Millions of Civil War Records Now Available on FamilySearch Website
SALT LAKE CITY | 11 May 2011 | As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, history buffs and people who had ancestors involved in the conflict can access millions of records recently published on the familysearch.org website. And millions more records are coming, as volunteers enlist in an online campaign over the next five years to provide access to the highly desirable historic documents. FULL STORY
To help index Civil War records go to https://www.familysearch.org/civil-war
FamilySearch Adds South Carolina Genealogy Resources
FamilySearch has announced new South Carolina genealogy resources to mark the National Genealogical Society Family History Conference, going on now in Charleston, SC:
South Carolina Probate Records, Files and Loose Papers, 1732-1964 have been added to the FamilySearch record site (this collection hasn’t been indexed, so you’ll need to browse the record images).
South Carolina Probate Records, Bound Volumes, 1671-1977, also have been added (also browse-only).
A South Carolina section is now in the FamilySearch Research Wiki.
Probate records can be helpful in researching African-American ancestors, because probate files of slave owners often contain inventories of their slaves.
U.S. Social Security Death Index on FamilySearch.org
The U.S. Social Security Death Index (SSDI) is now on FamilySearch.org. The data is current as of October 2010. The most current updates will be available soon.
To search it, you can either search all historical records, and matching records from the index will be included in your search results. You can also search only the Social Security Death Index.
To search the Social Security Death Index without having to return to the blog for the link, follow these steps:
FULL STORY |
~”What’s New” at FamilySearch
FamilySearch as an Archive
The technical infrastructure necessary to provide access to FamilySearch’s digitized records is immense. FamilySearch is digitizing, providing access, and preserving the world’s genealogical records, said Ed Donakey in a session at the NGS Conference last Thursday. Donakey is strategic relations manager for FamilySearch.
Donakey briefly touched on one item, maintaining the Internet connection of the website’s four datacenters. FamilySearch uses redundant connections so that the website can continue to function even if an Internet connection fails. An East coast datacenter has six Internet connections. In case a particular Internet provider should fail, the six connections are distributed among several Internet providers, including Qwest, Sprint, and XO. If all six connections failed, website operations would transfer to a Utah datacenter. It is connected with three lines to the Internet. Even if eight lines failed, familysearch.org would still have full speed access, said Donakey.
“Digital preservation is imperative for us,” Donakey said. Preserving digital records has many unique problems not suffered by microfilm preservation. The ways in which you can lose digital records is hellacious. (That’s my word, not Donakey’s… We’ll, actually, it’s not my word either. But I digress…) Failures include media failure, hardware failure, software failure, communication error, network error, hardware obsolescence, software obsolescence, operator error, natural disaster, and economic failure.
The solutions are not targeted to archivists only. “FamilySearch wants to provide the tools, technology, and infrastructure for local, national, and international archives and end users to preserve their key data,” said Donakey. “We’re doing everything we can to preserve these records for our posterity.”
~Ancestry Insider
An Easy Way to Add Maps to a Genealogy Project
Would you like to include U.S. maps in your family history projects, but can't find what you want? The National Atlas is a map-making platform sponsored by the Federal Government that lets you build your own maps. You can create maps that capture and depict patterns, conditions, and trends of American life. You can use the National Atlas templates to create maps that cover all of the United States or just your area of interest. In the National Atlas Map Maker you can assemble, view, and print your own maps.
~Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter as reported in "Generations", Washington DC Family History Center Newsletter.
Get to Those Stones Now!
Are there any pre-1900 tombstones you have not transcribed, photographed, etc.? Look through your records, your database, etc. Put getting the transcription from the stone on your priority list. Old stones do not last forever and the information may literally fade away before you get to it. And be careful relying totally on published transcriptions. Sometimes in an attempt to be helpful, people added information to the "transcription" that really was not on the stone.
~Michael John Neill, GenealogyTipofTheDay.blogspot.com,
Naturalization Papers Finding Aid
US Naturalization records can be very helpful when doing genealogy research, but can frequently be very difficult to find. Naturalizations before 1906 could be done in any just about any court in the country, and were not standardized. After 1906 the federal government took over the Naturalization process and all forms became standardized nationwide. The locations of all Naturalization files post-1906 are generally in set locations based on where the person naturalized.
Some files will generally only be found if you do a search through the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services which holds the entire C-File (certificate file) for naturalized citizens (records from 1906 onwards). Ordering a search online is time-consuming process and expensive.
To access Naturalization records without going through such a long and expensive process, Mr. Trauring has created a chart of NARA's naturalization paper files which shows all the states, cities and date ranges. His blog entry and finding aid are found at: Naturalization Table
~Generations, Washington DC Family History Center Newsletter, May 2011, taken from "Naturalization Papers Finding Aid", by Philip Trauring, bloodandfrogs blog
Black Loyalist Web Site
Black Loyalist is a repository of historical data about the African American loyalist refugees who left New York between April and November 1783 and whose names are recorded in the Book of Negroes. In this first stage, the site concentrates on providing biographical and demographic information for the largest cohort, about 1000 people from Norfolk, Virginia, and surrounding counties.
