• FamilySearch has added another 30 million new, free records to its historical records website—16 million indexed names and 14 million browsable images. Highlighting the additions are new databases from Canada, England, Germany, Italy, Micronesia, Slovenia and the United States. The new records also include millions of US births, marriages and deaths, and over 9 million church records from Sweden. See the list of new collections here.

FamilySearch also has launched a free mobile app for the iPad, iPhone and Droid that lets volunteers index digitized records. You can find it by searching for FamilySearch Indexing in the Apple App Store or Android Marketplace.

• Ancestry.com is giving away not one but three grand prize $10,000 family history trips in its Ultimate Family History Journey Sweepstakes. And 20 first prize winners will get an Ancestry.com World Explorer membership. You can enter daily through May 18.

• Library and Archives Canada is starting a monthly podcast series called Discover Library and Archives Canada (LAC): Your History, Your Documentary Heritage. Episodes will introduce you to LAC services and archivists. You can subscribe to episodes using RSS or iTunes, or tune in on the LAC website.

• The Civil War Trust is holding its 16th annual battlefield cleanup called Park Day on Saturday, March 31. More than 100 sites in 25 states are taking part, with activities ranging from trash removal to trail building. Click here to find a site near you and learn about specific projects.

• The National Genealogical Society has a new online events calendar where organizations that have a valid subscription to NGS can list their events (and, of course, you can look for events to attend). The calendar isn't searchable, but you can use your browser's Find function (control-F or command-F) to look for a particular topic, place, date or speaker.

• Genealogists have formed the Family History Information Standards Organisation (FHISO), to develop standards for the digital representation and sharing of family history informaiton. The goal is to make data exchanging work with different genealogy websites, software, applications and other services. FHISO will sponsor the Build a BetterGEDCOM Project, a grassroots effort started last year.

Friday, February 10, 2012 3:00:43 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Mocavo Rolls Out New Content, Features
• GeneTree Introduces New Test, Consultation Service
• 1940 Census Community Project Update
• Brightsolid to Launch 1st Pay-As-You-Go Census Records Site
• Ancestry.com to Live-Stream its RootsTech Presentations
• RootsTech: Sessions You Can Watch From Home
• Four Genealogists to Compete for Top Honors at RootsTech

Next year, RootsTech will be a little later in the year, March 21-23, in Salt Lake City.

Thursday, February 09, 2012 9:10:04 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

The Virtual Conference, taking place March 9 – 11, is packed with video classes, live chats, message board discussions, a virtual exhibit hall and more.

See all the Virtual Conference details at FamilyTreeUniversity.com and use promo code FTUVCEARLY to get the early bird rate.

Wednesday, February 08, 2012 9:00:19 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

The treasure hunt involves finding words hidden on the blogs of 15 genealogy bloggers who'll be reporting at the conference.

You'll find entry instructions on the RootsMagic website. Good luck!

We're joining in the RootsTech excitement with conference specials for everyone! You'll get 20 percent off select online genealogy titles at ShopFamilyTree.com.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 1:39:57 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

Ancestry.com also will live-stream several presentations by its staff. See the list on Ancestry.com’s Facebook page.

My top picks:

• The Inner-workings of the Ancestry.com Search Engine, Friday, Feb. 3, 3 pm MST
  
  
• 5 New Things to Try at Ancestry.com, Friday, Feb. 3, 1:45 pm MST
  
  
• Who Do You Think You Are? Live Q&A: How Do Our Experts Search?
  Saturday, Feb. 4, 2:30pm MST (This is the day after NBC's season 3 premiere of "Who Do You Think You Are?" so you may get some insider details on the Martin Sheen episode.)

We're joining in the RootsTech excitement with conference specials for everyone! You'll get 20 percent off select online genealogy titles at ShopFamilyTree.com.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 12:56:02 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

The challenge basics and a Q&A are here. Sign up here to receive daily writing reminders and quotes, as well as links to weekly advice posts. You also can join discussions in a forum.

When I put together a family history narrative a couple of years ago, I noticed some holes in my research, came up with ideas for next steps and saw how much progress I'd made. Even better, it was an easily digestible way to share me research with my family. 

Need motivation? Here's how to get around five common reasons for not writing family history. And here are six quick ideas for writing family history.

If you want in-depth guidance for writing a family history, look into the FTU course and workshop Write Your Family History. By the end of the session, you'll have an outline for your family's story and a start on your narrative.

Friday, January 27, 2012 11:17:30 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1]

I checked over the RootsTech session schedule for each day (look in the left column for the room number and click each presentation title for details about it), and found great presentations going on all day in this room 155. My top picks are:

• Effective Database Search Tactics by Kory Meyerink, Feb. 2, 1:45-2:45 p.m.
  
  
• Twitter: It’s Not Just “What I Had For Breakfast” Anymore by Thomas MacEntee, Feb. 2, 3-4 p.m.
  
  
• Genealogists “Go Mobile” by Sandra Crowley, Feb. 3, 1:45-2:45 p.m.
  
  
• Genealogy Podcasts and Blogs 101 by Lisa Louise Cooke, Feb. 4 9:45-10:45 a.m.
  
  
• Privacy in a Collaborative Environment by Noah Tutak, CEO of Geni.com, Feb. 4, 1:45-2:45 p.m.
  

Remember, all session times are in Mountain Time. Details about how to access the live-stream sessions are still to come—watch the RootsTech website and this blog.

Update: All you need to do to watch the live presentations is go to the RootsTech home page.

If you’re going to be at RootsTech (like our own Allison Dolan and Kerry Scott), you can make sure you check off your conference to-do and to-see lists with the RootsTech2012 app for iPad, iPhone and Android.

You can get them from the Apple App Store or the Android Marketplace and use them to keep track of your scedule, see venue maps, get conference news and more. Randy Seaver goes into detail about the app at his Genea-Musings blog.

RootsTech, organized by FamilySearch, takes place Feb. 2-4 in Salt Lake City.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 11:18:32 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

Feb. 2, Brightsolid CEO Chris van der Kuyl will address a Brightsolid-sponsored RootsTech lunch with a talk on, “Why Everyone Deserves Their Own Episode of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ and How Brightsolid Will Help You Get There.”

Hmmm ...

Remember that Brightsolid also has joined the 1940 Census Community Project, along with FamilySearch and Archives.com, which turned some American genealogists' heads.

Of course, we'll let you know what the big news is when it's announced.

The RootsTech conference, organized by FamilySearch, focuses on technology in genealogy. It takes place Feb. 2-4 in Salt Lake City.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012 3:03:53 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1]

• Genealogy data service Genealogy Today has launched a redesigned home page, easier site navigation and an improved search. This site focuses on smaller datasets, such as Masonic rosters, rural school and college catalogs, insurance claims and church catalogs, published between 1830 and 1930. The search works faster, with a form that offers more options and filters. In your search results, free and paid resources are  combined into a single results set that highlights new and updated items, and identifies free resources and those on other websites. 
  
  
• Registration is open for the 2012 Southern California Genealogy Jamboree, taking place Thursday through Sunday, June 8 to 10, at the LA Marriott Burbank Airport Hotel in Burbank, Calif. Early-bird registration discounts are available through April 22. Register on the SCGS website.

• The Federation of Genealogical Societies has opened registration for its 2012 annual conference, too. It's scheduled for Aug. 29 to Sept. 1, at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham, Ala. (We'll be there!) Early bird registration is available through July 1. Register on the conference website.

• WikiTree.com, the family tree site covered in the December 2011 Family Tree Magazine, will be available only by invitation from a current WikiTree member. "We’ve had users abusing our wide range of free services and treating the site like their personal back-up service. Not only does this drain our limited resources, it hurts other community members and what we’re trying to accomplish," says WikiTree creator Chris Whitten. "By making membership strictly invitation-only, we can give our community some breathing room to clean up the genealogical messes that irresponsible users have left behind." If you want to join, you can request an invite using a link on the site's membership page.

Friday, January 20, 2012 2:33:12 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1]

The four "Idol" finalists are Elizabeth Clark of Falls Village, Conn.; Elyse Doerflinger of Lomita, Calif.; Michael Hait of Harrington, Del.; and Marian Pierre-Louis of Millis, Mass.

The contestants (the first two live at the conference, and the latter two online from home) will compete in three rounds, sharing their favorite genealogy and technology tips, stories of genealogical serendipity, and genealogy/technology website or blog.

In the tradition of "American Idol," the competition will be broadcast to a live webinar audience, whose votes will decide the winner. That person will receive a Flip-Pal mobile scanner and the title of RootsTech Genealogy Idol 2012. Click here to register to watch the free hourlong live webinar (limited to 1,000 attendees), taking place Thursday, Feb. 2 at 3:45 p.m. ET.

If you'll be at the RootsTech conference, happening Feb. 2-4 in Salt Lake City, you can watch the competition at 1:45 p.m. in classroom 255B.

Thursday, January 19, 2012 9:20:39 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

The probate court handles wills and estates, marriages, guardianships and adoptions. When I contacted the court, I was told the staff doesn't fulfill research requests, but I was welcome to go in person to look for the record.

So my chance is coming up with the Ohio Genealogical Society conference April 12-14 in Cleveland! I'm super-excited—it's been awhile since I've done hands-on research.  

I figure while I'm there, I also can look up some other records: a great-uncle's marriage that's just a hair too recent to be on Family History Library microfilm, as well as some relatives' probate files.

I looked up the courthouse website and called to verify research hours and find out about any special requirements.

I also searched for case file numbers in the probate court online Case Records Search System an index that provides information including names of parties, dates and case numbers. (Not all courts have this type of index, but a web search on the county and court should find one if it does exist.) That should make most of my searching relatively easy, knock on wood.

But the index doesn't go as far back as 1924, when the commitment hearing would've happened, so I'm crossing my fingers hard that a hearing took place. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012 4:48:58 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [2]

This weekend workshop is full of video classes, live chats and virtual exhibits where you’ll learn strategies and resources to boost your research. Because it’s web-based, you can participate from anywhere, at any time during the weekend.

Get details on the conference program here.

The conference takes place 9 a.m. Friday, March 9, to 11:59 p.m. Sunday, March 11, 2012. You get a three-day, all-access pass to watch 15 prerecorded video classes and participate in live chats. 

Expert instructors include Lisa Louise Cooke, Thomas MacEntee, Diana Crisman Smith, Nancy Hendrickson, Lisa A. Alzo and others.

Register now for the Spring 2012 Virtual Conference and get the early bird rate of $149.99 for entire conference—use promo code FTUVCEARLY when checking out.

Want a taste of what you'll experience?

• Here's a snippet from one of the Summer 2011 Virtual Conference classes, on city directories.

• And here are some of the brick wall research tips I picked up in the Summer 2011 Virtual Conference "Pick Thomas’ Brain: Ideas on Creative Approaches to Genealogy" live chat session.

Thursday, January 12, 2012 10:00:40 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• PBS' Winter-Spring 2012 lineup includes a 10-episode celebrity genealogy series called "Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr." premiering Sunday, March 25 at 8 p.m.
  

Gates will delve into the genealogy and genetics of famous Americans including Kevin Bacon, Robert Downey, Jr., Branford Marsalis, John Legend, Martha Stewart, Barbara Walters and Rick Warren. The show's website is here, though is hasn't yet been fleshed out with any content.

• A few updates to the genealogy web search engine Mocavo.com: You can now upload files to your account using Dropbox; just follow these instructions on the Mocavo.com blog. Also, if you log in before you search, you can mark off Mocavo.com search results you've already looked at with an "I've Read This" button, and you can rank matches as “The Person I’m Looking For," “Maybe A Good Match," “Not Who I’m Looking For” and “Broken Link.”
  

Finally, the site has introduced Mocavo Plus, an advanced version the site's developer says will get you more-relevant matches with features such as wild card searching, date-range searching, GeoSearching (in the US) and more. Subscriptions cost $9.95 per month or $79.95 (a sale price) per year.

• The California State Genealogical Alliance (CGSA) has started two new blogs: the CSGA Blog, with a goal to keep the California Genealogical community informed, and the Csgacopyright blog, which helps the genealogical community understand copyright issues. Learn more about the CGSA on the organization's website.

• The National Archives and Records Administration has launched "Know Your Records" online videos from the popular genealogy how-to workshops hosted at its facilities on topics such as such as census, immigration and military records. Catch the videos on the archives' YouTube channel.

• The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) announced its schedule of upcoming workshops at its Boston research library. If you'll be in the area, you can learn about the library's resources, local history, researching African-American ancestors and more (NEHGS also is organizing a research trip to Belfast in May). Check out the schedule on the AmericanAncestors.org website.
  

