Meeting Notes from 8/23/07

Genealogy Focus Group Aug 23, 2007


Cathy A. Pappas
Curt Wright

MaryEllen memichael@fredco-md.net

Curt brought a Civil War Pension File he received recently from the National Archives. The pension file has more information than a service record but you never know exactly what you might find in it.

Cathy discovered her biological father’s obituary just by luck in the Gettysburg paper archive. She got a great deal of information about him, a war hero as it turns out, and his family. She found out her Grandfather was a Smith and married a woman also named Smith so Cathy has her work cut out for her to trace that line!!

We spent some time on the Family History Center site and Cyndi’s List (www.cyndislist.com ) showing Cathy how to search for localities she is interested in for marriage records. On Cyndi’s list, we first found Pennsylvania using the search box and then scrolled down to Franklin County where there was a link for vital records that included marriage records.

On the Family History Center site (www.familysearch.org ), we looked at the page that lists the films available for ordering through the local Family History Centers. From the main page, open the Library tab and click on Family History Library catalog and then click on Place Search. This will open a search page where you can enter a locality, for example, New Oxford and Adams in the Part of search box. This will bring back a link for New Oxford in Adams County, Pennsylvania. From the link, you can drill down to the actual catalog record giving the information needed to order microfilm(s) from the local History Center. We also located the address for the Family History Center near Cathy’s home by going to the Family History Centers link under the Library tab.

Curt also suggested she check with the county historical societies.

Another interesting resource for family names is Christmas card mailing lists.