Premium Episode 21 – Cold Cases Part 3
Date Published: March 23, 2009
Click here to download the Show Notes pdf
Lisa’s interview on the Change Nation podcast
Episode 14 of the Historyzine Podcast
GEM: Profile America
Paper History
GEM: COLD CASES PART 3
In the last episode we covered the first three of six cold case strategies for your genealogy research that are based on the successful strategies regularly used by criminal cold case detectives.
1. Review the Evidence
2. Round up the Key Players
3. Look for New Evidence
Strategy #4: ANALYZE THE BIGGER PICTURE
or “the scene of the crime” as detectives would say. If we can understand why our ancestor might have chosen that area, what geographic boundaries existed, and what the culture of their community was like, then we will be better able to make some educated guesses about our brick wall.
Tools You’ll need:
– Get detailed maps of the area in question
– Google Earth
– Handy Book for Genealogists by Everton Publishers. (for Boundary Changes)
– County histories – Browse the Family History Library catalog
– Books capturing the recollections of some of the inhabitants of the community For some of the lesser known community histories, I rely heavily on Google Books But I also still like using Ebay to find these types of books. You can set up Ebay Favorite searches which work like Google Alerts on the names of all the different communities you are interested in and when something comes up for auction you’ll be notified by email.
– Newspapers
Cold Case Strategy #5 LOOK TO THE PUBLIC FOR ASSISTANCE
Post Wanted Posters – I think one of the best examples of genealogy wanted posters are postings on message boards on the Internet, and probably the most widely used genealogy message boards are the ones on Rootsweb.com which is part of the Ancestry.com community.
Blogging – One of the easiest free blogs to use is Blogger at www.blogger.com which is owned by Google.
Online Family Trees – Listen to Family History: Genealogy Made Easy Episodes 12 and 13 where we cover trees in depth.
Team case review – Consider asking a couple of folks at your local genealogy society to side down and review your cold case to see if they spot something you may have overlooked. Or take your case to your local family history center and ask if one of their experienced volunteers could do the same. For more about visiting Family History Centers and tapping into the volunteers and resources you’ll find there listen to Family History: Genealogy Made Easy Episodes 17 and 18 and 19
And Cold Case Strategy #6 – GO ON A STAKE OUT
Set up online tools that will monitor items on the Internet having to do with your research question:
Google Alerts
Ebay Favorites
Message Board postings.
Resources for Lisa in Louisiana
Why John DuBell AKA: Anthonie Jan DuBell changed his name and cut off all communication with his family in The Netherlands?
Dutch Naming Conventions
How did he get here/what port and or city?
Listen to the October Episode of The Family Tree Magazine Podcast
where I spoke to Susan Kaufman of the Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research in Houston TX
She mentioned some collections for the port of New Orleans that might help you out. Search using www.Worldcat.org Look for Newspapers from New Orleans in that time frame. Check the State Library and Archives, Local Historical Societies, as well as pay sites such as Genealogy Bank
GEM: Profile America
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