When you are researching your ancestors it is important to understand where they came from and what records were collected.  One of the best places to start is the Ancestry.com wiki:

The wiki has the entire contents of both the The SourceandRed Book

Let’s say you find you have ancestors from Kentucky.  You can start on the Kentucky page, by going to state research and then scrolling down to the state in question.

Kentucky Family Research gives you an overview of the state and on the right hand side specific discussions of types of records:

Looking at Kentucky Vital Records will give you specific information about when birth, marriage and death records were recorded.

Clicking on the Kentucky County Records will give you the overview of the when the counties began, when they collected vitals and the address of the courthouse.

Understanding your state and county will help you understand what to look for.

Look for Search #8 : Message  Boards tomorrow, or review yesterday’s tip: Search Tip #6: City Directories

Happy Searching!

Ancestry Anne

We’ve made a lot of updates to our City Directories, and we have launched a new index for them at: U.S. City Directories, 1821-1989 (Beta)

Don’t let the name fool you, this is ready for prime time.  You can read more at our original post on City Directories.

But don’t give up even if you don’t find what you are looking for with a search.  Check out browse on the right hand side.  Here I’m looking for a City Directory around the 1940 time frame so I can map where my grandparents would have lived:

Look for the state and then the city, and see if we have any years that you might be interested in.

Look for Search Tip #7: Ancestry Wiki tomorrow, or review yesterday’s tip: Search Tip #5: Surname Histories

Happy Searching!

Ancestry Anne

These are a bit more rare to find on the site, though you will find in various places on the web and in libraries.

Just like you did for Local Histories, you can type the surname you are looking for into the Keyword(s) field:

You can also add a state in to try and limit the possibilities.  A search for Wallace Virginia will require both the words to be in the description or title.

Look for Search Tip #6: City Directories tomorrow, or review yesterday’s tip: Search Tip #4 : Local Histories

Happy Searching!

Ancestry Anne

Just recently I received my AncestryDNA kit results and I can honestly say I was pretty shocked by them. For the most part, on my father’s side, my family has been in this country since the Mayflower - or came on ships that followed soon after.  Others came down through Canada from Nova Scotia. Everything I knew about my Dad’s side of the family brought me back to England and Scotland. My mother’s side is a bit different since the majority of her family only goes back in the United States a few generations. Most of her family came over from Ireland in the 1800s, with the exception of her grandfather who came over from Italy with his family in 1909.

Knowing all of this I asked myself, “How much can the test really tell me?” Through all that I have found on my own, I figured my ethnicity would mainly originate on the British Isles with a small percentage of Italian. That was not the case.

What were my results?

According to my DNA, I am 53% Scandinavian, 37% Southern European, 8% British Isles and there was a small 2% that was marked “Uncertain.” I was confused.

Scandinavian? Where the hell did that come from? What I thought would be my largest ethnic percentage ended up ranking third?

The results made me question what else I could learn about my family through my results and AncestryDNA. To get a better understanding, I took a look at how the test worked.

AncestryDNA uses a new DNA technology called autosomal testing. The main differences between this new technology and previous tests used are that autosomal testing examines a much larger portion of your DNA and it covers both the maternal and paternal sides of your family. Previous tests only cover one or the other and a significantly smaller portion of your DNA. So, with the help of expert population geneticists and molecular biologists, autosomal testing gives us genealogy nuts a bigger and more complete picture of our family in one DNA test.

Not only was I surprised by how convenient and easy it was to take this test, I am now excited by the other features AncestryDNA offers to make further use of my results. With my results, I got a list of matches that show me other AncestryDNA users who I may be related to based on our DNA.

With a subscription to Ancestry.com, you are able to reach out to that match and work together to figure out your common link. To make the search easier, the site even provides you and your match with a list of shared surnames from your trees. I have already reached out to one of my matches and I’m excited to start working with him to learn more about my family! Another feature I love is their interactive map, which pinpoints places of birth for everyone you have entered on your tree. It is pretty fascinating when you can see where all of your known ancestors had to travel from for you to be here. It has also made me more curious to find out the reasons behind their moves.

Now that I have my results, and have gone through all the features and have a better understanding of how the test works, I’ve learned to look at the bigger picture. All this time I had viewed my ethnicity as based strictly off of the countries my family came to the United States from, without putting much thought into where their ancestors originated. Being marked 53% Scandinavian by my DNA, I realize that my family tree will eventually lead me back to Norway, Sweden or Denmark.

Taking the history of those locations into account, this possibly brings my family back to Viking times. Vikings were known as merchants, explorers and feared as violent pillagers by coastal towns. Being well-traveled explorers, their adventures took them to nearby England, Ireland and Scotland as well as several other far off lands to establish villages. Knowing this, I am now able to see how Scandinavian descent may have dominated my results.

