Update on AncestryLibrary

Ancestry Library Edition
Things are a-changing in 2022

Ancestry.com just posted a new message on my DeKalb County Public Library account. In short it states that its free genealogy research resources are for use only in the library and not at home.

Here’s the new message:


Ancestry Library Edition is a new genealogy research tool that provides library patrons instant access to a wide range of resources for genealogical and historical research. Ancestry Library Edition includes records from the U. S. Census; military records; court, land and probate records; vital and church records; directories; petitions for naturalization; passenger lists and more!Ancestry Library Edition is not for home use. To access this database, please ask for more information at your local library.For libraries wishing to arrange a free trial, please call ProQuest Sales at 1‑800‑521‑0600, extension 3344.For initial account setup or account preferences, contact ProQuest Customer Service.For authentication issues connecting or logging in, contact ProQuest Technical Support.

My genealogy sense is that ancestry.com will again alter this policy as the health pandemic contribute to limited indoor visitations and closings of some facilities.

Stay tuned in 2022 to our blogs and social media on how to benefit from free genealogy offerings.

Happy 2022!

It’s Freebie Friday!

Check out the ancestry.com Library edition for free forms and charts

Check out the ancestry.com Library edition for free forms and charts

I did a double take when I was searching for genealogy information via ancestry.com on my local public library’s website. The free Ancestry.com site courtesy of my favorite library, DeKalb County Public Library, has different offerings than my private, subscription-based ancestry.com account.

That’s the first freebie: Use your public library card to log into your local branch’s website and search for ancestry.com. Once in the site, select the “charts and forms” tab and click on to access it.

screenshot record

The second freebie is found in the ancestry.com charts and forms tab. You may wish to download any or all six of the forms and charts. The forms and charts are great tools to help the novice and seasoned genealogy researchers to organize family documents.

The charts and forms from ancestry. com are also exclusively offered on library sites. That’s a bonus for having a library card.

Hurry! Ancestry.com’s Library editions may be ending soon, according to the company’s website.

How to name your family tree

My ancestry.com family tree is appropriately named: “Bartee Douthy Duncan Fisher Kimbrough Owen Parker Shaw Thompson Wead Weed Wilks Wilkes Family Tree.”

Below is a photo of the Wilkes family and friends in front of their home in Springfield, Missouri. It is estimated that this photo was taken in 1925.

To gain the best results from building your family tree on any ancestry website, list the top surnames. As you build your family tree, remember the surnames and always use the maiden names of your female ancestors in genealogy searches.

In my early years of researching my family, I included my female ancestors’ married names in family genealogy searches. It limited my information collection. Now that I have replaced the married names with maiden names, the family searches are much more successful.

How do you find the maiden names? Check marriage certificates and licenses, marriage announcements and bonds for the correct maiden names of relatives. For instance, as shown below, I located the maiden name of Florida L. Fisher on the marriage license certifying the union with our cousin, Herbert Gerald Parker.

If marriage documents are tough to find, ask your oldest family members to help remember the maiden names. When I used my maternal Great- Great-Grandmother’s Melissa C. Gray Wilkes’ maiden name, I easily located her parents and her grandparents. The Gray surname was the key to finding her parents, grandparents and siblings.

Great-Great-Grandmother Melissa Gray Wilkes (1871 – 1934) is viewed below:

Happy family searches. Build your family trees with maiden names linked to the strong surnames.

HoHo Helpful hints for family tree

It’s Freebie Friday!

For many of us, it is a challenge to learn of our grandparents and their parents. Think about the challenge of locating 10 generations of grandparents, or stated another way, your great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandparents!

While the Good Genes Genealogy cousins are only halfway there with our maternal grandparents, we, like you, will keep trying to reach the 10th generation of relatives.

Notice the fourth and fifth great-grandfathers. The fourth great-grandfather fought a battle in Georgia during the Revolutionary War to keep the British invasion at bay.

Here’s some solid advice from us and colleagues who are genealogy buffs:

  • Decide on your purpose for your family tree. Some prefer to build family tree to only link direct lineage. Others build trees for family history purposes. Both types of family trees are valuable.
  • Now begin with yourself to begin your family tree, hence the top of the Christmas tree shaped family tree that is displayed in this blog.
  • Fill in as much as you know about your grandparents and their parents, if possible.
  • Use death and birth certificates, if available, to verify each grandparents’ parents.
  • DNA results remain a huge help in filling in the names of grandparents, siblings, cousins and other relatives.
  • Do not ignore individuals that keep appearing on your ancestry lines that do not appear to be blood relatives. Their records are equally important to locate ancestors as those “nonblood” individuals may share other family relationships.
  • If grandparents have been married more than once, you have the choice to add each marriage, or directly link your blood lines to the married grandparents. It’s tricky, yet family tree-building technology is now allowing for some flexibility.
  • Build in lots of genealogy research time to achieve whatever goals you have for building family trees this holiday season.

Have fun, relax, share memories and ask great questions of your relatives to build your tree.

Happy Holidays!

What better gift than the gift of family genealogy?

Family of Rev. Dr. Miles Mark Fisher III and Ada Fisher. Young Florida is standing, right.

I was busy preparing my holiday cards when my thoughts turned to gift-giving. What is the greatest genealogy gift that I could give to my family? The answer: Ancestral research findings.

Guess what? I, too, received the greatest gift.

