Most Overlooked Family History Resource - Periodicals

Family Tree Magazine, Internet Genealogy and Your Genealogy are just three of the family history
 related magazines that Medina County District Library subscribes to.

Most public libraries invest money and precious space to their magazine collections. And that holds true for genealogical collections too. 

However, to the dismay of family history librarians, the magazines are not used much by our members.

We get it. Finding time to read magazines is hard. Four magazines are sitting on my desk right now waiting for me to "have a spare moment" to read them. 

But if we make the time for them, we can get so much out of them!

How they can help our research

• Their articles cover research methods and sources to broaden our genealogy education
• They offer the opportunity to discover the history & people of a location
• They reveal what resources historical and genealogical societies have
• They provide a place to pose questions and get help tackling that brick wall

Genealogical publications can be classified into several categories

 Magazines/journals  

• General interest magazines - Like the ones pictured above feature many how to articles on general, ethnic and foreign research. Just in these issues items covered are:
• Scanning your photos & documents
• Italian Roots
• Pennsylvania Research Guide
• African American Research
• US Social Security & Delayed Birth certificates
• And much, much more!
• Regional- the magazines below cover regional topics, specifically, Ohio family history research, Ohio history, and New England ancestry. Articles include:
• Cases where DNA has upended people's identities
• Letters from an ancestor who had participated in the Women's Club movement
• An interview with author, Conrade C. Hinds about his book Lost Circuses of Ohio
• The restoration of the Warren G. Harding home and construction of his presidential library in Marion, Ohio
• "Women on the Ohio Canals", and
• "Ohio Civil War Veterans Buried in DeKalb County, Illinois"
• Scholarly - journals, like The Register,  present case studies of New England ancestor's using the most stringent research criteria. It is a great learning tool for resolving brick walls and conflicting data. This issue contains articles on:
• "Excommunication of Mayflower Passenger William White..."
• "Sorting Out Several Daniel Lanphear Men"
• "The Second Wife of Moses Gile of Hampstead, New Hampshire; Which Mary Clark?"

Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly is the OGS' journal that comes with membership

in the Society. Echoes comes with membership in the Ohio Historical Connection. And

American Ancestors is part of membership to the New England Historic Genealogical 

Society (NEHGS). 

The Register is another publication
from NEHGS that is more scholarly.

Newsletters - are more casual publications than magazines or journals. They tend to have a limited audience, aren't printed on glossy paper, and don't have bindings. But don't underestimate them! They are published by:

• Historical/genealogical societies
• Libraries
• Counties/regional/state societies
• Surname/family groups
• Ethnic/nationality populations

Spencer Town Crier, Past Pursuits, The Medina County
Story, The Medina County Historical Society (formerly
Smart Talk) and the Chatham Historical Society Newsletter.

These newsletters are in the local history collection at the Virginia Wheeler Martin Family History & Learning Center at the Medina Library.

They inform about local happenings and recount historical events. Local genealogical society newsletters often have a section where you can post queries and get responses from local historians. Past Pursuits is the newsletter for the Special Collections Division of the Akron-Summit County Public Library.  They highlight their databases, list when new materials they've acquired and list any special events or classes at the Library.

PERSI - 

is the PERiodical Source Index created by the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They index genealogical and historical magazines and newsletters from around the world. Want to know if there are articles in Colorado publications about your ancestors? Run a search through PERSI. Once you find an article you want, you can get it directly from Allen County or use your local library's interlibrary loan service. (There may be a fee for this service.) PERSI is available on FindMyPast. The easiest way to access it is to type "findmypast persi" into your favorite search engine. 

Online magazines/journals - some magazines don't require a trip to your local library or bookstore to check out and read. They are available:                                                                        

• Through online personal subscriptions or memberships
• Through popular reading apps, such as Overdrive and Flipster which are available through your local library.

Wherever and however you find them, genealogy magazines, journals and newsletters are an invaluable resources that you cannot afford to skip!

All About Ancestor Charts

 Ancestor Charts

Ancestor charts, family trees, pedigree charts, lineage charts...

 Whatever you call them...

 ...and however they look...

...ancestor charts are an important tool in organizing your family history research.

