Old Bones Family Research of New England: Wikipedia

05 April 2014

Facebook for Genealogists

Facebook (FB so I don’t have to type it a thousand times in this blog) to me was a big waste of time. I don’t need to know what all my friends and family are doing 24/7. I suppose I got roped in a little when the grandchildren began to arrive. Who can resist that?? Or, worse, who wants to get caught NOT seeing “that” pic or “that” video….Not me!

Facebook logo Español: Logotipo de Facebook Français : Logo de Facebook Tiếng Việt: Logo Facebook (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In addition to the social mania of social media, there are really a lot of FB pages that are pretty interesting, at least from a genealogical point of view. FB is rife with useful stuff. Who knew! So I began following a few, especially the pages of the organizations to which I belong: “New England Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists,” “Massachusetts Society of Genealogists,” “Haplogroup Rib” (What the heck is THAT), “Autosomal DNA” and the list goes on.

Not only did I get involved in all these pages, I actually contribute! Yes, I have opinions….can you believe it? So, I thought that the world would be a better place if I started my own genealogically oriented FB page. It’s called “Find-A-Grave Genealogy Discussion.” Brilliant, right?

Roy, Thomas & Mary A. (Photo credit: WillynWV)

Well, we loped along for several months with 100 or so members who exchanged questions and answers and stories and problems and so forth. Suddenly in February, I was receiving 3, 4, 5 requests a day to join. That billowed in to 8, 9, 10 a day. We’re now at 1,249 members. Scratch that, the number is 1,256…

So, maybe it’s worth a look. People ask questions about Find A Grave, genealogy in general, how to handle difficult research problems….whatever! The only thing I don’t tolerate is negativity. Right after the page began to blossom, one of the members was waging a battle with some other member who “done her wrong!” Well, that lasted about a day. Now they’re both deleted and blocked.

Recommended Genealogy Websites (Photo credit: brizzle born and bred)

Take a look: Find A Grave Genealogy Discussion

In the meantime, Bruce Cortis who is a friend and a member of some of the organizations I belong to, started a FB page of his own: Genealogy - Improving your searches.

There’s been a lot of people who say they've benefited from the posts and many others who have offered help.

Facebook…it’s a good thing!

28 January 2014

Sanborn Maps

How many of you have used Sanborn Fire Maps in your research? They can come in very handy when you have a cluster of folks you're researching that live in one particular area. It's a little like finding a family on a census record and then paging backward and forward looking for other relatives who might be neighbors.

There's a very good description of the Sanborn maps at Wikipedia, so I won't have to go into very much detail, but it's definitely worth a look and you'll see the value.

I spend quite a bit of time at the Lyman and Merry Wood Museum of Springfield History in Springfield, Massachusetts. It's one of the best kept secrets on all of Western Massachusetts! Among the millions (Yes, MILLIONS) of documents and records archived there are a set of Sanborn Fire Maps of the area. And they are a boon to anyone doing research in the area.

The idea of blogging about Sanborn to provide everyone with a pretty good research tip came from a member of a Facebook group I moderate. You can find that group here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/findagravediscussion/. Feel free to request an add! Anna Rees, a member of the group, is the person who made the recommendation. Thanks, Anna! See that? I promised to give you full credit for the idea!

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Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, District of Columbia 1888 (excerpts): Center Market (Photo credit: lacafferata)