCH COMPARISON
The ease and flexibility of a genealogy websites search form is
a major factor in your ability to useand enjoythe site. Shown
here is each sites most-customizable global search form (which
looks for matches in every collection on the site). On Findmypast
and MyHeritage, click a link to the Advanced search; on Ancestry.
com, click Show More Options. Each site also has record collection
landing pages with search forms tailored to those records. For
example, the search form for a collection of immigration records
might have a field where you can enter arrival year.
Ancestry.com Search (expanded)

Click an event or family member to add dates (with ranges, if
desired), places (with filtering options to search neighboring
counties or states, or the entire country) and names (with several
matching options) to your search. You also can add keywords and
narrow your results by collection.
MyHeritage Advanced Search

At MyHeritage, the SuperSearch gives you several options
for name matching. You can search with ranges for dates of life
events, and choose whether to match places flexibly (a place
match improves ranking in your search results) or exactly. Keep
With translations checked to receive matches to translated
versions of your relatives name.
36
2016
Findmypast Advanced Search

In addition to a name, here you can search with the year of birth,
death or another event (including a range) and select from
World, United States and Canada, United Kingdom, Australia
and New Zealand, or Ireland. Click Browse to choose one or more
categories, subcategories or record sets.
Ireland. Exclusive content includes 41 million names from

the 1939 Register (full access is pay-per view, even for subscribers), about 220 million names from electoral registers
in England and Wales, and UK parish registers dating to the
1500s. The sites exclusive Irish records predate the 1840s
famine. These include court records, workhouse registers,
poverty relief loans and more.
In addition, Findmypast has more than 12.5 million digitized newspaper pages from the British Library and adds
roughly 2 to 3 million pages per year. More than 9 million
Irish newspaper articles appear online, too. The collection
spans 231 years of Irish history (1719-1950), contains 74 different titles and covers every county in Ireland, Cox says.
Few Irish family history resources date back as far and provide such a wealth of information.
Ancestry.com does boast a billion UK records, mostly from
the past century or so. A quarter of those UK records come
from phone books since 1880. Another 185 million are indexes
of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales
since 1916. About 213 million records are user-submitted
photos and documents, 53 million of which are private.
OTHER GLOBAL RECORDS: If Ancestry.com wins the numbers game in the US records category and Findmypast in
the UK record category, MyHeritage is a serious contender
for everywhere else. Its most consistent and unique global
content is user-submitted trees.
MyHeritage originally specialized in hosting online family
networks and trees. During its early years, it acquired German, Polish, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Spanish,
UK and French genealogy websitesand the trees that went
with them. MyHeritage also has partnered with major Jewish organizations such as JewishGen <www.jewishgen.com> to
preserve Jewish family trees from around the world.
The multilingual interface on MyHeritage has major
appeal to non-English-language tree builders. It serves
customers in 42 languages and has built-in translation for
names in your ancestor searches. Savvy researchers look
here for overseas relatives, who, especially if they stayed in
the ancestral homeland, may know more about your common roots.
MyHeritage has built up its records collections in targeted
regions, most recently Scandinavia. It has published 54 million records from Swedish Household Examination Rolls
(1880-1920) and is digitizing 120 million census and parish
records from the National Archives of Denmark. The 1930
Danish census is already online.
Ancestry.com, another international genealogy powerhouse, has records from 67 countries, with the most for the
United States, followed by the United Kingdom, Australia,
Mexico, Canada, Sweden, Germany, France and Italy (it
offers separate subscription packages for each of these countries). Its been aggressively building collections for Mexico
and Germany.
Automated record matching to your

family tree can be a time-saver
just remember that the matches
are only suggestions.
Findmypast remains focused on countries with a strong

historical link to the British Empire. In addition to US and
UK portals, Findmypast offers country-level access for Ireland and Australia, and hosts ScotlandsPeople. Look this year
for new records for Australia and New Zealand, as well as US
and UK records.
In search of victory
A superior athlete knows that delivery affects the impact of
a fastball or shot-on-goal. Similarly, a strong genealogy website should deliver records with fast, powerful and accurate
search interfaces.
All three sites have sophisticated search features. The
main search boxes all perform simple or complex searches
(your choice). You can select exact or similar matching for
your search terms and lter your results by record type and/
or location. You even can leave names out of searches and,
for example, look for all people born on a certain date in a
certain place.
MyHeritage and Ancestry.com allow you to add gender,
relatives names, keywords and several life events to your
searches, which can be helpful when trying to narrow results
or search for all relatives of a particular person. MyHeritage
also includes a handy age calculator and a full-blown name
translation feature. The latter searches its historical records
and trees for name translations in multiple languages, and
includes the translation with the result.
Wildcard searches, in which you use special characters
to substitute for unknown characters, are possible on Findmypast and Ancestry.com. For example, on Ancestry.com
you can substitute a question mark for a single character
and an asterisk (*) for up to ve characters. Cox describes
Findmypasts wildcard searches as extremely exible: you
can conduct a wildcard search on a single letter if you wish
to do so.
Automated record matching for indexed records is available on all three sites, provided you have a family tree on the
site. These can be a time-saverjust remember that potential
record matches are suggestions. Make sure a record is indeed
a match before you add it to your tree. Heres a brief explanation of each sites system:
37
ANCESTRY.COM: A shaky leaf hint appears on a prole

in your tree when the site identies new records as a potential match for that person. About 90 percent of Ancestry.
coms content is included in the hinting process.
FINDMYPAST: This site has the youngest hinting system,
expected to be in beta format until mid-2016. It pulls hints
from birth, marriage, death and most census collections,
looking for matches on full names and birth year. In the
future, well be adding immigration and naturalization, military and other records to Findmypast hinting, Cox says.
MYHERITAGE: Several proprietary matching technologies
are part of MyHeritages suggested records system. Record
Matches and Smart Matches match your ancestors with historical records and other tree proles, respectively. According to the site, these technologies are about 97 to 98 percent
accurate, based on user acceptance rates. A third technology,
Record Detective, suggests additional records based on the
search results that interest you (i.e. If you like this record,
you may also like this other one).
All three sites use optical character recognition (OCR)
technology to keyword-search content that hasnt been
indexed by humans. At Findmypast, this applies most to
newspaper content and some books. Thousands more books
will be added, thanks in part to Findmypasts acquisition of
Mocavo. Ancestry.com applies OCR technology to printed
data such as newspapers, family histories, school yearbooks
and city directories.
MyHeritage, the only site that automates hints for newspaper records, has taken its OCR searches of newspapers
to the next level with its Newspaper Matches technology. It
matches entire trees (not just individual proles) to newspaper obituaries, wedding announcements and other family
notices. These matches are highly accurate. It makes sense:
Imagine how many family names, dates and places appear in
both our trees and in obituaries.
Two sites also use their powerful search interfaces to
reach into records elsewhere online. Ancestry.com now
points searchers to more than 100 million records from 250
free collections on other websites, including Find A Grave
<www.findagrave.com> and Rootsweb <rootsweb.ancestry.
com>. Your search results on Ancestry.com give you basic
details and link you to the other site for full information.
At MyHeritage, offsite searches focus on partner sites and
licensed content from websites such as BillionGraves <www.
billiongraves.com>, Geni <geni.com> (now part of MyHeritage),
TIP: For news on genealogy website subscription sales,

read the sites blogs and follow them on social media.
38
2016
Tributes <www.tributes.com> and FamilySearch. Findmypast

has plans to connect users with data from FamilySearch,
BillionGraves and other genealogy sites.
Extra points
In this final speed round, contenders go for technical
points and style with their online tools. These include family
tree platforms, collaborative ability, social networking tools,
mobile accessibility and genetic tools.
FAMILY TREES: Subscribers to all three sites can build
unlimited online trees, which they can download as GEDCOM les to archive or share. Privacy protections exist for
living relatives in trees on all three sites, as does the ability to
maintain a private tree.
If you keep a tree on MyHeritage, you can sync it with your
tree in the free Family Tree Builder desktop software <www.
myheritage.com/family-tree-builder> . Ancestry.com has sold
its Family Tree Maker software to Software MacKiev <www.
mackiev.com>, which will continue to make it available. In
addition, Ancestry.com will connect with RootsMagic software <www.rootsmagic.com> by the end of the year.
The relative merits (and demerits) of each sites tree
platforms are somewhat subjective and may be a lower
priority for you than record content. Ancestry.coms family trees overhaul of 2015 received mixed reviews, with
negative comments focusing on visual elements, changes in
navigation and inclusion of big-picture historical events in
ancestor timelines.
RESEARCH COLLABORATION: Subscribers at all three
sites can invite relatives to view (and in many cases, edit)
their trees. Tools vary for connecting with other site users
researching common roots.
At MyHeritage, collaboration is powered by two technologies: the previously mentioned Smart Matches and Search
Connect. As of June, the site boasted 22 million conrmed
Smart Matches between users. Search Connect, launched
late in 2015, converts other users past searches for rare surnames into a searchable database itself, so you can nd those
whove looked for people in your tree. Though users can opt
out of being included for past or future searches, this clever
mining of MyHeritages own data will likely prove rewarding
for many stymied researchers.
On Ancestry.com, you can search others public trees for
common relatives and get in touch with the tree host by
sending a message through the sites Member Connect service. Individual ancestor proles also have a section showing other members whove researched that person recently.
Ancestry.com keeps you up-to-date with changes made by
those with whom you connect, both in individual proles
and on your home page. Ancestry.com members have logged
more than 8 billion connections between trees since 2008.
At press time, Findmypast lacks publicly searchable trees,
so its not possible to identify or contact other tree owners.
PICK A WINNER
Check the categories you consider MVP material, then see which sites rate the best in that area.
AWARD CATEGORY
CHECK IF IMPORTANT
TO YOU
CLEAR CONTENDER(S)
Historical record content

total number of records
Ancestry.com
global record coverage
Ancestry.com, MyHeritage
US record coverage
Ancestry.com
UK record coverage
Findmypast
newspaper content
Findmypast, MyHeritage
User-submitted trees
number of trees/proles
Ancestry.com
globally diverse trees
MyHeritage
research collaboration tools
MyHeritage, Ancestry
Search technologies
most innovative
MyHeritage
wildcard searches
Findmypast, Ancestry.com
automated record searches (with a tree on the site)
MyHeritage, Ancestry.com
automated newspaper searches
MyHeritage
external site searches
Social networking with relatives
MyHeritage
Mobile apps
DNA research tools
Ancestry.com
SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS: MyHeritage and Ancestry.

