Civil War database

The National Park Service has a new database. Go here and click on "find a person".

Traveling for genealogy

  From the New York Times : Traveling to track down your ancestors.

Genealogist's block

Here is article from WorldVitalRecords.com on what to do when you run into a stubborn road block in your research

Genealogy Society of Hernando County

Some highlights from Links and Bridges, the GSHC newsletter:

Debbe Hagner will present a program on German genealogy at the January 17th meeting;   Wes Brockway from the Citrus County Genealogical Society will speak at the February 21st meeting; and Dick Eastman will be the featured speaker at the Citrus County GS seminar on February 15th...
Some helpful websites and online articles include  researching orphans ; English Genealogy 101;  and www.history.navy.mil for researching Navy veterans. Also, this one from FamilyTree Magazine on German names and nicknames.

The Genealogy Society of Hernando County meets at 10 a.m. each third Friday, at the LDS Family History Center, 21043 Yontz Road, Brooksville. Contact  Bunny Ryczek, 352-515-5294.

Using Google Books

Researchbuzz.com noted this article on the FamilySearch blog. FamilySearch has a free look-up service for genealogy books and microfilm at the Family History Library at Salt Lake City. Researchers can now use Google Books to take advantage of this service.

Volunteer opportunity

Genealogytrails.com is looking for volunteers to transcribe historical and genealogical data for free use by researchers. Details on what you'll need in order to contribute are here.

WolframAlpha

This article by Thomas MacEntee on archives.com looks at using the WolframAlpha search engine for genealogy.  It adds a whole new dimension to your research.

Name changes at Ellis Island?

In this post  on his blog, Dick Eastman rejects claims that immigrant's names were changed/Americanized at Ellis Island.Sorry- this article is no longer available

Searching the SSDI

Dick Eastman's blog has an article on the best way to search the Social Security Death Index. Sorry- this article is no longer available

North Carolina City Directories

North Carolina has placed 939 directories from the years 1860-1963 online. Read about it and find the link here.

Letters and Wills of WWI British soldiers.

The government archives in Great Britain has placed online the wills  of 230,000 British soldiers of World War I. Many of the wills, stored away and unseen for almost a century,  are accompanied by personal letters. Read about it at the Daily Mail online .  The story includes photos and samples of the content.

Putting your genealogy work online.

If you've ever thought about blogging about your genealogy experiences, here   are some instructions for getting started, from About.com. Here's another post about putting your family tree on the web. Finally,  an an article on copyright for genealogists

New: National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair

This is a free, two day webcast on using the National Archives for genealogy research. Read about it here.

Thanks to the Olive Tree Genealogy blog for this tip.

Daily Genealogy Tips

Click here for a link to the Genealogy Tip of the Day blog. These are short paragraphs covering things the novice might overlook. Example: the place where your ancestor died may not be the place where he or she lived. Say your ancestor lived in Poughkeepsie, and then died while on vacation in Old Orchard Beach. Unless you knew better, you might assume your ancestor lived in Maine. You can sign up to receive  tips via email.  

Militia Records Webinar

ResearchBuzz reports that the Federation of Genealogical Societies has made its webinar on researching state and local militia records available to the public.

Cook County, Illinois Vital Statistics

If you have ancestors from Chicago, the Cook County government has a  genealogy website. There are birth, death, and marriage records going back to 1872. You just need to register. Basic info (names, date, event type) are free; copies of actual documents are $15.

Genealogy and EU Regs

This article from irishtimes.com discusses potential restrictions on genealogical data under European Union regulations.

Genealogy and religion

Here is an article about the intersection of genealogy and religious beliefs, courtesy of  the geneablogie blog.
Scroll down to the January 23rd article.

Genealogy magazine online

Internet Genealogy magazine is published bi-monthly and is available in PDF format for viewing on a wide range of devices in addition to your computer. Not free, but definitely worth a look. The homepage contains links to the contents page of the 2 most recent issues

Genealogy detectives

Here is an interesting article on using Facebook and clues from old photos to determine the identities of the people in them. We found it in the Weekly Genealogist Newsletter .

