Innehållsförteckning för September 2019 från Family Tree

This might be controversial, but you won’t hear me talking about “online genealogy.” In this day and age, all genealogy research involves the Internet, so saying “online genealogy” is redundant. Even if you aren’t building a family tree using Ancestry.com you likely have a software program that has syncing capabilities with the site. And where would we be without libraries and archives, many of whom catalog their holdings online? Whether we like it or not, the Internet has revolutionized how we research. So instead of focusing on “online” genealogy, we’re showing you how to do genealogy in the 21st century—which, inevitably, involves the Internet. This issue contains our 20th annual list of the 101 Best Websites for Genealogy (page 18). Though its rogues gallery of websites has changed in the…

FROM WESTERN MONTANA’S lofty Rocky Mountains to the great grasslands of the east, the state known as Big Sky Country lives up equally well to its other nickname, the Treasure State. Among its geographic wonders are Glacier National Park and the White Cliffs of the Missouri River—the “scenes of visionary enchantment” that inspired Corps of Discovery explorer Meriwether Lewis to wax prosaic in his journal. “So perfect indeed are those walls,” he wrote, “I should have thought that nature had attempted here to rival the human art of masonry.” Upon the Corps’ return to civilization in 1806, glowing news reports lured itchy-footed settlers to the frontier; later, gold discoveries and government FAST FACTS land giveaways enticed more. Montana Territory—carved from Idaho Territory in 1864—contained 20,595 residents as of 1870 (that…

The French were among the earliest Europeans to arrive in North America, with Samuel de Champlain founding the first permanent French colony at Quebec in 1608—only one year after Jamestown. French settlers left their mark from Montreal to Natchez and St. Louis to New Orleans. Famous French-Americans include Louis Chevrolet, Davy Crockett, Paul Revere, John James Audubon, the Du Ponts, Anthony Bourdain and Madonna. Even George Washington had some French ancestors. Today, with 10.3 million Americans claiming French or French-Canadian roots, this ethnic group ranks behind only German, English, Irish, Italian and Polish among European ancestries. If you’re among that number, it’s never been easier to research your French family history without having to go to France. (Feel free to use genealogy as an excuse to visit la belle France,…

Home <www.familysearch.org> Search <www.familysearch.org/search> Browse Collections <www.familysearch.org/search/collection/list> Help Center <www.familysearch.org/ask/landing> Research Wiki <www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Main_Pagex> Search the Family Tree <www.familysearch.org/tree/find/name> Account Settings <www.familysearch.org/profile/account> FamilySearch Catalog <www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/search> Blog <www.familysearch.org/blog/en> Apps and Partnerships <partners.familysearch.org/solutionsgallery/s> Learning Center Video Directory <www.familysearch.org/ask/learningViewer> Indexing Projects <www.familysearch.org/indexing>…

• Family by Ian Frazier (Picador): An acclaimed writer turns his attention to 200 years of his family’s middle-class history, revealing their little dramas in the larger picture of their historical context, from the Revolutionary War to the 20th century. • Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History (Random House) and Murder in Matera: A True Story of Passion, Family, and Forgiveness in Southern Italy (Dey Street) by Helene Stapinski: A journalist traces her less-than-ennobling family history through the criminal culture of Jersey City, N.J., and back to the mythologized crime of her immigrant ancestor in Italy. • Hidden Inheritance: Family Secrets, Memory, and Faith by Heidi B. Neumark (Abingdon Press): A Lutheran pastor discovers her Jewish roots and learns of their Holocaust trauma. Her genealogical journey becomes a spiritual one…

Q I have a relative who thinks he’s traced our family back to 200 B.C. How do I convince him it’s impossible to find records that far back? And what is the furthest possible date? Impossible might be too strong, but it’s certainly highly unlikely your relative has traced ancestors back that far. Stone records called stele and ancient jiapu books sometimes record Chinese lineages back more than 100 generations. Japanese and Malaysian families with royal roots also claim to have records dating to several centuries B.C. But if you have European ancestry, even noble family trees can’t go much further than the fifth or sixth century A.D. Pedigrees of German nobility generally begin about the 8th century, and English peerage records date from as early as the 13th century.…

Ancestry <www.ancestry.com> because of familiarity, but it’s gotten so expensive I’ve dropped my membership.Donna Welch via Facebook Besides many of the previously mentioned sites, I like Fulton Post Cards <www.fultonhistory.com>. Their newspapers have revealed a lot of info on my family. And, it’s free!Nora Frateschi Miller via Facebook One?!?! Francine Griffis via Facebook I’VE BEEN USING ANCESTRY AND ROOTSFINDER <www.rootsfinder.com>, but I’m a total newbie so I’m interested in others’ opinions!Vernell Williams Schutte via Facebook FINDMYPAST <www.findmypast.com>. My main tree is on Ancestry and I do have resources from them, but a lot of my resources are from Find mypast and FamilySearch <www.familysearch.org>. I also subscribe to MyHeritage <www.myheritage.com>, but I don’t know why as it’s not so useful for British ancestry. I guess [I do] because it has a…