• Genetic testing site 23andme, which provides test-takers with medical- and ancestry-related analyses, has generated some controversy in changing site policies. Now, those who let their 12-month subscriptions lapse will lose access to their Relative Finder matches, Health Reports and other features that rely on their genetic data. They'll still have access to the raw data. Read more about the controversy on the Your Genetic Genealogist blog.

Thursday, January 05, 2012 9:42:06 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Genealogy organizations Archives.com, FamilySearch, and Findmypast.co.uk, will work together on the 1940 US Census Community Project. The ambitious project aims to engage online volunteers to publish a name index to the 1940 US Census soon after the National Archives and Record Administration (NARA) releases the records to the public April 2, 2012. All three partners will provide access to the free index on their websites. You can sign up to be an indexer at www.the1940census.com.

Last month, NARA selected Archives.com to host the digitized census records. Ancestry.com also has announced it'll offer a 1940 census index and the record images free, at least through 2013.

• FamilySearch's RootsTech conference, taking place Feb. 2-4 in Salt Lake City, is open for registration. The early bird rate of $149 is valid through Jan. 13, 2012.

• The National Genealogical Society 2012 Conference, taking place May 8-12 in Cincinnati, also is open for registration. Early bird prices ($175 for NGS members and $210 for nonmembers, plus extra if you want a printed syllabus) are good through March 20.

• I saw on Dear Myrtle's blog that genealogy expert and Evidence! author Elizabeth Shown Mills now has a website where she explains her research methodologies. You can visit Mills' Historic Pathways site here.

Friday, December 16, 2011 3:26:15 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [3]

Even if you missed the conference, you can take advantage of 17 great classes, including

• Irish Genealogy Online with Rick Crume
• Finding Your East European Ancestors' Village with Lisa A. Alzo
• Build Your Research Toolbox with Thomas MacEntee
• Platting Metes and Bounds Properties with Diana Crisman Smith
• Digital Preservation for the 21st Century with Sunny Jane Morton

Virtual Conference video classes are available individually or in packages. They’re already on sale—now’s your chance to save another 20 percent. Click here to check them out.

Tuesday, December 06, 2011 10:57:44 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Findmypast.ie, the Irish website that FindMyPast.uk introduced earlier this year, has added a feature that lets you build your family tree on the site for free (you’ll need to register for a free account with the site). According to the announcement, it’s the first step in the site’s development of a fully integrated family tree program where you can store photos and historical information.

• Archives.com has partnered with Family Tree DNA to add genetic genealogy testing to its offerings. Archives.com visitors can now purchase Family Tree DNA’s Y-chromosome, mitochondrial and Family Finder tests (they’re up to 30 percent off on Archives.com for a limited time). Read the full announcement on the Archives.com blog.

• The National Genealogical Society has released its 2012 Family History Conference Program in searchable form. The conferene is May 9–12 in Cincinnati (our hometown—will we see you there?). Registration opens soon: This Thursday, Dec. 1.

Monday, November 28, 2011 12:15:58 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

These events offer the chance to take in interesting local history, nice scenery and slight spookery. You can find tours by day or night, for free or a fee (they often serve as fundraisers for historical societies).

A Google search or visiting the website of a local historic cemetery or historical society will help you find tours near you. Here are some tours around the country that my searches turned up:

• In Mississippi, there’ll be free tours at the Old Biloxi Cemetery (Oct. 25), Krebs Cemetery in Pascagoula (Oct. 27) and Cedar Rest Cemetery in Bay St. Louis (Halloween night). Read more in the SunHerald.com online news article. 

• Watch out for headless horsemen during Sleepy Hollow Cemetery daytime and nighttime tours in Sleepy Hollow, NY, taking place weekends in October. Fees vary; reservations are required. 

• Oct. 29, the Historical Society of Long Beach (Calif.) holds a nonscary tour of Long Beach Municipal Cemetery and Sunnyside Cemetery, featuring actors in period garb delivering graveside presentations (based on sources such as obituaries, newspaper articles and oral histories) about the person who lies at rest. General admission costs $18, with specials for society members and students younger than age 18.

• Riverside Cemetery (which has an online burial database), established in 1887 in Macon, Ga., holds its Spirits in October series Oct. 20-22 and 27-29, with cemetery tours and more. Advance tickets are required; admission costs $10 to $20.

• Capturing the Spirit of Oakland at Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta features nighttime tours with historical accounts from cemetery “residents” and candlelit mausoleums. Tickets must be purchased in advance; admission ranges from $10 to $17.50.

• Elmwood Cemetery in Kansas City, Mo., has a free Halloween Tour Oct. 30.
  

• Historic All Hallows Eve cemetery tours with costumed interpreters are happening on Halloween evening at Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Va. Adults: $7; children 12 and younger, $5.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011 11:04:18 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• The National Genealogical Society 2013 conference will be in Las Vegas (May 8-11).

• AncestorSync, the folks in the booth next to me, is a way to share genealogy data or sync desktop and online trees without downloading a GEDCOM and uploading it somewhere else (or manually adding the same ancestors in multiple places). So far, it works with Ancestral Quest, Legacy, Mac Family Tree, PAF, RootsMagic and The Master Genealogist desktop programs, and FamilySearch, Geni and OurFamilyology online tree sites, with more to come.

• The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania (GSP) is having a Pennsylvania Family workshop with Ancestry.com Nov. 5. Twelve presentations include experts from Ancestry.com plus additional speakers including Lisa Alzo and Dear Myrtle.

GSP also is working on a new website, so keep an eye on GenPa.

• 1,000 Memories is a website where you and relatives upload photos, audio and video, and written stories about ancestors—a way of sharing the photos that you inherited, and seeing the ones handed down through your cousin Edna’s branch.

• Sort Your Story is software that helps you organize your data and digitized documents. You enter your data in the software’s profiler and use the software to organize documents. The profiler also helps you see what information you’re missing for each person in your tree.

• JustaJoy.com is a service that links orphaned heirlooms with the families that originally owned them. The site works with antiques dealers who have items with family connections—currently, it lists items associated with 40,000 families. You can search the site to see what’s associated with your surname, but you need to join to view information about the listings.

Friday, September 09, 2011 9:06:04 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [14]

We had a great tour guide, a National Park Service ranger who says his colleagues call him Ranger Santa in December (you'll see why a few pictures down).

Here’s the house Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln bought in 1844. They lived there until Lincoln was elected president, when they rented it out and moved to Washington, DC. Robert Lincoln, their only surviving son, kept the home as rental property and donated it to the state of Illinois in 1887.

Here’s the house as it looked in 1860, in a historic image on display at the visitors’ center.

This is the Lincoln’s doorbell.

The rear parlor is where a committee from the 1860 Republican convention formally notified Lincoln he’d been nominated as the party’s presidential candidate.

In the living room, Lincoln would sprawl out on the floor (most of the furniture was too small for him) with his kids and the family dog, Fido.

Upstairs in Lincoln’s bedroom, Santa Ranger pointed out how high the 6”4’ Lincoln’s shaving mirror was hung.

The stove in the kitchen at the back of the house is the one Mary Todd Lincoln used. Our guide pointed out some of the log cabins Lincoln lived in as a boy were no bigger than this kitchen.

The last Abraham Lincoln descendant, Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, died in 1985. He was the grandchild of Robert Lincoln, the only son to survive into his 20s.Think you're related to the Lincolns?

Get a quick look the Lincoln family tree here.  You can see more detail on Abe Lincoln's ancestors here. Click the links for first generation (Abraham Lincoln), second generation (his parents, Thomas and Nancy Lincoln), etc.

These websites will help you research potential presidential roots.

Here’s a fun fact our guide shared: Abraham Lincoln didn’t have a middle name. Find other First Family facts here.

Wednesday, September 07, 2011 9:28:23 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [4]

Participating museums include such history-related sites as the 1810 Goundie House in Bethlehem, Pa.; Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum in Springfield, Ill.; Brooklyn Historical Society in Brooklyn, NY; Museum of Women's History in Billings, Mont.; and the Historic New Orleans Collection in New Orleans.

You’ll need to fill out an online form and select the museum you want to visit from a dropdown menu, and you’ll get your admission ticket via email.

Print the ticket and take it with you when you visit. Each ticket is valid for two people to visit one venue, and there’s limit of one ticket per household.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011 1:38:28 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1]

If you missed it, you can order the Virtual Conference video classes for on-demand viewing at ShopFamilyTree.com. 

One of my favorite parts of the conference was the live chats, which buzzed with research tips, questions and inspiration. For example, Thomas’ Saturday evening chat, Pick Thomas’ Brain: Ideas on Creative Approaches to Genealogy, was chock full of advice.

I’ve pulled some comments from the chat to share here (I made some edits and added topic headings so the Q&A is easier to follow).

On brick walls:

• Thomas: First, very often I think what we call a brick wall isn't really a brick wall . . .
  
  
• Joan: What do you mean by a brick wall not being a brick wall?

• Thomas: To me it is a matter of perhaps not having all the right tools at one's disposal. Or it could be a matter of going back and rechecking spelling, surname variations, etc.

• Allison FTU: A true brick wall is when you have exhausted every possible avenue for research and there is no more information

In many cases, what we refer to as a brick wall is really just an exhaustion of ideas

• Patricia: A Brick Wall to me is having a timeline just end with no leads. Just solved 2 of my brick walls by reviewing current finds in detail as if I was looking at the finds for the first time.

On ancestral adoptions:

• Terri: My brick wall is my grandmother, born and adopted in 1900. I thought her SS application might help, but she apparently fibbed on the application! Gave her adopted info as official
  
  
• Kerry: I've used church records to find babies who were baptized prior to their adoption. Not all were adopted at birth.
  
  
• Allison FTU: If you know what area she was born in, you might try guardianship records.
  
  
• Terri: Are guardianship records civil records, private institutions, what?
  
  
• Allison FTU: Guardianships are typically court records. So you do need to know which county to look in.

On going beyond well-known resources:

• Carol: I have a line that went to Nebraska. FamilySearch and Ancestry seem to have nothing and GenealogyBank only later years. Any links for Nebraska?

• Thomas: What time period? Were they Homesteaders?

• Carol P: Late 1800s to early 1900s

• Thomas: Last night I did a GeneaBloggers Radio episode mostly on Nebraska. 

• Allison-FTU: Also take a look at Nebraska State Historical Society, one of FTM's "best state websites"

On ordering ancestors’ vital records:

• Mary Ann: When I look for birth, marriage, and death certificates in the US, I am taken to sites where it is free for 7 days and then you pay. Is there a good site to find these certificates?

• Thomas: I personally don't recommend those sites. In most cases, if you know how to order them directly from the state or county, it is better and cheaper. What do others think?

• Mary Ann: Yet, the states’ [vital records office websites] are sending me to those sites.

• Kerry: I totally agree; I'd much rather order directly from the source.

• Terri: I have seen some states that use a private online payment service for their records, but there's generally an option to pay the vital records office directly.

• Thomas: I want to share an odd tool from the Centers for Disease Control of all places—Where to Write for Vital Records! 

• Allison FTU: It's also available to download as a PDF 

• Kerry: Some states (Minnesota, for instance) house records at the state historical society, and you can order (and in some cases, view) them online.

• Thomas: Did you know that some societies have a vital records service where they will, for a much cheaper fee, pull the records? Illinois State Genealogical Society does this for Illinois Death Certificates.

• Mary Kay: Or borrowing microfilm from your local FHC.

On hard-to-trace immigrants and F.A.N. clubs:

• Christine: Ancestor arrived in 1750 from Rotterdam, based on PA baptism records which are German Lutheran—don't have a clue where to start across the pond. Strategy much appreciated....

how to get from point of departure (Rotterdam) in 1750 to where he might have lived...

• Thomas: Have you tried the F.A.N. club approach? Friends, Associates, Neighbors?

Elizabeth Shown Mills uses that F.A.N. club term all the time.

Last night on my radio show, Gail Blankenau from Omaha who specializes in German Parish Records used the term "10 up and 10 down" meaning always go up 10 lines from what you've found and down 10 lines as well.

• Allison-FTU: Christine, have you heard of something called manumission records?

In Germany during the time period, emigrants had to pay a tax to be released from serfdom. The resulting records are manumissions

There's an often-referenced index to German manumissions by Werner Hacker ... let me see if i can find a link

• Christine: Would they have been microfilmed by the Family History Library?

• Allison-FTU: Yes! Check out this page on the FamilySearch wiki for more info 

• Thomas: I just found this for Germans to America  

On online research tools:

• Thomas: Want to let you know that my entire research toolbox is on my Destination: Austin Family blog

Tuesday, August 23, 2011 9:50:10 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [6]

• The thousands of new record images at FamilySearch.org this week include testaments (wills) from Cádiz, Spain; US military records for Louisiana and Washington; and North Carolina estate files. The collections for Canada, Italy and Poland also were updated. Here’s the announcement from FamilySearch, with links to the updated collections. 

