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FamilySearch has added 19 new collections as follows: “Included are 19 new collections: 7 from Napoli, Italy, 7 from the United States, 4 from Germany, and 1 from Netherlands. Among these collections are the United States Draper Manuscript Collection from 1740 to 1960 (more information can be found here), the Germany, Brandenburg, Bernau bei Berlin [...]
The following is the latest release of valuable new records from ScotlandsPlaces: “ScotlandsPlaces has now launched the Perthshire and Sutherland Ordnance Survey name books. Also recently release were the 18th century dog tax, cart tax, and carriage tax. Two more OS name books now available 15th February, 2013: ScotlandsPlaces has just released two more Ordnance [...]
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Bill O’Reilly the anchor of The O’Reilly Factor along with Martin Dugard have authored the story of how one gunshot changed our country forever. In the spring of 1865, the bloody saga of America’s Civil War finally came to an end after a series frightening battles. President Abraham Lincoln’s terms for Robert E. Lee’s surrender [...]
Although the Catholic church regards the prophecy as a forgery, we are currently living in times where some see the Irish Saint Malachy’s prophecy as so significant that it’s considered hindsight. St. Malachy was a 12th century Irish Archbishop of Armagh, who predicted, from a prophetic vision, that the next Pope after Benedict will be [...]
Continue reading about Will Pope Benedict’s successor be the last pope—Petrus Romanus?
In these days of difficult personal finances, I’ve been on the lookout for interesting free resources for genealogists. You might want to take note for the record that The Google + hangout is becoming increasingly popular and a very informational meeting place and I was very impressed by the amount of digitized newspapers for genealogical [...]
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The latest FamilySearch news release is as follows: “FamilySearch added 8.5 million new, free indexed records and images this week to its collection. Included are 2,897,940 additional index records and images for the new New York State Census of 1855 collection, the 1,070,807 index records and images from the Texas Birth Certificates collection from 1903-1935, [...]
To celebrate the first anniversary of their DNA testing program, MyHertitage is offering significant discounts to make DNA tests more affordable for all their users. A year ago they teamed up with Family Tree DNA and from experience and research I think they are currently the best (FTDNA). See my original article click on: MyHeritage [...]
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As an update to my blog post on the new collection of British newspapers I’m adding this link to their interesting podcast where you can listen to Josh Taylor discuss what you can expect with the collection. Click on British Newspapers at Findmypast.com to listen and learn more about it.
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The following news release comes from Findmypast: “Throughout the next 10 years, approximately 8,000 new pages will be digitized every day and every new addition will be included in existing subscriptions. The British have always had a particularly voracious appetite for newspapers, especially during the 19th century when nearly every town in the country had [...]
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In addition to my blog post yesterday on the identification of the remains of Richard III of England, I’m adding a couple of videos regarding the role that DNA played in the amazing discovery. We have come so far in the science of DNA in the past couple of years I’m in awe of what [...]
Lead archaeologist Richard Buckley said today that the remains found beneath a social services car park in Leicester, England are “beyond reasonable doubt” the remains of Richard III the last Plantagenet King of England who was killed in battle in 1485. The remains bore the marks of ten injuries inflicted shortly before his death. It [...]
The Family History Library has a policy change for patrons requesting copies from the library in Salt Lake City, Utah, as follows: “Please note the following change in the policy for patrons who are requesting copies from the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. All requests for information copied from films, book pages, [...]
New England town maps are more useful to genealogy researchers than county maps. FamilySearch.org now has maps showing each town and the town’s neighbors in New England , New York, and Canada. Thanks to Wiki contributors eventually maps will be clickable by town so a click on the map will take users to the page [...]
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General William Lee Davidson died in combat against General Cornwallis February 1, 1781 On February 1, 1781, American Brigadier General Davidson died in combat attempting to prevent General Charles Cornwallis’ army from crossing the Catawba River in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. General William Lee Davidson, the son of Ulster-Scot Presbyterian immigrants to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The [...]
