• Sharing and preserving stories and "opening the tent" to more people, particularly youth, are big themes at this year's conference. Many attendees found inspiration in FamilySearch president Dennis Brimhall's keynote talk about documenting people's lives, asking “What would our great-great-grandchildren wish we would have done?” You can read about the opening keynote talks by Brimhall, storyteller Syd Lieberman and findmypast genealogist D. Joshua Taylor on the RootsTech blog. Watch these talks on the RootsTech website—scroll down on the home page to the Daily Recaps section.

• In his keynote talk this morning, Ancestry.com president Tim Sullivan made several announcements:

Over the next five years, Ancestry.com will commit at least $100 million to digitize and index new content.
 
Over the next three years, Ancestry.com and FamilySearch will collaborate to digitize and index 140 million+ pages of US probate records spanning 1800 to 1930. He called this the organizations' "most ambitious collaboration" yet, and added the caveat that permission to put records online must be negotiated with repositories holding these records.

Ancestry.com is about to release new version of its iPhone iPad app with enhanced social media sharing, the ability to compare trees and other features. A third of new Ancestry.com registrants are through the site's mobile apps (there's also one for Android), and half of users over last 2 months come to Ancestry.com through a mobile device.

The Ancestry DNA database contains 120,000 DNA samples and has delivered more than 2 million fourth cousin relationships. To increase the size of the database, the price of the test will be lowered to $99, whether or not you're a subscriber.

(Update: Sullivan didn't include this in his keynote, but Ancestry.com has announced that test-takers can now download their raw DNA data.)

• In addition to a new logo unveiled to RootsTech official bloggers, FamilySearch will redesign its website with an emphasis on photos, as a way to engage more people. It'll also add a fan chart view to its online Family Tree program. Blogger Renee Zamora has lots of details on the information presented during the dinner.
  

• According to the Ancestry Insider, who attended Wednesday's dinner for the bloggers, FamilySearch is experimenting with broadcasting sessions to 16 satellite locations in seven countries (with translation where necessary). If successful, next year the number will be expanded to 600 locations. That increases to potential reach of the conference to 120,000 people.

• FamilySearch should reach its 1 billionth indexed record very soon, and is planning on awarding prizes to the indexer and arbitrator of that record. 

Friday, March 22, 2013 1:43:20 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• More than 6,700 people were pre-registered for RootsTech, which is huge for a US genealogy conference. The number is helped by the conference's location in Salt Lake City, home to the Family History Library and to many members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for whom researching genealogy is a religious calling.
  
  
• About 2,000 teenagers signed up for a youth program on Saturday.
  

• FamilySearch will soon be available in nine languages for access by more people around the world. This is consistent with the organization's increasing focus on historical records from places besides the United States.
  

• FamilySearch unveiled a new logo at a meeting for genealogy bloggers. You can see it on Genealogy Gems blogger Lisa Louise Cooke's Facebook page.

• 3.2 billion names are now online in the databases at FamilySearch.org.

More RootsTech news to come!

Thursday, March 21, 2013 12:42:34 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• You can watch several presentations online each day of the conference. Check out the Rootstech livestreaming schedule here, and remember to translate the times from Mountain time into your time zone. Here's a Time Zone Converter.

• The RootsTech expo hall, which is free to the public, is 40 percent bigger this year. It includes opportunities to get research help in a FamilySearch mini-lab, have a photo or album digitized, get a large family tree printout, and receive a free copy of Family Tree Magazine (when you stop by our booth, tell Tyler, our online community editor, that I said hi).

• Story@Home, a conference about gathering and sharing family stories, has become part of RootsTech this year with a track of classes and a storytelling event on Friday evening.

• RootsTech attendees can register for just the Getting Started track of classes for $19 for one day or $39 for three days.

• A Developer Day on Friday will consolidate the presentations geared toward creators of genealogy technology tools.

• Special events include a Thursday night social at the Leonardo (a contemporary science and art museum), sponsored by findmypast.com; a special Mormon Tabernacle Choir performance also on Thursday; and extended hours at the Family History Library on Friday.

• Genealogy blogger DearMyrtle will be interviewing vendors and attendees in the exhibit hall, and broadcasting the segments online as DearMYRTLE LIVE! @RootsTech. Learn more and find out how to watch on Myrt's blog.

