'Genealogy on the Internet' by Kent Branch at CPL - April 1997
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    Welcome to Genealogy on the Internet, arranged by Kent County Branch of the O.G.S. at the kind invitation of the Chatham Public Library.

    Today's demonstration of Genealogy on the Internet is to show some of the information available on the Internet. The basic concept is to click on links to go to various Internet sites. To return to a previous page (such as this one) then click on the Menu item Back.
    I would encourage you to look at each of the 21 items, in order, to see different kinds of information [mostly with a genealogical connection] which is available on the Internet.

    Please be aware that at any given time probably some of the links will not function, some will not access the sites indicated. That seems to be the nature of the Internet.


1. Royalty
(a) The British Monarchy "On March 7, 1997, the Queen cut the invisible ribbon on The British Monarchy Official Web Site, and became the very first cyber sovereign."
(b) Genealogy of the Royal Family of The Netherlands


2. Calendar Systems and Date setting
In the past, and to the present, there being several differing calendar systems -including Gregorian, Julian, & Jewish - and with the moveable Feast Dates determined by the date of Easter, some Web source of information could be useful.
Calendar Conversions
Dates of Easter Sunday from 1753 to 2052 under the Gregorian Calendar.
The date of Easter
IPS Radio & Space Services Determining the Date of Easter
Easter Dating Method
How is Easter Sunday Date Determined?
A Table for finding the Date of Easter in accord with the Ancient Culdee (Celtic and Anglo-Saxon) Church
An Alta Vista Search for finding ways to calculate date of Easter.


3. Searching for words or phrases
There are a number of programmes to search the World Wide Web for various words, phrases, topics, etc. Different search engines have different methods.
    With some you can enter your search words all in lower case and it will search as case-insensitive; but if you use some upper-case letters then it will search as case sensitive.
    With some, if you enter, say, three words it will search for an article with those words anywhere in the article; but if you place the three words within double-quotes then it will search for them as a phrase.
    Some use Boolean terms such as AND, OR, NOT, etc. Some use symbols such as "+" for AND, "-" for NOT, etc.
    You can search for such things as surnames or family clackett or genealogy woodcock.
   Some of them search page titles or the first few lines of a page or a submitted summary or keywords list for the page; some search indexed pages - an example of this is: HotBot.
   Another, fairly new, is dogpile which accepts an entry and then uses several search engines [perhaps rather like a dog searching through a pile of bones].


4. Newsgroups
There are a number of programmes to search archived newsgroups (such as DejaNews, Alta Vista, Reference.com, etc.) Sample are:
DejaNews power search
DejaNews query profile
Deja News - News Reader! -- Genealogy 1 to 7 days of any of these newsgroups that are available there.
Deja News - News Reader! -- Adoption 1 to 7 days of any of these newsgroups that are available there.
Deja News - News Reader! -- Heraldry 1 to 7 days of any of these newsgroups that are available there.
Deja News - News Reader! -- History 1 to 7 days of any of these newsgroups that are available there.


5. Genealogical Societies
Read the web pages of The Ontario Genealogical Society and of their Branches, including Kent County Branch and, of course, of other Genealogical and Family History Societies.


6. Church Histories
Read about the Church an ancestor attended: Speedside Church, Eramosa Twp., Wellington Co., Ontario. [Well, at least some of my ancestors attended that one.]


7. Upcoming Events
Find out about upcoming Highland Games: Glengarry Highland Games' Homepage


8. Family Newsletters
You can find some family newsletters, such as: Elder Family Newsletter. If you can't find one in which you are interested, then perhaps you should get yourself some Web space and start one.


9. Family Newsletters
You might find family histories (some post their ancestral lists or even a descendants' list). For clan histories you might try such as Clan: Hunter of Hunterston; Clan Farquharson; Clan Farquharson Page; Clan Farquharson; Farquharson; The Clan Farquharson. Or you can look up generally about The Clans of Scotland shown on a map; Clans menu, Scottish Clans and Families; The Gathering of the Clans; etc.


10. Helpful information and addresses
While browsing around the newsgroup "alt.genealogy" I found a list of the addresses and cost for each of the County clerks in Michigan. Click here to see the list.


