This guide is going to show you where some of the Internet s very best free databases are and how to use them, step-by-step. Here is why I wrote it:

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1 Dear Fellow Researcher, This guide is going to show you where some of the Internet s very best free databases are and how to use them, step-by-step. Here is why I wrote it: Have you noticed that every time you start looking around at genealogy information on the Internet some genealogy company wants you to sign up with their service on a monthly contract so that you can access their data and databases? There is nothing wrong with this. It is business. You can certainly find good information this way. Over the years I ve been asked time and time again about these genealogy services. Some people have had good experiences and some tell me horror stories. I usually answer with a question of my own, Have you tried the free online databases? They usually answer no or mention looking at one or two briefly. People have also admitted to me that they were not sure how to use some of the databases because they seemed confusing. This guide offers an affordable solution. I say, Go for the FREE STUFF FIRST! You will be surprised at how much information is available if you know how to get to it and use it. After you use this guide, you will know how. As with all my guides and materials, the magic is in the content. It was meant for you to USE! Write on the blank pages. Make notes, underline and highlight things. When you grasp these concepts and apply them, I am confident that you will agree that the knowledge you gain from within these humble pages will empower you. Now, let s jump in together and go find tons of free data Sincerely, Robert Ragan 1

2 GenCircles: 60 Million Names and Growing GenCircles is a free genealogy database with some unique features. Computer programming whiz, Cliff Shaw, who also created the popular GenForum Web site, is responsible for this free genealogical masterpiece. You DO NOT have to register to use this site. Registration is optional. GO TO Note: If you click on the More Options link (see the lower left corner of the above picture) here is how those additional options will look (see below): For now just use the easy search form (shown in the first example). I just wanted you to see that you have these other options and that you can finetune your searches. If you are searching for common surnames like Jones or Smith, etc., you may want to use these additional options. 2

3 Make sure you are at the main GenCircles home page at TYPE IN the surname ragan in the Last Name box and CLICK ON the Go button. When I did this ragan search I got over 1800 results! This is promising for me. But the results are listed ten at a time so I will want to do searches using fist names as well to narrow it down. Now that I know that there are plenty of Ragan names in there it will be a pleasure to do that because with so many Ragan names I know that it is likely I will get some valuable information. EXAMINE some of those results. Then LOOK toward the bottom of the page where it says, Next Ten Results>>. This is a link. CLICK ON the Next Ten Results>> link. From there you will see the next set of ten results. Of course we don t want to do this through over 1800 results so we will redo the search and add a first name to narrow down the search. Let s do that now. CLICK the Back Button on your Web browser until you get back to the main GenCircles Web page to start the search over. TYPE IN the name jonathan in the First Name box and the surname ragan in the Last Name box and CLICK ON the Go button. 3

4 TIP: When you do a search on any of your surnames, first try doing a search using the LAST NAME ONLY and see how many of that surname are in the GenCircles database. Hopefully there will be several. Then you can narrow down your search using a first name like we are doing in this example. EXAMINE the results from the Jonathan Ragan search. When I did my search I found nine results. When you do this exercise you may find a different number. LOOK FOR the result that looks exactly like the one in the above example. Any person s name that you see in these results will be underlined and is a hyperlink. When you click on them, they will open another Web page and give you more information. In a minute I will ask you to click on this specific Jonathan Ragan link. Have you noticed the symbols that are next to many of the results in GenCircles? Here is what they mean: So in our above Jonathan Ragan result we see that there are: Descendants, SmartMatches, and Notes. Keeping this in mind, CLICK ON the Jonathan Ragan link. 4

5 Wow! There is lots of information here. Note his father s name is underlined which means it is a link that will lead to more information. The mother s name is only a partial name but will also lead me to more information. In the Spouses & Children area we find the descendants that were promised. You can click on any of these names for more information on these people. Note that many of them also have descendants. He had a son that he named Jonathan. 5

6 Notes were also submitted with these records so they are listed under the Notes section. LOOK AT the SmartMatches area. There are three SmartMatches. NOTE where it says that you can click the icon to see a SmartMatch in side-by-side windows. LOOK at the above example where the pointing finger is over the icon by Jonathan Ragan of Families of Bollinger Co and surrounding. Do the same thing on your computer and then CLICK ON it. This SmartMatch feature will allow you to look at the two records sideby-side. This is a very helpful feature. We will talk more about SmartMatching in a minute. 6

