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 Monday, November 24, 2008
Free Database: Local and Family Histories
Posted by Diane
FamilySearch and the Houston Public Library (whose Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research is among the country’s best places to research your roots) have announced a collaboration to digitize some of the library's resources and post them online for free. That includes county and local histories, registers of individuals, directories of Texas Rangers, church histories and biographical dictionaries. The records cover the years from 1795 to 1923. The project will start with Texas records (yay for me; my Dad’s branch was in the Lone Star State for a time), followed by other Gulf Coast states. It'll take up to five years to complete. A few books are already digitized and free (they're part of Brigham Young University's Family History Archive; you also can get there from FamilySearch by hovering over Search Records and clicking Historical Books). You can browse; keyword search on a surname, author or title; or every-word search on any term. Your search results link to digitized images. If a digitized book is among your Family History Library catalog search results, the catalog listing will link to it. The digitized Houston Public Library records also will be available free on the library's Web site.
FamilySearch | Free Databases | Libraries and Archives
11/24/2008 1:30:33 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00) 
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Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Canadian Censuses To Be Digitized and Indexed
Posted by Diane
The subscription site Ancestry.ca (a Canadian records-focused sister site to Ancestry.com) and FamilySearch are partnering to digitize and index Ancestry.ca’s Canadian census records. They’ll be available to Ancestry.ca subscribers in 2009, and the indexes will be free to the public on the FamilySearch Web site. The images will be free at FamilySearch Family History Centers. Canadian national censuses were taken every 10 years starting in 1871; earlier censuses cover various areas of Canada. Under the agreement, FamilySearch will provide Ancestry.ca with images and indexes for 1861, 1871, 1881 and 1916 censuses. Ancestry.ca will provide FamilySearch with indexes for the 1891 and 1901 censuses. This partnership should ease Canadian roots research a bit. Only the 1901, 1906 and 1911 censuses, as well as part of an 1851 census, are indexed by name. To find your ancestor in other censuses, you need to know his or her
district and subdistrict—which could change between censuses. The Web site Automated Genealogy is coordinating a volunteer
indexing project for the 1901, 1906 and 1911 censuses; search the
growing database free. If you find an ancestor’s name and district information, look for him listed in the free census images on the Library and Archives Canada Web site. Library and Archives Canada recently announced a digitization partnership with Ancestry.ca. No specifics were available about which records are up for indexing.
Ancestry.com | Canadian roots | FamilySearch
11/11/2008 10:42:46 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Jewish Group Says Mormons Are Still Baptizing Holocaust Victims
Posted by Diane
The controversy over Mormons’ practice of posthumously baptizing Jewish Holocaust victims is in the news again. The Associated Press reported on yesterday’s American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors (AGHS) press conference. The organization claims the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hasn’t enforced a 1995 agreement to permit its members to submit for posthumous baptism by proxy (often described as “temple work”) names of only those Holocaust victims who are direct relatives. Posthumous baptisms by proxy are central to Mormons' faith because the practice allows families to be reunited in the afterlife. They see the baptisms as an offer that the deceased individual can refuse; many Jews view the practice as disrespectful to those who were killed for their religious beliefs. A researcher the AGHS hired reported finding several thousand names in the LDS church’s genealogy databases, some submitted as recently as July. The church removed Jews’ names after the 1995 agreement, but told the Associated Press that since then a few well-meaning members have “acted outside of policy.” In a written response to the press conference, the LDS church claims AGHS refuses to provide the names of the Holocaust survivors found in the database or respond to LDS proposals stemming from a Nov. 3 meeting of both organizations. New FamilySearch, the online family tree tracking program slowly being released to church members (it'll eventually be publicly available), should help resolve the problem by discouraging mass submissions, and separating names intended for baptism from those submitted for genealogical purposes. Read the full article on CNN. Here's the LDS church's response. AGHS also has links to news coverage of the press conference.
