• A couple of weeks ago, I was editing our Cincinnati City Guide (look for it in the May/June 2012 Family Tree Magazine), which is where we’re based and my maternal side comes from. Birth and death certificates from 1865 to 1912, I noticed, are in an online database from the University of Cincinnati. I found my great-grandfather's birth certificate (below), along with those of his siblings.
  
  

• There's also a local index to gravestones in area German Catholic cemeteries, where I found the family's burials (I need to plan a trip there come spring).

• Then I tried out the Genealogy Today data service after I saw an announcement the Surname Search was updated. I try out resources on my family names, though I never expect much when I type in Haddad. But this time, the hit I got partially answered a longstanding question. The site has indexes from biennial reports of a Texas orphanage, which list my grandfather and his two siblings as "inmates." I knew my grandfather and his brother were there, but their sister's whereabouts at that time had been a mystery.

• Next, I Googled the report titles and discovered them listed in a finding aid on the Texas State Library and Archives Commission website. I zipped off an email requesting copies, and had the scans in less than two weeks. Next up: requesting my great-aunt's 1913 admission records. 

• I also noticed a beta collection of city directories on Ancestry.com. Texas is among the handful of states included, with several directories for Corsicana. They list my grandfather as a helper at a local bakery that's still open and is pretty famous.
  
  
  

• Another email, and I learned the bakery's records don't go back to the 20s. But I ran a web search and found a transcript of a 1971 oral history with the bakery owners cataloged on the Baylor University Libraries' website. I emailed a request and had a digitized copy of the transcript within a day. Impressive! One of the bakery owners started work there as a schoolboy, about the same time as my grandfather, and now I have an idea of what the work was probably like.
  
  
  

Monday, February 06, 2012 11:06:56 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [4]

• The Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness website, which we’ve recommended in many a Family Tree Magazine article, is offline due to the owner's computer and health issues and will be for “some time,” according to a report on Dick Eastman’s blog. Read a similar report on the Vermont Genealogy blog. 

• Arphax Publishing has announced its HistoryGeo online service, which we blogged about last month, is now available for Charter Members to join. The service gives you online access to land-ownership and other maps—for starters, all maps in Arphax’s Family Maps and Texas Land Survey Maps series. Enhancements to the Viewer and additions to the Map Library are in the works. Here’s a YouTube video that explains how the service works.
  

• If you’re visiting the National Archives in Washington, DC, you can use your phone to play a mobile history game, earn points and possibly win rewards. Go to the Scvngr gaming site to download the free iPhone or Android app  (or text CIVWAR to 728647), then complete challenges within four blocks of the National Archives D.C. headquarters. Examples include locating Civil War photographer Mathew Brady’s studio and finding Red Cross founder Clara Barton’s office. So far, you can redeem points for a discount in the National Archives Shop.

• Randy Majors announced enhancements to his Historical US County Boundary Maps site,  for helping you figure out which county had jurisdiction of the places where your ancestors lived. For example, type a place and a year, click Go, and be zoomed to that place with an information panel above the map. See what else is new here. 

Friday, October 21, 2011 2:01:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• 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]

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]

The Library of Congress and Sony Music Entertainment created the National Jukebox website with 10,000-plus rare historic sound recordings produced in the United States from 1901 and 1925.

At the press conference unveiling the site, musician and actor Harry Connick Jr. performed “I’m Just Wild About Harry” (wish I could’ve been at that press conference!). You can listen to composer Eubie Blake’s version in the National Jukebox.

Search the recordings or browse by genre, artist, target audience (where you can click to the music of Germans, Swedes, Poles, Italians, Jews and other ethnic groups). Listen to recordings on a streaming-only basis. You also can access label images, record-catalog illustrations and artist bios, and create your own playlists.

"This collection includes popular music, dance music, opera, early jazz, famous speeches, poetry and humor. It is what our grandparents and great-grandparents listened to, danced to, sang along with," says Librarian of Congress James H. Billington.

The site represents the largest collection of such historical recordings made publicly available online for study and appreciation. In its agreement with Sony, the Library of Congress gets usage rights to Sony Music’s entire pre-1925 catalog.

I enjoyed George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." What tunes are you listening to in the National Jukebox?

Thursday, May 12, 2011 12:24:33 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]

• The New Jersey state archives has released a database of 3,427 New Jersey residents named on cards recording those who died in World War I. Your search results link to the original card, sometimes with a photo, and information about the deceased and his service.

• The Digital Library of Georgia, one of the December 2010 Family Tree Magazine’s 75 best state websites for genealogy, has added the Athens Historic Newspapers Archive. You can keyword-search or browse (by title and year) five newspapers published in Athens from 1827 to 1922. 

• The Illinois State Genealogical Society (ISGS) just unveiled a new website featuring links to ISGS records projects, links to other Illinois resources and a new members-only section. Visitors also will find archived ISGS Newsletters back to 2008, listings of Illinois genealogy events, free databases and more.

• A highly combustible nitrate negative caused the evacuation of the LDS Church History Library in Salt Lake City (not the same as the Family History Library) this week. You can read more about the incident, which ended with everyone safe and sound, on Dick Eastman’s blog. How do you know if you have any of these dangerous nitrate negatives (produced between 1890 and 1950) in your home? This Now What? answer will tell you.
  

Friday, January 21, 2011 11:14:59 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

Perhaps most thrilling for Canadian researchers, Library and Archives Canada (LAC), the country’s main repository of historical records, has announced plans to put most of its services online within the next seven years—in time to celebrate the confederation’s 150th anniversary in 2017. That plan includes several goals, among them:

• Starting this year, you'll be able order digital copies of documents in LAC’s collection; paper copies will be phased out by April.

• You’ll be able to access the entire contents of the National Union Catalogue, representing more than 30 million catalog entries, using online search engines. (Learn more about the Catalogue—comparable to Americans’ National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections—on the LAC website.) 

