Online site for death records and indexes is a must visit for genealogists

I'm a firm believer in using vital records and their substitutes whenever you can find them in your genealogy research. In fact, they are so important that several years ago I compiled a guide that I handed out to my students that was a comprehensive listing by state of online vital record links. Many found that guide useful in digging out obscure and important vital records in their research.

The death certificate is the most commonly used record to record the death event. This is the death certificate issued by the city of New Orleans in 1905 for my 3rd great grandfather, Captain Thaddeus Damascus Van Horn, CSA Cavalry. It contains a wealth of genealogical information.



Like anything else in our lives, mine got real busy and I haven't had a chance to update that guide in quite some time.



An example of another type of death record, the obituary. This one is for my great-great aunt Belle Randolph Van Horn (one of my all time favorite relatives).

But I had in my list a really cool little hidden genealogy gem for death indexes and records online at http://www.deathindexes.com/. It is still there and active. Since the death event is such an important part of our research, I highly recommend you save this site for future use in your research. There are a lot of death records and their substitutes and I have put some of them here in the post to illustrate some things you should looking for.

And who knows maybe that vital record research guide may pop up here in the blog someday in the near future.

Another death record substitute is the tombstone. This is my Van Horn family tomb in Lafayette Cemetery #1 in the Big Easy - New Orleans, Louisiana. There are eight members of my family buried in this one family tomb. Due to its unique gothic architecture, this tomb and the one next to it have been seen in various Hollywood movies and are also featured in the tours conducted in this cemetery.
 

89 Places for Finding a Woman's Maiden Name: A Checklist of Sources

This article is courtesy of the May 1, 2012 Genealogy Pointers newsletter from Genealogy.com, an article written by the legendary William Dollarhide.

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(This article first ran on July 26, 2011. When it appeared we asked readers to come up with additional suggestions of sources for a woman's maiden name. Here are two of them.

1. Evidence of a female's maiden name can be found in military and civilian pension records. On the other hand, it is highly unlikely to find that information in the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (listed as "Civil War soldiers & sailors online index" and found at http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/).

The only information provided in the index are Last Name, First Name, Union or Confederate, State (or Origin), Unit Number, and Function (Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, etc.). Also, you are likely only to find mention of a spouse in a modern military record. Military records of the early 20th century and earlier provide only a physical description of the soldier, muster and pay records, disciplinary actions, hospital records, and final papers (if they died in action). The spouse or other dependants are not mentioned. Submitted by Michael Murphy, APG

2. Look at the son's middle names especially the first born. If unusual, it should be considered as a possible maiden name of the mother. I did this with my own son and have found several instances in my ancestry of this practice. Submitted by Judy K Pfaff

Now for Mr. Dollarhide's article itself:- Discovering the maiden name of a female is often the biggest problem we have in genealogy. Whether you are researching your families in person, through the mail, or by "Googling" the Internet for sources, the basic search is still the same. As in all research tasks, we need to identify the possible places where such a record exists, but
in particular, find the place where an actual document may exist that mentions the birth name of a woman. Here is a basic checklist of some places to look:

Birth Records
● Birth certificates
● Delayed birth records
● Corrected birth records
● Affidavits for correcting birth records
● Newspaper birth announcements
● Oral histories
● Published biographies
● Personal diaries & Journals

Marriage Records
● Marriage applications & licenses
● Marriage certificates
● Newspaper announcements
● Family Bible

Divorce Records
● Newspaper announcements
● Court proceedings
● State or County-wide vital records indexes

Death Records
● Burial permits
● Death certificates
● Newspaper announcements
● Obituaries
● Funeral records
● VA burial database online

Cemeteries
● Sexton's office
● Tombstone inscriptions
● Cemetery maps and indexes

Census Records
● Name of father-in-law included in a family grouping
● Brother-in-law included in a family grouping
● 1890 veteran's census including widows of veterans
● 1925 Iowa state census (only U.S. census with the question, "Maiden Name of Mother?" for every person listed).
● Names of neighbors, as clues to sibling's names
● Clues from parents' birthplace, leading to further census work

