Find your Abuela (the Spanish word for Grandma) in a wide variety of Catholic Church records for Mexican genealogy at FamilySearch. Also in new and updated genealogical records, collections from Norfolk, England; Victoria, Australia; and Quebec, Canada.
Mexico – Church Records
Abuela Francisca Ramos. Photo used with permission from the family.
FamilySearch has updated and added thousands of new Catholic church records in their Mexican genealogy databases. These church records cover many areas of Mexico, but in particular, the Hidalgo, Puebla, Jalisco, and Guanajuato databases have all reached over 1 million records. The years covered will vary, but the earliest records are from the 1500s and as recent as the 1970s.
These Catholic church records include baptismal records, marriage records, deaths, and other miscellaneous records that may contain valuable genealogical data for your ancestors. Check out the following databases for Mexican genealogy below:
Several collections for Norfolk, England have been updated at Findmypast this week. Among them are first, Norfolk Bishop’s Transcripts Baptisms 1685-1941. Norfolk Bishop’s transcripts for baptisms contain over 647,000 records. Each entry includes an image of the original document and a transcript of the vital details. The amount of information found in the transcript will depend on the age and condition of the original document. Most will include a name, baptism year, baptism place, and the names of parent’s. Images may reveal additional information such as your ancestor’s birth date, father’s occupation, and the name of the officiating minister.
The second database is titled, Norfolk Bishop’s Transcripts Marriages 1685-1941 and contains over 157,000 records. Each record includes a transcript and may include the birth year, date of marriage, place of marriage, and the name of their spouse as well as an image of the original document.
Thirdly, the Norfolk Bishop’s Transcripts Burials 1685-1941 collection will allow you to search over 434,000 Bishop’s transcripts of Norfolk burials to discover your ancestor’s final resting place. Transcripts will also reveal when they died and their age at death. Images of original documents may reveal additional information such as the name of the minister who performed the ceremony, your ancestor’s date of death and, occasionally, their cause of death.
Finally, the Norfolk Electoral Registers 1832-1915 containing over 4.5 million records may be just want you are looking for. Electoral registers were first created in 1832. Every year, a new electoral register was created to list the name of every individual eligible to vote. Voting was closely linked to the possession of property; therefore, the registers described the type of property owned or rented by the individual.
Electoral registers are an invaluable resource to trace your ancestors between the census years. Each entry in the Norfolk Electoral Registers 1832-1915 will include an image of the original register and a transcript of the facts listed. Transcripts will list your ancestor’s name, the place they registered, the district and the year they were registered. Images will provide additional information such as you’re their address and the type of property they owned or rented.
Australia – Victoria – Birth Records
Also at Findmypast, over 104,000 records have been added to the Victoria Births collection. These civil registration records may reveal your ancestors birth place, birth year, parent’s names and registration number. The entire collection now contains over 1.9 million records spanning the years 1837 t0 1917.
England & Scotland – Newspapers
Over 1.6 million articles and 13 brand new titles have been added to Findmypast’s collection of historic British Newspapers. The new additions cover the North West and South East of England, a number of Scottish counties, Nottinghamshire, and Bournemouth. The new Scottish titles include the Haddingtonshire Courier, Linlithgowshire Gazette, Ross-shire Journal, Rothesay Chronicle, Kinross-shire Advertiser, Peeblesshire Advertiser, and the Scottish Referee.
Canada – Quebec – Various Record Collections
The Drouin Institute has been in the genealogy business for over a hundred years. The Drouin Collection, which is available on Ancestry as well as on GenealogyQuebec.com, was microfilmed in the 1940s and digitized in the 2000s by the Institute. The Drouin Collection contains the civil copy of allparish registers (baptism, marriage, and burial records) from Quebec from 1621 to the 1940s. It is just one of many of the collections you will find from the Drouin Institute.
In total, GenealogyQuebec.com offers many databases to research and reaches near 43 million images and files.
To access the Drouin Institute record collections, you will need to visit GenealogyQuebec.com. It is subscription based website. Subscription information can be viewed here.
LAFRANCE
The LAFRANCE is the most popular and comprehensive tool available at GenealogyQuebec.com. It is a very detailed, high quality index of the Drouin Collection, and also provides the original document. Here is an example of what the LAFRANCE looks like from our users’ perspective:
Currently, the LAFRANCE covers the entirety of the 1621 – 1849 period for Catholic baptisms and burials, as well as, the 1621-1916 period for Catholic marriages. In addition, the LAFRANCE covers the 1760 – 1849 period for Protestant marriages.