• The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) has a free mobile app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. You can use it to access information on FGS news and events (such as the conference coming up Sept. 7-10, in Springfield, Ill.), FGS Radio, the Voice FGS blog, and webinars. You also can interact with other users via Facebook, Twitter and e-mail.

• By the way, tomorrow, Aug. 20 is the last day to register online for the above-mentioned FGS conference, add luncheons and dinner events to your registration, or purchase a printed syllabus.
  

Friday, August 19, 2011 11:08:38 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [17]

Seven reasons to register:

• You can improve your genealogy skills by taking 15 video classes (see the conference program here)  

• Your all-access pass lets you download the videos to watch again later (or see them for the first time if you missed one), as well as download PDFs of the presentation slides

• Join live chats with your instructors (see the chat schedule here). And I hope to meet you in the chat with Family Tree Magazine editors Friday at noon.

• Tour the virtual exhibit hall (answer quiz questions to be entered into prize drawings).

• You’ll get a virtual swag bag of freebies from ShopFamilyTree.com

• Log in any time during the conference to watch classes or chat (9 am Friday, Aug. 19, to 11:59 pm Sunday, Aug. 21)

• Participate from anywhere you can access the internet

Thursday, August 18, 2011 9:53:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [4]

• Congratulations to Lisa Louise Cooke, podcaster and blogger at Genealogy Gems (and Family Tree Magazine podcast host). Appadvice.com named Lisa’s Genealogy Gems Podcast app a must-have in the Hobby category of its AppList. Appadvice.com reviewers called it “a great resource for both amateur and professional Genealogists … The interface is easy to use and the type and controls are larger, making this application ideal even for older users.”

The Genealogy Gems podcast app features streaming of the Genealogy Gems podcast, plus show notes and bonus material. It’s available for the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad (at the iTunes store) and Android phone (in the Marketplace).

• FamilySearch added 4.3 million record images this week, nearly half of those to its Hungary Civil Registration, 1895–1980, collection (my husband is a quarter Hungarian, so this moves up his tree a few notches on my to-do list).
  

Other new records come from Austria, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Panama, and the US. Note these record images aren't yet indexed, so you'll need to browse them. See the updated collections and link to them from here.

• The California Genealogical Society and Ancestry.com are putting on an Ancestry Day Nov. 5 in San Francisco. It’ll include classes, Ancestry.com experts to answer your questions and one-on-one consultations with genealogists. The early bird price ends Oct. 5. You can register here. 

Friday, August 12, 2011 12:00:13 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [6]

• Genealogist Michael Hait has started the Ancestry Errors Wiki to keep track of the site’s “errors in imaging, programming or organization.” For example, one contributor noted that on Ancestry.com, “In the 1840 U. S. federal census, the city of Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky, is incorrectly listed in Edmonson County, Ky.”

You can search the wiki or use a drop-down menu to find errors by state. Have you discovered such an error? Click here for instructions on adding a page to the wiki.

• Ancestry.ca now includes UK Railway Employment Records, 1833 – 1963, a collection containing the employment-related records of British railway workers dating back to the early 19th century. These records from the British national archives give employee names, home station, date of birth, information on their career progression, salary increases, rewards, conduct, and notes from superiors. Search the database here. 

• Switzerland genetics company iGENEA reconstructed Egyptian pharaoh King Tutankhamun's (aka King Tut) DNA profile based on a 2009 study of his DNA. The company determined King Tut belonged to the Y chromosome haplogroup R1b1a2, the most common Y-chromosome haplogroup in Western Europe—meaning half of all men in Europe are related to him.
  

But less than 1 percent of Egypt’s modern-day residents belong to this haplogroup, according to iGENEA, and it’s unknown how King Tut’s ancestors got to Egypt. The company is hoping its search for King Tut’s closest living male relatives will lead to an answer. If you order a test from iGENEA and match King Tut on 16 markers, the site promises your money back and a free upgrade. 

• The 31st annual International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) conference starts next Sunday, Aug. 14, in Washington, DC. Online registration is closed, but you can register on-site. Click here for more information. 

Friday, August 05, 2011 1:06:05 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [4]

• Stanford University has put together a cool visual timeline of US newspaper publication from 1690 to today, using data from the Library of Congress Chronicling America newspaper directory. The map shows where newspapers were published during various years and eras, with different-sized and –colored city or town markers to indicate the number of papers published there and foreign-language newspapers. Click on a marker and the names of papers published there appear below the map.

Here’s more information on our blog about Chronicling America. Genealogy expert Timothy Pinnick recommended the site as a resource for finding African-American newspapers in our February 2011 podcast. 

• If you’re escaping the heat inside tonight and wondering what to do, give GeneaBloggers Radio a listen. The weekly Friday night internet radio show, hosted by Thomas MacEntee, starts at 10pm EDT, 9pm CDT, 8pm MDT, and 7pm PDT. Tonight’s episode is about capturing your personal family history. Click here to learn more about it and tune in. 

• Tomorrow, July 30, the National Archives’ College Park, MD, research rooms will be closed due to construction. 
  

• Traveling to the National Archives in Washington, DC, in September? Look into attending the archives’ genealogy programs on Freedom of Information Act requests (Sept. 6), military records (Sept. 7), census searching strategies (Sept. 10) and more. On Sept. 10 from noon to 4 pm, you can make a 20 minute appointment with an archivist for individual help. See the list of September programs and descriptions here.
  

Friday, July 29, 2011 9:57:36 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [9]

More about those live chats -- Virtual Conference registrants get exclusive access to live chats with our genealogy experts. No fancy software is needed—just log on to the conference and join a live session. All chats are text-based and 30 minutes long. If you can’t join a live session, no worries—all chat transcripts will be saved in the conference area for you to read at your leisure. We just posted the live chat schedule, so check it out!

PS: Diane is out on vacation this week, so I apologize for the brief radio silence. We could never be as prolific as the original Genealogy Insider!
Family Tree University | Genealogy Events

Wednesday, July 20, 2011 5:35:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [5]

From 9 a.m. Friday, Aug. 19, to 11:59 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 21, you get a three-day all-access pass to watch 15 pre-recorded video classes and participate in live chats. We’ll also have a digital swag bag, ongoing message board discussions, an exhibit hall and opportunities for attendees to win prizes.

Because the conference is web-based, you can participate from anywhere there’s a computer with internet access. Join in every day or anytime during the weekend as your schedule allows.

Here's a sampling of the video sessions:

• Google Surname Search Secrets with Genealogy Gems founder Lisa Louise Cooke 

• Build Your Research Toolbox with GeneaBloggers and High-Definition Genealogy founder Thomas MacEntee  
  

• City Directories: Key to Your Family’s Past with genealogist Maureen A. Taylor (aka the Photo Detective)
  

• Finding Your East European Ancestors’ Village with genealogist Lisa A. Alzo
  

MacEntee and FTU instructor Nancy Hendrickson will be conference supermoderators, joining in on message board discussions and live chats all weekend.

Tuition for the Virtual Conference is $199, but you can use promotion code VCS11 to get the early bird rate of $149 through this Friday, July 15.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011 11:31:46 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [5]

Anthony, now a junior majoring in music at West Coast Bible College in Lancaster, Calif., has just been awarded the Suzanne Winsor Freeman Memorial Student Genealogy Grant. (Can we spot ‘em or what?)

Here's Anthony:

He was introduced as the grant winner during a banquet at last week’s Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank.

You can read our 2008 article on Anthony Ray here and see the press release about the Suzanne Winsor Freeman grant here. 

Friday, June 17, 2011 10:24:23 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

We're planning our Family Tree University Summer 2011 Virtual Conference to give you an intensive dose of genealogy education without leaving home (or the library, or your sister’s house, or the table at the coffee shop where you’ve parked your laptop). 

The Virtual Conference is an online workshop from Friday, Aug. 19, to Sunday, Aug. 21, 2011. Attendees get an all-access pass to view 15 pre-recorded video classes and participate in live chats. You can join in every day or as your weekend schedule allows.

Classes are organized into three tracks:

• genealogy technology
• research strategies
  
• ethnic research

A detailed list of classes and instructors is coming soon.

You’ll be able to download classes to watch again later or access ones you’ve missed, and you'll get a swag bag of ShopFamilyTree.com goodies.

Stop by Family Tree University for more Virtual Conference details and our early bird discount code on tuition (good until July 15). 

Thursday, June 16, 2011 11:08:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [7]

• The Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree is going on now in Burbank, Calif. Visit the Geneabloggers blog for links to the latest blog posts and tweets about the conference. 

• GenDetective, a trip-planning and reporting tool for genealogists (see our initial report about GenDetective here), is now available for download as a 10-day free trial or for purchase. 

• The Red Star Line Museum (set to open in 2013) and its hometown of Antwerp, Belgium, are trying to identify a young passenger in one of the museum’s photographs. The "Do You Know This Girl?" campaign has a blog, Facebook page and a contest you can enter to win a trip for two to Belgium. See the mystery photo and learn more about the "Do You Know This Girl?" campaign here. 

• The National Archives is holding a “I Found it in the National Archives” contest from now until Aug. 9. Just submit an essay or video about an important document you discovered at a National Archives facility. See how to enter and get the contest rules on Archives.gov. 

• Ancestry.com and the Allen County (Ind.) Public Library Genealogy Center are holding an Ancestry Day genealogy fair in Fort Wayne, Ind., July 22-23. You can consult with experts from Ancestry.com and attend classes on using the site. Registration costs $20. Learn more on the Genealogy Center’s blog. 

• Manassas, Va., is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the First Battle of Manassas (also called Bull Run) with an event July 21-24 featuring battle re-enactments, living history demonstrations and more, including an appearance by Patrick Gorman (Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood in the 2003 film Gods and Generals). Learn more and purchase tickets at ManassasCivilWar.org. 

Friday, June 10, 2011 10:02:14 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

Attendees can choose from 130 class sessions covering a range of ethnicities and geographies, technology tools and research at traditional repositories. The focus ranges far beyond Southern California, as most of today’s Southern Californians have roots someplace else.

Even if you’re not a paid attendee, you can attend a JamboFREE session on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. Several sessions also will be presented as free webinars for up to 1,000 registrants.

In the exhibit hall, which also is free to the public, you can browse 70 commercial vendors—look for the friendly face of Family Tree Magazine's own Allison Stacy. A Society Row in the convention center lobby lets you see what genealogical societies and heritage organizations have to offer.

Allison also will be a guest on Lisa Louise Cooke’s live Genealogy Gems Podcast, Sunday June 12 at noon. There’ll be giveaways, so plan to be in the audience in the “big tent” (seating is first come, first served, and you'll want to arrive early—the event filled to capacity at last year's Jamboree).

Jamboree preregistration is closed, but walk-in registration is available for all three days, or just for one day (there are separate rates for Southern California Genealogical Society members and nonmembers). You’ll find links to those rates here (look under Jamboree Registration)

Keep up with conference news on the Jamboree Blog and on Twitter (the conference hashtag is #scgs11).

Monday, June 06, 2011 4:02:56 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

This free site from GeneaBloggers has profiles and presentations of genealogy speakers, a calendar of speaking engagements, calls for papers for upcoming genealogy conferences, and posts about building speaking skills.

E-mail GeneaBloggers if you’d like to post your genealogy speaker profile to the site.

If you’re looking for a speaker for a genealogy society meeting or other event, you can browse the profiles here or use the search box at the top left of the site to type in a genealogy topic or a speaker’s name.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 9:06:34 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• The new iPhone app BillionGraves.com (1BGraves) lets you contribute to the site’s gravestone image database while on the road. Even without the app, you can add transcriptions to the site's online database. On the site, you can search gravestone records by person or cemetery (it looks like few stones are recorded yet, but you can find cemeteries listed with maps showing their locations).

• The entire 1930 Mexico Census is now complete on FamilySearch. This indexing project started in September2007 and encompassed 13 million records. 

• Here’s an update on a smaller genealogy subscription site you may not be familiar with: Family Tree Connection, launched in 2003, is approaching 2 million records. The names were transcribed from more than 5,400 documents including Masonic lodge rosters, military rosters, insurance claims, tax lists, orphanage records, club and society member lists, prisoner logs and mug shots, school catalogs, yearbooks, railroad employee information, rural telephone directories, church member lists and more.
  

• Ancestry.com has added new US WWII Navy Muster Rolls (1938-1949) and a US Navy Cruise Books Index (1918-2009) to its military records collection.

• Among the New England Historic Genealogical Society’s (NEHGS) upcoming events is Come Home to New England, a weeklong educational event featuring research opportunities, individual research consultations, lectures and more. It takes place June 13-18 at NEHGS’s Boston headquarters. Learn more on the NEHGS website. 