Major Databases & Indexes
● Google searching
● FamilySearch.org searching
● Ancestry.com, et al.
● RootsWeb family name searching
● Name indexes on the Internet

Vital Records Indexes and Compilations
● Kentucky birth/death index (as an example of several states available on the Internet)
● The Barbour Collection (for Connecticut, as an example of published compilations)
● New England Vital Records (as an example of published town reports)
● County-wide indexes, such as the many RootsWeb county pages of the Internet

Bible Records
● State-wide collections, such as those at Virginia and Louisiana state archives
● Home and relatives sources
● Church collections (Bibles donated to churches for Sunday School)

Probate Records
● Wills
● Administration records
● Appointments of administrators/executors
● Dispositions and judgments (naming heirs)
● Estate settlements

Church Records
● Confirmations
● Marriages
● Christening
● Baptisms
● Burials
● Death notices
● Church membership lists
● Vestry records

Medical Records (may be accessible to close relatives only)
● Doctor's office
● Nursing home

Miscellaneous
● Civil War Soldiers & Sailors online index
● Correspondence
● Miscellaneous home sources
● Oral interviews
● Patriotic society membership applications
● Funeral home records
● Hospital records
● Soldier home records
● Land ownership & deed records
● Civil court records
● Criminal court records
● Newspaper articles
● Social Security applications
● Social Security job history records
● Draft registration records
● Driver's license
● Frakturs and needlepoints (family names)
● Fraternal club records
● Homestead records
● Immigration records
● Insurance papers
● Military personnel records
● Military medical records
● Personal journals and diaries
● Professional license applications
● Passports applications
● Pensions
● Queries at mags/websites
● Voter registrations
● Who's Who/compiled biographies

Athens Historic Newspapers Archive Now Available

The Digital Library of Georgia is pleased to announce the availability of a new online resource: The Athens Historic Newspapers Archive http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/athnewspapers .

The Athens Historic Newspapers Archive provides online access to five newspaper titles published in Athens from 1827 to 1922. Consisting of over 57,000 newspaper pages, the archive provides historical images that are both full-text searchable and can be browsed by date. The site will provide users with a view into the history of Athens in its early years as the home to the first state-chartered university in the nation and its eventual growth into the largest city in northeast Georgia.

The archive includes the following Athens newspaper titles: Athenian (1827-1832), Southern Banner (1832-1882), Southern Watchman (1855-1882), Daily/Weekly Banner-Watchman (1882-1889), Daily/Weekly Athens Banner (1889-1922).

The Athens Historic Newspapers Archive is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia as part of the Georgia HomePLACE initiative. The project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. Digitization is also made possible through a grant provided by the Francis Wood Wilson Foundation, Inc.

Other newspaper archives available through the Digital Library of Georgia include the Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive (1847-1922), the Macon Telegraph Archive (1826-1908), the Columbus Enquirer Archive (1828-1890), the Milledgeville Historic Newspapers Archive (1808-1920), the Southern Israelite Archive (1929-1986), and the Red and Black Archive (1893-2006). These archives can be accessed at http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/MediaTypes/Newspapers.html

And for my students the service is "free."

Preventing Identity Theft with the SSDI

Identity theft and genealogy is a subject that I have discussed before in my genealogy classes and on the road in lectures.

An article on preventing identity theft on Dick Eastman's blog is well worth the read, especially for these all knowing politicians who think they have all the answers, read the paragraph below.

"Identity theft is a major concern these days, as it should be. Many legislators seem to think that the problem can be solved by locking up all the birth, marriage, and death records, which, of course, has an impact on genealogists. The legislators apparently have never checked with the security experts who deal with identity theft every day, however. The security experts report that public domain records of birth, marriage, and death are rarely used by identity thieves. Instead, the thieves have easier methods."

You can read the rest of the article at
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/07/preventing-identity-theft-with-the-ssdi.html