Tag Archives: Daniel Niemiec

It’s almost holiday time and it’s getting colder out. Time to cut back on visits to cemeteries and libraries and think about the future. As active as I am in the genealogy community, I fall behind on some basic genealogy duties. It’s time to update the photos in my collection, and specifically on my family tree charts. Most of the time, I forget to get new pictures of people, and I think about it only when relatives call me up and ask me for a copy of the family tree. They usually want a copy because the 9-year-old grandson has …

It took four months, but the 1940 U.S. Census is finally fully indexed! I don’t remember how long it took for them to index the 1930 census, but that was released 10 years ago. Frankly, I don’t remember what I ate for lunch today! Now that the census is fully indexed, you no longer have to use the old method of trying to find people based on their address. This method is still valid, but now that all names are online, you can search by name and skip the middle man. Even though the census is now completely done, it …

Last month we saw just how much new data has been made available for free at familysearch.org. The competition, so to speak, is Ancestry.com. Ancestry is a pay site, and I don’t have any connections to them, but it is time to review the newest additions to Ancestry and you can decide for yourself if you want to pay for access, or try it for free at a local public library or family history center. Ancestry charges based on the scope of the collection you want. They have simplified the packages to two major choices. The US Discovery package gives …

Lately I have been mentioning the same web site in a number of columns on diverse subjects. “What is this ‘familysearch’ thing you keep talking about?” Some people confuse this with Ancestry.com, which is advertised on TV. Familysearch is something quite different. The web site is www.familysearch.org and it is owned and operated by the Mormon Church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the formal name). They are trying to gather as much genealogical data from around the world in order for their church members to discover their ancestors. However, they allow anyone to use their resources and …

I’m in the middle of a new project, and when that happens, I get to explain it to you at this website. Hopefully some of you will jump on the bandwagon. The website www.familysearch.org is loaded with new content all the time, and all of it is free. For example, I have a lot of people in my files who were born in my ancestral villages in Italy and died in Chicago, and I would like to acquire death certificates for them. But I don’t want to pay $15 for each one. Have no fear! Depending on what year you’re …

Last month we celebrated the release of the 1940 U.S. Census online. Well I did. I do mix a fine Manhattan if I do say so myself! It’s been a month and not much has changed. The problem is that the government releases all the census images at the same time, but no one had a chance to index the names so we can search. Since there are 132 million people in the census, it’s taking quite a while to get the indexing done, In fact, as of this writing, only Delaware and Nevada have been indexed complete. So if …

A major new block of genealogy data has recently been released! Every 10 years, genealogists await the release of the U.S. Census Population Schedules. After a federally mandated 72-year waiting period, they release the names and data of everyone who was enumerated in the census. Prior to the 72-year wait, you can find demographic data, such as ethnic trends, but not the list of everyone’s name. When the 1920 census was released in 1992, there were no on-line genealogy web sites. The only way for people to look up their families was to go to the National Archives on 73rd …

Last month, we looked at the peculiar problems of finding the marriage dates and marriage records of our Italian relatives. Since we keep better track of birthdays than anniversaries, we don’t always have the paper trail among our own records and photos to find the wedding dates of our grandparents, aunts and uncles. The Italian records are quite complete, and for the most part couples married in the town where the bride’s father lived, so even if that wasn’t the birthplace, it wasn’t far away. But when you’re looking for the marriage of a couple in America, it’s not nearly …

Ok, you can stop crying now. I know our emotional families cry at weddings. As a genealogist, I only cry when I can’t find a marriage date! It is one of the tricky pieces of information to unearth, with its own special brand of problems that we must be prepared to deal with. The three most basic pieces of genealogical information are the birth, marriage, and death dates. Birth and death are easier to find, because there are better clues. We remember celebrating birthdays with relatives. A milestone birthday party is usually very memorable, so our photo albums give us …

This is an election year, and a hot button political issue for both parties has been the status of illegal immigrants. This is certainly not the first time this issue has been a point of debate among the politicians. Our immigrant ancestors were also the subject of debate many decades ago! After World War I, many refugees left war-torn Europe for a better life in America. They were unable to come here during the war and now they were determined to get away from their destroyed towns and start over. After many came here, the government, bowing to political pressure, …