There dozens of cemeteries in your county, and thousands of cemeteries in your state. Hundreds of thousands of cemeteries in the country, and millions of cemeteries across the world. This means that there there are billions of graves. Each one representing a real person, who lived their life, they loved their family, and their family loved them. Then they died.
As a family historian there is much to be gained from visiting a cemetery. Often headstones contain valuable information on birth and death dates. The position within a cemetery can reveal family relationships. You can even find relatives you didn't know existed because their lives fell between censuses, and there is no other record of their short life. But getting to each cemetery where your ancestors are deposited can be a logistical and monetary nightmare.
That is where BillionGraves.com comes in. There are people who live near where your ancestors are buried. People who have smart phones and iPhones, and Androids, and well, whatever they are called. BillionGraves.com has developed an app for your phone that allows you to snap a quick picture of a headstone and then upload it (along with the GPS coordinates) for others (or yourself) to transcribe. It then becomes searchable through their website (http://www.billiongraves.com) and through FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org)
Recently some of the scouts from our church's troop did a service project and mapped half of an older country cemetery in about 2.5 hours. There were four of us, and it was numbingly cold outside (so cold the screen stopped recognizing our fingers as fingers!)
So how can you help yourself and others? Log on to BillionGraves.com, create an account, then download the app if you have one of those fancy-new-fangled phones, or your can transcribe headstone images that others upload.
There are headstones from everywhere from Europe to Utah, Florida to Newfoundland. So get online and get working!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Family History FANatic
Family History is clearly a passion of mine. But I am also a big FAN of using a fan chart.
A fan chart is a way to look at your family history that allows you to see where research opportunities are. The closer those research opportunities are to you, the more apparent they become.
BEHOLD THE FAN CHART! ALL MUST QUAKE IN MUTED REVERENCE BEFORE THE MIGHTY CHART...sorry I got carried away.
If you picture the fan chart as being a baseball diamond. You are standing at home plate, your father's family is along the 3rd base line, your father's mother's family is in left-center field, your mother's father's family is in right-center field, and your mother's mother's line is along the first base line.
So you can see from the image above, there is some gaps, or blank areas where there is no data present. This is a beginning spot to do research.
To create a fan chart you can go to createfan.com in addition, you need to have a familysearch.org account with user data in it in order to pull something up.
So check it out and fan the flames of family history in your life!
A fan chart is a way to look at your family history that allows you to see where research opportunities are. The closer those research opportunities are to you, the more apparent they become.
BEHOLD THE FAN CHART! ALL MUST QUAKE IN MUTED REVERENCE BEFORE THE MIGHTY CHART...sorry I got carried away.
If you picture the fan chart as being a baseball diamond. You are standing at home plate, your father's family is along the 3rd base line, your father's mother's family is in left-center field, your mother's father's family is in right-center field, and your mother's mother's line is along the first base line.
So you can see from the image above, there is some gaps, or blank areas where there is no data present. This is a beginning spot to do research.
To create a fan chart you can go to createfan.com in addition, you need to have a familysearch.org account with user data in it in order to pull something up.
So check it out and fan the flames of family history in your life!
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Storing Your Family History Online
Storing family history information can be tricky. There is a lot of information out there, and storing it all in a way to collaborate with others can be difficult.
For those who use Family Search, you can use SourceBox, which allows you to pin family history data to documents, thus proving that annoying guy wrong that keeps changing great grandma's birthday on your records.
For those who don't, I stumbled across a great FREE resource for storing family history data: Dropbox.
Dropbox is a external storage center that allows you to store your family history data on an external drive, so if your computer crashes, catches on fire, gets broken by your two year old, or is eaten by your dog, your hard earned family history data is safe.
Simply go to http://db.tt/1g02b50E and download Dropbox on your desktop, and drag your family history or other files into that folder. Viola! Your information is safe and secure.
The second best part (right behind the FREE part) is that you can share a folder with someone and they can share data to that folder. So I have shared my family history folder with my dad so he can keep up with what I upload. Anytime he or I uploads information, pictures, etc. to that folder, we both have instant access to the new document.
For those who use Family Search, you can use SourceBox, which allows you to pin family history data to documents, thus proving that annoying guy wrong that keeps changing great grandma's birthday on your records.
