Tracing Immigrants

If you know where your family came from, you probably will not need to locate a record of immigration to a new country. You can skip that step and look for them in their homeland. But for most people, a crucial clue to family origins can be found in records originally created to record the ethnic and health background of potential new citizens. Fortunately, while a visit to Ellis Island (and the Statue of Liberty) may be interesting and meaningful (more genealogy tourism ideas!), you don't actually have to go any farther than your computer screen to track down ancestors. Some examples of sites that can assist you include:

Australia

State Records NSW

Public Record Office Victoria

Canada

Library and Archives Canada

United States

Ancestry.ca

CastleGarden.org

Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation

Each of these web resources provides a different type and scope of information but if you are lucky, you could find the name of the town where your ancestors lived. Review all available pages that come up in the searches: there is a chance that a second scanned document contains additional information about the person. One example of this is an additional page that identifies the name of a relative - sometimes in the "old world" but also (possibly) the person's contact in the new country. Be cautious of accepting spellings of towns or cities - and surnames. Remember, someone had to listen to the words of your relative and copy down what they heard even when they might not have understood the language of the immigrant. Spellings where thus inadvertantly changed on the spot - and the true identity of a home of origin could also be significantly changed. Still, you might get closer than you ever did in the corner of the world where you live - so don't give up easily. Happy hunting!

Runaway Family Trees

In some earlier posts, we talked about how you need to be willing to live with your family trees being posted on other websites or used by researchers you've never met for their projects. But even if you feel good about your evidence, names, dates and the overall structure of your project, you should also consider what it is like to be on the receiving end of erroneous online genealogy information. Let's look at some examples of how you can be burned by runaway family tree data:

(1) Leaps of Faith: Suppose you've got a common enough surname and family lore that connects your family with famous (or infamous) people in history. Starting from that point, you may make some pretty big leaps to connect to a line that you can't directly prove. You'll probably find it appealing to grab the first online family tree you find with "your ancestor." But if you assume that family is yours, you may (incorrectly) come to believe you have made a connection with the Sixteenth Century (or earlier) - when, in reality, you've skipped a step along the way. Never start your search with a conclusion! That would be like Detective Goren assuming the first person he interviews is the killer (the show would be over in 10 minutes!). For this reason, I'm personally not a fan of Ancestry's advertisements that feature the comment "I saw this little leaf"...

(2) Viral Errors: Probably more devastating to your search (in terms of wasted time and unwarranted excitement), this situation develops when many, many, many people have used the same incorrect information in their trees and posted the errors online. I've seen examples of well-meaning folks who published an incorrect family relationship or date on their websites and realized it soon afterwards - but not soon enough to prevent the mistakes from carrying over to many other sites. By the time you come along with your Google search, the "viral error" has spawned myriad more - and caused a cascading effect of inaccuracies across the web. It ends up being a scenario something like when a doctored photo or edited video goes viral - and that never works out well for anyone...

(3) Unreasonable Connections: It's rare, but I've encountered situations where someone who is clearly not related to a family has taken data they found on the web and forced the "square peg into the round hole." OK, maybe it was a mistake - but are you prepared to discuss that with them? Often, people won't be willing to admit they didn't hit the jackpot - and they may shoot the messenger. If you are lucky, it will be a meaningful opportunity to share evidence (and theories) and even examine potential connections. On the flip side, you may be unable to convince them that they are contributing to the "viral error" effect I described above. This, then creates more problems for future researchers.

A family tree posted on the web may contain true information, but you need to personally verify each generation backwards from yourself to the earliest known ancestor. Look for your relatives in the census and city directories and follow up with vital records - that is the only way to be "sure" you didn't jump to a conclusion. As a precaution, I recommend you always discuss any uncertainties in your published work. Remember: if you carefully research details and don't assume anything, your web search for news stories, photos and other potential trees can add much needed flesh to the skeleton of your basic family history. Happy hunting!

10,000th Name Added to MS Death Index

There are now over 10,000 names in Virtual Genealogy's Statewide Index to Mississippi Death Records! To access this important resource, click on the word "Databases" above (or click here). Expect more projects like this to appear on our site in the future.

