Making Connections

Pedigree Pride

Your December 2005 issue is the issue I’ve been waiting for! I’ve designed three family tree charts for my family and am working on a fourth. I thoroughly enjoyed Diane Haddad’s article “Your Roots are Showing,” as it gave me not only new and wonderful ways to display family info, but lots of Web sites to check out, too. I’m a new Family Tree Magazine subscriber and find it to be valuable for all levels of genealogists. I’ve convinced my local librarian of its value, and Family Tree Magazine was added to the library’s serial collection a few months ago. Keep up the great work!

Out of This World

Thank you for an excellent article describing the various maps available to genealogists (December 2005). I feel the absence of World Gazetteer <www.world-gazetteer.com>, however, was a serious omission. I’ve successfully used that site to verify entries in my genealogical database. The Web site says it “provides a comprehensive set of population data and related statistics.”

For example, my database contains an entry for Galway, Ireland. The World Gazetteer shows the type of geographical entity (such as city, town or place), name variants, geographic coordinates, and population figures and sources for Galway. I’ve found this information extremely useful when I’ve had questions about locations.

Reaping Rewards

I had to send my thanks for the article on Castle Garden in the December 2005 issue. I’ve been searching for my paternal great-great-grandparents’ immigration records for years. Even though I knew the year of immigration, place of origin and names of all the family members, I simply couldn’t find them. Throw in the fact that the last name could’ve been spelled a dozen ways and you can see my problem. But as soon as I read your article, I headed straight for the computer-and wow! There my family. I may even have found another branch of the family that traveled with them. Thank you for filling in this piece of the puzzle for me. You absolutely made my day.

One of the roadblocks in my research was locating passenger records for my maternal grandparents. I knew that my grandfather and his 18-year-old bride married Italy in 1903, left for the United States soon after and settled in New York City before moving to Buffalo, NY. I always assumed they came through Ellis Island. Over the years, I searched a few ports of entry and couldn’t locate them. After reading “Not-So-Secret Garden” in the December 2005 issue, I immediately went online and put in my grandfather’s name. In less than five seconds, his name and arrival date-1904-appeared on the screen. I was totally excited! Now I have another important piece to my puzzle.

I’ve been a subscriber since your magazine’s inception and I continue to learn and get some help in every issue. Thank you.

Show and Tell

I appreciate the frustration of people wanting to write a family history but not knowing how. I’d like to offer my solution.

At age 70, not knowing how much longer I would be able to research, I wanted to give my children what I knew of their families. So I purchased five notebooks.

Starting with pedigree charts, I included childhood mementos and progressed back with family tree charts; copies of birth, marriage and death certificates; and more. I also included a history of the counties they lived in. Now as I find more information, I give it to my kids to add to their books.

There’s an added benefit: I’ve heard of house fires where all research is destroyed. If this should happen to me, I have five copies of my research.