com have the most substantial social media tools for subscribers. MyHeritage leads in helping relatives socialize beyond
research collaboration. Each member gets a family website
with a unique URL, customized greeting, family calendar
that automatically populates with living relatives birthdays
and anniversaries (and to which you can add upcoming family events), the ability to upload and tag unlimited photos
and the ability to invite nonsubscribing relatives to view and
contribute content. Your MyHeritage family tree shares this
environment, making it easy for relatives to explore it.
Ancestry.coms social media tools are more narrowly
focused on research and sharing your nds via social media.
Once you add a record to your tree, you can share it on
Facebook <www.facebook.com>, Google+ <plus.google.com> or
via email. Ancestry.com also hosts RootsWeb, where genealogists have long posted questions, data and research nds.
MOBILE ACCESSIBILITY: All three sites are now mobilefriendly. This means when you pull them up in a web browser
on a small screen, you will nd the layout re-sized and simplied for easy navigation.
Ancestry.com and MyHeritage also have free, robust

mobile apps that let you create, access, edit and sync online
trees; upload photos; respond to automated hints; search
records and more. The MyHeritage app <www.myheritage.
com/mobile> is available through the Apple App Store and
Google Play, where users have rated it at 3.5 stars and 4 stars
(out of 5), respectively. The Ancestry app <ancestry.com/cs/
ancestry-app> can be downloaded from the App Store (4.5
stars), where it scored a Best App of 2012 award, as well as
Google Play (4 stars) and Amazon.com (4 stars). Findmypast
doesnt yet have a mobile app.
DNA INTEGRATION: Ancestry.com is the only website
that sells its own DNA tests and integrates test results with
online trees. The sites evolving, groundbreaking interface
includes tools such as DNA Circles, Shared Matches and
New Ancestry Discoveries (still in beta format) to help
Ancestry.com subscribers who purchase AncestryDNA
tests discover the ancestors they share with their closest
genetic matches. As the DNA database grows (over a million and counting!) chances of nding matches improves.
Common test-taker complaints include slow or no responses
39
to messages to genetic matches (to be fair, this also is a

frequent gripe about other DNA testing websites) and lack
of a chromosome browser, which necessitates the use of
third-party tools for in-depth analysis. (For help using your
genetic genealogy test results, see our Using DNA to Solve
Family Mysteries on-demand webinar <shopfamilytree.com/
using-dna-to-solve-family-mysteries-webinar>.)
Findmypast and MyHeritage have DNA landing pages
that direct users to third-party DNA testing companies with
which each site has partnered. In 2014, MyHeritage and
23andme <23andme.com> struck an agreement to integrate
the formers test results with the latters trees; at press time
this hadnt yet come to fruition.
Buying tickets
Its almost time for you, as referee, to declare a winner of this
match-up. Or, like an increasing number of genealogists, to
recognize more than one champion and carry off multiple
subscriptions (or nd a library that offers an institutional
version of the site you want). So we come to the nal important consideration: the cost of each prize purse.
Because the sites structure their membership packages
differently, the only easy comparison is between the lowest annual rates for top-tier packages. Generally, sites will
MORE ONLINE
Free Web Content
101 Best Websites for genealogy <familytreemagazine.com/
article/101-best-websites-2015>
Genealogy Insider blog <blog.familytreemagazine.com/insider>
MyHeritage free family history books <blog.
familytreemagazine.com/insider/2015/12/11/
MyHeritageLaunchesNewFreeCollectionOfOldBooks.aspx>
For Plus Members

Genealogy research tips <familytreemagazine.com/article/23-
tips-for-better-genealogy-research>
Smarter online searching <familytreemagazine.com/article/
smarter-online-genealogy-searching>
Findmypast quick guide <familytreemagazine.com/article/
ndmypast-cheat-sheet>
ShopFamilyTree.com
Genetic Genealogy Cheat Sheet <shopfamilytree.com/genetic-
genealogy-cheat-sheet>
Unofficial Guide to Ancestry.com <shopfamilytree.com/unofficial-
guide-to-ancestry>
Secrets of Successful Web Searches on-demand webinar
<shopfamilytree.com/secrets-of-successful-web-searchesondemand-webinar>
40
2016
show you a monthly rate, but bill you once for the full cost
of your annual or six-month membership. You may be able
to pay by the month, but the rate is usually higher and your
subscription will probably auto-renew unless you cancel
within the time frame the site species. Finally, its a good
idea to subscribe to the websites newsletters, Like them
on Facebook and visit their blogs to nd out about subscription sales.
ANCESTRY.COM: This site offers monthly and six-month
packages for US and international coverage, as well as a package deal for access to sister sites. Full access to all records
from the United States and around the world costs $34.99
per month or $149 for six months. Access to just US records
costs $19.99 per month or $99 for six months. Full access to
Ancestry.com, Newspapers.com, Fold3 and Ancestry Academy (a service offering video classes) costs $44.99 a month
or $199 for six months. You can subscribe at <ancestry.com/
cs/offers/subscribe>.
MYHERITAGE: Here, youll find separate subscription
packages for family tree-building and historical records
access. Its free to build a basic tree with up to 250 people
and 500 MB of attached photos and videos, which also
lets you view Smart Matches in other trees. A Premium
family website with a 2,500-person tree and 1000 MB of
media storage, plus the ability to save Smart Matches and
enhanced customer support, costs $6.88 per month, billed
annually at $82.50. A Premium Plus family website, which
adds unlimited tree size and storage, plus access to all family trees and family photos, costs $10.95 monthly, billed
annually at $131.40.
A separate $9.95 monthly Data plan (billed annually at
$119.40) gives access to all historical records and recordmatching technologies.
A Bundle of both types of membership (which you may
see called a Complete plan) gives you top-tier access to
historical records and family trees, plus a family website with
unlimited tree size and storage, for $14.95 per month, billed
annually at $179.40. Learn more at <helpcenter.myheritage.
com/Account-and-Subscriptions>.
FINDMYPAST: Here, you can purchase monthly or annual
subscriptions for US and Canada or for World (all) records.
Access to US and Canada collections costs $9.95 per month
or $99.48 per year. World access costs $19.95 per month, or
$199.56 for an annual subscription. See all the options at
<www.ndmypast.com/pay>.
To view most records, you can purchase pay-per-view
credits in lieu of a regular subscriptionmaking this the only
contender with that option. Credits cost $10.95 for 60; $37.95
for 300, or $82.95 for 900, and they expire after 90 days. Each
record view costs 5 to 60 credits.
Contributing editor Sunny Jane Morton declared a draw
and happily admits to using all three big contender sites.
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Create a custom, comprehensive insurance plan
to back up your valuable family photos
and genealogy research les.
B Y D E N I S E M AY L E V E N I C K
3 WHEN MOST PEOPLE make a significant investmentlike a home or a fine art collectionthey also take
steps to protect it. They insure it. They guard it with smoke
alarms and high-tech locks. They may even hire ongoing
surveillance.
Your growing collection of genealogy documents, photos
and research is a unique investment that deserves protection,
too. Your research and ndings often cost signicant time,
money and effort. You may have traveled extensively or spent
many hours and considerable dollars in pursuit of your family
history. Some of your nds may be irreplaceable, such as original photos, oral history interviews with now-deceased relatives and copies of documents that are now closed to access.
That means you need a plan to protect your genealogy
research. Your computer, hard drives and paper files are
all at risk. Natural disasters such as storms, res and oods
can damage or destroy them. So can man-made problems,
including theft and accidents. Relatively minor mishaps like
burst pipes or spillsthe most common kinds of damage for
the typical genealogistcan waterlog priceless records and a
lifetime of research in minutes. And who hasnt lost a computer le to a technical glitch or because you hit the wrong
keystroke at the wrong time?
Fortunately, its not complicated or expensive to protect
your research against disaster. And you can customize your
plan based on your own needs and preferences. Youll have to
invest some time, effort and money, but its probably a fraction of what youve already invested in your family history
assets. Follow these ve principles to craft a solid insurance
policy against catastrophic genealogical loss.
All hard drives will fail.

Its not if, but when.
By denition, a backup is simply a copy or replacement.

But in the same way that a relief pitcher has to be warmedup and ready to take over where the rst player left off, your
data backup needs to be ready to go when you need it. You
need to be able to get to your genealogy database les if
your computer hard drive fails. It wont help if youve made
a backup copy stored in another folder on the same computer. You need that copy on another storage media such
as an external hard drive, ash drive or in online or cloud
storage (more on that below).
An easy trick to recall the backup basics is the motto
Backup 3-2-1, which stands for:
THREE copies of your digital files: True preservation
backup calls for three distinct copies. Include all your genealogy databases, les, email, photos, audio interviews, and
social media downloads.
TWO different storage media: Dont put all your digital
les in one basket. You already have the original working
copy of your les existing on your computer hard drive. Store
a second copy on an external hard drive.
ONE copy stored offsite: Protect your data from natural
disaster, theft or accident by storing one copy of your digital
les in a second physical location such as a cloud storage
Minimize risk
Property owners reduce their overall nancial risks service or on an external hard drive stored at your office or a
by insuring their valuables. Your best genealogy relatives home.
Making all these backups may involve burning DVDs,
insurance plan is to back up all your computer les
early and often. (Havent digitized your files and uploading files to online storage, migrating to new hardphotos yet? See the box on page 45 for resources to help ware, adding metadata (such as tags to identify folks in
you get started.) Anyone whos lost family tree databases, photos) for easier access, and keeping up with updates and
new technology. All this takes time that
research notes, written narratives, digimost genealogists would rather spend
tized documents or photos to a hard
researching. Its so easy to put it off until
drive crash knows you cant have too
8 Reasons to Back up
later. Unfortunately, later is often too
many backup copies.
Your Genealogy Now
late and your data is lost. Or the one time
The best time to back up your work is
1. the time, money and effort youve
you forget to back things up is the day a
any time youve updated your les. Durinvested in your research
disaster hits.
ing a major research or photo-scanning
2. spills, leaks and burst pipes
Fortunately, automated software and
session, save often and copy to a second
3. power failure
turnkey devices have made it much simmedia when you nish. Consider daily
4. hardware failure
pler to maintain full and complete backand weekly backups of large, recently
5. computer theft or loss
ups of all your genealogy les. You can
changed and new les. Once a month,
6. limited lifespan of digital storage
automate your backup plan according to
save a fresh copy of your entire geneal7. viruses, malware and hackers
your personal schedule or preferences.
ogy folder. The first of the month is a
8.
accidental deletion
You can choose between local storage
popular and easy-to-remember geneal(software that will backup files from
ogy backup day.
43
BACK UP THIS, NOT THAT

If you use a cloud backup service with storage
limit, you may be looking for files to eliminate
from your online archive. You probably dont
need to back up every single file, but do use
caution when excluding: Better to back up a
file now than wish you had done so later.
Go ahead and back it up

scanned old photos and documents
current family photos and videos
audio and video files of family history

interviews and associated transcriptions
ancestor photos and record images

downloaded from the internet
genealogy database file (as a GEDCOM) and

companion folder of linked media
research logs, planners, notes and charts
digitized versions of paper pedigrees, family

group sheets, notebook files
spreadsheets, OneNote files and other files

created by programs you use regularly
genealogy email messages
DNA raw data files, spreadsheets and

associated emails
passwords and software registration keys
homework from genealogy courses and

institutes
Not-so-necessary to back up
44
digitized books and audiobooks that can be

replaced
conference syllabi that also are available on

CD or online
society journals, magazines and articles

available online
early drafts of writing projects (archive the

final version)
to-do lists and notes about research problems

youve since resolved
2016
your computer to an external hard drive) and online backup

services that upload files daily to remote cloud storage.
Keep reading to learn about your options for each.
Protect your physical assets
If you were a homeowner protecting your property, you might use smoke detectors and escape
ladders for second-oor windows. For protecting
your genealogical les, consider investing in an
external hard drive with storage capacity to hold your current and future les.
Storage prices for external hard drives continue to drop.
Drives containing 1 or 2 terabytes of data are fairly reasonably priced. But dont feel the need to buy the biggest on
the market if your storage needs are minimal. Remember
that external drives have a limited lifespan and your data
should be migrated to a new drive in three to ve years. You
always can buy a larger-capacity hard drive to replace your
current one.
Consider using set and forget automating tools, available
with Mac 8.1 and Windows 10 computers, for your drive. Mac
users have the built-in option to use Apples Time Machine
backup application <support.apple.com/en-us/HT201250> .
This program performs an hourly automatic backup of any
data thats been changed in the last 60 minutes and stores
the copy on a designated external hard drive. Time Machine
saves hourly backups for the last 24 hours, daily backups for
the last month, and weekly backups for all previous months.
All backups are accumulated to ll the capacity of the hard
drive and then deleted when the disk becomes full. Apple
recommends choosing an external hard drive with twice the
capacity of your computer hard drive. Users can revert to
an older version of a document or retrieve an earlier le by
entering the Time Machine and scrolling back to the desired
hour or date.
Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 users can take advantage
of a similar program called Windows File History <windows.
microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/set-drive-le-history>. Access
the program through the Control Panel or by looking under
Settings and choosing Update & Security. Youll need to connect an external hard drive and activate the app to start backups. Windows File History allows you to roll back and nd
earlier versions or lost or deleted les. By default, the app
makes hourly backups, but you can customize the frequency
TIP: When you download records from a genealogy website,

find the file on your computer right away and rename it
according to your file-naming convention.
and length of time to save backups. The Windows 10 version

offers slightly different features than the earlier version.
Popular third-party software with similar solutions include
Carbon Copy Cloner (Mac) <www.bombich.com> and Acronis
True Image <www.acronis.com>.
Consider remote monitoring
In addition to deadbolts and smoke detectors,

