Genealogy
The best place to begin your family research is at home. If possible, start by interviewing older family members - where were your ancestors born? attend school? what were their occupations? to whom, when and where did they get married? .... See if there is a family bible, old letters, postcards or other records that you can view. Knowing your ancestor's religion will help determine what church records to search. Once you have some names, dates and places of events seek additional information from public records such as the newspaper, census, military, birth and death records to name but a few. It is always best to verify what you have with at least one or more supporting documents. Reading documents that are hand written takes some practice and good eyesight. Basic tips for deciphering are in this article: http://www.amberskyline.com/treasuremaps/oldhand.html For writing that is illegible try typing wild card letters into a SOUNDEX search engine then check the results against the form type eg. legal document or the context of the sentence where the word in question was found. SOUNDEX is also forgiving of spelling errors and variations for which you will find many. There is an extensive list of articles and sources for abbreviations, glossaries, etc and a keywords and phrases search box at the bottom of the webpage on this English Usage site http://www.yaelf.com/toc.shtml For online searchable records a good starting point is www.RootsWeb.com , a free genealogy site , which is supported by Ancestry.com $ . The advantage to both of these sites is that they provide access to world - wide records along with advice and practical guides for both the novice and advanced genealogist alike. Newly added databases on Ancestry.com include the UK & Ireland collection and US & Canada Immigration collection (every port). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints holds the world's largest collection of genealogical databases. The majority of the records are for individuals who lived before 1930 with the information gathered from both public and private sources. Family history libraries are located world over where microfilms, fiche, periodicals, etc. can be viewed and copied. For freely searchable records online: www.familysearch.org/ . Distant Cousins at www.distantcousin.com/ has an online archive of over 6 million searchable genealogy records and historical documents specific for the United States. Distant Cousins does not require registration, membership or fees to search. Simply type your surname into the search box and select to search the whole site or individual records such as the newspaper obituaries, city directories, school yearbooks, military records, etc. Results vary from printable scanned images to transcribed lists, and if not available on this site, you will be redirected to the appropriate webpage on Ancestry.com Research beyond your own backyard presents new challenges but your patience and perseverance will hopefully be rewarded with the expansion of a family tree. First you will need to learn the specific place (town or parish) where your ancestor was born or lived before emigrating. Without a place name or at least the county, surname demographics may help to determine the most likely areas to search for your ancestors. Passenger records can be looked upon as a "vessel of information" between two countries, providing additional clues for further research. Secondly, you will need to familiarize yourself with the history (time frame), geography (location), and political system (governing the record system) in the native country of your ancestor to find the appropriate records. When you are ready, extensive record collections exclusive for the UK and Ireland can be accessed by paid subscription through The Origins Network at http://origins.net/ $ You will find that many of the Scottish records on Origins are free . The advantage here is that your ancestor may have been born in one country and migrated to another eg. Scotland to Northern Ireland. For research specific to Ireland, I highly recommend The Irish Times www.ireland.com/ with free access to the current news and a free surname search that renders the origin and meaning of the surname and its variants, along with the demographics according to the House Holders index. The Irish Times offers Irish genealogy records by paid subscription or credits. Both the Origins Network and the Irish Times have informative articles explaining the various records such as those for land and census.
- WELCOME
- CELTIC
- TRAVEL
- GENEALOGY
  - Intro
  - Resources l
  - Resources ll
  - Resouces lll
  - NAMES
  - SHIP PASSENGER LIST
  - IMMIGRATION
  - OCCUPATIONS
  - MAPS
  - THIS & THAT
- TYRONE
- FERMANAGH