Checking Out WebTree.com - Post 2

This is the second in a short series reviewing the http://www.webtree.com/ family tree web site that is part of the FamilyLink.com genealogy "empire." My first post, which introduced WebTree.com with words and screens, is here.

I uploaded my 20,000 plus person family tree to http://www.webtree.com/, and it seemed to load without a hitch.

In order to see My Tree, I clicked on the [My Trees] tab in the top menu line. Here is what I saw - my "Ancestors of Randy Seaver" tree - it says I have 20,733 individuals in this tree. I could Edit, Update or Delete the tree using the buttons on the right.


I chose to look at my tree by clicking on the name of the tree - "Ancestors of Randy Seaver." Here is the resulting screen:

In the screen above, it opens on the [Index] tab, and a box with all of the letters of the alphabet. If you click on the [Search] tab, you can search this database for a specific person or surname.

I clicked on the letter A, and the next screen showed a list of surnames with the number of entries for each surname in parentheses. I scrolled down to "Able" and clicked on it, and a list of persons with surname "Able" was listed in the right-hand column, as shown below:

I scrolled down (using the scroll bar on the right-hand side of the table, not of the entire screen) and found my 4th-great-grandfather, Johannes Able (1759-1818), and clicked on his name on the list.

The screen for Johannes Able (1759-1818) is shown below:

This is an [Individual] view (note the chart type below Johannes Able's name), and lists his name, birth and death date, spouse's name(s), marriage date(s), and children names. The names are links to the individuals. Below the family members, there is an "Events" section (which seems to have only Burial as a Fact, and "last modified" information about the individual) and then a "Notes" section where the notes I have for this Johannes Able appear.

I wanted to see what it would show me for the Ancestors of Johannes Able, so I clicked on the [Ancestors] link below the name Johannes Able. The screen below came up (only a partial view of the web page):

A four-generation pedigree chart appeared with names of ancestors of Johannes Able in beautiful yellow boxes. If you run your mouse over the name in the box, the birth and death dates/places appear for that person. I clicked on the [Chart Options] button in the middle of the screen, and found some editing options. I can change number of generations, change box color, font type, font size, and add/delete a drop shadow. I could not change the box background image, however. This may be a later enhancement.

One thing I noted was that some of the female ancestors did not show up on this and charts of other persons. A bug? Perhaps. Easily fixable, hopefully!

What about the Descendants of Johannes Able (1759-1818)? Back on the [Individual] page, I clicked on the [Descendants] link below the name [Johannes Able] and this chart appeared:

The web page created was fairly large, so what I've shown above is in the middle of the web page. Four generations of descendants are created in a tree format. The same Chart Options can be applied, and the birth and death data appear when you run the mouse over each individual's box.

I wondered about Printing the chart. Apparently, there are no program capabilities to do this yet (probably a later enhancement). I clicked on [File] [Print Preview] and got the screen below (with three pages shown, shrink to fit):

Print Preview said that there was 56 pages for this Descendants chart! I'll wait for the "good one" that I'm sure is coming.

So far, I like the capabilities and the presentation on http://www.webtree.com/. It is fairly simple and intuitive to use - that's good, since there are no Help pages (yet?). My preference is to be able to see the birth, death and marriage dates and places right on the tree charts, rather than have to run the mouse over each person. Perhaps they can make that an option for traditionalists like me.

I will have at least one more post in this evaluation, since I just discovered more descriptive notes and some sample pictures on the web site.

CVGS Research Group Report - 13 August 2008

The August meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society Research Group was yesterday at the Library. There were 8 attendees at this meeting, and they all had something to share. We started with a brief review of some of the Genealogy News highlights for late July and early August. The sharing included:

* Bob has been checking his wife's great-grandmothers who were from Ireland and Nova Scotia. There was a long discussion about the different sets of Census Records available on Ancestry, HeritageQuestOnline and FamilySearch. It was pointed out that HQO has other resources, including PERSI, the Revolutionary War Pension files, and many out-of-copyright books.

* Dick is investigating his aunt, who was in the Foreign Service and Women's Air Corps during WW 2. She died in 1961. He had no success from the NPRC in St. Louis on her military records. While working in FamilyTreeMaker, he clicked on Web Search and found a passenger list entry for her in the 1950's.

