Wiki-ing for answers

When beginning to research in a new geographical area, we always like to start by seeing what’s available in that area at the FamilySearch Research Wiki (https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Main_Page). You can type the country or locality in the search box at the top of the page, or you can browse articles by country by clicking the world map. Some of the topics contained in the articles are Beginning Research, Record Types, Background, and Local Research Resources, as shown in Figure 8-1.

You can also search for ethnic entries in the FamilySearch Research Wiki through the search box. Topics on ethnic articles might include Beginning Research, Original Records, Compiled Sources, Background Information, and Finding Aids.

Surveying sites with comprehensive genealogy indexes

To get an idea of what’s generally available online, a comprehensive genealogy index is always a good start. These indexes have the benefit of being family-history focused, so you don’t have to wade through a lot of links that aren’t relevant to genealogy or history. Typically, these sites categorize the links in such a way that you can get to what you’re looking for in a few clicks.

For example, if you’re interested in researching an ancestor who lived in the Netherlands, you could visit Cyndi’s List (www.cyndislist.com), click “N” under Browse Categories, select the Netherlands/Nederland link, and see links organized into 24 groups.

Using search engines

If you haven’t found what you’re looking for in a comprehensive genealogy index, your next stop should be a general search engine. Similar to searches for information on particular individuals, you need to ensure that your search criteria are fairly specific or you risk receiving too many search results — most of which might be irrelevant to your search. For example, when we type the search term Belgium genealogy, we receive 393,000 results in Google and 102,000 results in Bing.

Search engines are a good resource when you’re looking for information on records in a specific locality. So, instead of Belgium genealogy, if we use the search criteria Hainaut baptism records, we receive a fraction of the results.

WorldGenWeb

The WorldGenWeb Project (www.worldgenweb.org) contains links to websites for countries and areas in the world. To find a specific country, follow these steps:

1. Go to the WorldGenWeb Project site (www.worldgenweb.org).

   You see a page with a map and a list of resources along the left side of the page.

2. Click the link to the Country Index under the Main Menu column.

   For our example, we’re looking for information on civil registrations in Jamaica.

3. Click the link in the WorldGenWeb Region column in the Country Index for your target country.

   We click the CaribbeanGenWeb link next to the entry for Jamaica. This link takes us to the region project page.

4. From the region page, find a link to the countries represented in the project.

   On the CaribbeanGenWeb page, we click the Islands Links link located near the top of the page in the second column. If you didn’t choose the same region, you have to find the appropriate link on your particular region page.

5. Select the link to your country.

   We click the Jamaica link, which takes us to the Genealogy of Jamaica page.

6. Choose a link to a resource that interests you.

   On the Genealogy of Jamaica home page, we find a list of available resources. We click the About Civil Registration (Births, Marriages and Deaths, 1880 - 1930) link, which displays the Civil Registration of Jamaicans page, as shown in Figure 8-2.

When researching your European roots, keep in mind that due to the number of European countries, no single European GenWeb Project site exists. Instead, you find the following four European region sites:

• Ireland & United KingdomGenWeb (www.iukgenweb.org/) contains projects for British Overseas Territories, Channel Islands, England, Ireland, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.
• CenEuroGenWeb (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ceneurgw/) lists pages for Belgium, Denmark, Greenland, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland.
• EastEuropeGenWeb (https://www.easteuropegenweb.org/) contains sites for Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia.
• MediterraneanGenWeb (https://sites.google.com/site/mediterraneangenweb/) has project pages for Andorra, Azores, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, Madeira, Malta, Monaco, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, and Vatican City.

Translating sites

Within this chapter (and when you search online), you’ll encounter sites in languages other than English. Due to advancements in translation websites and web browser translators, the fact that the site is in a different language doesn’t mean it’s not useful in your research. The translation site Google Translate, at http://translate.google.com/, has the capability to translate a block of text, or you can enter a URL to translate an entire web page.

Rather than going to the Google Translate page each time we encounter a site in a foreign language, we prefer to have that functionality built into our browser. The Google Chrome browser (https://www.google.com/chrome/) has the Google Translate functionality built in. When you reach a site in a foreign language, the Translate toolbar appears and suggests the language that the site is authored in. It then asks whether you want the site translated. If you say yes, the page is translated — that is, the text that’s not part of a graphic is translated. Although the translation isn’t perfect, it’s usually good enough to give you a good idea of the text’s meaning.

Gathering information from England and Wales

To become familiar with records in England and Wales, visit the National Archives site (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk). By clicking the red circle entitled Menu at the top of the page, you can find a link to Online Collections page (under the Help with Your Research column, about two-thirds of the way down the list), where you find links to their records, including:

• Aliens’ Registration Cards, 1918–1957
• British Army Medal Index Cards, 1914–1920
• Country Court Death Duty Registers, 1796–1811
• Naturalisation Case Papers, 1801–1871
• Wills, 1384–1858.

A lot more than haggis — finding Scottish records

The ScotlandsPeople site (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) is the official government site for Scottish records. The subscription site contains statutory registers of births (1855–1910), marriages (1855–1937), and deaths (1855–1960); old parish registers of births and baptisms (1553 –1854) and banns and marriages (1553–1854); census records (1841–1911); and wills and testaments (1513–1925).