• Over the next year, LAC will double the volume of its already exceptional online content, adding millions of genealogy images in partnership with Ancestry.ca (sister site to Ancestry.com).

The Canadiana Discovery Portal is a beta site that lets you search more than 60 million pages of Canadian content from archive collections in libraries, museums, universities and government agencies across the country. Just type a search term, such as a name, place or topic, into the box on the home page. You’ll get digitized books, photos. audio and video You can sort results by relevance or newest/oldest, and filter by language, media (image, audio or video), contributing archive or date range covered.

You can raise your glass to this: Ancestry.ca is honoring the 225th anniversary of Molson Brewery with “mug-rattling” family stories of the Labatt and Molson families, Canada’s most famous brewers. One such tale you can read about in old newspapers: Harry Markland Molson, great-grandson of John Molson, perished with the Titanic in 1912. 

If you're looking for some guidance in your Candian roots research, here are some of Family Tree Magazine’s resources to check out:

• Canada's Grosse ille immigrants (free article)
• Canadian Immigration Resources (free article)
• 10 Free Canadian Genealogy Sites (free article)
• Canadian Genealogy Toolkit (both free and Plus articles)
• Canadian Genealogy Guide Digital Download (available from ShopFamilyTree.com) 
• May 2009 Family Tree Magazine, with our guide to researching immigrants into Canada, available from ShopFamilyTree.com
  

Wednesday, January 19, 2011 11:55:24 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• The Civil War Preservation Trust, a battlefield preservation group, has shortened its name to the Civil War Trust and adopted a new logo. President James Lighthizer explains the changes will “modernize our image to better reflect the Civil War Trust’s mission.” See the new logo and read more about the change here. 

• The University of Texas at Austin has launched a new history website called Not Even Past to provide “dynamic, accessible, short articles on every field of history.” Using the Read, Watch, Discover, Listen and Texas links at the bottom of the page, you’ll find book excerpts and articles from history faculty and graduate students at the university. Content is sparse so far, but this could be a site worth keeping an eye on.

• If you have an ancestor who served during the Korean War (especially a veteran whose personnel file was destroyed in the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis), today’s Family Tree Friday post on the NARAtions blog might be of interest. The post describes Korean War-era Command Reports, which include reports, operations journals, staff studies and other documents from Army commands, staffs and units, and can help you learn about the activities of your relative’s Korean War unit.

• The nation’s largest online digitized presidential archive will provide access to papers, records, photos and recordings of President John F. Kennedy's time in office. Visit the website of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum to learn more about the digitization effort and search the archive. View the announcement about the archive here.
  

Friday, January 14, 2011 2:46:09 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

The Family History Library, located in Salt Lake City, started in 1894 with 11 donated volumes. Today it has the largest genealogy collection in the world, with 330,000 annual visitors and a staff of 700 employees and volunteers.

The library has begun surveying visitors to gauge their satisfaction with their visit. About 63 percent discover an ancestor they set out to find, and 86 percent would recommend visiting the library to a friend. The scores are better for patrons who have more genealogical experience and stay longer in the library—making the biggest area of opportunity, says Anderson, in helping new researchers.

You can borrow the library’s microfilm and microfiche by going to one of the 4,600 volunteer-run FamilySearch Centers around the country, which receive 6 million visits a year.

About 100 FamilySearch Centers are added every year, mostly in Latin America (few are being added in North America). Anderson says FamilySearch is working on a system that’ll let you go online—rather than visiting an FamilySearch Center to fill out a request form—to order microfilm for delivery to your FamilySearch Center (folks in Europe already can do this).

Because the centers are volunteer-run and have different kinds of facilities and resources, visitors will have varied experiences depending where they live. Anderson says he'd like to standardize the services offered in various types of FamilySearch Centers.

Also in the works is a plan to give FamilySearch Centers space on FamilySearch.org—perhaps the Research Wiki—to list hours, classes and what’s in their permanent collections.

Click here to learn more about visiting your local FamilySearch Center.

See my Blogger’s Day disclosure in this post.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010 2:24:53 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

• 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]

• FamilySearch.org recently added 5 million new indexed names and images to its free databases. These 48 new and updated collections come from 19 different countries, including the first records from Nicaragua and Sri Lanka. Also included are church and civil registration record from Brazil; baptism, marriage and death records from Canada; Swedish church records; vital, tax and other records from the United States; and more. You can search the records at FamilySearch beta.

• I came across a website called Tools of History, a collaborative digitization project for historical manuscripts, photographs, maps, drawings, books and artifacts from south central New York State. Among the collection sare photos of the Daughters of Charity at Lourdes Hospital, Atlases of Chemung County and something intriguing called the “murder pamphlet collection” (looks to be old books, letters, sermons and other accounts of cases in the area). Definitely a site worth exploring if you have ancestors there.

• Ancestry.com has introduced a new feature called Suggested Records that, well, suggests records for you to check. The suggested records list is being tested on results pages in the 1900 census and the WWI draft registration collections.

If the record you’re viewing has been saved to any member family trees, the list will suggest other records have been saved to the same nodes on those member trees. Randy Seaver takes a close look at Suggested Records on his Genea-Musings blog.

Friday, September 17, 2010 3:52:41 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

An 1846 Cincinnati city directory reveals that photographer Charles Fontayne operated a business in Cincinnati in 1845. In fact, in the 1840s and early 1850s he did not live in Cincinnati, but instead one mile across the river in Newport, Ky. However, he did not appear in any US census schedules until 1860. 

William S. Porter's family knew he moved to Cincinnati by 1850, but knew little about him before then, including his reason for migrating to Cincinnati. The 1849 directory reveals Porter's arrival about a year after Fontayne's, and shows Porter becoming Fontayne's business partner in a photography studio.

The photographic method of the time, the daguerreotype, was extraordinarily expensive and could only be supported by a large and prosperous city. Cincinnati was the sixth largest city in the United States, just behind Baltimore, and very cosmopolitan as revealed through the wide range of products, including luxury goods, advertised in the directories. Photographers were an elite group with only eight listed in the 1850 Cincinnati directory.

