A Vital Record is a Vital Record

  We are off with a bang in the US: Vital Records, Understanding and Using The Records course! Module 1 jumps right into what is a vital record and how to find them. Contrary to what I thought from reading the introduction to the course, it appears that there are a whole slew of vital records, and not just birth and death. Good to know! However,  course author Leslie Brinkley Lawson  is quick to point out to us that divorce records are not vital records, and I can see her point. Marriage records are created by the county and usually stored at the clerk’s office thus making them a record of the government, like a birth or death record. Divorce records are court records and while they do contain information that is good for genealogical purposes, they are not vital records. Nope, divorce records are records of the court not the government. I was also pleased to see a step-by-step tutorial on how to find vital records on the Internet. Many people are unable to travel to research, and I understand that. Even though I love visiting onsite research facilities my circumstances make it difficult to drop everything and travel thousands of miles for the record I need. It is just not feasible! The guides, tips, and suggestions on finding these records on the Internet (and in some cases how to order them) was a wonderful addition. Lastly, and I was really grateful this was covered, the instructor talked about vital…

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Time for US Vital Records

By Shannon Bennett, Student Vital records are the bread and butter, go-to source, for many genealogists. The volumes of information you can glean from their pages are treasure troves. Yes, many of my brick walls have tumbled once I laid my hands on those pieces of paper, but I never actually stopped to really study what they are. Have you? In the US: Vital Records, Understanding and Using The Records course, we take an extensive look at birth, marriage,  and death records within the United States. I was excited to read that we will study the levels of government that are involved with these records and where they are kept. To me that is one of the most important things to understand about records, where you can locate them and if you can get them. I know from experience that each state had different start years for vital records which makes uncovering proof very frustrating. Then you have to jump through each jurisdiction’s hoops to get the records because they are not the same from state to state or even county to county. The topics covered look very in-depth. There is also a module on finding alternative records, or perhaps using them as clues to find those vital records. Many of you know from reading my previous posts that I approach genealogy as a great big puzzle that has to be put together. At times I have to get out my magnifying glass, put my Sherlock hat on and really…

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Continuing My Journey Through German Records

By Michele Simmons Lewis, Student I chose Locating Places in Germany  as my second German course from the National Institute for Genealogical Studies  and I am happy I did. This course is packed with information to help you track down where in Germany your ancestor came from and how to locate the records for that location. Module 1 explains some of the pitfalls when trying to identify where in Germany your ancestor came from. It is easy to make a bad assumption. Some towns have the same name as other larger jurisdictions and there might be more than one town with the same name. This makes sense considering we have the same thing here in the United States. There is an Appling, Georgia (town) and an Appling County, Georgia. Appling the town isn’t even in Appling County, it is in Columbia County. I live in Harlem, Georgia, not to be confused with Harlem, New York.  Another thing to consider is the name of the town could have changed when another country took over that area. The borders were constantly changing. To learn more about this consider taking Introduction to German Research for North Americans  which gives a great basic history of Germany and the jurisdictional changes. You can learn more about this course in my previous blog post. Module 2 goes on to explain the different jurisdictional levels and it covers all of the German-speaking areas of Europe. Knowing the political divisions and at which level records are held will save…

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Finishing Up English Occupations

By Shannon Bennett, Student Well, I just finished English: Occupations-Professions and Trades and took the final. Wow, that was all around awesome, but definitely not for the faint of heart. I think I need a couple days to recover so it is a good thing that I have a few days before the next one starts! This course really makes me wish I knew more about my UK ancestors. Jumping the pond has not been easy for me. Well, if I am completely honest it’s been nearly impossible. Why do my ancestors not want us to know where they came from?! For those of you lucky enough to live there, or know more details about their ancestors, I can’t recommend this course enough. You should seriously consider taking it particularly if you have run into brick walls. It gives you great resources to check out for research as well as amazing information on social history and what different occupations were. My most recent UK ancestor immigrated to the US in 1820. Before that it was a steady stream all the way back to the Mayflower. My husband on the other hand has a much closer ancestor. His great-grandmother and her family immigrated to New York from Ystradyfodwg, Glamorgan, Wales in 1882. Even better, his mother shared stories with us that her grandmother told us about growing up there.  Elizabeth Pittard immigrated at the age of 14 and she had amazing stories about her father working in a coal mine. I…

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The Professions

By Shannon Bennett, Student Modules 4-8 of English: Occupations–Professions and Trades covers a wide variety of different occupations, laws and rules associated with them, plus lots of little bits of information that I think I digested. Once again, I stuffed information in my head and hoped that the sponge took it all in. In the future I see using this course as a great reference book when I track down English ancestors! Instead of doing an overview of the modules, I thought I would pick out a couple of occupations that I found interesting. I hope you do too because the instructor did an excellent job of presenting the information on each of them. Needless to say, it was hard to whittle it down to just a few to talk about. Domestic Service We know that from early days most women had responsibilities to the family and home. Yes, many did work side-by-side with their husbands or family members be it in stores or in the fields, but women’s work was defined by society.They were responsible for feeding and clothing the family in addition to any paid work they did outside of the home. Then with the Compulsory Education Acts of 1870 and 1880 women were better situated for different and better paying jobs, not just those of laundress, spinner, or cook. Dr. Penelope Christensen tells us that in the 1851 census, “servant” was the second most common occupation, after agricultural laborer, in England. I was enthralled reading about the…

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