February 28, 2014

Scotch-Irish Settlers in America, 1500s-1800s

If you've got ancestors of Scotch-Irish descent, you'll want to explore the 13 volumes available here. Among these significant volumes, you'll find a collection of Pennsylvania genealogies from Chester county, a location historically scarce on genealogical source material.

Approximately 215,000 individuals referenced. Genealogically valuable because passenger and immigration lists can be an invaluable primary source for tracing most immigrants to the United States, particularly in the 19th century.

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February 26, 2014

Genealogical Records: Irish Source Records, 1500s-1800s

The information collected here is especially valuable since nearly all of Ireland's pre-1901 census records were lost in a 1922 fire at the Public Records Office in Dublin. This database includes extensively researched reconstructions of the 1841 and 1851 censuses as well as transcriptions of the surviving 1851 census fragments for County Cork. In addition, you'll find record of wills that were abstracted or copied before the fire.

Listings Include:- Names of family members
- Dates and details of vital events
- Location of residence (including townland, parish, and county)


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February 24, 2014

Ontario and Nova Scotia Settlers, 1790-1860

Early settlers of Nova Scotia and Ontario included American colonists (particularly Loyalists) as well as English, Scottish, and Irish immigrants. Among the six titles reproduced here, you'll find historical essays on the settlement of Nova Scotia and Ontario, Loyalist lists, population returns, maps, and immigration records. Originally published by the Genealogical Publishing Company, these books reference approximately 131,000 individuals.

The scarcity of surviving civil records from Nova Scotia and Ontario makes those found on this database even more valuable. Among the unusual resources collected here you'll find a comprehensive collection of newspaper columns that focus entirely on New England families of English descent who settled in Nova Scotia around the time of the Revolutionary War.

What you'll find:
- Full name
- Residence
- Names of family members
- Dates of vital events
- Details of immigration
- Information on land held


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February 23, 2014

Five Minute Find: Down on the Farm

Many of us have ancestors who are listed as farmers on the census.
  • What did they farm? 
  • How did they earn a living?
Ancestry.com is home to resources that can help you answer these questions and get some context on your farming ancestors. Ancestry Anne explores agricultural census schedules on Ancestry.com and shares tips on how to get the most from these rich records.

List of ancestor surnames could provide clues for genealogists

In early January, genealogy blogger Amy Johnson Crow issued a challenge to genealogists for 2014 – to write about one ancestor a week for the entire 2014 year. This can be done by blogging, posting on social media, sending emails to family members, whatever means available to keep the momentum going...

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February 21, 2014

Passenger and Immigration Lists: New York, 1820-1850

Passenger lists are important primary sources of arrival data for the vast majority of immigrants to the United States in the nineteenth century. In the mid-1800s, immigrants (particularly Irish, Germans, and Italians) flocked to the port of New York. Indexed and easy to search, this database references approximately 1.6 million individuals who arrived in New York between January 7, 1820 and December 31, 1850.

The information collected for this database was taken from the National Archives Microfilm Series M237, rolls 1 through 95 (Registers of Vessels Arriving at the Port of New York from Foreign Ports, 1789-1919). While the volumes vary in dates covered and information recorded, the information you can obtain from this database can help you create a well-rounded picture of your ancestor's arrival in America.

Partly in an effort to alleviate overcrowding of passenger ships, Congress enacted legislation (3 Stat. 489) on March 2, 1819 to regulate the transport of passengers in ships arriving from foreign ports. As a provision of this act, masters of such ships were required to submit a list of all passengers to the collector of customs in the district in which the ship arrived. The legislation also provided that the collector of customs submit quarterly passenger list reports to the Secretary of State, who was, in turn, required to submit the information to Congress. The information was then published in the form of Congressional documents. These passenger lists are important primary sources of arrival data for the vast majority of immigrants to the United States in the nineteenth century.

A further Congressional act passed on May 7, 1874 repealed the legislative provision requiring collectors to send copies of passenger lists to the Secretary of State. Thereafter, collectors of customs were to send only statistical reports on passenger arrivals to the Department of Treasury.

Listings Include:- Name, age, and gender of immigrant
- Birthplace
- Occupation
- Country of origin
- Port of departure
- Date of arrival in the U.S.
- Destination in the U.S.
- Name of the ship on which the person traveled (often the type of ship is noted as well)
- Family identification number
- National Archives series and microfilm roll numbers


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February 19, 2014

Census Records: United Kingdom, 1851

A census is an official enumeration of the population in a particular area. In addition to counting the inhabitants of an area, the census generally collects other vital information. Since 1801, the United Kingdom has undertaken a census every ten years (except for 1941, during World War II).

