How to Add New Genealogy Search Sites to Family Tree Maker

Family Tree Maker software is a popular program for building and maintaining family trees. It contains a lot of powerful features including it's search capability.   Family Tree Maker (FTM) will let you search the internet for records and other information without leaving the program.

By default, FTM will search Ancestry.com, RootsWeb General Search and Genealogy.com. But the cool thing is that you can add more genealogy sites for FTM to search (like FamilySearch.org).

This is a really nice feature as it allows you to search all of your favorite sites while working within Family Tree Maker.  For step by step instructions on how to add new genealogy search sites to Family Tree Maker, click here.

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Searching for Obituaries

Searching for obituaries can be challenging and there are several ways to go about it.  The first step is to search the local newspaper of where the person died.  Of course, if you live in another state, this can be difficult.

One way around this is to search the newspaper's web site for old obituaries. Some states have an online newspaper website where they are have links to old newspapers from around the state.  A search in Google will help determine if the state your relative died in has a newspaper project site. 

Another option is to check the genealogical society in that state.  Many states have a genealogy web site or office that have old newspapers on microfilm.  In Arizona, Sharlot Hall has every newspaper of the Daily Courier ever published on film.  This makes it very easy to go back and find an obituary.  Several states have similar sources.

Google can be another good source for searching obituaries.  I often search a person's name in Google looking for their obituary.  For example, I will go to Google and search, "John Smith Obit" and see if anything comes up.  Sometimes I will vary the search words (John Smith + obit or Mrs John Smith + obit). When the plus sign is used in a Google query, it tells Google to search the main word (e.g., John Smith) and to look for the word "obituary" to in reference to John Smith.

You can check out more Google Search Tips by clicking the links below:

• Google Insights for Search
• Google Advanced Search
• Google Search Tips

Google has also compiled a list of links related directly to obituary searches.  The idea is to make it easier for you to find obituary resources for you to search.

Another great source for searching obituaries is Newspaper Archive.  This web site is the largest historical newspaper database online and contains nearly 100 million newspaper pages from 1759 to present. Every newspaper in the archive is fully searchable by keyword and date, making it easy to quickly explore historical content, discover family roots, and share with friends.

And last but not least, we've compiled our own list of links to obituary sources. This list links to online newspaper and other sources to help you search for obituaries.

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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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