FINDING DESCENDANTS OF YOUR ANCESTORS

©Copyright 2012 by Donald R. Snow

Sections of the Class Notes This page was last updated 2012-06-15.
Return to the Utah Valley Technology and Genealogy Group Home Page or Don's Class Listings Page .
    WELCOME AND INTRODUCTION

  1. Instructors are Donald R. and Diane M. Snow ( snowd@math.byu.edu , dmsnow34@gmail.com ) of Provo and St. George, Utah.
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  2. These notes are posted on http://uvtagg.org/classes/dons/dons-classes.html with all the links, so you don't have to type them in yourself.  You can set up an icon on your desktop to click on to go to them directly.  Tip:  Hold down the Ctrl key when you click on a link and the link opens in another tab so you keep these notes open where you were.
  3. Announcements
    1. Don and Diane's talks coming up
      1. Thu 2012-08-02, 11 am - noon -- FAMILY HISTORY BOOKS ONLINE -- at BYU 2012 Conference on Family History and Genealogy, 31 Jul - 3 Aug 2012, Provo, Utah
      2. Fri 2012-08-03, 11 am - noon -- FREEWARE AND SHAREWARE FOR FAMILY HISTORY -- at BYU 2012 Conference on Family History and Genealogy, 31 Jul - 3 Aug 2012, Provo, Utah
      3. Sat 2012-09-15, 10 am - noon -- WHAT TO DO WITH A LETTER COLLECTION USING ERASTUS SNOW'S FAMILY LETTERS AS AN ILLUSTRATION -- at Riverton FamilySearch Library, Riverton, Utah
    2. 1940 US Census was released recently (2 Apr 2012) and anyone 72 or older and in the US in 1940 should be in it.  Images are posted several places including  http://1940census.archives.gov/ -- To find people before the index is finished you can first find the Enumeration District at  http://www.stevemorse.org .  Everyone can help index the 1940 US Census by signing up at  http://the1940census.com/?cid=fsHomeT1940Plt and the indexing of it is already half done.
  4. Today's class will discuss finding descendants of your ancestors -- descendancy research

    5.   FINDING DESCENDANTS OF YOUR ANCESTORS

  5. Several reasons to do descendancy research, e.g. it helps you understand and flesh out your genealogy, it may provide clues to extend your pedigree further back, and it makes the FS FT database complete and accurate -- see https://help.familysearch.org/publishing/779/102053_f.SAL_Member.html
  6. Keep track of what you find with the sources in your genealogy records management program so you have the information and can add it to FamilySearch Family Tree (FS FT) later

    7. EXAMPLE

  7. PowerPoint presentation about LAVINA KING (KLFW-T9P, 1838-1917), wife of William Franklin Hunter, and sister to Elizabeth Breedlove King, Diane's 2ggrandmother

    8. IMPORTANT WEBSITES AND RECORDS FOR DESCENDANCY RESEARCH

  8. FamilySearch Family Tree on http://www.familysearch.org and New FamilySearch on http://new.familysearch.org
  9. Affiliate programs to use with FamilySearch
    1. Get My Ancestors -- http://www.ohanasoftware.com/GetMyAncestors -- freeware to download ancestors and/or descendants from FS FT -- can set the number of generations up and/or down -- downloads FS FT data in PAF format which can then be changed to GEDCOM
    2. All My Cousins -- http://www.allmycousins.com -- finds and downloads ancestors and/or descendants from FS FT -- free version does several generations up, but just one generation down from each; commercial version ($20/year) does as many generations back and/or down as you want -- also gives lists of people in various relationships to you, e.g. 1C3R -- downloads FS FT data in GEDCOM format
  10. Census records are very helpful to put families together-- available in Historical Records on FamilySearch , Ancestry, and on Heritage Quest Online at home with your public library card
  11. Death Records -- Social Security Death Index -- http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/ssdi/ , cemetery records, and obituaries on websites like
    12. http://www.findagrave.com , http://www.billiongraves.com
  12. City directories -- see Don's notes on Using City and Other Directories
  13. Surname search on FamilySearch Catalog on https://familysearch.org
  14. http://www.mocavo.com -- searches many free genealogy websites all at once
  15. http://www.google.com -- for name searches use quotation marks around the name to get only results for that person
  16. http://www.rootsweb.com
  17. http://ancestry.com -- go to a FHC to use this free
  18. Church records, including parish registers
  19. Vital records and indexes
  20. Military records, especially pension records
  21. County histories -- many online for free at HeritageQuest Online
  22. Immigration indexes
  23. Probate and other court records

    24. FINDING IMMIGRANTS

  24. To find where immigrants entered the U.S. check http://ellisisland.org/ and http://castlegarden.org/ first since 90% of U.S. immigrants came through New York City -- http://www.stevemorse.org/ has "One-Step" entry forms for both of these at once
  25. To find where immigrants went in the U.S. check the ship manifest since that sometimes showed where they were going in the U.S. 
  26. US 1900 through 1930 censuses have year of immigration, native language, and source country
  27. Ancestry has an immigration index -- use it free at a FHC
  28. Naturalization records are helpful since they tell where person was living and application may give previous addresses and names used -- no central index of naturalization records in the U.S. and they could have been naturalized in many different courts 
  29. For more information and references see Don's notes on Tracing Your U.S. Immigrant Relative

    30. FINDING LIVING PEOPLE

  30. You may want to contact living descendants for family information, artifacts, and reunions
  31. Note who is interested in the genealogical records, e.g. in FS FT note who entered the information and click the "Watch" button to be notified of people making changes
  32. Online family trees usually require the name and email address of the submitter, e.g. Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, RootsWeb, etc.
  33. Ancestral File Submission sheets -- 606 microfilms of the hardcopy submissions of notes and sources to the Ancestral File when the submission was sent in on hardcopy -- films are available at FHL, BYU, and elsewhere, are little known, but have lots of FH data sources and documentation and who sent them in
  34. Outdated information may be helpful since you can type it, or part of it, into a search engine to see where it occurs and find a more recent email or snail-mail address or phone
  35. Internet Archive's The Wayback Machine may be helpful since it has "snapshots" of the entire Internet at times past
  36. Some helpful websites for finding living people -- may be able to find enough information for free without having to pay for full results on the commercial sites 
    1. 1940 census is a big help in finding living descendants -- indexing is about half finished already and for states not indexed yet you can use http://www.stevemorse.org/ to find the Enumeration District
    2. Steve Morse's website also has "One-Step" entry forms for several vital record indexes and directories -- can find the birthday of most people in a few minutes
    3. http://www.anywho.com/whitepages
    4. http://www.veromi.com/
    5. http://www.whitepages.com/
    6. http://genealogy.about.com/cs/findpeople/a/people_search.htm

    37. CONCLUSIONS

  37. Descendants research frequently provides clues for ancestral research since related families frequently came from the same location and lived nearby
  38. Many resources are now available to help you find descendants of your ancestors and living people
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