Rutland County, VT-General Genealogy Resources

Rutland County, Vermont

VtGenWeb

USGenWeb

General Genealogy Resources

The resources listed on this page are printed material and online and are general in nature, meaning that they are NOT specific to Vermont or to Rutland County, but could help you with ALL of your research. The Rutland County online resources are listed on the Resources page and print resources are listed on the Bibliography page. The sources I have listed here have been particularly helpful to me. If you know of a source not listed here, please let me know.

Print Resources

Genealogy Online for Dummies by Matthew L. Helm and April Leigh Helm
Published by IDG Books Worldwide 313 pages

Idiots Guide to Genealogy

The Weekend Genealogist by Marcia Yannizze Melnyk
Published by Betterway Books 134 pages

Excellent tips and ideas for those of us who cannot research our genealogy full-time (yet)

Online Resources

The USGenWeb Excellent site with a portal to every state in the Union and from there to specific county and/or town sites. Varying degrees of information. You can also directly access the USGenWeb project pages from here

Cyndis List Classic site offering more links than you can imagine relating to genealogy. Excellent place to begin online searches.

GenForum Online query forum. You can search and post by surname, state, (some) county, and (some) countries. There are also special topic forums as well. I have found a great deal of help and information here.

Family Search Genealogy Service The LDS (Mormon) site. A huge amount of information online here. Make sure you read about the different types of data they search. If they have film of records you can order them delivered to the local Family History Center (you can find the location here too) to look at.

Rootsweb Excellent free site with searchable databases to view. A multitude of resources are available here

Ancestry.com Huge bank of databases, some of which can be viewed free. Access to all of their databases requires a membership. There are several types of memberships available depending on what you wish to search and for how long. Good query forum available free here too in the surnames area.

GenBay A little bit different type of genealogy search service. You can search for information on ancestors contained in newspapers, etc. If you find a match you can pay (cost depends on item) to have it shipped to you. This can really help to put ancestors into an historical and societal perspective. Helps to bring flesh and blood life to your ancestors!

NARA: National Archives and Records Administration

Library of Congress: American Memory All Collections Search - enter topic or Vermont town and/or county location to find available online photos, maps and more!

Tips

Writing a good query will help you get more positive matches. This holds true for both query forums and mailing lists. The headline should help people read it. A title such as "Smith Genealogy" on the Smith forum will be passed over by people who are short of time. You don't want anyone who might have information to pass over your query. Much better would be to write "Jonas Smith, Boston 1876-1890" The body of the query should be brief and to the point and contain as much specific information as you have in order to narrow down exactly what information you need. Writing "Need info on Jonas Smith 1876-1890" doesn't narrow it down enough. If you have the information, include it! Information such as location, time-frame, any alternate spellings, spouse, children, sibling and parents names all help other researchers to help you.
Be picky about what data you accept as valid and what data you accept as a clue. There is a huge difference! Verify, verify, verify! If you don't, you might end up spending valuable time and money researching people who are NOT your ancestors. If this does happen to you, keep the information to pass along to someone who is researching that line. Genealogy is about sharing information!
Get and stay organized! Genealogy, even when done online, produces a LOT of paper! There are a number of excellent books and articles about keeping the mountain of data under control and easy to access. Find what works for you with the amount of money, space and time you have available.

If you know of a general genealogy resource or would like to share a tip that you think would benefit other researchers please let me know. Make sure you put the words Rutland County in the subject line to [email protected]. Thanks!