The Genealogy Special Interest Group  members discuss how to do research, where to find information, compare software, share tips, techniques and genealogical Websites. Field trips could be planned. If you have some favorite genealogy links you would like to share, and wish to include them on this page, email me.

Notice for Genealogy SIG members:
This SIG is now active. If you are interested in meeting, or starting an online discussion group, email me your thoughts and ideas.

Special Meeting Held: a special joint meeting of ACUG's Genealogy SIG and the Amador Historical Society's Genealogy Group was scheduled for the second week in May 2005. All interested ACUG members were welcome, attendees did not have to be a member of the Genealogy SIG or of the Historical Society to attend. The topic covered "Genealogy and the Web" presented by Barbara Kreiss. The meeting was held Wednesday, May 11, 2005 at 1 PM in the large conference room at the GSA Building on Airport Road in Martell. The meeting was well attended, about half the audience hailed from each group. After a general discussion of how and where to start researching, online resources were evaluated and discussed. The audience members had good questions and shared tips and suggestions. Thanks to Barbara McMahon, leader of the ACHS Genealogy group, Joran Kreiss who handled the technical equipment and assisted in the presentation, and to the members attending from both groups who made it a great meeting.

Important Security Tip: If you are planning to share GEDCOM files, be sure you are not sharing any information about those members of your family who are still living. Because of ID Theft and other cyber crime, you must be careful not to connect living family members with their mothers maiden names, social security numbers or any similar information that might be used against your family by a cyber criminal. Good genealogy software should allow you to screen this information out.

If you are a member in good standing with the ACUG, the SIG Leader will do genealogy look-ups in the following books: Genealogy Lookups


Genealogy Sites

Amador County - Surnames archive, history, newspaper database, photos, pioneer stories, 1879-1880 Directory, Amador County Archives listing, more.

Ancestry.com - Ancestry World Tree database composed of pedigree files submitted by visitors, it is the largest collection of its kind on the Internet with over 40,080,471 names. Also search selected historical records free. Beware of paid service, read the fine print carefully. In the recent past, the "monthly" service tied you into a full year contract. You were allowed to end the service, but they charged a hefty fee which was not detailed in their disclosure. This may now be resolved. Has free charts, and forms downloadable in PDF format.

Books We Own  is a list of resources owned or accessible by people willing to look up genealogical information for others.

Census Online - Search US, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales Census records. Some links are Free, some lead to paid services.

City Directories: fantastic resource if your family lived in a city, names, businesses, addresses, phone numbers, ads.
   City Directories at Distant Cousin
   Old Directory Search
   ODS - More Directories Online
 
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - Probably one of the most comprehensive sites on the Net. Over 65,000 links.

DistantCousin - Archive of genealogical data and document images from a wide variety of sources, such as newspaper obituaries, city directories, census records, ship lists, school yearbooks, military records, and more. In all there are more than 6 million genealogy records from over 1,500 sources online. There are no fees or memberships required to use the records.

Family Search - Learn how to start your family history, using the Family History Library, search online for your ancestors: from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Valuable research outlines for each US state, Canadian province and most major countries and regions of the world.

Family Treemaker - Broderbund Software, Inc. site, makers of Family Treemaker software.

FreeBMD - an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records. Over 120 million records.

FreeCEN - Trace your ancestors from 1841 to 1891 in the United Kingdom. This project aims to provide a "free-to-view" online searchable database of the 19th century UK census returns.

Genealogical Research at the National Archives - genealogical microfilm holdings, provides many of the finding aids, guides, and research tools that can prepare you for a visit to one of their facilities or for requesting records from NARA.

Genealogy - The Internet Public Library guide designed for people who are looking for information regarding genealogy and their family tree. The hardest part of researching your family tree is knowing where to begin. This Pathfinder will help you find your way among the intimidating amounts of genealogy resources available in print and on the Internet.

Godfrey Memorial Library - A free public library in Connecticut specializing in biography, genealogy and history. Free links to many resources online, plus a very reasonably priced Godfrey Scholar membership to premium online resources such as US Census records, historical newspapers, obituaries, biographies and more.

Helm's Genealogy Toolbox - browse images from the entire 1790 and part of the 1800 US Federal Census, site has many Illinois records, Surname search, and links to genealogical resources.

Heritage Quest - Sierra On-Line, Inc. site, makers of Generations Family Tree software. Records available for purchase on CD and Microfilm for 1790 to 1930 US Census, Great Register of Voters, more.

Historical Dates: Great for building "time-lines"
   On This Day - The New York Times
   This Day in History - The History Channel
  
History of Ellis Island - The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. has announced the development of a new family genealogy facility. Ellis Island museum, history center, search "wall of honor".

Immigrant Ships - find your ancestor in ship's logs. Free project of the Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild. Over 6500 ships manifests transcribed.

Ireland, National Library of  - Library resources for genealogy research

Irish Research - Guide to Irish research, local and Parish histories list and links.

Internet Sleuth - Find people. Web directory, search tools.

Legacy Family Tree - Makers of Legacy Family Tree software. Free version available, is recommended. Deluxe version is inexpensive.

Melvyl Homepage - University of California online catalog and guide to the Library databases, electronic journals and Internet resources 

MyFamily People Finder - type in your friends or family to locate them. You must subscribe to get actual addresses or phone numbers, but it gives you a head start.

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness - volunteers will take photos of tombstones, look up records. Volunteer your time in return.

RootsWeb Genealogical Data Cooperative - Oldest and largest free genealogy site. Search by surname, keywords, Social Security death index, World Connect Project with over 31million records, 500,000 documents, tips, how-to's, guides, famous ancestor tables/pedigrees, links, much more. This is the place to start.

The USGenWeb Project - Genealogical information from each state and for each county in the union, utilizing volunteer contacts or "coordinators". If you have information, you can volunteer to share it with others. Volunteers have contributed some great free information. Another good place to start.

Tombstone Transcription Project - tombstone inscriptions furnished by volunteers. Free. Covers US States and Counties, military, foreign cemeteries. Add your favorite cemetery.
   Amador County Cemeteries
   Calaveras County Cemeteries  

Virtual Cemetery - only as good as the number of records submitted by users. You might be lucky. Free.

Yahoo! People Search - Looking for your long lost cousin? This might help.

 

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Discussed:

Generations
Family Tree 

Family Tree Maker


 

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