Review of Surname Suggestion List Genealogists' Freeware
HHGA tested out a new, free software program designed to assist surname genealogy searches on Google. This software, essentially a share-ware program, is called Surname Suggestion List. Reviews by professional genealogists gave the program positive marks for its overall utility, aiding researchers by listing surname variations sometimes overlooked. Although it has been our experience that surname-based electronic searches usually have only limited usefulness for Hellenic surnames, we still put Surname Suggestion List through its paces to discover the extent of its applicability for Greek-Americans. Read entire review.
Reading Headstones
Start with non-invasive techniques, including using digital software to enhance images. After that, consult the cemetery staff and local boards, as local laws and rules determine which techniques are allowed. Ask them to put on workshops and organize groups to transcribe and photograph as many cemeteries as possible. Read entire article.
Preventing Identity Theft Does Not Mean Hiding Your Ancestors
Does your genealogical information on the Internet pose a security risk for the so-called identify theft problem? The simple answer is no. While we all need to be cautious about revealing too much personal information about ourselves and our living family members on the Internet (and elsewhere) the most common sources of identity theft are those we encounter in our daily lives. In a recent New York Times article by John Leland, it is noted that this crime often begins at home with more half of the victims revealing that the ID thief was a family member, a friend, a neighbor or an in-home employee. Read more.
Red Star Line Shipping Company.
From 1873 to 1935 the Red Star Line shipping company transported nearly three million people from Antwerp, Belgium to the USA and Canada. There's considerable data concerning the ships and the company and pictures with a link to the Belgium-Roots Project, which contains an alphabetical list of individuals who emigrated from Belgium and are being researched by others. See the URL's (RED STAR LINE) http://www.redstarline.eu/ and (BELGIUM-ROOTS PROUJECT) http://belgium.rootsweb.com/_fam/emigrants/
Using Rootsweb: Military Records Flesh Out Family Histories
If military records can be located they often provide insight into important events and commitments in your ancestors' lives. Military service records can bring your ancestors to life though they may have served long ago and far, far away. The challenge is to identify which military records exist and then figure out how to search for them. You might find answers to such questions in the archives of RootsWeb's military mailing lists, on the military topic message boards, in RootsWeb's user-contributed databases, or in RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees. Read more.
Massachusetts Vital Records Online
The Massachusetts State Archives office has now placed some databases online: The Index to Vital Records (1841-1910),
Index to Passenger Manifests (1848-1891), and Massachusetts
Archives Collections Database (1629-1799). All are searchable with surname; the Vital Records index search engine also permits first name, town, and a range of years.
http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcsrch/SearchWelcome.html
Michigan Naturalizations Index Databases
Volunteers in Michigan have indexed naturalizations for all counties in the state. Use of the online indexes is free, hosted by official webpages of state government. Some indexes are searchable, while others are downloadable PDF files. They are arranged separately by county at the following URL:
http://www.michigan.gov/hal/0,1607,7-160-17449_18635_20684---,00.html
Land Regsitry on the Move
Greece and Albania are the only two European countries without a national land registry. The current effort to compile one started in the mid-90s but is being plagued by delays. Click here to read full Athens News article.
Find Your Ancestor's Age Quickly with Online Calculator
Finding an ancestor's age at death is a common calculation conundrum. An easy—and free—solution is the Days Between Calculator (http://www.easycalculation.com/days-between-dates.php), which shows you how many years, months and days have elapsed between two dates. For 88 more fabulous genealogy freebies, see the June 2006 Family Tree Magazine, available at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/mags/display.asp?id=1768.
Ancestry.com Adds Index of All Databases, Making Searches Easier
Finally, Ancestry.com, the online database subscription giant, has added a tool to make searching through its site easier: an online index of its more than 23,000 databases. Visitors can narrow down their searches--and in many cases make them more productive--by selecting out the databases in which they are interested. Use of this new tool represents a great improvement for visitors, especially persons researching Hellenic ancestry, because it will eliminate scrolling through thousands of returns in order to find specific entries. http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/alldblist.aspx.
New Bipolar Family Tree Program
Bipolar disorder (manic depression) is a treatable medical condition that affects approximately 5.7 million American adults. But, the condition can be hard to recognize because it may come across as depression, euphoria, trouble at work, out-of-control spending, substance abuse or even suicide attempts. Now, a new program that addresses the family connection of bipolar disorder is available to help families get their doctors to more accurately and quickly diagnose this complex condition. The Mental Health Family Tree program (www.MentalHealthFamilyTree.org <https://chiowa.edelman.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=
http://www.mentalhealthfamilytree.org/>), launched by the national non-profit organization Families for Depression Awareness (FFDA), draws attention to the important role a person's family mental health history can play in diagnosing bipolar disorder, while helping individuals identify some of the common - but sometimes unknown - behaviors associated with the condition. People concerned about the existence of bipolar disorder in themselves or in family members can visit www.MentalHealthFamilyTree.org <https://chiowa.edelman.com/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=
http://www.mentalhealthfamilytree.org/>; to build their own Mental Health Family Tree by completing a simple, interactive questionnaire. This family tree can be printed out and used to spark conversations with doctors or
relatives.
(Originally published in UpFront with NGS, The Online Newsletter of the National Genealogical Society, Volume 5, Number 6 -- 1 June 2006, http://www.NGSgenealogy.org/upfront.cfm)
(Edd: Links given above are broken up into two sections. To use them properly, copy and past each line separately into your browser URL window, the second line of the address immediately following the first with no intervening spaces.)
