Get Familiar with Your Ancestral Homeland for Free

If you're over 21, you probably had your last world geography lesson a long time ago. How many details can you remember about countries other your own? For example, I'm from the USA, and I realized I can't name more than half the provinces in neighboring Canada.

There's an easy way to learn about your immigrant ancestors' homeland. Understanding the regions, states, and cities will inform your genealogy research.

How to Use This Free Resource

The FamilySearch Wiki offers a free, easy-to-use guide to the country of your choice. On the Wiki's main page you'll see a map of the world. Start by clicking a continent, then choose a country. I'm going to start with England.

This free genealogy resource makes those overseas homelands seem closer and more familiar.

When I click the continent of Europe, I see an alphabetical list of its countries. I'll click England. Then I see an alphabetical list of all the English counties. Since I'm not sure which county I need, I'll click the country name at the top of the list.

Once you choose a country, you'll see a more detailed map. This map divides the country into its sections. These may be counties, provinces, prefectures, states, regions—it depends on the country. Beneath the maps is a list of the sections, each with a link to more detailed information.

There are people in my family tree from Derbyshire, so I'll start there. The detail page tells me there are 132 parishes in the county. I know this family lived in Spondon. In the list of Derbyshire parishes, I'll go to the letter S and click Spondon.

At this town level, you can find links to document collections, maps, and many references. I like the country map showing all the counties. In my family tree, one English group is from Derbyshire, and another is from Lancashire. Seeing this map, I learn that Derbyshire borders Lancashire. That's quite a coincidence.

When I click the continent of Asia and the country of Japan, I see a list of the 47 prefectures within the eight regions. My husband's ancestors came from Hiroshima, and I see that's in the Chūgoku region. (I didn't know that off the top of my head.) The Japan section of the Wiki doesn't have much detail. But it does have a link to a very detailed Wikipedia page. There I found that Hiroshima is on the island of Honshu, which is where you'll find Mount Fuji.

I have cousins whose Italian ancestors emigrated to Brazil. (See "How to Make the Most of an Intriguing Genealogy Lead".) I'm not at all familiar with the geography of that country. I'll click the South America continent and the country of Brazil on the FamilySearch Wiki. First I see a map breaking down the five regions and 27 states. Did you know Brazil has 27 states? I didn't.

Many of these cousins went to Itapira in São Paulo, but I don't have a feel for where that is on a map. On the FamilySearch Wiki page for Brazil, I'll click the São Paulo state. First I see that the state borders the Atlantic Ocean, and it's pretty far south in the country. When my cousins arrived, the city of São Paulo was a convenient location, populous and not too far from the shore.

The state has tons of municipalities. I'll click the only one I can tie to these cousins: Itapira. This page links to document collections that can be very useful to my research.

It should be fun to look at a more familiar location, like the place where I grew up. (See also "Discover Your Ancestral Hometown's History".) I'll click the North America continent, the United States, New York, and Rockland County. Here I find a list of populated places. It's divided into towns, villages, hamlets, census-designated places, and one ghost town!

They created the ghost town in 1928 by submerging a settlement of 30 houses to create a lake I visited as a kid. I never heard about this before!

The place I lived for most of my school years (age 5–19) is a "census-designated place" that covers only 2.2 square miles. But my old house sits in a village that didn't exist until four years after my family moved away. The information about the village led me to a collection of historical photos that blew my mind.

When I was in school, I used to ride my bike to a beautiful street nearby called Wesley Chapel Road. I brought a camera along and photographed some of my favorite old houses. The village's website features one of those farm houses in a photo. The house dates back to 1896. There's also a 1904 photo of a little house my family passed all the time. It shows a big family standing by the picket fence.

I learned they named one of the main streets nearest my old house, Forshay Road, after W. Spencer Forshay. He established a cigar manufacturing shop there in 1851. I never thought about the area being that old. I can relate to the photo of a snow-covered street near the school where I attended 1st and 2nd grade. It seemed to snow all winter long when I was a kid.

If I can find fun new facts about the place where I grew up, imagine what you can find about the places your ancestors lived.

