• Marian's Roots and Rambles (hurry—ends Oct. 19 at noon EST!)

• Genea-Musings (ends Oct. 21); this blog will hold a second contest Oct. 23.

• Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (ends Oct. 31)

• Olive Tree Genealogy (Tuesdays and Thursdays through Nov. 2)

Wednesday, October 17, 2012 4:37:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [1]

Last chance for Online Military Records!

Almost every genealogist has an ancestor who spent some part of his life in service to our country. Today these individuals are immortalized in collection upon collection of digitized military records.

Jump into the fray with an hour-long webinar from expert presenter David A. Fryxell, who will discuss such conflicts as the Colonial Wars, Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Civil War, Spanish-American War and many more.

Some sample tips from this workshop include:

• Service records and rolls are available for browsing via Fold3 if you know your ancestor's unit.
• Resources vary depending on the conflict. For instance, Revolutionary War records are available via the Daughters of the American Revolution online library, whereas state websites are often an excellent resource for the Civil War.
• There were three different types of WWI draft cards. Along with basic info such as name, age, address, etc., the 12-question Draft Card included occupation and any claimed draft exemptions.
• Records that are not online can still be ordered using the eVets system available from Archives.gov.

Want to learn more, see demos of the sites mentioned here, and have your questions answered by our presenter? There's still time to register for the live webinar—Online Military Records takes place Thursday, Oct. 18 at 7 pm Eastern time (4 pm Pacific).

Can't make Thursday's presentation? No worries! Every registrant receives a copy of the recording to watch as many times as you wish, along with a PDF of the slides/handouts for reference.

See ShopFamilyTree.com for more details about this and other Family Tree University webinars.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012 2:15:03 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [2]

• click on the updated collection from the listing here

• use the place filters on FamilySearch.org: Scroll down on the home page, choose a world region next to the map, then choose a country, date range or collection on the left to narrow the collection list to those covering your ancestor's lifetime. Then click on the title for the collection you want to search.
  

Monday, October 15, 2012 10:54:30 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Ancestry.com has released a new Ancestry Facebook app that helps you use Facebook to add to your Ancestry.com family tree. The app lets you use your Facebook credentials to log into Ancestry.com, get hints about Facebook members who may be family, add family members on Facebook to your Ancestry tree and send copies of your tree to those relatives (which they can use to start their own trees on Ancestry.com). Watch a video of how the app works and get the app on Ancestry.com.

Note that when you add information from Facebook to your Ancestry.com tree, you grant Ancestry.com permission to use the information according to its Terms and Conditions and Privacy Statement.

• Our Photo Detective Maureen A. Taylor's book The Last Muster: Images of the Revolutionary War Generation, will soon become a historical film! Visit LastMusterFilm.com to learn more about the project and how you can help the stories of the book's subjects come to life through a donation to the Center for Independent Documentary.

• FamilySearch is holding a Genealogists Say "Thanks!" video contest. Submit a video sharing an ancestral find in FamilySearch indexes and thanking FamilySearch volunteer indexers for their work. Five winners will each receive  a $25 Visa gift card and have their videos published on teh FamilySearch indexing Facebook page. The submission deadline is November 5; see the FamilySearch blog for contest rules and other details.

• British genealogy website Genes Reunited has added a Keepsafe feature where the site's members can store digital copies of their family records, photos and memories. Keepsafes can be public, private or shared with select others.  Also new are Relation Profiles, where members can view and edit details about people in their Genes Reunited family trees. Check out the recently revamped Genes Reunited here.

• Genealogists familiar with French Canadian family heritage won't be surprised by Ancestry.com's latest famous-roots discovery: Canadian celebrities Justin Bieber, Avril Lavigne and Ryan Gosling are related through a family connection going back 400 years. The Biebs is also 10th cousins three times removed with singer Celine Dion. You can read more about how these stars are linked and see it charted out on Ancestry.com's blog.

Friday, October 12, 2012 11:04:26 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Iowa is the 29th state, attaining statehood in December 1846. Birth and marriage records began in 1880 and death records in 1891. There are some online indexes (and even record images) you can use from home—at least to get enough information to request original records. We'll help you use these online sources, and tell you where to go for the originals.

• Iowa is one of the lucky states with great state censuses. In the webinar, we'll talk about when they were taken, what information they include, where to find them, and how to use them. You'll see examples of one of the greatest censuses in the country (in our opinions:) and the three pages of information on each enumerated individual.

• Land has always been one of Iowa's most important assets. The first sale of most land was from the federal government to individuals. Using the Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office database and other sources, we'll show you how to find land records and what they mean to your research.

• The Iowa Genealogical Society is large and active. We'll have some tips on researching using the society's library in Des Moines. If you have Iowa roots, this is one society you should join.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012 1:32:24 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• Canadian Genealogy Websites
  
  
• Finding Canadian soldiers in World War I
  
  
• Finding Canadians in the War of 1812
  
  
• Resources for tracing immigrants to Canada
  
  
• All about dit names
  
  
• 101 Best Websites for Genealogy in 2012: Canadian Genealogy Sites
  
  
• Finding Irish immigrants to Canada
  
  
• Canadian Genealogy Guide digital download (from ShopFamilyTree.com)
  
  
• Finding Canadian Immigration records video class (from ShopFamilyTree.com)
  
  
• French Canadian Genealogy Guide digital download (from ShopFamilyTree.com)

Monday, October 08, 2012 11:03:34 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]

• UK genealogy website Origins.net is making its York Marriage Bonds and Allegations Index (1613-1839) free to search until Monday, October 8 at midday BST (if midday is the same as noon, that would be Oct. 8 at 7 a.m. EST). Learn more about this index here. You'll need to set up a free registration on the site to search. If you find a record you need in the index, you can order a copy by clicking "Add to cart."

• Free, collaborative family tree site WikiTree has reopened member registration after closing it in January. The closure was "to give the WikiTree community time to absorb the flood of information that had been added by people who registered for a free membership and uploaded GEDCOMs, but did not take the time to integrate their genealogy into the shared family tree."

To help ensure that new members understand the site's mission, newly registered members now receive a temporary and limited Guest Membership. Those who want to become permanent members can volunteer to participate in the community as a Wiki Genealogist (requires signing an honor code), or they can ask if a Wiki Genealogist will help connect their family to the shared tree. 

• The Civil War Trust has announced the winners of its 17th annual photography contest. The grand prize winner is Buddy Secor of Stafford, Va., who took a gorgeous sunrise shot of the Chancellorsville battlefield. You can see this and the other winning images on the Civil War Trust website.

Friday, October 05, 2012 3:46:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)    Comments [0]