Other sites that can assist you in tracking down Scottish ancestors follow:

• National Records of Scotland (https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/) The National Archives of Scotland and the General Register Office for Scotland merged to form the National Records of Scotland site.
• Scottish Archive Network (www.scan.org.uk) is a joint project between the National Archives of Scotland, the Heritage Lottery Fund, and the Genealogical Society of Utah. The project has placed the holdings of 52 Scottish archives into an online catalog and has digitized records.
• Scottish Genealogy Society (www.scotsgenealogy.com) provides assistance for individuals researching their Scottish roots. The website contains information on the society’s library, classes, and annual conference.
• Scottish Register of Tartans (www.tartanregister.gov.uk), part of the National Records of Scotland, houses a repository of tartans. On the website, you can search for tartans by name and view an image of the material.

Researching the north o’ Ireland

If you’re looking for ancestors in Northern Ireland (specifically, the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone), you have a few places to check. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, or PRONI (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni), holds items such as estate, church, business, valuation and tithe, school, and wills records. The website includes online databases that contain signatories to the Ulster Covenant, freeholders records, street directories, and will calendars. You can also find guides to some of the more popular collections at PRONI on its Your Family Tree Series page at https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/your-family-tree-series.

The General Register Office for Northern Ireland (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/information-and-services/government-citizens-and-rights/births-deaths-marriages-and-civil-partnerships) maintains registrations of births, stillbirths, adoptions, deaths, marriages, and civil partnerships. The website contains summaries of these record types and a family history guide that can assist you with your research in Northern Ireland.

Also, take a look at the North of Ireland Family History Society site (www.nifhs.org). The site contains details on the Society’s Research Centre, branches, publications, and meeting calendar. For books on genealogy in Northern Ireland and for research services, see the web page for the Ulster Historical Foundation at www.ancestryireland.com. This site also contains pay-per-view and members-only online databases, including indexes to birth, marriage, and death records for County Antrim and County Down, index to the 1796 Flaxgrowers Bounty List, directories, sporadic census and education records, emigration records, wills, election records, and estate records.

Emerald Ancestors (www.emeraldancestors.com) maintains subscription databases on more than 1 million ancestors from Northern Ireland, including birth, marriage, death, and census records. For free resources, see the Northern IrelandGenWeb site at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nirwgw. The site contains a resource listing and links to a variety of helpful online resources. The Ireland page on GENUKI also contains links to resources in the counties of Northern Ireland at www.genuki.org.uk/big/irl. To find a professional genealogist, consult the Society of Genealogists Northern Ireland website at www.sgni.net.

Because some of the resources overlap between Northern Ireland and Ireland, you might also look at some of the resources described in the following section.

Traversing the Emerald Isle

As we mention in the previous section, the GENUKI site (www.genuki.org.uk) contains information on a variety of geographic areas in the United Kingdom and Ireland. You see pages for all 32 counties of Ireland, and you can find brief articles on a variety of topics, including cemeteries, censuses, church records, civil registrations, court records, emigration and immigration, land and property, newspapers, probate records, and taxation. You can also find county pages at the Genealogy Projects in Ireland site (http://irelandgenealogyprojects.rootsweb.ancestry.com) and the Ireland Genealogy Projects and Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives at www.igp-web.com.

To get an overview of Irish genealogy, take a look at the Directory of Irish Genealogy at http://homepage.eircom.net/~seanjmurphy/dir. In particular, look at A Primer in Irish Genealogy, available as a link at the top of the site’s home page. You can also find information on genealogy courses and articles on Irish genealogy on this site. On the parent page to this site, the Centre for Irish Genealogical and Historical Studies (http://homepage.tinet.ie/~seanjmurphy), you find guides to the National Archives of Ireland and the General Register Office of Ireland. Ancestry.co.uk also contains some records for Ireland. See the previous section for more on the types of records available on the site. For the latest in Irish genealogy see the Irish Genealogy News site at www.irishgenealogynews.com.

Other Irish genealogy resources

A few sites contain databases and transcriptions of Irish records of interest to genealogists. The Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs sponsors the Irish Genealogy site (www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/), that features the Indexes of the Civil Registers (GRO) of Births, Marriages, Civil Partnerships, and Deaths and church records of baptism, marriage, and burial from a number of counties.

In addition to census records, the National Archives of Ireland (www.nationalarchives.ie) houses other records of interest to researchers, including Tithe Applotment Books and Griffith’s Valuation, wills, estate records, private source records, parish records and marriage licenses, and Crown and Peace records. Tithe Applotment Books for the years 1823 to 1837 are available online at http://titheapplotmentbooks.nationalarchives.ie/search/tab/home.jsp.