Whichever country you choose to explore, be sure to look at the right column on the map page. This can contain:

• beginning research tips
• types of records kept
• historical and cultural background
• local research resources, and more.

Where does your genealogy research tell you to explore first?

Get In-Depth Answers to Your Genealogy Questions

Recently I told you about my grandfather's journey to America. First he had to get from Southern Italy to Northern France. There, not in Napoli, he boarded a ship bound for New York. That huge overland distance has puzzled me ever since I found his 1920 ship manifest.

There were about 300 other Southern Italians on the ship with him. That leads me to believe the Red Star Line gave them an incentive, like a deep discount, to come to France to sail. Now I've decided to use my favorite AI search engine, Microsoft Copilot, to help map out his journey.

Using a conversational search engine that cites its sources, you can discover the answers to your burning genealogy questions.

Unlike AI search engines that seem to hallucinate, Copilot cites its sources. That lets you use that source and search further. (Choose the Think Deeper option rather than Quick response.)

Crafting Your Query

Here's what I typed into Copilot:

I'm curious about the types of transportation used in rural Southern Italian towns in 1920. My grandfather traveled a long way to the north of France to sail to America that year. How would he have done that?

The answer confirmed what I thought. The most common methods of travel were walking, riding a horse or mule, or riding in a cart pulled by a horse or mule. Then he would take trains to his port of departure.

Copilot suggested I provide more information for a more specific answer. What was my grandfather's hometown and from which port did he sail? I typed:

My grandfather lived in Colle Sannita, in the Benevento Province. He sailed from Cherbourg, France.

The answers were more specific now. Grandpa would have to walk, ride an animal, or ride in an animal-drawn cart to get to the Benevento train station. He may have ridden the train first to Napoli, then way up north to Genoa or Torino, then to Paris and on to Cherbourg. Wow, does that sound like an ordeal.

The entire trip, before setting sail, may have taken Grandpa about a week. One of the sources Copilot cited is one I used before to form my theory about this trip.

Mapping it Out

I used Google Maps to further imagine Grandpa's journey. To get to the nearest train station in the city of Benevento in 1920, he could walk for almost 8 hours. Or he could walk half that distance to the town of Reino. It's possible that in Reino, he could hire someone to take him in a cart to the Benevento train station. Or, and this is a long shot, he could hire a car or take a bus. On today's roads, that only a half hour drive from Reino to Benevento.

I've been to the Benevento train station, which dates back to 1868. It's large, and from there, Grandpa could have taken a train, or a series of trains, all the way to Cherbourg.

More examples of using Copilot for genealogy:

• How to Use AI to Analyze Family Photos
• Use History to Fill In Your Ancestor's Story
• How to Get Useful Answers to Your Genealogy Questions
• How to Get Useful Answers to Your Genealogy Questions
• The Dangerous Jobs Your Ancestors Endured

Was This Event So Unique?

I wondered if anyone else in my family tree had sailed from Cherbourg. In my Family Tree Maker file, I went to the Places tab and clicked France. Then I chose the Basse-Normandie region, then the Manche department, and then Cherbourg. What a surprise! There were 8 people, including Grandpa, who made a similar journey. Six of them came from Grandpa's town, one came from a bit further north, and one came from Sicily. Even more surprising is that all 8 traveled in 1920.

These 8 people are the tiniest fraction of my family tree. But I'll bet there was one hell of a promotion going on in 1920 to attract them. I'll have to look at some Italian newspapers for that year. How great would it be to find a Red Star Line advertisement to solve this mystery once and for all?

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When you think about your own family tree, what questions do you have that no one in the family can answer? Are there facts that strike you as odd? Is there anything you wish you could talk to someone about? Talk to my friend, Microsoft Copilot. I've seen it give reliable answers to many of my questions—even medical ones.

Keep it in mind when your next mystery comes up.

How Reliable Is Your Family Tree?

When we're new to building a family tree, many of us start entering details known to our closest relatives. Many of those names, dates, and places may be correct. But if you don't have any documents to back up your information, then it's all hearsay. Why should your newfound 3rd cousin believe your tree?

