Stuffis

Still "Brent's pile o' stuff" but at least now there are sections.

Genealogy

(Check the "updated" notation for each section; a lot are very out-of-date!)

Starting Points

• I'm a subscriber at Ancestry.com (they also have a free family tree resource!) and I can't say enough good things about it; they have a wealth of resources that are well worth the annual cost — if you can't afford the subscription, try to find a local public library or LDS Family History Center where you can access it for free — if you're just starting out, you will be amazed at how much you can find quickly
• Cyndi's List is the most comprehensive free online reference; start with the Beginners section
• The LDS church also has a lot of genealogy resources (and they offer a lot of them free even to non-members); their FamilySearch site has a "How Do I Get Started?" section, and a list of Family History Centers in the U.S. — there are still a lot of records that are only available via microfilm, requiring a physical trip to view them
• Visit the Genealogy section of About.com
• Visit Free Stuff & Samples' Free Genealogy Resources (suggested by a reader—thanks!)
• Visit the Big List of Genealogy Links (suggested by Liz—thanks!)
• Read about 20 Ways to Avoid Genealogical Grief — in particular #1, note the source and date of all your information: I did not practice this habit for a long time, and now I have lots of random data with no idea where I got it or whether it is reliable
• Beginning Genealogy Lessons by Don B. Dale
• A helpful comparison of DNA ancestry test products (suggested by Olivia at STEMfans—thanks!)
• The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy produced by DNA Testing Guides

Research Resources

• Behind the Name: find related names from other ethnic backgrounds (e.g. John = Juan = Ivan)
• Names.org: crowdsourced information about names
• Where to find public records online (from Lifehacker in 2012; somewhat outdated)
• Genealogy Specific Search Techniques: online directories etc. (about.com)
• 10 Steps for Finding Your Family Tree Online (about.com)
• RootsWeb's WorldConnect Project (merged with Ancestry World Tree) and other Free Surname Databases
• Find A Grave and Interment.net
• Online Searchable Death Indexes
• Census Bureau Gazetteer (places and maps)
• U.S. Geological Survey (USGS): Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) query, and topoView for historical maps
• Lots of resources for Researching the History of a House (suggested by Jenna, a scout—thanks!)
• Ellis Island and Genealogy (suggested by Susan's middle school students—thanks!)
• Finding Family from Ship's Passenger Lists (suggested by Chloe—thanks!)
• Fifty Questions for Family Interviews (about.com)
• Civil War:
  • Civil War Soldiers & Sailors Database
  • The U.S. Civil War collection at the LSU library (general Civil War information): direct link to collection
• Beautiful example of a World War II history/timeline; see bottom of page for resources
• The Newberry Library of genealogy in Chicago

Research - Census

• Mapping America: Every City, Every Block: map-based browser from the New York Times for recent census demographic data
• Get census data for any ZIP code
• Guide to Census Research at Bobbie's Genealogy Classroom
• Obtaining EDs etc. for the Census
• Tools: Census Spreadsheets (commercial; PDF and Excel)
• Clues in Census Records
• Finding an Ancestor in Naturalization Records: Naturalization was a two-step process: First you filed your "first papers" ("Declaration of Intention"), and then years later you filed your "Petition for Naturalization" and received your "Certificate of Citizenship". In the 1900/1910 census, the former is listed as "Pa" (filed "first papers") and the latter as "Na" (completed naturalization); otherwise "Al" (alien).

