• It's awesome to see Joy Shivar's company, JustaJoy.com, spotlighted by Greg Collard on wfae.org. Justajoy is an heirloom matching company for those looking to buy heirlooms and for those who find and sell them. {I've even listed some postcards I've rescued and researched on there in hopes to reunite them with descendants of the people who once owned them.} It's a great research resource too. You can set up alerts for surnames and then get alerted every time someone adds an heirloom with a link to that surname. Are you using Justajoy,com to find clues about your ancestors?

• On The Ancestor Hunt, Kenneth R. Marks gives us 30 examples of information that can be gleaned from our ancestors' obituaries which can be important for our family history research.
• Findmypast.com.au has added new South Australia record sets to its collections.
• Yesterday, Ancestry.com added 2 new databases to its collections for Connecticut and Washington, D.C., and they added to an existing collection for Pennsylvania.
• On GenVines, Janell shares with us that Trove has added newspapers for New South Wales, Victoria, and she also outlines recent online digitization efforts for the U.S. state, Indiana.
• USGenWeb volunteer contributors uploaded 118 files for the following U.S. states: Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Virginia. Did they add an index entry, an image, a document, a cemetery transcription, a clue {Or something!} you can use in your research?

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

Other days, other things that might interest you...

• 10 Genealogy Things You Need To Know This Morning, Wednesday, 23 Oct 2013
• 5 Free Resources for Texas Family History Research You May Not Be Using
• Scan & Annotate Documents on Your iPad or iPhone: Genius Scan+ & Goodreader Apps

• The Association of Professional Genealogists has announced registration is open for their 2014 Professional Management Conference. {The topics look interesting. And? I'd totally pay for something like this and attend it virtually, especially for topics similar to what are offered on day 2.}
• Speaking of attending workshops and webinars virtually, The Armchair Genealogist, Lynn Palermo, gives us some tips on selecting the right workshop or webinar for us and our specific needs. Great ideas since most of us don't have endless amounts of time and cash.
• For those who are using Evernote to help them keep their research organized, Evernote added some more features for its iOS app.

• From the Google Drive Blog: Handwriting Input Comes to Gmail and Google Docs.
• Apple had some big announcements yesterday.On The Next Web blog, Ben Woods gives us a list of everything we need to know.
• On the Billiongraves Blog, Lisa shares with us their new Military Information Transcription Tool which makes life a little easier for those transcribing headstone information. As a researcher, are you remembering to check Billiongraves.com for clues about your ancestor?
• Need help telling your family stories? In the Google+ Tech for Genealogy and Family History Reseachers Community, Jerry Kocis shared a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) by iversity.org called The Future of Storytelling which is a free 8-week course designed to help you through the storytelling process. For more information about the course, visit iversity.org.
• Great news for those who have South African roots. Ancestry.com has purchased the now-defunct Ancestry24's South African records, and they are currently working on getting them organized and up on Ancestry.com. So stay tuned for an update on availability of those records.
• Volunteer contributors for USGenWeb, uploaded 145 files yesterday for the following U.S. states: Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Did they upload a record, transcription, photos, clue, etc., that you've been needing for your research?
• Joe Beine tweeted out the updates for his site, DeathIndexes.com. The tweet embedded below gives the states that have updated information. Perhaps something you've been needing was added there yesterday?

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

Other days, other things that might interest you...

• 5 Free Resources for Texas Family History Research You May Not Be Using
• 10 Genealogy Things You Need To Know This Morning, Tuesday, 22 Oct 2013
• Heritage Holiday Gift Idea: 3 Generation Photo Transfer

The Lone Star State is a big state with 254 counties, and it has a ton of resources that are available to the family history researcher. However, there are some I come back to again and again while researching ancestors who lived in Texas. And while I love and use Ancestry.com all the time for Texas research, it just doesn't have everything I need. Also? Not everyone can afford to have an Ancestry.com subscription. So, I thought listing some free places to look online and offline for your Texas ancestors might be helpful to everyone. The following are 5 free-to-access Texas family history research resources with some comments and specific links to more information about each one:

1. Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research ~ Located in Houston, Texas, and named as "...one of the top genealogy research libraries in the United States," by Family Tree Magazine, Clayton's holdings are vast with way more than just Texas research resources. Take some time to explore this site fully. However, I can recommend taking a look online at their list of Collections, searching their Microprint Collection, searching their Periodical Collection, and then, since Clayton Library is a part of the Houston Public Library System, doing some advanced searching of their Online Catalog.
2. Texas State Library and Archives ~ Located in Austin, Texas, is a site for many -- not just genealogy and family history researchers. You'll want to explore the site fully, but I'd like to point out their Genealogy Page, theirindex for county records on microfilm available for free via Inter-Library Loan within Texas from their regional depositories, a listing of those regional depositories and the counties they serve, and information about their Archives & Manuscripts.
3. Texas General Land Office ~ The Texas General Land Office is a very busy state agency as they scan 5000 Texas document pages per week. (James Harkins, 17th Annual Angelina College Genealogy Conference) Again, this is a website that was not created for just the family history researcher, and while I love what they make available online for us, it's not the easiest website to navigate. So? Along with exploring their site fully, here are direct links to the portions of their site that are the most useful for us: read information about their Collections, read information about doing genealogy research at the GLO, search the Texas Land Grant Database, search their Online Map Database, search their online Surname Index, search all Archival Collections located at the GLO, learn how to use their GISweb Mapping Viewer, then play with their GISweb Mapping Viewer and you might want to purchase one of their research guides.
4. Texas Archival Resources Online [TARO] ~ An online database of descriptions of archival materials, manuscripts, and museum collections held in repositories across the state. It's a must-consult when trying to perform an exhaustive search of possible resources for that clue or piece of evidence that just might give you the answer you're seeking about your Texas ancestor. You'll want to search these online finding aids before doing onsite research. You can browse the finding aids by repository, perform a basic search, or perform an advanced search.
5. FamilySearch.org ~ I'm always surprised to find out at my local presentations how many people have never heard of FamilySearch.org, much less used it for their research. It's a free family history website sponsored by the LDS Church with many Texas research resources. Here are links to the ones that are the most useful for us researching our Texas ancestors: General Search of all their online collections, Texas-based online collections, Online Catalog to find microfilmed records to rent,instructions on how to use the Online Catalog, instructions for ordering microfilm, how to locate a Family History Center near you, their online Research Wiki, and their research wiki page for doing Texas-based research.

Want more Texas research resources?
Visit my Texas Genealogy Resources page.

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

Other related articles that might interest you...

• 5 Tips to Get You Unstuck on Ancestry.com
• 10 Steps to Fix That Online Family Tree You Started
• 3 Simple Things to Remember When Researching Online Collections

For more research and technology tips subscribe to the {monthly} Genea-Tech Newsletter.

• On The Ancestor Hunt blog, Kenneth R. Marks shows us how to search online African-American historical newspapers.
• Don't forget: early bird registration for SLIG ends Oct 31st {next week}, and there are still some seats available in select courses.

• The subject for today's {this morning's} Microsoft's Office 15-minute Webinar is about writing research papers. While clearly they were aiming for the college crowd, the topics they will be covering include outline, MLA, format, citation, and bibliography, which are all quite relevant for the more serious genealogy researcher. {And, hey, it's only 15 minutes long.}
• Mike Kassner of Techrepublic.com shares with us about the popular Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Mobile being available now for Android devices. {Very handy.}
• As family history researchers, we're usually trying to get closer to our family and collaborate with them, but sometimes, a person needs their distance and privacy from the living loved ones, and Google Hangouts is obviously aware of this as Russell Holly from Geek.com shows us how to avoid our family and friends when we're using Google Hangouts.
• I've written before about how studying our ancestor's written word can help us with our family history research, and Saikat Basu from Makeuseof.com tells all about the Google Books Ngram Viewer which is a nifty little tool that can also help us with the endeavor. 
• Have Scottish ancestors? On British Genes, Chris shares some important news about the Inventory of Scottish Graveyards.
• Fold3.com added 3 new databases to their online collection.
• Ancestry.com added 3 new databases yesterday for Georgia {U.S. state}, the U.S., and Belgium.
• And volunteer U.S. Genweb contributors uploaded 200 files yesterday for Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia. Did they add something you've been needing for your research?

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

Other days, other things that might interest you...

• 6 Genealogy Things You Need To Know This Morning, Monday, 21 Oct 2013
• 9 Family Tree Apps for Your iPad
• Heritage Holiday Gift Idea: Heritage Photo Canvas Project

• Heredis 2014 {genealogy database software} for Mac is now available.
• On her blog, Deb Ruth gives us some helpful research resources for mapping our ancestors.
• Speaking of maps, help History Pin map chalk artworks from Imperial War Museums from the first World War .
• In the past week, images were added to fold3.com for the following collections: War of 1812 Pension Files Free, Civil War "Widows' Pensions", Pension Numerical Index, Search Letters Received by Commission Branch, 1863-1870, and WWII Navy Muster Rolls.
• Speaking of additions to fold3.com, Low Country Africana is constantly adding annotations and connections to slaveholder records. Accessing what they are adding can best be kept up with on their website by name. Their site is wonderful for those doing research on African Americans with Low Country roots.

