GENEALOGY ... Do Your Own!
Family Tree
Scott M Connolly's Family's Genealogy at World-Connect of RootsWeb
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If one cannot afford a professional genealogy service .. or prefers to stake the costs for more specialized research ...Computer access and public records permit an effective, low cost family genealogy. I started with eight grandparents, and two great-grandparents names .. and had lost family records of an historic nature ...and began rebuilding a family record. The costs, thus far, are my own time; a basiic Internet service (home & library), and maybe $20 in some external scanning costs. The result has staken me back two and half centuries; given me much pleasure; more hstory; and will continue.
In addition to the RootsWeb site for my Connolly & McCormack Family, more of the geenalogy is displayed here at TribalPages ..a free Genealogy Dispay site on line.. (Also works well for Web TV)
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Rootsweb is one of the oldest sites on line for Genealogy. It makes data freely available, contirbuted by users, and the public, for use in personal, non-commercial genealogy.
Coupled with it, a partner Ancestry.com makes public and private data available to users and the public for a fee.
Censuses, Vital Statistics Records, Business DIrectories ..special collections and more ... are available from CD Rom, saveable as images.
A third organization Family Search ... sustains free public records including US, British, & Canadian Censuses for 1880 & 1881 ... free on the internet ... and many Vital Statistics Records; and have also included the International Genealogical Index .. from many sources - the US and abroad. Family Search is affiliated with the LDS or Morman Church.
World Connect, & more at RootsWeb
Since any American geenalogy of a few generations can help other family researchers nationally & internationally ..RootsWeb offers a voluntary World Connect project which displays -free- genealogy of anyone .. with notes & records etc. It then becomes a 'free' part of the RootsWeb & Ancestry.com database.
So that cousin or away family member trying to pck up his or your research tracks ..or starting with out knowing your activity ..has a baseline of data.
RootsWeb also has a Surname List ..a basic 'scratch' starting point for information & research sharing ..
And Mailing Lists ..specialized for specific surname; US States; counties; foreign countries and so on. Can't make it "Back East" to check a record? Use RootsWeb or a mailing list & see if a volunteer can 'look it up' .. even exchange a favor or a research tip or data site on the internet. All free - except your effort.
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World Gen-Web & US Gen-Web
World GenWeb
US GenWeb
Both Gen Web projects use the efforts of free contributors and volunteers in various countries .. and every State & most counties of the United States .. to find , display and share data .. reference books and to volunteer data look-ups.
Many people volunteer their own time to help transcribe censuses for 'free' research & digitalized hype-text scanning by computer .. and build research data by freely publishing & sharing their own material.
So, if you had a three generations ago Aunt in Idaho, who married a man from Germany who immigrated through Canada ... you'd go to the USGenWeb page for Idaho, see if a resource there could help you find her record .. ditto for Canada - even by Province - and same with Germany. Only the limit of the voluntary effort will stay you.
Passenger Lists, some naturalization records; transcirbed partial censuses; transcribed legal papers or histories (for the name search). Lists of birth records etc. All you ever have to do is to optionally give some data back,or return a favor.
Peoples experiences vary - but the record search can be work . you save costs & can use the internet. You'll soon appreciate the 'free data' and learn the humor of "random acts of kindness". As a data category.
Professional Genealogists
Far from starving .. these people will do a more involved search .. and you'll have saved money for the purchase of certified copy records; instead of paying for research time. You'll also have moey now left over for specialized history; a publication; or travel..
On line services like this professional document retrieval business can save you time & money - once you have a name & date ..Mass-Doc.
NARA is the US National Archives & Records Administration with regional research centers .. records available to copy & information.
Also consider hiring a person used to records checks and retrieval; ie a student or a real estate 'title searcher'.
All the GenWeb centers have names and addresses for State & local archives for copies of State & local records .. those costs $4-$10 including your postage for a copy - if the date place & person are known. That's what you and professional genealogists save.
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Doing a GedCom
GedCom is simply the file and omputer name form for a special data file which displays genealogies.
For webtv and other computer users .. GedCom's mean another computer program and another data file to process.
Tribal Pages is a free genealogy data posting site - for public or private family histories. Rather than downloading a progam (Ancestry.com & Genealogy.com have free ones for PC's for off-line use) ..TribalPages uses a light java on-line progam. Just follow the instructions. When your genealogy is done ..create a back-up file . .TribalPage will store it in GedCom format as well as the HTML display. Then download your GedCom to disc. Either by computer program or by another on-line site like RootsWeb's World Connect option ... FREE ... you may load up your GedCom file ..and open it in three or four forms for use and reading ... A descendants table ..a pedigree chart ..an index format etc ready for printing or reading. Opened by itself ..the GedCom on a disc or hard drive will mix text with formatting code; properly processed it will display charts, texts, etc.
Best of all - what TribalPages produces as aGedCom backup can be used in any genealogy site on line. Wherever you see 'upload or post your GedCom. Even for WebTV. (Caution - while webtv can use Tribal Pages .. the GedCom downloaidng to disc will take a PC .. otherwise the file maikng can be doen by webtv on line.)
My TribalPages Account here ..produced the file which I have uploaded at RootsWeb. RootsWeb's computer stores and processes my GedCom in the mentioned several formats.
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Basic Genealogy can begin with a birth certificate - which contains the date and place of birth; and the names of parents (usually surnames too); their birthplaces and occupations. Caroline May's above is a public document copy. Other public document copies for her father and mother's life events (their marriage, their deaths, other children of their family) bear the surname Fitzmorris for Bridget, and Adelia ('Bridget' anglicized).
Message Boards, Mailings Lists & name Forums
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Recommendations
That World Connect is an option which I enjoy & it returns a favor. Ancestry.com is also recommended .. and may be your highest cost in addition to optional purchases of books & CD's of records. Ancestry has good & official records copies in fast available CD-Rom image form ..its cost of $89 (try a free trial for 14 days) a year is worth it .. but check the nature of records for your state or name first. .. not for commercial use ... ask them if you seriously to do genealogy professionally. One Never Pays A Charge for On-Line Data at RootsWeb ... and the one fee covers most of Ancestry. It's data is never to be re-sold.
I haven't sold it to boost a website nor to sell advertising .. I just wanted to tell you about it.
Scott M Connolly's Family's Genealogy at World-Connect of RootsWeb
A search for Ice-Sailng pictures and information lead me to Prince Edward Island, Canada last January (by Internet). While on the PEI subject, I discovered Island Register .. a cornucopia of family roots information ... my maternal great-grandparents emigrated to Boston from there .. & that got be re-started. Most was done with my time in a few months of on and off work ..some family correspondence and so on. A new name or new information revives it with a flurry of research every time.
If you wish to do a favor --check the list. One of my projects is a big list of Boston McCormacks from about 1850-1900 .. the big immigration period - for my pleasure & to help start someone else (I'm still figuring them out.)
Enjoy the hunt & the history.
Webmaster - SMC November 8, 2002
This page and article originally published by SMC at the MSNTV home pages.