The long-anticipated Family Tree Magazine’s “Top 101 Websites” issue is out now; the September 2013 issue. You may be able to find it at Books-a-Million in Bangor, you can order the paper copy to be home delivered, or you can order the digital issue and download it to your computer or a flash drive or both, once you buy the digital issue you have unlimited downloads.
I always buy the digital issue because then when I read an interesting link, I can just click on it to go there. For example, the first website in the top 101 is American Battlefields Monuments Commission <www.abmc.gov>. I had never heard of this site and was eager to visit it. I just click on the web address and I am taken to the website where I can look at the details of 125,000 American War dead in 24 countries, plus search another 95,000 soldiers commemorated on Tablets of the Missing.
Another top free website is the Bureau of Land Management General Land Office Records, which (so I am told) is now easier to search using a map interface (www.glorecords.blm.gov). Another site I am eager to check out is the Digital Public Library of America (www.dp.la), which links you to the digital image at partner libraries all over the country.
The Top 101 Websites article breaks some of the options into areas of the country, such as the South, the West, etc. It shows you which websites are free and explains what is available from each website listed. If it is a subscription site like Ancestry.com, then it tells you what the cost is for membership.
In addition to the Top Websites, the September issue has some great articles such as researching in Scandinavia, and how to protect your genealogy archives from fire, flood, and other unexpected disasters. There is a reason that Family Tree Magazine is the genealogy magazine I most recommend, because it always has interesting and helpful articles and tries to stay on top of new trends and websites, etc.
There are several options online <www.familytreemag azine.com> if you do not want to travel to try to find a paper copy of the magazine. Online, you can pay per issue or annually to read the issue online, or you can buy the digital issue as I did, so you can load it onto a flash drive and take it with you to any computer. To purchase an issue you can either click on the “SHOP” tab at near the top of the home page and then search for whatever you wish to purchase, or click on the photo of the current issue if that is the issue in which you are interested.
You will need to enter your e-mail address and set up a password, then follow the instructions to enter your credit card info, etc and download the issue. Truly, with 101 websites and all the other great features in this issue of the magazine, you will be happily busy researching for months.
Columnist Nina Brawn of Dover-Foxcroft is a longtime genealogy researcher, speaker and teacher. Reader e-mails are welcome at ninabrawn@gmail.com. Her semimonthly column is sponsored by the Aroostook County Genealogical Society which meets the fourth Monday of the month except in July and December at Cary Medical Center’s Chan Education Center at 6:30 p.m. Guests are always welcome. FMI contact Edwin “J” Bullard at 492-5501.
