7 Tips When Researching U.S. Army World War II Soldiers

After nearly 30 years of researching my father-in-law's WWII military service, which began on 7 April 1941 and ended on 18 June 1945, I now know where he was on almost every day of that time. My husband and I have taken many terrific trips visiting those places and learning more about where he served. So it's no surprise I like to write about the war experiences of my ancestors. From skirmishes with Native Americans prior to the Revolutionary War right through the Global War on Terrorism. However, I write most frequently about my Civil War, World War I and World War II veteran ancestors' experiences. Today, I'd like to share with you what I've learned about researching U.S. Army World War II veteran ancestors -- one of the millions of citizen soldiers Tom Brokaw called the "Greatest Generation."

A great resource is World War II Research and Writing Center.

1. Order his military service records

It's difficult to proceed with your research unless you know in which unit your ancestor served. The first thing I recommend doing is to order his or her military records. You can make your request for those records if you are next of kin of a deceased veteran here. If available, the information you will receive will include his DD 214, or separation papers; personnel records; replacement ribbons or medals; and medical records. The unit listed on this form includes the unit he was with when he was discharged. It may not be all of the units in which he served. Company morning reports housed at the National Personnel Records Center will include the transfers of soldiers to and from different units.

Page 1 of my father-in-law's DD 214 form; personal collection

Those military records are housed at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri. There was a fire at that location in 1973, which destroyed approximately 16 to 18 million records, including:

• 80 percent loss of Army records for personnel discharged between 1 November 1912 and 1 January 1960
• 75 percent loss of Air Force records for personnel discharged between 25 September 1947 and 1 January 1964 (names after Hubbard, James E. alphabetically)

Even if your veteran ancestor's records were burned, you will likely receive his or her DD 214 form if your are next of kin. This form contains enough information about the specific unit in which your ancestor served, military induction and discharge dates, special qualifications or schools attended, ribbons and medals received, and so on.

2. Learn about the specific unit in which he served

Now that you have your veteran ancestors military records, you can begin to research the unit in which he served. Every branch of military service has an organization hierarchy. In the U.S. Army it is:

Company >> Battalion >> Regiment >> Division >> Corps >> Army >> Army Group

The division is the smallest unit that is capable of fighting completely independently. To understand more about how Army divisions were organized during World War II, I suggest reading a post I wrote on this topic on my Tangled Roots and Trees blog.

Another necessary resource is the Order of Battle of the U.S. Army, European Theater, World War II.

These resources are invaluable when reading Army histories to better understand if your ancestors were involved.

3. Understand the role he played in his unit

Two factors will help you understand the role your ancestor played within his unit -- his rank and his MOS, or Military Operational Specialty.

There are two types of soldiers in the Army, officers and enlisted personnel. Each have their own levels of ranks. To learn them and the general responsibilities of each rank, I have found these links extremely helpful:

• Officers
• Enlisted personnel

Your ancestors military records will include their rank upon discharge and any military operational specialties, or special skills they acquired, on their DD 214 form. This link includes the list of current Army MOSs, but many from World War II still exist though they may have been renamed. I have found it's possible to find a similar MOS and at least get in the neighborhood of what duties my ancestor performed. For example, in Korea my father was a mechanic for wheeled and tracked vehicles. Those MOSs still exist.

4. Record the awards and decorations he earned

Your ancestor's DD 214 form will include the awards and decoration he earned during his Army service. If he won an award for meritorious conduct or bravery, you will likely receive a copy of the original citation if you order a replacement medal. Other awards can provide clues to the dates on which he or she served if they are not provided elsewhere. If your ancestors received the American Defense medal, he enlisted or was drafted before Pearl Harbor, 7 December 1941, as did my father-in-law. If he or she received the Victory medal, they served in the Army sometime between 7 December 1941 and 31 December 1946. I will be writing about this topic in detail on Tangled Roots and Trees in June. However, you will likely find these sources helpful:

• Army Regulation 600-8-22, Military Awards
• Awards and Decorations of the United States Armed Forces, which includes links to explanations about individuals awards and decorations
• Badges of the United States Army

My father-in-law's ribbon "rack;" built using EZ Rack Builder[1]

5. Learn about the campaigns in which he served

Your ancestor's DD 214 form will include any campaigns in which your ancestor participated. Campaigns are a series of large-scale, long-term operations or battles which required significant military planning and form part of a larger conflict. For example, during World War II, the U.S. Army fought in 38 campaigns. Knowing in which campaigns your ancestor participated will allow you to read the appropriate sections of the Army "Green" Books. These military histories are now online. When I began my research I had to order them from the General Printing Office.