FamilySearch | Jewish roots
11/11/2008 8:46:26 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Thursday, October 16, 2008
Footnote Releases First Civil War Pensions
Posted by Diane
Historical records subscription site Footnote released its first digitized Civil War Widows’ Pension files today. Footnote’s collection has 5,257 record images so far. They’re part of a pilot project, announced about a year ago, to work with the National Archives and Records Administration (which holds the original pension records) and FamilySearch to digitize 3,150 pension files of Civil War widows. FamilySearch and Footnote plan to digitize all 1,280,000 pensions in the series. Pension records were never microfilmed, so until now, your only option to get your ancestor's pension was to travel to NARA in Washington, DC, hire a local researcher, or order copies for $75 or more. The digitized records are part of Footnote’s $69.95 annual subscription. You can view the records free at Family History Centers and at NARA facilities. A Civil War pension index is free on the FamilySearch Record Search pilot site. 
FamilySearch | Footnote | Military records
10/16/2008 9:04:35 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Ohio County Gets Grant to Digitize Vital Records
Posted by Diane
Ancestry.com and FamilySearch are continuing their collaboration by cosponsoring a records digitization grant just awarded to the Probate Division of the Summit County Common Pleas Court in Akron, Ohio. The grant, administered by the National Association of Government Archive and Records Administrators, is worth $150,000—but it’ll be delivered in the form of services rather than money. FamilySearch will digitize 550,000 individuals' Summit County marriage records (1840 to 1980), 46,000-plus birth records (pre-1908) and more than 22,000 death records (also pre-1908). Ancestry.com will create an index linked to the images that’ll be free on the probate court’s Web site, FamilySearch and Ancestry.com. The project should be completed by the end of next year.
Ancestry.com | FamilySearch | Public Records
10/7/2008 11:45:21 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, September 18, 2008
A Tale of Two Indexing Projects: Comparing FamilySearch Indexing and the World Archives Project
Posted by Diane
With two biggest organizations in genealogy seeking volunteers and historical records for their indexing programs, comparisons and questions about competition are inevitable. Nonprofit FamilySearch began rolling out FamilySearch Indexing in 2006. Volunteers around the world use an online application to view and index digitized records. Subscription data service Ancestry.com launched a similar program, the World Archives Project, this year. A recently announced partnership with the Federation of Genealogical Societies has societies providing volunteer indexers. FamilySearch released a statement last week about the two programs. Though it started by welcoming all efforts “that provide more economical access to more genealogical and historically significant records,” subsequent claims that FamilySearch produces “More quality indexes, faster” and offers “Greater free public access to images” (among other assertions) struck a defensive note. Read the whole statement on Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter. A little competition would make sense: If FamilySearch makes genealogical records free, wouldn’t Ancestry.com lose customers? Will FamilySearch lose indexing volunteers to the World Archives Project? No, both organizations insist. When I questioned FamilySearch, spokesperson Paul Nauta replied “FamilySearch believes the introduction of records access initiatives will only serve to improve progress toward making the world’s genealogical and historical records more available economically—an underlying goal of FamilySearch Indexing.” World Archives Project manager Christopher Tracy also downplayed any competition and emphasized the shared goal of increasing records access. “There’s plenty of work. Billions and billions of records out there haven’t been indexed,” he says. “They have a great community and they’re bringing more and more people into the [genealogy] space,” he adds of FamilySearch. Ancestry.com reiterated his points in its own written statement. The organizations collaborate on indexing the US census, and they’re avoiding indexing the same records. “Each company has strategic relations representatives that speak or meet regularly to help accomplish these goals,” Nauta says. So, now that the air is clear, how do the two programs compare? We’ll break it down: Records access for the public
- FamilySearch Indexing: All record indexes and many record images will be free to anyone through the FamilySearch Web site. If FamilySearch isn't able to secure permission to put certain images on FamilySearch's public site, you can access them at a local Family History Center.
- World Archives Project: All record indexes will be searchable free on Ancestry.com. Images of those records will be available to Ancestry.com’s paid subscribers, and they'll be free at public libraries that offer their patrons Ancestry Library Edition.
