| FHC Info | |
Hours of Operation:
Mon: Closed
Fri: 9:30 am-1:00 pm
Saturday:
9:30 am-4:30 pm
Tues, Wed, Thurs:
9:30am-4:30pm, & 7-9:30 pm
Directors: Linda & Kurt Christensen Washington DC Stake Carol & Gary Petranek, Silver Spring MDStake |
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WDC FHC News
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Holiday Closing
The FHC will be closed from Monday, December 21 through Thursday, January 1. We will reopen on Friday, January 2.
Saturday Classes - 2016
January 16, 9:30 a.m.
How I Built My Own Brick Wall
Presented by: Rebecca Koford
You believe you are doing everything right until you hit a wall. Learn what you should do to avoid creating stumbling blocks in your research.
February 20, 2016
African-American Genealogy Conference to be held in Laurel, Maryland. Further details to be published in the January newsletter.
March 19, 9:30 a.m.
Social Media and Genealogy
Presented by: Carol Petranek
If you think Facebook is for cat videos and Twitter is for politicians, you are missing out on valuable genealogical resources! This presentation will cover how today's family historians are using social media and blogs to further their own research and connect with new cousins.
April 16, 9:30 a.m.
Writing Your Narrative with Social History
Presented by: Rebecca Koford
Rebecca will demonstrate how to enhance and enrich your family's stories by grounding them within the events of their times.
May 7, all-day
WDC FHC Annual Conference
Please join us to enhance your research skills
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WDC FHC Focus Group Schedule
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Join a Focus Group to Enhance Your Research Skills
African-American: Meets weekly on Monday mornings at 10:00. Every 2nd Monday, there is special training to learn how to index Freedmen's Bureau records.
Beginning Genealogy: Meets weekly on Tuesday mornings at 10:00. Contact Lorraine Minor at ldgene@verizon.net for further information.
DNA Group: Meets bi-weekly the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month at 7:00. December meetings will be the 9th & 16th.
Eastern European Group: Meets monthly on the 4th Saturday at noon; focus countries: Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Belarus. No meeting in December.
Irish Group: Meets bi-weekly on the 1st, 3rd & 5th Tuesday evenings at 7:00.
RootsMagic Users Group: Meets monthly on the 2nd Saturday at 9:30 a.m. December meeting will discuss using Dropbox and back-up procedures.
All are welcome - no registration needed.
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Photo Restoration Options - for Free!
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by Amie Bowser Tennant
Many of us have photos that are in bad condition and we long to bring them back to life. With so many computer software programs and phone apps available for picture correction and editing, it is hard to know which ones are best.
I decided to ask others what they were using to edit their old photos. The list was long. I tried a few. Here are six software programs or web-based applications that I tried, and why I do or do not like them. Most of them are completely free, with the exception of paying for upgraded features. I have indicated which programs are downloadable software applications and which are browser-based options. 1. IrfanView
2. PicMonkey
3. GIMP
4. Picasa 3
5. Pixlr.com
6. "Photo Restoration Free Service" on Facebook
To read the full article which reviews each service, click here. Source: rootsbid.com/blog (Special thanks to the Logan Family History newsletter for initially posting this article)
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Five Reasons We Can't Find the Records We Want
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By Elizabeth Shown Mills
1. Those records were never created in the first place.
Recordkeeping is so commonplace today that our expectations are often skewed. Children are born with a birth certificate aren't they-a peel-off form on their chest, ready for the doctor to fill out and file? We think no one is allowed to die without a death certificate. And everybody got married, at least before our modern change of manners....
2. Records were kept, but your person-of-interest never created one.
A poor, honest man or woman-or one living on a frontier-could go a lifetime without visiting a lawyer, judge, or justice of the peace to create a legal record. If a man's youth fell between wars, he may never have done military service. To find low-profile people of the past in surviving records, we have to devise strategies for finding what they, themselves, did not create.
3. Records were kept, but have been destroyed.
Fires, floods, vermin, wars, and windstorms have all taken their toll, even under the best of conditions. So have short-sighted county officials with planned-destruction (er, record-retention) policies. Clerks short of space in their record rooms have consigned older records to basement crawl spaces or leaking outbuildings, until mold created a health hazard and it was no longer "safe" to keep them. Even so, copies may survive....
4. Records were kept, but your person-of-interest seems to be omitted.
Censuses are the prime offenders here. Prior to the automobile age, the generally poor state of roads meant that many rural families were missed. Conditions in urban environments may have discouraged enumerators from visiting certain neighborhoods. Language barriers existed in ethnic enclaves, both urban and rural, causing names to be garbled beyond recognition....
5. Records were kept, but they grew legs and walked off.
....record books and files missing from local courthouses and town halls can be found at local libraries, university archives, and state archives. In some cases, these were officially placed in the library or archives for safekeeping. In other cases, documents unofficially removed from the record offices were later donated to an archive by those who had taken them-or by their descendants; these are most-often found in collections bearing personal names.
Bottom line.
When alternative sources and auxiliary repositories don't yield the direct evidence we seek to resolve our research question, many possibilities still remain-if we shift our mindset....
The full article can be read here.
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Germanic Languages
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by Jim Bartlett, DNA Specialist
[Note: To help readers better understand the use of DNA in genealogy research, this newsletter will feature extracts of monthly posts from Jim Bartlett's new blog, Segment-ology.]
Getting Started with Autosumnal DNA (Part 1)
So you are thinking about getting an autosomal (atDNA) test, but are not sure where to start. This blog post will walk you through several steps to help get you started.
