My plan from last week was to review previously seen documents looking for new information and then to find 2 new sites to find additional information. Here is my question to you, what are some sites you commonly use besides the big databases such as ancestry.com, family search and my heritage?

Do you go to local library sites in the area you are researching? Do you look for genealogical or historical societies in the area? How do you find these sites? Which sites do you look for? Are there specific items in specific sites or do you look for general sites that hold the potential for several facts to be uncovered.

One idea is to talk to your family history colleagues, friends, HQ librarians and find out what they use. Many resources, such as Family Tree Magazine or YouTube videos such as Genealogy TV identify the best sites to use. They often do this each year to highlight the new sites that may be available. When you find facts that others have connected to your ancestors, look at the sources they used and at the original documents. Often their sources will be identified, and you can look in those locations.

Another idea is to Google information which is what our latest class topic explained and boy if you missed this one it was a great class. It was as much about organization as it was about finding things using Google and Google Scholar. She talked about and showed us how to use Google Translate, how to find entire books on sites that can be downloaded and translated if needed, and how to develop a system on your own computer for filing and linking all of your findings so that they can be saved and found again when you want them. Suz Bates was outstanding, and we got her just 3 presentations before she retires from speaking!

One of my biggest take-aways was the use of the triangle – Location, Era, Group. I don’t know why I just realized this, slow I guess, but your research workflow should be location, era, group and then the individual you are researching. She talked about looking for databases and then how to use them, asking where they were from and where they are now, who created them and why they were needed. It gets back to putting our information and people into historical context. It is going from the general to the more specific.

If you are interested, contact HQRL at 253-863-1806, pay for the class and they will let me know so that I can send you a link to the recording and give you the handout.  While there sign up for the next classes on Using Real-Estate Deeds and how to use My Heritage.

In the meantime, I am going to apply what I learned today to see what I can find on my 3x great grandparents from McDonough Co, Illinois – 1800 – 1870 - Arnold Family. See how I did that? Wish me luck!

Heidi Geise, education@hqrl.com