Locating Cemetery Records

One important genealogy resource that often gets overlooked by researchers is the information written on a cemetery stone. While the quality of some markers is poor (e.g., sandstone), they often outlast the records of even our modern society. So if a courthouse was burned to the ground during the US Civil War or French Revolution, something carved in granite may still exist to prove the existence of your ancestors. But how do you find it? In the past, you had to walk through cemeteries and hope that there was an index posted on-site. Or, you had to contact the administrators of the property and send them money to search the records. These days, you may not have to go to a cemetery - even if you are fortunate enough to live in the same town where your family members are buried. As I've said before, though, visiting places that preserve the history of your family provide a greater reward than simply trusting the Internet sources... So, if you can, get out there and have an adventure at the local cemetery - it may be just a simple matter of locating the family plot and documenting the names on the stones. Don't forget to contact the family church - especially if they run the cemetery - their records are probably more extensive and contain additional details. On the flip side, you may not find anything, even when the caretakers say your family is there. I once visited a cemetery where the only visual evidence of my family being buried there was the section and row markers the church provided - there weren't even any tombstones (there was, however, a curb-stone that showed the family name). For each dead-end, though, I've also had some luck.

If you can't visit a cemetery but you want to know more about your family, you can use the web to track down burial records. Here are some great sites you can use:

Find-A-Grave
Interment.net
USGenWeb Tombstone Transcrtiption Project

You may even be lucky enough to be able to view a picture at their site, taken by someone who cataloged the burials in that cemetery and posted them online. In addition to the links above, you may want to check out the records that some major Catholic Dioceses have posted on the web - here are just a few:

Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal Cemetery
Catholic Cemeteries of St. Louis
Milwaukee Catholic Cemeteries

Last point: We haven't talked about this a lot, but you should consider posting things (photos of cemetery stones included) that you find during your research, even if they aren't "yours." Our goal as virtual genealogists should always be to augment web resources for all family history researchers - everyone benefits that way. Happy hunting!

Virtual Genealogy Hits 1,000 Links!

There are now over 1,000 web-links to digital birth, marriage, death, census and city directory records at Virtual Genealogy! The 1,000th link was a digitization project by the University of North Carolina at Greensboro: Greensboro City Directories (1879-1923). Check out our web site and share new online resources in the reader comments!

MS Death Index passes 5,000 Names!

We've got more than 5,000 names in the Mississippi Death Certificate Index (1912-1943)!

A Visit to the Family History Library

I was able to visit the Family History Library in Salt Lake City in September, something I've been wanting to do for many years but never had time. It was amazing! You've never seen so many microfilm rolls in one place. The building is located in the pretty downdown area (near Temple Square).

The Pros:
Hours are reasonable and parking isn't too much of a problem (free on Saturday). The library has five floors: US books (3rd), US films (2nd), family histories (Main), Europe and Latin America (B1), UK & Ireland (B2). There are dozens of computers on each floor - scores of film readers - row after row of research materials. There was a whole section with special documents that don't ever leave the FHL - so if you wanted to view one of those, you'd obviously need to go there. The people who work there are very nice and I saw several of them assisting newbies - and making some progress. I spent three full days there - taking breaks out in the Square and eating nearby. Each evening I checked out something nearby before heading back to my hotel (Mormon Tabernacle Choir, LDS Church History Museum and some of the historic buildings and art - all very interesting). Salt Lake City is a great place to visit!

The Cons:
After the visit, it is my honest opinion that only a hard-core genealogy nut would actually enjoy a trip to the FHL. Most of the material that was easily accessible to the average visitor can be ordered through a local Family History Center. A lot of the resources that I used while there were on the computers! To maximize your success, you also need to prepare for weeks to be ready for the trip - it isn't something you can decide to do on the spur of the moment as you pass through town on I-15. I was fortunate because I was doing a surname survey, which meant I powered through every book I could and wrote down all the listings I found on that last name. I did attempt to locate something for a friend, but was overwhelmed by the size, scope and sheer magnitude of everything that was available (can you say "kid in the candy store"). A visit to the place is definitely Big League Genealogy - not for the weary-eyed or easily discouraged.

If you plan to take a genealogy research vacation to the FHL, I recommend you utilize their website to prepare. You will want to be prepared to use every available minute looking at specific microfilms or books - and not be sidetracked by the shiny computers! I am aware of the irony: this is a blog about online genealogy. But, as you've seen from earlier posts, I'm also a supporter of pursuing the hands-on resources whenever possible. If any others of you have ever visited the Library, please post something about your trip in the reader comments. For the rest of you, put it on your "Bucket List." Happy hunting!

Launch of Mississippi Death Index

The newest digital genealogy item at Virtual Genealogy is our launch of a brand new database project: the Statewide Index to Mississippi Death Records (1912 - 1943). This unique resource should be very useful to anyone who wants to research the death records of the Magnolia State but can't access the original microfilms. We welcome your ideas, transcriptions and proofreading - contact webmaster (at) cooganresearchgroup [dot] com!