My Army "Green" Books; personal collection

They are the very best, detailed history, often to the company level of the U.S. Army in World War II.

If you are not a history buff, at least read the relevant campaigns or skim the index for his army, corp. division, and regiment (sometimes part of a combat team with the same numerical designation as the regiment).

6. Use unit societies' websites and books about units

Websites for Division Societies such as the Society of the 5th Infantry Division are plentiful on the Internet. These societies will have a wide variety of information, personal photographs, and first-hand accounts from soldiers who served with the unit. Many include pamphlets and other propaganda published by the unit. Simply Google to find them online. Some will have the names of books that can be purchased about the unit. If the book is out of print, I have had great success finding them on Internet Archive, ABEBooks, Google Play, Amazon, or eBay. If none of those sources have the book available, I can usually find it on World Cat and either go to a nearby library or have it loaned to my local library.

7. Don't forget your women ancestors

Many women served in various women-only military organization during the war. Don't forget about them in your research. General Douglas McArthur called the Women's Army Corps (WACs) "his best soldiers" and said they worked harder, complained less, and were better disciplined then men. General Dwight Eisenhower said their contributions were immeasurable.

I hoped I've sparked your interest in digging deeper into your World War II ancestor's military service. Many in that generation would not talk about their experiences. This is your chance to find out about them.

Good luck!

_______________
Women's Army Corps (WACs) in World War Two
Understanding the U.S. Army World War II Infantry Division
Army Campaign Streamers

CuriousFox: a gazetteer and message system

Logo on www.curiousfox.com

CuriousFox is a gazetteer and message system that connects genealogists and local historians. Collaboration between these two groups is immensely beneficial.

In CuriousFox, every town and village in the United Kingdom and Ireland has its own page. There is also a USA version, which I have not personally used.

Things I like about CuriousFox include:

• Exact map locations and historic maps.
• Free to join, add entries, and search by village or surname.
• With surname searches, finding relevant entries is easier because you can work at town / village level.
• You can search for 'nearby' entries.
• It is easy to edit or delete your entries.
• Google searches will find your entries (so 'new relatives' can contact you).
• No spam (your email address is not visible).
• Privacy (the system sends messages between members, and you decide whether to give a particular member your address).
• Advantages of being a paying member (about five pounds per year) include:
  • Contact and be contacted by all other members (free or paying).
  • Receive email alerts when people add entries for towns of interest to you.
  • Publicise your Web page or blog.

Entry screen for my ASHTON message

HINTS:

• Give some thought to the wording of your entries. They should be concise, with surnames (and only surnames) in capital letters. Specify dates, and use appropriate punctuation.


• For large towns with many entries and multiple pages, delete your entry every year and immediately resubmit it (updated if necessary) so that it reappears near the top of the list for that town. I did this recently, and within 24 hours a local historian contacted me and offered to send transcriptions of land records for that surname/town!

I hope you will try Curious Fox and share your success stories in a comment here. You might also like:

• Finding Genealogy Data in an Unexpected Country


• Use FreeBMD postems to find new relatives


• Widen the Search: a Genealogy Success Story


• Genealogy 2014 - 2015: Successes and Goals


• A Genealogy Indexing Addict in Australia

Finding Genealogy Data in an Unexpected Country

Image by David Castillo Dominici, FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In my first post I promised to show you how information about a particular family or individual can be found (perhaps unexpectedly) in another country. Here are a few of the many interesting examples that I have seen.

• Magdalene NIELSON died in America, but the State Archives in Queensland, Australia, have her probate file. It describes her as 'formerly of Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia, but late of the City of New York, USA; wife of Peter NIELSON (formerly of Bundaberg but at present of Copenhagen, Denmark)'. The file includes Magdalene's death certificate from America (giving her age, marital status, occupation, birthplace, how long in the USA, how long in New York City, names and birthplaces of her father and mother, her place and cause of death, and class of dwelling); and a transit permit for her body to go to Germany, stating the exact burial place there.


