Nuts and Bolts of Genealogy

Here is a guide line of where to start.

Relatives
Family Bibles. Search local archives and special collections from groups such as the DAR
Cemeteries. Get a county map with a good legend.
Church Records. While out visiting cemeteries, visit local churches to learn if they kept baptismal records, etc.
County Records. Search wills and estates (everything), plus marriages, deeds and tax digests.
Census Records.
Pensions, civil war, Mexican war, War of 1812 and Revolutionary War. These are found on microfilm at the National Archives.

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Some Tennessee Information Added

Some Tennessee genealogies, revolutionary war pensions and gedcom files have been added to Kentucky Pioneers

Don't Forget Libraries

Libraries are still excellent resources for us genealogists. Each one has its own unique collection of family histories, books and census records. Some regional libraries are stocking microfilm of old newspapers, civil war pensions and donated materials. The advantage of visiting libraries is they are open longer hours and that gives you some room there.

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Internet Freedom

Our relatives provide tips for us throughout our lives. The time frame is usually wrong, perhaps a generation or so, but they do have little glimmers of knowledge. Check your own ability to remember things. Do you remember, for example, the year the Kennedy was assassinated? What were you doing at the time? These are the sort of questions to ask relatives, to awaken a more accurate memory. We can use this tidbits while visiting cemeteries, searching pensions, bibles, wills, estates, deeds and so on. Eventually  a piece of a memory can be compared to a fact and a conclusion drawn. The generation of keeping births, deaths and marriages inside of family bibles seems to have passed. Yet, there are still some old bibles out there, on microfilm at Archives, collections of historical and genealogical societies, in closets, attics and antique shops.

This is the era of public record-keeping on the internet. I would dare to venture an opinion that the internet was invented for genealogy. Yes, there is plenty of porn but genealogy hits far exceed the bad guys.  There have been a number of restrictive bills floated before Congress in the recent years of the democratic party control.  All of them would penalize, tax, subject it to regulations of public utilities, and restrict our use and personal freedoms. 

Look at flickr.com and bing.com  These websites feature the ability to upload our photos and share them with the world!  Imagine finding lost relatives there! It's wonderful!  Somebody out there having a photo of our ancestors will post it to the internet.

When I first started adding my files to the internet, I never would have believe that Georgia Pioneers.com would fill up with 22 gigabytes.  We spent years on our typewriters and putting notes in files, sharing when we could, but eventually losing touch with people.  In the beginning, hard copy books were published listing new websites, but you don't see much of that anymore. No one can keep up with it. I think of the internet as a permanet record. Once it is there, it does not have to be retyped.  You don't need a website. How about a blog?

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