US Marine Corps Muster Rolls (1893-1940) on Ancestry

Good things happen to genealogists who browse...

It's been a lazy morning, with an early breakfast with friends, home for awhile, and then a memorial service. While home for awhile, I opened up Ancestry.com and put Lyle Carringer, my grandfather's name, in the Search box, thinking it would only find his 1920 and 1930 census, SSDI and California Death Index entries. Surprise!

Hmmm. U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1893-1940 - 24 matches. I recalled that he had served in the US Marines during World War I, but I didn't have any details about his service.

The database information is here. Where did this database come from? I've not seen or heard of it before - it's probably been hiding on the long list of databases on Ancestry for years! The description says:

"This database contains an index to U.S. Marine Corps muster rolls from 1893-1940. Information contained in this database includes: name, rank, enlistment date, muster date, and station."

These images are from National Archives Microfilm Publication T977, 460 rolls; Records of the U.S. Marine Corps, Record Group 127; National Archives, Washington, D.C.

For my grandfather, there are 24 monthly reports, from May 1917 to May 1921, of his service - where he was, what he did, etc. Private Lyle L. Carringer enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserve on 7 May 1917 in San Diego CA, and it appears he served his duty as a Saleman at the PX (store) in Balboa Park in his native San Diego. The report for May 1917, says "Jd by enrollment at this post." In the report for December 1919, he reported his address was 2054 Harrison Street in San Diego (same as the 1920 census address). In the report for June 1921 (the last one), it says "Expiration of Enrollment, Character 'Excellent.'"

Here is a picture of Lyle in his uniform, taken probably in 1917. He was 5 foot six inches tall and weighed about 120 pounds. He wasn't married to Emily Auble yet. He probably dazzled her with the uniform and his Marine training. I'm so glad he did!

What a pleasant surprise today!

How about you? Any Marines in your ancestral families? Have you checked this database?

My Fave Blog Posts of the Week

I have over 150 genealogy blogs on my http://www.bloglines.com/ list. Blog posts appear once (usually, unless they are updated!) and then are gone. I usually don't go to the actual blog unless I want to comment on it.

I usually can't recall everything that I've read, and about once a week I will go through my blog list and review the posts for the week. Since I know many of my readers may not have the time to do this, and I seem to have a lot of reading time on some days, I decided to make a list of blog posts that really helped my research, informed me about history or genealogy, or that I just liked. Here is my list for this past week (in the order I found the post - no ratings here intended):

* J.L. Bell's Boston 1775 blog post on "How to Play Tip-Cat." I'm a big baseball fan, but have never heard of tip-cat. Bell's blog articles are always informative - he really brings Boston in 1775 alive.

* Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter post about "Mysterious Messages Appear in Nova Scotia Cemeteries." This might be something for a genealogy society with time on its hands and enough manpower to do for a centennial (or other important) celebration.

* The Ancestry Insider's post about "New FamilySearch Rollout Accidentally Announced." Good - the West Coast is #2!

* Craig Manson's Geneablogie series of posts about his research trip to the Midwest. Craig offers tips for travelling genealogists that are timeless in his post "Some Lessons Learned." Read all of his travel posts (note that he is not finished yet!). He has a good looking beard, too!

* Chris Dunham's The Genealogue post titled "Top Ten Signs Your Genealogy Scoiety is in Trouble." My favorite is #6. "Board of Directors outsources task of ignoring member complaints to Bangladesh." Excellent humor - I'm going to use it at the next CVGS board meeting!

* Megan Smolenyak's post on Megan's Roots World about "Making Up History: The Search for Annie Moore." Read Megan's reaction to seeing herself portrayed in a play. The play sounds wonderful!

* Steve Danko at Steve's Genealogy Blog posted "Beginning Italian Genealogy." I found it very helpful and concise, even though I don't have Italian ancestry (to my knowledge), but it may help a colleague who does have it.

* Bill West's series at his West in New England blog on "Aunt Dot's Memories." The link is to his 5th post, go to his blog for all of them. I had a "Cousin Dot" who was kind of like Bill's Aunt Dot. This is real life memories!

* Larry Lehmer's Passing It On blog post "What Obituaries don't Tell You." Some excellent thoughts here about writing down your family history. I guess that's why I blog!

That's enough for now - I know I read many more excellent genealogy blog posts, but these are the ones that I chose.

