Thursday, April 12, 2012

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Week 14 - State and National Societies


I belong to several state, regional and national genealogical societies including the Southern California Genealogical Society, the Utah Genealogical Association, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, and the National Genealogical Society. All have publications and benefits that are helpful to me in my research.

Of these, I would say I am most thankful for the NEHGS. I am descended from early New England ancestors and the databases and other reference materials available to me through their website have been invaluable in furthering my research on these familial lines.

I also have a particular interest in early American history. Reading their books and periodicals has helped expand my knowledge and provided many hours of enjoyable reading.

Although I am not sure I will ever have the opportunity, I would love to visit Boston and take advantage of the research library and educational programs offered by NEHGS.



52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2012) that invite genealogists and others to discuss resources in the genealogy community including websites, applications, libraries, archives, genealogical societies and more. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your thoughts on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.


© 2012 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy - Week 13 - Local Societies

Because my genealogical research is focused thousands of miles from where I live, I’ve never joined a local genealogical society. However, I am thankful for all that local societies do in preserving records and promoting family history. Without their tireless efforts, much of what we find online would not exist. Local societies have taken on the dirty work of transcribing old, overgrown cemeteries and sitting in dusty courthouses going through record books. What they have produced throughout the years is amazing!

In this new digital age, local societies are joining in the effort to index the 1940 census. Often their cemetery work involves not only transcribing information from headstones but also taking photographs and creating memorials such as Find-A-Grave and interment.net. They continue their efforts within their communities to preserve and promote local history and to educate their members and the public about genealogy.

Despite the fact that I have no ancestors in the area in which I live, I need to join a local society so that the resources we have are available to researchers everywhere!


52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy by Amy Coffin is a series of weekly blogging prompts (one for each week of 2012) that invite genealogists and others to discuss resources in the genealogy community including websites, applications, libraries, archives, genealogical societies and more. You do not have to be a blogger to participate. If you do not have a genealogy blog, write down your thoughts on your computer, or simply record them on paper and keep them with your files.

© 2012 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research

Monday, April 9, 2012

Motivation Monday – March Madness


Public domain image, from
Wikimedia Commons.

Between “Censusmas” (April 2nd) and Easter, I lost the first week of April, after a crazy March! Here is my status on my 2012 goals:

Client Research
  • Ongoing heir search in the Midwest United States
  • Full family history project as a gift for a family friend’s 80th birthday.

Personal Research and Organization
  • Using the Surname Saturday prompt, I blogged each week about one of my ancestors. With the first week of April included, I’ve made it through all my great-grandparents. Next weekend I start with my 2nd great-grandparents; while I have done considerable research on some of them, there are others who really need some attention!
  • I transcribed four deeds for Amanuensis Monday postings. I did not get as many other documents organized as I wanted; however, I did spend several hours processing (including writing proper source citations) and organizing about 40 documents and photographs. There are still many more to do!

Writing
  • Continued weekly participation in Amy Coffin’s 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy with a total of four posts in March! I got behind, spent some time catching up and I’m behind again!
  • In March I wrote 20,801 words for blog posts, Examiner articles, and the family history project. I wrote another 23,902 words at 750words.com – a total of nearly 44,703 words!
  • My editorial calendars went by the wayside for March – need to try again!

 Speaking

 Education

Giving Back
  • I went to Wilmington Cemetery to take photos for Find-A-Grave and to research a burial for someone. I took a few photos and created about half a dozen memorials. I was disappointed that I was unable to get good photos because the grass had nearly grown over several of the grave markers in the area in which I was working. I’ll be taking some gardening tools along with me next time.

 So that was March…time to get back to April!



© 2012 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Tuesday's Tip: No Land...Only Slaves!

If you are researching African-American ancestry in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, or Mississippi, you might want to check out the No Land…Only Slaves! series. These books contain slave records abstracted and indexed from deed books. I contacted one of the authors by email for more information. The following books have been published:

Volume 1:  Bossier Parish, Louisiana
Volume 2:  Claiborne Parish, Louisiana
Volume 3:  Caddo Parish, Louisiana
Volume 4:  Harrison, Hunt and Kaufman Counties, Texas
Volume 5:  DeSoto Parish, Louisiana
Volume 6:  Lafayette County, Arkansas
Volume 7:  Panola and Grayson Counties, Texas
Volume 8:  Bienville Parish, Louisiana
Volume 9:  Smith and McLennan Counties, Texas
Volume 10: Fannin County, Texas
Volume 11: Upshur and Ellis Counties, Texas
Volume 12: San Augustine County, Texas
Volume 13: Rusk County, Texas
Volume 14: Travis County, Texas
Volume 15: Cass County, Texas
Volume 16: Navarro County, Texas
Volume 17: Bastrop County, Texas
Volume 18: Hempstead County, Arkansas

Volumes for the following counties and parishes are in the works:

Nacogdoches County, Texas
Pontotoc County, Mississippi
Scott County, Mississippi
Lauderdale County, Mississippi
Madison County, Mississippi
Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana
Sevier County, Arkansas
Red River County, Texas
Lamar County, Texas

For more information, contact:

Slaves & More Bookstore
13215 Twin Oaks Drive
Balch Springs, Texas 75180
214-235-5099




© 2012 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research

Monday, April 2, 2012

And the race is on…


… to find your ancestors in the 1940 US Census, released this morning!

Genealogists have been talking about, blogging about, and preparing for the census release for months. And the system has bogged down with everyone trying to use it at one time.

Don’t yell at your computer (or worse yet, those who have worked so hard to get it ready), don’t kick the dog, just relax and keep your census senses about you. Here are a few things you can try:
  1. Create an account on the NARA site and then bookmark those EDs that you want to look at; this will save a little time as you go back to the site to try one more time!
  2. If you can get to the images you need, download them and look at them offline. I haven’t been able to do this yet, but I have heard that people are having success downloading the images.
  3. Check Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org; both are uploading images to their servers which are browsable.

Everyone is eager to find their family members, but now that it has been released, the 1940 census is not going anywhere. If you can’t get to the images, do some other family research instead. The images will be there tomorrow, next week, a year from now. In fact, in 6-9 months, we’ll have an every name index!






© 2012 Denise Spurlock, Ancestral Trees Research