Genealogy Insider

Free Military Records on Ancestry.com Through May 27

Diane — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:51:13 GMT

Ancestry.com is joining the genealogy websites offering free access to military records for Memorial Day. You can search and view 155 million Ancestry.com draft, enlistment and service records free through May 27.

Those include WWI and WWII draft registration cards, new collections of US Alien draft registrations and New York military records, and more.

Start your search here.

Read our previous posts about free military records offers at MyHeritage, findmypast.com and Fold3.

May Genealogy Value Packs Are Going ... Going ...

Diane — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:42:11 GMT

Before we call it a day on this month, I wanted to make sure you know about our May genealogy value collections. They're full of helpful how-to tools such as books, CDs, video classes and articles, and they're available at special prices only this month. Check them out today!

Jewish Genealogy Value Pack, with video classes on Jewish names and finding Eastern European origins, Jewish and Eastern European research guides, and the must-have Finding Our Fathers guidebook

Ultimate Irish Genealogy Collection, with video classes on Irish censuses and genealogy websites, our guide to Griffith's Valuation, a genealogical atlas and our Family Tree University Independent Study course on researching in Irish records

Digitize Your Family Photos Value Pack, with guides and video demos for organizing, digitizing, digitally repairing and sharing your old family photos

Photo Detective Collection, with photo-research guides from Family Tree Magazine's Photo Detective Maureen A. Taylor—including her new Family Photo Detective eBook and an autographed copy of Preserving Your Family Photographs

Photo Retouching Digital Value Pack, with DIY guides and video demos for repairing faded, spotted and torn family photos

Military Genealogy Tips for Memorial Day: Finding Pension Records

Diane — Thu, 23 May 2013 13:07:38 GMT

Honor your military ancestors this Memorial Day by learning more about their lives and service. One way is through pension records, which can be rich with information about the person who served.

Various laws made those who served in the armed forces between 1775 and 1916, or their survivors, eligible for military pensions. You can search some indexes to pensions at sites such as Ancestry.com, Fold3, FamilySearch.org, MyHeritage and findmypast.

One of the most helpful indexes is the General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934, from National Archives microfilm T288 and searchable free online at FamilySearch.org.

For earlier conflicts, try the Old War Pension Index, 1815-1926, from NARA microfilm T316.

The pension files themselves are on microfilm at the National Archives (with copies at the Family History Library), with some collections online. A few are:

Revolutionary War Pensions on Fold3 and on HeritageQuest Online, which is available through many public libraries
War of 1812 Pension Files is a free, growing collection at Fold3 (learn more about the Preserve the Pensions project here)
Civil War Widows' Pensions, a growing collection on Fold3

The exception is pensions for Confederate soldiers in the Civil War: The former Confederate states awarded pensions to their armed forces, so look to those state archives for records. You can link to several states' Confederate pensions collections from here. Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org also have collections of some Confederate states' Civil War pensions.

A final tip: If you plan to leave flowers at an ancestor's gravesite this Memorial Day, consider also leaving a note for the next person, who may be a cousin.

Our Military Research Value Pack—now just $49.99—has a webinar, CD of how-to articles, and a class that provide you in-depth guidance for finding your ancestors' military records throughout US history.

US Colored Troops Service Records Free Through May 31

Diane — Wed, 22 May 2013 20:29:21 GMT

Today—the 150th anniversary of the creation of the US Colored Troops (USCT)—the National Archives has announced the completion of the USCT Service Records Digitization Project.

The USCT Service Records collection is available free to everyone today through May 31 on Fold3, which was a partner in the project.

The USCT was established May 22, 1863 by War Department General Order 143 to organize African-American soldiers to fight for the Union Army. Its members fought in 39 major battles and 400 other engagements. Sixteen received the Medal of Honor.

The collection holds nearly 4 million record images. The service records can include muster rolls, enlistment papers, correspondence, orders, prisoner-of-war memorandums and casualty reports. Some files include deeds of manumission and bills of sale for former slaves whose owners received compensation for freeing the slaves to enlist.

Search or browse the USCT records collection here.

Access MyHeritage Military Records Free Through May 28

Diane — Wed, 22 May 2013 18:17:29 GMT

In honor of Memorial Day, MyHeritage is granting free access to military records from its most popular collections through Tuesday, May 28.

The US records include Revolutionary War pension indexes, an index to the 1840 special census of Revolutionary War pensioners, Confederate service and pension records, War of 1812 pension indexes and more (some of the military records might not be included—for example, I was prompted to subscribe when searching the Tennessee Pension Applications collection).

You'll also find some collections for British and Australian records.

Click here to search the MyHeritage military records. Use the links on the right (under In Military) to see what records are available.

You can read more about this free military records offer on the MyHeritage blog.

And don't forget about findmypast.com's free military records offer, which ends May 27.

