1920 U.S. Federal Census Index, Ohio East and Ohio West, Deluxe Edition
Review by Amy Johnson Crow, CG

Published by Ancestry.com; 360 West 4800 North; Provo, UT 84604. 2002. CD-ROM. System requirements: Windows 95 or higher; 486/33 processor (Pentium recommended); 16 MB RAM, 15MB hard disk space; 2X CD-ROM; 800x600 monitor resolution; 16-bit color or higher. $49.95 each plus shipping and handling.

This index to the heads of household in 1920 Ohio spans two CDs—Ohio East (with more than 1.1 million entries) and Ohio West (with approximately 940,000 entries). The Deluxe Edition not only gives the index, but also links to the images on Ancestry.com without the user having to subscribe to Ancestry.com's online census images. Although described as a head of household index, testing both CDs revealed entries for people of a different surname living in the household. This is very useful when searching for people living in boarding houses, hotels, or institutions.

For the searches, the CDs use AncestryView 2.0, which is included on the discs and used on several other Ancestry.com CDs. If you do not have it installed already, an install wizard walks you through the installation process.

You can search in one of two ways: the Search Wizard or the Simple Search field on the toolbar. The Search Wizard (found by clicking the Search button or pressing F2) allows you to construct searches on any combination of the following: given name, surname, birth location, age, race, roll #, enumeration district, or page number. Curiously, it does not allow for search by county name. You can search by county if you know the roll number, but that information isn't always readily available.

In some ways, the Simple Search option is more powerful. For example, you can get around the lack of a county field in the Search Wizard by searching for the name in the Simple Search and including the name of the county. I wanted to find all entries for Johnsons living in Ross County, so I entered Johnson Ross in the Simple Search field. There were a few “false” hits, such as F. Ross Johnson living in Union County, but it proved to be an effective way to find the households that I wanted.

The Search Wizard and the Simple Search allow for wildcard searches, using ? to replace one letter and * to replace one or more letters. You can also use the terms “or” and “not.”

Each entry contains the person's name, place of birth, age, race, county, and township, along with the roll, enumeration district, and page number on which that person is found. The results can be viewed either within all of the records in the index or as a list of only the results. You can switch between the two views by clicking View, then checking or unchecking the option “All Records (Records with Results).” You can add notes or highlight any of the entries, which gives you the ability to work your comments directly into the database.

The Deluxe Edition's links to the images on Ancestry.com are simple to use. If you do not already have it on your computer, the first time you click on a link you will be prompted to download the MrSID image viewer. After that, accessing the images from the index is a matter of clicking on the link “View Image Online.” Of course, you need to have your connection to the Internet running for this option to work.

The CDs are straightforward to use. The ability to filter a search by county name within the Search Wizard would have helped its functionality, but researchers with ancestors in Ohio in 1920 should benefit from using this collection.

SAR Patriot Index, Edition III

Review by Shirley Langdon Wilcox, CG, FNGS

Published by Progeny Publishing in collaboration with the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. System Requirements: Windows 95, 98, NT, ME, 2000 or XP; Pentium processor: 32 MB RAM, 10 MB hard disk space; Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4.0 or higher (required for preview and publish to PDF). No other software is required. $39.95. Registered owners of the 1999 Edition can receive an upgrade for $19.95 plus $5 shipping ($10 overseas).

As the title implies, this is the third update of the SAR Patriot Index. This version adds about 112,000 records to the 1999 edition. It is necessary to install the CD, even if you already have Progeny Family Explorer. Simple instructions are on the CD cover. As is currently the norm, there is no published manual, but there is extensive information available if you click on the Help button. Additional questions can be answered by viewing the SAR website.

The CD opens to the “home base” screen that consists of an alphabetical listing of names. Type in the name (surname and/or first name) of interest then click on GO TO. You will see a screen that matches the name you requested. The default screen displays two fields: the individual's name and dates for birth and death. With a click of your mouse, you can change the date field to pin number, spouse, or parents. Patriots are identified by the # symbol. Wildcards can be used to detect other spellings.

To go to the next step, highlight an individual and click on View at the bottom of the screen. The first line of text will be the individual followed by a pin number. Under this are boxes for spouses and children, father and mother, vital record events, and notes. Anytime you want to go back to the alphabetical list, click on Names on the tool bar.

