Roberts Roots & Branches

 Coal miners shopped at the Company Store,  and their purchases were deducted from their paychecks. Source: Wyoming Newspaper Project Rock Springs Miner no. 33 August 28, 1902, page 1     Newspaper Name: Rock Springs Miner     City: Rock Springs     Year: 1902     Month: 08-August     Day: 28     Page: 01

It may be easier than you think "Family history can be a life-changing experience. Learning about your ancestors can bring perspective and understanding to your own life. It only takes a few minutes to learn how to get started. Soon, you'll know the basic steps to begin." FamilySearch.org

Source: Rock Springs Miner no. 36 September 03, 1896, page 2

There are three types of genealogy research 1-- Compiled genealogy --from New.FamilySearch.org, Anectry.com Trees, Family Tree, Ancestral File, IGI, grandma, aunt so-and-so, etc. Information from other NON-ORIGINAL SOURCES. 2-- Generational genealogy --information from previous generations.  Heirlooms and accompanying stories.  Pictures and associated stories.  Verbal and written histories.  SOME ORIGINAL SOURCES. 3-- Original genealogy --information from newspapers, court documents, cemeteries, original vital records, church records and other original documentation.  ORIGINAL SOURCES. It is when these three types of "genealogy" collide that there seems to be problems such as inaccurate information passed from generation to generation or from family to family. An example of this is, when doing a research paper you can go to the Internet and gather all the information you want, but until you do your OWN research tests and gain YOUR OWN results you are...

The 33 documents I found in Iowa in the spring  have exploded to a  grand total of 135! (I am now finished counting as I have done a through search and I will only find a single document here or there along the way in my research journey!) So that means that for each document found in Iowa  I was able to locate four more. It also means that each of the 33 documents cost me about $33 a piece!*  (Hotel, food, and gas!) *(Which is why I get a little irritated when others "steal" my research work!)

Try searching without a surname.   (Use given name, birth place, birth year  and parent's or spouse's given name.)

research trip!  Nope, not somewhere exotic or tropical.  (Our ancestors didn't settle anywhere tropical or exotic!) Wyoming here I come! I need to look up some obituaries, locate some marriage records, and search for some divorce records.  Besides I need a break, and where do I loooove to go by myself--Rock Springs. Where's your favorite get-a-way vacation spot?!?!?  

Try searching Ancestry.com using wildcards.   (*=one or more letters or?=one letter.)

The Western States Marriage Index   can be a very helpful index database.

Back to school ad in 1906 Source: Wyoming Newspaper Project Newspaper Name: Rock Springs Miner City: Rock Springs Year: 1906 Month: 09-September Day: 01 Page: 01

I have been very busy adding information and sources to FamilyTree on FamilySearch.org.  I'm still waiting for the "official" announcement and release of the program to tell you all about it, however, I will tell what a wonderful opportunity it is to re-research  everyone in my database!  FamilySearch.org, ancestry.com, findagrave.com and the western states marriage index are all databases that are being updated every single day.  So, searches done a year ago, need to be redone because there are so many new records searchable and available!  So, adding sources to FamilyTree has forced me to re-research each individual in my database in order to add the sources to the new program. Not only have I been able to locate new released records, I have been able to go further on some of the collateral lines that have been at a dead end.  Putting in the information will hopefully help these other families on their research.  Hopefully, I can tell you all a...

findagrave.com has a wonderful database of grave sites.

 The following is copied from Genealogyintime .com.   I usually hesitate to "copy and paste" such a large portion of information from another site, however, with facts I prefer to "cite my sources"!  I found many of the statistics interesting so, I thought I would share.  So, here are some more interesting facts and figures from genealogyintime.com: (Note:  this is not a complete or exact quote and I have added parenthesis to updated information.) Newest Genealogy Records  From August 2012 US – The 1940 Census indexing project led by FamilySearch.org has now been completed. All 134 million records from the US 1940 census...(are now searchable.)  Here are some interesting facts about this massive indexing project: • According to Ancestry.com, the total number of people counted in the 1940 census was 134, 395,545. This is about 2 million over the official population of the US in 1940 (132,164,569) because the 1940 census included abo...