* Shirley is indexing La Vista Memorial Park burials, and is finding interesting causes of deaths in the 1869 to 1887 records. She's also been adding images to her new genealogy computer filing system, and is helping with FamilySearch Indexing.

* Penny is back from a month in Cornwall. She's been active on www.FindAGrave.com. A message board post about her father's brother's adopted name resulted in children of her uncle contacting her and they are sharing information.

* Frances has been writing stories of her family members - she has a notebook almost filled up.

* Dearl has been battling his computer gremlins, which has a date/time problem. He's ready to consult an IT shop.

* John went to the FHC and found a book for a PA County that had information about his Phillips family. The information led to the books Torrey's New England Marriages before 1700 and Austin's Genealogical Dictionary of Rhode Island on the CVPL shelf, which had much more information about the earliest Phillips generations.

* Randy described his experiences on WorldVitalRecords and Footnote, and passed some examples from their databases around. He also passed the latest Discovering Family History magazine around the table.

The only research problem discussed was Randy's Project M - his friend is searching for information on his father. The friend was born in Chattooga County GA in 1927, but his father left the family in 1930 and the last time he saw his father was in 1943. Randy has found a 1930 US Census record (an Army private in Oklahoma), Georgia Death Index record and an SSDI record - both provided a birth date and death date and probable death locality (Irwin County GA). But what should he look for between 1930 and 1969? There may be a second (or more!) family for this man, who might help the friend understand his father's life. The group suggested military records (a discharge record), obtain the SS5 application, obtain a death certificate, look for an obituary to identify survivors, look for cemetery records, look for probate, land, tax, directory and voter records. Some of these might be obtained from a local historical or genealogical society or library in the death location.

The CVGS Research Group meets every second Wednesday at 12 noon in the Conference Room at the Chula Vista Civic Center Branch Library. Sharing genealogy news, research techniques, family history successes and advice on how to solve elusive ancestors is one way that genealogy societies can reach out to all of its' members, and to community persons interested in and/or frustrated by their family history. The CVGS Research Group is in its' 6th year of meeting monthly.

Genea-Bloggers Favorite Photographs

The 4th Smile for the Camera - A Carnival of Images, titled My Favorite Photograph, was posted by footnoteMaven on her excellent, digital magazine quality, Shades of the Departed blog yesterday. What a wonderful variety of favorite photographs from 40 contributors.

My own contribution was an oldie but goodie - that of John Richman (1788-1967) which was embedded in my blog post about my second great-grandparents, John and Ann (Marshman) Richman of Wiltshire in England. I chose this photograph because it was of the earliest-born person that I have in my collection.

The next Smile for the Camera - A Carnival of Images topic is Crowning Glory. Show us those wonderful photographs of hairdos and maybe even a few don'ts. Don't limit yourself to just hair fashion through the ages, got a great photograph of a hat, helmet, bonnet, or some other interesting headgear?

Share!Choose a photograph of an ancestor, relative, yourself, or an orphan photograph that is the epitome of Crowning Glory and bring it to the carnival. Admission is free with every photograph!

Your submission may include as many or as few words as you feel are necessary to describe your treasured photograph. Those words may be in the form of an expressive comment, a quote, a journal entry, a poem (your own or a favorite), a scrapbook page, or a heartfelt article. The choice is yours! The deadline for submission is midnight (PT) 10 September, 2008. See footnoteMaven's post for directions on how to submit your entry.

I have just the picture! Can you guess which one it is?

Family Photographs - Post 18: Georgianna Kemp

I'm posting old family photographs from my collection on Wednesdays, but they won't be wordless posts like others do - I simply am incapable of having a wordless post.

Here is one of the most precious (to me) images from my Auble/Carringer family collection:


I am pretty sure that this is a picture of Georgianna Kemp (!868-1952), who was born in Norfolk County, Ontario, and came to Chicago in the 1890's and lived with her sister's family there. At one point, she met Charles Auble and married him in 1898 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

This picture was taken in about 1898, perhaps at the time of her marriage. Doesn't she look beautiful? I think so. She is one of my great-grandmothers.

