GEDCOM FILES!

Ever wanted to take a family tree from one place and put it in another place on another program or computer? 

Like, you've got a family tree and wish to share it with Ancestry and don't want to hand type the entire thing.

Or you've got a family tree and want to load it up into Family Search Family Tree.

Or say you've got a tree on Ancestry but want to put it into your own personal software.

Not to worry!  Have no fear!

All of this can be done no sweat using a file designed for this purpose called a GEDCOM.

Most genealogy software will create  a GEDCOM File which is a basic file that can be created by most genealogy software programs and uploaded by another genealogy software program.

Shout out to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, the GEDCOM file is an LDS innovation that is now widely used by genealogists worldwide for transferring genealogical information.

So, for example if you have been using PAF (that's what I used to use) but want to upgrade to Legacy or Rootsmagic since support for PAF has ended.

presto!

You have PAF create a GEDCOM file, then import the GEDCOM file into your genealogical software and - voila presto!  You now have your other family tree uploaded into a new program!  (Tadaaaa!). 

You will have to look up the instructions on each program how to create / upload the file but nearly all genealogy software programs can do it.

Say you wish to upload your entire GEDCOM file into Family Tree for ordinance submissions.  That can be done following these  instructions right here.

Either way, the GEDCOM file is a staple of genealogy in the computer age and most all genealogy software programs can create them or read them and use them. But knowing what they are is yet another tool in your tool-belt as a genealogist.

Using Obituaries to Find Other Clues!

Another example - this provides a lot of clues to search!

Obituaries are some of the most fruitful sources of information you'll find.

Why?

Well, how many people get a book written about their lives if they aren't famous? 

Not many.

But obituaries?  Far more common and they contain a wealth of information about survivors, life stories, marriages, geography, migrations, political service - you name it. Although the more prominent they are the more detailed info they will have in the obituary but nevertheless, these are treasure troves of info!

Remember when you get hung up on someone and are having a hard time finding info, don't just try an obituary, try the obituaries of their relatives to see if they turn up as being mentioned in them. 

For example, I'm hung up on looking for more info Jasper Walling and Nelson Walling and am looking for where to look for records for them.

here's an obituary summary I found from Ancestry.com on their father (which leads me to the original copies).

Summary of Obituary in 30 Aug 1897, The Daily Idaho Statesman

Death of J. B. Walling
He passes away peacefully at his home on the Avenue
Was Ill for Seven Years
Large number of Descendents
Funeral to Occur this Afternoon

Jerome B. Walling died yesterday morning at his residence on the Hot Springs Road after a lingering illness of nearly seven years. (Article goes on to relate the following facts in a narrative)
Born in New York on August 24, 1809
Age 9 (abt 1818) moved with parents to Meggs County, Ohio
1825 moved to Fulton County, Illinois
Served in the Black Hawk War under Captain Maxwell
Married Sarah Leverton in Fulton County, Ill on March 4, 1829
Mrs. Sarah Walling died on 2 Apr 1890 
1837 the family moved to Iowa
1848 the family moved to Yamhill County, Oregon
1850 elected to the Oregon Territorial Legislature
1851 elected as a Yamhill County Commissioner and served for 4 years
1864 moved to the Boise Valley and resided there ever since
Was responsible for building the Walling Ditch which supplied irrigation water for land the city of Boise
Father of 16 children, 8 of whom survive him:  Lucy Loosley of Ft. Klamath, Or; Jeptha Walling of Tillamook, Or; Fletcher Walling of Salem, Or; Nelson Walling of Portland, Or;  Jerome Walling, California;  Mrs. Clara Mullancy, Glenns Ferry;  Mrs. Rosalie Gile Highland Valley, Idaho; Enos C. Walling, Boise.
75 Grandchildren and “goodly number” of great-grandchildren
Was a member of the Masonic Order for 60 years
“He showed good judgment and economy in his business transactions and always held the respect and confidence of his fellow citizens.”
Additional information about this story Description   Date 30 Jul 1897 Location Boise, Ada, Idaho, United States
Anyways, I found that Jasper was in California at the time of the Obituary, Nelson in Portland with a whole other treasure-trove of information!   About any of this could be a jumping off point for more research.

