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Databases Added Last 7 Days
Click here to view the list. Upcoming databases:
- Michael Hilegas and His Descendants
- Huckins Family: Robert Huckings of the Dover Combination and Some of His Descendants
- A Family Tree of the Five Harvey Brothers
- The Hamiltons of Burnside, North Carolina and Their Ancestors and Descendants
- Record of the Harris Family Descended from John Harris Born 1680
- The First Three Generations of Holts in America
- Hooper Genealogy
Descendants of Major Samuel Hale - The Harris Family: Thomas Harris in Ipswich, Massachusetts
- A Brief History of Valle, Saetersdal, Norway and of Some Families from There
- William Johnston of Isle of Wight County, Virginia and His Descendants, 1648 – 1964
- The Jaunceys of New York
- The Great Jennens Case
- The Johnson Family and Allied Families of Lincolnshire, England: Being the Ancestry of Lawrence Johnson of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- The Junkins Family, Descendants of Robert Junkins of York County, Maine
- A Genealogical History (Jones)
- A Brief History of the Descendants of Samuel Johnson: Founder of the Cape Fear River Johnsons
A Brief History of the Joy Family - The Descendants of Joel Jones, a Revolutionary Soldier, Born in Charlton, Massachusetts, in 1764, and Died in Crawford County, Pennsylvania, in 1845
- Descendants of Jeremiah Jagger (Gager), of Watertown, Massachusetts, 1630 and John Jagger, of Southampton, Long Island, 1641 with References to Dr. William Gager, of Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1630
- Jagger-Gager Genealogy Descendants of Dr. William Gager, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 1630
- Janney Family
The Jarvis Family: The Descendants of the First Settlers of the Name in Massachusetts and Long Island - Jay Family Index: The Descendants of William Jay, Born Hartford County Maryland, 1720, and Mary Vestal Jay
- The Jefferis Family
- Jeffries of Massachusetts, 1658 – 1914
- Jelke and Frazie and Allied Families
- Jenckes-Jenks Genealogy
- A Jenks Genealogy with Allied Families
- The Jervis, Porter and Allied Families
Upcoming Conferences
November 9-10, 2007
ICAPGen Family History Conference
“Becoming an Excellent Genealogist” is the theme of the conference, located in Provo, Utah. Whether you are a professional genealogist, or you would like to become one, this conference is for you.
December 11- 12, 2007
NGS Elderhostel Event at NYG&B
The NYG&B will host a National Genealogical Society sponsored Elderhostel program: A Day of Discovery, Your Family History: A Beginner's Workshop, in December, at Society headquarters, 122 E. 58th St., in New York City. The program will be offered on two different dates: December 11 & 12. Registration is at 9:00 a.m. and the program concludes at 4:00 p.m. The one-day program is $83.00, including a buffet lunch. To enroll visit http://www.elderhostel.org or call (800) 454-5768.
February 2, 2008
The San Luis Obispo County (California) Genealogical Society Seminar
This all-day seminar feature Dick Eastman and other nationally-recognized speakers. This seminar usually hosts 200-300 participants, making it one of the largest genealogy events in California.
Tell Us What You Think
We would love to hear your comments about our newsletter, and any
features/databases you would like to see on our site. Please send
feedback to our content team at feedback@worldvitalrecords.com
Seeking Expert Help!
World Vital Records Seeks Individuals to be on International Advisory Boards
WorldVitalRecords.com is in the process of forming international advisory
boards with experts for every country who are closely tied to the genealogy
field who have connections to others genealogists, have memberships in
a variety of genealogical associations, and/or have expertise in genealogy.
WorldVitalRecords.com is dedicated to working with all genealogy and family
history companies in providing access to national and international data
sets.
We are eager to listen to experts and our users to learn more about the
genealogy needs they have that are not being met and to assist with those
needs.
Individuals who are interested in becoming a member of one of our international
advisory board should send an email to yvette@worldvitalrecords.com.
Family Finder: Success Stories From WorldVitalRecords.com
Share your success stories! WorldVitalRecords.com wants to hear how the site is helping you find connections to your loved ones. Some stories may be published in this weekly newsletter. Please include your location, your name, (or name withheld), and the database(s) that helped you along with your story, as well as why your find is important to you or to relatives. Send stories to whitney@worldvitalrecords.com.
