Genealogy For Dummies

Matthew L. Helm and April Leigh Helm manage several leading online genealogical resources, including HistoryKat.com. They're also the founders of Boneyard Creek Heritage, Inc. Books by the Helms include Family Tree Maker For Dummies, Get Your Degree Online, Genealogy Online: Tech to Connect and seven editions of Genealogy Online For Dummies.

• Introduction 1About This Book 2Foolish Assumptions 2Icons Used in This Book 3Beyond the Book 3Where to Go from Here 4Part 1: Getting Started with Genealogy 5Chapter 1: Beginning Your Ancestral Journey 7It’s About Time(line) 7Crafting an online timeline 9Learning about Sources 13Using Genealogical Applications 15Entering Information into RootsMagic Essentials 17Completing the Pedigree Page 20Creating the Virtual You 21Giving Your Ancestors Some Privacy 24Beefing Up Your Profile 24Citing Your Sources 26Getting the Full Media Experience 28Reaching Out to Others 29Hinting Around about Your Ancestors 30Giving Your Ancestors Some Mobility 31Telling Your Story 34Chapter 2: Hunting for Your Ancestral Treasures 35A Brief Message about Research Steps 35Selecting a Person to Begin Your Search 36Trying a semi-unique name 36Narrowing your starting point 36Choosing someone you know about 38Selecting a grandparent’s name 39Beginning to Put the Puzzle Together 39Getting the 4-1-1 from Your Kinfolk 41Dusting off old photo albums 43Striking it rich in closets, in basements, and under beds 45Adding Your Ancestors One by One 47Using a bit of (Roots)Magic to keep track of your family 48Logging your data into Ancestry Family Tree 53Chapter 3: Searching Primary Resource Sites 55Touring Ancestry.com 56Trying Ancestry.com for free 56Searching Ancestry.com’s vast collection 58Sifting through the results 62RootsWeb.com at a Glance 68Investigating FamilySearch 69Creating a free account 69FamilySearching records 70Using FamilySearch results 71Other FamilySearch search functions 75Giving Back through FamilySearch Indexing 75Saluting Fold3 76Creating a trial account 76Searching at Fold3 77Finding Your Past 82Exploring MyHeritage 84Chapter 4: Using All of Your Censuses 87Coming to Your Census 88United States census schedules 88State, territorial, and other census records 95Finding Your Ancestors in U.S Census Records 97Sifting through census record results 98Digging into digitized census records 100Consolidating your discoveries 104Using census records to tell a story 106Census Records from Afar 109Africa 110Asia 110Europe 110North America 113Oceania 113South America 113Part 2: Bringing Your Ancestor to Life 115Chapter 5: Digging Deeper into Your Ancestors’ Lives 117These Records Are Vital 117Reading vital records 118Gauging vitals online 120Investigating Immigration and Naturalization Records 123Passenger lists 125Naturalization records 127Land Ho! Researching Land Records 129Surveying land lovers in the U.S. 130Using HistoryGeo.com to map your ancestor’s land 134Marching to a Different Drummer: Searching for Military Records 135Taxation with Notation 140Trial and Error at the Courthouse 142Getting the News on Your Ancestors 143Chapter 6: Mapping the Past 147Are We There Yet? Researching Where “There” Was to Your Ancestors 148Using documents that you already possess 148Where is Llandrindod, anyway? 149There’s No Place like Home: Using Local Resources 153Geographic-specific websites 154Libraries and archives 156Pulling the obituary 157Genealogical and historical societies 158Looking at local directories 159Professional researchers 161Localizing your search 162Gaining historical perspective 162Mapping Your Ancestor’s Way 164Positioning your family: Using global positioning systems 171Plotting against the family 172Wrapping It Up (with a Surprise) 174Chapter 7: Searching for That Elusive Ancestor 175Letting Your Computer Do the Walking: Using Search Engines 176Diving into general Internet search engines 176Flying with Genealogy Vertical Search Engines 181Finding the Site That’s Best for You 183Personal genealogical sites 183One-name study sites 185Family associations and organizations 186Surnames connected to events or places 187Family Trees Ripe for the Picking: Finding Compiled Resources 188Narrative compiled genealogies 189Compiled genealogical databases 189Browsing Comprehensive Genealogical Indexes 191Chapter 8: Going Beyond Borders: International and Ethnic Records 193Fishing for International and Ethnic Sources 194Wiki-ing for answers 194Surveying sites with comprehensive genealogy indexes 195Using search engines 195WorldGenWeb 195Translating sites 197Records from the English-Speaking World 197Gathering information from England and Wales 198A lot more than haggis — finding Scottish records 201Researching the north o’ Ireland 201Traversing the Emerald Isle 202Other Irish genealogy resources 203Heading north for Canadian records 204Accessing Australian sources 207Hispanic and Portuguese Roots 208Within the