Genealogy Gems shows another handy tool you can use in researching your Genealogy and Family History online using Google News.
Have you used this tool? What interesting things did you find out about your family?
Robert the “Genealogy Guy” from Treasure Maps Genealogy does a really great job explaining how to use the Google Toolbar to save your eyes when researching your family history online.
I have been using the tool for a long time and I am very grateful he did a video on this.. it just never occurred to me to do it 
Are there other tools you use in your research that would help others? Let me know, I would love to put your video here for others or do one to help. Leave your suggestion or comment below.
One of the things I always look forward to is my Ancestry Magazine that comes every other month. While I consider it something that I do in my leisure, it always seems to spur on my imagination for new places that I have not looked for missing ancestors.
Executive Editor Loretto (Lou) Dennis Sucs has posted a great list of 300 Family History Sources on the Ancestry Blog that you may find interesting and give you some additional places you may not have thought of for missing family.
If you have any that are missing from the list let me know by commenting below so that we can help other researchers.
Enjoy
For most people living in the US who are looking to trace their family history, most long lost relatives of recent years can be found in United States repositories. However, what happens when you discover the country your ancestors originally immigrated from?
Since the advent of the internet, there are quite a large amount of records available online but not all. There are also massive amounts of information on microfilm for viewing at your local family history center, but again, not all records worldwide have been put to film. This leaves only one option; performing research within the community your family originally hails from.
»» Hiring A Professional Genealogist Abroad To Conduct Your Family History Research
By Tamie Dehler
Special to the Tribune-Star
All genealogists are challenged to some degree when they have to read and interpret documents in original handwriting. And the further back in time the handwriting sample is, the greater the challenge, until our own language looks foreign to us. A Web site aimed at scholars and researchers aspires to change all of that. English Handwriting 1500-1700, an online course, is a remarkably professional and thorough course of study, certainly equivalent to a college class.
The site is at www.english.cam.ac.uk/ceres/ehoc/index.html and contains 28 self-guided lessons ranging in degree of difficulty from 1 to 5. Each lesson divides the computer screen into four sections: the first shows the sample text that you are to work with. The second section is your transcription window, where you type in your interpretation of the sample text. The third section gives you information about the sample you are working with, a description of the hand (type of writing) and the date it was written. The fourth section consists of various help buttons you can click on, view a transcription of the sample, show the written letters of alphabet in upper or lower case, see a table of common abbreviations, and take a test on this sample. The material in the 28 lessons starts with a level 1 in difficulty (I found this level easy) and works its way up to a level 5.
The site also has lots of supporting data, which should be looked at before attempting the courses. Included is a historical introduction that describes and illustrates the inks, resins, writing instruments, and surfaces used. This part gives the recipes and methods that were used to make a usable ink or to prepare a surface for writing, and it illustrates examples with actual pictures rather than drawings.
The transcription conventions section defines, lists, and gives examples of methods of abbreviation, which includes contractions (leaving out letters in the middle of a word, such as “Dr” for “Doctor” ), suspension (leaving off the end letters of a word, such as “etc” for “et cetera”), and brevigraphs (using a symbol to indicate a word or part of a word, such as “&” for “and” and the Greek chi-“X”-for “Christ”). Tildes (~) were placed over a letter to indicate that letters in the word have been omitted. Superscripts were letters written smaller and placed above the baseline as a sort of shortcut. The punctuation marks used (quite different from modern ones) are also discussed and illustrated.
The alphabets section illustrates two “hands” or styles of writing used in various documents-the Italic hand and the Jacobian Court hand. The user can view written examples these hands as well as examples of the upper or lower case letters of the “secretarie” alphabet, which was used during this time period.
The section on dating and describing hands tells how some of the different hands evolved over time and defines different features of writing and letter formation. Dating can be tricky, as the date on a document might actually be the date it was transcribed by the writer from another, older, document.
The sample transcriptions section is a shortcut for those not wanting to take the 28 lessons, but still wanting to look at each of the sample documents and study it along with it’s transcription.
This is a great site to visit to refine your skills in transcribing old handwriting. Anyone graduating from this online classroom will be close to an “expert” by the time they are finished. The site is free to use with no registration.
• If you are interested in going to the Allen County Public Library for a research trip Nov. 12-14, contact David Bonnett at davidbonnett@verizon.net or visit the WVGS Web site at www.inwvgs.org for trip information and prices.
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