Working on the principal that enslaved African Americans were not just a faceless, nameless, undifferentiated mass, but individuals with complex life experiences, this site seeks to provide as much biographical data as can be found for the individual people who ran away to join the British during the American Revolution and were evacuated as free people in 1783.
The project emerged from the research of Cassandra Pybus for her book Epic Journeys of Freedom: Runaway Slaves of the American Revolution and Their Global Quest for Liberty. The web site was created by Cassandra Pybus, Kit Candlin and Robin Petterd and funded as a pilot project in 2009 by the Australian Research Council.
The Black Loyalist Web Site is available at http://www.blackloyalist.info/
Irfanview
Irfanview is one program that can be used with graphics, saving images to your computer and then opening them up to crop as you want and make copies. It downloads for free at Irfanview.com and is on the computers at the Family History Library in SLC and on our computers at Redlands FHC (The desktop icon is a squashed red cat with a black mask.) Staff members can help you capture images at the center to save on your flash drive or print.
Once an image is saved in a file and Irfanview is on your computer:
Click on Irfanview - then the word 'File' - then open - then go to where you have the image saved and click on that - then click on the image - then put your cursor in the upper left corner, left click, hold and drag diagonally to the bottom right corner, which creates a box. You can trim the edges this way, or select just portions of the image you want either printed or saved (you can move any of the lines in or out, if you hover your cursor over the line, and when it becomes a double arrow do a left click, hold and drag in or out - then go to 'file' again and choose either 'save as' or 'print'. When you print, you have the option of making a header or footer to label the document image you will be printing. ~Family History Expos Newsletter
Bits and Pieces
Question: Where can I get blank Family Group Record forms?
FamilySearch Wiki - Search for "Family Group Record", select "Use Appropriate Forms". Under Family Group Record, click the blue "Family group records" link.
PAF - File > Reports & Charts > Family Group tab > Blank Form
RootsMagic - File > Print Reports > Reports > Blank Reports > Family group sheet
Legacy - Reports > Report Menu (charts) > Family tab > Blank Report
Ancestral Quest - File > Print Reports & Charts > Family Group tab > Blank Form
~Logan FHC Newsletter
Ancient Faces
Ancient Faces contains free photos of faces and places in history. Over 50,000 vintage photos. Search by surname or topic. You can also share your ancestral photos and help build the site for others.
Don't Neglect the Online Trees
Ancestry.com, WorldConnect, FamilySearch and a variety of other sites have user submitted family trees. Virtually all of them contain errors. Some of them contain many errors. But don't ignore them completely. Sometimes even a very careless researcher stumbles upon something that we have overlooked. Don't take anything in the online trees without documenting it elsewhere, but consider the fact that one of them may have the clue that you need.
~Michael Neill, Genealogy Tip of the Day
Label Your Flash drive
Please label your flash drives if you are going to bring them to the Center or anywhere else you may go. They are so easy to leave in the computers. If we knew who they belonged to, we could call and let you know. One suggestion is to use a small mailing label. Another is to rename the actual drive. (Right-click the drive and select rename.)
~Logan FHC Newsletter
Check Out the Sponsors
If your immigrant ancestor was a member of a denomination that practiced infant baptism and you have not determined who the sponsors were for all of his or her children, you could be missing out. There's a good chance that sponsors were somehow related to the parents and if the parents cannot be traced across the pond, perhaps the sponsors can.
~Michael John Neill, Tip of the Day
Free Online File Converter
Bookmark this site. It converts files from hundreds of formats to any of hundreds of other formats. Want to convert a DOC file to a PDF file? Online-Convert will do that. Want to convert an audio MP3 file to WAV format? Online-Convert will do that. The site has many, many other formats available as well.
If you can’t find the conversion you need, you can contact the site owners and they will try to help you. Best of all, the service is available free of charge.
You can find it at http://www.online-convert.com/
Continue reading "Free Online File Converter" »
~Posted by Dick Eastman on May 16, 2011
War of 1812 -Preserve the Pensions
The Federation of Genealogical Societies, the National Archives, and the genealogical community have started a project to digitize the War of 1812 pension files—a fitting beginning to the bicentennial commemoration of this important war. These images will be available for free.
Contributions to this project have already made these files available.
This initiative seeks to raise $3.7 million. Preserve the Pensions! seeks to raise the bulk of the funds before the bicentennial of the start of the war and finish digitization before the bicentennial of the war's end in 2015. With 7.2 million images in 180,000 files, there is much digitization to do.
~Ancestry Insider
You'll Send Us to the Poor Farm!: Resources for Researching Poor Farms
by Gena Philibert Ortega
I thought I would provide some resources that might help you learn more about poor farms and what it was like for ancestors who were living there.
