New Webinars: Ancestry.com's "New" Search and Structuring Online Searching

Making the Most of Ancestry.com’s Sliders and "New" Search

Already held--learn more and order here.

Structuring Your Online Searching

Do you go in circles when searching online databases? This presentation will provide a general scheme that Michael actually uses for organizing your searches of online databases and search sites--not some theoretical idea that gets put back away after the presentation is over. Sometimes five minute searches are not enough to find that elusive relative. Search strategies will be discussed in the context of organizing searches so that searches are not repeated and that search time is maximized. 6 PM Pacific Time on 27 March 2014--one hour and a half hour afterwards for questions. Register now to reserve your spot. Registration is limited. Downloadable recordings will be sent at no charge to all registrants. 

URL: for registering is 

http://rootdig.blogspot.com/2014/03/new-webinars-ancestrycoms-search-and.html

Library of Congress Newspapers and Flip-Pal Webinars Released

We are excited to announce the release of my two most recent webinars: Library of Congress Digital Newspapers and Using Your Flip-Pal. These presentations are only $5 each--we try very hard to keep our costs within as many research budgets as possible. Our webinars have no sponsors so giving them away is not always a practical option, but rest assured that we don't create content worrying about whether or not some executive or editor in an office somewhere is going to cut something because they didn't like what we said or how we said it. That doesn't happen here.

Library of Congress Digital Newspapers

The United States Library of Congress has free digital images of thousands of United States newspapers, all of which can be searched and downloaded. Researchers who have never used these papers may be missing out the wide variety of material that can be hiding in newspapers. My recent webinar "Using Digital Newspapers at the Library of Congress" was recently uploaded to our website and can be ordered for immediate download.  "Using the Digital Newspapers at the Library of Congress" is a practical hands-on presentation, focusing on search techniques and making the most of this free website. This presentation shows viewers how to search the inventory of online papers, view the newspaper's history, determine what papers are actually on the site, search actual papers, browse those newspapers for manual searches, interact with search results, and save and share located materials. This presentation is available for immediate download via this link .

Flip-Pal

I have just released my webinar on using a Flip-Pal scanner. If you've not purchased a Flip-Pal because you've never seen one in operation or just want an overview of this gadget, then this presentation will meet your needs. I demonstrate several basic scans, both using the machine right-side-up and upside-down (for larger or bound items). I also show how to adjust scanning settings and using the stitching program to stitch partial scans of larger items together. And along the way, there's a few additional tips mentioned as well. This presentation can be downloaded for only $5 via this link. Download is immediate.

Viewing is for personal use only.

Note: My Flip-Pal was purchased with my own funds and this presentation was not sponsored or supported by Flip-Pal. I am an affiliate of

Sidewalks in Rock Island

One never knows what type of information one will encounter in a newspaper. This image comes from an 1897 issue of the Rock Island Argus and was discovered while I was presenting a webinar on using the digital newspapers in the Chronicling America collection at the Library of Congress website.

Rock Island Argus., October 06, 1897, Page 2, Image 2

List of lot owners who are having sidewalks built on their property is not something a person typically encounters. The individuals of interest were the Mortiers, both of whom had lots in George L. Davenport's addition to the City of Rock Island. Armed with the description of the location, land deeds and other information could be located. The Mortier men are listed as working for the Rock Island Lumber Company who is listed as owning a lot in Stickney's Addition. The lumber company may not have been as close to the Mortiers' apparent residences as the newspaper listing may seem to imply. A map would answer that question

The item was located in the digital images of newspapers available on the Library of Congress'  Chronicling America collection. The images are fully searchable although readers are advised of the typical warnings regarding occasional difficulties in OCR in using databases of this type.

Ordering information for the webinar can be found here.