• tricks for reading German script and type
• resources for building your vocabulary of German terms and deciphering abbreviations
• a methodology for solving the quirks of the printed Gothic/Fraktur typeface
• strategies for transcribing and translating the handwritten German cursive script

Wednesday, February 27, 2013 10:23:54 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Ancestry.com has opened its AncestryDNA test to all US residents. From last May until now, the test was open just to Ancestry.com subscribers. This autosomal test analyzes more than 700,000 DNA marker locations and cross-references them with Ancestry.com's catalog of DNA samples.
  
  The AncestryDNA test also breaks down your ethnic heritage by percentage from 20 populations. See the September 2012 Family Tree Magazine for The Genetic Genealogist blogger Blaine Bettinger's take on the AncestryDNA test.

• Planning that long-awaited trip to the Family History Library (FHL) in Salt Lake City? Take note that the library will change its Saturday hours in April. Beginning April 13, the FHL's Saturday operating hours will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (current Saturday hours are 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.).  “This change is being made so that valuable staff and volunteer resources can be allocated to other busier times during the week that have greater patron demand,” says library director Don Anderson.

• The National Genealogical Society (NGS) is seeking Official Bloggers for the 2013 Family History Conference, May 8-11 in Las Vegas. Bloggers can register at the NGS website to request “Official Blogger, NGS 2013 Family History Conference” designation.
  
  These bloggers will be able to use the NGS logo on their blogs and get access to the Media Center on the exhibit hall floor. Apply to be an Official Blogger for the  NGS 2013 Family History Conference here.

Friday, February 22, 2013 1:49:29 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Find Your African-American Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide
• Best African-American Genealogy Sources article download
• Best African American Genealogy Websites half-hour video class
• Reconstruction 101 for African-Americans half-hour video class 

Wednesday, February 20, 2013 3:32:01 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• National Archives Theater with workshops on using British national archives resources
• Celebrity Theater with guests from the "Who Do You Think You Are?"
  
• Photography Gallery focusing on old family photos (and featuring our own Photo Detective and Family Photo Detective book author Maureen A. Taylor)
• Military Pavilion where experts from museums display artifacts and answer military research questions
• Ask the Experts area for 20-minute consultations with genealogy pros
• DNA workshop area

The Virtual Genealogy Conference is sponsored by

Wednesday, February 20, 2013 2:10:14 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

Here’s Family Tree Magazine contributing editor David A. Fryxell with a scoop on his class Making the Most of Mocavo (Mocavo being a genealogy search engine that also offers records and lets you upload your tree and genealogy documents):

My presentation will walk you through getting the most out of Mocavo, which bills itself as “the world’s largest genealogy search engine.” Like Google for genealogy, it searches sites containing more than 6 billion indexed names; unlike Google, though, Mocavo focuses strictly on sites with genealogy information. Mocavo also offers its own specialized collections of digitized books, most notably 3.5 million yearbook pages, and family trees and documents uploaded by its users.

Beyond the ins and outs of search, though, we’ll also explore uploading trees and your own photos and documents to Mocavo. Once your tree is online, Mocavo will begin scouring for “Smart Tree” suggested matches and sending you alerts based on your tree and your saved searches.

But trees aren’t the only things you can upload to Mocavo, which does all the dirty work of making documents searchable—by you and other researchers. Uploading to Mocavo is also a handy way of storing your family-history finds “in the cloud.”

We’ll also look at Mocavo’s mobile app for iOS and Android, which lets you view your documents on the go. When you search using the mobile app, too, those searches get saved for the next time you login on the Mocavo website. You probably didn’t know Mocavo could do so much. After my presentation, you’ll be a Mocavo pro!

Register for the Winter 2013 Virtual Genealogy Conference here.

See these guest posts from other Winter 2013 Virtual Genealogy Conference instructors:

• Genealogical Cold Cases: A Step-by-Step Process with Lisa Louise Cooke
• Simple Tips for Solid Source Citations with Sunny Jane Morton  
• Things You Didn't Know Your Genealogy Software Could Do and Using Irish Censuses, both with Rick Crume
  

The Virtual Genealogy Conference is sponsored by

Tuesday, February 19, 2013 2:44:25 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• At the new, free website from Herthstone Legacy Publications called My Genealogy Hound, you can access thousands of biographies extracted from pre-1900 county history books. Biographies from Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Tennessee are available now, with more states to come. Search the site or browse biographies by surname or state and county. The site also has a selection of free, old county maps from Arkansas, Illinois, Iowa, Kanasas, Missouri, Oklahoma (including Indian nations) and Tennessee, with more to be added.

