Injuries

Haven't been able to be online much, have a hole in my retina that bothers me when using the computer. Plus also broke several toes on my left foot. I haven't even read all my genealogy newsletters, checked many sites or tweets.

Free access records

I can't believe that findmypast.co.uk had free access to all the records during the World Cup when they were playing. That was great! The first day didn't work out very well though. It took me about 1 1/2 hours to get in and they were only available for 3 hours! Then once I was in I tried to look at some records but the pages were slow and didn't work. The other days it worked great and I did find records/information. The free 90 minutes they offered went by very fast though. I had hoped England would last longer in the World Cup so I would get more time for free searches. :)
I also tried looking for information in the Druin collection at Ancestry.ca during their free three days of access last week. I didn't find any records though. I did find mention of some records in Quebec, but they were not free to access since they apparently were not in the Druin collection, French-Canadian and Quebec historical records.

Access Civil War records for free

This month, June, Footnote is allowing access to the Civil War records collection free to the public. You just need to sign up for a free account if you aren't a member.
They have free access to various records throughout the year. You might also check with your local library, some have free access within the library for all or most of their records.

www.Footnote.com

Midwife Diary Online

This is very interesting, and a peek into life of the time. All 27 years of Martha Ballard's diary, 1785-1812, are available, plus another diary and even what to do if you have an old diary in your own family. Lots of other info to look over too.

http://dohistory.org

French genealogy

Found an interesting blog, actually from their Facebook page, which basically explains in plain English what you will find on French sites. Also examples of what to click on the page. Since I help a good friend with her French genealogy, I am glad to find more help. There is even a guide you can request that helps with French research. I
am hoping to find some help with a brick wall.

http://french-genealogy.typepad.com/

Time speeding by!

Still working on entering data into my Family Tree Maker program. I have so much some dating back to the 1600s or earlier. I keep finding more family members along the way, figure I might need the siblings too to track down documents, photos, etc.

I found some interesting info along the way and for now have access to Ancestry. com to look for more info as I go. I need full world access to get more documents, some of which I have found on other websites though. I have several local libraries that have the library version of Ancestry.com, which has some English and Canadian records. One library has a full genealogy department with a lot of old books from a lot of different state info and published genealogies or local histories. Nothing like stumbling across full family histories from a book about a local community.

Here is a link for Irish Genealogy help:

http://www.irishgenealogical.com/

Also some good info and links for Irish Genealogy:

http://www.openthedoor.org.uk/blog/category/irish-genealogy

Busy, busy!

Time is flying by, almost 1/4 of the year has past! I am working on entering all my info into FTM 2008. I haven't used a genealogy program since I lost everything in a computer crash about 3 years ago, so have a lot to enter.

I also have some links for some sewing projects, both really nice bags, both have really good tutorials also. Use left over ribbons from projects for the first, and fat quarters or left over fabric for the other.

Ribbon tote:
http://readymade.com/projects/article/macgyver_challenge_ribbons/?sssdmh=dm17.441913&esrc=nwrmu&email=1146716

Then one using those fat quarters:
http://cicadadaydream.blogspot.com/2009/02/fat-quarter-tote-bag-tutorial.html

Save Money on Printing

If you want to save money on printing, use draft mode and ecofont. This will save you a lot.
I print out a lot of my research, charts, logs, etc. I have used the draft mode (also called
quick print) often, and to save paper had been using Arial font. Using a larger font often
means more paper, so try printing on both sides also. I just downloadedecofont and hope
it saves me even more on printing by buying less ink cartridges. Ecofont is free:

http://www.ecofont.com/en/products/green/font/download-the-ink-saving-font.html

Ancestry magazine free

Google books has put all the years of Ancestry magazine online. The full issues are viewable here:

http://books.google.com/books/serial/FTgEAAAAMBAJ?rview=1&lr=&sa=N&start=0

Free Genealogy Classes

FamilySearch.org is offering free genealogy classes.

• England Beginning Research
• Germany Research New!
• Ireland Research New!
• Italy Research
• Principios básicos para la investigación genealógica en Hispanoamérica (México)
• Research Principles and Tools New!
• Russia Research
• U.S. Research New!

Keeping up with the latest genealogy news

Keeping up with the latest news on various genealogy sites, is not only necessary, it is important to your research. I get about 10 genealogy newsletters, and also a few RSS feeds on my homepage. The best news will be any that will help you in the area you are researching, plus finding out which sites are offering temporary free searches. I have found lots of information at some of these types of sites, whether I wasn't a member, a non-paying member, or have limited access.

