Google Chrome  and Mozilla Firefox have a nice feature that allows you to add custom search engines to your browser that can be tied to a short-hand keyword. For example, in both my versions of Firefox and Chrome, I just need to type “w Poland” in my address bar and I will be taken to the “Poland” page on Wikipedia.

Here is how you set that up in both browsers:

Google Chrome

In Chrome, your first step is to click on the “wrench” icon at the top-right and select “Options.”  On the first tab, Basics, there is a section called “Search.” Inside of that section is a button named “Manage Search Engines…” Click on that button.

Once you’re inside the new settings tab, you will see a list of default search engines and then a list of “other” search engines. You will be adding Wikipedia to your “other” list. There are 3 boxes at the bottom of the “other” search engine list. One for Search Engine name, one for the browser keyword, and one to tell the browser how to search.

You can see I already have Wikipedia entered into my list along with some other sites. To add add Wikipedia’s quick search to your browser type these into the 3 boxes:

• In the first box, enter Wikipedia
• In the second box, enter a shorthand keyword you would like to use. I personally use “w”
• In the last box, enter http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%s

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox’s process is, in most cases, much easier. Firefox, by default, comes with the English Wikipedia search engine installed. Though, to enable the keyword, you will need to add it. To do this, click on the drop-down arrow on Firefox’s search box and select “Manage Search Engines…”

Once you have the Search Engine window open, select the “Wikipedia (en)” entry and click “Edit Keyword…”

That opens the “Edit Keyword” window. Inside of that text box, type in your preferred keyword, such as “w”

Hit “Ok” and close the windows. Now when you type “w Poland” or ”w Milwaukee, Wisconsin” into your address bar, you should be taken to the correct Wikipedia page.

If you don’t currenty use either of these browsers, download them and give them a try.

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox

[Pinterest is] a “virtual pinboard.” Creative types often use actual pinboards or corkboards for inspiration on projects, adhering to it magazine clippings and printouts of images, quotations and typography; fabric swatches; cards; and other ephemera. In the business world, it’s more commonly referred to as a “vision board” but contains the same elements. With Pinterest, users – called “pinners” – can organize and “pin” photos of items they find on the Web to various boards on their page.

It may not sound exciting, but it can be pretty addicting like she says in her article. I think, for the genealogy folks, that it can be put to good use for inspiration or even collecting great old photos that you find around the web that you love. I’ve personally pinned some neat ideas for a family tree wall. I see a lot of other people using it (it seems to lean heavily female at the moment) for craft ideas, food ideas, and even fashion ideas. Another fun use is pinning places you’d love to visit or even people that inspire you. Maybe it will create some discussion on the site.

Here is my page if you’d like to browse around. The site looks to be invite-only right now, but I think I can invite you if you’d like. Just leave me a comment on here.

[Photo: AuntyCookie@flickr]

The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (color optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type

Feel free to add extra comments in brackets after each item

Which of these apply to you?

1. Own an Android or Windows tablet or an iPad [not a tablet, but both an Android phone and an iPhone]
2. Use a tablet or iPad for genealogy related purposes
3. Use a Kindle, Nook, or other e-reader for genealogy related purposes [Have a Kindle, but have only read fiction on it so far]
4. Have used Skype or Google Video Chat to for genealogy purposes
5. Have used a camera to capture images in a library/archives/ancestor’s home
6. Use a genealogy software program on your computer to manage your family tree [RootsMagic, mainly]
7. Use multiple genealogy software programs because they each have different functionalities.
8. Have a Twitter account [@brianjz]
9. Tweet daily
10. Have a genealogy blog. [How'd you guess?]
    Read the rest. 

11. Have more than one genealogy blog [Also have the Graveyard Rabbit site and my "Everything" sites.]
12. Have lectured/presented to a genealogy group on a technology topic
13. Currently an active member of Genealogy Wise [I do, but I haven't used it in a long time]
14. Have a Facebook Account
15. Have connected with genealogists via Facebook
16. Maintain a genealogy related Facebook Page
17. Maintain a blog or website for a genealogy society. [I've tried twice to take over the Ashland Co. Wisconsin GenWeb site, but no responses both times. Frustrating.]
18. Have submitted text corrections online to Ancestry, Trove or a similar site
19. Have added content to a Person Page on Fold3 (formerly Footnote)
20. Have registered a domain name [Many, many domain names]
21. Post regularly to Google+
22. Have participated in a genealogy-related Google+ hangout
23. Have a blog listed on Geneabloggers
24. Have a blog listed on Cyndi’s List
25. Have transcribed/indexed records for FamilySearch or a similar project
26. Have converted a family audiotape to digital
27. Have converted a family videotape to digital
28. Have converted family movies pre-dating videotape to digital. [A video taken in the the 1940s, though it was on VHS already, but I cleaned it up.]
29. Own a Flip-Pal or hand-held scanner