Benefits to volunteers (aside from the warm fuzzies of helping genealogists) - FamilySearch Indexing: Qualified volunteers (those who’ve keyed 900 names within a 90-day period) will receive free access to all record images, even those not on FamilySearch's public site.
- World Archives Project: Active indexers (who've keyed at least 900 records a quarter) will get free access to all record images, and can vote on which records the project should index. Active indexers who subscribe to Ancestry.com will receive a 10 to 15 percent discount on renewals.
Benefits to partnering organizations
- FamilySearch Indexing: Organizations that provide records for digitizing and indexing receive free copies of the record images and indexes.
- Ancestry.com: Genealogical societies that index a record set receive a copy of the images and indexes, as well as free advertising from Ancestry.com (I'm not sure what form the advertising will take).
Other comparisonsBoth programs have each record indexed twice, with an arbitrator to resolve differences. Having been around longer, FamilySearch Indexing has more record sets you can choose to index. Its indexing utility is Mac-compatible; Ancestry.com’s is PC-only. The two programs’ indexing utilities work differently, and you might try both and decide you prefer one over the other. We’d love to hear about your experiences using the utilities—click Comments to post.
Ancestry.com | FamilySearch | Genealogy Industry
9/18/2008 9:07:03 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, July 29, 2008
FamilySearch Answers Questions about Free Census Indexes
Posted by Diane
Since announcing joint US and English census projects with Ancestry.com and FindMyPast, FamilySearch has gotten questions from its record indexing volunteers, who want to know if the indexes they’re creating will continue to be free to the public. FamilySearch released a statement today saying that “The answer is a resounding YES!” “All data indexed by FamilySearch volunteers will continue to be made available for free to the public through FamilySearch.org—now and in the future,” says the statement sent by FamilySearch spokesperson Paul Nauta. “Access to related digital images may not always be free to everyone.” Why's that? Here’s the bottom line: - FamilySearch works within the needs of historical record custodians (such as governments, local and national archives, and historical societies) around the world.
- Indexes will always be free at FamilySearch, even if the index costs elsewhere.
- If FamilySearch is able negotiate with record custodians to get free access to record images for everyone online via the FamilySearch site, it will.
- For some records, FamilySearch may only be able to negotiate free image access for visitors to the 4,500 worldwide Family History Centers (which are open to anyone), along with limited home access to FamilySearch members.
- Those FamilySearch members eligible for limited home access to
the restricted record images would include volunteer indexers who
contribute a certain amount of work, and members of the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints (whose tithes help keep FamilySearch operating).
Web developers are coming up with a way to verify the identity of FamilySearch members and expect to have it ready next year. - You also often can get free access to the record images by visiting the custodial repository.
census records | FamilySearch
7/29/2008 1:31:09 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, July 22, 2008
FamilySearch Cleans Up Well
Posted by Diane
If you haven't been to FamilySearch lately, go take a look—webmasters quietly changed the look of the home page last week. Now it’s a lot cleaner, with a general search plus a pared-down list of links for the site’s research guides and other most-used resources. As before, the general search here covers the Ancestral File, Pedigree Resource File, International Genealogical Index, Socal Security Death Index, Mexico and Scandinavian vital records, and the 1880 United States, 1881 British Isles, and 1881 Canadian censuses. To find the indexes and record images coming out of the FamilySearch Indexing and Records Access initiativess, look under the Search Records pull-down menu and select Record Search Pilot. Eventually, this and other genealogy tools will be integrated into the main FamilySearch site. You’ll find many of the links that previously cluttered the FamilySearch home page neatly stashed in the drop-down navigation menu or arranged at the bottom of the page. Just FYI, many of the interior pages haven’t gotten the makeover treatment yet.
