New Mexico Death Records Index Updated

A group of great volunteers has finished transcribing an index for New Mexico deaths from 1941-1949. An earlier index they previously transcribed covers 1890-1940. For links to both indexes, along with some individual New Mexico county death indexes see:

Online New Mexico Death Records Indexes and Obituaries

Book Reviews: Guides to Ancestry and Rootsweb

Two major aspects of genealogy are finding records and information about your ancestors, and connecting with other people related to you or searching in the same geographic area. The online world can make things easier, but it can also be frustrating. Too much information to sort through? Not enough information? Too hard to find the right things? Two of the major online genealogy websites, Rootsweb and Ancestry, are about connecting with people, and finding information and records. And since they're both very large, sorting through all they contain may seem difficult at times. Two new books have recently been published to help you find things and connect at these two popular websites...

The Official Guide to Rootsweb.com
by Myra Vanderpool Gormley, CG, and Tana Pedersen Lord

This book discusses the major features of the free-to-use Rootsweb genealogy website, including message boards and mailing lists, setting up a website using Rootsweb's Freepages, the Social Security Death Index, and more. The opening chapter has a brief section on searching for things on Rootsweb. There are also brief stories from Rootsweb users scattered throughout the book, describing how Rootsweb helped them find a lost relative or ancestor.

One chapter discusses WorldConnect and even includes a bit of history of the project. WorldConnect allows you to upload your family tree (from a GEDCOM file) to the Internet, and view and search family trees uploaded by other genealogists. Don't know what a GEDCOM is? The book will tell you. It even tells you where to go on Rootsweb to learn how to create one. Really basic. Really easy.

The Official Guide to Ancestry.com
by George G. Morgan

This book provides a nice overview of the major features of Ancestry's website, providing examples and search tips. If you're an Ancestry subscriber you may find some things from reading this book that you perhaps hadn't tried out, such as the Learning Center or their fairly new Database Card Catalog. The Learning Center has articles and tips about a variety of topics to help you learn more about records sources and genealogical resources both inside and outside of Ancestry. The Database Card Catalog helps you search for Ancestry databases by record type, keyword and geographical location. Even if you already knew about some of these features you might find helpful tips about them in this book. Never tried "My Ancestry"? There's a whole chapter on it in the book.

George Morgan has done an excellent job of providing an overview of Ancestry's large collection of genealogy records and resources. He covers many topics, from things like Ancestry's immigration records collection to searching and posting on message boards. It's great for beginners, and in-depth enough for more advanced users. And even if you've used Ancestry for a long time, you just might find some cool feature you didn't already know about.

For information on purchasing either book at Amazon see:

The Official Guide to Ancestry.com

The Official Guide to Rootsweb.com

Or you might try your local bookstore or library.

California Vital Records Indexes Online

Ancestry has recently added indexes for California marriages (1960-1985) and divorces (1966-1984) to their subscription-based collection of online genealogy databases. They also have indexes for California births (1905-1995) and deaths (1940-1997). The California death index is also available in a free version at Rootsweb. For links to these and some other California genealogy indexes see:

Directory of Online California Vital Records Indexes - Birth, Marriage, Divorce and Death Records

Recently Added Online Death Records Indexes

The Online Death Indexes and Records Directory has recently been updated with the following links...

Alabama
- Walker County: Davis Cemetery Burials to 1994 - Dora, Alabama

Arizona
- Arizona Death Records Index 1878-1956 & Birth Index 1887-1931 (update: 1956 added to the death index; 1931 added to the birth index) includes downloadable digitized copies of the death certificates

Colorado
- Jefferson County Cemeteries - includes Mount Lindo Cemetery (near Morrison) and Golden Cemetery (in Golden)

Florida
- Highlands County Obituaries Index - early 1982-mid 2006

Illinois
- Cook County: Wilmette Online Vital Records Indexes - includes a Death Certificate Index 1913-Oct. 1953 and other indexes
- Kankakee County: Kankakee Area Obituaries Index

Indiana
- Hendricks County Obituary Database and Card File from the Plainfield-Guilford Township Public Library
- LaGrange County Index to Death Records 1882-1924

Kansas
- Greenwood County: Records of the J. S. Maben Mortuary, Severy, Kansas 1901-1952
- Wilson County: W.A. Rankin Memorial Library Obituary Index ca. 1870-present (ongoing project)

Kentucky
- Boyd County Cemeteries

Michigan
- Missaukee County Cemeteries
- Wayne County: Assorted Cemetery Listings for Plymouth, Michigan -- includes Civil War Veteran Burials, Old Baptist Cemetery, Presbyterian Cemetery, Riverside Cemetery, Shearer Cemetery
- Wayne County: Plymouth Historical Museum Archives -- includes mortality schedules and funeral home records

New Mexico
- Grant County Death Records and Obituaries

North Carolina
- Craven County Death Index 1914-2005 - also includes births (1914-2005) & marriages (1964-recent)
- Moore County Death Records Index 1987-present - also has indexes for births and marriages

Ohio
- Hamilton County: Walnut Hills Cemetery Burials (Cincinnati)
- Jefferson County: Steubenville Herald-Star Newspaper Obituaries 1987-1999
- Scioto County: Gravestone Inscriptions from Greenlawn Cemetery pre-1900
- Summit County: Akron-Summit County Public Library Genealogy Indexes -- includes: Mount Peace Cemetery Interment Records 1880-1916; Springfield Township Cemetery Transcriptions; Akron Beacon Journal Obituaries Index

Pennsylvania
- Greene County Genealogy Records - includes indexes for births, marriages, obituaries, wills and deaths

Texas
- Denton County: Denton Record-Chronicle Obituary Indexes - Assorted Years (PDF files) also has birth & marriage indexes

Virginia
- Norfolk City - Assorted Cemetery Listings

Canada
See: Online Death Indexes and Records for Canada
- Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics - indexes Births 1864-1877, Marriages 1864-1930, and Deaths 1864-1877 & 1908-1955