The 1940 census images will be hosted on Archives.gov, the National Archives website. Archives has been awarded the digitization contract for these images.

Indexing will begin as soon as the records are released online April 2. Each page will be indexed twice, with a third arbitrator to resolve difference in the two indexes.

FamilySearch is making upgrades and doing "test loading" to make sure its site can handle the extra traffic the indexing project will generate.

Chris Van Der Kuyl, CEO of brightsolid (the British parent company of FindMyPast.com), described the 1940 project as "one of the most exciting crowdsourced projects on the internet." A video commercial to be released on YouTube will bill it as a "national service project" and genealogical societies will receive incentives for galvanizing members to index.

Part of the funding provided by brightsolid and Archives.com will be dedicated to producing other free digital collections. The idea is that money that might otherwise be used to build competing census collections will now go to creating access to material that's not already online. It's "putting money into the community that would otherwise be duplicated," says John Spottiswood of Archives.com.

To volunteer for 1940 census indexing, sign up on the 1940 Community Census Project website.

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.

Thursday, February 02, 2012 3:40:25 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

Brightsolid just announced a new pay-as-you-go site for US census records, 1790 to 1930, plus 1940 when it's released later this year. It'll be called CensusRecords.com, and is already live as as an early beta version that invites user feedback.

This is the first site that will let you search for your ancestors in the cnesus, then purchase the record with their names—a model that'll potentially make census research more affordable and accessible to those who don't want to commit to a genealogy website subscription.

No doubt brightsolid hopes—I know I do, too—that the pay-as-you-go service will lure casual researchers to get more involved in family history research.

Censusrecords.com visitors will be able to search for free. To view documents and download them to their computer, they can subscribe or buy pay-as-you-go credits, which start at $7.95 for 1,000 credits (good for 60 days).

Pay-as-you-go costs could add up if you're not sure you've found your ancestor and have to check a bunch of records, but if you're sure you've found the right folks, this could be your most cost-effective approach.

With the confluence of several factors—a growing interest in family history, economic concerns, anticipation for the 1940 census, and "Who Do You Think You Are?" showing genealogy to the masses—Censusrecords.com is poised to be a big hit. What do you think? (Hit Comments below to share your thoughts.)

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.

Thursday, February 02, 2012 11:33:32 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [7]

• 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]

Researchers will be able to browse, view, and download images from the 1940 census. See NARA's full announcement here.

To kick off the partnership, Archives.com has created a web page about the launch of the 1940 Census.

You won't be able to search the census by name right away on April 2; instead, you'll need to know the enumeration district (ED) your relatives lived in and then browse the records for that district. You can find the ED if you know your ancestor's address in 1940 or in 1930.

Here's a post about an online tool that can help you determine the ED.

FamilySearch is heading up an effort to index the 1940 census records ASAP after they're released, which will let genealogists search by name.

Subscription website Ancestry.com also has announced plans to provide the 1940 census for free, at least through 2013.

Thursday, November 17, 2011 12:07:21 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [3]

FamilySearch has created a page to recruit volunteers for transcribing the 1940 census, scheduled for release April 2, 2012. (We’re just 146 days from 1940 census nirvana!) 

Unlike previous censuses, images of 1940 census records will be available free on the National Archives and Records Administration website. You won’t be able to search for an ancestor’s name right away; instead, you’ll have to browse the record by enumeration district (more on that—and figuring out your ancestor’s enumeration district—here). 

FamilySearch is coordinating a volunteer effort to index those images as soon as they’re released, so you’ll be able to search by name and click to see the record where the name appears.

If you want to help create the free, searchable 1940 census index, go here and sign up on the right side of this page.

Starting in mid-April, subscription website Ancestry.com also will begin streaming 1940 census records onto its website, where records will be free to search at least through 2013. 

Read more about the 1940 census, including what questions your ancestors had to answer, in our free article. 

Our Census Secrets CD, available from ShopFamilyTree.com, will help you find ancestors in US censuses from 1790 through 1940.

Tuesday, November 08, 2011 9:14:05 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [2]

As part of the effort, Archives.com reached an agreement with FamilySearch—the source of the census records—to dedicate a minimum of $5 million to digitizing genealogy records that are not currently online.

