Websites

General Genealogy Websites

1. Access Genealogy
2. Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet
3. Family Search
4. Genealogylinks.net
5. RootsWeb
6. USGenWeb Project
7. WorldGenWeb Project

Names, Kinship & Handwriting Websites

1. Name and Word Spellings
2. Surname Resources at RootsWeb
3. Internet Surname Database
4. World Name Profiler
5. Genealogy Relationship Chart
6. What is a First Cousin, Twice Removed?
7. Deciphering Old Handwriting
8. English Handwriting 1500-1700
9. Palaeography: reading old handwriting
10. Script Tutorials

Census & City Directories Websites

1. City Directories of the United States
2. City Directories at DistantCousin
3. The National Archives
4. UK Census Information

Immigration Websites

1. The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation
2. Immigration
3. Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930
4. CastleGarden.org
5. TheShipsList

State, Country & Ethnic Group Specific Cites

1. Genealogy Resources by State
2. Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute Online Genealogical Databases
3. GENUKI
4. The Federation of East European Family History Societies
5. History and Genealogy of South Texas and Northeast Mexico
6. HungaryGenWeb Project
7. ScotlandsPeople
8. Genealogía Española - España GenWeb
9. The National Huguenot Society
10. Yad Vashem
11. Family History Resources on the Internet
12. German Orginality
13. Caribbean Histories Revealed
14. Documenting the American South

Women's History Websites

1. The National Women’s History Museum CyberExhibits
2. Researching Female Ancestors
3. American Women's History: A Research Guide
4. American Woman---Library of Congress

African Americans & Slavery Websites

1. AfriGeneas
2. The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database
3. Michelle Obama's family: From slavery to White House
4. USF Africana Heritage Project

Military Service Websites

1. The Veterans History Project
2. Center for Oral History
3. Interactive Vietnam Veterans Memorial
4. The Vietnam Center and Archive
5. Korean War: Remembering Our History
6. Korean War Project
7. World War II Collection Online
8. WWII Registry
9. World War I Document Archive
10. A Guide to World War I Materials
11. The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
12. Civil War.com

Personal Stories

1. In the First Person

Class Scrapbooks

My Scrapbook
http://leecysfamilyscrapbook.shutterfly.com/

Erika's Scrapbook
http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/Viewer.aspx?sbid=1305996

Ashley's Scrapbook
http://oneillfamilyhistory.shutterfly.com/

Amelia's Scrapbook
http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbId=1360301

Scanned Scrapbooks
http://doestheapplefallfarfromthefamily.shutterfly.com/

Slaves in My Family

My family is a mix of Southerners and Yankees. My Dad was from Wisconsin and his family fought for the Union in the Civil War. My Mom is from Georgia and at least one of that side of the family fought for the confederacy.

My maternal granmothers maiden name was Goodloe. This is her family picture. She is on the far left.

One of my distant relations did a whole Genealogy of the Goodloe family tracing it back to England. He published a book of the genealogy in the 1970's. In the book their was a picture of the plantation house that my ancestors owned in Spotsylvania County Virginia in the early 1800s.

So about 5 years ago when I was on vacation in Virginia with my mother and sister, we decided to try to find the Goodloe plantation house.

We met Arthur Lee Beasley at his general store and he was able to take us to the Goodloe plantation house.

Much to our surprize the house has been totally restored to the orginal 1804 appearance. The new owners are not related to us but they graciously gave us a tour of the house.

The saddest part of the tour was when we reached the basement. There we found the original slave jail. This is where slaves were kept after they tried to run away or did something else wrong in their master's (my ancestor's) eyes. They would most likely have been whipped before they were put in the jail.

Some of my other ancestors related to the Goodloes were named the Wallers. John Waller was my first ancestor to come to America in 1635. The Wallers also made their way to Spottsylvania, Virginia. Some of my ancestors in a collateral line, were the Wallers that owned Kunte Kinte who was made famous in Roots. In the book the owner is called Massa Waller but in the movie they changed the name to protect the guilty.

We all have things in our family's past that we are not proud of.

Close but no Cigar

While adding information that my sister has collected on our ancestors to my online family tree, I discovered that my 7th great grandmother was named Hannah Edwards. She was born in the early 1700's in Northhampton, MA.

I knew the famous preacher Jonathan Edwards was from Northhampton, MA. Doing a little research I found that Jonathan Edwards did have a sister named Hannah!

Jonathan Edward and his wife

(See: http://edwards.yale.edu/research/about-edwards/family-life) I was thrilled to have Jonathan Edwards as my great, great, great, great, great, great, great uncle!!!

I jumped to conclusion too fast. I did a little more research and found that Jonathan's sister Hannah did not marry my 7th great grandfather. I am convinced that we must be related---cousins in some way. I will just have to do more research to find out our exact relationship.

Dad was right---sort of

In my first entry, I told about looking for the grave of my Great grandfather at Vicksburg. Well, Dad was right. His grandfather did fight in the Battle of Vicksburg. Only he had the wrong grandfather. And this one didn't die.

In fact he went on to write a book about his experiences in the Civil War!

History of the Twenty-Second Regiment, Iowa Volunteer Infantry ... its campaigns in Missouri, in the siege and capture of Vicksburg, in the Texas expedition and in the Shenandoah Valley by Simeon Barnett has been quoted as a source in several other books about the Civil War including:

Vanishing Footprints: The Twenty-Second Iowa Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War

Read about this book and the 22nd regiment at http://22iowa.com/Home_Page.html

Lost Relative Found

Ben Turpin
One of my distant relations was a silent film star. He was evidently famous for his cross-eyed stare.

From the Article:
Crowther, Bosley (1939, October 15). When We Were Young :Out of the Past, Billy Bitzer Brings Forth Some Glorious Memories. New York Times (1857-Current file),p. 143. Retrieved January 8, 2009, from ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2005) database.

Where are the Barnetts?

Barnett has been my name since birth but I know less about the Barnetts than any branch of my family.

I went on Ancestry Library and did an exact match for my Dad since I knew his date of birth and death. I found him in the 1930 census. Joseph is my Dad

Click on picture to get a better view

He had 2 brothers. My uncle Jack (John was his given name) was only a half brother and had a different last name. Dad's other brother Bob died (I think) from an infection he got while swimming in a pond. Since he was born before Dad, he must have died before this census was taken. Here I found that my great grandfather was born in New York which I did not know. Since my grandfather was 45 at the time of this census he was born about 1885. I also found out that my grandparents owned their home and that it was worth $15,000 dollars which was the most expensive home on this page of the census. In case you are wondering---I found the questions at the top of the page hard to read so I Googled 1930 Census questions and found all the questions written out at http://usa.ipums.org/usa/voliii/items1930.shtml.


So I did another search for my grandfather now that I knew about when he was born.

I found that my grandfather was actually born in 1886 so I was close. His father was named William Barnett (my brother's name as well). And my great grandmother was Mary.

Since in 1905, my great grandfather was 48 that means he was born about 1857. And I remember from the 1930 census that he was born in New York. So I will try my next search for William Barnett born 1857 in NY and died ? in Wisconsin.

I found this picture of LaValle, Wisconsin on online. It was taken in 1908--three years after the Wisconsin State Census in 1905.