Friday, January 5, 2007

Surname Searching in Linkpendium.com

I listed a number of free databases in my post yesterday that I frequent when I'm starting my search on a new family, and then I posted about an "all-in-one" web site to do some of those searches.

Today, I went to www.Linkpendium.com and used their surname search, and was really impressed by the number of links to different web sites, many of them free. These searches encompass my own list, and adds a few more database opportunities.

For example, I started on the LeMaster surname today in Iowa, because that is one of my friend's family names. I quickly found them in the 1900, 1880, 1870 and 1860 census records. Then I went to the www.FamilySearch.org databases, the Rootsweb WorldConnect database, and the surname message boards and found some information on the particular line that settled in Monroe County and then Appanoose County, Iowa.

Tonight, at http://www.linkpendium.com/genealogy/USA/sur/, I found more links to information about this family (by inputting "Lemaster" into the surname box), including:

* Cemetery listings (using www.findagrave.com)
* Searches in www.DistantCousin.com databases
* Searches in Rootsweb databases (WorldConnect, USGenWeb archives, etc)
* LDS Family History Library sources
* Mailing lists and message boards
* Surname distribution
* LDS Ancestral File, IGI and PRF search
* Rootsweb site search (includes Home Pages and Free Pages)
* Photographs (at www.DeadFred.com)

All in all, I like Linkpendium even more than I like the other genealogy search engine I posted about yesterday!

Are you using www.Linkpendium.com for your survey searches of surnames? If not, you might want to try it.

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