Posts Tagged Online Resources

One of the great online genealogy search secrets is the use of wildcards. The following methods give you the ability to improve your search capabilities greatly.

Wildcards might be one the least-utilized search features, which if used properly can produce excellent results. In genealogy research, we must be as specific as possible in our searches or else deal with hundreds of results that don’t match what we’re seeking. Wildcards are used to tell a search engine or database (such as on Ancestry.com) exactly what you want. If you haven’t used wildcards before you will seldom work without them again once you understand the power this method delivers.

What is a wildcard? Wildcards are special characters and symbols included in your search text used to filter the search results before returning them to you. You can specify exactly what you want to see, and tell the search query what you might know or don’t know ahead of time. If you’ve searched Google you’ve undoubtedly noticed literally millions of search results for a general search. Using wildcards you can filter your search down from millions of results to dozens of results. This method can be used almost anywhere a search function is offered. What this means for you is eliminating hundreds of records to review and potentially saving HOURS of research time per project. If you rely only on the filtering mechanisms offered on the sites you’re using, you’re easily missing out on half of your search capability.

Often in genealogy work we come across the names of individuals that are not a match for the person we’re looking for but shares the same name or has a similar enough name to keep confusing us. Many times a wildcard can be used to filter out the results that keep popping up that we’re not interested in.

To use wildcards effectively, we must first understand the language that databases use. There are certain characters and symbols that will tell the database query to handle our search is a specific way. The most common of these characters and symbols are the asterisk (*), question mark (?), parenthesis (), and quotation marks( ” ).

The asterisk can be used to replace one or more unknown characters, to allow variant endings to keywords, or to include results with everything before and/or after an asterisk with anything in between. For instance on Ancestry.com, you can use an asterisk to find variations of a keyword or a name. The search keyword “Smith*” will return the names Smith, Smithe, and Smithson. The asterisk is telling the database to return anything matching the name Smith plus variations of Smith using additional letters. By placing the asterisk ahead or behind a name or partial name you’ll be searching for the name itself, with all variations of prefixes and suffixes. The search for instance “*Donald” will also return results for McDonald.

The question mark is used on Ancestry.com to insert a single wildcard letter. For example, if you were to search for “East?n”, you will receive results for the names Eastin and Easton.

Similar conventions are available when searching in Google. In Google, the asterisk represents one or more words. When using the asterisk in Google, enclose the query in quotes, and place the asterisk wherever a wildcard letter, character or word might be found. For example if you were to search for “Martin * Connerty”, you will return all results that include a middle initial or a middle name in the order specified. This wildcard will also return results containing several words in proximity, so a potential result could be a list such as: “Martin, Jones, Dawson, Connerty”. Another way you might try to search: “Connerty, Martin *” is not useful because it will include anything that follows the name Martin.

Another useful Google trick that will work selectively in other search engines is the (-) minus sign to narrow the search. You’ll quickly narrow your search by eliminating frequent duplicates of the same result you don’t want to see. Entering your search term in Google usually returns thousands of unwanted results. Enter a search term and view the results. When there are numerous results for something you’re not looking for you may go back to the search box and add a space behind your original query and then type -word. “Word” being the term you wish to exclude from the search. For more information on using wildcards in Google visit http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861.

Give them a try and you’ll be happy you did. Just remember that the operators or Boolean logic may be different for each website so it may take some getting used to, and a little bit of time to gain an understanding of how your favorite websites handle wildcard searches.

by David Haas, Geneosity.com

Chances are that you have dealt with this genealogy research challenge before, or eventually will. You’re looking up a John, Mary, Michael, or Ann with some relatively common surname, and to your surprise there are over 400 or even over a thousand people with the name you’re looking up. Before you spend hours combing through hundreds of listings that match the name and another piece of data you should try something different first. (more…)

New York Genealogy

Map Courtesy of Digital-Topo-Maps.com

Abbreviation: NY
Capital: Albany
Admission to Statehood: July 26th, 1788
11th state admitted to the Constitution
62 Counties

New York State Archives
Address: New York State Education Department, Cultural Education Center, Albany, NY 12230 (more…)