• Ellis READ owned land at Burketown, Queensland, Australia. When it was sold after his death, a grant of probate was required so that a certificate of title could be issued. The Supreme Court file at Queensland State Archives shows that he lived in Mexico from 1882 to 1890; and between 1887 and 1890 he made business trips to England and lived there for a few months at a time. He died in Mexico in 1890, but his widow did not apply for administration of his estate until ten years later. An affidavit gives a translation of details from his death certificate (age, cause of death, burial place, native place, occupation, wife's maiden name, father's name, mother's maiden name).


• Margaret STAPLETON died in Queensland, Australia, and her death certificate says 'born Ireland, parents names unknown'; but her probate file at Queensland State Archives reveals their names. In her will, Margaret left property to her sister Johanna in Ireland. As Johanna's surname was spelled incorrectly in the will, she had to prove that she was the person named as beneficiary. Johanna was unable to supply her birth certificate because her birth had not been registered. Instead she sent a copy of her baptism record from a parish register in England! It gave her father's name and mother's maiden name.


• Patrick DOWNEY was born in Tipperary, Ireland, and died at Cairns, Queensland, Australia. A Supreme Court equity file at Queensland State Archives says that his brother, John DOWNEY, died at Paterson, New Jersey, USA, in about 1884.


• James Edward BUTLER was born in Ireland. He was charged with wife desertion after he left his wife and six children in New Zealand. A few years later his wife was in Sydney, Australia, trying to find him. This information, plus a detailed physical description of James, appeared in a New South Wales Police Gazette. (Many Police Gazettes for various Australian States can now be searched online.)

There are entries for people from many parts of the world in:

1. Records described in 6 Genealogy Sources You May Have Overlooked.


2. Ancestry's collection of wills, administrations, probate records and death duty registers (including the National Probate Calendar for England and Wales)

~ ~
You might also like:

• Genealogy 2014 - 2015: Successes and Goals


• Use FreeBMD postems to find new relatives


• CuriousFox: a gazetteer and message system


• Widen the Search: a Genealogy Success Story


• A Genealogy Indexing Addict in Australia

A Special Gift.

I’d been trying to come up with a topic all month but wasn’t having any luck until a couple of days ago. I was catching up on a TV show when inspiration struck – My Great Great Grandmother Novie.

In January, my family and I went on holidays to Hawaii for two weeks. My Maternal Grandparents – Mum’s Dad & Step-Mother – managed to fly over from Texas and spend a week with us in Hawaii. Grandad is now 83 and my Grandmother is in her early 70’s. They’ve both had some health issues the past few years so we were very lucky they were able to make the trip. Before the holidays, we knew that they were looking to move out of their house and into a retirement village. Their house is quite big and was getting hard to manage with just the two of them living there…and 3 very active little dogs as well. They also wanted to make the decision about moving into a retirement village while they still could, and not have someone else make the decision for them. A couple of weeks after our holiday, they actually found a house in the retirement village they want to live in and are signing the papers today.

Anyway, the night my Grandparents arrived in Honolulu, my Grandad gave me something very special. His Grandmother, my Great Great Grandmother Novie’s sugar bowl and butter dish. I had never seen these before, nor was I expecting anything at all, so I was very surprised and very honoured to be given them. He actually said “out of all the grandchildren, you’ll probably appreciate them the most” and I sure will!

Butter Dish

Sugar Bowl

So, who was my Great Great Grandmother Novie?

Novie Leona Swindell
Approx. 1901, Texas, USA.

Novie Leona Swindell was born in 1874, in Morgan County, Alabama to parents James Webb Swindell & Elizabeth Roberts. Currently I only know of one sibling that she had; a brother, Erbie Milton Swindell born in 1880. In 1894, Novie married Charles Rufus Thompson. They had six children together – Ethel, Pearl, Roy, Claude, Velma & Robert. Ethel was my Great Grandmother. Between 1897 and 1901, after having two children they moved to Texas. 

Thompson's: Charles, Ethel, Roy, Novie & Pearl.
Approx. 1901, Texas, USA.

Something that I hadn’t known about Novie & Charles until my Grandad told me that week was that at some point they separated. My Grandad doesn’t remember having much to do with Charles who moved to New Mexico. Novie lived with Ethel & her family when my Grandad was little to help with the cooking and cleaning. Novie died on the 19^th of March, 1949 in Corsicana, Texas.