For those who don't, I stumbled across a great FREE resource for storing family history data: Dropbox.
Dropbox is a external storage center that allows you to store your family history data on an external drive, so if your computer crashes, catches on fire, gets broken by your two year old, or is eaten by your dog, your hard earned family history data is safe.
Simply go to http://db.tt/1g02b50E and download Dropbox on your desktop, and drag your family history or other files into that folder. Viola! Your information is safe and secure.
The second best part (right behind the FREE part) is that you can share a folder with someone and they can share data to that folder. So I have shared my family history folder with my dad so he can keep up with what I upload. Anytime he or I uploads information, pictures, etc. to that folder, we both have instant access to the new document.
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Family History Myth-tory #1: The Lies Your Grandma Tells You
Once a month I will post a Family History Myth-tory. A post that will feature a commonly held myth about family history which I will lampoon.
She may look sweet and innocent, she may bake the best cookies, she might shuffle around and seem harmless, but your grandmother is a liar. A stone cold fibber. She lies through her false teeth. So why this unprovoked attack on your granny? Because, in part at least, it is true. There are some things that grandma (or your family's FH guru) has told you that might be less than correct.
The Lies Your Grandma Told You:
1. All of the research has been done.
Granny will tell you this for a number of reasons, mostly because she believes it's true. What she should really say is that when SHE last researched that particular line, there was no additional information to find. When it comes to family history, retracing someone else's work can be fun and enlightening. You will find all the things they missed, the things they got wrong, and it will help you from making the same mistakes so You can be confident lying to your grandchildren.
2. We are descendants of Charlemagne, Pope Pius XI, William Wallace, and Louis the XIV.
Ever notice how your grandma tells you about all the famous people you are related too? Chances are, you are not actually related to them. The further back in time you get, the sparser records become, so when your grandma, or great-grandma, or whatever well meaning family member stumbled across an older record that had the vaguest link to your actually family, they pounced on it like a hobo on a ham sandwich. Since you (and me) are probably related to a host of unrecorded and historically less important peasants, we may never know our exact origins until we meet them after we die. As an alternative try finding cool stories about relatives that lived a little more recently. Ancestors who lived in the dark days of the depression can be just as cool as the kings of ancient Europe.
3. All of your ancestors were wonderful people who paid their taxes and never talked at the movies.
While most of your ancestors were probably noble people, don't forget that they were people, and therefore imperfect. There is no need the turn them into a mythic being who couldn't be slain by the rebel horde during the Civil War. While I am definitely not a proponent of the 'warts-and-all' history (where you go hunting for something bad in order to tear down a historical figure), I don't believe we need to gloss over mistakes as if they didn't happen, because we can learn from mistakes and every cloud has a silver lining. For example, I had one ancestor who cheated on his wife when he was in his late 60s and fathered a child out of wedlock. Now we aren't getting that printed on t-shirts, we are not having monuments built, but that is part of our story for better or for worse, and what a wonderful story of forgiveness that his wife stayed with him for another 4 years until his death.
Well there you have it. Three lies your grandma told you. They may not have been famous, they might have been scalawags, but they are YOUR unknown scalawags and there is still plenty of research to do on them, so go out there and find them. And once you do, don't forget to tell your grandchildren about them.
She may look sweet and innocent, she may bake the best cookies, she might shuffle around and seem harmless, but your grandmother is a liar. A stone cold fibber. She lies through her false teeth. So why this unprovoked attack on your granny? Because, in part at least, it is true. There are some things that grandma (or your family's FH guru) has told you that might be less than correct.
The Lies Your Grandma Told You:
1. All of the research has been done.
Granny will tell you this for a number of reasons, mostly because she believes it's true. What she should really say is that when SHE last researched that particular line, there was no additional information to find. When it comes to family history, retracing someone else's work can be fun and enlightening. You will find all the things they missed, the things they got wrong, and it will help you from making the same mistakes so You can be confident lying to your grandchildren.
