Posts Tagged: Online Research

Now Online: Meyer’s German Gazetteer

Meyer’s German Gazetteer, long an important tool for geographical research, is now online, indexed and fully searchable! That’s good news, but here is even more good news: While original book is in German, this interface is translated into English. If you are seeking a geographical place in the old German Empire (1871-1918), check out this

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Is Fayetta’s Death Date Wrong on Her Headstone?

If you want an example of a unique combination of given and family names, I would offer Fayetta Salome Flaugh as a good example.Nearly 20 years ago, I attended a meeting of the Computer Assisted Genealogy Group Greater Cleveland (CAGG for short) to learn about genealogy database programs. Several members were demonstrating features of the

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Researching Frank Morley Green’s WWI Service

  Frank Morley Green was my first cousin, once removed. He was born on 11 Jan 1896 in Pierpont, Ashtabula County, Ohio, when his father, Edwin Green, was 23 and his mother, Nellie White Green, was 20. As a child, I and my family often visited his home in Andover, and he and his wife

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Who Was that Little Girl Buried Next to MJ’s Grandmother

In discussing our family history, my wife, Mary Jane (MJ for short), has mentioned many times that her paternal grandmother was named Mary Margaret Caroline Heinselman Butcher Van Court. She was somewhat unusual for having two middle names and three family names. Heinselman was her maiden name, and Butcher was the name she assumed when

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Wallace Dingman–My First Relative To Be a Railroader

My maternal grandfather, Wallace Betts Dingman, b 1881 – d 1920, was the first of several relatives to “escape” from life on the farm to working on the railroad. He grew up with his twin brother, Walter, on the farm of Andrew and Mary (Betts) Dingman in Williamsfield Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio. The family is

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Surnames in Finland

Today, I accessed the wiki page on FamilySearch.org labeled “Finland Surnames.” It was quite helpful as it very clearly explained the surname practices in Western Finland versus those in Eastern Finland. Eastern and western Finland have different naming traditions. Both naming customs date back to the earliest written sources. There was frequent overlap of these practices

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Online Repository Tracks Nearly 10 Years of Genealogy News & Developments

I am constantly amazed by how much news has come from genealogical and family history organizations and companies over the years. One way to track developments is to access the online repository of the Family History Newsletter — Genealogy News, compiled by by Sylvia and Jack Sonneborn. The newsletters are available for viewing on Rootsweb, beginning with

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Tracking Down Info on Our First Landlord

My wife MJ and I were talking about our first residence today, and we were trying to remember the details. MJ remembered that we dealt with Mrs. Wirth beginning in the spring of 1960-to about 1965, living at two addresses on Westlake Ave. in Parma, Ohio. We didn’t remember her first name, but MJ did

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MyHeritage Yields Finnish Researchers Interested in My Ancestors

I just gave myself a Christmas present of a premium membership to MyHeritage.com. By poking around in the free version, I gathered the strong impression that this genealogical database provider has a bigger presence in Europe than Ancestry.com. I entered some very limited information about my Huuskonen (original spelling) ancestors on an online tree I created

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Address Lookup for Relative Was Instructive

When we sent out our 2016 annual holiday letter a few days ago, we expected that we might get a few “not deliverable” returns. Sure enough, today we did get one envelope back. Ironically, we had received a Christmas card from this family but in our haste to hold down clutter, we threw away the envelope

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