UNDERUSED WEBSITES: DIGITAL PUBLIC LIBRARY of AMERICA

Underused Website Series: Digital Public Library of America

The Digital public library of America has a wealth of information with a click of your mouse.

As of the writing of this blog the main page says "Discover 34,425,540 images, texts, videos, and sounds from across the United States" 

Over 34 MILLION records, FREE, at your finger tips, in your pjs, drinking wine, morning, noon and night!!!

They even have a family research section (which is what we will focus on here)

Photos 

162,609 results for family photo

DPLA Photos 

Here's a clip of some of the photos found on DPLA.  There is a link in the description which takes you to a page with detailed information about the photo, (think citation)

Family Bibles 

2,753 results for "family bible"

There's a family bible section with images from old family bibles.  How cool is that??

Correspondence  

3,485 results for Civil War AND family letter

Imagine fining a letter your ancestor wrote back home 

Local Maps

75,920 results for county OR town OR city AND map

Looking for Sanborn fire maps--they are here. Old city maps, topo maps, flood maps, 

Year books 

22,777 results for school yearbook

Don't have a subscription to Ancestry to see the yearbooks, try DPLA

Military Records (includes Photographs and Service records)  

15,027 results for soldier* OR regiment AND military

Civil war photographs

103,641 results for "enlistment card" OR "draft card" OR "military service record"

A variety of military documents

Oral Histories

34,510 results for "oral history" interview

Various oral histories from all over 

Family History and Genealogy books

350,466 results for genealogy

tons of books to peruse about genealogy (family histories, phone book listings, wills, more photos, cemeteries)

 And I even found a video library with videos on using DPLA for family research, making gifs and a sundry of other videos.

 We have just scratched the surface of this website.  I can see me spending hours and hours just scrolling thru the vast amounts of reference material and information on this site.... and its FREE!!  Book mark the website DP.LA (yes thats the website address)

Dont forget to read the Terms of Service 

Happy Hunting!!

P.S.  just did a search for Newspapers in the regular search box (not on the family search tab)  and here's what came up over 1 MILLION newspapers!!!

1,020,362 results for newspapers

File Organization from a Scattered Mind's Point of View

How did I Start?

After writing this blog post over 3 years ago, I thought I'd share how my system has been set up and how it is working.

I opted to set up my files by file type

My Files list

I love my system, it is simple and easy to find any record.

 

• the list of folders (no additional folders "nested" inside each other)
• a simple naming convention, and I utilize the metadata in file explorer (I use windows, but apple has a file explorer too) 

file naming convention and tags

I love that the metadata (tags) are searchable in file explorer, so I can search for a year (1872) and I will get all files with 1872 in the file name or in the metadata tags.

I created a few videos about tags, on you tube.

Win 7

Win 10 part 1

Win 10 part 2

I have tried other systems and could never remember how the system worked, and had to keep going in to see how things were filed, named, and what folder to put each file in, based on the person's name.

Happy Hunting!!!

***************************************************

(Originally posted back in 2015)

How do I Start? 

After reading others blogs and comments on Facebook about sorting and organizing one's files (both electronically and paper copies) I'm still trying to sort it out in my mind!  See I'm so organized, I feel & look disorganized....at least that is and has been my excuse.

What I've seen and heard is

• Sort by Family name
• Sort by Person
• Sort by Family group
• Sort by document type
• Sort by year

My problem I see the pros and cons of all the systems.....Aggh calgon take me away!!! 

So as usual, I know what I don't want, but not sure of what I want. And what I don't want is a lot of nested folders inside folders inside folders.....So is my answer to make a list of what I don't want, and eliminate those systems that have/enable those qualities and then pick from the rest?  Or do I use the capabilities of the pc (paper has no capabilities, it just lays in a file folder) and use shortcuts to place links into the electronic filing system where it needs to go?

Decisions, Decisions!?!?!?!

After careful thought and dreaming about the system I want....(does any one else do this?) I believe I have a beginning plan....

Paper files by type (Federal Census, marriage, death, birth, christening, land, probate, etc)

Reasoning: less files, and easy to find a file when needed.