7 CLICK ON the Back button of your Web browser so that you get to the Web page that had all of the information about Jonathan Ragan on it (as seen on page 5). LOOK for these options on the left side of your screen near the top. By default we have been looking at the Full View screen, which will show all of the information that is available on an individual. Again, in the Jonathan Ragan example the information available for him was: Descendants, SmartMatches, and Notes. LOOK at the Pedigree option and CLICK ON it. This creates a pedigree chart for Jonathan Ragan. These pedigree charts will expand if there are ancestors that are connected. Take a look around the pedigree area and then LOOK AGAIN at the options on the left side of your screen. Here are what some of those other options include: Take a look at them and see for yourself. I know that you will agree that this whole setup is very impressive: File Home: Has the user information, which includes the number of individuals and most popular surnames with other interesting facts. Also includes SmartMatches and latest messages. List of Individuals: Lists each person in alphabetical order and shows the ones that have descendants. List by Surname: Lists by surname and tells you how many of that surname are in that data file. Submitter Info: Tells the submitter s name, how long they have been a member and gives their address. 7

8 Extract GEDCOM: Many of the submitters were kind enough to make it possible for us to be able to download the information to our computers. In the genealogy world this data is in what is called GEDCOM format. What is a GEDCOM File? GEDCOM is short for GEnealogical Data COMmunications. Sometimes you will hear it referred to as a GED file. The Family History Library Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints developed this format many years ago and it has become the standard for genealogy data. Any genealogy software program that you get today will let you create GEDCOM files from the data that you enter into your computer. It will also let you import or put data into your computer from existing GEDCOM files. So if you import or create a GEDCOM file from one of these free Internet genealogy databases you can put the data on your personal computer at home without having to type all of the information. Your genealogy software will do all of the work for you. Of course you may not want to put a huge database into your computer at home. You can keep the GEDCOM file on a disk and import only a few names. Your genealogy software manual will show you how to import GEDCOM files. If you are wary about this have a friend or family member help you with it because it is extremely important. Also, you might want to invest in my PAJAMA Genealogy Research System which covers file management and working with GEDCOM files. See-- IMPORTANT: What I want you to know is that you can find free genealogy data on the Internet AND in many cases you can download it in GEDCOM format as well and save it on your computer for later use. 8

9 Let s go back to our Jonathan Ragan example. CLICK ON the Extract GEDCOM option. There are two choices: Extract Only Jonathan Ragan or extract his family. The best choice for me would be the Jonathan Ragan and Immediate Family option. Note that this is pulling out immediate family members from a large database and compiling them in a GEDCOM file for me to download. Another nice feature is that you can Select Your Operating System : Window, Macintosh and even Unix. After you make your choices all you have to do is click the Download button and name the GEDCOM file whatever you want it to be called and save it. Once you download the GEDCOM file and have it saved to your computer (or on a disk) you can import it into your database or you can just keep it on file until later. You might only want to import one or two names from this file. Gather all the GEDCOM files that you can on the surnames that you are researching. You never know when some of the names that you have on file may turn out to be missing pieces of the puzzle that you need. 9

10 GO AGAIN to LOOK AT the top right of the Web page and CLICK ON the smartmatching link. Cliff Shaw invented SmartMatching and it is amazing what one person can do. Here is Cliff s definition of how it works, as seen on the SmartMatching Web page: SmartMatching compares the individuals in your file against all of the individuals in our Global Tree. We run a detailed search on every individual in your file, and see where your individuals match up with other individuals in other people's files. SmartMatching enables you to immediately see where other users have information that you are missing, and vice versa. This technology is only available at GenCircles and is amazingly fast and accurate. For a file with 250 individuals, it would take someone days to run all these searches. Imagine how long it would take for a 50,000 individual file. Our SmartMatching system does it all for you, automatically, in a matter of seconds. From this Web page you can click on a link and see an example that shows several SmartMatches for President George Washington. This SmartMatching feature is one of the things that make GenCircles so unique. You ve already seen it in action with the Jonathan Ragan example that we did together. This is an example of impressive technology at work. I predict that the 60 million names in this database will grow rapidly over the upcoming years. 10

11 Now TRY some searches on GenCircles with some of the surnames that you are researching. When you find some interesting results, LOOK at the different options. WorldConnect Project: Over 239 Million Names Rootsweb is the oldest free genealogy site but is supported by Ancestry.com, a commercial Web site. I will show you how to navigate around this so that you can stay on course where the free information is. You will know that you have gone in the wrong direction if you wind up in a place where you are asked for money. The trick is to be sure to be careful where you click. If you go off course it is easy to get back on the right track. GO TO Here is an example of getting off course. This is a typical banner advertisement on the RootsWeb site. This type of ad would be near the top and center of your screen. Remember that it is an advertisement. Instead, LOOK down and to the left. This is the real WorldConnect search form. TYPE ragan into the Surname box and jonathan into the Given box and CLICK on the Go button. 11