Useful enumerations featuring the names of every resident of England and Wales began in 1841, and by 1851 the census schedule showed each person's full name, age, gender, occupation, address, relationship to the head of the household, marital status, and the exact town or parish of birth.

More than an index to the census, this database includes all of the information you'd find on the actual census page. Knowing the exact town or parish of a person's birth can be especially helpful in tracking a person's mobility and in locating the proper entries in civil registration records or parish registers.

Listings Include:- Name, age, and gender
- Place of birth (often, town and county)
- Relationship to the head of household
- Marital status
- Occupation
- Address at time of census
- Enumeration district and county
- Exact address or location of house
- Family number assigned by the enumerator


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February 18, 2014

The Irish Flax Grower's List, 1796

In 1796, the Irish Linen Board published a list of nearly 60,000 individuals who received awards for planting between one and five acres of flax. Individuals who planted one acre were awarded four spinning-wheels, and those growing five acres were awarded a loom. The "Flax Grower's List," is an extremely useful genealogical record since virtually no Irish census of the nineteenth century has survived.

With the information listed, you may be able to compensate for the lack of genealogical records available for Ireland at this time. Land records are unique because they allow you to obtain an idea of your family's migration pattern and help you determine local resources to research for more information. If you are one of the nearly 70 million individuals worldwide with Irish heritage, the Flax Grower's List is an important resource.

Counties Covered:
Antrim - Galway - Meath - Armagh - Kerry - Monaghan - Carlow - Kildare - Offaly - Cavan - Kilkenny - Roscommon - Clare - Laois - Sligo - Cork - Leitrim - Tipperary - Derry - Limerick - Tyrone - Donegal - Longford - Waterford - Down - Louth - Westmeath - Dublin - Mayo - Wexford - Fermanagh


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February 16, 2014

Five Minute Find: Favorite Genealogy Myths Debunked

Spend 5 minutes with Anne Gillespie Mitchell aka Ancestry Anne as she walks you through 6 genealogy myths and why they aren't true.
  1. Native American Ancestry: Great-Great-Grandma Was an Indian?
  2. Names Changes at Ellis Island: Why Your Family Name Was Not Changed at Ellis Island (and One That Was)
  3. Burned Counties
  4. All Records are Online
  5. Everyone has Recorded Vital RecordsAncestry Wiki Vital Records
  6. Government Records are Correct -- Online Trees are Wrong

February 14, 2014

Topographical Dictionaries of England, Ireland, and Scotland

Originally prepared by Samuel Lewis, the gazetteers reproduced on this database contain detailed information on English, Irish, and Scottish locales as they existed in the mid-1800s. A gazetteer is a topographical (or geographical) dictionary in which a location's political and physical features are defined. For example, for a location listed you may learn information on local industry, nearby towns, population, and primary landholders.

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February 12, 2014

Locating Passenger Arrival Records

1. Estimate the Arrival Date
The date of immigration can be found in a number of records including some census records (the U.S. Federal Censuses for 1900-1930 all ask for year of immigration), death records (often recorded "How long in the U.S.?" on death certificates), obituaries, and many other records and home sources. Often a combination of resources can help pin down the elusive dates. Using a combination of birth dates and birth locations, particularly among siblings in the family that immigrated, it is often possible to narrow the arrival date to within a few years. Include your estimated immigration date in your search on Ancestry.com to narrow your results to those that would apply. You can add +/- 1, 2, 5, or 10 years to give yourself a little wiggle room for rough estimates. 


2. Gather Identifiers 
Sometimes the challenge isn’t so much finding your ancestor’s name in the records, as determining if it really is your ancestor. It’s helpful to compile a mini-profile of your ancestor based on the information you may find in the record. 

How old was your ancestor? Census records are also a good source for estimating age at the time of immigration, as well as information from death records, tombstones, correspondence, marriage records, etc. 

What did he or she do? Some passenger lists will list occupations. While this information typically isn’t indexed in passenger arrival records, in some cases it can be helpful in "thinning the herd" to focus on the most promising individual(s). 

Who might they have traveled with? Family structure can be helpful in locating families who traveled together, although it bears mentioning that it wasn't unusual for the head of the family or some family member to come over first and then send for the family later, once employment and a living space had been secured. 

It can also be handy to have a list of other surnames that have appeared with your ancestor. Witnesses and sponsors, neighbors, collateral relatives, and anyone whose name keeps popping up in conjunction with your ancestor, could turn up as travel companions who arrived with your ancestors...

