GENEALOGY Digging up the family roots

GENEALOGY
“digging up the family” (history)

Genealogy searches are fun but can get very frustrating. Here are a few suggestions, and web site addresses that may help make your search easier and hopefully faster.

www.Familysearch.org
Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness www.raogk.org This is a neat way to run an organization. If someone helps you then you offer to help them. It keeps the expenses down and builds friends.

Message Boards: People looking for other people leave messages here for others to read. This is good for looking for adoptive parents and children that were adopted.
www.Genealogy.com or www.Ancestry.com
Try www.rootsweb.com or www.cyndislist.com

Try www.usgenweb.com for information about starting your own family website for lost members to find you.

Check out www.familychronicle.com for stories about how others have solved their searches.

Other places to check out.
State and county court records for death certificates, and other records.
Probate Judge’s office for old wills, land records, etc.
Library: for old directories for addresses, death records

Also at the library, ask about microfilmed records of old newspapers.
ok for marriage, engagement, announcements, birth notices and major anniversary announcements. Don’t forget to look for obituary notices, they usually list relatives and the city they live in.

Check community histories, just incase your lost relative was a “somebody” in a small or large city.
Check the cemeteries for a known relative then look nearby for relatives.

Check the Masonic Lodge. They have immensely detailed records that would give a wealth of information. Check their website too. Go to www.Google.com and type in Masonic Lodge and hit search. And you are in and running. The Rotary, Lion’s Club and Kiwanis are worth checking out too.

Check out the antique stores in any city where relatives may have lived. Look for high school year books. If they attended church, ask for old church directories. But most of all, just ask if any one remembers the person you are looking for. Talk to the towns old timers. They usually love to talk and seldom get the chance or the company. Take a recorder, the kind with tapes you can save, not the new digital ones. While you are at it take pictures, just for the memories. If there is an “old folks” home, check them out.

Native American and other tribal communities all over the world have long had one person who knew the history and stories of their people. “Tribal knowledge” can be a wonderful thing and many people have that ability, (sometimes they were called the “town gossip”) to remember things and people. These are the people you want to find. They know the “stories.” Some stories “age” well.