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Livermore-Amador Genealogical Society
Useful Genealogy Internet Links
Click on one of the topics below
to access helpful and informative internet sites
related to the world of genealogy.
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- Amazon.com On-Line Bookstore
- Search by author, title, and subject. Check lists of best sellers and reviews in many sources. Includes Bibliofind to provide searches for rare and out-of-print books.
- Bookfinder.com
- A site that searches over 40,000 booksellers for new, used, rare and out-of-print books
- Barnes and Noble
- Another large on-line bookstore with many features.
- The Big Link
- A service of BookSearch Inc., finds the rare and out-of-print book using a private database of titles, plus contacts at bookstores and dealers of rare and out-of-print books. It also inspects found items, places them in archival-quality protective jackets, wraps them in kraft paper, and mails them to you.
- ABookSearch.com
- The "Old & Rare Bookstore" of Monterey is on-line, will search for antique volumes as well as appraise collections, libraries, or single books.
- Mines Road Books
- Located in Fremont, specializes in local history.
- MX Book-Finder
- Searches the Web for comparative book prices from on-line booksellers based on author, title, or ISBN number.
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- CalendarHome.com
- Many calendar features available at this site: 10,000 year calendar; year-at-a-glance; calculator for number of years, months, and days between two dates; converter between two types of calendars; printable perpetual calendars; and more.
- Perpetual Calendar
- Simple monthly calendar calculator.
- Time and Date.com
- Features include current calendars; customizable calendars; date finder; days calculator; and more.
- Date Converter
- From MyTrees.com. Calculates birth dates from death dates, converts dates in several different calendars.
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- CIAC Security Web Site
- The Computer Incident Advisory Capability, a site maintained by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, gives official advice about viruses, hoaxes, chain letters and other troublesome Internet problems.
- Hoaxbusters
- The official government listing of virus hoaxes.
- SARC - Virus Encyclopedia
- The Symantec AntiVirus Research Center's comprehensive guide to viruses and hoaxes.
- National Infrastructure Protection Center
- "The National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) serves as a national critical infrastructure threat assessment, warning, vulnerability, and law enforcement investigation and response entity."
- Home Firewall Guide
- "Every computer with an always-on broadband connection (cable, DSL) to the Internet should use anti-virus and personal firewall software for protection from hackers and script kiddies." (Henry Stephen Markus, Seattle, Washington)
- University of Michigan Virusbusters
- A useful site. Contains a readable summary of the latest virus news.
- Norton Anti-Virus Software
- Symantec has anti-virus software, as well as Internet security software.
- McAfee Anti-Virus Software
- McAfee is the second biggest anti-virus software company. Their software is sometimes bundled with new computers.
- Steve Gibson's Security Test Site
- Here you can find some free tools for testing your computer's security.
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- Currency converter
- This includes an interactive calculator which allows you to scroll and select the both currency being converted and the currency into which its being converted. This is the most recent day's conversion. It is very comprehensive.
- Currency converter
- Another choice to compare rates.
- International Currency Express, Inc.
- When you need to send money to foreign countries, you can order a "bank draft" on-line.
- Inflation calculator
- What would your grandfather's estate be worth in today's dollars?
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- Ellis Island Database
- Database of immigrants who came through Ellis Island, New York, from 1892 to 1924.
- Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System
- A database being developed in partnership by the National Park Service, Genealogical Society of Utah, the Federation of Genealogical Societies and others to contain records of every soldier and sailor known to have served in the Civil War on either side.
- Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records
- The U. S. Department of the Interior includes the Bureau of Land Management, which has an excellent database. Updated web site is easier to use. Includes images of title records issued between 1820 and 1908.
- FamilySearch.org Databases
- The censuses for the U.S. (1880), Canada (1881) and Great Britain (1881) are now online. Also includes research aids and a link to the Family History Library Catalog.
- Obituary Daily Times
- An index to over 8.2 million obituaries with 2500 more added every day. Primarily for deaths since 1995. The search engine will find any word in the index, for example, "Pleasanton."
- The Tombstone Transcription Project
- A nationwide effort, hosted by RootsWeb, to document tombstone surveys. The Alameda County page has links to all seven of the L-AGS gravestone inventories.
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- Ancestry World Tree
- This site "contains more than 200 million names in family trees submitted by our users." You can contribute your family tree, also.
- Family Tree Searcher
- Provides access to many family tree web sites with one query. (Editor's note: I had trouble accessing the Active Search page)
- FamilySearch.org Family Tree Files
- Includes the Ancestral File, the Pedigree Resource File, and the International Genealogical Index.
- WorldConnect
- This site has "more than 239 million names on file." You can submit your family tree here also.