Applying the cluster strategy to the business associates led to looking for connections between Fontayne and Porter before their partnership in Cincinnati. Baltimore city directories from the early 1840s show Fontayne and Porter as business partners there. We can conclude that Porter followed Fontayne to continue the business, a successful endeavor as demonstrated by their ornate advertisement.

The Fontayne and Porter case study illustrates several of key concepts of delving deeper into city directories:

• Use the cluster strategy with co-workers. Business associates may have worked together elsewhere prior to their arrival in their current city.

• Chain migration—one individual traveling ahead to be joined later by another—can apply to occupational groups.
  
  
• Business location is important and strategically chosen.
  
  
• Business owners may have lived in a different city or state.
  
  
• Read between the years and compare information about the industry and your ancestor.
  
  
• Look to advertisements for further information about the ancestor or company, including its target audience and prosperity.
  
  
• Identification in a city directory points to new leads for genealogical sources.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010 9:53:40 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• More than 30,000 early-20th century marriage records from Troy, NY, are indexed online at the Troy Irish Genealogical Society. You can read more about the project, a collaboration between the society and the Rensselaer County Clerk’s office, at the New York History blog.

• Families is a new app for the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad that works in conjunction with  the windows-based family tree program Legacy Family Tree. You can transfer Legacy family files from your PC to your mobile device, then view and edit them. (You’ll need to download a free program called Families Sync to your PC in order to transfer the files.) Families is available at the Apple App store. Learn more on the Families website.

• The National Archives’ Prologue magazine produced a fascinating video short from a recent issue about the Magellans of the Sky, a group of eight Army airmen who set out in 1924 to be the first people to circle the globe by air. You can watch it on the archives’ YouTube channel.
  
  
• British subscription site Findmypast.co.uk has added 180,000 records to its collection of Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records. The additions cover men pensioned out of the British Army between 1760 and 1854 (their pensions were administered through the Royal Hospital at Chelsea). Records covering 1901 to 1913 are slated for release in September.

Friday, August 06, 2010 1:40:59 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

• How did the DeadFred photo-reunion website get its name? 
  
  
• Can you get copies of materials from the Library of Congress (LOC) without being there in person? 
  
  
• If I get my DNA tested, does that mean the FBI can look at my profile and compare it to criminal cases?
  
  
• How many DNA markers should I have tested?
  

• The LOC is the largest library in the world.
  
  
• It has more than 60,000 genealogies from around the world.
  
  
• It has 20 million cataloged books.
  
  
• Its unmatched US city directory collection covers 1,200 cities, towns and counties across the country.
  
  
• The library building  has 20 reading rooms.

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

Thursday, June 17, 2010 9:18:43 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Professional genealogists such as Sharon DeBartolo Carmack and Lisa Alzo
• Top website gurus such as Joe Bott of the Dead Fred web site and Dusty Rhoades of GeneTree.
• Leading librarians and archivists such as Curt Witcher of the Allen County Public Library and James Sweany of the Library of Congress

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

Tuesday, June 08, 2010 3:12:48 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

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]

The hunt celebrates the new Discovering the Civil War exhibit opening April 30 at NARA’s Washington, DC headquarters. It’ll send participants scouting for answers across the National Archives' social media sites, including more than a dozen Facebook pages and Flickr, YouTube and Twitter sites.

Visit NARA’s main Facebook page Monday for the scavenger hunt kickoff.  Those who complete the hunt and submit their answers will be entered into a drawing for four Discovering the Civil War t-shirts from the NARA gift shop.

For more details and rules, see NARA's facebook page.

Saturday, April 24, 2010 5:00:18 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Tonight is the first new episode of “Who Do You Think You Are?” in a couple of weeks. Tune in to NBC at 8/7 Central for actress Susan Sarandon’s family history journey. (Check your local listings—we’re hearing the show’s airing at different times in some areas.)

• A call to action is circling the blogosphere regarding the possible closure of the Boston Public Library’s Microtext Department and Newspaper Room. The contents would be distributed to alternate locations within and outside of the city’s Central Library. Blogger Dick Eastman, who’s based not far from the library, has more details and suggestions for taking action.
  

• The National Archives will celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month (and the upcoming Civil War sesquicentennial) May 27 at 7 pm, with a free panel discussion program called the Jewish Experience During the Civil War.
  

Friday, April 23, 2010 4:29:49 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]

• Remember that tonight's "Who Do You Think You Are?" episode repeats the Sarah Jessica Parker March 5 premiere. The next new episode will feature Susan Sarandon on April 23. Check out our "Who Do you think You Are?" category for more news and episode recaps.

• Subscription site World Vital Records has added records of Italian and German passenger arrivals from the late 1800s, mostly through the port of New York but also through Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, and Philadelphia. Note you can search these passenger records free through the National Archives and Records Administration's Access to Archival Databases service.

• The Georgia Historic Newspapers site has added a free Atlanta Historic Newspapers Archive with digitized pages from 14 newspapers published in Atlanta from 1847 to 1922. You can keyword-search the full text of the whole collection or an individual title, or browse issues by title and year. (You may need to download the DJVu Plugin to view articles.)

• The Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research in Houston, considered one of the country's best public libraries for genealogical research, is facing a reduction of operating hours due to budget cuts. Hours will likely change to 10 a.m. to 6 p.m on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and closed Friday and Sunday. (Current hours are Monday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Tuesday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

Friday, April 09, 2010 9:06:18 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    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]

At libraries and archives on the state level, you'll find birth, marriage and death records, plus state censuses, tax records, business records, county records, maps, family papers, and photographs and oral histories. Most state archives also have programs to microfilm newspapers dating back to the first issues published in the state.