If you have a few minutes, please click on the blog links and read more of each blogger's work. Many genealogy bloggers get few hits and I'm sure these will appreciate you dropping by and perhaps leaving a comment.

UPDATE: I knew I got the idea for this type of post from someone! Sally J. at the Practical Archivist provided a Quick Link Roundup the other day. I hope she doesn't mind that I used the idea - I had most of this written before I found her post.

"Researching Hispanic Family History" Program at CVGS on Monday

The next program meeting of the Chula Vista Genealogical Society is Monday, July 30 at 10 AM in the Chula Vista Civic Center Library auditorium.

The speaker will be Patricia Diane Godinez on "Researching Hispanic Family History." Diane will discuss the following topics:

* locations in the Hispanic world,
* filling out a pedigree chart and family group sheet using family sources,
* citing sources,
* using www.familysearch.org,
* ordering the correct microfilm for use at a family history center,
* Parish records (Birth, Marriage, Marriage Petitions, Death),
* Civil Registration,
* the 1930 Mexican Census.

Diane's resume includes:

"She was born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and educated in the United States. Diane has been researching her family tree in Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland, Bessarabia, and Russia. She has been researching her husband's Hispanic family tree for 30 years and has traveled to Mexico and Canada numerous times. Spanish is her second language. She has been a paraeducator in Special Education at Nestor Elementary School for 16 years. She is secretary of the Evergreen HOA board of directors. Diane has been a Family History Worker at the Bonita Family History Center of the LDS Church for 10 years. Plus, she is affiliated with the Family History Center of the LDS Church in Estaca Central, of Tijuana, Mexico."

Chula Vista's population is about 50% Hispanic, and Tijuana in Mexico is only five miles south of the city. We hope that this presentation by Diane will draw attendees with Hispanic heritage from the entire San Diego/Tijuana area and spark interest in family history research among those attendees. CVGS receives an occasional query about Hispanic research, and Diane's talk should inform our current members about Hispanic research opportunities and techniques.

CVGS invites all San Diego area genealogy and family history researchers to attend our meetings. There is no charge.

Cross-posted to the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe, the CVGS blog.

Using the FHLC to find probate records

DearMYRTLE has a detailed post that should be required reading for all genealogists who do not know about or use the LDS resources found in the Family History Library Catalog.

Her post is at http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/07/getting-to-original-will.html.

Ol' Myrt's correspondent had an index citation for a will of Henrietta Nichols in Chambers County, Alabama in Will Book 3, 1855-1872. Myrt went through the process of finding the FHL holdings for the County and provided the listing of probate record resources available on microfilm. In the end, the specific will volume was not listed in these records, but the index was.

Ol' Myrt suggested writing a letter to the probate court and requesting the full estate record for Henrietta Nichols. That is one way to get these records.

However, it appears that the FHL has microfilms of the Chambers County Estate Records filed by alphabetical surname for 1832-1915. The citation is:

"Estate files and index, 1832-1915, Chambers County, Alabama," -- records housed at Probate Judge Office in Chambers County Courthouse in LaFayette, Alabama. There are 77 microfilms for these records - each microfilm has a citation like this:

"Estate case files, Blair, Adam - Blount, William T. (folder 5 of 6), 1832-1918
/ VAULT US/CAN Film 1221960"

Ol' Myrt's correspondent should order the microfilm that has Henrietta Nichols' estate file at a Family History Center (FHL Microfilm 1542472). This microfilm should contain more than the will - it will probably contain the probate court affidavits, the will, an inventory, an account, a distribution, and perhaps more records of her ancestor's estate. And even better, these are probably the original records with the actual will and other papers, all probably enclosed in a probate packet closed by a twine thread. These estate case files are the best probate record you can find.

I sent the above information to Ol' Myrt last night and she posted it to her blog at http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2007/07/getting-to-original-will-part-ii.html.

Myrt points out that in her experience, the will is not in the probate packet or estate file. My experience, mainly in New England records, is that the original will is in the probate packet. Like Myrt, I have not researched in Chambers County, Alabama so I do not know for sure that the estate file includes the will.

What I do know for sure is that Myrt's correspondent got a lot of good advice and information for the price of an email. Maybe someone who knows about this county's records can enlighten us on the contents of the estate files.

Thanks to DearMYRTLE for the great blog post and the opportunity to climb up on my soapbox and remind researchers that the FHLC microfilms contain wonderful resources that are otherwise available only at the local courthouses or other repositories. You can order the microfilms for about $6 each for a 4 week rental, and copy the pages you want onto paper or onto your flash drive or CDROM (if the FHC is equipped with them).

