Sometimes you will have to refer to maps and/or gazetteers of earlier or subsequent periods to fine-tune the date of a change. You can also search the Web and/or you can refer to the excellent reference book, Red Book: American State, County, and Town Source. The sheer number of boundary and name changes throughout history makes your study of geography and mastery of geopolitical research essential.

You can get a distinct feel for what the location was like at a specific point in time. Where was it located? What was its population at a certain time? What type of place was it? (Banking and post references, in this gazetteer, indicate that it was a local financial center and sustained a post office of some sort. Sometimes the major industry or agricultural crop(s) are listed.) What transportation links were there? Railroads, river transportation, or some other mode?

Be sure to read the introduction or preface to all the maps and gazetteers you use. They will often set the stage for the content, the pronunciations, the currency of the information, the inclusion or omission of certain data, and abbreviations. Lippincott's Gazetteer contains all of these items and more. In fact, the appendices include "A Conspectus of the Thirteenth Census." This includes data from the 1910 census, as well as comparative information with the 1900 census.) While this is, indeed, a world gazetteer, these appendices focus on the United States. The publisher, J.B. Lippincott Company, was based in Philadelphia and London; the book is copyrighted in 1905 and in 1911. The reason for this is that the original version of the book was published in 1905, but the gazetteer was so successful that another edition, containing the 1910 U.S. census data, was compiled and published.

Make a point of locating a good gazetteer such as this one, become familiar with how to use it, and then come back to it often. I personally own printed, hardbound gazetteers of the U.S., the United Kingdom and Ireland, Canada, and Germany. I refer to them constantly, and my personal research would be lacking without them.

There are many more gazetteers available at Ancestry as well. A search of the Card Catalog for the keyword "gazetteer" results in 130 hits. However, the addition of Lippincott's Gazetteer of the World, 1913, is now a new, centralized, online favorite database for me. I've already spent hours browsing through its digitized page images. You will too!

Listen to The Genealogy Guys Podcast each week for fun, entertaining, and informative genealogy discussions. George's new book, The Official Guide to Ancestry.com, is now available from his company's website, Aha! Seminars, Inc. and is personally autographed by the author.

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by Sherry Irvine, CG, FSA Scot

It's July and many people are on holiday. We all expect to have a summer break but unless our ancestors were better off, holidays were impossible and even short excursions were unlikely. Change came slowly and it was a long time before the laboring classes enjoyed holidays or weekend breaks. There needed to be three things: shorter working hours, cheap transportation, and some guaranteed days off.

The wealthy have always enjoyed travel; the Grand Tour of Europe was undertaken by most wealthy young Englishmen, a way to acquire the knowledge of art and antiquities that was more or less required of them. As the middle class in England grew, so the interest in travel spread amongst the population and many spots, especially the Lake District and seaside towns, became popular.

The Lake District was popular because artists like J.M.W. Turner had painted it and Wordsworth had written poetry about it. Seaside towns were good for one's health as well as beautiful and economical. A widowed ancestor of mine, forced to live on a more limited income went to Dawlish in Devon in 1826. Here is what the topographer Samuel Lewis said about Dawlish in 1831:

It was an inconsiderable fishing town prior to 1790, about which time the salubrity of its air, the pleasantness of its situation, and the beauty of its environs, made it the resort of invalids, for whose accommodation preparations were progressively made, in proportion to the increase of the visitors, and it is now a fashionable watering- place.
(Topographical Dictionary of England by Samuel Lewis, 1831)

In North America, as towns and cities grew, holiday travel was also enjoyed by more and more people. People came to tour the United States and Canada, and some of our ancestors went home for visits. I have found one direct and three collateral ancestors, settled in Canada, who were caught by English records when they were staying with relations.

Genealogical Value
Most genealogists tell me they are interested in the lifestyles of their ancestors. Leisure and travel for pleasure were aspects of their lives and, as my opening paragraphs suggest, knowing more about them can assist your research.

Do you know whether your laboring ancestors got a break from work? Their occupations are one clue, the time period is another. For many laborers in Britain the Bank Holidays Act of 1871 made the difference. Four days in the year, Easter Monday, Whit Monday (Whit Sunday is also known as Pentecost and comes seven weeks after Easter), the first Monday in August, and the day following Christmas Day were declared to be public holidays.

