The 1871 Beers Atlas map of Montague includes a town-wide map, as well as detail maps of Turners Falls, Millers Falls, Montague Center and Montague City. In addition to streets and physical boundaries, the maps contain names of property owners and businesses, as well as some special features such as the "Fossil Footprint Quarry."
Our friends at old_maps.com have compiled a fantastic collection of historic maps of the region. I will bring a copy of the "Early Maps of Montague" publication, compiled for the 250th Celebration in 2004. We might want to undertake the task of indexing the names on the maps. Gill has recently done this and it could be a great help to other researchers.
Carnegie Library has acquired a complete set of the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps which show buildings very accurately for several years between 1844 and 1914 in the more built-up areas in town, including Riverside in Gill. They are very useful for visualizing the wide variety of downtown businesses over the years.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Newspaper Clues to Family History
One of my primary objectives in bringing our group together is to have everyone take away some new direction for their research based on our conversations. Thanks to Phil Johnson for directing me to the searchable newspaper archive of the Springfield Republican when we got together Monday night. The newspapers have been archived digitally from 1877 - 1931 and can be searched online at Masslive.com/republican. Look for the Archive link at the lower left corner of the page. Or cut and paste this link into your browser: http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives/
I was able to find nine articles about my father's family by searching for "Szymanowicz." It helps to have an uncommon name. This site charges a fee to read or print the articles, but you can get an idea of whether they will be of interest by viewing the "snippet" that you can see for free. You can also save the fee by looking for the newspaper for that date on microfilm at a library. Or you can sign on for a month for $19.95 which allows you to view up to 200 articles. A single day pass costs $9.95 for 50 articles.
Newspaper articles are a great way to add personality to your family stories. They might reveal skeletons in the closet if the articles you find are court cases or scandals. They might tell you if someone won a school prize. A name search might help you to find an elusive obituary or burial notice. I found the following paragraph about my grandmother's sisters, who shared a birthday with their school principal an his sister, in the social notices of the Richfield Mercury, from Richfield Springs, NY:
An elegant birthday cake with 14 candles was cut by the Misses Meeneghan and Prof. and Miss Bissell. The cake contained a gold ring, a small china doll and a penny. It furnished lots of amusement. The evening was spent in singing and dancing, and there were several friends present from Cooperstown. Delicious refreshments were served, after which the guests departed wishing many more birthday anniversaries for the four twins. [Richfield Mercury 25 February 1909]
I found this article, and many more about my family in central New York State at http://fultonhistory.com. This site has scanned nearly 13 million newspapers from New York State, mostly the Utica/Rochester/Buffalo area, although I have found some from papers in Albany and Brooklyn. There is no charge to use this site.
Another newspaper database is sponsored by the Northern New York Library Network and covers newspapers in seven Upstate counties: http://news.nnyln.net/
There are many other internet sites that include historic newspapers, including Ancestry.com, and sometimes the newspapers themselves. The New York Times requires you to register as a "member" but has a large archive of papers from 1851 - 1980 that is free to search. Spend some time exploring what any site has to offer before you commit to a paid membership.
I was able to find nine articles about my father's family by searching for "Szymanowicz." It helps to have an uncommon name. This site charges a fee to read or print the articles, but you can get an idea of whether they will be of interest by viewing the "snippet" that you can see for free. You can also save the fee by looking for the newspaper for that date on microfilm at a library. Or you can sign on for a month for $19.95 which allows you to view up to 200 articles. A single day pass costs $9.95 for 50 articles.
Newspaper articles are a great way to add personality to your family stories. They might reveal skeletons in the closet if the articles you find are court cases or scandals. They might tell you if someone won a school prize. A name search might help you to find an elusive obituary or burial notice. I found the following paragraph about my grandmother's sisters, who shared a birthday with their school principal an his sister, in the social notices of the Richfield Mercury, from Richfield Springs, NY:
An elegant birthday cake with 14 candles was cut by the Misses Meeneghan and Prof. and Miss Bissell. The cake contained a gold ring, a small china doll and a penny. It furnished lots of amusement. The evening was spent in singing and dancing, and there were several friends present from Cooperstown. Delicious refreshments were served, after which the guests departed wishing many more birthday anniversaries for the four twins. [Richfield Mercury 25 February 1909]
I found this article, and many more about my family in central New York State at http://fultonhistory.com. This site has scanned nearly 13 million newspapers from New York State, mostly the Utica/Rochester/Buffalo area, although I have found some from papers in Albany and Brooklyn. There is no charge to use this site.