- Online Genealogical Database Index
- "Contains links to genealogical databases searchable through the Web. It is limited to searchable databases and does NOT include links to sites devoted to a family unless a database is available for searching."
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- Avotaynu
- From the publisher of works on Jewish genealogy, this site includes information about their journal, books and microfiche available, the Consolidated Jewish Surname Index, and links to other Jewish genealogical sites.
- Federation of East European Family History Societies
- Includes information and links to societies and newsgroups interested in Eastern Europe genealogy and family history.
- German Genealogy Home Page
- Includes beginner's tips, general help, regional research, German emigration to America, and a collection of other links.
- World GenWeb Project
- Similar to the US GenWeb Project, except that it is based on geographical regions and countries of the world.
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- San Francisco Bay Area
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- These are links to genealogical societies in the San Francisco Bay Area and even some from the Sacramento area. Many of them post their activities schedules on their Web pages. By checking these links regularly, L-AGS members may find events they want to attend.
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- San Francisco Bay Area Genealogical Consortium -
- This group's goal is to share and promote information about genealogical events, societies, libraries, archives and projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. However, when this site was checked on 18 May 2003, information about events was two years old and some links to societies and libraries needed updating.
- California State Genealogical Alliance
- The purpose of the Alliance is to provide for the public benefit a statewide organization
- California Genealogical Society -
- Statewide, based in Oakland
- Contra Costa County Genealogical Society -
- Concord
- East Bay Genealogical Society -
- Oakland
- Genealogy Society of Vallejo-Benicia -
- Vallejo
- Marin County Genealogical Society -
- San Rafael
- Napa Valley Genealogical & Biographical Society -
- Napa
- Placer County Genealogical Society -
- Auburn
- Roseville Genealogical Society -
- Roseville
- Sacramento German Genealogical Society -
- Sacramento
- San Joaquin County Genealogical Society -
- Stockton
- San Mateo County Genealogical Society -
- Belmont
- Santa Clara County Historical & Genealogical Society -
- Santa Clara
- Silicon Valley PAF Users Group -
- Santa Clara
- Solano County Genealogical Society -
- Fairfield
- Sonoma County Genealogical Society -
- Santa Rosa
- Tracy Area Genealogical Society -
- Tracy
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- National
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- These are links to national genealogical societies.
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- Federation of Genealogical Societies
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- National Genealogical Society
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- New England Historical and Genealogical Society
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- Cyndi's List
- Excellent place for finding sources of information. Well organized by subject and locality.
- RootsWeb
- This site contains the largest database of surnames on the web, along with lots of other genealogical information.
- U.S. GenWeb Project
- This project is an excellent effort to have genealogy-related information from every county in the United States on the web. The web sites are compiled by volunteers, and much of the country is covered.
- Genealogy.com
- Many links to information for researchers, from beginners to experts. Includes a subscription to many databases they have put on-line.
- Ancestry.Com
- Another site that has information for researchers. Includes many databases, some available for free, some available by subscription.
- The Steve Morse Web Sites
- Steve Morse has developed enhanced search forms for the Ellis Island Database, the 1930 U.S. Census, the 1930 Census Enumeration Districts, and more.
- Genealogy Home Page
- Comprehensive guide to genealogy resources on the Internet. Includes a page listing most of the genealogy newsgroups with links to their FAQs.
- Treasure Maps
- The how-to genealogy site. Includes tutorials on the U.S. Census and the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and links to commercial sites.
- MyTrees.com
- Includes pedigree-linked database, on-line genealogy program, and searchable databases. Must register and subscribe to view records.
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- Daughters of the American Revolution
- Any woman is eligible for membership who is no less than eighteen years of age and can prove lineal, blood line descent from an ancestor who aided in achieving American independence.
- General Society of Mayflower Descendants
- Any person able to document their descent from one or more of the Mayflower Pilgrims is eligible to apply for membership in the Mayflower Society.
- Sons of the American Revolution
- You must have an ancestor who supported the cause of American Independence during the years 1774-1783.
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- California Historical Society
- The state's official historical society.
- Hayward Area Historical Society
- Sharing the history of Castro Valley, Hayward and San Lorenzo.
- Livermore Heritage Guild
- Our local history repository in the old Carnegie Library Building. Contains history and lore of the Livermore Valley.
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- Pleasanton Public Library
- Online catalog for the Pleasanton Library. The catalog includes the L-AGS holdings.
- LDS Family History Library in Salt Lake City
- Search the catalog by Locality, Surname, Call Number, or Author
- Library of Congress Home Page
- Has loads of historical information, archives of manuscripts, and you can search the catalog on-line.
- National Archives
- Repository of many types of records. Order search forms on-line.
