Today’s episode of Research Like a Pro is about how to find and use gazetteers in your genealogy research. Diana and Nicole discuss how to locate them using the FamilySearch Wiki, Google, and library catalogs, and what kind of helpful information they contain. They share several examples of helpful gazetteers, including Meyers Gazetteer for Germany, the U.S. Geographic Name Information System, Names in South Carolina, and more. Links Gazetteers – article at the FamilySearch Wiki FamilySearch Catalog list of Gazetteers The Fuzzy Gazetteer – allows you to find place names without knowing how to spell them GNIS – Geographic Names...
Do you have 15 minutes to spare for making a little map magic? Would you like to explore the location where your ancestor lived? With county boundaries changing throughout the 18th and 19th centuries you need to do a little investigating to figure out the lay of the land. Would you like to also see a topographical view of the area? With two free databases, you can now do all of this from your home computer in a matter of minutes. I worked on a project this week researching three generations who lived in the Virginia/Kentucky area from 1745 –...
Diana and Peggy Lauritzen at the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy, 2018 When is the last time you went outside of your genealogical comfort zone and learned something unrelated to your usual research area? One of my favorite sayings is, “you don’t know what you don’t know.” That statement especially holds true for genealogy. Attending the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy last week, I decided to try out some classes in areas where I’m not a specialist and find out what I didn’t know. I attended classes by experts Peggy Lauritzen, Curt Witcher, Paul Woodbury, and...
Today we’re talking about preparing to research by learning more about the where your ancestor lived. Doing locality research is absolutely essential! Previously, we talked about objectives in epsidode 2, and analysis in episode 3. Those are the first steps in a research project. Today, Diana and I are going to dive in to the next step, locality research, and talk in depth about all the ways you can learn more about a location. Before creating a research plan and digging into sources, it’s so important to prepare by learning about the location. Diana will tell about a mystery in...
When faced with a tough research problem, have you considered digging into the location? Often clues or even the answer to your question can be found with an in-depth look at the places your ancestor lived, worked, and died. Professional genealogists thoroughly research any new area as part of their planning and so can you! In Part 1 of the Research Like a Pro series, you learned to form a research objective with key identifiers that would guide you in creating a focused research plan. Your task from Part 2 of the series was to revisit everything you or others...
Children love playing games. According to the book Einstein Never Used Flashcards by Roberta Golinkoff and Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, play is how young children learn. I loved this book – the ideas really resonated with me. Of course children learn more when they are playing, not just repeating memorized information to please an adult. To teach my children about world geography and family history at the same time, I made a personalized “where in the world” type game for our family to play. We’ve played the game a few times now, and I’m surprised by how well my 6-year old remembers...
This is part 3 of a 3 part series: Where Did My Ancestor Live? How Enumeration District Maps Can Fill in the Blanks. Part 1: Enumeration District Descriptions Part 2: Civil Districts and Other County Divisions Part 3: Maps of Enumeration Districts Maps of Enumeration Districts In this post, we will learn how the NARA Enumeration District Maps can help pinpoint the exact boundaries of county divisions with each state. Back to our example of James F. Maness on the 1900 Census: we finished up the last post failing to find any useful online maps of his location, “Civil District 4,”...
Where Did He Live? When researching in U.S. Census records, have you ever wanted to locate your ancestor on the map but the census place was unclear? This happened to me when I found my relative, James F. Maness, on the 1900 census. I checked the header info on the census form, but the ‘township or other division of county’ was listed as “4 district” and the field for ‘name of incorporated city, town, or village, within the above-named division’ was left blank. That dang census taker! Why did he leave it blank? I soon realized that the census taker did not make a mistake....
We are reading Homeplace by Ann Shelby this month. You can read my review of Homeplace here. The story is about a family who lives in the same place and takes care of the family farm for several generations. They feel a close connection with the land and the home. Kids love to feel that same connection to their grandparents and ancestors. Here are three ways you can help kids experience their ancestor’s homeplace: Look at Pictures of Ancestors’ Homes You may have some photos of your ancestor’s homes in your photo collection. What, you thought those were boring? Useless? No way! If your...
Do you have a difficult ancestor? One that just won’t stay put in one place? Are records difficult to find in the location you finally have him pinpointed? Have you been more interested in finding names and dates than discovering the what, where, and why of your family? If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, maybe it’s time to take a step back from searching for specific records and put your ancestors in their place. Below are three research tips to get you started. To learn more about the genealogy research process and the importance of understanding...