"Who Do You Think You Are?" Premieres July 23 on TLC

Diane — Wed, 22 May 2013 12:36:11 GMT

It's official: Ancestry.com has confirmed the rumors that "Who Do You Think You Are?" is coming to TLC.

The show will premiere July 23. Eight episodes will feature celebrities including actresses Christina Applegate and Zooey Deschanel, and supermodel Cindy Crawford.

Ancestry.com's announcement didn't name Singer Kelly Clarkson, but a Clarkson sighting in Andersonville, Ga., sparked rumors she'll also appear.

As a sponsor, Ancestry.com provides family history research on the featured celebrities. The US version of the celebrity-genealogy show, produced by Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky of Is or Isn't Entertainment, aired for three seasons on NBC and was canceled after the 2012 season.

"With Sacred Vigilance"

Diane — Tue, 21 May 2013 20:45:23 GMT

“We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance ... Let no neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic.”

Those are the words of Gen. John Logan, the national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), who declared that May 30 would be a day to decorate the graves of Civil War soldiers with flowers.

May 30, 1868, about 5,000 attended a Decoration Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. Members of the GAR and children from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Orphan Home placed flowers on Union and Confederate graves.

New York officially recognized Decoration Day in 1873, and all the Northern states had followed by 1890. Most of the South honored Confederate dead on a separate day until after World War I, when the day expanded to honor those who died in all American wars.

The term "Memorial Day" was first used in 1882 and became common after World War II. A law in 1968 made it the holiday's official name and moved it to the last Monday in May. Some groups advocate moving Memorial Day back to its traditional May 30 date to remind the country of the day's true meaning.

To that end, the National Moment of Remembrance Act, passed in December 2000, encourages Americans to observe a minute of silence and remembrance at 3 p.m. on Memorial Day.

Cities across the country held local observances before the one at Arlington in 1868 (read about those on the Veterans Administration website), with the official Memorial Day birthplace award going to Waterloo, NY: In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson made the designation 100 years after the town's first Memorial Day on May 5, 1866.

I'll be back later this week with some tips for honoring your military ancestors by learning about their lives and service to their country.

Genealogy News Corral, May 13-17

Diane — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:31:09 GMT

Next Tuesday, the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership will hold a tree planting ceremony in Gettysburg, Pa., to kick off its Living Legacy program: a plan to plant or dedicate a tree for each of the 620,000 soldiers who died in the Civil War.

Taking part will be 7th- and 8th-graders from Gettysburg and Hartford, Vt., who've been researching and writing about soldiers from their hometowns. Each group will plant a tree to honor one local soldier, and the soldiers' stories will be available to smartphone users through QR codes on the trees. You can watch a video about the project here.

The Federation of Genealogical Societies and the Preserve the Pensions project are holding a drawing for prizes, including a genealogy research road trip to either Salt Lake City (home to the Family History Library) or Fort Wayne, Ind. (home to the Genealogy Center). All you have to do is enter your name. Drawings happen each day starting May 20; the research travel package will be given away May 24. Click here to learn more and enter.

Ancestry.com has changed its search results page to highlight key features, load the page faster and require less "stuff" to be downloaded to your computer. The new design lets you filter categories with one click, gives you tabs (instead of a pulldown menu) to switch between the record view and category view of search results, and bolds database titles. See before and after screenshots on the Ancestry.com blog.

Findmypast.com Military Records: Free May 23-27

Diane — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:22:31 GMT

Genealogy records site Findmypast.com will make its collection of US and International military records in honor of Memorial Day. The records will be available free of charge starting at midnight EDT on Thursday, May 23, until midnight EDT on Memorial Day, Monday, May 27.

Us military records include include World War I Draft Registration Cards, Korean War Records, Korean War Casualty Records, Korean War POWs, Vietnam War Records, Vietnam War Deaths and Casualties, World War II POWs, World War II Army Enlistment Records, and US Army Casualties, 1961-1981.

Click here for an overview of records available for the United States, Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

During the free period, anyone can access the records by registering for free at findmypast.com. The records are normally part of the site's subscription and pay-per-view collection.

Missouri Genealogy Research—Beyond the Basics

Diane — Wed, 15 May 2013 20:26:49 GMT

You've found basic data on your Missouri ancestors from sources such as birth and death records and censuses. Now you're ready to dig deeper into more-advanced, richer genealogy resources.

You'll learn how in our May 23 webinar Secrets to Beat Your Missouri Brick Walls.

Cheryl Lang, manager of the Midwest Genealogy Center in Independence, Mo., will show you how to take your Missouri genealogy search to the next level with

Military records and rosters
Court and tax records
Manuscripts and state-specific collections
State archives resources

She'll also give you a quick refresher on Missouri vital records, and guidance for using cluster and collateral techniques to break through brick walls.

