Wow! Have you used this site yet? It’s amazing! I was looking for Death Certificates for ancestors from Plain City, Weber Co., Utah, United States so I checked out the Weber County Health Dept. They only have records from the last 50 years and they cost $16 each! But, they told me that the older records were at the Utah State Archives…and guess what…they have an amazing website!
There are a ton of records online! For Death Certificates they have 1904-1958 indexed online with images. Some older ones are in microfilm, indexed online, but you have to go to the archives to see them…I’ll plan on doing that later. For now, I decided to find all the online images. Here’s how I found 53 Death Certificates in about 1 hour!
Step 1. Generate report. In Roots Magic this is really easy. I created a list of Deaths in Utah between 1904 and 1958. I made sure to include spouses because the female’s Death Certificates are under their married name.
Step 2. Search. In the right menu from the home page select “Research” then “Research Guides”. Choose the link to the Death Index for 1904-1958. You can search by name or Date. The date search was really helpful if the spelling was off. Using these search options I was able to find all but 5 records. I’ll have to do some more digging to see if the names or dates are wrong…or maybe they didn’t die in Utah!
Here’s my search for Anderson, Oscar. His name is actually Oscar Alfred Anderson, but I didn’t know if the middle name would be on the certificate. There he is:
Then select the name and you’ll get to the List of names that match.
Be sure to write down the Entry and Series number for citation purposes. The series for all these records was 81448, but each entry had a different number. I wrote those on my printed report.
Step 3. Download and Name the File. When you select the name from the list you’ll go to the specific document page. I just right-clicked on the image and selected “save link as…” {Note: DO NOT CHOOSE “save image as…” that saves the teeny tiny image on this page. You want to save the BIG image. You could also open the image and save it from there.} I saved mine as “Death Certificate – LastName, FirstName”. That way it was ready to be filed in my source folders.
Step 4. Add to Database and File. At some point I will go through each file and add the information and citations to my database. That will be a longer process. For now, I’ll just add them to my “to file” folder and let them hang out there for a while.
Additional Awesomeness:
At the top of the windows there is a “Name Search” box. If you use this instead you’ll see ALL THE RECORDS for that name! Awesome! In this case I found a Brand book that included Elijah Swainston’s brand for his cattle. Amazing! I’ll have to go back and check that out later.
Finally, here’s what I accomplished in about 1 hour:
That’s right – 53 Death Certificates, one Brand Book page, and 1 citation file (with the basic info so I can cite all these files later, when I’m ready to it later).
I’m really trying to go as digital as possible with my genealogy research, for various reasons. First, it will save a tree. Second, Although its easy to find my hard copy files now that they are organized, I think its faster to search for digital files on my hard drive. Third, I don’t have to keep going back to the original documents and risk damaging them. I can just deal with my digital copy. So, how do I organize them?
First, I use Dropbox. This is great to use because it not only stores all the files on my hard drive (the “My Dropbox” file is under “My Documents”) but also in the “cloud”. This means I can access this file from anywhere in the world if I have internet access. So, I could take my laptop to the Family History Library and add files right into my system from there…awesome!
Also, I can sync it with other computers so it will automatically update when I make changes. For example, I’ve synced my entire dropbox on my laptop. I’ve also shared my genealogy folders with my Mother-in-law so she can look at them too. Okay, lets talk folder structure:
First, create a Genealogy folder. Within that folder create a Database folder, General folder, and Sources folder.
I use my database folder to store backups of my Roots Magic database, Gedcom files I’ve received or created, and reports I’ve created.
I use my general folder for exactly that – general genealogy stuff that isn’t specific to one person or family. So this is where I put my research logs, videos, and info about researching in Brazil and Denmark. Create as many folders as you need – remember, digital folders are free and don’t take up any space (just the documents inside them do).
Now lets talk sources…this is where it gets good.
In my sources folder I create a folder for my tree and Troy’s tree. Within each of those folders I create a folder for each Surname (last name) that appears in the respective family trees. I have a lot more names in Troy’s tree but that is okay. Now let’s take a look at one of those Surname folders.
We have a lot of Lund families in our tree so here’s the Lund surname folder. I’ve named them by last name first then by the husband/wife name. Now, I add any information about these families within the respective folders. Remember from the hard copy filing post to file in the family the doc was created in. For example, my Birth Certificate is in my parent’s folder, but my marriage licence is in my husband and my file…because that took place when we were a new family.
Here’s a look inside Troy’s G-G-grandparents’ folder – Mathias and Pauline Lund. As you can see by the document titles, I can tell exactly what each document is without having to open each one. I’ve chosen to follow the following naming order:
Document Type – Person(s) Name – Date – additional info
That way, all like documents bunch together. Some other folders have picture files, so one way I would name it would be: Photograph – deMacedo, Deolinda – 1983 – s1 or Photograph – deMacedo, Deolinda – 1854 – Identification Card – s2
You could also look at thumbnails of the documents in the file –
As you can see, it is still important to have the name in order to know what you’re looking at. The great thing about this system is that you can find any person’s records quickly and easily. You can also search for items based on the title and find it super fast. Try it for yourself.
In starting my genealogy research journey I have been determined to be organized. I know that the information and amount of paperwork can get overwhelming and I want to not have any problems. Ideally, I should be able to pull out any source material quickly and easily. This requires a really good filing system.
So, here’s what I’ve done. I bought a file box with a lid on it to keep all my genealogy files in. There are two hanging folders, one for Troy’s tree and one for mine. Then, within each hanging folder is a folder for each family. I’ve sorted these alphabetically by husband’s name (last name first), then wife next, including their years because there are some sons with the father’s name. So for example, one label might say:
MILLS, Stephen (1799-1874) m. TRIGG, Sara (1799-1874)
Within each of these manilla folders I can file documents or printouts that relate to that family group (parents and children). I also included a Family Group Record within each file. I’m not sure that I really need that, since I have it all in my database. Plus, I keep adding new things and changing what I know so I would rather not reprint it every time.
Some of what I’ve read and listened to suggests giving each paper within the file a number and adding that to your database. So far, I figure that I can look through one manilla folder without much trouble and find what I want. Maybe as I keep going and collecting more documents I’ll need to do that.
Here’s one question I had: Since I am a child of my father and a wife of my husband, where do I put my own documents? Answer – file the document in the file where the person belongs at the time the document was made.
For example, my birth certificate is filed in my Father’s folder because I was a member of his family when I was born. Anything that happened on or after 9 Aug 2003 (my wedding date) will be filed in my Husband’s folder because now we are a new family. Easy!
How do you keep track of all your papers? Next time I’ll show you what I do with my digital files.
Why, its the study of the Lund's, of course! I am jumping in to researching our family history and seeing where it takes me. We are the Lund's. We come from Lund's, Ranson's, DeMacedo's, Lima's, Anderson's, Warner's, Ferreira's, Da Silva's and beyond! Since my own side of the family is from Brazil, it is quite difficult to track things down. Troy's side, on the other hand, has proven to be much easier. So, I'll be jumping back and forth and all around to learn about where we come from.
Are you related to us? I'd love to learn more about you and share what I know about our common ancestors!