30. Can code a webpage in .html
31. Can code a webpage in .html using Notepad (or any other text-only software) [And I'm proud of it..]
32. Can write scripts for your webpage in at least one programming language
33. Can write scripts for your webpage in multiple programming languages
34. Own a smartphone
35. Have a personal subscription to one or more paid genealogy databases
36. Have a local library card that offers you home access to online databases, and you use that access.
37. Use a digital voice recorder to record genealogy lectures
38. Have contributed to a genealogy blog carnival
39. Have hosted a genealogy blog carnival
40. Use an Internet Browser that didn’t come installed on your computer [Mainly Chrome]
41. Have participated in a genealogy webinar
42. Have taken a DNA test for genealogy purposes [Did it first to Genographic Project and then on 23AndMe]
43. Have a personal genealogy website
44. Have found mention of an ancestor in an online newspaper archive
45. Have tweeted during a genealogy lecture
46. Have tweeted during a family reunion
47. Have scanned your hardcopy genealogy files
48. Use an RSS Reader to follow genealogy news and blogs
49. Have uploaded a gedcom file to a site like Geni, MyHeritage or Ancestry
50. Own a netbook
51. Use a computer/tablet/smartphone to take genealogy lecture notes
52. Have a profile on LinkedIn that mentions your genealogy habit
53. Have developed a genealogy software program, app or widget [I put together a jQuery widget on my last theme that pulled info from my family tree.]
54. Have listened to a genealogy podcast online
55. Have downloaded genealogy podcasts for later listening
56. Backup your files to a portable hard drive
57. Have a copy of your genealogy files stored offsite
58. Know about RootsTech
59. Have listened to a BlogTalk radio session about genealogy
60. Use Dropbox, SugarSync or other service to save documents in the cloud [Carbonite]

61. Schedule regular email backups [Don't need to since I am using Gmail, automatically backed up]
62. Have contributed to the FamilySearch Wiki
63. Have scanned and tagged your genealogy photographs [Use Picasa]
64. Have published a genealogy book in an online/digital format [shared with family members]
65. Brought a USB device to a microfilm repository so you could download instead of print.
66. Have a wearable USB device containing important files. (Watch, keychain necklace, etc)
67. Created a map on Google Maps plotting ancestral homes or businesses. [Yes, and it's extremely helpful. Try it.]
68. Recorded the GPS coordinates for a tombstone, or ancestral home
69. Edited the Wikipedia entry for an ancestor, or their kin [I added some info the the Zalewski entry. My site is still listed on it.]
70. Created an entry at FindAGrave for a person
71. Created an entry at FindAGrave for a cemetery
72. Have downloaded a video (for genealogical purposes) from YouTube or other streaming video site using KeepVid.com, or in some other fashion
73. Have transferred a video from a DVR to your computer for genealogical purposes
74. Have participated in a ScanFest
75. Have started a Genealogy-related meme at least one other geneablogger participated in.
76. Have started a Genealogy-related weekly blogging theme other geneabloggers participated in.
77. Have used Photoshop (or other editing software) to ‘clean up’ an old family photo
78. Done digital scrapbooking
79. Printed out a satellite photo from Google Maps of a cemetery, and marked where a tombstone was located on it.
80. Uploaded the MediaWiki software (or TikiWiki, or PhpWiki) to your family website. [My wiki is here.]

I’ve run across a bunch of different history and genealogy related instant streaming options and I thought I’d share them with you. Though, these are not all specifically genealogy-related, some may be about the areas your ancestors once lived. Also, these videos are obviously more related to my ancestry than just general ancestry. If you have a Netflix account, these links should link you right to the video info page. If you don’t have a Netflix account, I will try to find another informational page for you to view. These are only Netflix Instant versions, not DVD by mail versions. There are a lot more if you also count DVD versions, though you’ll need to wait for those. Instant ones you can watch right now. Let’s see the list I can up with.

