Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

More Than 1.8 Million Native American Records Released on Footnote.com

The following announcement was written by Footnote.com:

-Original records dating back to early 1700s become available on the Internet for the first time-

Lindon, UT – November 19, 2009 – Footnote.com announced today the release of their latest interactive collection of historical records: the Native American collection.  Working together with the National Archives and Allen County Library, Footnote.com has created a unique collection that will help people discover new details about Native American history.

RootsMagic Releases Free "RootsMagic Essentials:" Genealogy and Family Tree Software

I'd consider this to be a major new announcement. The following was written by RootsMagic, Inc.:

SPRINGVILLE, Utah. — November 18, 2009 — RootsMagic, Inc. announced the immediate availability of RootsMagic Essentials, free desktop genealogy software based on their award-winning RootsMagic 4 system. RootsMagic Essentials contains many core features found in its namesake that allow the public to easily start tracing their family trees.

Essential Features for Everyone
“Many of our users have told us that they have friends and family members who are interested in getting started in family history but aren’t ready to invest in a more comprehensive package like RootsMagic,” said Bruce Buzbee, president. “RootsMagic Essentials gives them the features they need to start researching and recording their family tree at a price that can’t be beat—free!”

Guild of One-Name Studies Opens On-line Store

The following announcement was written by the Guild of One-Name Studies:

The Guild of One-Name Studies has today opened its on-line store.  The Guild bookstall sells a wide range of genealogical and one-name study books, genealogical software and various well illustrated books about places (typically UK towns) and their history.  These items are currently only available to members of the Guild or can be purchased from the Guild’s bookstall.

However from today there is now an online facility for ordering vouchers www.one-name.org/cgi-bin/vouchers/sales.cgi via PayPal, credit card, or (by post) by cheque. Eventually the range of items available on-line will increase but at present only vouchers can be purchased on-line.

National Archives Launches New Online Reservation System

The following announcement was written by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration:

Beat the crowds! Reserved tours and visits are now just a mouse click away!

WASHINGTON, Nov. 11  -- For the first time, the National Archives today launches a new online reservation system to make it easier for individuals, families, and large groups alike to visit National Archives. By simply going online, visitors can reserve their choice of dates and times in a matter of minutes. While reservations are not required to visit the National Archives and admission is free, this new system will eliminate the long lines and often lengthy wait.

Ancestry.com Publishes Online Collection of Twentieth-Century Navy Records

In honor of Veterans' Day in the United States, Ancestry.com is offering free public access tomorrow through Friday to a new collection of about 600 Navy cruise books from 1950 to 1988. The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com:

Site Celebrates Veterans Day with Free Access to Entire U.S. Military Records Collection

PROVO, UT (Nov. 11, 2009) – Ancestry.com today added more than 600 Navy cruise books to its online collection of military records to commemorate Veterans Day. This historic effort is the result of an agreement between Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online resource for family history, and the United States Navy. As part of the agreement, Ancestry.com set up scanners on location at the Navy Department Library in Washington, DC, and has spent several months digitizing the cruise books for this occasion.

Ancestry.com Inc. Prices Initial Public Offering at $13.50 Per Share

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com:

PROVO, Utah, Nov. 4 -- Ancestry.com Inc. today announced the pricing of its initial public offering of 7,407,407 shares of common stock at a price of $13.50 per share.  A total of 4,074,074 shares are being offered by Ancestry.com, and a total of 3,333,333 shares are being offered by selling stockholders.

Ancestry.com common stock will commence trading on November 5, 2009 on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol "ACOM."

Introducing GenQueries.com - The Online Database of Genealogy Queries

I am pleased to announce a new genealogy service on the World Wide Web. I have been building this service over the past few weeks and it has been in a limited beta test for a while with about 100 beta users. The beta testers helped point out needed improvements and most of those are now in place. Now I believe the new web site is ready for everyone.

GenQueries.com is a FREE service that provides an online database for genealogy queries for individuals as well as advertisements for societies, professional and amateur genealogy researchers, authors, publishers, genealogy web sites, adoptee searches, and more.

190,000 Welsh Wills Online

The BBC recently published an article about the end of a five-year project to make 190,000 wills available online has been completed. The project is complete and the wills are available now. About 800,000 pages of documents have been placed on the National Library of Wales' website.

The National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth said the wills dated from the 14th Century until 1858, when civil probate was introduced, and 1,000 of them were written in Welsh.

Entire U.S. Census Goes Interactive with Footnote.com

Footnote.com (one of the sponsors of this newsletter) today made what I believe is a major announcement: the entire U.S. census records will soon be online. Of course, other companies have already placed the census records online so what's the big deal? The Footnote.com version, for the first time, will allow you to correct, comment, or supplement the original records. You can even add pictures. You can also link people together as relatives, even if they live in different households. That's all new.

