Cousin Larry and the Wood family

Thanks to Cousin Larry, we know a lot about my hubby's Wood ancestors. He's a meticulous researcher and doesn't let up even when the going gets tough. Surprisingly, he found out that a distant cousin of his and hubby's (who married into the huge Foote family of Wethersfield) lived and died in my town. So now I can do some local research the old fashioned way--in my local library--instead of mousing around the web.

National Archives and Family Historians

Browsing the National Archives site, I found "Resources for Genealogists and Family Historians." Lots of "how to" links explaining use of the archives, plus genealogy tips, info on upcoming events, new data and old-reliable collections often searched by people climbing their family trees (like me). Just bookmarked this for fast future reference.

Life of Riley Genealogy

Googling for genealogy blogs, I ran across Life of Riley, which has a very useful post today about old abbreviations. A sample, copied from today's post:

• d.s.p.l. - died without legitimate issue
• d.s.p.m.s. - died without surviving male issue
• d.s.p.s - died without surviving issue
• d.unm - died unmarried

I'll be checking regularly for tips. Thanks, Riley.

Linkpendium has nearly 7 million links?!

One reason I like Linkpendium is its categorization of genealogy links, by state, by worldwide surname, etc. Every day it adds new links. So many links, so little time.

Twitter Genealogy

I'm following some Twitterers who are unearthing interesting databases, tips, etc.:

http://twitter.com/fairangels
http://twitter.com/DearMYRTLE
http://twitter.com/rootstelevision

Google Your Family Tree

If you can't get to one of Dan Lynch's talks about how to use Google to research your roots, the next best thing is to buy his Google Your Family Tree. It's an excellent reference book for finding ancestors and family information using the search engine we all use every day (and thought we knew how to use). I bought it after his talk last night and will leave it on my desk for handy reference after I finish reading.

His book's web site has preformatted search queries where you can plug in family names, places, dates, etc. and, with a click, put the power of Google to work for you. Try them here. I didn't know about using ~ or * for genealogical searches but now--look out!

Dan Lynch

Dan Lynch is speaking at a local genealogy club and I'll be in the audience. He recently published a book, "Google Your Family Tree," which he'll be discussing at the meeting. Last time I heard Dan speak, his Google tips helped me find my first cousin, living only 100 miles away. Thanks, Dan!