About.com is stuffed with interesting links and articles on genealogy. They have articles on how to get started, what to look for in a cemetery, how to find information about your ancestor in the military, even how to do a tombstone rubbing, and many more.
Here are some links inside About.com with interesting articles and links:
Genealogy Conferences and Events
Links and information for some of the largest and best known conferences and events in genealogy.
Genealogy Blogs - Family History News & Web Logs on the Internet
Stay current with the world of online genealogy with these fun and interesting genealogy blogs.
About Genealogy A-Z - Family Tree Resources by Topic and Location
Find the genealogy resources you need fast with this A-Z directory of family tree resources, organized alphabetically by topic.
Genealogy Software Reviews, Ratings & Comparisons - Family Tree Software Reviews
Check out this great assortment of genealogy software reviews and ratings.
Genealogical and Historical Societies
Learn more about or join one of these well-respected genealogical organizations
Genealogy Clipart & Graphics - Family Tree Art for Websites and Family History Books
Looking for graphics for your personal genealogy Web site or a family history book, newsletter or project?
Genealogy Search - Tips and Strategies for Genealogy Search
Learn how to find your family tree on the Internet with these tips for advanced genealogy searching.
Genealogy Hoaxes Scams Myths and Frauds - Protecting Yourself From Genealogy Schemes
Learn to protect yourself with these links to common genealogy scams, hoaxes, frauds and myths including fake coat of arms, phony inheritance and estate scams, fraudulent genealogy software and services, misleading family surname books and more.
This is just a sampling of what you can find at About.com. There are no surname lists here. They give you links to sites that do have surname lists and many other sites that are interesting to genealogists.
Happy hunting,
Dale L. Edwards
Friday, August 18, 2006
Friday, August 11, 2006
Family Tree Magazine
Family Tree Magazine's website is a wealth of information. They have some of the best free genealogy forms I've seen. I found this site when I was looking for free genealogy forms online. At the Homepage you can Subscribe, Renew your subscription, give the magazine as a Gift, access the Tool Kit, Article Archive, Marketplace, Current Issue, Back Issues, Special Issues, and the Bookstore. There is even a pop-up offering a free copy of the Family Tree Magazine.
The Tool Kit Page
This page includes links to:
Ethnic Tools
Includes web sites, books, organizations, other resources, and essential tips to help you explore your ethnic heritage. Presently there are 42 ethnic toolkits ranging from African-American to Welsh. There are more being added all the time.
Web Exclusive
This information isn't available in their Family Tree Magazine. You can submit your unidentified photographs to a noted genealogist specializing in photograph identification. Browse photographs already examined. Index of questions others have asked with the answers. Don't find the answer you're looking for, send in your question to receive and answer. Nancy Hendrickson of AncestorNews.com supplies new and helpful ways to do your online genealogy research. Included is access to her prior columns. You can check to see if Family History Tree Experts are coming to your area, and when they will arrive. They have a Site of the Day featuring a site their experts pick as an informative and well-designed site with archives.
Download Forms
Family Tree Magazine's free genealogical forms will help you organize and access your research, and are available in PDF format as well as text format. They have forms for general research, people or families, census, tombstones and artifacts, books, and articles.
The Bookstore
Carries Betterway Books. Subjects are, Start your research right, Computer-based genealogy, Create a written legacy, Keeping in touch with the family, Fascinating details from every era, Discovering your Ancestors series, and Scrapbooking. A different book is featured each week.
Soundex Generator
The Soundex Generator converts surnames into the soundex code. The soundex is a way to find your ancestors even if they are spelled differently from what you're looking for. Lets take 3 variations of Growel, the way my maternal grandfather spelled the name; Growel, Growell, and Growl. Growel comes out G-640, Growell is also G-640, and Growl also comes out as G-640. I can just hear you asking yourselves, why on earth would I want to do that? Well, this code is used in the later census indexes to help find our ancestors. As another example, lets say Janzen is recorded as Johnson because the town clerk doesn't speak German, and the German father doesn't speak, read, or understand English. So, we're looking for Johnson, because that is now our family's legal name. Do you think we'll find the family? This is where the soundex comes in because Janzen and Johnson both have a code of J-525. Try it for yourself.
Resource Guide
The Resource Guide Supersearch is designed to help you find the answers to genealogy questions.
Writing Workshops
Fundamentals of Lifestories Writing and Focus on the Personal/Family Memoir are workshops presented online to work on whenever you have the time.
Family Tree News
The Family Tree News Service is a wire service that sends free e-mails with genealogy news.
Newsletter
Free e-mail newsletter.
Not everything on Family Tree Magazine website is free, but there is loads of free stuff here. You can spend many hours mining this site for all its nuggets. They are also continually adding content, so we won't be done with this site any time soon.
Dale L. Edwards
The Tool Kit Page
This page includes links to:
Ethnic Tools
Includes web sites, books, organizations, other resources, and essential tips to help you explore your ethnic heritage. Presently there are 42 ethnic toolkits ranging from African-American to Welsh. There are more being added all the time.
Web Exclusive
This information isn't available in their Family Tree Magazine. You can submit your unidentified photographs to a noted genealogist specializing in photograph identification. Browse photographs already examined. Index of questions others have asked with the answers. Don't find the answer you're looking for, send in your question to receive and answer. Nancy Hendrickson of AncestorNews.com supplies new and helpful ways to do your online genealogy research. Included is access to her prior columns. You can check to see if Family History Tree Experts are coming to your area, and when they will arrive. They have a Site of the Day featuring a site their experts pick as an informative and well-designed site with archives.
Download Forms
Family Tree Magazine's free genealogical forms will help you organize and access your research, and are available in PDF format as well as text format. They have forms for general research, people or families, census, tombstones and artifacts, books, and articles.