The indexes for all censuses are available now, as are images for the 1850, 1870 and 1900 censuses, for a total of more than 500 million names and 3 million images. The rest of the images will be added over the next weeks and months, says spokesperson Julie Hill. Learn more about the site's census collection on its census resource page.

The census search screen looks like this:

You can see it's more streamlined with fewer options than Ancestry.com's census search. You'll also receive fewer results—a search of all census years for the last name Haddad (not exact) living anywhere in the United States, born in Ohio between 1907 and 1911, netted me 30 matches on Archives.com and 63 on Ancestry.com. This might be good or bad for your research—it can be overwhelming to search through a flood of matches, but you also might lose some searching flexibility.

Here's a page of Archives.com search results:

When you click on a match, you first see this page displaying all the indexed fields:

Archives also is introducing a new, Flash-based image viewer that lets users zoom in, adjust contrast, invert colors and more (a basic image viewer will be an option for computers without Flash):

We’re thinking this is what Archives.com product director Joe Godfrey was referring to in May, when he opened the National Genealogical Society conference by announcing the site would “embark on an ambitious content acquisition and digitization plan, focusing in part on the digitization of material not yet online.” 

Anne Roach, who chaired FamilySearch’s 2011 RootsTech conference, joined Archives to lead the project.

The addition of the census will bring Archives.com, which launched in July 2009, into more-direct competition with industry leader Ancestry.com. Until Archives.com adds the rest of the census images, Ancestry.com is the only site providing access to all extant US census records and document images.

Archives.com will keep its subscription price at $39.95 "for the time being," says Hill. "That’s one-eighth the price of an Ancestry.com World membership. If you compare the subscriptions on a line-by-line basis, its remarkable how many high-value collections are available for one-eighth the price.”

Thursday, September 01, 2011 1:26:33 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [12]

The quiz, by One-Step Tools webmaster Steve Morse and friends, is designed to guide you through the site’s tools that help you determine your ancestor’s 1940 census enumeration district (ED). This is important because, when the 1940 census comes out April 2, 2012, you won’t be able to search by name. Instead, you’ll need to find the records for the ED where your ancestor lived and view pages until you find him or her.

(If you don’t mind waiting an as-yet-unknown length of time for a searchable name index to be created, probably by FamilySearch and/or a commercial entity such as Ancestry.com, you may not need to worry about the ED. I say “may not” because if your ancestor gets mis-indexed or the census-taker recorded his name in an unexpected way, you still might need to browse the records.)

Anyway, I tried the quiz for a spin and did indeed find the 1940 ED I needed. Here’s how it worked for me:

Question: Do you know where your family lived on April 1, 1940, the official 1940 census day?

Answer: I chose yes. This was my hint to check the address in my ancestor’s 1942 declaration of intention to naturalize:

Question: Did the family move between 1930 and 1940?

Answer: Yes.

• in a rural area or a small urban community (under about 5,000)?
• in an urban area of 5,000 or more?
  
• in an institution (hospital, jail, orphanage, etc)?
  
• outside the US proper but under US jurisdiction? 

Answer: They lived in Cleveland, Ohio, an urban area of 5,000 or more.

Question: Check to see if the city is on the One Step 1940 Large City ED Finder Tool. Go to this tool, choose the state or possession, and look in the city dropdown box. Do you see your city listed there?

Answer: I clicked the link to the 1040 ED Finder, chose Ohio from the state dropdown menu, and yes, Cleveland was in the city menu. 

Question: OK, now to use the above One Step tool, choose the state and city and then enter the street and cross streets for the house at which your family lived.

Answer: I went back to the 1940 ED Finder, which looked like this:

I chose my ancestors’ street, Franklin Blvd, and was directed to choose a cross street.

Um, cross street? Luckily, at the bottom of the page you can enter a house number and generate a Google, Yahoo! or MapQuest map of the location, like this one:

I chose 47th W. as the cross street and was rewarded with:

The "View microfilm " link gives you a message that the 1940 census images are not available. Looks like Morse is planning to link the ED numbers to the record images when they're released on NARA's website ext year.

I tried other quiz answers, too: 

• Basically, if you don’t know where your ancestors lived in 1940, you’ll get suggestions for records to check.
  