There are other buttons on the toolbar. Clicking on Views will give you the option of four types of charts: ancestor, descendant, hourglass, and bow tie. The Search button allows for a number of interesting options such as searching for a specific place or date. This comes in handy when working with common names as you can narrow the search by including other criteria, such as a state or date (exact, before, or after). Clicking on Family will allow you to choose a standard family group sheet, a kinship report, or an hourglass report. By going to another level, reports can be customized even further. For ancestor reports, your choices are a box chart, fan chart, Ahnentafel, or bow tie chart. Descendant reports can be box charts, outlines, or Register reports. Most of the options allow you to preview the material before printing, but the Ahnentafel and Register reports are output directly to your word processor for further editing and printing.

Although the default is Microsoft WordPad, Progeny Family Explorer also supports Microsoft Word, WordPerfect (DOS and Windows), Microsoft Works, and Lotus Ami Pro. Options such as word wrap are also available. In addition, reports may be sent as GEDCOM exports.

How would you like to see a photo of your patriot ancestor's gravestone? This exciting new feature is available for 800 patriots. For patriots with a tombstone photo, you will see a camera icon to the left of the individual's name on the “home base” screen. This of course is just a small percentage of the patriots included on the CD, but SAR plans to increase the number of photos in future editions. They encourage family historians (you don't have to be an SAR member) to submit either digital or hard copy photos for this project. As tombstones erode over time, this is a wonderful way to save documentation for future generations. Visit the SAR website for details.

Material found on the CD comes from several sources so what you find as you search will vary. If there is only a short lineage of one or two generations, and no dates for spouses or children, that information likely came from the Ancestral Cards index. In such cases, the applicant's name and SAR national and state numbers will be in the Notes section. If there are more generations, the source was probably a lineage application that was abstracted by one of the volunteers.

Sometimes you may find that there are dates but no locations for individuals. Until about 1955, the SAR application form did not ask for event locations. If you find “private” in the date or location field, this is likely a more recent application. For a fee, you can obtain a copy of the application from SAR headquarters that will contain all of the information. In fact, for any interesting find, you will probably want to send for a copy of the application as there should be additional information, including sources. Like all lineage societies, more recent applications abide by stricter standards than older papers. However, you can sometimes find gems on those older papers, so don't write them off as unuseful.

As its title suggests, this CD is only an index. Use it as a guide for additional research and verification.

FamilySearch™ Master Index of CDs 1–45 of the Pedigree Resource File (4 CDs)
Review by Jim Slade

Published by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Minimum System Requirements: Windows 95/98/XP/NT 4.0+, Pentium or equivalent processor, 16 or more MB RAM, 4 MB hard disk space, VGA monitor with 256-color-capable video card, 4x or faster CD-ROM.

The Master Index of CDs 1–45 of the Pedigree Resource File (PRF) differs from previous PRF indexes in that it includes accumulated names from all PRF CDs numbers 1–45 inclusive, whereas prior indexes only included the names that were contained within the specific five CD set that they referenced. Realizing that some readers may not be familiar with the Pedigree Resource File itself, this review of the Index begins with a brief explanation of that database.

The Family History Department of the LDS Church first began publishing the Pedigree Resource File on CD in 1999. The PRF are organized into family groups and pedigrees, similar to the Church's Ancestral File, however there are distinct differences between the PRF and the Ancestral File. Information contained in the PRF is also submitted by individuals, but the PRF displays each submitter's information exactly as it was submitted, rather than combined with others as is done in the Ancestral File. In addition to the name and address of the submitter, any notes and sources are also displayed in the PRF. Once a specific person is found in the PRF, a user can build and print family group, ancestor, or descendants charts for that family. GEDCOM files for the family can be exported for use in your own genealogical database program.

The new Master Index includes the names, CD reference number, and Personal Identification Number (PIN) of all persons included on PRF CDs 1–45 inclusive. The CD reference number guides you to locate the correct PRF CD that contains additional information about that person. If you do not already have the CD that the person is on, you can view the information at any Family History Center or purchase the set of five CDs containing the names you want. Individual CDs are no longer available for purchase. The Master Index is included with the purchase of the set of five PRF CDs 41–45.