I got so frustrated looking for Nelson and Jasper that I went back to their dad's obituary and found a bit more info that I'd overlooked and was able to fan out a bit more as well as glean some more information I hadn't used to round out some other information (like his military service!).

If you get stuck, also go back to the beginning or try working through other relatives as well, sometimes this can open the door you're looking for!

Works Progress Administration Cemetery Indexes

alllll been written down....

The 1930's were a new era of federal government bureaucracies.  All sorts of projects sprung up under the federal government, from building dams, to fixing highways to....genealogy!

In the 1930's President Roosevelt's "New Deal" also included a provision to index graves in the United State through the Works Project Administration (WPA).  While the WPA was controversial and considered wasteful by many (it even funded depression era tap-dancing lessons to lift American's spirits!) and eventually was terminated, the work done by the WPA has greatly benefited many aspects of genealogy including grave indexes.

While there isn't a single WPA grave index available online, they are slowly making their way to the internet and being indexed digitally.

Personally, while I am very fond of Find A Grave because of the easy accessibility, my ability to interact with others, request photos, include photos, attach obituaries and link family members, it doesn't have everything in it.

So, if you find you get stuck looking for a grave, do an internet search for a WPA Cemetery Index for the county/state you're looking for and you might just strike gold!  From there you can add an entry to Find A Grave and submit a photo request to confirm the info contained in the index.

As always, if a grave is unmarked anymore, request a photo of the empty spot so that others in the future know not to go looking for it still.

Finding the Patriot: Spanish American War and Records

• Spanish American War (1898) History
• Spanish American War Genealogy

The Spanish American War which resulted in the United States' base in Guantanamo Bay Cuba and the Philippines becoming an American Territory up until 1946.

In genealogy, besides censuses and obituaries, few things are as useful as military records to genealogy.

Given that the 1890 census burned in 1921(interesting article!) , and that many many of your recruits and draftees for a military campaign are between the ages of 16 (if they tell the truth about their age) and mid-thirties, military records of the Spanish American war - newspaper announcements, draft records, discharge papers, company movement announcements, stories of valor, etc., - will have a lot of men and families in them who were recorded on the burned 1890 census who are otherwise missing!

While war is a terrible enterprise in terms of cost (though oftentimes the cost of not going to war or losing is even higher) it provides a lot of records for genealogy, the Spanish American War is another instance!

LOST ANCESTOR! FOUND ANCESTOR! Asking for Help on the Web

One of the amazing resources I've found is Rootsweb online.  Rootsweb allows you to not only connect with mailing lists but also allows you to post questions that will often be seen by others working on the same line and get you some answers pretty quickly.

Rootsweb is free.

If you go to the Rootsweb Message Boards and go to the localities and categories towards the bottom - you can navigate your way through say the categories such as United States > States > Oregon > (unknown categories) Unknown > Begin New Thread and post a question that will usually get an answer.

I've had some amazing success this way, sometimes with more information than I can shake a stick at coming back at me from other genealogists.

One of the keys is to post a "well informed" query (Some guidelines and FAQ's here).   i.e. "Help me find my aunt!" isn't going to be of any use to anyone.

Here's a query I posted recently:
Delmar H Millican & Marie Sears Wedding? (1918)

I see in various censuses that Delmar H. Millican was married to his wife Marie (Millican) but am not able to find a marriage certification with her maiden name.

I have found both of them in the Oregon Marriage Index on the same date but not able to find their names together on a document.

Delmar H. Millican B~1897, Tillamook, Tillamook, OR
Marie (Sears?) Millican b~21 Nov 1901, California
Marriage 3 Aug 1918, Portland, Multnomah, Oregon

I've attached the Oregon Marriage Index for both names and the 1920 census, though that's pretty close for this work, if anyone has any more info on an actual wedding I'd be much obliged.

I immediately got a response from someone who had a better search of the Oregonian than I did:

Oregonian August 6, 1918 Page 16

DAILY CITY STATISTICS
MARRIAGE LICENSES

Millican-Sears - Delmar Millican 21, 499 North Twenty-First Street and Marie Sears, 18, 505 North Twenty-First Street

NOTE IN ALL THIS THE CITING OF SOURCES (I included a census so they can see the dates, locations and such) and they cited dates and pages and sources.

Now from here I might use this info to go find their headstones!  I could've found their headstones first or visa versa but always use one bit of research to find your next!