many property owners turn to home security companies to monitor their homes 24/7. You can have
that kind of off-site protection for your computer
les, thanks to automated backup services. These satisfy that
one copy offsite requirement by the Backup 3-2-1 principle.
Online data storage providers, what we call cloud storage, upload your data les to the companys remote servers
according to whatever schedule you set on activation. The
initial upload can take a long time, depending on your local
network speed and how much data you need to store. Cloud
storage is sometimes thought of as cold storage or archival
storage because it can take considerable time to upload les
and to restore lost data. Its best used as insurance against
loss, not for daily access.
See the Toolkit on this page for a list of popular cloud backup
services. Generally, you should expect to pay a monthly or
annual fee for storage and automatic uploads. Beginning at
around $5 per month or $50 per year, many users nd these
services well worth the peace of mind and convenience. Compare plans offered by various providers. They vary based on
features like length of contract, size of storage and whether
additional devices (like your external hard drive) are covered.
CrashPlan even offers free plans for helping you back up les
to your own external or offsite cloud storage.
synchronized to the main Dropbox server. The newly edited

version is synced to each location. Deleted les are deleted
across all devices as well. This makes les vulnerable to loss.
Many genealogists organize their ndings in note-taking
software like Evernote <www.evernote.com> or Microsofts
OneNote <www.onenote.com>. These fabulous tools make it
easy to collect all your research ndings in one central place;
attach full source citation information; sort or search them
and collaborate with other researchers. But these applications arent meant for long-term archival storage, either. Free
accounts generally limit the amount of data you can keep
there (and your photos or videos may quickly exceed that),
as well as the le types you can store. In addition, the format
of note-taking software would make it difficult to download a
replacement copy of all your les at once.
The same applies to online family trees. And while theyre
helpful to organize information about ancestors along with
relevant photos and record images, online trees have their
own backup downfalls. A GEDCOM le downloaded from
your tree wont preserve attached digital images, or possibly even links to them. It also would require genealogy
software to open.
Its better to use these services as temporary repositories
a kind of lending libraryfor les and information that you
need to share, access from multiple devices or move between
TOOLKIT
Built-in Automated Backup Tools

Windows File History <windows.microsoft.com/en-us/
windows-8/set-drive-le-history>
Apple Time Machine <support.apple.com/en-us/
HT201250>
Dont settle for false security
Keeping a re extinguisher handy for a little

are-up on the stove is smart. But you wouldnt
rely on it to battle a major house re. It simply
wasnt designed for a job that big. Similarly,
dont rely on online sync-n-store services, note-taking software, social media sites or even online trees to permanently
store your entire collection of family history photos and
les. Otherwise you might nd yourself settling for a sense
of false security.
With the increasing popularity of free storage via services
such as Google Drive <drive.google.com>, OneDrive <onedrive.
com> and Dropbox <dropbox.com>, many genealogists have
uploaded their genealogy data and been convinced that their
data is safe and secure. Wrong! These online file storage
services are excellent for le sharing across computers and
between users, but they are poor choices for digital backups.
The typical Dropbox user has accounts on one or two
computers, a smartphone, and a mobile tablet. Files can be
opened, saved, and edited on any device, when it is then
Backup Software

Carbon Copy Cloner <bombich.com>

Acronis True Image <acronis.com>
Online Backup Services

Backblaze <backblaze.com>
Carbonite <carbonite.com>
CrashPlan <crashplan.com>
IDrive <idrive.com>
Mozy <mozy.com>
Sync-and-Store Services

Apple iCloud <apple.com/icloud>

Dropbox <dropbox.com>
Google Drive <drive.google.com>
Microsoft OneDrive <onedrive.live.com>
45
A GEDCOM downloaded from

your online tree wont preserve
the digital images attached to
ancestor proles.
computers. Instead, preserve archived copies of your les on

an external hard drive or in your cloud backup account.
What if youve shared family history photos on Facebook,
Instagram, Twitter or other social media sites? Hit the Not
Like button on the social media backup strategy for a several
good reasons:
YOU LOSE CONTROL OF YOUR PHOTOS the second they
go live on the internet. Other users can download, edit, and
otherwise alter your images without your permission or
involvement. Any citation, identification and story youve
painstakingly connected with the image may be lost.
PHOTO RESOLUTION DROPS TO WEB-QUALITY. In most
instances, this results in images that are no longer viable for
printing. Even social media sites that boast full-resolution
images can change their terms of service at any time. Dont
leave your photo archive at risk for a downgrade in quality.
FUTURE ACCESS ISNT GUARANTEED. These sites have no
obligation to preserve your photos for posterity. When your
images are hosted by someone else, your access is set by their
terms, not yours. The site may be free when you upload your
photos and become a for-pay site in the future. Will you want
to pay a ransom for your own photographs?
SOCIAL MEDIA SITES THEMSELVES MAY CLAIM RIGHTS to
your posts. For example, Facebook acknowledges that users
own all of the content and information they post. But its
terms specify that users grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use
anything you post there <www.facebook.com/terms.php>. It
may seem a stretch to imagine Facebook using or selling your
images or posts in objectionable ways. But why post all your
images on a site where thats a possibility?
Enjoy your valuables.
Now that youve taken steps to digitize and secure

your genealogy archive, should you throw away
paper originals? This is a great way to reduce clutter from publications, old research notes and some
printed material, but its not the best idea when working with
your original paper documents and photos.
Consider some of your oldest photographs. Do you have
prints 100 or 200 years old? Its remarkable to consider that
46
2016
paper and photos have survived and are still readable with no
special equipment (such as a computer) or software except
the human eye. Keep them! Enjoy them! These are your
originals of your backups and even more priceless than the
data on your new 1TB external hard drive.
After digitizing your family keepsakes, take care to place
the originals in archival quality acid-free, lignin-free folders
and boxes. Keep these containers where theyll be protected
from light, dust, pests and handling. My books, How to
Archive Family Keepsakes and How to Archive Family Photos
(Family Tree Books), walk you through processes for preserving different kinds of images and heirlooms.
Even the best genealogy backup routine may not prevent
disaster and loss, just like the best homeowners policy wont
stop a fire. But all these steps taken as a wholesecuring
originals, preserving copies and keeping backups in separate locationswill make it easier to sleep at night, knowing
youve done all you can to protect your family legacy.
Denise Levenick wrote How to Archive Family Keepsakes
and How to Archive Family Photos, both available at ShopFamilyTree.com <shopfamilytree.com> . Shes known as the
Family Curator and blogs about preserving family archives at
<thefamilycurator.com>.
MORE ONLINE
Free Web Content
Organize your hard drive <familytreemagazine.com/article/feb-
2012-make-over-hard-drive>
Scanning old photos <familytreemagazine.com/article/scanning-
family-photos>
Are CDs good for archival storage? <familytreemagazine.com/
article/archivist-CD-storage>
For Plus Members

Online backup services <familytreemagazine.com/article/onlinebackup-services>
How to use an external hard drive <familytreemagazine.com/
article/Toolkit-External-Hard-Drives>
Cloud genealogy <familytreemagazine.com/article/genealogyin-the-cloud>
ShopFamilyTree.com
Digitally archive your photos and documents on-demand webinar
<shopfamilytree.com/digitally-archive-your-photos-anddocuments>
How to Archive Family Keepsakes by Denise Levenick <shopfamilytree.
com/ht-archive-family-keepsakes>
How to Archive Family Photos by Denise Levenick <shopfamilytree.
com/how-to-archive-family-photos>
master the
top free
genealogy website
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DANA McCULLOUGH
SE
3 HEAD TO YOUR favorite app store on your smartphone or
tablet, and you might feel youre in a three-ring circus. Across

the big top that is Apples App Store, for example, apps rotate
in a ring begging to be downloaded, angry birds shoot out of
cannons, and the arcade games dominate the eld.
The show, though exciting, might leave you too dazzled
to know where to look rst for the apps you need or how
to evaluate the features of the ones youre considering. But
weve got the just the ticket to help you tame the lion of app
choice overload: a guide to the best apps on earth for the
genealogical tasks you face.
THE STRONG MEN
Family Tree
Ancestry
Ancestry
customize the LifeStory view (part of the reworked member

trees rolled out last year). With an internet connection, all of
this synchronizes with your Ancestry.com account.
If you have an Apple Watch, you can receive new hint notications with photo previews, save or ignore photo hints,
keep up to date on comments others make to your tree, add
voice dictated comments, and get on-this-day alerts for
your family history events (for example, that your greatgreat-grandmother was married on this day in 1872). Its free
to set up an Ancestry Member Tree, but youll need an Ancestry.com subscription to make full use of all the apps features,
such as hints and searching for records.
Ancestry.com Free Android, iOS (including Apple Watch)

and Windows
Family Tree
These are the mobile apps that pull a lot of weight, giving
you constant access to your online tree and/or the ability to
search for historical records. Most have been around for quite
a while, relatively speaking, and are backed by large organizations with the resources to continually beef up their offerings
with updates. You may be familiar with some of these, but if
its been a while since you took a look at them, youll be pleasantly surprised at how much heavy lifting they can do.
Ancestry.com is one of the most powerful websites under the

family history big top, making its free app a logical choice for
genealogists. It gives you access to view and edit your Ancestry Member Tree and to search for relatives in Ancestry.
coms vast collection of more than 16 billion historical documentsprovided you subscribe to the sites records collectionsfrom your mobile device. The app features the Hints
tool, which lets you know when Ancestry.com has a record
that potentially matches a person in your tree.
Ancestry.com has expanded the apps tools for managing
your tree. You now can add family members to your tree right
from Facebook. If youve tested with AncestryDNA, you can
explore your ethnic origins from within the app. Other new
features include intuitive tools that let you quickly resize
relatives prole images, and in the iOS app, take a shortcut to your member tree with a Spotlight search. You also
can hide or show family events and Historical Insights to
TIP: Even if you prefer to keep your family tree research

offline, posting at least a skeleton tree to the family tree
sites mentioned here can serve as cousin bait and help you
connect with more relatives.
FamilySearch Free Android, iOS
FamilySearch <www.familysearch.org> is a must-visit free

genealogy website, which makes its Family Tree app a musthave as well. It brings your entire FamilySearch online tree
to your mobile device, synchronizing each edit and addition
you make. Be aware that proles on this sites tree are accessible to any member whose tree connects to that person. You
can benet from others informationor they could introduce incorrect information. The app also makes it easy to
enrich your tree by adding photos and stories to its branches.
Start by signing up for a free FamilySearch account at
<www.familysearch.org/register>, then download the app and
sign in to your account. On the rst screen is a Pedigree
Chart, which you can resize easily with your ngers. Tap a
person on the tree to access his or her information. Source
information appears, showing you where your genealogical
data comes from. The menu across the top of the app slides
to the left to reveal more options, such as Spouse, Parents,
Sources, Photos, Stories and Charts.
You can locate historical records on the FamilySearch site
by tapping the three dots icon on a relatives prole, then tapping Search Records. If a record is indeed your ancestors, tap
the Attach to Family Tree button to add it to your tree.
If you need a little help using the app, tap the three horizontal lines icon at the top of the screen. There, beginners
will nd a terric Quick Start feature that will prompt them
49
through the process of building a family tree. Or tap Help to

access answers to frequently asked questions and support.
MyHeritage
MyHeritage Free Android, iOS
The MyHeritage website is growing in popularity around

the world, and its got a fresh new update that includes a
completely redesigned version of the mobile app for iOS and
Android. The enhanced app, with a better-looking and moreintuitive interface, lets you:
build and edit your MyHeritage family tree
fully synchronize your MyHeritage tree with your tree
in the Family Tree Builder software (a free desktop program
from MyHeritage)
search more than 5 billion historical records on MyHeritage (with a data subscription to the site)
preserve and share your genealogy information
MyHeritage has more than 20 million family trees, and
more than 4 million people worldwide have downloaded
the MyHeritage app. Worldwide is the key word here: A
major strength of MyHeritage is its global customer base.
MyHeritage
Dolphin Gestures
For example, in Denmark and Norway, the MyHeritage app

is currently ranked among the top ve apps in its category
on the App Store and Google Play. These users are family
historians who, like you, want to make connections with relatives. And last year, Google selected the Android version as
a featured app in more than 100 countries. MyHeritage also
supports 32 languages, making it truly a global genealogy app
and particularly suited to international research.
At A Glance: Genealogy Apps

