Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

FamilySearch Record Search Update: 12 New Collections Added--7 International

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

1 July 2009

Twelve new collections were added to the FamilySearch Record Search pilot this week. International collections were added for Argentina, Australia, Mexico, Netherlands, and Spain. New United States collections were added for Delaware, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Utah. Happy searching!

These collections can be searched for free at the FamilySearch.org Record Search pilot (click Search Records, and then click Record Search pilot).

FamilySearch Indexing Update: Czech Republic, South Africa, Mexico, and Deutschland Projects Added

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

Overview

Indexers waiting for projects from the Czech Republic, Baden, Germany, or South Africa can now get busy. New indexing projects added this week are:

• Czech Republic, Litomerice Kirchenbücher, 1552–1905 [Part 1]
• Deutschland, Baden—Kirchenbücher, 1810-1869
• Mexico DF Registros Parroquiales, 1886–1933 [Part 1]
• South Africa, Cape Province Dutch Reformed Church, 1660–1970
• U.S., Illinois, Cook County Birth Certificates, 1916–1922 [Part 2]
• U.S., Massachusetts Marriages, 1896–1897
• U.S., Minnesota 1885 State Census

 (See the chart below for a complete list and current status of all indexing projects).

Ancestral Atlas Adds Life Maps

Ancestral Atlas has added a very cool new feature. At the touch of a button you can create a map that links the event locations of a particular person from birth through to death (personal Life Map) and also create maps that link an individual to all ancestors and/or descendants where a location is recorded. The ancestor/descendant maps locate the earliest recorded event location of all descendants/ancestors and then draws a line on the map to these events from the person you are searching against, thus mapping your heritage.

Ancestry.ca Celebrates Canada Day With Free Access

The following was written by The Generations Network, parent company of www.Ancestry.ca:

Canada Day is not only a great day to spend with family – it’s the perfect time to get together and learn more about how your family came to be Canadian.  To celebrate our 142nd birthday, for the first time Ancestry.ca is making available the Canadian Passenger Lists free to access  from June 29 through July 3, 2009.

New Historical Newspapers Titles from ProQuest

The following announcement was written by ProQuest:

ProQuest has added two newspapers to the ProQuest Historical Newspapers program:

• ProQuest Historical Newspapers - The Baltimore Sun (1837-1985)
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers – St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1874-1922)

The Baltimore Sun was founded by Arunah Shepherdson Abell as a people’s paper reporting the news that mattered most to the residents of Baltimore and the nation including Washington D.C. politics, the slave trade and the Civil War, immigration, commerce, Americana, and literature.

Live Roots Search Experience, Release Two

The following announcement was written by Genealogy Today:

BURBANK, Calif. - June 25, 2009 - Genealogy Today announced the second release of the Live Roots search experience. Included in this release are project management tools to help visitors keep track and organize the genealogical resources that they discover while using the search engine.

Throughout the Live Roots search experience, registered members will now see Follow, Comment, Record and Share buttons. These buttons let the members conveniently interface with the new project management tools. Follow is an active bookmarking feature; Comment allows members to post comments on resources; Record lets members make entries in a dynamic research log; and Share is a way to send notices about resources to friends and family via e-mail.

Ancestry.com Announces “Expert Connect”

I think this new service is going to be a winner. Today I had a chance to talk with Todd Godfrey, Senior Director at The Generations Network. He is one of the managers involved in Ancestry.com's brand-new service, called Expert Connect. In fact, the service is so new that the web site went live during the middle of our telephone conversation.

Expert Connect is a new "clearinghouse" that allows individual genealogists to find and hire genealogy professionals. When you, the individual family history researcher, have exhausted all your resources, you probably need to find the next level of support. Typically, you need to find someone who is intimately familiar with the ethnic groups where your ancestors originated or who may even reside in the area where your ancestors lived.

Price Changes at Footnote.com

Footnote.com (one of the sponsors of this newsletter) is increasing the company's annual membership fee.  On August 1, 2009, the cost of a Footnote Annual Membership will increase by $10 (about 83 cents per month).  This slight increase should help the company to continue to add more valuable content to Footnote and make things easier to find and use. 

However, there is an opportunity to keep your membership costs lowered.

What’s This FamilySearch Alpha Thing?

Dan Lawyer has written a short article in the FamilySearch Labs blog that gives a quick preview of what I believe will be a revolutionary new tool for genealogists. Dan writes:

FamilySearch Alpha is the beginning of a great new world. The purpose of the project is to replace the current www.FamilySearch.org website with a new site at the same address that integrates all of the new technologies and record sets we’ve been working on (like Record Search, Family Tree, Research Wiki, etc.) into one easy to use experience.

You can read the full article and some readers' comments at http://labs.familysearch.org/blog/?p=110.

Ancestry.com Pre-Announces Member Connect

Writing in the (official) Ancestry.com blog, David Graham has described a new feature that will be soon be added to the online service. It sounds like a service that will help people who are researching the same families connect with each other.

