Using NewspaperArchive.com Part 2

Continued from Using NewspaperARCHIVE.com Part 1....



Step 6. Now you see the actual page of the newspaper. On the right you are provided with the Title, Date, page # and Precise location of the newspaper article.

I want to mention something very important before we go on! At the top, above the newspaper page and the Reader horizontal bar, are little icons for NewspaperARCHIVE.com The first is a beak <, then a shopping cart, etc. The beak < is what you use to get back to your search results. Do not use the back button on your browser!

Back to the newspaper page. It is displaying but I can't see my search terms highlighted. Sometimes they are, sometimes they are not.

Step 7 In this case, I don't want to start reading the whole page, so I click on the binoculars icon in the horizontal menu bar (4th icon from the left) Up pops a nice little search window that allows me to search the full newspaper page that is displaying



Now I see my term that I want (KING) in the Results window. Clicking on each of these in turn takes me directly to that word on the page. I can increase the magnification to any % I want. When I see an article I want to save, I have more choices.



Step 8 I can SAVE to my computer with the disc icon far left. I can PRINT the page. I can SELECT TEXT and select the text I want (this option never works well fo r me, it selects more text than I want and when I copy and paste it, the text is garbled) or, the option I like best -- I can use the SNAPSHOT TOOL.



I took a screen shot so you can see where it is (see the words SNAPSHOT TOOL near the top?) Click on that little icon and then outline the article you want to save. You are starting in the top left corner of your article and drawing a little dotted outline (box) around it. Your article that you have outlined is automatically saved to your clipboard. It is saved as a graphic so now you can PASTE it into any graphic program you like. I use Irfanview.



After saving your article, if you have used Snapshot Tool, be sure to click on the little HAND icon if you still want to look around the newspaper page.

In a future post on this blog I will talk about keywords and search strategies that I have found useful on NewspaperARCHIVE.com as well as what to do when you get a page of HITS but clicking on one you want to see brings up "no results" for the keyword or keywords you searched on. Meantime I hope you enjoy searching for your ancestors on NewspaperARCHIVE.com!

Using NewspaperArchive.com Part 1

I'm a huge fan of NewspaperARCHIVE.com and have been playing around with it for a few weeks now. I thought I'd show others some tips I've learned while using the site.

Step 1: Go to NewspaperARCHIVE.com

Step 2: Sign in if you are a member. You can subscribe if not a member or you can sign up for the Free Membership. Free Membership allows you to view 3 newspaper pages per day, at no cost.



Step 3: You have many choices and you may want to take some time to look around the site and read what is available (geared towards teachers, genealogists, writers, students, etc). I am going to jump right in to the Advanced Search. I have highlighted it for you in green. (near top of screen)

I am looking for newspaper pages concerning John & Iva King who lived in Battle Creek Michigan. They were supposedly charged with arson in the early 1900s and I hope to find evidence of this and any newspaper articles about the event.



Step 4: On the Advanced Search page you have many options:

Enter first name and last name of person you are searching for. I put JOHN KING

Enter various keywords. In "With all the words" I typed in the words ARSON IVA

I am leaving the other fields blank (With the exact phrase. With at least one of the words. Without the words)

Results per page: 30 is the maximum

Narrow by Publication Date: I selected "Between Years" 1910 and 1914

Narrow by Publication Location: I chose United States of America and Michigan



Step 5 Hit SEARCH. The new page loads with the number of hits and a brief excerpt. There are 3 hits for my search terms and the first 2 from the Evening Chronicle look like they are my John & Iva. I want to see those newspaper pages in order to figure out if my search terms (keywords) are too restrictive to catch all newspaper accounts, or if there are alternate search words I might want to use to look for more articles



You will see in the brief excerpt for a hit that the text looks rather weird and doesn't make total sense. That is because it is OCR text but never fear, the newspaper page will be exactly as printed on the day it was published!

Tomorrow I will show you how to use the Snapshot Tool, the Binoculars and also explain some of the idiosyncracies of the newspaper page images.