This is what I found from a pretty quick search. I’m always looking for more good genealogy/historical videos. Do you know of any other good Instant Netflix videos?

Two interesting things about Facebook has come to my attention: Facebook hates busy bloggers and keeps trying to hide us from our fans.

It’s nothing person, but it’s what appears to be happening.  Less than half of my fans are seeing my fan page updates and posts.

That’s right – less than half.

Now, I realize some of them may choose to hide my page for whatever reason.  That I’m ok with – if they choose to do so.  But I don’t much care for Facebook deciding to do it for them.  Thanks to a couple other bloggers, we can do our best to let our readers and fans know so those who want to be kept up-to-date won’t miss so much!

Read the rest over on the site.

Tonight, I went to the FamilySearch website to see what records they may have on Goczałki or Gottschalk, the area of Poland that I’m targeting in my latest research according to a recent post. I actually never got to finding the records since I was sidetracked by a link they had labeled “Free Classes.” I assumed these were classes at the local Family History Library and thought that they may be interesting. It would both get me to one of the libraries and also maybe learn more about how to use them. Instead, these are online classes. The one I picked was Introduction to Polish Research, which was about 53 minutes long. I paid attention for about 23 minutes when she was talking about ship manifests and origin locations. She recommended searching the passenger lists by origin location instead of by name. This way you could find other families that came from the same area. She also mentioned the amazing genealogy search website setup by Steve Morse at stevemorse.org.

I’ve used his site previously to find updated streets and addresses for Milwaukee and also converting the 1930 Census occupation codes. It’s not the prettiest site, but neither is Google. I never really got into the other search tools that he created, so I just started going down each of his passenger list tools pasting Gottschalk into the “Place of Origin” box. Not much luck. I did find Orlowski and Sobieski families, but I don’t have those names in my family tree. Then I got towards the bottom, beyond the Ancestry.com tools, and into a very basic looking one called Germans to America (1850-1897). It sounded too broad, but let’s try it. It came back with four people from Gottschalk, but one caught my eye, Jakob Salewski. The information didn’t give a port of arrival, but it did give an arrival date of 17 Sep 1891 and a ship name, the Rhynland. 1891 was the year of immigration listed on most of Jacob ZALEWSKI’s records. His age is also listed as 28, which calculates to about 1863, which also matches my Jacob.

I searched Ancestry’s immigration database for the keyword “Rhynland” and found one arriving in New York on 17 Sep 1891. Fortunately for me, Ancestry has a lot of New York passenger lists. What is interesting is that I’ve searched over and over for Zalewski, Salewski, and all other variations. I also tried all forms of Jacob and 1891 trying to find him. So, next, I browsed the New York records manually, picking 1891, then September, and then 17. As I had hoped, there was a “Rhynland” entry. I started browsing it manually page-by-page and found Jakob Salewski on page 16 of 19 and it did say he was from Gottschalk. This matches all of the other information I’ve been leaning towards. Interestingly, he is also traveling with two other men from Gottschalk, but they don’t ring a bell and who knows if they went to Milwaukee, also.

17 Sep 1891, Rhynland - Click for larger.

So, my next step (out of many other steps) is to see what records I can get for Goczałki and start digging. What a week.

I was going to try to work my way down their trees, from Frank & Anna and then Jacob & Pauline’s families, and see what I could find using tools from early 20th century newspapers all the way to Facebook. With a few tools at my disposal, I was actually able to get much more information than I thought I would in only a few days.

First, I used Ancestry.com and other basic genealogy sites to get the standard information on the main families including birth dates, death dates, marriages, etc. Once I had these, I could use both the Social Security Death Index and Ancestry’s “Wisconsin Deaths 1959-1997″ index to find exact death dates. This next step only works so well because Google’s New Archive has The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel papers from 1885-2007 for free. It is still one of the most complete archives that I can find in there. Not only do you get all of those dates, but any time before 1995 you get two options since The Milwaukee Journal and The Milwaukee Sentinel didn’t merge until 1995, which is good because a few days are missing here and there.

With the exact death dates, I was able to search through the archives and find obituaries. I had trouble finding a few. The early ones, before like 1940, were sometimes either not listed or they were not scanned very well. Inside of the obituaries, it usually listed living family members and spouses and sometimes you got even more. I was then able to use this to find more information on these descendants, and so on.