12 We are using the same Jonathan Ragan name example for reasons that you will discover as we go through this next section together. In GenCircles, when I did a search using the surname Ragan only there were over 1800 results. When I did a Ragan only search on WorldConnect, there were over results. It makes a difference when you can search through over 238 million names so unless you have a very unusual surname, it is better to enter both a surname and a first name (given name) when doing a search on WorldConnect. EXAMINE the results from the Jonathan Ragan search. LOOK FOR the Jonathan that has Timothy Ragan as the father, Nelson as the mother and Ann as the spouse. Note: There is a duplicate record. LOOK for the result where brad1941 is in the Database column. Now LOOK to the left where it says, Ragan, Jonathan. That name is a link but don t click on it yet. EXAMINE the ICONS below the name. Here is what the different icons mean: The Magnifying Glass: Search for this name at Ancestry.com. You DO NOT want to click on it because it will take you away from the free stuff. Pedigree: Will show you a pedigree chart of the information. Has Notes: Will show you whatever notes were submitted. Has Children: (The icon looks like a small head). Descendants of the individual are included in the file. There is another icon (not shown) that looks like an open book that means Has Sources. 12

13 CLICK ON the Ragan, Jonathan link (where brad1941 is in the Database column). NOTE: Make sure that you click on the right one. Examine the above example carefully because brad1941 has more than one listing in these results. You see that the name of this database is labeled, Descendents of Joshua Sanders of Columbia County Georgia. There are 4510 entries and the name and address of the contact person is included. You also see Jonathan s name, vital information, along with notes and some information on his mother and father. 13

14 You also see Jonathan s children listed. Note that each name is a link that will give you more information about that individual. Those links with the small head (Has Children) icon by them will, of course, lead you to even more information about their children. I d like to direct your attention to different areas of the Web page that you are now looking at. If you are following along with me in this guide you are looking at information found in a specific Jonathan Ragan result found in the Descendents of Joshua Sanders of Columbia County Georgia. Along the top of the Web page is the RootsWeb.com logo with the picture of the tree and their slogan, The oldest and largest FREE genealogy site, supported by Ancesty.com. Below that is an advertising banner of some sort. To the right side of the Web page is a column of various advertisements. This entire right column is dedicated to ad space. Now LOOK toward the bottom of the Web page for this link: It says, Printer Friendly Version. CLICK ON it. 14

15 Before Printer Friendly Version After Printer Friendly Version You have got to give RootsWeb a lot of credit for giving us the option to print out information without all of the ads and logos. This Printer Friendly Version option works with most of the upcoming examples and options you are about to see in the WorldConnect information in this guide. 15

16 CLICK ON the Back button on your Web browser and go back to the previous page that had all of the information on Jonathan Ragan and included all of the links, ads and logos, etc (see pages 13-14). EXAMINE the links that are at the top of the Web page about a third of the way down in the center. They are all side-by-side. CLICK ON the Index link. Remember we are still only looking in the Descendents of Joshua Sanders of Columbia County Georgia database, and not in all of WorldConnect right now. This index shows all of the Ragans that are in this database. CLICK ON the Back button on your Web browser to go to the previous Web page and CLICK ON the Descendancy link. 16

17 This shows a long list of descendents in the format that you see in this example. You can use the Printer Friendly Version link here. CLICK ON the Register link. 17

18 The Register format lists the groups of ancestors by generations. I like this format. You can print this information, share it with others, and it looks nice in a notebook. You can use the Printer Friendly Version link here. CLICK ON the Pedigree link. As you would expect, an on-line pedigree chart is displayed. You are even given an option to Display pedigree in text format. You can try that and see how it looks if you d like. You can also use the Printer Friendly Version link here. CLICK ON the Ahnentafel link. Ahnentafel is German for ancestor table. WorldConnect will show you up to six generations on their Ahnentafel report. You can use the Printer Friendly Version link with this option as well. 18

19 The link to the right of the Ahnentafel link is called Add Post-em. This is where you can add missing pieces of information with a sticky note or a Post-it note to the files you are viewing. If you want instructions on how to do this, you can go to-- Together in this exercise we have found plenty of great information on Jonathan Ragan and connecting Ragan ancestors. We have carefully navigated through WorldConnect. But many people I talk with tell me they find it frustrating when they go off track and click on something like These are all advertisements typical of what you will see on WorldConnect. Ads are planted all over this database. Even the Magnifying Glass icon will lead you to an advertisement. The other icons will not (see page 12). Don t let this discourage you from using this valuable free database. Remember, there are over 239 million names in it. 19

