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"The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 2000 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author."
Genealogy and Orienteering
– Dick Eastman
Genealogy and what???
"Orienteering"?
What is that?
Dictionary.com says:
o·ri·en·teer·ing (ôr-n-tîrng, -n-, r-) n. Sports A cross-country race in which competitors use a map and compass to find their way through unfamiliar territory.
Okay, so what possible connection is there between the study of one’s ancestry and a little-known sport where people race through the woods using a map and compass? Read on . . .
First of all, the Dictionary.com definition is technically correct but perhaps a bit outdated. Orienteering traditionally is a sport where individuals or teams use compass, maps, and other tools to navigate quickly through woods or other unfamiliar territory. However, modern technology has moved into orienteering; competitors now use GeoPositional Satellite (GPS) receivers to accurately pinpoint locations and maps to find out-of-the-way trails, engage in Geocaching (finding "prizes" hidden in advance by orienteering competition organizers), or to compete in orienteering contests.
Bob Maley is a genealogist who obviously has also enjoyed orienteering. Now he sees a chance to combine the two and thereby benefit many thousands of genealogists. Bob calls his idea the "U.S. GeoGen Project." Quoting from his Web site:
The US GeoGen Project ™ is a national project designed to combine the hobbies of genealogy and electronic orienteering. Most everyone who has performed genealogical research has spent time driving around looking for cemeteries and other historical sites and monuments. Electronic orienteering is the use of global positioning devices (GPS) and maps to find out of the way trails, engage in Geocaching, or compete in orienteering contests.
The goal of the project is to create a national network of county oriented pages listing locations of interest to the genealogist along with their geographical coordinates, so those researchers that follow can easily find the locations.
The same Web site also says, "The national database will always be made freely available via the Internet to anyone who is researching his or her ancestry."
When I read the phrase, "locations of interest to the genealogist," I think of cemeteries, especially the old, abandoned cemeteries. Bob Maley apparently thinks of old cemeteries as well. However, I suspect that other locations might also be of interest, such as abandoned towns.
To search the database, the user enters a state and then a county name. The Web’s software searches to see which locations in that county have been indexed, if any. If any matches are found, the results page points to the personal Web pages that contain the detailed information. This method is quite similar to several other genealogy Web databases.
I searched the GeoGen Project database but found precious little. This project is in its infancy and needs to have data input by many volunteers before it becomes a useful tool. However, the GeoGen Project promises to become a very useful research aid for genealogists. Armed with the information in the GeoGen Project, along with a GPS receiver, future genealogists should be able to find even the tiniest of cemeteries.
How can you help? First of all, you do not need to be a trained athlete. You should be able to walk around old cemeteries in wooded areas, however. You will also need a GPS receiver (available for less than $100 for a basic model) and be willing to devote some of your time helping other genealogists. You then can begin by locating cemeteries in your area and recording their locations online, using the GPS receiver to log the longitude and latitude coordinates. I would expect many local genealogy societies to get involved in this cemetery location project as well as individual genealogists.
Bob Maley is also looking for more people to "adopt" states and coordinate projects involving the identification and recording of cemetery locations in each state. As of this writing, only ten states have been "adopted." Of those ten, only a few have data available online today. Here is your chance to get in on the "ground floor" of an interesting new service.
For more information or to see how you can help, look at the US GeoGen Project at: geogen.org.
Surname Databases/Search Engines
Normal search engines are only part of a genealogist's arsenal when hunting for surname information. The internet is now home to large amounts of free and subscription-based surname databases and search engines.
Below is a list of some of the best free and subscription-based surname databases/search engines on the net. Just remember the rule of thumb to follow when dealing with online data is to view it with an element of suspicion until it can be properly verified. Too many people still think "if it's on the internet it must be true".
"Family Finder" is a free service provided by the makers of "Family Tree Maker" that searches hundreds of thousands of genealogy web pages. It returns matches for names found on personal home pages , name association pages, society pages, surname indexes,world family tree pedigrees, passenger records, message boards, virtual cemetaries, and civil war databases.
The following reasons are given on the "Family Finder" site as to why their search engine is better than normal search engines such as Google.com and AltaVista.com.
"Family Finder understands names.
