Ancestry Newspaper Collection

Ancestry.com has doubled the size of its Historical Newspaper Collection, adding a billion names and over 20 million images. And they're offering free access until June 19.

Searching the Ancestry Newspaper Collection or any newspaper collection is a little bit different than searching other genealogy databases and here are a few tips for better success:

• If you don't see your hometown newspaper in the list of available newspapers, don't despair. Just like today, articles from one newspaper are reprinted in other newspapers near and far. I found a 100 year old article about a NJ cousin in newspapers as far away as Alaska. If you are not successful in the state where you think the article should be, check other states.

• Sometimes newspapers refer to people by Mr. and Mrs. instead of their first names, and many times refer a woman by her husband's name; i.e. Mrs. John Smith. Try searching by just a surname. And search for a woman by both her name and her husband's name.

• Use quotes whenever possible in the keyword field to minimize false results.

• Try changing criteria if you are unsuccessful in a search. I was searching for articles about a railroad explosion that took place in Locust Gap, PA. When I entered Locust Gap in location field as "exact", it didn't find the article. When I unticked the "exact" field, it found the articles. Go figure.

World Archives Project

Ancestry.com doesn't want the world's stories to disappear so they are creating the World Archives Project to help preserve these records. I signed up to help index at http://landing.ancestry.com/keyingtool/notify.aspx and I received this email this morning:

What’s the World Archives Project? The World Archives Project will allow people all over the world to collaborate to preserve the world’s historical records. It will give genealogists the opportunity to network and share resources, preserve records that might have otherwise been overlooked — and create free indexes for others pursuing family research.

When and how can you get involved?We began alpha testing the World Archives Project in May and we’ve planned beta testing for July. When beta testing begins, you’ll be one of the first people invited to try the new World Archives Project tool. Look out for an email from us in July.

Quite honestly, I was a little leary at first volunteering to give free help to a commercial corporation. Then I read that "That’s why we’re creating the World Archives Project, to let anyone help preserve the contents of these valuable documents in indexes that will remain FREE to the public." Indexes? We'll see how it all shakes out. I really want to help get a much genealogy info online as soon as possible.

Irish Names in the French-Canadian Drouin Collection at Ancestry

The French- Canadian Drouin Collection Also Contains Records of Irish Immigrants

The Ancestry.com Drouin Collection of Quebec records that spans the years 1621 to 1967 - (yes, 346 years of records) - has over 30 million names taken from baptism, marriage and burial records of Quebec, as well as church records from Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and some of the New England states. Those with French-Canadian ancestry should be very excited.

Surprisingly, many people of Irish descent will also find their ancestors' name in these French-Canadian records because many Irish immigrated to and lived in Quebec before coming to the U.S. My own Irish ancestors lived in Montreal in the 1830's before coming to Pennsylvania and I found the birth records of two of their children in the Drouin Collection. If you have Irish ancestors, it might be worth a look to see if your ancestors came to the United States via Quebec. For example, there are over 20,000 search results for the Irish name Murphy, and over 10,000 for the Irish name Sullivan in the Drouin Collection.

Records in the Drouin Collection can be searched in French or English by name, date, place, church or institution, and religion. You will find some of the records of Irish immigrants are recorded in French. You can use this French Genealogy Glossary to help translate.

This collection is only available online through a subscription to Ancestry.com but you can view them via a Free Trial or at your local Family History Center.


Read more about the Drouin Collection

Legacy 7.0 is officially released!

Legacy 7.0 genealogy software is officially released -- check out the web site for the newest version of this great software. There is a tour of the new edition plus a comparison chart to other software programs. You can also download the software from the website - no need to wait for the disk to arrive in the mail.

Legacy Website

Legacy 7 genealogy software comes in two versions.

• Legacy 7.0 Standard edition is free.
• Legacy 7.0 Deluxe has everything that the Standard Edition has and much more.

Both versions can be downloaded directly from the Legacy Website . I've heard reports of slow servers, but it downloaded quickly for me.

Legacy 7.0 Deluxe

FTM 2008 Lite - FREE

FTM 2008 Lite is now being offered as a FREE download for a limited time.