20 Do you remember when you were looking at the Web page that had all of the information about Jonathan Ragan on it? You saw the option to view the information in Index, Descendancy, Register, Pedigree, and Ahnentafel formats. You could print most of those without any ads or logos in the Printer Friendly Version. Something s missing... Here is great Ragan information. WorldConnect is providing wonderful options on how to look at the data. It can be printed, etc. What else could a person ask for? Can you guess? There is no option to download a GEDCOM file. Finding the information is good but finding and saving GEDCOM files is even better. What can we do about this problem? GenCircles had some GEDCOMs to download for Jonathan Ragan. Hmm Wait a minute. There was some DUPLICATE Jonathan Ragan information when we first started this search. Let s take a look. GO BACK TO TYPE ragan into the Surname box and jonathan into the Given box and CLICK on the Go button. 20

21 EXAMINE the results from the Jonathan Ragan search. LOOK AGAIN FOR the Jonathan that has Timothy Ragan as the father, Nelson as the mother and Ann as the spouse. LOOK for the result where : is in the Database column. This is a duplicate record. Actually it looks like this Jonathan Ragan is listed here several times (note the 11 APR 1744). You will see this often in the genealogy databases, which is good because you can get different information from each source and put all of the puzzle pieces together. CLICK ON the Ragan, Jonathan link (where : is in the Database column). Note: This is the result directly above the one you clicked on in the previous exercise (see page 13). It is the same information from the same submitter. And what do we have here? It is a NEW option Download GEDCOM. Fantastic! We can download GEDCOM files from some of the data submitted on WorldConnect. It is a good thing that we checked some of the duplicate information. CLICK ON the Download GEDCOM link. 21

22 Normally you would download a GEDCOM file with the default settings: Produce a GEDCOM file from Ancestors, Number of Generations 10, (go for as many as you can get, right?), and here is what the End of line character download options mean: Windows users would choose CRLF. Mac users would choose CR. Unix users would choose LF. They never made it clear who should choose the LFCR option. For More Advanced Users: You also have the option to Download the full GEDCOM as a ZIP file. This means that you can download the entire GEDCOM file in a compressed file format. It also means that you have to have a special kind of software called PKZIP to uncompress it. You can go to a Web site called Download.com at and download a trial copy of this software. There were 4559 entries in this GEDCOM file and the bulk of it is not on the Ragan surname. I have to decide if I want to have this entire GEDCOM file. You will have to make this same decision each time you have the opportunity to download an entire GEDCOM file as you use WorldConnect. 22

23 GO BACK TO Let s do another search with a different name. TYPE wainwright in the Surname box and james in the Given box and CLICK on the Go button. Then EXAMINE those results. In this case there are over 200 individuals named James Wainwright, which are too many to look through. There is only so much time in the day. We need to narrow down these results. SCROLL DOWN to the bottom of the Web page. LOOK at the search form at the bottom of the Wainwright results. We are going to fine-tune our search. 23

24 You will see that the Surname box and Given Name box already have the words wainwright and james in them. TYPE the word georgia in the Birth Place box and CLICK ON the Search button. This will do a search only for the James Wainwrights in the state of Georgia. In this case we went from over 200 to under 10. Again there are duplicate results. EXAMINE these results so that you can see what is available for this individual and the family connected to him. There are different submitters with their addresses. Any Wainwright researcher could contact them. The option to download GEDCOM files is available in some of these results. There is good information to piece together. By now you should be getting comfortable with WorldConnect. 24

25 Try this: GO BACK TO This is where you have started searches in past exercises. This time LOOK BELOW to the bottom Go button and CLICK ON it. This is officially called the RootsWeb WorldConnect Project Global Search Form. As of April 2003, there were: surnames and online databases you can use free. These are the same databases we have been using all along with the Jonathan Ragan and Wainwright exercises. TYPE ragan in the Surname box and georgia in the Birth Place box and CLICK ON the Search button. 25

26 Out of curiosity I wanted to see how many Ragans from Georgia were in the WorldConnect database, or I should say databases. You may be thinking, Gee Robert, I don t have ancestors in Georgia, though. My people come from Ohio (or England, or Scotland, or wherever). It doesn t matter. The techniques work the same wherever your ancestors are from. In fact, with the Jonathan Ragan example if you follow his pedigree chart back a few generations Timothy Ragan is from Ireland. Now it is time for you to start searching your surnames. GO TO and get started. You can start your searches using the search form on the WorldConnect Web page (as seen on page 11) or use the WorldConnect Project Global Search Form where you can fine-tune your searches (as seen on the bottom of page 25). Spend plenty of time looking up your surnames and fine-tuning your searches before you go on to the next section of the guide. WorldConnect has an excellent help section. Just look at the bottom of the Web page for the WorldConnect Help link. There is interesting information and they tell you how to contribute your data if you are interested. 26