APP
Ancestry
Family Tree
MANUFACTURER
COST
OPERATING
SYSTEM
Ancestry.com
free
Android, iOS
build and edit your Ancestry Member

Tree and search Ancestry.coms historical
records (view them with a subscription)
free
Android, iOS
build and edit your FamilySearch Family

Tree and search FamilySearch.org
free
Android, iOS
build and edit your MyHeritage family tree

and search MyHeritage.com for records
(view them with a subscription)
free
Android, iOS
surf the internet, create gestures for

frequent online tasks, save content to
Evernote
free
Android, iOS
view your family tree on RootsMagic

software
$14.99
Android, iOS
build and edit your family tree in Legacy

Family Tree software
free with
premium
option
Android, iOS
<www.evernote.com>
store notes in a variety of media; clip and

store web content; automacially index
images of documents (like obituaries)
FamilySearch
free
Android, iOS
store photos, stories, video and audio in

your FamilySearch account
99 cents
Android, iOS
get notications of birth, marriage and

other family event anniversaries
$3.99
Android, iOS
create family history games for kids
<ancestry.com/cs/
ancestry-app>
FamilySearch <www.
familysearch.org/mobile/tree>
MyHeritage
MyHeritage
<www.myheritage.com/
mobile>
MoBo Tap
Dolphin
RootsMagic
Families
<dolphin.com>
RootsMagic
<www.rootsmagic.com/app>
TelGen <www.telgen.
co.uk/families/sync>
Evernote
Evernote
FamilySearch
Memories
THIS DAY in My
Family History
Little Family Tree
50
<www.familysearch.org/
mobile/memories>
Kaik3 <sameapk.com/
developer/kaik3-apps>
Yellow Fork Technologies
PURPOSE
<www.littlefamilytree.com>
2016
Dolphin
MoboTap Inc. Free Android, iOS
The one thing you probably do more than anything else on

your tablet is surf the web. While your rst instinct on an
iPad is probably to use Apples Safari web browser, and on the
Android, Googles Chrome browser, Id like to propose a better way to browse: Dolphin is one of the most powerful web
browsing apps available, and its free.
The folks at Dolphin are keenly aware that theres more to
accessing a website than just typing in the URL. In fact, with
Dolphin you dont even have to type in the address to access
a website. The Gestures feature saves you browsing time by
letting you program a simply drawn, one-stroke gesture
that links to any website you regularly use. You also can set
up gestures to execute regular tasks you do on a browser,
such as open a new tab.
To start, tap the pointing hand icon, then tap the gear icon
on the pop-up window to see available default gestures.
These include Go to Bottom (of the page), Go to Top (of the
page), New Tab, and launching a few popular websites such
as Google. You can add customized gestures as well as delete
any you dont want. You can also create gestures by navigating to a web page in the Dolphin browser, tapping the plus
sign (+) next to the URL at the top, drawing a gesture, then
tapping Save.
Another excellent feature for speeding up your online
searches is Find on Page. When you land on a lengthy web
page, tap the three horizontal lines icon, tap Find on Page
and nally, type in the word or phrase you seek.
Other functions youll nd here include:
SEND TO DEVICE: allows Dolphin to connect to your other
devices and synchronize your bookmarks between them. For
example, if you save a bookmark on your tablet while at the
library, you can access it later on your phone as well. After
the rst sync, Dolphin will periodically check for updates to
your bookmarks and automatically add anything new to all
your connected devices.
W-FI BROADCAST: lets you share web pages with folks
nearby
PRINT: connects you with AirPrint printers
COPY LINK: copies a URL to your devices clipboard so it
can be pasted elsewhere
OPEN WITH SAFARI: opens a page in the Safari web browser
In addition to being a powerful browser, Dolphin also has
an Evernote web clipper built right in, so you can save pages,
articles and more from any website you visit to your free
Evernote account (see page 52). Start by tapping the Share
icon and then tap the Evernote elephant icon. Because many
websites are mobile-friendly, providing you with just one
article on the screen at a time, youll see that the green button
says Save Article. If youre browsing a website with multiple
components on the page, you may see another option for Save
Full Page. The area to be saved will be outlined in yellow.
Dolphin is one of the most

powerful web browsing apps
available, and its free.
Before you tap the Save button, take a moment to title your
note, select a notebook if desired, tag it, and add comments.
The rst time you use the clipper, youll need to authorize
Dolphin to connect with your Evernote account.
As a genealogist, though, you may need to do more than
just save an item. You might want to circle where your ancestors name appears on the page, for example. With the Annotation tool in Dolphins Evernote clipper, you can do just that.
Tap Annotate and use the Brush tool to mark up the item.
Use the eraser to remove any unwanted markings. When
youre done, tap Save. Youll see a thumbnail image of your
annotated clipping above the Save button. Tap Save again and
Dolphin will send it to your Evernote account.
And nally, Dolphins Gear icon gives you even more control over your mobile browsing experience, including the
ability to clear your data, add a background theme, change
the font size, and set it to open with the page you last viewed.
THE LION TAMERS

A genealogy database on your computer puts you in control
of your tree, but you also want to be able to access that data
when you hit the road. These companion apps to two popular
desktop programs let you take your tree with you.
RootsMagic
RootsMagic Free Android, iOS
If you use RootsMagic software <www.rootsmagic.com> to log

your research nds, youll love the free RootsMagic app. It
serves as a companion viewer to the desktop software, letting you access your family tree information on your mobile
device. The app is designed to let you viewbut not add to
or edityour tree. It also includes tools such as a perpetual
calendar, date calculator, relationship calculator and Soundex calculator.
Clear instructions make it easy to load your family tree
from RootsMagic on your computer into the app via Dropbox
or iTunes. Even if you dont use RootsMagic software, you
still can use this free viewer app. Simply download the free
version of RootsMagic Essentials software <www.rootsmagic.
com/essentials> and start your tree or upload a GEDCOM (the
universal format for family tree les).
51
of the app. This includes the ability to create new family les
from scratch; view ancestral information in a variety of ways;
add photos from your camera or photo album; search by
given name, surname or Record Identication Number; and
view addresses in Google Maps.
THE BALANCING ACTS
RootsMagic
Theres a lot to juggle when it comes to genealogy: documents, stories, photos, trees and more. These apps will help
you nd the right balance and y through your research with
the greatest of ease.
Families
Families
Evernote
TelGen, Ltd. $14.99 Android, iOS

Supports Legacy Family Tree 6, 7, and 8
Evernote Free Android, iOS
The Families app is designed to work in conjunction with

Legacy Family Tree <www.legacyfamilytree.com> genealogy
software, manufactured by Millennia Corp. To use the app,
youll need to rst install the free Families Sync companion
program <www.telgen.co.uk/families/sync> on your PC. This
will convert your Legacy Family Tree les to the required
format for the app, letting you transfer the les to and from
iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android devices.
Families Sync transfers your les between your mobile
device and your PC via a Wi-Fi network connection or a
USB cable. It is also recommended that iTunes is installed
when using a Wi-Fi transfer, as this enables Families Sync
to automatically detect when your device is ready for a
transfer, instructs the Families website. Alternatively, you
could use Families Sync just to convert your family le to
the required format, then transfer the le using email or
Dropbox <www.dropbox.com>.
Once your Legacy Family Tree database is loaded into
Families, youll be pleasantly surprised at the functionality
Evernote
52
FamilySearch Memories
2016
If I were able to download only one note-taking app, Evernote would be it. Evernote isnt just an app, but also a website
and a cloud service. The goal is to help you remember everythingnotice an elephant is the logo.
And just how does Evernote accomplish this amazing
feat of memory? With easily retrievable notes you can use
to store typed information, content clipped from the web,
photos, PDF les and even audio. In addition to letting you
search all your typed notes, if youre a Premium subscriber,
Evernote scans your web clippings, images and PDFs with
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)making those notes
searchable, too. So rather than organizing information in le
folders, you can throw them into a virtual pile and then use
the search tool to pick them out as needed. If this makes you
nervous, you also can label each note with one or more tags
(such as a surname, type of record, locality, etc.), which helps
you retrieve a bunch of related notes at once.
These tools organize your research notes and back them
up on the cloud so you can access them from any webenabled device using the Evernote app. For more about using
THIS DAY in My Family History
Little Family Tree
Evernote to organize your family history search, see How to

Use Evernote for Genealogy by Kerry Scott (Family Tree Books)
<shopfamilytree.com/how-to-use-evernote-for-genealogy>.
FamilySearch Memories
connect with your FamilySearch.org account. Select how

many generations you want to include (up to six) and tap
Download Ancestry. Tap Settings to select which events you
want included. On days when theres no family anniversary,
the app tells you simply to do some family history!
FamilySearch Free Android, iOS
If you have a family tree on FamilySearch, youll love using

Memories. And if you dont have a FamilySearch tree, this app
may convince you to create one. It provides an easy way to collect photographs, stories and audio recordings, and bring them
together with your family tree.
Youll need a FamilySearch account to get started. The
Memories app will synchronize with that account when
youre connected to the internet. Without an internet connection, youll still have convenient access to your data
through the Memories app.
Download the Memories app, then tap the gear icon to go
to the Settings menu and log in to your account. Under Settings, youll also nd the Help section, where you can get tips
for using the app, see whats new and provide feedback.
Start by adding old family photos. Tag the faces to automatically add the images to those relatives proles in your
FamilySearch Family Tree. You also can snap images of
genealogical documents with your mobile device and tag
them with the people named.
The apps Stories feature is an easy way to collect details
about the photos youve added. Expand your storytelling to
favorite family jokes and sayings. If you dont want to type
it all, tap the microphone key and dictate your story. The
story is attributed to you and includes the date you created it.
Finally, dont miss the Audio tool. Use it to interview family
members and record audio memories about your parents and
siblings, family traditions, vacations and more.
SEND IN THE CLOWNS

Clowns bring smiles to our faces, and these apps will bring
smiles to your face and the faces of the children in your familythe future genealogists.
THIS DAY in My Family History

Kaik3 99 cents Android, iOS
Heres a simple, fun app that dishes up all the events that
happened on this day in your family history, and how youre
related to the people involved. Youll need a free FamilySearch Family Tree to use it.
If an ancestors story has been on the back burner a little
too long, this app could be just the nudge you need to go back
and pick up that research. And your living relatives will be
blown away at your incredible memory when you remind
them its the anniversary of a particular family event. Once
you install THIS DAY, the app will prompt you to log in and
Little Family Tree

Yellow Fork Technologies $3.99 Android (iOS coming soon)
Another app that works with your FamilySearch family tree,

Little Family Tree helps you set up engaging family history
games and puzzles for the toddlers and preschoolers in
your family. There are photo puzzles and matching games
for names and faces. The clever Heritage Dress Up Game
calculates the childs heritage makeup based on information
in your family tree. When the child selects a nationality, an
ancestor from that place appears, providing a more personal
connection to that heritage. Tap Play and your child can
dress a paper doll character in traditional attire.
Dont let yourself get distracted by sideshow apps. Become
the ringmaster of your mobile device and take your genealogy show on the road with the best apps under the Big Top.
Genealogy instructor Lisa Louise Cooke is the founder
of the Genealogy Gems website and podcast, available at <lisa
louisecooke.com>.
MORE ONLINE
Free Web Content
Genealogy Software Guide <familytreemagazine.com/
researchtoolkit/softwareguide>
Genealogy apps <familytreemagazine.com/article/
genealogy_apps>
Create a research plan in Evernote <familytreemagazine.com/
article/genealogy-research-plan-evernote>
For Plus Members

