Genealogy Aids

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Traditional Genealogy

Introduction

• Getting Started
  
  
• Useful CMA Index / Database Facts
  
  
• Guide to Family History Research
  [User guide on family history research produced by Arkansas Research, Inc.]
  
  
• Researching Your Revolutionary War Ancestor
  [Suggestions for sources for Revolutionary War research]
  
  

Traditional Tools & Techniques

• The Name "Colister" (or surname evolution on the Isle of Man)
  [How spelling can evolve over time and location.]
  
  
• The Fate of the 1890 US Population Census by Kellee Blake
  [The story of the 1890 US Census and the fire that destroyed it.]

Reference Works

• Hearth Money Roll for Aghadowey Parish Co., Londonderry, Ireland (circa 1663)
  
  
• McAlisters in the 1850 US Census
  [A list of McAlisters (any spelling) in Alabama, Tennessee, Rhode Island, and Minneosta in the 1850 US Census.]
  
  

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Genetic Genealogy

General

• DNA Testing: A Primer by Cynthia McAlister Bresson
  

Family Tree DNA (FTDNA)

• FTDNA Tools by Jim Brewster, 2020
  
  
• The Fault in Our STRs by Jim Brewster, 2023 (a short, intuitive video explanation of DNA Short Tandem Repeats posted with permission of Jim Brewster)
  
  
• Instructions to Transfer Autosomal DNA Results to FTDNA by Jim Brewster, 2020
  
  
• Adding Matches to Your Tree at FTDNA by Jim Brewster, 2020
  
  

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Online Resources

General

• http://www.clanmacalistersociety.org/
  Clan MacAlister Society: Different than Clan McAlister of America, the CMS is focused on social relationships and support to highland games.
  
  
• https://www.ngsgenealogy.org/
  National Genealogical Society/Federation of Genealogical Societies: The NGS is more than a century old - the first national genealogical organization. In the summer of 2019, NGS and FGS merged.
  
  
• http://www.walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk/
  The Walter Scott Digital Archives: Centre for Research Collections, Edinburgh University Library.
  
  
• https://www.scotland.org/
  Scotland is Now: Scotland's home page.
  
  
• https://www.electricscotland.com/webclans/index.html
  Electric Scotland - Clan List: Scottish and Irish clans and Families.
  
  
• https://www.electricscotland.com/heritage/st_andrew_societies.htm
  Electric Scotland - List of St. Andrews Societies: St. Andrews Societies around the world.
  
  

Ireland

• NEW -> https://www.townlands.ie
  Irish Townlands: Finding the townland of residence is the first step in locating early family records in Ireland. This site has multiple ways to search.
  
  
• astheywere.blogspot.com
  As They Were: The Irish Melting Pot ... research tips, genealogy, transcriptions, including all news from Clare Roots Society ... general Irish news and other items you may otherwise miss.
  
  
• irishdeedsindex.net/index.php
  Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland: The Registry of Deeds is located in Henrietta Street, Dublin, Ireland and is a repository of records of wills, land transactions in Ireland and other deeds from 1709.
  
  The purpose of this project is to provide finding aids for the records held at the Registry of Deeds in Dublin. There are three sets of indexes produced by the project:
  (a) The main index is building a name index for the memorial transcription books held at the Registry of Deeds
  (b) The grantors index consists of transcriptions of the Registry of Deeds' grantors indexes
  (c) The townland index consists of transcriptions of the Registry of Deeds' townland indexes
  
  
• genealogy.torrens.org/BannValley/index.html
  Bann Valley Genealogy: genealogy records of families in the Bann Valley area of Ireland.
  
  
• https://cotyroneireland.com/
  County Tyrone--Public Records Search: public records search tool for Counties Tyrone, Donegal, Londonderry, & Fermanagh genealogy.
  
  
• www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/
  Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht: birth, marriage, and death indexes from 1864 to 1921 for the whole of Ireland (from 1845 for non-Catholic marriages) and from 1922 to 2013 for the Republic of Ireland.
  
  
• www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/
  Irish Census: Irish census by county (1821-1911).
  
