Getting Started

I am assuming that you have some basic information – click here to get the forms that many genealogists use in organizing that basic information. http://www.cyndislist.com/supplies.htm is the site for the forms that I have passed out to you. There are lots of ways to get organized. I suggest doing both a handwritten and digital form for your efforts. Why handwritten sheets??? Well you learn a lot in the process of sorting and writing things. Then putting that data into a computer program allows you to handle it again, thereby adding the information into your mental data banks.

The mother of all links for genealogy - http://www.cyndislist.com/ YOU need to visit this site if you are starting any genealogical research effort. Warning – you can spend hours on this site – it has almost 80,000 links that are active and checked. You need to spend time here!

Once you have checked it out, you need to spend some time at www.ancestry.com - Parts of the site require a subscription to retrieve the data, but the search options here are remarkable. You can also enter in data to their family trees that could help others find you.

Also, I should point out that you can create pages on the web that help others find you or help you share information. For example, this link is to the biography I created for my paternal Great Grandmother. The hyperlinks take you to digital copies of the documents from which I got the information.

General History Links

1. http://orb.rhodes.edu/ This is the site for medieval history essays and materials. The articles are peer reviewed prior to their publication on the site. It has a search option that is very good.

2. http://www.ukans.edu/carrie/docs/amdocs_index.html This is a central link site for documents related to American History. Worth a good look through in that there are many historic documents uploaded that can be used by you in your endeavors.

3. http://hometown.aol.com/skyelander/Scone.html A great starting point for an introduction to Scottish History.

4. http://home.ringnett.no/bjornstad/med-sca/contents.html An another for Scandinavian History and genealogy.

5. http://www.augustansociety.org/ This is the home page for the Augustan Society that is dedicated to history, heraldry and genealogy. The Society has just relocated into its own villa in the deserts of California and their remarkable library will soon be up and running. The home page of the society is well laid out and provides good information on the organization. They also have published numerous articles and publications of interest to the German genealogist.

German Genealogy Links

6. http://feefhs.org/ethnic.html This is the Federation of Eastern European Family History Societies. A great starting point for any ethnic or religious genealogical effort that involves Germany/Austria and eastwards.

7. http://palam.org/~palam - Probably the grand dame of the German Genealogical Societies – the Palatines to America Society is a great starting point for any researcher and even more so for those working on 1600 and 1700 German families.

8. http://etext.virginia.edu/ade/comeonin/germanna.html - If your family was part of the effort that came over in the early 1700s, then you really need to become familiar with this site and the publications associated with the Germanna Foundation and College.

9. Here are examples of three specific region dedicated genealogy sites on the net:

a. http://www2.genealogy.net/gene/reg/RHE-PFA/rhein-p.html - A site for the Rheinland-Pfalz that has links to various other sites and articles.

b. http://users.rootsweb.com/~deuhes/Hessen/index.htm - The ultimate Hessen site run by webmaster extraordinaire Don Watson.

c. http://www.rootsweb.com/~gbhs - The site for the German Bohemian Society here in America and a great jump off point for that information.

10. http://www.teleauskunft.de/NSAPI/ - This is the only active means of searching the German phone book for names and addresses of potential living links to your ancestry. There is an English version of this and so just use that and play with the site.

11. Hessian Soldiers in the Revolution? Check out these two great sites:

a. http://users.rootsweb.com/~deuhes/Hessen/soldiers.htm - A good site with lots of information

b. http://www.cgocable.net/~hessian/ - By one of my distant cousins, John Merz is one of the experts on the Hessians in the Americas. His site is worth the visit.

12. http://www.jewishgen.org/index.html - A great site for conducting Jewish related genealogy.

13. Ok for some general cultural sites – give these a try:

a. http://www.dwelle.de/english/Welcome.html - the English version of the German Deutsche Welle TV/Radio Broadcasting agency. Worth the occasional visit.

b. http://www.germanheritage.com/ This is the German-American History and Heritage site and is really worth the time to visit all of its links.

14. The ultimate German language search machine, producing results in German mind you, is http://meta.rrzn.uni-hannover.de/ type in your unusual surname and/or village and see what this finds for you. You may be pleasantly surprised.

Civil War Related Links

15. http://www.cwc.lsu.edu/cwc/civlink.htm The Ultimate Civil War Link site that is updated by Louisiana State University. Don’t let the Southern location throw you if you descend from a Yankee, this covers it all and is really work visiting.

16. http://www.rootsweb.com/roots-l/civil_war.html - Focusing more on the genealogy associated with the Civil War, Roots-Web put together this great site. The regimental listings will give you contacts working on the regiment you may be interested in – which is really an amazing tool.

17. http://www.nara.gov/research/ordering/milordr.html#nara - If you need pension records or service records from the National Archives, this is their site. It also has a link to the NATF Form 80 needed to make a request.

18. http://www.suvcw.org/ - Being a Yankee, as well as Camp Commander of this order, I’ll plug the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War. This descendant’s organization, founded as the legal heirs of the Grand Army of the Republic is active all across the state. Currently, the Washington State Camps are working on a project to list all of the GAR units in existence. Worth the time – and if you are interested in joining the Washington Camps – visit http://www.home.earthlink.net/~jeffnkim/camp1/camp1.htm we would love to have you. (LADIES – there is a group for you, actually four…use the suvcw.org site to link into those allied orders as we call them.

19. http://www.suvcw.org/reb.htm - The Sons even provide a link to our “Confederate Cousins” that you can use if you descend from Johnny Reb.

20. http://www.olypen.com/tinkers/74th%20Pennsylvania/Webpage/default.htm This is my own plug for a Germanic Union Regiment that my ancestor served in during the CW. It is a constant project that changes monthly if not more often.

Food

What is family closely related to? Good times and food – well these two sites will help you if you want any type of ethnic recipe or actually looking for a little Civil War era spice:

· http://soar.berkeley.edu/recipes/ - As Cyndi’s List is to genealogy, SOAR is to cooking. You can find recipes by ethnic origins, ingredients, you name it. This is probably one of the best things to come out of Berkeley in a long time. If you are Scottish, try the Cockaleekie Soup, and if you are German – oh boy, you need to try the various Sauerbraten recipies, and if you are…..I think you get the point.

· http://almshouse.com/cookbook.htm - This is the Civil War Cookbook. You never know when you need to make Grape Coffee.