Abundant Resources

The gastro-virus crud hit our house over the weekend so I am rather behind on posting. One thing I realized I DIDN'T cover, that is rather important, is WHERE to get the information (such as census records). I can sit here and post about using census records, but it would be nice to know WHERE you can get them, right??

Many libraries do offer a section on genealogy. Since I am in a capital city, I do have the state library 10 minutes from me....which is REALLY nice and a WEALTH of any information you could want. Granted, they specialize in more specialized state-related material, but they also have subscriptions to certain pay-for websites that can give you more information nation-wide.

SO.....a library is one place to start.

I, myself, reluctantly joined ancestry.com. I say reluctantly because it's not the cheapest thing in the world, but at the same time, there *is* a ton of information there. Add on to the convenience of not having to leave your home.

HOWEVER, I have found that there are MANY MANY things I *CANNOT* get at Ancestry. Although they do add new bits of information frequently, I still have to utilize other websites (that are free, thankfully) for things.

Census records can also be snatched at Heritage Quest

The above is "kind of" free. I access it via my driver's license number through our state library's website. I know many libraries do offer this with a login using a library card ID, state ID, etc. If you can gain access to it, search by head of household name (I've found that to be the most reliable) and then pull up the original document to see every member of the house.

I think one VERY VERY overlooked resource: CEMETERIES. How can a cemetery help you?? A cemetery can give you accurate dates, family members, etc. Think about it: if you know that John Doe is buried at Smith Cemetery, you can hit the cemetery office, find the location of his grave and look around. What you may find when you find him: A spouse buried next to him you may not have known about. Other relatives on the same lot with other spouses, kids, etc. Cemeteries are GOOD. Cemeteries are AWESOME. Cemeteries don't LIE. Use them.

If you can't get to the cemetery you need, utilize Find a Grave . Although there are millions of entries from all over on this website, entries are entered by people like you and me. You may find what you are looking for; you may not. If you know where someone is, you can make an entry and then request a photo. A photo volunteer may take a picture of the headstone(s) for you! :) Voila.

Try a search, too, in Google or another search engine for cemetery records of the county, cemetery, etc you are looking for. I've seen websites that have an entire cemetery transcribed are more complete than Find a Grave.

Try searching for a county's genealogical society. I, myself, have a TON of roots out of Muskegon County (MI) and they have a VERY in-depth website including cemetery transcriptions, etc.

The Library of Michigan has also made their death records through 1920 available online at http://seekingmichigan.org/. You can check to see if your library has followed suit.

How can death records help you?? Death records ROCK (as morbid as it sounds. Death records can give you parental names of the deceased (more times than not), birth dates, death dates, marital status at the time of death, how many children the person had and how many are living, occupation, burial location, etc.

If your library doesn't have those online, utilize Family Search through LDS I am not a fan of the original LDS search pages as I think they are WAY too complicated, but this nifty site they've done is AMAZING. It is the SECOND one I use to ancestry.com and probably the next thorough. What ancestry doesn't have, this one generally does. From a Michigan standpoint, this website has marriage records GALORE. Marriage records also give you a bride's maiden name and after a certain date, the records show parents for both parties. :) But, they also have information to various levels for every state and even other countries. You never know what you will find on this website. Use it. Use it regularly. It *WILL* give you more information than ancestry does.

Don't be afraid to consult funeral homes, as well. Many funeral homes have records dating way way back and can give you, in many instances, a wealth of information. On one instance, I had a mysterious person I just couldn't find ANYWHERE. I utilized the county (out of state), a church he was a pastor at, cemetery records, funeral homes, etc. Granted, I never found him, but I think my case is the exception to the rule.

There are websites, as well, that contain "trees" that other people have put up. They can be helpful, but I would NOT...NOT NOT NOT take any information without being able to verify things yourself. How do you know that information is reliable? I, myself, have taken a person from it to get a lead on the rest, but I don't copy anyone else's AT ALL for the reason I listed above: reliability. I've seen trees completely botched with mis-information and you can totally tell other trees were copied from each other because the SAME information/spellings/etc are exact. Had I not researched to know differently, I, too, may have had misinformation.

And by ALL means: when you find information, DOCUMENT it. I don't care HOW you do it, just do it. You can have information, but if you can't prove it, it means nothing. I like to copy and paste records from Family Search. Census records are pretty explanatory, but when it comes to maiden names, death dates, birth dates, how you came about parents names, or even any other neat bits of information, DOCUMENT where you got the information from.