The LAFRANCE’s index is particularly valuable and appreciated by English speakers, as it negates the need to read and understand French in order to obtain all the relevant information from a record.
WWI Holdings
The Library of Congress has launched a comprehensive portal to its extensive WWI holdings. This one-stop portal is designed to help you search WWI subject material with ease. Search things like propaganda posters, letters, diaries, newspapers, and more. It is a wonderful site for not only the genealogist, but the avid historian as well.
More on Mexican Genealogy
The Mexican Genealogy Guide by David A. Fryxell from Family Tree Magazine will help you discover the bounty of records in Mexico. This digital download will help you understand naming practices, pinpoint ancestral whereabouts, and how to best navigate church records there.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!
You can now see New York City street views from the late 1800s and early 1900s as Google Earth street views. Take a virtual visit to the Big Apple as it was 100 years ago! Or travel back even further in time to an 1836 map of NYC conveniently overlaid on a modern Google Earth view. These are just two of the many ways to use Google Earth for genealogy—and for fun.
Vintage New York City Street Views on Google Earth
Over 80,000 original photos from the late 1800s and early 1900s have been mapped into Google Earth to provide what’s essentially a Google Street View map of old New York City!
As you can see from this overview map (below), the old photos are concentrated in the areas of Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens and Lower and Upper Manhattan. Dots represents historic photos that have been overlaid on Google Earth’s modern map (satellite view is also available).
Old NYC
You can zoom in to click on individual dots, which will bring up one or more individual photos of certain neighborhoods or street fronts:
Select the photos that match up best with your family history interests, such as a shot of your family’s old store front or apartment building. Or choose images that represent the time period in which your relatives lived in the area, so you can get a flavor of what their neighborhood would have looked like. (Click here for some ideas about where to look for your family’s exact address during the late 1800s or early 1900s.)
According to this article at BusinessInsider.com, a developer Dan Vanderkam worked with the New York Public Library to plot all the photos onto Google Earth. (A hat-tip to Genealogy Gems listener and reader Jennifer, who sent me this article because she knows how much I love old maps and data visualization!)
Another Old NYC Street View: 1836 Map
While we’re on the subject, I also want to mention another cool tool for visualizing old NYC street views. At the Smithsonian.com, there’s a cool historic map overlay of an 1836 New York City map in Google Earth. Use the scrolling and zooming tools to explore the parts of NYC that were already settled–and to compare them to what’s there today. You can also swap views to see the 1836 map with just a little round window of the modern streets.
The accompanying article quotes famous map collector David Rumsey about the 1836 map, which is his. He describes how you can see that much of the topography of Manhattan has changed over the years—did you know Manhattan used to be hilly? And I love how he calls out artistic features on the old map, too.
Smithsonian NYC street view 1836
Unfortunately, the old map doesn’t show much in the way of residents’ property lines or buildings. But you can clearly see the street layouts and where the parks and hills were. Comparing these areas with Google Earth’s street view today can help you better understand what things looked like in a much older version of one of the world’s great cities.
Use Google Earth for Your Genealogy
There are so many ways to use Google Earth for genealogy! My free video class will get you started. After a quick tutorial on downloading and navigating Google Earth, see how to utilize its powerful tools to identify an old family photo, map out addresses that may have changed and even plot an old ancestral homestead.
After publishing the Evernote for Genealogy Premium Video I told you that I planned on covering using Evernote for Genealogy more in the future. And we are starting with this episode!
MAILBOX:
This first email comes from Alex in Alabama who writes:
“One of the reasons I’ve become involved in genealogy is that I have the interesting aspect of researching my father, Fletcher Harvey, and my mother, Ann Harvey Harvey. Yes, she was a Harvey, too. How would you suggest setting up those initial surname folders? Just one big ol’ Harvey folder? Maybe Fletcher’s family and Ann’s family?”
Lisa’s Answer: The trick to the hard drive organization system is to stay consistent, and to fashion it after the Census – that is by “head of household”.
While it would seem logical to create two Harvey files – one for Fletcher and one for Ann – stick to head of households. So the first folder would HARVEY and the first name of Fletcher’s dad who was the head of the household. Ex: HARVEY JOHN
For Ann’s side you would have HARVEY and her father’s first name, because he was the head of the household. Ann was born a HARVEY but moved on to become a different “HARVEY”. In my system, women’s records are filed under the surname they held at the time the record was created – either their maiden name, or their married name.