While they usually focus on their own states, many of these libraries and archives also have important holdings for other states. The Sutro branch of the California State Library, for example, and the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS) house two of the nation's largest collections of genealogical books. WHS also boasts one of the largest collections of newspapers in the United States and extensive holdings of African-American and American Indian newspapers.

Every state has at least one organization in charge of preserving its heritage. Sometimes, a state library houses books, while a separate state archive stores records and artifacts. Other states preserve all these resources in a single facility, often called a state historical society. In addition to official state-run archives, some states, especially in the East, have other repositories operated by private, nonprofit organizations.

To take the best advantage of state libraries and archives, you'll want to visit in person. But even if you can't, you can still access many of these resources from a distance through interlibrary loan, the Internet and the library's reference services.

Almost every state library and archives has a website packed with useful genealogical information. Some sites, such as the Library of Virginia and the Florida State Archives, feature searchable databases and document images—with just a few clicks, you might find an abstract of your ancestor's will or digitized pages from the family Bible.

Before making a trip to the state capital, check the online library catalog for family histories, local histories and manuscripts. The site also may have a listing of newspaper holdings organized by county and town.

Many state libraries and archives make microfilmed newspapers and some books available for a small fee via interlibrary loan. Read the lending policies on the facility's website, then print the references to items you want to borrow and request them at your local public library.

Just like local public libraries, state libraries and archives offer a range of reference services. Staff may accept research requests by phone, mail or e-mail. Usually, there's no charge to answer a simple question, such as “Do you have Clay County court records from the 1880s?” But you may have to pay a fee to get an archivist to check indexes and make photocopies. Keep your question brief, and be sure to include a name, place and date, for example: “Can you check the index to the book Old Tioga Point and Early Athens by Louise Welles Murray for the name William Parry, and copy the pages where he's mentioned? He lived in Athens from 1822 until the 1850s.”

Some state library websites have a form for submitting research questions. If you need more-extensive research than staff can handle, they may have a list of area researchers for hire.

Faced with budget cuts, many state libraries and archives are reducing their services and need your support. Let your elected officials know that you value these services and want them to continue. Of course, the best way to support state libraries is to use them.

• State Libraries Directory, Alabama to Lousiana
  (these directories of state libraries are free articles)

• State Libraries Directory, Maine to Nevada

• State Libraries Directory, New Hampshire to North Dakota

• State Libraries Directory, Ohio to Utah

• State Libraries Directory, Vermont to Wyoming
  
  
• State Research Guides available on ShopFamilyTree.com as digital downloads, in a book or on CD
  

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 9:45:31 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [2]

University libraries are particularly noted for special collections of government documents, microfilm, microfiche, local history materials, ethnic resources, and rare books and manuscripts. Some universities have archives housed separately from the general library. Here's a sampling of microform collections especially interesting to family historians:

• American Culture Series, 1493-1875 (University Microfilms): publications on all aspects of American life. Here you'd find, for example, History of the Old Cheraws, about South Carolina, 1730-1810, originally published in 1867. The American Farrier and Family Medical Companion, published in 1852, gives advice on popular medical remedies.

• Confederate Imprints (Research Publications): official and unofficial publications of the Confederacy. It contains such items as the organization of the army, instructions for mail carriers, hymn books and sheet music.

• History of Women (Research Publications): publications by and about women up to about 1920. An Essay on the Education and Genius of the Female Sex (1795) and The Good Housekeeper (1839) are just two examples.

• Western Americana (Xerox University Microfilms): publications about and contemporary with each successive frontier. The Navigator: Containing Directions for Navigating the Monongahela, Allegheny, Ohio and Mississippi Rivers …, published in 1814, was a guide for travelers. Miners and Business Men's Directory for the Year Commencing January 1st, 1856 could help trace a participant in the gold rush.

Special collections often aren't indexed in the library's catalog. Be sure to ask a reference librarian about any special holdings that may aid your research.

• Links to key online library catalogs, including several academic ones, so you can plan your research session
  

• Finding your ancestors’ college records (for which you’ll want to go to the school's library)
  

• Family Tree Magazine Plus members can access the full college and university libraries article on our website.
  

Thursday, January 28, 2010 8:47:10 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [6]

• Footnote hinted on its Facebook page about a new Civil Rights-era records collection to launch in February in partnership with Gannett. Get a glimpse here.

• The free FamilySearch Record Search pilot site has added 25 million new records for Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, England, Germany, Guatemala, South Africa, Switzerland and the United States. They include 1920 US census indexes for Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Maine; 1935 and 1945 Florida state censuses; Indiana marriages and more.

• Subscription site GenealogyBank is adding 280 new African-American newspapers. The first 50 were released this month; see the titles, where they were published and the years of coverage on the GenealogyBank blog.

• The Victoria County (Texas) Genealogical Society’s website won the 2009 Website of the Year award from the Texas GenWeb Project. The Victoria County site offers local records, historical information, links to resources and more.

• Ancestry.com released the free Tree to Go iPhone app that lets you view your family tree, edit information, add relatives and upload photos on your iPhone or iPod Touch. You’ll first need a tree on Ancestry.com to use the app. Read more on the Ancestry.com blog.

• Ancestry.com also announced it’s getting rid of its Member Connections feature (note this is different from Member Connect, which was launched last year). It would let you let you enter an ancestor’s name and get a list of Ancestry.com members also researching that person, but now you can do pretty much the same thing by searching Public Member Trees.
  

• The National Archives in Washington, DC, is holding a public meeting next Friday, Jan. 29, at 10:45 am to discuss how the archives meets the needs of the research community. Get details on the NGS UpFront blog.
  

Friday, January 22, 2010 9:45:08 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• A NARA monitor—subsidized by Ancestry.com—must accompany the documents at all times. When employees go on break or leave for the day, the records are locked in a secure room.

• The transport vehicle must have a full gas tank and a specially trained driver who follows approved routes (avoiding highways and other roads that permit vehicles carrying hazardous materials) for the 10-mile trip from NARA to the scanning facility.  