Got a Missouri genealogy question? You can submit it to Cheryl before the event or ask during the live Q&A session at the end of the presentation.

Webinar participants will get our newly revised Missouri State Research Guide and our St. Louis City Guide, a 25-page handout of Cheryl's presentation slides, and access to view the webinar again as many times as you want.

Click here for more details about the Secrets to Beat Your Missouri Brick Walls webinar and to register.

MyHeritage Introduces Record Detective

Diane — Mon, 13 May 2013 20:14:08 GMT

Last week MyHeritage added US censuses from 1790 to 1930, and before that was Record Matching to people in your MyHeritage.com or Geni.com family tree.

Now comes another announcement from MyHeritage: Record Detective takes a record you've discovered on MyHeritage and gives you a summary of additional records about the same relative, and about other people related to that relative. You also can link to see these people in other family trees on MyHeritage.

For example, you find someone in the US census, and Record Detective will show you census entries for the person and other household members in earlier and later years, plus a passenger list showing when the head of the household immigrated.

This video demonstrates how it works:

The announcement on MyHeritage compares this to friend suggestions on Facebook. It reminds me of the "you also might like..." suggestions you get when shopping online.

"The Record Detective technology understands what record you're looking at, and brings you related records, and related people." Of course, you'll want to look at each Record Detective match and make sure it really is your ancestor.

You don't have to be a MyHeritage subscriber to get Record Detective matches, but to view many of the matching records, you'll need a subscription or pay-as-you-go credits.

Genealogy News Corral, May 6-10

Diane — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:49:18 GMT

Supermodel Cindy Crawford was spotted in the Connecticut State Library Wednesday morning, where onlookers said she was filming an episode of "Who Do You Think You Are?" NBC canceled the celebrity genealogy reality series after last season, but TLC has picked it up. Singer Kelly Clarkson also is reported to have filmed for the resurrected series.

FamilySearch has added more than 9.4 million index records and images this week from the United States, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Italy, Peru, Sweden and Venezuela. They include data from BillionGraves (search results link you to BillionGraves.com to see an image of the tombstone), Michigan death certificates (1921-1952), New York, Southern District US District Court naturalizations (1824-1946), and more.

You can search or browse (in the case of unindexed record images) these records for free on FamilySearch.org. Link through to each collection from here.

Get a new take on your Irish Famine-era ancestors with findmypast.ie's new online Famine Memorial. Launched to coincide with the National Famine Commemoration 2013 in Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland, the memorial gathers record collections—emigration, census, newspaper, criminal and land records, as well as directories—that highlight aspects of Irish life that were affected during the Great Irish Famine (1845-1852).

You'll need to be a subscriber or use credits to view records, but the memorial also provides interesting background information about the famine that anyone can view.

Family Tree DNA announced it has lowered the price of its mid-level maternal line mtDNA test, called mtDNAPlus, to $49. This two-thirds price reduction was made possible by a new squencing technique. The company also has lowered the price of its 12-marker Y-DNA test to $49. Order either test here.

"Genealogy Roadshow" Coming to PBS This Fall

Diane — Fri, 10 May 2013 16:13:19 GMT

Another genealogy TV series is coming to PBS. And this one might satisfy those of you looking for prime time stories about the ancestors of ordinary Americans (as opposed to the public figures whose family trees have been fodder for "Who Do You Think You Are?" and "Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates, Jr.").

Genealogy Roadshow, premeiring nationally this fall, according to an announcement from PBS and Nashville Public Television, will " combine history and science to uncover fascinating stories of diverse Americans."

"After participants are chosen, genealogy, history and DNA experts will use family heirlooms, letters, pictures, historical documents and other clues to hunt down more information. These experts will enlist the help of local historians to add color and context to the investigations, ensuring every artifact and every name becomes a clue in solving the mystery."

The first season will feature participants from four cities: Nashville, Tenn.; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Detroit.

If you're in Nashville, you can go here to apply to have your genealogy featured on the show.

Genealogy Roadshow is being produced by Krasnow Productions, and is based on a same-name show in Ireland produced by Big Mountain Productions.

Follow the Genealogy Action at The NGS 2013 Conference

Diane — Thu, 09 May 2013 15:48:04 GMT

The National Genealogical Society's annual conference is going on now in Las Vegas. Want a taste of the family history action? Here's where to find one:

Visit the National Genealogical Society (NGS) on Facebook for photos, and check out the official NGS 2013 Conference Blog.

Genea-Musings blogger Randy Seaver is posting photos and writing about sessions he's attended

Genea Philibert-Ortega, who's presenting several sessions, is blogging about her presentations and opportunities for the folks at home on Gena's Genealogy.

Family Curator blogger Denise Levenick is giving daily conference reports.

Find posts about sessions and the exhibit hall on the Ancestry Insider blog.