The Master Index itself requires four CDs and they are divided alphabetically—A-C, D-J, K-P, Q-Z. The Master Index must be installed separately, regardless of whether the Pedigree Resource File is already installed on your computer or not. Installation is quite simple; only disk 1 of the Master index must be installed.

The Master Index can be searched for a specific person or a surname in general. Filters are available to define the search in such areas as exact spelling, event place, or a date occurring before or after a specified year. When the search is completed, the screen displays a tabulated list of matches displayed with columns for hit number, surname, first name, year, and place of event, as well as number of the CD on which the information can be found.

By clicking at the beginning of the row, you can learn whether or not the PRF CD has additional ancestors, descendants, notes, events, sources, and spouses for that person. It will also give the name of the person who submitted the information. In order to obtain the address of the submitter and to see the other information indicated, it is necessary to view the actual PRF CD that is referenced. Even so, the Master Index gives you sufficient information to help you decide whether or not this entry is one to pursue further on the PRF, and which CD is required.

The Master Index can also be searched on the FamilySearch.org website and will show about the same information as described above. Individual PRF CDs are not available for viewing on the website but can be viewed at a Family History Center or may be purchased for home viewing. Each PRF CD contains more than one million names and is bundled in sets of five CDs including an index CD for that set. Each set sells for $20, including a two-ring binder. The sets can be ordered through the Church's distribution center by telephone at 800–537–5971, or online. The PRF grows at the rate of about 1.2 million names per month and additional CDs will be published as sufficient names are accumulated.

The Pedigree Resource File CDs and Master Index are a great source of information for the genealogist at a reasonable cost. However, as always, caution is advised to evaluate the sources and accuracy of the information provided by other individuals.

U.S. Passenger Lists: Volume 1–New York Version 2.0
Review by George G. Morgan

By E. Wade Hone. Published by Heritage Consulting and Services; P.O. Box 4182; Salt Lake City, UT; 2002. CD-ROM. System Requirements: Windows 95 or greater. 60+ MB of RAM recommended; minimum Pentium II or equivalent for optimal performance. $19.95 plus shipping.

Passenger list research is an inevitable part of most U.S. genealogists' research. It is an essential step in tracing the migration routes and native origins of our ancestors. While there is a massive body of extant ships' passenger lists and manifests, in order to begin researching what is available, it is essential to understand the history of passenger lists in North America, and what was created when and where. There are also peculiarities with the records of specific ports of debarkation, and understanding those nuances can have an important influence on the success of your research.

Heritage Consulting and Services has produced a library of multi-media educational presentations, available on CD-ROM, which address passenger research and other genealogical topics. Each CD addresses a specific area of genealogical research. There are two volumes concerning U. S. Passenger Lists: Volume 1 concentrates on the Port of New York; and Volume 2 focuses on Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. (I successfully ran two of the company's CDs in Windows 98, Windows 2000, and Windows XP.)

Volume 1 provides an excellent one-hour seminar detailing new ways to access and use New York arrival sources to trace immigrant ancestors. Author and presenter E. Wade Hone has developed a series of modules for the CD that provides a solid educational introduction to this area of research. The presentation is a self-running program that displays slides, accompanied by an audio track of spoken instruction, and includes a series of bullets and illustrative graphics. The user can easily navigate forward and backward through the slides, jump back to the menu, or skip to various modules and reference collections.

The first module discusses the evolution of passenger lists, detailing the legislation and procedures that affected these documents over time. This is followed by a detailed module that presents an organized methodology that can be used to effectively locate and use the right indices and other finding aids to locate your ancestor. Since many passenger documents have been indexed using Soundex, Mr. Hone includes a module about the Soundex coding system, how the codes for names are derived, and how a Soundex index is organized. A detailed discussion of New York passenger arrivals and records is included, with digitized examples of actual manifests and discussions of indexes and the availability of documents. Also included, though without an audio track, is a collection of information about other U.S. ports of arrival; a bibliography of additional reference materials (both print and microfilm), sources for colonial/pre-1820 passenger list resources, and links to a few mailing and Web addresses.

U.S. Passenger Lists: Volume 1 provides an excellent self-study education for the beginning passenger list researcher. Use of the CD and referral to the books and other reference materials should get you started in the right direction to locating and accessing ships' passenger records. I look forward to working with the other titles in this CD-ROM series.

