Genealogy Trails History Group

2012-03-17T11:40:00.001-05:00

FINISHED WORKING ON: Minnesota Genealogy Trails TONS of new data now online!
CURRENTLY WORKING ON: Adding new Iowa data! Starting to upload this data over the next weeks at Iowa Genealogy Trails.
UP NEXT: North Dakota

Only 15 more days til the 1940 census is released!!!

2012-03-06T19:16:00.000-06:00

We're very excited to have some new sites hosted...
Hocking County, OH at http://genealogytrails.com/ohio/hocking/ is now hosted by Cathy Stanley;
Sac County, IA at http://genealogytrails.com/iowa/sac/ is now hosted by Dan Marr,
Terri Griffiths has taken on Dutchess and Putnam counties in NY at http://genealogytrails.com/ny/dutchess/ and http://genealogytrails.com/ny/putnam/
Rhonda Kevorkian is our new host of Bedford Co, PA at http://genealogytrails.com/penn/bedford/
Rita Morgan is hosting Gibson Co, TN at http://genealogytrails.com/tenn/gibson/
and Barb Ziegenmeyer is hosting Clark Co, IL at http://genealogytrails.com/ill/clark/
Enjoy!

Are You Ready?

2012-02-23T10:09:00.002-06:00

Only 38 days left until the release of the 1940 Census!
The plan is to put the images online for FREE at 1940census.archives.gov
No index, just images... but you know it won't be long before the pay-fer $ite$ get their indexes online.

2012-02-18T12:12:00.000-06:00

"Awesome job" to two of our G.T. Transcription Team members Richard Ramos and Anna Parks for all their work on transcribing new Wyoming data! They transcribed some great new data including biographies and some census data.
View the new data at our sites at http://genealogytrails.com/wyo/

Other Last Surviving Veterans....

2012-02-07T16:35:00.002-06:00

Read about the last surviving veterans from the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Spanish-American War, Mexican War, Civil War, Indian Wars

Last WW1 veteran obituary

2012-02-07T16:33:00.000-06:00

View our website for other "last veteran" obituaries

This is an excerpt from the AP copyrighted story

Florence Green

"LONDON — Florence Green never saw the front line. Her war was spent serving food, not dodging bullets.

But Green, who has died aged 110, was the last known surviving veteran of World War I. She was serving with the Women's Royal Air Force as a waitress at an air base in eastern England when the guns fell silent on Nov. 11, 1918.
It was not until 2010 that she was officially recognized as a veteran after a researcher found her service record in Britain's National Archives.
Green died Saturday at the Briar House Care Home in King's Lynn, eastern England, two weeks before her 111th birthday, the home said...."

Wyoming New Data!

2012-02-05T11:26:00.000-06:00

The hosts of Genealogy Trails have been working together to bring even more free data to our Wyoming sites. The following counties were updated: Albany, Big Horn, Carbon, Johnson, Laramie, Lincoln, Natrona, Niobrara, Park, Teton, Uinta Counties. Visit Wyoming Genealogy Trails to access these, and all the other sites in WY.

For anyone needing convincing....

2012-02-02T09:55:00.000-06:00

Rural electrification in the U.S.
"The electric range or stove in the American farm kitchen eliminates the need of building fires, carrying fuel and emptying ashes, thus allowing the housewife at least ten more hours per month for other tasks. Food for farm workers is cooked faster and better on an electric range, improving the health and efficiency of the family. If the range has an automatic timer, food can be placed in the oven long before it needs to start cooking; at the proper minute the heat will turn itself on and the cooking proceed at the proper length of time, then turn itself off again, all without attention"

Check out South Carolina...

2012-01-29T19:07:00.002-06:00

New Data coming online for South Carolina Genealogy Trails!
Check it out starting at http://genealogytrails.com/scar/

wikipedia shutting down for 24 hours....

2012-01-17T12:00:00.000-06:00

From their website:

Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18. The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate — that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

Most popular genealogy sites

2012-01-10T20:15:00.000-06:00

Genealogy in Time Magazine put out their list of top 100 most popular genealogy sites... they have Genealogy Trails at 54th, which is a little odd since we're ranked so much higher on other lists. But it's nice to be noticed!

Peruse the list at http://www.genealogyintime.com/NewsStories/2012/Q1/top%20100%20most%20popular%20genealogy%20websites%20page3.html

A Two-fer!

2012-01-08T13:29:00.000-06:00

In addition to working on Nebraska at http://genealogytrails.com/neb/, there's also new data being added daily to Minnesota Genealogy Trails --- http://genealogytrails.com/minn/

Check it out!

Next up --- NEBRASKA!

2012-01-02T18:40:00.002-06:00

Our Genealogy Trails hosts are working on transcribing new data for Nebraska during the next few weeks, so check out the sites at http://genealogytrails.com/neb/

Texas Round-UP

2011-12-24T11:49:00.000-06:00

We worked hard on getting new data online on as many of our Texas sites as we could. Keep your eye on our sites in the coming days at http://genealogytrails.com/tex/ to view the new data as it gets formatted for online viewing.

I'd like to give a shout-out to our Top 3 G.T. host data contributors:

1) Marla Zwakman- who sent in something for almost every county.
2) Barb Ziegenmeyer- sent in many new vital records
3) Veneta McKinney- for doing all the confederate pensions lists

And bunches of thanks to Therman Kellar, Peggy Thompson and Anna Newell for their MANY contributions as well!
WELL-DONE!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T11:43:00.000-06:00

From all of our Genealogy Trails Hosts to family researchers everywhere -

Merry Christmas!