MyHeritage Web Guide <familytreemagazine.com/article/
my-heritage-genealogy-web-guide>
Source citation in genealogy software <familytreemagazine.com/
article/genealogy-software-source-citations>
17 genealogy tech tools <familytreemagazine.com/article/
timesaving-genealogy-tech-tools>
ShopFamilyTree.com
How to Use Evernote for Genealogy <shopfamilytree.com/how-touse-evernote-for-genealogy>
Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch.org <shopfamilytree.com/unofficialguide-familysearch>
Unofficial Guide to Ancestry.com <shopfamilytree.com/unofficialguide-to-ancestry>
53
breaking
out
Reap the rewards
of expanding your
online family history
research to these 23
not-just-for-genealogy
websites.
BY LISA A. ALZO
3 WHEN IT COMES to online genealogy research, its easy

to become a creature of habit. You may nd yourselfevery
time you start a new research sessionmaking a beeline for
your favorite websites, such as FamilySearch <www.family
search.org>, Ancestry.com <ancestry.com>, MyHeritage <www.
myheritage.com> or Findmypast <www.ndmypast.com>.
But plenty of other websites that arent necessarily
designed for genealogists can nonetheless prove useful.
Maybe youre puzzling over the boundaries of a county or the
most common migration route from Point A to Point B during a certain timeframe. Perhaps an elusive ancestor has you
digging for original church records. A pension record may be
making you wish you better understood an obscure Civil War
skirmish. And what if you could nd an old artifacta postcard or piece of coal scripto illustrate your family history
book or liven up a wall display?
To help you break the habit of sticking with the same sites,
weve come up with a list of 23 nongenealogy websites that
can help you solve genealogy research problems, nd valuable new resources and connect with cousins. Which ones
should be next on your list?
ArchiveGrid
<beta.worldcat.org/
archivegrid>
This website boasts a collection of more
than 2 million archival items in collections held by thousands of libraries, museums, historical societies and
archives. Search detailed finding aids
that identify specic, original historical
documents: birth and death records;
ship passenger manifests; cemetery
records; personal papers, letters and
diaries; records of schools, businesses
and churches; family histories and
other archival materials. ArchiveGrid
also provides contact information for
the institutions where the collections
are kept.
David Rumsey Map Collection

<davidrumsey.com>
Maps help us trace our ancestors footsteps. The 64,000-plus maps and other
cartographic images on this site focus
on rare 18th- and 19th-century North
American and South American materials. Historic maps of the world, Europe,
Asia and Africa are also represented,
as well as atlases. View maps, compare them side-by-side and download
high-resolution les. A georeferencing
tool even allows you to overlay historic
maps on modern maps or other historic
maps, useful for viewing an ancestors
neighborhood and how it has changed
over time.
Digital Public Library

<dp.la>
This ever-expanding website draws on
the resources of some of the nations
leading repositories. Explore more than
11 million digitized items from libraries,
archives and museums across the country in this online repository. Search the
whole collection with a single click, or
narrow your search to a place or time
period for photographs, books, audio
and video les, maps (including the full
David Rumsey Historical Map Collection) and more. Catalog listings link to
digitized items on the holding library
website. For fun and historical context,
publication details. You can edit it and

add a page number and other specics,
then click to create a formatted citation. The ad-free Pro version ($4.99 per
month or $59.88 per year) offers unlimited cloud backup for your citations and
7,000 additional citation templates.
TIP: Before uploading or using

content from any site, read the terms
of service so you know how your own
content might be used and how to
respect others copyright.
browse exhibits on topics such as the

Civilian Conservation Corps, Civil War
maps and the Gold Rush.
eBay
<ebay.com>
You wouldnt think this online auction site would be the place to go for
genealogy, but the truth is you can nd
family trees, books, photo albums, old
postcards, family Bibles and much more.
Some genealogists even scour eBay to
rescue orphan heirlooms they can return
to family members. Typically, items are
listed in the Everything Else>Genealogy
category. But check other categories
such as books, collectibles, antiques and
jewelry. In your eBay profile, you can
follow Favorite Searches (this feature
used to be called Saved Searches) and
get email alerts and updates in your eBay
feed. For example, I follow Duquesne,
Pennsylvania high school yearbooks.
Create searches like Smithson family
Bible or Riser geneology (sometimes sellers misspell genealogy).
EasyBib
<easybib.com>
Proper source citations are a must
for genealogists. Evidence Explained:
Citing History Sources from Artifacts
to Cyberspace by Elizabeth Shown
Mills <evidenceexplained.com> is the
source citation bible for genealogy, but
there are times when you may wish
to streamline the process a bit first.
EasyBib is a free tool that helps you
generate source citations in MLA, APA,
Chicago and other formats. Choose the
type of source (such as website, book or
newspaper) and enter the URL or title.
EasyBib shows you basic information
for a book, the full title, author and
Facebook
<facebook.com>
Where else can you keep in touch with
your grandma, your niece and your
geneapeeps all in one place? As the
most popular social network worldwide, Facebook has more than 1.5 billion
monthly active users. Not only can you
use Facebook to connect with cousins, but it is a great forum for asking
genealogy-related questions, finding
other researchers working on the same
surname or ancestral lines or requesting help with foreign record translations. Search for pages or groups for your
ancestors hometowns and even their
ancestral villages. You also can download the Genealogy on Facebook lista
173-page PDF le containing 5,700-plus
links, published by Katherine R. Willson
at <socialmediagenealogy.com>. A Canadian version by Gail Dever includes
French-speaking groups and pages
<genealogyalacarte.ca/?page_id=10169>.
Flickr
<ickr.com>
Yahoo.com offers 1TB of free photo
storage via its Flickr photo-sharing site.
Options include the ability to maintain
public or private online albums, edit
and share photos with others. Uploaded
photo les are saved at full resolution
and can be downloaded again with
no loss of quality. Viewable and sharable images on the site are compressed
to a smaller size and therefore lower
quality. One caveat: If youre going to
include others Flickr images on your
blog, check the permissions/creative
commons license to make sure it is
available for use. See Family Tree Magazine readers ancestral photosand
share your own at <flickr.com/photos/
familytreemagazine>.
55
Google
<google.com>
By now, most genealogists are used to
running Google searches on surnames,
ancestral locations and other topics of
interest. But Google is so much more
than a search engine, and so many of its
other free products can be used for furthering family history research. Google
Photos <photos.google.com> facial recognition software, ability to make quick
videos and unlimited storage make it
a great tool for any genealogist. Or tap
into the power of Google Maps <maps.
google.com> or Google Earth <earth.
google.com> , where amazing detailed
satellite views and street maps can help
you zoom in on even the tiniest towns
or villages. Google Books <books.google.
com> content is just staggering: It is the
worlds most comprehensive index of
full-text books.
Need a quick translation? Google
Translator <translate.google.com> can
help. Create a family history blog in
minutes with Blogger <blogger.com> ,
watch and post videos to YouTube (see
below), connect with family via Hangouts <hangouts.google.com> and create, save and share files for free with
Google Drive <drive.google.com>. Think
of Google as a one-stop shop for genealogy tasks. Check out The Genealogists
Google Toolbox by Lisa Louise Cooke
or Family Tree Universitys Google for
Genealogy online course <familytree
university.com>.
HathiTrust
<hathitrust.org>
HathiTrust is an online library of millions of titles digitized from academic
and research institutions around the
world. From the home page, you can
search the catalog for descriptive
terms about an item (like a title or
author) or run a full-text search that
includes words within the digitized
book or other item (like a name, place,
citation or favorite quote). Advanced
search options are available, too. Use
quotes to search an exact phrase (such
as The Great Depression) or use
56
2016
wildcards (* or ?) to search for alternate forms of a word (wom?n will nd

woman and women).
History.com
<history.com>
Historical events influenced where
your ancestors lived and worked,
where they worshipped and how they
made life-altering decisions. Learning
history helps you put their experiences
in historical context and flesh out a
timeline when writing their stories.
On this website, you can explore what
happened on a certain day in an ancestors life; listen to famous speeches and
other audio that reflects the news of
your ancestors times; and read lists
of little-known facts about historically
signicant events such as the attack on
Pearl Harbor and the Lewis and Clark
Expedition. (You can even get answers
to those questions you always wanted
to ask, such as Was Dracula a real person? or Did Shakespeare really write
his own plays?)
HistoryPin
<historypin.org>
This UK-based site boasts more than
400,000 member submissions of old
photos, each plotted on Google Maps.
Use this site to compare images of the
past against a modern street view and
better understand your ancestral neighborhoods, identify old family homes or
businesses, and see what historical
properties remain today that may be
worth visiting. You can contribute your
own photos to this collaborative effort,
too, with a free registration.
Instagram
<instagram.com>
Instagram is an online photo- and
video-sharing site that lets users take
pictures and videos, style them with
digital filters and share via Facebook
<www.facebook.com> (which owns
Instagram), Twitter <www.twitter.
com> , Tumblr <www.tumblr.com> and
Flickr. Photos are presented in a square
format, similar to Kodak Instamatic
Internet Archive
<archive.org>
Think of Googles family of websitesfrom

Google searching to Google Earth and YouTube
as one-stop shopping for genealogy tasks.
and Polaroid images. Instagram photos

are perfect for blog posts and visual
storytelling (think Grandmas wedding,
honoring a veteran, etc.) or for building
an online brand for your genealogical or historical society. The National
Archives is on Instagram at <www.
instagram.com/usnatarchives> , and so
are Ancestry.com <www.instagram.com/
ancestry> and a host of other genealogists and genealogy companies. Use
#genealogy to search or tag family history images, then post across social
networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Instagram also lets you record and
share short videos (up to 15 seconds).
Find an overview video on Instagram
for genealogy on DearMyrtles blog
<dearmyrtle.com/webinars/Instagramfor
Genealogists/InstagramforGenealogists.
html> . As with any site to which you
upload content, read the terms of service

(see what the Legal Genealogist, Judy
G. Russell, has to say on this subject at
<legalgenealogist.com/blog/2012/12/19/
instagrams-terms-of-use-debacle>).
The nonprofit digital library known

as Internet Archive, launched in 1996
by Brewster Kahle, offers free public
access to millions of public domain
books, along with music, film, photographs and other archived historical records. The sites ever-expanding
collection of genealogy resources
includes items from the Allen County
Public Library <www.acpl.lib.in.us>, the
Brigham Young University Library <lib.
byu.edu>, among others. Search by collection, title or series, or use Google to
run a search like Henry Hoffner Clinton
Iowa site:archive.org, which will look
for results only in the Internet Archive.
One of my favorite Internet Archive
finds is Praktin slovensko-anglick
tluma (The Practical Slovak American
Interpreter) <archive.org/details/praktin
slovens00kadauoft>.
Find your
German
Ancestors!
Is your family history

too valuable or too fragile
to send away in a box?
specializing in the
digital imaging
of rare and
valuable
materials
42-line.com
Professional German
Genealogist with many years
of experience provides a
reliable and cost-effective
service in the search of your
German Ancestry.
To request additional
information please contact
Dr. Volker Jarren
D 79106 Freiburg,
Ferdinand-Weiss-Strasse 59
or
mail@volkerjarren.de
www.volkerjarren.de
Get live customer support in

seconds, your price in minutes and
your books printed in 48 hours.
Go to 48hourbooks.com ...
we print books unnaturally fast.
57
Internet Archive also archives entire

websites (over 452 billion pages)
through its Wayback Machine, which
allows you to search the web as it was
from late 1996 to todayhandy for
when you nd out one of your favorite
web pages is no longer available.
JSTOR
<jstor.org>
JSTOR (or Journal Storage) is an
online collection of more than 7 million articles in 2,000-plus academic
journals, including many covering history or published in the United States
before 1923 and in other countries
before 1870. You can search JSTOR
for free and check with libraries for
copies of journals or try the free Register & Read plan, which lets you read
up to three articles every two weeks.
Frequent users should consider the
JPASS, which provides access to about
1,500 of the journals (one month for
$19.50 includes 10 article downloads; a
year for $199 includes 120 downloads).
Both plans allow unlimited access to
read articles without downloading.
JPASS makes it easier to use JSTOR,
especially if your library doesnt offer
the service. See the May/June 2014
Family Tree Magazine for a JSTOR
tutorial <shopfamilytree.com/family-treemagazine-may-june-2014-digital>.
Library of Congress
<loc.gov>
This site helps you access many of the
riches of the nations library. From
here, you can search the main library
catalog and the National Union Catalog
of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC).
The American Memory collection
<memory.loc.gov> digitizes everything
from maps to old advertising circulars, even audio and video recordings.
The Chronicling America newspaper
collection <chroniclingamerica.loc.gov>
now tops 10 million pages from the
countrys past, spanning 1836 to 1922.
Theres a web portal to the librarys
Local History and Genealogy Reference
Center <www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy> ,
58
Genealogy Tips & Tricks < w w w.
Explore ancestral
locations via YouTube.
I was thrilled when
I discovered several
YouTube videos
that made up a
walking tour of
my grandfathers
birthplace in Slovakia.
where youll learn helpful tips and