11. Recently added Web Pages
To see a list of some 1200-1700 URLs added in the past day or search the last 7 days of URL annoucements.


12. E-mail relatives & friends
To find E-mail addresses [hopefully current] for persons you may know or have known, or to find persons with surnames which interest you, there are several places you could search, including InfoSpace. Also you might try such as Yahoo! People Search - Email


13. Addresses, telephone numbers, etc.
To find telephone numbers, addresses, etc. you can check on-line telephone listings for Canada, one search for all the country; U.S.A., also one search for the whole country. Other countries have different set-ups, such as Australia, where you search by each state and within each state search by the capital region and/or by the area outside the capital region - and be sure to wait for the whole list. (There are other countries with listings available on-line.)
Also you might try such as Yahoo! People Search (appears to be USA)


14. Some of these search engines have really developed, no longer showing just name, address, telephone number, Email address. Now InfoSpace bills itself as InfoSpace - The Ultimate Directory and offers many things, such as Business URLs, Phone & Address (Canada?),   Business by Name (Canada),   Fax Numbers (Canada),   ??? FAQ ???,   Fax Numbers,   The Most Innovative Directory on the Internet,   Email,   Toll-Free Numbers (USA),   Apartment Locator,   Government: Federal,   Government: Municipal,   Government: State.   Comics,   Frequently Asked Questions,   Fax Numbers,   Personalized Email,   About InfoSpace,   The Most Innovative Directory on the Internet,   Job Opportunities,   My Town,   InfoSpace Partner Programs,   Phone & Address,   Submit Your Page - Web Page Submission Form,   Traffic Reports,   Weather & Ski Information,   Greeting Cards Main Card Index - Outpost Network [by snail mail, for a fee], and The Online Community


15. Postal Codes / Zip Codes
To find Canadian Postal Codes and U.S.A. Zip+4 codes:
Canada Postal Code Lookup
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF WESTMINSTER Canadian & U.S.A.
National Address Server U.S.A. Zip+4 codes
USPS ZIP+4 Code Lookup U.S.A. Zip+4 codes


16. People of the past
To find people of the past you might try such as:
OCFA Database Search Ontario Cemeteries - Over 1.1 million entries
BCCFA Database Search B.C. Cemeteries - 100,000 entries
1871 Ontario Census Index Head of House & Strays
British Columbia Vital Event Indexes
USA Social Security Deaths (SSDI)


17. Locating places
To locate places you can try the following:
Natural Resources Canada Canadian Geographical Names
The Ordnance Survey Gazetteer of Place Names - (U.K. or England)
Geographic NameServer Query probably U.S.A. places only
Map of Southwestern Ontario by MapQuest
MapQuest! Interactive Atlas Draw a map
National Address Server Draw a map prob. U.S.A..only


18. To search in Leamington Public Library's newspaper index. This was a great site, but lately I have not been able to access it.
Found again, at a new URL!!!
Leamington Newspaper Index


19. A Genealogy Dictionary


20. Canadian documents & books pre-1900
The Canadian Institute for Historical Micro-Reproductions (CIHM) has undertaken to preserve in micro form many pre-1901 publications. Some sites that tell about it, and two that provide search engines to find what has been microfilmed:
CIHM information - article in DejaNews, page down to read it.
Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions
Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions
CIHM (better search engine, IMHO)
CIHM-UNB WWW-Z39.50 Gateway (search engine)


21.Links to other sites
And there are various sites which have extensive lists of links to Genealogical URLs, etc.
Probably Cyndi's List may be one of the most extensive and well organized with "Over 17,400 links, categorized & cross-referenced, in over 60 categories".
    By using the menu from the main page you can surf the various areas. As an example, I have listed a few of those areas. You can use our links to access them directly if you wish.
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - main index page
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - Canada Section
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - Canada - Ontario
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - Finding People
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - Libraries
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - References & Services
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - Religion
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - Royalty And Nobility
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - Search Engines
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - Ships And Passenger Lists
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - Social Security - U.S.A.
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - Surnames, Family Associations & Family Newsletters
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - UK & Ireland Section
Cyndi's List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet - U.S. Section
Mark and Cyndi's Family Tree