• If you know where they lived in 1940 and they hadn't moved since 1930, you’ll be directed to the site’s 1930-to-1940 ED Conversion tool (EDs changed from census to census).
  

• If your ancestors lived in a small-ish town or rural area, the area may not yet be covered in the One Step 1940 ED Finder, in which case you’re directed to National Archives’ ED maps (not yet online). Those will be easier to use if you know the street address. 

• If you don't know the address in the small-ish town or rural area, you can use the One Step ED Definition Tool to choose a state and county, then search on a community name. If the name is in the definitions, you’ll get back a list of possible EDs where you can start your census search. 

Now, the trick is not losing the sticky note I wrote the ED on.

You can read all about the 1940 census in the May 2010 Family Tree Magazine's Complete Census Guide. Family Tree Magazine Plus members can read the 1940 census article here.

Wednesday, June 29, 2011 2:42:50 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [4]

• 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]

We've got a special digital edition coming out today, April 1 -- and you can vote on which cover you like best! Click the image above to see it larger. And here's a sneak peek of the inside:

Click the image to see a larger version and read all the insider tips about the 1940 census. You can download a copy the 1940 Census cheat sheet to share here. (To help interpret some of the markings, you may want to watch this video.)

By the way, happy April Fools Day! :)

And here's some real census advice:

• Looking Forward to '40
• Online Census Secrets CD
• Family Tree Magazine's May 2010 special census issue

Friday, April 01, 2011 9:05:04 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [3]

• Embark on your maiden voyage with our guide to researching female ancestors.
• Navigate death certificates, delayed birth certificates, Social Security applications and WWI draft registration cards with the help of the Document Detective.
• Become a census sleuth with charts and clues for each US enumeration.
• Boost your online genealogy with our 101 best free websites roundup, proving some of the best things in life really are free.
• Keep track of all your new-found family history with our genealogy worksheet starter kit and a decorative fold-out family tree chart.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011 12:53:18 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Love Bully, a 20-year-old woman born in Upper Canada, living in Dover, Kent, Canada West.
• Cupid Martin, a 35-year-old man originally from the United States, working as a yeoman in Raleigh County, Ontario.
• Amor Moran, a 24-year-old Irish-born woman found living with her siblings in a Montreal house with four other families.
• Venus Antahia, a 60-year-old widower who lived alone in Laprairie, Canada East.
• The first name of Valentine shows up 580 times. One hundred people have Valentine as a surname.
• Fourteen people have Amor as first name, while 18 have Amor as a surname.
• Nine people were named after Paris, the city of love.
  
  

• Love Burns, 13, can be found living in Harbourville, Nova Scotia, in 1871 Canada census.
• Lover Woo can be found at 91 Elgin St. in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, in the 1911 Canada census.
• Bad Heart Lasuisse, a 70-year-old Sioux widower, can be found living with five family members in the Territories in the 1901 Canada census.
• Romance Turrell married John Obrien on Christmas Day 1878, according to Ontario marriage records.

Monday, February 14, 2011 11:08:57 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is inviting you to have a say about what it’ll be like to research the 2010 census records in the future.

NARA is asking for public comment on the Appraisal and Records schedule for the census. These schedules list all the records created during Census 2010—not just the census forms you filled out, but also address canvassing maps, data summaries, various publications and more—and proposes standards for their retention or disposition.

For those records proposed for permanent retention, the schedule contains instructions for their transfer to NARA. For records are proposed for temporary retention, the schedule contains instructions for their later disposal.

The proposed schedule provides that the 2010 decennial census forms we all filled out will be preserved in the form of scanned images. (You can read about the archives’ preservation of digital images here.) It calls for those and other “permanently valuable” records to be transferred to NARA within 10 years after the census.

For more information and to link to the Appraisal and Records schedule, see this post on the archives’ NARAtions blog.

The documents are lengthy. You can get a summary of many of the documents proposed for preservation on the archives’ Records Express blog. 

Comments and questions regarding the proposed retention/disposition of records are being accepted on both of the above-mentioned blog posts through Dec. 30.

Monday, December 13, 2010 11:15:31 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• In honor of Remembrance Day, Canadian subscription genealogy site Ancestry.ca has added a huge collection of Canadian WWI death and burial records.
  

