My Hubby’s HUBBYs

Clarence Cassler did a good deed for me by photographing several HUBBY graves in the Hull Cemetery in Luther, Boone Co., Iowa. These included the shared headstone for my husband’s 3rd-great-grandparents, John HUBBY, Sr. and wife, Hannah JONES. A unique feature is that on their headstone it reads “born in New York” for Hannah, and “born in Canada” for John. Would that all our ancestors be so considerate as to list their birthplaces on their tombstones!

My Hubby’s HUBBYs

Clarence Cassler did a good deed for me by photographing several HUBBY graves in the Hull Cemetery in Luther, Boone Co., Iowa. These included the shared headstone for my husband’s 3rd-great-grandparents, John HUBBY, Sr. and wife, Hannah JONES. A unique feature is that on their headstone it reads “born in New York” for Hannah, and “born in Canada” for John. Would that all our ancestors be so considerate as to list their birthplaces on their tombstones!

HOEKSTRA – STULP Marriage License and Certificate

My cousin and fellow Hoekstra researcher, Kathy Birnell, sent me a photocopy of the marriage license/certificate of my great-grandfather/her grandfather, John Martin HOEKSTRA and his second wife, Anna STULP. Anna’s brother and sister-in-law witnessed the marriage. She worked as a housekeeper for years for my great-grandparents, and shortly before my great-grandmother, Lillian Fern STRONG, an invalid, passed away, she (Lillian) encouraged John to marry Anna. He did…21 months after her death.

HOEKSTRA – STULP Marriage License and Certificate

My cousin and fellow Hoekstra researcher, Kathy Birnell, sent me a photocopy of the marriage license/certificate of my great-grandfather/her grandfather, John Martin HOEKSTRA and his second wife, Anna STULP. Anna’s brother and sister-in-law witnessed the marriage. She worked as a housekeeper for years for my great-grandparents, and shortly before my great-grandmother, Lillian Fern STRONG, an invalid, passed away, she (Lillian) encouraged John to marry Anna. He did…21 months after her death.

MyHeritage Website

I mentioned that I received my first issue of Internet Genealogy yesterday. There was an article about the My Heritage site written by Lisa A. Alzo, so I decided to take a look…and was I impressed!

The first part is just a fun area: the Face Recognition program. I uploaded up a photo of myself, and received a list of celebrities that are my look-alikes, among which was Annette Bening, Joan Collins, and Jesse McCartney (the last brought forth a few hysterical giggles from my teenagers).

The second part of the site has a free downloadable family tree software program, plus a beta program for creating your own family tree pages online.

I was most impressed with the “Research” portion of the site (accessed through the orange menu bars at the top of the page). It claims to have the “most powerful genealogy search engine on the planet,” and I was not disappointed! I ran some of my more unusual surnames through the search engine, and checked off some of the alternate spellings using the Megadex feature. I got some terrific hits, and discovered many genealogy websites I never knew existed! The one that I think will prove most helpful is Odessa: A German – Russian Genealogical Library. I don’t even have German – Russian ancestry, but my sister’s children do, on their father’s side. I e-mailed a link to the Odessa page to my sister, and I hope that she will be able to break through a lot of brick walls with this resource!

P.S. WhenI originally published this post over at my old blog site,

Cameron left the following comment on December 19, 2006:

This site is really good. I’m not too interested in the face thing, but the database search is a great tool for finding sources you didn’t even know existed. The number of hits this search engine locates is almost overwhelming. It certainly made its way onto my “A” list.

MyHeritage Website

I mentioned that I received my first issue of Internet Genealogy yesterday. There was an article about the My Heritage site written by Lisa A. Alzo, so I decided to take a look…and was I impressed!

The first part is just a fun area: the Face Recognition program. I uploaded up a photo of myself, and received a list of celebrities that are my look-alikes, among which was Annette Bening, Joan Collins, and Jesse McCartney (the last brought forth a few hysterical giggles from my teenagers).

