Tangled Genealogy : 2017

Friday, February 17, 2017

Five FREE resources for Genealogy and Family History

Lately, genealogy has gotten a reputation for being an expensive hobby. Newbies don't know where to start, how to start, or even if they want to, and advanced researchers are tired of paying the hundreds of dollars a year it costs for subscription sites. So, in honor of all of us broke people who love to dig up our roots, here is a list of my favorite FREE amazing resources!

FAMILYSEARCH: If you have never been to this site- go. It's a huge database of free research stuff, and it's international! The tree building features do not compare to Ancestry.com, but they are there if you want to use them. Oh, and a secret, they have a lot of stuff that hasn't been indexed yet. You can browse it and find things that almost no else knows about. More on that in another blog post.
Mooseroots.com: A search engine for genealogy, Mooseroots will help you by compiling information and pointing out where things might be. A word of caution; Just 'cause something comes up when you search for it, doesn't make it true. Back up all your research and hunches with documents.
National Archives: The Granddaddy of them all, the National Archives, has a free online site. It isn't the easiest to navigate, but the information is there. They have free research guides, printable forms, and explain how to obtain records that haven't been digitized. Use this site for census, immigration, and military records.
Cyndi's List: You won't find secret requests for naughty things here! Cyndi's List is a genealogy powerhouse of information organized in a familiar classified like fashion. If you have a research question, or are looking for information on anything specific, for instance Mayflower Descendants, this might be a good place to start. In addition to being well organized, there are things here that will spark your interest. For example, in the Pennsylvania section, there is a whole section on Fraktur and Pennsylvania Dutch.
FACEBOOK; I know, it's crazy right? But where else can you network with groups of people from around the world and talk about family history, whenever you want? There are many, many, groups and pages on Facebook. Start with the general genealogy ones like Genealogy Just Ask! and then get into specifics by searching for historical and genealogy groups in areas you are interested in. Don't forget to search by country or even ethnicity. Some family groups have their own pages like this one for Clan MacNeil of Barra.

So there you have it, Five Totally Free online resources to help you stay in your budget and still dig up some family history. What are you favorites? Leave me some comments!

Sunday, January 8, 2017

Mystery Ancestors of Boyd and Greenup County: Part III

And there's still more.. be sure to check out the previous two posts as well.. Send me a message or leave a comment if you know something!

TinType - No ID

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Mystery Ancestors of Boyd and Greenup County, Ky: Part II

In the previous post I explained that these are photographs of my ancestors from Boyd and Greenup County. Some are taken in Lawrence or Ironton Ohio, just over the river. If you know anything about them please leave me a comment. I'm posting 10 at a time. The families that these are associated with are the Miller, Schmauch, Karnap, Horstmann, and Donta families that lived (and still do in some cases) in the area of Ashland and Greenup County, Kentucky from about the mid 1800's.

Ashland Somewhere?

No identification.

1900's? No Identification

These people are identified. The Miller family including Elizabeth Schmauch.

No Identification.

TinType - no ID

No Identification, very nice portrait.

Lots of these children with hymnal photos.

I'm fairly certain these are members of the Schmauch family.

No identication. Looks a lot like Conrad Donta.

Mystery Ancestors of Boyd and Greenup County, KY; Part I

On a recent trip home I was lucky enough to be able to bring home a box of mystery photos left in my Grannie's things. We know these photos came from her side of the family. My great aunt had them in her attic and asked if Granny knew who they were. Most of these photos were taken in the Greenup and Boyd County areas, very few have identification. The family names that I know are connected with these photos are Donta, Miller, Karnap, Horstmann, and Schmauch. All German families of the same areas.

Do you recognize any of these people or know anything about the photo like where it was taken or why all the girls are in communion type dresses? Where available I will put anything written on the backs about who they are. Each post will have ten at a time... this may take a while!

This might have been a duplicate of another photo made at C.E. Matthews, Ashland, Ky.
I have other similar photos of the same children. Most of these families were Lutheran and in later years, Methodists.