Day 2: Basic Search Techniques

Sorry about not posting yesterday, I got distracted and never ended up posting!! :(  I'll try to keep it daily, but if I don't then don't hate me for it lol!

Okay, so now that we have our basic PAF created, what do we do next?  I'll give you a hint: it starts with St_ _ t Se_r_h_ _ g!!!!  If you guessed "Start Searching!!!!" then you are correct!!

"Okay Sterl, so how do I get on this search craze?"
I'm glad you asked!!  Here are a few basic sites that I will walk you through, one part of the day at a time (because I'm a busy many, you know!).  If it's not done yet, then you'll know I got distracted but I will continue from this post in a few hours :-p

1. Wiki.FamilySearch.org - This is a WONDERFUL site for finding places to research your ancestors when you've hit a wall and don't know where else to look!!  Like other wiki sites (Wiki is short for Wikipedia), the FamilySearch Wiki is a very large online database that keeps on growing where users can add, edit, and share research information for free on the web!!  To get started, you type in a place or thing you're looking for (NOT names!!) and when you click Search, articles that people have posted will show!!  This website is easily overlooked for Google.com, but is not indexed from them and therefor will not be seen by googlers.
2. Pilot.FamilySearch.org - This is another AMAZAZAZING website put on for FREE by the LDS Church which contains a wide variety of collections and databases around the world!  To get started, just type in someone's name (deceased, obviously) who you are looking for and all records that pertain to him or her (and similars) will pop up in the results!!  It's that easy!!!  And did I mention you can see the original image in almost all of the cases??  That's right!!  As indexing isn't always the most accurate (human error is inevitable, but we can minimize it!), you may enjoy what you see in the original records.  To see it, click on (if it's there) the dark gray paper with a fold icon on the far left of the person's entry.  If there is a blue paper with an @ sign, then that means you will be forwarded to a paid site where you will have to pay to see it (very rare!!).
3. Ancestry.com - A very popular and common choice is Ancestry!!  It is helpful, but I try to stay away from it as it's not free ($14.99/month).  But if you come to the Mesa Regional Family History Center (Mesa RFHC), Ancestry is free of charge to use, as well as all the other resources we have to offer!!  And visiting us is free, there are zero charges for coming in! :)
4. Footnote.com - My personal favorite of the two, Footnote has other documents that Ancestry does not have, and visa vesa.  Here you will find newspaper articles, Dawes Packets, FBI case files (SUPER helpful, whether you like it or not!!), city directories and more!!  Ancestry does NOT have these files, but specializes in census and other records.  Searching is free here and will bring you all the way to the picture, but if it's not free (called "Premium") then you will have to pay to see it.  Guess what??  At the Mesa RFHC, we also have this site for free!!  No charge to you, so write down how you found that search result and replicate it quickly here!  Now you didn't think of that idea, did you? ;)
5. Mesa Regional Family History Center - This is our website!!  Believe it or not, there are an EPIC ammount of helpful links, guides, tutorials, images, indexes, and I could go on and on located right here!!  We have a search utility that will search all of our books (not actual text, of course, but subjects included!), a microfilm/microfiche search (helpful for checking if we have it on us or you need to order), training documents and resources, Arizona obituary search, Arizona birth/death search (with images!!), and soooo many more!!  As you can tell, this is a gold mine waiting for your viewing!!!  DO NOT PASS THIS UP!!!!!

Well, that's it for today!!  Maybe I'll post a little more information later, so be sure to keep checking back and looking for what's new in genealogy!! :) :)