BASIC GENEALOGY ON THE INTERNET FOR LIBRARIANS

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BASIC GENEALOGY ON THE INTERNET FOR LIBRARIANS

• Kathleen Strauss
• Denton Public Library

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OBJECTIVES

• To understand the genealogy researcher
• To explain the importance of the internet in
  genealogy research
• To provide an overview of genealogy-specific
  websites
• To give attendees guidelines to follow when
  assisting genealogy researchers with internet
  searches

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Genealogy Researchers Who are they?

• Beginners
• Not sure who they are looking for, or how to find
  them, much less document them
• Casual researchers
• Working intermittently on parts of their family
  tree
• Usually inexperienced in using sources
• Experienced or professional researchers
• Working on specific branches of their own or
  someone elses tree want source documents

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Genealogy Researchers What do they want?

• They want sources that verify lineages
• Primary
• Records created at or near the time of an event
• Vital records, census, deeds, manifests, family
  bibles
• Secondary
• Compiled or extracted records from previous
  research
• County history, biography, obituaries, newspapers
• Tertiary
• Family histories and traditions, or personal web
  sites

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THE INTERNET AND GENEALOGY RESEARCH

• The Internet has added a new dimension to the way
  genealogists do research
• The Internet can provide a place to start
  gathering information, provide a place to
  interact with other genealogists, and provide a
  place for the genealogist to publish findings
• There are several critical issues concerning
  genealogical information found on the Internet

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Separating the Wheat from the Chaff
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The Chaff

• Unreliable and undocumented information
• At best, most of the genealogical information on
  the Internet today are secondary or tertiary
  sources, and at worst they are pure fiction
• Can lead the researcher to include the wrong
  information into their family tree

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The Wheat

• Accessibility
• Timeliness
• Serendipitous information
• Actual digitized records becoming available

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Collaboration

• Online Genealogy Community
• Interaction on-line through a network of message
  boards
• Surname bulletin boards
• www.genforum.com
• www.rootsweb.org
• www.ancestry.com
• Personal websites with contact information
• Example
• www.culbertsontree.com

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Librarians Serving Genealogists

• www.cas.usf.edu/lis/genealib/index.html
• Helps librarians who serve genealogists
• Sponsors Librarian Day events at genealogy
  conferences
• GENEALIB
• Address email message to lyris_at_lists.acomp.usf.ed
  u
• Leave subject line blank
• Body of message subscribe genealib
• Yourfirstname Yourlastname

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CYNDIS LISTwww.cyndislist.com

• A catalog or categorized list of genealogical web
  sites on the Internet
• A search portal for genealogy
• Main Index of categories is organized
  alphabetically
• Updated daily

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Search Engines

• A matter of personal taste
• Each search engine indexes websites differently
• The same search string will give different
  results
• www.google.com
• www.altavista.com
• www.yahoo.com

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Rootswebwww.rootsweb.com

• Oldest genealogy web site
• Maintained by volunteers
• SSDI search example
• Searchable index of Texas Death Records available

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U.S. Government Websites

• The National Archives and Records Administration
• www.nara.gov
• The Library of Congress
• www.loc.gov
• The Government Land Office
• www.glorecords.blm.gov

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Commercial Websites

• Ancestry.com
• www.ancestry.com
• Genealogy.com
• www.genealogy.com
• Heritage Quest
• www.heritagequest.com
• Family History Network
• www.everton.com

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

• Search for ancestors
• Share Information
• Access the Family History Library Catalog
• Research Guidance
• www.familysearch.org

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Immigration

• The American Family Immigration
• History Center
• Passenger records
• Ships manifests
• www.ellisislandrecords.com

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United States Searches

• The USGENWEB Project
• Organized by state and county
• Maintained by volunteers
• www.usgenweb.org

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International Searches

• WORLDGENWEB Project
• Organized by country and area within the
  countries
• Maintained by volunteers
• www.worldgenweb.org

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Ethnic Web Sites

• African-American
• www.afrigeneas.com
• Jewish
• www.jewishgen.org
• Hispanic
• http//home.att.net/Alsosa

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Libraries

• Clayton Library, Houston, TX
• www.hpl.lib.tx.us/clayton/
• Allen County Public Library, Ft Wayne, IN
• www.acpl.lib.in.us/genealogy/index.html
• Texas State Library, Austin, TX
• www.tsl.state.tx.us/texshare/pl/remote.html
• Saginaw Public Library, Saginaw, MI
• www.saginaw.lib.mi.us
• The Ohio Historical Society, Columbus, OH
• www.ohiohistory.org

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Genealogy Organizations

• Provide education
• Encourage proper research techniques and
  documentation
• Issue publications
• Sponsor genealogy conferences
• www.ngsgenealogy.org
• www.gentech.org

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Lineage Societies

• National Society of the Daughters of the American
  Revolution
• www.dar.org
• National Society of the Sons of the American
  Revolution
• www.sar.org
• Daughters of the Republic of Texas
• www.drtl.org

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THE NEXT SEARCH IS YOURS
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INTERNET ASSISTANCE GUIDELINES

• Prepare ahead of time.
• Ask patrons where they are in their research.
• Dont forget to use the general search engines.
  Sometimes you can uncover a wealth of
  information.
• Teach search strategies along the way.
• Look for websites that are related to locations.
• Be prepared to learn from your patrons.

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Coming Home Again