FamilySearch
7/22/2008 4:15:50 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, July 21, 2008
FamilySearch Team to Make England and Wales Census Indexes Free
Posted by Diane
Thanks to another FamilySearch partnership, indexes to the 1841 and 1861 England and Wales censuses are now searchable free at FamilySearch. Those are the first indexes made available under an agreement with British companies FindMyPast, the Origins Network and Intelligent Image Management. Other England and Wales censuses from 1841 to 1901 will follow this initial release. For now, you can go to FamilySearch Record Search and do a free search of the 1841 and 1861 censuses on first and last names, age, sex, place of birth, and (for the 1861 census) relationship to head of household. In the future, you’ll be able to search on additional fields of data. You can search the full indexes and view original images for free at FamilySearch’s Family History Centers, or for fee at FindMyPast, a subscription and pay-per-view records site. FamilySearch, working with the Origins Network, will provide digital images for the 1851, 1871 and 1881 censuses. It will also enhance the 1871 Census index. Findmypast.com will provide FamilySearch with copies of its English and Welsh Census indexes from 1841 to 1901. Members of England's Federation of Family History Societies will help complete the index for the 1851 Census.
FamilySearch | International Genealogy | UK and Irish roots
7/21/2008 11:35:27 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Ancestry.com and FamilySearch to Make US Censuses Free
Posted by Diane
The two largest organizations in genealogy are embarking on a resource-exchanging partnership that will put more records online—starting with US censuses. Under the agreement, enhanced census indexes will be free for a limited time on Ancestry.com and permanently on FamilySearch. Record images will be available by subscription on Ancestry.com and free at FamilySearch’s 4,500 worldwide Family History Centers, as well as National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) regional facilities. FamilySearch, which is digitizing census records at NARA, will provide its record images to Ancestry.com. These newer images, created with more-recent technology, are of better quality than those available on Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com will give FamilySearch its indexes to censuses from 1790 to 1930. FamilySearch Indexing volunteers will use them as a “first draft,” double-checking information and adding data fields (such as birth month and year) to create an improved index. FamilySearch volunteers already were indexing some censuses, following a two-pass, arbitrated system: Each record is indexed twice by different people; a knowledgeable third person resolves any differences in the versions. The volunteers have completed a 1900 census index, now free at FamilySearch Record Search. These existing FamilySearch indexes will be merged with Ancestry.com’s indexes. (If a person’s name is indexed under different spellings, both spellings will remain.) The partnership’s first exchange is the 1900 census. The improved record images are on Ancestry.com now; the merged index will become available in August. Other censuses will be released over the next several years as the images and indexes are completed. The census indexes on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch will link to
record images on Ancestry.com. If someone without an Ancestry.com
subscription clicks the image link, he’ll be prompted to join.
Subscriptions cost $155.40 per year or $19.95 for a month. Ancestry.com has long been the target of complaints about its census
indexes, so the company and its subscribers will undoubtedly welcome
the new-and-improved versions. Friday, I had a chance to talk with representatives of both organizations, who agreed genealogists will appreciate the broader access to records, improved indexes and higher-quality digital images. On some record images, you even can see previously indiscernible notations, according to Ancestry.com vice president of content Gary Gibb.
Ancestry.com | FamilySearch | Genealogy Web Sites
7/21/2008 10:01:01 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, June 04, 2008
Search for English Ancestors on FamilySearch Test Site
Posted by Diane
FamilySearch has added 24 million names from microfilmed English baptism and marriage records to its free pilot Record Search collection. The records aren’t yet linked to digitized images. You’ll also find other records there, too, including state and federal censuses, vital records and parish records from Germany, Spain and elsewhere. FamilySearch is testing the Record Search and image viewer; eventually, it’ll be part of the familiar FamilySearch Web site and let you access even more records. Use the Record Search in Internet Explorer, Netscape or Firefox.
FamilySearch | Genealogy Web Sites
6/4/2008 2:27:53 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, May 16, 2008
What's Happening on the FamilySearch Site
Posted by Diane
You may have heard whisperings about a new FamilySearch Web site underway, and wondered what it's like and when you’ll get a crack at using it. Today we got some information to share.
FamilySearch Labs is testing a variety of tools FamilySearch hopes to include on its Web site. The challenge, spokesperson Paul Nauta told us, is that each tool requires different architecture. FamilySearch’s main site (at www.familysearch.org) hasn’t changed yet because its architecture must be updated to accommodate all the cool new features in the works. Eventually, the tools will be built into that site.
