Week 3 – Free Online Genealogy Tools: Free online genealogy tools are like gifts from above. Which one are you most thankful for? How has it helped your family history experience?
This is week 3 of 52 Weeks of Abundant Genealogy, and I must respond to this one! It deals with free genealogy tools, of which I am SO grateful for!!
My first and most favorite is www.usgenweb.com, and I use it several times each week. I have made some of those most terrific finds through the generosity of others who have shared their research.
My first find that sent me into orbit concerned an Adam Gearheart of Floyd Co., KY. It was simply entitled "Descendants of Adam Gearheart". It was well written, and confirmed what I felt was correct in my own research.
Carter Co., KY hosts a wonderful site on usgenweb.com. As a matter of fact, it's one of the best I've ever seen. I have particularly gleaned many obituaries, for there were many family from Kentucky who moved to this area. Lots of puzzles have been completed, or at least filled in, because of the vast amount of obituaries that are continualy uploaded onto this site.
Carter County also maintains thousands of pictures in its database. So, not only do I have obituaries, but faces to complete the stories. I have enjoyed seeing the family resemblances coming through the ancestral lines. It also allows me to contribute photos with ease.
My grandparents, Richard Lee and Fannie Collier Clemens.
What would I do without www.findagrave.com? As much as I LOVE visiting ancestral cemeteries, it's not always easy to do so. Findagrave has enabled me to go zooming around the United States searching for cemeteries and possible ancestors which may be buried in them. Again, I have easily uploaded tombstone photos of my own. Thank goodness for the wonderful volunteers around the globe that contribute to this great site.
Zachariah Johnson/Johnston tombstone, Stonewall Jackson Cemetery, Lexington, VA
My greatest love and gratitude go to www.familysearch.org. Where do I even begin? Through the wonderful indexing project, I was able to run across 26 babies that belonged to various family members. Twenty-six!!! I truly was not even looking for them, for I didn't know they existed. But, sometimes we glean help from the other side, for which I am grateful. These babies were part of a family's history, and now they are included.
Chester Clemens, my father, as a young baby. Though he was not lost, several of his nieces and nephews were. Thanks to FamilySearch, they are not lost anymore.
None of want to feel "lost". Thanks to these wonderful websites, we can continue our research when we may not be able to afford the paid sites. Bless the hearts of the good people that continue to volunteer their times and talents to keep them going!
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