If you’re looking for maps, check out Irish Townlands (https://www.townlands.ie/), that uses OpenStreetMap to show over 60,000 townlands. The Irish Family History Foundation hosts an online database of 20 million records, including baptism, marriage, and death records, at its RootsIreland.ie site (www.rootsireland.ie). The Foundation also provides research services for a fee. Additional online databases can be found at the Findmypast site (www.findmypast.com). The site includes census, electoral register, marriage, will, burial, military, passenger list, and directory records. Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com) has over 200 collections of Irish records.

If you need professional assistance, take a look at the Accredited Genealogists Ireland site at http://accreditedgenealogists.ie/. The Association establishes standards for its members to help ensure quality research. The website includes a member directory listing its areas of specialization.

For a topical list of available online resources for Ireland, see the Ireland Online Genealogy Records page on FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Ireland_Online_Genealogy_Records.

Heading north for Canadian records

So you want to research your ancestors from Canada, eh? Well, a place to start is the Genealogy and Family History page (www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/genealogy/Pages/introduction.aspx), maintained by Library and Archives Canada. The site contains information for beginners, including what to do first and search strategies for a variety of record types.

To get an idea of what online resources are available for Canadian research, some genealogical link sites specialize in Canada. These include CanGenealogy (www.cangenealogy.com) and Canadian Genealogy Resources (www.canadiangenealogy.net).

Accessing Australian sources

The Australian Family History Compendium (http://afhc.cohsoft.com.au/) offers information on societies, archives, and a wider range of record types, as well as maps and a glossary. The National Archives of Australia site is located at www.naa.gov.au/. Also you can find descriptions of resources on the eResources page of the National Library of Australia at www.nla.gov.au/app/eresources/browse/123.

A transcription of the convicts on Australia’s first three fleets and the Irish convicts that came to New South Wales from 1788 to 1849 is located at http://members.pcug.org.au/~pdownes.

The Metropolitan Cemeteries Board of Western Australia has a database of internments in five cemeteries at http://www2.mcb.wa.gov.au/NameSearch/search.php. If you are looking for obituaries, check out the Obituaries Australia site at http://oa.anu.edu.au and the obits.com.au site (www.obits.com.au). For digitized newspaper collections, see the National Library of Australia’s Trove site at http://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper. The site also has over 530 million books, images, newspapers, maps, and music items available online.

A searchable index of birth, marriage, and death records for New South Wales is available at www.bdm.nsw.gov.au/. Vital records information is also available at the Australasia Births, Deaths, and Marriages Exchange at www.ausbdm.org.

The subscription sites Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com each have collections relating to Australia. Ancestry.com.au (www.ancestry.com.au) or Ancestry.com features more than 200 databases of use in Australian research. Examples of databases on the site include

• Australia, Electoral Rolls, 1903–1980
• Victoria, Australia, Assisted and Unassisted Passenger Lists, 1839–1923
• Sands Directories: Sydney and New South Wales, Australia, 1858–1933
• Rockingham, Western Australia, School Indexes, 1830–1970

Within the United States

Individuals of Hispanic descent have been in the present-day U.S. since St. Augustine was founded in 1565. Consult some of the following helpful resources when conducting research on your Spanish-speaking ancestors:

• Hispanic Genealogy Center (www.hispanicgenealogy.com): Maintained by the Hispanic Genealogical Society of New York, the site contains information on the society’s events and publications, including the newsletter Nuestra Herencia.
• Hispanic Genealogical Society of Houston (www.hispanicgs.org): The society maintains a list of online resources for Hispanic research.
• Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico (www.hgrc-nm.org): The Center maintains the Great New Mexico Pedigree Database and publishes the journal Herencia.
• Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (http://shhar.net): The Society is based in Orange County, California, and publishes the online newsletter Somos Primos.
• Puerto Rican/Hispanic Genealogical Society (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~prhgs): The site contains a transcription of the 1935 Census of Puerto Rico and a query page.
• Colorado Society of Hispanic Genealogy (www.hispanicgen.org): The Society hosts a list of links and information in its publication Colorado Hispanic Genealogist.

If you are going to Puerto Rico for research, you might consider visiting the websites of the Archivo General de Puerto Rico and the Biblioteca Nacional (www.puertadetierra.info/edificios/archivo/archivo.htm) for information on their holdings.

Exploring south of the border: Mexican sources

To get your feet wet with resources from Mexico, check out the FamilySearch Research Wiki at https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Mexico_Genealogy. You can find a primer on tracing your ancestors on the Mexico Genealogy 101 page at the About.com genealogy site (http://genealogy.about.com/od/mexico/a/records.htm). A list of collections for Mexican research can be found at the Mexican Genealogy site at https://mexicangenealogy.info/research/resources-by-state.

The following are some sites related to genealogy in Mexico:

• Baja California: www.californiagenealogy.org/labaja
• Durango: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mexdur/Durango.html
• Morelos: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mexmorel/Morelos.html
• San Luis Potosí: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mexsanlu
• Tabasco: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mextab

The Genealogy of Mexico site (http://garyfelix.tripod.com/index1.htm) features several sets of transcribed records, including lists of individuals who accompanied Cortez, early entrants into New Spain, surnames contained in literature on Mexico, and a DNA project.

FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&region=MEXICO) has also begun placing online records related to Mexico, including the following:

• Baja California and Baja California Sur, Catholic Church Records, 1750–1984
• Mexico, Colima, Civil Registration, 1860–1997
• Mexico, National Census, 1930
• Mexico, San Luis Potosí, Miscellaneous Records, 1570–1882

Transcribed records are also available on sites that focus on Hispanic ancestors. For example, you can view transcribed records from the 1750 and 1753 censuses of the village of Guerrero at www.hispanicgs.com/census.html.

Continental resources

Eventually, your research may take you across the Atlantic, back to the Iberian Peninsula to Spain or Portugal. If you’re researching Spain, stop by the Genealogía Española–España GenWeb site at www.genealogia-es.com. The site contains an introduction to research, links to surname databases, and links to provincial web pages. The Asociación de Genealogía Hispana (www.hispagen.es) also maintains a website dedicated to helping those who are researching their Spanish roots.

For official records, point your web browser to the Portal de Archivos Españoles site at http://pares.mcu.es. The portal is designed to point to resources housed in many different national and local archives. A large project housed on the site is the Ibero-American Migratory Movements Portal (http://pares.mcu.es/MovimientosMigratorios/staticContent.form?viewName=presentacion). The goal of the project is to provide access to information on individuals who emigrated from Spain to Central America in modern times. The project is a partnership between the Archivo General de la Administración de España, Archivo General de la Nación de México, Archivo General de la Nación de la República Dominicana, and Archivo Nacional de la República de Cuba.

FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927167) has placed online over 40 collections of records relating to Spain. Some of these collections include digitized images. Examples from the collection are

• Catholic Church Records, 1307–1985
• Consular Records of Emigrants, 1808–1960
• Province of Cádiz, Passports, 1810–1866
• Province of León, Municipal Records, 1642–1897

Portuguese official records are housed in a network of national and 16 regional archives coordinated by the Direção Geral de Arquivos (http://antt.dglab.gov.pt/pesquisar-na-torre-do-tombo/genealogia-ou-historia-local//). Another resource to check out is the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (www.bnportugal.pt). For a more focused search on genealogy, you may want to search the catalogs on the Biblioteca Genealogica de Lisboa website, at www.biblioteca-genealogica-lisboa.org. For parish records see the Portuguese Parish Records for Genealogy site at http://tombo.pt.

FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927058) contains more than 30 collections of databases and digitized records relating to Portugal. Some sample collections include

• Aveiro, Passport Registers, 1882–1965
• Braga, Priest Application Files (Genere et Moribus), 1596–1911
• Coimbra, Civil Registration, 1893–1980
• Vila Real, Diocesan Records, 1575–1992

Some Portuguese collections are also available on Ancestry.com and MyHeritage.com.

Those with Basque ancestors may find the resources at the Basque Genealogy page (www.nabasque.org/old_nabo/NABO/genealogy.htm) useful.

Central and South American research

Research in Central and South America has been a rapidly growing area recently. Subscription sites such as Ancestry.com and MyHeritage.com have some resources for individual countries. The following resources, broken down by country, should help you along your way:

• Argentina: The Archivo General de la Nación (www.mininterior.gov.ar/agn/agn.php) and the Instituto de Estudios Genealógicos y Heráldicos de la Provincia de Buenos Aires (https://www.facebook.com/Instituto-de-Estudios-Geneal%C3%B3gicos-y-Her%C3%A1ldicos-provincia-de-Buenos-Aires-198710254473/) are places to get an idea of records available for Argentina. FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927135) offers a growing collection of records from Argentina including Catholic Church records, national censuses, and marriage records.
• Brazil: BrazilGenWeb (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~brawgw) has a how-to guide and links to individual Brazilian states. To see records available in Brazil, visit the Arquivo Nacional website (www.arquivonacional.gov.br). FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927159) hosts nearly 30 collections including Catholic Church records, civil registrations, immigration cards, and burial records. You might also find useful resources at the Genealogias.org at http://buratto.org/gens/.
• Belize: The BelizeGenWeb page (www.worldgenweb.org/index.php/96-northamericagenweb/belize/75-belizegenweb?Itemid=115) has a few links to general resources.
• Bolivia: You can get general information on the national archives at the Archivo y Biblioteca Nacionales site at www.archivoybibliotecanacionales.org.bo/. A few collections exist for Bolivia at FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927158). Records include baptism, Catholic Church records, deaths, and marriages.
• Chile: A site with several compiled genealogies of Chilean families is the Genealogía de Chile site, at http://genealog.cl. See the web page for the Archivos y Museos (www.dibam.cl) for Chilean records. A small number of Chilean records are available at FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927143) including baptism, civil registration, death, marriage, and cemetery records.
• Columbia: The website for the Columbian Archivo General de la Nación is located at www.archivogeneral.gov.co. The site explains the system of archives both at the national and local level and has a catalog of its holdings. Columbian records are available on FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927162. The collections include baptism, Catholic Church records, death, marriage, and military records.
• Costa Rica: The GenWeb page for Costa Rica is located at www.worldgenweb.org/index.php/97-northamericagenweb/costa-rica/76-costa-rica, and the web page for the Archivo Nacional de Costa Rica is at www.archivonacional.go.cr. Costa Rican records are available on FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927128.
• Cuba: You can find links to Cuban genealogical resources at the CubaGenWeb.org website (www.cubagenweb.org). The site contains a passenger list database and links to personal sites on the web with Cuban family trees. To find records in Cuba, see the website for the Archivo Nacional de la República de Cuba (www.arnac.cu).
• Dominican Republic: República Dominicana en el proyecto CaribbeanGenWeb (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~domwgw/mhhbcgw.htm) contains a few links to resources for the Dominican Republic. Records for the country are held at the Archivo General de la Nación (http://agn.gov.do). FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927011) contains some databases related to the Dominican Republic. The collections include baptism, Catholic Church records, death, marriage, and civil registration records.
• Ecuador: Discover more about records in Archivo Nacional Del Ecuador Ane site, at www.ane.gob.ec/. Records from Ecuador are available on FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927138.
• El Salvador: El Salvadoran records are available on FamilySearch.org at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927124.
• Guatemala: Guatemalan records are available on FamilySearch.org at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927125. In addition to baptism, church, marriage, and death records, you can also find the Guatemala City census of 1877 at the site.
• Haiti: The Généalogie d’Haiti et de Saint-Domingue, at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~htiwgw, contains information on the history and geography of the country. It also has links to other Haiti resources. For further information, see L’Association de Généalogie d’Haïti (www.agh.qc.ca). The Archives Nationales d’Haiti is available at http://archivesnationales.gouv.ht. FamilySearch has some digital images of civil registrations available at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927183.
• Honduras: Some basic information is available on the HondurasGenWeb project page at www.worldgenweb.org/index.php/100-northamericagenweb/honduras/77-honduras. You can find baptism and marriage records as well as digital images of civil registrations on the FamilySearch.org site at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927126.
• Nicaragua: The GenWeb page for Nicaragua is at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~nicwgw. A brief description of the Archivo General de la Nación can be found at www.inc.gob.ni/bibliotecas-y-archivos/. Nicaraguan records such as civil registrations and digital images of Catholic Church records are available on FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927127.
• Panama: Some brief information on the National Archives is available at the Archivo Nacional de Panamá site, at www.archivonacional.gob.pa/. You can find records for baptisms, deaths, marriages, and digital images of Catholic Church records on FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927175.
• Paraguay: Information on the holdings of the Archivo Nacional de Asunción is available at www.archivonacionaldeasuncion.org/. Records for baptisms and marriages, plus digital images of cemetery records and Catholic Church records are available on FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927141.
• Peru: For records regarding Peru, see the Archivo General de la Nación site, at www.agn.gob.pe/portal/. Thirteen Peruvian record collections are available on FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927168) including digital images of civil registrations and Catholic Church records.
• Uruguay: You can find an overview of records for Uruguay at the Archivo General de la Nación page (www.agn.gub.uy). Baptism and marriage records are available on FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927142.
• Venezuela: Information on the Archivo General de la Nación can be found at http://agn.gob.ve. FamilySearch contains some digital images of Catholic Church records and civil registrations at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927137.

Swimming through Caribbean genealogy

To be successful in researching Caribbean genealogy, you have to be aware of the history of the particular island that you’re researching. Some islands have a variety of record sets that may differ significantly depending on what country was in control of the island.

A place to start your research is the CaribbeanGenWeb Project page, at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~caribgw. The project is an umbrella site for each of the individual islands that have their own project pages. The site contains a list of the transcribed data sets held within the CaribbeanGenWeb Archives portion of the project, along with a global search engine for searching those data sets, descriptions of the mailing lists available for each island, links to surname resources, and some research tips. The individual island pages include

• Antigua and Barbuda: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~atgwgw
• Bahamas: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bhswgw
• Bermuda: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bmuwgw/bermuda.htm
• Jamaica: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jamwgw/index.htm
• St. Kitts and Nevis: www.tc.umn.edu/~terre011/genhome.html
• Trinidad and Tobago: www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ttowgw

You can also find information on some islands on the GenWeb Project page of the mother country. For example, a resource for the French islands is the Généalogie et Histoire de la Caraïbe (www.ghcaraibe.org). The site contains some transcribed records and articles on the history of the area.

If you have a question about a specific individual, you can post a query on the Caribbean Surname Index (CARSURDEX) at www.candoo.com/surnames/index.php. The site has message boards based on the first letter of the surname and has research specialty boards for the French West Indies, Dutch West Indies, and Spanish West Indies.

Along the beautiful Danube: Austrian roots

A place to begin your Austrian journey is the Austrian Genealogy Pages (https://www.austriagenweb.org/). The site contains some general information on Austria as well as links to Austrian resources. From the home page of this site, you can access links to the provinces of Austria. These links are divided into two types — provinces of modern Austria (since 1918) and areas of the Austrian Empire and Austro-Hungarian Empire (until 1918). Areas listed under the second group are covered in other GenWeb projects, such as KüstenlandGenWeb, CzechGenWeb, RomanianGenWeb, UkraineGenWeb, SloveniaGenWeb, CroatiaGenWeb, PolishGenWeb, ItalianGenWeb, and FranceGenWeb.

