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Time to Celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage
It's May! While you're enjoying all the blossoming trees and flowers, don't forget to celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. More than 11 million Americans hail from Asian roots, according to the 2000 US census, and many of them are recent immigrants (7.2 million were born in Asia). If you have Asian family roots, or even if you're just curious about Asian contributions to American history, now is a terrific time to visit some of these Web sites, all former Family Tree Magazine Sites of the Day:
· Chineseroots.com
Currently the largest and most comprehensive Chinese genealogy
site.
www.chineseroots.com
· Angel
Island Immigration Station
Experience the "Ellis Island of the West."
www.angelisland.org
· The
Chinese American Museum
Includes a detailed historical overview and timeline.
www.camla.org
· Ancestors
in the Americas
Explore the history and stories of Asian Americans.
www.pbs.org/ancestorsintheamericas/
· Conscience
and the Constitution
Japanese-Americans who refused to be drafted from an American
concentration camp into World War II.
www.pbs.org/conscience/
· A
More Perfect Union: Japanese Americans and the US Constitution
Explores the injustices experienced by Japanese Americans during
World War II.
americanhistory.si.edu/perfectunion/experience
· Center
for Oral History, University of Hawaii at Manoa
Collection of oral histories from native Hawaiians.
www2.soc.hawaii.edu/css/oral_hist
· Hawaiian
Roots
Uncover Hawaiian genealogy.
www.hawaiian-roots.com
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Get Help with FamilySearch Products
Having trouble with your Personal Ancestral
File software? How about navigating those CDs you ordered from
FamilySearch.org last week? Now you have somewhere to turn for
help. FamilySearch has a new Product Support page to answer frequently
asked questions about its genealogy software and CD-ROMs. Questions
are organized by topic, and the page offers common solutions,
local support options and contact information for more in-depth
questions. Get your questions answered at productsupport.familysearch.org.
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Checklist for Finding Scottish Church Records
* Scottish Church Records index. This
source indexes all pre-1855 baptisms and marriages from the parish
registers of the Church of Scotland. It also indexes baptisms
and marriages from some nonconformist registers. The Scottish
Church Records index is available for use at no charge at Family
History Centers in a DOS version on CD. You can also search this
database for a fee on the Scots Origins Web site.
* Old Parochial Registers on microfiche. The microfiche
indexes are arranged by county.
* International Genealogical Index.
* Vital Records Index-British Isles.
* National Burial Register of Scotland. At the time of
this writing, this resource is in progress. In the meantime, to
find burial indexes contact the family history society in the
area where your ancestor lived.
* Computer (parish register) printouts.
* Microfilm of original parish registers of the Church of Scotland.
Learn what records exist by consulting V. Ben Bloxham's, "Key
to the Parochial Registers of Scotland." This book also lists
FHL film numbers, but the numbers listed are for the first filming
(old films) of the registers. Search the Family History Library
Catalog to find the new film numbers for a parish. To search the
FHL Catalog, either search by film number using the old film numbers
or search by place using the name of the parish.
* Look for other records of the Church of Scotland in the
kirk session records inventory (CH 2) on FHL microfiche 6084820.
To find the parish you want, use the index on FHL fiche 6084821.
* If you do not find your ancestor in the records of the Church
of Scotland, use the Statistical Accounts of Scotland on the
Internet at edina.ac.uk/cgi/StatAcc/StatAcc.cgi or Groome's
Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (FHL fiche numbers 6020391-6020411)
to determine the denominations of other churches in the area.
* Consult the Parish and Vital Records List to see which
nonconformist churches have already been extracted and indexed.
Order parish register printouts.
* Search the Family History Library Catalog to see if other
nonconformist records are available on microfilm. Order microfilmed
records.
* Check the inventory of nonconformist records held at
the National Archives of Scotland to see what else is available.
The inventories are on FHL microfiche numbers 6084809 and 6084816-6084819.
The inventory of Roman Catholic Records (RH 21) is on microfilm
1368303.
* If the records for the church you want are not at the Family
History Library or among the holdings of the National Archives
of Scotland, see if the records are still in local custody.
-Excerpted from A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Scottish Ancestors by Linda Jonas and Paul Milner, $19.99. Reprinted here with permission from the publisher, Betterway Books. Available in bookstores or online at www.familytreemagazine.com/store/display.asp?id=70538.
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A New, Comprehensive Look at the Revolutionary War
The story of the American Revolution has been
told in bits and pieces by museums across the United States, but
now a new museum is being planned as the "premier educational,
historical and cultural institution concerning the American Revolution."
The National Park Service and the National Center for the American
Revolution have teamed up to create a place to display the world's
most comprehensive collection of Revolutionary artifacts. Located
at the trailhead of Valley Forge National Historical Park, the
museum will show visitors the events leading up to the Revolution,
the 1777-1778 encampment of Gen. George Washington and the Continental
Army at Valley Forge, and a chronicle of the war itself. The 21-acre
museum complex will be completed in 2005. Visit www.valleyforgemuseum.org
to learn more.
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Take Another Look
A tip from Margaret Blanchard of Auburndale, Fla.:
"I have been researching, or trying to research, my mother's family for several years. She had one brother who seemed to have just appeared at the age of 18. He enlisted and died in World War I. I have had the prayer book he carried during the war for years and never really looked at it. Several days ago I found it again, took a break and read parts of it instead of just putting it back in the drawer. It not only had his full name, but also his unit and branch of service along with his mother's name and address. On the botton of the flyleaf in very small letters were the words 'Lutheran Synod, Carbondale, Illinois.' All those clues that I have never taken the time to look for before!
"Whatever you have that you think is immaterial
may contain something important. Read it again and again until
you find the clues that are hidden there."