6-11-2010 Notify Me
  

• What is the "Notify Me" service?
• Can I submit a "Notify Me" request for more than one surname?
• Can I include more than just a surname in my request?
• How many emails will I get if I sign up for "Notify Me"?
• Does it cost to use the "Notify Me" service?
• Why can't I access the newly added records for my surname?
• Do I have to have a MyTrees.com account to use the "Notify Me" service?
• I submitted a "Notify Me" request, but I never got a confirmation email. What happened?
• My ancestor had a very common surname. How can I use "Notify Me"?
• How do I remove a surname from my "Notify Me" list?
• How do I change my email address?

26-6-2010 Interviewing Your Family this Summer   
As you take advantage of these summer months to visit family members or to participate in family reunions, consider making time to take a few oral histories as well. Family visits are often a gold mine of memories and history, but how are you going to remember it all if you don't find some way to record it? In this article, we'll uncover some useful suggestions and tools for recording your precious family history moments this summer.

31-3-2010 Finding Your Civil War Ancestors   
Do you know where your American ancestors were between 1861 and 1865? Over three million men fought during the Civil War. Approximately 2 percent of the population of the United States were killed--more than 620,000 people. That's more casualties than the US has suffered during any other war. If you've lost track of an ancestor after the 1860 census, there's a good chance that they may have died during the Civil War, either in battle or due to illness. Their disappearance might also indicate that an event during the war caused them to relocate. How can you find out what role, if any, your ancestors played during the conflict between the states?

1-10-2009 Top 20 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
   Here are the answers to the 20 questions most often asked by MyTrees.com patrons.

8-8-2009 **Finding Our Ancestors By Deciphering Their Nicknames** By Cindy Carman   
To most of us who tirelessly search for our family history it's no surprise that nicknames were used by almost all of our ancestor's. By nickname I mean a name by which an individual is called on a day to day basis that is different than their first name given at birth. Identifying our ancestors in the many handwritten records available to us becomes much easier when we know the possible nicknames by which they may be called. I was fascinated to find that nicknames are a common tradition of almos t every culture and era.

3-6-2009 Finding Obituaries Online
   by Aubrey Fredrickson
"In researching your family tree, it can be easy to fall into the trap of confining yourself only to official documents, such as birth, marriage, and death records. While these records are certainly important, you may be missing valuable information if you aren't checking other sources as well. One extremely useful resource that is sometimes overlooked by genealogists is the obituary. "

1-4-2009 Top 10 Genealogy Books
   by Aubrey Fredrickson
Whether you are a seasoned genealogist or a beginner just starting to uncover your roots, you've probably found that there are a lot of genealogy resources out there. We'd like to help you sort through the tons of resources available to you and find the ones that will be of the most use to your research. In this article, we'll focus on the top 10 books that we would suggest for doing U.S. research. Then we'll mention some books aimed at doing research for other countries.

28-1-2009 ***Six Surefire Ways to Locate an Ancestor's Photo
   by Cindy Carman
First to save time and effort, take stock of which one of your ancestors might have a photo out there waiting to be discovered. Since the popular use of photography wasn't until after 1839, it would be safe to assume that if your ancestor died before 1839, there is little chance that he had a photograph taken. (Though they might have had a portrait or sketch drawn of their likeness.)

27-11-2008 The Best Gift Ideas With a Family History Flair!
   by Aubrey Fredrickson and Cindy Carman. Christmas shopping is always a challenge when trying to find that unique gift for those special people in your life. Why not give a gift with a family history flair this holiday season? Here are 34 great gift ideas which should thrill any family member and put a twinkle in the eye of any fellow genealogist.

10-10-2008 Organizing Your Digital Pictures
   by Aubrey Fredrickson
In our digital age, it's simple to document in photo images practically every moment regardless of big or little importance. Birthday parties, family reunions, a day at the park, the baby's first step... Just grab that digital camera and start snapping away. You don't have to buy film. You don't have to develop the pictures afterwards. You can take multiple shots of the same thing and then go back later and decide which one you like best.

22-5-2008 How can parents get kids excited about genealogy?
   Here are 20 genealogy and family oriented activities that a parent or grandparent can do with a child that do not require a lot of advanced planning and which will probably help the child to have an increased interest in their ancestors both living and dead.

29-11-2007 Getting Together: Planning Your Family Reunion By Aubrey Trivett
   Many of us associate the holiday season with family and the big dinners, parties, and celebrations. As we gather together to enjoy the festivities, what a better time to start planning that next family reunion? Of course, planning a reunion can be a substantial undertaking. Not sure where to start? What with invitations, reservations, and a hundred tiny details that lie ahead, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. That's why we've put together a simple five-step list to help you break up the job into manageable pieces.

12-8-2007 Oral Histories - Conducting Interviews - by Aubrey Trivett
   In our last issue, we talked about writing your personal history, but what if you'd like to preserve someone else's memories? Do you have a parent, grandparent, or other relative who tells really wonderful stories? Have you ever tried to retell one of those stories in your own words? It's not quite the same thing...