I want each of us to make our family tree as professional as possible. I want your tree to be your legacy. "Oh, she was the cousin who did all that family history research. She did an amazing job!" That's what the relatives will say about you.

These tips will help you make your glorious family tree an ultra-reliable thing of beauty.

My family tree at the moment has a staggering 84,675 people. Are they all my blood relatives? Heck no. But all my ancestors came from small, neighboring towns in Italy. So the connections are endless. For centuries, people in these little towns married someone from their town or the next town. My whopper of a tree pulls these towns together—as far together as the available records allow.

My family tree gives hints to distant cousins and unrelated people who have roots in the same towns as me. I'm thrilled when a stranger finds their relatives in my family tree. But I understand my responsibility, and I take it seriously.

We all have a responsibility to publish verified facts if we have our tree anywhere online. That's why I'm STILL working through the list of people in my tree who need source citations. (See how you can "Catch and Fix Your Missing Source Citations".) After more than a year, I've cut my list of completely unsourced people in half. I don't know if I should be happy or start crying.

Here are a few past articles to inspire you to give "cred" to the people and facts in your family tree.

Provide the Proof and Change Their Minds

As this genealogy hobby grows and spreads, so does misinformation. Find out how these errors get started, what to do about them, and how to avoid making them yourself.

How to Be a Family Tree Myth Buster

In the 1970s my brother was writing a college paper on our family history. Grandpa said his father became an evangelical minister in Italy. That had to be unusual. The only way I was able to confirm this story was in person.

When I visited the children of Grandpa's younger sister in Italy, they told me the story and showed me the chapel. It still exists!

There's no available documentation about my great grandfather's church. But there were documents to prove another bit of family lore—and disprove yet another.

3 Ways to Best Use Family Tree Hints

Online family tree hints can be a big help. But a hint that links to someone else's family tree, and not to any documents, is not a source. It's nothing more than a clue to guide your research.

To make your family tree produce valuable hints for others, be sure you're using hints the right way. These examples will take your research to the next level.

How to Tell if a Hint is Any Good

When you do find those hints, you may see that some are worth pursuing. And if you have enough evidence to know the hint is correct, be ready to expand that search. Find out how to harvest that good hint for all it's worth.

5 Tips to Use When Genealogy Documents Disagree

As you work to provide proof for your facts, you're bound to find "facts" that disagree. These 5 tips will help you make sense of a jumble of data. What can you do if the document that would provide 100% proof is not available? Follow the logic and see which document is the most reliable.

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It's time to get busy. But don't worry. If your family tree isn't massive like mine, this worthwhile project won't take you forever.

These High-Resolution Vital Records Are Free!

I've mentioned the New York City Municipal Archives website a few times in this blog. It's about time I explained how to use this treasure.

I visited the archives at gorgeous 31 Chambers Street in Manhattan a couple of times. Before each trip, I used Ancestry.com to look up vital record certificate numbers for my relatives. The process at the archives was to find the right drawer and microfilm reel you needed to view. Then you scroll through to find your document.

Bring the genealogy treasures of this stunning archive right into your home.

Not long ago, the NYC Municipal Archives granted access to many vital records online for free! I've downloaded hundreds of documents as PDFs. Then I extracted JPG images to place in my family tree. (See my note about this extraction near the end of this article.)

Here's a list of the NYC vital records you can find online:

• Bronx:
  • births: 1872 to 1873, 1876, 1888 to 1891, 1895 to 1909
  • marriages: 1898 to 1937
  • marriage licenses: 1914 to 1931
  • deaths: 1898 to 1948
• Brooklyn:
  • births: 1866 to 1909
  • marriages: 1866 to 1937
  • marriage licenses: 1938 to 1949
  • deaths: 1862 to 1948
• Manhattan:
  • births: 1855, 1857 to 1861, 1863 to 1865, 1866 to 1909
  • marriages: 1866 to 1937
  • marriage licenses: 1908 to 1910, 1938 to 1949
  • deaths: 1866 to 1867, 1871 to 1875, 1920 to 1948
• Queens:
  • births: 1866, 1876, 1883, 1886, 1888 to 1909
  • marriages: 1898 to 1937
  • marriage licenses: 1938 to 1949
  • deaths: 1881 to 1892, 1898 to 1948
• Staten Island:
  • births: 1898 to 1909
  • marriages: 1898 to 1937
  • marriage licenses: 1908 to 1949
  • deaths: 1898 to 1948

Only now do I realize they added marriage licenses this past Spring! I found on Ancestry that my grandparents got their marriage license on 29 Jun 1922, and it was #3410 in the Bronx. Entering that year and certificate number into the form I'm about to explain, I see their 4-page marriage license.

