The Web, Wikis and Webinars

If you are seeing the letter "w", you are not alone. Genealogists today have web, wikis and webinars on the mind. Talk and blogging is continually about these "w" items. But why not ... we are a web-oriented group of people.

Some of my blogging colleagues have written about WikiTree. I am going to give you my thoughts about it. Give it a try and see what you think.

WikiTree was started in 2008 as a free and collaborative project. Whatever is on there is edited and owned by the contributor. You can register as private or public, share what you wish with groups of people or individuals, then jump right in and download a GEDCOM. Of course, the ultimate goal is to have somebody contact you about an elusive ancestors you have posted on on WikiTree. As you locate information, you can make contact or download a GEDCOM file.

Upon opening WikiTree it is somewhat frightening to see all the names. They represent 1,066,644 profiles submitted by 24,430 people or WikiTreers. Rather than clicking on a group of surnames, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on "Help." There you will be able to read all the pertinent information on how to create your own profile and links, add information, delete information and search for information.

Once you either create or search a profile, be sure to check for photos and the family tree. Also available is a public bulletin board for messages. Give it a try and start sharing on WikiTree.

Webinars are popping up on our computers by the week and month. They are hosted in a variety of places which makes it difficult to figure out what is being broadcast by the day or week. Attendees have to register to attend a webinar. Some are free and some are not. While many have been archived, it is still fun to listen to them as they happen and also dialog during the presentation.

The blog GeneaWebinars will keep you posted on what is happening in the world of genealogy webinars. At the bottom of the blog is an interacting calendar of webinars by day, time and topic. You can click and obtain more information and register.

These are wonderful ways to expand your genealogy knowledge without leaving home. Once you get started with wikis and webinars, I am sure you will be hooked.

WPA to the Rescue

In 1929 when the Great Depression hit the United States, millions of people lost their jobs. The fallen economy led to President Roosevelt introducing "The New Deal" in 1933. The programs were designed to put people to work and get the economy moving in an upward direction.

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) was one of the programs. Besides building and improving upon America's infrastructure, there was also funding for arts, history and culture. In 1935 with about $4.88 billion dollars, the WPA began employing Americans. They spent approximately $11 billion and employed 8.5 million Americans. Workers earned anywhere from $15 to $90 per month. In 1939 it was renamed Works Projects Administration. They funded the Historical Records Survey (HRS) whose workers documented resources for research into American history. They created soundex for federal census which many of us have used, especially before the digitals and images on Internet.

The Historical Records Survey also compiled indexes of vital records, internments, school records, maps, military records, newspapers and more. Much of the work for the Historical Records Survey was done for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), state historical societies and state archives. The work done in this project is still in the possession of many of the original repositories. Most of the records have been microfilmed and indexed. In some cases the originals are still stored in boxes, untouched while others have been destroyed. The WPA ended on 30 June 1943.

There are many WPA cemetery record surveys on Internet. Keep in mind when using these records that burials after the time period of the WPA will not appear on the list.

Access Genealogy has a WPA Cemetery Database consisting of 17,744 records. The details contain information on where the person is buried, date of death, surname and given name. The South Dakota State Historical Society has a Cemetery Record Search web site that contains the WPA Cemetery Project information (pre-1940s) plus any updates their office has received.

There are original WPA Grave Registrations for Iowa on Ancestry.com. Be sure to look at the list of counties that are contained in this database.

Several counties have WPA Grave Registration records on Internet. An example is the Somerset Co., Pennsylvania WPA Cemetery Transcriptions. You can search by last name, township or see digitals of the actual images.

Not everything has been indexed or in digital format on Internet. Reels of microfilm can still be found in state libraries, historical societies or archives. The Family History Library in Salt Lake City has film of WPA Grave Registration records. You should also Google for results of the WPA Cemetery projects or check out specific states and counties at the USGenWeb project.

These records are beneficial when you are trying to locate information that is no longer readable on a tombstone. It may have been in good condition when canvassed by a WPA worker. Missing stones may have been there in the 1930s and 1940s.

Description of photo: Historical Records Survey workers inventorying and surveying records in the sub-cellar below river level in New York City.

Education for the Genealogist

Do you have a few minutes or an hour or two in your busy day? Why not go back to school and become an educated genealogist. Even if you think you know everything about genealogical research, you will still benefit from the many videos and webinars on Internet.

FamilySearch has a great listing of Research Classes Online. They cover research in England, Germany, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Mexico, Russia and the United States. Other topics are Reading Handwritten Records and Search Principles and Tools. Classes are anywhere from 25 minutes to an hour in length. Some have downloads in PDF format.

There are excellent PMC Webcasts available at the Association of Professional Genealogists web page. Some of the very best speakers present topics such as A Key to Success: Your Online Presence, Choosing the Best Continuing Education Opportunities, and the very intriguing topic of The Bachelor: Reconstructing A Solitary Life Using Obscure & Far-Flung Records. Their webcasts consist of the speaker in audio/video along with the slide presentation.

Online Presentations of various topics can be found at the Mid-Continent Public Library web page. The topics are very interesting, such as Colonial Land, State and Special Census, Locating and Using Maps in Your Research and Cherokee Genealogy.

Legacy Family Tree is host for webinars. Check out their web page for topics and information on how to register. If you cannot attend a webinar on your computer at the designated time, they are usually archived for a few weeks. You can always return to the web page and click on an archived topic of interest. Webinars, which are a type of web conferencing, are normally more than an hour in length.

If you like webinars, sign up for the Jamboree Extension Series, produced by the Southern California Genealogical Society. They are new to the area of genealogy webinars. The series begins on Saturday, March 5th. Going out of the starting gate is Thomas MacEntee, known in genealogy circles as THE professional genealogy social networker. Of course, he will be speaking about Social Networking -- New Horizons for Genealogists. Be sure to register early for a session. The topics are all very interesting and the speakers are knowledgable.

All of the videos and webinars are free. You can stop a presentation at any time and return to it. It's a great way to become educated for free at home.

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!

Merry Christmas

Wishing all of my readers a very Merry Christmas. The very best (particularly in your genealogical research) in 2011.

Ruby

Search Engines

There are plenty of search engines available on Internet. One of the most popular and widely used is Google. It's a great place to check for your ancestors and provided you have time, should result in plenty of "hits" on your query.

Genealogy in Time has a search engine on Internet that works great. It's the Advanced Genealogy Search Engine beta, which searches over 1.2 billion historic records. The search engine is very straight forward. Enter a surname plus location or other tidbits of information and see what pops up.

I had been searching Google for a rather unusual German surname. Having exhausted possibilities on that, I entered the same surname in the Advanced Genealogy Search Engine beta and received some valuable links that never showed up on Google. Genealogy In Time's search engine seems to pull up more genealogical and historical information.

Give it a try! In fact ... you should try all of them, Google and the others.