• The documents must be inside when transitioned between the vehicle and the facility.

• The scanning and secure storage rooms can’t be in a basement or on the top floors of a building.

• The facility must have approved surfaces. Some paints, rubbers, carpets and other materials can “off-gass,” or emit vapors that harm documents.  

• The scanning facility must duplicate the conditions of a NARA reading room. Ink pens are banned, for example, and the temperature and humidity are carefully controlled.

• NARA’s security director reviewed the scanning facility and required some changes, such as hardening the entry points.
  

Tuesday, January 12, 2010 9:04:02 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1]

• Go to YouTube for a 3.33-minute video slideshow with photos from the inaugural Black Genealogy Summit, Oct. 29 to 31 at the Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. About 500 researchers attended the conference to learn about tracing African-American ancestors.

• Ancestry.com has a 5-minute video of some of the company’s leaders and other employees describing what happens behind the scenes to get records from archives to your computer. It’s a commercial, but interesting all the same.
  

Friday, December 04, 2009 3:18:20 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is publishing a new scholarly journal called American Ancestors Journal, which will be included as supplement in the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. It’ll contain articles with a national scope, emphasizing New York State and out-migrations from New England. You can download the first edition as a PDF here. 

Subscriptions to these publications are included with an NEHGS membership, which starts at $75 per year.

• Search three Georgia newspaper archives free at the Digital Library of Georgia: the Macon Telegraph, the Columbus Enquirer and the Milledgeville Historic Newspapers Archive (this includes several titles published in Milledgeville). You can search the full text of the papers or browse by date, and view pages with the DjVu browser plug-in.

• Subscription site WorldVitalRecords has added newspaper content from Alaska, California, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Texas, Wisconsin, Mexico and the UK. Click here to see the titles and other details. The papers are accessible with a World Vital Records subscription ($39.96 per year).

• David Ferriero was sworn in this week as the 10th Archivist of the United States. The new director of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) was formerly the Andrew W. Mellon Director of the New York Public Libraries, and he’s served in leadership positions at other academic libraries. You can read more about Ferriero on NARA's website.
  

Friday, November 13, 2009 2:04:45 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

The National Archives and Records Administration continually looks at ways to improve and increase our services to visitors and researchers. We conduct this review to ensure that we continue to provide the highest level of services to our regular clientele and to extend our services to potential users with different backgrounds and expectations. 

It's come to our attention that our researcher community may have received erroneous information about our plans for some adjustments to the Archives I research rooms. The following information is an outline of what we are considering.  

Are you reducing the size of the Finding Aids/Consultation Room?

No.  Current plans would more than double that space.

The current room on the ground floor of the National Archives Building (Room G-28) serves as the finding aids room, the consultation area, and as office space for three staff members.  The area available in this space for consultation with the public is approximately 450 square feet and has three consultation tables. 

We are proposing to move the consultation area from G-28 to the adjacent area which is currently the National Archives Library, G-30. We will use approximately 1100 square feet of what is now Library space for this consultation area.  The space will have eight tables for consultation. 

So, we will more than double the area and number of tables for researchers to consult with staff and use the finding aids. The three staff members who currently have their workspace in G-28 will have new workstations adjacent to the research room that they can use to do other work when they are not providing direct consultation service. 

This plan is based on the successful model that has been in place for several years for consultants at Archives II in College Park.

Are you eliminating the Microfilm Reading Room?

No. Over the last few years use of our microfilm holdings has decreased by 70 percent. In fiscal year 2000 we had 53,000 microfilm researcher visits; in fiscal year 2009 we had 16,000 microfilm research visits. When our microfilm reading room was first designed and built we estimated the need for 100 microfilm readers.  Because of digitization and other factors, there no longer is the need for so many microfilm readers.  So we are considering reducing the number of microfilm machines to 30 and increasing the number of public access computers to meet the demand for the old and the new technology.  We will maintain the number of microfilm machines at a level that is needed by those researchers who continue to have the need for microfilm.

Are you eliminating self-service microfilm?

No.  For the convenience of both researchers and staff, the National Archives maintains a policy of allowing researchers to browse our microfilm cabinets and select their own microfilm.  We will continue with this policy as long as research demand warrants it.  We may, however, relocate the microfilm to another public area adjacent to the microfilm reading room.

Are you eliminating the Lecture Room?

No.  Our current lecture room on the ground floor (G-24) is used daily for programs such as our very popular "Know Your Records" seminars.  Any renovation of the ground floor research area will include a lecture room so our researchers, visitors, and NARA staff can continue to use it for critical outreach and other activities.

What are you doing with the Orientation and Registration Area?

While we may eventually re-locate those areas physically, we have no immediate plans to do so. We of course would not eliminate this critical function, and will ensure it is located appropriately.  

These changes to the National Archives Building should improve the services we provide to researchers.  No functions or services are being eliminated or reduced.  

To ensure that the changes meet the needs of researchers, we intend to continue to have our quarterly meetings with our Archives I user group to keep users informed and solicit their comments.

Thursday, October 22, 2009 9:43:52 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [3]

• I read an interesting post on the Archives Next blog about NARA’s record digitization agreements with firms such as Footnote and Ancestry.com. The blogger outlines possible good, bad and ugly outcomes when NARA is finally legally able to post online the record images obtained through contracts with third parties. 

• Pedigree database subscription site OneGreatFamily ($59.95 per year) plans to improve its search function by installing the Perfect Search Database Search Appliance from Perfect Search Corp. Each week, OneGreatFamily makes more than 18.8 trillion comparisons of names, dates and other details in members’ family trees, says CEO Alan Eaton. The new search tool should increase searching capability, improve indexing, and to deliver results faster.

• The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) has added several genealogical journals to its online subscription ($75 per year): Besides its own New England Historical and Genealogical Register, they are The American Genealogist, The Connecticut Nutmegger, New Netherland Connections and The Virginia Genealogist.