Using Ireland Civil Registration Indexes to obtain Vital Stats Certificates: Step 3

Continuing from Step 2 of Using Ireland Civil Registration Indexes to obtain Vital Stats Certificates

The Irish marriage certificate I received was almost identical to English Marriage Certificates I have ordered and contained the following information:

When married
[First] Name and Surname [of bride and groom]
Age [of bride and groom]
Condition [of bride and groom - meaing were they single, widowed...]
Rank or profession [of bride and groom]
Residence at the time of marriage [of bride and groom]
Father's Name and Surname [of bride and groom]
Rank or profession of father [of bride and groom]
Church they were married in, Parish, City
Witnesses
Person marrying them

In case you are ordering another type of certificate, here is what you can expect to find on each:

A Pre 1997 Irish Birth certificate consists of date and place of birth, child's forename/s, fathers name, address and occupation, mothers name and maiden surname, name and address of person who registered the birth.

An Irish Death certificate consists of the deceased's name, date and place of death, marital condition, occupation, age at last birthday, cause of death, name and address of person who registered the death.

A pre 1957 Irish Marriage certificate consists of date and place of marriage, both spouses age, name, marital condition, occupation and pre-marriage address and their fathers names and occupations.

I think you will enjoy finding your Irish ancestor's Vital Records using these sites!

Using Ireland Civil Registration Indexes to obtain Vital Stats Certificates: Step 2

Continuing from Step 1 of Using Ireland Civil Registration Indexes to obtain Vital Stats Certificates, posted yesterday

At the GRO website I chose English and Marriage. An application form (in .doc format) will open. Depending what browser you use, you may get a choice to OPEN the file or SAVE it. I chose OPEN and the file opened in my browser window (IE6). The top part explains how to apply, either in person, by mail (post) or by Fax. The cost is provided and the choice of certificate.

The GRO office will supply a Certified Copy or a photocopy of an entry in the Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages provided enough information is furnished by an applicant to enable the records to be identified. A photocopy of an entry will contain exactly the same details as a Certificate. A photocopy is ideal for genealogical purposes.

Next, and this is the really cool part - you can TYPE the required information right on the form in your browser window! You can also print the form off and fill it out by hand, but I like to type my details. Now here is a tip for you if you are typing right on the form in your browser. You must remove the same number of ..... as the characters you are typing (for eg MASSEY means I must remove 6 dots) so that the form fields still line up properly! Don't worry it is easier than it sounds.

Here you also fill out your payment details (Credit Card, Cash or Cheque). Be sure you tick off the box for PHOTOCOPY. Next you can SAVE the form to your computer so you have a copy, then PRINT page 2 (the Application) only. Note that cheques can only be written in Euro Dollars from an Irish bank so unless you have a bank account in Ireland, you can't use this option.

I ordered the photocopies mentioned on the form in Note 2 and which, at the time of this writing, cost 6 Euro Dollars for the first order and 4 Euro Dollars for additional orders. If you do not know how much a Euro Dollar is in your currency, you can use this handy Currency Converter online. At the time I wrote this post, 6 Euro Dollars converted to $8.26 US dollars or $9.44 Canadian dollars

After printing Page 2 of the form, you can either Fax or mail it to the address given at the top of the form. I mailed mine and about 4 weeks later, received my certificate in the mail.

Last step - what information is included on an Irish Vital Registration and what do they look like - will be posted tomorrow

Using Ireland Civil Registration Indexes to obtain Vital Stats Certificates

FamilySearch.org has Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958 online. This collection includes births from 1864-1958, marriages 1845-1958 and deaths 1864-1958

I wanted to use this index to order the full certificates from the GRO for Ireland. I was searching for a marriage for Rebecca Massey in Dublin Ireland.

At FamilySearch I got 1 page of possible hits and this was the information from the hit that was the one I wanted:

Name: Rebecca Massey
Registration district: Dublin South
Record type: MARRIAGES
Registration date - quarter and year: 1859
Film number: 101247
Volume: 5
Page: 212
Digital GS number: 4195893
Image number: 00401
Collection: Ireland, Civil Registration Indexes 1845-1958

You will not be using anything from the index entry other than the invididual's surname and first name, year of marriage and location (Registration district) but you will likely want to copy all the information and save it. It is important to go first to the indexes for Irish Civil Registration in order to be sure the event is there and to be sure of the year and location of the event.