The first source you should check when researching poor farms is the website for The Poorhouse Lady, aka Linda Crannell at www.poorhousestory.com. Driven by the knowledge that her grandmother spent her early years in a poorhouse, Linda has developed a comprehensive site devoted to the history of poorhouses and references to poorhouses in various states. On her site you can read about laws governing poorhouses, read about poorhouses in your state, and peruse the bibliography she has put together on the issue of poverty. MORE
~GenealogyWise Newsletter
Google’s Picasa Tip by Gena Philibert Ortega
Google's Picasa software, available for the PC, http://picasa.google.com/ and the Mac, http://picasa.google.com/mac/ is a free photo editing software program that allows users to organize, correct and edit photos. It can be difficult to keep information with documents and photos but one genealogist told me that he uses Picasa's text option to add source citations to digital images of documents. He takes his digital camera to libraries, archives and the Family History Center and uses his camera to take photos of the documents and microfilm images. He then uploads them to his computer and uses Picasa to add source citations. You can learn more about Picasa's features by clicking on the link "Watch a video introduction" located on the homepage.
This is a great way to organize your research. Not only can you add it to folders on your computer. (I have surname folders and then folders in those surname folders for the couples or individuals I am researching) but you can also keep track of what that document is by adding a source citation right onto the digital image.
~GenealogyWise Newsletter
This Table at This Moment: A Providential Encounter
By Carol Kostakos Petranek, one of the Directors of the Washington DC Family History Center and a Volunteer at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
April 20 was a beautiful, sunny day and the public was streaming into the tents erected in front of the National Archives building in Washington, D.C. NARA’s annual Genealogy Fair was well underway, and this was the fourth year that I organized exhibits for both our Washington, DC Family History Center and FamilySearch.org.
Our laptops were humming with wireless internet, and FamilySearch.org was yielding an amazing number of “hits” as we searched for ancestors of the various people who stopped by our booth. As the hours elapsed, our volunteers talked themselves hoarse. Over 3,000 people came to the fair on that first day, and we talked with hundreds who were seeking to learn more about the Church’s most popular website.
Ron Able and Terry Willard, from the Washington DC Family History Center, assist patrons
The volunteers at our booths didn’t have a specific strategy for approaching or helping patrons; whoever was available would assist an individual. And that is what made my encounter with Michelle especially providential.
It was lunchtime, and people were standing two and three deep at our booth. After helping one patron, I impulsively left the back of our table and walked into the crowd, offering to answer questions or assist with a computer lookup. It was at that moment that a lovely African-American woman caught my eye and approached me. Her name was Michelle, and she had just started researching her family six weeks ago. She related, with great animation, that she was amazed at the amount of information she was finding online. “I’m descended from one of the first African-Americans who went west on the wagon train with Brigham Young,” she said excitedly. Stunned, I asked if she knew the name of that ancestor. “Green Flake,” she replied.
As she hurriedly sketched a 6-generation pedigree chart linking herself to this pioneer, I knew that our conversation was not happenstance. For six years, I had been the Chairperson of the Black History Month commemorations held at the Washington Temple Visitors’ Center. Among the many people who had participated in those events were Darius Gray and Margaret Young, historians who had delved deeply into the records and written extensively about the first black families to settle in Utah (see interview). Foremost among these pioneers was Green Flake, a former slave and convert to the LDS Church who rode in the first wagon to enter Emigration Canyon on July 21, 1847.
“I can connect you with the historians who have researched this family extensively,” I said emotionally. “They have photographs and a complete family history about Green Flake and his descendants. They have written books, a play and numerous articles. They can tell you everything about him. ” Her eyes widened as she threw her arms around me. “What are the chances,” I asked, “that you would come to this very table at this very moment and just happen to talk to me rather than anyone else at our booth?”
We stared at each other, speechless. And then she hugged me again.
~Thank you Marcia Green
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Yucaipa Valley Genealogical Society could use your help.
Surveying Mt. San Gorgonio Memorial Park
We really are going to start up again this month! Would you like to help survey, take photographs and transcribe the local cemeteries? The Society is now in the process of trying to survey the Summit Cemetery District in Riverside County. Please contact Jamie Daniel or anyone on the YVGS Board if you are interested. We could use your help!
jamiedaniel33@gmail.com or 709 792-2962 or P.O. Box 32,Yucaipa, CA 92399-0032
New Website - Family Tech at FamilySearch
Technology tips for genealogists and family historians. Check here for new Technology to help with your family history. http://familytech.familysearch.org/ List this with your favorites.
New Records Added to FamilySearch.org
Over 30 million new records have been added to familysearch.org through indexing efforts in the last few months. Records from the following countries have been included: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, El Salvador, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, United States, Venezuela, Wales, and Zimbabwe. In addition, the 1881 England and Wales Census index has received significant enhancements.
Exciting Developments in FamilySearch Forums
We are excited to announce that beginning on April 12, you will be able to log into the FamilySearch Forums with your LDS Account. This is the last FamilySearch website in English to switch to the new user account system, so with this change, all of your English language FamilySearch websites and programs are accessible with this single user name and password. If you are a current Forums user, there will be a “merging” process so that the information in your old account can be merged into your new account, similar to how it has been done for other programs. If you have any questions or problems, there will be prompts on the website to help you know what to do. If you need more information, visit the FamilySearch Help Forum, or call FamilySearch Support.
Important Milestone for new.FamilySearch.org
In March 2011 the new.familysearch.org website registered its one-millionth user. Recently a limited number of members of the general public have been given access to the Family Tree. This number will gradually grow until access to the Family Tree is open to everyone. Free access to the Family Tree site will bless the lives of millions of people.