You'll find a list of all the NGS 2013 Family History Conference Official Bloggers here.

The conference hashtag on Twitter is #NGS2013.
On Friday at 7 p.m. Pacific you can join a genealogy Twitter Chat called GenChat live from the NGS conference. Learn more about GenChat here.

New Workshop Helps You Use Google Earth to Improve Your Genealogy Search

Diane — Thu, 09 May 2013 13:29:12 GMT

I don't need to write a lot about what you'll learn from our Map Your Family History with Google Earth One-Week Workshop, coming up May 17-24, thanks to this awesome video that Google Earth expert Lisa Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems put together:

The workshop offers video sessions and step-by-step written lessons from Lisa and other Family Tree University experts on locating ancestral towns, using maps in your research, and using the tools of Google Earth to explore and display your ancestors' places in a fascinating way.

And Lisa will be be on hand to answer participants' Google Earth questions in our exclusive workshop message board.

Find out more about the Map Your Family History With Google Earth One-Week Workshop on FamilyTreeUniversity.com.

Free, Online Northern Ireland Valuation Revision Books (1864-1933)

Diane — Wed, 08 May 2013 18:01:58 GMT

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has released a new genealogy resource for Northern Ireland.

PRONI, along with FamilySearch, has digitized the Valuation Revision Books, 1864-1933. These books contain a list of landholders and their property valuations in counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry and Tyrone.

The records are handy for filling in gaps between Griffiths Valuation (which ends in 1864) and the 1901 census (the earliest surviving Irish census).

Here's what the Valuation Revision Book pages look like:

You'll need to know where your ancestor lived in Northern Ireland to best use the collection.

Access the Valuation Revision Books on PRONI's website (click the Search Valuation revision Books button on the right). There, you can enter a placename (city, county, parish, or townland; or a street or ward name in Belfast and Londonderry) and digitally "flip" through books pertaining to that place. You also can browse by county and parish.

Note that 44 of the roughly 3,900 books are still be digitized.

Searching for Irish roots? Get in-depth guidance in Family Tree Magazine's Ultimate Irish Genealogy Collection, available only in May.

National Photo Month Giveaway: Photo Preservation Kit!

Diane — Wed, 08 May 2013 15:22:35 GMT

Did you know that May is National Photography Month?

Of course, photography plays a huge role in family history research. Nothing connects you with an ancestor and inspires you to discover more about his or her life, than a photograph.

This one is one of my favorite family pictures. It shows my great-great-grandfather about 1910 in front of the cigar store he opened in Cincinnati. He's standing third from left. His son, my great-grandfather, is in the doorway on the left.

This National Photo Month, we want to help you celebrate and preserve your favorite family photos by giving away one of our new Photo Preservation Kits (now available in ShopFamilyTree.com).

The kit contains specially selected archival photo storage and preservation products from archival supplier Gaylord Bros., plus easy-to-follow instructions from Family Tree Magazine's Family Archivist, Sunny Jane Morton.

You can enter our National Photo Month Sweepstakes here. And you'll get two extra chances to win for every friend who registers using your referral link (which you'll get after you submit your entry).

Our National Photo Month Sweepstakes entry deadline is May 20.

You'll also find these National Photo Month specials at ShopFamilyTree.com:

Photo Detective Collection: Contains the Family Photo Detective ebook by Maureen A. Taylor, Digital Photography Essentials Family Tree University Independent Study course, and more
Amateur Photo Restoration video class
Genealogist's Essential Scanning Kit: Contains our Top 10 Scanning Tips for Genealogy download, Digitize Your Genealogy Documents video class, and more

Genealogy Karma: New, Free Volunteer Record Lookup Website

Diane — Mon, 06 May 2013 14:24:04 GMT

Genealogy website Mocavo is reviving the spirit of the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) volunteer record lookup website in its Genealogy Karma website.

RAOGK, started by Bridgett and Doc Schneider and one of Family Tree Magazine's 101 best free genealogy websites in 2010, went offline in 2011.

Genealogy Karma offers a similar, free option for getting records from a faraway repository or cemetery. You can post a lookup request and tag it with a keyword (such as "birth record" or "tombstone") so volunteers can find it.

Researchers who register as volunteers with the site can answer your request, do the lookup and send you the results.

When submitting a lookup request, follow these tips for a faster response:

Be details. Use indexes to find the volume and page number of the record you need, and provide those details in your request. If you want a tombstone photo, call the cemetery or search online to find the cemetery location, plot and grave number.
Double-check all the names, dates and other information in your request.
You also might offer to compensate the volunteer for expenses such as mileage and postage.

Of course, registering with Genealogy Karma as a volunteer is the ultimate way to say thank you for a request someone has answered.

Click here to learn more about how to use the Genealogy Karma site.