If you’re looking for help with your Austrian research, check out the Familia Austria website (www.familia-austria.at) maintained by the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Genealogie und Geschichte. The site contains links to a variety of Austrian resources, including maps, cemetery databases, and a wiki covering many topics related to individual provinces. It also has databases developed by the Association, including a family name finder; a birth, marriage, and death index for Wiener Zeitung; a marriage index before 1784; and directories of individuals holding particular occupations.

To get information on records available in the national archives, see the Austrian State Archives page, at www.oesta.gv.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?alias=oestaen&init. Another site to visit is the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek (National Library), at https://www.onb.ac.at/. If you need professional help, you might look at the Historiker Kanzlei research firm (www.historiker.at), which specializes in Austrian research.

FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927070) contains more than a dozen collections centered on Austria. These include digital images of military records, Lutheran Church records, citizen rolls, death certificates, and Jewish registers of births, marriages, and deaths.

Consulting German resources

The Germany GenWeb Project site (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wggerman) has a few resources such as maps and links to other sites. The German Genealogy Group (www.germangenealogygroup.com) was formed to help individuals research their German roots. The website contains descriptions on the various databases that the Group maintains and some presentations on research in Germany.

The German Emigrants Database (www.deutsche-auswanderer-datenbank.de/), maintained by the Historisches Museum Bremerhaven, contains information on emigrants who left Europe for the U.S. from German ports between 1820 and 1897, 1904, and 1907. At the time this book was written, the database contained more than five million emigrants. The site allows users to search an index of individuals and order records for a fee based on the results. For more information on emigrants from the port of Hamburg, see Ballinstadt Hamburg (www.ballinstadt.de/?lang=en), a site that describes the emigrant experience at the Hamburg port.

An important group of records in German research are church records. The Archion site (https://www.archion.de/) is a collaborative project sponsored by the Evangelical Church in Germany to post detailed inventories of parish registers.

Ancestry.com has a subscription site for German genealogy at www.ancestry.de or Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com provides access to more than 1,000 databases, including census records; birth, marriage, and death records; military records; immigration and emigration records; and local and family histories. Examples of databases are the Hamburg Passenger lists (1850–1934), Bremen, Germany Sailors Registry, 1824-1917 and, Bremen, Germany Ships Crew Lists, 1815-1917. For descriptions of records held in archives, see the Bundesarchiv site at www.bundesarchiv.de/index.html.en.

FamilySearch https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927074 houses 60 collections of German records, many of them digital images. Examples of collections include

• Brandenburg, Berlin, Probate Records, 1796–1853
• Hesse-Nassau, Civil Registers and Church Books, 1701–1875
• Prussia, East Prussia, Königsberg, Index to Funeral Sermons and Memorials, 1700–1900

You can find resources for other Germanic areas on the Federation of East European Family History Societies site at http://feefhs.org and on the following sites:

• Liechtenstein: LiechGenWeb Project (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~liewgw) and FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927121)
• Luxembourg: Luxembourg home page (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~luxwgw) and FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927075)
• Swiss: Swiss Genealogy on the Internet (www.eye.ch/swissgen/gener-e.htm), Swiss Roots Genealogy (www.theswisscenter.org/swiss-roots), and FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927039)

Denmark

MyDanishRoots.com (www.mydanishroots.com) contains articles on vital records, census lists, place names, emigration, and Danish history. DIS-Danmark (www.dis-danmark.dk) is a group of genealogists using computing in their research. The website includes information on the districts and parishes of Denmark, data on indexed church books, and a database of Danish online records. The Statens Arkiver is also digitizing church books and placing them online at https://www.sa.dk/brug-arkivet/ao/arkivalieronline.

Finding another researcher who is researching the same family as you can make your research life a lot easier. Sending a GEDCOM file to the GEDCOMP site, at www.lklundin.dk/gedcomp/english.php, allows it to be compared with other researchers’ files to see where overlaps exist. Other members of GEDCOMP can then contact you for further research.

If you’re planning a research trip to Denmark, you may want to visit the collection at the Statens Arkiver (State Archives). You can find a list of resources available, as well as descriptions of records that are critical to Danish research, at https://www.sa.dk/en/. FamilySearch houses a few Danish record sets including some digital images at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927025.

Finland

The Finland GenWeb site (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~finwgw) has a small number of biographies, some transcribed U.S. census records of individuals of Finnish descent, a few obituaries of people who were born in Finland and died in the U.S., and links to web pages of those interested in Finnish research.

The Genealogical Society of Finland site (www.genealogia.fi/index.php?language_id=1&p=226) contains some advice on getting started in your research, membership information, blogs, and links to member pages.

