Family & Local Histories Collection - Family History & Genealogy Message Board

Meyers Orts Gazetteer for German locations via Ancestry online

BGlassel5232 — 27 Jul 2008 4:53:16 GMT

I have figured out how to access the Meyers Orts und Verkehrs Lexicon Gazetteer [online via Ancestry], which is used to locate & expand information on place names in 1912 Germany. Ancestry's version is quite clear, although it is in German script. Good practice for me, a beginning student of German.

After I find a location, and print out a copy, I can interpret the abbreviations fairly well with the help of Wendy Uncapher's and Larry Jensen's books. But they advise genealogists to also check Meyers' 3rd Volume for the same location. They say added information may exist in Vol. III for any location, possibly with some corrections.

Can anybody explain to me how, or even if, I can access Volume III, via Ancestry? If there is an explanation on the Ancestry site, I have not been able to find it.

Thanks for any suggestions, BG

How safe are family trees/ photos on ancestry.com?

Derek_Douglas — 24 Feb 2007 10:32:16 GMT

I am downloading a lot of photos to my public tree. How safe are these as a repository for future generations? What happens to my tree once I die?

I remember keeping my photos on an internet sharing site once that folded. I lost all of my photos.

2 books about Germans in Texas are World Records Collection instead of US Records

makz3d — 18 Oct 2007 3:07:04 GMT

A New Land Beckoned: German Immigration to Texas, 1847-1861
A New Land Beckoned: German Immigration to Texas, 1844-1847

These 2 books about Texas and includes a list of the Germans that went to Texas. To view any pages in these books one must subscribe to the World Records Collection.

Please note that these 2 books about Germans in Texas should be available to subscribers to the US Records instead of the World Records Collection.

I have been trying to contact Ancestry already about these 2 books in the wrong collection but I can not get my email to go through.

E-mail newsletter December 2006

trmerlot — 22 Oct 2007 6:13:42 GMT

I'm trying to find out who the people in the photograph in the Dec 2006 newsletter are.
Can anyone help with whose photo it is. I've searched through hundreds of photos with no luck.

Cheers,
Merlot

Looking for birth mother/relations of male child born in 1921 or 1922

Patti_Riccio — 29 Aug 2007 11:05:43 GMT

My father was adopted at age 2 from an orphanage in Arkansas - in the Stuttgart or Little Rock area. I am searching for the birth mother. He was adopted by Owen Miller Thompson about 1924. Does anyone have information about this woman?

Re; English settlers in Barbados

mbmjlm — 24 Apr 2007 6:41:50 GMT

Could someone with a World membership plug in the surname Marchant in the English Settlers in Barbados 1637-1800 and look at the dates for James and Mary Marchant. My husband's ggg grandfather was born in North Carolina circa 1766. His father was John Marchant. We have never been able to get past John Marchant in Duplin County, North Carolina circa 1770/1780. I am wondering if the James/Mary Marchant listing in Barbados could apply. If the dates are after 1766 then I know that would not apply but anything prior to that just might yield a clue.

Searching by author

Susan_Gomez — 17 Nov 2006 8:43:24 GMT

I have been trying to find a volume which I had been able to access when I had the Family & Local History subscription through Genealogy.com (also supplied by Heritage Quest). I cannot seem to find it in the Ancestry.com FLH database. Is there a way to search by the author? I have tried searching by keyword but am not getting results that make any sense.

Missing images

mladair — 8 Sep 2005 4:54:36 GMT

Can somebody PLEASE tell my why so many of the Family & Local Histories collection are missing images.

Its getting to the point that about 25% of the databases I try to access have massive chunks of data missing.

Here is the latest one I ran across tonight:
Descendants of Christian Shelly of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania
http://content.ancestry.com/Browse/BookList.aspx?dbid=23617

The History of Lancaster County is missing data as well.