Wishing everybody "Happy Trails" for the New Year.

"Small Towns"

2011-12-22T11:04:00.000-06:00

"The small town rules America, because instead of being a place of hotels, restaurants and amusements, it is a place for normal living — where men walk home to lunch from their place of business and mow their own front lawns and weed their backyard gardens and bid their neighbors across either fence the time of day; where they not only live in today, but remember yesterday and plan for tomorrow; where families and communities retain, cherish and transmit traditions, there beats the heart of America"

(Dodge County, MN "Star", February 08, 1922)

Now working on....

2011-12-04T19:47:00.000-06:00

TEXAS! Watch our Texas websites at http://genealogytrails.com/tex/ for new data coming soon.
And please feel free to help us build these sites by sending in your own data!

Really... Family Tree Magazine???

2011-11-22T20:41:00.000-06:00

How many more times will Family Tree Magazine continue to ignore the existence of Genealogy Trails? We've been online since 2006 and have over one hundred thousand webpages of FREE data online. We're 26th on the list of the 50 most popular websites for 2011, the 3rd year in a row we've made Progenealogist's list.
At some point, FTMag is going to look like real idiots for choosing to not alert their readers to all the data we have available. Just sayin....

Working On ....

2011-11-16T09:56:00.001-06:00

We're working on adding data to Florida sites.... check it out at http://genealogytrails.com/fla/

Another free site gone...

2011-11-03T10:24:00.000-05:00

Sorry to see the end of Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness... raogk.org It was a nice concept, though I don't know how well it actually worked in practice. I remember using them 3 times, and had 1 fantastic volunteer who found a gravesite for me, even providing pictures - but then had two complete, and very frustrating, duds... One volunteer strung me along for weeks promising to get to the courthouse, but finally said she just wasn't going to do it.
RAOGK's demise follows the recent shut down of Usgennet.org in September, the organization that provided server space to many volunteer projects.
Heads up researchers --- Free sites are disappearing fast , so researchers need to support the remaining free volunteer projects!

Ireland - Did you know....

2011-10-10T12:15:00.000-05:00

In honor of my upcoming trip to Ireland:
Did you know that Ireland will grant U.S. citizens dual citizenship if your grandparent was born there? Anyone born outside Ireland who has a grandparent who was born in Ireland may become an Irish citizen.
You'll need some back-up records --- your grandparent's Irish birth certificate, your grandparents' marriage record and another piece of identification such as a certified death record or copy of passport, whether U.S. or Irish.
And you'll need ID too, and a form, and of course, $$$. (google "Irish dual citizenship" for exact procedures) And once that whole process is complete (can take up to a year), you can then apply for an Irish passport. Why? Because it's good throughout the whole EU - which means no long waits in the customs lines. If you travel a lot, you know what that means.
Or the nicer thought is this is a lovely way to honor your grandparent.
Sláinte!

Working On ....

2011-09-29T23:21:00.000-05:00

We're working on adding data to Louisiana websites.
Check out all the new updates at http://genealogytrails.com/lou/

Upfront with NGS talks Genealogy Trails

2011-09-19T15:26:00.001-05:00

Nice shout out from the National Genealogical Society for us today...
http://upfront.ngsgenealogy.org/

Looking for a Reason to Join Our Transcription Team?

2011-09-15T20:10:00.000-05:00

Just in case you were looking for a good reason to join our Team of Transcribers, the recent experience of Ron Cruikshank, one of our Transcription Team Members, may help persuade you.
Ron was typing up a spreadsheet of Ohio World War 1 Soldiers when he noticed a surname which looked familiar. Sure enough, Carl C. Courtney, Private from Donaville, turned out to be in his line... a 2nd cousin of his grandmothers'. If he hadn't volunteered to give back to the genealogy world by helping us transcribe, there's no telling how much longer it would have taken him to find this 2nd cousin!
We can't guarantee you the same type of success that Ron had, but your chances are definitely improved the more data sources you have access to. Who knows? Maybe we will be featuring YOUR success story here :-)
Contact our Team Leader Linda Rodriguez at rlmamabear@cox.net to join us!

[And look for the whole list of WW1 Soldiers to show up soon at our Ohio site.]

Soldier Headstones

2011-09-13T13:54:00.001-05:00

Did You Know?
"The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) furnishes upon request, at no charge to the applicant, a Government headstone or marker for the unmarked grave of any deceased eligible veteran in any cemetery around the world, regardless of their date of death." (Source: U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs)

They've been providing grave markers for many years, going back to at least the Civil War era. And the government has kept track of where every single one of those grave markers ended up. From those records, our group is working on transcribing the thousands and thousands (and thousands!) of names of VETERANS who received government headstones ... up to the Spanish American War. The majority of the names are Civil War soldiers, but there are a few War of 1812 soldiers in these records as well.

We have all of the surnames starting with A, B, C, E, I, J, Q, X, Y, and Z names online at http://genealogytrails.com/cwstones/ and more coming every day. Information usually included is name, rank, regiment, name of cemetery and location, along with a death date when available. These are from the government's own records and you won't find them transcribed online anywhere else, but Genealogy Trails.
Visit soon to find YOUR veteran....

Welcome to Genealogy Trails

2011-09-12T20:26:00.000-05:00

We're always working on something new at Genealogy Trails.
This week, our group is working on transcribing data for the state of Idaho.
Watch for the new data at http://genealogytrails.com/ida/