You can find transcriptions of passport lists for the Åland Islands in Finland at the Transcription of the Borough Administrator’s Passport List 1882–1903 (www.genealogia.fi/emi/magistrat/indexe.htm) and Sheriff’s Passport List 1863–1916 (www.genealogia.fi/emi/krono/indexe.htm) sites. The database at DISBYT Finland (www.dis.se) contains more than 160,000 individuals who lived in Finland prior to 1913. The Genealogy Society of Finland maintains a list of christenings, marriages, burials, and moves as part of its HisKi project at http://hiski.genealogia.fi/historia/indexe.htm.

The Institute of Migration/Siirtolaisuusinstituutti (www.migrationinstitute.fi/fi/sukututkimus) maintains a database of more than 550,000 emigrants from Finland.

FamilySearch contains a few collections at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927095.

Keep in mind that up to 1809, Finland was a part of Sweden. So, you may need to consult Swedish records to get a complete picture of your ancestors.

Norway

For help with your Norwegian ancestors, see the article “Basics of Norwegian Research,” www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wgnorway/list-basics.htm. Another useful guide, “How to Trace Your Ancestors in Norway” (http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/sab/howto.html), is housed on the site for the National Archives of Norway. The Velkommen to Norway Genealogy site (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wgnorway/), part of the WorldGenWeb project, contains a Getting Started article and links to several Norwegian online resources.

The National Archives of Norway hosts a digital archive at http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/cgi-win/WebFront.exe?slag=vis&tekst=meldingar&spraak=e. The site includes digitized parish registers, real estate registers, and probate records. It also has a tutorial on Gothic handwriting, a photo album of farms, and information on the Archive’s holdings.

If you’re looking for research help, the DIS-Norge site (www.disnorge.no/cms/en/eng/english-pages) has a message board to answer questions, a Nordic dictionary to help with common terms, and a database containing genealogists who are working in a specific geographic area.

FamilySearch has some burial, census, baptism, and marriage records available at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927171.

Sweden

The Federation of Swedish Genealogical Societies/Sveriges Släktforskarförbund hosts the site Finding Your Swedish Roots (www.genealogi.se/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=167&Itemid=852) that includes helpful articles on church, legal, and tax records; information on the collection in the Swedish Archives; and a brief history of Sweden.

The Swedish DISBYT database (www.dis.se/) contains 22.2 million Swedes who lived before 1910. Ancestry.se or Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.se) is a subscription site that contains over 40 databases, including emigration lists from 1783 to 1751, passenger and immigration lists from the 1500s to 1900s, and some local histories and published genealogies.

Subscription databases on the Riksarkivet (http://sok.riksarkivet.se/) site include births, convicts, deaths, inventories, marriages, seamen’s records, and a village and farm database. The site also contains scanned images of church and tax records.

The Sweden Genealogy site (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wgsweden) contains queries, a list of surnames, and links to other Swedish resources.

FamilySearch includes several digital image collections of Swedish church records at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927041.

Iceland

A few resources are available for Icelandic research. The IcelandGenWeb site (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~islwgw) contains a few links to resources for your research.

FamilySearch has a couple of record sets of baptisms and marriages at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1&countryId=1927031.

Genealogical resource pages on the web

To find out more about research resources, the AfriGeneas website (www.afrigeneas.com/) is a good place to start. (See Figure 8-3.) At the site you can find:

• A beginner’s guide to researching genealogy
• Links to census schedules and slave data on the Internet
• A digital library of transcribed resources
• A link to a database of African-American surnames and their corresponding researchers

You can find a high-level overview of the subject at African American Lives 2 (www.pbs.org/wnet/aalives). The site is the companion to the PBS show that originally aired in early 2006. Items on the site include

• Profiles of individuals featured on the show
• Tips on how to effectively use documentation in researching African ancestral roots
• A brief primer on DNA testing
• An introduction to some of the issues and pitfalls surrounding research
• A list of stories from other researchers

For a brief list of resources that you can use for research, see the University of Pennsylvania African Studies Center bibliography page, at www.africa.upenn.edu/Bibliography/menu_Biblio.html.

Other sites with helpful content include

• Sankofa-gen Wiki (http://sankofagen.pbworks.com/w/page/14230533/FrontPage)
• Slave Archival Collection Database (http://rootsweb.ancestry.com/~ilissdsa/text_files/database_intro2.htm)

Transcribed records pertaining to ancestors with African roots

Many genealogists recognize the benefits of making transcribed and digitized records available for other researchers. More and more of these websites are popping up every day. A few websites have transcribed records that are unique to the study of African ancestry online. Some examples are

• Cemetery records: For a transcribed list of cemeteries, see African American Cemeteries Online at http://africanamericancemeteries.com.
• Freedmen’s Bureau records: You can find transcribed Freedmen’s Bureau records at the Freedmen’s Bureau Online at www.freedmensbureau.com.
• Manumission papers: For examples of manumission papers — documents reflecting that a slave was granted freedom — see the Bourbon County Deeds of Manumission Abstracts site at www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kyafamer/Bourbon/manumissions.htm.
• Registers: At The Valley of the Shadow site, you can view transcribed Registers of Free Blacks in Augusta County and Staunton, Virginia at http://valley.lib.virginia.edu/VoS/govdoc/free.html.
• Slave schedules: You can find digitized versions of slave schedules at Ancestry.com’s subscription site (www.ancestry.com).
• Slave Ships: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database (www.slavevoyages.org) contains information on nearly 36,000 slaving voyages and names of over 90,000 Africans who were enslaved.
• Wills and probate records: Slaves were often mentioned in the disposition of wills. A list of slaves mentioned in probate records of Noxubee County, Mississippi, can be found at http://earphoto.tripod.com/SlaveNames.html.