I've been a subscriber to Ancestry since BEFORE you started offering census images. I've rarely submitted problems. But, in that time, NONE of them that I have submitted have been fixed in a timely manner. It was more than 2 years before a missing county from the 1910 VA census was added. My last submission concerning the missing pages of the Perry genealogy still hasn't been addressed. I imagine that it will probably be years before any of these are fixed.

Sincerely, but extremely frustrated,
Matt Adair

Attn STAFF

xandervan — 18 Feb 2006 3:04:17 GMT

It has been over ONE YEAR since this problem:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/message/an/topics.ancestry...

was first noted, and over ONE YEAR since Mr. N. Hibbert, Assoc. Product Manager, Family and Local Histories made this promise:

http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/message/an/topics.ancestry...

Please provide a current update for resolving this problem.

New Ancestry Database

xandervan — 18 Feb 2006 3:04:17 GMT

Today Ancestry posted their "U.S. Veterans Cemeteries, ca.1800-2004" database in the subscription-only US Records Collection:
http://www.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=8750

The same data, with nearly identical (*) search options, is available free from the Veterans Administration website:

http://gravelocator.cem.va.gov/j2ee/servlet/NGL_v1

(*) Ancestry has surname soundex, VA has surname-given-middle names "starts with".

If someone can explain how or what Ancestry has value-added to allow them to charge for access, I would be interested to know the explanation.

Viewer

Dianne — 12 May 2005 4:46:39 GMT

I was trying to look at:

New England Families, Genealogical and Memorial • New England Families: Genealogical and Memorial, Vol. 2

BUT, it's an impossible task to try and find what you want, especially with the viewer.

The only way to move around in the image appears to be those arrows. There is not even a little "hand" to move the image.

Why doesn't the ancestry view work with these like they do the censuses. OR why fiddle around with special viewers in the first place, and just load up the image like normal web pages.

US Records items now under Family History

LGG50 — 12 Jan 2005 5:05:03 GMT

I am hoping Neil can explain why so many of the records we all pay for from the US Records subsription are now under Family & Local Histories collection, such as the DAR Lineage books and numerous other, which have been under the US Records for some time. Does this mean now people have to pay for two subscriptions for what they used to get under one? I think, from what I have been hearing from others, there is a great deal of confusion about this, and mounting concern. If you could clarify what will be under US Records, and what will be under Family Histories, it will be very helpful. It may be that even though a particular book is "filed" under the category of Family and Local Histories, those with the US Records subscriptions can still access it without subscribing to a second database. And is the US Records subscription being phased out, or mergec, since little is ever added to it any more? Thanks for clarifying.......

missing pages

Nwinklepleck1 — 22 Mar 2005 1:34:00 GMT

Re: Fullers, Sissons, and Scotts, our yeoman ancestors : 46 New England and New York families. Johnson, Carol Clark,. Mobile, Ala.. American International. 1976.

Three weeks ago I emailed you about missing pages in the above work--I asked if they were permanently missing or if this was an error. No one bothered to answer. Is posting to the message board a better way to get a response?

There are huge gaps in the scan of this book. Big sections are missing. Can this be corrected?

Thank you.

Databases in wrong collection

ChrisHankins21 — 24 Jun 2006 6:33:35 GMT

On 9/13 I sent an email to Ancestry support, pointing out that two databases released on that day were incorrectly added to the Family & Local Histories Collection when they should have been added to the U.S. Records Collection.

(Abstracts of Ripley County, Indiana wills, December 1931 to November 1944) and (Ross County, Ohio marriage records)

The U.S. Records Collection clearly states that it includes:
• U.S. Federal Census Indexes
• Social Security Death Index
• Birth, Marriage and Death Records ***
• Military Records
• Slave Narratives
• Court, land and probate records ***
• Regional histories
• City directories

As of today, these databases are still incorrectly cataloged. When will these databases be corrected?

another database misfiled

xandervan — 18 Feb 2006 3:04:17 GMT

The newly posted "Illinois Cemetery Records" ( http://www.ancestry.com/rx/content.asp?htx=BookList&dbid... )has been "accidentally" filed in Family & Local Histories rather than in the Birth, Marriage & Death category.