Today, we are going to look at:

• What are Ancestor Charts?
• Why are they important?
• How do you properly fill them out?

What is an Ancestor Chart?

An Ancestor chart records the direct line of individuals from whom you descend - those for whom you intend to compile a complete and correct family history.

 OR

As the Dictionary Genealogical and Archaic Terms from Rootsweb would define it:

"ANCESTOR CHART -  report or chart that shows a person and all of their ancestors in a graphical format."

If you're new to genealogy, you may have heard about ancestor charts and may have even seen a few of them, but still don't understand why they are important to your research.

Here's WHY ancestor charts are important to your research:

• They organize  the known information on multiple generations of a family line in one place.
• They reveal what information is missing and what still needs to be researched.
• They are easy to share with others.
• They serve as aids when asking other for research help.
• They can be a decorative display of your family history.

Five Generation Ancestor Chart for Theodore Roosevelt.

Chart found on the Famous Kin website. Notice  the red box?
Some information is missing and would need further research.

A decorative ancestral chart

This is a decorative antique Nantucket Family Tree. 
Image from Boston Rare Maps

When a genealogy team staff member helps a patron research their family history, we start by filling out an ancestor chart. It focuses the client on what information is needed to complete the research and quickly reveals what they don't know and need to yet discover.

How to properly fill in an Ancestral Chart

Four Generation Ancestral Chart - This is a simple  ancestral chart that we will be using this to explain the basics of how to fill in an ancestor chart.

This chart is available on the Library's web site at: Ancestral Chart

But first...

Some Guidelines for Filling in the Chart:

• Use a pencil to fill in the information so that it can be corrected as new information is discovered.
• Last names, also called surnames, are written in ALL CAPS to make them easier to pick out when browsing a document.
• Women are always listed under their maiden names.
• Dates are entered from smallest unit to larger, day/month/year, as in 23/7/1979 - this looks strange to Americans who use the format month/day/year 7/23/1979
• I prefer writing out or abbreviating the month as 23 Jul. 1979 or 23 July 1979
• ALWAYS use four digits for the year. As you work back in time, you work in multiple centuries. 2000's, 1900's 1800's and so on.
• Places are also listed from the smallest unit to the larger unit; city or township/county/state/country as in Seville, Guilford Township, Medina County, OH, USA.
• Use standard abbreviations for state names, etc., or provide a key to what abbreviations you use.
• U.S. Postal State Abbreviation List

Filling in the 4 generation Ancestral Chart

First, fill in the chart number. Start with number 1.

The individual whose ancestral line is being researched puts their name on the line to the far left.

Moving to the right on the chart moves you back one generation. Next, you add the father's name.

Then the mother's name is added...

Notice the father's name is listed first and then the mother's name. This is a pattern you will see repeated throughout the chart, the father's name and then the mother's.

Moving to the right again, you reach the third generation, the grandparents.

You start with the father's father, the paternal grandfather. 

Then the father's mother, or paternal grandmother.

Next is the mother's father, or maternal grandfather, and then the mother's mother, the maternal grandmother.

Moving again to the right, we reach the fourth generation, the great-grandparents.

Next, let's take a look at the data fields listed below each person's name.

The fields "Born", "Married" and "Died" are for the dates for those events:

Not surprisingly the place is for location for those events:

 

What does this look like on a filled-in chart?

Did you notice that some of the information is missing?

The marriage information for John MASON and Sarah TANNER is missing. This event needs further research before it can be added to the chart.

Lastly, did you notice that the great-grandparents have a line "Continued on Chart ___"

Your research keeps working its way into the past. Once you move into the great grandparents, you'll need to create another ancestor chart. From the example above, George JOHNSON is continued on Chart No. 2.

You can use ancestral charts to organize and document as many generations as you need to.

Start filling out your ancestor charts today!

If you have any questions or would like to set up an appointment for help on your family history, contact the Library's Genealogy Team at:

• me-team.genealogy@mcdl.info  OR call
• 330-725-0588 ext. 5017

Don't forget to bring an Ancestral Chart with you! We can work on filling it out together.

Watch for future instructional videos from your

 Medina County District Library's Genealogy Team.