I wonder what Novie would think if she knew her butter dish and sugar bowl had made it all the way to Brisbane, Australia? I will treasure them with all my heart, and when I have children, I hope they will too.

Until next time genea-friends.

G'day Y'all!

Hi there. I’m Caitie & I reside in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. I’m 23, so if I’m not mistaken, that makes me the youngest author on Worldwide Genealogy. I’ve lived in Brisbane my whole life (minus a year), and in my line of ancestors I was the first person born in Queensland. You might have been able to tell by the title of this post, that I’m half Australian (G’day) and half American (Y’all). My Dad grew up in Sydney, while my Mum is from Texas. I have lived in America before – Virginia, for a year when I was a baby. I remember nothing.

I caught the genealogy bug – that’s what we call it in our family – on the 8th of July, 2009, when I was 18. Needless to say, I’ve been obsessed with genealogy ever since. I’m not the first person to research our family history. My paternal Grandfather, Poppa, was first generation Australian born. His parents were from Scotland and arrived in Sydney in the 1880’s. My Poppa was an only child, but he connected with many cousins that we have around the world including in Canada & New Zealand. 

My Poppa (middle) with his cousins in Scotland.

On my mother’s side, my Grandma loved genealogy. If you’re from Texas, you’re considered to be a Southerner, and there’s generally one thing that a Southerner always knows – the family tree. My Grandma was adopted and researched her adoptive and biological ancestors. My Mum, Aunt and Uncle always tell the story of while they were growing up; their friends would be at the beach during summer vacation. Not them. They would be at court houses, churches and civil war battlegrounds with my Grandparents. My Grandma drilled the family tree into them. My Aunt & Uncle caught the genealogy bug, but it completely skipped my Mum and came to me. My Grandma died in 1980, ten years before I was born, so I never knew her. However, I feel like I am getting to know her through my genealogy. I also know that she would have loved this concept of Worldwide Genealogy. 

My Grandma, Nancy Robinson.
1932 - 1980

Anyway, where else can you find me?

I live over at Genealogically Speaking. I co-run the blog Young and Savvy Genealogists. I’m actually yet to do my first post over there – that’s something for tonight after work. Last year in August, coinciding with National Family History Month in Australia, I took the plunge and started a YouTube Channel. I love writing and blogging about my family history, but I wanted to TALK about it. I love love love talking to people about it. I’m definitely going to mention Worldwide Genealogy in my next video.

When I’m not doing genealogy, I’m a full time University student studying Criminology. I graduate this year. That’s a scary thought. The second half of the semester is usually when I begin to drown in assignments and exams, so I’m hoping I can keep up with one post a month here. :) I'm very excited to a part of Worldwide Genealogy. Thank you Julie!

Until next time genea-friends...

Hello from Connecticut

I'm Margaret and I live in Connecticut, USA, fairly close to New York City with my husband and our dog, Windy.  Our children don't live here most of the time -- the eldest is off on his own and the other two are at universities in western states.  I was raised in California and Arizona, but for the past 15 years we've been here in Connecticut about 35 miles from where my ancestor, John Beers, died about 330 years ago.  In the 10 generation span from John Beers down to me, only one person died in the town where he was born.  Many of my family lines tend to be filled with wanderers.  My Choctaw and Chickasaw ancestors were already living in what is now Mississippi when most of my European  ancestors immigrated to the USA from England, Germany and France in the 1600s and 1700s.  My Irish ancestors came a little later in the mid- to late- 1800s.

I'm excited to meet all of you and learn more about genealogy through this collaboration.  I am also using this as a jumping off point to revive my abandoned genealogy blog, Hummingbird on Her Hand, so named because hummingbirds landed on the outstretched hand of my great grandmother, Ida Austin.

Although I enjoy genealogy, much of the information I write about was and is collected by my mother, Sandra. She has been doing family history research as long as I can remember.  When I was a child, Mom occasionally gave me a paid challenge -- 5 cents for each correct name or date I could write in a blank family tree.  I got pretty good at it and eventually she lowered the rate to 1 cent per fact.

Me with my mother visiting my paternal grandparents in Kansas City c1970.