Here’s a quick tip from Premium Member Christine in Houston:
I had a recent disaster where not only did my computer hard drive fail, but the backup drive was damaged as well and NONE of the contents were saved. Bye bye three years of hard work. But, I had shared with a close cousin on one side and he is gradually helping me with some of the lost bits. Luckily my main tree is also on Ancestry, but what I lost was documentation.
I was interested in the hard drive organization podcasts. I figure I might as well start over doing a little better with citing and organizing. Actually much of what you had suggested I was already doing. But I found one feature on the MAC which I would add to your suggestions.
MAC (and I’m sure Windows as well) allows you to color code both files and documents. After thinking about it a while I would suggest doing this at the great grandparent level. Just makes for a few fewer files all one color. (MAC has seven colors-or so plus uncolored that makes 8 family branches)
If you are very visual, like me, you can look at the color on the folder or the file label and tell just where it came from. I also did this AS I CITE. So I know which things have been properly cited because they are already colored.”
Watch the Hard Drive Organization videos in the Premium Video section of this website
I find that color coding can really speed up finding your way through folders on your computer. I did cover this top in Premium episode 86.
and in that episode I mentioned a freeware add-on for Windows called Folder Marker.
Folder Marker Free lets you do color code folders on the fly from the right-click menu of a folder. So there is no need to go through additional dialogs boxes! Simply select the folder you want to mark, right-click on its icon and select a color-coded icon from the drop-down menu. The icon will be assigned to the folder at once.
You can also mark several folders at a time. Simply select a group of folders with the mouse and assign a new icon from the right-click menu.
You can also assign certain logos to your folders such as “high priority”, “half-done work”, “important files” and so on. It even lets you upload a few of your own icons if you’d rather use them instead.
If you want to go full throttle with visual folders, there is a really nifty little utility program that you can use to take any picture that is BMP, JPG, or PNG file format and convert it into an ICO format. Using this program, you can take your favorite picture of an ancestor, let’s say, and convert it into a Windows Icon.
You can take an image and save it as an icon in all of the different sizes: 16×16, 32×32, 48×48, and 64×64. For you genealogy bloggers out there, the 16×16 size can be used to give your web site a logo in the IE address bar. For example, in Blogger while writing a post, you can see the orange icon in the address bar.
The program also lets your transform the images. You can scale the image to make it smaller or flip it horizontally or vertically. And if you don’t care to save the image as an icon, you can convert between any of the three formats: PNG, JPG, or BMP. Simply drag a picture into the colored area after configuring your settings and the picture is automatically converted!
You can change the settings by click on the Options menu item. Icon Settings allows you to pick the size of your final icon. Image Transform lets you pick the transformations you want if you are converting between picture formats (JPG to PNG).
GEM: Evernote VS. One Note
Genealogy research requires a lot of note taking, and it doesn’t take long for notes to pile up everywhere: stacks of paper on your desk and floor, sticky notes surrounding your computer monitor screen, and binders full of organized pages.
Migrating to a digital note taking system will save you time, space and headaches. But which one should you use? The two top contenders are Evernote and OneNote, and one question I get asked a lot is which one should I use?
In this gem Evernote and OneNote go head to head in a comparison match. If you already have a favorite then you’re good to go because the good news is they are both great programs. But for those on the fence, it can help to look a bit closer at what each offers so you can pick the one that’s right for you. Both programs are noteworthy – the choice really comes down to your computing needs and work style.
Evernote vs One Note Comparison
What is it?
Evernote: A suite of downloadable software (desktop client), mobile apps, and Web based services focused on note taking, web clipping, and archiving.
OneNote: A Microsoft software program designed for note taking, organizing, and integration with Microsoft software. Mobile apps also available.
Types of Notes
Evernote: Allows you to create a wide range of notes including typed text, web clippings (customized screen shots using the Web Clipper), audio, video, photographs, and tables. Evernote’s free Skitch program and app lets you annotate your notes and do free hand drawing.
OneNote: Allows you to create a wide range of notes including typed text, web clippings, audio, video, photographs, “Inking” (free hand drawing with your finger or stylus), tables, and Excel spreadsheets.
Cost
Evernote: Free account allows you to download the Evernote program and provides you with 60MB of free synchronized cloud storage per month.
For $5.00 per month or $45.00 per year Evernote Premium gives you much more uploading capacity, greater sharing options, access to note history, PDF searching, faster image recognition, and no ads.
OneNote: OneNote is included in the Microsoft Office software suite along with programs such as Word and Excel. You may already have it on your PC. Check under Programs in your PC’s Control Panel. New version slated for 2013.