Another newspaper database is sponsored by the Northern New York Library Network and covers newspapers in seven Upstate counties: http://news.nnyln.net/
There are many other internet sites that include historic newspapers, including Ancestry.com, and sometimes the newspapers themselves. The New York Times requires you to register as a "member" but has a large archive of papers from 1851 - 1980 that is free to search. Spend some time exploring what any site has to offer before you commit to a paid membership.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
The Ever-Changing Internet
The primary rule of genealogy is document, document, document your data. Erroneous information will send you and anyone who follows you into dead ends.
The internet can be a wonderful source of data, saving time and travel to distant or hidden archives. However, you must question the sources of the information. Look at me, postulating like an expert right here! Why should you take my words as truth?
Because new information is added every day, it is difficult to make a comprehensive list of on-line resources. I hope you will all chime in here with sites that you find helpful, or questions about where to look for more information.
Always ask, why has this information been posted on the internet? Who has placed it there? Are they governmental sources, casual historians, or someone trying to sell something?
These are some of the sites that I usually recommend. I look forward to your additions, comments and questions so we can all learn from each other.
www.familysearch.org is the home of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) or Mormon church records. You may want to read up on why knowledge of ancestors is so important to their religion, but their efforts to preserve vital records throughout the world, and their willingness to share what they have collected is awe-inspiring. The site includes "How To" guides, transcriptions of records, viewable documents, forms, and many other helpful documents. The holdings of their Famiy History Library in Salt Lake City, UT are beyond imagining.
www.usgenweb.org is a gateway into individual sites created by individuals throughout the United States with the intention of creating a site for every county in every state. It includes submissions by individuals based on their research, and is a clearing house for local information. Each site is different, because it is defined by its "mother" and its contributors.
The Franklin County MA site is not very active - one of our goals as a group might be to add to this site. See what you think http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mafrankl/
www.ancestry.com is a paid subscription site, with quite a bit of information available without subscribing, to entice you to belong. Because it is a commercial site, it has generated income to advertise and advance the cause of genealogy in the public eye and to fund the collection of data. Ancestry is a sponsor of the NBC series Who Do You Think You Are, showing on Friday nights at 8. I would advise exploring it before subscribing, so you know what type of things you can find there. Some are available elsewhere. Some are their own projects. One feature that appeals to me is to attach documents to a family tree, if you choose to upload your family tree there. I have found MANY trees that were posted that are not documented and have info that is not correct. I used their DNA testing service at a cost of about $79 for a basic test.
www.rootsweb.com is now affiliated with Ancestry, but is all free. I use it as a gateway to the Social Security Death Index, which is one of the few U.S. Government data bases on-line. The mailing lists are extensive and good sources of sharing questions about specific locations, surnames, or other interests. Try subscribing to one or two. You can also go to the World GenWeb from this page, which is similar the the usgenweb described above.
www.ellisisland.org is a free search area for immigration records to New York, with fees for copies of their documents. Advanced searches are facilitated at http://stevemorse.org which gives you other parameters to search under. Ellis Island is Federal Park, but the records supported by a private foundation. Is your immigrant ancestor inscribed on the wall there? Mine is!
We all have favorite sites - please add to this list or comment on your experiences below.
The internet can be a wonderful source of data, saving time and travel to distant or hidden archives. However, you must question the sources of the information. Look at me, postulating like an expert right here! Why should you take my words as truth?
Because new information is added every day, it is difficult to make a comprehensive list of on-line resources. I hope you will all chime in here with sites that you find helpful, or questions about where to look for more information.
Always ask, why has this information been posted on the internet? Who has placed it there? Are they governmental sources, casual historians, or someone trying to sell something?