The second part of the site has a free downloadable family tree software program, plus a beta program for creating your own family tree pages online.

I was most impressed with the “Research” portion of the site (accessed through the orange menu bars at the top of the page). It claims to have the “most powerful genealogy search engine on the planet,” and I was not disappointed! I ran some of my more unusual surnames through the search engine, and checked off some of the alternate spellings using the Megadex feature. I got some terrific hits, and discovered many genealogy websites I never knew existed! The one that I think will prove most helpful is Odessa: A German – Russian Genealogical Library. I don’t even have German – Russian ancestry, but my sister’s children do, on their father’s side. I e-mailed a link to the Odessa page to my sister, and I hope that she will be able to break through a lot of brick walls with this resource!

P.S. WhenI originally published this post over at my old blog site,

Cameron left the following comment on December 19, 2006:

This site is really good. I’m not too interested in the face thing, but the database search is a great tool for finding sources you didn’t even know existed. The number of hits this search engine locates is almost overwhelming. It certainly made its way onto my “A” list.

Internet Genealogy Magazine

I received my first issue (January/February 2007) of Internet Genealogy today, which includes a nice article by friend and fellow EWGS member, Donna Potter Phillips about doing a family research project utilizing mainly online sources.

Internet Genealogy is published by the same company that publishes Family Chronicle and History Magazine.

I spent some time on the phone with my sister this evening, discussing some of the articles and links found in the current issue. I had purchased a year’s subscription for both her and my sister-in-law. Genealogy magazine subscriptions make great birthday and Christmas gifts for family and friends!

Internet Genealogy Magazine

I received my first issue (January/February 2007) of Internet Genealogy today, which includes a nice article by friend and fellow EWGS member, Donna Potter Phillips about doing a family research project utilizing mainly online sources.

Internet Genealogy is published by the same company that publishes Family Chronicle and History Magazine.

I spent some time on the phone with my sister this evening, discussing some of the articles and links found in the current issue. I had purchased a year’s subscription for both her and my sister-in-law. Genealogy magazine subscriptions make great birthday and Christmas gifts for family and friends!

Free Access to Subscription Sites during Thanksgiving Weekend

I have heard that there is free access to subscription genealogy websites during Thanksgiving weekend.

Ancestry offers free access to its Immigration Collection until November 30th. They’ve recently added 80.5 million names to the collection, mostly in passenger lists. If you find your ancestor on a passenger list, you may also be lucky enough to find an image of the ship posted. I blogged recently about finding my TON and Van KLINKEN ancestors at Ancestry. They came over on the E.C. Scranton, an image of which is not available. However, there is a drawing of a similar ship available here, along with the history of the Scranton.

Another site that is offering free access is the National Genealogy Society, which has opened up its “Members Only Section” to the public, using the user name member and the password ngspromo. Warning: the site was hit so many times, it was rendered virtually unusable. I sent out an e-mail to the webmaster, and received three very nice e-mails in response, encouraging me to keep trying. I was able to get in for a short period (15 minutes), but the results I got on the searches I made were rather disappointing.

Free Access to Subscription Sites during Thanksgiving Weekend

I have heard that there is free access to subscription genealogy websites during Thanksgiving weekend.

Ancestry offers free access to its Immigration Collection until November 30th. They’ve recently added 80.5 million names to the collection, mostly in passenger lists. If you find your ancestor on a passenger list, you may also be lucky enough to find an image of the ship posted. I blogged recently about finding my TON and Van KLINKEN ancestors at Ancestry. They came over on the E.C. Scranton, an image of which is not available. However, there is a drawing of a similar ship available here, along with the history of the Scranton.

Another site that is offering free access is the National Genealogy Society, which has opened up its “Members Only Section” to the public, using the user name member and the password ngspromo. Warning: the site was hit so many times, it was rendered virtually unusable. I sent out an e-mail to the webmaster, and received three very nice e-mails in response, encouraging me to keep trying. I was able to get in for a short period (15 minutes), but the results I got on the searches I made were rather disappointing.