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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: JillMD on Saturday 07 January 17 07:45 GMT (UK)
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I hope this is allowed. I'm just at a frustration point. I'm a casual family-mapper. By that I mean I've been searching for my father and mother's family trees off and on for about 8 or more years. I get stumped, so I quit for awhile and then come back months later and find something new and exciting. I've met cousins and 2nd cousins I never knew existed, thanks to it all. But my frustration has reached the boiling point - everything I once was able to find for myself now seems to be hidden on a pay site. I used to go straight to the US Social Security death site and get all sorts of info - names and dates of great uncles, etc...now I can't. Findagrave - I've just spent the better part of an hour trying to find a grave and all I get are links to a pay site. Want to search for a marriage license...nope...I can't seem to find much that isnt....linked to a pay site. Seriously, most of this stuff is public information, some of it I searched and found (and foolishly made myself bookmarks that no longer work, rather than printing out reams of paper) and now want to return to, only to find, I can't.
So now I've got a great-aunt who I can find up to the 1920 census and bam! she's vanished. No grave, no marriage license, no obit, - I'm hoping that she's with my 3 great uncles who seem to have vanished, too.
The one thing I've liked about doing this myself, as well as doing it myself, is that I am certain all of my research was valid. I'm not bogged down by other searchers who think they may be related because they have a grandfather named Bob who was married to a Sally in some other country than my Bob, who was married to an Ann, not a Sally and the time difference is 35 years. *sigh*
Okay, so this is a bit of a rant. But I do want some guidance. Can someone to tell me how to get to the information I used to be able to get and not have to rely on a pay site?
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Oh how I agree with you. So many of the English parish records which used to be online and freely available have now disappeared. When I google them, I am invariably taken to a generic site which then invites me to pay for something which was once free. Sadly a lot of organisations have woken up to the fact that there's gold in them there records.
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No, not all records are held on pay sites. Many are free and easy to find.
Social Security Death Index- free (along with MANY other resources) on Family Search-
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1202535
U.S. census records- see also Family Search
Find A Grave- again free-
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi
Lots of freely available information can be found by using various combinations of words in a search engine like Google. Sometimes you can even glean more information even when a result for a pay site comes up (Newspapers.com is the first example that springs to mind).
I understand wanting to verify details yourself but if you are stuck trying to find a resource then just ask and we'll do our best to help you by pointing you in the right direction.
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Thanks - FamilySearch is one of my favorite sites and I've found a wealth of basic information there. I must admit, though, that the search engine on FamilySearch can be a little limiting. But years ago, I went straight to the SSDI site and got a wealth of info. It's how I was able to start my search, by being able to identify all of my mother's aunts and uncles and their dates of death. I've started to play with LostCousins, but so far, it's just "play".
Find A Grave - great when it's there, but the frustration lies in the fact that there are advert sites showing birth/death/marriage results for that particular name linked to pay sites. I can't figure out where to get them on my own. I've watched a coworker go to a pay site, punch in her name and a few particulars and bam - she's got a ton of relatives that match her names, and she's happy, even though she can't verify a single one of these relatives. I dont want to have to weed through the chaff (especially with a common last name like Robinson) to find my family when I already feel like I've got a good solid foundation to build on.
Everyone's been super helpful here - I've had some great assists when I was at wits end, and maybe this is just me blowing off some steam after a particularly frustrating night, when I've found out that my grandmother was previously married but no one can read her last name and searches have been unproductive.
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... some of it I searched and found (and foolishly made myself bookmarks that no longer work, rather than printing out reams of paper) and now want to return to, only to find, I can't.
I take screenshots rather than bookmarking or printing ... they stay on my computer, and only I can lose them ;)
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Does your local library have free access to Ancestry Library Edition?
Mine does - and I can get 2 hours computer access every day, free!
Can be very useful ;D
I also take a USB stick, and download any screenshots onto that.
Then I have the pages I want at home.
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I suspect that searching with google will be more likely to take you to pay-to-view sites and the free ones may be further down the list.
One tip with the Ancestry library edition is that, rather than downloading to a USB stick, its possible to email yourself a copy of what you find.
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"everything I once was able to find for myself now seems to be hidden on a pay site"
I'd say just the opposite is true for US records - there is more available online for free than there used to be. This is mostly because FamilySearch has greatly expanded its list of data sets and continues to do so. New records are added to FamilySearch almost every week. Find-A-Grave adds new records, too, and you don't have to go through any pay site to see them. Newspapers are frustrating, but there are more available for free than there used to be. Even when a link leads you to a pay site, you can sometimes glean a bit of information that will help you locate what you're looking for on a free site.
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... some of it I searched and found (and foolishly made myself bookmarks that no longer work, rather than printing out reams of paper) and now want to return to, only to find, I can't.