These are some of the sites that I usually recommend. I look forward to your additions, comments and questions so we can all learn from each other.
www.familysearch.org is the home of the Latter Day Saints (LDS) or Mormon church records. You may want to read up on why knowledge of ancestors is so important to their religion, but their efforts to preserve vital records throughout the world, and their willingness to share what they have collected is awe-inspiring. The site includes "How To" guides, transcriptions of records, viewable documents, forms, and many other helpful documents. The holdings of their Famiy History Library in Salt Lake City, UT are beyond imagining.
www.usgenweb.org is a gateway into individual sites created by individuals throughout the United States with the intention of creating a site for every county in every state. It includes submissions by individuals based on their research, and is a clearing house for local information. Each site is different, because it is defined by its "mother" and its contributors.
The Franklin County MA site is not very active - one of our goals as a group might be to add to this site. See what you think http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mafrankl/
www.ancestry.com is a paid subscription site, with quite a bit of information available without subscribing, to entice you to belong. Because it is a commercial site, it has generated income to advertise and advance the cause of genealogy in the public eye and to fund the collection of data. Ancestry is a sponsor of the NBC series Who Do You Think You Are, showing on Friday nights at 8. I would advise exploring it before subscribing, so you know what type of things you can find there. Some are available elsewhere. Some are their own projects. One feature that appeals to me is to attach documents to a family tree, if you choose to upload your family tree there. I have found MANY trees that were posted that are not documented and have info that is not correct. I used their DNA testing service at a cost of about $79 for a basic test.
www.rootsweb.com is now affiliated with Ancestry, but is all free. I use it as a gateway to the Social Security Death Index, which is one of the few U.S. Government data bases on-line. The mailing lists are extensive and good sources of sharing questions about specific locations, surnames, or other interests. Try subscribing to one or two. You can also go to the World GenWeb from this page, which is similar the the usgenweb described above.
www.ellisisland.org is a free search area for immigration records to New York, with fees for copies of their documents. Advanced searches are facilitated at http://stevemorse.org which gives you other parameters to search under. Ellis Island is Federal Park, but the records supported by a private foundation. Is your immigrant ancestor inscribed on the wall there? Mine is!
We all have favorite sites - please add to this list or comment on your experiences below.
In the Beginning...
We came together on March 8, 2010 to find out a little more about ourselves by finding our more about our ancestors. Let us use this forum to share our wanderings through family history together. By "commenting" and "following" we can communicate and give assistance to each other outside of our face-to-face meetings, which I hope will continue on a regular basis. We have many directions that genealogical research can take us, and we have yet to define the structure of our group, but let's start here.
It seems that we can best get started by taking inventory of each of our areas of interest. Can we choose a handful of topics for our next gathering that will give all of us an opportunity to share in small groups what we know, and to learn something new?
If we all weigh in here on topics that will be most beneficial, we can save time when we meet next. I hope you have marked your calendars for Monday, April 5 at 6:30 pm at the Carnegie Library in Turners Falls, MA. I will try harder to arrive by 6:00 pm to get set up, and if you are going to volunteer to be a leader of one of the topics, that would be a good opportunity to come early and see how we can best present them.
My first suggestion would have to be Getting Started, for those who are new to family research.
I would like to get acquainted with Carnegie Library Resources that are specific to our meeting place.
It appears many of the attendees have roots in Canadian Genealogy.
I am sure we can all help each other by recommending Internet Sources of Data.
Who can contribute tips on Irish Genealogy?
It seems that we can best get started by taking inventory of each of our areas of interest. Can we choose a handful of topics for our next gathering that will give all of us an opportunity to share in small groups what we know, and to learn something new?
If we all weigh in here on topics that will be most beneficial, we can save time when we meet next. I hope you have marked your calendars for Monday, April 5 at 6:30 pm at the Carnegie Library in Turners Falls, MA. I will try harder to arrive by 6:00 pm to get set up, and if you are going to volunteer to be a leader of one of the topics, that would be a good opportunity to come early and see how we can best present them.
My first suggestion would have to be Getting Started, for those who are new to family research.
I would like to get acquainted with Carnegie Library Resources that are specific to our meeting place.
It appears many of the attendees have roots in Canadian Genealogy.
I am sure we can all help each other by recommending Internet Sources of Data.
Who can contribute tips on Irish Genealogy?
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