Family History Library Catalog (April 2002)
Review by Barbara Schenck

Published by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. Minimum System Requirements: Windows 95/98/XP/NT 4.0+, Pentium or equivalent processor, 8 or more MB RAM, 4 MB hard disk space, VGA monitor with 256-color-capable video card, 4x or faster CD-ROM. $5.00

Where can you get a catalog of more than 2.5 million microforms and 300,000 books for five bucks? Only from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, which has updated its catalog. This CD contains material catalogued through April 2002, and still costs just five dollars.

Of course, you don't even need to spend that much. You can use the catalog at any of the many Family History Centers around the world. You can use the online version on your computer at home whenever you want. So why buy it?

It's convenient. I have a broadband connection and I still find that my online searches are slower than the ones I can do with the CD. Anyone with a dial-up connection or anyone who uses the Internet at the library or cybercafe will find that having their own CD saves time.

It also has features the online version does not. It allows me to mark pages for easy retrieval later. There is a Bookmark tab on the toolbar with which I note any page I find interesting. I can then open a smaller screen and make notes directly below the item. When I print my bookmarks, my notes are printed, too.

If I don't want to save the whole page (if there are, say, 65 reels of microfilm of Edgefield, South Carolina, probate records and I only want to note the film numbers of five of them) I can click on another tab called Copyable Version and cut and paste into my word processing program. Then, armed with my list of film numbers, I can order quickly when I get to my local FHC.

Another useful feature is the history record, which keeps track of pages visited during each session. The View History tab gives me a glimpse of everywhere I've been and allows me to hop back 15 or 20 screens in one jump simply by clicking on it instead of using the back arrow.

The new CD of the Family History Library Catalog has been a nice addition to my genealogical toolbox. I would not, however, encourage any Family History Center to throw out its microfiche version or even the earlier CD version of the catalog. There are searches that are more easily conducted using the fiche.

When I explore records of a new geographical area, putting a fiche in the viewer and scanning it for land records or court records on a state or county level is much quicker than clicking my way through screen after screen.

Also, every now and then, things that used to be accessible aren't there. For some reason, geographical searches done on the old CDs turned up more hits. There doesn't seem to be any particular reason for it. But several researchers at my local FHC have also experienced this.

A colleague who does a lot of Irish research has “lost” material she knows exists because this search engine can't find it or there is no “next” screen to take her to it. While I have not found this common in U.S. research, we have both learned that sometimes we have to hunt up one of the older versions and work from there.

So is the CD worth having? Yes. It's fast. It's convenient. It's affordable. But if you can't find something on it, don't quit looking. The new CD of the Family History Library Catalog doesn't have all the answers—just most of them.

Platting and Graphing of Land Records 2.0
Review by Melinda Shackleford Kashuba, Ph.D

By E. Wade Hone. Published by Heritage Consulting and Services; P.O. Box 4182, Salt Lake City, UT 84110. 2002. CD-ROM. System Requirements: Windows 95 or greater. 60+ MB of RAM recommended. Minimum Pentium II or equivalent for optimal performance. $19.95 plus shipping.

Land records are an important source of information for the researcher, often providing direct and indirect evidence of relationships between individuals named in a record, confirming presence in an area of a particular person at a specific point in time, yielding socioeconomic information about owners, and suggesting other sources for further research.

Many neophyte genealogists think they can stop their land research with the location and acquisition of a copy of a deed. E. Wade Hone, the author/publisher of this CD and author of the acclaimed book Land & Property Research in the United States (Salt Lake City: Ancestry, 1997) begs to differ. During his 60-minute PowerPoint presentation, which includes text, audio, and animated graphics, he lays out many reasons why genealogists should take the next step and graph their ancestor's property holdings to solve genealogical problems. He covers both the township and range system of property location found in federal land states as well as the metes and bounds system found mostly in state lands states and a few federal land states. The material contained on this CD is derived from several chapters found in his previously mentioned book.

Hone has a very clear voice with a slow and deliberate way of speaking that is easy to follow throughout the presentation. The graphics are, for the most part, very clear and well-paced. A few graphics scanned from his book did not display well but will be corrected in the next version of this CD. Even the most “map-phobic” individual feels assurance that plotting property boundaries is not hard at all—surprisingly, it's even fun! The user has control over the presentation with forward, pause, and back buttons located in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. All the viewer has to do is sit back and listen to the presentation and watch the graphics. With the exception of the metes and bounds exercise, the slides automatically advance throughout the lecture.