I take screenshots rather than bookmarking or printing ... they stay on my computer, and only I can lose them ;)
This is a wonderful idea! I'm going to start doing this!
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I suspect that searching with google will be more likely to take you to pay-to-view sites and the free ones may be further down the list.
One tip with the Ancestry library edition is that, rather than downloading to a USB stick, its possible to email yourself a copy of what you find.
Good advice - I'll start looking at page 2 and 3 of results to see if I can find the none-pay. I happy that most search engines now identify AD Results, I skip over those. Not a fan of Google ;)
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Does your local library have free access to Ancestry Library Edition?
Mine does - and I can get 2 hours computer access every day, free!
Can be very useful ;D
I also take a USB stick, and download any screenshots onto that.
Then I have the pages I want at home.
There's a LDS library in the area, but so far I havent been able to marry up their limited hours with mine. I may take a vacation day to spend an afternoon there. I guess it would be a good idea to gather up all of the documents I'd like to search for there before I do that. Thanks for the USB tip - I'll find out prior to going if that's something I can do there - I wouldnt have thought of that until it was too late!
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I suspect that searching with google will be more likely to take you to pay-to-view sites and the free ones may be further down the list.
One tip with the Ancestry library edition is that, rather than downloading to a USB stick, its possible to email yourself a copy of what you find.
Good advice - I'll start looking at page 2 and 3 of results to see if I can find the none-pay. I happy that most search engines now identify AD Results, I skip over those. Not a fan of Google ;)
Last time I emailed Ancestry stuff from the library edition, got limited of only 5 things or emails I could send to my email address and so taking a UBS stick is best as long as you don't forget to remove it.
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When i went to the library, I emailed myself 14 records. They all came up on my email when I got home.
From the information alongside the emails:
How often will I get an email with the link to my Discovery Page?
We don't want to clog your inbox with lots of emails, so we only send you an email with the link to your Discovery Page once every 12 hours when you are at the library searching for your ancestors.
Simply refresh the page to see your latest finds. And you might want to bookmark your Discovery Page.
How long will I have access to these documents?
You will have access to the last 300 documents that you saved to My Discoveries.
Hope it helps
AC
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I suspect that searching with google will be more likely to take you to pay-to-view sites and the free ones may be further down the list.
One tip with the Ancestry library edition is that, rather than downloading to a USB stick, its possible to email yourself a copy of what you find.
Good advice - I'll start looking at page 2 and 3 of results to see if I can find the none-pay. I happy that most search engines now identify AD Results, I skip over those. Not a fan of Google ;)
Companies pay a lot of money "tweaking" their websites to ensure they finish high up on a Google search!
The IT guys have to understand the google search algorithms - and change keywords on their sites to fit :-\
Is there no public library near you?
(There is no clue on your profile to suggest where you are?)
Many of them provide access to Ancestry (and more!).
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As others have said libraries sometimes provide free access to Ancestry and Find My Past. It's more convenient to have home use but it can save you money to move from home to library use. Particularly good for people who have researched for years and record finds have become few and far between. I use a USB to download records at my local library.
Blue
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Check whether your library allows you to use a USB - they're strictly forbidden here in Western Australia.
However I've had no difficulty in emailing over 20 records to myself in one session. Just get them all downloaded and renamed day by day, or you'll end up with more than 100 to do - I won't let that happen again ;D
Carol
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Regarding your bookmarks, sometimes library or government sites just update things and the same info was moved elsewhere on their site. Trying Googling whatever site it was and it may pop up. For more "homemade" sites, the Wayback Machine may show how the site looked in years past - https://archive.org/web/
What you are going to be able find for free depends on the state. This site has lots of good links for vital records and other sources by state/county - http://deathindexes.com/sites.html Some of it leads to pay sites, but much of it doesn't.
On some pay sites, you can see enough of a snippet from results to know if it has anything helpful. Newspaper archives on Genealogy Bank and Newspapers.com are two examples of this. I often find it helpful to Google (whatever city/town) newspaper archives, and it will give links if there is anything online. Mentions in newspapers may help narrow down someone's date of death or show if they married.
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Another list of online newspaper archives.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:List_of_online_newspaper_archives
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...And local libraries are, because of budget cuts, either directly or indirectly, cutting down Reference / Family or Local History / Research time, and even closing those areas completely in many areas.
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Some local archives are provided online via the big names so those resources are likely safe in libraries. We have had some library closures but there are still libraries across the city in addition to a central one that has the Record Office in the same building. We are blessed with the two big names free in our libraries so family history research does not have to cost a fortune.
Blue
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Yes, but often there were resources in more local libraries that could be worthwhile. In some areas firstly those were centralised, then the entire reference / research sections of those libraries, including computer access for people who wanted it, closed or hours greatly reduced. Those of us who can manage to have it all at our fingertips at home are the fortunate ones.