Due to the continued social distancing to be practiced, the limit on the number of people who should gather, and the Society’s desire to protect its members and guests because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Fayette County Genealogical Society has cancelled its Lineage Dinner which would have been held Monday evening, May 18.
Those individuals who have applied for inductions into our three lineage Societies which are First Families of Fayette County, Century Families of Fayette County, and Civil War Families of Fayette County will be inducted and honored at the Society’s Holiday Dinner meeting which will take place Monday, Dec. 21, 2020. Further details of this meeting will be announced as they are finalized.
Due to this pandemic and the economic times of this pandemic people may be looking for more economic ways to continue their genealogical research and study or perhaps with having more time at home may be looking for a way to begin their study and research with little or no cost. According to Simon Chandler in his article published online on Lifewire, a technology website, entitled “The 8 Best Free Genealogy Websites of 2020” (updated Jan. 2, 2020) may be a great help. On your computer you can find these websites and use them for free. When researching you should utilize as many websites and sources and tools as possible.
First on Chandler’s list is Family Search operated since 1999 by The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints. Users can search through over 2,000 collections to find their ancestors and this site has a family tree tool. There are birth, death, marriage, and residential records. This site contains guides and tutorials helpful to researchers and the family tree tool is a plus.
The USGenWeb Project-State by State Genealogy Records is next on the list. This site has very comprehensive for all 50 states and provides many guides and resources for ancestry search. It was launched in 1996 as a genealogy database for Kentucky but has now expanded to all 50 states. It contains census records, military records, obituaries, newspapers, and maps with a number of guides including a helpful beginner’s guide. There is no family tree tool.
Access Genealogy- General and Native American Ancestry would be a good website to try if you are researching Native American and African American ancestors. This site provides a good diversity of record types specific to Native and African American ancestry which stretches back to the 17th century including cemetery, slave records, and Indian school records.
Allen County Library African and Native American Genealogy is another source for Native and African American genealogy research which is located in Fort Wayne, Indiana and includes data bases of Native and African American genealogy, military lists, history, and cemetery records. There are number of guides to assist you with your research.
If you are of Jewish descent one of the best websites is JewishGen-Genealogy for Jewish Communities. You can search by name or town and this website provides access to a burial registry of over three million names, a Holocaust database containing over 2.75 names, and it covers a number of countries outside the United States including the United Kingdom, Israel, Germany, Hungary, Austria, and Poland to name a few.
The Olive Tree Genealogy-Genealogy for European Descendants is a good ancestry website for those who want to trace the journey of their families from the old country to new settlements in America. There is a general records section including passage data, military databases, orphan lists, asylum registers, and a Canadian immigration list. There is a guide section and help for beginners.
TONI-Canadian Genealogy is site for those researching ancestors in Canada and is considered one of the best for this study. This site includes over five million names from such sources as tombstones photos and family histories. The collection also includes cemetery records, church records, insurance records, and a Huguenot collection. This is an ever-growing index and should be one that you should reference again from time to time.
The last website discussed by Chandler in his article is the National Archives and Records Administration- Worldwide Genealogy Resources which is a great website for anyone studying genealogy. Though there are few documents that can be viewed online from this website it provides links to every genealogical website or tool you may need.
The Fayette County Genealogical Society hopes to resume a regular schedule as soon as possible but, in the meantime, hopes to continue to assist its members and the community in genealogy research and study. Feel free to contact Research Chair Peggy Lester at 740-495-5720 or [email protected], Lineage Chair Cathy Massie White at 740-333-7227 or [email protected], or Society President Sue Gilmore at 614-864-9609 or [email protected].
For information concerning the Society, membership, or the Lineage Societies of the Fayette County Genealogical Society contact Cathy Massie White as listed.