- Melvyl Homepage
- This site accesses the University of California library system, including Sutro Library, but it is easier to use the link below to go directly to Sutro.
- Alameda County Library
- Online catalog for branches of the Alameda County Library System.
- Livermore Public Library
- Livermore Library has microfilm of the local newspapers back to the 1890s. Online catalog is available via a link in the drop-down box at the top right of the page.
- Historical Genealogy Department of the Allen County Public Library
- Source of PERSI, the Periodical Source Index - an index of their collection of North American historical and genealogical periodicals. This site includes entry to their catalog.
- Historical Resources in San Francisco by the San Francisco Public Library
- A good outline of genealogical records available in San Francisco is their Research Guide to Vital Records.
- Sutro Library
- Includes other branches of the California State Library.
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- Tesla Coal Mines
- A description and information about the Tesla area of eastern Alameda County, California.
- Local History on eLivermore.com
- Livermore, Pleasanton and Tri-Valley history. Includes Historical Photos; Historical Publications; History Timeline; People in Local History, History on the Web; and Historical Buildings and Sites.
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- Mapquest!
- Interactive site finds places and gives driving directions. For the U.S. and foreign countries.
- Live Search Maps - Microsoft
- An outstanding global mapping with 3D viewing, etc.
- Google Maps
- A very good map program by Google
- Google Earth
- Satellite images and mapping by Google
- Maps On Us
- Yet another choice to find places and driving directions. From Lucent Technologies.
- The Gold Bug
- Located in Alamo, provides historical information and software for genealogical research, academic study, or just to satisfy your curiosity. Includes geographical and map related links.
- Animated Atlas.com - Growth of a Nation
- This is a ten minute movie which depicts the geographic history of the United States from the beginning of the nation to fifty states. Geographic elements are interactive, as is the timeline. Includes a time line of U. S. History.
- 1895 Atlas of the United States
- Scroll down to find the state of your interest, then choose "State Map" or "County Maps." If you don't know the county, use the "Index to Data" link. Great resource of colorful maps to add interest to your genealogy book.
- National Mapping Information
- Maintained by the U.S. Geological Survey, this site houses the Geographic Names Information - put a name into the search engine and it will return information about that place, including the latitude and longitude and the callout of the USGS map on which the name appears. You can then link to a map to pinpoint the location. Other information available here are Educational Resources and the National Mapping Program as well as links to geologic, water, and biological information.
- Color Land Form Atlas of the United States
- An interesting site showing the landforms of a particular state. County lines can be added. Slow to load the images.
- U.S. Gazetteer
- Enter a place name and this site will return a short description, a link to a map site where you can then customize the map to show the routes, boundaries, towns, etc.
- Using Maps in Genealogy
- This is a reprint of a pamphlet from the USGS detailing how maps can help in genealogy research.
- TopoZone - The Web's Topographic Map
- Topographic maps down to scales of 25,000:1 for the entire US.
- Worldwide Directory of Cities and Towns
- Almost 3 million names from every corner of the world.
- NIMA: Geonames Query Home Page
- Database of named features (not just towns) on foreign maps. Maintained by US military.
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- U.S. Postal rates and Zip Code Finder
- Includes rates for mailing to other countries as well as within the United States. Find a Zip Code and other services offered by the US Postal Service.
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- Ancestry Magazine
- Under the "Learning Center" tab, you can search articles in Ancestry Magazine, Genealogical Computing, columns by noted genealogists and research tips from fellow researchers.
- Everton's Family History Magazine
- Has links to the magazine, research helps, internet resources, classes, databases.
- Family Tree Magazine
- Friendly genealogy magazine and web site. Includes articles, how-to's, bookstore and more.
- Heritage Quest
- Search their catalog of books, software and microfilm. The magazine is devoted to assisting genealogists and family historians.
- Helm's Genealogy Toolbox
- Covers topics such as beginner avenues, advanced projects, international efforts, software trends, society news, and newsgroups/mailing lists.
- Newspaper Finder
- Find a newspaper currently being published in any locality worldwide.
- City Directories of the United States of America
- This site will answer these questions: does a directory exist for a locality? If it does, where can it be found?
- The Independent
- Weekly Livermore newspaper published every Thursday.
- The Tri-Valley Herald
- Daily newspaper covering the Livermore, Amador and San Ramon Valleys, and increasingly, the nearby cities of the Central Valley.
- The Valley Times
- Daily newspaper covering the Livermore, Amador and San Ramon Valleys.
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Search engines allow you to find web sites. Each searches different groups of sites and each searches in a different way.
General Search Engines
- MetaCrawler
- This site allows you to look through several of the search engines listed below at the same time. You can easily limit your searches by entering your topic and then choosing "a phrase," "all of these words," or "any of these words."
