Matthew L. Helm and April Leigh Helm manage several leading online genealogical resources, including [...]. They're also the founders of Boneyard Creek Heritage, Inc. Books by the Helms include Family Tree Maker For Dummies, Get Your Degree Online, Genealogy Online: Tech to Connect and seven editions of Genealogy Online For Dummies.

Introduction 1

About This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Getting Started with Genealogy 5

Chapter 1: Beginning Your Ancestral Journey 7

It's About Time(line) 7

Crafting an online timeline 9

Learning about Sources 13

Using Genealogical Applications 15

Entering Information into RootsMagic Essentials 17

Completing the Pedigree Page 20

Creating the Virtual You 21

Giving Your Ancestors Some Privacy 24

Beefing Up Your Profile 24

Citing Your Sources 26

Getting the Full Media Experience 28

Reaching Out to Others 29

Hinting Around about Your Ancestors 30

Giving Your Ancestors Some Mobility 31

Telling Your Story 34

Chapter 2: Hunting for Your Ancestral Treasures 35

A Brief Message about Research Steps 35

Selecting a Person to Begin Your Search 36

Trying a semi-unique name 36

Narrowing your starting point 36

Choosing someone you know about 38

Selecting a grandparent's name 39

Beginning to Put the Puzzle Together 39

Getting the 4-1-1 from Your Kinfolk 41

Dusting off old photo albums 43

Striking it rich in closets, in basements, and under beds 45

Adding Your Ancestors One by One 47

Using a bit of (Roots)Magic to keep track of your family 48

Logging your data into Ancestry Family Tree 53

Chapter 3: Searching Primary Resource Sites 55

Touring [...] 56

Trying [...] for free 56

Searching [...]'s vast collection 58

Sifting through the results 62

[...] at a Glance 68

Investigating FamilySearch 69

Creating a free account 69

FamilySearching records 70

Using FamilySearch results 71

Other FamilySearch search functions 75

Giving Back through FamilySearch Indexing 75

Saluting Fold3 76

Creating a trial account 76

Searching at Fold3 77

Finding Your Past 82

Exploring MyHeritage 84

Chapter 4: Using All of Your Censuses 87

Coming to Your Census 88

United States census schedules 88

State, territorial, and other census records 95

Finding Your Ancestors in U.S Census Records 97

Sifting through census record results 98

Digging into digitized census records 100

Consolidating your discoveries 104

Using census records to tell a story 106

Census Records from Afar 109

Africa 110

Asia 110

Europe 110

North America 113

Oceania 113

South America 113

Part 2: Bringing Your Ancestor to Life 115

Chapter 5: Digging Deeper into Your Ancestors' Lives 117

These Records Are Vital 117

Reading vital records 118

Gauging vitals online 120

Investigating Immigration and Naturalization Records 123

Passenger lists 125

Naturalization records 127

Land Ho! Researching Land Records 129

Surveying land lovers in the U.S. 130

Using [...] to map your ancestor's land 134

Marching to a Different Drummer: Searching for Military Records 135

Taxation with Notation 140

Trial and Error at the Courthouse 142

Getting the News on Your Ancestors 143

Chapter 6: Mapping the Past 147

Are We There Yet? Researching Where "There" Was to Your Ancestors 148

Using documents that you already possess 148

Where is Llandrindod, anyway? 149

There's No Place like Home: Using Local Resources 153

Geographic-specific websites 154

Libraries and archives 156

Pulling the obituary 157

Genealogical and historical societies 158

Looking at local directories 159

Professional researchers 161

Localizing your search 162

Gaining historical perspective 162

Mapping Your Ancestor's Way 164

Positioning your family: Using global positioning systems 171

Plotting against the family 172

Wrapping It Up (with a Surprise) 174

Chapter 7: Searching for That Elusive Ancestor 175

Letting Your Computer Do the Walking: Using Search Engines 176

Diving into general Internet search engines 176

Flying with Genealogy Vertical Search Engines 181

Finding the Site That's Best for You 183

Personal genealogical sites 183

One-name study sites 185

Family associations and organizations 186

Surnames connected to events or places 187

Family Trees Ripe for the Picking: Finding Compiled Resources 188

Narrative compiled genealogies 189

