The Origin of the "Wee-Monster" Genealogy Website

Update: The "Wee Monster" genealogy website has moved. It is now at: German Roots - German Genealogy Resources

Some popular pages on the Wee Monster genealogy website with links to where they are now:

Online Birth and Marriage Records Indexes (USA)

Genealogy Records, Indexes and Databases on the Internet (USA)

What Passenger Lists Are Online?

Online Searchable Naturalization Indexes and Records (USA)

The Origin of the "Wee-Monster" Genealogy Website...
A bunch of genealogy bloggers are "tagging" other genealogy bloggers (as in "you're it") to get them to write a blog post where you list 5 things about yourself that your blog readers probably don't know. I've been tagged 3 times (!), first by Randy Seaver, then by George Morgan and Rick Crume. Since the main purpose of this blog is to help people find their ancestors I see no point in boring you with this sort of silliness.

But! I did come up with one thing you may not know about me that might indirectly help you find something about your ancestors: I used to have a dog named Monster.

So how is that going to help you find your ancestors? Well... when I first signed up for some web space back in 1998 I named it "wee-monster" after my dog. The website is actually called "German Roots," but the URL originally had the phrase wee-monster in it. Here's where the wee monster website is now: German Roots - German Genealogy Resources

The idea for the website was to help Americans with German ancestors find their roots, but the site soon went a little off the original topic, and it now has a few sections devoted to American genealogy in general. My Death Indexes and Records website was originally a single webpage on the German Roots website that got out of hand. Same thing happened with my Military Indexes and Records website. The Online Passenger Lists webpage is still there on the German Roots website. See? Maybe my dog was able to help you find something about your ancestors (insert smiley face here).

Here's a picture of the wee Monster contemplating her legendary status. As you can see, she was a totally ferocious beast so you better be afraid (insert another smiley face here).

Now go find some ancestors!

This article was updated on 9 September 2010.

A Book About Researching World War II Army Service Records

Book Review: Finding Your Father's War - A Practical Guide to Researching and Understanding Service in the World War II US Army by Jonathan Gawne

If you have an ancestor or relative who served in the Army during World War II here is an entire book about researching records of individual soldiers and Army units. The book is divided into five distinct sections.

The first section, "Introduction to Army Units," discusses rank, branches of service and unit size. Don't know the difference between a squad, a platoon, a battalion, etc? Here's where to find out. A subsection on rank covers enlisted men, technicians and officers. For each rank (private, sergeant, etc) the insignia is shown along with the base pay.

Section two describes the types of records kept for an individual soldier and explains the Army's serial number system. There's even an illustration of a soldier's dog tag, explaining what each line and code means. Section three describes organizational records for army units.

The fourth section, "Finding Records," tells you where to look for many of the records discussed in the book. Here you can learn about using the Freedom of Information Act, the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, the National Archives, Veterans Affairs records, and other topics. The author lets you know that some records are only available to next of kin, while others may be public domain and available to anyone.

The last section has all sorts of useful information and illustrations of insignias, badges, uniforms and medals - things you might find in the attic and are wondering what they mean. Insignias for WWII Armies, Army Groups, Corps, Major Army Commands, the Army Air Force, and Divisions (Infantry & Airborne, Armored, and Cavalry) are shown in appendices. Most of the book's illustrations are in color.

Overall this book contains a wealth of information about a soldier's World War II Army service and how you can find many of the records that have survived. I found it to be a nice resource for U.S. Army WWII genealogy research.

The book can be ordered from Amazon:
Finding Your Father's War: A Practical Guide to Researching and Understanding Service in the World War II U.S. Army revised third edition from Amazon

Advertising Disclosure: The owner of this website/blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

May also be helpful: World War II Records and Indexes on the Internet

Hamburg Passenger Lists Now At Ancestry

Ancestry has recently added online images and a partial index to the Hamburg, Germany passenger departure records from 1850-1934 (except: 1 January--14 July 1853, which are missing, and the WWI years of 1915-1919). The years 1890-1913 have been indexed so far. These lists can be helpful if you have an immigrant ancestor who left from Hamburg because they usually give the place (town or city) of residence for the passengers.

For more information see: Hamburg Passenger Lists 1850-1934

Missouri Death Certificates Database Updated - New Images

The Missouri State Archives has added new images to its online Missouri death certificates database. Go to: Missouri Death Certificates Database 1910-1966

For more online Missouri death indexes see: Online Missouri Death Records, Indexes and Obituaries

This post was updated on 31 January 2018

An Irish Christmas Tale

Since it's the festive time of year I thought I would offer my blog readers a story about the upcoming holiday. Each year at Christmas time I send out a story instead of a Christmas card. You can read one of these online at...

To Hear the Angels Sing - a Dublin City Christmas Story

Enjoy the holiday season. -Joe

(illustration by Susan Ebertowski from the story)

New Additions - Online Death Indexes

The following links were recently added to the Online Searchable Death Indexes and Records website...

Colorado
- Archuleta County Mortality Schedule 1884-1885
- Ouray County Probate Index 1878-1919
- Teller County Inheritance Tax Record Index 1917-1936
- Teller County Will Records 1894-1971

Kansas
- Gove County Cemeteries

Kentucky
- Jefferson County: Cave Hill Cemetery Burials - Louisville, Kentucky

Maine
- Bangor Maine Municipal Cemetery Interments (downloadable Word files) includes Pine Grove Cemetery, Oak Grove Cemetery & Maple Grove Cemetery

New York
- Albany County: Berne Historical Project - includes cemetery records
- Suffolk County: Mount Ararat Jewish Cemetery Burials (in Lindenhurst, New York)

Ohio
- Lorain County: Amherst News-Times Obituaries Index (recent)
- Lorain County Probate Online Records Search 1990-present
- Stark County Probate Court Records Search

Tennesse
- Tennesse Death Index 1914-1918 (update: year 1918 added)