• Also from NEHGS: Fellow actors, Boston natives, best buddies and  People magazine sexiest men alive Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are 10th cousins once removed. Their common ancestor is William Knowlton of Ipswich, Mass., a bricklayer who died in 1655. Read the full story in the Boston Herald.

Family Tree Magazine Plus members can read our article about Matt Damon’s roots—including his link to Ralph Waldo Emerson—here. 

Friday, October 16, 2009 2:49:28 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

US Ambassador J. Christian Kennedy, the US State Department’s special envoy for Holocaust issues, thanked Thomas for returning the volumes, according to the statement.

“I hope his decision to take this step will serve as an example for others in this country and elsewhere to step forward and return such items displaced during World War II,” he said.

Tuesday, October 06, 2009 2:34:08 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Got St. Louis-area ancestors? Consider subscribing to Genealogy and House History News, a free monthly e-mail update listing additions to the Missouri History Museum's Genealogy and Local History Index (click the “Sign up for the E-mail List” link). If you find a relative, you can order a photocopy of the record.

• On Kimberly’s Genealogy Blog at About.com: Genealogy, Kimberly Powell reports that almost 200,000 Scottish burial records from the 1800s are now online on a UK pay-per-view site called DeceasedOnline. See Kimberley’s post for details about the collection.

• FamilySearch has added a few more databases to the Record Search Pilot, thanks to its hard-working indexing volunteers. You can search indexes and view images of Protestant church records from France (1612-1906).
  

The 1920 US census index (but not record images) was added for Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey and South Carolina.

You can browse images of church records from Italy, Slovakia, Argentina and Mexico (these indexes are still being processed).

To find records associated with the place your ancestors lived, click Browse our Record Collections on the Record Search home page, then click an area of the map.

• Happy third birthday to RootsTelevision! The free genealogy TV Web site shared a list of its most popular videos, several of which relate to family history happenings that broke into “mainstream” news. See the list on the Og Blog.

Friday, October 02, 2009 2:20:23 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• For example, if a relative went to Drexel University in Philadelphia, see the Archives and Special Collections blog. You can pick a type of record from the category list, or browse by decade, century or letter of the alphabet. You’ll learn about resources such as the Programs and Invitations Collection, 1862 to 1965 (graduation programs, banquet invites and the like), or People Photographs 1880-2000.

• The Brooklyn Historical Society named its catablog Emma. To see posts, choose a category or browse. In the Business and Industry category, a post on the Bennet Ryder Collection, 1676-1915, tells you it contains wills, deeds, indentures and other documents from the Bennet, Lake, Stillwell and Van Sicklen families of mid-17th century New Amsterdam. The Slavery category has a post on the Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims-Henry Ward Beecher Collection, 1847- 1980, which has papers from the abolitionist’s pastorate over the church.

• UMarmot from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst is the original catablog, according to Archives 2.0. Choose from categories such as Civil War, Rhode Island, and Immigration and Ethnicity. Posts describe collections including the Simeon Bartlett Account Books, 1792-1867 (business records from a Williamsburg, Mass., freight hauler, farmer and sawmill owner), and Civil War Diaries, 1862-1863.

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 4:00:05 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

• 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 site Ancestry.co.uk (sister site to the US-focused Ancestry.com) has added London parish records, which among other events cover deaths from the bubonic plague and the 1666 Great Fire of London. They’re part of a collection of London records from 1538 to 1980.

• Google Books, where you can search millions of out-of-print books, is partnering with On-Demand Books to let you use any Espresso Book Machine to print books in the public domain that Google has digitized from. (There aren’t a lot of places to find these book machines—click here for locations.) Learn more on the Google Books blog.

• Visit the Family History Expos blog for a list of 10 great tips for using social networking sites to do genealogy research and connect with your family.

• FamilySearch Indexing has launched new indexing projects from Indiana, Idaho, Canada, Spain, Guatemala, and Peru. The 1920 census index for Ohio is undergoing preparation for publication on the free FamilySearch site. Hooray! (We’re from the Buckeye State.) The 1920 census for Texas; Carroll County, Ind., marriages; and several international collections also are being readied for release.

• World Vital Records lowered the price of its World Collection subscription to $99.95 (from $119.95). This collection gives you access to all the site’s US records, plus those from Canada, the UK, Ireland and other countries. See the November 2009 Family Tree Magazine for our guide to using World Vital Records.

• Don’t forget to visit the Michigan Genealogical Council Web site for information on an online petition in support of the Library of Michigan, as well as links to news of budget-related library cuts across the country.

Friday, September 18, 2009 10:29:24 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

I didn’t have a specific article to find—rather, I wanted any news item about my great-grandfather’s criminal trial for bootlegging. There wasn’t a name index, so I knew I was in for some heavy-duty scrolling. I had the conviction and incarceration dates, but not a date of arrest, so I had several months to cover in 1913.

First thing when I arrived, I got my very own research card. The archivist had me double-check holdings for the newspapers I wanted. I’d neglected to bring singles or a $5 bill for a copy card, so I also ran to the concession and bought a soda to get change.

Next, I requested a couple years’ worth of microfilm and started scrolling. I started with the dates I knew and scrolled backward through earlier papers, then forward, looking for headlines on the faded pages.

Bootlegging arrests filled the news--apparently the sheriff was really cracking down. The few items mentioning my ancestor’s name told when he was arrested, how he filed for a writ of habeas corpus, and how two others arrested at the same time jumped bail.

Though not the play-by-play trial accounts I was hoping for, the articles also gave me a clue to what might’ve happened to his missing court records. He served his prison sentence in Texas and his case is indexed in Bowie County, Texas, records, but a batch of files that includes his case number is missing.

According to the newspaper articles, some witnesses lived on the Arkansas side of Texarkana, and Bowie County officials traveled to the courthouse in Miller County, Ark., for a pretrial motion. So maybe his case file ended up in Arkansas.