My mother has spent countless hours researching her lines and my father's, but in the past few decades, she has concentrated on Choctaw Tribal history and is extremely well versed on the Dawes Rolls, many Oklahoma Choctaw family lines and other tribal records.  I have learned a lot from her and this spring I will accompany her again to the National Archives in Washington, DC where I will serve as her copy assistant.  We try to copy records as efficiently as possible when we are there and we read them more carefully later.

In the past few years we have been making genealogical connections through DNA.  This has been pretty slow going, but I now manage the DNA accounts for about twenty family members. We continue recruiting relatives to give samples so that we can try to pinpoint which lines matches fall on.  Although we have good documentation for many family lines, we are missing three of my mother's great- great- grandparents and four of my father's great- great- grandparents.  Our DNA match-ups will be more successful when we fill in those missing surnames.

I look forward to getting to know you all as time goes on.

Margaret

"Hello, hon!" from Maryland

This is such an exciting undertaking! Thanks to Julie Goucher. What a great opportunity to share the history of Maryland along with my genealogy adventures.

Baltimore's Inner Harbor

Where to start? How about the beginning?

I am Deborah, Debbie. Deb. Growing up with seemingly thousands of girls with that name. Yes, it was very popular back in the day.

Most girls were named after Debbie Reynolds or Deborah Kerr. Not this chickie. This Debbie? In honor of my parents car. That my friends, is a story for another post.

I am a child of the 50's (aka a Boomer), born and raised in the "Old Line State" of Maryland. Hence the "hon" reference. I was the oldest of seven children, in a neighborhood where a big family was the norm. We had tons of playmates and never the chance to say "I'm bored!"

I was blessed with a Dad who loved history. His favorite subject to discuss? The American Civil War. Dad did his best to share that passion. Encouraging us to read and taking his broad on historical road trips.

Most weekends the van was loaded with children, snacks and a map to the nearest historical site. Gettysburg, Antietam, and Harpers Ferry were as familiar to us as Disney was to our friends. They would tell us about Donald and Mickey, we would tell them about John Brown and Picketts Charge. Made for very interesting conversations.

Dad with my daughter, Starr
abt. 1989
Antietam National Battlefield
(Grandpop sharing the history love)

But ... there was not much discussion about our heritage. In fact, until I was much older the subject meant very little in day to day life.

Fast forward ... Deb grows up ... meets future hubby ... has four children ... works for local public library. Life becomes hectic for many years.

Babies turn to teenagers. Then become adults flying from the nest. Hubby accepts a job away from home Monday to Friday. House is suddenly silent! Life comes to a screeching halt! What should Deb do?

At this point our library system began a new initiative. Introducing the staff to various types of technology and social networking. Twitter, Facebook, flickr and Goodreads to name a few. To help track progress, we each created a blog.

What happened next? I feel in love with technology and writing! Where had all this cool "stuff" been hiding?

When the new "experience" came to a conclusion, I wanted to keep learning and growing. How would I use these new tools? I wanted to keep blogging, but what would be my focus?

Into the Google search I typed "blogs" to get an idea or two. Wow! Pages and pages of hits. First up, crafting blogs. Nope. Can barely sew on a button. Next. Gardening. Seriously! Never met a plant I can't kill. Next. Genealogy. Maybe read a couple. That was that, my friends. Hook, line and sinker.

Adventures in Genealogy - born 8/22/10
Content by Deb Ruth
Design by her daughter, Starr

That was the beginning of "Adventures in Genealogy". Where I share frustrations and triumphs, while traveling the road to family discovery. Growing from newbie to slightly more seasoned researcher. Connecting with new found cousins and making friendships with other genealogy bloggers.

Over the years, these friends have been a large part of the learning process. With their encouragement I have become an avid webinar attendee, Twitter user and Facebook group participant.

I even got over my fear of public speaking. Dove in head-first with a presentation at the local library. Now? Talking to the world! Yes indeed, having some serious fun.

What do I hope to contribute with my posts?

Share my family history. Majority of the lines are recent  (late to mid 1800's) immigrants to Maryland. I will share the difficulties finding information on ancestors that melted into a large city.

The other end of the spectrum, my husband's family line. Each coming to America during the late to mid 1700s. Most residing in rural and farming communities. Information bonanza!

Also, the opportunity to share history and interesting (sometimes odd) facts about my Maryland.

Last by not least, make new friendships.