Friday, May 27, 2011 9:30:35 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

Start by following @AskArchivists on Twitter (you'll need a Twitter account, of course). Then on June 9, tweet your question and include the hashtag #AskArchivists. You can direct your question to any archivist who’s joining in, or to a specific participating archive—for example, including @USNatArchives in your tweet directs your question to the US National Archives.

Participating archives in the United States and Canada are listed here (the list is still growing). So far, they include the National Archives, Library of Congress, New York Public Library, North Carolina State Archives, Association des archivistes du Québec, Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, plus many college and university libraries.

Get more Ask Archivists Day details on the Ask Archivists blog, and of course, by following @AskArchivists on Twitter.

Monday, May 23, 2011 11:14:51 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• We’re hearing there's great attendance at this year’s conference, and that the first two days in the exhibit hall were crowded.
  

• The 2012 NGS conference is May 9-12 in Cincinnati (also the hometown of Family Tree Magazine) and the 2013 conference will be in Las Vegas.

• FamilySearch has set an annual goal to add 200 million record images to its free online records search. Its 2012 RootsTech conference will be Feb. 2-4 in Salt Lake City.

• Archivist of the United States David Ferrerio, speaking at the NGS opening session, said that the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is digitizing the 1940 census in-house and it’ll be available—but not yet indexed by name—on on NARA's website April 2, 2012. It won’t be on any commercial websites on that date.

• Ancestry.com will begin indexing the census records as soon as they’re available and will post the indexed records online later in the year, the company announced at a conference reception.
  

Dick Eastman has posted his copious notes from the reception. Some things that caught my eye: the new genealogy Web Search, US Navy Ship Muster Rolls 1939-1949 (coming on Memorial Day), more US birth and death records, a faster record image viewer, a new Android app, and the ability to download data from your Ancestry tree to version 2012 Family Tree Maker software.

• See this GeneaBloggers post for the latest NGS-related tweets and blog posts.
  

Friday, May 13, 2011 4:14:05 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• GenDetective software, a release from RumbleSoft Inc., analyzes your genealogical data and makes research recommendations based on missing or incomplete data. You can generate reports based on a location, time period, family line or individual, and print or view them on an iPad, iPhone, PDA, Droid smart phone or tablet (Xoom), Kindle, eBook reader, net book (mini), or laptop.
  

A feature I think looks especially useful: If you’re visiting somewhere for business, vacation or genealogy, you can create a research itinerary for that locale.

• Many genealogists have family information in their genealogy software and online, and don't want to update their trees in both places. If that's you, AncestorSync could be what you need.
  

This utility, from Orem, Utah-based Real-Time Collaboration, lets you synchronize your family tree, source documents, citations and notes across all your computers and your online tree (the developers have partnerships with online tree sites FamilySearch, Geni and ourFamilyology). You can download, upload, or synchronize your tree “without anyone or anything getting lost in the process,” according to the announcement.

AncestorSync supports program formats including Ancestral Quest, Legacy Family Tree, Personal Ancestral File and RootsMagic, and will soon support The Master Genealogist and MacFamilyTree. It’ll be available in June for a $15 annual fee, and is PC- and Mac-compatible

Tuesday, May 10, 2011 9:24:54 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

• As part of its annual conference next week in Charleston, SC, the National Genealogical Society will offer a one-day Genealogy 101 session on Saturday, May 14, from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Registration costs $50. Online registration is closed, but you can register at the door. Space is limited, so get there early.

• A new organization has formed with the goal to provide in-depth genealogical education in the Mid-Atlantic region and nationally. The Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) is planning a weeklong genealogy seminar for Monday, July 23 through Friday, July 27, 2012, in Pittsburgh. Learn more on GRIP’s website.

• If you’ll be in the Washington, DC, are next week, you can learn how to research the National Archives’ records of Union and Confederate Army units and Navy ships at one of two free workshops: May 10, 11 a.m. at the Washington, DC, Research Center; or Thursday, May 12, 11 a.m. at the College Park, MD, research center. Learn more on the National Archives’ events page. 

• FamilySearch has added more than 2 million digital images to its record collections come from Brazil, Chile, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Switzerland, U.S., and Wales. More than 1.7 million of those images were added to the Brazil Civil Registration collection, and 346,000 church records were added for Honduras. The record images aren’t yet indexed, so you’ll need to navigate to the collection of interest on FamilySearch and browse the images. You can see the list of updated collections and link to each one here. 

Friday, May 06, 2011 3:26:44 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

The Civil War Trust is coming out with another smartphone “Battle App,” this one helping tourists locate and learn about historic sites at the Fredericksburg battlefield. Download and learn more about this app and the Devil’s Den & Little Roundtop app at CivilWar.org.

Want to attend the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank, Calif., June 10-12? You could win a registration from GeneaBloggers. Click here to learn more and enter. 

Friday, April 29, 2011 2:47:34 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

Family Tree Magazine will be in exhibit hall booth 131 with a selection of our CDs, books and South Carolina research kits.

Attendees can log into their NGS accounts and download the conference syllabus as a PDF. 

A free trolley will run from the seven convention hotels (Embassy Suites, Holiday Inn, Hilton Garden Inn, Residence Inn, Hyatt Place, Crowne Plaza and Hampton Inn Airport) to the convention center.

Local research opportunities include the South Carolina Room at the Charleston County Library and the South Carolina Historical Society, both in Charleston’s historic downtown. See more Charleston and South Carolina research sites here. 

The conference isn’t downtown, but NGS is organizing group tours of Charleston for a fee. 

I was lucky enough to visit a few years ago, and IMHO it’s totally worth taking the time out (or adding to your trip) to see local sites such as Fort Sumter, Rainbow Row, The Battery, Waterfront Park and Magnolia Plantation. To get to Fort Sumter (this Civil War sesquicentennial year would be a great time to go), you can take a ferry from downtown Charleston. 

Planning to go to the conference? Here are some tips on how to get ready and what to bring.

Friday, April 29, 2011 9:07:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Searching for an ancestor’s marriage in England or Wales from 1837 to 2005? This is your week. To mark the occasion of Britain’s royal wedding, Ancestry.co.uk is offering free access to its English and Welsh marriage indexes through April 30. The records from 1837 through 1915 already were free, but this is a good chance to search for 20th-century marriages. You’ll need to set up a free registration with the site to access search results.

• The Federation of Genealogical Societies is debuting an Internet radio show dedicated solely to genealogy societies. It’s called My Society, and it’ll air every Saturday from 2-3pm Eastern (1-2pm Central, 12-1pm Mountain, 11am-12pm Pacific) starting tomorrow, April 23. To listen, go to www.blogtalkradio.com/MySociety (under Upcoming Broadcasts, if you click the blue “more” link, you’ll see a phone number you can use to call into the show).

• The Southern California Genealogical Society has created an interactive smart phone app for the Genealogy Jamboree conference, taking place June 10-12 in Burbank, Calif. The app lets you review lecture sessions and add them to your calendar, search for exhibitors on a trade show floor map, get news updates and more. Download it using the links provided in the conference blog. 

• Genetic genealogy testing company GeneTree.com has introduced a series of specialty DNA tests including Extended Y-Chromosome Haplotype, X-Chromosome, Autosomal STR, and Y-Chromosome SNP test for Haplogroup Classification. Click here for more information about what each test can do.

Friday, April 22, 2011 4:22:17 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the new and innovative RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City. (Check out my blog about it here.) The wide range of family history and technology developer classes was something we really haven’t seen in mainstream genealogy conferences. And the exhibit hall was hands-down the most exciting high-tech genealogy space (and most expensive!) that family historians have ever seen.

It was quite amazing considering it was a first time event for FamilySearch. As Jay Verkler commented in my interview with him, they fully expected to make a few mistakes here and there, and strive for continuous improvements. The commitment has been made: RootsTech will be an annual event, and it will just get better and better.

While FamilySearch’s RootsTech roared onto the genealogy scene, it was the Who Do You Think You Are? Live event in London (Check out my blog about it here.) that featured a simple and yet very effective technological component: hands-on computer access.

As I scoured the vast aisles of the Olympia Conference Centre, everywhere I looked attendees were not just browsing exhibits, but they were also interacting with them. While there were banks of computers provided by FamilySearch in both the Internet Café area and the Family History Library area of the exhibit hall at RootsTech, a hands on experience was not the norm at most vendor booths. Of course, the challenge for vendors is that power hookup at events like these can be quite costly, and yet exhibit stalls from the largest to the smallest seem to be able to pull it off at Who Do You Think You Are? Live.

Having the ability to put their hands on keyboards, test drive software, search for ancestors kept attendees fully engaged and prolonged their stay at each stall. The level of engagement achieved at WDYTYA? Live is a great role model for future RootsTech conferences. Perhaps FamilySearch can work to negotiate lower fees in exchange for a larger number of power and Internet hookups. As so often happens with technology, it’s the access and hardware that tend to be the biggest hurdles, as there is no lack of interest or innovation!

And speaking of innovation, check out my newest video interview with Mike Dowdle of GenerationStation. Mike is the perfect example of someone who saw a need, had an idea, and succeeded in converging technology and family history into a cool new website tool.

You can view many more videos recorded at the RootsTech 2011 conference at the the Genealogy Gems Podcast Channel at YouTube.

Friday, March 11, 2011 10:10:53 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

Once again, the Who Do You Think You Are? Live show in London attracted thousands of eager visitors anxious to learn more about their family tree. It was my great pleasure to not only participate as a speaker this year, but also to report on the event for the Genealogy Insider.

The exhibition hall was packed for WDYTYA? Live.

According to Else Churchill, genealogist for the Society of Genealogists in the UK and organizer of the society’s workshops at the event, BBC Magazines Bristol has purchased a major share of the show from Brand Events, who has organized it for the last five years. The new owners will be managing the event from this point forward, and they are already busy making big plans.

I was very excited to bring a technology topic to the event with my Make Google Work Harder for Your Family History workshop. On the heels of RootsTech, WDYTYA? Live will be looking toward technology and social media and their role in genealogy, expanding those topic areas next year.

Lisa teaching her Google workshop at WDYTYA? Live.

Churchill and her team worked tirelessly to organize the Society of Genealogists workshops, and their Ask the Expert booth, spearheaded by Lori Weinstein, was a big hit once again. I participated in a 2 hour shift on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed working one on one with eager attendees.

Visitors also really appreciated the expanded gallery area upstairs and from what I could see, they made very good use of it. They found more room to roam in the military and photographic exhibit areas, plenty of tables and seating (where my husband and I held an impromptu family reunion with three other distant British Cooke cousins!), and even a pasty pie stand (which, of course, I felt obligated to taste test – yummy!).

One of the unique aspects of WDYTYA? Live is the inclusion of celebrities profiled on the BBC TV series "Who Do You Think You Are?" Monty Don ("Gardener’s World"), Hugh Quarshie ("Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace"), and celebrity chef Ainsley Harriott kept audiences riveted as they recounted their personal family history journey.

Additional News:

• The British Library announced its digitization of the India Collections
• Deceased Online has added Scottish MIs
• FindMyPast.co.uk will be adding transcriptions of Scottish census records only
• The Genealogists is adding war memorials
  
  

Ancestry.com scanning booth

Lisa with Photo Detective Maureen A. Taylor.

Association of Scottish Genealogists and Researchers in Archives booth

Lisa interviews a representative of the Western Front Association.

Wednesday, March 02, 2011 9:14:25 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1]

In this edition of my guest post for the Genealogy Insider I’m reporting from the Who Do You Think You Are? Live event in London, which runs Friday, Feb. 25, through Sunday, Feb 27.

While I could spend time telling you about the huge booths and displays of the genealogy giants like Ancestry.uk, FamilySearch or Find My Past, I think it would miss the mark on conveying what is truly unique about this particular event. It’s the “little guy” – the local society, volunteer organization and fledgling online start-up – that fills the vast majority of the exhibit hall. Here are just a few that stood out as I made way up and down the aisles:

Discover Ireland
“Genealogy butler” and professional genealogist Helen Kelly sat down with me at the Discover Ireland booth to talk about the countless number of people they have helped trace their Irish ancestors and then make the journey to the homeland. Their free booklet “Tracing Your Ancestors” in Ireland walks family historians through doing research on their own in the U.S, heading online to tap into digital records, hiring professional help as needed, and tips for making the trip and walking the green grass of Ireland in person.

“We have to be quiet sometimes,” says Kelly, “…we have to sit in the landscape and then the stones can speak to us.” Kelly made a compelling case for making the journey “back to the community that nurtured your ancestors.” While many things have changed, you can still experience the accents, landscape and culture that enveloped your ancestors.

