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Where Do You Start?

Here's another question to ponder...

When you finally get a new clue, new maiden name, or break down a huge brick wall, what do you with your new information?

Where do you go?

I try to Google first, but sometimes I default to Ancestry if I am just looking for census/military info.
If I want the 1900 census, I try to remember to go to the Family Search Pilot Site, I like their search engine better than Ancestry's.
I sometimes will go to FamilySearch to look at the IGI, if they happen to have died in NY, I'll check IGG the Italian Gen site.
Usually I will go to Rootsweb World Connect at some point if I want to see if they are in a family tree.

so...what is your plan of attack?

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Permalink Reply by Karen Rhodes on August 17, 2009 at 11:23am

Where I go next depends on the nature of the information I find. If it's a date of death, I might, if I also know the place, go to the state website to find out of there is a death index or if (in cases like Michigan) death certificates are online. If I unearth a bit of military information, I might see if it is enough to order a service record or pension file from NARA. So it all depends on what sort of information it is.

I might add, in the case of Google, that I got somewhat of a revelation lately. I can't remember what the website is, but there is a site out there where you can do a blind comparison of search engines. It compares Google, Yahoo, and the new one from Microsoft, Bing. I entered the name of a great-great grandfather, Matthew Hale Packard. I saw that one of the search engines returned many more replies than the other two, and had found information directly pertinent to Matthew Hale Packard.

It wasn't Google. It was Yahoo. That was a surprise. So don't confine yourselves to Google. Try other engines, too, and you just may be surprised!

Permalink Reply by Kathleen Fox Allen on August 17, 2009 at 3:42pm

Thank you, Karen!!!

I spent a couple of frustrating hours just last night trying to find some information on the ship that my g-grandfather and his parents came from England on in 1865. For once, Google completely failed me. I tried Bing, and that was even worse. When I saw your posting, I tried Yahoo!, and at first I thought that it was a bust, too, because there was only one hit - but it was the one I needed!

It took me to pictures of the wreck of the E.W. Setson from 1898 and included the fact that it was launched from Newcastle, Maine in 1862! Now that I have more to go on, I've found the ship on the index to the records at Mystic Seaport.... I'm very excited right now!

Permalink Reply by Karen Rhodes on August 18, 2009 at 8:45am

Wow! That's great, Kathleen!

Happy to be of service!

Permalink Reply by Molly McKinley on August 22, 2009 at 9:31am

I agree there are so many new ways to search we can "cast our nets" in many
directtions and hopefully catch a tidbit of a trail.

Permalink Reply by Karen Rhodes on August 22, 2009 at 10:55am

It depends on which line I'm researching.

Sources I have used and often use include:

newenglandancestors.org - the New England Historic Genealogical Society website
IRAD - Illinois Regional Archives Database
ancestry.com -- just joined that
familysearch.org -- LDS Family History website, and its new iterations, which are great
various state archives, which are putting more and more documents online (Georgia, Michigan, Florida, and others)
National Archive of England
Suffolk (England) Public Records Office

Those are online. For my husband's line, especially, since they are the southerners in the family, I have used the resources of the Southern Genealogist's Exchange Society in Jacksonville (website: http://www.sgesjax.com). I also use the Clay County Library and the Jacksonville Public Library.

Permalink Reply by Sharon Ray on August 22, 2009 at 3:44pm

The first thing I do after I find a new piece of information or a clue, is to go back to my file on that person or family and compare it to what I already have there. Many times I find that doing so helps me put other odds and ends together that I already have.

I recently did this with some research I was doing for a friend of mine who helps me from time to time. I found a reference to someone else in an area that I knew her family was from. This person was not listed anywhere else that I had ever come across but was of an age to be a brother to the person I was researching. I decided to follow up as the surname was not that common there. The reference gave his parents names. That piece of information led to a major break through on a brickwall for her family. I was able to add three more generations to that line of her family. I had all the pieces there in my files I was just missing the connecting piece.

I base my plan of attacks after that review and go to original documents whenever I can. It all depends on what other information that I need.

Where Do You Start?

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