Thursday, January 11, 2007

MO Death Certificates, 1956

The Missouri Archives has added death certificates from 1956 to their online collection. This follows an update last month in which 16 years of records were added.

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Thursday, January 04, 2007

Clutter free in 10 minutes or less

I have a new genealogy tool that I think Lee and some others will appreciate: a cardboard box.

I'm going to clear off my desk by putting all of the papers in a box (or two) and only remove said papers when I am going to analyze/transcribe/scan and file them. This is going to cause some problems -- despite my mess, I know where (almost) everything is -- but I need to get in the habit of having papers filed and the desk clear of clutter. I'd also like to be able to use my scanner without moving several inches of paper each time.

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Checklist ideas

After a few minutes searching for checklists, I found a few good examples.


I do like the forms with space provided for information found while researching, but that's not exactly what I'll need in the coming months. An actual checklist that I can take with me and look over while out and about, as well as at home, is what I'll end up making -- likely using a spreadsheet. I have plenty of paper destined for the recycling bin that I can use for jotting down notes; I just need to know what I've already researched.

There may be a way to do this with Ancestral Quest. I probably need to check with the power users to see if this is feasible. Ideally, though, every time I enter a new ancestor or collateral I would have the option of attaching a checklist to that individual.

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Illinois tombstone controversy

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Museum asked to give up symbol of 1814 massacre.

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Japanese imperial tombs

MSNBC: Japan opens imperial tombs for research.

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Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Resolutions roundup

My goals for this year are nothing compared to rest of the folks who submitted for the latest Carnival of Genealogy. There are some seriously motivated and/or delusional folks out there. ;) (I'm also noticing a trend that a lot of us have filing issues.)

To be fair to myself, I did sort of underplay my goal for a surname project. Soon, I'm going to create two checklists; one for my ancestors, one for the collateral folks. I've toyed with this before, but never made definitive lists and set out down that path. There is certain information that I'd like to have for every individual in a descendant report, such as the basic vital info, census entries, an obit, and a photo of their tombstone, assuming they're dead. Depending on the era, location and religion, I'll go further and try to fill in other blanks (e.g., baptism, confirmation, military, directories). For ancestors, I'll attempt to find everything I can, adding deeds and other assorted records to the mix. I do not plan on fully researching collateral lines. It would be monumental to exhaustively research *every* individual in my database equally. Sorry, just being realistic and honest.

(Does anyone else use checklists? I'm looking for something to inventory what I have or need to find for each individual. If so, let me know.)

The one thing that I did read about in other resolutions that I should and will do this year is helping others with lookups. I'm not going to reregister at RAOGK because I don't know that I could keep up with the requests or if I'm going to be at libraries on a regular basis, but I'm going to try and pick cases from RootsWeb mailing lists and message boards that I know I can help with. I've done this in the past and it usually works out well, similar to having others find my name at RAOGK. I've gotten a lot of help from strangers, most recently from individuals in Minnesota and Maryland and it's only fair to help others in return.

The Minnesota volunteer snapped a few photos and will later get an obituary, and in December someone went above and beyond in getting me several Maryland death certificates -- in the process saving me a nice chunk of change -- and may drive down to my area of interest to scout out a cemetery which may have changed names.

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St. Louis City Library website

The St. Louis Public Library (City) hasn't yet converted their entire site to a new layout, but they now have a new gateway for genealogists. On that page, you will see recent additions to the History and Genealogy Department along with links to an obituary search, information about immigration (passenger lists) resources, the Gateway Family Historian newsletter, family histories and the login for their access to HeritageQuest. Experienced researchers may not find much here, but hopefully this is the beginning of something bigger and better. The obit search is already very useful.

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Avery: It's not a portrait, but...

If you'd like to see what a probable 9th great-grand uncle looks like, here you go.

Thanks to The Genealogue for spotting this. The article points out some errors in the AVERY genealogy/history.

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