Sign up for a free SkyDrive account for cloud storage (7GB free, additional storage available for a fee.) Available as a stand alone software program for $79.95 at www.microsoft.com/office/onenote
Operating System
Evernote: PC and Mac
OneNote: PC Only
Apps
Evernote: Free iOS and Android Apps. Loads of additional apps that integrate with Evernote are available in the “Evernote Trunk” at trunk.evernote.com
OneNote: Free iOS and Android Apps. The OneNote app has very limited capabilities compared to software program.
Web / Screen Clipping
Evernote: Yes – When the Evernote desktop client program is open on your computer the web clipper can be found in your Task Bar by right-clicking the Evernote icon. You can also download a web clipper plugin to your favorite browser.
OneNote: Yes – The screen clipper is built into the program. You will find it under the Insert menu.
Cloud Synchronization
Evernote: Automatic synchronization through the Evernote system when connected to the Internet.
OneNote: OneNote syncs with SkyDrive and SharePoint (must be signed into a Microsoft account or a Microsoft Online Services ID)
Unique Strengths
Evernote:
Tagging allows sorting of notes regardless of which notebook they reside in.
Web sharing flexibility including unique URL links, and social media
Alphabetical organization of notebooks
OCR technology applied to images making text searchable
OneNote:
You can mix note taking mediums (that is include typed text, scribble “ink” notes, graphics, etc.)
Integration with other Microsoft software programs
Lisa Louise Cooke is the author of several books including The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox, 3rd edition. She produces and hosts the popular Genealogy Gems Podcast, and the free weekly YouTube show Elevenses with Lisa at the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel. She offers a Premium Membership service at her website ( https://lisalouisecooke.com ) featuring exclusive on-demand genealogy education. And she writes a regular column for Family Tree Magazine and produces the Family Tree Magazine Podcast.
Lisa found her passion for family history at her grandmother’s knee at the age of 8. She is now the owner of Genealogy Gems, a genealogy and family history multi-media company founded in 2007. She is Producer and Host of the Genealogy Gems Podcast, the popular online genealogy audio show available at www.GenealogyGems.com, on your smartphone’s native podcast app, and through the Genealogy Gems app available through app stores. Her podcast brings genealogy news, research strategies, expert interviews and inspiration to genealogists in 75 countries around the world, and has been downloaded nearly 4 million times. She also produces weekly genealogy YouTube videos on the Genealogy Gems YouTube channeland a monthly live show called Elevenses with Lisa for Premium Members.
Lisa’s offerings are not limited to online. She is a sought after international genealogy speaker. Whether in person or online, Lisa strives to dig through the myriad of genealogy news, questions and resources to deliver the gems that can unlock each genealogist’s own family history treasure trove!
Family is not just a priority professionally. Lisa is a doting wife to Bill, the proud mom of three daughters, and has added the role of Grandma to her resume. She counts her blessings every day for the love, fulfillment and laughter that family brings to every aspect of her life.
Lisa in the Press
Click hereto listen to interviews and read articles about Lisa and Genealogy Gems.
(Update 2020) When genealogists take an ancestry DNA test, they are looking for more than just their ethnicity results. They are also very interested in receiving information on other people who have tested who closely genetically match them. They want to know who the closest matches are, and if those matches have family tree information that they can share.
However, with all the people testing these days, (some being genealogists and some not) the volume of matches can become overwhelming very quickly.
Are you one of those people who have way too many genetic “4th cousins or closer” among your DNA matches? Have you ever wondered “What do I do with all these matches?!” If so, keep reading. We’re going to explore some of your options, and most importantly, how to determine how genetically close your cousins really are.
Doing the DNA Math on Your Cousins
Math can provide us with a degree of certainty in genetic genealogy. Each of us has two biological parents. We have four biological grandparents, and eight great-grandparents.
However, the farther back we go the less we can rely on math.
For example, on paper you should have sixty-four 3rd great grandparents. However, many of us find that the same person occupies more than one slot on our pedigree chart. While this significantly decreases the workload for traditional genealogy, it adversely impacts your genetic genealogy. Especially when it comes to that long long list of 4th cousins you have in your match list at any of the three major DNA testing companies.
Depending on how intermarried your lines are, you may be seeing individuals on your match list that genetically look like your fourth cousins, but they are genealogically your sixth cousins – EIGHT TIMES! So how can you tell the difference?
There are two parts to that answer: one you can control, and the other you can’t.
