Ten Places You Didn't Think To Look

There are a dozen good places to find a date of birth, but did you know some of those same resources could be holding much more difficult-to-come-by information, too?

Earlier this month Ancestry.com posted a very good "research help" article in their blog listing places to find information about your ancestors that may not have made it to your research log.  You can click here to read it.

Regardless of which family tree program you may be using, and even if you aren't using any of them, each of them has a blog you can subscribe to.  In addition, there are hundreds of other blogs devoted to genealogy - many of them specific to a certain aspect of family history research.  

If you find the idea of having a zillion emails showing up in your inbox every day a bit overwhelming, consider a service such as Feedly which organizes all your on-line reading in one place where you can peruse it at your leisure.

You can also download an app to your phone or tablet called Pocket which stores all those things you want to read until later when you have more time.

There are a lot of resources on the Internet.  You are missing out if you aren't taking advantage of them!

Have a great weekend!

-- submitted by Denise Doyon

Stuff You Can Find In Your Ancestors Will

I've been searching for information about my ancestors for a long time. It never ceases to amaze me how many things I miss. Sometimes we become so focused on validating a single piece of information that we forget that the source of that validation can often supply us with a lot more information.

If you are lucky enough to have an ancestor will or two hanging around, here are some of the things you may find if you take the time to read them thoroughly:

• If you don't have an actual date of death, a will can help you narrow down your search. You can determine a range of time for your ancestor's death - sometime between the date the will was written and the date it was presented to probate.  For example:  John Doe Smith wrote his will on 6 Feb 1840. His will was recorded in the county in which he lived in November of 1854.  John died sometime between 6 Feb 1840 and Novem 1954. His place of death is the county in which the will was presented to probate.
• Where your ancestor lived can often be determined by reading the very first paragraph of the will, which usually reads along the lines of, "I, John Doe Smith, of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, being of sound mind ....".  
• An indication of what our ancestor owned and the kind of wealth he had can be found in his will.  Since the purpose of a will is to dispose of one's assets after one's death, it would stand to reason that the will would include a list of assets and who they are left to, which brings us to
• family relationships. Ancestors commonly name family members in their wills.
• How your ancestor signed his will can tell you about their level of literacy. Did your ancestor actually sign his name - or an "X".
• Lastly, who was named executor and who served as witness(es) will often tell you something about your ancestor's associates.  

All of this can serve as clues for further research.  If you get a piece of paper in your hands that relates to an ancestor, READ THE WHOLE THING.  Don't let any piece of valuable information slip through your fingers.

-- submitted by Denise Doyon

Recommended Reads

Heading off to the Beach Club or Lake House pool today with a wifi enabled gizmo? I've got some reading ideas for you.

Check out this recommended reads list from the Empty Branches On The Family Tree blog.  While you are watching the grandkids splash around - you can explore what's new in the genealogy world!

Don't forget your sunscreen!

-- submitted by Denise Doyon

Using Fashion to Date Old Photographs

You can learn a lot from a photo.  Even if you know nothing at all about the people pictured - the way they are posed, their clothing, hair style, and hats can tell you a lot about when (approximately) the photo was taken. In some cases, you can even figure out where it was taken.  

Women's fashions are the first thing to check when trying to date a photo. Fashions changed as often as they do today and they are an excellent indicator of the date. Things like sleeve style, closeness of buttons, pleating and even fabric can tell you a lot.

There are a number of great publications out there that can help. If you click here you will be rewarded with a pdf document full of helpful hints.  f you want to take your research further, check out the following:

Dating Vintage Photos By Clothing and Hairstyle

Historical Fashion Helps You Date Your Old Family Photos

Follow The Clues - Dating Your Photographs

Men's Fashion Guide

You can find dozens more resources on Google!

-- submitted by Linda Mecchi

The Power of DNA

We haven't spoken much about DNA any of our meetings.  Indeed, with so many of you asking for help getting started, we are a long way from those discussions.  But some of you are more than a few years into your research and confronting brick walls that are challenging.

Ancestry.com had a recent post on its blog about the power of DNA and how it helped one women find some very elusive ancestors.  For any of you who are thinking about getting tested, or have gotten tested and have not really explored the possibilities - I recommend you read this interesting story about how DNA helped prove the validity of a 100 year old family story.

You can read the post by clicking here.

Genealogist's Toolkit

A while back, Ancestry.com's Juliana Smith published a blog post entitled, "The Genealogist's Toolkit.  It is a list of the resources available on Ancestry.com to help you find your roots. Here are a few of the items she covered:

• Charts and Forms
• Blank Census Forms
• Soundex Converter
• Tools for Source Citations
• Research Guide
• Genealogy Glossary
• and many more!

Click here to read the whole post and access links to the information shown above. You can never have enough tools in your research arsenal.

Happy Hunting!

--  submitted by Linda Mecchi

7 Time Management Tips For Genealogy Researchers

So now that you have your research plan under control - all you have to do is find the time to do the research.  I recently stumbled on a blog post by Kenneth Marks on The Ancestor Hunt that lists seven tips for getting down to the actual work.  It isn't always as simple as it seems. You can click on the link above to read the original blog post, or read an abbreviated version below.  Here are Kenneth's suggestions to make it easier for you get your research done.

1. Have an online plan - although I am a huge fan of "intuitive" and "stream  of consciousness" searching online - that should be only for a short time. Write yourself a research plan - for a person of interest, or a family, or a location. You will get a lot more results and won't be wasting time searching for the same thing over and over again.
2. Have an offline plan - if you plan to spend some time at an archive or genealogy section of a library, prepare a research plan BEFORE you get there. Don't just show up with your pedigree chart and hope for the best.
3. Get organized - 50 slips of paper with scrawled notes is not going to save you time. It will cost you time since you will always be looking through them.
4. Get off of social media sites - you heard me - although they can be useful as part of your education and can from time to time reap rewards in finding new "cousins" - social media can be a huge "time suck." Do you really have to look at your Twitter stream every 15 minutes? And Facebook and Google+ status updates and new posts will be there even if you don't check them every hour. So manage your time spent on social media and you will discover a lot more time for research.
5. How many genealogy blogs do you really NEED to read? - some people scan through (and read) over 50 blogs a day. Are you kidding me? I have less than 10 that I regularly read and I don't always read those. And I scan through titles - if it is really interesting I may flip to it and read it.
6. Manage your use of social media sites - it bears repeating. Manage this potential "time suck" well and you will have more research time - I guarantee it. Create Twitter lists, Facebook interest groups and Google+ circles for the folks that REALLY interest you regularly and you will save tons of time. Use notifications wisely and you won't be interrupted with a "ding" from your phone or PC every 3 minutes that entices you to look.
7. How much education do you really NEED? - For some folks, there isn't a webinar, hangout, or podcast that they would skip. Sure it's a good idea to acquire more knowledge, but for me if it gets in the way of research time - forget it. One might argue that increased knowledge might equate to "smarter" researching. True, but make sure that you have the proper balance.

I would add to this list one more item:  Set research goals - have a to-do list to help keep you on track.

So make a list, gather your research plan(s) and use your time wisely.  Before you know it, you will find yourself making progress.

-- submitted by Denise Doyon