Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy - Sessions 12

As I promised my blog on 06 January 2014 at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/beginning-genealogy-study-group.html, I watched Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy Session 12 yesterday. I will continue to watch the rest of the study group as it proceeds.

The major topic discussed yesterday was how reliable is secondary information given by an informant at the time of death, or on a tombstone?

“Not very” was the answer, and I totally agree.

There could be many reasons why the years of age, misspelled names, the date of death etc could be incorrectly recorded on the death certificate and/or the gravestone. It can be the perfect spot for misinformation to be recoded given the circumstances of the time.

Once again, we have to be careful. We have to fully check the facts, and have more than one source to verify the date of death and burial, for instance.

Some information can be had at -

The American Cemetery Records Wiki is found at FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Cemeteries

The American Funeral Homes Wiki is found at FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Funeral_Homes

The Canadian Cemetery Records Wiki is found at FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Canada_Cemeteries

The Canadian Obituries Wiki is found at FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Canada_Obituaries

The website for Session 12 is at https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232

Session 1 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-1.html

Session 2 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-2.html

Session 3 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-3.html

Session 4 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-4.html

Session 5 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-5.htm 

Session 6 & 7 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_5.html

Sessioin 8 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_13.html

Session 9 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_20.html

Session 10 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session.html

Session 11 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/04/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_9.html

Remember to make yourself a member of Dear Myrt’s Genealogy Community before watching the YouTube Google+ Hangout on Air at https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232

Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy - Sessions 11

As I promised my blog on 06 January 2014 at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/beginning-genealogy-study-group.html, I watched Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy Session 11 on Wednesday. I will continue to watch the rest of the study group as it proceeds.

The major topic which was discussed in Sessions 11 was a subject which was easy to discuss because Dear Myrt has researched in these records before – American Military Records – Revolutionary and Civil War Military Records.

I, of course, research in both Canadian and American records, and I notice there is a difference. The Canadian records are based on the British system (ranks, for example), and the American are strictly American (my grandfather Lester John BLADES enlisted in the American Army in the First World War although he was from Barrington, Nova Scotia, but was living in Boston, Massachusetts at the time).

If you wish to refresh yourself on American Military Records, you can go to https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Military_Records

If you wish to refresh yourself on Canadian Military Records, you can go to https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Canada_Military_Records

If you want to refresh yourself on British Military Records, you can go to https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/England_Military_Records 

The website for Session 11 is at https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232

Session 1 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-1.html

Session 2 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-2.html

Session 3 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-3.html

Session 4 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-4.html

Session 5 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-5.htm 

Session 6 & 7 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_5.html

Sessioin 8 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_13.html

Session 9 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_20.html

Session 10 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session.html

Remember to make yourself a member of Dear Myrt’s Genealogy Community before watching the YouTube Google+ Hangout on Air at https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232

Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy - Sessions 11

As I promised my blog on 06 January 2014 at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/beginning-genealogy-study-group.html, I watched Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy Session 11 on Wednesday. I will continue to watch the rest of the study group as it proceeds.

The major topic which was discussed in Sessions 11 was a subject which was a good teaching lesson – How do you introduce family history to a new person who has never done research before?

Dear Myrt told us how she did it yesterday with a new person, and the first document that she introduce her to was census returns at FamilySearch. The second thing she did was to introduce her to the FAN principle – family, acquaintances, and neighbours.

The census and the FAN principal go hand-in-hand.

You can look at a census and you can see who are their neighbours, other family members who may live nearby, and acquaintances who may have worked or gone to church with them, or maybe have married into their family.

So the census is the first place to look.

The website for Session 10 is at https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232

Session 1 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-1.html

Session 2 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-2.html

Session 3 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-3.html

Session 4 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-4.html

Session 5 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-5.htm 

Session 6 & 7 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_5.html

Sessioin 8 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_13.html

Session 9 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_20.html

Session 10 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session.html

Remember to make yourself a member of Dear Myrt’s Genealogy Community before watching the YouTube Google+ Hangout on Air at https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232



Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/canadian-week-in-review-30-march-2015.html

 It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy - Sessions 6 & 7

As I promised my blog on 06 January 2014 at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/beginning-genealogy-study-group.html, I watched Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy Session 6 and 7 yesterday. I will continue to watch the rest of the study group as it proceeds.

 

The top two things that were discussed in Sessions 5 and 6 were -

1. Session 5 - How reliable are the documents we use? How reliable are newspapers documents vs date of birth documents? See how Dear Myrt explains the difference – and there is a difference. She uses the clothes line graphic to describe the documents. 
2. Session 6 - The second session was a case study in conflicting evidence. This was an interesting session. Dear Myrt took the evidence of one of her listeners, and went through the exercise of testing the evidence. If you don’t listen to any session, you should listen to this one. You will see why professional genealogists are so particular about the evidence they are given by the casual genealogist to research.  

The website for Session 7 is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqS2BCu5IQU

Session 1 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-1.html Session 2 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-2.html Session 3 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-3.html Session 4 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-4.html   Session 5 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-5.html Session 6 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PfzbJIUHcE   Remember to make yourself a member of Dear Myrt’s Genealogy Community before watching the YouTube Google+ Hangout on Air at https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232   Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada. If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/canadian-week-in-review.html It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada! It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

 

Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy - Session 5

As previously promised in my blog on 06 January 2015 at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/beginning-genealogy-study-group.html, I am reporting on Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy study group as it proceeds. I watched Session 5 yesterday, and the two top things that were discussed were -

1. Software – We need some sort of tree to keep the information that we find, and Dear Myrt asked us take a Google or an Excel sheet and make four columns – 1) Online trees 2) Software 3) Analysis 4) Family Search Certified.

Then fill in the spaces with the different trees that are available.

For example, there are Ancestry Trees, MyHeritage trees available for column #1; there is Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic for column #2; Evidenta and GenSmarts for column #3; and then find out which is FamilySearch Certified for column #4.

She emphasized that no matter which one of ones you chose, go with the one that your nearest genealogical group uses so that if you run into problems, or you have questions to ask, there is somebody in your group that you can go to. Very sage advice.

2. The second part of the class was devoted to the Research Records, and she briefly touched on Country of Origin, and how they would affect your method of research. The website is at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Naturalization_and_Citizenship

Please remember that there will not be a class next week (11 February 2015) because Dear Myrt will be at RootsTech 2015 in Salt Lake City. Class will return on 18 February 2015 with Lesson 6.

Session 1 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-1.html

Session 2 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-2.html

Session 3 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-3.html

Session 4 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-4.html

Remember to make yourself a member of Dear Myrt’s Genealogy Community before watching the YouTube Google+ Hangout on Air by going to https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232

Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/canadian-week-in-review-02-february-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

Beginning Genealogy Study Group

Dear Myrt, of the Dear Myrtle Your Friend in Genealogy website, https://plus.google.com/u/0/+DearmyrtlePage/posts/Y2MgdSmFpqi?cfem=1uis, will be hosting the Beginning Genealogy Study Group, a 20-week genealogy class starting on.

Wednesday, 07 January 2015.

The class will use an online syllabus and materials, with sample documents from each record group discussed. Sounds like a good idea!

I have known Dear Myrt when I was first on the Internet in 1995, and have wondered why she hasn’t done this before, because she is certainty capable of leading a study group in this regard.

So if you are just starting genealogy, go to the site at noon on Wednesday (there is a time zone converter on her site), or if you have been at it a long time, take a look because I find that there is always something new to learn.

I will be there on Wednesday. Will you?