Family Tree Magazine March/April 2014 Digital Edition

Ancestry.com Web GuideBy Diane HaddadAncestry.com is home to the largest online commercial collection of genealogy records. Our cheat sheet guide will help you make the most of this huge genealogy resource, including:

• A step-by-step guide to navigating the website
• Search strategies
• Major records collections and holdings
• Membership options
• Handy shortcuts
• And more

Archives.com Web GuideBy Sunny Jane MortonArchives.com calls itself “the web’s biggest family history bargain,” and it is a perfect resource for those with American ancestors who are beginning their research or just dabbling. Our guide takes us through Archives.com core content, which is US census and vital records, basic to building a family tree. Features:

• A step-by-step guide to navigating the website
• Search strategies
• Major records collections and holdings
• Membership options
• Handy shortcuts
• And more

 Archives.gov Web GuideBy Rick CrumeThe Archives.gov website describes historical records at the National Archives, helping you access them by mail or online request and sometimes, on a commercial genealogy website. You can also search and view digitized images of a small percentage of the National Archives’ records online. Our web guide will help you make the most of this website, including:

• A step-by-step guide to navigating the website
• Search strategies
• Major records collections and holdings
• Handy shortcuts
• And more

 FamilySearch.org Web GuideBy Sunny Jane MortonFamilySearch.org provides free access to billions of records from the world’s largest genealogy collection at the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City. Online record collections are strongest for the United States, Canada, Australia, Europe and South America, with approximately 35 million new records added per month. This guide helps you make the most of this resource, including:

• A step-by-step guide to navigating the website
• Search strategies
• Major records collections and holdings
• Handy shortcuts
• And more

 Social Media MavericksBy Lisa Louise CookeAlthough the social media world may seem overwhelming at first, ignoring it means missing out on the collective genealogical brain trust. Get to know these 40 to follow: top genealogy bloggers, Tweeters, Facebookers, Pinners and YouTubers who’ll keep you in the know. Superior Search Engine StrategiesBy Nancy HendricksonThanks to networking with other online researchers, genealogists have made tremendous strides in discovering their family history. Online research can help you achieve similar success, helping you discover names and dates, and enhance those names and dates with maps, photos, stories, news of the day and more. Our guide will help you use search engines to find family history information on websites big and small, and you’ll learn how to construct simple and complex online searches that weed out irrelevant matches to home in on the information you need. Findmypast.com Web GuideBy David A. FryxellFindmypast.com offers a vast collection of UK records, the complete US census and other American records, as well as databases from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland. A partnership with FamilySearch will add records from the free FamilySearch.org website, too. Find your past on findmypast.com with our guide, including:

• step-by-step guide to navigating the website/li>
• Search strategies
• Major records collections and holdings
• Membership options
• Handy shortcuts
• And more

 Fold3 Web GuideBy David A. FryxellFold3 provides access to images of more than 420 million records. They’re primarily related to US military service, but also comprise nonmilitary collections that were posted when the site was called Footnote, before Ancestry.com purchased it and refocused it to military records, including many from the National Archives and Records Administration. Our guide will help you make the most of this resource, including:

• A step-by-step guide to navigating the website
• Search strategies
• Major records collections and holdings
• Membership options
• Handy shortcuts
• And more

 Library of Congress Web GuideBy Lisa A. AlzoThe Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world. The LOC website offers digital access to a wide variety of print, pictorial and audiovisual materials from its vast collections. Our cheat sheet guide will help you make the most of this fantastic free resource for your genealogy and history research, including:

• A step-by-step guide to navigating the website
• Search strategies
• Major records collections and holdings
• Handy shortcuts
• And more

 MyHeritage Web GuideBy David A. FryxellMyHeritage goes beyond online family trees, employing SuperSearch to scour more than 4 billion genealogy records such as birth, marriage, death, burial, military and immigration records, censuses, yearbooks and newspapers, with scans of the originals. And now in a partnership with FamilySearch, MyHeritage will return search results from 2 billion FamilySearch records and family tree profiles. Access it all with these tips, including:

• A step-by-step guide to navigating the website
• Search strategies
• Major records collections and holdings
• Membership options
• Handy shortcuts
• And more

 Online Books Web GuideBy Rick CrumePublished genealogies typically begin with an immigrant and trace his ancestors in Europe and his descendants in America. County histories usually include profiles of early settlers and leading citizens, as well as information on churches, schools and businesses. While printed copies are hard to find, digitized versions of many of them are online—where, thanks to powerful search engines, you can search through thousands of books and find a name in an instant. You could learn important dates and places, details about your ancestors’ lives, and background on their hometowns. This guide will help you find and search the best online genealogy book collections for your family’s history, including:

• A step-by-step guide to navigating online book collections
• Search strategies
• Major collections and holdings
• Handy shortcuts
• And more

 Online Newspapers Web GuideBy Rick CrumeNewspapers rank among the top sources for information on key events in your ancestors’ lives. Birth and marriage notices, anniversary celebrations and obituaries provide facts that form the framework of your family tree. Many newspapers are online, and you can search through millions of pages at once on free and fee-based websites, and get results in seconds. We’ll share secrets for discovering ancestors in the collections of top newspaper websites (including free options), as well as general search tips for using any online newspaper database, including:

• A step-by-step guide to navigating online newspaper collections
• Search strategies
• Major collections and holdings
• Handy shortcuts
• And more

 Libraries and Archives Web GuideBy Sunny Jane MortonMany essential genealogy resources remain “buried” indefinitely in libraries and archives: original manuscripts, compiled research and obscure or out-of-print publications. These fantastic, often one-of-a-kind sources may be key to unlocking family mysteries—but you can get to them only by taking a trip, using interlibrary loan or hiring a local researcher. But you have to find them first. And that’s where your internet sleuthing skills remain valuable. This guide shows you how to track these resources down, including:

• A step-by-step guide to navigating library catalogs
• Search strategies
• Major collections and holdings
• Handy shortcuts
• And more

 Ellis Island Research GuideBy Rick CrumeEllis Island was the entry point for 71 percent of US immigrants between 1892 and 1924 and nearly half of Americans have someone on their family tree who arrived there. Ellis Island’s website is home to a database of 25 million passengers and crew who entered through the Port of New York. You can search the lists for free, and our guide will help you find your ancestors who stepped foot onto Ellis Island, including:

• A graphic guide to navigating EllisIsland.org
• Search strategies
• A timeline
• Handy shortcuts
• And more

 Searching U.S. Port and Passenger ListsBy David A. FryxellDespite family lore and iconic imagery, not every immigrant to the United States arrived at New York City. Over the years, more than 90 ports on the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts, as well as the Great Lakes and stations along the borders with Canada and Mexico, officially welcomed immigrants. You can access many of these records not only through National Archives and Records Administration or the Family History Library (FHL) microfilm, but also online. Our guide includes:

• Popular arrival ports
• NARA’s immigration record holdings
• Search strategies
• Handy shortcuts
• A passenger list search worksheet
• And more