• Have British Isles ancestry? Don't forget to register for the NGS' online course, My British Isles Origins: Where and How Do I Cross the Pond. If you are a member, then this 4-week online course which begins 9 Jan 2014 will only cost you $55.25. {A very reasonable cost for jumping the proverbial pond for your research.}

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

Other days, other things that might interest you...

• 7 Genealogy Things You Need To Know This Morning, Sunday, 20 Oct 2013
• 9 Family Tree Apps for Your iPad
• Heritage Holiday Craft Idea: Ta-Da! Heritage Ornaments

• The iOS app for Rootstech 2014 conference is now available in the iTunes store under Rootstech14.
• Dear Myrtle gives this week's upcoming genealogy chats, webinars, and hangouts.
• On British Genes, Chris lists for us new additions to the British Newspaper Archive. Did your ancestors make these newspapers?
• The Legal Genealogist illustrates for us how knowing the law in the time and place our ancestors lived can help us to narrow down the possibilities of what our ancestors really did which is important in trying to truthfully tell our family stories.
• On his blog, Family Tree Maker User, Russ shows us how to create a surname report in FTM for a specific location to help with doing location-based searching.

• Yesterday, Gena Philibert-Ortega gave a presentation in San Diego on how to use Google Search for genealogy, and she gave out the relevant links to her presentation on her blog, Gena's Genealogy. While we weren't able to see the presentation, this list of links is really helpful. {And thanks for the shout out Gena!}
• Don't forget: Come join us for Sunday ScanDay and make a dent in your I-need-to-scan-but-I-don't-feel-like-it-pile! {Or am I the only one with a pile like that?} 3pm CDT on Sunday. See y'all there!

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

• Do you have ancestral roots in British India? The Families in British India Society website is a wonderful research resource with some free databases.
• City directories are a wonderful research resource for finding our ancestors in a time and place between census {and other} records. Genealogy In Time gives us a handy list of City Directory Abbreviations.

• Keeping in touch with loved ones and collaboration on family history is important to our family history research success. On The Next Web blog, Ken Yeung tells us about the Google Hangouts iOS update that now includes being able to send and receive phone calls.

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

Other days, other things that might interest you...

• 11 Genealogy Things You Need To Know This Morning, Friday, 18 Oct 2013
• 9 Family Tree Apps for Your iPad
• Holiday How To: Heritage Gift Coasters

• On the NGS blog, Diane Richard announces the latest NGS Magazine is available for members on the members-only portion of the site. And if you're not a member, might I suggest you take a look at what the over-a-century-old National Genealogical Society has to offer genealogists? From its educational offerings to its publications, there is something for all genealogists to take advantage of. In this issue of their quarterly magazine, feature topics include estate law, exhaustive searches, using mtDNA in research, and the Catholic Church in the Southwest.
  

• On the Ancestry.com blog, Stephen Baloglu announces new and improved Ancestry DNA test results with a breakdown of what's new for those who have taken their DNA tests. {Now, who do they say you are?} And our Genetic Genealogist, Cece Moore gives us an additional breakdown and perspective of the new and improved Ancestry DNA results on her blog.
• On the Billiongraves blog, Lisa informs us of the updated Billiongraves App that is now available for iOS. 
• The National Archives (NARA) states their status for today as: "...all NARA facilities are open and back to their regular operating schedule." {Thank goodness.}
• More one-place studies have been added to the Register of One-Place Studies. Is anyone studying an area where your ancestors lived? Or do you currently run a one-place study? You'll want to register it here for free so it can be easily found.
• As promised in their recent Forever Free announcement, 5000+ new databases were added to Mocavo in 5 days. What's nice is that they provided 2 important links: what exactly was added in the past 5 days as well as what was added today {which would be yesterday since this was released yesterday unless the tag is currently updated -- too many numbers for me in the morning =) }. In any case, go see if they've something you've been needing for your research. {Hopefully, they'll come out with some best practices and how-tos on searching their databases for both free users and paid users on their blog.}
• On her Genealogy Canada blog, Elizabeth has Dwayne Meisner's progress on the Nova Scotia 1921 Census. Have they already transcribed information you've been waiting for? Or perhaps you can help them out?
• On the British Genes blog, Chris shares with us the current record updates to DeceasedOnline.com and more information about TNA burial ground removals.
• Lorine from Olive Tree Genealogy shared this link to Ancestors At Rest website which is a searchable index to free death records. {And I cannot, for the life of me, remember which social media network she shared the link.} You can alsoLike their Facebook Page here.
• USGenWeb volunteers uploaded 216 files yesterday for the the following US states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Did they add a record, photo, or a clue {or something} that could help you in your research?
• Ancestry.com added 5 new databases yesterday for Germany, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, and Poland. They also added records to existing databases yesterday and today for the US, the UK, and Poland.

