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The following LINKS will take you to topics address on this main page.

Introduction

Determining Your Ancestral Locations

Internet Resources

Image Galleries

Contact

Information

The following are LINKS to the countries in which one of our ancestors was born, married, or died.

FRANCE

(République Française)

GERMANY

(Deutschland)

SWITZERLAND

UNITED KINGDOM

UNITED STATES

Successful genealogical research often hinges on identifying the localities in which our ancestors lived. Thus one must fully realize that resources which enhance our knowledge of the places inhabited by our ancestors are almost as important as their names. Once we know the vicinity, we are in a better position to consult the records and histories in an effort to piece together the lives of our fore-bearers. As such, the primary purpose of these web pages is to provide you with a clearer picture of places we’ve identified as the ancestral locations of our direct ancestors.

As you explore this area of our website you will find that we address each place with a separate and distinct page about each Country, State, and county, (or its equivalent). Within each county page we have attempted to address many of the specific places, or what we refer to as the gen-sites identified during our research. These gen-sites may be as broad as a city or town, or a specific as the location of a home-site. In addition, you will also find the surnames of persons who lived within the specified ancestral locations, as well as links to additional resources that will assist with your research of the locality.

Denterming ancestral locations

HOW TO FIND THE ANCESTRAL LOCATION

To find information about an ancestor, you need to determine at least the country the ancestor lived in for an event such as birth, christening, marriage, or death. These suggestions may help you identify where your ancestor lived:

1. Start from what you know. If you are confident about where one ancestor lived, start with that ancestor and work back to the next generation.

2. Survey previous research, and see what others have listed. To survey previous research, click the Ancestor Search tab in FamilySearch™. The computer will search Ancestral File, the International Genealogical Index, and other Web sites that may contain information about your ancestors.

3. Find a place where one or more members of the family lived, and look in the records of that place for members of the family. You may find parents living with a child, or you may find information about the parents in a child's record.

4. If your ancestor immigrated to the United States and you are unsure of the country he or she came from, click Tracing Immigrant Ancestors.

Source: Family Search

MAPPING THE ANCESTRAL LOCATION

Below are some examples of Maps, Gazetteers, and Other Helpful Resources for Researching Locations. These web sites comprise only a small portion of what is available for researchers interested in learning more about the areas in which their ancestors lived. If the list below doesn’t contain what you are looking for, we suggest you try Odden’s Bookmarks, which contains links to more than 10,000 cartographic sites.

OUR FAVORITE MAPPING PAGES (For Locating Gen-Sites)

OUR FAVORITE GAZETTEERS (For locating Gen-Sites)

Germany

· Directory of Cities, Towns, & Regions in Germany

· List of places in Germany

United Kingdom

· List of Places in England

· List of places in Northern Ireland

· The Ireland Atlas / Database

· Gazetteer for Scotland

· List of Places in Scotland

· List of Places in Wales

United States

· U.S. And Territories (USGS-GNIS Place Name Search)

· Directory of Cities, Towns, in United States

· U.S. Gazetteer (Census Bureau)

World

· Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names

· Directory of Cities and Towns in World

· Foreign Place Names Search (USGS-GNIS)

France

· Administrative divisions of France

OTHER RESOURCES (For locating Gen-Sites)

Maps

· Ancestry.com Map Center

· United Nations—Cartographic Section

· Panoramic Maps Collection (Library of Congress)

· Perry Castaneda Library Map Collection

· 1895 U.S. Atlas

· National Atlas of Canada

· U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Home Page

Gazetteers

· Canadian Place-Names

· Jewish Communities in Central and Eastern Europe

· Index of German & Polish place names in Poland & Russia

· Ancestry.com Library—Geography Section

A Dictionary, Geographical, Statistical, & Historical

o Volume 1: AA - Caspe

o Volume 2: Caspian Sea - Iona

o Volume 3: Ionian Islands - Poole

o Volume 4: Poonah – Zytomiers

Internet resources

Internet
Resources

FRANCE

· Website & Webpages We Like

· Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

· Free Genealogy Search Help For Google

· FranceGenWeb

· Rootsweb.com - Localities

· Genealogy.com: Places/Geographic, Europe

· Cyndi's List - France

· FamilySearch.org - Research Guidance (France)

GERMANY

· Website & Webpages We Like

· Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

· Free Genealogy Search Help For Google

· Germany GenWeb

· German Genealogy Info. & Resources

· List of places in Germany

· Rootsweb.com – Localities - Germany

· Genealogy.com: Places/Geographic, Europe

· Cyndi's List - Germany / Deutschland

· German Genealogy

· German Genealogy Bridge

· Directory of Cities, Towns, Regions in Germany

SWITZERLAND

· Switzerland Genealogy links - Swiss geneology

· Topics of General Importance for Swiss Genealogy

· Genealogy SiteFinder: Switzerland

· SwitzerlandGenWeb

UNITED KINGDOM

· Website & Webpages We Like

· United Kingdom and Ireland - rootsweb.com

· GENUKI: UK & Ireland Genealogy

· UK Genealogy - The Portal for UK Family Research

· Street Map UK

· The Gazetteer of British Place Names - Main Page

· Ordnance Survey, Britain's mapping agency

· Cyndi's List - United Kingdom & Ireland Index

· IGI Batch Numbers-British Isles & North America

· Genealogy SiteFinder: United Kingdom

· A vision of Britain (on-line library for local history)

· UK Genealogy Archives, Heraldry and Family History

· List of places in the United Kingdom - Wikipedia

· Directory of Cities and Towns in United Kingdom

UNITED STATES

· Website & Webpages We Like

· Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

· Free Genealogy Search Help For Google

· Linkpendium > Genealogy > USA

· The American History and Genealogy Project

· The USGenWeb Project

Genealogy Forum: U.S. States
Family Search, IGI Batches, Localities
Genealogy.com: Resources by county
Rootsweb.com - Localities
Cyndi's List - General U.S. Sites

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Image galleries

During our research we have collected images and photographs that are of general interest to a variety of localities. Some of them are presented on this website because we believe they tend to provide the reader with additional information which may aid in the understanding of our ancestors past lives.

If you have any photographs or other images relating to these ancestral

locations we would greatly appreciate hearing from you.

Use the following LINK to ascertain whether we have any images that may interest you.

ANCESTRAL LOCATION PHOTOGRAPHS and IMAGES