Searching for 20th Century Property Records

One of my CVGS colleagues wanted to know how to find property records for her grandparents house in Maspeth, Queens County, New York. The grandparents died in 1972 and 1980, respectively, and she wanted to know what happened to the property.

Initially, it was difficult to find an online resource for property records in Queens. I went to the http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/ site that I discussed earlier, but they didn't have a link for property records in Queens County NY.

I Googled "property recorder queens new york" hoping to get an address that my colleague could write to or visit. Voila! One web site that popped up was the "Automated City Register Information System - ACRIS" web site at http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/jump/acris.shtml . This site has property records (plus many more records!) online since 1/1/1966 - including printable images.

The search page is at http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/scripts/docsearch.dll/index. I chose Party Name and got this page - http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/Scripts/DocSearch.dll/PName

I put the surname in the surname box, set 1/1/1965 as the starting date, selected Queens and hit Search. The list of hits included the grandmother with a Release of Lien of Estate Tax (Real Property) on 13 August 1980. I selected that one, and got an image of the paper, which I printed. The index defined the block and lot numbers, so I went back to the first Search screen and selected the Borough/Block/Lot search and got a list of property transactions for the specific property since 1966.

There were no listings for the grandfather by the name my colleague gave me. However, there was a person with the same surname in 1972, and I found a deed for the grandfather transferring his survivor title to himself and his son in 1972, after the grandmother died.

Earlier deeds that are not online can probably be found in the New York City Municipal Archives, Room 103, at 31 Chambers Street in Manhattan. [WRONG! See the update below.]

One reason I like to help my CVGS colleagues with their research problems is that I learn so much about other localities and types of records. It was fun to learn something, help somebody and solve a research problem.

Have you checked to see if your counties of genealogy interest have public records like these available online?

UPDATE 7/27 8:30 PM: Joy Rich made a helpful comment:

"Randy, in New York City, property records are located in the City Register's Office in each borough (except Staten Island). The Queens office has records from 1683 to the present. The URL for the Queens office is http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/contact/contact_visit_queens.shtml ."

Now, why wouldn't that show up in my Google search? Perhaps I didn't dig down in the Google heap.

Thank you, Joy! People helping people - that's really how we all benefit from blogging!

Probate Record of Nathaniel Wade (1709-1754) - Part 1

This is one of a series of probate record transcriptions for my Rhode Island ancestors. I don't think this record has been provided online previously, although I think an abstract has been published in RIGR. If I ever get my web site up and running, I will post many probate record transcriptions there.

Nathaniel4 Wade (Jonathan3, Nathaniel2, Jonathan1) was born 27 Jan 1708/09 in Medford, Middlesex County, MA, and died 29 Jun 1754 in Scituate, Providence County, RI. He married Ruth Hawkins 26 Jun 1731 in Scituate, Providence County, RI, daughter of William Hawkins and Elizabeth Arnold. She was born 14 Mar 1710/11 in Providence, Providence County, RI, and died 07 Dec 1789 in Scituate, Providence County, RI. They had six children - Simon, Dudley, Mary, Ruth, Deborah (died young) and John.

Nathaniel Wade died testate, having written a will on 30 May 1754 that was proved on 13 July 1754. The will (transcribed from Scituate (RI) Probate and Civil Records, 1731-1886, Volume 1, pages 231-232, on FHL Microfilm 0,941,155) reads:

"The Last Will and Testament of Nathaniel Wade of Scituate aforesaid was presented to the Council and Read in the Following Words (Viz:)

"In the Name of God Amen. the Thirtieth Day of May in the Twenty Seventh year of his Majesties Reign George the Second King of Great Britain &c Annoq. Dom: 1754: I Nathaniel Wade of Scituate in the County of Providence in the Colony of Rhode Island &c being very sick and Weak of Body but of Perfect Mind and Memory Thanks be given to God: And Calling to Mind the Mortality of My body and Knowing that it is appointed for Man once to Die do make and Ordain this My last Will and Testament in Manner and Form Following That is to Say principally and first of all My Soul I Recomend into the Hands of God that gave it and my body to the Earth to be Buryed Decently at the Discretion of my Executors herein after Named and as Touching of Such Worldly Estate wherewith it hath Pleased God to Bless me in this present Life I ??? [do?] Demise and Dispose of the same in the following Manner and Form, Viz:

"Imprimis My will is and I do hereby order that all my Lands and Real Estate be Sold as Soon as Conveniently as can be after My Decease by my Executors herein after Named and My ??? ????? [sd executors be?] fully Impowered to Sell the ???? [land?] and a Deed or Deeds of Conveyance Shall be good and ???? [true?] to all Intents and purposes that is by them Regularly Made.

