52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks–Week #11–This week’s theme is the number 12

The theme this week is the number 12.  This could be used many different ways.  The 12th person in your Ahnentafel list, number 12 in your RIN (Record Identification Number) in your genealogy program, the 12th month or 12th day. By the way, Ahnentafel is a German word for “ancestor table.”

At first I thought I would write about the ancestor who has number 12 in my Legacy program.  These numbers are randomly assigned.  But, that number belongs to my sister-in-law, Melinda.  While I’d love to write a story about her, because she is one of my favorite people, I won’t because of all the people associated with her, who are, thankfully, still living.  Here is a post I wrote last year, about Melinda's 2nd great grandfather William Davies. SUNDAY’S OBITUARY ~ William Davies, born in Scotland in 1825–died in Washington, D.C. in 1904
 
I’ll refocus and use my Legacy program to tell me which ancestors have a birthdates, marriage dates or death dates in December.  To do this use Search>Detailed search and enter your criteria as shown below, then click on “create list.”

My results were:
228 people born in December
216 people married in December
210 people died in December

Exercises like these can be a fun way to take a break from your research.  Most genealogy programs will allow you to do searches like this one and so many more things.  We are all lucky to be doing our research at a time when we have such robust software to assist us.

To read my other tips on using Legacy click on this link Legacy Tips

HERE ARE OTHER BLOG POSTS I’VE WRITTEN ABOUT SEARCHES

How to Conduct a Location Specific Search on Family Search

Michigan Death Records Online - Where Can You Find Them?

Happy hunting,
Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2010-2019   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

TUESDAY’S TIP–How to Determine Which War Your Ancestor May Have Participated In

Military records can be one of the best resources we find for our ancestors.  Whether it’s a draft registration, a pension file or a service record, they can tell us a lot about that ancestor.

Here are some of the things you may find in a military record:

• Date of birth
• Names of parents
• Date of marriage, name of spouse & marital status
• Names and ages and/or date of births of children
• Places of residence
• Occupation
• Physical characteristics
• Names of other relations or acquaintances may be found in pension files
• Date & place of death
• Place of burial

That is only a partial list.  But, you can certainly see how important these records can be.

SO HOW CAN WE FIND OUT WHICH OF OUR ANCESTORS MIGHT HAVE PARTICIPATED IN WHICH WAR?

I use Legacy 8 as my software database and this is the method I used.  I’m sure other software programs have similar finding aids.

The first thing I referred to was a list that I located on Ancestry.com last year.  Here is a link to the post: http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2014/04/23/what-war-did-my-ancestor-serve-in/

(CLICK ON ANY IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT)

My next step was to use the “Search” capabilities of Legacy 8 by beginning here: 



For a detailed, step by step lesson on how to create your search criteria, please see my post here - Legacy 8 - The Search Function - What Can You Find?

In this case I used the following criteria for possible World War I veterans:



NOTE: Of course there were women who served during the wars.  Especially the later wars.  However, for now I wanted to concentrate on the primary possibilities, which are the men.

Now I actually have a list I can use for each of the wars.  I can check the list one by one and look for military records.  Rather than my usual method of remembering to do that as I’m researching a particular person.
 
I can indicate in my To-Do list in Legacy that I have completed this task.  Or, I could make a notation in the ancestor’s “research notes.”  Or you could keep track some other way.  Because some of the lists are multiple pages, I would not personally print them out.  You might choose to.  I did create a PDF version of each list, which you can do directly from the “Print” option at the bottom of the page of names.

Here is a sample of the first page of a list I converted to PDF format:



Here is a compilation of how many names appear on each list that I created.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR = 90
CIVIL WAR = 411
SPANISH AMERICAN WAR = 573
WAR OF 1812 = 118
WORLD WAR I = 421
WORLD WAR II = 554
KOREAN WAR = 243
VIETNAM WAR = 160

That’s a grand total of 2570 men who could possibly have military records.  I will be able to quickly eliminate from each list, those who died at birth, died as infants or before they were military age.  There could be several who overlap and could have served in more than one war.  My database contains 4719 individuals.

Now to determine where to start and how to proceed.  Do you think this is a valuable list?  Is it something you could use?  Please share your results with me if you choose to create such lists.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST

Legacy 8 - CENSUS LIST - How Will I Use It To Search for My Family?

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION

HOW TO CONDUCT A LOCATION SPECIFIC SEARCH ON FAMILY SEARCH

FamilySearch and the FamilySearch logo are trademarks of Genealogical Society of Utah

Maybe you’ve used this site for years.  Perhaps you are new to genealogy and have only recently begun using this site?  There are usually many methods used by genealogists to get the most from their searches.  We learn these over time, by trial and error or from someone else with more experience.

This is the method I use when I want to search a specific set of records on Family Search.  Whether you want to search in one of the 50 states, Canada, Europe or Asia, the method is the same.

From the home page, click on “Search” and then “Records.”

You will see this screen (Click on any image to enlarge it)



Now go to the map and hover over an area you want to search.  You will see that the areas will change from grey to yellow.  Click on the yellow area you want to search.

I chose the United States and this is how my screen now looks:



Once you click on that yellow area you will see a drop down list with all the locations for that area.  In this case all 50 states.  I chose Michigan and this is what I see.



Next I selected “Start researching in Michigan.”

You will see the screen shown below.  Notice that only a few records are shown on the list at the bottom.  I want to see all the Michigan records, so I select “Show all 58 Collections.”  This will take you to a complete list.



Here is a sample of a portion of that complete list.  As you can see you can use the boxes on the left of the record collection to select only one or several of the collections in which to conduct your search.

 
Here are the things you learn from viewing this complete list:

• Which records are available
• How many records are in the collection
• When the collection was last updated
• Whether the collection has images or not (by the little camera on the right of the last column)

As you scroll down this page the next thing you will see is a list of the Michigan Image Only Historical Records.  This means there is no index for these records and you must browse the entire collection page by page.  Again, you see how many images are in the collection and when it was last updated.



This is an excellent way to check the site from time to time and see what collections have been recently updated.  Maybe it’s time to go back and look through the collection again?

TIP:  Make use of the Wiki on this site.  You find it from the home page, by clicking on “search” and then “wiki” in the dropdown list.  I went to the Wiki and put in the word Michigan.  Then I selected “Military Records.”  What I got was an incredible list of resources, links and information.  Since it is too long for me to include on this page, here is the link so you can see what I’m talking about https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Michigan_Military_Records

Another great resource for finding specific records is Cyndi’s List.  You can search the site alphabetically and she has, as of this date, 333,397 links.  The site is constantly being updated.
I hope you’ve found this post helpful.

OTHER POSTS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST
Family Search - Going back & getting those other pages

How to Find Probate Records Online

Happy hunting,

Michigan Girl

Copyright ©  2015   Diane Gould Hall

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.  NO USE WITHOUT PERMISSION