The FTM 2008 Lite page says "Family Tree Maker 2008 Lite includes all the functionality you need to build and maintain your family tree".

It continues:

•Have complete control of your family tree on your own computer
•Attach documents, photos and media files to your tree
•Print charts at home to share with friends and family
•Search Ancestry.com from your personal tree
•Merge information from the web easily into your tree
•Include historical data on a timeline for each ancestor
•Import data from PAF, The Master Genealogist and Legacy Family Tree Maker


It sounds like a good way to try FTM2008. Download FamilyTreeMaker 2008 Lite FREE.

Vietnam Virtual Wall

The Virtual Vietnam Wall
Visiting the Vietnam Memorial Wall in Washington, D. C. with its 58,256 names carved into black granite is a powerful and emotional experience. The sheer size of the Wall is a sobering reminder of how many young people paid the ultimate sacrifice during this war.

Every time I have been to the Wall, I realize it is not just the Wall by itself but seeing the people who interact with the Wall that makes the visit so poignant. Seeing people placing flowers against the Wall under their loved one's name, or seeing people rubbing a carved name from the Wall onto paper to take home, or seeing people standing in silence as they touch a name on the Wall reminds me of the suffering of the loved ones left behind.

I didn't think it would be possible for the Virtual Wall to have the same emotional impact as as visit to the Granite Wall in D.C. But I was wrong.

The Virtual Vietnam Wall at Footnote.com turns the 58,256 names engraved onto the Wall into real people with real stories and loved ones they left behind. Just like at the Granite Wall, it is the interaction with people that makes the Virtual Wall poignant. Short stories of their lives written by those who loved them, photographs of forever-young faces, and loving tributes make the visit to the Virtual Wall very poignant. Many of the tributes hold a lot of emotion in a very few words: "The dad I never knew", or "He saved my life", or "I still miss you, brother".

Peter Krogh, a National Geographic photographer, took more than 1,500 photographs of the Wall and stitched them together to create one digital replica of the memorial. Footnote made each name link to the person's personnel records and casualty reports supplied by the National Archives. To view the whole Wall, slide from one side to the other to see the sheer magnitude of the 140 panels that make the Vietnam Wall.

Searching is easy. Choose any of of 24 categories - you don't need to supply a name. Search for a soldier, or for all soldiers who died in one town, or for those who died in a certain year, or any combination of the 24 filters.

Some of the Tributes
Lewis Albanese
Thomas Joseph Blanchard
Gerald Alan Cahela
Thomas Carlisle
Harry Cramer
Steven Dean Gundolf
Norman Walter Heck Jr
George Henry Jourdenais
Roger Edward Jozwiak
Darwin Lee Judge
Fredrick Ellis Larsen
Chester Lee
William Thomas Perkins Jr
Leroy James Westra
David Clark Williams
Delvin Wilson

Google Personalized Search

Google Personalized Search means that Google gives you unique search results based on your Web History. If you and I are both logged into our Google accounts and we both have Web History, we might get different Google search results even if we used identical keywords.

You may have been getting Google Personalized Searches and not realized it. How do you know if you have Personalized Search? If you're signed into your Google account and do a search, you will see these links on the top right :

Web History - My Account - Sign Out

Google Personalized Search changes your search results by giving a boost in the search results to the types of sites you have previously searched for and selected from Google search results, especially if you have visited these sites often. Google will also boost sites and pages that Google's algorithm determines are related to those you are already visited.

There are actually three things that influence your Personalized Search results:

• Previous Google Web History
• Your iGoogle Personalized Homepage - blogs and other gadgets
• Your Google Bookmarks
  

Personalization is subtle—at first you may not notice any difference. But over time, as the search engine learns your preferences, you'll start to notice some differences.

Here is an example of how Personalized Search could work. Three different people may do a search using the keywords Civil War. The first person's web history shows a majority of genealogy searches and this person will get Civil War search results with a genealogy slant. The second person's web history shows that they are mostly interested in Civil War re-enactments and they will get served search results that are re-enactment related. The third person's web history shows that they are mostly interested in history, and, you guessed it, their results will have an emphasis on Civil War history. Subtle but each person received better results for their needs.

