Genealogy Search Help

Genealogy Search Help for Google,

which helps you run targeted genealogical Google searches

Get the Best Genealogy Searches for Google by Using Your Family Tree
This free genealogy site will help you use Google™ for your research. It will create a series of different searches using tips or "tricks" that will likely improve your results. The different searches will give you many different ways of using Google to find ancestry information on the Internet.
Just complete the small family tree from the above link for an ancestor and this site will set up the best searches for you, based on what you enter. Tip: If you don't know an ancestor's parents, but know one of the ancestor's children, use the child's name for the First Name and Last Name below (and spouse, birth, and death) and then enter the ancestor as the Father or Mother. This gives more information for building a search.

Great new free resource

If you go to the New York Times site, you can enter your search terms in the bar near the top of the page and select whether you want to search articles since 1981 or before 1981. Once you have your results, you can select the Advanced option to limit your search to specific dates. The stories are downloadable as PDF documents. (If you happen across articles that aren't in the free years, they're $4.95 each, or you can get a monthly pass for $7.95 that allows 100 story downloads.)
I used a couple of Ohio place names and found real gold...many surnames, too. Try it.

Free Mortality Schedules onlilne

Search Online Mortality Schedules for Free
Bill Cribbs, the man behind the GenealogyBuff.com free genealogy search engine site, has gathered hundreds of counties’ online transcribed mortality schedules and made them searchable at MortalitySchedules.com.
For the 1850 through 1880 US censuses, enumerators recorded names of and other details about people who’d died within the past year. These mortality schedules may be the only death record for some people, especially in states that didn’t require recording of deaths until later. You can browse MortalitySchedules.com by state or search on one or more keywords, such as a name or place. (If you want matches to contain more than one keyword, select “Find all words” from the dropdown menu.) When you click on a match, you'll be taken to the Web site that stores the transcribed records. What you see varies depending how the data was transcribed and digitized. You may get a chart or a text file listing a few details of deaths in that enumeration district, or you may get the whole shebang: the deceased’s age and marital status at death; death date, place and cause; birth date and place; physician’s name; parents’ birthplaces and more.

Google Book Search

Are Your Ancestors in Google Book Search?
Copyright fights aside, a favorite search tools is Google's Book Search, at books.google.com. By typing in keywords just like in a normal Google search, you get results from all sorts of out-of-print and hard-to-find books.
Use it to research the histories of areas that aren't well-represented online. Some books show up in the results as full page scans with searchable text. Other books are restricted to just showing a few preview pages or a few paragraphs of excerpts. Some are downloadable as PDF documents. (Even if you can't see all of the information, Google gives you the publisher's information that gives you a head start on finding it at your library.)

Research comment

He who cares nothing about his ancestors will rarely achieve anything worthy of being remembered by his descendants. —author unknown

Civil War pension Files

Civil War Pension files are an amazing source for information. I sent away for my great-greatgrandfather's file and received 97 pages of genealogy and copies of handwritten decuments.

NARA Record Request Fees Go Up Oct.
We’ve known it was coming since the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) proposed last February to raise its reproduction fees for records you order. The good news is, it could’ve been worse.
Effective Oct. 1, NARA will charge $75 for a Civil War pension file of up to 100 pages, plus $.65 per additional page (for longer files, staff will contact the requestor with a price quote before filling the order).
NARA will charge $50 for pre-Civil War pension files regardless of page count, and $.75 per page to copy other records. While still a steep increase from the current $37 for a Civil War pension file, these fees are less than the $125 and $60 NARA originally proposed for Civil War and pre-Civil War pensions, respectively. (Still, save some cash by sending your request before October.

Genealogy Blogs

Here is an incredible list of genealogy blogs! You will find just about any topic.
http://blogfinder.genealogue.com/

Recently Updated
Genealogy blogs with fresh content
Genealogy News
The latest developments in the genealogical world
Tips, Resources & Reviews
Tips for building skills and finding resources
Personal Research
Family historians share their personal stories
Single Surname
Blogs focusing on one surname
Technology
Using technology to aid research
Preservation
Tips on preserving your family's history
Locality Specific
Regional and local news and resources
Documentary
Digitized and transcribed documents
Photography
Family history told with photographs
Cemeteries
Cemetery and gravestone research tools
Genetic Genealogy
On the use of DNA in genealogy
Podcasts
Listen online to genealogy news and advice
Libraries
Librarians offer tips on finding resources
What's New
The latest blogs added to the directory
Associations & Societies
Family association and genealogical society blogs
African-American
Blogs devoted to African-American research
Jewish
Blogs for those with Jewish roots
International
Bloggers beyond the United States
Conferences
Official blogs of genealogical conferences
Queries
Questions asked and answered
Professional Genealogists
The pros weigh in
Obituaries
Blogs featuring death notices
Community
Blogs for online communities
Humor
The lighter side of genealogy
Vlogs
Blogs with genealogy video clips
Corporate
Blogs published by businesses and non-profits
Aggregators
Sites that draw content from multiple blogs

Genealogy Blogs

How to Use Your Genealogy Blog to Further Your Research:
Here is a wonderful comment by a genealogy expert:
"Having your own genealogy blogs are not just fun to do. They are another wonderful way to store information about your surnames of interests. Web pages disappear all the time. This is a good way to keep the valuable information. This is a way to have people contact you and help you further your research."

Genealogy Research

How to Use Your Genealogy Blog to Further Your Research:
"About this whole 'blog thing.' Why are they so special?
The search engines love blogs because there is usually fresh content added frequently.
This a HUGE advantage to you as a genealogy researcher because people who are looking up information on surnames (last names) that you have genealogy blogs set up on, will be able to find you easily.
And, since you know how to add the 'I will be glad to share more information with you' statement (see part one of this lesson), you will be able to get more information that YOU need with very little effort."

genealogy blog

How to create your own genealogy blog in less than 5 minutes:

"You may be thinking, 'So, WHY do I need a genealogy blog?'
The short answer is:

• 
  So that other genealogy researchers can find your blog (set up around a SURNAME you are interested in).


• 
  The visitor to your blog finds something interesting on it that helps them.


• 
  They contact you, the helpful blog owner, and SHARE information with you that can help further YOUR genealogy research.

Finding ancestor's pictures

Learn about your ancestors or the meaning of your last name. Genealogy discussions include everything from DNA and genetic testing to advanced research techniques to how to get started with your family tree. Genealogy news and new databases too!

If you tire of family researching, look for almost any topic on any subject. As of July 26, 2007 there were 7,100,166 hits in a blog search for genealogy. How many of those might contain a bit of research on your family?

Here is a picture of Peter Hartsook, a 5th great uncle and his wife, Anna. I found an incredible story about their journey in a covered wagon across Ohio. Earlier adventures of Peter tell about his time on a river boat and prospecting for gold.