This photograph was handed down from Charles and Georgianna (Kemp) Auble to their daughter Emily Kemp (Auble) Carringer (who married Lyle L. Carringer), to their daughter Betty Virginia (Carringer) Seaver (who married Fred Seaver) to me, their son.

Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 16: Person Reports

I installed FamilyTreeMaker 2008 in early July and uploaded a large database to see how it worked. I also started a new database to test other program features. Please see the list at the bottom of this post for the earlier posts.

In this post, I want to display some pages from the Person Reports generated by FamilyTreeMaker 2008.

I'm using my 4th-great-grandfather, Benjamin Seaver (1757-1816), in my database as a starting point for these reports.

When you click on the [Publish] icon on the top menu, you see a list of the different Charts and Reports that can be generated in the left-hand panel. I clicked on "Person Reports" and got this screen:



1. The Individual Report displays all of the Facts, Notes, and Sources associated with a specific individual. The first page of Benjamin Seaver's Individual Report is shown below:

This is a pretty standard report. It includes the user-selected Facts (similar to Genealogy Reports and Charts), Relationships, Notes and Sources.

2) The Custom Report lets you include any or all individuals and Facts in the report. The Items to Include icon works the same as in the Genealogy Reports and Charts. I chose only name, birth, marriage and death data for persons associated with Benjamin Seaver (parents, spouse, and children). The first page of my Custom Report is shown below:

3) The Research Notes Report displays the Research Notes associated with the individuals in your tree, along with the name, birth and death date of those individuals. You can choose Immediate family, All individuals or selected individuals in your database. All of my Notes came into FTM 2008 as General Notes, so I don't have any Research Notes to show you. Research Notes could be used as a Research Log to describe the research performed on each individual or surname.

4) LDS Ordinances Report displays birth, death, marriage and LDS Ordinance data for persons in your tree. You cannot choose additional facts, although you can select the individuals to include. I don't have any LDS Ordinances documented in my database, but I like the report for Benjamin Seaver's family. The first page looks like this:

5) The Task List Report displays all of the tasks in your tree in priority order, with an option to include or exclude completed tasks. I don't have any tasks listed in my database yet, so I can't show this screen.

These Person Reports can be useful to a researcher. The Research Note Report and Task List Report would be very useful to keep a digital record of the tasks to be performed and completed and a discussion of the research results found.

Previous posts in this series:

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 1: Loading. Installing the program and uploading an existing database file.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 2: Exploring. Looking around the uploaded database file to see what the different views look like.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 3: The Menus. Most of the menus were itemized and described.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 4: Starting a New Tree. I started a new tree and added some people demonstrating the program options to do this.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 5: Adding a Source. I added sources to the Facts that I previously entered.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 6: Adding Children to a Family. I added children to a family.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 7: The Person Menu. I described the items in the Person menu and attached a spouse to a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 8: Finding a Person in the database. I described three ways to Find a person.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 9: Places I. I explored the vagaries of the Places icon.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 10: Places II. The different map types are discussed and displayed.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 11: Places III. The method to Resolve many places with standardized place names is explored.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 12: Charts I. Introduction to Charts and examples of pedigree and descendants charts.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 13: Charts II. Examples of Hourglass, Relationships and Vertical Pedigree Charts.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 14: Charts III. Examples of large wall charts created by FTM 2008.

* Using FamilyTreeMaker 2008 - Post 15: Genealogy Reports. Description and display of Register (descendant) and Ahnentafel (ancestor) Reports.

The next post will cover some of the Relationship Reports available in the [Publish] menu.

CGSSD Meeting on Saturday 8/16 on Geni.com

Linda Hervig passed this information to the CGSSD mailing list this week:

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The Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego meets on Saturday, August 16, 2008 from 9:00 am to noon.

9:00 - Brief Announcements and user groups for Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic
10:15 - A break and refreshments
10:30 - Announcements followed by Program - "Geni.com" by Keith McCarty

While traditionally genealogists have worked alone building a family tree, Geni.com’s launch in 2007 began a new way for families to collaborate and work together to build a family history that included not only the past but the present. What happens when families work together? For genealogists there can be a reward of having others in the family catching the genealogy "bug." Other rewards may include finding long lost relatives, becoming closer to family members, more frequent interaction with family and more. With Geni.com, you can begin creating a family tree in minutes and stay in touch with your family through a fun, simple, private and free interface.