I even got very lucky sometimes by just typing the names into Google and hoping for the best. Note on Google searches for people’s names: you will get a ton of spam sites and content farms in your results. These sites just pull info from phone books and throw it all into a pile hoping to sell ads, they’re mostly useless and they spread like wildfire. There is a wonderful extension by Google, called Personal Blocklist, for Google Chrome that allows you to block specific sites from your search results. My recommendation: get it. It not only makes your searches cleaner, but it also helps Google find these sites and remove them from most searches.

I hit a few lucky searches doing this and found some other obituaries that way, moving further down the trees. Once I felt like I was in the generation that was either close to my age or my parents’ age, I then checked Facebook. If the person was found, I usually browsed their friends list for other people that looked familiar. If I was like 90% sure that this was the right person, I would send them a nice message telling them who I was and how they may be related to me. I also said they were free to respond or they could just ignore me if I was off-base or creepy. My first try at this still has not responded, so that lowered my expectations a bit. Though, as my wife said, some older people may not use Facebook a lot and may not even have seen it yet.

I sent a few more in the last few days and fortunately I’ve had 3 positive responses now. One of the people I contacted, I have probably already met before, but I didn’t even think about it. The back story on this is that my grandfather’s cousin (the side of the family I’m working with right now) married my grandmother’s aunt, which is how my grandparents actually met. So, I’m technically related to him on both sides. My grandmother’s family put together family reunions for years when I was growing up and he would’ve been to most of those.

The other two people responded and were very surprised and happy that I decided to contact them. We’re planning to meet/talk more in the future. Hopefully, these meetings will bring in more information and stories. I can’t wait. Have you contacted distant cousins on Facebook with success?

Photo from itchys@Flickr

Anyway, I found that Google had images from the Baltimore American from 1857 to 1902. I had originally gone in to see if they possibly had any information on one infant ZALEWSKI daughter, Elsa, who was on the passenger list but never seen again. I had assumed she died not long after arriving and thought there may be a mention of it. Instead, I ended up seeing that every day the paper would list the comings and goings at the Port of Baltimore. The first paper I browsed was Saturday, November 23, 1889, the day my family arrived. Nothing listed in there. Then I checked the next day, Sunday, November 24, 1889 and found this:

Baltimore American, 24 Nov 1889

The first line on the “Arrived Yesterday” list is the ship the ZALEWSKI family arrived on, the S.S. Weser.

Stmr Weser (Ger). Bruns, from Bremen Nov 6 — 426 passengers and mdse to A. Schumacher & Co.

From what I can find, I think “mdse” stands for “Merchandise.” I’m also pretty sure “Bruns” is the name of the captain as the other entires have similar mentions. There is also a bit about the pilot of the Weser seeing some other ships and giving descriptions of them at the bottom. Though, there is no “new” information from this article, except the exact date the ship left Bremen, it’s very cool to see the actual article from when they arrived in America. It almost makes it more real, if that makes sense.

The only thing I did find in the November 23rd edition of the paper was an ad for the S.S. Weser from their shipping company, Nord Deutscher Lloyd.

Baltimore American, 23 Nov 1889

I think my immigrant ancestors may (or may not) argue that the ships had “splendid Cabin accommodations,” but maybe I’m wrong. I might just have to do some research on “A. SCHUMACHER & CO.” to see what I can find.

I took the survey earlier and it was well-done. I agree with Randy when he says that it’s one of the best he has seen. It should take no longer than 15-20 minutes.

Use this link to visit the survey: Family History Survey

• The Milwaukee Journal from 1884-1995
• Milwaukee Sentinel from 1909-1995
• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from 1995-2007

Screenshot from my great-great-grandfather's obituary.Click to enlarge.

It’s a great collection of news and information from the area. I’ve run across larger obituaries on my great-great-grandfather (shown above), my great-grandmother, and even a story about my great-grandfather during his Police work (3rd section down.)

Since the search and view section is run by Google, it works very well. You can even send a link to somebody pointing to the exact article on the page (as long as Google marked it.)

There is a link on the right that says “Get This Newspaper” but it seems to not go to the correct place. A quick email to JSOnline.com should hopefully clarify that.

Go search JSOnline’s Historical Newspapers.

And if you’re looking for more, it turns out Google has a lot more to choose from.