Next step is to go to the General Register Office certificate order page. Note that The General Register Office (Oifig An Ard-Chláraitheora) is the central civil repository for records relating to Births, Deaths and Marriages in Ireland. The GRO records of marriages other than Roman Catholic marriages date back to 1st April 1845 . Records of Births, Deaths and Roman Catholic Marriages date back to 1st January 1864.

An important note here is that if your ancestors lived in Northern Ireland, you cannot use this GRO website. Those of us with ancestors in Northern Ireland must go to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland which holds different records. I'll talk about the PRO of Northern Ireland in a separate post, but for now, back to ordering our marriage registration from the GRO.

Next step at the GRO is to choose Birth, Marriage or Death and whether you want your Certificate Application Form in English or Irish

Step 2 will be posted tomorrow

Ordering English Certificates of Birth, Marriage or Death online

Recently I searched for the marriage record of my great great grandfather Charles Fuller who married Georgiana Golding in or near Lenham, Kent England. I was hoping to find out who Georgiana's father was since she is recorded in the Lenham Church Registers as being the daughter of "the widow Hannah Golding" Since I knew from previous research that Hannah Golding's husband had died 4 years before Georgiana's birth he was not the father! But who was?

In the census years after her birth Georgiana was always recorded with the surname Golding so her marriage registration was my last (slim) hope of finding out who her father was. Perhaps it was a dead end, perhaps Georgiana never knew her father's name but I had to turn that stone to find out!

The General Register Office for England and Wales website has an online form where you can order Birth, Death and Marriage Registrations.

The first time you use the site you must register but it is free and easy. After that you do not need to register each time, you just log in using your email address and password.

After logging in (or registering) you will see a screen with choices as to what certificate you wish to order

There are 10 - the first 6 for events registered in England or Wales. They are Birth, Marriage, Civil Partnership, Death, Adoption and Commenorative Marriage Certificate

The last 4 choices are for overseas events that were registered with British authorities. The choices are Birth, Marriage, Death or Civil Partnership Certificate

Next you are asked if you know the General Register office index and the year when the event was registered. NOTE: You must have the GRO index for England & Wales Birth, Marriage, Death before 1900. So you need to go to FreeBMD website or Ancestry.com Free BMD index. This is where you will, with any luck, find your ancestor and the details you need to order the certificate.

FreeBMD is being indexed by volunteers from 1837-1983 and this index is then passed on to Ancestry.com where it is also available for free.

Once you check the radio button for knowing the GRO index, you are taken to a screen where you fill out your delivery address details. If you have registered previously, this information is already there next time you log in! A very nice feature.

The next screen is where you fill out your information, including the details you found on the Free Bmd website (GRO index reference information)

You also get to choose what kind of delivery service you want either Standard or Priority (higher priced)

The GRO Reference Information that is required is

Year
Quarter
District name
Volume Number
Page Number

All of this is obtainable from the FreeBMD website or Ancestry.com website free BMD index (if you find your ancestor there).

Searching the marriages on Free BMD I had a hit!
Marriages Dec 1858
Surname First name(s) District Vol Page
Fuller Charles Hollingbourne 2a 788

Clicking on "788" (the page) brings up a list of all brides and grooms on that page, usually only 4 names. So you can easily see if this is the correct index entry for your ancestors (providing you know both parties names, or at least one full name and one first name for the second party)

Clicking showed me Georgiania's name along with Charles so I now knew the GRO index details needed to order their marriage registration. This is what I needed:

Year 1858
Quarter Dec. 1858
District Hollingbourne
Vol 2a
Page 788

After logging in to GRO website I filled out my required information and sat back to wait. Within 3 weeks the marriage registration arrived in the mail. I was quite excited to open the envelope and see what it said, but reminded myself I should not get my hopes up.

It seemed most likely that Georgiana never knew her father and so that part of the certificate would be blank. Or, as I have seen on other marriage registrations I've ordered when the individual is an illegitimate birth, the father's first name would be given, but no surname!

To my surprise and delight, Georgiana's father was named in full. His occupation was also given. I now had enough information to start my quest for her father. But that is another blog post.....