RootsTech Update
If you missed the popular inaugural RootsTech 2011 conference, you can now get a sampling of what all the excitement was about. The wildly popular new technology and family history conference held last month in Salt Lake City, Utah, made its keynote addresses and a few other popular presentations available online, free of charge. The six free presentations can be viewed at RootsTech.org. The RootsTech keynote videos are now available online through the RootsTech.org home page, or you can go directly to the video page: http://rootstech.familysearch.org/video.php
Important Indexing News Update
Since 2006, volunteers have indexed 548 million records! It has truly become a volunteer phenomenon and is the largest initiative of its kind. The records can be searched free of charge at familysearch.org. Additionally, FamilySearch indexing recently added its first project in Hungarian, which means projects now cover 12 languages. The new Hungarian project is for Magyarország, Szabolcs—polgári anyakönyvi adatok, 1895–1978 [1. Rész] records. If you can read Hungarian, or know others who can, please help rally the much-needed support for this project. Additional projects will be added as the active volunteer base grows. Register or find out more information at indexing.familysearch.org.
In 2010, FamilySearch indexing posted the following milestones:
· 100+ projects in 11 languages
· Addition of Portuguese and Polish languages
· 40,000 new active indexers (completed a batch of work), for a total of 127,000 active indexers
· Volunteer indexers averaged 2,169 records each
· Arbitrators averaged 17,803 records each
· 186 million records were double keyed and arbitrated
FamilySearch Indexing - Check out this excellent youtube video on Indexing. It is very well done and a great help to beginners. FamilySearch Indexing Quick Start
~Logan FHC Newsletter
New Online Course
A new course on finding and using courthouse records, featuring professional genealogist Christine Rose, is now available under the Learn tab in familysearch.org. Courthouses are places where you can find answers to genealogical problems. They are a rich source of written records created as a result of the laws then in use, the time period, and the personal activities of your ancestors. The steps delineated throughout this course will assist you to be more effective as you visit courthouses in your search for genealogical information. Click here to see the new course, or view a list of other courses.
Tips and Tricks
FamilySearch Research Wiki hint: Every page on the Research Wiki has a link that allows you to “Watch” the page. If you are looking for research hints in a certain place and the information is not complete enough to help you, you can click on “watch,” and you will then automatically receive an e-mail notifying you whenever anything changes on that page or when new information is added.
FamilySearch hint: If you would like to see what new collections have been added, click on the link on the bottom left of the home page called “All Record Collections.” Then just look for the asterisk (*) next to the dates in the “Last Updated” column. All of the newest record sets are flagged with an asterisk like this.
Sharing family names for the temple hint: If you want an easy way to instantly share family names with friends and family, don’t mail them the cards—instead, e-mail the FOR (Family Ordinance Request). It’s simple. As one of the last steps in new.familysearch.org for printing the FOR (part of the name clearing process), you have the option to save the document as a PDF. If you pick that option, you can then send the PDF file you created as an e-mail attachment. If this explanation is confusing or the process seems difficult, just ask a computer savvy youth, family member or friend to walk you through it. By e-mailing the FOR, you can get it to the people instantly, and with the new system they don’t even have to send the cards back if you don’t want them to. The completed ordinance information will show up immediately on new.familysearch.org.
~All info above from “FamilySearch News, Information and Updates” April 2011
Dropbox
Dropbox is a free file sharing program that allows you to share files with others and to sync your files among your computers and handheld devices. By using Dropbox, you will not have to wonder if you are accessing the most current copy of a file. There is a free webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars which will explain how to use Dropbox. The webinar description: Are you familiar with Dropbox - a program that provides 2 gigabytes of online storage for free? Learn how to sign up for Dropbox, install the program and get started ensuring the safety and security of your genealogy research data. Seems too good to be true, right? Two gigabytes of online storage for free? And storage that can synchronize files across your computer, your laptop and even your mobile device? It is true, and you can learn how to leverage the power of Dropbox - a free online program to back up your genealogy data and even share files with friends and family.
U.S. National Archives and Ancestry.com Post Civil War Records Online
As predicted in this newsletter two days ago, the National Archives and Ancestry.com have now announced that newly-digitized Civil War records will be available online for the first time, allowing users to trace family links to the war between North and South.
Ancestry.com is publishing the first in a series of Civil War records that have been digitized from original National Archives records on paper. This is a new collection, not available anywhere online previously. The new Civil War collection is highlighted by the Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records, 1863-1865. These nearly 275,000 records are among the most heavily-used records for research in the National Archives Civil War holdings and were previously only available by request in original form at the research center. The public will now be able to easily access these records online without having to travel to Washington, DC.
Continue reading "U.S. National Archives and Ancestry.com Post Civil War Records Online" »
~Dick Eastman’s Newsletter
Free Access to the Civil War Collection on Footnote.com
The following announcement was written by Footnote.com, a division of Ancestry.com:
Bombardment at Fort Sumter Launches US Civil War
When Abraham Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861, he feared that civil war was inevitable. Six weeks later, at 4:30AM on April 12, 1861, a mortar shell was fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, justifying his fears. On April 14, after a 34-hour bombardment, Fort Sumter surrendered and the War Between the States began.
