These are resources that could get me in trouble!! I love to work on genealogies and family history but soon realize that so much time is needed. I am attending two family reunions this summer. One is the family of my great-great grandparents. So when school is over I may return to these sites again! Perhaps it is a good thing that I can only access Ancestry Library at school!
Ancestry Library
-1 I looked up my name and much to my surprise they had my birth date wrong! The year was correct but the month and day were incorrect. I searched my husband's name and he was born on the incorrect birthday they had given me!! Several years ago I traced my husband's family back to the 1600's but realized how important birthdates were because first names were often given to sons and grandsons. So I was disappointed that my birthday was incorrect!
-2 I searched for one of my grandparents and found his draft registration and printed that.
-3 Oops....I just see that I didn't do number three! I will have to return to the site at school next week.
I do believe I get emails concerning Ancestry Library but you have to pay for a subscription. I may have to do that.
Heritage Quest
This does not seem as user friendly to me as Ancestry Library. I did type two of my grandparents names and found them in census records. The frustrating thing is that some of the handwriting is so poor that is it is hard to read. I tried to use the "Search Books" but I was not successful with that part. I started paging through two books but had no clue how I was going to find what the information that I wanted. I was tempted to open my file cabinet and pull out lots of information that I have on my family history but I need to clean my house for company!! :)
Sanborn Maps
The disappointing thing about Sanborn Maps is that Platte, my hometown, was not listed and neither were any of the small towns close to Platte. The closest town was Armour but I am not very familiar with the town. I had hoped this would have allowed me to look at towns in Iowa where I grew up.
I am thinking of how these resources could be used at school. Some teachers have students make a personal history book and research family history. My children had to do that some years ago but I am not aware that our social studies teachers are requiring that informaton recently. I will have to ask.
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Hi, Lois! You're right, you could spend the rest of your life rooting around in these. Sorry your birthdate info is incorrect. We are guessing it's from the Public Records section, which does have this disclaimer: "As Ancestry.com is neither the author nor the compiler of the data in its indexes, we cannot assume responsibility for the accuracy of this information.
ReplyDeletePlease exercise caution when judging the accuracy of data in the U.S. Public Records Index. Some addresses and telephone numbers are invalid and birthdates may be inaccurate as well." I agree that Heritage Quest does not seem as user friendly as Ancestry. When looking at the census records, above the handwritten document is a transcription of the basic info. I recommend that you take the vendor-offered webinars on these products. Look through our training calendar for Ancestry and HeritageQuest:http://library.sd.gov/forlibrarians/calendar/index.htm The webinars are very helpful and interesting! It's too bad there is not an appropriate Sanborn Map for you, but not all towns are covered. Thanks for your comments.