Missing 117 Images: Ezra Perry of Sandwich, Massachusetts and some of his descendants in Saratoga County, New York

mladair — 31 Oct 2004 9:48:00 GMT

So far, I have only been able to access 31 of the 148 images of this work:

http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=BookList&dbid=214...

Kind of frustrating to just pay for an "upgrade" and then not be able to access the information from the main reason for which I upgraded...

What is your definition of Bait & Switch?

gengrl — 12 Aug 2004 12:29:48 GMT

Rod seems to be the only person speaking on this side of this issue so I will join in.

From all indications the "U.S. Records Collection" is dead, because the resources which have typically been included in that subscription are now being added to the Family & Local Histories "pay us more $$" collection instead.

Granted that are some exceptional family history titles in that category. It truly has a large number of titles that were not previously offered. So, fine, make it a new category and charge more --- but please do not start putting everying there just so you can charge more for what was previously included with the U.S. Records Collection.

Family and Local Histories Collection Announcement

Neil_Hibbert — 15 Jul 2004 7:59:54 GMT

Ancestry.com has released a new product titled “The Family and Local Histories Collection.” The initial launch is the beginning of a new and revitalized source for Family and Local Histories on the Internet for genealogy research. It is the largest collection online of its kind, and we will grow this collection weekly to keep it the largest online resource for family and local histories. Besides Ancestry.com’s commitment to grow the collection weekly, we will improve it significantly making it not only the largest collection online, but also the most useful for our customers. The Family and Local Histories collection on Genealogy.com represents a portion of the Ancestry.com Family and Local Histories collection.

One strong reason family and local histories are so useful is because they “bring together, in one place, valuable data from many different sources. Because of this 'bringing together' they are very useful, but you cannot rely on their accuracy until it has been proven.” (Val D. Greenwood, The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy, 3rd edition, (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1990), p. 184). This new subscription is the best place online to look for previously published research on your ancestor. Once you have found an ancestor, all of Ancestry.com’s other collections (Immigration, U.S. Federal Census, U.K. & Ireland, Historical Newspapers, and U.S. Records) of primary records become valuable resources for documentation.

A.com FLH vs G.com FLH

lboorom4 — 27 Aug 2004 4:00:15 GMT

As a current subscriber to Genealogy.com’s Family & Local Histories, I’ve become curious as to the possible differences between this collection & that which ancestry.com is offering.

N. Hibbert’s message of 15 Jul 2004 http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/message/an/topics.ancestry... seems to refer to G.com’s Genealogy Library Collection of 4,200 titles & not G.com’s FHL collection which claims to include “16,000 titles” http://www.genealogy.com/hqosub.html

My ancestry.com searches reveal that there are numerous titles which are the same at both G.com & A.com’s Family & Local Histories, yet I’ve also found at least a few thus far that are included in G.com’s, but not A.com’s & vice versa.

I’m uncertain at this point whether subscriptions to both FHL collections are necessary or not. My initial thought was that once my G.com subscription expired (Sept.) I would switch to A.com’s as the cost is less & I prefer the search engines at A.com over G.com, I am now however, uncertain whether I should switch at all if some of my favorite titles are not included at A.com.

I’m already spending beyond what I should for various subscriptions to be duplicating.

Would appreciate other’s thought’s knowledge on this.

Linda

What exactly is Family and Local Histories?

Bobbi H. — 1 Aug 2004 9:40:13 GMT

I came to this message board to find out a little about the new Family and Local Histories, and instead all I find is a bunch of people complaining (about each other). I read every message on here, and can't beleive that you guys are getting so worked up at each other. Everybody is entitled to their opinion.