Continue reading "Free Access to the Civil War Collection on Footnote.com" »
1911 Scotland Census now online + helpful additional info
HERE IS A VIDEO to help you understand the census and how the population changed dramatically from 1901 to 1911 in Scotland before WWI.
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2011/04/1911-scotland-census-now-online-helpful.html
Print Friendly - Makes any web page print friendly. Go to printfriendly.com and enter the URL for any website. PrintFriendly cleans and formats web pages for a perfect print experience. It
removes Ads, Navigation and unnecessary html code leaving just the content you really need. It is free and easy to use. You can print or save as a pdf file. You can also choose to add a bookmarklet to
your browser to keep PrintFriendly handy at all times. There is a little video that helps you use this tool.
Legacy.com to search for a death record.
http://www.legacy.com/NS/about/newspapers.aspx
Legacy.com collaborates with more than 800 newspapers in North America, Europe and Australia to provide ways for readers to express condolences and share remembrances of loved ones. As the leader in the online memorial and obituary market, Legacy.com is visited by more than 14 million users each month. It partners with more than three-quarters of the 150 largest newspapers in the U.S. and features obituaries and Guest Books for more than two-thirds of people who die in the United States.
View our complete list of newspaper affiliates.
~Treasure Maps Genealogy Newsletter
Hamburg Passenger Lists mburg Passenger Lists
Until about 1845 German emigrants generally chose Antwerp, Rotterdam, or Le Havre as ports of departure. By the middle of the nineteenth century, entrepreneurs in the north German ports of Bremen and Hamburg realized they could increase their income dramatically by filling ships with emigrants bound for America and other destinations....It is the listing of the emigrant's birth place that makes these records so valuable. How does a researcher learn if an ancestor is recorded in Hamburg departure lists? Read this article at:
Hamburg Lists
~ ProGenealogists Genealogy Blog,
Nonprofit Helps Jewish Families Trace Moravian and Bohemian Ancestors
Julius Müller started a nonprofit Jewish family history center based in Prague, the Czech Republic, called Toledot, the Hebrew word for "descendents." The organization's goal is to coordinate genealogy projects, develop Jewish genealogy databases and preserve Jewish heritage for future generations. The center offers research tools for people looking for information on their Moravian and Bohemian ancestors.
Continue reading "Nonprofit Helps Jewish Families Trace Moravian and Bohemian Ancestors" »
~Dick Eastman’s Genealogy Blog
Bits and Pieces
What Was There - This website encourages everyone to upload old photographs of any place in the world. Viewers can browse to different locations on a map and see photos of how that place used to look. With each photograph there are details that you can view to obtain further information. Sections of the photographs can be magnified to get a better look at those old photos: whatwasthere.com
~ Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter,
The Dead Librarian
http://www.thedeadlibrarian.blogspot.com/
Helping South Carolina family historians find free, online information
Tech Tip of the Week - Doing remote research at a family history center or library?
Don't forget that a small flash drive can save you time. By putting your electronic findings on the drive you don't have to make costly copies of documentation or microfilm print outs. These small drives can cost as little as $10 and are even storable on your keys you carry every day!
~Tony Bandy, Internet Genealogy Newsletter
Genealogy Gems YouTube channel featuring interviews with many of the experts who attended the RootsTech conference. Be sure and check all the other video’s by Lisa Louise Cooke.
Cloud Computing: What It Is and How It Has Been Used
By Brian Pugh of FamilySearch
A question about working with Ancestry and Rootsmagic:
Bruce Buzbee of Rootsmagic says: If only a few people are changing up on Ancestry, the downloaded file can be imported into a new blank database in RootsMagic. That file can then be opened side by side with the existing RM database. You can then drag and drop a modified person from the newly imported database into the existing RM file. If you drag a person from one file and drop them on the same person in the other file, RM will merge the two records, keeping only the unique information between the two (in other words it doesn't duplicate information that is the same in both records).
Discrepant Sources - If the sources don't match, don't assume that the information
they provide is incorrect. If you have two different dates of birth, is it possible there were actually two different people? There are many reasons records can give differing information, but keep yourself open to the possibility that records you think are for the same person are actually for two different people.
~ Michael John Neill, Genealogy Tip of the Day
How to Enlarge Text on Web Sites
Can't read a web page because the words are too small? Here's a quick tip to increase the font size:
· Click the Control (Ctrl) key at the same time you click the plus ( + ) sign. Each click will increase font size.
· To decrease font size, click Control (Ctrl) and the minus ( - ) sign. Each click will decrease font size.
· You can also enlarge the entire Web page or document by pressing the Control key as you turn the scroll wheel on your mouse.
Note that changing font size won't work for words that are part of images (such as company logos).
~This tip is from the Family Tree University
How to straighten out NFS after you have separated out the records you can do and also after you have contacted those submitters who have put in bad information to see if they will change it.
