I am reminded every day at work that my memory isn’t what it used to be. When I was a kid, I could remember which baseball card numbers I needed to complete the set of 660 Topps cards. I didn’t need a written list. I guess they would call that a photographic memory. Now, I leave my house without remembering to comb my hair! Or I get in my car and try to start it only to discover that I left my keys on the table! There’s a term for the status of my current memory, but I can’t remember …
Read More »Getting back down to business
Good day and I have missed writing for you all! Once public libraries and family history centers closed, most of our access to records was cut off along with most of what I write about in these columns. Let me explain. Most Italian civil records 1809-1929 and Cook County vital records can be browsed on familysearch.org, but the web site only allows you to browse them if you are in a Family History Center or an affiliate library. (Not all public libraries are affiliate libraries.) Familysearch has to have a certain router address in order to permit computers on that …
Read More »A virtual trunk full of documents
Familysearch has done it again! (If I had a nickel for every time I’ve written that, I’d have $2.85!) I have not been on Familysearch much, due to the fact that the records I need are only accessible from a Family History Center or an affiliate library, both of which are closed as of this writing. So when I got in and saw the menu, I was perplexed. The Search menu starts with Records but then says “Images.” I didn’t know what it meant so I skipped it. My curiosity finally got the better of me, and I clicked on …
Read More »Navigating the maze of online documents
A number of people have written to me with the same question, which means it’s a good time to address this for everyone. (Please write questions to me at italianroots@comcast.net at any time.) Readers have looked up films in the catalog on Familysearch.org, and the catalog tells them that the images for those films are online. So they go to look at the images, and Familysearch tells them “Nope you can’t see these!” Well, that stinks! To explain this situation, we need to talk about legal agreements for a moment. Familysearch has to negotiate with each repository of documents for …
Read More »Getting a grip on your documents
Anyone who knows me well, knows that I’m a stubborn person. Most people who don’t know me well believe I’m stubborn, too! Every so often, I write a column to ask you to do something that I’m not that good at, partly to push myself into getting better as a genealogist. I have been spending a lot of hours going through records I already have, in an attempt to better document my research. Why should we do this? I know where all my copies are. The papers are in piles and in boxes, and the digital images are all named …
Read More »Where’s Waldo buried?
I trust you’re all familiar with children’s book series, “Where’s Waldo,” in which kids are tasked with finding the titular character, who’s hiding in an enormous crowd. I have spent the better part of the past two months playing a genealogical game called “Where’s Waldo Buried?” It’s easy to keep track of the relatives you see frequently or you stay in touch with through social media. However, the relatives in your tree who you’ve never met and haven’t “friended” are another matter. These people may be distant relatives but you do not know them and they do not inform you …
Read More »What are the odds?
Last Thursday, I stopped at a local microbrewery to try their new chocolate stout. There were eight random seats throughout the place but every one had someone sitting next to them. I picked one at random and sat down. The guy sitting next to me was talking through my head to three men on the other side of me, and they were discussing politics and economics. I had no interest in discussing these subjects with strangers drinking beer with high alcohol content, so I stared at “Wheel of Fortune” with no sound on the TV across the way so I …
Read More »The mystery of the missing marriages
I have spent a lot of time during the past few months trying to track down Cook County marriage records on Familysearch. I should have spent that time coming up with better ideas for Christmas presents! I was surprised how many couples in my file were born in Chicago and had their children in Chicago, with no marriage records to show for it. It didn’t make sense. Since Familysearch released the 1921-1941 Cook County marriages, I figured I would find everyone in that time period and that would be that. However, I was missing quite a few couples and I …
Read More »A labor of love
More than 20 years ago, a woman named Cyndi Howells decided that she needed a set of links to her favorite genealogy sites. As with most genealogists who start a simple project, it got out of hand and became much larger and more time-consuming than originally intended. (I can speak with experience on this as well!) She ended up creating her own site called “Cyndi’s List” www.cyndislist.com, which connects to over 300,000 links to genealogy web sites all over the world. What started as a small personal project has become 8-12 hours a day, seven days a week! For free! …
Read More »Yet another genealogical treasure trove
During all the time I have been updating everyone with more information on familysearch, I seem to have neglected another site with Italian records that everyone who is working with Italian records ought to know about. This site is an ancestry site for Italy, designed to allow us to search and browse Italian civil registration records. It’s not Ancestry.com, it’s an Italian site called Antenati. (Antenati: Gli Archivi per la Ricerca Anagrafica, http://www.antenati.san.beniculturali.it/?lang=en) You can leave the language for the website in Italian if you wish! Antenati contains the same records typically available on familysearch, and on microfilm in the …
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