1807 Manuel Lisa opens Montana’s first trading post on the Bighorn River 1841 Jesuit Pierre-Jean De Smet establishes St. Mary’s Mission, the first white settlement in modern Montana 1846 The American Fur Co. builds Fort Benton, now Montana’s oldest continuously populated town 1862 A gold discovery in Grasshopper Creek sets off a mining boom 1876 Lt. Col. George Custer perishes at the Battle of the Little Bighorn 1881 The Utah and Northern line comes to Butte, turning the town into the“Pittsburgh of the West” 1914 Montana women win the right to vote in presidential elections 1916 Jeannette Rankin of Missoula is the first woman elected to Congress 1996 The FBI captures Unabomber Ted Kaczynski in a cabin near Lincoln 2002 The PBS reality show“Frontier House” re-creates Montana pioneer life for…

1772 Early settlers form an independent government called the Watauga Association 1791 The Knoxville Gazette is founded as Tennessee’s first newspaper 1803 The Louisiana Purchase increases migration to and settlement in Tennessee 1828 Tennessean Andrew Jackson is elected US president 1838–1839 Cherokee Indians are driven out of Tennessee along the Trail of Tears 1861 Tennessee secedes from the Union 1878 Yellow fever epidemic strikes 1900 Legendary railroad engineer and Tennessee native Casey Jones dies in a train crash 1925 Nashville’s “Grand Ole Opry” radio program debuts 1933 The New Deal spawns the Tennessee Valley Authority 1948 Elvis Aaron Presley moves to Memphis with his parents 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis…

WEBSITES • Geneanet <en.geneanet.org>: User-contributed records, trees and tips. Free, with premium features that cost $50 annually.• Archives-Numerisees.Ain.Fr <www.archives.ain.fr:> Click “Et Vos Archives?” to search for other departmental archives. (In French)• à la French genealogy <www.frenchgen.com> Helpful blog.• Francegenweb <www.francegenweb.org:> WorldGenWeb site. (In French)• French Genealogy Blog <french-genealogy.typepad.com/genealogie>: Blog by a certified genealogist in France.• Huguenots of France and Elsewhere <huguenots-france.org/english.htm>: Research page dedicated to French Huguenots in various regions.• Grand Mémorial <www.culture.fr/Genealogie/Grand-Memorial:> WWI military records. (In French)• Map of France <www.map-france.com:> Department, regional and political maps of France. ORGANIZATIONS AND ARCHIVES (All in French) • Archives Nationales (National Archives) 59 rue Guynemer 90001 93383 Pierrefitte-sur-Seine Cedex France <www.archives-nationales.culture.gouv.fr> • Bibliothèque Nationale (National Library) 58 rue de Richelieu 75084 Paris Cedex 02 France <www.bnf.fr> • Bibliothèque Généalogique et d’Histoire Sociale…

Exploring your family history can be like opening Pandora’s box—you don’t know what’s going to come out once you begin research, and revelations can’t be forgotten or returned to the box. You might make discoveries that help you feel more connected to others or strengthen your sense of identity. But you may also come face to face with your ancestors’ bad behavior, tragic experiences or long-forgotten secrets. Turning up difficult information, you may feel angry, betrayed, embarrassed, confused, repulsed or ashamed. What can you do with these feelings? We’ve collected stories that are startling, in one way or another, from genealogists across the United States. Each person has found a way to cope with—or at least try to make sense of—what they uncovered. If you find yourself needing to make…

THE VOLUNTEER-RUN WEBSITE GEDmatch <www.gedmatch.com>, one of the most useful free third-party tools for genetic genealogy, has moved to a new platform called Genesis. This platform makes it easier for users to compare the DNA test results they upload from different companies. Users don’t need to re-upload their tests or create new accounts; all GEDmatch kits migrated to Genesis. The new site’s design is easier to navigate, and users have access to new tools. Edit your kits more quickly and easily by clicking the pencil icon. A handy key indicates, at a glance, each kit’s status. As with the old GEDmatch site, you can still access Tier 1 tools for a one-time (or monthly) $10 donation. These tools can really help your analysis—particularly the enhanced One-to-Many DNA Comparison tool, which…

1 Scan diary images. Preserve diaries and journals by going digital. Create a copy of your ancestor’s diary by scanning or photographing the cover and inside pages. View the digital images to discover clues to your family history. Use the zoom and contrast adjustment features of your image viewer to enhance old handwriting and faded ink. 2 Create a photo book. Create a new edition of the journal using digital images of the cover and inside pages. First, scan each page at 600 DPI in full color. Use TIFF format as archival copies and convert the images to JPG for upload at photo book sites like Shutterfly <www.shutterfly.com> or Mixbook <www.mixbook.com>. Select a book option similar in size and shape to the original, then recre ate the diary with…

