Webinars on Court Records, Land Records and Illinois

We've added presentations on very popular topics to our list of sessions beginning on 27 April 2014--including land records, court records, and Illinois. Check out the details and times on our announcement.

Google Name and Every County Separately

While "stuck" on a relative, I remembered that I had forgotten to Google his name as separate searches with every county in which he lived.

Discovered a message board posting for the relative in a county where he probably only lived three or four years.

Sometimes we all need reminding of search approaches that we've forgotten.

Missouri Confederate Pensions at FamilySearch

There is no everyname index, but these pensions (approved and denied) are filed alphabetically based upon whether the applicant was applying for a pension or admission to the veteran's home. Make certain to look in all four parts of this collection on FamilySearch.

Don't Take Those Descriptions Literally

The 1885 Nebraska State Census at FamilySearch reads:

"Name index and images of the state census for Nebraska taken in 1885. The microfilms are from National Archives publication M352. The population schedule lists all household members."

That's true. But their digital version includes the agricultural schedules as well--as does the index. In one case, the head of household name on the agricultural schedule got indexed "better" than the same person's name on the population schedule. Finding him in the agricultural schedules helped me to find him on the population schedule--all I had to do was search for his farming neighbors and there he was.

And I bet that the 1885 Nebraska State Census is not the only record that has a description that's not quite as detailed as a person would like.

Organizing Genealogical Information Class

We've added a session of this 4 week class with meetings in the evenings for those who cannot work daytime into their schedule. Check it out here.

WIldcards at FamilySearch

Generally any search term that is a name at FamilySearch must include three characters in addition to the wildcard. However, you can use a wildcard operator after just one letter has been entered. Wildcard operators on FamilySearch include ? for one and only character as its replacement and * as a placeholder for multiple characters.

The following searches on the last name are allowed:

• n*ll--which gets anything that starts with an "n" and ends with two "l"s.
• n??ll--which gets names that start with an "n," then have two letters and end with two "l"s. 

Differences in Ancestry.com Library Edition

Users of the Ancestry.com "Library Edition" know that it's different from the personal "home use" edition. This page has links to pdf files and other materials discussing the differences.

How Many Wildcards at Ancestry.com?

Were you aware that searches at Ancestry.com can include more than one wildcard term? Search terms generally need to include at least three letters, but a nice option for Trautvetter is Tr??t?e??er.

? requires one letter in its place at Ancestry.com
* can be any number of characters

For Trautvetter, this is a very effective search.

Not all sites support this many wilcards.

Unexact at FamilySearch Does Not Include Soundex

For those who use FamilySearch and wondered if "unexact" searches include the Soundex option--the answer is not necessarily. See this post on my Rootdig.com blog.