24-12-2006 Writing Your Personal History by Aubrey Trivett
   As your family history research takes you further and further back in time, each step uncovering bits and pieces of your ancestry, it is natural to begin wondering what your descendants will have to say about you. What sort of legacy will you leave behind? What humorous anecdotes, clever parables, or family legends will your great-grandchildren attribute to your name?

8-4-2006 Aubrey Trivett answers your GEDCOM upload questions.    I'm thinking about uploading my family tree to MyTrees.com, but I have some questions..

1. Why should I upload my GEDCOM to MyTrees.com? We often hear from distressed genealogists who say their computers have crashed and their backup disks are unusable. If they have previously submitted their GEDOM to us, the solution is as easy as downloading a copy of the file. Here at MyTrees.com, we backup every file in our database not once but four times. This insures that no matter what happens, we will always have a copy of your complete file stored on our server.

17-6-2005 What information did the 1851 Canadian Census gather?
   In 1847 the Census Act established the taking of a Census every 10 years in Upper and Lower Canada. The first effort under this new act was the 1851 Census. Portions of the 1851 census have not survived (including the City of Toronto). The 1851 census had originally been scheduled for 1849, having been authorized by an act passed in 1848. In April 1849, however, the Assembly amended the act to postpone the census until 1851. This was done because the British government wanted all of the colonies to take a census in 1851.

5-11-2004 How can I find out if I have Native American Ancestry? by Cindy Carman    Though I am not an expert in Native American research, and few are, I have read many articles, books, and outlines on the subject and will try to answer this question using the opinions of various experts.

8-4-2004 Epidemics in Colonial North America, 1519-1787: A Genealogical Perspective    Part Three: Whooping Cough, Mumps, Measles, Typhus, Typhoid, and other diseases by Larisa R. Schumann In previous articles we have examined the major epidemic diseases of colonial times. In this section, we will look at relatively minor diseases such as whooping cough, mumps, measles, typhus, typhoid fever, and other diseases. As with other diseases, children and older adults were often the first victims in any epidemic. Age, poor diet and hygiene also contributed to the high mortality rates in colonial North America. And while relatively few people died from the diseases we will examine here, the deaths were significant enough that records were kept.

30-10-2003 Epidemics in Colonial North America, 1519-1787: A Genealogical Perspective    Part Two: Malaria, Dysentery, Yellow Fever, Diphtheria, Scarlet Fever, and Respiratory Diseases
by Larisa R. Schumann

25-7-2003 Epidemics in Colonial North America, 1519-1787: A Genealogical Perspective by Larisa R. Schumann    Perhaps you are wondering how epidemics influenced your family history. Obviously your ancestors survived, because you are alive today. For many of us deadly diseases such as typhoid, smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, measles, and polio are all diseases of the distant past. They have been eradicated or vaccinations have been found. However, our ancestors all lived with the ominous threat of disease. By understanding the diseases of their lifetimes, we will be better able to understand our ancestors and the circumstances they lived in. The repercussions of these diseases are important for family history research, especially here in the United States.
Part One: Smallpox

30-5-2003 If no birth record exists for my ancestor, how can I estimate his birth date?
   The most common way of estimating a birth date is to use the age given for your ancestor in other records and subtract it from the year of the record. Some of the readily available records to use for the estimation are:

2-3-2003 Help! The marriage dates in the extracted record don't agree with the dates I have from the Family Bible. Which date is right?
   To discover the answer look to the source of the extracted record. If the date was extracted from a marriage bann, bond, license, declaration of intention, contract, or consent affidavit, chances are it was not the actual date of the marriage. If the date was extracted from a marriage certificate, announcement, ledger, family Bible, or minister return, the chances are good that the date is the actual date of the marriage ceremony.

25-11-2002 Where can I find the names of the parents of my ancestor when his parents' names are not listed on his birth, marriage, or death records?   
If your ancestor died after 1820 your best bet is to search for a newspaper obituary. Newspaper obituaries often give names, age, date of death, family information, names of survivors, church or mortuary for funeral service, and place of burial. Many times the place of birth is also given and it is not unusual to see a biographical sketch as part of the obituary.

7-8-2002 What do you mean Junior and Senior doesn't signify a father and son relationship and a cousin wasn't a relative at all?    During the 1700s the terms Junior and Senior were often conveniences used by colonial families who lived in rural communities. These terms were used merely to distinguish between two person who lived in the same locality, had the same name, and were of different generations. Sometimes the men were related sometimes not. It was quite common in the Southern United States. These designations were usually not permanent either.

15-5-2002 What Do You Mean February 1752 Never Existed?
   The fact is that January 1, 1752 through March 24, 1752 never existed in the calendar of Great Britian and its possessions, including the American colonies. And even more bizarre the dates September 3, 1752 through Sept 13, 1752 didn't exist either.

30-11-2001 Researching Old Newspapers Online and Offline
   By Karen Clifford, AG, FUGA and Tauna Hinckley
Before the advent of emails, personal Web pages, and the telephone, our ancestors used newspapers as a way to keep informed about local gossip and community events. A treasure trove of genealogical information can be found in time-period newspapers on subjects as minor as "who was visiting the neighbor" to major events such as murders to natural disasters. These include births, marriages, deaths, migrations, names and locations of relatives.