The preceding sites are a few examples of transcribed records that you can find on the Internet. To see whether online records exist that pertain specifically to your research, visit a comprehensive genealogical site and look under the appropriate category.

Special ethnic pages about African ancestry

Many websites include information on a subset of individuals of African ancestry. Here are some you may want to visit:

• The African-Native American Genealogy Homepage provides details on blended families in Oklahoma (www.african-nativeamerican.com).
• You can find information on French Creoles on the French Creoles Free People of Color website (www.frenchcreoles.com/CreoleCulture/freepeopleofcolor/freepeopleofcolor.htm).

Original records

You can find digitized original records online at some subscription sites. For example, Fold3.com (www.fold3.com) has the federal and Supreme Court case files for the case involving the seizure of the Amistad, a ship carrying slaves seized by the U.S. Navy in 1839.

Where to begin looking for information about American Indians

For a general look at what Internet resources are available on American Indians, see NativeWeb (www.nativeweb.org). NativeWeb includes a resource center with hundreds of links to other Internet sites on native peoples around the world.

Another resource worth exploring is the National Archives and Records Administration’s Catalog, at https://www.archives.gov/research/catalog. The catalog contains indexes to a small portion of the archive’s holdings. Among the Native American collections in the catalog are

• Images of the Index to the Final Rolls of the Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized Tribes in Indian Territory
• Images of the Index to Applications Submitted for the Eastern Cherokee Roll of 1909 (Guion Miller Roll)
• Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs Truxton Canon Agency
• Record of Applications under the Act of 1896 (1896 Citizenship Applications) received by the Dawes Commission
• Descriptions for records of the Cherokee Indian Agency and the Seminole Indian Agency
• Descriptions for records of the Navajo Area Office, the Navajo Agency, and the Window Rock Area Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs
• Some images of Cherokee, Chickasaw, Creek, and Seminole Applications for Enrollment to the Five Civilized Tribes (Dawes Commission)
• Images of the Kern-Clifton Roll of Cherokee Freedmen
• Images of the Wallace Roll of Cherokee Freedmen in Indian Territory
• Surveys of Indian Industry, 1922
• Classified Files of the Extension and Credit Office, 1931–1946
• Selected Documents from the Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, 1793–1989
• American Indians, 1881–1885

To search the catalog, try this:

1. Go to https://research.archives.gov/search.

2. Place a term into the search field and click the search icon.

   We type Annie Abbott in the box.

3. Click a link to content that interests you.

   We click the link for the Enrollment for Cherokee Census Card M1394 that shows more information about the record.

At this point, the catalog contains descriptions of only a portion of the Archives’ total holdings. So, if you don’t find something, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

You can find a brief outline of how to trace American Indian ancestry at the U.S. Department of the Interior site (https://www.doi.gov/tribes/trace-ancestry).

American Indian resource pages on the web

Researching American Indian roots would be much easier if some sites were dedicated to the genealogical research of specific tribes. If your ancestor’s tribe passed through the state of Oklahoma, you may be in luck. Volunteers with the Oklahoma USGenWeb project developed the Twin Territories site, at http://okgenweb.net/~itgenweb/.

Some links to various tribes available on the web are

• Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~itcherok)
• Cherokee Archival Project (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cherokee)
• NC Cherokee Reservation Genealogy (www.ncgenweb.us/cherokeereservation)
• Cheyenne-Arapaho Lands of Oklahoma Genealogy (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~itcheyen)
• Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory, 1837–1907 (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~itchicka)
• Researching Your Choctaw Ancestry (https://www.choctawnation.com/tribal-services/membership/genealogy)
• Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Indian Lands (www.genealogynation.com/kiowa)
• Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma (www.genealogynation.com/creek)
• Native Genealogy People of the Three Fires: Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~minatam)
• Quapaw Agency Lands of Indian Territory (www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~itquapaw)
• Seminole Nation in Indian Territory (www.seminolenation-indianterritory.org)

Transcribed American Indian records

Some websites have transcribed records that are unique to researching American Indian roots. Two examples are

• Chickasaw History and Culture: This page contains transcriptions of a few records, such as guardianship records and land sales, at www.chickasawhistory.com.
• 1851 Census of Cherokees East of the Mississippi: This site provides a transcription of the census, including names, family numbers, ages, and relationships to head of household, all at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gilmercountyrecords/1851silerrollforgilmercounty.htm.

Many families have legends that they are descended from famous American Indians. These claims should always be researched carefully and backed up with appropriate proof. One of the most prolific legends is descent from Pocahontas. If that legend runs through your family, you may want to visit the Pocahontas Descendants page for resources that can help you prove your heritage. You can find it at http://pocahontas.morenus.org/poca_gen.html.