2. We are descendants of Charlemagne, Pope Pius XI, William Wallace, and Louis the XIV.
Ever notice how your grandma tells you about all the famous people you are related too? Chances are, you are not actually related to them. The further back in time you get, the sparser records become, so when your grandma, or great-grandma, or whatever well meaning family member stumbled across an older record that had the vaguest link to your actually family, they pounced on it like a hobo on a ham sandwich. Since you (and me) are probably related to a host of unrecorded and historically less important peasants, we may never know our exact origins until we meet them after we die. As an alternative try finding cool stories about relatives that lived a little more recently. Ancestors who lived in the dark days of the depression can be just as cool as the kings of ancient Europe.
3. All of your ancestors were wonderful people who paid their taxes and never talked at the movies.
While most of your ancestors were probably noble people, don't forget that they were people, and therefore imperfect. There is no need the turn them into a mythic being who couldn't be slain by the rebel horde during the Civil War. While I am definitely not a proponent of the 'warts-and-all' history (where you go hunting for something bad in order to tear down a historical figure), I don't believe we need to gloss over mistakes as if they didn't happen, because we can learn from mistakes and every cloud has a silver lining. For example, I had one ancestor who cheated on his wife when he was in his late 60s and fathered a child out of wedlock. Now we aren't getting that printed on t-shirts, we are not having monuments built, but that is part of our story for better or for worse, and what a wonderful story of forgiveness that his wife stayed with him for another 4 years until his death.
Well there you have it. Three lies your grandma told you. They may not have been famous, they might have been scalawags, but they are YOUR unknown scalawags and there is still plenty of research to do on them, so go out there and find them. And once you do, don't forget to tell your grandchildren about them.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Using the Text Archive: How Jerry Garcia Helped Me With My Family History
I have noticed that for some, they feel that since Grandma has done all of the work finding the names and dates that there is nothing for them to do, so rather than get immersed in the work of family history, they sit on the sidelines and wait. What they don't realize is that someday THEY will be the grandma, and they will have nothing with which to lull their grandchildren in to such a false sense of comfort.
So what do you do if the "work has all been done"? One place to turn is to the history books. Once you know where and when your ancestors lived, it is not a difficult leap to locating a local historical association which may have a boon of information.
Since most US counties have historical associations, to find one, a simple Google search should find it. For example if your family lived in Omigosh County, you could do search for "Omigosh County Historical Association" and that should find it for you. If not, write your senator.
In today's high-fangled new-tech digital age, many large libraries containing county histories are being digitized. Meaning they are taking the old books, many of which are rare with only a few extant copies, and scanning each page and making them available online. I found one page particularly useful for finding this information.
As a closet Grateful Dead fan (no family history related pun intended) I routinely visit the Live Music Archive for free streaming Dead concerts and shows of other great bands. One day while grooving to some Dead I noticed a link at the top for the Text Archive. So I clicked on it and did some searching. I was able to locate very old local histories containing information on my ancestors in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Thank you Jerry!
To use the Text Archive simply follow the link in the Links Section on the right and then type in the county or state you are looking for (remember county boundaries change, so what might be Omigosh county today was once Slackjaw County). Then you can search through the various documents that come up to find which ones are most germane to your search.
The texts are typically old, rare, and out of print. You can download them in a variety of formats, including PDF, Daisy, Kindle, or you can just read online, and best of all they are FREE!
Hint: Downloading the books in PDF allows you to search the entire ebook for certain terms, like your ancestor's last name, to see when and if it comes up. This is a valuable time saver.
So what do you do if the "work has all been done"? One place to turn is to the history books. Once you know where and when your ancestors lived, it is not a difficult leap to locating a local historical association which may have a boon of information.
Since most US counties have historical associations, to find one, a simple Google search should find it. For example if your family lived in Omigosh County, you could do search for "Omigosh County Historical Association" and that should find it for you. If not, write your senator.
In today's high-fangled new-tech digital age, many large libraries containing county histories are being digitized. Meaning they are taking the old books, many of which are rare with only a few extant copies, and scanning each page and making them available online. I found one page particularly useful for finding this information.
As a closet Grateful Dead fan (no family history related pun intended) I routinely visit the Live Music Archive for free streaming Dead concerts and shows of other great bands. One day while grooving to some Dead I noticed a link at the top for the Text Archive. So I clicked on it and did some searching. I was able to locate very old local histories containing information on my ancestors in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Thank you Jerry!
