Online Struckmeyer-Ochonicky information
I am looking for ways to make my family trees available to the general public. My trees at Ancestry.com can only be viewed by family and friends who I permit by email address. This is not a very helpful system in my opinion. I have created four Ancestry.com family trees with Family Tree Maker software:
Struckmeyer – Sagner family tree
Ochonicky – Baer family tree
Skalla – Ridge family tree
Masson – Case family tree
Contact me for an invitation to view these trees.
Genealogy research
To do your own internet research, try the following sites:
History at Home: A Guide to Genealogy
Here is another introductory resource with a great selection of links.
Genealogy: The Complete Resource Guide
This seems to be a good starting point for genealogical research.
Getting Started in Genealogy
Another good starting point. Requires you to set up an account.
Understanding Your Family History
This is a fine starting place.
Genealogy Resources
This is well-researched paper with links to a multitude of resources.
Family Records Search in Europe
Search for records in 46 European countries.
Introduction to Old German Script (and Others)
Particularly helpful if you are struggling with old German documents. Also available in Catalan, Dutch, English, French, Italian, Latin, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Free Genealogy Resources
Additional free resources.
5 Exciting Activities to Teach Your Kids About Their Family Tree
An article in Junior Genealogist
Digitizing and Organizing Your Photos and Records
The importance of digitizing and organizing your family’s photos and documents and how to do so.
Genealogy Proof Standard (GPS) Flowchart
As you get deeper into family research, you may want to understand what professional genealogists call the “proof standard.” This guide explains what that is and provides a flowchart for determining whether your information is provable.
Researching Family History from Ships Passenger Lists
The information on these lists include age, who they traveled with, what ship they took if they traveled first-class or steerage, what port they sailed from and what port they landed at, and their occupation when they took the journey.
How to Download and Delete Your DNA from Every Company
A guide to protect your DNA.
Ancestry.com
Note: Three sites in this list (Ancestry.com, Genealogy.com, RootsWeb.com) are all controlled by one corporation—Ancestry.com. Although the corporation offers some free services, they make money by selling annual subscriptions to historical databases. The upside is that they are making lots of valuable information accessible through the internet.
Ancestry maintains the web’s largest collection of online historical records. A quick search on this site will reveal if anything is available in their record collections about the individual you are researching. However many of the databases can only be accessed by subscription. (I currently subscribe to the World Deluxe membership which gives me access to all their domestic and international records, including the U.S. records collection, U.S. immigration records, and U.S. census records.) Ancestry. com also offers free family tree charts and forms at: https://www.ancestry.com/cs/charts-and-forms
Genealogy.com
A quick search on this site will also reveal if anything is available in their online record collections about the individual you are researching. Like Ancestry.com, many of the databases can only be accessed by subscription. (However, subscribing to Ancestry.com is a better deal.)
RootsWeb.com
This is an online genealogy community for learning and collaboration. I have not used it much, because it never turned up much useful information for me. I really can’t comment on its effectiveness.
FamilySearch.org
This is the genealogy site of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. They are improving their search capabilities with a new online pilot program. In addition, they have an enormous amount of microfilmed information from around the world that can be accessed at their Family Research Centers in cities throughout the country.
Ellis Island Passenger Search
The passenger records at Ellis Island have been transcribed and are available in a searchable database for free. Keep in mind that Ellis Island only served as an immigration processing center from 1892-1924.
Ellis Island History
This site gives a brief overview of the history of Ellis Island.
The National Archives
A lot of information is available online at www.archives.gov. I have not used it much to date, but plan to explore it more in the future. They have videos, how-to guides, and much more.
Genealogy software
Family Tree Maker
This is the best-selling software for genealogy research. It was originally produced by The Generations Network which also owns Ancestry.com, Genealogy.com, RootsWeb.com, and MyFamily.com. Being best-selling doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the best software, but it is easy to use and can do quick online searches through its links with Ancestry.com. In 2016, Ancestry announced that they would no longer support Family Tree Maker and it was picked up by Mackiev.com, which seems to be doing an excellent job evolving the software.