Tips & Tools: Genlighten for documents

Link: http://www.genlighten.com/

Here is an interesting site that connects people looking for local records with people willing to hunt the records down. Prices are fixed by the researchers, so there seem to be many deals.

It looks like all payment is done online through paypal, which should give some security when paying an official source for documents. Interestingly, many searchers offer a "not found" fee, so you pay less if they can't come up with your record.


The search lets you choose what type of record you are seeking from different locations around the world. It displays a list of people and what resources they can get access to. Although the search is a bit limited, the database of helpers is still limited enough that the options they have are good enough.

We haven't given this site a try yet, but it is inspiring to think this might save us trips across the country to pin down elusive records. Also, it might be an entry point into the world of paid genealogy research. I wonder what resources we can easily get our hands on here in the capitol of GA?

Instant Gratification: German Births and Baptisms, 1558-1898

FamilySearch Record Search recently added a number of new databases. FamilySearch has been doing an amazing job of making many records, particularly vital records, with images available to the public at no charge. Unlike many of the older databases, many of the new databases do not give an image of the original record. The databases are instead indexes to records on microfilm Still, these databases can be very helpful in finding information and locating the records in the Family History Library's extensive catalog.

I have been making use of the Germany Births and Baptisms, 1558-1598 to track down information about a branch of my family that immigrated to the US in the late 19th century. Based on information I know about birth dates and parents' names from records of my ancestor and his siblings in the US, I was able to find information about christening records. Next step is to find the microfilm related to the entry in this database.

Instant Gratification Civil War Style: The OR & ORN

Link: http://dlxs2.library.cornell.edu/m/moawar/
Titles: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies in the War of the Rebellion (OR) & Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion (ORN)
Notes: Free



Cornell University has created an online search of one of the great historical sources from the American Civil War. The 159 Volume series is primarily made up of correspondences and rosters from the war, and it includes a comprehensive index. If you had a noteworthy soldier or sailor in the civil war, they may be mentioned by name. Even if not, this is a great way to track down information about the activities of different units, ships, and battles of the war.

The site has several search options, including a basic search for individual words, a boolean search that lets you use AND and OR operators, and a proximity search, which lets you for two terms within a number of words. The site also keeps a handy history of your recent searches.




Typing in a name will bring up a list of every entry in the volumes. It can be time consuming to click through each to see if it is relevant. A handy first step is to look at the indexes of the Army and Navy records to narrow down which records may be relevant to your search.

The index for the entire OR (the army records) is usually the last entry - you are looking for Series 4 - Volume 4.




From the results details, it is good to go to the view of the actual page, which is easier to browse. From this index, you can work your way back through the links that may be of interest to you.

Tips and Tools: Mapping Land Patents

Link: http://www.earthpoint.us/townships.aspx
Notes: Free!

Earthpoint provides a tool for converting U. S. land patent descriptions to latitude and longitude coordinates. It is designed to work with Google Earth which is a nifty program (+) but it requires a download (-). Fortunately, this webpage will also just spit out the latitude and longitude and you can easily plug that into an online mapping program in order to find out where an ancestor's land was.

We recently posted about how to find land patents in the BLM's online database. The earthpoint website asks for the Legal Land Description identifiers given on the land patent. Plug in those values and the program will spit out coordinates relating to the midpoint and corners of the land section. Note, that your ancestors may have only gotten part of the section, but this quick calculator will get you close to the land location.



Once you have the coordinates, you can use an online mapping program to find the current location. Google maps may be the easiest, just paste the coordinates into the search box and hit the "Search Maps" button to get a map. You can also search mapquest by coordinates at this site.





For my target example of Thomas Lincoln, in Illinois, I am pretty sure this is the land patent of President Lincoln's father - the map shows that the patent location matches up with the Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site of Illinois.

Instant Gratification: BLM Federal Land Patent Search

Link: http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/Logon/Logon_Form.asp
Notes: Free

If you have an early land owner in your family, they may have purchased or been awarded that land from the government. The Bureau of Land Management has an online system that allows you to search for original land patents.

The database includes 38 states - not the original 13 colonies or their territories or Hawaii.

After giving your zipcode, you will be asked to choose a state and provide at least a last name. After hitting the search button, a list of names and locations of the patents comes up. Clicking on a name of interest provides a description of the land patent, the land location, and an image of the document.

For an example, I have entered the name Thomas Lincoln and searched in Illinois:



After hitting the search button only one entry for Thomas Lincoln comes up.


This listing shows a patent was issued for land in Coles county in 1838.When you click his name, watch for the four tabs that you can cycle through to get more information, including a description of the patent and land, as well as an image of the actual document:



In following posts we will talk about how to locate the land and what bonus information you can sometimes find in these records.

Tips and Tools: Date Calculators

link: http://www.timeanddate.com/date/duration.html

Most genealogy programs will tell you the amount of time between two dates, but that software is not always handy. Here are a few online tools that can calculate the time between, say, a birthdate and a marriage.

The date calculator at timeanddate.com lets you type in two dates and get the difference between them.

The Pro Genealogists also have a nice calculator that lets you calculate a date of birth from a date of an event and an age, as may be given in an obituary.

Tips and Tools: Using Wikipedia to learn about places

Wikipedia can be a useful tool for learning about where your ancestors lived. Wikipedia frequently has information about the location, county, history and demographics of towns and cities. A quick Wikipedia search for Baldwin, WI reveals that it is located in St. Croix County about 30 miles from Minneapolis, MN, that it had a population of 2667 in 2000, and that it was founded in 1871 and was originally known as "Clarkesville". Looking at the entry for a county can provide useful information about the history of the county and its formation. For St. Croix County, we learn that the the county was originally established in 1840 as a part of the Wisconsin Territory before being divided and taking its current shape with Wisconsin statehood in 1848.