Distinguishing DNA Matches with Genetic Tools
While your fourth cousins and your eight-time-sixth cousins may look similar genetically, there are often small clues in the genetics that can help you tell the difference. This distinction can sometimes be detected by a testing company who, through research and validation, has been able to fine-tune their algorithms to detect these subtle differences.
Your Genetic 4th Cousins
You can participate in this double checking process by using some of the genetic tools that are available to you at Family Tree DNA, or at Gedmatch.com. But since you may not be an aspiring geneticist, let’s focus on the genealogical work you can do to determine if a match is truly a fourth cousin.
Use Google Earth to Plot Your DNA Matches
A fourth cousin designation just means that you and your match are separated by between six and twelve degrees (people). So that might be five back on your chart to your common ancestor, and five down to your match, which would make you true fourth cousins. It could also be some other permutation of that.
For our example, let’s assume true fourth cousins. That means that the two of you share one of thirty-two 3rd great grandparents (16 couples). In order to find out which set, you have two genealogical identifiers: surname and location.
Therefore, the first thing you should do is make a list of the surnames and locations of those thirty-two 3X great grandparents.
Now, most of us do not know all 16 of those couples, so you are going to have some holes. Feel free to fill in those holes with surnames on subsequent generations that will carry through to this fifth generation.
A great tool to plot your own list of ancestors geographically is the free downloadable Google Earth software.
Check to see if you have the latest version of Google Earth downloaded to your desktop or laptop computer. On your desktop, look for a grey and white globe. If you see a blue and white globe, you have the older original free version of Google Earth. However, a few years ago, Google made their Google Earth Pro version free to everyone, and it is now the standard.
If you do have Google Earth Pro (the grey globe software) then you’re ready to go.
The grey Google Earth globe on the desktop.
If you don’t have it, then you will need to download it.
If you agree to them, click the Agree and Download button
Follow the installation guide
When complete click Run Google Earth
Now that you have Google Earth, you can begin by creating a folder in the Places panel in Google Earth devoted to your 16 couples. Here’s how:
1. In the Places panel, right-click on MyPlaces and select Add > Folder:
Right-click on MyPlaces > Add > Folder
2. Name the folder and then click OK:
Creating a folder in Google Earth
3. Now you will see your new DNA folder for your 16 couples in the Places panel. If you don’t see it, look toward the bottom of the list. You can move the folder to any location within the list by dragging and dropping it.
Create a folder in Google Earth for DNA 16 couples
Once you have your DNA folder created fro your 16 couples, you can then easily plot your surnames and locations.
How to Plot Your Surnames and Locations in Google Earth:
1. Click your new DNA folder to select it. This will ensure that the placemark you are about to create will be stored in that folder.
2. In the search box (upper left corner of the Google Earth software) type in the first location and click Search. Google Earth will fly to that location on the map.
Type the locaton in the Search box and click Search.
3. In the toolbar along the top of the screen, click the placemark button to place a pushpin in that location:
Click the Placemark button in the Google Earth toolbar.
4. In the Placemark dialogue box, enter a title for hte pushpin placemark. Click the OK button to close the box and set your placemark.
5. Repeat the process for all the locations.
Then evaluate the fifth generation of your fourth cousin matches for genealogical information that lines up with any of the items on your list.
You can also plot the surnames and locations of your matches in Google Earth. This is where Google Earth really comes in handy. The free software makes it very easy to see when your ancestral home may be bordering the locations of your matches. Those with whom you find a similarity become your best matches, and your best chance of determining your connection. Those without an obvious connection cycle to the bottom of your pile for a genetic evaluation. You can perform these same kinds of searches for your second and third cousins as well.
As you begin to become more familiar with the fifth generations of your matches, you may also start to see patterns of surnames or locations emerge among your matches. These then become the surnames and locations that might be able to fill the missing spaces in your pedigree chart.
More Genetic Genealogy and Google Earth Gems
If you are new to using Google Earth, I have several suggested resources for you by Lisa Louise Cooke:
If you are a Genealogy Gems Premium member, Tune in to Genealogy Gems Premium podcast, episode 131, for tips on how to run a more thorough genetic evaluation on those 4th cousin matches.
Here’s a video of the authors discussing three common DNA misconceptions:
The Mexican Genealogy Guide by David A. Fryxell from Family Tree Magazine will help you discover the bounty of records in Mexico. This digital download will help you understand naming practices, pinpoint ancestral whereabouts, and how to best navigate church records there.