I'm eager to download as many licenses as I can.

Now let's look at two ways you can search the online archives.

Find a Certificate With the Number, Year, and Place

Use your favorite genealogy research site to find the number, year, and NYC borough of the certificate you want. Then go to https://a860-historicalvitalrecords.nyc.gov/search. Near the top of the web page, below the By Certificate Number heading:

• Select the type of certificate (birth, death, or marriage)
• Enter the certificate number (this is a required field)
• Select the borough: Kings (Brooklyn), Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Richmond (Staten Island)
• Enter the year (this is not required, but it helps if you know it)
• Click the Search button

Here's an example you can try. Select Birth Certificate, enter certificate number 5490, choose the Bronx, and enter the year 1905. The result is my grandmother's brother Emilio's birth certificate.

Quick note about the year. I had trouble finding my grandparents 8 Oct 1922 marriage certificate because the city filed it in 1923. If it's late in the year, keep that in mind.

Find a Certificate by Name

If you don't have a certificate number for your search, scroll down the same page to find the By Name heading. In this search area, you have to enter only the Certificate Type and Last Name. You can select a borough and enter a year if you know it.

Here's an example you can try. Choose Death Certificate, enter the last name Saviano, and change the borough to Bronx. Click the Search button.

Every result on that page is my cousin or my cousin's spouse. The same is true if we search for Saviano births in the Bronx. But let's try a search that needs a little more work. This time let's search for any Bronx birth certificates with my maiden name, Iamarino. This gives us a page that says No Results. But we can fine-tune the search from here.

You have two options. (1) Change the Certificate Type, and/or narrow down the Year Range, and/or change the Borough and click the Update button. (2) Below the Update button, remove filters one at a time and see what happens. When I click to remove Birth Certificate as a filter, I get three results:

• My 3rd great uncle Francesco Iamarino's 1937 death certificate.
• My 2nd great uncle Giuseppe Iamarino's 1938 death certificate.
• My 1st cousin twice removed Peter Iamarino's 1920 marriage certificate.

You can see how a less-specific search can yield more results. But if your broad search uses a common last name, you can run into a roadblock. The search results show only the first 100 results. Sometimes that doesn't even get you to the letter C in the alphabetical list. Keep changing the variables until you get what you want.

Image Extraction

I mentioned earlier that I extract JPG images from the PDFs I download. I use a very old copy of Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro that makes image extraction easy. I can open a PDF, go to the File menu and choose Export, Image, JPEG. This gives me wonderful high-resolution images.

But most of you won't have Adobe Acrobat Pro. So I found instructions for exporting images using the free Acrobat Reader. Scroll down this page to see the 9 steps.

I hope this resource helps you locate the NYC members of your family tree.

And speaking of vital records:

• Family Mystery Solved! Two Lost Boys Found
• 3 Types of Bonus Details on Italian Vital Records
• Family Tree Research Takes Time to Bear Fruit

Your Immigrant Ancestor's Ship Has a Story to Tell

Years ago I downloaded old photos of five ships that brought my relatives to America. I remember these photos being easier to find back then. Last weekend, I was thinking about the ships that carried my grandfathers' to New York. Was there more to learn about their emigrations?

The RMS Lapland

I don't know why Grandpa Iamarino didn't sail out of Naples. Everyone else from his Southern Italian town did. He traveled way up to the northern coast of France and sailed from Cherbourg. That's an 18-hour train ride today! I had a photo of his ship, the Lapland, but a little research told me more.

