Objective: To look at basic sources that could help in
finding information about ancestors and their country of origin. If you have
not yet located the country of origin for your ancestor, use the principles
in this discussion and apply them to researching in the United States.
Resources to be discussed:
Research Guidance
Using the Internet, go to FamilySearch.org. After the "Welcome" page loads into your Internet browser you will see "Tabs" like file folders at the top of the page. Click your mouse on the tab that is "Search". When the next screen opens up, click on "Research Guidance" in the blue border. On the left hand side of the page, you will see a dialog box and a link entitled "Determining the Country where Your Ancestor Lived" click on this. The following is from that screen:
To find information about an ancestor, you need to determine at least the country the ancestor lived in for an event such as birth, christening, marriage, or death. These suggestions may help you identify where your ancestor lived:
Research Guidance: Research Guidance is a tool that helps you decide what records to use to find information about your ancestor. It lists the best records to use, recommends the order in which to search them, provides step-by-step instructions for finding information in the records, and tells you where copies of the records may be located.
Glossary: The Glossary contains definitions of words and terms that
you may find in Research Guidance. The glossary also has non-English words and
their English translations.
Research Helps
Research Helps includes research outlines, forms, maps, historical backgrounds and information on how to find a map, name variations, and so forth.
What is the Family History SourceGuideTM? (On CD)
This is an electronic collection of more than 150 research outlines from the Family History Library published in 1998. It is designed for those who have basic information about their ancestors and now need to be guided to original sources. Family History SourceGuide includes:
Suggested system requirements are:
Internet Resources
Searching/Browsing Web sites at FamilySearch.org. After the opening page comes up, click on the tab for SEARCH then click on Web Sites in the blue border. You can enter a Keyword to search on or click on the variety of choices listed. Be sure to check out the "Tips" for keywords.
Other Internet Sites
Cyndi's List:
www.cyndislist.com/alpha.htm
This is an alphabetical subject list which includes
countries of the world. Click on the country and it will open up to the links
about that country. Be sure to scroll down through all of the sections under
that country.
World Gen Web Project:
www.worldgenweb.org
This lists countries either in an A-Z Index or by
regions of the world. Clickable region maps are also another way to access the
locality. This site is hosted by RootsWeb. You can access RootsWeb and
Cyndi's List from here, plus other resources and databases.
Genealogy.com:
www.genealogy.com/links/c/c-places-geographic,europe.html
This will take you directly into the Genealogy
SiteFinder: Places/Geographic. This has the most detailed localities of
countries in Europe. The number in brackets following the country name
indicates the number of listings in that country. If Europe is not the area
you want to look at, just back space and take off the ",europe.html" and then
add a ".html" after the word "geographic" to choose other foreign regions.
Genealogical Database Network:
www.geneanet.org
GeneaNet states their mission "is to make the power
of the Internet available by setting-up a universal register of all the world's
genealogical resources whether Net-based or not and whether free or fee-paying."
Joining is free. There are three tabs for searching and one is to search by
country. Click the country you want and the next page opens up in the language
of that country and includes articles and databases that you can click on to
search. Languages are displayed by the flag of the country at the top of the
screen. Click on the British Flag for English.
International Information:
www.infobel.com
You can search for people or businesses in
yellow/white pages, e-mail or business directory. From this site you can
search in 187 countries for information, services and also Web sites.
This is by no means a comprehensive list of
Internet sites, but it is a beginning to build on.
Good luck in your searches :)