Kelly summed it up this way, “We are not just part of our people, we are also part of our landscape.” Stay tuned to my Genealogy Gems podcast, where you will hear my entire conversation with this inspirational expert on discovering Ireland.

Lisa talks with Helen Kelly about tracing Irish roots.

Western Front Association
If you have an ancestor who served during the Great War, the Western Front Association may have just the resources and expertise you are looking for. Founded by historian John Giles in 1980, the association has grown to include thousands of members around the world. Their historical information officer is available to help with research questions, and their publications and unique record holdings make them an ideal resource.

War Memorials Trust
As I approached their booth, a woman named Nancy welcomed me and explained the simple yet vital purpose of the War Memorials Trust: to monitor the condition of war memorials and to encourage protection and conservation when appropriate. They also strive to provide expert advice to war memorial projects across the UK, to act as the specialist organization for war memorial conversation issues and to facilitate repair and conservation through grants. I was pleased to see organizations in attendance that play a vital role in empowering all of us to help preserve our precious history.

Friends of the MPHC
Do you have a bobby in your background? If so, the Metropolitan Police have a resource for you! The Met Collection encompasses artifacts previously hidden from view. The permanent public display at the Met Collection heritage center rotates from the 17,000 items that make up the collection including uniforms, photos, police equipment and a vast database of records. You can visit the collection in person at The Annex, Empress State Building, Empress Approach, Lillie Rd., London SW6 1TR (a 2 minute walk from the Brompton tube station) or visit them online at the Friends of the MPHC website.

With such a variety of fascinating topics and experts to learn from, it’s no wonder that over 17,000 people have bought tickets to attend the three-day event. Next week I’ll have a complete wrap up for you on the Who Do You Think You Are? Live event. 

Saturday, February 26, 2011 6:22:50 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1]

With all the anticipation of the first ever RootsTech conference, it’s hard to believe it’s already come and gone. Here are some highlights from this year’s conference that I hope inspire you to attend next year. (Block out February 2-4, 2012 on your calendar!)

Microfilm Distribution: As a member of the media, I had the rare opportunity to see how hundreds of thousands of microfilm rolls make their way around the world each year.  The Family History Library distribution center is the size of 19 football fields and stores 725,000 film copies, each copy averaging 100 feet in length.  Films are stored in huge automated shelving systems holding trays of film that are tracked and accessed by computer. Even though there is a goal to digitize all microfilms held by the FHL, there will always be a need for microfilm distribution because of copyright restrictions. 

Inside the microfilm distribution center at the Family History Library.

Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner: One of the winners at this year’s conference was the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner. Many a happy genealogist clutched their new portable workhorse, and those that didn’t already have one were muttering quietly that they really needed one. Having acquired a Flip-Pal scanner myself not long ago, I can say that the buzz was warranted. Look for the Family Tree Magazine review of the Flip-Pal scanner in our May issue, on newsstands March 8.

The Media Center:  I felt a bit like Maxwell Smart in the Cone of Silence from "Get Smart," as I conducted interviews in the glass cubicles at the center of the exhibit hall. The cubicles weren't sound proof, but they provided a convenient place to record audio and video while still capturing the ambiance of the place.  One of my first interviews was with Patricia Van Skaik of the Cincinnati Public Library, who won the Most Distinguished Presenter award for her Saturday presentations. The media center was a stroke of genius on the part of the organizers. It gave podcasters and bloggers the room and tools we needed to get the word out.

Lisa interviewing Patricia Van Skaik in the media center.

Interviews: Curt Witcher, manager of the genealogy deptartment at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Ind., also sat down with me for an in depth interview. He sees technology converging with genealogy, and his keynote address was quite a hit from sounds of between-session banter. Watch our conversation below:

You can see more from RootsTech at the Genealogy Gems YouTube channel. Click subscribe while there and you can receive email notification as they are posted.

Virtual Presentations Roundtable: I wrapped up the whirlwind three-day conference as a panelist in the Virtual Presentations Roundtable. Thomas MacEntee pulled together a panel of experienced webinar presenters, including editor of Family Tree Magazine Allison Stacy, Photo Detective Maureen Taylor, DearMYRTLE, Geoff Rasmussen and Marian Pierre-Louis.  Not only did we provide tips on how societies can hold their own virtual presentations, but the session itself was a virtual webinar.  And to top it off, the RootsTech folks streamed the session live on the RootsTech website!

RootsTech made a bold leap onto the conference scene, and from every indication, it’s here to stay.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011 11:13:43 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [2]

1. Navigate to a website where you want to save a portion of a page.
2. Under the Start menu click All Programs.
3. Click on the Accessories file folder.
4. Select Snipping Tool.
5. The tool pops up in a small window on your screen.
6. Drag the cursor around the area you want to save.
7. Click the Save icon in the window, name the image and save it to your hard drive.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011 9:58:29 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1]

The $99 early bird registration ends Jan. 15 for the RootsTech 2011 conference, taking place Feb. 10-12 in Salt Lake City. Learn more about the conference and register on the RootsTech website. 

RootsMagic is offering several free webinars to help you use your RootsMagic genealogy software. You can view the available classes and register on RootsMagic.com. Classes are limited to the first thousand people; a recordings will be available for viewing after a class takes place. 

Ancestry.com has made Family Tree Maker For Mac available for download from the new Mac App Store for $99.99. Learn more about the program at FamilyTreeMaker.com. The software also is available from Ancestry.com’s online store. 

A TV show in the works is looking for “families who reinvent traditional dishes to reflect their unique cultural backgrounds and their love of American cuisine.” The show also seeks family stories that revolve around food. See the casting call and instructions for responding on the Geneabloggers blog. 

The British genealogy subscription website Findmypast.co.uk has published more than 9 million records from the Society of Genealogists in London. They include Boyd’s Marriage Index (1538 to 1840), Boyd’s London Burials (1538 to 1872), Faculty Office Marriage License Allegations (1701 to 1850), Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills Index (1750 to 1800) and more. You can search indexes and transcriptions with a FindMyPast subscription or pay-per-view credits, then order copies of some original records from the Society of Genealogists. More of the records will become available during 2011.

Monday, January 10, 2011 9:33:30 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

The application requirements and instructions are on Levenick’s The Family Curator website. 

We get questions pretty regularly about how to interest younger kids in genealogy. You’ll find our suggestions in these free articles:

• Genealogy activities for kids 
• Genealogy family fun
  
• Interviewing Grandma and Grandpa 
• Ancestral occupations match-up game for kids 
• Family Tree Kids! (brought to you by Family Tree Magazine) 

Now I’d like to open it up to you: What genealogy projects have you done with your kids, grandkids or students? What are your tips for holding their interest? Click Comments to share your ideas.

Thursday, January 06, 2011 4:55:07 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1]

• FamilySearch has added records to its overhauled website, including the Social Security Death Index, US state censuses and vital records, and records from Canada, Spain and Venezuela. Click here to see the full list  and search the collections here. 

• FamilySearch also has started several new volunteer indexing projects, including US censuses, tax and vital records, and its first project in Polish. See the FamilySearch blog for details on each project and a contact link if you can volunteer.

• FamilySearch’s RootsTech conference, taking place in Salt Lake City Feb. 10-12, has announced its lineup of keynote speakers. They include two technology types you might not expect to hear at a genealogy conference—Shane Robison, Executive VP and Chief Strategy and Technology Officer for Hewlett-Packard; and Brewster Kahle, founder of Internet Archive (where you’ll find digitized books and the Way Back Machine, among other delights)—as well as Curt Witcher, manager of the nationally known Allen County (Ind.) Public Library Genealogy Center (which has digitized documents and databases on its website); and Jay Verklar, CEO of FamilySearch International. Learn more about these speakers and get conference details on the RootsTech website. 

• British genealogy site Genes Reunited has added the original householder schedules for the entire 1911 UK and Wales census. The records are available by subscription or on a pay-per-view basis.

• A.C. Ivory, one of the young genealogists profiled in the November 2010 Family Tree Magazine (in one of my most favorite articles I’ve worked on), has given his Find My Ancestor website and blog a new look. You’ll find new downloads and resources, a new logo, easier navigation, social media integration and more.

• Those named to new positions in the genealogy world include Matt Wright as editor of the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ electronic quarterly, FGS FORUM; and Laura Murphy DeGrazia and Karen Mauer Green as co-editors of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society’s New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. 

Monday, January 03, 2011 5:26:38 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Online registration is now open for the National Genealogical Society (NGS) 2011 Family History Conference. The conference will be May 11–14 at the North Charleston Convention Center in Charleston, SC.

Registration for the full event ranges from $175 to $245, depending whether you’re an NGS member, whether you make the early bird deadline (March 11), and whether you want a printed syllabus. You also can register for a single day of the conference, which costs $95 to $115.

• Tickets also are on sale for the Who Do You Think You Are? Live! 2011 show Feb. 25-27 in London. This event, affiliated with the British version of the “Who Do You Think You Are?” tv show, draws about 10,000 attendees. To save a little on tickets, follow the discount code link Kimberly Powell gives on her About.com Genealogy blog. 

• Family networking site MyHeritage.com has launched Family Tree Builder 5.0, the latest version of its free genealogy software. New features include to-do lists, a Tree Consistency Checker (helps find mistakes in your family tree data by automatically identifying errors and inconsistencies in 40 categories), improved privacy settings, support for your DNA test results, custom reports, and the customizable family tree charts announced recently.

Learn more about Family Tree Builder at MyHeritage.com.

• The New England Historic Genealogical Society, which announced its new AmericanAncestors.org site in August, has officially deactivated the NewEnglandAncestors.org website (the old URL redirects to the new site). You can get a tutorial on searching the AmericanAncestors.org databases in the March 2011 Family Tree Magazine, on sale Jan. 11.

Friday, December 03, 2010 2:08:44 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

Organizers of the conference, taking place Feb. 10-12 next year at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, aim to bring together creators and users of genealogy technology to accelerate innovation in the field and “define the future of genealogy.”

FamilySearch RootsTech chair Anne Roach and marketing magazine Anne Harrison, who talked about the event at last month’s Blogger’s Day, say it’ll educate technology users on the best technological practices and applications to use in their research, and educate software developers on the best technological solutions to genealogical problems.

Attendees can improve their genealogical know-how through classes, hands-on workshops, “birds of a feather” discussions and technology demonstrations that cover

• Using social networking to collaborate as families and genealogical societies

• Using cameras, scanners, and other preservation devices in your research

• Using cloud computing

• Using mobile devices and smartphone applications in your research

• Handwriting recognition and automated transcription

• Using web search engines and other finding tools GPS mapping for cemetery research, finding ancestral homes and more

• Leveraging records digitization and preservation techniques and programs

• Capturing your research in a range of media, and converting files from medium to medium

• Understanding new genealogy markets

… and more. Opportunities for dialogue will include an “unconferencing hall” where anyone can give a spontaneous presentation. Roach said there will be classes for the technology novice (though people who have never used a computer might struggle), and the syllabus will indicate which classes best suit which skill sets.

A few sessions will likely be broadcast free on the conference website; in the future, a virtual attendance option might be available.

RootsTech combines the BYU Conference on Computerized Family History, the BYU Technology Workshop, and the FamilySearch Developers Conference into one event.

Registration costs $99 per person until Dec. 31, with a student rate of $35. The regular fee rises to $150 on Jan. 1. Conference hotel rates are $89 per night if you book in time.

Tuesday, November 02, 2010 11:19:59 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• If you can’t find your ancestors in the 1910 US census on subscription site Ancestry.com, you might want to give it another try. Ancestry.com has updated the collection with new images and an improved index that includes more alternate names. The updated index combines the old index with a new one keyed from the new images. Read more on the Ancestry.com blog.
  

• BackupMyTree, the free genealogy file back-up service that debuted last month, has added support for Reunion for Mac. Although the BackupMyTree software still works with only Windows, users of any operating system can manually upload files—now including Reunion files—through their web browser. Next week, BackupMyTree will add support for The Master Genealogist software, as well as a feature that allows users to include and exclude files in bulk.

• Genetic genealogy testing company GeneTree is offering two new services designed to help you maximize your genetic genealogy testing efforts. If you buy a DNA Makeover report ($14.95), GeneTree staff will translate your Y-chromosome or mitochondrial DNA results from another lab into a GeneTree profile. For the Family Tree Diagnostic Service (also $14.95), a GeneTree consultant will review your family tree to find relatives you should consider having tested and what tests they should take to help you achieve your research objectives.

• Leland Meitzler, organizer of the Salt Lake Christmas Tour annual research trip to Salt Lake City, announced that genealogy technology and social networking expert Thomas MacEntee will present eight classes during this year’s tour. A few topics are Building a Research Toolbox, Facebook for Genealogists, Build a Genealogy Blog, and Twitter: It Isn’t Just “What I Had For Breakfast” Anymore. The tour takes place Dec. 5 through 11, and you can register here. 

