Kevin’s Ancestry Story, Part 2

To understand Kevin’s ancestry story, you have to realize what happened to Maggie.  Maybe this should be renamed “Maggie’s story as told by Kevin”.  But really this is a story about family history.  About heritage and the search for the facts.  Do you know your story?  Are you sure?  What if?  I knew my story for 54 years and then it changed.  Do you like change?  Let’s leave the jury out about the change thing.  At the end you can decide.  I already know.

America in the 1930's was somewhat like 2009.  A bust of the stock market, no jobs, income down 40%, and little to eat for many Americans.  Maine may be a long way from the heartland of America, but they felt the hard times also.  Survival was the name of the game.  (Can’t you hear Lena Horne or Billie Holiday music in the background?)  At that time the Government wanted to let the free market find it’s way, but as the 1940's approached the Government took over and worked to regulate our way out of the mess.  Social security, unions, employee rights, a fair wage for a fair days work.  Back in Maine a preteen didn’t think about those things.  They were more concerned with playing games, listening to the Boston Red Socks on the radio.  Dom DiMaggio and Ted Williams were household names in the North East.  Christmas morning may have brought you a new present under the tree.  New meant, hand made out of something else, but you would have loved it.

To be continued . . .

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness

If you have slammed into a stone wall and can not find a way over, do you give up?  Most of us give up so don’t feel bad.  A year goes by and you find yourself back at the same stone wall and you don’t want to give up this time.  If you could just fly to the other side of the country and spend a day or two doing some research you might be able to solve the riddle.

What if you could get a little help from a friend?  Well, Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness helps you find a friend if you have no other options.  They have volunteers standing by that may be able to help solve that riddle.

The site is free but they do accept donations at http://www.raogk.org/support.html if you are able to give.  To find there site go to http://www.raogk.org/index.html.  If you would like to volunteer, they are accepting applications.

What a fantastic act of random kindness.  Thank you.

Website Recommendation - Access Genealogy

Website:  http://www.accessgenealogy.com/
Type:        Research
Cost:        Free
Look:       7
Ease:       9
Speed:     Fast

Access genealogy is a site for the researcher. If you are looking for records in the United States this is a good place to start. After 10 years as a free service they are still free. This site measures close to the top and I always seem to rate other sites in comparison to it.

The first look at the site is clean and easy to use. There are ads running on the site, but they are clean and not annoying. The only way they can keep the site free is when you support them by using there advertisers.

What is available?
Native American records
Genealogy records
State records

Under the hook look gets way better. On the right side select a state. This is the meat behind the site. They list places for free information and provide links. They also list information available on other search engines and provide links. They even provide links to sites that are by subscription. This is a web site (tool box) that I would pay for.

Things I most like: If the site does not have what your looking for it may give you links to other sites that may be able to help you. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Things I don’t like: Some of the links don’t always work. I guess it’s the nature of the beast. Overall recommendation: Highly Recommend

Kevin's Ancestry Story, Part 1

A long story.

It did take a long time (55 years) for the story to develop.  The story started 55 years ago or, the story started two years ago, in what I call ancestry years.  Ancestry years is how long it took someone to figure out what the real story was.  I’m not going to change the names to protect the innocent or guilty.  Facts are what is important in ancestry talk.  Note: when you are doing your research, try to get the real facts.  If the family members are still with us, get there permission to put the real facts down in a public place.  So the story starts in 1954.  There was this girl.  That’s not correct, start over.  There was this young woman all of 23 years old.  She was a beautiful long auburn haired five foot two and eyes of blue.  Let’s call her Maggie.

Maggie was born appropriately on Christmas day in 1930.  Her Mom died when she was 7 and typically that would mess some people up for life.  Maybe it made her stronger?  That’s what they say in the movies.  She grew up being tormented by three older brothers.  That’s probably what made her stronger.  Just like any normal girl growing up in the thirties in Maine, she lived a hard but awesome life.  In a town of hundreds there was only one school.  On her first day of school she walked into the front door to attend the first grade and walked out the same door on her last day of the twelfth grade.

To be continued . . .   Feel free to follow along at ancestrybykevin.blogspot.com

Try A Different Spelling

Names are not always spelled correctly.  About as good as my spelling.  I was doing research on the Wotton surname.  I restricted my searching to "Wotton" so I would only get the correct person.  The problem with is that it could be spelled wrong.  The name sounds like Waaton the way most pronounce it.  Can you imagine when they came to America and attempted to tell the Government official the name was Waaton.  He says "how you spellin' that?".  They may not have been able to read or write.  So the Government official spells it Waton.  If you hit a brick wall, try different spellings to see if anything pops up.

Paid vs Free Research Sites

Is anything really free?  Many things are free in life including family history research sites.  Sometimes free is not so free and many times more frustrating than it's worth.  If you are following along, I plan to take on the free claims one at a time and let you know just how free they are.  My goal is to review one site each week.  I plan on starting with the big ones first.  Then I want to investigate sites around the world.

Paid sites make your life much easier.  So, if you are in a hurry, or you have deep pockets, I will recommend some of my favorites.  Many of the paid sites are linked together.  The records are available no matter which site you subscribe to.

I will attempt to catalog the different types of sites also.  Each site specializes in or is better at one thing or another.  So if you are planning on spending money for a sites tools, you may want to wait around awhile and get some suggestions.

If you are on a limited budget, there is an amazing amount of information available.  You just have to know where to find it.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Genealogy

Some folks just have to have a book.  If you are one of those, you want to bend over the corners, like the smell of the new book, this is a good tool to have on your shelf.  

The original book by Christine Rose and Kay Germain Ingalls is available used.  A 2nd edition published in 2006 is also available.  If you have to have a copy on your iPad, there is an eBook version available.  Under $20.00.