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We Dig These Gems! New Genealogy Records Online This Week

by | Oct 30, 2015

Take a look at our review of new genealogy records online this week for Arkansas, Indiana and Montana, along with Scotland deaths at sea and a Revolutionary War index. For which of your ancestors should you search in these?

ARKANSAS PROBATE. Ancestry’s collection of Arkansas Wills and Probate (1818-1998) has been updated. The collection now includes images for about 96% of Arkansas counties.

INDIANA RECORDS. A new Ancestry web index to Indiana deaths (1812-2011), hosted by the Marion Public Library, pointed us to more online resources on the library website. These are strongest for Grant County but may extend to other Indiana counties: the Indiana History and Genealogy Database of records in the library’s Indiana Room (marriage, cemetery, obituary, birth, death, funeral home, orphan’s home records and more) and browsable images of The Grant County Medical Society Book.

MONTANA VITAL RECORDS. Nearly a half million births and deaths from the U.S. state of Montana have been added to a free FamilySearch collection. So far, the counties included are Broadwater, Deer Lodge, Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, Powell and Silver Bow.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS (U.S.). A browsable group of rosters of Revolutionary War soldiers and sailors (1775-1783) is newly viewable on FamilySearch. State rosters for Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts (partial), New Jersey, Vermont and Virginia are included. These materials appear to be sourced from the Museum of the American Revolution.

SCOTLAND DEATHS AT SEA. A new database, Returns of Deaths at Sea, 1902-1905, is now online at Scotland’s People. This data is now complete for Scotland for 1855-1905. The registers list “Scottish seamen and passengers who were reported to the Registrar General for Scotland as having died. When ships sank there were often fatalities, but most of the deaths in British waters were of fishermen who drowned.”

Thank you for sharing the great news about these new genealogy records online with your friends and genealogy societies! You’re a gem!

Get the Most out of DNA Testing with 23andMe with a New Guide

by Lisa Cooke | Oct 29, 2015

Over a million people have done DNA testing with 23andMe, many lured by that company’s health information tools. Learn to use their genetic genealogy tools to get the most out of testing there! (and keep reading for a special limited time sale!)

I am one of the million+ people who have tested my DNA with 23andMe. Early on in my days as a 23andMe customer, I spotted a match who listed ancestry from Washington state, where I grew up. Because I have had both of my parents tested, 23andMe told me that this match was on my dad’s side. I sent an inquiry out to the match and named a few of my paternal surnames as possible connections between us.

As it turns out, this match was my dad’s half first cousin! They are about the same age and had played together all the time as boys, but their families had lost touch over the years. What was even more exciting for me, is that using the tools at 23andMe I was able to see the actual physical locations on the DNA that I shared with this cousin.

Knowing that our common ancestor was Lucy J. Claunch, I knew that these actual physical, tangible pieces of me were once pieces of her. All at once I felt a discernible shift in myself and the way I viewed my connection to her. She was no longer a name on a genealogical record, she was my ancestor, and I wanted to know more. For me, it took the DNA connection to give me that added oomph to turn my genealogy into family history. As it happened, that DNA connection came through 23andMe.

How to Focus on Genealogy DNA testing with 23andMe

23andMe is primarily focused on empowering personal health. They recently announced the restored ability to provide limited health information to their customers. The wide variety of content on their website can easily distract you from the genetic genealogy tools they are offering. To help you focus on these tools and use them to verify and extend your family tree, I’ve just released a NEW laminated quick guide, Understanding 23andMe.

Understanding 23andMe addresses the most pressing genetic genealogy questions for those doing DNA testing with 23andMe, like:

How can I control how much information is being shared with others?
How can I enter my genealogical information?
How do I know when I have a good match?
Is the YDNA and mtDNA information they give the same as what I see at other places?
What is the best way to use the ethnicity results presented?

Purchase this guide NOW in the Genealogy Gems store and you’ll SAVE BIG! It’s only $5.95 right now–regularly $8.95! You’ll also save if you buy it with a super bundle of my entire series of DNA quick guides–7 of them now to help you “do your DNA” right from start to finish!

More DNA at Genealogy Gems

A family and its female slave house servants in Brazil, c.1860. Wikimedia Commons image. Click to view full source citation.

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Confused by Your AncestryDNA Matches? Read This Post

Try These Two Powerful Tools for Finding Genealogy Records Online

by | Oct 29, 2015

When we showed one listener these tips for finding genealogy records online, she wrote back immediately: “I will be utilizing that research technique more often!”

Not long ago, Trisha wrote to Lisa to thank her for the free Genealogy Gems podcast and ask for help: “I am trying to find the marriage application from my grandparents marriage, from 1939 in Jackson County, Arkansas with hopes that it will contain my grandfather’s parents names. Do you have any information about how I can find this information?”

I tend to start my search for ANY record type with Google. Lisa has sharpened my Google search skills with everything I’ve learned from the 2nd edition of her book, The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, fully updated for 2015 with hundreds of search strategies and suggestions.

So first I Google-searched “Jackson County Arkansas marriage records.” I scanned the list for results from the “big” genealogy websites: FamilySearch, Ancestry, Findmypast, etc, because there might be a database on one of those sites. In this case, the top result is from FamilySearch, but it’s not a direct link to online records: it’s a wiki page that will direct you to lots of Jackson County resources.

I mentally flagged that result but kept looking down the list. A result from Archives.com popped up. I clicked on it, but it didn’t lead me to a database either, just a somewhat canned summary of how to order the original records from the government office. That can be expensive and time-consuming, so it’s not my first choice if I can find the actual record online, so I came back up to the FamilySearch wiki result.

The FamilySearch wiki can be an excellent signpost to finding genealogy records online all over the world (and offline records!). Wiki articles are written by volunteers, so some entries are spotty or outdated. But in this case, there are a couple of excellent resources. The wiki page for Jackson County, Arkansas starts off with a table of contents, which you can click to take you further down on the page to exactly what you want to know. For Trisha, it’s marriage records (under 4.2, Vital Records).

Clicking on “Marriage” under Vital Records will take you to this paragraph:

The first resource is not helpful to Trisha because the time frame is wrong. The second resource appears useful, but only if Trisha’s grandparents’ last names begin with K-Q. However, when you click on it (it’s free), you can quickly learn that Jackson County coverage has broadened since the wiki article was written: all the records for 1939 are now included. (How can you tell? Click on “Learn more” under the collection description, and then click on the record coverage table. Scroll down to Jackson County: you’ll see all the records for 1939 (1935-1940, in volume N (not for surname N)) are included.)

Unfortunately, these are records of marriage licenses and returns, not APPLICATIONS for marriage licenses, as Trisha wants. Specifically, she wants to find the parents of the bride and groom, not mentioned in these marriage records. So in this case, I would move on to the third resource mentioned on the FamilySearch wiki. It’s a link to Jackson County’s own index of marriage records. The index isn’t helpful, but click on Home and you’ll find the County Clerk’s email address. My next step would be to email the clerk and ask whether the applications for 1939 still exist. If her answer is negative, check with a local genealogical society, which may suggest alternate local records to help with those elusive parents’ names.

What genealogical record sets are YOU burning to find? Try this search strategy and see what Google and the FamilySearch wiki have to tell you!