• The Pennsylvania State Archives will close from Monday, Oct. 18 through Feb. 3 of next year for renovations. The $250,000 project will expand and modernize the lobby and public research areas. (Plans are still in place, though, to eventually replace the facility, which has water leaks and lacks environmental controls and fire suppression system.) Staff will continue to respond to telephone, e-mail and postal inquiries during the closure. You can download the press release as a PDF from the archives’ website.
  

• Remember to register for our free, beginner-oriented 10 Steps to Discover Your Roots webinar, taking place tomorrow (Saturday, Oct. 16) at 2 pm Eastern Time. You’ll get a confirmation e-mail with a link to log in and instructions on how to participate in the webinar. (I suggest logging in several minutes ahead of time in case your computer needs to make any updates to watch the webinar.)

Friday, October 15, 2010 3:39:31 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Tomorrow, Sept. 25, is Museum Day, when participating museums across the country give free admission to those with a Museum Day ticket (one ticket per household). Click here to get your ticket and find a museum near you.

• The California Family History Expo is coming up Oct. 8-9 in Pleasanton, Calif. The exhibit hall is free, but you must register ($65 in advance; $75 at the door) to attend classes. Here’s a neat option for those who can’t go to the whole conference: If you’d like to attend just a few classes, you can do so for $12 per class. Register on the Family History Expos website. 

• The FamilySearch Beta site has added nearly 2 million new digital images of historical records this week from the Dominican Republic, Italy, Jamaica, Spain, and the United States.

Note that not all of the new records are indexed yet, which means that they’re not included in the search, so you may need to browse. Use the filters on the left side of the Collection List page to navigate to the country, then possibly the type of record and/or province, then select the record set you want to browse.

• Starting Oct. 1, the Georgia State Archives will change its research hours to Thursday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.—a move made necessary because of budget issues. You can see the announcement on the archives' home page.
  

Friday, September 24, 2010 1:10:01 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1]

• Tuesday, Aug. 17: 11:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
• Wednesday-Friday, Aug. 18 - 20:  9:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
• Saturday, Aug. 21: 9 a.m.-7:00 p.m.

Thursday, August 05, 2010 9:49:20 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1]

• You can license one of our pre-recorded webinars for as little as $100, depending on the size of your group.
  
  
• You can have a Family Tree University instructor deliver a live webinar (giving your members the opportunity to ask questions) starting at $250.
  

Thursday, July 15, 2010 9:45:41 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

Some 20,000 people attended the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints-sponsored Celebration of Family History Thursday night in the LDS Conference Center Auditorium.

 It was a spectacular presentation that combined music from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square, video shorts showing real people talking about what family history means to them, and talks from LDS president Henry B. Eyring and historian David McCullough. McCullough is the author of the books The Johnstown Flood, 1776, John Adams and others. Each element flowed smoothly into the next, in a seamless and inspiring program.

This is a picture I took with my phone before the celebration got underway:

One of my favorite moments came after a video about a man whose family came to appreciate their Scottish heritage when one young son decided to take up the bagpipes. The video’s sound faded as the choir launched into Amazing Grace and out marched a quartet of bagpipers—including the real live boy in the video, now all grown up.

Hearing McCullough was a real treat. Growing up in Pittsburgh, he said, all the kids would make gravy lakes in their mashed potatoes, use a fork to break the side and say “Johnstown Flood” as the gravy flowed into the peas—having no idea what they were talking about. That tragic flood was the topic of his first book.

At dinner time in the 1940s, his hard-of-hearing dad (who detested president Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and his equally hard-of-hearing grandmother (who believed that next to Jesus, FDR was the best human being to walk the earth) would debate the New Deal at unforgettable levels.  

McCullough spoke about the importance of history and the wonderfulness of journals as sources. If you want to be immortal, he advised the audience, keep a journal, and when you think the curtain’s about to come down on your life, give it to the Library of Congress. Your journal will be famous because it will be the only one in existence from this era.

To get to know your ancestors, besides studying their records and reading what they wrote, you should read what they read, McCullough said. There’s no such thing as a self-made man or woman—we’re all made from the people before us and the people before them and the people before them. There’s no such thing as the “forseeable future,” our ancestors no more knew how things were going to turn out that we know.

The phrase shouldn’t be “gone but not forgotten,” he said, but rather, “if not forgotten, then not gone.”

You can read more about the Celebration of Family History here  and here , and see a  video about it here. 

Friday, April 30, 2010 10:24:57 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

During the morning rush at our National Genealogical Society booth today, someone looked at the July 2010 Family Tree Magazine and said “Oh, I saw your guy!”

What guy? I’m pretty sure we didn’t bring a guy.

A little while later, Sherlock Holmes walked into the booth. It was Tim Firkowski, a professional family history detective (and creative marketer) dressed to promote his business, The Genealogy Assistant. 

In a purely coincidental turn of events, Tim looked exactly like our July cover! See:

Thursday, April 29, 2010 12:00:31 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

After setting up Family Tree Magazine’s booth in the National Genealogical Society conference exhibit hall here in Salt Lake City, editorial director Allison Stacy and I stopped by the Family History Library today.

The place was buzzing with activity! Researchers were busy at almost every computer terminal and microfilm reader. (I surreptitiously took these pictures on the second floor, which has US and Canadian microfilm.)

To help everyone get the records they need, the library is extending its hours, staying open until 11 pm Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (the library normally closes at 9 on those days).

We’re looking forward to seeing lots of researchers in the exhibit hall!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010 10:03:03 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Wear comfortable shoes. You’ll be walking to classes (I've even seen tardy folks running), through the exhibit hall, to a lunch locale and to the car or your hotel.
  
  
• Dress in layers and bring a sweater in case the rooms are too hot or cold.
  
  
• Carry a water bottle and a snack. Bottled water is pricey, as are concessions can be pretty expensive, too.
  
  
• You’ll meet a lot of people you want to keep in touch with. Bring business cards with your e-mail address, Facebook username and other contact information. Add the surnames and places you’re researching, too.
  
  
• Bring extra address labels, too, so you can stick them on entry forms for drawings in the exhibit hall.
  
  
• If you’re attending the conference alone and everybody else seems to know somebody, remember that genealogists are a friendly bunch. Just say hi and introduce yourself. Another great opener is “Where are your ancestors from?”
  
  
• Take some time before the day’s classes start to learn where the classrooms are. That way, you won't miss the first 10 minutes because you couldn't find the room.
  
  
• Try to get to classes a few minutes early to find a seat and get settled. Sessions may fill up fast.
  
  
• Not sure which class to attend? Ask fellow conference goers, who may have seen the same speakers or lectures you’re considering.
  
  
• Plan ahead for any genealogy research you want to do and be sure to pack all the charts and records you need, whether on paper or in digital form.
  
  
• In the exhibit hall, first take a reconnaissance walk and mark on your booth map all the exhibitor tables you want to return to. Check off each one as you visit it, but be sure to leave time for browsing. If you have a bunch of questions for a vendor, plan to stop by when everyone else is in class so you'll get the most personalized attention.
  
  
• A good question to ask when you visit a vendor booth: "What's your show special?" If you got a goody bag when you registered, look through the contents for coupons.
  

• Some exhibitors pack up early on the last day to catch flights or hit the road, so don't leave important business or must-have purchases for the very end of the event.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 1:55:37 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• The main event is the National Genealogical Society annual conference—where your friends at Family Tree Magazine will be in booth 510—is April 28 to May 1. Advance registration is now closed, but you can register at the door, and the exhibit hall is free. The conference will feature a special Gentech exhibit hall focused on genealogy technology, workshops for beginners and international researchers a Saturday kids camp and more.

There’s also a Celebration of Family History Concert with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Thursday, April 29 at 7 pm, and the Family History Library will extend its hours throughout the conference.

• Brigham Young University's Conference on Computerized Family History and Genealogy will be April 26 and 27. Classes cover topics such as FamilySearch online tools and resources, searching online databases, creating family websites, using genealogy software and more.

• The university’s Family History Technology Workshop, scheduled for April 28, is a daylong forum for discussing current and emerging research on technology in genealogy.

• The FamilySearch Developers Conference on April 27 is for software developers who want their products to work with FamilySearch’s online tools.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010 1:37:16 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Going to the National Genealogical Society conference starting April 28 in Salt Lake City? Stop by the Generation Maps exhibit hall booth Wednesday, April 28, from 2 to 5 p.m., for a Family ChArtist debut party. They’ll have refreshments, discounts, drawings, and demos of this online service for creating family trees.

• Archives.com (formerly GenealogyArchives) released a free internet search feature that scours several online genealogy resources, such as FamilySearch. To use this search, go to Archives.com and run a search on the homepage (if you’re a member of the site, you must be logged out). Web results will be listed below a summary of Archives.com results.

• You can get a seven-day free trial membership to search Archives.com’s own collection of 1.2 billion records and create a family tree on the site. Regular subscriptions cost $39.95 per year.

• British subscription and pay-per-view genealogy site Familyrelatives.com released a new batch of school and clergy records. School records might range from student registers to mini-biographies. Clergy lists name 200,000 members of Anglican and Catholic clergy for England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.
  

• The Library of Congress will preserving every public tweet since Twitter’s inception in March 2006—that’s billions and billions of Tweets. See the library’s announcement for more details and some interesting discussion.

Friday, April 16, 2010 1:05:26 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• searching the online catalog ahead of time and printing the listings of books and microfilmed records you need (see our tips for searching the online catalog).

Note that catalog listings with the notation “Vault” mean that particular roll of microfilm is kept in the Granite Mountain Records Vault. You’ll need to call or e-mail at least three days ahead of time to have these items sent to the library (for contact numbers and the e-mail address, click this link and see tip number 6).

• preparing a prioritized research to-do list. Put book look-ups near the top, since these don’t circulate to your local FHL branch Family History Center (FHC). In my FHL research sessions, I’ve found doing book lookups a nice break when microfilm scrolling gives me a headache.

• updating your family tree charts (whether on paper or in software you plan to take along on your laptop, PDA, USB drive or other device). Also gather paper or digital copies of the records you’ll need to refer to.

• familiarizing yourself with the FHL’s hours, floor plan and researcher guidelines. Photocopier information is here. Also study the FHL’s advice on preparing for a visit.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010 4:57:53 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Follow Emmitt Smith as he discovers his roots on tonight's episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" 8 p.m. eastern on NBC.
  
  
• Looks like the US version of "Who Do You Think You Are?" will air in Britain on BBC once it's finished its run on this side of the pond, according to the Scottish Genealogy News and Events blog. (Apparently the British version of the US version of the British show will be slightly different.)
  
  
• About.com Genealogy's Kimberly Powell reported this week on Minnesota's Official Marriage System index, a searchable online index that launched last month. Dates of coverage vary by county but go into the 1800s for many.
  
  
• Family history will take center stage in Salt Lake City during the week of April 26, 2010, with four genealogy conferences taking place simultaneously. You can save yourself some travel funds and attend all the conferences in one trip. The marquee event is the National Genealogical Society's Annual Conference, returning to Salt Lake City for the second time in 25 years. Also scheduled are FamilySearch's Developers Conference for software developers, as well as Brigham Young University's Conference on Computerized Family History and Genealogy and Family History Technology Workshop.

Friday, March 12, 2010 9:24:28 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Our Georgia Roots blogger Luckie Daniels (one of the Family Tree 40) spent part of Thursday tweeting during a close encounter with "Faces of America" host Henry Louis Gates. Read how Luckie asked Gates about highlighting the genealogy of “ordinary people,” who, she said, represent America’s greatest strength—and stay tuned for the follow-up. 

• The National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC, is holding its sixth annual Genealogy Fair April 14 and 15th. Look for free classes and workshop, as well as a "Help! I’m Stuck!” table staffed with genealogy experts. Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, author of the “Who Do You Think You Are?” book, will present a talk April 14 at 7 p.m. Also appearing is Andrew Carroll, editor of the books War Letters and Behind the Lines.

• The state of Georgia announced a partnership with Ancestry.com to offer grants for local governments and historical repositories. Eight organizations will receive up to $10,000 in scanning services. Ancestry.com will digitize and index records and make them available to subscribers. Repositories will receive digital copies of the records and index; they can make the index public immediately and the index after three years.
  
  
• In other Ancestry.com news, the site's version of the Social Security Death Index will now be updated every week.
  

Friday, March 05, 2010 2:41:15 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1]

• Heritage research toolkits (these contain both Plus and free articles)

• Passenger Arrival Lists (free article)

• Heritage research guides (available as digital downloads) and our Passport to Europe CD from ShopFamilyTree.com

Thursday, February 11, 2010 9:36:13 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• I hope you didn't travel to Washington, DC, for genealogy research this weekend. Because of a snowstorm predicted to deliver up to 24 inches of snow to the area, the National Archives research rooms in DC and College Park, MD, closed at noon today, Friday, Feb. 5, and remain closed on tomorrow. The Library of Congress closed at 1 pm today and will stay closed Saturday.
  