The lecture is divided into three parts: township and range, metes and bounds, and other related visuals (township plat maps and land ownership maps). As mentioned before, there is an optional directed exercise that allows the viewer to plot a metes and bounds survey. The viewer can jump to any of the three parts of the presentation from the introductory screen to repeat part of the lecture. The only tools needed are a millimeter ruler, protractor, and grid paper (the latter is suggested, but not necessary). The CD contains a link to the Heritage Consulting website where the listener can download a paper copy of a protractor and ruler. This is the only item not contained on the CD. No additional software is needed to run the CD or view the materials. No software is installed on the user's hard drive.

Syllabus material is also available for the user: measurement conversions, meridians (named and depicted on a clear map), helpful addresses, books and websites, and available software for platting and graphing land records is even mentioned. Unfortunately, this material can only be viewed and not printed by the user.

This CD is most valuable to the beginning researcher who has seen a land deed or property description but is unfamiliar with the platting process. The CD is “the next step” beyond purchasing a lecture tape as it contains graphics used to illustrate the lecture and syllabus material. Hone indicated that a 3.0 version should be available in the spring of 2003. This version will completely stand alone (no need to download a protractor from the Internet), and has improved graphics, an enlarged bibliography, and syllabus materials that can be printed out by the user.

The Genealogist's Computer Companion
Review by Barbara Little, CG

By Rhonda R. McClure. Published by Betterway Books; 1507 Dana Avenue; Cincinnati, OH 45207. 2002. 184 pp.; illustrations; glossary; index. $18.99.

According to the blurb on the front cover, The Genealogist's Computer Companion will help you “get the most from the Internet, maximize your genealogy software, blend online research with physical sources” and “preserve documents and photos electronically.” While that sounds like a tall order, the author makes it all seem possible.

History is important to genealogical researchers and the book begins with the history of using computers for genealogical research. Chapter One takes us back to when computer bulletin boards were housed on a single personal computer connected to the world with a phone line and brings us up to the present—with major companies spending big dollars to digitize records and offer them online. Chapter Two, “Understanding Your Computer,” takes us back to the beginning again with a basic discussion of computer terminology, common sense suggestions for purchasing software and hardware, and an explanation of such basic Web concepts as bookmarks and URLs.

Chapter Three ventures beyond the introduction, to what is done with the results of a search—the recording phase. A chart of the various database programs was probably out-of-date the day it was written, between acquisitions, new programs, and the demise of some of the longer-lived genealogy software, but it does provide a beginning point for those who have yet to decide on a program. Recording, however, goes beyond putting the data on paper or into a genealogy database. It includes publishing and a discussion of print, Internet posting, and the latest in genealogical publishing—the multimedia book.

The bulk of the book deals with Internet research, beginning with lists of links and the basics of using search engines. The category of basic genealogical sites, however, does not include a favorite classification—digitized documents—i.e., scanned images of original research material found primarily on large archives or university sites. This type of research source is growing by leaps and bounds. For example, the Library of Virginia has digitized all of its patents and grants, Confederate pension applications, Bible records, and Revolutionary War bounty land files. The Library of Congress has an extensive collection of digitized maps, Washington and Jefferson papers, and other records. Smaller sites with limited collections of letters and other original manuscript material are springing up everywhere. Other sites, such as the Making of America, have used OCR on numerous older, no longer copyrighted, and usually unindexed or poorly indexed books and serial publications presenting them online as fully searchable text. Of course, these web-based resources were not created exclusively for genealogists. Genealogical-engendered material including searchable databases, GEDCOMs, bulletin boards, mailing lists, newsgroups, chat rooms, the IGI, library catalogs, and commercial sites are discussed in some depth.

The final section of the book covers such things as mapping software, organizational utilities, imaging software, and using a scanner, all of which have a rather steep learning curve and are not for the novice user. The appendix includes a list of web-based state vital records, archives and libraries; websites for foreign research; a list of sites with links to library research sources; and a glossary.

Return to the April/May/June 2003 Genealogical Computing Table of Contents.