Tips for Recovering Records Lost in a Fire



Tips for Recovering Records Lost in a Fire  Find more genealogy blogs at FamilyTree.comWhat would you do if your genealogy research was lost in a fire? People can feel quite devastated when they lose the physical records of their family history. Fortunately, there are things you can do to recover at least some of what you lost.

Use these 3 Tips to recover some of your lost research:

Family Photos
Some of your family photos are probably located online. Start with Facebook. Go through the photos you uploaded onto your profile. Grab a copy of the ones that were lost in the fire. Next, search through the photos that your relatives have posted onto Facebook. You might be able to recover photos of family reunions, birthday parties, and weddings.

Which online genealogy website are you using? The ones that let you create a family tree often allow you to post photos as well. Some of your lost family photos could be safely stored on the genealogy website.

Another option is to ask you relatives to send you digital copies of old family photos. It helps to be specific about exactly what you are looking for. A request to “sent me all the family photos you have” can be overwhelming, especially for relatives that aren’t very tech-savvy.

Family History Research Wiki
FamilySearch allows genealogists to use their resources for free. One of those resources is the Family History Research Wiki It is a search engine that can be used to learn where to find record collections across the world.

There are two ways to use it. One is to use the search engine on that page. Type in the location that your ancestors lived in. Start with a country, a county, a town, or whatever information you have. Another option is to click on their map.

The results are going to give you some helpful hints about where you might be able to obtain copies of the vital records of your ancestors. It will show the availability of the records, the institutions in which the records are stored, and the date that records started being collected.

Google News Archive
The Google News Archive is a collection of digitized copies of old newspapers from a wide variety of locations. They are listed in alphabetical order. Skim the list, or type in the name of the newspaper that you are looking for.

Each newspaper in the archive has a link that will take you to it. Newspapers are good resources for wedding announcements, obituaries, recipe contests, local awards, and sometimes photos of school sports teams.

Didn’t find what you are looking for? Try the Newspaper Archive. It is the worlds largest newspaper archive. It requires a subscription, and offers a 14-day free trial. This resource has more than 400 years of newspapers, from 1607 to today.

Image by Liz West on Flickr.

Related Articles at FamilyTree.com:

* Protect Your Genealogy Research from Disaster

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* Great Chicago Fire

* Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps

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