And? Today is Friday, y'all. Time to get your research ON. ;)

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

Other days, other things that might interest you...

• 11 Genealogy Things You Need To Know This Morning, Thursday, 17 Oct 2013
• 9 Family Tree Apps for Your iPad
• Heritage Craft: WWI Shadow Box

• This morning on the Family Search Blog, Paul G. Nauta announced a new partnership between Family Search and DC Thomson Family History {owner of findmypast and Genes Reunited}. Read the full press release here. And also take a look at theirFAQ for all the details of their new partnership to bring even more access to billions of online records.

• Speaking of FamilySearch, Amy Coffin will be an Official Blogger for the FamilySearch's popular family history annual conference, Rootstech, and she has a discount code for a full-access 3-day pass on her blog. {Look for blogging, vlogging ,tweeting, facebooking, pinning, instagramming, and such from me as I will be attending Rootstech as well. I convinced my husband that Salt Lake City would be a a fabulous place for us to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. So you'll be getting your morning Genealogy Need To Knows from there as well as interviews and daily video updates at the end of each day.}
• On The Ancestor Hunt, Kenneth R. Marks gives us 5 ways to start looking for our ancestors who were firemen.
• On the LifeHack blog, Robert Kinglsey shows us how to download a complete Facebook photo album easily.
• Apparently there is a "kill switch" for some semblance of privacy in Facebook that many of us don't even know is there, according to Caroline Moss from Business Insider. However, she shows us where it is and how to activate it.
• On Archives.com, Amy Johnson Crow talks about second cousins, removed cousins {cousins, cousins, cousins} and shows us how we can keep them all straight. {Unfortunately, she brings up the dreaded {at least for me} 4-letter word -- math -- as one of the strategies, but she covers the other non-math strategy, which is what I use. ;)}
• Looking to be more efficient with your genealogy research while using OneNote? In the Tech for Genealogy Google+ Community, Jerry Kocis shares with us OneNote Desktop Shortcuts. Not yet using a digital note taking system to keep your research organized? You'll need to take a look at one of my video tutorials {or the whole 3-part saga. I mean, series.} on Using OneNote for Genealogy Research.
• Roots in the Calgary area? The Alberta Family History Society has free online BMD and Cemetery databases of transcribed information for the Calgary area with updates to them as recent as this past August. 
• Contributors uploaded 242 files yesterday to USGenWebArchives for Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Wyoming. Did they upload something you need for your research?
• Ancestry.com added a new collection to its database for Connecticut; 4 new links to 3rd party websites' data for Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand; and as mentioned yesterday they updated their existing 1880 Schedules for Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes.
• And if all those records are not enough for you,here is a clickable list of the over 2 million indexed records and images that FamilySearch.org has added to its collections in the past week for Canada, England, and Russia. 

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

Other days, other things that might interest you...

• 6 Genealogy Things You Need To Know This Morning, Wednesday, 16 Oct 2013
• 9 Family Tree Apps for Your iPad
• Doing These 3 Things Will Profoundly Help Your Research

• Are you ready for the free Windows 8 update tomorrow? {That's if you already have Win8.} Make sure you are ready with Chris Hoffman's handy Windows Update post on the Makeuseof blog.
• This is a handy app for both iOS and Android users that allows you to search Gmail, Dropbox, and Google Drive all at once on your mobile device. Handy and very dandy. *downloading right now*

• Dear Myrtle has the scoop on ICapGen's 50 Years of Excellence Conference in November.
• On Genea-Musings, Randy shows us how searching in the Free version of Mocavo goes via the general search box. This is an ongoing service so it will be interesting to see how further searches go for Randy. Are you using Mocavo in your online researching? Thoughts? Share in comments below.
• Yesterday, Ancestry.com added the Jail Registers for Peterbourough, Ontario, Canada to their collections and today updated an existing collection: U.S. Federal Census - 1880 Schedules of Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes.
  
• USGenWeb Archives contributors uploaded 190 files yesterday for Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia, and Washington.

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

Other days, other things that might interest you...

• 7 Genealogy Things You Need To Know This Morning, Tuesday, 15 Oct 2013
• 9 Family Tree Apps for your iPad
• 10 Steps To Fix That Online Family Tree You Started