• The University of Edinburgh's Italo-Scottish Research Cluster online archive gathers material from the 1880s, the era of the first Italian mass migration to Scotland, to the present. Right now, you can see old photos of Italo-Scots, but check back for more additions. There's also a page where you can get links to learn more about this little-studied migration.    

• The new Legacies of British Slave Ownership database holds the names of 46,000 slave owners in British colonies who received compensation for the loss of "property" when Britain abolished slavery in 1833 (it outlawed the trade in 1807). The database doesn't name slaves, but it could aid those who are tracing African ancestors by researching the slave-owning families. Search the database here. 

• The Civil War Trust's annual Park Day takes place Saturday, April 16 at more than 100 participating battlefields in 24 states. Volunteers help clean and maintain these important Civil War sites by raking leaves, picking up trash, painting signs, clearing trails and more. To learn how you can help, visit the trust's Park Day page and click on the name of the participating Civil War site you're interested in (note that some sites are holding their volunteer events on alternate dates).

Friday, March 01, 2013 11:05:04 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Evidence Explained by Elizabeth Shown Mills
  
  
• The Family Tree Sourcebook by the editors of Family Tree Magazine
  
  
• The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy edited by Loretto Szucs and Sandra Luebking
  
  
• How to Archive Family Keepsakes by Denise May Levenick
  
  
• A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Female Ancestors by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
  
  
• Women and the Law of Property in Early America by Marylynn Salmon ("helps when looking at court records and understanding how women were treating in regards to their rights to own property," said the chatter, and it covers "1750 to 1830ish")
  
  
• Finding Your Father's War by Jonathan Gawne ("for researching WWII soldiers")
  
  
• Everyday Life in the 1800s by Marc McCutcheon
  
  
• The Family Tree Problem Solver by Marsha Hoffman Rising ("the perfect book for when you're stuck on a line and need inspiration"), which also comes in a digital version
  
  
• Reading Early American Handwriting by Kip Sperry ("the first part explains about the differences in writing styles, while the last three-quarters of the book has examples of documents with the transcriptions")
  
  
• Genealogists Handbook for New England Research edited by Michael J. LeClerc
  
  
• The Genealogist's Companion and Sourcebook and The Sleuthbook for Genealogists by Emily Anne Croom
  
  
• Finding Indiana Ancestors by M. Teresa Baer and Geneil Breeze
  
  
• Bringing Your Family History to Life Through Social History by Katherine Scott Sturdevant
  
  
• Black's Law Dictionary, 4th edition ("the 4th edition is the most recent one that still has the old terms, as I understand")
  
  
• No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting by Anne MacDonald, recommended by a chatter who is into knitting
  
  
• Your Digital Afterlife....When Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter Are Your Estate, What's Your Legacy? by Evan Carroll and John Romano
  
  
• Norwegians on the Prairie by Odd Lovoll
  
  
• Italian Genealogical Records: How to use Italian Civil, Ecclesiastical and Other Records in Family History Research by Trafford Cole
  
  
• Only a Few Bones by John Philip Colletta
  
  
• Finding Italian Roots by John Philip Colletta
  
  
• The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England ("written like a travel guide for people traveling from today back in time to the 14th century")
  
  
• Annie's Ghosts: A Journey Into a Family Secret by Steve Luxenberg
  
  
• The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenwood

Thursday, February 28, 2013 9:29:32 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [5]

• 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]