27 FamilySearch Our next stop is at the king of the free Internet genealogy resources and, in my opinion, is one of the most misunderstood. Each year FamilySearch keeps adding more data and there is no end in sight. FamilySearch comes from the Family History Library Department from Salt Lake City, Utah, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS for short). Keep in mind that the LDS Family History Library has the largest repository of genealogy records in the world. Many church members and other genealogy-minded volunteers have already completed projects that we are enjoying on-line today (more on that later). GO TO LOOK at the top of the Web page in the center and CLICK ON the Search Tab. This brings up the Search for Ancestors All Resources search form. TYPE jonathan in the First Name box and ragan in the Last Name box and CLICK ON the Search button. 27

28 Note: This search could have been fine-tuned by clicking on the black arrow by the All Countries box and choosing a country and by filling in other specific information I just wanted you to see what would happen next. EXAMINE the Jonathan Ragan results. You see that there are matches (results) from: Ancestral File, the 1880 U.S. Census, the North America International Genealogical Index, Pedigree Resource File, and the U.S. Social Security Death Index. LOOK to the right of your screen. You will see a summary of the results for the Jonathan Ragan search. 28

29 CLICK the Back button of your Web browser and go back to the Search for Ancestors All Resources search form Web page (see page 27). As you have just seen, there are going to be results for Jonathan Ragan in different places. Those places are individual free databases that have much to offer you. However, I encourage you to go and search in each database separately instead of using the Search for Ancestors All Resources search form like we did in the first exercise on page 27. Here is how that works: LOOK on the left-hand side of the screen at the links. By default it is on All Resources. See the other choices? Most of them are databases that you can search. CLICK ON the Census link. There are currently three censuses online and I am sure more will be added in the future. -The United States 1880 census has about 50 million individuals. -The British Isles census has 25 million individuals from England, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man. -The 1881 Canadian census has 4.2 million individuals. It took LDS members and other volunteers seventeen years to do the indexing for the 1880 U.S. census and fours years for the Canadian census. 29

30 By default the Census box is set to All. CLICK ON the black arrow where it says, All by the Census box. TRY THIS: When you change the setting to 1880 United States Census, look toward the bottom of the search and a Census State box will appear. When you change the setting to 1881 British Census, the box changes to Census Country. Again, when you change the setting to 1881 Canadian Census, the box changes to Census Province. This was a point of interest I wanted you to see. MAKE SURE the Census setting is on 1880 United States Census. TYPE jonathan in the First Name box and ragan in the Last Name box. Leave the other defaults the same (they say All ). Do not select the Use exact spelling option. Then CLICK ON the Search button. 30

31 Here are two results. Note the first one, Jonathon REGAN. There is a variant spelling of the first name and the last name. Had we selected the Use exact spelling option in the search, we would not have found this individual. Note that there are boxes to the left of the names. If you click on a box you will be selecting that individual s name and the box will have a check mark in it. You can select up to fifty names at a time (to download). Also note the link at the bottom of these two names where it says Prepare selected records for download. You can create a GEDCOM file and download it to your computer by clicking on this link. However you can ONLY create a list of individuals on a GEDCOM file from this area. In this example we can only click on the two names and create a GEDCOM file that has the two individual names in it. CLICK ON the Jonathan H. RAGAN link. 31

32 Here (page 31) you see Jonathan s Individual Record, which includes valuable information in the 1880 census including father and mother s birthplace. Note that there is a Download link on this Web page as well. If you click on this link and download a GEDCOM file it will only include this one individual in the file. I want to show you something interesting: LOOK to the right side of your screen toward the top and CLICK ON the Household link. This is more like it. Here is Jonathan H. Ragan and his whole household. Note that there is a Download link on this Web page as well. If you click on it and download a GEDCOM file from a Household Record page like the one that you are looking at all of the members of the household will be included in that GEDCOM file. Now LOOK at the Previous Household and Next Household links. CLICK ON either one of them. It is like walking down the street and meeting your ancestor s neighbors. Many times you will see families that tie into your research because they married into your family way back when. 32

33 Ancestral File There are over 35 million names. This is an older database that was first started in 1978 and has been put on-line. Like GenCircles and WorldConnect the data is linked together into families and pedigrees; and you can download GEDCOM files. GO BACK TO and CLICK ON the Search Tab. Then CLICK ON the Ancestral File link. Here is the Ancestral File search form. TYPE jonathan into the First Name box and ragan into the Last Name box and CLICK ON the Search button. 33

34 CLICK ON the first Jonathan RAGAN link (Birth/Christening 1778). This leads to a Web page that shows Jonathan s Individual Record. LOOK at the right side of the Web page toward the top at the Pedigree and Family links. CLICK ON the Pedigree link. 34