Canada, CEF Commonwealth War Graves Registers, 1914-1919 details the circumstances of death for more than two thirds of the 60,000 Canadian soldiers who fought and died in Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. Canada, CEF Burial Registers, First World War, 1914-1919 details temporary and final resting places of soldiers who died.

• Ancestry.com and UK website Thegenealogist.co.uk have reached an agreement with the UK national archives to publish the 1911 census of England and Wales, the most recent UK census available to the public. The companies will work together to transcribe the census, creating a searchable database. Ancestry.com will add the records by county, starting in late 2010 and finishing up in 2011. (You can search this census now on subscription site 1911census.co.uk, operated by UK genealogy site FindMyPast.co.uk.) 

• British genealogy subscription site FamilyRelatives.com has added a million records from post office directories. Similar to phone books, these directories name local people and businesses. The growing collection currently covers more than 25 British counties and major cities, and spans nearly a century. Read more on FamilyRelatives.com.
  

• British genealogy website FindMyPast.co.uk is working with FamilySearch to post online indexes and images of Welsh parish registers dating as far back as the 16th century.
  

FamilySearch will digitize about the images containing baptisms, marriages and burials; FindMyPast.co.uk will transcribe them. Over the next two years, you’ll be able to search a free index on FamilySearch, with the records available for a fee on FindMyPast.co.uk. In Wales, users will be able to access the records free through Welsh Archives Services. 

Friday, November 12, 2010 2:26:40 PM (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]

• Today (Sept. 10) marks the 20th anniversary of the Ellis Island Immigration Museum opening in 1990. More than 35 million people have visited the museum, which highlights the immigrant experience and the growth of America during the peak immigration years of 1880 to 1924. You can read more about the museum on the Ellis Island website.

For help searching online for your Ellis Island ancestors, download our Ellis Island Web Guide from ShopFamilyTree.com or use the book The Family Tree Guide to Finding Your Ellis Island Ancestors (on sale for $12.99).

• Pay-per-view genealogy website ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk was officially relaunched with a new look and and new search features, including search results plotted on maps, to make it easier for you to find ancestors. The site offers records dating to the beginning of civil registration in Scotland in 1855, as well as parish records dating back as far as 1538.

• FamilySearch’s army of volunteer indexers have started work on the 1930 census, currently the most recent US census available to researchers. As with several other FamilySearch census indexes, volunteers will start with Ancestry.com indexes and create a second comparison index from scratch, then arbitrate discrepancies to reduce errors. FamilySearch also will extract additional fields of census data for improved searchability. You can read more about this project on the FamilySearch blog.

Friday, September 10, 2010 10:03:28 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• FamilyTreeMagazine.com Irish Genealogy Toolkit (contains both free and Plus articles)
• Irish research guide digital download (from ShopFamilyTree.com)
• The Everything Irish History and Heritage Book by Amy Hackney Blackwell and Ryan Hackney (from ShopFamilyTree.com)

Thursday, June 03, 2010 8:24:35 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Finding Ancestors in the US Census: Online and Offline Research Strategies, taught by Jana Sloan Broglin
  
  
• Land Records 101: Using Deeds, Plats, Patents and More, taught by Diana Smith
  
  
• Tracing Immigrants: How to Research Your Family’s American Arrivals, taught by Lisa A. Alzo
  
  
• US Vital Records: Researching Births, Marriages, Deaths and Divorces, taught by George G. Morgan
  
  
• Reverse Genealogy: Working Forward to Break Down Brick Walls, taught by Lisa Louise Cooke
  
  
• Digital Photography Essentials: Techniques to Capture and Preserve Your Family History, taught by Nancy Hendrickson
  

Wednesday, May 05, 2010 10:27:47 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

The US and state governments counted veterans a number of times, both during and between regular censuses.

Revolutionary War pensioners: Names and ages of these pensioners were recorded on the backs of 1840 population census sheets. Their names are in A Census of Pensioners for Revolutionary or Military Services, available free through Google Books.
 