I can honestly say I am very happy with my decision to try AncestryDNA and am excited to see where this new information takes me! Not only has it given me some insight to my family’s past it is giving me the ability to reach out to others who may share it. The best part is that over time, my list of matches will only continue to grow as more people take the test. Who knows, after taking the AncestryDNA test you could find yourself trading family notes with a long lost cousin and ghost hunter.

Contributed by Kris Williams, Genealogist & star of SyFy’s Ghost Hunters International 

Twitter: @KrisWilliams81

I posted a military page in my Kelly Family Tree for a second cousin, twice removed—Sylvester Milas Bolick. He was not in my direct line but I was fascinated by him because he was killed in World War II, is buried in Belgium and had received a Purple Heart. 

In February, I got an e-mail out of the blue from a man in Belgium who had found the public military page I had set up for Sylvester last year. As a teenager, this Belgian man adopted the grave of Sylvester Milas Bolick, a fallen soldier of WWII who was buried at the American Cemetery and Memorial of Henri-Chapelle, Belgium “to whom (among others) I owe the freedom and liberty I enjoy today.” This young man did some research through the NARA and other places trying to find information about that man whose grave he has tended twice a year since he was twelve-years old. (He will be 30 in June.) Prior to that, his godfather had tended the grave. So, out of curiosity, this Belgian man has after many years finally decided to try and find more information on Sylvester.

The story does not end here. I have found probably about six or seven cousins through my research in Ancestry, including one who was a niece to Sylvester Milas Bolick. I put her in contact with this Belgian man, and now this Belgian man has passed along all of the research he has found to Sylvester’s family and me and has even sent us color photographs of Sylvester’s headstone and all the NARA information he received (which the family did not have).  

Sylvester’s name and photo and known history have now been added to the Adoptiegraven database  which we were not even aware of. 

Rhea Kelly
Kelly Family Tree

After 8 days that took him from Warsaw, Poland to his native city of Plock in Poland, to Krakow and finally into Germany, where he gained his freedom in 1945, Izzy is tired.

At 87 years old he has the right to be.

After seeing his parents and brother shipped off and murdered at Treblinka, his friends and other relatives also killed in the concentration camps, he has said his final goodbyes to the places and the difficult times that shaped who he is today.

Izzy has walked the grounds at Auschwitz-Birkenau, his home in 1944, where the Nazis killed 1.1 million of the 1.3 who came through their three separate camps there (at Auschwitz).

He walked in darkness beside the memorials at the Treblinka death camp and said a prayer for his family members murdered there.

He has met with school kids from two nations to talk to them about his experiences as a Jew living through the Holocaust and the price he paid for his religious beliefs.

He has reconnected with the daughter of a German family that sacrificed their own lives to throw bread to Izzy and the other slave laborers in his group as they passed down the family’s street on a daily basis to work in a local quarry.

He has visited with old friends, both Polish and German.

If there is one final lasting memory for all of us on this trip it occurred just last night. It’s the photo that accompanies this blog. It’s a snap shot taken last evening of Izzy and another man also in his mid 80’s. His name is Walter Fischer. Walter was a German World War II army veteran.

Walter’s hometown happens to be the same German village that housed a concentration camp in which Izzy spent his last days behind a wire fence before becoming a free man again after almost six years of torture and mind-numbing experiences.

Walter and Izzy sat next to each other during dinner. Their discussion was both quiet and personal, but also animated at times. It was not accusatory in any way, but there were also not a lot of smiles, back slapping and toasts to the past.

There is forgiveness in Izzy Arbeiter, but to forget is impossible. Walter said he was not a Nazi in WWII, just a soldier doing his job. He also said he never knew about the concentration camps, especially the one in his own village. Izzy has heard that reaction many times.

One young German in his early 30’s, when asked on this trip about Germany’s role in WWII and the Holocaust said loudly “It’s over”-meaning the war and that era should be put behind all of us. Should it be forgotten? Is it time to move on? Is it really over?

I can tell you for Auschwitz survivor Israel Arbeiter it’s not that simple and the answer is no. The lessons of that time have to be talked about and preserved. If not for him, then for the six million who cannot be heard any longer. Those voices silenced in the cruelest way possible just because of who they were and what they believed in. Izzy speaks for them. He must carry on. If you have ever visited Auschwitz or Treblinka then you will understand why.

Thank you for following this blog the past week and we hope you have enjoyed tracking Israel Arbeiter’s travels. If you would like to help us in our efforts to fully-fund this important documentary film project, you can donate via: www.wwiifoundation.org. Thanks Izzy for allowing us to be a part of this incredible experience.