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Finding Welsh ancestors here and in Wales/Cymru A note about resources: some online genealogy sites have “subscription” databases – you must pay a monthly or annual fee to access most of their information. Many libraries offer some of these services free to their customers. --If you don’t live in central Ohio, check your local public, historical, genealogy, and state libraries to see what might be available near you. (And don’t forget the libraries’ own in-house collections!) --If you live in central Ohio, thanks to most of the public libraries in Franklin County, you can access the Ancestry web site on library computers and the Heritage Quest web site in the library or from home using your library card number. Also in Franklin County are several of the LDS Family History Centers. In Columbus, the Ohio Historical Society Archives/Library offers access to the Ancestry site on library computers. If you are a member of the Ohio Genealogical Society you can access Heritage Quest from home. (see special note about The State Library of Ohio at the very end of this article.) A list of web site addresses for Central Ohio library resources is at the end of this article. * * * * * * * * If you had Welsh ancestors living in Ohio, check out The Wales-Ohio Project, a bilingual website giving access to a digitized selection of Welsh Americana held at The National Library of Wales plus contributions from people with Ohio-Welsh heritage. Watch for the launching of the companion Wales-Pennsylvania Project site. * * * * * * * * As you search for information about your ancestors, remember that for all “facts” you find any place – take the time to search out the necessary documentation, i.e. original birth record, marriage license, death certificate, full copy of a will as opposed to just an abstract, etc. Family members don’t always remember correctly and “facts” were sometimes changed to hide information that someone didn’t want known, errors can be made during transcribing, handwriting can be misread, or just because it’s on Internet and it looks good doesn’t mean that the person who compiled the information did it carefully and correctly or has back-up documentation. To get you started on the right foot -- some of the information on the web site for the UK Society of Genealogists can be a bit “dry” but their leaflet No. 4 “Note taking & keeping for genealogists” offers some very practical advice above and beyond the following caution for recording and filing your notes: “Use paper of a standard size. (Cigarette packets and old envelopes are difficult to file.)”
Finding Wales-specific information on some of the large genealogy web sites
Cyndi Howell’s massive web site of links can be overwhelming, but start with the section about hints & tips and researching various kinds of records on her Beginners page or, if you’re ready to start searching on some of the general genealogy web sites, then check out the Tutorials & Guides page. RootsWeb has a series called “RootsWeb’s Guide to Tracing Family Trees” and Guide No. 1 is the place to start. Finding Wales-specific information (This will work for other countries and ethnic origins on most of these sites – just follow the search path and substitute information) Ok, so you’ve already used some of the larger genealogy databases for searching your ancestor’s name, but finding the information specific to Wales can be tricky on some of the sites. Here are a few hints for you: · At the FamilySearch.org site sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) point to the Research Helps tab near the top of the screen, click on “Guidance” and then click on “W” and “Wales.” Some of the information here is also listed in a different place in a different format -- near the top of the page point to the same Research Helps tab, click on "Articles" and then “W” -- a number of useful items here, but scroll down the list until you come to “Wales Research Outline” – wow! (Don't forget to come back to this page and explore the other items). Since not all the records you might need are accessible online, go to the Home page (click on tab near the top of the page) and in the center of that page closer to the bottom you will see “Find a Family History Center” – there are even centers in Wales. This site is in the process of adding massive amounts of information and images so visit often. The Cindi's List site has a Tutorial for the FamilySearch web site. · Ancestry.com is a "subscription" site – you can search for free but can not access the information in most of the databases. However, Ancestry frequently offers a 14-day free trial – do your research and stack up your promising hits, take some vacation, lock the door to the computer room, and go at it. Or, go check out your local libraries for access. (see note about resources at the beginning of this article) The Ancestry.com home page is updated periodically but you can usually find information about their collections below the center of the home page to give you an idea about what kind of records are available. Ancestry lists over 300 databases with Wales-related information – click the “Search” tab near the top of the page and you will see "Card Catalog" -- click and you can browse through the titles of all their databases or put "Wales" in the Search Titles box (on the left side of the screen) as a keyword. If you are looking for specific information you can utilize the Filter Titles option directly below the Search Titles box. (NOTE: Wales census records are separate from England census records). The Cindi's List site has a Tutorial for the Ancestry web site. · For guidance to locating Welsh records, check out RootsWeb’s Guide No. 28 and the Cyndi’s List section on Wales/Cymru (Cyndi gets a gold star for including the “Cymru”!) You should have no trouble finding the information on Wales at GenUKI – a genealogy site for the UK and Ireland. For first-time users, do investigate the "Guidance for first-time users" on the right side of the of the home page under Quick Links. For helpful information related to all the British Isles, click in the upper left corner on “UK and Ireland.” To go directly to the information on Wales, click on “Contents & Search” in the upper center of the home page and then scroll down and (after you check out how the site is set up and notice the search options farther down the page) click on the box labeled “Wales Page.” At the top of each individual county page you will find a link for Towns & Parishes but if you just click, click, click your way into the page for the town in which you are interested, you will miss some great information and the search engines for the church database and gazetteer which appear on the Wales Page and county pages, so investigate those pages first or remind yourself to go back. There is a world-wide genealogy project called WorldGenWeb which gives you access to individual country webs with more links. The Country Index is on the left under Main Menu (or use the clickable map), and the BritishIslesGenWeb project will lead you to the WalesGenWeb and its links. Two genealogy webs not affiliated with the WorldGenWeb are the CanadaGenWeb and the USGenWeb. The