Other search engines do not know about names. If you search for John Smith in another search engine, you will get pages that have John's and Smith's, but it might be John Jones and Mary Smith. Family Finder also handles name variants — for example, if you enter Jim Smith, it will find James Smith as well.
Family Finder knows about genealogy.
Other search engines don't stick to genealogy, they index all kinds of pages. If you search for John Smith in another search engine, you may get the John Smith who runs the insurance office down the street. Family Finder carefully selects only genealogically-relevant pages for indexing, so the relevance of the matches it returns are much higher.
Family Finder collects all the information from a Web site.
Most other search engines only look at a few pages from each Web site, just enough to get the main subject of the site. Family Finder looks at all the genealogically-relevant pages, so a name buried on a list deep in the site will still be found.
Family Finder shows the words around each match.
Other search engines just show you a summary of the top of the page. Family Finder shows you the text around the actual match, which often contains dates, locations, or a relative, and lets you immediately pinpoint which matches are relevant to your genealogy search.
Family Finder looks at other kinds of information besides Web pages.
Other search engines only look at Web pages. Family Finder also looks at GEDCOM files and text files that contain genealogy data, as well as Genealogy.com archives containing millions of historical records, and books stored at Geneology Library. Other search engines will not find information from these sources."
Click Here for instructions on how to use "Family Finder".
The Social Security Death Index
The "Social Security Death Index" is one of the most useful databases on the internet. This database contains the names of over 64 million Americans plus information such as social security numbers, birth and death dates, and last known residence.
Click Here for instructions on how to search the SSDI.
"Kindred Konnections" is a pay-for-service database that also offers a way to access the database for free. In exchange for extracting names and dates from original source documents, you get one hour in the subscription-based area of the web site. During your one free hour you can access millions of marriage, birth, death, and census records. They also have a 56 million name pedigree-linked archive. You are allowed to build up an unlimited amount of free hours which can be used immediately or saved for a future date.
Click Here to obtain an account number and password. You can select whether you want a paid or free subscription at the beginning of the form.
Sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints , "Family Search" is one of the most popular geneology sites on the internet. From this site you can search millions of family records from a variety of sources including the Ancestral File , the International Genealogical Index, the Pedigree Resource File and websites.
The Ancestral File
The Ancestral File is a compilation of genealogies submitted by people worldwide to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This file contains over 35 million names and provides contact information for the person who submitted the information.
International Genealogical Index
The International Genealogical Index (IGI) lists the dates and places of births, christening and marriages for more than 285 million deceased people. Names were extracted from original records from the early 1500s to the early 1900's.
The Pedigree Resource File
A database of compiled pedigrees submitted by users via the online "Family Search" Internet Genealogy Service, or gathered from printed histories and other sources.
"Family Search" is easy to use for beginners. Once you arrive at the site click on "Help" on the top right corner of the site for instructions on how to use the search features.
Ancestry.com is a subscription-based geneology site. For a monthly fee you can search a multitude of records including census indexes and marriage records. Ancestry.com also has a free-to-use surname search service called World Tree. The World Tree database contains over 75 million names that are contained in GEDCOMS.
This database includes over 1.7 million records from over three thousand cemeteries worldwide.
Click Here for tips on searching this database.
Surname Web provides a searchable registry from which you can perform a surname search through over three billion genealogy records and over one hundred thousand geneology web sites.
Simply enter your surname into the search field at the top of the page and click "Search".
One of the largest geneology databases on the net, the World Connect Project currently contains over fifty six million names in over one million databases that can all be searched free of charge. You can also submit your own family tree information in GEDCOM format for free.
Simply enter your surname into the "World Connect" search field and click search. You will then be presented with a list of all the GEDCOMs that contain your surname. You can further refine your search by entering first name, place of birth or death.
You will also find the email address of the person who submitted the GEDCOM, so you can contact them directly.
Another great feature of "World Connect" is the electronic "post-em" note. You can leave a "post-em" note so other researchers will see you are researching that family.
Click Here for further help on using World Connect.
A daily index of published obituaries worldwide. This index grows by about 2,500 entries per day and goes back to 1995.
Provides passenger lists of it's own as well as links to other passenger lists on the net. You can find passenger lists from ships sailing from the 1400's right through to the 1900's. Countries represented are New Zealand, Australia, South America, Canada , South Africa, the United Kingdom, Scotland, Ireland and the United States.