Hi Greg, I received an email offering a discount on GENi but it was still $119 for a year's subscription. I subscribe to Ancestry. Is it worth the money to belong to another search data base? Thanks for all you do! Sent from my iPad > On Dec 9, 2016, at 1:27 PM, Greg Lovelace <greg@part-of-the-tree.com> wrote: > > Hey, cuzzins. > > Chilly down here in the SC Lowcountry today. but not nearly as bad as the > weather in the upper Midwest. at least we don't have subzero temps with1 > foot and a half of snow to deal with. But when you're acclimated to temps > in the 70s, 50 is chilly! > > I wanted to alert you to today's post on "The Legal Genealogist" outlining > the lineup of Legacy Family Tree webinar series for the coming year. You > can see the post here: > > https://www.legalgenealogist.com/2016/12/09/legacy-lineup-2017/ > > Lots of good stuff, and if you listen in real time, they're free. You can > also subscribe and see them (and a bunch of other archived webinars) > anytime. > > Go take a look. > > > > Peace, > > Part of the Tree, > > Greg > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to LOVELACE-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message

Margaret Lovelace wrote: " I received an email offering a discount on GENi but it was still $119 for a year's subscription. I subscribe to Ancestry. Is it worth the money to belong to another search data base?" Margaret and other cuzzins, I can't say much about Geni because I really have never used it. I can say that, most of the time, even in my business, I use three or four websites: Ancestry, to which I have a world subscription (pricey, about $300 a year) GenealogyBank, for newspapers, a subscription service) Fold3, mainly for the military records there (a subscription service) FamilySearch, which is the free service from the LDS church. Mostly I use Ancestry and FamilySearch, I also have a subscription to FindMyPast, which I rarely use. I highly recommend using FamilySearch, which is adding records all the time. There is a trick to using it, though. The majority of records that are digitized have not yet been indexed, so just using the records search box (as in Ancestry) will only scratch the surface. The better thing to do, after trying the regular search, is to use the catalog search: Search (at the top of the page) - click on "Catalog" on the drop-down menu - begin to enter a place in the "Place" box... as you type, choices will be suggested. If you want to look at, say, Bourbon County, KY, start typing it in, and eventually, "United States, Kentucky, Bourbon" will show up. Click on that, and it will enter into the box. - Click on the down arrow for the box that says "Search these family history centers:" and choose "online." - click the search button You'll be presented with a list of record groups which have been digitized. For my example, here is the list: United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Cemeteries ( 1 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Census - 1840 ( 1 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Census - 1850 ( 1 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Census - 1850 - Indexes ( 2 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Church records ( 2 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Court records ( 4 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Court records - Indexes ( 1 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Genealogy ( 1 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Guardianship ( 1 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - History ( 4 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Land and property ( 3 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Maps ( 1 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Military records - World War, 1914-1918 ( 1 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Minorities ( 1 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Naturalization and citizenship ( 1 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Newspapers ( 2 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Officials and employees ( 1 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Probate records ( 4 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Taxation ( 1 ) United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Vital records ( 13 ) There is a little arrow for each on the left, and the number in parentheses indicates how many different sources there are in that record grouop. In this example, click on the arrow next to " United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Court records ( 4 )" and it will show: United States, Kentucky, Bourbon - Court records ( 4 ) Bourbon County, Kentucky Circuit Court case files, ca. 1780-1880 Author: Bourbon County (Kentucky). County Clerk Order books, 1786-1866 Author: Kentucky. County Court (Bourbon County) Record book, 1794-1800 Author: Kentucky. Court of Quarter Sessions (Bourbon County) Record books, 1803-1823 Author: Kentucky. Circuit Court (Bourbon County) Each of these is an active link to the records. For example, look at the first one (Circuit Court case files). You will get a description of the record set. Down below that, you'll see a list of "Film Notes", each referring to a film number (the FHL microfilm number for that set of records; eg, Circuit Court case files, #1-545 --- ca. 1787-1795, film 2241501). You will see a little microfilm icon at the end, which indicates that the records there are only available on microfilm. However, if you page down through the list, you'll eventually see a camera icon. The first one I find is Circuit Court case files, #23008 (cont.)-23153 --- ca. 1848-1852, film 2370552. The camera icon indicates that the records have been digitized. If you click on the camera icon, you will be presented with a series of thumbnail images of the frames on the film. There is a toolbar on the left, with a plus sign (zoom in), a minus sign (zoom out), and two other icons. The first is a single rectangle which you use to toggle between the thumbnails and a closeup of the highlighted frame. If you click on this rectangle, the thumbnail you have highlighted will be enlarged, and the icon will change to several small triangles, signifying the thumbnails. Clicking it again will go back to the thumbnail view. This microfilm has 2582 frames, and at the beginning you are looking at image 1 of 2582, as shown in the black bar just above the thumbnails. This interface is similar to the "filmstrip" on Ancestry. Once you play around with this, you'll see that you can scroll down, enter a frame number, or go through one image at a time. It's a very nice interface. I always look for an index first, and then page through. It takes a while to get the hang of it, but after using it, I think you'll find it very useful and intuitive. You might need to create an account (free, just supply your email address, and then they do not bombard you with ads or anything like that) and sign in to see some records. Give it a try. Peace, Part of the Tree, Greg