Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge: N is for … Never-Ending New Stuff and New Jersey
As has happened numerous times throughout the Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge, I’ve changed my mind of what to write about after already starting this post.
So for this N post I’d like to say that
N is for NEVER-ENDING NEW STUFF
We all know that the internet is an absolute wealth of information with new websites and new records being added online daily. Seriously the rate of growth is overwhelming. So how do we keep up with what new online that interests us? And by that I’m meaning anything genealogy or genealogy-related, but you knew that didn’t you … just checking!!
Well there are several ways, so let me share those with you …
Firstly you can keep up to date with what’s new on the big websites (arranged alphabetically:
WEBSITES
Ancestry.com.au – To check our the latest additions to the Ancestry website look for the Search button on their top bar, the scroll down to Card Catalogue. That will bring u a listing of collections on the Ancestry.com.au website sorted by popularity. You can change this to sort by Newest, and on the lefthand sidebar you can choose to click off the “filter to show only records from Australia”and it will then give you all the latest records on any Ancestry site. Note: this also applies to Ancestry.co.uk and Ancestry.com.
Cyndi’s List – Cyndi’s List is a directory of websites, not records, but I feel it is important to keep up with what websites are new too … so to view her newly added sites, she has a button titles “Browse New Links” and from there you can check the links added each day for the past month of so.
FamilySearch – To view what’s new on FamilySearch click on the “All Record Collections” button, then look for the dates that have an asterisk before it.
Findmypast (.com, .co.uk, ie, and .com.au) – Findmypast don’t seem to have anything on their site for whats ‘New’, but they are regular with announcing what’s new on their blogs. So, to keep up with their latest I’d suggest subscribing to their blogs – whichever countries you’re interested in.
Genealogy in Time – The folks at Genealogy In Time have written 7 good reasons on why you should subscribe to their newsletter, including keeping up with new records that you can now search through their website.
RootsWeb – The GEN-MARKET mailing list is one that is dedicated to commercial postings of unique interest to genealogists. Although not as popular as it used to be, you can find some interesting things listed here.
GENEABLOGGERS
The world of geneablogging can be more than just blogging about your own family, it can be passing on relevant genealogy or history news or tips, and the are some wonderful bloggers out there who do a great job of keeping people up to date with the latest news. Once again in no special order, just alphabetically …
– Chris Paton from British GENES
– Dick Eastman from Eastmans Online Genealogy Newsletter
– Jill Ball from Geniaus
– John D. Reid from Anglo-Celtic Connections
– Thomas MacEntee from Geneabloggers
– Gould Genealogy from Genealogy & History News (I’m allowed a quick plug since I’m the main contributor to it, right?)
Trust me there’s more, but between all of them, they’ll give you a good overview of what’s happening in the genealogy-world around the world.
GOOGLE ALERTS
Seriously I’d be lost without my Google Alerts. I remember sitting in on one of Dan Lynch’s talks (of Google Your Family Tree book fame), and he explained that Google Alerts are like Google going out and finding what’s new for you overnight, and then sending you an email with what it’s found in the morning. Sounds good doesn’t it … I can’t even comprehend how I’d keep up with what I do without Google Alerts. And that actually goes for the Family History Through the Alphabet posts too 😀
Now rather than me reinvent the wheel so-to-speak I’m not going to give you a step-by-step walk through of how to set up a Google Alert, but rather direct you to a Google Alert Tutorial that is on YouTube …
Now to put this into the context of genealogy. Well apart from the obvious keywords, like genealogy +Australia (which will give you new sites that have the words genealogy AND Australia it), you might like to have an Alert for a family that you are researching by using the surname and town they came from, such as: McCullough +Randalstown, or Peters +'”Broken Hill'”
To get started head on over to http://www.google.com/alerts.
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N is for NEW JERSEY
Since we’re on the letter N, I have decided to write a little about New Jersey as it is (at least so far) my one and only family connection to the US. Let me start off by saying I am in NO WAY, not even remotely an expert on researching in the United States, or even New Jersey for that matter. So if anyone has further tips or suggestions on how to do so – trust me I’m listening. So class me as a total newbie on this … but hey, everyone has to start somewhere, and we learn as we go … right?
My US connection starts with Charlotte Phillips who is the mother of my George Phillips who emigrated to Australia. Anyway after having George, Charlotte got married Samuel Trewartha and they had four children.
Charlotte, together with her two surviving children (John and Eliza) emigrated from Redruth, Cornwall, England on the ship “Fulton” to New York, United State, arriving on 14 December 1867. From New York the family made their way to Rockaway, Morris County, New Jersey – which at least on a map isn’t too far away, but back in 1867 I’m sure was was still quite a distance, and how they travelled, who knows … that is still to be discovered.
Charlotte’s husband Samuel had migrated to the US prior to the rest of the family doing so (when and where still remain a mystery), but I do know that it was Rockaway that Samuel chose to set up his confectionery store, which I gather did quite well, as Candy Sam became well-known throughout the region. Anyway I’ll go more into the Phillips and Trewartha families in a later post.
One Response to “Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge: N is for … Never-Ending New Stuff and New Jersey”
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Thanks for all the great links _ I can surely relate to all that never-ending new stuff. Fun but sometimes overwhelming.