First, select feedback (sometimes in small print at the bottom of screen or in big print at the top on certain screens), and indicate the problem, i.e. two individuals combined, wrong parents, wrong information, computer combining error, or the father showing both as parent and son. The first e-mail response is computer generated with case number. When FS Support contacts you with a solution to the problem and you really need them to address it, send the scanned document or documents as an attachment. Some problems you can correct yourself by separating out the records--you need to do this one at a time. However if bad information has been combined all in one record, you will need
them to separate it.
~FHCNET- Thank you Dianna Rounds
Swedish Church Records on Ancestry.com
Last summer, Ancestry.com acquired Genline AB ('Genline'). This means that Genline including the websites, Genline.com and Genline.se, is part of the Ancestry.com family of websites.
Ancestry is adding the Swedish Church Records' archive to Ancestry's World Deluxe Edition for individuals. Most of the Swedish Church Records are now available through the Ancestry.com site as well as Genline.com. On the Ancestry.com sites, you will find the Swedish Church Records archive in the collection: Sweden Church Records 1500 - 1937. Although there are some differences in the search method between Ancestry and the Genline FamilyFinder, the records are the same on both sites. The Genline FamilyFinder platform will continue to exist and be supported.
Click here for more information about Ancestry...
~Thank you Dawna Lund
Family History Internet Sites
Kip Sperry has compiled a list of links to family history sites that would be very helpful in researching your ancestors. Check out this extremely helpful list of blogs, forums, libraries, archives, maps, records, technology, tips, etc.
http://sites.google.com/site/familyhistoryinternetsites/
~ Logan FHC Newsletter
Fun Simple Free Ancestry
Dan Smith has created a website, FunSimpleFreeAncestry, a basic collection of links, for beginners, to free ancestry resources with examples of how to use the sites.
http://sites.google.com/site/funsimplefreeancestry/home
~Logan FHC Newsletter
Surveying Mt. San Gorgonio Memorial Park
We really are going to start up again this month! Would you like to help survey, take photographs and transcribe the local cemeteries? The Society is now in the process of trying to survey the Summit Cemetery District in Riverside County. Please contact Jamie Daniel or anyone on the YVGS Board if you are interested. We could use your help!
jamiedaniel33@gmail.com or 709 792-2962 or P.O. Box 32,Yucaipa, CA 92399-0032
New Website - Family Tech at FamilySearch
Technology tips for genealogists and family historians. Check here for new Technology to help with your family history. http://familytech.familysearch.org/ List this with your favorites.
New Records Added to FamilySearch.org
Over 30 million new records have been added to familysearch.org through indexing efforts in the last few months. Records from the following countries have been included: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, El Salvador, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, United States, Venezuela, Wales, and Zimbabwe. In addition, the 1881 England and Wales Census index has received significant enhancements.
Exciting Developments in FamilySearch Forums
We are excited to announce that beginning on April 12, you will be able to log into the FamilySearch Forums with your LDS Account. This is the last FamilySearch website in English to switch to the new user account system, so with this change, all of your English language FamilySearch websites and programs are accessible with this single user name and password. If you are a current Forums user, there will be a “merging” process so that the information in your old account can be merged into your new account, similar to how it has been done for other programs. If you have any questions or problems, there will be prompts on the website to help you know what to do. If you need more information, visit the FamilySearch Help Forum, or call FamilySearch Support.
Important Milestone for new.FamilySearch.org
In March 2011 the new.familysearch.org website registered its one-millionth user. Recently a limited number of members of the general public have been given access to the Family Tree. This number will gradually grow until access to the Family Tree is open to everyone. Free access to the Family Tree site will bless the lives of millions of people.
RootsTech Update
If you missed the popular inaugural RootsTech 2011 conference, you can now get a sampling of what all the excitement was about. The wildly popular new technology and family history conference held last month in Salt Lake City, Utah, made its keynote addresses and a few other popular presentations available online, free of charge. The six free presentations can be viewed at RootsTech.org. The RootsTech keynote videos are now available online through the RootsTech.org home page, or you can go directly to the video page: http://rootstech.familysearch.org/video.php
Important Indexing News Update
Since 2006, volunteers have indexed 548 million records! It has truly become a volunteer phenomenon and is the largest initiative of its kind. The records can be searched free of charge at familysearch.org. Additionally, FamilySearch indexing recently added its first project in Hungarian, which means projects now cover 12 languages. The new Hungarian project is for Magyarország, Szabolcs—polgári anyakönyvi adatok, 1895–1978 [1. Rész] records. If you can read Hungarian, or know others who can, please help rally the much-needed support for this project. Additional projects will be added as the active volunteer base grows. Register or find out more information at indexing.familysearch.org.
In 2010, FamilySearch indexing posted the following milestones:
· 100+ projects in 11 languages
· Addition of Portuguese and Polish languages
· 40,000 new active indexers (completed a batch of work), for a total of 127,000 active indexers
· Volunteer indexers averaged 2,169 records each
· Arbitrators averaged 17,803 records each
· 186 million records were double keyed and arbitrated
FamilySearch Indexing - Check out this excellent youtube video on Indexing. It is very well done and a great help to beginners. FamilySearch Indexing Quick Start
~Logan FHC Newsletter
New Online Course
A new course on finding and using courthouse records, featuring professional genealogist Christine Rose, is now available under the Learn tab in familysearch.org. Courthouses are places where you can find answers to genealogical problems. They are a rich source of written records created as a result of the laws then in use, the time period, and the personal activities of your ancestors. The steps delineated throughout this course will assist you to be more effective as you visit courthouses in your search for genealogical information. Click here to see the new course, or view a list of other courses.
