Google Alerts & Genealogy Queries

Google Alerts lets you automate your Google genealogy queries, sending you an email whenever any new content about your query is added to the Google index. This makes it easy to keep up with your Google genealogy searches and not miss any new sites without having to perform the same Google searches over and over.

Google Alerts

Create a set of keywords, and Google Alert will run a search each day, and automatically send you an email alert when the query produces *NEW* results. So before taking advantage of the Google Alerts, you will want to first run the query in Google to thorougly examine all the old results.

You can use all the advanced search features that Google offers such as quotes, math signs, etc, as you would in a regular Google genealogy query. To take full advantage of Google Alerts, you can learn about advanced Google search features for genealogists at Google Hints and Tips for Genealogists .

I’ve been using Google Alert for a while now and have been pleasantly surprised at the results. Not only have I found previously unknown Web Pages that fit my query, but I have also found archived Rootsweb mailing lists that I never would have thought of searching.

You can set Google Alerts to perform a search once a day, once a week, or as it happens. You can search the Web, Blogs, Groups, News or Comprehensive (all). I have been using Comprehensive, but most of the results I get are from the Web.

You can search for your surnames, or ancestral town, or whatever, whomever, and wherever you are researching. With unlimited alerts allowed, you can set up an Alert for individual people in your database. You can search for records you hope someday may be transcribed and put on the web.

Google Alerts

Google's Blog Search for Ancestors

Google has a blog search in beta. Now you don't have to search each blog individually, but can search all blogs (and only blogs) at one time.

http://blogsearch.google.com/

Today, many of the top genealogy sites announce their new databases on their blogs - with surnames. Other blogs are devoted to research on particular ancestors - so a search of genealogy blogs could help you find repositories of otherwise unknown family tree information.

Search for ancestor surnames, genealogy topics, locations, or relatives.

Google says:

Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs. Google is a strong believer in the self-publishing phenomenon represented by blogging, and we hope Blog Search will help our users to explore the blogging universe more effectively... Blog Search enables you to find out what people are saying on any subject of your choice.

You can choose to search posts from the last hour, last 12 hours, last day, past week, etc. so that you don't duplicate your searching effort.

You can also subscribe to 'blog alerts" to automate your blog queries for surnames and ancestral towns. You will receive an e-mail when your query keywords are found in a blog.

To create a query so that only genealogy blogs are searched, be sure to add ~genealogy to the query along with your surname or other keyword.

Google Blog Search

http://blogsearch.google.com/
Easy Genealogy Google Searcher, Part II
The blog search is also part of the Easy Genealogy Google Searcher, Part II

BYU Computerized Family History & Genealogy Conference

If you are anywhere near Provo, Utah, don't miss Brigham Young University's Annual 2007 Computerized Family History and Genealogy Conference March 16 and 17, 2007, held at the Conference Center on BYU campus.

Learn how advancements in computer programs are revolutionizing genealogical and family history work.

The featured presenters for this conference will be Dick Eastman, editor of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, and Alan Mann, manager of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

For more information, go to http://ce.byu.edu/cw/cwcompu/

Easter Date Finder

Easter, April 8, 2007 will be here soon. Just take a look at this year's calendar and you can find the date.

But what if you are trying to date a photo from years ago that is simply marked Easter, 1948?

Or if you are reading an old newspaper clipping that says a wedding took place on the Saturday after Easter, 1922?

Or a death happened on the day before Easter, 1887?

How can you determine those dates? It is easy with the online

Easter Date Finder
Just enter the year to find the date on which Easter fell.

NARA proposes a huge increase for Civil War pension files

The National Archives are proposing increasing the Full pension file more than 75 years old (Civil War period) - NATF Form 85 from $37 to 125.00.

You can make comments until April 27, 2007.

ADDRESSES: NARA invites interested persons to submit comments on this proposed rule. Comments may be submitted by any of the following methods:

Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov/.
Follow the instructions for submitting comments.

Fax: Submit comments by facsimile transmission to 301-837-0319.

Mail: Send comments to Regulations Comments Desk (NPOL), Room 4100, Policy and Planning Staff, National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740-6001.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jennifer Davis Heaps at 301-837-1850 or fax at 301-837-0319. Requests for copies of the proposed information collection and supporting statement should be directed to Tamee Fechhelm at 301-837-1694 or fax at 301-837-3213.