search among more than 50,000 compiled family histories and 100,000 local
histories. You cant borrow most of
these titles from the Library of Congress, but at least you can learn about
them and then use WorldCat (see page
59) to find copies at your library or
through interlibrary loan.
Pinterest
<pinterest.com>
Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board
where you can pin articles and images
you nd online or that you upload from
your computer. Use it as a place to
curate content about an ancestor, collect family recipes or keep a list of your
favorite resources on a specific topic
(for example World War II history, or
female ancestors). Use Pinterest to create family timelines and memorials by
pinning captioned images important to
a persons life. You can then use your
pinned information as a storyboard for
writing a prole or family history. Look
for new tips and tricks on boards such
as Geneabloggers Genealogy Tip Jar
<pinterest.com/geneabloggers/genealogytip-jar> and Family Tree Magazines
2016
pinterest.com/familytreemag/genealogytips-tricks> . Before you pin, read the
terms of service so you can respect others copyright when repinning and
know what youre agreeing to when
you pin your own images.
Trello
<trello.com>
Ever wished for a whiteboard in the
cloud? Say hello to Trello. Trello is
a free, web-based tool for organizing
your projects. If you like to use index
cards to organize, Trello may appeal to
you. Sign up for a free Trello account
or sign up using your existing Gmail
account (but read the terms of service, because youll be asked to allow
Trello to view your email address,
basic Google profile info and more).
Its easy to use and exible: You choose
how much detail to enter, and set up
boards with collections of customizable lists. The lists contain cards. A
good genealogy setup might be a board
for each surname youre researching,
another for a family history book project, and one for each genealogy conference or online class you attend. You
can put your cards into lists to track
progress or categorize tasks. You also
can add members if youre working on
group projects and get notications of
changes made to the lists. Trello works
with Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer web browsers, and has an
app for most devices.
Twitter
<twitter.com>
This social media giant had more than
320 million users at the end of last
year. Despite the 140-character limit
for each message or tweet users can
send, genealogists can use Twitter to
locate new resources for research; follow genealogy companies, websites
and blogs; get advice on software and
technology; learn to write source citations and publicize conferences and
events. You can also chat with fellow
genies (on alternating Friday evenings)
about pre-selected topics in GenChat

<conferencekeeper.net/genchat.html>.
WolframAlpha
<wolframalpha.com>
ing tour of my grandfathers birthplace,

Ostura, Slovakia. You can also watch
instructional videos on just about any
genealogy subject posted by individual
researchers and companies such as
Ancestry.com. Check out Family Tree
Magazines YouTube channel <youtube.
com/user/familytreemagazine>.
TIP: Use WorldCat <worldcat.org>

to locate libraries with microfilm
of an old newspaper you want or
a circulating copy of a title youve
found in the Library of Congress or
Family History Library catalog.
Need to know the weather for a specific date? What about calculating a
birth date based on a death date from a
gravestone? WolframAlpha is a computational knowledge base that accesses
more than 10,000 databases to return
information based on your calculation
requests. Find tips in Guide to WolframAlpha for Genealogy and Family
History by Thomas MacEntee (selfpublished). For example, type in grandmothers aunt and a family tree will
appear along with other data, including
a blood fraction percentage.
search for images others have uploaded

by city and then click on the orange
map indicators to view images. For
example, a search for Pueblo, Colorado
brings up images of local businesses
and homes dating from the late 1800s
and early 1900s and the aftermath of a
1921 ood. Free registration is required
to add images, but not to view or search.
WorldCat
<worldcat.org>
YouTube
<youtube.com>
WorldCat connects you with the collections of 10,000 libraries around the
world, including the Family History
Library (FHL) <www.familysearch.org>.
You can search catalog information
about more than 2 billion books, newspapers, images, sound files, microfilmed and downloadable materials
and more. Once youve found promising titles, WorldCat will help you
locate them in libraries you can visit or
borrow from via interlibrary loan for a
small fee. You could use WorldCat to
locate microlm of an old newspaper
or a circulating copy of a book listed in
the Library of Congress or FHL catalog.
A variety of widgets and apps makes it
even easier to search the worlds libraries from this central location.
Learn about your ancestors world, get

fascinating insight into their lives and
explore ancestral locations all from the
comfort of your couch via YouTube. I
was thrilled when I discovered several
YouTube videos that made up a walk-
WhatWasThere
<whatwasthere.com>
Whether you have old snapshots from
a family album or a library of archived
images, pinning them to WhatWasThere helps in the companys collective effort to build a photographic
history of the world. Pin images by
uploading themtagged with a year
and a street-address based location
to a map driven by Google Maps. Or
Zillow
<zillow.com>
Most users visit this online real estate
site to browse for-sale and rental listings, but genealogists can use the site
or its app to search for the address of
an ancestors residence. View current
value and other information, and use
the Birds Eye View tool to get a closer
look at what the house looks like now
and to view the neighborhood.
Genealogy writer and instructor Lisa
A . A l z o is a contributing editor for
Family Tree Magazine and the author of
The Family Tree Polish, Czech and Slovak
Genealogy Guide (Family Tree Books)
<shopfamilytree.com/the-family-tree-polishczech-and-slovak-genealogy-guide>.
MORE ONLINE
Free Web Content
Copyright for genealogists <familytreemagazine.com/article/copyright-for-genealogists>
Locate manuscripts with archival portals <familytreemagazine.com/article/using-archivalportals-to-locate-manuscripts>
Online map collections <familytreemagazine.com/article/maps-online>
For Plus Members

10 ways to enhance your family history with video <familytreemagazine.com/article/10ways-to-enhance-family-history-with-video>
Genealogy guide to Google <familytreemagazine.com/article/your-guide-to-google>
Library of Congress website guide <familytreemagazine.com/article/library-of-congressgenealogy-web-guide>
ShopFamilyTree.com
The Genealogists Google Toolbox by Lisa Louise Cooke <shopfamilytree.com/the-genealogists-
google-toolbox-2nd-edition>
Jump-start Your Genealogy with Social Media on-demand webinar <shopfamilytree.com/
jumpstart-your-genealogy-with-social-media-ondemand-webinar>
Use Historical Maps to Solve Research Problems on-demand webinar <shopfamilytree.com/
use-historical-maps-to-solve-research-problems-ondemand-webinar>
59
Going
By the
Books
Learn how to mine the
record, indexes, local
histories and more in
FamilySearch.orgs free,
digitized collection of
family history books.
BY DANA MCCULLOUGH
AND DIANE HADDAD
3 YOUVE MINED THE free FamilySearch website for

historical census, court and vital records about your ancestors; and you may have searched the online catalog to order
microlm from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
But have you surfed your way over to FamilySearchs collection of digitized family history books?
The 220,000 books can be hard to find, located as they
are in a different section of FamilySearch from the sites
well-known historical records. But once you nd them, you
may be able to tap into record indexes, local histories and
others research mentioning your relatives. Our tips, derived
in part from the book The Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch.
org (Family Tree Books) <shopfamilytree.com/unofficial-guidefamilysearch>, will guide you to genealogy success in FamilySearch Family History Books.
Books, books and more books

FamilySearch gives you access to digitized local record
indexes, genealogies, family histories, county and local histories, genealogical society newsletters, gazetteers, school
yearbooks and more on the FamilySearch website. To nd
them, go to the home page <www.familysearch.org> , look
under the Search menu and choose Books, or just go to
<books.familysearch.org>.
The collection contains digitized publications from FamilySearchs Family History Library and other libraries and
historical societies, including:
Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Ind.
Brigham Young University Harold B. Lee Library in
Provo, Utah
Brigham Young University Idaho David O. McKay
Library
Brigham Young University Hawaii Joseph F. Smith
Library
Church History Library for the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, of which FamilySearch is a branch
Historical Society of Pennsylvania
Houston Public Librarys Clayton Center for Genealogical Research in Texas
Mid-Continent Public Librarys Midwest Genealogy
Center in Independence, Mo.
Onondaga County Public Library in Syracuse, NY
Simple searching
The search here isnt quite as sophisticated as what youre
used to from searching the sites historical records. Family History Books wasnt developed by FamilySearch, says
FamilySearch Book Scanning Partnerships Manager Dennis
Meldrum. Its part of a digital content management system
that we purchased from Ex Libris, a major library software
vendor. We were able to skin it so it has a FamilySearch look.
You can search every word of the FamilySearch Family
History Books thanks to optical character recognition (OCR)
You may be able to tap into record

indexes, local histories and others
research mentioning your relatives.
technology, a software that reads document images to create a searchable database. OCR works fairly well with typewritten pages, but theres no built-in sounds like search to
nd variant spellings.
If youre searching for a surname and a place, the simple
search on the Family History Books home page will serve you
well. This search looks for your search term(s) anywhere in
a book or in its accompanying metadata (information from
the books catalog entry, such as the title, author and item
description). You also can use several search tricks:
ENCLOSE A PHRASE IN QUOTATION MARKS to nd those
exact words, in the order specied, in the book or metadata,
as in Nancy Josephine Barnes.
USE THE BOOLEAN TERM OR (it must be capitalized) to
nd variant names, such as Joe OR Joey OR Joseph Blackwell.
The search will look for the word Blackwell plus any of the
Joseph variants specied.
USE NOT TO EXCLUDE A WORD, for example, John Frost
NOT Snow.
SEARCH WITH WILDCARDS. An asterisk (*) will replace
multiple characters, and a question mark (?) will replace
a single character. For example, a search for the surname
John*n nds publications with the name Johnson, Johnsen
and Johnston.
You can enter any word or phrase as a search term. If your
relative has an uncommon name, you could search on just
that name. Otherwise, add a place he lived or another word
associated with him, such as a spouses name or an employer,
to help narrow your search. Try spelling variations of given
names and surnames.
To nd genealogies, try searching for a surname only, or a
surname and a location where an ancestor lived. Search for a
location to nd local and country histories. Another option,
TIP: Many men went by initials during the 18th and early
19th centuries, so be sure to run searches like R.E. Smith
in addition to Robert Smith.
61
Finding Fred in FamilySearch Family History Books

Say you want to search in local histories and records for mentions
of a prominent businessman, Fred J. Meyers, who married your
fourth-great-aunt. Heres one way to go about it:
Narrow the results by looking in

only English-language books.
Choosing AND finds only texts

with the terms you entered in
both fields. (Ignore the second
AND menu.)
This book is full of

names, news and
local information.
Its worth searching
for other relatives
names.
1 Try an Advanced Search on the name of the person AND the

town of residence. You also could search on initials (such as F.J.
Meyers) and alternate spellings. In addition to the town, try the
county, state and other terms, such as a spouses name.
3 The PDF file may take a minute or two to download. It may

automatically open in a new tab of your web browser, or you
might need to find it on your desktop or in your Downloads folder.
Open the file with a PDF viewer such as the free Adobe Reader
<get.adobe.com/reader>. To search the text for a word, look
under Readers Edit menu and choose Find. Remember that this is
an optical character recognition search, and the software may not
read the book correctly. If theres an index, check it for ancestor
names, as well.
2 Scan the results for promising-looking ones. Because