David writes:

Newspaper Archive Hits Million-Page Milestone

Through an extensive database launched two years ago, decades of the country's newspapers can be searched online for major events and history-making names, as well as family connections and local celebrations. The Library of Congress and the National Endowment for the Humanities have worked together for 20 years to preserve old newspapers, first through microfilm and now digitization.

The Chronicling America project (http://Chroniclingamerica.loc.gov) has now posted its millionth page. Eventually the organizers hope to post 20 million pages of newspapers from 1880 to 1922. Best of all, access to the site is available free of charge. "The newspapers provide firsthand and sometimes the only account of local news," said Deanna B. Marcum, an associate librarian at the Library of Congress. The library estimates that 140,000 newspapers have been published in the United States since 1690.

Entire 1911 Census Now Available Online for the First Time

The following announcement was written by findmypast.com:

Records for Wales, Channel Islands and Isle of Man and military serving overseas now online

Following the initial release of the Southern English records in January 2009, 1911census.co.uk now hosts the complete 1911 census records for people living in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. What's more, for the first time in a British census, full details are available of British Army personnel and their families stationed overseas. There were 135,866 people serving in the British Army and 36,804 people serving in the Royal Navy across the British Empire in 1911, including 69,785 serving in India.

FamilySearch Record Search Update: Louisiana and Idaho Death Indexes - Part of Six Million New Records Added

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

17 June 2009

Six million new records were added to the FamilySearch Record Search pilot this week. The much anticipated Louisiana and Idaho death records are now available. The states of Delaware, District of Columbia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, and New Mexico were added to the 1920 U.S. Census collection. Digital images of church records were also added for Mexico (Baja California, and Baja California Sur).

What To Do When Your Web Site Moves

A newsletter reader asked a question this week that I was able to answer. However, I bet many other folks have the same question so I decided to publish the answer here so that everyone can see it.

Geocities has announced the online hosting service is shutting down. This has been a very popular provider of free web pages, especially amongst genealogists. I suspect there are there are thousands of genealogy sites stored on Geocities. All of them will disappear within a few months. Some other free web hosting services have also closed their doors recently and I wouldn't be surprised if more such services close up within the next few months. As a result, thousands of genealogists are moving their web sites to other hosting services.

The question asked this week was simple: "What is the best way to let people know about the link update? I have so many sites that link to my [old] site. I hate those dead links."

California Digital Newspaper Collection

The California Digital Newspaper Collection offers over 200,000 pages of California newspapers spanning the years 1849-191l: the Alta California, 1849-1891; the San Francisco Call, 1893-1910; the Amador Ledger, 1900-1911; the Imperial Valley Press, 1901-1911; the Sacramento Record-Union, 1859-1890; and the Los Angeles Herald, 1905-1907. All the issues are available online and can be viewed on your computer.

Additional years are forthcoming, as are other early California newspapers: the Californian; the California Star; the California Star and Californian; the Sacramento Transcript; the Placer Times; and the Pacific Rural Press.

Do You Wiki?

Carolyn L. Barkley has written an interesting article about wikis for genealogy. She describes the purposes of wikis and then mentions several genealogy wikis. She first mentions the Encyclopedia of Genealogy (which is sponsored by this newsletter) and then goes on to describe at length both WeRelate.org and the FamilySearch wiki, a “free online encyclopedia of genealogy information.”

You can read this interesting article at http://www.genealogyandfamilyhistory.com/?p=101.

Limerick Burial Records Online

Ireland's leading genealogical magazine has praised Limerick City Council's decision to become the first local authority to put its burial records online. And 'Ireland's Genealogical Gazette' believes it will help bring more tourists into the city.

CookCountyGenealogy.com wins NACO Achievement Award

Cook County (Illinois) Clerk David Orr's new genealogy web site has won a 2009 Achievement Award from the National Association of Counties, NACO announced today. The program entitled "Piecing Together the Past: Clerk David Orr's Genealogy Online" was selected as an example of an "effective and creative program" in the 40th year of the Achievement Awards.

CookCountyGenealogy.com, launched July 2, 2008, allows visitors to conduct free searches of birth, marriage and death indexes dating to 1872. Once a document is located, genealogists can download a high-resolution scan of the original for a $15 fee.

Ancestry.ca Announces Online Launch Of The Historical Canadian Censuses, 1851-1916

The following announcement was written by The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.ca:

An estimated half of all Canadians will have an ancestor in the historical censuses / one in four Canadians cannot trace roots back beyond their grandparents

FamilySearch Expands Canadian Census Collection

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

Four pre-1900 censuses available for free online
TORONTO—FamilySearch, in partnership with Ancestry.ca and the Libraries and Archives Canada (LAC), announced today the addition of the 1851, 1861, and 1871 Canada Census indexes to its online collection. The new indexes can be searched for free at FamilySearch.org (click Search Records, and then click Record Search pilot). FamilySearch published the 1881 Canada Census previously online and plans to add the 1891 Canada Census shortly.