More than interesting background, knowledge of holiday travel can be valuable to your research. It was difficult work locating my widowed ancestor in Dawlish and I wondered why she went there. First, I found out about its beauty and healthy air, and then I decided she may have moved there, all the way from Scotland, because other family members lived in the vicinity. My research expanded to other branches of the family and I learned a great deal more about the people close to this fourth great-grandmother and tracked her through another decade.

As for my Canadian ancestors visiting England and Scotland, I now regularly check the UK census records at Ancestry for visiting kin in Britain, and I have expanded this to include the United States for lines that came from there into Canada.

Finding Travel Books Online
The idea for this article came to me while I was on a holiday trip. When I got home the first thing I did was check out two old travel guides on my bookshelf, but I wondered how many I could find online. I searched three ways, using Google Books, checking what's in the Ancestry collection, and looking at library and local government websites of holiday towns. I had better success with the first two; library and local government sites varied, some had galleries of old pictures or articles on local history. It is easiest to find old travel books for sale.

Here are two examples of old tourist literature available at Ancestry:

Disturnell, John. A trip through the lakes of North America: embracing a full description of the St. Lawrence River, together with all the principal places on its banks, from its source to its mouth: commerce of the lakes, etc., forming altogether a complete guide for the pleasure traveler and emigrant. New York: J. Disturnell, 1857. (at Ancestry)

Speight, Harry,. Lower Wharfedale: being a complete account of the history, antiquities and scenery of the picturesque valley of the Wharfe. London: E. Stock, 1902. (at Ancestry)

Conclusion
I enjoy old tourist guides. These are first hand accounts by and for people at the time my ancestors were alive. Old guidebooks provide a different perspective compared to gazetteers and topographical dictionaries and they include maps, some of which are quite different from those I usually consult to aid my research. Not only do they offer an enjoyable summer diversion, but knowing a bit more about the leisure time of your ancestors could add a valuable dimension to your research.

AWJ Editor's Note: Today's image in the HTML version of the newsletter is a bathing cove in Dawlish, England. (There are actually seven images of Dawlish available at Ancestry.) Check out the Library of Congress Photo Collection, 1840-2000 at Ancestry and the Library of Congress Photochrom Print Collection: Germany, Austria, & Switzerland, 1890-1910 at Ancestry. You may find a view of your ancestor's favorite holiday retreat!

Sherry Irvine, CGRS, FSA Scot, is an author, teacher, and lecturer specializing in English, Scottish, and Irish family history. She is the author of Your English Ancestry (2d ed., 1998) and Scottish Ancestry (2003), and she is a contributor to several publications. Since 1996, she has been a study tour leader, course coordinator, and instructor for the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research at Samford University. Recently she served a two-year term as president of the Association of Professional Genealogists.

Online Classes
Sherry Irvine has teamed up with Helen Osborn for a new series of online courses. For more information, visit PharosTutors.com.

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The following items were posted to the 24/7 Family History Circle blog over the past week:

• British Army WWI Pension Records, 1914-1920: Surnames C-Z Now Available
• Ancestry Launches Largest Online Collection of Records Documenting Australia's Convicted "Founding Fathers"
• Photo Corner

When the early colonists came to America, they were braving a new world, with new wonders and difficulties. Family historians beginning the search for their ancestors from this period run into a similar adventure, as research in the colonial period presents a number of exciting challenges genealogists may not have experienced before.

Researching Your Colonial New England Ancestors leads genealogists to a time when their forebears were under the rule of the English crown, blazing their way in that uncharted territory. Patricia Law Hatcher, FASG, provides a rich image of the world in which those ancestors lived, and details the records they left behind. With this book in hand, family historians will be ready to embark on a journey of their own, into the unexplored lines of their colonial past.

Researching Your Colonial New England Ancestors is available in the Ancestry Store.

Today's image (in the upper, right-hand corner of this newsletter) is from the Library of Congress Photo Collection, 1840-2000 at Ancestry.