Join Keith McCarty of Geni.com as he demonstrates how to get started using Geni.com while sharing and explaining how to use Geni’s many features including a family tree, profiles, timelines, photo sharing, advanced privacy settings and more.

Geni was a winner of the 2007 Webware 100 Awards, which named it one of the top 100 sites on the internet and one of the top 10 reference sites. It is by far the youngest site to receive this honor. It was nominated again in 2008 in the social (networking) category. In May 2008, Time Magazine named Geni.com one of the top 50 Websites for 2008.

Keith McCarty was born in Orange, California. He currently serves as a Marketing Manager at Geni.com. He is among the earliest employees at Geni and has seen the transformation of the site since its inception. Keith earned his Bachelors of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing and Finance from Chapman University in 2007. His mission is aligned with Geni, which is to create a single family tree for the entire world. He also strives to introduce non-genealogists into the wonderful world of genealogy, through a fun and interactive environment.

We meet at the Robinson Auditorium complex on the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) campus in La Jolla. From North Torrey Pine Road turn at Pangea Drive into UCSD. Free parking is available in the parking garage on the left; use any A, B, or S space. Signs will mark directions to our meeting room. Please refer to our website www.cgssd.org; or the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies website http://irps.ucsd.edu/about/how-to-find-us.htm for driving directions and a map.

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I'm looking forward to the FTM meeting and the Geni talk.

Checking out WebTree.com - Post 1

I was reading my blogs this afternoon, and saw the WorldVitalRecords blog post by Whitney Ransom concerning http://www.webtree.com/. When WebTree was announced two months ago, I thought "I'll check it out when it comes out of beta testing."

Well, it's out of beta now and available to use. So what is WebTree? The site says:

"WebTree.com is a community for publishing your family history.
* Publish and share your family tree files
* Create great looking charts and reports
* Embed your tree on any website or blog "

I can't resist trying out new things and telling my readers about them (have you noticed?). I went to http://www.webtree.com/ and signed up. The first screen looks like this:



The screen notes that they have had over 700 family trees uploaded in the first 48 days, which is fairly impressive.

There's an ice big "Upload Your Tree" button at the top of the screen. Will it upload my large family tree (over 20,700 individuals)? I tried...

And succeeded, in about one minute time. It took several minutes for my database to be processed (less than 20 minutes) so I went exploring. I clicked on the Browse tab and the screen showed me the latest uploaded databases.

I clicked on the Search tab, and filled in the surname with "Seaver," being the curious sort to see how many are already in the database. The search box looks like this:

Well, there were 84 entries for Seaver in the uploaded databases. Here are the first screen of matches.

Rather than go into someone else's database and explore, I'll wait and write another post about what my uploaded database looks like in WebTree.

By far the most interesting thing that Whitney's post said was:

"An index of the GEDCOMs stored on WebTree.com will be available as part of free search results on WorldVitalRecords.com."

That's great, I think!

San Diego Slanguage

With rare exceptions, San Diego County residents came from someplace else, and brought their verbal idiosyncrasies with them. For instance, my father came from New England in 1940, and always had some speech patterns that labelled him as from there. For instance, he couldn't help but call my wife Lindar. She got back at him, of course, by calling him Popper (and our girls still refer to him that way, not Grandpa).

I really don't remember many "regional sayings" that my father used. I don't think "For crying out loud" or "Geesus wheezus" count.

Rather than wrack my faulty memory to find some of the words or phrases that he brought with him, I thought that I would list some of the "code words" that have been used in the San Diego area all of my life:

* "T.J." -- Tijuana, the large Mexican city just 12 miles south of downtown San Diego. Most teens and young adults go there to party.

* "Dago" -- what Navy recruits called San Diego. Native-born San Diegans always pronounce it "Sann Dee-ay-go" which isn't exactly correct Spanish - it should be "Sawn Dee-ay-go" of course! [Note the "ay" is a "long a" sound - the Spanish "e" sound]

* "Nasty City" -- National City, just south of downtown San Diego, my birthplace!

* "Chula Juana" -- Chula Vista, just south of National City, my parents residence when I was born, and my current residence.