Anyway, does anybody have this subscription that can tell me exactly what it is? What does it all include? I checked out what Ancestry had to say about it, but it did not give a lot of info. I would like some feedback, as to if it has helped anyone find a new lead on a family member. I realize it will be different for anybody. Did your ancestors have to be from a certain area to benefit from this new subscription, or is it pretty widely scattered? Thank you for any help.

Bobbi

Nihon Joe: "misinformed, misconstrued, or just plain false"

dav4is — 3 Aug 2004 4:07:26 GMT

Goodness, I hope that you don't include my postings in any of those categories, Joe! ;o)

So far, I think I'm the only one to have posted specific suggestions that (I feel) would improve the service. There has been a dearth of commentary on them. Why is that, I wonder?

-R.

Search engine now "broken"

LGG50 — 5 Oct 2004 2:06:10 GMT

The search engine for this database no longer works properly- it works fine for some searches, and comes up with zero hits for many others (even though those people are definitely in the collection) - it won't show any hits in the Family & local histories by searching the Main home page section, or the database itself. So now both the Historical Newspaper Collection and the Family & Local History databases cannot be accurately searched......nor will the people that are in these collections show up in the Main Search Engine that searches across all databases. (Again, some of you will find that some of your ancestors will show up just fine, and many other ancestors will not.)
I am wondering if Ancestry reads these boards? The search engine for the historical newspapers has been out of commission for some weeks and has yet to be fixed (they have been notified numerous times) - now this one is out too. There is no way to trust what you find in the search engines - and if you get zero hits, do not assume it is correct.

Settlement of Jews in North America

SFlood0582 — 25 Oct 2004 3:10:37 GMT

Why is this database in Family and Local Histories? It seems to me it should be in the U.S. Collection. How was the decision made as to where to place it?

Family and Local History Collection

BretRegis9 — 6 Sep 2004 1:56:11 GMT

Now we have to pay for something that used to be part of the basic subscription ? If this is because of new material they have aquired, fine, charge for that, and put it in a new subscription plan. But don't try to squeeze me for data that was previously available. That is a rip-off by any definition.

Bret Regis

A.com FLH and G.com Genealogy Library

Neil_Hibbert — 15 Jul 2004 8:48:40 GMT

Some may be concerned about the overlap between these two collections. Here are the facts.

There are about 20,000 titles in the new FLH collection and about 4,200 titles in the Genealogy.com Genealogy Library. Both collections were built separately and independent of the other. Any overlap is coincidental. We have lists of both collections and have calculated the overlap to be at most 100 titles, or < .5%.

N. Hibbert
Product Management
Family and Local Histories

Genealogy.com Library Family Books No Longer Accessible?

wetzel — 12 Aug 2004 6:48:57 GMT

I have a paid subscription to Genealogy Libray. Whenever I try to access any of the Family Book results, I receive this message:
The page you have requested has been moved or deleted. Please click "back" on your browser to return to the previous page.

Suggestion: Printing

dav4is — 25 Jul 2004 10:54:37 GMT

You really MUST provide an easy way to print more than one page at a time! It would be handy to be able to print a range of pages, or a collection selected in some way (as with the FTM CDs).

Suggestion: Viewer: Page numbering

dav4is — 25 Jul 2004 10:49:14 GMT

For some works, there is a discrepancy between the page numbers in the page selection input box and the page numbers of the work itself. This makes it virtually impossible to locate the proper page image from an external citation or from internal references, such as TOC and indices.

This may be because of pagination errors, e.g. missing or duplicated page numbers in the work, but there are ways to cope with these problems that are far more user friendly! Have a look at your competitor, Heritage Quest. Page numbers in HQ used for navigation and printing are the same as, or at least resemble, those from the work.

Suggestion: Viewer: Hit navigation beyond one page

dav4is — 25 Jul 2004 10:41:07 GMT

The little navigation arrows for hits, forward and back, only apply to the current page. These aids should also carry me to the ALL the hits on ALL the pages of the same work.

