American Libraries Internet Archive

I found this wonderful resource of information a while back and wanted to share with you. The American Libraries Internet Archive is a treasure trove for genealogists as it archives images and books that would be of interest for the genealogist.  If you type "genealogy" into the search engine, you will be amazed at the number of items that will be returned. I did a search for my last name and came up with over 30 hits ranging from census records to family genealogy research books.  I would suggest taking the time to research this archive as soon as possible because if the SOPA/PIPA (Stop Online Piracy Act/Protect IP Act) passes through the US congress, which could effect the accessibility of this site. If you would like to research in this site, click Ameican Libraries Internet Archive. The books are available for reading on the Kindle, Daisy, and PDF to name a few.

Tweets to be archived in the LOC

I was researching online this past month and found out that if you are a member of twitter and posted some tweets, they are going to be archived in the Library of Congress. Just think...the daily activities that everyone writes about will be in the Library of Congress. The News posted at the Library of Congress states: "The archive follows in the Library's long tradition of gathering individuals' firsthand accounts of history, such as "man on the street" interviews after Pearl Harbor; the September 11, 2001, Documentary Project; the Veterans History Project (VHP); and StoryCorps. While the Twitter archive will not be posted online, the Library envisions posting selected content around topics or themes, similar to existing VHP presentations."

If you would like to learn more about this, you can visit Library of Congress or the The Twitter Blog.

Are you a Hidden Scribe?

In our world, the internet has expanded making it possible to attend live meetings over the internet. What happens when you are unable to attend those meetings? I received an email about a website that is easily accessible and user friendly where you can view past lectures on some genealogy topics. Please note that not all of the genealogy speakers will be placing their information on this site, but those that do have either a text document or slide shows that you can view. Below is an example from one of Thomas Kemp, a well know author, librarian, and director with Godfrey Memorial Library.

After going through Tom Kemp's presentation on Core Online Genealogy Resources - The Ones you will actually use and rely on! (shown below), I decided to explore the possibilities of the site Scribd. This site is dedicated to providing a forum for the author in all of us to store and collaborate with others documents or slide shows. You can easily upload and immediately share your original works from a PDF, Word, PowerPoint and many other file formats. I thought to myself what a great way to share your family history documents and decided to see what the site stored under genealogy and family history topics. The information I received back on the search varied from pictures, narrative family histories, family trees, and various other forms of genealogy including blank forms. I then searched specifically for one of my family lines. Although I did not find any information regarding my family line, I did find that you can easily search for an individual on this site and come up with hits regarding their genealogy. In my next post you will see what I mean. Although the person is a popular fictional character, a family tree was constructed for them.

Novels, recipes, manuals, position papers, and historical documents abound on this site. The site is a treasure trove of information and might be able to provide you information regarding your family. Even if you do not find information about your genelaogy, it is a fun site to visit. If you would like to visit the site, click Scrib. You can utilize the site search engine to find information about various genealogical topics. Have fun!

Core Online Genealogy Resources - The Ones you will actually use and rely on!

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Business Presentations & Slid genealogy newspapers

WeRelate - The New Genealogy Wiki

I am sure that you have all heard of the term, Wiki, floating around on the internet. For those of you who are not familiar with the term, a Wiki is a piece of software on the internet that allows you to create and edit web pages with ease. Dallan Quass, a software engineer and researcher has developed the website WeRelate. WeRelate is a genealogical based wiki that is a new way to look at family history encouraging collaboration between it's users.

I joined the site and easily uploaded a partial gedcom file for my family line. Once your file is uploaded, WeRelate creates a wikipage for each individual in the file. Pictures, biographies, and other documents can be uploaded to the individual's wikipage. Each of the pages created are by default set to contact you if there is a change on the page. The wiki format encourages collaboration between researchers/cousins regarding individuals in the family tree. WeRelate owner Dallan states that they are currently working on a merging feature that will make suggestions for possible merges, but the merging of the files is not automatic. Another nice feature of the wiki format is that it keeps a history of all of the changes made to a particular wiki page.