Tips and Tricks
FamilySearch Research Wiki hint: Every page on the Research Wiki has a link that allows you to “Watch” the page. If you are looking for research hints in a certain place and the information is not complete enough to help you, you can click on “watch,” and you will then automatically receive an e-mail notifying you whenever anything changes on that page or when new information is added.
FamilySearch hint: If you would like to see what new collections have been added, click on the link on the bottom left of the home page called “All Record Collections.” Then just look for the asterisk (*) next to the dates in the “Last Updated” column. All of the newest record sets are flagged with an asterisk like this.
Sharing family names for the temple hint: If you want an easy way to instantly share family names with friends and family, don’t mail them the cards—instead, e-mail the FOR (Family Ordinance Request). It’s simple. As one of the last steps in new.familysearch.org for printing the FOR (part of the name clearing process), you have the option to save the document as a PDF. If you pick that option, you can then send the PDF file you created as an e-mail attachment. If this explanation is confusing or the process seems difficult, just ask a computer savvy youth, family member or friend to walk you through it. By e-mailing the FOR, you can get it to the people instantly, and with the new system they don’t even have to send the cards back if you don’t want them to. The completed ordinance information will show up immediately on new.familysearch.org.
~All info above from “FamilySearch News, Information and Updates” April 2011
Dropbox
Dropbox is a free file sharing program that allows you to share files with others and to sync your files among your computers and handheld devices. By using Dropbox, you will not have to wonder if you are accessing the most current copy of a file. There is a free webinar at Legacy Family Tree Webinars which will explain how to use Dropbox. The webinar description: Are you familiar with Dropbox - a program that provides 2 gigabytes of online storage for free? Learn how to sign up for Dropbox, install the program and get started ensuring the safety and security of your genealogy research data. Seems too good to be true, right? Two gigabytes of online storage for free? And storage that can synchronize files across your computer, your laptop and even your mobile device? It is true, and you can learn how to leverage the power of Dropbox - a free online program to back up your genealogy data and even share files with friends and family.
U.S. National Archives and Ancestry.com Post Civil War Records Online
As predicted in this newsletter two days ago, the National Archives and Ancestry.com have now announced that newly-digitized Civil War records will be available online for the first time, allowing users to trace family links to the war between North and South.
Ancestry.com is publishing the first in a series of Civil War records that have been digitized from original National Archives records on paper. This is a new collection, not available anywhere online previously. The new Civil War collection is highlighted by the Consolidated Lists of Civil War Draft Registration Records, 1863-1865. These nearly 275,000 records are among the most heavily-used records for research in the National Archives Civil War holdings and were previously only available by request in original form at the research center. The public will now be able to easily access these records online without having to travel to Washington, DC.
Continue reading "U.S. National Archives and Ancestry.com Post Civil War Records Online" »
~Dick Eastman’s Newsletter
Free Access to the Civil War Collection on Footnote.com
The following announcement was written by Footnote.com, a division of Ancestry.com:
Bombardment at Fort Sumter Launches US Civil War
When Abraham Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861, he feared that civil war was inevitable. Six weeks later, at 4:30AM on April 12, 1861, a mortar shell was fired at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, justifying his fears. On April 14, after a 34-hour bombardment, Fort Sumter surrendered and the War Between the States began.
Continue reading "Free Access to the Civil War Collection on Footnote.com" »
1911 Scotland Census now online + helpful additional info
HERE IS A VIDEO to help you understand the census and how the population changed dramatically from 1901 to 1911 in Scotland before WWI.
http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2011/04/1911-scotland-census-now-online-helpful.html
Print Friendly - Makes any web page print friendly. Go to printfriendly.com and enter the URL for any website. PrintFriendly cleans and formats web pages for a perfect print experience. It
removes Ads, Navigation and unnecessary html code leaving just the content you really need. It is free and easy to use. You can print or save as a pdf file. You can also choose to add a bookmarklet to
your browser to keep PrintFriendly handy at all times. There is a little video that helps you use this tool.
Legacy.com to search for a death record.
http://www.legacy.com/NS/about/newspapers.aspx
Legacy.com collaborates with more than 800 newspapers in North America, Europe and Australia to provide ways for readers to express condolences and share remembrances of loved ones. As the leader in the online memorial and obituary market, Legacy.com is visited by more than 14 million users each month. It partners with more than three-quarters of the 150 largest newspapers in the U.S. and features obituaries and Guest Books for more than two-thirds of people who die in the United States.
View our complete list of newspaper affiliates.