35 EXAMINE the Web page with the pedigree chart. Note that you have the option to download a GEDCOM file from this Web page. CLICK the Back button on your Web browser and come back to the Web page that has Jonathan s Individual Record. Now CLICK on the Family link (the one under the Pedigree link). This shows Jonathan s Family Group Record (example shown on next page). There are no children listed but here is where they would be if that information was submitted. Note that you can download a GEDCOM file containing this information. 35

36 LOOK at the right side of the Web page at the several different Family links. Jonathan s father is also named Jonathan. CLICK on the Family link that is to the far right of where is says, Father: Jonathan RAGAN (AFN-B2MD-5X). This will show Jonathan s father as the parent in a Family Group Record and Jonathan as a child with his brothers and sisters. This would be a good GEDCOM file to create and download. Note: You probably noticed a Details link at the bottom of the Web page as you went through the Ancestral File exercises. If you click on this link it will give you the address of the person who submitted the information. The AFN reference you see by each person s name stands for Ancestral File Number. You used to be able to send additions and corrections to the Ancestral File database but those days are gone. Starting in 2003, the Family History Library Department switched over to Pedigree Resource File as the database for people to submit their records instead of Ancestral File, but they will still keep Ancestral File as an on-line resource. 36

37 Pedigree Resource File Over 50 Million Names and Growing Fast GO BACK TO and CLICK ON the Search Tab. Then CLICK ON the Pedigree Resource File link. This is the Pedigree Resource File search form. TYPE jonathan into the First Name box and ragan into the Last Name box and CLICK ON the Search button. 37

38 CLICK ON the Jonathan Ragan link that shows Birth/Christening: abt 1784,, Georgia (in this example it is the first result). This brings up Jonathan s Individual Record. NOTE the vital information that it gives you: Birth date and place, death date and place, spouse name with marriage date and place. Also, you can click on the names (links) of the father, mother, or spouse for more information on them. 38

39 Did you notice the references to Disc #37 (see example on the bottom of page 38, or, if you are following along on the Internet, look on your computer screen) and the mention of a Pin number? What is that all about? The Pedigree Resource File has over 50 million names and is continually increasing. As I mentioned, this is the database that everyone will now be submitting GEDCOM files to instead of the Ancestral File database However, only the Pedigree Resource File INDEX is on the Internet. The CD s have to be purchased to see the complete information and to be able to create GEDCOM files. I have to admit I was disappointed when I first learned this but as you just saw in the previous exercise, you can still get plenty valuable vital information. SCROLL DOWN the Web page where you are looking at Jonathan Ragan s Individual Record (see page 38). You will see the Submitters name and address. If this person submitted information on Jonathan, she probably has information on other Ragans in this same batch of submissions. Here is how you can see them: LOOK at the link beside where it says Submission Search and CLICK ON it (the link is ). Note: In the above example you can see the Order Pedigree Resource File CD-ROMS link. Currently you can buy the CDs for $8 each or for less if you get them in sets. This is extremely reasonable if you consider that commercial genealogy companies usually charge from $20-$40 per CD for their products. Also, many Family History Centers are ordering the Pedigree Resource File CDs. 39

40 The submission number automatically shows up in the Submission Number box. All you have to do is CLICK ON the Search button. A list of names comes up and shows SCROLL DOWN to the bottom of the Web page. There are 193 names on this Web page but looking at the bottom name (Thomas Cluck) you see that you re only in the C s. CLICK ON the next link. 40

41 Now EXAMINE the list of names, SCROLL to the bottom of the page and CLICK ON the next link again. REPEAT the process until you get the R s and look for the surname Ragan. There were several Ragan names here. So far you have seen how to look for individuals and to find batches of one surname in various submissions to the Pedigree Resource File. Now I want you to see how to use the vital information that you will discover to find family groups. LOOK AGAIN at the example on page 38 at Jonathan Ragan s Individual Record. Note that his father is listed as Jonathan Ragan and his mother as Ann T. Hall. Let s find this family as a group. We need to start a fresh search. GO BACK AGAIN TO and CLICK ON the Search Tab. Then CLICK ON the Pedigree Resource File link. 41

42 We know that Jonathan Ragan is the father so TYPE jonathan in the Father box and ragan in the Last Name box. Ann T. Hall is the mother so TYPE ann t. in the Mother box and hall in the Last Name box and CLICK ON the Search button. Everything else is left blank. Here are the children of Jonathan Ragan (with our first Jonathan as a child) and Ann T. Hall. This is how you can find family groups. 42