* "San Yskidrow" -- San Ysidro, the urban area right on the border across from TJ, featuring an outlet mall and Mexican insurance places.

* "I.B." -- Imperial Beach, the southwesternmost city in the USA (48 states). Has a great beach and pier, but is just north of the Tijuana River outlet so it is often not usable.

* "O.B." -- Ocean Beach, the western part of Point Loma in the city of San Diego.

* "M.B." -- Mission Beach, or "Old Mission" -- the beach just north of the San Diego River on the Pacific Ocean. It's on a narrow peninsula and has an amusement park with the "Big Dipper" wooden roller coaster.

* "P.B." -- Pacific Beach, the beach north of Mission Beach and south of La Jolla.

* "La Joll-ah" -- how non-natives sometimes pronounce "La Jolla" which is properly pronounced in Spanish "La Hoya"

* "El Ca-John" -- how non-natives sometimes pronounce the city of El Cajon, which is properly pronounced in Spanish "El Cah-hone"

* "Jam-ah-cha" -- how non-natives sometimes pronounce the name Jamacha, which is pronounced in Spanish "Hom-ah-shaw"

* "Oh-tie" -- how natives pronounce Otay, which is an Indian name and not a Spanish name. Automated phone callers pronounce it "Oh-tay."

* "Pow-why" -- how natives pronounce Poway, a central county city, which is also an Indian name. Some pronounce it "Poe-way"

* "Cuyamaca" -- the mountain that dominates the eastern skyline, when it's clear skies, about 35 miles east of downtown SD. The central peak is over 6,000 feet high, and the snow mantle in the winter can be majestic. Pronounced "Kwee-ah-mack-ah"

* "the Park" -- Balboa Park, one of the largest municipal parks in the country, located just north of downtown San Diego, that has the San Diego Zoo, Aerospace Museum, Fleet Space Theatre and Science Center, Old Globe Theater, SD Museum of Art, Museum of Man, SD Historical Society and many more cultural opportunities. Also a municipal golf course, tennis, archery, Bocci and bicycle centers, Little League fields, many lawn areas, a Naval Hospital and a beautiful bridge.

* "the Valley" -- Mission Valley, which in 1950 was dairy farms and one two-lane road, and is now the home to about 100,000 people crammed into a river flood plain, plus several shopping centers, golf courses, many hotels, more restaurants, Qualcomm Stadium, and the LDS Family History Center (only some folks know about this last one!).

* "the Point" -- Point Loma, the peninsula that shields San Diego Bay from the Pacific Ocean. The fishing fleet started on the bay side, and Fort Rosecrans Memorial Cemetery is on the ridge overlooking both sides, and Cabrillo National Monument is out on the tip of it with the Cabrillo Lighthouse.

* "Lindbergh" -- the airport in downtown San Diego, named after Charles Lindbergh.

* "the merge" -- the intersection of I-5 and I-805 just north of La Jolla and UCSD and south of Del Mar, made even more complicated by the new State 56 just to the north. This is the scene of massive traffic jams every work morning and night.

* "the Murph" -- what San Diego Stadium was called from about 1970 to 1990, actually Jack Murphy Stadium. Murphy was a sports editor for the San Diego Union.

* "the Q" -- Qualcomm Stadium, formerly Jack Murphy Stadium and San Diego Stadium, erected in 1967.

* "Ellay" -- the Los Angeles megatropolis 120 miles to the north of San Diego.

* "Old Town" -- the area where San Diego was first settled by Europeans - near the intersection of I-5 and I-8 north of downtown SD. Old Town State Park is there trying to look like it was 160 years ago.

* "the Strand" -- the Silver Strand between Imperial Beach and Coronado Island. It's a peninsula about 8 miles long with San Diego Bay on the east and the Pacific Ocean on the west.

* "Coronado Island" -- the small city at the north end of the Silver Strand, which is a peninsula. Before 1930, there were two land areas, the city and North Island (where the US Naval Air Station is located), but the swamp in between was filled in.

* "Hotel Del" -- the Hotel del Coronado, built in the 1880's, that is on Coronado Island. Famed for its architecture and celebrity events.

* "the mountains" -- the Palomar, Cuyamaca and Laguna mountains to the north and east of San Diego. There are several peaks more than 6,000 feet high.
* "the desert" -- everything east of the mountains -- hundreds of miles of sand, cactus, brush and not many people.