Compiled genealogical databases 189

Browsing Comprehensive Genealogical Indexes 191

Chapter 8: Going Beyond Borders: International and Ethnic Records 193

Fishing for International and Ethnic Sources 194

Wiki-ing for answers 194

Surveying sites with comprehensive genealogy indexes 195

Using search engines 195

WorldGenWeb 195

Translating sites 197

Records from the English-Speaking World 197

Gathering information from England and Wales 198

A lot more than haggis - finding Scottish records 201

Researching the north o' Ireland 201

Traversing the Emerald Isle 202

Other Irish genealogy resources 203

Heading north for Canadian records 204

Accessing Australian sources 207

Hispanic and Portuguese Roots 208

Within the United States 208

Exploring south of the border: Mexican sources 209

Continental resources 210

Central and South American research 211

Swimming through Caribbean genealogy 214

Achtung! Using Sites for the German-Speaking World 215

Along the beautiful Danube: Austrian roots 215

Consulting German resources 216

Focusing on French Resources 218

Scanning Scandinavian Countries 218

Denmark 218

Finland 219

Norway 220

Sweden 220

Iceland 221

Italian Cooking 221

Other European Sites 221

Asian Resources 223

Researching African Ancestry 224

Genealogical resource pages on the web 226

Transcribed records pertaining to ancestors with African roots 227

Special ethnic pages about African ancestry 228

Original records 229

American Indian Resources 229

Where to begin looking for information about American Indians 230

American Indian resource pages on the web 232

Transcribed American Indian records 233

Chapter 9: Specializing in Your Family History 235

Researching Religious Group Records 236

Finding Fraternal Orders and Service Clubs 240

A Photo Is Worth a Thousand Words 242

Accessing Adoption Records 245

Preparing to Be Schooled 246

Turning to Bible Records 248

Snooping through Great-Grandma's Diary 248

Nosing through Newspaper Records 249

Part 3: Putting Your Family History to the Test 251

Chapter 10: Fitting into Your Genes: Genetic Genealogy 253

Ask What DNA Can Do for You 254

A Friendly Word of Caution 255

Delving into DNA 256

Getting down to bases 257

Variations in DNA 259

Family History: Documentation versus Genetics 261

Testing Companies 262

Selecting the Right Test for You 263

Finding Helpful DNA Sites 264

Chapter 11: Direct-Line Genetic Tests 265

Y chromosome (Y-DNA) testing 265

"Junk" DNA is worth something 266

The testing process 267

Comparing the results 268

Assessing the probability of a relationship 270

Haplogroups 271

Locating others with the same results 275

Mitochondrial (mtDNA) testing 276

Testing method 278

Making sense of the results 279

Finding others with the same results 280

Chapter 12: Autosomal DNA (atDNA) Testing 281

But First a Quick Review 281

Testing Process 283

What Can I Learn from Autosomal DNA Testing? 284

Ethnicity Estimation 285

Relationship Testing 288

Back to a familiar family 290

Objectives of the test 291

Playing the match game 292

Set your phasing to stun 293

We have something In Common With you 294

Sticking with tradition 296

Browsing through the chromosomes 296

Triangulating the data 298

Meeting the objectives 300

X-Chromosome DNA Testing 301

Utilities to the Rescue 303

Part 4: Casting Your Nets in the Genealogy Sea 305

Chapter 13: Finding Your Research Path 307

Introducing the Helm Online Family Tree Research Cycle 307

Planning your research 309

Collecting useful information 311

Researching: Through the brick wall and beyond 312

Consolidating information in a database 313

Validating your findings 313

Distilling the information that you gather 314

Too Many Ancestor Irons in the Research Fire 315

Verifying Your Information 315

Chapter 14: Share and Share Alike 317

Why Would Anyone Want Your Stuff? 318

Making Friends on Facebook 318

Jumping on the Facebook bandwagon 319

Making Facebook friends 320

Sorting your Facebook friends 321

Posting statuses on Facebook 322

Sharing photos via Facebook 322

Pinning Family History to Pinterest 324

Realizing Instant Gratification with Instagram 326

Networking Genealogy-Style 326

Sharing your history on [...] 327

Discovering contacts through...