It is probably futile to complain about such a large increase. So if you have been thinking about ordering a Civil War pension file from the National Archives, now is the time to do it

Order Civil War Pension & Service Records

Pennsylvania Civil War Genealogy

The Pennsylvania Civil War site has recently undergone an update. All information is now organized by county or by regiment making it easier to find information. You will find

• Regimental Rosters
  
• Soldier Biographies


• Newspaper Transciptions about the soldiers


• Soldier Civil War Diaries and Journals


• Prisoners of War


• Medal of Honor Recipients


• POWs


• Pension Index


• Deaths and Burials

You will also helpful hints, both on-line and off-line, to locate your Pennsylvania Civil War ancestor with a guide to ordering service and pension records from NARA, a great source for genealogy info.

Erie County, Pennsylvania Biographies

Erie County Pennsylvania Biographies
Biographical Sketches and Genealogies have been extracted from the book History of Erie County Biography, published by Warner, Beers & Co.; 1884.

PA Biographical Sketches include:

John Abell; F.F. Adams; Dr. Charles Aichner; George A. Allen; William P. Atkinson; F. A. Austin; Elijah Babbitt; Francis Bailey; Isaac Baker; Peter Barker; H.R. Barnhurst; William Bates; F. Bauschard; George Baxter; John Baxter; Philip Becker; C. R. Beechling; E. Sherlock Belknap; E.C. Bennett; Rev. A. L. Benze; Ludwig Bier; John H. Bliss; Jacob Bootz; Maximilian Bosch; Jonas Bowers; Joseph Boyd; John Boyle; C. Brandes; Gustav F. Brevillier; C.M. Briggs; Conard Brown; R.B Brown; S.H. Brown; William A. Brown; G. W. Brubaker; J. M. Bryant; J. Bryce; A. P. Burton; George Burton; Lewis Bush; James Campbell; C. M. Carlson; John Carter; James Casey; Thomas Casey; A. H. Caughey; E. F. Christian; David Clark; William Clark; H. V. Claus; F. A. Clemens; John Clemens; Frank Cleveland; Washington Cleveland; John Coates; J. R. Cochran; Robert Cochran.

This is an ongoing project, so watch for more biographies to be posted at a later date

Surname Origins and Last Name Meanings

Have you ever wondered the meaning of your name and its origin?

Your surname may tell a story of your ancestors from hundreds of years ago - where your family lived, what they did for a trade, their personality, or how they looked. You can look up your surname origin in this FREE online Surname Dictionary.

Surname Origins and Last Name Meanings.

My surname Reid is a Scottish name meaning red hair or ruddy complexion. I don't know how many Reids today have red hair or a ruddy complexion, because none in our family do. But it is fun to imagine a red-headed Scotsman of the Middle Ages as the progenitor of our family line.

Schuylkill County, PA, Hero Dead of World War II

Schuylkill County Genealogy Ties announces the addition of Schuylkill County's Hero Dead of World War II, a list of the almost 1000 World War II military personnel casualties from all of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.

Included are photos of the men of Schuylkill Haven who gave their lives during World War II. Service Records for these men are available from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO to the next of kin.

For more information, go to
Ordering Pension and Service Records.

Schuylkill County Genealogy Ties
Schuylkill County's Hero Dead of World War II

Looking for a Pennsylvania Ancestor? Part I

Want to research your family in Pennsylvania? Here are some great transcriptions of original source material and other resources to help find your Pennsylvania ancestors.

PA Biographies Biographies of Pennsylvania residents written in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Family History Centers in Pennsylvania Locations of Family History Centers, branches of the LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Genealogy Search Engines for Pennsylvania Search Pennsylvania databases

Passenger Lists
German Passenger Lists to PA 1734-1808

PA Civil War (1861-1865)

• Rosters
• Pa Civil War soldiers by county
• 1883 Pension Lists
• Biographies of Pa Civil War soldiers
• Medal of Honor Recipients
• Find your Civil War Ancestor
  

Pa Spanish American War (1898-1899)

• Rosters
• Medal of Honor Winners
• Find a PA Spanish American Ancestor
  

1895 Atlas of Pennsylvania
ARIAS - Pennsylvania Digital Archives


Passenger Lists to Pennsylvania
Ship Passenger Lists to Philadelphia 1727-1808.