04
Aug
Geedunk
Debby

I have been working with a retired Marine on his genealogy, and he knows that I enjoy listening to his stories.  On occasion, he will say something where I have to stop him and ask what he is referring to.  Sometimes I get a straight forward answer, and other times he just laughs and says “look it up”; that will teach me for all the times I tell him “You can do that part of the research yourself.”

During one of his stories, he kept talking about how much he enjoyed the geedunk available during his service.  Well that one I had to look up myself, and I did in What Did They Mean By That? by Paul Drake.  Geedunk is candy.  Well, next meeting we had, I was pleased to come with a bag of assorted geedunk to share with him.

Category: Genealogy  Tags: , , ,  One Comment
02
Aug
Port of Entry
Debby

I was looking for a port of entry for a particular family from England, and based on newspaper articles and various other records, I thought for sure it would have been New York.  After a fairly extensive search of New York, I went back to the drawing board to reevaluate my research.  I decided to create a time line with all the children birth dates.  I found one son whose birth place was recorded differently on three documents.

So I checked They Came in Ships by John Colletta to see what port of entry records are available for Boston.  I found out that the original lists (for my time period) were destroyed by fire and State Department copies were used instead.  Okay…, so I searched these records, and still did not find the family.

John Colletta’s book also has great solution ideas for when you cannot find your family in the indexes.  My next search will include the names of people who I believe traveled with the family.  Hopefully, I will find the family I am looking for in the near future.

Category: Genealogy  Tags: , , , ,  6 Comments
31
Jul
Wikis
Debby

Staying on top of new relevant publications available for your area of genealogical research can be a challenge.  I recent found out about a new Ortsfamilienbücher (heritage books) for one of my areas of research by visiting the GenWiki which is “designed to become the main source for genealogy in the German-speaking areas of the world”.

It is easier to check out one wiki where individuals contribute information vs. researching alone to find new information.  Wikis are information packed when individuals contribute.  I recommend if you know of a small, under utilized resource, that you find a genealogical wiki to contribute to.   One suggestion would be FamilySearch Research Wiki at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Main_Page.

The Ortsfamilienbücher I was looking at was for Zeutern which covered 1682-1900.  This find helped me work on one of my brickwalls and provided numerous leads to other branches in my family.  Had I not checked GenWiki, it might have been some time before I found this publication.

For more information on Wikis, check out Social Networking for Genealogists by Drew Smith.

Category: Genealogy  Tags: , , , ,  One Comment
29
Jul
Newspaper Index
Debby

Not all indexes are the same.  This is especially true for those taken of newspapers.  The number of newspaper indexes released has greatly improved with the increase of volunteer projects.

With the size of newspapers, it is not possible for an indexer to capture all the information.  Not all indexing projects include all articles.  Some are just for social pages and obituaries.

What is nice is the ability to browse an entire newspaper online and look for relevant newspapers when a name is found in the index.

James Hansen’s chapter on Newspapers in The Source goes into details what can be found in newspapers.

Category: Genealogy  Tags: , ,  18 Comments
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