* "Zonies" -- residents of Arizona who come to OB, MB, PB, and other beaches to cool off in the summer time.

* "snow birds" -- residents of mountain and northern states who come to San Diego in the winter to warm up.

* "May-gray" -- the typical weather for May in the coastal areas, characterized by night, morning, noon, afternoon and evening low clouds.

* June-gloom" -- the typical weather for June, an extension of "May-gray" which persists until the high pressure area over the Great Basin forms.

* "Santa Ana" -- high, hot winds that whistle down from the mountains when the Great Basin high gets really strong in September through November. The coast then gets temperatures in the 95-110 F range, and brush fires start in the parched back country.

I'm sure I'll think of more verbal idiosyncrasies for the city where six generations of my family has lived. I'll add them when I think of them!

Confederate Amnesty Papers on Footnote.com

I've been checking out the different databases on www.Footnote.com in an effort to understand what is available and to determine how these databases might help myself and some of my genealogy society colleagues.

While I don't have any Confederate Soldiers, or even citizens in the South after the Civil War, I know that many of my colleagues do, so I was curious about the Confederate Amnesty Papers collection.

I input "Seaver" in the search box on Footnote, then scrolled down the list of matches and clicked on the Confederate Amnesty Papers collection, which had five matches for the search criteria. Here is the Search results screen:



I've not heard of William B. Seaver before, so I clicked on the thumbnail picture of one of the pages in his file. The first page of his file opened in the screen below:

Like many records, these papers are in a packet. The screen above shows the first image - of the cover of the packet. I changed the magnification by using the + and - Zoom bar at the top left of the screen. Below the image, there is a film strip that shows that there are four images in this packet.

The second and third images are a handwritten letter by William B. Weaver, with an affidavit at the bottom of the third image, as shown below.

The fourth image is a certificate that William B. Weaver took an oath before the Judge of Probate in Lowndes County, Mississippi that he would faithfully defend the Constitution of the United States and the Union, dated 18 November 1865.

Note that each image on the screen has a partial Source listing in the right-hand panel on the screen. In this case, these records were from NARA Publication M1003, Applications from Former Confederates for Presidential Pardons (Amnesty Papers), 1865-1867. Unfortunately, it doesn't provide a page number to identify where in the publication the record occurs.

The user can download this page to their hard drive using the Save button on the top menu row, Share it by sending the image to an email address, or Print it. If you print, you get a Footnote logo and image number in the margin of the printed page.

The Confederate Amnesty Papers may provide excellent information about persons - the letters and affidavits may summarize service records, family situation, occupation, locality, etc., in addition to providing a signature of the person in question. These ore original source records with primary information and direct evidence of part of a person's life story - the best type of record that a researcher wants to find more of!

I found it interesting that this record was for William B. Weaver, but was indexed as William B. Seaver. Mr. Weaver's descendants may be surprised to find this after I flag it for review by Footnote.com to get the name changed.

Free databases on Footnote.com

I've spent part of the afternoon browsing the databases at www.Footnote.com.

Footnote.com has 393 databases online now, some are only partially completed. But there is a significant wealth of information on the web site.

There are quite a few FREE databases on Footnote.com, to wit:

* American Colonization Society - Correspondence and other documents relating to the American Colonization Society, 1792-1964, an organization best known for its role in founding Liberia.

* American Milestone documents - View images of original documents representing some of the most historic milestones in United States history.

* Amistad - Federal court documents -- NARA M1753. The district and circuit court records pertaining to the claims of salvage for the Spanish schooner Amistad, seized in 1839 by the US Navy

* Amistad - Supreme Court records -- NARA M2012. This Supreme Court case deals with issues of salvage of the Amistad, a ship carrying slaves seized by the US Navy in 1839, and popularized in a 1997 movie.

* Brady Civil War Photos -- NARA T252. Mathew B Brady coordinated a team of photographers to help him document the Civil War, resulting in over 5,600 portraits, landscapes, and battle scenes.

* Constitutional Convention Records -- NARA M866. Journals of proceedings, early drafts, and other papers relating to the formation of the US Constitution.