• British subscription and pay-per-view genealogy site FamilyRelatives added 5 million new parish records with information on baptisms, marriages and burials in counties in England and Wales, dating from the early 1500s to almost 1900.

• FamilySearch is producing a short film based on a Hawaiian woman’s search for her grandmother, a resident of the Molokai Leper Colony, to show at this year’s National Genealogical Society conference. The conference takes place April 28 to May 1 in Salt Lake City and features FamilySearch-sponsored special events (you can read about them on the conference blog).

• Registration is open for the 30th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Los Angeles July 11 to 16. Registration costs $265 (pay another $150 for a spouse/partner) until May 1. Student discounts are available, and you can purchase single-day registration. Click here to see pricing.
  
  
• Israel-based family networking site MyHeritage has acquired OSN, a network of 10 family sites (including Verwandt.de in Germany, Moikrewni.pl in Poland, and the Dynstree.com in the United States). According to the announcement, the acquisition makes MyHeritage the world's largest international netwrok dedicated to families. Read more about what this means for the geenalogy industry on Craig Manson's Geneablogie. 
  

Friday, February 05, 2010 2:05:53 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1]

• Registration is open for the Southern California Genealogical Society’s annual (and popular) conference, the Jamboree, happening June 11-13. Check out the details and find out how to register on the Jamboree blog.

• The Library and Archives Canada announced its website will be unavailable tomorrow, Jan. 16, from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. See the original announcement here.

• Ancestry magazine, published for 25 years by Ancestry.com, will be discontinued after the March/April 2010 issue. For more information, see the staff's message on the magazine’s website.

• If you have kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, students, etc., you’ll find ideas for getting them interested in genealogy in a new video from researcher Elyse Doerflinger, who blogs at Elyse's Genealogy Blog.

• In case you missed it, NBC has announced that the US version of "Who Do You Think You Are?" will air Friday, March 5, at 8 p.m.

Friday, January 15, 2010 3:36:48 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

Welcome to our first news roundup of 2010!

• The 2010 National Genealogical Society (NGS) conference April 28 to May 1 in Salt Lake City, will highlight genealogy technology with a GENTECH Hall sponsored by FamilySearch. (GENTECH is a technology-focused genealogical society that merged with NGS in 2005.) There, nearly 100 technology-oriented exhibitors will feature software, gadgets, social collaboration sites, 60 computers for attendees’ use, and more. A GENTECH lecture track will cover cloud computing, blogs, data storage, social networking, photo editing and other tech topics. Learn more on the conference website.
  

• Genealogy Gems podcaster Lisa Louise Cooke has released the first-ever genealogy podcast app for iPhone and iTouch. The Genealogy Gems Podcast app provides users with streaming genealogy audio and video, and exclusive bonus content including Cooke’s 20 page e-book 5 Fabulous Google Research Strategies for the Family Historian. You can get the app at the iTunes app store. 
  

• Ancestry.com and the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) will sponsor a Family History Day event Saturday, Feb. 20, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Westin Copley Place in Boston. The day will include six classes, a Q&A with Ancestry.com experts, one-on-one consultations with NEHGS genealogists, and the chance to have your photos and documents scanned on professional scanners. Attendance costs $30; click here to register.
  
  
• The 55,000-member Civil War Preservation Trust announced it helped permanently protect 2,777 acres at 20 Civil War battlefields in five states during 2009. The trust's lifetime total comes to more than 29,000 acres of protected battlefield land at 109 sites in 20 states.

Friday, January 08, 2010 10:44:41 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

See more "Faces of America" clips on PBS’ YouTube channel.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010 2:01:43 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [2]

• In preparation for the Civil War sesquicentennial from 2011 to 2015, the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) and Cleveland State University's Center for Public History and Digital Humanities launched a website about Ohio’s role in the Civil War. You can submit content for several areas of the site. See the OHS newsletter for more information.
  
  
• FamilySearch updated several collections on its free Record Search Pilot site: the 1920 US census index (Texas, Ohio and Iowa were added), Massachusetts marriages, Spanish civil registers, Brazil Catholic church records, and Mexico Catholic baptisms. To see details of each collection, click the appropriate region on the site’s map, click the collection title, then click About This Collection.
  
  
• Pedigree database site OneGreatFamily created a page to help you discover Mayflower ancestors. You’ll find a list of passengers and information about their journey, and if you have a tree on the site (requires a subscription or a free trial), you can see if your branches match up with a Mayflower tree. Follow the directions on OneGreatFamily's Mayflower page to get started.
  
  
• If you’re going to the National Genealogical Society (NGS) annual conference in Salt Lake City April 28 to May 1, NGS has arranged air travel discounts of 2 to 7 percent with Delta/KLM/NWA, and car rental discounts of 8 percent with Thrifty. See the NGS website for how to take advantage of these deals.

Friday, November 20, 2009 1:41:39 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• recordings of past webinars
• Family Tree Problem Solver

Monday, November 09, 2009 5:54:44 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Databases recently updated or added in FamilySearch’s free Record Search pilot include the Indiana marriage index, Netherlands parish registers (images only so far), 1920 US Census index, Brazil Catholic church records (images only so far), and Italy municipal records (images only so far).

To see details of each addition, click the relevant region on the Record Search Pilot map. Then click the title of the collection in the alphabetical list. (Look for more FamilySearch search tips in the January 2010 Family Tree Magazine, on newsstands Dec. 15.)

• Dick Eastman started a free site called GenQueries for posting your surname research queries (for example, “Seeking information about Eugene and Lilly WOODFORD family, lived in Marion Co., Indiana, in 1900”). You also can advertise genealogy services or societies, and search others’ ads. Read about GenQueries on Dick’s blog.
  

• I read about this on the ArchivesNext blog: The Amsterdam, Netherlands, city archives has a scan-on-demand program. You can search the archives’ online records inventory, and if a particular item hasn’t been scanned, ask staff to scan it. You also can search an index to find already-scanned records. There is a fee to obtain a scan, which helps fund the program.
  

• Genealogy and family networking site MyHeritage launched a Family Statistics feature for the family tree sites on MyHeritage. The feature generates statistics, such oldest living relative or most common birth month in the family, based on data in the tree. Family Statistics works for sites on the free basic plan as well as the paid plans.
  

• Registration is now open for the 2010 National Genealogical Society (NGS) annual conference, April 28 to May 1 in Salt Lake City. Registration fees range from $175 to $245 for the full conference, or $95 to $115 per day—it depends whether you’re an NGS member, whether you want the syllabus in print or on a CD, and whether you make the March 8 early bird deadline.
  

Friday, November 06, 2009 12:24:18 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• We wrote about ethical wills (last statements concerning personal values rather than property) in the September 2008 Family Tree Magazine. (Family Tree Magazine Plus members can read the article here.)
  

Ready to get started on one? Personal historian Dan Curtis is offering a free, seven-part online course on writing an ethical will for your heirs.

• The 2010 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy, five days of family history classes happening Jan. 11 to 15, is taking registration. Learn more about the schedule, registration fees and course descriptions on the Utah Genealogical Association website.
  

• We don’t hear a lot of news about Chinese genealogy in the United States, but there’s an article about China's ancestral halls on the Wall Street Journal website. (Thanks to Tom Kemp of GenealogyBank for sharing this link.)

Discover more resources for Chinese genealogy in these Genealogy Insider posts.

• The new Amelia Earhart movie is getting tepid reviews (from what I’ve seen, anyway), but the real-life details of her 1937 disappearance might be more interesting. Ancestry.com’s "Reports of Deaths of American Citizens Abroad" collection contains a case file of correspondence concerning an investigation into the theory that Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, were imprisoned in Saipan. Find out more about the case on Ancestry.com’s blog and on Ancestry.com's “What really happened to Amerlia Earhart?” page.
  

• Genetic genealogy company DNA Consultants has added a blog to its revamped website; posts review news and research on dna testing and popular genetics. That involves some complex scientific terms and concepts, so put on your genetic genealogist hat when you visit.

Friday, October 23, 2009 4:08:48 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Today’s the last day to get the $55 early bird registration special for the Mesa Family History Expo, Jan. 22-23 in Mesa, Ariz. If you miss the deadline, you still can save by preregistering for $65. Admission at the door costs $75. The exhibit hall is free to the public.
  

• Those with African-American roots, mark your calendars for the International Black Genealogy Summit at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Ind., Oct. 29 to 31. It’s the first gathering of African-American historical and genealogical societies from the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. Watch this blog for more details.

• On his Genealogy Blog, Leland Meitzler reported on the SwedGen Tour, in which a team of Swedish genealogy experts is stopping at several research facilities to give presentations on Swedish genealogy resources (including subscription records site Genline and the Släktdata vital records site)  and offer one-on-one consultations. See the schedule and preregister at the SwedGen Tour site.
  

• I came across a neat blog today called Dear Annie. A Minnesota woman is posting 700 postcards (images and transcriptions) that her Great-aunt Annie Bartos, who died in 1983, saved during her 90 years.

Friday, September 25, 2009 2:44:31 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• The California Genealogical Society and Library in Oakland will waive its non-member library use fee and host a range of how-to workshops during October.

• Saturday, Oct. 3, the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County offers classes, Genealogy and Local History Department tours, and free consultations with Hamilton County Genealogical Society experts. More events happen throughout the month, including a library lock-in Oct. 17. See the Genealogy Section of the library’s October Calendar (a PDF download) for more details.

• The Fort Myers-Lee County Library in Florida has a free Family History Month class series on Saturdays in October. For more info, mouse over the listings on the library’s online calendar.
  

• The Indiana State Library in Indianapolis has lots of classes planned, including dating photographs, Indiana marriage laws and getting started.
  

• The Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Ind., has something going on every day in October, including sessions on house history, female ancestors and Adobe Photoshop, as well as the first-ever International Black Genealogy Summit (Oct. 29-31).
  

• Online genealogy class Web site GenClass is sponsoring a competition for a free genealogy class—write a 1,200 word essay about a creative way you’ve honored your ancestors and what inspired you. Get the entry instructions here.
  

Thursday, September 24, 2009 10:17:07 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1]

• Subscription family tree site One Great Family exhibited this year as part of a new marketing effort to reach the genealogy community.

One Great Family automatically merges trees when it finds the identical person on both, which sounds a bit scary—but where the trees differ, the site maintains the differences and each member sees the version of the tree he believes is correct. President Rob Armstrong says no one can change your view of your tree, but everyone can see your version and accept your view if they choose. A subscription costs $59.95 annually; a free one-week trial offer is available.

• A new company called Geneartogy uses your ancestors’ names and photos to create frameable, decorative trees on canvas (you also can get the designs on smaller plaques). Prices range from a $98 extra-small plaque to a $408 extra-large canvas, with an additional cost for framing.

• Next year’s FGS conference is slated for August 18-21 in Knoxville, Tenn., home of the East Tennessee Historical Society’s excellent museum and research library (and close to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park). Many classes will cover the historic and cultural roots of Tennessee and Kentucky, as well as the in- and out-migrations of those states.

(The 2010 National Genealogical Society conference, by the way, is in Salt Lake City, so you could double up on a trip to the Family History Library.)

• If you’re new to genealogy conferences, you might be curious about the long panel of ribbons dangling from some attendees’ name badges, like so:

(This is podcast host Dear Myrtle’s badge.) Ribbons designate society memberships, honors and more. All registrants got an “Ancestry.com member” ribbon (whether or not they actually were members) and first-time attendees got “First FGS Conference.” FGS board members, speakers and  genealogical societies delegates received ribbons. I got “Podcast Fan” and “Keeping up With Blogs” at a social networking forum. Some highly involved folks had to take special measures to secure their ribbons:

Wednesday, September 09, 2009 11:31:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

We'll keep keeping you updated with conference news.

Wednesday, September 02, 2009 10:27:06 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1]

• Wear comfortable shoes—you’ll be walking to classes, walking to your hotel, walking through the exhibit hall … you get the idea.

• The air conditioning always seems to be cranked up at these things, so bring a cardigan.

• Bottled water is pricey and drinking fountains can be hard to find. You can save by bringing an empty bottle to refill. (I usually bring granola bars, too. I have a thing about knowing where my next meal is coming from.)

• Bring business card with surnames and places you’re researching and your genealogy e-mail address, in case you run into someone researching your lines.
  

• Bring extra address labels, too, so you can stick them on entry forms for drawings (including ours).