43 You can use the Pedigree Resource File search form to narrow down your search as much as you like. You can choose the event, year range, year, and country. Try it, but if you don t have any luck, do a more general search and see if you have better results. It is possible to be too specific and miss good information. As you have seen, you can get very valuable vital information, search for families in groups and even get the submitter s name and address; but it is a shame that GEDCOM files cannot be created on-line from the Pedigree Resource File. Try searches on the Pedigree Resource File database using names and surnames of the ancestors that you are researching and see how you do. Hopefully you will find important new vital information to help further your research. Please get comfortable with the Pedigree Resource File before you continue on in the guide. Our next stop is the International Genealogical Index, or IGI. International Genealogical Index (IGI) The IGI has been around for a long time and now has over 725 million individual names in it and is continually being expanded. Although it is labeled an index you can get valuable vital information from it, including family groups, partial pedigree charts, and you can download GEDCOM files. The vital information you will get from the IGI is data on: Birth and Christening, Death and Burial, Marriage, and other records. 43

44 GO TO and CLICK ON the Search Tab. Then CLICK ON the International Genealogical Index link. You can t just type in Jonathan Ragan and click on the search button on the IGI search form. You have to select a region BEFORE you do a search. CLICK ON the black arrow to the right of the Region box. SCROLL DOWN and SELECT North America as the region. As you can see, there are many international regions to choose from. 44

45 In the Country box, SELECT United States as the option. Then in the State box, SELECT Georgia as the option. Then TYPE jonathan in the First Name box and ragan in the Last Name box and CLICK ON the Search button. CLICK ON the Jonathan Ragan link (Birth: About 1784,, Georgia). In the above example it is the first result. 45

46 This shows Jonathan s IGI Individual Record. Note that his father is also named Jonathan and his mother is Ann T. Hall just like we saw in the Pedigree Resource File (see page 38). Note the three links at the top: Search Results will take you back to the Web page with the list of Ragans in Georgia; Download will let you download a GEDCOM file of this individual; and Pedigree will show you a pedigree of this individual. Think About This: I know that you must be tired of looking for Jonathan Ragan and his father, Jonathan, in Georgia by now. But think about what you have seen happen in these exercises: You have seen that there is duplicate information in these different databases from different submitters. You are about to see that some information is more complete than others. In the Pedigree Resource File, you could not download GEDCOM files. But you can from the IGI. What if Jonathan Ragan with Ann T. Hall as the mother is in Ancestral File, WorldConnect or GenCircles where a GEDCOM file can be downloaded? Even if you do not want to download a GEDCOM file you should check for your ancestors in all of the free Internet databases and compare information between any duplicate data. 46

47 From Jonathan Ragan s IGI Individual Record (see page 47) LOOK at the Parents area at the Jonathan Ragan link. Now look to the far right and you will see a Family link. CLICK ON the Family link. This is Jonathan s Family Group Record. It shows him as a child with some of his brothers and sisters (not shown in this example) and with Jonathan as his father and Ann T. Hall as his mother. Did you notice? There are only eight children listed here. In the Pedigree Resource File there were fourteen children! This information is not as complete as what we found before. Note the download link shows you that you can download a GEDCOM file of this information. 47

48 CLICK ON the Search Results link. This should take you back to the list of results from the search you did for Ragans in Georgia (see page 45). CLICK ON the JONATHAN RAGAN link (Birth: About 1735 Of,, Georgia). It is the second result in the above example. LOOK in the Source Information area. CLICK ON the F link to the right of where it says Batch Number. NOTE: Some IGI Individual Records will not have these Batch Number links available like this one does. 48

49 For example, this is the IGI Individual Record of the first Jonathan Ragan that we looked up on pages There is no Batch Number link. The second Jonathan Ragan (page 48) does have the Batch Number link. After you click on the Batch Number link it will automatically appear in the Batch Number box for you. Leave everything like it is. All you have to do is CLICK ON the Search button. 49

50 All of the people who were submitted in this batch are listed. However, the name of the submitter is not given. SCROLL DOWN to the bottom of the Web page. In the above example the check boxes have been clicked on to select the names. Once the names are selected you can click on the Prepare selected records for download link to create a GEDCOM file. What this does is create a temporary holding file of the names that you have selected. You will notice that a NEW link called Download GEDCOM will appear. The filename is automatically generated but when you go to actually download and save the GEDCOM file you can name it whatever you want to call it. It is time for you to try searching the IGI for your ancestors. Remember that you will be searching through over 725 million names. Have fun and get comfortable with the IGI before you continue in the guide. GO BACK TO and CLICK ON the Search Tab. Then CLICK ON the International Genealogical Index link and use the methods that you ve just learned. 50