An atDNA test will result in a list of matches based on shared DNA. Almost all of these matches are your cousins - most will be about 5th to 8th cousins, with some who are closer and some who are more distant. The DNA test will give you this list, and a way to contact your matches; it's up to you to share information with your matches and determine your common ancestor(s). 1. Determine your objectives
2. What to expect from your atDNA results 3. Understand the three types of DNA 4. There are two fundamental levels for using atDNA 5. Select the company for your test 6. Develop a robust Tree of your Ancestors 7. Develop a list of Patriarchs
To read Jim's detailed article, click here.
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6 'Secret' Google Search Tricks for Genealogy
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Most of us use Google search to look for our ancestors on a regular basis. After all, once we're done searching our favorite family history sites directly, Google is our best bet for locating new records online.
But finding valuable data via Google search can be hard since there are so many sites, and so many pages of data. After typing in an ancestor's name and a few details we often find that we've turned up hundreds or thousands of results, and most of them are irrelevant....
Luckily, Google is a pretty smart search engine and can help you reveal just what you're looking for - if you know the 'secrets.'
1. Apply Quotation Marks
2. Use the Minus Sign
3. Get Site Specific Results
4. Search Only Page Titles
5. Search a Date Range
6. Search for Terms Near Each Other
To read the full article, which includes specifics on each of these tips, click here.
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Dear Myrtle: New GenTools Study Group
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State Censuses - Often Overlooked
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Often overlooked when doing family history research are the individual state censuses. The U. S. Federal censuses started in 1790 and were done every 10 years. The individual states would do their own census within their borders, sometimes five years after a federal census. Other times it was quite random when one was completed.
The type of questions asked in a state census also varied greatly from the federal government ones. So there can be a wealth of previously unknown information on your ancestors found in a state census....
Most of the 50 states have at least one state census taken sometime in their history. However, there are a few where no state census was ever done, they include: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Idaho, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia. Many of those, like New Mexico were territories or a portion of another state, so there would data before certain ones were states.
The following is a list of the states and what state censuses are available.
To read this article, click here.
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5 Things to Learn from Death Records
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by Kimberly Powell
Many people looking for information on their ancestors skip right past the death record, heading in a beeline for information on the individual's marriage and birth. Sometimes we already know where and when our ancestor died, and figure it's not worth the time and money to track down the death certificate. Another scenario has our ancestor disappearing between one census and the next, but after a half-hearted search we decide it's not worth the effort since we already know most of his other vital facts.
Those death records, however, can tell us much more about our ancestor than where and when he died!
Death records, including death certificates, obituaries and funeral home records, can include a wealth of information on the deceased, including the names of their parents, siblings, children and spouse; when and where they were born and/or married; the occupation of the deceased; possible military service; and cause of death. All of these clues can be helpful in telling us more about our ancestor, as well as leading us to new sources of information on his life.
To read the full article, click here.
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Finding Hidden Ancestors in Newspapers
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by Kenneth R. Marks
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Genealogy Tip of the Day
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Rural Directories in the Back
Some directories are titled as being a "city directory" but have broader
listings in the back. This 1906 Quincy, Illinois, directory had a listing of
rural residents in the county--in the back. Don't let the title mislead you.
Reverse Directories
Some city directories have a reverse directory in the back that lists residents based on their address. Don't just quit when you find people in the alphabetical listing, make certain there's not more in the back of the book.
May Take Decades to Settle
When searching for records of an estate settlement, keep in mind that it may be ten or twenty years before an estate is finally settled. This final settlement may appear in the probate records or the land records-or both. Thomas Sledd died in Bourbon County, Kentucky, in 1815. His land was finally partitioned among his heirs in 1831.
Post-Death Court Action Besides Probate
A probate court typically is the local court where your deceased ancestor's estate would be "settled up." However there are times when the heirs cannot agree to the point where there is court action in a civil court or court of equity. Partition suits and other estate squabbles may be in a separate court file from the probate record-and may contain more detail, particularly if the case drug on for several years
Alternates that Do Not Sound the Same
Spelling variations or misreadings where consonants are changed can frustrate searches, particularly where interchanged letters don't sound alike. In this example, a "v" was replaced with an "r." That's different enough that sound-based searches don't often work.
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Research Tips & Resources
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Fairfax Genealogy Society "Call for Papers"
Speaking proposals for the 2016-2017 for the Fairfax (Virginia) Genealogy Society are now being accepted. Proposals are sought for monthly general meetings (1 hour), monthly education classes (2 hours) and one-day Fall Fair and two-day Spring Fair. Honorariums are granted. Deadline for proposals is March 1 2016. Contact Fxgs.org.
Can't Read that 20th Century Cause of Death?
If you've seen those codes or numbers by the cause of death on a 20th century death certificate and wondered what they mean, this page has links to the "International Classification of Diseases."
Online Citizenship and Naturalization Papers
Many are now online. Click here to read how to access those that are digitized.
Canadian Naturalization Records, 1915-1951
Library and Archives Canada is pleased to announce the release of a new version of the online database Naturalization Records, 1915-1951. The nominal index has been extended with the addition of more than 68,000 names and now covers the years from 1915 to 1944, inclusively. Work is ongoing to extend the nominal index to 1951, and volunteers are welcome to help. Those interested should write to Cdn-Nat-Coord@jgs-montreal.org.Access here.
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Thank you for subscribing to Generations. We hope this publication will motivate you to successfully begin or continue your family history research. We would like to hear from you! Please submit your questions, research tips, and favorite websites to us at info@wdcfhc.org
Sincerely,
Carol Petranek, Newsletter Editor
Linda & Kurt Christensen
Gary Petranek
Co-Directors, Washington DC Family History Center
10000 Stoneybrook Drive, PO Box 49
Kensington, MD 20895
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