• If you’re attending by yourself and everybody else seems to know somebody, remember genealogists are a friendly bunch. Just say hi and introduce yourself. If all else fails, ask the person next you about his or her ancestors—you’ll have a conversation partner in no time flat.

• Plan ahead for any research you want to do, so you can make sure you have all the charts and records you need.

• Take some time before classes start to decide which ones you want to attend and learn where the classrooms are. That way, you won't miss the first 10 minutes because you couldn't find the room.

• Take a reconnaissance walk through the exhibit hall and mark on your booth map all the vendors you want to return to. Check off each one as you visit it, but be sure to leave time for browsing.
  
  
• Some exhibitors pack up early on Saturday to catch flights and whatnot, so don't leave important business for the very end.
  

Monday, August 31, 2009 1:28:53 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1]

• Hundreds of genealogists—your truly included—are packing their bags for the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Little Rock, Ark., Sept. 2 to 5. I’ll write more about the conference in a separate post next week, but in the mean time, you can check out the conference Web site and blog.

• The National Archives’ marriage records (1815 to 1866) from the Virginia Field Office of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen’s Bureau) have been digitized and are now available free at the FamilySearch record search pilot site.

• Subscription genealogy Web site Ancestry.com and its related international sites will be down for scheduled maintenance for about three hours starting Tuesday, Sept. 1 at 1 a.m. Mountain Time. Portions of RootsWeb, Genealogy.com, MyFamily.com and FamilyTreeMaker.com—which live on Ancestry.com servers—also will be unavailable. 
  

• Mark your calendars for National Museum Day Sept. 26, when hundreds of museums across the country will offer free general admission to you and a guest when you present a Museum Day admission card, downloadable from this site.

• A Deerfield, Ill., documentarian has created a show called “The Legend Seekers,” which traces family legends of regular people. You can submit your family story at LegendSeekers.com, see others' stories and get research tips. Chicago-area residents can watch an episode on WTTW Channel 11 Aug. 30 at 12:30 p.m. and 3:30 a.m. Aug. 31. (It’ll also run on WTTW Prime—Comcast Channel 243—at 9:30 p.m. Aug. 31, and 4:30 and 9:30 a.m. Sept. 1.)

Friday, August 28, 2009 11:20:36 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• FamilySearch and Svensk Arkivinformation (part of the National Archives of Sweden) are starting a huge project to create a free online index to 418 million names in Swedish parish registers of births, christenings, marriages and burials. Volunteers will index registers from the start of recordkeeping (between 1608 and 1686, depending on the parish) through 1860.

• StoryCorps will bring its mobile oral history recording booth to the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) conference that starts Sept. 2 in Little Rock, Ark. See the FGS blog for details on booking a time slot and preparing to tell your story.

• Heritage Travel, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is launching a free online travel community called Gozaic with several “circles” for those interested in history-related travel. Those include Civil War Buffs, Abraham Lincoln, Family Heritage Travel, Journeys into Hidden America and others. Visit the pre-launch site to learn more.

• On a celebrity baby blog this week, actor/producer Lisa Kudrow describes her next project as “a genealogy series in which we take stars to their ancestral landmarks ... different countries and places where they see documents and they see homes or buildings or things that have to do with their family.” (Scroll to the bottom of the post to see the full statement.)
  

Maybe the postponed US version of “Who Do You Think You Are?” will see the light of our TV screens. (Last we heard, it didn’t make NBC’s fall lineup, but might show up as a mid-season replacement.)

Friday, August 21, 2009 12:13:47 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

• About 450 people attended a rally at the Michigan State Capitol and the State Library complex to protest Gov. Granholm’s executive order to disband the Department of History, Arts and Libraries (more on the plan here).

Read a report on the event and watch a video on the Lansing State Journal Web site.

• Jewish genealogy site JewishGen, which is in the midst of a redesign, is showing off a new, streamlined home page and a Get Started feature for beginners. Though many JewishGen databases are now searchable as free collections on Ancestry.com, you still can access them through JewishGen.

• The Family History Expo in Sandy, Utah, is right around the corner, Aug. 28 and 29. Hone your genealogy skills in classes on everything from Google to formulating a research strategy, and browse dozens of exhibitors (say hi to Family Tree Magazine editor Allison Stacy in booth 202!). Get more details and register at FamilyHistoryExpos.com.
  

Friday, August 07, 2009 12:43:17 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• First, a reminder that if you plan to subscribe to Footnote or renew your subscription, stop procrastinating. The $59.95 annual subscription sale ends at midnight tonight (July 31). Also tomorrow, the membership rate goes from $69.95 to $79.95 per year.

• Another reminder for those who’ve been meaning to search the Caribbean slave records on Ancestry.com—the free period ends tonight. More on this collection here.
  

• Speaking of Ancestry.com, the new Member Connect features—which let you comment on and correct records, as well as get in touch with other members—went live this week. Click here for more on Member Connect.

• The FGS 09 conference is just a month away, Sept. 2-5 in Little Rock, Ark. Get news updates and registration information from the conference blog, and when you’re there, stop by to see us at the Family Tree Magazine booth (#407).
  

• This from Dick Eastman’s blog: The British national archives and UK-based family history site Findmypast.com are giving seven repositories in England and Wales free online access to the recently completed 1911 census records. See Dick's post for the list of archives.

Friday, July 31, 2009 2:19:19 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• New records this week on the free FamilySearch Record Search Pilot  include an index to Cheshire, England, Non-conformist records (1671 to 1900), and index to the 1895 Minnesota state census, and images for the 1905 New York state census (the index is still in progress).

New indexing projects are underway for Italy, New Zealand, Perú and the United States; volunteers who can help with foreign language projects are needed. Go to the FamilySearch Indexing site for more information.

• Library and Archives Canada’s online Canadian Genealogy Center—one of our 101 Best Web Sites for 2009—released an index of 206,731 Canadians naturalized from 1915 to 1932. You can use the information in the database to request the original naturalization records.

• The International Association of Jewish Genealogists conference is coming right up Aug. 2-7 in Philadelphia. Besides genealogy classes and an exhibit hall, you can use a Resource Room stocked with research materials and computers. Extracurriculars include walking tours, bus tours and cemetery research trips. Visit the conference Web site for registration information.

• A Twitter retweet from @mdiane_rogers led us to a free database from professional genealogy firm Price & Associates of indentured immigrants who arrived between 1607 and 1820. You can search by first and last name, date and place of of birth, and other parameters. Sources of the information are listed on the site.
  

• Ancestry.com has upgraded its “hinting engine” for FamilyTreeMaker. Now a faster, higher-capacity engine will automatically search Ancestry.com and display a leaf next to a name in FamilyTreeMaker's pedigree and detail views if there's a potential match. The new engine also searches Ancestry Member Trees instead of One World Tree data.
  

Friday, July 24, 2009 2:25:54 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1]

• To keep tabs on this weekend’s Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank, visit the Genealogy Gems blog, Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and Genea-Musings. Twitter users can search for #scgs09.

• The Federation of Genealogical Societies 2009 conference early bird registration deadline is next Wednesday, July 1. Make the deadline and you’ll pay $175, a savings of $50. Register online or by mail (must be postmarked no later than July 1).

The conference is Sept. 2-5 in Little Rock, Ark.

• The New England Historic and Genealogical Society is organizing a few genealogy research trips, led by expert genealogists. Groups are headed to St. John’s, Newfoundland, July 12-19; the NEHGS Library in Boston Aug. 10-15; Edinburgh, Scotland, Sept. 20-27; and Salt Lake City Oct. 25-Nov. 1.

Find more details and prices on NEHGS’ events calendar.

• Keep an eye on Miriam Midkiff's city directories portal Online City, County and Rural Directories. This week, she's added links to directories from more than a dozen US states and several Canadian provinces.

• In response to a survey, FamilyLink updated its We’re Related Facebook application to let users put pets at the bottoms of their pedigree charts. (I'm not sure what the chart-with-pet looks like, so if you've done this, send me a picture.) It sounds fun—let’s just hope no one gets Bruno and Great-grandpa Charlie mixed up.

Friday, June 26, 2009 3:13:56 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

• The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) conference Aug. 2-7 in Philadelphia now has a $50 registration for people under age of 21—a great way to encourage the younger set to join in. The regular rate is $250 for the full conference.

Among the IAJGS' special workshops are a document- and photo-preservation session ($10) and the delicious-sounding Tasting World Jewish Cuisines: Turkish, Syrian, and Ashkenazi-Italkeni Recipes, with cookbook authors Sheilah Kaufman and Aliza Green ($20). Click here to register.

• Register by July 1 to save $50 off full registration for the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference Sept. 2-5 in Little Rock, Ark. Early bird registration costs $175; after July 1, it’ll be $225. Click here to register.

Bonus for early arrivals in Little Rock: A free Ice Cream Social Tuesday, Sept. 1, 3-5 pm for registered conference-goers.

The Federation of Genealogical Societies is an umbrella organization for genealogical societies. Its conference, planned in conjunction with the Arkansas Genealogical Society, features classes, an exhibit hall, genealogy field trips and banquets.

Thursday, May 21, 2009 5:33:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1]

• Genline Updates Mean More Swedish Records on the Genealogy Insider

• Sir Walter Raleigh and North Carolina Genealogy on the Genealogy Insider

• Ancestry.com: New Search and International Updates on the Genealogy Insider

• Photos From the NGS Conference on the Genealogy Insider

• News From the National Genealogical Society Conference on the Genealogy Insider

• Report From Raleigh by Dick Eastman

• Use of Online Trees Surpasses the Census at Ancestry.com on Leland Meitzler’s Genealogy Blog

• Report #4: NGS 2009 Family History Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina by Jeffrey Vaillant, on the California Genealogical Society and Library blog (use the links at the bottom of the post to read Jeffrey's other reports)
  
  
• Amy Coffin has a series of NGS 2009 posts at her WeTree blog
  
  
• NGS Day One from DearMyrtle
  

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 3:52:30 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• North Carolina GenWeb  
• North Carolina state archives
• North Carolina state library
• North Carolina Genealogical Society
• Southeastern North Carolina Genealogical Society
• Cyndi's List: North Carolina
• Access Genealogy North Carolina Index

Friday, May 15, 2009 11:41:52 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

A lot of numbers were tossed out, which the company uses to understand which Ancestry.com databases and features you use most. For example, after member-to-member messaging was moved onto the site (so instead of just sending an e-mail to another user, you send a message that’s stored in the person’s in-box on the site), members sent 25 percent more messages. Responses increased 35 percent.

Some interesting stats involved the new search interface vs. the old one. Use of the two is evenly split, with longer-time members sticking with the old interface and newer members favoring the new interface (I have to wonder if they just haven’t discovered the old search yet). “Old-search searchers” do an average of 37 searches a day, and “new-search searchers” do an average of 21 searches per day.

The guy in charge of developing a newer new search, Tony Macklin, was frank about what’s wrong with the new search (this is from my scribbled notes, so it’s not a direct quote): queries don’t always return consistent results between the two platforms, you get too many irrelevant results, browsing by place is too difficult, and the individual database search templates aren’t as customized (Macklin uses the old search for individual databases). His examples were coupled with user comments.

He said changing the search interface without changing the actual search was a mistake, and the goal is to eventually bring together the best parts of both platforms. 

Content-wise, Ancestry.com has grown to 8 billion names. Family trees recently passed the census as the most-used data set.

Some upcoming additions include the WWII “Old Man’s Draft” for Illinois, newspapers from 30 new cities, Jewish records with two new yet-to-be-announced partners, Navy cruise books, pre-1850 city directories and vital records.

In a large reception Ancestry.com held last night for conference attendees, senior VP Andrew Waite said the company is aiming for a balance of 30 percent upgrading current collections and 70 percent adding new ones—but that this figure has been more like 50/50 during the last few months.

Ruth Daniels from the UK office talked about negotiating digitization agreements in other countries, where records may be widely dispersed at state and local repositories, and laws and cultural attitudes differ around who should have access to records. For example, public access laws make UK records easier to acquire; Italy’s decentralized archives make things more challenging there. The just-released German telephone directories and records from the London Metropolitan Archives, launched in March and still being added, are two successes.

Friday, May 15, 2009 9:28:46 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1]

• Printouts of flight itinerary and hotel confirmation
• Printout of downtown Raleigh map
  
• List of appointments, meetings and classes to attend
• Conference program
  
• Tips on what to do and where to eat in Raleigh from FamilyTreeMagazine.com Forum Members
  
• Laptop plus a low-tech backup: notepad and pen
• Camera, extra batteries, USB cable for transferring photos
• Phone and charger
• Digital recorder
• Flash drive loaded with stuff to work on during downtime
• Umbrella (forecasts call for a chance of showers most days)
• Sweater to keep warm in the exhibit hall
  

Monday, May 11, 2009 10:06:18 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]