51 Tab. GO TO and CLICK ON the Search LOOK at the left hand side of your screen. Note these three links. -US Social Security Death Index: We are going to come back to this link later in the guide. I want you to see something else first. -Vital Records Index: There are some records from Mexico and Scandinavia. If you have ancestors from this area you should look here. If not, don t bother. -Search Family History Web Sites: This is pretty much a dead end. I ve never seen this feature work right. They should get rid of this link. I believe that it confuses people and distracts from the wonderful information that you can get from the other databases on FamilySearch. Let s look at the Social Security Death Index database. FamilySearch has it but so do some of the on-line genealogy companies. So does RootsWeb. GO TO This is the RootsWeb Social Security Death Index Interactive Search. They claim to be the best SSDI search engine on the Internet. As of March 2003 they had over 70 million names on-line. 51

52 Here is the Simple search form you will see when you first get to RootsWeb Social Security Death Index Interactive Search. When I typed in ragan and clicked on the Submit button I got over 3300 results. Note the Advanced Search button (like the one shown in the above example) and CLICK ON it. This will bring up the Advanced Search form. TYPE ragan in the Last name box and select Georgia as the option in the Issue box and CLICK ON the Submit button. 52

53 Our search has narrowed down from over 3300 results to over 250 Ragan individuals who had Social Security numbers issued in Georgia. As you see, the person s birth and death date is listed, as well as their last residence. I am not going to go into the Social Security Death Index in depth but I want you to see one of the best on-line tutorials that I have seen on the subject. The link is right here at the bottom of the Web page you are looking at: SCROLL DOWN to the bottom of your screen and look for the link and CLICK ON it. RootsWeb has done a fine job on this tutorial. I recommend that you print it. Note the Printer Friendly Version link to the right of the title: RootsWeb Guide to Tracing Family Trees. Click on that link and print it out. You will have a great outline of the SSDI. Try doing searches on the RootsWeb SSDI database using surnames that you are researching, then continue on in the guide. 53

54 GO TO and CLICK ON the Search Tab. Then CLICK ON the US Social Security Death Index link. TYPE ragan in the Last Name box and select Georgia as the option in the State or Territory box and CLICK ON the Search button. Wow! There are over 400 results here. In the RootsWeb SSDI there were just over 250 Ragan results in Georgia. Why is this? 54

55 It is because if you look at the list carefully you will see that the variant name spellings of Ragan (Reagan, etc.) are included. LOOK at the check boxes by the names and note that it mentions Select records to download. You can create a GEDCOM file from these SSDI records! This is why I wanted you to see the difference between the two SSDI databases. They both have different personalities and search features but one of them will let you create GEDCOM files from the data and that is an important difference. CLICK ON any one of the RAGAN links. You can also select an individual and add his name to the temporary holding file (which works just like the example on page 50) to create a GEDCOM file from an Individual Record Web page. 55

56 CLICK ON the Back button of your Web browser until you get back to the SSDI search form (as seen on page 54). This time we will use the Use exact spelling option. TYPE joseph in the First Name box and ragan in the Last Name box. MAKE SURE that the State or Territory box option is set at All States. If it is set at Georgia, or anywhere else, it will not work. CLICK ON the box to the left of where is says, *Use exact spelling so that the box is selected and has a check mark. Then CLICK ON the Search button. The results will show all of the individuals named Joseph RAGAN with that exact spelling. Note that these individuals can all be selected and a GEDCOM file can be created. Try some searches in the FamilySearch SSDI using surnames that you are researching and get comfortable with it. 56

57 These free Internet databases are currently the best of the best. Just look at the millions of names you can search through free. Don t forget that in many cases you can create GEDCOM files from this data and download them to you computer. The databases listed in bold type will continue to grow: GenCircles: 60 million names. WorldConnect Project: 239 million names. United States 1880 census: 50 million names. British Isles census: 25 million names Canadian census: 4.2 million names. Ancestral File: over 35 million names. Pedigree Resource File: over 50 million names. The IGI: over 725 million names. The SSDI: over 70 million names. There is much more In addition to these Internet databases there are smaller genealogy databases (Web pages) and surname databases that people have put on-line. I have added a bonus section to the back of this guide that shows you exactly how to get to them. There is no way to calculate how many MORE millions of names this can lead you to. The sky is the limit! How do you feel about GEDCOM files? As you have gone through the guide one of two things probably happened: 1. You are already familiar with GEDCOM files and have been happily searching using surnames that you are interested in and making GEDCOM files like crazy and saving them to your computer. 2. Skimming over each part that said GEDCOM because it kind of scares you since you don t know how this GEDCOM stuff works. If you are GEDCOM challenged there are some tips in the bonus section that may help you overcome your GEDCOM fears. Being able to find, create and save data in GEDCOM format is such a big deal and time saver that I made sure to carefully show you the places where you could download them from the databases we ve covered in this guide. When you are ready, continue to the BONUS SECTION. 57