United States 208Exploring south of the border: Mexican sources 209Continental resources 210Central and South American research 211Swimming through Caribbean genealogy 214Achtung! Using Sites for the German-Speaking World 215Along the beautiful Danube: Austrian roots 215Consulting German resources 216Focusing on French Resources 218Scanning Scandinavian Countries 218Denmark 218Finland 219Norway 220Sweden 220Iceland 221Italian Cooking 221Other European Sites 221Asian Resources 223Researching African Ancestry 224Genealogical resource pages on the web 226Transcribed records pertaining to ancestors with African roots 227Special ethnic pages about African ancestry 228Original records 229American Indian Resources 229Where to begin looking for information about American Indians 230American Indian resource pages on the web 232Transcribed American Indian records 233Chapter 9: Specializing in Your Family History 235Researching Religious Group Records 236Finding Fraternal Orders and Service Clubs 240A Photo Is Worth a Thousand Words 242Accessing Adoption Records 245Preparing to Be Schooled 246Turning to Bible Records 248Snooping through Great-Grandma’s Diary 248Nosing through Newspaper Records 249Part 3: Putting Your Family History to the Test 251Chapter 10: Fitting into Your Genes: Genetic Genealogy 253Ask What DNA Can Do for You 254A Friendly Word of Caution 255Delving into DNA 256Getting down to bases 257Variations in DNA 259Family History: Documentation versus Genetics 261Testing Companies 262Selecting the Right Test for You 263Finding Helpful DNA Sites 264Chapter 11: Direct-Line Genetic Tests 265Y chromosome (Y-DNA) testing 265“Junk” DNA is worth something 266The testing process 267Comparing the results 268Assessing the probability of a relationship 270Haplogroups 271Locating others with the same results 275Mitochondrial (mtDNA) testing 276Testing method 278Making sense of the results 279Finding others with the same results 280Chapter 12: Autosomal DNA (atDNA) Testing 281But First a Quick Review 281Testing Process 283What Can I Learn from Autosomal DNA Testing? 284Ethnicity Estimation 285Relationship Testing 288Back to a familiar family 290Objectives of the test 291Playing the match game 292Set your phasing to stun 293We have something In Common With you 294Sticking with tradition 296Browsing through the chromosomes 296Triangulating the data 298Meeting the objectives 300X-Chromosome DNA Testing 301Utilities to the Rescue 303Part 4: Casting Your Nets in the Genealogy Sea 305Chapter 13: Finding Your Research Path 307Introducing the Helm Online Family Tree Research Cycle 307Planning your research 309Collecting useful information 311Researching: Through the brick wall and beyond 312Consolidating information in a database 313Validating your findings 313Distilling the information that you gather 314Too Many Ancestor Irons in the Research Fire 315Verifying Your Information 315Chapter 14: Share and Share Alike 317Why Would Anyone Want Your Stuff? 318Making Friends on Facebook 318Jumping on the Facebook bandwagon 319Making Facebook friends 320Sorting your Facebook friends 321Posting statuses on Facebook 322Sharing photos via Facebook 322Pinning Family History to Pinterest 324Realizing Instant Gratification with Instagram 326Networking Genealogy-Style 326Sharing your history on Geni.com 327Discovering contacts through Member Connect 331Showing context in LifeStory 331Blogging for Attention 334Hunting blogs 334Getting a blog of your own 335Building Your Own Home 338Free web-hosting services 338Do you speak HTML? 340Deciding which treasures to include 340Including Your GEDCOM 340Generating GEDCOM files 341Checking a GEDCOM for possible errors 343Creating traditional trees and reports 343Earning a Good Citizenship Award 345Mandatory lecture on privacy 345Respecting copyrights 346Citing your sources 347Chapter 15: Help Wanted! 349Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone 349The Shotgun Approach 350Making Friends (and Keeping Them) Online 351Joining a Herd: Research Groups 353Becoming a solid member of geographical societies 354Rooting for family and surname associations 354Joining the crowd — Crowd Sourced Indexing, that is 356Gathering Kinfolk: Using the Family Reunion for Research 357Rent-a-Researcher 357DNA Consulting 361Helping Yourself 361Reading up on genealogical things 362Getting educated online 362Part 5: The Part of Tens 365Chapter 16: Ten Sites Worth a Visit 367rootsfinder 367FamilySearch Help Center 368WeRelate 368kindex 368One-Step Webpages by Stephen P Morse 369Photogrammar 369Story Corps 369American Battle Monuments Commission 370Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States 370ArchiveGrid 371Chapter 17: Ten Mobile Applications for Genealogy Research 373Ancestry 373FamilySearch Tree 375RootsMagic 375BillionGraves 376Evernote 377The Family Nexus 377Saving Memories Forever 378OldNews USA 379QromaTag 379Kindle 379Index 381