Friday, May 16, 2014

Genea-Musings: Dear Randy: How Do I Cite a Church Record on an FHL Microfilm?

This blog post contains some detailed and helpful information about recording microfilmed sources. Genea-Musings: Dear Randy: How Do I Cite a Church Record on an FHL Microfilm?:
Genea-Musings reader Sandy asked this question in a recent email. She found a church record of a baptism on a Family History Library microfilm and wanted to know how a source citation might be crafted. I have some records like this, so I used the question as an opportunity to add some sources citations to my database. I used the RootsMagic 6 source template for "Church Records - FHL-GSU Microfilm" to craft this source citation.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

You are looking for ancestors, but is someone looking for you?

Is an old friend looking for you?

Are you looking for an old friend, or a long lost cousin?

Who? Me? Link Image

Go on, click on the link, or enter your name to find out if someone is looking for you.

Is someone looking for you? Who? Me? Type your last name and search!

This morning an old friend contacted me, one I had not seen for more than 50 years. We were at university together, and then he left and I never saw him again. He found one of my web pages, and so was able to get back in touch.

Some years ago a distant cousin phoned me from the UK. We had never met, but he had somehow found I was researching family history. Then we visited the UK and met him, but later he moved house and changed his e-mail address and I lost touch with him.

I tried search engiens, Facebook and other social networking sites,  but he seemed to have disappeared without a trace. I wondered if something terrible had happened to him, if his whole family had been wiped out in a car crash or something.

I tried to get in touch with him through Who? Me? but he never looked there to know that I was looking for him.

Eventually I typed his name into Copernic, a disk search utility, and it found him -- whether on my disk or on another site, I don't know, but now we are back in touch. But we could have been back in touch years ago if only he had looked at Who? Me?

There are other fellow genealogy researchers that I have lost touch with, and occasionally I discover some information that I think might interest them, but there is no way of telling them, because the e-mail address I have for them no longer works. I've entered some of them in Who? Me? but it won't help if they don't look.

The point of this post is that I think that Who? Me? is a useful resource for genealogists and others, but the more people who use it, be better it will work, so please try it. Go to the site, enter your name, and see if anyone is looking for you. Do this especially if you have recently moved or changed your e-mail address.

And then enter a couple of names of people you have lost touch with and would like to find. 

The basic service is free, but if you pay something you can get an enhanced service -- details are on the site.