No matter how many genealogy facts you find on your immigrant ancestor's ship manifest, there's something else you need to search for. And it can enrich your family tree.

The Lapland belonged to the Red Star Line based in Antwerp, Belgium. The majority of the ship's passengers in November 1920 boarded the ship in Antwerp. Most of them came from Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. The ship made one more stop in Cherbourg, France, before heading to New York Harbor. About 300 Italians boarded the ship in Cherbourg, including Grandpa Iamarino.

Why did these 300 Italians sail from Cherbourg instead of Naples? I found an American whose German ancestor sailed from Cherbourg. He learned at a museum in Cherbourg that the shipping companies had to compete for customers. With a price war going on, the cheap fare from Cherbourg could have been worth the long train journey. The Red Star Line may even have covered the train fare.

The SS Caserta

My Grandpa Leone lived one town away from Grandpa Iamarino and sailed to New York twice. I realized I didn't have a photo of either of his ships. He first came to New York in 1914 with permission from his local draft board. Military registration and service were mandatory in Italy when a man turned 20 years old. Grandpa Leone registered in 1911, served, and suffered an injury in 1912. In 2018 I photographed his military record in the archives at Benevento to get these details.

I searched online for a photo of the SS Caserta, and I searched Wikipedia to learn about the ship. This one ship had four different names in its 24-year existence. The Bucknall Line shipping company launched her in 1904. They sold her to the Lloyd Italiano shipping line in 1905. My grandfather sailed on her in 1915 as the SS Caserta. The Navigazione Generale Italiana shipping company took possession of the ship in 1918. During World War I, the Caserta served as a troopship, carrying U.S. troops to France.

Part of the Caserta's history seems to fill in a blank in Grandpa Leone's story. His immigration record tells me he returned to Italy to fight in World War I in August 1915. Since we don't have outgoing U.S. ship manifests available, I don't know which ship took him back to Italy. I found out the Caserta and other ships carried Italian Army "reservists" back to Naples.

Were these Italian men feeling patriotic? Or did their government track them down in the States? Grandpa Leone went back to Italy, fought, got captured, and spent a solid year in a prison camp in Austria. After he recovered, the Italian government paid for him, and many other men, to sail to America if they wished.

The USS Henry R. Mallory

At first I thought it was a mistake, but the ship Grandpa Leone took back to New York in early 1920 had belonged to the U.S. Navy. The USS Henry R. Mallory served as a military transport ship during both World War I and II. Between wars, the Mallory Lines shipping company operated the ship.

The Italians on board with my grandfather have a rubber stamp beside their name on the ship manifest. The stamp says "RES. USA. RET." I have read that the Italian government paid for the passage of its military members. But I see entire families with the rubber stamp, which I interpret as "Reserved. USA. Returnee."

On closer look, I see that many men on Grandpa Leone's page have "reservist" (not Italian) in the language column. On the previous page, someone penciled in "Reservist" at the top of the column. Then they added ditto marks all the way down the list.

They must all be Italian Army soldiers and some of their family members. The Italian government would have reserved and paid for their passage.

Now It's Your Turn

Take another look at the ship manifests for your closest immigrant ancestors. Take note of the name of the ship and the year. Now search online for both a photo and some history of the ship. It can help your search if you put SS in front of the ship name. What can you learn about your ancestor's passage, and what other research will that lead to?

How to Decipher a Hard-to-Read Cause of Death

It's more than a cliché that doctors have bad handwriting. It's a genuine problem for anyone building their family tree. When you get to the "cause of death" section of a death certificate, the medical term can seem impossible to read. And it's not as if we're all familiar with medical terms.

But someone else may have written a number in that section. You can read the number, right?

There is a simple tool to help you decipher a cause of death on an official death certificate. A company in the UK called Wolfbane Cybernetic Ltd. has published the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) decoder online.

Here's how you can use it:

1. Find a number written in the cause of death section of a death certificate.
2. Consult the Wolfbane website and click the link for the current ICD at the time of death.
3. Find the number from the death certificate to see the cause of death.
4. If it's a medical term that's unfamiliar to you, Google it.

Let's look at a few examples to make this process easy to use.