Products You Can Use
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Progeny's Map My Family Tree TM This is one of the most popular genealogy products on the market. Reduced shipping for US customers.
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World Vital Records, Inc.: 165 Massachusetts Databases, Better Searching at WorldVitalRecords.com, Clues From Names
WorldVitalRecords.com launched 165 databases from Massachusetts today as the Wonderbase of the Week. A tip on how to receive better and more accurate results from searching at WorldVitalRecords.com is included in this edition, as well as clues on names.
Wonderbase of the Week: 165 Massachusetts Databases
The Wonderbase of the Week is 165 databases from Massachusetts. These databases will be free to access for ten days (until November 15, 2007). The databases come from the Quintin Publications Collection.
Here are a few examples of the databases in this Wonderbase of the Week launch. Click here to access all 165 databases.
- Origins in Williamstown: A History
- The Old Records of the Town of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, 1764 - 1789
- Representative Men and Old Families of Southeastern Massachusetts: Containing Historical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Genealogical
- Records of Many of the Old Families, Volume 1
Vital Records of Weymouth, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 - A Copy of the Records of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, and of Intentions of Marriage of the Town of Hanover, Massachusetts, 1717 - 1787
- Records of the Town of Braintree, 1640 - 1793
- Early Records of the Town of Beverly, Essex County, Massachusetts : Births, Marriages and Deaths
Happy Thanksgiving From WorldVitalRecords.com!!!
We are grateful for you, and we are grateful for these records. In celebration of Thanksgiving, we have gathered a few databases from this new list of 165 Massachusetts databases that relate to Thanksgiving. Click on the links below to access these databases.
A Record of the Names of the Passengers on the Good Ship Mayflower in December 1620
Old Plymouth Trails
Old Plymouth: A Guide to its Localities and Objects of Interest
Plymouth Memories of an Octogenarian
Shawmut: The Settlement of Boston by the Puritan Pilgrims
The Pilgrims of Boston and Their Descendants
The Romantic Story of the Mayflower Pilgrims and its Place in Life of Today
Jumping Curves At WorldVitalRecords.com and FamilyLink.com
by Yvette Arts, WorldVitalRecords.com
There are two books Paul Allen, CEO of WorldVitalRecords.com and FamilyLink.com, recommends to individuals to read before they talk with him about starting a business. The first book is The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki, and the second book is Love is the Killer App by Tim Sanders. I read both of these books when I came aboard Paul’s team. And as I read, I came to understand Paul’s way of doing business, as well as how my mind should be focused to work with him.
Last Thursday several members of our team had the opportunity to hear Guy Kawasaki speak at Salt Lake Community College to an overflow crowd of students, mentors, entrepreneurs, hopefuls, and admirers.
Takeaways? Yes. We are in a growth pattern here at WorldVitalRecords.com and FamilyLink.com, and I was interested in what Guy had to say about taking services and products to a next step. Well, he didn’t call it “next step.” He called it “jump curves.” And better yet—“create a new curve.” So…his advice is NOT to produce slightly better products or to “duke it out on the same curve” with similar types of companies, but go deep, intelligent, complete, and elegant with what we do.
And our team is of a similar mind. We are working to “go deep” in the genealogy and family history space with “INNOVATIVE TOOLS TO CONNECT FAMILIES”—our new mantra (which Guy highly recommends for a company), as opposed to a mission statement (which Guy highly discounts).
Of course Guy had themes for some of his suggestions, like “Churn Baby Churn!” and “Don’t be afraid to polarize!” all with the intent of helping us see what is needed to really innovate and get funding.
He said that the “new way” to get funding is to use as little money as possible to get where the “dogs are eating the food.” He said that in order to get a higher valuation for a company, organizations need to “show up with a growth history rather than growth projection”—show where a curve already happening.
Well, we are now at a point where we can show that the curve is already happening. We are now poised to jump curves and create new ones. Thanks for your help in getting us to the curve. We welcome your suggestions as we move ahead.
Success Story: Thank You For The Photo of Rebecca Nurse's Marker
"Had to tell you, thank you for the picture of Rebecca Nurse's Marker in the newsletter last week. Her granddaughter, Elizabeth Dowty, married Jonathan Southwick, in 1729. Jonathan and Elizabeth are my husband's (Robert C. Southwick) ancestors. We are too old to make the trip to take a picture now so we really appreciate this one."