USGenWeb provides links to all the states which then offer links to each of the counties in the state and the county pages cover local information. An excellent source of birth, marriage and death records for Wales and England (1837-1983) is the fast-growing FreeBMD. (FreeBMD has two “sister” projects – FreeCEN and FreeREG -- check on their progress at FreeUKGEN) If you find information on your ancestors at FreeBMD, you can use the given references (year, quarter, volume, & page) to request copies of the certificates from the Office for National Statistics’ General Register Office. If you’re much too eager to wait for the volunteers at FreeBMD to finish transcribing the civil registration records, you might try using the Find My Past (formerly 1837online) web site. Searching is free but you must pay to view the records. Besides a subscription, they also offer a pay-per-view option. On the Home page, look above the blue bar and to the right for the "Subscribe' link to a page explaining the payment options -- notice that the prices quoted are in pounds sterling, not American dollars. There is a currency converter on that page near the row of little flags. Also, on the blue bar near the top right side of the Home page you can click on Help & Advice and look on the left for "getting started" and "site tour". England’s National Archives web site offers a wealth of information. The National Archives is the primary place for records produced by branches of the British or Colonial governments (exceptions: births/marriages/deaths or adoptions; Church of England parish records; wills after 1858; WWII or later military service records) On the gray bar near the top of the page, or in the purple box directly below, click on "Records". On the right side of the next page under "Quick links" you can click on "In-depth research guides" or scroll down a little bit and use their shorter "research signposts" to investigate. To find out about copying fees, click in the gray baron "Shop online" and then "Record copying: or watch in the research signposts for the "order" link. If you've heard about the wonderful resources in Utah but you can't get there, for whatever reason, a very wonderful place with fantastic resources that is more centrally located is the Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Believe me, you can get a lot of research done with just a quick, overnight trip. When you’ve identified your ancestors and you want more information about their trip to America, go to Cyndislist and in the Main Category Index go to the "S" section, scroll down and click on "Ships & Passenger Lists." On the next page in the Category Index, click on “Ship, Passenger & Crew Lists.” (Check out the column on the right where Cyndi has provided a list of “Related Categories” – very helpful) Two sites that might interest you are those of the ISTG – The Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild which has an extensive database of passenger lists -- and Olive Tree Genealogy, although the addition of many ads in the past few years and the small print make navigating the site rather cumbersome. Scroll down past the ads to find the information in the center column. If your ancestors arrived between 1892 and 1924 you might want to investigate the Ellis Island site. For a wide variety of genealogy research tools and aids such as a birth date calculator, lists of diseases and archaic medical terms, initials in obituaries, antique terms in old wills, ancestral occupations, and meanings of initials and emblems on tombstones (to name only a few!), try Genealogy Buff and Genealogy and History Library Links (scroll down the right side of the page to Genealogy/History Aids). If you want to know more about the area where your ancestors lived in Wales, use the maps at Multimap, Get-a-Map (at the Ordnance Survey site), Streetmap, and Old Maps where you can zoom in close enough to read street names. Pleasant surprise – even though you can’t search by some of the smaller details -- for instance the specific name of a farm, manor, hall, or estate -- they do show on the maps. Search tip – if you’ve found out the name of your ancestor’s estate or farm, use the name of that small holding as a ‘keyword’ search and look in the area surrounding all the towns that have a similar name since many towns and villages were named after the local nobility or landowners. Some of the sites have better search engines than others, and some zoom in and out easier – mix and match for what works best. Try using one of the sites with better search capabilities and identifying a larger city in the area, then switch to one of the easier-to-use sites to zero in on the area by using the large city as a landmark. Can’t find what you want from home and planning a trip to Wales for further searching? Research the collection before you go to the National Library of Wales/Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru in order to make the best use of your time there. And when you’re standing in a cemetery and staring blankly at a grave marker written in Welsh, write it all down and then check Welsh Words and Phrases on Gravestones for help translating. At Graveyard Welsh there is a list of individual words and also "Graveyard Quotations." You might also be interested in what the Welsh-American Genealogical Society (WAGS) has to offer. WAGS was formed in 1990 to serve as a common link for Welsh genealogical researchers throughout the Welsh world. Whatever web sites you use, whether specific to genealogy or maybe Welsh travel or news and sports, be sure to look for genealogy tips and cruise though the list of links they offer. Pob lwc (good luck) and happy hunting! Central Ohio library resources:
Bexley http://www.bexlib.org/ Columbus Metropolitan http://www.columbuslibrary.org/ Grandview Heights http://www.ghpl.org/ Southwest (Grove City) http://www.spl.lib.oh.us/ Upper Arlington http://www.ualibrary.org/ Westerville http://www.westervillelibrary.org/ Worthington http://www.worthingtonlibraries.org/
There are four FHC in Franklin County – Dublin, Grove City, Reynoldsburg, (all listed alphabetically under "Columbus") and Westerville. To find their locations, look towards the bottom and near the center of the LDS home page for “Find a Family History Center.” When you get to the Ohio listings, click on "refine search" (next to the heading "Family History Centers in Ohio") and fill in "Franklin" and "Columbus" to view information on all four locations. **Special Note: --The State Library of Ohio has discontinued subscriptions to online genealogical resources and the majority of their genealogical collection has been moved to the Main Library of the Columbus Metropolitan Library system. The State Library has kept duplicate copies of books which are interfiled with the rest of their collection. --The collection from the Franklin County Genealogical & Historical Society library has been moved to the Main Library of the Columbus Metropolitan Library system.
Compiled and written by D. Boyce with help from T. Lantz - 6/2005; Most recent update - 12/1/11 - first half of document updated to section titled "Wales-oriented sites". |
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