But you already can use some of these features on the domains where they’re being tested:
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Record Search is a tool for searching the first digitized records—including censuses, church records, Civil War pensions and more—coming from FamilySearch’s many partnerships with repositories and digitization companies. It has a microfilm reader-like viewer (minus the elbow-busting crank) that lets you zoom in on an image, nimbly move around, and switch from black on white to white on black.
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Family Tree (previously called Pedigree Viewer), which lets users build an online, collaborative family tree, is available in demo version to the public. It’s being rolled out gradually to Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints locations, after which it’ll go public.
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FamilySearch Indexing is the site volunteers around the world are using to create indexes to digitized records. It’ll tell you how you can volunteer, too.
Those are the main tools, but there are a couple of others you can try at FamilySearch Labs.
FamilySearch | Genealogy Web Sites
5/16/2008 1:19:31 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Breaking News From the National Genealogical Society Conference
Posted by Diane
The National Genealogical Society Conference just got underway here in Kansas City, Mo., and already the announcements are flowing:
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FamilySearch and subscription records site Footnote announced they’ve reached an agreement for FamilySearch to provide free access to the Civil War Pensions index and the 1860 US census. You’ll be able to search indexes for both collections on FamilySearch as the project is completed, users will be able to search. Footnote subscribers can view the record images on Footnote ($59.95 per year) ; anyone can access them free at the 4,500 worldwide FamilySearch Family History Centers (FHCs).
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FamilyLink (which brings you the World Vital Records subscription databases) is helping FamilySearch improve the usability of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Family History Library Catalog by adding Web 2.0 functionality and enhancements.
The catalog is a listing of the genealogical resources in the Family History Library, including millions of microfilms, microfichfiche and books from more than 110 countries. You can borrow film and fiche (books don’t circulate) by visiting an FHC.
Improvements include making the catalog searchable by major online search engines (such as Google) and letting users to annotate descriptions in the catalog. You'll be able to conduct a “guided search” with tools that will help you decide what you want to learn about your family, point you to relevant records, and help you get and use them.
You’ll also be able to browse the catalog, sort search results and perform multiple searches at once. A nifty tool will search your online family tree to determine which lines have the highest likelihood of success based on known sources (and maybe there’ll be a “pep talk” tool for those other lines).
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The Generations Network (that’s Ancestry.com’s parent company) CEO Tim Sullivan has written a “letter to the public,” basically a review of newdatabases and services (such as DNA testing and Ancestry Press). He also offered news about upcoming features such as a historical newspaper collection doubled in size, more than 6,000 school yearbooks and new US city directories containing 50 million names.
Ancestry Hints will send you automatic notifications when Ancestry.com finds matches between people in your tree and its record databases. More user-friendly member profile pages also are in the works. You can read the whole thing on the Ancestry.com Web site.
International sites on the way include China (with Chinese family histories from the Shanghai library) and a Spanish-language sites.
FamilySearch | Genealogy Events | Genealogy Industry | Genealogy Web Sites
5/14/2008 1:53:53 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Catholic Churches Told To Keep Records From FamilySearch Digitizers
Posted by Diane
You may already have heard the Catholic News Service reports that the Vatican has directed Catholic dioceses throughout the world not to allow FamilySearch to digitize or index parish registers. Father James Massa, executive director of the US bishops' Secretariat of Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, told the Catholic News Service that the directive, issued in an April 5 letter from the Vatican Congregation for Clergy, aims to prevent Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) members, or Mormons, from using the records to baptize the dead. The LDS Church operates the FamilySearch genealogy Web site. The letter reads in part, "The congregation requests that the conference notifies each diocesan bishop in order to ensure that such a detrimental practice is not permitted in his territory, due to the confidentiality of the faithful and so as not to cooperate with the erroneous practices of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Posthumous baptism by proxy is central to the LDS faith: Mormons can offer baptism to their ancestors so families can be united in the afterlife. That’s why the LDS Church digitizes and microfilms records. Generally, FamilySearch negotiates contracts with churches to film their records. The LDS Church makes the records available to members of all religions for use in genealogical research. And microfilmed Catholic Church registers are the major resource for finding ancestors in Europe before civil (government) registration began, usually during the 1800s. Jewish groups also have criticized posthumous baptism, especially for Holocaust victims. The LDS Church agreed in 1995 to stop the practice of baptizing Holocaust victims, but some say it continues. What do you think of the Vatican's directive? Click Comments to post here, or post to our Hot Topics Forum.