To use the Text Archive simply follow the link in the Links Section on the right and then type in the county or state you are looking for (remember county boundaries change, so what might be Omigosh county today was once Slackjaw County). Then you can search through the various documents that come up to find which ones are most germane to your search.
The texts are typically old, rare, and out of print. You can download them in a variety of formats, including PDF, Daisy, Kindle, or you can just read online, and best of all they are FREE!
Hint: Downloading the books in PDF allows you to search the entire ebook for certain terms, like your ancestor's last name, to see when and if it comes up. This is a valuable time saver.
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Family History vs. Genealogy
So why do I call this blog 'Family History Guy' and not 'Genealogy Guy'? Well first of all I am a guy, but the word genealogy has never been my favorite.
With the suffix -logy the word has an air of scientific inquiry, but also adds the connotation of being cold; just worried about names, dates, places of birth, death, and so forth. Nothing warm and fuzzy here. No place for grandma's secret cookie recipe, no room for cultural traditions, no places for stories.
That of course, is a big fat lie. Genealogy is all those things and more, but Family History sounds so much more...well...family oriented. Here is the place for grandma's secret cookie recipe, here is the place for cultural traditions, here is the place for stories about your dad's dog wanting to take a ride in the boat.
So there it is, while I admit there is really no denotative difference between the two, I use the term family history because it sounds more familial. I also love the word history because it has contained within it, the word STORY.
Stories are fantastic. Stories hold a special place in our hearts because it is in stories that the past comes to life; loved ones, though gone, can remind us of the past. Stories make the people and places of the past immortal. Stories connect us in a way that a birth certificate or a marriage record just cannot.
It is through stories that we really turn our hearts to our ancestors and allow their hearts to turn to us. We can remember them gallantly colonizing the a new world, blazing trails in the American West, fighting for freedom on foreign shores, or fighting for justice closer to home. These are things that endure. These are the things that a thousand years from now will really matter.
An example. Some in my family (the Easts) were connected to the Underground Railroad in and around Vandalia, Michigan. I had learned of their willingness to sacrifice their own freedom for the freedom of others and of their actions during the infamous Kentucky Raid of 1847 (see this site for more information:https://urscc.org/1847_Kentucky_Raid.html). Not long after my oldest son was learning about the Underground Railroad in school, his hand shot up, and beaming with pride he was able to tell of his family's role in that noble effort. My son's heart was turned to his 'father' that day and now that story is a part of his-story.
With the suffix -logy the word has an air of scientific inquiry, but also adds the connotation of being cold; just worried about names, dates, places of birth, death, and so forth. Nothing warm and fuzzy here. No place for grandma's secret cookie recipe, no room for cultural traditions, no places for stories.
That of course, is a big fat lie. Genealogy is all those things and more, but Family History sounds so much more...well...family oriented. Here is the place for grandma's secret cookie recipe, here is the place for cultural traditions, here is the place for stories about your dad's dog wanting to take a ride in the boat.
So there it is, while I admit there is really no denotative difference between the two, I use the term family history because it sounds more familial. I also love the word history because it has contained within it, the word STORY.
Stories are fantastic. Stories hold a special place in our hearts because it is in stories that the past comes to life; loved ones, though gone, can remind us of the past. Stories make the people and places of the past immortal. Stories connect us in a way that a birth certificate or a marriage record just cannot.
It is through stories that we really turn our hearts to our ancestors and allow their hearts to turn to us. We can remember them gallantly colonizing the a new world, blazing trails in the American West, fighting for freedom on foreign shores, or fighting for justice closer to home. These are things that endure. These are the things that a thousand years from now will really matter.
An example. Some in my family (the Easts) were connected to the Underground Railroad in and around Vandalia, Michigan. I had learned of their willingness to sacrifice their own freedom for the freedom of others and of their actions during the infamous Kentucky Raid of 1847 (see this site for more information:https://urscc.org/1847_Kentucky_Raid.html). Not long after my oldest son was learning about the Underground Railroad in school, his hand shot up, and beaming with pride he was able to tell of his family's role in that noble effort. My son's heart was turned to his 'father' that day and now that story is a part of his-story.
First Post
Hello there. I am Dan, the family history guy. I am creating this blog as a place to post things I learn while being a family historian. Please check in often for updates.
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