Getting Started: Free Stuff

So maybe by this point, you've gotten some stuff down on paper. Maybe you've even started a tree on a website like Ancestry.com, or in a software like RootsMagic. Give yourself a high five for being awesome!

So hopefully you have enough information down that you can start forming questions about stuff you want to know.

There are two types of questions you're going to be asking: the interesting kind, and the uninteresting kind. The uninteresting kind are pretty much like, Who is Uncle Fester and when is his birthday? The interesting kind are like, Was Uncle Fester a gangster and did he ever kill anyone? Keep in mind that you're going to have to ask both kinds of questions. The uninteresting stuff leads you to the interesting stuff, or at least gives you what you need to start asking more interesting questions.

And write your questions down! When you write your questions down, you think of more questions, or better ways to ask the same question.

I is frum Irelands! Lookit mah hat!

When you don't write down your questions, you end up looking at cat gifs on Tumblr.

But records cost money and I am broke!

So when I started out doing genealogy, I didn't have money to spend on it. Actually, let me rephrase that. I didn't have money, period. So unless it was free, I wasn't going to use it. And because I spent so many of my formative researching years as a broke teenager, I learned how to work the system like a boss.

DO NOT SPEND MONEY ON ANYTHING IN GENEALOGY UNLESS YOU HAVE TO. Why did I put that in all caps? Because this misconception, that genealogy costs money, is what keeps a lot of young people from even trying to research their heritage. And I'm here to tell you, genealogy can be one of the cheapest hobbies in the world if you do it right.

If this happens to you, you're doing it wrong!

So let me tell you about some of my favorite tricks. Note that I'm an American/Canadian researcher. Many of my hints can be universally applied, but I can't vouch that all of my suggestions will work for researchers from other places. The principles are still the same, so find a way to apply them in your situation and let us know how it turned out!

Ancestry.com

Yes, we all know you have to pay to see the records on Ancestry.com. But that doesn't mean you have to pay to use the site. If you put your information in a tree on Ancestry.com, your information will get something called Hints. Hints are the little shaky leaves that appear over the names in your tree, and they point you to records that could be about your ancestors.

When you open up the hint for Ethel, it looks like this:

If I click on the green Review button, I get the Give-Us-Your-Money splash screen. But because I've been doing this for a long time, I know I have options.

Because of this hint, I know her information may show up on the 1911 Canadian census. And now I have a choice. I can pay for the super deluxe and expensive world edition of Ancestry.com to see this record. Or I can try and find this information myself for free in another place.

A basic Google search for "1911 Canadian census" or some variant of it will show you that Library and Archives Canada has a website. Their site allows you to search and download copies of the census records FOR FREE.

Don't get me wrong, paying for a subscription to Ancestry.com can be a great thing. But not if the records they're going to give you are records you can find for free in other places. And you would be surprised how often that happens. Let the ones you CAN'T find build up for awhile. When you've got enough to keep you busy for awhile, sign up for the free trial. Cancel it before it costs you a dime.

FamilySearch

FamilySearch.org is a website published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the church I've been a part of since I was 16. They give away information for free because they're cool like that, and because in their minds the information doesn't belong to them. They're your ancestors, you have a right to see that information. And if you have ancestors that come strange, exotic places like I do (Jamaica, Barbados, and Grenada) FamilySearch has some of the only records available on the internet. In some cases, they have the only copies in existence.

They continue to add more records to their site all the time, so be sure to check back often to see if records for your ancestors have been added.

HeritageQuest

The fastest way to build your tree is with census records. They are records that include parents, children, years or dates of birth, birth places, sometimes even grandparents living in the household. When you are able to trace a family on the census over time, it can clue you in one what they went through in life. The places they lived reveals a lot about who they were and will focus your research to some very specific areas. So finding free census records is always going to be your goal.

HeritageQuest is a great resource for census records. I have always really loved the way their search feature works on their website. It doesn't have tons of boxes and options on it like Ancestry.com does, and many times that makes it easier to find stuff. And if you live in the US, your public library system will usually have a subscription to HeritageQuest that you can use for free. I have library cards from two different states, and they both offer HeritageQuest.

If you go to your city/county/state library page, one of them should have a real website with databases on it. Find where they keep the genealogy databases, and see if they offer HeritageQuest. Click the link, enter your library card number, and it will take you right through to their site. Bookmark the portal page where you enter your card number so you don't always have to dig through the library's site again.

Google Books

Google Books has copies of many genealogies that have already been written by those who came before us. You don't want to waste precious time and energy doing work that has already been done. I've found a book which picks up my family at my great great grandmother at about 1877, and carries her lineage all the way back to 1654 with the Lundy family of England. They were Quakers who settled in the New World, and whose lineage is well documented throughout that time period. And while not everything published in a book is accurate, verifying someone else's claims can be a huge help to your research. If their information is accurate, you just saved yourself years of work.