FamilySearch | Genealogy Industry
5/7/2008 12:10:30 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, May 02, 2008
FamilySearch and British Partners to Digitize UK Records
Posted by Diane
A partnership among FamilySearch, British family history subscription/pay-per-view database site FindMyPast, and The National Archives of Britain will give genealogists access to millions of names of British soldiers and seamen from the 18th to the 20th century. The records include: The records may include each ex-serviceman's name, age, birthplace and service history, physical appearance, conduct sheet, previous occupation, and in some cases, the reason for discharge. After 1883, details of marriages and children may also appear.
- Merchant Seamen records from 1835 to 1844 and 1918 to 1941, which will provide the name and the date and place of birth. Many 20th-century records include photographs of the sailors and details of their voyages. Nearly a third of UK families have ancestors who were merchant seaman, according to FamilySearch's announcement.
For this three-year project, FamilySearch staffers will digitize the records at the UK National Archives, and FindMyPast will create indexes and transcriptions. When they're through, the indexes and images will be searchable at FindMyPast and FamilySearch. I can hear you wondering, “Will they be free?” FamilySearch’s announcement didn’t say one way or the other, but in previously announced partnerships, records are to be free on FamilySearch and partner organizations have the option to provide fee-based access.
FamilySearch | Genealogy Industry | Genealogy Web Sites | International Genealogy | UK and Irish roots
5/2/2008 5:07:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Saturday, February 09, 2008
News and Notes from the Family History Expo
Posted by Allison
The first day of MyAncestorsFound’s Family History Expo 2008 saw a flurry of activity in the exhibit hall—here at the Family Tree Magazine booth, I barely had a moment to catch my breath. But today I had the opportunity to cruise the hall and learn about new developments in the industry. The buzzword for this event has been “New FamilySearch”—referring to the highly anticipated revamp of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ genealogy Web site, which is scheduled to go public in early 2009. Several classes focused on how the new system works, and what it means to genealogists. Developers from AncestralQuest, PAFInsight and RootsMagic genealogy software gave demos on how their programs will “sync” with the New FamilySearch. Here’s a snapshot of other news: - Newcomer FamilyPursuit is a Web-based family tree program that aims to make it easy for families to collaborate on recording and researching genealogy. It’s currently in a public beta phase—you can get sneak peek at its features on the Web site, or sign up to become a tester.
- Milennia Corp. is preparing to release version 7 of its Legacy Family Tree software in March. The new edition will add wall charts and source templates, among other features
- GenealogyBank, the subscription Web site for historical newspapers, government records and primary documents, is adding hundreds of Hispanic newspapers to its collection.
- Ancestry DNA, the genetic genealogy arm of data megasite Ancestry.com, will be adding surname groups this spring, along with groups for different geographic locations and haplogroups.
- Add Family Tree and Me to the list of companies offering decorative family tree charts. Owner Shirlene Dymock aims to provide designs elegant enough to display in your living room—see samples of the layouts, backgrounds and frames online.
- Online genealogy TV channel RootsTelevision has now posted all the episodes of both PBS “Ancestors” series. You’ll also be able to catch interviews from the Expo on RootsTelevision.
- Podcaster Lisa Louise Cooke was also busy doing interviews during the Expo. Among the conversations to be featured in upcoming episodes: Richard Black of the Godfrey Memorial Library, Kathy Meade of Swedish church records Web site Genline, and presenter Kathryn Lake Hogan speaking about immigration resources. Visit
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