• The National Genealogical Society (NGS) has implemented student discounts for registration to its 2013 Family History Conference, May 8-11 in Las Vegas. Students can register for the full conference for $50 (NGS members) or $60 (nonmembers), nearly 75 percent off regular rates. To qualify, students must submit a letter on college or university letterhead from the dean or department chair. See the NGS blog for additional details and qualifications.

• FamilySearch has added 8.5 million new records to its free FamilySearch.org. The new records come from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Italy,  the Netherlands and the United States. You can find the full list of updated collections and click through to each collection here. Note that some of the collections aren't yet indexed; for these, you'll need to browse records by place, date or however they're arranged.

• MyHeritage.com has added millions of records including military records, yearbooks, mugshots and wanted posters from partnerships with Interment.net, Genealogy Today, CanadianHeadstones.net and others. The new records are available to subscribers through the site's SuperSearch engine. Find out more about the additions on the MyHeritage blog.

Friday, February 15, 2013 2:49:45 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [1]

"There is not a day or night, nay not an hour, but I wish to fold you to my heart.”

“It seems to me, to myself, that no man was ever before to any woman what you are to me.”

"The Old Year is passing. … It found me careless of the here & the [hereafter]—it leaves me with faith in the one & hope for the [other. It] found [me. my ] heart scorched, bitter, barren, loveless—& leaves it filled with softening, humanizing, elevating love for the dearest girl on earth, Livy—& I, the homeless then, have on this last day of the [die dying] year, a home that is [pre priceless], a refuge from all the cares & ills of life, in that warm heart of yours, & am supremely happy! And so with grateful benediction I give [Godspeed] to this good Old Year that is passing away. If I forget all else it has done for me I shall still remember that it gave me your love, Livy, ..."

"… something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battle field, it will whisper your name. ... How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness ..."

“I still believe that my sweetheart is the ideal woman…”

Thursday, February 14, 2013 8:50:27 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

The most popular genealogy programs have tools to help you record your family history efficiently, plan your research and search online databases. But if you’re a typical genealogy software user, you don’t take advantage of all of those features.

You’ve probably mastered entering birth, marriage and death information in your genealogy software, but have you customized your program to fit your unique needs?

You're doing better than most genealogists if you document your sources, but are you taking advantage of timesaving techniques for this crucial, but mundane, task? And are you exploiting your program’s tools for searching within your family file and in online databases?

In my class 10 Things You Didn't Know You Could Do With Your Genealogy Software, I'll show you how to use these and other features in Family Tree Maker, Legacy Family Tree and RootsMagic.

I'm also teaching a class on Identifying Ancestors in Irish Census Records. Because so many Irish census records have been lost over the years, you might assume they're of no use in your genealogy research. In fact, it’s well worth checking Irish censuses, especially now that most of the existing ones are online and easy to search.

Most 19th-century Irish census records have been lost, but the ones you need just could have survived. (Mine did!) And fortunately, the 1901 and 1911 censuses of Ireland survive and are easily accessible online for free. I'll show you several tips for searching them and suggest how they can be useful to your research even if your ancestors left Ireland before 1901.

Family Tree University's Winter 2013 Virtual Genealogy Conference, Feb. 22-24, gives you an all-access pass to 15 half-hour video classes, live chats with genealogy experts, and exclusive message board to network with instructors and attendees, and a ShopFamilyTree.com swag bag of freebies. Click here for more details on the conference.

See these guest posts from other Winter 2013 Virtual Genealogy Conference instructors:

• Genealogical Cold Cases: A Step-by-Step Process with Lisa Louise Cooke
• Simple Tips for Solid Source Citations with Sunny Jane Morton 
  

The Virtual Genealogy Conference is sponsored by

Wednesday, February 13, 2013 2:10:03 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [3]