Suggestion: Viewer: Remember presentation mode

dav4is — 25 Jul 2004 10:28:23 GMT

Fit width, etc.
The selected presentation mode should "stick" until I change it, across documents and even across sessions.

Suggestion: Viewer: Remember advanced/basic choice

dav4is — 25 Jul 2004 10:26:13 GMT

I am occasionally required to remind IE that I use the Advanced Viewer. This should be remembered forever -- until I change it!

Suggestion: Option to suppress presentation of hits in non-subscribed collections

dav4is — 25 Jul 2004 10:22:55 GMT

Someone probably thought that showing all those hits that I can't look at would be an inducement to upgrade to include that collection -- but all it really does is piss me off for having to skip over them all. Even at a presentation of 50 per page, the density of usable hits is often less than one per page (with FLH).

This would be the single most welcome change to Ancestry! Forget what the marketing types say, IT'S NOT WORKING!

Can someone explain why having them in the display is a Good Thing -- for the user, that is?

Suggestion: Allow sorting of results by # hits

dav4is — 25 Jul 2004 10:13:53 GMT

Alphabetical order, the current presentation, is of little use.

Dishonest statement of publication dates

dav4is — 15 Jul 2004 3:51:13 GMT

Publication dates in their index of the contents and when showing hits on searches are misstated.. E.g. Hawley's Annals of Brookfield is stated as having a publication date of 1987, but was actually published in 1929 (according to my copy). It may have been reprinted in 1987, but it is still the 1929 work with no additions or corrections. To state it as a 1987 work is designed to make it appear as a modern work, when it is not.

This is not an isolated example, but is common to many, if not all, of the works in the new collection. Look at the publication dates of the books. Doesn't it appear to be a collection of books published mostly in the last 25 years?

-R.

"we will grow this collection weekly" (Neil Hibbert)

dav4is — 15 Jul 2004 5:36:03 GMT

What exactly does "Ancestry.com’s commitment to grow the collection weekly" mean? What rate of growth is Ancestry committing to? And for how long?

I recall another, similar committment (made by whoever was their owner at the time) of 3 volumes weekly to be added to the Genealogy Library, which they more-or-less kept to until it suited their purposes to abrogate their so-called committment without notice or explanation.

In short, such committments aren't worth the paper they're printed on. (Oh, right! What paper?)

-R.

F&LH overlaps with GenLibrary

dav4is — 15 Jul 2004 3:44:19 GMT

Nowhere is it stated that there are duplications between the new F&HL and the old Genealogy Library. Absent this statement, the impression is dishonestly given that this is a completely new collection.

An example? Sure: "The Quaker Ogdens in America"

-R.

These new books are images, yes?

dav4is — 15 Jul 2004 3:39:13 GMT

And they use that same obnoxious image viewer as for similar books that are part of the older collection, yes?

The "basic" image viewer is practically impossible to use, and the "better" one is only usable with MSIE. "Better" is relative, of course. Someone no doubt thinks this viewer is cutting edge high-tech hot stuff. Phooey!

1.a. Cannot print a range of pages. They must be printed one by one.
1.b. Pages are printed as bare images with no identifying source information or pagination.
1.c. Special viewer effects, such as magnification of a page segment, are not printed. Printing is always the complete image, and that only.
2. My choice of advanced viewer is forgotten when I leave MSIE.
3. Cannot navigate to multiple hits in the same work -- except on a single page.
4. No full-screen capability, so in excess of 2 inches at the top of the window is wasted with browser and Ancestry controls.

All in all, it is one of those marvels of modern software design that is Almost Useful.

-R.

Plantagenet Roll of the Blood Royal

ml95 — 23 Jun 2004 7:01:23 GMT

I'm having trouble viewing images which have previously been available - get a 'page cannot be displayed' message.
The surname I am researching is Cartledge, which has two hits, neither of which can be displayed.
Is there a problem with the site?
I'm using IE6 on a broadband connection and I've tried at various times throughout the last 24 hours.
And yes, my subscription is up-to-date!