Julie, thank you for the opportunity to stretch my family history muscles.

Rolling Out To You, From Somewhere in the USA

.
Hi, I am Carol.  I come to you from Tampa Florida this month. Next month, I have no idea where I may be writing from.  See, we own a “stick built” home in SE Michigan, but, we also own a rolling home, a RV.

I am excited to be here as a participant in this new experiment of world wide blogging.  The RVing part of my soul keeps me stepping out of my comfort zone, this experiment feels the same in my world of blogging, step away from your comfort zone, try something new, push the limits.

I believe I was born with some serious nomad blood running through my veins.  I love the life of a Rver.  I also love, passionately, family research.  Real love and joy happen when I can marry the two.  And, I try to do that, as often as I can.  I even started a group on Facebook for those who love Genealogy and Rving, The group has the original sounding name of, GeneaRVing.

I have been researching since 1991.  I have been a volunteer for many years, in a Family History Center for some years, and in the local genealogy club for over 10 years, maybe closer to 15.  I taught genealogy in a campground in southern Texas for 3 years.  I strongly believe in giving it back, or paying it forward with volunteerism.

I have compiled and published two family histories, several more are in the works.  I really must finish one or two or - - -

My main blog, Reflections From the Fence is almost 5 years old.  The name came from the quirk I have of studying certain situations for a very long time, sitting on the fence, reflecting, having a difficult time deciding which side of the fence I care to visit.  Or, which side of a discussion I favor.

Reflections is a mix of family history, RVing travel logs and photos, some ideas on technology, living in a RV. Here and there a I may toss in a dash of yorkies.  Seems I reflect on much, and I really tend to mix it up.  I even keep myself wondering where I will go next or chat about next.  As a twist on the name, it truly has become a “reflection” of who I am and what I love.

Man (the hubby) and I have been traveling rather heavily since his retirement in January of 2001.  It has been our dream for over 35 years to travel the USA this way, for as long as we can.  We consider ourselves “extreme longtimers”.  The first several years I was able to convince him we just HAD to travel to Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, the bases of my heritage, deep bases.  I can tell you that YES you can travel and live in a RV and research.  It is wonderful to visit the homes of our ancestors and make discoveries about them and their lives, to walk among them.

My office in Tana (our 5th wheel, the trailer), iPad, monitor, laptop, let the research continue - -

Welcome to Worldwide Genealogy, come back and visit soon.  Let’s travel this together, shall we?


 .

Kristin Cleage, Writing From Atlanta, Georgia

Me at my desk.

I am looking forward to participating in this international genealogy blog, although I am not completely sure I know what we are going to do with it.

My name is Kristin Cleage.  I live in Atlanta, Georgia, Southern United States. Our weather here right now is about 45F/7C and it's drizzling outside. I grew up in Detroit (Now in a deep freeze) where both sides of my extended family lived. 

After my maternal grandparents died in 1974 and my second daughter was born, I became interested in family history. I started by gathering names and stories from relatives. 

My husband, 6 children and I, lived in rural areas for many years, far from big libraries and archives. Family information and a large collection of photographs, was all I had until we went online in the 1990s and I joined Ancestry.com in 2002 and was thrilled to begin finding records to document the oral history and other information that took me back further. 

My husband retired in 2007 and we moved from the North Woods of Michigan to Atlanta, GA, where 5 or our 6 children live with 6 of our 7 grandchildren. In May of 2010 I attended a local African American Genealogy Society meeting and the topic was starting a blog.  I thought that sounded interesting and went home to start  my blog Finding Eliza.  I loved doing it and have been at it ever since.

Because my ancestors were enslaved until the 1860s, the only records I can find before emancipation in 1866 are records kept by the slave holders. That means I have to identify that owner and find his records.  Last week I was very excited, and also depressed, to find my paternal line - the Cleages mentioned in the will of Alexander Cleage on FamilySearch.Org (a free site).  Since then I have found more mentions in another will that I found by starting a tree on Ancestry.com for the slave holding Cleage family. It seems that daughters of well to do families were often given several slaves as a dowry and the father or husband would mention this in his will. 

I found documentation for a different line, my mother's maternal line, in a newspaper article on GenealogyBank.com about one of my cousins that mentioned his mother was a slave before the war on Colonel Harrison's plantation in Montgomery, AL. 