• We know of two scavenger hunts occurring in conjunction with the conference—RootsMagic's scavenger hunt includes an at-home component for those not at RootsTech, and the Heirloom Registry will hold a conference hall version of its online scavenger hunt from a few weeks ago.

Wednesday, March 20, 2013 11:31:05 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Discover Your Roots Kit (great for beginners, and it's 30% off)
• 10 Years of Family Tree Magazine (2000-2009) DVD (40% off)
• 2008 and 2009 Family Tree Magazine annual CDs (60% off)
• State Research Guides hard-bound book (60% off)

Monday, March 18, 2013 3:08:25 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• RootsTech, the FamilySearch genealogy conference taking place in Salt Lake City March 21-23, has announced its lineup of 13 sessions you can watch free online. They include the opening day keynote by FamilySearch CEO Dennis Brimhall and storyteller Sid Lieberman; Researching Ancestors Online with Laura Prescott; and From Paper Piles to Digital Files by Valerie Elkins.

Click here to see the list of sessions that will livestream and the times you can watch (note that you'll need to translate the times from Mountain Daylight Time to your own time zone).

• The Irish Genealogical Research Society has launched a new website, IrishAncestors.ie,  that broadens access to resources from the group's library. The public area of the website offers resources including a fragment of the 1871 census for the parish of Drumcondra, County Meath, a database of Irish marriage records and more.

• FamilySearch has added 1.7 million indexed records and record images to collections from Australia, Austria, China, Dominican Republic, England, Italy, Mexico, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Paraguay, Peru and the United States. US records come from Arizona, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, North Carolina and Tennessee.

You see the list of updated collections here and click to search or browse them for free on FamilySearch.org.

Friday, March 15, 2013 3:28:54 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• UK and Irish genealogy website Origins.net is offering access to its collection of Irish directories from March 16 until March 18 at midnight GMT (that's about 8 p.m. ET in the United States). Recently added is Thom's Irish Almanac and Official Directory for 1845 to 1900. You could learn the person's exact occupation, as well as address and parish of residence. Note that the most "disadvantaged" classes—small tenant farmers, landless labourers and servants—are usually absent from these directories. Learn more about Origins.net's Irish Directories collection and start searching here.

• Ancestry.com is opening up its US passenger lists and border-crossing records through March 17—search here whether your ancestors came from Ireland or elsewhere. The search here initially netted zero results for my name search on Edward Norris born in 1827, but after I clicked Edit Search to bring up the advanced search window, and then clicked Search again, it worked.

Friday, March 15, 2013 9:28:52 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]

• Cemetery records: Check the woman’s tombstone and note surrounding ones, which may belong to her family.

• Church records: Witnesses on a woman’s or her children’s religious records may be her relatives.

• Court records: Women typically didn’t leave wills (in many times and places, married women legally couldn't), though a widowed or unmarried woman may have. Your female ancestor or her relatives may be named in her father’s or husband’s will. Also check divorce records, which may have been filed even if a divorce wasn’t granted.

• Home sources: Examine letters, needlework and quilts, recipe books, address books, baby books, wedding albums, Bibles and calenders for names of—and details about—female ancestors. 

• Land records: Women rarely owned land but may be named in deeds. A married woman may have signed a release of dower when her husband sold land. Those selling land to a couple, especially for a small sum, may be the woman’s relatives. Also consider that the neighbors may be her family.

• Marriage records: These might include a license, certificate, return, church register, banns, bond or newspaper announcement.

• Military pensions: A woman could file for a military pension when her husband or unmarried son died of war-related injuries. Widows had to send marriage records to prove the marital relationship. 

• Naturalizations: Until 1922, wives automatically became naturalized when their husbands did. Unmarried women rarely sought naturalization. Post-1922, look for separate records for married women.

• Newspapers: Pay special attention to society columns, announcements of births, engagements or anniversaries, and obituaries.

• Vital records: A woman’s death record may name her father (later records are more detailed). Birth records often give the mother’s maiden name.

• Finding Female Ancestors Family Tree University Independent Study Course from Family Tree University
• Secrets to Tracing Female Ancestors video class
• Research Strategies: Female Ancestors 7-page digital download
• Female Ancestors Cheat Sheet
• The Hidden Half of Family: A Sourcebook for Women's Genealogy by Christina K. Schaefer (Genealogical Publishing Co.)

Thursday, March 14, 2013 6:10:17 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)    Comments [0]