Illinois Genealogy

Map Courtesy of Digital-Topo-Maps.com

Genealogy resources for Illinois include statewide, county and local sources of genealogy and vital records. There are many, many good sources of data on both the state and county level. Note the general data for the State of Illinois and keep in mind the history of Illinois when performing research. The formation of the state in 1818 is the absolute earliest of state government records but some land grand and other information may pre-date this period. You may notice that there are several counties in Illinois that are also the names of counties found in Indiana and Ohio. Many earlier settlers of Illinois, and to a higher degree the earliest downstate settlers used names of their prior residences in other states when the establishment of Illinois towns and counties was taking place. One notable example is Champaign County, which exists in both Illinois and Ohio.

- Abbreviation: IL
- Capital: Springfield
- Admission to Statehood: December 3, 1818
- 21st state admitted to the Constitution
- 102 Counties

Illinois State Archives
Statewide genealogy resources at the Illinois State Archives include death records from 1916 to 1947 however many counties have records going further back. On a standard basis the majority of Illinois counties didn’t record deaths until 1877. Marriage indexes are available online from approximately 1763 to 1900. Also held at the Illinois State Archives are early state census records, military records, select land, prison and slave records.
Mailing Address: Norton Building, Capitol Complex, Springfield, IL 62756 (more…)

Illinois State Archives – County Fact Sheets:  View an Illinois county fact sheet by clicking the region of the state in which the county is located, and then by clicking the individual county.  Fact sheets contain contact information for the county offices, record types held, record types lost and a history of the county. (more…)

A frequent complaint in genealogy research is “I would love to learn about my family tree but I can’t afford professional help or the fees all these websites charge”.     The amount of money you can spend is inversely proportional to the combined volume of time you’re able to spend doing it AND how resourceful you are.   Money and time must be spent and that is just a fact.   Play it smart, however, and there are some great things that can be accomplished with relatively little money. (more…)

Genealogy research in Ireland can be uniquely challenging. Since public records only began being collected in 1864 it can be very difficult to locate the origins of individuals that lived even into the mid-1900s. Public records of Irish births, deaths and marriages prior to 1864 do not exist. There are, however, existing church records, wills, property and land records for periods prior to 1864. There are a number of ways to locate this information if you know the approximate dates and location of residence at the time. (more…)

Genealogy How To:

It can make the task of building your family tree much easier if you know where to find certain specific information. We have compiled a list of places where you should be able to locate specific pieces of genealogical information on an ancestor.

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Something that happens too often is that while researching your family tree we find ourselves looking at the image records over and over again. That’s something that I do frequently. I always prefer to review the original record when it’s not too inconvenient to do so. Original image records are one of the greatest things brought to the internet for genealogy research. Things that can be seen with your own eyes are the handwritten records of the census, voter registrations, draft cards, passport applications and more.

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Geneosity.com is an online resource for the genealogy or family history enthusiast.  Here you’ll find a guide of the most useful websites and methods of locating the information that you seek.   Each resource will assist in facilitating your family tree projects effectively.

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of potential sources from which you can investigate the genealogy of your family.   For every online resource cited herein, there are dozens of offline or “in print”  books, photos, newspapers, directories and other items also available though many libraries and local government records.   Each have their benefit.  In libraries and other historical repositories of family information the benefit is in gaining access to items not indexed elsewhere. Each trip to the library or to family history centers offer to uncover something never seen before except in print.  In many cases you can see the first-hand documentation from the actual sources, but you need to be physically located in these places to see these records.   No person can conduct their research completely from the internet, in libraries or even at a family history center provided by the Church of Latter Day Saints.   A concerted effort using all of these resources are usually necessary.

Researching ancestry data items online is a different methodology.   Most online resources cite thousands and millions of records at some point scanned, copied or otherwise transcribed for your reading pleasure in whatever location you choose as long as you have an internet connection.   Being capable of browsing information from a broad variety of sources literally across the globe has advantages and disadvantages.  The vast amounts of information can make it difficult to find exactly what you’re looking for but you can indeed get much closer to the actual source online.

Below is our list of the most useful online genealogy resources. Some are very well-known and some are less-known or niche sites.

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