Mission Statement
ShoeString Genealogy provides Family Historians with information about how to research their ancestors both on the Internet and in libraries and other repositories. Besides how, we will show you where—locations for free and inexpensive information and the relative value of each.
Weekly Chat Calendar
Currently, we do four GENTREK chats each week; Jayne McCormick also does two American Civil War chats. We publish other chats and activities here, too.
Tip o' the Dae
Genealogy techniques that can make your researches easier and/or more efficient. Computer and Internet tips that you'll also find useful.
Tip o' the Dae
Google Docs
Upload an image file of text or a scanned PDF to Google Docs, then check the option that says "Convert text to Google Docs format" and Google Docs will perform OCR (Optical Character Recognition) on the file before saving it to your account. If the OCR operation is successful, all the extracted text is stored as a new document else Google Docs will store your original image without any modification. You may perform OCR on images and PDFs as large as 2 MB. The character recognition accuracy is excellent and there seem to be no limits on the number of files that you can process in a day. Yes, it is FREE.
The Source Online
In 2010, Ancestry.com digitized the content of The Source and made it available in wiki format as one of the foundational sources for the Ancestry.com Wiki. Each chapter has been broken into one or more series of articles, links to which are found below:
Third Edition Table of Contents- The Foundations of Family History Research
- Computers and Technology
- General References and Guides
- Business, Institution, and Organization Records
- Census Records
- Church Records
- Court Records
- Directories
- Immigration Records
- Land Records
- Military Records
- Newspapers
- Vital Records
- African American Research
- Colonial English Research
- Colonial Spanish Borderland Research
- Hispanic Research
- Jewish American Research
- Native American Research
- Urban Research
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
National Archives Launches Our Archives Wiki
The National Archives has launched its first public wiki called Our Archives on Wikispaces located at: Our Archives.
Our Archives is an available space for members of the public, researchers, and staff to share knowledge about National Archives records, resources and research. The wiki represents an chance for historians, researchers, archivists, and citizen archivists to collaborate building pages on specific records or topics and to share information and resources to connect with multiple other researchers.
Univ. of Tennessee Wins Grant to Digitize Newspapers
In two years, students, historians, and anyone else curious about nearly a century of history should have 100,000 pages of Tennessee newspapers at their fingertips. The University of Tennessee at Knoxville has received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to digitize local newspapers from 1836 to 1922.
More . . .
Genealogy Chats Calendar
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Thursdae, 2-Sep-10, GENTREK presents "Underground Railroad." The Underground Railroad was an informal network of secret routes and safe-houses used by 19th century Black slaves in the United States to escape to free states and Canada with the aid of abolitionists who were sympathetic to their cause. The term is also applied to the abolitionists who aided the fugitives. We'll begin at 10pm in the chatroom of Looking4Kin.
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Thursdae, 2-Sep-10. Join us in The American Civil War History chatroom and see what we have for you. We will begin at 11 PM EDT in the AOL chatroom, Ancestral Digs.
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Fridae, 3-Sep-10, the American Civil War History will present "A Campaign that Failed as Recalled by Mark Twain, part 2." Originally presented by James L. Walker in the American Civil War History chatroom on AOL. Join us, won't you, at 10 PM EDT in the AOL chatroom, Ancestral Digs?
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Saturdae, 4-Sep-10, GENTREK returns from Summer hiatus! If attendance is sufficient, we'll continue to offer the Saturdae sessions. This weekend we present "A Revolutionary Voice." Do you know the author of this political statement? "Some writers have confused society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them. Whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. For Society is produced by our wants and Government produced by our wickedness." Come see us at 10:00 AM EDT next week in the Genealogy Wise Chatroom.
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Mondae, 6-Sep-10, GENTREK presents "How to Build Your Genealogy Library." When I began doing genealogical research in 1972, I had but a single genealogy book, and it grew from there. I walked around my place today and estimated my household collection of books numbers in the six-to-eight thousands. Join us at 9:00 pm EDT in the AOL Genealogy Chatroom.
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Mondae, 6-Sep-10, GENTREK presents "A Genealogy Attitude." A golden goodie from DarlaJo Vader. ATTITUDE is defined as: an opinion or way of thinking. This attitude, or way of thinking, affects not only my personal research, but my ability to help others learn more about researching. I am often suggesting "other" records to folks in the chat rooms, resources they haven't tried yet. It is this "way of thinking" that I would like to discuss in this presentation. Join us at 10:00 pm EDT in the Genealogy Wise Chatroom.
Classic Sketch
"Home Again"
by Juanita Hamel, September, 1922
It may have been a mental journey — a far trip of temperament to recover a lost temper, or a wandering that encompassed half the globe — from which she returns. But she is home that instant when she finds herself safe within the shelter of his heart again.
Thought
Prager University — American Trilogy
Weekly Reminder
Happy Dæ Says:
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