Bathing cove, Dawlish, England, ca. 1890-1900
(Detroit Publishing Company, 1905)

from Michael John Neill

Remember that "official" does not always mean accurate. My grandmother's 1910 birth certificate (which I believe to be accurate) provides a different place of birth for her than those given on her marriage license and death certificate. One would give more credence to the birth certificate as in this case it is the most contemporary record of her birth in existence.

Delayed birth certificates, while official documents, can still be incorrect. In one instance, these documents were filled out by a mother who provided the wrong date of birth for her child. In this case my "proof" that it was wrong consisted of the fact that the date was different from the one listed on the christening record and the fact that the mother apparently mixed up this daughter's date of birth with that of another child.

Even investigators can make mistakes. A postal investigator looking into a relative in 1900 indicated that the relative was born in Kansas. Virtually every other available document on the relative in question indicated he was born in Illinois. The investigator reasonably concluded the relative was born where he had lived since he was approximately ten years old.

It always pays to obtain multiple sources whenever possible and to compare. One document can easily be wrong and lead you down the wrong research path.

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Ladies' Indispensable Assistant
I recently came across a book that is amusing, interesting, and informative all at the same time. Last year my wife and I arrived early at a local charity dinner theater. The hostess directed us to a waiting area with a couch and a coffee table with a few books on it. My wife picked up a small black bound book and began flipping through the pages. It took only a page or two for her to realize that this was a find. The book she picked up was a reprint of the Ladies' Indispensable Assistant, Being a Companion for the Sister, Mother and Wife, originally published in 1852.

The section entitled "Family Physician" is a list of information, cures, and treatments for a plethora of sicknesses or maladies that might befall a family in the mid-1800s.

For example, "Dropsy of the Head. Take considerable blood from the temples by leeches, give powerful cathartics, shave the head and apply to it ice in bladders, apply mustard to the feet and inside of the thighs, and make the diet light, mostly of barley. This is about all that can be done."

We also have decided that flannel must be a cure-all for most ailments because it says many times to clothe the child in flannel as part of the treatment.

There is also information on "Etiquette for Ladies and Gentlemen," recipes, and other important instructions.

Though we did receive a chuckle, this book is a look back at how far medicine and home health care has come (or maybe not). Either way it is an eye opener as to the thinking and ideas in the 1800s. Reprints and be found on Amazon or eBay but there are some original copies out there if you're into collecting antiques.

Randy Bonds

Spelling of Surnames
My understanding has been that state records are supposed to be the most accurate and legitimate records to consider while doing genealogical research. However, my father was born in Cicero, Illinois, to Polish parents and was delivered by a midwife who apparently knew no Polish whatsoever. When I finally managed to track down his state birth certificate, I realized this English-speaking midwife had filled in all the information about his birth as it sounded phonetically to an English speaker! Consequently, nothing-- not even the surname--was even close to accurate!

Thankfully, my grandparents were Polish and Catholic and living in what was then a Polish neighborhood. I found accurate information from my father's baptismal records at the Catholic church where he was baptized. Those people obviously all spoke Polish and understood my grandparents (whom I never had the privilege of knowing). It was there that I learned the correct Polish spelling of our surname, and found to my surprise that my father had simplified it somewhat as an adult. In this case, the church, not state, was more accurate and of more help to me.

Christine Ceszyk (original Polish spelling: Czeszyk) Eckhardt

Rochester Ephemera Online
I enjoyed your article about the Tobins. I too have a Rochester, New York, connection. Recently, someone gave me the address for a website for some old postcards and newspapers, including the Rochester Democrat Chronicle. It has been quite helpful to me. I fortunately have many ancestors from Rochester and have found quite a few articles from the newspapers of old. I thought you might like it.

Many of my relatives were tailors and seamstresses. Several made shoes and I know of at least one who worked with hats so perhaps there may be a connection between our relatives, at least as competitors.

Ann (Haefner) Wizinsky

If you have a suggestion you would like to share with other researchers, send it to: Juliana@Ancestry.com. Thanks to all of this week's contributors!

Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry Weekly Journal please state so clearly in your message.