Sometimes, Personalized Search is very helpful in genealogy research by helping us find sites that are similar to sites we regularly frequent. I'm usually pleased to have my search results have a slight genealogy emphasis.

But sometimes having the sites you regularly visit always appear at the top of the search results may get in the way of finding new sites. In that case, log out of your Google account (top right link) and perform the search again to get slightly different results.

To see the difference in your search results with Personalized Search, do a little experiment. Search for the keyword genealogy while logged into your Google account. Take note of the first ten results. Then, log out of your Google account and perform the same search again. Note the top ten results and compare these results to your first search. When I do this, only two of the ten results are the same. Since my results are unique to me, you may find something completely different.

If you want Personalized Search and don't have it, all you need is a Google Account. If you have an existing Google Account and want to activate Web History to enable Personalized Search, visit http://www.google.com/history.

One additional point to make: I've been on RootsWeb mailing lists where people suggest to search for a particular term on Google and look at the "4th result". Now that you understand about Personalized Search, you will see that my 4th result and someone else's 4th result will probably be completely different. Better to give the name of the site that you see as the "4th result".

Find Living People

Searching for living people may not seem to be genealogy related, but there are times when it can be part of a family history search.

Sometimes long-lost family members can help fill out branches on the family tree and shed light on ancestors. Sometimes finding an unknown biological parent can be the starting point for a genealogy search. Sometimes you just want to reconnect with family and friends with whom you have lost touch.

If you know the person's name, here are some places to do an online search for a living person.

Google

Google has built-in U.S. phonebook. Just type phonebook: into the Google searchbox followed by name and state to get the Google whitepages. There is a space between phonebook: and the name.

phonebook: john doe ny

Use any combination of these terms for the Google phonebook:

• First name (or first initial), last name, city (state is optional)
• First name (or first initial), last name, state
• First name (or first initial), last name, area code
• First name (or first initial), last name, zip code
• Phone number, including area code
• Last name, city, state
• Last name, zip code

White Pages

• WhitePages.com or 411.com - U.S. and Canada white page database. If you can't find someone in the WhitePages, note the Find Neighbors tab - if you know where someone used to live, you can contact neighbors to see if they know a forwarding address.
  
• Zaba Search - U. S. people search engine. Gives birth date, address, city, state & phone number.
  
• ZoomInfo - Click on the People Search tab. Find people by their their job or employer.

Social Networks

• Facebook - Search for people in this online directory that connects people through social networks. Contact person through the website.


• MySpace - Search for people and contract through website.


• LinkedIn - Search for people in this business-oriented social networking site. Contact through website.

Birthdate Finder

• Birthday Finder If you know a person's name and birth date, you can use this database to look for town and state. Then use WhitePages.com to get detailed address and phone number.

Commercial People Finders
If you can't find people using the free databases, you may have more luck with the commercial databases.

• US Search. - U.S. results include name, aliases, age, date of birth, address history, unlisted phone numbers, relatives, and more. This is not a basic white pages search - their database contains billions of public records online that go back over 20 years. The search is free.

Want more ideas to find a living person? To look for long-lost friends, mother, father, cousins or other family, try the free Person Finder, a step by step guide to finding people.

Comparative Analysis of Google Search Terms

I'd like to follow through on the question AncestryInsider posed at the Genea-Musings GuestBook in reference to my article about The Genealogy Search Trend on Google.

Ancestry Insider: To followup Kathi's article on Genealogy searching on Google, someone needs to do a comparative analysis of other search terms. Did all hobbies decrease in like fashion? It would be interesting to compare genealogy against other hobbies such as gardening and stamp collecting. Did people's interests move from hobbies to some other aspect of their lives? Besides hobbies, maybe you could look at other categories such as employment, finances, religion, politics, etc. Does the decrease demonstrate increased competition from other search websites? Maybe a majority of search terms have seen a decrease.

The Ancestry Insider wants to know if all hobbies decreased in like fashion:

Above is a comparison chart of search trend for different hobbies over the past four years. The keyword genealogy (blue), is the only hobby to show a relative decrease in searches. The other hobbies do not show a decline, although gardening (red), as would be expected, does show large up-and-down seasonal variations in the chart. Yet gardening still ends in the same relative position on the chart over the years. Scrapbooking (green) also shows a relatively steady line across the years. Stamp collecting (gold) shows a steady line but relatively lower than others on the chart - barely visible at the bottom of the chart.