Missouri Death Index Now Online (1910-1955)
The Missouri State Archives has recently made available an online index containing more than 2,000,000 names. Visitors can also view images of the certifcates at the online site http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/. According to the National Genealogical Society, "over 600 volunteers and students from across the nation and other coutnries logged over 27,000 hours" to create the database.
Because of overwhelming numbers of requests for copies of certificates, staff are now releasing additional scanned images as each year is completed, rather than by decade as originally planned.
Somerville (MA) Museum to Feature Exhibitions on Greek Immigration & Greek-American World War I Hero
From September 10, 2006 through March 25, 2007, a fascinating, thought-provokding two-part exhibition--New Lives in a New Land: Immigration in Somerville & the Greater Boston area--The Greek Community and Hope, Valor, & Inspiration: 1896-1918: The World of George Dilbory--Greek Immigrant & American Hero--will be at the Somerville Museum, One Westwood Road, Somerville, MA 02143. This exhibition, organized by the Somerville Museuma nd Historic Somerville, Inc. will chronicle the Greek migration to the Somerville-Greater Boston area during the past century, the contributions that these newcomers to America's shores have made and George Dilbory, the Greek immigrant from Alatsata in Asia Minor/ Somerville resident who became the first Greek-American to be awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor. Read more.
Colorado's Historic Newspaper Collection--Articles Available Online
http://host1.cdpheritage.org/newspapers
Search for digitized Colorado newspapers from 1859 to 1923.
Index of Early Pennsylvania Obituaries Now Online Search Pennsylvania Obituaries Online
Pennsylvania's state library has posted microfilmed images of scrapbooks containing newspaper obituaries published between Oct. 16, 1891, and March 3, 1904.
Search for your ancestor's obituary at http://205.247.101.31:2005/cdm4/search.php (the search page doesn't give you much clue where you are). At the bottom of the page, unclick everything except State Library of Pennsylvania—Genealogy. Type your keywords (such as a name or place) in the All of the Words field and click Search.
If you're not sure whether Great-grandma would be listed under her maiden or married name, enter both surnames in the Any of the Words field and type her first name in the All of the Words field. The Proximity tab lets you type two search terms and specify the number of words apart they can occur, letting you net obituaries containing variations such as john smith; john charles smith; and smith, john c. Still can't find the deceased? Try searching for people who might be listed as survivors.
Results show thumbnails of each matching obituary, its page number in the original scrapbook and surnames of everyone whose obituaries appear on that page. Click on the thumbnail to enlarge the page; use the icons at the top to zoom in and navigate around the article.
New York Bride and Bridegroom Indexes Now Available Online
The bridegroom index is for the entire city (1909-1936). The bride index is incomplete and is only for the boroughs of Bronx (1891-1937), Brooklyn (1891-1937), and Queens (1904-1937). Plans call for adding the Manhattan bride index to the online system. The Stephen P. Morse site at http://stevemorse.org/ now has cross-links between the two indexes for New York City located at the Italian Genealogy Group site at: http://www.italiangen.org/
Missouri Death Certificates Now Indexed Online (1910-1955)
The Missouri State Archives now offers the Missouri Death Certificate Database. It's a new online index and images. Currently the index covers from 1910 to 1955 and the images date from 1910 to 1920. It is at the URL:
http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/deathcertificates/
Copying Old Photographs: Infringement of Copyright Laws?
In the case of photographs, it is sometimes difficult to determine who owns the copyright and there may be little or no information about the owner on individual copies. Ownership of a "copy" of a photograph is distinct from the "work" itself -- the intangible intellectual property. Read more.
New Book Chronicles History of
Greek Americans of Cleveland, Ohio
Greek Americans of Cleveland Since 1870, a 416-page history of Greek immigrants who settled in Cleveland (Ohio), traces the lives of the first immigrants to settle in this area, life in communes, the nomadic search for work, the establishment of the first businesses, and the creation and growth of the first Greek Orthodox Church Community and those that followed. The book is now available from The Hellenic Preservation Society of Northeastern Ohio, an expanded and upgraded version of an earlier book that was published in 1984. Read more.
U.S. Diplomatic Personnel Submit Partial List of Persons Safe and Evacuated after Smyrna Catastrophe
Submitted by Stavros T. Stavridis. Click here to read brief list of names cabled by Admiral Bristol to State Department. A few of the names appear to be Hellenic. All were evacuated to Salonica and eventually to New York. These persons seem to have received direct assistance from the American Consulate during the Catastrophe, unlike the majority of the hundreds of thousands of refugees from Smyrna, Pontus and Asia Minor who were evacuated to the Greek mainland follwing the Catastrophe.
Black Book: The Tragedy of Pontus, 1914-1922
The Black Book: The Tragedy of Pontus is invaluable for its historical and genealogical information. This pamphlet details the numbers of Pontic Greeks killed in each village by the Turks, with some lists of actual names, and eyewitness accounts of massacres and genocide. Compiled in Athens in 1922, it serves as valuable testimony to the crimes committed. Although copies of this pamphlet are rare, there are about a dozen in the U.S. and Europe. Printed bilingually (English and French) in Athens in 1922 for the Central Council of Pontus, the aim of the pamphlet was to disseminate publicly the details of an irreparable loss of culture, history, and human life. Click here to view the pamphlet [large pdf file--16.2 Mb--Adobe Acrobat needed to view].
Beginning a Greek Genealogical Search in the U.S.
A revised, online article by Hellenic Historical and Genealogical Association for persons researching Hellenic ancestry. This simple, five-step plan helps researchers make effective use of their time by showing where and how to research. The goal of this recommended plan is to find the original Greek name of one's immigrant ancestor and his or her village, the information necessary to do research abroad. Click here for the full article.