I poured through our family ancestry records and discovered great finds via newspapers.com. I attached the newspaper clippings to my family members’ trees and also printed some records to share as part of my gift giving.

The clipping below was part of my gift to Cousin-by-marriage Florida L. Fisher Parker a year ago during the holiday season. She was overjoyed to see this clipping, her marriage license and other related documents that I uncovered through electronic methods. My discoveries also prompted Florida sharing funny and tearful memories about that great day in her life.

My cousin, Ret. Col. Parker and Florida on their wedding day, June 27, 1959
Florida and Herbert Parker’s marriage license and certificate

Florida, the widow of Ret. Col. Herbert Gerald Parker, is an enthusiast genealogist. She piqued my interest in genealogy while we all lived in Tallahassee, FL. Typically, I would visit with Florida and we would prepare documents for the family reunion. After the burial of her husband, my cousin, Herb, at Arlington National Cemetery in D.C., Florida chose to live near her daughter and family in Maryland. Distance and COVID-19 restrictions have grounded our travels and frequency of our conversations.

That’s why this year, I bundled up some new finds that are related to her deceased father, Dr. Miles Mark Fisher. During my research of her father, I discovered my greatest gifts.

  • Gift #1: I learned that Dr. Fisher was the author of several books and articles. One of his books, “The Life of Lott Cary” is out of print. It is about the life of a former slave who toiled many years to earn enough to purchase his freedom and that of his family’s. He became a member of the clergy and also ascended into other high places.
  • Gift #2: I learned that Rev. Fisher was the longtime pastor of White Rock Baptist Church, Durham, N.C. It was a church that was widely recognized nationwide and in its community for its social activism and highly touted black businessmen and civil rights leaders as congregants. He also initiated a program that held period racially integrated religious services.
  • Gift #3: I learned that Dr. Fisher was a scholar. He was on faculty at Virgina Union and Shaw University.
  • Gift #4: I learned the young scholar was one of the first “Negroes to receive the Ph.D. degree in philosophy and religion from the University of Chicago.”
  • Gift #5: The joy that the printed articles bring to Florida’s life. She doesn’t use technology, yet, she is fond of receiving information about her family.
Rev. Fisher’s integration services’ program

By sharing your ancestral findings with loved ones, you are giving the greatest gift of all during this holiday season and throughout the year.

Holiday Best Buys for African American Genealogy + Bonus

Happy Holidays!

Barnes & Noble website is one of many locations to find our books

The Good Genes Genealogy Services team has been providing free and low-cost services to engaging clients throughout 2021.

To keep our services at this level, we invite you to support us by investing a few dollars into the books we published during this second health pandemic year. The bonus book is written by Dr. Ann Wead Kimbrough about her father, Dr. Rodney S. Wead, a relatively unknown and yet effective community leader.

All of the books genealogy books are written by the cousin duo, Kimbrough and Mark S. Owen. The book illustrator for all books is Veverly Byrd-Davis. Besides our publishing company, http://www.lulu.com (see bookstore, Good Genes Genealogy), our books are offered on many national book sites.

Amazon is another website where you can find our books

Listen Up: It’s Freebie Friday!


Free audio instead of paying the annual fees
Photo by Stas Knop on Pexels.com

Hear, hear! Rather than dole out hard cash (or credit cards) for an annual audio subscription for books, I choose to make great use of my DeKalb County (GA) Public Library card and tune into hoopladigital.com.

Check your library for free audio book subscriptions.

That’s my best Freebie Friday tip. Sign up and listen to great books like the one I just finished:

A great book to listen to as it read by the soothing voice of Kareem Maize, who is not the author.

Freebie Friday!

Photo by Sindre Stru00f8m on Pexels.com

Free Databases at Ancestry.Com

Courtesy of http://www.searchforancestors.com/ancestryfreebies.html

Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels.com

Ancestry.com Free Collection.

Ancestry.com is a premium subscription-based genealogy website with over 8 billion genealogy records, most of which are online images of original documents. In addition, Ancestry has more than 35 million user-submitted family trees, which include photographs, written stories, and scanned documents.

One of Ancestry’s best kept secrets is that they also have over 1,300 always-free databases. To view these free records, you may be asked to sign up for a free account, but the account is free, no strings attached. You do not need a free trial to view these records.

The free databases are available to search at the Ancestry site at Ancestry.com Free Index Collection.Ancestry.com Free Collection Search


First Name		 
Last Name		                  Any                    USA                 AL                 AK                 AZ                 AR                 CA                 CO                 CT                 DE                 DC                 FL                 GA                 HI                 ID                 IL                 IN                 IA                 KS                 KY                 LA                 ME                 MD                 MA                 MI                 MN                 MS                 MO                 MT                 NE                 NV                 NH                 NJ                 NM                 NY                 NC                 ND                 OH                 OK                 OR                 PA                 RI                 SC                 SD                 TN                 TX                 UT                 VT                 VA                 WA                 WV                 WI                 WY                 —                 CAN                 AB                 BC                 MB                 NB                 NF                 NT                 NS                 TT                 ON                 PE                 QC                 SK                 YT                  —                 INTL               
Locality

Although this database is called the Free Index, it actually includes indexes as well as images. This Free Index Search contains all the free Ancestry.com record databases but does not include the very popular Family Trees.

Below is a list of the most popular Ancestry free databases. Scroll down to see some of the the free Ancestry databases that are listed by country and state.

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