All of my lines have been taken back as far as I can go post slavery. I see my research this year being taking them back into slave times. This will be harder for other lines because I have no oral history of what plantation they came off of, just an idea based on where they lived in 1870 and their names.

I don't belong to any offline genealogy groups right now but I'm active in The African American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research (AAGSAR). I'm also doing Julie's "The Book Of Me, Written By You", The African American Genealogy Blogging Circle and Sepia Saturday.

 

And now to the Pacific Northwest - Hello from the USA

No matter who is blamed for this venture (and I think it is a tie between Jill Ball and Julie Goucher), I think Worldwide Genealogy is going to be an interesting and fun addition to the blogging world! Many of the writers have blogs or websites and, while some of us are not as dedicated or prolific as others, we will all be adding something different to the mix. That said, let’s get the introductions out the way.

My name is Tessa Keough and I have been “doing” genealogy for the past eight years. The two biggest changes I have seen during the past eight years have been technology and global connections.

My interest in genealogy started after seeing a very rough draft of a pedigree chart put together by a cousin and shared at a family reunion. Being a bit of an A-type personality and noticing several blanks or questionable connections, I simply had to start reviewing the underlying database and finding those missing people. In an effort to be organized and efficient with my genealogy from the outset, I attended the Salt Lake Institute for Genealogy in January 2007. Imagine my surprise when I asked the question “can we do this paperless (because I travel a bit)” and was met with eye-rolling and much laughter. As I remember there were only two people in that course who were taking notes via laptops (I remember feeling distinctly out of place – younger than the cohort and using my laptop). I have since been to three additional SLIG conferences. Now you would be out of place if you did not use a laptop, tablet or smartphone. What a difference a few years makes, especially in technology!

In an effort to figure out my paternal line and not having the benefit of all those lovely documents, photographs and family trees that other families seem to have (and yes, I am jealous of those of you who have such a wealth of information), I found several excellent websites for learning more about my grandfather’s homeland and had the opportunity to travel to, and do some research in, Newfoundland. Still struggling to determine which individuals in the small communities we might be related to (and how), I stumbled upon the concepts of one-name studies and one-place studies. Because both the surname (Keough) and the place (Plate Cove East, Newfoundland) were small enough in terms of numbers, and the idea of combining methodical research and interacting with others doing that same type of study, I decided to work on both a one-name study and a one-place study. Because I cannot leave well enough alone and it is important that we help each other in the genealogy community, I also helped set up the Legacy Virtual Users’ Group on Google+ (a community that hosts monthly hangouts and shares tips and suggestions) for those who use Legacy Family Tree as their genealogy database.

From my studies, my attendance at conferences and seminars, and the LVUG Community as well as from being a member of the Guild of One-Name Studies and the Society for One-Place Studies, I have met (both online and in person) genealogists and family historians from around the world. With the introduction of Google+ (my preferred social media hub) and the ability to “hangout” on a one-on-one basis or in a monthly hangout (either private or on-air), I have had the opportunity to learn about so many aspects of research, analysis, writing, technology and organization. I find the ability to chat with individuals from Australia, England, Spain, Ireland, Canada and all parts of the USA – all from the comfort of my own living room with a cup (or three) of coffee – a real treat. Whether we are researching in online databases, checking the collections of libraries or archives before we visit in person, contacting someone in another country via email or a Google+ chat, listening to a genealogy podcast while walking, attending a webinar, or engaging in a genchat or a hangout-on-air – the availability and benefit of global connections in the past few years has been amazing (and oftentimes free). 

If you are just starting out in genealogy – what a great time to begin - the technology and the ability to interact on an international basis (and do so in real time) is wonderful. For those who have been at this for a few years, I am sure you will agree that we are witnessing some amazing advances.

But no matter how technology and accessibility may change (sometimes by leaps and bounds), many things remain the same. We still need to have a focus, research, cite, analyze, write, and share our family history – whether that is of our direct line families, our extended families, all those who share a selected surname, or all those who share a particular place.

It is a great time to be “doing” genealogy and I hope you will join us in this venture – either by reading and commenting on our posts, adding your name to the list of writers and sharing a bit of your genealogy knowledge with the rest of us, or by suggesting a question or topic for future blog posts here on Worldwide Genealogy. Why not join us!