Friday, September 04, 2009 10:23:56 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Summit Memory, an online scrapbook from the Akron-Summit County Public Library in Ohio, now has several digitized historical atlases and maps from the 1800s and early 1900s. Access them in the site’s online map room. Check out the photos and other resources while you're there.
  
  
• British subscription and pay-per-view site FindMyPast.com has completed a new transcription and added higher-quality images for its 1901 census for England and Wales. Images for the 1881 census are next on the site's to-do list.
  
  
• A New York Times article on the transfer of early- to mid-century Alien Case Files to the National Archives quoted Schelly Tallalay Dardahsti, Tracing the Tribe blogger and author of our September 2009 Jewish research guide, about the importance of using original documents. Read the article here.
  
  
• Subscription family tree site OneGreatFamily.com is publishing its free newsletter as a weekly genealogy blog you can subscribe to vis RSS. It’ll include research tips, helpful Web sites and suggestions for using OneGreatFamily.com.
  
  
• The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has launched a blog called NARAtions, which focuses on the future of online public access to records at NARA.

Friday, August 14, 2009 11:40:00 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• 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]

• Allen County Community Album: Images at this Allen County Public Library-hosted site portray people and places in Northeastern Indiana. The library’s well-known Genealogy Center also has an Our Military Heritage site with records and photos from researchers across the country.

• Arizona Memory Project: Collections come from the Catholic Diocese of Tucson, Arizona Jewish Historical Society, state archives, City of Glendale, Gila County and others.

• Documenting Arkansas: This site's content relates to the Civil War, 1927 Mississippi River flood and other events.

• Dominion Institute Memory Project: See 85-plus years of military history through first-hand accounts, photos and artifacts from veterans across Canada.

• Greater Cincinnati Memory Project: This site from my hometown shows you historical photos of schools, churches, homes, city scenes, people and special events.

• Maine Memory Network: More than 200 organizations have contributed materials to this site, which also supports similar projects for Maine communities such as Bath and Isleboro.

• Montana Memory Project: Cattle brand books, the Fergus County Heritage Book and Rocky Mountain College yearbooks are a few of the resources you'll find here.
  
  
• Terrace Park, Ohio, Building Survey: A local genealogist maintains this site on the history of buildings in an Ohio neighborhood. It has photos, deeds, census and land records, residents' names and more.
  

• The Valley of the Shadow: Censuses, church records, letters, diaries and newspaper articles detail life in two communities—Franklin County, Pa., in the North and Augusta County, Va., in the South—before, during and after the Civil War.

Thursday, July 23, 2009 8:57:45 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [6]

• British subscription site FamilyRelatives.com has added the Civil War Roll of Honor listings of more than 276,000 Union soldiers buried in national cemeteries, soldiers' lots and garrison cemeteries.
  

• The East Central Georgia Regional Library's African-American Funeral Program Collection is online (and free) in the Digital Library of Georgia. The 1,000 funeral programs date from 1933 to 2008, with most dating since the 1960s and coming from churches around Augusta, Ga.

• The College of Charleston in South Carolina has launched the Lowcountry Digital Library with about 7,500 images (so far) of historical letters, scrapbooks, photos and more.

• New social networking site GenealogyWise caught some flak when it announced a contest many members thought encouraged non-genealogical, superficial contributions, then changed the contest but deleted at least one member’s criticisms. See some of the uproar on Twitter here and here. Webmasters are now gathering feedback on a censorship policy. (Update: Here's an apology to the censored member from FamilyLink CEO Paul Allen.)
  

• Online genealogy company (and GenealogyWise owner) FamilyLink has another site coming next week, as hinted on Twitter by CEO Paul Allen: “41% have pictures of ancestors on the walls of their home ... We are launching a new site soon for the other 59%”

Could it be related to this digitization service, announced in 2007 but no longer offered?

Friday, July 17, 2009 12:25:59 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Most Library of Michigan functions, including its genealogy collection, go to the Department of Education

• The Michigan Historical Commission, which includes the state archives, will be moved to the Department of Natural Resources

Unless the Superintendent determines it to be impracticable, these measures shall include, but shall not  be limited to … Eliminating circulation of specific collections (including, but not limited to, the Main, Dewey, and General Reference collections, the Michigan collection, the Michigan Documents collection, and the Rare Book collection) or, alternatively, transferring such collections to other suitable institutions, . . . (c) Suspending or eliminating participation as a participating lending library in MeLCat, (d) Eliminating or transferring to other suitable institutions the Federal Documents Depository and the non-Michigan genealogy collection.”

Thursday, July 16, 2009 5:14:59 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.com, has a poignant new ad campaign you’ll probably catch on some media or other (if you’re worried you’ll miss it, see it on Ancestry.com’s YouTube channel). 

• Ancestry.com also has developed an Ancient Ancestry Finder that guesses your haplogroup (ancestral origins) based on a few questions. It’s fun, and the haplogroups have cute names such as "Boatbuilders" and "Inventors," but keep in mind it's not necessarily accurate. At the end, you get a pitch to buy a $79 DNA test to determine if the Finder is correct.

• If you’ve been thinking of trying the databases at NewEnglandAncestors.org, now might be the time. The New England Historic Genealogical Society is offering $15 off new memberships during July.

• This week, FamilySearch enhanced its free Record Search Pilot with 12 new collections, which have records from Argentina, Australia, Mexico, Netherlands, and Spain. New United States collections were added for Delaware, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Utah.

International indexing projects now underway involve records from the Czech Republic; Baden, Germany; and South Africa—click here if you’re interested in volunteering.

• Following on the heels of Footnote’s partnership with newspaper publisher Gannett, ProQuest announced it’s adding Gannett papers to its Newsstand data service (offered through libraries). ProQuest will offer the papers back to 1977; Footnote is digitizing older editions.

• The Houston Metropolitan Research Center (HMRC) at the Houston Public Library's downtown Julia Ideson Building is changing its research hours during a renovation. Now through Aug. 31, HMRC is open Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 1 to Oct. 31, it'll be open by appointment—call (832) 393-1313 to make one.