The latest information from www.genealogyintime.com included some free access to both U.S. sites, but also to other countries.

Women's History Month

To read more about women in history, to see images and photographs:

http://womenshistory.about.com/


Please check it out. Learn about women throughout history. Here are some direct links to more on the website:

http://womenshistory.about.com/b/

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/earlyamerica/tp/aatpearlyam1st.htm

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/waramrevolution/tp/aatpamerrevol2.htm

http://womenshistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa022299.htm

http://genealogy.about.com/od/clothing_timelines/Timelines_of_Clothing_Hairstyles_Fashion.htm

http://womenshistory.about.com/od/fashion/Fashions_What_Women_Wore.htm

Historical photos

I found a wonderful site full of old photos, 1850-1940. It includes photos worldwide.

http://www.old-picture.com/

Google Books

If you haven't used google book search, you may be missing out on useful help with your research. I have used it for a couple of years and recently passed on this info to a distant cousin who didn't know about it. I had found some family info in a local history book and sent her the info along with the link for the book to download. Why buy a book, you might not even find elsewhere, when you can download it or just search by surname or location. It is easy and helpful. Happy hunting! :)

Google Book Search

Use fonts without installing

While searching for some new fonts, I found a way to use a font without actually installing it. Double click the downloaded font file, double click the .ttf file; while it is open (when you can view the examples of the font) you can use it. This is great if you want to just try out a font. Of course you can use The Font Thing to have all those extra fonts on hand, but I did like the fact that I can also just open up the file and check out how a new font might look and be able to use it right then and there.

This is the link that explains how to install a font, and the note how to use it in your program, ex. PSE or PS:
http://www.dafont.com/faq.php

David Rumsey maps and Google maps

I just found out that David Rumsey has taken 120 of his thousands of maps, digitized them and they can be used to lay over Google maps to see the difference in changes over time. These maps cover the time period 1680 to 1930.

This is a neat tool for looking at how things have changed, especially useful for genealogy.

http://rumsey.geogarage.com/gmaps.html

Free Online Genealogy Magazine

If you haven't checked out Genealogy In Time, it's a free online genealogy magazine. It is totally free, comes out weekly, has articles archives, and offers howto articles also.

http://www.genealogyintime.com/?awt_l=9yvGd&awt_m=1f3DFycsIAk.Vy

1940 and 1950 U.S. census substitutes

Ancestry.com now has more phone directories which can be used as substitutes for the 1940 and 1950 U.S. census. I tried it out, not even signed into the site, and it came up with some basic information. Although not the city, which I knew, but just being able to get that is very useful. I was able to find some people in my lines and husband's line, to keep track of any moves by finding them in the directories. I have used other sites that have some directories also, and it is really great when they mention the occupation, which was the case at least in the 1940s and earlier. The voter registrations are very useful also. I was able to track the movement and even marriages of an individual who had been married briefly to a female relative, just using the voter registrations. I even verified to another person, who had my family line connected to one of her lines, that her family tree chart on Ancestry.com was not connected the way she thought. She did not change her information, which is totally wrong, but I know the correct information myself. So every little bit of information found helps with sourcing and to build the family connections, and their lives too.

Reading Old Handwriting

Reading some of the old documents can be a real challenge. I have had some problems with old English, Swedish and even a few other languages. I found one good site that has a lot of help. I find this site can be useful deciphering words or at least the letters. This site covers old script with tutorials in these languages: English, German, Dutch, Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese.

http://script.byu.edu/

Preserving recipes

A recent article in a newsletter, reminded me of taking the time to write a culinary journal. The likes and dislikes of various tried recipes, including what family members thought. Then to save those recipes from our mothers and grandmothers. It might even be just a special technique. I wish I had been near my mother more when I would have really been more interested and needed to know some of those special techniques! It wasn't the same over the phone and she always worried that it was costing too much, even if she was the one that called! I remember the first time I had to make Thanksgiving dinner all on my own, and she was a couple of states away, but it felt like half the country away. So many times I wish I had asked more about many subjects. It has been 18 1/2 years since she died, I sure miss her especially at the holidays. We often had big extended family get togethers during the holidays, and everyone brought something, so there were special menu items from each family. It was a great time. I hope everyone had a wonderful time over the holidays. :)

Happy New Year!!!

Best wishes for a Happy New Year today and the whole year!