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The year was 1854 and Britain, France, Turkey, and Sardinia were involved in the Crimean War against Russia. Years of disputes over lands in the Middle East and religious differences were major factors in the cause of the war that would last into 1856. In addition to the hardships of war, in November a terrible storm struck creating miserable conditions for the soldiers.

Back in London, the fight was against cholera as more than 500 people died from the dreaded disease. Containment is credited to Dr. John Snow who ascertained that water from a pump on Broad Street was the cause by mapping the location of the victims and determining that they had all ingested water from that pump. He convinced officials to remove the handle of the pump forcing the community to go elsewhere for their water and thus put an end to the spread of the disease.

Disaster struck in Gateshead and Newcastle, England, in October as a warehouse fire and explosion killed 225 people. An account of the fire is available at the GENUKI website, as is a list of the victims.

In the U.S. the Kansas-Nebraska Act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and took America one step closer to Civil War as the struggle for anti- and pro-slavery states escalated. In 1820, the Missouri Compromise of 1820 had designated territory north of the southern boundary of Missouri in the Louisiana Territory as free and south of that line as slave. The Kansas-Nebraska Act would leave that decision up to voters in each territory and an influx of pro- and anti-slavery settlers converged on the new territories to help sway the vote in their favor. This confluence would lead to violence in "Bleeding Kansas" in the ensuing years.

The venture westward was of a more festive spirit farther north as hundreds of dignitaries boarded trains headed to Rock Island, Illinois, for a "Grand Excursion." From there, steamboats would take the excursionists from Rock Island up the Mississippi River to St. Paul in Minnesota Territory. Politicians, businessmen, reporters, clergymen, and other respected citizens, primarily from New York and eastern states, would enjoy beautiful scenery as they left city life behind to experience the unspoiled Midwest wilderness. Notables on the trip included President Millard Fillmore and his daughter Mary Abigail, future presidential hopeful Samuel J. Tilden, artist John Frederick Kensett, and a host of railroad executives, senators, governors, mayors, and other representatives from the political arena.

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If you'd like to see your ancestor's photograph in the Ancestry Weekly Journal, send it to Juliana@Ancestry.com.

Contributed by Kit Brunck This is a photo of my grandmother, Celeste Tonidandel, at about age eight, and her grandmother, Luisa Santoro Guido, taken about 1906 in Chicago.	Contributed by Sandra Wortham This is a picture of my great-great grandfather, George D. Tucker, who died in the Confederate Hospital, Austin, Texas, December 1900.

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Has Ancestry helped you make a significant breakthrough with your family history research? If you have an Ancestry success story you'd like to share, please send it to us. We'd love to hear about it! Click here to share your story.

Scottish Ancestry: Revised Second Edition
by Sherry Irvine

Scottish Ancestry is a complete reference of records and techniques for Scottish research with an insider's perspective to searching for information about Scottish ancestors. In this revised second edition, Sherry Irvine mixes her award-winning methodology with up-to-date instruction on how to utilize the latest computer and Web sources for Scottish research. She also broadens the scope from a guide for North Americans to a useful resource for researchers from all over the globe. For family historians researching Scottish roots, this book continues to be indispensable. 264 Pages, Published 2003, Paperback, ISBN 1-59331-027-7

Normally this book retails for $19.95 but today you can buy it in the Ancestry Store for $14.95.

An Atlas of Irish History
by Ruth Dudley Edwards

The history of Ireland and its people is one of incredible richness and variety. Combining more than 100 beautifully crafted maps, charts and graphs with a narrative packed with facts and information, An Atlas of Irish History provides coverage of the main political, military, economic, religious, and social changes that have occurred in Ireland and among the Irish abroad over the past two millennia. Ruth Dudley Edwards uses the combination of thematic narrative and visual aids to examine and illustrate issues such as:

• The Viking invasions of Ireland
• The Irish in Britain
• Pre- and post-famine agriculture
• Population change
• Twentieth-century political affiliations

Normally this book retails for $24.95, but for one week you can buy it in the Ancestry Store for $22.50.

For more selections like this one, visit the Reference and Pictorial section of the Ancestry Store.