Thursday, July 02, 2009 11:18:55 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

• Follow: bookmarks resources
  
  
• Comment: lets you comments on resources
  
  
• Record: keep a research log of Live Roots and other searches
  
  
• Share: e-mail notices about resources to friends and family

• Recent Activity: a running history of your interaction with Live Roots features
  
  
• Ancestor Notecards: profiles of your brick wall ancestors, which remain are accessible throughout Live Roots (so you don’t have to retype the name every time you search)
  
  
• Related Resources: items you’ve "followed", so you can quickly revisit them; you can search across the transcriptions you’ve followed
  
  
• Research History: your research log
  
  
• Personal Library: catalog your own private collection
  
  
• Research Notepad: a simple way record miscellaneous genealogy notes, such as a to-do list or the phone number for the library in Granddad’s hometown
  
  
• External Resources: lets you configure links to your research activities on other sites, such Flickr or Twitter

Friday, June 26, 2009 10:55:31 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

• Use the basic search form (below) to search by surname, first and middle names, and the death date. You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard at the beginning or end of a name. A Browse button by each field lets you select from an alphabetical listing of all available terms for that field. The Search button is at the bottom of the form.
  
  

• Click the Advanced Search link to add age, birth date, cause of death and other terms.

• At the bottom of the basic search form, click a letter of the alphabet to browse entries for surnames beginning with that letter. (I wasn’t able to get any of these surname listings to load.)

Thursday, June 25, 2009 1:55:39 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

• The Connecticut State Library, which is facing a staff reduction due to the state's Retirement Incentive Plan, will be closed on Mondays for the summer. Starting July 1, the library’s new hours will be Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

• After record additions throughout the first half of the year, the 1911census.co.uk site (developed by subscription and pay-per-view site FindMyPast.com with the British national archives) now has the complete 1911 census for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It also includes full details of British Army personnel and their families stationed overseas.

Read more about 1911census.co.uk in our post from last week.

• The free FamilySearch Record Search pilot added 6 million new records this week, including Louisiana and Idaho death records; the 1920 census for Delaware, the District of Columbia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire and New Mexico; and digital images of church records were also added for Mexico (the states of Baja California and Baja California Sur).
  

• We hear that MyGenShare.com is almost ready for beta testing. Founder Barry Ewell said the launch was delayed until late summer to expand the site’s educational resources and take advantage of better technology to improve user experience.

Friday, June 19, 2009 2:11:26 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Historical records subscription site Footnote is giving away several lifetime memberships. To be eligible, you have to create or find an I Remember page on Facebook (using Footnote’s recently released app) and get five people to click the I Remember button for that person. See more details here.

• British subscription and pay-per-view site Familyrelatives.com added more than 200,000 Canadian civil service records from 1872 to 1918. The records reveal the civil servant's name, position, department, length of service, salary and date of appointment. The earliest ones also provide civil servants' national origins and religion.

• FamilySearch has added a total of 3.5 million-plus new records to 13 collections on the free FamilySearch Record Search pilot. The additions come from Brazil, the Czech Republic and Italy; and the US states of Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and South Carolina.

• The State Library of North Carolina and the North Carolina State Archives have posted a free collection of North Carolina family records including nearly 220 family Bible records and the six-volume Marriage and Death Notices from Raleigh Register and North Carolina State Gazette: 1799-1893.
  

• NBC’ continues to string along genealogists eager to see its “Who Do You Think You Are?” The on-again, off-again series didn't make it onto the network's fall lineup, but still may show up as a mid-season replacement, according to California-based Genealogy Gems blogger Lisa Louise Cooke.

Friday, May 22, 2009 4:38:34 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Genealogy Freelancers: This site lets you post your project details and get bids from professionals around the world.

• Genlighten: Here, you also can collect bids for research tasks. The focus here is on lookups, record retrieval and similar services.

• Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness: These volunteers have signed on to do simple research favors for free (except expenses such as mileage and photocopying fees). You’re encouraged to return the favor by helping out someone else.

• Repositories sometimes keep lists of nearby professional researchers (contact the genealogy department). For example, if you want to hire someone to copy your ancestor’s Civil War pension file, see the National Archives’ list of local researchers by topic and location.
  
  
• For long or more-complicated research projects, you can find directories of professional genealogists on the Association for Professional Genealogists Web site, ProGenealogists, and the Board for Certification of Genealogists.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009 10:59:01 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [4]

• Subscription genealogy site Ancestry.com launched a collection of German phone directories dating from 1915 to 1981. The books, which are, of course, in German, list names and addresses of more than 35 million people who lived in Germany’s major cities, as well as many businesses. 
  

• British subscription and pay-per-view site FindMyPast.com added merchant seaman crew indexes with 270,000 names of seafarers between 1860 and 1913. British ships created these lists every six months, including everyone from captains to able seamen, from engine room staff to stewardesses.

• The 1916 census of Canada is now available free at Family History Centers through their on-site Ancestry.com service. (Meaning this census isn’t on the FamilySearch pilot site—you must go to a Family History Center to search it.)
  

• The National Archives granted its first Excellence in Genealogy Awards to Myron McGhee of Decatur, GA, who took first place, and Stephanie D. Smith of Richtor Park, IL, who took second. Read about their entries on the archives’ Web site.
  

• The heritage travel Web site Go With a Purpose launched a new section called Go Connect, where users can upload photos with their reviews of historic destinations. Learn more on the site’s blog.

• A late addition: The New England Historic Genealogical Society is adding digitized back issues of the journal The American Genealogist, to its subscription databases at NewEnglandAncestors.org. Vols. 1 through 8 (published as Families of Ancient New Haven) and Volumes 9–13 (dated from 1933 through 1937), are available now in separate databases. Additional volumes will be added. NEHGS memberships start at $75.

Friday, May 08, 2009 2:02:07 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]