Research - Social Security

• Search the Social Security Death Index (SSDI)
• How to order the SS-5 form (Social Security Application) filled out by those working in 1936-1937
• Description of Social Security number format [ftp://oak.oakland.edu/pub/misc/ss-info/ssninfo.txt] (dead link)

Software

As a software developer and long-time Unix command-line user, my tools are very different from the ones most normal humans would use. :)

• GEDCOM is the de facto software genealogy format; I use 5.5.1-5
• For many years I've used LifeLines for Unix-like operating systems
• The Perl-GEDCOM Mailing List and Paul Johnson's CPAN Gedcom.pm
• Publishing my tree on the web:
  • Long ago I used the IGM (Indexed GEDCOM Method) scripts by Tim Doyle and Randy Winch (history)
  • Then I switched to PhpGedView; now I'm using its successor, webtrees

Web Site Creation

• Cyndi's Genealogy Home Page Construction Kit
• Privacy Issues and logos for conforming sites
• Guidelines For Publishing Web Pages On The Internet and Standards For Sharing Information With Others, recommended by the National Geographic Society, May 2000

GEDCOM and XML

• Genealogical Data and XML (30 Dec 2005: roundup of various XML efforts)
• Analysis of LDS Church's Adoption of XML (21 Feb 2001: great summary by Bob Velke)

• GEDCOM 5.5 has some representational shortcomings, but more importantly, some data model shortcomings (evidence/facts vs. conclusions)
• The LDS Church is adopting XML to replace the representation, but explicitly not altering the data model
• Unfortunately, most efforts to create a new data model, switch to XML, etc. seem to have gone nowhere; GEDCOM remains the lingua franca

• Michael Kay's GedML (2 Apr 2002; modeled after GEDCOM; useful for GEDCOM-to-XML round trip for XSLT transforms, etc.)
• Jerry Fitzpatrick's GeniML (circa 2004)
• Genealogy XML Yahoo! Group and XGenML
• The GENTECH Genealogical Data Model (GDM) - took a long time, fostered lots of discussion about models, never resulted in a concrete format (LeXML)?
• GEDCOM XML 6.0 Draft (LDS Church: explicitly retains the GEDCOM 5.5 data model)

Databases

• Gene Stark's GENDEX, the WWW Genealogical Index (great distributed data model) [dead]
• Tim Doyle's GenWeb Database Index [dead]
• Rex Myer's Webified Genealogy (beautiful HTML trees) [dead]
• The GenWeb Foundation and the U.S. GenWeb Project (state by state)
• Chris Perry's GenMatch can help match your database entries to others [dead

Other Information

• A Glossary of Ancient Diseases
• A list of nicknames and naming traditions

• Latitude, Longitude Format Conversion (GNIS gives DMS)

Of Personal Interest

• Cleveland City Cemetery Index: very comprehensive register of Cleveland-area interments, with date/cause of death, etc. (suggested by Hank—thanks!)
• Lakeview Cem., Calumet Twp., Houghton Cty., Mich. (Find a Grave, tombstone photos)
• Minnesota Libraries
• Minnesota State Census Search
• Minnesota State Census Information — MN conducted 5 statewide censuses (1865, 1875, 1885, 1895, and 1905)
• Cook County, IL Genealogical Requests
• Scandinavian Genealogy Pages
• FamilySearch Wiki: personal Swedish names has a list of Interchangeable FIrst Names e.g. Johannes/Johan/Jan and Mariana/Maria/Maja
• FamilySearch Wiki: Swedish parishes
  • "Horndal By Kopparberg" means "Horndal, By Parish, Kopparberg County, Sweden"; the parish name is "By"
  • Dalarna (county and province): "Dalarna county came into being in 1997 when Kopparberg county was renamed" (Dalarne is a misspelling)
• Alabama Civil War Regimental Histories
• Sullivan County, IN

• The Sullivan County Historical Society ( map)
• Sullivan County Health Department ( map)
• Carlisle, IN ( map)
• • Carlisle Branch, Sullivan Cty. Library ( map)
  • Old Town Cemetery ( USGS GNIS) ( map)
  • (Independent Order of) Odd Fellows Cemetery ( USGS GNIS) ( map)
  • Haddon Cemetery ( USGS GNIS) ( map)
• Sullivan, IN ( map)

• Lawrence County, IL est. 1821

• Russellville, IL ( map)
• • Tewalt Cemetery ( USGS GNIS) ( map)

My contact information, brief autobiography (such as it is), and family tree.