SEARCHING FOR OUR ROOTS
I've been doing more research into sites on the internet that may help us track down our elusive ancestors.
Although I still haven't been able to find my husband's great great great grandfather, I THINK I'm getting closer. I did find his great great grandfather's World War I Draft Registration Card from 1917-18 and was able to print it out.
It's quite possible that the reason I haven't found it before now is because even though Harvey McCain spelled his own name correctly, whoever entered the information online spelled his name incorrectly as Mccaine and I've read and found for myself that happens frequently. It's a good idea to use variations of spelling when doing your search.
I'm adding quite a bit of information and new links to places online where we just may find what we're looking for. At least it's a start. I'll continue to add anything new I come across.
https://www.arcalife.com/ – worth checking out. They have a free account (which of course has limited search capabilities), a Yearly Premium Plan @ $49.95, and a Lifetime Premium Plan @ $149.95.
http://www.ancestry.com – they have 2 membership categories – the U.S. Discovery Membership which has an annual fee of $155.40, or a monthly fee of $22.95,
and then they have a World Explorer Membership which has an annual fee of $299.40 and a monthly fee of $34.95 (this category has added features of being able to have access to records from World Collections from the UK, Ireland, and other locations around the globe. You'd also have unlimited access to everything on Ancestry.com
http://www.familysearch.org – this site is free. I don't have a lot of expertise using this site BUT I came across a page where you can search for a Family Search Center near you.
https://www.familysearch.org/locations – I had a wonderful experience with this. I found one about 10 miles from me. I called them and spoke with a lady who was very helpful. She gave me some pointers in trying to get past the block wall I've hit with my own search. They have a microfilm reader and can order any microfilm you wish to view. I'm excited to pick up my search again and see where it leads.
http://www.newspaperarchive.com/Genealogy/ – newspaper archive – the largest historical newspaper database online, contains tens of millions of newspaper pages from 1759 to the present. Every newspaper in the archive is fully searchable by keyword and date, making it easy for you to quickly discover genealogical content. You can try a search by first and last name and possibly find articles on your ancestors written as it happened. There is a cost to this site (sad to say) – $9.99/month for 3 months, $7.99/month for 6 months, and $5.99/month for 12 months.
http://www.hmdb.org – the Historical Marker Database – "This website is an illustrated searchable online catalog of historical information viewed through the filter of roadside and other permanent outdoor markers, monuments, and plaques. It contains photographs, inscription transcriptions, marker locations, maps, additional information and commentary, and links to more information. Anyone can add new markers to the database and update existing marker pages with new photographs, links, information and commentary."
For example, I did a search for Marietta, Ohio. That's where I was born and raised. If you are on the site and look in the right hand column (in black) and scroll down just a bit, you'll see a listing of all the States. I clicked on Ohio and then over to the right of that page, there's a Google search (I didn't use hmdb's search). I checked for it to search HMdb.org and it led me to about 187 links where it lists historical markers in my hometown.
Now here's where my brain went with that…….if I don't have a lot of photos of my ancestors or just wanted to include some historical information about the town where I or my ancestors were born, I could scrap a page or two or more with this information. This would be very interesting to future generations to include in my album.
There are also a couple sites that I keep up with in "Google Reader". These are VERY INFORMATIVE sites, full of tips and loads of links to other helpful places.
http://genealogysstar.blogspot.com/
And then there's Cyndi's List for beginners. http://www.cyndislist.com/beginners
UPDATE FEBRUARY 5, 2012 If you don't get notifications from Cyndi's List, here's a page that will prove helpful – GOOGLING FOR GRANDMA – with links to things like Google for Genealogy, Ancestry.com the basics, Internet Genealogy, Databases – lineage linked, FamilySearch, and more!
If you have links to someplace that you feel might be helpful in our search, feel free to share in the comments and I'll get it added to the list.
Thanks for looking and Happy Scrapping,
Cheryl