When the cause of death is too hard to read on a death certificate, there is one clue, and one website, that makes it clear.

1937 Cause of Death Example

James M. Williams (born Gennaro Muollo) was a 59-year-old retired railroad foreman. He died at home in Pennsylvania on 29 Jun 1937. The family began calling themselves Williams because Muollo is hard to pronounce.

The cause of death on Gennaro's death certificate is hard to read. The first word looks like Encephalitis, but I can't make out the second word.

The good news is, there's also a number written there: 17. On the Wolfbane page I click the link for the most recent ICD as of 1937. I scroll down to find the number 17 and it says "Encephalitis lethargica".

I had to stare at the death certificate a long time before I could spot "lethargica" in that one mystery word. But that's what it says! Next I searched for a definition of "Encephalitis lethargica". I learned this was a neurological syndrome that began in Europe 20 years earlier. At the time, doctors thought it had a connection to the Spanish flu. But today, it's still unknown what caused this epidemic. Cases showed it could take a short time, or even years, for symptoms to develop in the patient.

All-in-all, poor Gennaro died an unpleasant death.

1953 Cause of Death Example

The cause of death on Pietro Pozzuto's Pennsylvania death certificate is typewritten. It says Cirrhosis of the liver. But this is a less straightforward example of an ICD number, so let's take a look.

The number used on Pietro's 1953 death certificate is 5810. The Wolfbane website has several links for ICD codes as of 1948. (The next update was in 1955.) I clicked the link labeled "4-digit codes" and searched the page for 5810.

What I found leads me to believe whoever wrote 5810 meant to write 581.0. The number 581 is Cirrhosis of liver, while 581.0 is for Cirrhosis of liver without mention of alcoholism. There's also a 581.1 which is Cirrhosis of liver with alcoholism.

An online search confirmed that you can get Cirrhosis of the liver other than from alcohol abuse. Because of this distinction, I can conclude that Pietro did not drink himself to death.

1959 Cause of Death Example

The doctor printed the cause of death on Antonio Coratto's 1959 death certificate. I can read it, but let's look at the ICD number for verification.

The ICD number is 331X. On the Wolfbane site, I clicked the link for 3-digit codes in effect as of 1955. Number 331 is Cerebral haemorrhage. Whoever wrote 331X may have used the X to signify there was no extension—no 331.1 or 331.2.

It's clear to me the immediate cause of death says cerebral vascular hemorrhage. It also says that's due to arteriosclerosis generalized. If that had been hard to read, the ICD number would have made it plain.

And speaking of death certificates:

• How to Find State-Specific Death Indexes and Records
• 27 Key Facts to Extract From a Death Certificate
• A Startling Family Tree Discovery

In my own collection of downloaded U.S. death certificates, most have an easy-to-read cause of death. The first example in this article is the only one that had stumped me. I do have many New York City death certificates, but the majority have no code number on them. I did find one example to share.

1909 Cause of Death Example

Marietta Piacquadio was a baby aged one year and four months who died in the Bronx, New York. There are two causes of death, and one word is eluding me. This death certificate has a code number 105 written on it.

In the ICD that was current in 1909, code 105 has 8 variations labeled 105A through 105H. There is no letter on the death certificate. The descriptions for 105A through 105H all say "age over 2 years", but Marietta was under 2 years old.

These descriptions include enteritis, gastro-enteritis, dyspepsia, colic, ulceration of intestines, and duodenal ulcer.

They wrote the 105 next to the second cause of death, which I can read as Acute Entero-Colitis. That checks out. But the primary cause of death is Cardiac something. There's nothing in the 1909 ICD list with the word cardiac; only carditis. None of those match what I see on the death certificate.

My best guess is that it says Cardiac Asthema. I looked up that phrase and found nothing with that spelling (asthema). I did find Cardiac Asthma, which is a fluid buildup in the lungs. That doesn't seem like it's related to acute entero-colitis, so all I know is this was a very sick baby.

I hope the Wolfbane list of ICD codes will help you solve some mysteries in your family tree. Be sure to add it to your genealogy bookmarks.