"Thank you again."
-- Joan E. Southwick, WorldVitalRecords.com member
Product Spotlight: FamilyPostcardsReunited
The idea for FamilyPostcardsReunited came to me as I was researching my family history. I had a small collection of old picture post cards and some of them had amazing hand-written messages on them. They were a goldmine of information. Each one had a postal date (some as old as 1904), an address, and most important of all a Name -- A gold mine!! That's how FamilyPostcardsReunited started in June 2007.
-- Derek Phillips, President, FamilyPostcardsReunited
How to Do Better Searching on WorldVitalRecords.com and
How to Analyze the Results that Come From Searching
For those who are trying to search WorldVitalRecords.com, here are a few strategies that may help:
Quick Search
Less is more, except in the case of common surnames.
- Type in the surname (family name).
- Search. See what comes up. If you have a lot of results, then back up your browser once, and add a first name.
- If you don’t find the person the first time, do not despair. Think about this name. If it is a nickname, try the “regular” version of the name. Also, do not put in initials unless there are an immense amount of people with the same name from the results.
- After each additional name or detail filter added to the search, try running the results again.
- Each time you try this, look over the results before narrowing down further. You don’t have to look in-depth. Look at the places and general results that are coming up. See whether or not they could apply to your family, not necessarily whether or not they are in the precise town that is in your records right now. Few researchers out there know absolutely everything about the geopolitical aspects of an area, and even for those who are greatly experienced, there is always more to learn. If a person started out in one area, and ended up in another, they had to migrate from one place to another. Look at the interim areas.
- When you want to narrow down by geographic area, use Advanced Search.
Advanced Search
Use only after trying the above strategies for Quick Search.
- See all the instructions under Quick Search as they also apply here to examine search results.
- In addition, on Advanced Search, use state names in the Place box. Do not add towns to start narrowing down search results. Using postal code abbreviations will not help you here.
- Date: Only use this field with extremely common names, or when trying to narrow down searches in the SSDI or for possible Ellis Island searches. If trying to find a particular newspaper, try the most likely year for the event. Any closer than the year is not likely to get you the results you want.
- Keyword: Get creative. This is where things can get interesting concerning names, locations, etc. Try putting in both first and last names together if the surname is extremely common. Try specific locations here.
Genealogical Tip: Clues from Names (Continued From Last Week) by Amanda Forson, WorldVitalRecords.com
While some names shone throughout the years, others found greater favor based upon general American preferences of the time. Names listed here are from the files of the author and friends, and are not all-inclusive or un-inclusive of any family’s cherished names.
17th century American Names: Look for Dutch and English names on the East Coast of the United States. Dutch ex-patriots were located mainly around New York and New Jersey. English names were more biblically oriented in Massachusetts or Scottish in Maryland and Virginia. From researching Puritan names come the likes of Temperance, Patience, Desire, Purity, Mehitable, Hepsibah, Ruth, Isaac, John, Mary, Abraham, James, etc.
18th Century American Names: Refer to the previous Biblical names (after Hepsibah) and add George Washington, Reuben, Garrett, Nathaniel, Sally, Polly, Martha, Jacob, Samuel, Elizabeth, Hannah, etc. Puritan virtues were beginning to lose favor with naming patterns.
Early 19th Century American Names: Add previous names along with Eliza (short for Elizabeth), Daniel, Sarah, William, Nancy, Esther, Jane, etc.
Middle 19th Century Names: Melvin, Ella (short for Ellen or Elizabeth), George, Maurice, Ida, Charlotte, Edwin, Clarissa, Augusta, Harry, Henry, Rose, Matthew, Henrietta, Isabella, Herbert.
Late 19th /Early 20th Century Names: Eugene, Lenah, Mae, Ellen, Irene, Lehman, Agatha, Ethel, Earl, Albert, variations of Lily, Arthur, Alice, Michael, Helen.
In general, if there is no family relative to attach the name towards, look at prevailing patterns in culture. Examine town histories or general history to see names creep in like Napoleon, Max, Harrison, etc. Also, examine sources for your geographic area of interest, browsing through indexes to look at the local surnames or first names. These can give great clues to help with research.