  
• irelandxo.com
  Ireland Reaching Out (IrelandXO): a volunteer-based, non-profit initiative to provide people of Irish descent with information regarding the home Parishes/Counties of their forebearers, including people (ancestors and neighbors), history, maps, and significant structures in those locales.
  
  
• magheragenealogy.org/
  The Maghera and District Genealogical & History Society: a cooperative website for amateur genealogists for collecting and sharing genealogical data from the South Derry/Londonderry area of Ireland.
  
  
• www.nationalarchives.ie/genealogy/our-genealogy-website/
  The National Archives of (the Republic of) Ireland Genealogy Website: "National Archives has developed a Genealogy website to facilitate access to digitised collections that are useful to family and local history research."
  
  
• www.logainm.ie/en/
  Placenames Database of Ireland: Type a placename (in Irish or English, including street names) to locate it on a map.
  
  
• www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni
  The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI): the official archive for Northern Ireland.
  
  
• irishdeedsindex.net/deeds_index/name_index.php
  Registry of Deeds Index Project Ireland: an index by name of the Registry of Deeds, which is a repository of records of wills, land transactions in Ireland, and other deeds from 1709-1929.
  
  
• www.rootsireland.ie/
  RootsIreland: data from 34 county genealogy centres on the island of Ireland; the main sources are Irish Catholic and other church records of baptisms, marriages, and deaths.
  
  
• www.ulsterancestry.com/
  UlsterAncestry: Free pages has list of online databases with Ulster records; links connect to PRONI (Public Records Office of Northern Ireland), Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland, others. For interesting historical background, see "Ulster Scots".
  
  
• www.ancestryireland.com/
  Ulster Historical Foundation: designated as Irish Heritage Center for counties Antrim & Down. This organization has been in business for many years and their speciality is finding Ulster ancestors, especially for Yankees. Dr. Brian Trainor (soon-to-be-retired research director) was former director of PRONI. He will be replaced by Dr. William Roulston. I talked with Bill Roulston at a conference 2 or 3 years ago and briefly explained that we were thinking of a McAlister research project; he said if we decided to pursue, we should contact him directly.
  
  

Scotland

• www.freereg.org.uk
  FreeREG: intended to provide free Internet searches of baptism, marriage, and burial records, which have been extracted from parish registers, non-conformist records and other relevant sources in the UK. The recording of baptisms, marriages and burials in parish registers began in England and Wales in 1538 and is separate and distinct from the civil registration process that began in 1837. (The latter is covered by a companion project, FreeBMD.)
  
  
• www.freebmd.org.uk
  FreeBMD: an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records. The recording of baptisms, marriages and burials in parish registers began in England and Wales in 1538 and is separate and distinct from the civil registration process that began in 1837. (The former is covered by a companion project, FreeREG.)
  
  
• www.scottishindexes.com
  Scottish Indexes: a family run business indexing everything from court records to census records and birth records to property records.
  
  
• electricscotland.com
  Scottish Record Society: Various official Scottish records, including Commissariot Records, Burials, Interments, Marriages, Baptisms, Parish Registers, Monumental Inscriptions, Protocol Books, Rolls, Inventories, Family Papers, and other items of interest.
  
  
• www.abdn.ac.uk/emigration/search.html
  The Scottish Emigration Database: "The database seeks to identify patterns of movement from Scottish ports between 1890 and 1960 using information transferred digitally from the passenger manifests of the Board of Trade's Statistical Department."
  
  
• www.clanmacfarlanegenealogy.info/genealogy/TNGWebsite/
  Clan McFarlane Genealogy Database: Clan MacFarlane and associated clans (including McAlister) searchable by surname/first name database.
  
  

Miscellaneous

• www.cyndislist.com/
  Cyndi's List: a comprehensive, categorized, & cross-referenced list of links that point to genealogical research sites online.
  
  
• www.familysearch.org/wiki/en/Main_Page
  LDS FamilySearch Research Wiki: find birth, death, marriage, and census records and other genealogy resources.
  
  
• https://clandonaldqld.org/
  Clan Donald Society of Queensland