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Immigration Records: Scottish Immigrants to North America, 1600s-1800s

This database contains immigration records for approximately 70,000 Scottish immigrants to the United States and Canada. Extracted from a great variety of sources both in North America and Scotland, the information collected here would otherwise be difficult to access. Records were compiled from private and public sources including passenger lists, newspapers, church records, land deeds, records of indenture, and oaths of allegiance.

Materials on this database originally spanned sixteen volumes authored by Scottish emigration authority David Dobson and published by the Genealogical Publishing Company. The author of more than twenty books, Mr. Dobson specializes in migration patterns and the historical background of the Scottish people's emigration. Among the sixteen comprehensive volumes you'll find The Original Scots Colonists and a series of supplements to that work. By itself, that work identifies virtually all of the Scottish settlers to America in the 1600s. The other volumes collected here are of equal quality and value.

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February 10, 2014

German and Swiss Settlers in America, 1700s-1800s Immigration Records

The German and Swiss immigrants included in this resource mostly settled in the Carolinas, Georgia, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. Among the great variety of resources collected here, you'll find historical essays on German influence in the settlement of Texas, the great Palatine migration from the Rhineland in 1709, as well as German and Swiss migration patterns.


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February 7, 2014

Irish to America Passenger and Immigration Lists Volume 2, 1846-1886

Sail across the Atlantic with your Irish ancestors using an all-new volume of Irish to America - completely new details for 550,000+ additional immigrants. Referencing arrivals in Boston between 1846 and 1851 and New York between 1866 and 1886.

You'll discover information taken from original ship manifest schedules - documents filed by all vessels entering United States. Irish to America was produced in collaboration with the Balch Institute Center for Immigration Research and the John F. Kennedy Trust.

A good deal of information in this database was collected from immigrants to the United States during the Great Famine (1845-1849). Between 1847 and 1854, 1.6 million Irish immigrated to the U.S., mostly arriving in New York, marking the first voluntary mass migration to the United States.

Listings Include:- Name of immigrant
- Name of the ship
- Ports of origin and debarkation
- Ship's arrival date
- Immigrant's age, gender, and occupation
- Immigrant's country of origin, destination, and manifest ID number
- Village or town or origin - Purpose and mode of travel


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February 5, 2014

Ontario, 1869-1886 Marriage Index Volume 2

This data set contains alphabetical listings of approximately 355,000 individuals who were married in Ontario, Canada between August 1869 and 1886. With this great resource — you'll find previously uncollected marriage records together in one place.

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February 3, 2014

Tithe Applotment Books of Ireland, 1823-1838 (International Land Records)

A unique land survey taken to determine the amount of tax payable to the Church of Ireland by landholders, the Tithe Applotment Books collectively represent a virtual census for pre-Famine Ireland. Because the results of this land survey were originally compiled in nearly 2,000 hand-written volumes, this resource is known to genealogists as the Tithe Applotment Books. This database references the counties that make up present-day Northern Ireland: Counties Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down, Fermanagh, and Tyrone.

In the original enumeration, each landholder was recorded along with details such as townland, size of holding, land quality and types of crops. The amount of tithe payable by each landholder was based on all of these factors and calculated by a formula using the average price of wheat and oats from 1816-23.

Listings Include:- Name
- County
- Parish
- Townland
- Year of enumeration


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February 2, 2014

Mount a Charge to Research Military Posts

“The men are healthy looking . . . and soldierly in appearance. They march and maneuver well on foot, less so mounted, because many of them ride indifferently . . . The horses are generally indifferent.”

Well, that it explains it then. When you’ve got an indifferent horse, you probably can’t help but ride indifferently—whatever that means. The subtleties of indifferent horses and riders may be obscure to most of us today, but it meant something to Lt. Col. J.E. Johnston when he composed his report in 1859 about Fort Stanton in New Mexico.

Col. Johnston further noted that “the hospital is the best in the department and larger than is necessary in so healthy a climate . . . the patients are comfortable as sick soldiers can be on straw beds.” Johnston’s report certainly paints a descriptive picture of the soldiers’ home away from home.

Many of our military ancestors served at forts all across the country. Even though your ancestor may not have been specifically named on the reports, tapping into the Returns from Military Posts, 1806-1916 can offer you clues about your ancestor’s life in the military. This database includes more than 1,500 microfilms of original post returns housed at the National Archives.

Post returns, usually completed monthly by the post commander, chronicle the activities of the fort. The amount of detail on the returns varies from post to post, from year to year, and from form to form. In other words, you’re not quite sure what you’ll find until you scan the reports. My favorite returns include a written summary of recent events. Colonel Christopher (Kit) Carson’s 1861 report from his command post at Albuquerque reviews the month’s activities including mustering in “spies and guides.”

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