Computer files: originals filed like paper files, shortcuts filed in folders by family name, then given name

Folder Smith

      Sub folder John

      Sub folder Mary

UNDERUSED WEBSITES: BLM LAND RECORDS

 Underused Website Series: BLM Land Records

BLM (bureau of land management) website, also known as GLO (general land office) has all the original land records.  When we say original, what do we mean?  It means the very FIRST time land was ever bought or conveyed to an individual from the Federal government.

These are called Land Patents (not to be confused with patents people received for their inventions)

The Land patents are full of details about the property.  Here is a screen shot of the form, which you can start by selecting a state and adding a last name.  Make sure both boxes under the name are checked.

BLM records search window

 Here is a sample of the results (using Iowa and Culver) notice there are 6 pages of results. Gabriel has 5 different land patents, all in Cedar Iowa. 

Land Patent results

The Tract books have additional details and even the original with a signature! Most tract books can also be found on Family search.  BLM has a few states, Iowa being one. In order to get info on the tract books, you do need to get land description information from the land patent page.

Tract search screen

Inside the Surveys you can find the original plat of land with the names of other property owners and a pretty mapped image of the land.

Survey of Land Patent

The website is so packed with information, there is really no way to cover it in one blog post!  Even in an hour long webinar the details of the website, are jam packed into that hour.

My suggestion:

Go to the website and PLAY!!!  Pick an ancestor who could have owned land or if you know of one for sure,  use them, and go to the website, and see what you can find!!!

Happy Hunting!

The First DEBE Family in OHIO

These are my 3 x great grandparents Jacob and Margaret Debe.  The spelling has varied and seen as DIBBI, DIPPI, DIPI, DIBBE, but It is now DEBE.

 

Jacob Debe

Margurite Gise Debe

Here's a great story behind how I got these images:

Located in Massillon Ohio Cemetery. 

When I got the location if his grave, I parked near the section, and started to count back to the row he was reported to be in.  1...2...3...4...5.....10...11 and BAM!!! I was at the fence.  Where were the rest of the rows???

My daughter and I wandered aimlessly looking for this Tombstone. We found ROHR, KOONTZ, KING, SNYDER; all family via this man's daughters...but no Jacob.

So We started getting cold and needed a drink so we started walking back towards the car, when I stopped and spoke to my grandfather....

I said : Alright DEBE!!!!! we drove all this way to visit you, and you are hiding.  I need you to STAND UP and wave to me, as I cant seem to find you!!!

Well my daughter asked what i was doing, so I told her, I need help finding him so I'm asking him to help. She rolled her eyes as most teens do, and turned to go to the car

We got back to the car, put on jackets, and got a drink and when I turned around to start my search again...there he stood in all his glory right in my path!!!

The rows started at the fence, and I had totally missed him as I was focused on counting, 1...2...3....
We had parked RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS GRAVE!!!!


So next time you are looking for someone--address them directly, and who knows what will happen!

UNDERUSED WEBSITES: USCIS

I've been pretty active on Face book, and have noticed many people are unaware of the vast websites available for research. So I'm going to do a Blog Series of underused websites and discuss the records you can find.   

Underused Website Series: USCIS

USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Service) has early 1900 to current record sets, and listed below are the 5 record sets they are opening up for the public to order.

They are:

• Naturalization Certificate Files (C-Files), Sep 27, 1906 to Mar 31, 1956
• C-Files Image Gallery
• Alien Registration Forms (Form AR-2), Aug 1940 to Mar 1944
• A-R2 Forms Image Gallery
• Visa Files, Jul 1, 1924 to Mar 31, 1944
• Visa Files Image Gallery
• Registry Files, Mar 1929 to Mar 31, 1944
• Registry Files Image Gallery
• A-Files, Apr 1, 1944 to May 1, 1951
• A-Files Image Gallery

Ordering these files can be a bit of a maze...but here is the basic info:
If you don't have the "file" number, you need to order a file number search--cost $65.

You need to have the right "file" number to order the file from one of the 5 groups above.  The cost is $65 to order the file.

So each file you want can run up to $130 per file ($65 for the file number search, and $65 for the actual file.)

 Here's a flow chart from USCIS website

USCIS FLOW CHART

Immigration/Naturalization records before these dates, will more than likely be found at the local court house (where your ancestor lived) or possibly in the district court house for the area. 

Please don't spend money at the USCIS website for any dates outside those that are listed. 

  Spend a few moments reading all the FAQ's on the USCIS website, which will answer most of your questions!

Happy Hunting!!