Free Books--No Strings Attached

This isn't a Google ad. I like Google but my fondness increased just a bit more because of a feature from their general web page called Google Books. The plan that Google has worked out includes amassing an impressive collection of on-line books--titled that have been out of print and are in the public domain.

This collection is a wonderful asset to the family historian because many biographies, community histories, diaries, travelogues, and regional family concerns are available. Many of the volumes can be downloaded and read with adobe reader!

Steps to get to the motherload:
1. go to google.com
2. find the search offerings available besides "web search". Usually found under the "more" category.
3. Click on "books"
4. type a subject in the search box. Try historical dictionary.
5. You now have a choice of limited preview or full view. Click on the full view option.
6. View the dictionaries available. Click on a book that interests you.
7. You always have the option to read the volume on-line.
8. If the book is available for download, you will see a download button on the right panel.
9. You can download your book and read at your leisure.

This is an excellent resource. I found a book last night about Early Settlers in New England. I found a listing of a direct ancestor with names and birthdates of his family--impressive since I did not have a birthdate for one of the children!

Good hunting!

You Are What You Wear

It is always good to have success in one's genealogy research. But once names are uncovered, it is also important to study the culture of the community where the ancestor lived. This note covers a rich cultural aspect of people who lived in the Virginia Colony during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Williamsburg, as a part of the Virginia Colony, played an important role in the early years of European settlement. From 1699 to 1780, Williamsburg was the cultural and political capitol of the largest of the American colonies.

The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation hosts a website providing a wonderful glimpse into this region of Virginia. One area that stands out is their treatment of colonial costume. An informative and well designed site provides the reader with in-depth coverage of the clothing that people wore in the eighteenth century in this area.

The reader can learn and see the various forms of dress that men, women, and children wore. The clothing choices of the people were tied directly to their racial and socioeconomic status. Several articles well describe this dichotomy.

The site provides a solid overview of the millinery business in that community. There is a good discussion of how people dressed for every occasion. Again it speaks to class, race, and status. An interesting component of dressing included coverage on childbed linen.

Childbed linen is a nice name for infants' clothing. There were three items deemed essential by the powers who decided what infants would wear, viz. a cap, robe, and shirt. There were different expectations as to quality and quantity of clothes based on one's status in the community.

If you have ancestors from the Virginia Colony this site might be invaluable to you. For others, it is just a good read about how society judges people by the clothes worn. Gee, I'm glad its not this way in our time!

http://www.history.org/history/clothing/intro/index.cfm

Happy Trails!

Grave Terminology - the Lite Version

Do you know the difference between an obelisk and a ossuary? Don't worry, most people would need a little help. Fortunately, help is on the way. I am referring to the website called The Limited Encyclopedia of Grave Terminology.

The author, Joel Gazis-Sax, has taken time to inject just a bit of sublime humor into the definitions. For example: obituary is defined as "a form of embalming by means of the written word."

Funeral is defined as "the cause of a short-term cash flow problem for the living."

It is a delightful site to visit. The list of terms contains all of the most common cemetery-related words and is sprinkled with a good measure of not-so-common words.

http://www.alsirat.com/silence/cemterms/index.html

Hope you enjoy the site!

Social Security Death Index - Free Look-ups

A very powerful resource, the Social Security Death Index, contains birth and death information on millions of United States citizens. While the social security program was started in the 1930's during the Great Depression, computerized records did not exist until 1962 (the earliest date records are kept in the death index).

These records can be found on several web sites but one particular source, Rootsweb, seems to have the most up-to-date listing. There is about a two-week lapse between notification of death to the Social Security Administration and adding the individual to the death index.

The following site provides a good overview of the social security records:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~rwguide/lesson10.htm

The actual database can be found at the listing below. It is recommended that you use the advanced search feature to help narrow the results. This resource gets four stars and is bookmarked in my essential research sources.

http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi

A great resource!

Maiden Launch

Well, I haven't come across many people who dislike talking about family history. It is no surprise that genealogy is a very popular activity. To some, it is an addiction!

Finding ancestors has been a hobby of mine for some thirty years. But the advent of the computer and the Internet has made it a whole new type of hobby. I doubt it would be possible for one person to locate and view half of all the web sites and e-mail lists that crop up each year.

I would like this blog to be a resource for people to share resources they have found that were helpful. The success of the site depends on those sharing their discoveries.

As such, I would like to share a site I recently found regarding Florida Confederate Pension Applications. If you have ancestors who lived in Florida after the Civil War, this site might be a boon for you.

In order for a Florida veteran of the civil war (or his widow) to collect a pension, a great deal of paperwork had to be submitted. To quote from the web site at the Florida State Archives:

The series includes files on approved and denied pension claims from 1885 to 1954. Most files contain the original application, any supplemental applications, proof of service and residency, and occasional correspondence between the applicant and the Board. Veterans' applications generally include name, date and place of birth, unit dates and places of enlistment and discharge, brief description of service, wounds received, sworn statements on proof of service by comrades, War Department service abstracts, and place and length of Florida residency. Widows' applications generally include, in addition to the above, her full name, date and place of marriage to the veteran, and date and place of the veteran's death. Widows' applications are filed under the name of the veteran.

The information can be retrieved soldier's name, widow's name, or service number. All of the application material has been digitized and can be accessed freely. Official copies can be purchased on line with a credit card. The web address is:

http://www.floridamemory.com/Collections/PensionFiles/

Happy hunting!