* Continental Congress - Papers -- NARA M247. The correspondence, journals, committee reports, and records of the Continental Congress (1774-1789).

* Continental Congress - Misc -- NARA M332. These documents were misplaced, overlooked, or found in private hands when the records of the Papers of the Continental Congress were first arranged in 1834.

* Custer's Court Martial -- NARA T1103. This 352-page publication contains documents relating to the 1867 court martial of George Armstrong Custer at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas

* Domestic Letters of the Department of State -- NARA M40. Copies of miscellaneous letters sent from the US State Department between 1784 and 1906.

* FBI Case Files -- NARA M1085. Before it was called the FBI, the Bureau of Investigation investigated real and perceived threats to the nation and its citizens

* Foreign Letters of the Continental Congress -- NARA M61. Copies of letters sent from the US Department of State and The Continental Congress to ministers and consuls abroad.

* George Washington Correspondence -- NARA M570. Copies of letters sent by President Washington, primarily to Secretaries of State John Jay, Thomas Jefferson, Edmund Randolph, and Timothy Pickering.

* Gorrell's History - AEF Air Service -- NARA M990. Historical narratives, reports, photographs, and other records that document administrative, technical, and tactical activities of the Air Service in the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I.

* Hesse Crown Jewels Court Martial -- NARA M1899. Trial records of three American officers charged with stealing $2.5 million in jewels and property from Kronberg Castle in 1945.

* Japanese Air Target Analysis -- NARA M1653. World War II Japanese air target analyses, objectives, and aerial photographs, 1942-45, from the records of the US Strategic Bombing Survey.

* Lincoln Assassination Papers -- NARA M599. Reports, correspondence, and testimony of persons connected with the Lincoln assassination trial. Also exhibits, court martial proceedings, and contemporary issues of the Daily National Intelligencer.

* Pennsylvania Archives -- The Pennsylvania State Archives published 10 series of historical records in 138 volumes, covering the initial colonial settlement through the Civil War.

* Photos - Coolidge -- NARA M867. About 400 captioned photographs taken before, during, and after the presidency of Calvin Coolidge, 30th president of the United States

* Photos - Eisenhower -- NARA M868. About 500 captioned photographs taken before and during the presidency of Dwight D Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States.

* Photos - Fine Arts Commission -- NARA M1148. General Photographs of the Fine Arts Commission (Series G), ca. 1650-1950.

* Photos - Roosevelt -- NARA M865. About 650 captioned photographs taken before and during the presidency of Franklin D Roosevelt, 32nd president of the United States.

* Photos - Truman -- NARA M835. About 1,000 captioned photographs taken before, during, and after the presidency of Harry S Truman, 33rd president of the United States.

* Photos - WW II Japanese -- NARA M1733. Photographs of Japanese Soldiers and of Allied Prisoners of War, 1942-1945.

* Vietnam War Photos - Marine Corps -- US Defense Department photos of activities in Vietnam, including aerial views, Vietnamese civilians, weapons, combat scenes, and other actions and people. Mostly color, some black & white, captioned.

* Project Bluebook - UFO Investigations -- NARA T1206. Records and case files relating to investigations, collected by the Office of Special Investigations, of sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOs).

* Ratified Amendments to the U.S. Constitution -- NARA M1518. These records from sixteen rolls of NARA microfilm relate to each constitutional amendment as ratified by state legislatures.

* Town Records - Goffstown NH -- Published annual reports for the town of Goffstown, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, selected years 1890-1900.

* Town Records - Hancock NH -- Handwritten records for the town of Hancock, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire; also includes church records and Records of the Union Association of Ministers, 1812-1839.

* Town Records - South Boston VA -- Minute books for the City of South Boston, Halifax County, Virginia, for the years 1905-1925 and 1949-1999.

* Vietnam Veterans Memorial -- Every-name searchable image of The Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the "Wall," in Washington, DC.

* WWII U.S. Air Force Photos -- This series of photographic images documents an important era in US military aviation history, especially activities of the US Air Force during World War II.

* WWII Naval Press Clippings -- NARA P2012. Newspaper clippings relating to the activities of the 13th Naval District and its personnel from World War II through 1960.

Almost all of these are historical records from the National Archives with not much genealogy content, but a genealogist researcher might find a gem in them.