Arkansas death index

If you have anyone from Arkansas in your family tree,  this information  might help. Thanks to Research Buzz for making us aware.

Genealogy Society meeting time

The Genealogy Society of Hernando County has a new meeting day and time through November: 10 a.m. each third Friday, at the LDS Family History Center, 21043 Yontz Road, Brooksville. Contact person will be Bunny Ryczek, 352-247-6895.

 

Ask a Genealogist

The New England Historic Genealogical Society  has started a free "Ask a Genealogist" service for both members and the general public.

Genealogy Society of Hernando County

Jim Corbett will present a program on the "Family Roots Organizer System" at the GSHC monthly meeting on Friday, April 10th, at 10 a.m. at the LDS Family History center, 21043 Yontz Road in Brooksville.

Mocavo

Learned of another resource for the budding genealogist, courtesy of researchbuzz.me. It's called  mocavo.  Free membership (280k+ so far), articles, blogs, databases,and a new learning center.

RootsTech2013

Eastman's Online Genealogy Letter reports that RootsTech Conference, which begins later this week in Salt Lake City, will stream 13 of its classes online for free. See the Eastman's article for the schedule.

The Gathering 2013

With St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, here is some information on The Gathering Ireland 2013. Descendants of the Irish are being invited back to the Emerald Isle for special events, festivals, and genealogical research.  Read about it  here.

GSHC Meeting time change

For the next few months, GSHC will meet at 10 a.m. the third Friday of the month—March 15, April 19, and May 17. Please contact Bunny Ryczek (cell 352-247-6895) for more information. Meetings take place at the LDS Family History Center at 21043 Yontz Rd in Brooksville.

Photos of Brooklyn

This is not really a genealogy related post, but there are quite a few New Yorkers in our area, and some  may be intersested in this online gallery of photos of Brooklyn.. Thanks to ResearchBuzz for making us aware.

Personal History Workshops

Our popular Writing Your Life Stories workshops will be presented at the West Hernando branch, 6335 Blackbird Ave, on March 13th, April 10th, and May 8th. Those are Wednesdays, and the start time for all is 10:00 a.m. Come to write and enjoy meeting people and sharing memories and life stories.

The Genealogy Bank blog posted this article on understanding the terminology in old newspapers- unusual words, abbreviations, etc.

Genealogy Society News

Some highlights from the January Links and Bridges, the newsletter of the Genealogy Society of Hernando County:
The Genealogy Interest Group meets at 11 a.m. the second Tuesday of each month at the West Hernando Branch Library....the society welcomed 3 new members in January....Ellis Island has been closed since October 29th due to damage from Hurricane Sandy. Costs for repairs to Ellis Island and Liberty Island will be $59 million...George C. Morgan, international lecturer and author, will present 3 one-hour presentations on using Ancestry.com on February 16th at the Crystal River Moose Lodge in Homosassa. For details and to register, visit citrusgenealogy.com .....Dick Eastman will be at the Manatee Genealogical Society's Winter Seminar, also on the 16th (rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flmgs) and at the Villages Genealogical Society Annual Conference on February 27th from 9-3:30

Here is an article from the new Family History Daily website about how "ancestry binders" that help those with short-term memory loss from dementia connect with their past.

The Old Connecticut Path

New Englanders may be interested in this website about the 17th century route between Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

Rotten Apples in the Family Tree

This  article from the Wall Street Journal  demonstrates that our genealogical research may debunk family myths and  reveal that some of our ancestors were less than model citizens.

One Day Only: Free Irish Genealogy Records

Findmypast.ie is hosting an "Irish History Day" on January 24th, and will be making their 21 million records available online for FREE. The Irish Central website has the details here. Here's your chance to access records you might otherwise be without.

The Armchair Genealogist invites you to join its Family History Writing Challenge, coming in February. This website can also help you to finally get started on your family  history project, with research and writing tips, genealogy for beginners, etc. Check it out.

Canadian Genealogy blog

Here is a blog for Canadian Genealogy.