| Pennsylvania Genealogy Chat Transcript | |
|
Sponsored by the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania
Transcript of Chat - 16 October, 2001
<JimBeidler>
I'm Jim Beidler,
executive director of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania. Thank
you to everyone logged on for ""Virtual Lecture,"" part of the
programming of the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania.
<JimBeidler>
We've been offering
these occasional online programs for more than a year now, and hope
that the participants have been pleased with our attempt to bring
programming to your home instead of you always having to come to the
programming.
<JimBeidler>
Before I introduce
tonight's guest, I would first like to give you a brief commercial
concerning GSP. We are physically based in Philadelphia, but try to be
of service to anyone either in Pennsylvania researching their
ancestors as well as anyone (anywhere) with at least one Pennsylvania
ancestor.
<JimBeidler>
We do have a live
conference coming up on 10 Nov 2001 in conjunction with the Chester
County Historical Society at their site in West Chester, PA.
Registration is still open. E-mail gsppa@aol.com for more details.
That completes our commercial content.
<JimBeidler>
Let me first thank
Kimberly Powell, the About Genealogy Guide who has provided the
technical expertise for Virtual Lecture.
<JimBeidler>
Cyndi is a member of
the board of directors of the National Genealogical Society and widely
in demand for live lectures and conferences. Take it away, Cyndi ....
<cyndihow>
Good evening everyone!
Thank you for having me tonight.
<cyndihow>
I am often asked to
answer questions or to present lectures about types of web sites and
resources that can be found online. Sometimes I am asked to do this
for a specific genealogical topic and sometimes for a specific
locality.
<cyndihow>
I have spent a lot of
time looking at this from many different angles. How do I let people
know about web sites? Which sites should I reference?
<cyndihow>
At times I feel like a
librarian standing in front of a group of people and pulling books off
of a shelf, opening them one at a time and reading a few highlights
from the book. At other times I feel a bit like Vanna White, turning
letters and modeling, as I show web sites of interest for a topic.
<cyndihow>
The way I see it, it
is impossible to demonstrate all of the *correct* web sites for a
topic or a locality, because each person listening or reading has a
completely different outlook and a different path for their research.
<cyndihow>
Our personal research
efforts are as individual as we are and as each of our ancestors are.
Our personal expertise and experience is also varied, depending on how
much time we have spent in genealogy and how much exposure we have had
to research methods.
<cyndihow>
So, I have tried to
look at locality-specific research on the Internet from a general
standpoint. I've come up with six points that work well in order to
demonstrate how we should use the Internet for genealogical research:
<cyndihow>
1. Learn About
Research in Specific Localities
<cyndihow>
2. Locating Records
<cyndihow>
3. Meeting Other
Researchers
<cyndihow>
4. Reference Material
<cyndihow>
5. People (Ethnic
Groups or Unique Groups) for this Locality
<cyndihow>
6. Participating and
Sharing
<cyndihow>
It seems that this
would be a good time to step back and remind people of a few Internet
basics in regard to genealogical research:
<cyndihow>
---You cannot find
everything you need for your research on the Internet.
<cyndihow>
---For the most part,
you cannot find actual records online (with very rare, notable
exceptions).
<cyndihow>
---When you do find
genealogical data (names, dates, places) online you must determine the
original source for that data.
<cyndihow>
---Keep in mind that
much of the data you find has been transcribed or extracted from
records by human beings, and humans can make mistakes.
<cyndihow>
---Not everything you
find online is perfect, correct or 100%% accurate.
<cyndihow>
---You should always
confirm the accuracy of data by following up offline with the original
records yourself.
<cyndihow>
---The Internet is
constantly changing and growing. Materials found online today may
disappear tomorrow. Materials not found today, may appear tomorrow.
<cyndihow>
OK, all that said,
let's get to Pennsylvania.
<cyndihow>
First, how do you
learn about Pennsylvania Research?
<cyndihow>
There are numerous
tutorials and guides online to help with basic genealogical research.
You should be sure to use those first.
<cyndihow>
When you want to learn
about Pennsylvania research, start with the wonderful Research
Outlines from the LDS Church.
<cyndihow>
Originally these
outlines were found in each Family History Center, and you could order
copies from the library in Salt Lake. Now, they have made them
available online.
<cyndihow>
Visit
FamilySearch.org
to find them.
<cyndihow>
The Research Guidance
portion of FamilySearch walks you through Birth, Marriage and Death by
time periods
<cyndihow>
Birth 1638-1775
1776-1849 1850-1899 1900-Present
<cyndihow>
Marriage 1638-1775
1776-1849 1850-1899 1900-Present
<cyndihow>
Death 1638-1775
1776-1850 1850-1899 1900-Present
<cyndihow>
Once you choose a time
period they walk you step-by-step through a Search Strategy
<cyndihow>
You will also find a
lot of great info in the
Ancestry.com Fact Sheet for Pennsylvania
<cyndihow>
This outline details
both online and offline sources by record type.
<cyndihow>
Also available for
sale online are
audio tapes from previous genealogy conferences. These
are tapes of lectures for Pennsylvania research:
<cyndihow>
Who better to learn
from than the experts?
