New Year's Offer on Our Webinars

We've turned our $5 genealogy webinar offer back on through the end of the day 1 January 2014! Check it out.

Highway Trails

For those looking to find out an old highway a relative might have travelled by car in the early 20th century, try these two sites:

• One and Two-State Trails
• National Trails

Historical Times from New York City-19th Century

If you've wondered about travel time in the 19th century, this interactive version of Paullin's 1932 Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, lets you hover over the map and get approximate travel times from New York.

Interesting perspective.

US Geographical Place Names

If you are stuck on that "old" place name, don't forget to search at the United States Geological Survey's database "Geographic Names Information System" at http://geonames.usgs.gov/redirect.html.

It allows some really nice wildcard feature as well.

FamilyHistory Library Card Catalog a Part of OCLC

This change in OCLC to include items from FamilySearch was mentioned briefly on our Rootdig blog earlier today.

Get Soundex Codes for Multiple Names at Once

This webpage allows the user to enter in a list of names (separated by commas) and get Soundex codes for all of them in a neat little table that can be copied and pasted into another document. http://bradandkathy.com/genealogy/yasc.html

Index to Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Baltimore (Federal Passenger Lists), 1820-1897

FamilySearch released Maryland, Baltimore Passenger Lists Index, 1820-1897 on 23 December.

For those unfamiliar with this collection, it is a digital version of NARA publication M327: Index to Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving at Baltimore (Federal Passenger Lists), 1820-1897. 

This collection is a Soundex index to the passenger lists. To use the collection, researchers need the Soundex code for the last name of interest. This can be obtained using the Soundex Converter at Rootsweb. The cards are organized by Soundex code and then by first name.

Need a German-English Translation?

For those needs German-English translations, here's site worth taking a look at http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/.

It will also translate from German to Spanish and Portuguese.

Quotes for Single Items

To force Google to give you just the one word you want, put that word in quotes.

A recent search for electkia (no quotes) gave me that word and "variants" for it. I did not want Google to give me variants and putting quotes around the word and searching for

"electkia"

gave me exactly that and nothing else.

Is That FamilySearch Database Complete?

Do you always determine if the database you are using at FamilySearch (or any other site) is complete? As of the time of this posting, the 1860 Alabama census index at FamilySearch is showing as 96% complete.

4% matters--find out before you assume your people "aren't there." There are databases that are still in progress. Assuming everything online is "done" may be part of your problem.

Post originally written at 8:34 am, central time on 11 December 2013.

Iowa Statutory Laws

This portal on the Iowa Legislature website contains links to historical Iowa statutes and acts for those with Iowa ancestors or Iowa research problems.

Historical Illinois Statutes

For those with an interest in Illinois research, this portal at Western Illinois University will take you to links to digital images of 19th century Illinois state statutes, territorial laws, and more. The links on the left hand side allow you to navigate.

Samuel Johnson's 1785 Dictionary of the English Language

Your ancestor's probably not in it, but old dictionaries frequently come in handy and this 1785 edition by Samuel Johnson may give you a perspective on a word that you've been missing. A complete digital scan of the book is available here.

Headstones for United States Military Veterans 1925-1963 Finding Aid

If you have used the Applications for Headstones for United States Military Veterans 1925-1963 at Ancestry.com, consider reading through this finding aid at the National Archives to those records from 1925-1941.