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Subject: [GM] Re: novice at genealogy - please help
Date: Thu, 18 Sep 2003 07:43:09 -0700
Ron
Asking about the best online sources is like asking who makes the
best pickup truck. Everyone has their own opinion. Both
Ancestry.com and Genealogy.com have the same census but they have
different indexes. Ancestry.com have every name index to 1930
census and is working on one for 1870. They have head of household
index for 1920, 1790-1860. Genealogy.com has head of household for
1870 and 1900 and I believe an everyname index for 1910. In
addition to this Ancestry has permission to use the LDS every name
index to the 1880 census and the actual image is not available as
part of the free database.
Which is the best service depends on where you are looking.
Genealogy.com has more old genealogies but Ancestry.com have more
newspaper. If the newspaper is from your grandfather's local then
you may find more info on him but if there are no papers from his
local then it would be a waste of money. Each part of the databases
is a different price, i.e. Census is one prince, newspapers is an
another price etc.
The World Family Tree is free but is only as accurate as the person
submitting and there are a lot of mistakes.
Also is you are looking in New York State you might want to join the
New York Biographic and Genealogical Society as a benefit of
membership is free access to Heritage Quest Census records, as well
as New York Times database. Not a bad deal for $60.
If you do not have a genealogical software program, you may want to
download the free prgram available at familysearch.org. Its a good
first program and the price is right.
The best thing to do is see if there is a local genealogical society
in your area. They may have beginning courses and would be able to
provide expert advise even if you are researching in another
locality. If you are in New England there is a Genealogical
Conference in Falmouth 6-9 November which is another way of getting
a lot of good beginning information.
Hope this helps.
Julia
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