~Treasure Maps Genealogy Newsletter
Hamburg Passenger Lists mburg Passenger Lists
Until about 1845 German emigrants generally chose Antwerp, Rotterdam, or Le Havre as ports of departure. By the middle of the nineteenth century, entrepreneurs in the north German ports of Bremen and Hamburg realized they could increase their income dramatically by filling ships with emigrants bound for America and other destinations....It is the listing of the emigrant's birth place that makes these records so valuable. How does a researcher learn if an ancestor is recorded in Hamburg departure lists? Read this article at:
Hamburg Lists
~ ProGenealogists Genealogy Blog,
Nonprofit Helps Jewish Families Trace Moravian and Bohemian Ancestors
Julius Müller started a nonprofit Jewish family history center based in Prague, the Czech Republic, called Toledot, the Hebrew word for "descendents." The organization's goal is to coordinate genealogy projects, develop Jewish genealogy databases and preserve Jewish heritage for future generations. The center offers research tools for people looking for information on their Moravian and Bohemian ancestors.
Continue reading "Nonprofit Helps Jewish Families Trace Moravian and Bohemian Ancestors" »
~Dick Eastman’s Genealogy Blog
Bits and Pieces
What Was There - This website encourages everyone to upload old photographs of any place in the world. Viewers can browse to different locations on a map and see photos of how that place used to look. With each photograph there are details that you can view to obtain further information. Sections of the photographs can be magnified to get a better look at those old photos: whatwasthere.com
~ Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter,
The Dead Librarian
http://www.thedeadlibrarian.blogspot.com/
Helping South Carolina family historians find free, online information
Tech Tip of the Week - Doing remote research at a family history center or library?
Don't forget that a small flash drive can save you time. By putting your electronic findings on the drive you don't have to make costly copies of documentation or microfilm print outs. These small drives can cost as little as $10 and are even storable on your keys you carry every day!
~Tony Bandy, Internet Genealogy Newsletter
Genealogy Gems YouTube channel featuring interviews with many of the experts who attended the RootsTech conference. Be sure and check all the other video’s by Lisa Louise Cooke.
Cloud Computing: What It Is and How It Has Been Used
By Brian Pugh of FamilySearch
A question about working with Ancestry and Rootsmagic:
Bruce Buzbee of Rootsmagic says: If only a few people are changing up on Ancestry, the downloaded file can be imported into a new blank database in RootsMagic. That file can then be opened side by side with the existing RM database. You can then drag and drop a modified person from the newly imported database into the existing RM file. If you drag a person from one file and drop them on the same person in the other file, RM will merge the two records, keeping only the unique information between the two (in other words it doesn't duplicate information that is the same in both records).
Discrepant Sources - If the sources don't match, don't assume that the information
they provide is incorrect. If you have two different dates of birth, is it possible there were actually two different people? There are many reasons records can give differing information, but keep yourself open to the possibility that records you think are for the same person are actually for two different people.
~ Michael John Neill, Genealogy Tip of the Day
How to Enlarge Text on Web Sites
Can't read a web page because the words are too small? Here's a quick tip to increase the font size:
· Click the Control (Ctrl) key at the same time you click the plus ( + ) sign. Each click will increase font size.
· To decrease font size, click Control (Ctrl) and the minus ( - ) sign. Each click will decrease font size.
· You can also enlarge the entire Web page or document by pressing the Control key as you turn the scroll wheel on your mouse.
Note that changing font size won't work for words that are part of images (such as company logos).
~This tip is from the Family Tree University
How to straighten out NFS after you have separated out the records you can do and also after you have contacted those submitters who have put in bad information to see if they will change it.
First, select feedback (sometimes in small print at the bottom of screen or in big print at the top on certain screens), and indicate the problem, i.e. two individuals combined, wrong parents, wrong information, computer combining error, or the father showing both as parent and son. The first e-mail response is computer generated with case number. When FS Support contacts you with a solution to the problem and you really need them to address it, send the scanned document or documents as an attachment. Some problems you can correct yourself by separating out the records--you need to do this one at a time. However if bad information has been combined all in one record, you will need
them to separate it.
~FHCNET- Thank you Dianna Rounds
Swedish Church Records on Ancestry.com
Last summer, Ancestry.com acquired Genline AB ('Genline'). This means that Genline including the websites, Genline.com and Genline.se, is part of the Ancestry.com family of websites.
Ancestry is adding the Swedish Church Records' archive to Ancestry's World Deluxe Edition for individuals. Most of the Swedish Church Records are now available through the Ancestry.com site as well as Genline.com. On the Ancestry.com sites, you will find the Swedish Church Records archive in the collection: Sweden Church Records 1500 - 1937. Although there are some differences in the search method between Ancestry and the Genline FamilyFinder, the records are the same on both sites. The Genline FamilyFinder platform will continue to exist and be supported.
Click here for more information about Ancestry...
~Thank you Dawna Lund
Family History Internet Sites
Kip Sperry has compiled a list of links to family history sites that would be very helpful in researching your ancestors. Check out this extremely helpful list of blogs, forums, libraries, archives, maps, records, technology, tips, etc.
http://sites.google.com/site/familyhistoryinternetsites/
~ Logan FHC Newsletter
Fun Simple Free Ancestry
Dan Smith has created a website, FunSimpleFreeAncestry, a basic collection of links, for beginners, to free ancestry resources with examples of how to use the sites.
http://sites.google.com/site/funsimplefreeancestry/home
~Logan FHC Newsletter
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