Watch for the Dot-Cons!

One of the potential dangers of genealogy research web sites is that you tend to share a lot of personal information online.  This is always a risk given in today's culture where identity theft is at an all time high! Nothing makes you want to sign up for a service like, Life Lock than the video below!

The video shows how easy it can be to duped into giving out too much personal information.  There is more than one scam on the video, so be sure to watch through the second at least.

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Annual Salt Lake City Christmas Tour

I've recently discovered that every year there is an annual Salt Lake City Christmas Tour for genealogist (amateur and pro alike).  This year the tour will be December 5 - 11th, 2010.

Every year, folks meet in Salt Lake City, Utah for what has become a major genealogy event.  The tour group uses the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel as their headquarters for the week.  Classes are taught and numerous trips are made to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City. For those not familiar with this library, it's the largest genealogical library in the world.  Built in 1894 by the Mormon Church, it houses the largest collection of genealogical records.

Tour members are free to use the library for their own family research.  You don't have to be Mormon to use the facility or it's resources.  Many professional genealogist attend the annual Salt Lake City Christmas tour each year, so there is plenty of help if needed.

For more information about the Annual Salt Lake City Christmas Tour, click here. This blog is devoted entirely to sharing information about the tour.  They even have the class schedule so you can see what classes will be taught.

If you'd like to reserve your place at the next Salt Lake City Christmas Tour, click here to make a deposit.

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Avoid Public Domain Genealogy

Today I stumbled across the Public Domain Genealogy web site and thought it looked interesting. Since I'm always curious about what information other sites have to offer, I went ahead and signed up for the free account (big mistake)!

The site portrays itself as true source of public domain information, which you can obtain for free (as opposed to paying sites like Ancestry.com for it).  Sure they tell you to use the other web sites too in order to get a more complete history record of your family, but they still portray themselves as being something different. 

They even tell you that you will have to look at a few advertising screens during the sign up process, but that that you don't have to respond to any of them.  This is pretty much true.

But what they don't tell you is that the screens last for a good 5-10 minutes and you have to manually click NO on all the adverts on the page.  Then if that wasn't bad enough, by the time you get to the "next" prompt, you're confronted with a message that says you MUST look at one of the adverts.  You can say No after looking, but then the whole process starts over again.   VERY FRUSTRATING!

If you have the stamina to get through all the advertising screens, you'll find that Public Domain Genealogy isn't offering anything different that other genealogy sites are offering.  They have the links to the same directories and databases everybody else does.

Only now, they also have your name, address, birth date, and phone number.   And you basically have nothing more than you had before you found the web site. 


My advice .... avoid Public Domain Genealogy like the plague!

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Looking for an Old Family Photo?

Ever searched the internet looking for old photos of some of your relatives?  There's a web site called, Family Old Photos where you can do just that!   Users can sign up for an account and upload their old family photos so that others can find them.

The web site also has several old photos where people and places in the photo are still unknown.  So one of the goals of the web site is to help people identify old photos they may have inherited after a loved one died.

You can search the site by surname, geographic location, and more.  If you love old photos, this is a cool site to explore (even if you don't find your relatives.

Check it out!

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Old Newspaper Archives for Arizona

Looking for an old obituary in Arizona?   In addition to trying your local library (assuming you live in the area), there are some other resources you can try as well.

The Arizona Newspaper Project has been working to save old newspapers on microfilm as well as list all newspapers in the state.  Interestingly enough, the first newspaper in Arizona was published in 1859 in Tuscan, Arizona.

The Sharlot Hall Museum in Prescott, Arizona also has every Daily Courier on microfilm since the newspaper's first publication date.

For links to recent Arizona obituaries, click here. 

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Trace Your Family History Through Archives

There are several different web sites that help you trace your family history. While Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org are popular, they aren't the only research sites available.  Archives.com is another site that offers research options, including access to historical documents and online software to help you build a family tree.

The Archives website allows you upload an existing GEDCOM file so you can use your existing tree on their site. You can also add photos and other media to your tree. Anything you can do on Ancestry.com, you can pretty much do on Archives.com.

One of the interesting things that stands, however, about Archives.com is that you can search for living relatives so you can reconnect with them.  You can find living relatives on Ancestry.com too, but by default, these are hidden in order to protect their privacy.

So what really makes Archives.com different than Ancestry.com?

1. Archives.com is a LOT cheaper than Ancestry.com
2. Archives.com gives you access to their World Database in their basic membership (Ancestry.com charges an additional subscription for this). 

In other words, the annual subscription at Archives.com is currently $39.95 and this includes access to their World Database.

Ancestry.com charges $155.40 for the basic annual subscription (which only gives you access to U.S. Records) and $299.40 for the annual World Deluxe subscription (giving you access to ALL records).

In comparison, $39.95 a year versus $299.40, is one heck of a price difference!  If money is tight or if you're new to genealogy research and want to test the waters. then Archives.com is a great place to start.  Archives.com will even give you a free 7-day trial.

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Discovering Your Arcadian Ancestry

Arcadians are the 17th Century French Colonists who settled in the first permanent French settlement in North America.  This settlement was known  as Arcadia  was comprised of the maritime provinces of Canada (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec).  The U.S. State of Maine was also part of Arcadia.  So in effect, Arcadia was the North American portion of the French Colonial Empire.

The Arcadians came from several different areas of France. During the 17th Century, Europe was constantly at war and battles between France and Britain for control of territory left the Arcadians stuck in the middle.  Both France and Britain insisted on oaths of allegiance from the Arcadians.  As the French Colonial Empire expanded into North America, several Arcadian families immigrated there.

Between 1755-1763, many Arcadians were forced to leave their home and land in Canada by the British Empire and many settled in the U.S. State of Louisiana ... they then became known as Cajuns.

The cool thing is that there is an extensive lineage-linked database of genealogical information (with the original source of the data included when available) that will help you discover your French and Arcadian ancestry. . Some of the individuals are French-Canadian, and not Acadian. These are included to assist your research, given the fact that there were (and are) numerous inter-marriages between French-Canadians and Acadians.

To get started searching your Acadian-Cajun Family, click here.

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