Dallan has also developed a nice pedi-map feature. This feature provides you with the standard pedigree chart with a map from Google maps located at the bottom of the pedigree. The map displays the significant times in a person's life, i.e., birth, marriage, and death signified by specific emblems on the map. The map also shows the migration pattern of the families on the pedigree. I love the map and pedigree feature being incorporated into one place.

WeRelate has many other nice features that can be explored at your leisure. WeRelate is provided to the internet genealogical community free of charge. You must register at the site to create your personal account which allows you to upload the information to the wiki site. Below is a short video of Dick Eastman interviewing Dallan Quass at the 2007 Federation of Genealogical Society's (FGS) meeting. The interview is insightful and may answer some of the questions that you have after reading this post. If you would like to register for or learn more about WeRelate click WeRelate Main Page. Have fun!

Pennsylvania Volunteers of the Civil War

Civil War sites are always a great find and even greater when they are free. This Civil War site is specifically for Soldiers from the State of Pennsylvania. The records that are available for research are the extracted format with the original documents not available for viewing.

If you would like to research this database, please note that there is a search box at the top of the entry page, but this takes you directly to FootNote.com which is a subscription website. There are several databases which are available for searching using the sites search engine which is located only on the bottom of the Rosters page. This is not the most effective place for the search engine, but it will search the entire site which eliminates browsing which could be very tedious considering the number of records available.

The following databases that are available for research are:

Rosters
Biographies
Newspapers
Diaries
Flags
Medal of Honor Recipients
Prisoner's of War
Pensions
Deaths
Lists of Soldiers by Counties

If you would like to browse or research this site, click Pennsylvania Civil War Soldiers. Have Fun!

Mormon Battalion Records and Images

Have you ever wondered what your ancestor looked like? Or wondered if your Mormon Pioneer Ancestor was apart of the Mormon Battalion that served the United States during the Mexican war. The number of men that served in the Mormon Battalion numbered at 500. Some of the officers of the Mormon Battalion chose to take their families, their belongings and wagons with them at no expense to the United States and was acceptable to the US Army at the time. The number of families that went along with the Mormon Battalion numbered at 15 - 16 and also included 50 - 55 children. Some of the women served as laundresses for the unit and received a privates pay. The Mormon Battalion made the longest march in military history covering 2,000 miles beginning at Council Bluffs Iowa and ending in San Diego California.

This website has the complete transcribed company rosters including the officers, privates, and guides. One of the guides that might spark you interest is Jean Baptiste Charbonneau (the son of Sacajawea and Toussaint Charbonneau). The women are listed with the companies and also includes the names of the children. The databases include pictures which are searchable under the Gallery Link. Some of the men that served in the battalion also have a short biography on this site. If you have ancestors that participated in the Mormon Battalion or think that you might have an ancestor who was in the Battalion, this site is worth checking out. Click here to be redirected to the Mormon Battalion website. Have fun in your quest.

So You Want To Preserve Your Family Records?

Family History Archives is a website containing over 5000 family biographies that are all searchable utilizing the website's user friendly search engine. I prefer using the advanced search features of the site as it narrows your search by allowing you to search for a specific order of words, ie. given name, and surname.

The biographies digitized on this site contain pictures, vital record information, maps, etc. This site could literally be a treasure trove of information if you happen to have a family member that is contained in one of the many biographies located on the site.

At some time in the future, individuals will be able to contribute their information in two different ways: 1) Electronic submission or 2) a printed copy of the information with a donation to cover the cost of digitizing.

Overall, I feel the site was designed well and is easily searched. If you want to search for your ancestors at this site, click here to be directed to this website. Have fun!

Welsh Mormon History

The Welsh Mormon History is the brain child of Dr. Ronald Dennis as he researched his own Welsh ancestry. He has also assisted in the translation of many Welsh documents regarding the early records of The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to English.

Welsh Mormon History website is easily navigated using the tool bar on the top which includes the following tabs:
1) Home
2) Immigrants
3) Resources
4) Users - Adminstrative link
5) About - Provides information about the site

The site is nicely organized with a search engine allowing you to search for your specific Welsh ancestor by surname and/or given name. Dr. Ronald Dennis has obtained this information through the use of documents, journals, photos, biographies, books and various writings. Each of the various sources are online and can be read page by page if desired.

Click here to visit Welsh Mormon History and have fun!