The Bookstore
Carries Betterway Books. Subjects are, Start your research right, Computer-based genealogy, Create a written legacy, Keeping in touch with the family, Fascinating details from every era, Discovering your Ancestors series, and Scrapbooking. A different book is featured each week.
Soundex Generator
The Soundex Generator converts surnames into the soundex code. The soundex is a way to find your ancestors even if they are spelled differently from what you're looking for. Lets take 3 variations of Growel, the way my maternal grandfather spelled the name; Growel, Growell, and Growl. Growel comes out G-640, Growell is also G-640, and Growl also comes out as G-640. I can just hear you asking yourselves, why on earth would I want to do that? Well, this code is used in the later census indexes to help find our ancestors. As another example, lets say Janzen is recorded as Johnson because the town clerk doesn't speak German, and the German father doesn't speak, read, or understand English. So, we're looking for Johnson, because that is now our family's legal name. Do you think we'll find the family? This is where the soundex comes in because Janzen and Johnson both have a code of J-525. Try it for yourself.
Resource Guide
The Resource Guide Supersearch is designed to help you find the answers to genealogy questions.
Writing Workshops
Fundamentals of Lifestories Writing and Focus on the Personal/Family Memoir are workshops presented online to work on whenever you have the time.
Family Tree News
The Family Tree News Service is a wire service that sends free e-mails with genealogy news.
Newsletter
Free e-mail newsletter.
Not everything on Family Tree Magazine website is free, but there is loads of free stuff here. You can spend many hours mining this site for all its nuggets. They are also continually adding content, so we won't be done with this site any time soon.
Dale L. Edwards
Monday, August 07, 2006
RootsWeb Resources
RootsWeb is a free site. When going into the site, an ad shows up that will take you to Ancestry.com, which supports RootsWeb. Ancestry.com and is not free. If you want to use RootsWeb, scroll down to the list of links they have further down the page, or if you want to search the family trees click on Family Trees in the top menu.
Getting Started
Getting Started at RootsWeb is an overview of the services available at RootsWeb.
Ancestry Tour gives information about Ancestry.com. This link also connects with their free trial offer. The free trial is for 14 days.
RootsWeb Review Archives is a data base of all the editions of the newsletter from 1998 to 2006.
Subscribe takes you to the Newsletter Management Center. You can subscribe to their free newsletters and search the archives.
What's New is a list of all new databases added to RootsWeb.
Search Engines and Databases
Search the RSL DataBase includes adding and editing your surnames, problem solving as well as a place to search for surnames.
SearchThingy is just that, a place to go to search in RootsWeb.
Social Security Death Index is a place to search for SS numbers for your deceased relatives that had a SS number. The Railroad Retirement is also included. If you don't find your relative in the database it's probably because they didn't have a SS number or there was no claim made against the account.
Town Search takes you to a place to search for town record databases.
USGenWeb Archives searches all the USGenWeb archives.
Index of all Search Engines and Databases is just what it says it is.
Family Trees (WorldConnect) is your entry into the family trees where you can search, add your genealogy, edit your files, connect with others researching your line, add comments by way of post-its, and learn the history of WorldConnect.
Mailing Lists Index is a way to browse all the lists that are available.
Requests for Mailing Lists Don't see a list you'd like to belong to? Here is where you can request a new list start and adopt an old list if there is one adoptable for what you want. Gives you the rules and responsibilities of a list administrator.
Message Board Homepage contains a way to search or browse the lisings.
Requests for Message Boards requests sign-in before using.
Research Templates
They have search areas for surnames, USA, countries, and a plact to link your site to RootsWeb.
Websites
Register your website at RootsWeb gives you a way to link your website to RootsWeb.
Free website at RootsWeb, to apply fill out this form.
This is just a sampling of what you can find at RootsWeb. I can spend hours at this site and just scratch the surface.
Dale L. Edwards
Getting Started
Getting Started at RootsWeb is an overview of the services available at RootsWeb.
Ancestry Tour gives information about Ancestry.com. This link also connects with their free trial offer. The free trial is for 14 days.
RootsWeb Review Archives is a data base of all the editions of the newsletter from 1998 to 2006.
Subscribe takes you to the Newsletter Management Center. You can subscribe to their free newsletters and search the archives.
What's New is a list of all new databases added to RootsWeb.
Search Engines and Databases
Search the RSL DataBase includes adding and editing your surnames, problem solving as well as a place to search for surnames.
SearchThingy is just that, a place to go to search in RootsWeb.
Social Security Death Index is a place to search for SS numbers for your deceased relatives that had a SS number. The Railroad Retirement is also included. If you don't find your relative in the database it's probably because they didn't have a SS number or there was no claim made against the account.
Town Search takes you to a place to search for town record databases.
USGenWeb Archives searches all the USGenWeb archives.
Index of all Search Engines and Databases is just what it says it is.
Family Trees (WorldConnect) is your entry into the family trees where you can search, add your genealogy, edit your files, connect with others researching your line, add comments by way of post-its, and learn the history of WorldConnect.
Mailing Lists Index is a way to browse all the lists that are available.
Requests for Mailing Lists Don't see a list you'd like to belong to? Here is where you can request a new list start and adopt an old list if there is one adoptable for what you want. Gives you the rules and responsibilities of a list administrator.
Message Board Homepage contains a way to search or browse the lisings.
Requests for Message Boards requests sign-in before using.
Research Templates
They have search areas for surnames, USA, countries, and a plact to link your site to RootsWeb.
Websites
Register your website at RootsWeb gives you a way to link your website to RootsWeb.
Free website at RootsWeb, to apply fill out this form.
This is just a sampling of what you can find at RootsWeb. I can spend hours at this site and just scratch the surface.
Dale L. Edwards
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