Cincinnati papers covered events in Covington, Ky., the Cincinnati
Enquirer Almanac result could be helpful. Click the Details link
for publisher information and a description, or click the title to
download the book.
62
2016
One of these suggested

searches might be a
shortcut to home in on
the results you want.
especially if youre looking for local histories, is to search for

just a place, such as Springfield, Ohio. Then check the books
table of contents and index for your family surnames.
Advanced searching
When you use the Advanced Search, pull-down menus let
you add criteria such as a subject or title, specify the type of
item youre looking for and run Boolean searches.
The Advanced Search form lets you enter search terms in
two elds. Each eld has the following drop-down menus to
let you select options to broaden or narrow your searches:
ANY: This menu lets you specify where in the books
you want to find the search term. Options include Any
(anywhere), Primary Subject (a subject assigned during the
FHLs cataloging process), a Periodical Title (unless you
want to limit your results to periodicals, dont use this selection), Full Text or Reviewed Materials (titles marked by the
history department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latterday Saintsthis wont apply for most searchers).
CONTAINS: Choose whether you want your search term
to appear in the publication exactly as you typed it (Is Exact),
or whether your search term can be part of another phrase
or sentence (Contains). The Is Exact option can be helpful
for narrowing your search results, and does the same thing as
using quotation marks in a simple search.
AND: After each eld is another dropdown menu that
lets you apply the Boolean terms AND, OR or NOT. Use the
dropdown menu after the rst eld; the one after the second
eld has no effect. Honestly, I do not know why the second
one exists, Meldrum says.
How to nd
LOCAL HISTORIES AND RECORDS
Search for a county, town or community.
FAMILY HISTORIES
Search for a last name, and add a place to narrow results.
CITY DIRECTORIES
Search for a city or town and the words city directory.
GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS
Search for the name of the genealogical society.
63
TIP: You can search on several name variants at once

using the OR operator: Norris OR Norish OR Morris.
If you choose AND after the rst eld, for example, your
search will be for the rst term and the second term in a publication. If you select OR, your search will be for one of the
two terms you enter. If you select NOT, your search will be
for the rst term but not the second term.
MATERIAL TYPE: Below the search boxes, you can use this
menu to look for a particular type of material: periodical/
serial, gazetteer or book.
LANGUAGE: Specify whether you want items published
in English, German, French, Hungarian or Spanish. This can
be helpful when researching immigrant ancestors or those in
their ancestral homelands.
Try putting both the rst and last name in one search eld.
Also try typing the record or book type (such as yearbook or
marriage records) that youre looking for in one of the search
elds. When you search for just a surname, consider selecting the Full Text option from the drop-down menu next to
the search box. See pages 62 and 63 for sample searches.
go to a FamilySearch Center near you <www.familysearch.

org /locations> , the Family History Library or a FamilySearch partner library <www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/
FamilySearch_Partner_Libraries>.
Back on the search results list, ltering your search results
is more limited than for FamilySearchs historical records
collection, but still might be useful as a way to narrow your
matches. To the left of the screen, youll see options to lter
results by material type, collection (the source library), language and author. Click the down arrow next to a category to
check the appropriate boxes.
Below the filters, dont miss the links under Suggested
New Searches. These links serve as shortcuts to finding
works by the same authors or on the same subjects as those
appearing in your results.
Wisconsin-based genealogist and writer
Da na M c C u l l o u g h is the author
of The Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch.
org (Family Tree Books), available at
ShopFamilyTree.com <shopfamilytree.
com/unofficial-guide-familysearch>. Diane
Haddad is editor of Family Tree
Magazine.
Viewing matches
You can sort your results by relevance, date, popularity,
author or title. Matches display in a list with basic information about each: title, volume and issue number (if a periodical), author, publisher and location. If you see a tiny image of
the item, its available online. An icon with a circle and a line
through it means you cant access the digitized book from
home due to copyright restrictions (well tell you how you
can access it in a few minutes).
Click the Details link by a listing for more information,
including a description, the language and custodial institution. To view the item as a PDF le, click on the title. Youll
need the free Adobe Reader software <get.adobe.com/reader>,
which most computers already have, to open it. Depending
on your web browser settings, this will either open the item
in a new tab or window, or download it to your computer
(navigate to your downloads folder to open it). If youre using
Firefox as your browser and a book appears out of focus, you
may need to view the book using either Google Chrome or
Internet Explorer.
To search within the PDF for your ancestors name or
other search terms, use Edit>Find or hit Command+F. Enter
the search term in the pop-up window and click the Next
arrow to display each instance of the term. Its also a good
idea to check the index, if there is one.
For restricted items, clicking the title will result in the
message that you dont have sufficient rights to view the
requested object. You can still access it, though, if you
64
2016
MORE ONLINE
Free Web Content
10 places to nd published genealogies <familytreemagazine.com/
article/nda-published-genealogy>
Tips to nd town histories <familytreemagazine.com/article/now-
what-getting-back-to-town>
Podcast: Inside Google Book Search <familytreemagazine.com/
article/episode56>
For Plus Members

Searching card catalogs <familytreemagazine.com/article/keyboarding-into-card-catalogs>
Genealogy guide to online books <familytreemagazine.com/article/
genealogy-guide-to-online-books>
Place-based research <familytreemagazine.com/article/
hometown-advantage>
ShopFamilyTree.com
Discover Digitized Genealogy Books video course <shopfamilytree.
com/discover-digitized-genealogy-books-online
Published Genealogies independent study course download
<shopfamilytree.com/published-genealogies-download>
How to Self-Publish Your Family History <shopfamilytree.com/how-
to-self-publish-your-family-history-book-download>
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B Y D AV I D A . F R Y X E L L
3 MILLIONS OF PEOPLE share their family trees on

popular genealogy websites. Its a great way to connect with
cousins and fellow researchers, make data accessible on the
go and contribute to the worlds genealogical knowledge.
Putting trees on sites such as Ancestry.com <www.ancestry.
com> , MyHeritage <www.myheritage.com> or Tribal Pages
<www.tribalpages.com> is easy and inexpensive, too. But building a tree on someone elses genealogy website is like renting an apartment instead of owning a house. If youre like
me, ultimately you want more control over your trees home
environment. (Not for nothing does my wife call me Captain
Control.) You want to be able to pick your own colors, layout
and fonts. Youre not entirely satised with the sites wiring,
so to speak: how its uploaded trees handle sources and notes
or how well it works with your genealogy software. Maybe
you want more room to entertain relatives with family stories
and pictures, beyond the bare bones of pedigree charts. You
might just want your family history to have its own address,
like www.jonesfamilytree.com.
R L
Taking control and building your own online family history site isnt as complicated as you might think. Here well
walk through the construction process, step by step, and
outline your options.
Gather your material
An old saying (well, as old as the web) goes,

Online, content is king. So the rst step in
building your own family history site is to
decide what content you want to put online
and to get it ready for publishing.
For starters, that probably includes your family tree. If
youre using a genealogy software program on your computer, you have lots of easy options for getting that content
ready to go online. Programs such as Reunion <www.leister
pro.com> and RootsMagic <www.rootsmagic.com> will output
an entire website containing a clickable family tree. You can
also generate text reports (such as family group sheets) in
PDF form, as well as chart graphics. Its hard to beat the
convenience of these ready-made tree sites, which quickly
churn out scads of pages that would take days to code by
hand even if you knew how. (My Fryxell family tree, output
from Reunion, produced a whopping 3,305 individual les.)
When generating a site from your tree program, you need
to consider the same issues as when exporting a GEDCOM
le. Check the privacy options and decide how much you
want to post about living relatives. Popular genealogy websites generally wont show others the birthdate you entered
for your living cousin Sarah, but youll have to be proactive
about protecting that data when you publish your website.
Youll also have toor get to, if youre an aspiring Captain
Controlmake decisions about fonts, colors and backgrounds, to the extent your software enables you to customize its web output. If in doubt, keep your design clean and
simple and minimize background distractions.
If a tree is all you want to put online, you can simply take
the resulting folder of les and upload them to your chosen
domain and hostdecisions well cover in the next steps. My
initial Fryxell and Dickinson (my mothers side) family sites
were just that, using software called FTP to put the les on
server space included with my Internet connection. (Dont
count on that optionComcast, a leading Internet provider,
abruptly shut down customers personal web space last fall.)
But as long as youre building your own, customized family history site, you might want to go deeper with content.
Family photos are ideal for sharing online, as are scanned or
screen-captured source materials. In the early days of the
internet, before broadband access, sites strove to keep image
le sizes as small as possible to speed download times. The
standard resolution of a computer screen, at 72 dots per inch
(dpi), was the rule. Now, however, you can safely use bigger
image les at 150 or 200 dpi, which may be the same resolution you use for the les on your computer.
Building a tree on someone elses

genealogy site is like renting an
apartment. Ultimately, you may
want more control over your trees
home environment.
If youve scanned family photos at 300 dpi (dots per

inch), you can use imaging software such as Photoshop Elements to adjust that resolution, as well as the overall picture
size. That framed wedding photo of Grandma and Grandpa
might be 8x10 inches, but 4x5 inches is probably plenty for
posting online. Dont worry too much about sizes at this
stage, though, as you can usually scale images further in a
web page creation program. Save your images as JPG les
(.jpg) for maximum compatibility.
Now also is the time to gather family stories and transcriptions of oral-history interviews. Any text program is ne for
these, as youll be copying and pasting them into whatever
you use to create web pages. Be aware, however, that Microsoft Word is notorious for adding unwanted code when pasting from it. Use your web programs paste as plain text or
paste from Word options to clean this up.
Register your domain
Next, youll want to register a domain name,

like familytreemagazine.com, that tells the
Internet where you want to go. Ive been
snapping up domain names since the wild
and wooly early days of the web. Thats why, much to my
cousins consternation, I own fryxell.com. By now, however,
much of this Internet real estate has already been grabbed,
and you may find your preferred family domain taken. It
might not even be in use, just snagged by some speculator
hoping to some day sell bueller.com to the highest bidder.
You might have to consider more genealogy-specific possibilities like buellerfamily.com, buellergenealogy.com,
buellerfamilytree.com or buellerfamilyhistory.com. Or you
can branch out from the most popular .com domains and try
.org or .net (.edu is supposed to be reserved for educational
institutions) or newer choices such as .us, .co, .info, .me, .site
or .website.
How can you tell if a domain you want is taken? Simply
typing it into your web browser and nding no such site
is no guarantee; a domain could be owned but unused or
parked. Instead, you need to visit one of the Internets
67
registrars, many of which also offer hosting services.