I have a confession to make: I’m cheap. (Or, as I might argue, thrifty.) I bought most of my wardrobe using an employee discount from my college retail job, and I’ve been known to drive 20 minutes to save 10 cents on the gallon at fuel-point-friendly gas stations. My bookshelf and YouTube subscription feeds are quickly filling up with personal finance advice, from Dave Ramsey to a vlog series called the “Broke Millennial.” But that thriftiness has helped me slim down my monthly expenses—and saved me hundreds in my genealogy research. Here are six of the most effective tools that will help keep your hard-earned money in your pocket. 1 FIND FREE GENEALOGY WEBSITES. This is probably the most obvious of the tips I’ll share here. But you should take…

Websites Cyndi’s List: Montana <cyndislist.com/us/mt> Montana Genealogy Forum <genealogy.com/forum/regional/states/topics/mt> Montana GenWeb Project <rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mtgenweb> Montana Memory Project <mtmemory.org> Western States Marriage Record Index <abish.byui.edu/specialcollections> Publications Bibliography of Montana Local Histories by Coburn Johnson (Montana Library Association) Montana: The Magazine of Western History (Montana Historical Society) Montana’s Genealogical and Local History Records by Dennis Lee Richards (Gale Research Co.) Names on the Face of Montana: The Story of Montana’s Place Names by Roberta Carkeek Cheney (Mountain Press Publishing) Archives & Organizations Bureau of Land Management, Billings Field Office 5001 Southgate Drive, Billings, MT 59101, (406) 896-5013, <www.blm.gov/office/billings-field-office> Montana Historical Society 225 N. Roberts St., Helena, MT 59620, (406) 444-2694, <mhs.mt.gov/research> Montana State Genealogical Society Box 5313, Helena, MT 59604, <www.montanamsgs.org> Montana State University Library Box 173320, Bozeman, MT 59717, (406) 994-3171, <www.libmontana.edu>…

Websites Abstracts from Tennessee Newspapers  <sites.rootsweb.com/~tnnews> Cyndi’s List: Tennessee <cyndislist.com/us/tn> FamilySearch Wiki: Tennessee <familysearch.org/wiki/en/Tennessee> Tennessee GenWeb Project <www.tngenweb.org> Publications First Families of Tennessee: A Register of Early Settlers and Their Present-Day Descendants by the East Tennessee Historical Society (University of Tennessee) Research in Tennessee by Gale Williams Bamman (National Genealogical Society) The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture edited by Carroll Van West (Tennessee Historical Society) Tennessee Genealogical Research by George K. Schweitzer (Genealogical Sources Unlimited) Tennessee Place Names by Larry L. Miller (Indiana University Press) Archives & Organizations East Tennessee Historical Society, 601 S. Gay St., Box 1629, Knoxville, TN 37901, (865) 215-8824, <easttnhistory.org> Memphis Public Library 3030 Poplar Ave., Memphis, TN, 38111, (901) 415-2742, <www.memphislibrary.org> Middle Tennessee Genealogical Society Box 59085, Nashville, TN 37205, <www.mtgs.org> Nashville Public Library 615 Church…

September 2019 has everyone’s favorite unlucky day: Friday the 13th. Historians can’t exactly pinpoint when the superstition began, but some attribute it to the 1907 novel Friday the Thirteenth, in which a stockbroker takes advantage of the infamous date to create a Wall Street panic. Another popular myth incriminates Philip IV of France, who arrested the Knights Templar on Friday, October 13, 1307. Regardless of the day’s origins, those with “paraskevidekatriaphobia” have reason for hope. While you’re dodging black cats and walking around ladders this month, you can create your own genealogical luck on www.familysearch.org>, the premier free family history website. These 13 tips, many of which are discussed in the Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch.org (Family Tree Books), will stack the cards in your favor. 1 BROWSE RECORDS. Not all…

1. Confirm your discovery. Do careful research to verify what you’ve learned. 2. Understand the context. Study the circumstances or historical context surrounding the event or situation. 3. Learn what happened next. See how your ancestors, their loved ones and communities responded. Did anyone provide support or assistance? What did those involved do? 4. Express your feelings. Talk to a trusted friend. Write in a journal or on a blog. If appropriate, join a group like Facebook’s DNA Surprises Support Group or DNA NPE Friends, or seek professional counseling. Find additional resources at <www.watersheddna.com/resources>. 5. Give credit where it’s due. Identify positive character traits or actions shown by your ancestors, their children or other affected loved ones. Celebrate their determination, courage, resilience or even their will to survive. 6. Take…

It shall be the duty of the said Bureau to provide, for the use at the various immigration stations throughout the United States, books of record. The Naturalization Act of 1906 created the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. A centralized, federal department, the Bureau standardized and documented naturalization proceedings nationwide. Prior to 1906, each court had its own set of standards and procedures. But beginning on September 27, 1906, all courts used the same set of naturalization forms—a major boon for researchers. Those seeking American citizenship had to fill out two primary forms: the declaration of For more on these and other naturalization forms, see <www.familytreemagazine.com/premium/naturalization-records>.…