Why You Should Use Cyndi’s List: Have a Plan (Topic)

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Cyndi! Next… let’s continue the series.

Let’s look at using Cyndi’s List with a plan. The analogy: you walk into Costco with your shopping list. Let’s say you have some topics in mind. Perhaps you are just starting to work in a new state or country and you know very little about that area. Or you just discovered that an ancestor was involved in an event or activity you don’t know much about. In these scenarios, using Cyndi’s List is a good way to learn what is out there that is genealogically-related.

Let’s say you learned that an ancestor was a fur trader and may have been involved in the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). Let’s see what we can find about fur trading and HBC on Cyndi’s List. Let’s head to the categories page:

Scrolling down the page looking for a fur trade category:

Find a category for fur traders on Cyndi’s List

We can see from the link that there are 63 links in this category and it was last updated on 29 June 2022.

Fur Traders, Trappers, Voyageurs, Mountain Men & Explorers category on Cyndi’s List

You can see the sub-categories above. Let’s take a look at General Resources.

General Resources in the Fur Trader category on Cyndi’s List

There are several links to Geni for these topics, a link to the Museum in Chadron, Nebraska, several Wikipedia pages to give you general information on the topic. I clicked on the “History of the Fur Trade – White Oak Society” and found a broken link. Let’s ask again as I did last time…should I despair? NO! Click on the “Report a Broken Link” button on the left and help Cyndi out! I found the new URL for that page and reported it to Cyndi using the button on the page.

The new location of the History of the Fur Trade – White Oak Historical Society

Let’s take a look at some Hudson’s Bay Company specific links.

As a demonstration, let’s look at the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives (HBCA).

The HBCA has biographical sheets on employees. How cool is that? Let’s look at George Adams (1815-1823).

Employee biographical sheet for George Adams at the HBCA website.

You can see that you get information about George Adams regarding his employment with the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Now, that was an example regarding fur traders. What other topics are there are on Cyndi’s List? The answer is many. AND you are not going to find that all of the links work. PLEASE report them and if you can find a new one, let Cyndi know. Next time we will do a similar exercise but with a location or two in mind.