Document document document document document!  Genealogy without sources or documentation is mythology!

Another resource is to connect with people via Facebook and Ancestry and Family Search and Findagrave and any way that you can! I use facebook primarily for social networking and make sure that what I post is professional-enough to be shared with the world.  I've connected with 5th cousins who still have my last name and who are now members of the church and work on opposite ends of the family tree together.

 Use social networks!

To see an example of a "Well informed Querry" on Rootsweb, there's this link - here:

http://boards.ancestry.com/localities.northam.usa.states.california.unknown/13419.1/mb.ashx

You'll notice not only is the post "well informed" (anyone can look at it and know just about exactly what is going on or where to start looking) but I also attached copies of the documents I obtained my information from in both screen shots and file-saves (See this entry on screen shots and file saving formats).

The key in this case anyone can download a high-resolution picture of the files I uploaded, check my work, verify it for themselves, and in one case I was told I read the document wrong!  Had I not had a high-resolution image and a copy of the original, I might not have gotten that info!

Some genealogy is like this....always verify people know what they are talking about..

Coats of Arms, Heraldry & Family History

Heraldry is the profession, study, or art of creating, granting, and blazoning arms and ruling on questions of rank or protocol, as exercised by an officer of arms. Heraldry comes from Anglo-Norman herald, from the Germanic compound harja-waldaz, "army commander". The word, in its most general sense, encompasses all matters relating to the duties and responsibilities of officers of arms.To most, though, heraldry is the practice of designing, displaying, describing, and recording coats of arms and heraldic badges (To continue the article on this topic visit Wikipedia.)


Briefly, a "coat of arms" refers to a design on a shield or covering or coat over armor that identified you in battle - while you were in "arms" or ready for war. The European art of heraldry is nearly a thousand years old but is still practiced today in Europe.

According to England's College of Arms, there is no such thing as a coat of arms for a surname. The College of Arms states that unrelated families with the same surname will be entitled to completely different coats of arms and many will be entitled to no coat of arms. For any person to have a right to a coat of arms, they must either have had it granted to them or be descended in the legitimate male line from a person to whom arms were granted or confirmed in the past.

England's King Henry passed laws prohibiting the free design and wearing of armorial bearings, or personal coats of arms. In 1483, King Edward IV established the College of Arms--or Heralds' College--to "oversee and regulate the granting of coats of arms."

However, a coat of arms can provide some insight into some of your family history research and tell you a bit about where you came from. Remember your ancestry didn't end or begin with your coat of arms, and you're related to many more than just one name and the coat of arms may have been from a lineage you aren't descended from.

If you happen to find your particular ancestry's coat of arms you may be able to find some sweet memorabilia related to it at House of Names.

Some other resources can provide a bit of insight into the meanings on the coats of arms.

Have fun with this fascinating aspect of family history!

Genealogy By Nation - Working in Other Countries

Just a bit of diversity...

Every country and culture has its own unique rules and contexts for doing genealogy in.  Even in the United States of America, different cultures are going to present different research issues in general (and specific individuals will present specific research issues within the general framework context), as are different geographical areas.  For example, Native Americans are different from White Americans in culture, meanwhile, you're making a mistake if you assume all White Americans share the same culture, language, views, history or practices.  Similarly with Native Americans.  African Americans aren't all from Africa.  African American is actually a "pop culture" phrase that isn't always accurate because there are many Blacks who are from the Carribean (i.e. Haiti) and even South America who aren't from Africa but are identified as such, similarly, Egyptians are litarally from Africa but may not be considered "African American" here in America.  This is just our modern age, never mind what you're working with going back in time!


The Church has put out a training website on many individual countries with links to lessons for working within those countries. 

Also, Cyndi's List has an alphabetized list of links, training and resources for a lot of countries.  If you're looking to work within Italy, for example, go down and click on "I" on her webpage and see the Italian links.

Remember, not all countries are going to have a lot of work done or going on in them depending on history or current world conditions (e.g. Democratic Republic of Congo), this is why I stick to the "low hanging fuit" and work primarily in the United States of America presently so I can accomplish more in less time with less effort and set aside more difficult stuff for a time when more is readily available.  But if you wish to head back overseas in your family tree?  Know before you go!