Touring the Civil War

Whether you travel to numerous Civil War battle sites of take in re-enactments, you can still have a part in the Sesquicentennial celebration of the Civil War.

One of the most intriguing web pages about the Civil War is Virtual Civil War.com. There you can link to the Civil War in the News, Civil War on TV, This Date, Civil War Events, the Gallery, Original Photos, Re-enactments, Remembrance Day, Confederate Heritage and a Photo Showcase. The web site is very colorful.

If your ancestor fought at a specific battle, be sure to check out Battlefields Today. You will see many current photographs of battlefields which will enlighten your knowledge of an ancestor's participation.

Start looking for information on a Civil War ancestor and then begin studying the Civil War in books, blogs, web pages and documents. There will be many new Civil War web sites appearing this year in honor of the war.

New and Not So New

Type http://www.familysearch.org in your browser and you will taken directly to the new FamilySearch web site. It is no longer referred to as Beta. The new site has a different look and feel than the old one we have been using since 1999. It is difficult to part with old friends, but in time they are replaced with new friends.

Try it out and see if you like it. At the first attempt, you will probably decide you want the old web page back. It's still there, at least for a while. If you have bookmarked it, the old one will return to your screen. You can also scroll to the bottom of the new web site and click on "Go to the previous site."

To access images on the new site, you will need to register (free). The link can be found at the top right hand portion of the new web site's opening page. In the same location, click on Help. Be sure to read about the differences between the two versions of FamilySearch. Keep in mind that the new web site is not complete. There are some functions you will not find there that are still on the old FamilySearch site. You may want to go back and forth for a while. There are also several tutorials that are helpful.

I encourage you to spend about an hour watching the FamilySearch Bloginar Presentation, December 2010. You can pause to take a break. By watching this, you will learn a good deal about the functions of the new web site, what is upcoming and how to more effectively perform searches.

Change is good and FamilySearch allows you to take baby steps to get used to it, also mindful you may need the security blanket of the old web site. For now, I use both sites. In time I plan on becoming very knowledgable and proficient with the new Family Search.

Here's a good tip. If you get lost and want to quickly return to the home web page, just click on the tree logo with FamilySearch through it. It appears on every page you open.

Begin 2011 by learning about the new FamilySearch!