Wisconsin Historical Society, Madison, WI From time to time we highlight programs at other libraries, and this one looks great. The Algonquin Area Public Library will lead a bus trip to the Wisconsin Historical Society on Saturday, June 25. If you are interested in going, you may register online or register in person at the…
Are you a fan of using newspapers in your genealogy research? If so, check out the Old Fulton NY Post Cards website, one of, if not the, largest free digital newspaper websites out there. Old Fulton NY is a one-man-show run by Tom Tryniski, a retired engineer with a high school education and a passion…
We just got word that the database American Ancestors will be available for free now until April 13. American Ancestors contains records provided by the New England Historic and Genealogical Society, the oldest genealogy society in the United States. Usually a "free access" only allows access to selected parts of the database; this offer is unusual…
We had several good conversations at our Genealogy Networking Group last week. Our big topic was: what will we do now that Family Tree Maker will no longer be supported by Ancestry after January 2017? There was no consensus, but we looked at five different software packages: - Legacy Family Tree (Windows only) - Family…
The Genealogy Writers’ Group met yesterday. Everyone who attended reported progress on their writing or had goals for our next meeting on March 1. We have found that getting together keeps us on track with our writing and we enjoy both sharing our own work and hearing what others are working on. We also discussed…
Recently a patron asked how to take care of photographs, documents, and an old ledger that she had acquired after a death in the family. Looking into it, I realized this question has two elements. First, a fragile or historically significant item should be digitized so it won't need to be handled any more. Second, the…
There's been a lot of buzz lately about Ancestry Academy, video courses offered by Ancestry.com through their subscription website. However, not everyone has a subscription to Ancestry.com, and even if you do, the Academy courses are an additional expense. Do budget-minded genealogists have any other options? Absolutely! First, there's the Learning Center at familysearch.org. You can find…
In a recent webinar sponsored by Legacy Family Tree, presented by Dutch genealogist Yvette Hoitink, I learned some basics of researching ancestors from the Netherlands. The main website to use when researching Dutch ancestors is called WieWasWie (Who Was Who). Thankfully, the site is available in English as well as Dutch. On this site you can…
At our recent Genealogy Networking Group meeting we combined our years of experience to give out some advice for our newest members. Some of the great tips that were offered were: Start with yourself, work backwards in time. This is the mantra of every beginning genealogist. Cite Your Sources. Always keep track of where you…
About once a week we get asked by a well-meaning genealogist how they can get an obituary of an ancestor or relative who died in Cook County. We finally figured out that when people unfamiliar with the northern Illinois area Google "Cook County Library," the Cook Memorial Public Library District is the first hit to…