1890 veterans schedule: Although the bulk of the 1890 census was destroyed, the schedules of Union veterans and surviving widows survived for half of Kentucky and the states alphabetically following it. Check this census even if your ancestor fought for the Confederacy. Although enumerators were supposed to count Union veterans, some also recorded those who fought for the South. Officials who reviewed the schedules in Washington, DC, simply drew lines through the Confederates’ names, leaving them still readable. The schedules are online at Ancestry.com and on microfilm at the Family History Library (FHL) and National Archives facilities, as well as large genealogical libraries.
 
What can you learn from this enumeration? The name of the veteran or his widow, rank, company, regiment or vessel, dates of enlistment and discharge, length of service, disabilities and remarks such as whether the veteran received a pension. As with population schedules, you don’t know whether James or someone else supplied the information, so look for a military service record to corroborate the data.
 
Special military schedules: During the 1900, 1910 and 1920 federal population censuses, enumerators created separate schedules for military personnel, including those stationed on naval vessels and at US bases overseas. For 1900, these are on National Archives microfilm T623, rolls 1,838 to 1,842 (find a Soundex index on film T1081, rolls 1 to 32). For 1910, military and naval enumerations are on film T624, roll 1,784; there’s no Soundex. The 1920 schedules for overseas military and naval forces are on film T625, rolls 2,040 to 2,041; the Soundex is on film M1600, rolls 1 to 18.
 
The 1930 population census included servicemen, but you’ll find special schedules for merchant seamen serving on vessels. Search them on Ancestry.com, or browse them on microfilm at the FHL and National Archives.

• Census Secrets CD

• Online Census Secrets webinar recording

• The Everything Guide to Online Genealogy by Kimberly Powell

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 10:07:31 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• the complete 1860 census
• 5 percent of 1900
• 3 percent of 1910
• 3 percent of 1920
• 98 percent of 1930

Thursday, March 11, 2010 11:46:50 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• data collected for each US enumeration, from 1790 to 1930 that could solve ancestral mysteries
  
  
• What you can do now to be ready to find your ancestors in the 1940 census, set for release in two short (we hope) years
  
  
• How to find and use census records from your ancestral homeland

Thursday, February 25, 2010 11:16:01 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• US vital records, digitized in partnership with state archives. They include vital records from Vermont (1908 to 2008) and Delaware (1800 to 1933); divorces from Connecticut; and the Hayes Library Ohio Death Index.
  

Gibbs said that respondents to a lengthy Ancestry.com customer survey chose birth, marriage and death records as the resource they’d most like to see, and 1861 to 1914 as the time period most important to their search.

• Seven state censuses were released last year; look for more this year.

• US county land ownership maps were originally slated for release in 2009, but Gibbs’ team decided to key the records in a more useful but time-intensive way, delaying the launch until 2010.

• Enhanced 1920 US census records and index, similar to the improvements announced in December to earlier census collections.
  

• A 1950 "census substitute" consisting of city directories—helpful to reverse genealogists seeking living relatives, and to beginning researchers.

• 1880 Defective, Dependent and Delinquent ("DDD") schedules. These supplemental census schedules provide details on individuals with disabilities or who were institutionalized. Surviving records are currently scattered among libraries and state archives. (Can't wait until they go online? Download our cheat sheet to DDD schedules and their locations.)
  

• Index improvements to the 1790-to-1840 head-of-household censuses will key the tickmarks indicating household members’ sex, age ranges and status as slave or free, so you’ll be able to search on these parameters.

• The site will add 700 million more names from voter lists to the US Public Records Index database.

Thursday, January 14, 2010 9:32:38 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Click Search to search for a person’s name or other words in building descriptions. You’ll get a list of results for related buildings; click one to see information for that building.

• Click Street Index to browse to a street name, then click the house number you’re looking for.

• Use the links on the left side of the home page to browse the site’s deed records, census records and burial information.

• Click Related Information to read background material on the community and local organizations.

Wednesday, December 16, 2009 3:44:25 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    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]

• records from Brazil; Mexico; British Columbia, Canada; the Czech Republic; and Hungary

• 1892 New York state census (some counties are missing from this census; see the FamilySearch wiki page about the collection for a list)
  

• Philadelphia, Pa. marriage indexes, 1885 to 1951

Monday, September 14, 2009 8:51:51 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

Monday, May 18, 2009 2:02:12 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]