You will be able to search the records, find the person(s) you are interested in, and then view the original record in the enumerator's handwriting. (Other vendors offer that service also.) However, with Footnote.com, you can append notes or even pictures that will be visible to anyone who searches for the same record in the future. You can even link people together, including those who do not live in the same household. You can never DELETE anything from the original record but you can add such things as:

2010 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy

The following announcement was written by the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy:

For sixteen years, genealogy researchers have basked in an exciting week of in-depth learning.  The majority also took the opportunity for personal research at the renowned Family History Library. 

In 2010,the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy will take place January 11-15, taught by expert genealogists, such as Paula Stuart-Warren, Thomas W. Jones, Kory Meyerink, John Philip Colletta, Mary E.V. Hill, Barbara Renick, Patricia Law Hatcher, Craig Scott, Elissa Scalise Powell, Karen Clifford, John M. Kitzmiller, Debby Horton, and Kahlile Mehr.

BCG Recognizes Retired Trustees

The following announcement was written by the Board for Certification of Genealogists:

Laura DeGrazia, CG, President of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, announced the retirement of two respected trustees, effective on October 12th, 2009.

Forgotten Patriots Wins the Jacobus Award

The following announcement was written by the American Society of Genealogists:

At its meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 10 October 2009, the American Society of Genealogists voted to give their annual Donald Lines Jacobus Award to Forgotten Patriots, African American and American Indian Patriots in the Revolutionary War: A Guide to Service, Sources, and Studies, edited by Eric Grundset, Director of the DAR Library in Washington, D.C., and published by the DAR in 2008.

OneGreatFamily.com Selects Perfect Search Corporation to Provide Search to Users

OneGreatFamily.com found that as the amount of data housed on the company's servers kept growing, the demands on the underlying infrastructure grew as well. As a OneGreatFamily.com spokesperson told me today, "We expect the tools we'll be implementing from Perfect Search to greatly increase our searching capability, to improve our ability to index and search hundreds of millions of names in our Oracle database, and to accelerate the process of getting results."

The following is the announcement written by Perfect Search Corporation:

NEHGS Provides Online Access to Leading Genealogical Journals

The following announcement was written by the New England Historic Genealogical Society:

Boston, MA, October 6, 2009 – The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) announces the launch of a new Web page connecting members to a number of the country’s premier scholarly journals, giving them access to some of the most important research conducted during the past 150 years. The new Web page, Genealogical Journals Online: A National Collection represents one of the premier collections of scholarly research available anywhere in the field of genealogy.

The Connecticut Society of Genealogists Literary Award Contest

The following was written by the Connecticut Society of Genealogists:

The Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Inc. announces its 23rd annual literary awards contest. Categories are Genealogy, Family History, and Genealogical Resource related to New England. Entry is open to non-CSG members. Prizes are $1,000 Genealogy and $500 for the other categories. Deadline for entry is Feb. 15, 2010. Entry forms and detailed rules are available at www.csginc.org.

Footnote.com Marks Family History Month with 60 Million Image Milestone

The following announcement was written by Footnote.com:

Adding more than 1 million new records per month, Footnote.com continues to expand valuable collection of digitized content-

Lindon, UT – September 22, 2009 – Adding more than 1 million new records per month, Footnote.com will mark the month of October, designated Family History Month, with the addition of its 60 millionth image. Since its launch in January 2007, Footnote.com has partnered with organizations including The National Archives and Gannett to digitize and index valued historical documents and photos and make them available online.

Dedication of the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives

The University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth will hold a public dedication of the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives at the Clare T. Carney University Library, on Friday, September 18, 2009 at 4 p.m.

The Archives are named after Affonso Gil Mendes Ferreira, a founder of Portuguese-American radio back in 1933, whose daughter, Otilia Ferreira, made the lead gift to the Ferreira-Mendes Portuguese-American Archives Endowment.

Kentucky Historical Society Library now LDS Library Affiliate

The Martin F. Schmidt Research Library of the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) recently became an affiliate library of the Family History Library of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).

Through an agreement with the Genealogical Society of Utah, FamilySearch, patrons of the KHS library have access to the LDS family-history collection of microfilm and microfiche, which is currently comprised of over 3.1 million microforms.

NGS Launches UpFront Blog

The following announcement was written by the (U.S.) National Genealogical Society although I did add my own comment at the end:

The National Genealogical Society is pleased to announce the launch of UpFront with NGS in blog format. “Blog” is short for “web log,” an Internet communications tool that has been growing rapidly in recent years. This format will extend all the conveniences of a blog to UpFront readers. Here are some of the major advantages:

FamilySearch Indexing Update: August 2009 Summary

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

3 September 2009

August was a banner month for FamilySearch Indexing. Twenty five (25) projects were completed and 19 new projects were added, including 10 international. A Swedish interface was also added to accommodate new Sweden church records projects. Completed projects will published at FamilySearch’s Record Search pilot for online viewing.

New Projects Added in August