<cyndihow>
Now let's think about
locating records for Pennsylvania. Remember that the majority of the
records you need for your research will be located offline.
<cyndihow>
The Internet is
wonderful for helping you find out where those records are to be
found, how to plan your time and how to use them to their fullest
potential.
<cyndihow>
The first place I send
everyone is the
Family History Library Catalog online.
<cyndihow>
From there, choose
Place Search
<cyndihow>
Enter Pennsylvania
<cyndihow>
There are 240 topics
for Pennsylvania in the catalog.
<cyndihow>
For records types you
will find the census, cemetery records, wills & probate, tax records,
etc.
<cyndihow>
The catalog gives you
all the information you need so that you can order copies of these
records on microfilm.
<cyndihow>
Make note of the
microfilm or fiche numbers, titles, etc. and then visit your local FHC
to order them.
<cyndihow>
For quick Vital
Records Information, you can't beat
VitalRec.com
<cyndihow>
This site details
everything you need to know about how to obtain birth, marriage and
death records for Pennsylvania.
<cyndihow>
The lady who runs this
site gives you the contact information for the State Dept of Health,
plus a fee schedule and payment information.
<cyndihow>
She also breaks this
down by county.
<cyndihow>
There are two sites
online that are creating indexes of links that point to census records
online.
<cyndihow>
Census Links
<cyndihow>
Census Online
<cyndihow>
These indexes are
frequently updated.
<cyndihow>
A similar site is
indexing cemetery information online:
<cyndihow>
Cemetery Records
Online - Interment.net
<cyndihow>
The
Pennsylvania State Archives
web site
<cyndihow>
You can spend hours at
this site. The most exciting thing to be found there now are their
Digital Archives
<cyndihow>
The Archives Records
Information Access System (ARIAS) is a program to put scanned images
of records online.
<cyndihow>
The project is still
growing.
<cyndihow>
They currently have
Revolutionary War Military Abstract Card File
<cyndihow>
World War I Service
Medal Application Cards
<cyndihow>
Spanish American War
Veterans' Card File of United States Volunteers
<cyndihow>
Still in the works:
Civil War Veterans' Card File
<cyndihow>
Still in the works:
Mexican Border Campaign Veterans' Card File
<cyndihow>
At the moment they
have 200,000 out of 500,000 records online.
<cyndihow>
This is one of the
few, rare examples of *real* live records online.
<cyndihow>
The Holdings of the
State Archives of Pennsylvania are described on their site as follows:
<cyndihow>
Archival records
created by the General Assembly, State Judicial System, Executive
Branch departments, boards and commissions, county and municipal
governments, and school districts
<cyndihow>
Personal papers,
manuscripts, and non-governmental records are maintained and described
by Manuscript Group
<cyndihow>
Also affiliated
records of the National Archives and Records Administration.
<cyndihow>
Now on to meeting
fellow Pennsylvania researchers
<cyndihow>
Who better to ask for
help than fellow Pennsylvania researchers? When you come up with a
question about a certain place or a certain record type, look to other
genealogists for the answers.
<cyndihow>
There are two easy to
use forums for meeting others online: mailing lists and message boards
<cyndihow>
I refer everyone to
this site for genealogy mailing lists:
<cyndihow>
Genealogy Resources on
the Internet -Pennsylvania Mailing Lists
<cyndihow>
That site is run by a
wonderful volunteer, John Fuller.
<cyndihow>
On his page for
Pennsylvania, he has details for 145 different mailing lists for the
state.
<cyndihow>
There is one for each
county in Pennsylvania, as well as a large variety for individual
topics relating to Pennsylvania research
<cyndihow>
For example:
PAYORK-AMREV-DESCENDANTS (descendants of Revolutionary War
soldiers/patriots from York County, Pennsylvania)
<cyndihow>
For example: Penna-Hungarians
(Pennsylvanians of Hungarian\Slovakian descent)
<cyndihow>
Mailing lists are FREE
for you to subscribe to via e-mail.
<cyndihow>
They are interactive
discussion groups.
<cyndihow>
Follow the
instructions exactly as they are given in order to subscribe
successfully.
<cyndihow>
Each mailing list is
run by a listowner and each may run differently. Remember that they
are run by volunteers and they are only as good as the group of people
who participate in them.
<cyndihow>
Be sure to participate
regularly -- ask questions, help others, introduce yourself to the
list frequently.
<cyndihow>
Once you join, you
receive a welcome message. Be sure to keep a copy of that message
handy -- you will need it if you ever need to unsubscribe later.
<cyndihow>
All mailing lists at
RootsWeb are archived. You can search past messages by keyword. Visit
the RootsWeb site and follow the links for mailing lists to learn more
about the archives.
<cyndihow>
The other forum I
mentioned -- message boards.
<cyndihow>
These are web sites
that you visit that have a space for you to leave messages. They are
similar to mailing lists, but you participate with your web browser
rather than e-mail.
<cyndihow>
The most well known
are those at
Ancestry.com/Rootsweb.com
<cyndihow>
Message boards have
threaded conversations
<cyndihow>
You can see the
conversation laid out in an outline format. You can read messages,
post new ones or post replies.
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