Alan E. Mann, A.G.

familyhistory@geocities.com Accredited Genealogist

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Internet Sources: A Case Study

By Alan E. Mann
I’m often asked how to find useful information on the Internet. I share URLs or addresses along with some general guidelines for searching. People often later tell me wonderful stories of great successes on the Internet. Unfortunately, I sometimes also hear from people who said they went to the sites I mentioned, but weren’t sure what to do. Let's go beyond generalities and concepts and be more specific, using a specific family from the attached group record.

This case study comes from my own genealogy, but could have been anyone's. Let's assume that you receive the attached family group record with sources given as shown.

The information you have about Daniel S. Corley is from:

  1. the 1850 census of West Fork, Washington, Arkansas,
  2. the 1860 census of Belton, Bell, Texas, and
  3. extracts from the Corley Family Bible.
You are told that they looked for the family in the 1870 and 1880 censuses, but didn’t find them.

You see references to marriage records in Bell County, where the marriages of several of the children are found. You are also told that land records had not been microfilmed for Bell County.

Now you want to start your search for this family on the Internet, or rather using "Internet-guided research." For example, an Internet source tells you what film to look on or you contact a relative with information via email. To me, those are two examples of using Internet-guided research. Here’s the Internet sources I decided to start with:
 
Looking for info on web: Looking for people with info:
FamilySearch Internet Roots Surname List
Internet Family Finder GenForum
Ancestry Library (not all free) FamilySearch Collaboration Lists
USGenWeb Archives Fuller & Gaunt list of mailing lists
Kindred Konnections (not all free) Texas GenWeb (and Bell County)

 Click hereto see results of emails sent out.

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©Copyright 1999-2000 by Alan E. Mann. All rights reserved. Written permission to reproduce all or part of this file in any format, including photocopying, data retrieval, printing, or any computer bulletin boards, must be secured in advance from the copyright holder. 1