"Item I Give and bequeath to My Loveing Wife Ruth Wade the use and Intrest of Three Hundred pounds old Tenor of the Money that Shall be Raised or paid upon the Sale of the Land for and During the full Term of her Naturall Life in this World.

"Item I give and bequeath all the Remaining part of the Money that Shall Rise upon the Sale of My Land after the sd Three Hundred Pounds is Taken out that I have given the use of to my Wife: To my Three Sons Simon Dudly and John to be Equally Divided between them as Soon as it is Collected or paid and also the said Three Hundred Pounds after my said Wifes decease to be Divided Between them in Like Manner.

"Item My Will is that all my just Debts Shall be paid out of my Moveable Estate and the Remaining parts thereof I give and bequeath to My aforesaid Wife and My Two Daughters Mary and Ruth to be Equally Divided Between themselves.

"And I do hereby Nominate Constitute appoint and ordain Ruth my aforesaid Wife and My said Son Simon to be the Sole Executors of this My Last Will and Testament and I do hereby Utterly Revoke Disallow and Annull all and Every other and Former wills Testaments Legacies bequests and Executors by Me heretofore Made Willed or bequeathed Ratifying allowing and Holding Firm and Effectuall this and No others to be My Last will and Testament: In Witness whereof I have Hereunto Set my hand and seal the Day Month and Year first above Written.
...................................................Nathaniel Wade (seal)

"Signed Sealed Published Pronounced and Declared by the sd Nathaniel Wade as his Last Will and Testament in presence of us the Subscribers
Gideon Harris Aaron Aldrich Abiel Aldrich (her mark)"

"We Gideon Harris Aaron Aldrich and Abiel Aldrich all personally appearing Declared on their Several Engagements that they Saw the above Subscriber Nathaniel Wade Sign Seal and Declare what is hereabove Written to be his Last Will and Testament and that he was then of a Sound and Perfect Mind and Memory and that they and Each of them Did at the same time in the presence of sd Testator and of Each other Subscribe their Names thereunto as Witnesses.
Test. Gideon Harris Court Clerk."

I will add the Court affidavits and Inventory in a later post.

Nathaniel Wade died at a relatively young age (45) and left a wife with five children. His oldest son was 23 at the time. Nathaniel willed that the property be sold - perhaps the sons weren't mature enough to provide sufficient income for the wife and kids to survive. By selling the property, he created a "trust fund" so to speak for the wife in order to raise the younger children, and a "nest egg" for the sons to start their own families with when they married. Ruth (Hawkins) Wade married Zebedee Hopkins in 1758 and resided in Scituate until her death. Sons Simon Wade and John Wade settled in Foster RI, the next town to the west of Scituate. My ancestor is the eldest son Simon Wade (1731-1790), who married Deborah Tracy in about 1765.

Due to the relatively poor quality of the image on the FHL microfilm, I have some unreadable portions of this probate record. If somebody wants to take a look at some of the mystery lines I would welcome that. Please email me at rjseaver(at)cox.net.

Annie Moore Deja Vu

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak has a blog post about a play called Making Up History: Searching for Annie Moore. It is about the search for the real Annie Moore last summer - her post is at http://www.rootstelevision.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/446.

Megan attended the play in Washington DC last weekend, and really enjoyed seeing herself portrayed on stage. Read her description of the play and the cast.

I'm wondering if this is the first play performed on stage that has genealogy research as one of the main themes?

I also wonder if there is or will be a video of the play, and if it will ever be shown on Roots Television or sold on DVD.

I wonder if the play might some day be performed at a national or regional genealogy conference. Wouldn't that be a wonderful thing for conference goers to go to instead of a semi-humorous dinner talk by Homer Bloviateur after a long day of sitting on hard chairs in six hour-long sessions. It might also vastly improve the cultural quotient of genealogists, and improve their reputation, at least in the eyes of their spouses.