- Yahoo!
- It is set up with clearly branching subject indexes. You can search within a subject or in all of Yahoo.
- Yahooligans!
- Yahoo for kids! Useful information on many subjects.
- Lycos
- Relevancy rankings often locate sites not listed by other search engines.
- HotBot
- Great for finding people with web pages or in web pages.
- WebCrawler
- Another searching option.
- AlltheWeb.com
- A fast search engine.
- Google
- A fast search engine that finds often-cited links.
- KartOO.com
- "KartOO is a metasearch engine with visual display interfaces. When you click on OK, KartOO launches the query to a set of search engines, gathers the results, compiles them and represents them in a series of interactive maps through a proprietary algorithm. KartOO uses FlashPlayer to draw interactive maps." Very interesting representation of search results - try it, you may like it.
Genealogy Search Engines
- FamilySearch Family History Web Sites
- From the FamilySearch.org web site, enter search terms and choose types of sites to search for.
- Genealogy.com Site Search
- Finds sites with keywords such as names and types of records.
- MultiGen
- Search multiple genealogical databases from this one site.
- SuperSearch from Family Tree Magazine
- Search nine web sites for information.
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- Genealogical Software Report Card
- Compares and ranks various genealogical software programs.
- Louis Kessler's Genealogy Software Links
- A list of genealogy software and genealogy program web sites. He includes a brief subjective opinion about each of them.
- Ancestral Quest by Incline Software.
- Brother's Keeper for Windows by John Steed.
- Family Tree Maker by Broderbund.
- Legacy Family Tree by Millennia Corp. Basic program is a free download. Also has Deluxe Version.
- The Master Genealogist by Wholly Genes.
- Personal Ancestral File by the LDS Church. Click on "Order/Download Products."
- Reunion by Leister Productions for the Macintosh.
- RootsMagic by FormalSoft.
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- Soundex Indexing System
- An explanation of Soundex coding from the National Archives
- Soundex Converter
- If your genealogy program does not have a soundex converter, here is an easy to use converter from RootsWeb.
- Surname to Soundex Converter
- Includes alternative calculator for certain spellings of names.
- Yet Another Soundex Converter
- This site can convert entire lists of surnames all at once.
- MyTrees.com
- Want a list of variant spelling for a surname? Go to this site; click on Ancestry Archives; click on Name Variants; enter name in window that pops up; click "Find Name Variants." A list of variant spellings for that name will appear.
- Soundexing and Genealogy
- Gary Mokotoff's article on soundexing includes the history and his proposed modifications.
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- Name Frequency
- You can find out how popular some names are in the U.S. - first name as well as surnames. Based on the 1990 U.S. Census.
- U.S. Surname Distribution
- Enter a surname and a graphic representation of its distribution in the U.S. appears.
- SurnameHelper
- From RootsWeb, enter a surname to search for in several databases.
- Search Your Surname in the USA
- This is another site which displays the distribution of a surname in the U.S. It uses phone books for its database.
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- InfoSpace - The Ultimate Directory
- The most comprehensive collection of directories on the Web.
- Go Toll Free
- The Internet 800 directory. Includes all toll-free numbers - 800, 888, 866, etc.
- Yahoo! People Search
- Find business or individual e-mail, white page and yellow page information.
- WhoWhere?
- Lycos' phone number and e-mail search.
- AnyWho reverse lookup
- This is a reverse lookup site - enter the telephone number, find the name and address. From AT&T
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- United States Vital Records Information
- Reprint of the booklet "Where to Write for Vital Records Information."
- National Center for Health Statistics - Where to Write for Vital Records
- Another access to individual state and territory information. Includes guidelines to ensure an accurate response to your request.
- VitalChek
- Order birth certificates, copies of death, marriage, and divorce records.
- Social Security Death Index 1962-Present
- Data on more than 68 million Americans who have died since 1962.
- Online Searchable Death Indexes & Records - A Genealogy Guide
- This website gathers together links to online death indexes by state and county. Included are death indexes, obituary indexes, probate indexes and cemetery & burial listings.
- California Vital Records On-line
- California Birth Records
- California birth index from 1905 to 1995. Use the link in the lower right corner of this page.
- California Death Records 1905-1939
- Commercially-posted images of state-published microfiche. Free access through a gauntlet of advertising.
- California Marriage Records 1949-1985
- A new online database, not very user-friendly but the only known Web source for this information.
- California Death Records 1940-1997
- 9 million records of deaths in California from 1940 to 1997. RootsWeb database with highly flexible search capability.
Information about individual state's vital records on-line has been discontinued here due to the increasing number of states with such information. We suggest you use Cyndi's List for information about which states have records on-line.
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04 May 2008, 13:36:17