What are some free tricks you use to have success in your genealogy?

Using Google Books and WorldCat

Today I want to post about a match made in heaven. If you want to move into a position where you can do genealogy yourself, instead of paying someone/something else to do it for you, these two tools are pretty indispensable. 

Thor thinks your brick wall is LAME!

If only, right?

If we're going to have the success we want in our research, we need to embrace both old and new technology. When we're able to navigate them both, it helps us to have the maximum number of results.

The first tool is Google Books. There are plenty of tutorials on how to use Google and Google Books in genealogy. It helps you find digital copies of books. For clarity purposes, I will call these fake books. Here are some YouTube videos that explain how to navigate fake books if you need a place to start. If not, skip this part and go to....

This one takes less time to get a basic idea of what Google Books is and how to use it. However, Google Books has changed a lot since this video was made, so what you will see when you are using the site is different.

This tutorial is much more up to date and inclusive. It's a little long, but he covers all of the functions of Google Books and how to read fake books.

Here... This next tool will help you find real books in the libraries closest to you. It's called WorldCat.  Every fake book you find in Google Books is linked to WorldCat. WorldCat will allow you to search millions of libraries all over the world to find real copies of those same books.

Let's say you were looking in Google Books and you found a copy of a real book you really want to use. I'll show you one of mine, The Bartlett Tree & Thee by Hope Bartlett Taylor.

On the left hand side, there is a link that says Find in a library. Click on it, and it will take you over to WorldCat.

It will take you to a page that looks like this.

At the bottom of this page, you will see a Find a Copy in the Library section. It's the second thing I have circled in green above. If you continue to scroll, you will find a list of all the different locations closest to you which have a copy of that real book. Make sure that the zip code or postal code listed there is the most accurate one in relation to where you are living, or your results will not be as accurate.

World Cat has a useful feature where it allows you to add your results to a List, organized however you may wish. You can organize it by surname, by time period, by project, or by the library which has the real book. If you look at the image above, you'll see another green circle around a link for Add to List. Click on it, and this screen will appear.

An orange box appears, and this is where you can make a new list, right from your search result. You can also add this result to a list you have already created. Make sure you have either logged in or have created a log-in username for this site, or you won't be able to save your list.

Type the name of your new list in the box where the green circle is. I prefer to organize my results according to the library which holds the information. Now if you wanted to add that result to a list you have already created, you can do that by clicking on it in the list inside the orange box.

There are two organization methods I would recommend. Organize your list either according to your family surname, or according to library. If you list it according to library, you will have a complete list of all the books you need in that location. You can print the list and take it with you. The problem with organizing your list this way is if you forget for which family you wanted the book. (I did that once.) That was how I discovered that when you go to your actual list, there is a note feature for each book where you can record that information.

To get back to your list, log in and click on your name at the top of the screen. Your lists will be in the middle of the screen, under a heading that says Lists. Click on the list you want to view.

Note how the list page has your results. Under each result, there is a little Note button. Click on it and add whatever information will help you remember why you wanted the real book. If you organize it by library, it may be helpful to include the names of the family members that appear in it. If that's too much information, you can use the name of the county or state together with the time frame of the information included in the real book.

Some people like to keep all their lists together with the rest of their research notes in a tool like Evernote or OneNote. Personally, I find using WorldCat to be easier for me because I think there are better ways to use my time than copying and pasting information. Plus, as new copies of the real books are purchased, or old copies are moved or removed, you'll have the most up-to-date information available to you in WorldCat.

As you build your WorldCat lists, pay attention to other libraries that may not be the closest, but may also have the real books you want to use. If you can identify one library that appears for all of your real book results, it may be better to make one longer trip to a single library than five or six shorter trips to smaller libraries. You have to be the judge of that for yourself. As you can see, I had an extensive list going for the Library of Congress because it had all of the books I was looking for. But as I kept searching and finding more obscure real books, I noticed that the New York Public Library had just as many of the results--including some things the Library of Congress didn't have.

I keep both lists updated with the real books I find. That way, whenever the opportunity presents itself to make either trip, I will be ready.

Some of you will want to note that the real books from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City do not appear in WorldCat. They have their own websites here and here which you can use to search their collection. Those sites don't have a list function, but I could just as easily create one on WorldCat! Note that on the second link, they are beginning to digitize and make fake books too!

Times are changing. Those who like to keep their work strictly old school with real books are going to miss out on so many opportunities they will never even see passing them by. Those (like me) who have been relying too heavily on the digital tools are missing out as well, wasting time doing work that has already been done, making the same mistakes that have already been made.

To be a more complete genealogist means to change with the times in appropriate ways. Using Google Books and World Cat wisely has helped me to achieve that balance more completely.

 And now, as a reward to making it to the end of this post, here's something that can make us all feel better.