Ah, the real Annie Moore. To see you "in person," young and old, immigrant and mother. I invested a little time in the search, and still get a bit misty eyed when I speak about it as a great example of 20th century genealogy research.

I hope that Megan gives us more information about the play as time passes.

Privacy Issue in Ancestry One World Tree Database

One of the attendees at the CVGS Research Group on Wednesday described finding her name, her husband's name and the names of her children on the Ancestry "One World Tree" database. The names have no birth dates or places, no marriage date or place, and no death dates or places (obviously, they are all alive!).

My colleague was upset that her family names were available online and she didn't understand how they got there. But she was happy that she was able to find information about her ancestry from the database. She has no idea who submitted this database.

Ancestry describes the "One World Tree" database as:

"What exactly is OneWorldTree?

"Its one big community family tree. OneWorldTree takes family trees submitted by Ancestry members and "stitches" them together with family trees and historical records from other sources. OneWorldTree identifies probable name matches between these sources and displays consolidated results in a worldwide family tree that can help you with your family history research.

"Its a great place to find hints. OneWorldTree can give you hints about your family history but not necessarily facts. There are a number of sources consolidated in OneWorldTree and its impossible to know if there are errors in member-submitted family trees. Also, occasionally the computer algorithms in OneWorldTree can incorrectly link people with similar names.

"In addition to the overall community tree, OneWorldTree also maintains the original family trees and source records submitted. See original source information for any person in a tree on the "edit person" page. Use the "connection service" if you want to anonymously contact the Ancestry member who submitted a family tree or record."

Ancestry also says this about privacy issues:

"Is everything in OneWorldTree available to all members?

"Certain information is never shared. OneWorldTree never shares information about living family members born after 1930. Any information in your family tree regarding living people born after 1930 will show up on your personal family tree but will remain hidden from other Ancestry members.

"Your personal privacy is always protected. OneWorldTree was created to let Ancestry members benefit from the combined research efforts of the community. Even so, your personal identity always remains private unless you choose to share it with other Ancestry members on your own."

I found my colleague's name in One World Tree because I knew what it was, and sure enough, on the family page, after you click on the name in the Search matches, you get the living family with all the names, with a pedigree chart. Going back one generation at a time, the names of all of the children show up, even if they are living.

When I click the link for "1 User-submitted tree," the first name changes to "Living" for many of the entries (which is good). If I click on her name, then the database goes into Ancestry World Tree format with the first names as "Living" (which is good). I downloaded the GEDCOM file for this database, and all of the potential living people come up with a given name of Living (which is good!).

I don't see any link to the "connection service" noted in the About OWT page ... perhaps I missed it, or perhaps it has been eliminated and the About OWT page was not updated.

There must be some sort of glitch in the OWT software that can't figure out if a person is living or not if there are no dates for several generations. That may not happen too often, and therefore this problem has gone undetected.

I tried to find a way to show who submitted the particular database but had no luck. I do know the database number from the GEDCOM download.

Perhaps someone from Ancestry will see this post and advise me what to do. I would be happy to put them in contact with my colleague so they could protect her family's privacy. My email address is rjseaver(at)cox.net.

Any other ideas out there?

7/25 CVGS Research Group highlights

We had our Chula Vista Genealogical Society Research Group meeting today at the Library, with 15 genealogy devotees in attendance, including two visitors and a new member. We had to meet in the Computer Lab but the projector didn't come to the meeting so we couldn't project on the wall. We did discuss genealogy research in several areas.

I reviewed the genealogy news highlights for July 2007 (posted here) - covering web sites, online databases and software. Then I passed around the latest issue of the NGS Quarterly and noted that the article about using cluster genealogy might be useful to some of our attendees.

Bill is trying to find records for his great-grandfather and family from Bohemia and wondered if the GGF had to notify someone if he changed the spelling of his surname. We didn't think so, but warned him to look out for spelling variations in the US and overseas records. If he can find a US record of the GGF's birth date/place in a naturalization record or a death record, then he can try to find church records in Bohemia and see how they spelled it there. He also wondered about residency data in Chicago around 1880 - we recommended finding city directories (online, FHLC microfilm, library), tax records, voting records, court records and Sanborn maps.

Bobbie told us about her planned trip to northern Illinois to visit the local historical societies, libraries and cemeteries. She wondered about the best way to do gravestone rubbings. There was no group consensus. We recommended that she find message boards, ask about the different methods and also determine what the cemeteries will allow. Bobbie also commented on some of Bill's questions since she has recently done similar research.