The Ancestry Insider asks if people's interests moved from hobbies to some other aspect of their lives:

Above is a chart that show a comparison of searches for genealogy (blue), stocks (red), politics (gold), and religion (green) as search words. Religion (green) and genealogy (blue) both show a decline, while stocks and politics remain steady. None of these hobbies seem to have filled the hole left by the decrease in genealogy searching. However, because these charts show relative numbers, genealogy appears to have less of a relative decline than when compared to other aspects.

The Ancestry Insider asks if the decrease demonstrates an increased competition from other search websites:

Google's U.S. search referral percentage has increased from 52% in 2005 to 64% in 2007 to the new all time high of 67.25% in 2008. So, the decrease in the keyword genealogy is not caused by increased search competition. Google has been gaining in searches every year.


The Ancestry Insider asks if perhaps a majority of search terms have seen a decrease:

Hard to say since Google does not release absolute numbers. And Google Trends only releases information on the largest and broadest of search keywords.

I don't think an analysis of Google Trends shows the reason for the decrease in the Google keyword search of genealogy. The other hobby keywords that I tried are not declining. The other "aspects of life" keywords I tried are not declining. Google is growing every year in the number of searches relative to other search engines. Google Trends is not meant to provide detailed analysis - just broad strokes. There is really not enough information to draw a conclusion as to why genealogy is declining as a keyword on Google Trends.

However, you may be interested in the 2007 Year-End Google Zeitgeist which shows the fastest growing and fastest falling Google Search keywords in 2007. You will see a lot of keywords that have increased, but there is nothing to show a "cause and effect" of some keywords rising while genealogy is falling.

Google's WildCard in Genealogy Searches

A wildcard in a Google search query is indicated by an asterisk * and will match one or more whole words.

Name Search

For genealogy searches, the asterisk * is one way to search for a name that has a middle name or initial. Your ancestor's name may be Henry Aloysius Smith and in his lifetime he may have signed all legal documents as Henry A. Smith. A Google search for Henry * Smith will return results for both Henry Aloysius Smith and Henry A. Smith. Unfortunately, It will also return results for Henry Benjamin Smith, Henry B. Smith, Henry C. Smith, and so on; but it will not return results for Henry Smith (listed on a website with no middle name or initial).

So, in order to search for webpages that contain his name with a middle name or initial AND his name without either: Henry Aloysius Smith, Henry A. Smith or Henry Smith, use the query :

"Henry * Smith" OR "Henry Smith"

Be sure to leave a space before and after the asterisk. You can search for phrases with or without quotation marks, but using the quotation marks gives better results than leaving them off. Quotation marks force Google to find the exact phrase within the quotes, except for the wildcard word, especially if the wildcard word is the first or last word in the search terms.

Place Name Search

To search for a missing word in a phrase in a place name, you can again use Google's wildcard operator. If you know one word of a two word place name, you can use the wild card search for the second word. You may have found an old document where part of the name is illegible , or you might not be able to remember the whole name. Put the place name in quotes and substitute the wild card for the missing word. For example, search for

"Glen *, Pennsylvania" or " * Springs, Pennsylvania".

Double Asterisk

An asterisk replaces one missing word in a query. You can use a double asterisk to replace two missing words. You can use as many asterisks in a search query as you'd want but the more actual words you're able to supply in your search phrase, the more likely you are to find what you're searching for.

Whole Worlds Only

Wildcard searches in Google work for whole words or phrases only. Google doesn't support a search in which an asterisk indicates a part or extension of a word: John* will not find Johnson in Google. Google does use stemming technology -- when appropriate, Google will search not only for your search terms, but also for words that are similar to some or all of those terms. For example, if you search for power, it will return searches for power, powers, powered, and powerful.

Google Genealogy Search Techniques

• Search using OR
• Search for Exact Word
• Search for Exact Name
• Search using Year Range
• Search for Synonyms
  
  

Try the Easy Google Genealogy Searcher which puts advanced Google features on one page with suggested keywords and advice about how each feature is useful for genealogy searches.