Genealogy Tip of the Month

In Search of  Immigration Records

There were two points of entry into New York City where many of our ancestors arrived by passenger ship. It depends on their year of arrival as to which site to search for records.

Castle Garden - Arrivals from 1820 - 1892

Ellis Island - Arrivals from 1892 - 1924

There were also many other ports of entry into the U.S. Stephen P. Morse One-Step webpage is a great source when searching for your ancestors on passenger lists.

Genealogy Tip of the Month

The Latter Day Saints catalog of records on microfilm contains countless numbers of records that are not yet online. These records can be found on: FamilySearch.org

Their records are, generally, located in Salt Lake City, Utah and have yet to be transcribed and placed online. You can search their catalog of records from your home computer. If you find pertinent records for your research, you can place an order for the microfilmed documents to be sent to the Leesburg Public Library where you can view them and make copies of them. The cost for each microfilm reel is generally $7.50.

You will need to establish a “free” account on FamilySearch.org prior to placing your order. When the Leesburg Public Library receives the items they will send you an email that they have arrived.

Keep in mind that you should always check for online records at Family Search, too. Very often they will have different records than Ancestry.

Here are the following steps to search their inventory of microfilmed records:

1. Hover over "Search" on the toolbar located at the top of the page.

2. Place your cursor on "Catalog" and click.

3. You can search by: place, surname, titles, author, subjects and keywords. Click on the one you prefer.

My example will be to search for records in a "place."

4. Type in the name of the "place" (Example: Buffalo, Erie, New York) and hit the search button. You will see that a long list of records are available.

5. Scroll down to whatever records you are looking for and click on it. My search was for church records of which there are 93). When I clicked on "church records" another list of records comes up.

5. Click on the record you want. I clicked on the records for the St. Louis Parish. The information about the record will come up. If you scroll down to "Film Notes" you will see the kind of records contained on the microfilm along with the order number under the heading "Film/DGS."

A couple of things to know about the icons you see on the far right of the screen:

* An old movie film reel indicates that the information is on microfilm. 

* A camera indicates that this information is contained online and you can view it immediately by clicking on it.

* A magnifying glass indicates that an index of the records is available to look at prior to ordering. Click on it and you'll be able to view the list of those individuals listed in the records. You can also search (left sidebar) for specific names and any other information you might have to see if a record for them exists. Keep in mind that the index may not be definitive(translations of the names on the records may result in spelling errors), and you might want to order the microfilm and view it yourself. 

6. Click on the microfilm icon (old movie film reel) to place your order. Each roll costs $7.50 and will be sent to the library of your choice (which you must select). The Leesburg Library (genealogy department) is the only library in Lake County that has microfilm machines. Once it arrives in Leesburg, the library will notify you by email that the records are available for viewing. You have 90 days to go there and view the films.

If you have trouble placing an order, volunteers are available at the W.T. Bland Public Library on Wednesdays from 10 to Noon to assist you.

Genealogy Tip of the Month

This website is a HUGE database of every imaginable genealogy resource available online!

Cyndi’s List is a compilation of approximately 332,625 links to online genealogy resources. These links are broken down into 213 categories. Some of the more obscure websites with genealogy information can be found here.  Take a look at Cyndi's List, when you've exhausted all other resources you can think of, to keep your research alive.

Genealogy Tip of the Month

This genealogy website is at the top of the list for every family historian!

The U.S. Gen Web Project is a group of volunteers working together to provide free genealogy information for every county and every state within the United States.

 When you visit their website at: www.usgenweb.org, click on the state your ancestors are from (in the upper right hand corner of the webpage). You will find resources by county, genealogy societies (which may have information or have volunteers willing to look up information for you), church records, mailing lists, history, photos, archives, biographies and other helpful links. This is information that will provide a good amount of history on your ancestor’s place of residence.