Lillie (a visitor) had just done some research on her ancestry, and with the help of her daughter had made a large family tree chart for a recent family reunion. It was about 3 feet square with a large tree in the background. She was concerned that her family was in the One World Tree database on Ancestry.com, and wondered how that had happened. We told her that someone submitted it, and since it didn't have birth or death dates in the submitted database, Ancestry posted the information about living people. She wondered how to contact the submitter. Lillie has traced her ancestry back to slaves in Alabama around 1820, so we recommended that she contact the San Diego African-American Research Group in order to get more help on her specific research problems.

Rita was frustrated because New York would not send her death certificates of her mother and father, even though she sent them her driver's license data and her own birth certificate showing her parents names. They say that she is not named on the death certificate, and therefore cannot obtain one. The group talked a bit about other the policies of other states, and the recent limiting of access to many records due to identity theft concerns.

I showed my Union Case photo of Isaac and Lucretia (Smith) Seaver, and the plat maps I made from the Ontario (Canada) Digital Atlas. Bobbie showed some census data with close family on adjacent pages. Elsie told about phoning the second cousin and getting information about the French church in Haverhill in the 1890's.

The next CVGS Research Group meeting will be on Wednesday, August 22 in the library conference room.

25 Genealogy Web Sites I Can't Do Without

The genealogy magazines print lists of web sites in occasionally - such as in Family Tree Magazine here and Family Chronicle here.

John D. Reid at the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog has posted his list of 25 genealogy web sites that he, as a Canadian researcher, can't live without - see his post here.

I haven't made a list like this for almost a year - my last top 10 list is here. Here are my top 25 that I, as an American researcher, can't live without (in approximate order of value to me) for online genealogy research:

1. Ancestry databases, family trees and publications (subscription site) and free articles - http://www.ancestry.com
2. Rootsweb databases, message boards, mailing lists, research guides, etc - http://www.rootsweb.com
3. LDS Family Search databases, research guides, library catalog - http://www.familysearch.org
4. US Genealogy Web state and county pages, user-submitted databases - http://www.usgenweb.org
5. Joe Beine's links to military, vital, naturalization, immigration, census and topic lists - http://home.att.net/~wee-monster/databases.html

6. Genealogy.com (subscription site) free family web pages and Genforum message boards - http://www.genealogy.com
7. Heritage Quest Online databases - using library subscription.
8. Steve Morse One-Step Web Pages links and search engines - http://www.stevemorse.org
9. Cyndi's List links to genealogy sites - http://www.cyndislist.com
10. New England Historical and Genealogical Society databases and publications (subscription site) - http://www.newenglandancestors.org/

11. Linkpendium genealogy links - http://www.linkpendium.com/
12. Olive Tree Immigration, Naturalization, Vital Record links - http://olivetreegenealogy.com/index.shtml
13. National Archives databases - http://www.archives.gov/genealogy/start-research/
14. Find A Grave cemetery transcriptions - http://www.findagrave.com/
15. Interment.net cemetery transcriptions - http://www.interment.net

16. Legacy obituary search - http://www.legacy.com/Obituaries.asp
17. Obituary Archive at Newsbank (subscription site) - http://oa.newsbank.com/
18. Encyclopedia of Genealogy - http://www.eogen.com/
19. Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness - http://raogk.com/
20. United States Vital Records - http://www.vitalrec.com/

21. Family History 101 State Genealogy Information - http://www.familyhistory101.com/states.html
22. Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System - http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/
23. BLM General Land Office Records - http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/default.asp
24. Ellis Island NY Passenger Lists - http://www.ellisislandrecords.org/
25. WorldCat Library Cooperative - http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/

There are thousands more genealogy web sites with very useful and helpful data. The sites above link to many of them.

I didn't include the recently created subscription sites like World Vital Records, Genealogy Bank and Footnote. I don't subscribe to them and have not evaluated them critically for my own use.

My list above does not include information or entertainment sites such as search engines, photos and videos, contests, humor, blogs, articles, societies, magazines, software, wikis, etc. I may make a separate list just for those.

Thanks to John Reid for the idea - making a list like this sharpens the pen, so to speak, and makes you think about what is important to performing genealogy research.

I'm sure you have a different opinion on many of these. What would you add to my list? What would you leave out? Either comment on this post, or write your own blog post.