Popular and frequently recommended registrars include:
eNom <www.enom.com>
Gandi <www.gandi.net>
GoDaddy <www.godaddy.com>
Hover <www.hover.com>
MyDomain <www.mydomain.com>
Name.com <www.name.com>
Namecheap <www.namecheap.com>
Network Solutions <www.networksolutions.com> , the
original Internet registrar
All are sanctioned by ICANN, the international organization that maintains the Internets naming conventions. Other
companies place a greater emphasis on hosting services but
also offer domain registration. These include:
Bluehost <www.bluehost.com>
Dreamhost <www.dreamhost.com>
Fat Cow <www.fatcow.com>
1&1 Internet <www.1and1.com>
Searching for a domain at any of these sites will quickly
nd all available dot-whatever permutations, as well as suggestions you might not have thought of. My search results
MORE ONLINE
Free Web Content
Blogging your memories <familytreemagazine.com/article/
blogging-your-memories>
Scanning family photos <familytreemagazine.com/article/
scanning-family-photos>
Family website services <familytreemagazine.com/article/family-
web-site-services-1>
For Plus Members

Planting your family tree on Wikitree <familytreemagazine.com/
article/wikitree-tutorial>
Genealogy software that helps you write your family history
<familytreemagazine.com/article/genealogy-software-for-writingfamily-history>
How to handle a GEDCOM <familytreemagazine.com/article/howto-share-a-gedcom>
ShopFamilyTree.com
Build a family website independent study course <shopfamilytree.
com/build-a-family-website-download>
Make money from your genealogy blog on-demand webinar
<shopfamilytree.com/make-money-from-your-genealogy-blogwebinar-recording>
Blogging your familys stories <shopfamilytree.com/familyarchivist-blogging-your-family-s-stories>
68
2016
Search a domain registration site for potential family history website

domains and to purchase your favorite one.
for fryxellfamilytree.com are shown above. When you nd

your preferred domain, a few clicks and a credit card are all it
takes to officially join the Internet. Each domain costs about
$8 to $12 a year, depending on the registrar; some may offer a
deal if you also sign up for hosting.
Once youve registered your domain, you dont necessarily
have to plunge into full-blown web publishing. Originally, I
just placed my two family tree sites, output from RootsMagic
and Reunion, in the free server space included with my internet service (ah, the good old days).
Depending on where you end up having your site hosted,
the real web address (URL) may not be the easy domain
name you registered. My original Comcast URL was something like <my.xnity.com/~dfryxell/uploads/fryxellfamily.htm>.
You can still use your domain name much like a forwarding
address by entering it into the pointers eld at your domain
registrar. When I did this, users typing <www.fryxellfamily.
com> were redirected to my actual URL, none the wiser.
Youll learn more about these sites below, but you can use this
same trick to send users to a family tree blog you create at
Blogger <www.blogger.com> or Tumblr <www.tumblr.com> or a
family site at MyHeritage.com <www.myheritage.com>.
Pick your platform and/or host
The aforementioned MyHeritage might be

the perfect halfway house for you if you dont
want to get too technical. Family-tree plans
range from free to $119.40 a year. All you have
to do to get started is upload or input your data. MyHeritage then creates a family site for you, with areas for your
tree, a timeline, family photos, family news and events. The
service will also then begin to search for matches in other
trees as well as in its record databases (separate subscription
required to view records).
A little more ambitious alternative is to use a site
such as Blogger, which is owned by Google. (For howto help getting started, see <support.google.com/blogger/
answer/1623800?hl=en>.) Blogger lets you create posts in
which you can chronicle your genealogy adventures and
share family-history facts. You can easily add photos and

even videos. Incorporating an actual family tree is a little
more challenging, however. You could link to your uploaded
family tree hosted elsewhere and simply use your blog as the
front end to your tree. Another option is to upload your
tree to WikiTree <www.wikitree.com>, a free tree-sharing site,
and then embed it in your Blogger site; youll nd directions
at <www.wikitree.com/wiki/Installing_widgets#How_to_Use_
Family_Tree_Widgets_on_Your_Blog>.
For the most control over your site, however, youll want
to sign up for hosting. It costs just a few dollars a month and
you can even nd deals at 99 cents a month for the rst year.
You dont have to host your site at the same service where
you registered it. Your hosting provider will tell you what to
type in (generally in the Nameservers eld) at your registrar
to send users to the right place.
Most hosting services also have some sort of free or inexpensive website creation software that functions online.
Or you can download or buy a program for Windows or
Mac that lets you build your site offline on your computer
and then helps you upload the finished product. (For a
basic family site, theres no need to invest in a professional
program such as Dreamweaver <www.adobe.com/products/
dreamweaver.html>.)
I tried a bunch of such programs in my rst attempt to
upgrade my Fryxell family site. Frankly, they were cumbersome and lacked the all-important control I was looking
for. Too many relied on templates that lacked customization
options. Frustrated, I did what any smart father would do
when confronted with a technological problem: I asked my
daughter, Courtney Graziano. Fortunately, she builds websites and runs social media campaigns for a living as a director of digital strategy for a global consulting rm.
Courtney recommended WordPress <www.wordpress.com>,
which I learned is the most widely used web-publishing
platform, the choice of everyone from People magazine to
the New York Times to PlayStation. Best of all, its free. (A
similar, arguably fancier alternative she also recommended is
Squarespace <www.squarespace.com>.) It lets you set up a blog
(much as with Blogger <www.blogger.com>) or a website. Such
a site will be hosted at WordPress and have a wordpress.com
URL (though you can of course point to it from your own
domain). Or you can download the WordPress tools to use at
your own domain from <www.wordpress.org>.
TIP: If the URL of your website or blog isnt the same as

the domain name you registered, enter the URL with your
domain registrar to create an easy forwarding address.
Home Maintenance:
Plugins and Widgets
Plugins and widgets are like gadget codes that can add or
improve functionality on your WordPress site. Try these:
BACKUP BUDDY <ithemes.com/purchase/backupbuddy>
backs up your site to protect against a crash or other

disaster.
COMING SOON <wordpress.org/plugins/comingsoon> shares a Coming Soon message on your
site-under-construction.
DISQUS <wordpress.org/plugins/disqus-commentsystem> improves the built-in comment system.
IFRAME <wordpress.org/plugins/iframe> embeds a
YouTube video in your WordPress page.

WP EDIT <wordpress.org/plugins/wp-edit> gives you a
more word-processor-like format menu.

WP GOOGLE FONTS <wordpress.org/plugins/wp-googlefonts> expands your themes font repertoire.
Its likely, though, that your hosting rm already has the

WordPress package and you just need a few clicks to install
it. Once I located the WP icon at my host, it walked me
through the process and I was done in minutes. (Note that to
take full advantage of WordPress features, youll also want to
create a free account at the WordPress website. This is separate from your admin account for your own site.)
Create your site
Once youve installed WordPress and logged

in with the user name and password you
chose during setup, youll nd the bare bones
of a ready-made site. Initially youll be taken
to your Dashboard (see page 70), a kind of home base
where you can add pages and control the look of your site.
Youll want to make some basic design decisions before you
start adding contentbut dont worry, you can always change
your mind later. (Almost magically, WordPress can reformat
your entire site to reect these changes.)
First youll want to choose a theme. This controls the
basic layout of your pages, the fonts and the overall appearance. Thousands of ready-made themes are available for
WordPress, with costs ranging from free to customizable
packages such as the $60 Genesis <my.studiopress.com/
themes/genesis> (which is Courtneys go-to choice). If, like
me, you still prefer the sound of free, just click on Appearance (see A on page 70), then Themes, to search for nocost options. Among free themes, Courtney recommended
Twenty Eleven, one of the special themes WordPress
issues annually (that one was from 2011). You can nd tens of
69
WordPress Dashboard
c
j
e
d
A
k
g
i
h
f
WordPress Page Editor
Web Page Header
B
M
70
2016
thousands more themes at the WordPress website and sites

like <themeforest.net> ($4 and up).
Next, youll want to customize your page header B .
WordPress thoughtfully provided me with a lovely image
of a pinecone, but I thought something more relevant to my
family might be better. Since the image needs to be horizontal1,000 pixels wide by 288 tallI rejected the thought of
old family photos. (Grandma and Grandpa would have to
be cropped to eyes and noses, or horribly squished.) I went
instead with an old map of my ancestors original stomping
grounds in Sweden. Choosing Appearance, then Header,
then Add New Image, I uploaded my le, cropped it slightly
and applied to my pages. Make sure to click Save & Publish
to keep your changes.
Also under Appearance, you can choose your sites colors
and fonts, add a background image (think twicethis can
make your text hard to read) and control whether your home
page will be static or display your latest blog posts. I went
with a static page, since for now Im not posting blog entries
or inviting comments. Click Site Identity to change the name
of your site as it appears on the page and add a tagline. The
Layout option lets you choose where to put your main content relative to a sidebar of links, or omit the sidebar.
If you do opt for posts and/or comments, you can control
them via the Posts c and Comments d options on your
Dashboard.
To start adding articles and pictures to your site, click on
Pages e and choose an existing page to edit or add a new one.
In the Page Editor that opens up, text goes into the box f.
You can toggle between a Visual display as it will appear to
viewers, or a Text view (which youd also use to do any handcoding of HTML, the system that tells web pages what to do)
g. Format text in boldface or italics, or align it to either side
or center it, by selecting text and clicking a button on the
menu h, much like in your favorite word processor.
To include an image, click Add Media i in the Page Editor,
then upload your picture. To nd and manage your uploaded
images, click the Media button on your Dashboard j.
To see the results of your work, click Preview Changes in
the Page Editor k. Click the blue Update button to save your
changes l.
Add your tree
Combining the web-publishing power of

WordPress and the output of your genealogy
software turns out to be trickier than you
might imagine. One option is to again turn
to WikiTree. Instructions for embedding your tree in WordPress are at the address above in our discussion of Blogger.
This approach uses a variant on an HTML tag called iframe
that puts one site in a frame inside another. The same trick
could be used to embed a YouTube video in your WordPress
page. See <wordpress.org/plugins/iframe> for details.
Learn about plugins for adding a family tree to your WordPress site at <wordpress.org/plugins/tags/family-tree>. If you
have a large tree, you wont want to bother with anything
that requires re-entering data. A plugin called RootsPersona
<wordpress.org/plugins/rootspersona> can import GEDCOM
les exported from genealogy software.
For now, though, I decided simple is best and adapted my
original approach of just uploading my earlier site created by
Reunion. I added a link to the Reunion site from the menu
of my WordPress site, so users could jump from my family
history text and old photos to the actual tree. WordPress
automatically generates menu links for top-level pages on
your WordPress site, but I had to add this external link to my
Reunion site manually.
To do this, I went to Appearance, then Menus, and pasted
my external URL under Custom Links, along with the link
text View Tree. I opted to have the link open in a new tab,
so visitors could easily navigate back to the main site. (To
enable this option, go under Screen Options, look under
Show Advanced Menu Properties and check Link Target.) The result is that a new clickable option, View Tree,
appears next to my Home page link m.
Share with the world
Depending on your hosting provider, your

WordPress site may be live as soon as you
start working on it. Some providers post
a Coming Soon page and let you choose
when youre ready to launch. To make sure your site cant be
seen while under construction, use the Coming Soon plugin <wordpress.org/plugins/coming-soon>. Once youre live,
click the Publish button to make subsequent updates and
additions to your site viewable.
Finally, its time to let your family members and fellow
researchers know about your site. Spread the word via email,
Twitter and on your Facebook page. Ask other family who
have pages, genealogy or otherwise, to link to your site. If
your surname is the subject of message boards at Rootsweb
( <boards.ancestry.com> or <boards.rootsweb.com/surname.
aspx>) or Genforum <www.genealogy.com/forum>, post a link
to your site there.
Before you know it, too, your site will start showing up in
search engines like Google or Bing. To speed up how rapidly
Googles bots scan your site, add the Google XHML Sitemaps
plug-in <wordpress.org /plugins/google-sitemap-generator> .
Registering for Google Analytics lets you keep track of visitors to your site <google.com/analytics>.
Thats all there is to it. Your family history is now online at
its custom-built home sweet home online.
Contributing Editor Dav i d A . F ryx e l l has launched
nearly a dozen commercial websites, including FamilyTreeMagazine.com <familytreemagazine.com>.
71
photofinish
Pictures from the past
{EDITED BY DIANE HADDAD}
Tech Talk
Yesterdays quaint technology laid the groundwork for our smart phones, lightning-fast internet and highdenition televisions. These photos show our ancestors mastering the cutting-edge devices of their time.
72
2016
Division, LC-USZ62-38568
Courtesy of Eddie Donlin
Cincinnati
genealogist Eddie
Donlin took to Family
Tree Magazines Facebook
page to share this image
of his great-grandfather
William Stadtmiller setting
up his rst television in
Newport, Ky.
Division, LC-DIG-npcc-12004
Telephone
companies thought
women more likely to have
the polite manner needed for
switchboard work, according to
a 1902 Census Bureau report. Of
course, female employees, like
this one in 1922, received
lower pay.
Radio
became a popular
form of entertainment
for our 20th-century
relatives, including these
hospitalized children
about 1924.
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FamilySearch Tutorial: Find Ancestors In 200,000 Old Books

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Set Up a Family Website In 6 Steps

cover photo: Al Parrish; photo illustration: Julie Barnett

march/april 2016 volume 17, issue 2

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Old newspapers genealogical bounty isnt limited to US kin.

Just like the grocery store tempts you

How do the big three genealogy

GENEALOGY WEBSITES GUIDE 2016

Learn how to mine the record,

Create a custom, comprehensive

Its easy and inexpensive to set up a

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Choosing family history apps can be

Reap the rewards of expanding your

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