I’ve recently found a wonderful free digital magazine called Irish Lives Remembered Genealogy. It’s published by Irish Lives Remembered which is a free to join Genealogy Community. Each edition is has 70 pages, is interactive and created to enhance the research experience for anyone looking into their Irish heritage. It doesn’t matter if you’re a [...]
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I’ve discussed the demise of the brick and mortar book stores a couple of times on this blog along with the lawsuits regarding price gouging in the world of eBook publishing. Barnes & Noble didn’t do well this year, including coming up short during the December sales. They are currently examining the reason for the [...]
The following news release from brightsolid is about the launch of the 1905 Valuation Rolls on the ScotlandsPeople website. Images, case studies, background information and statistics for this launch can all be accessed at the ScotlandsPeople Media Website on January 31. The case studies contain interesting and quirky stories about famous Scots who appear in [...]
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The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has an updated and improved Genealogy website which includes a new “Genealogy Notebook” section that’s a gateway to the history of the service providing research guidance, records requests and other useful services, such as: Providing help to researchers to avoid errors casting them extra time and money Ensuring [...]
In addition to my previous biographical post on Robert Burns, I’d like to share the wonderful 1932 rendition by Peter Dawson of “The “Star O’ Rabbie Burns” often sung at a Burns Supper. The words are printed below : THE STAR O’ RABBIE BURNS There is a star whose beaming ray Is shed on ev’ry [...]
Continue reading about Immortal Memory Scotland’s Bard Robert Burns birthday today!
On, January 25th every year Scots all over the world gather to celebrate the birth of Scotland’s Bard, Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796). Robert Burns, born in Alloway, Ayreshire, Scotland, is also known as the Ploughman Poet. His popularity back then (and now) is probably due to the fact that he wrote [...]
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Findmypast Ireland will allow free access tomorrow to honor Irish Family Family History Day. TA joint venture with Eneclann, and the Findmypast (brightsolid) network that started in the UK has now spread to the United States, Australia and New Zealand, Findmypast Ireland, online has records dating from the mid-1800s to the late 1950s. This is [...]
Ancestry.com has added two sets of records this month, the UK Civil Divorce Records 1858–1911 and UK, Civil Divorce Records, 1858-1911and UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960. The details are as follows: “Historical Background Divorce in the UK changed in 1858 when the 1857 Matrimonial Causes Act took effect. Among other things, this law removed divorce [...]
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The Department of Human Services in Albert Lea, Minnesota is planning to digitize about five million pages worth of old adoption records, some from the late 19th Century. As we know, with all the resources available these days, looking into your past has become one of our favorite pastimes. It’s not quite so simple for [...]
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RootsTech 2013 is shaping up to be a memorable event. This year Story@Home is offering a two-day conference during the event with workshops and performances by award-winning storytellers, performers, and speakers will help you explore ways to use the power of story in your home. “RootsTech is a unique conference focused on helping individuals learn [...]
Continue reading about RootsTech and Story@Home to merge in March at the Salt Lake City conference
The following news announcing the resignation of Ken Salazar, Secretary of the Interior, was delivered to my in-box today: “WASHINGTON, DC – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced today that he will return to his home state of Colorado, having fulfilled his promise to President Obama to serve four years as Secretary. Secretary Salazar has informed [...]
After some bad publicity circulated about AncestryDNA, it looks as though the company is making progress moving things in the right direction. The company reporting that their autosomal DNA test is one of the best on the market and they are continuing to improved their ethnicity prediction models by deciphering the unique language of the [...]
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The following is a news release from the Department of Veterans affairs on their partnership with Ancestry. com to index historic burial records: “WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs has partnered with the internet-based genealogy research firm Ancestry.com to bring burial records from historic national cemetery ledgers into the digital age. The effort will [...]
The recently released mobile app from MyHeritage version 2.0 has some great new features that enable the user to build and edit their own family tree, add and share information, and have it all at your fingertips anywhere you decided to go. It’s available for iPad, iPhone, and Android smartphones and tablets in 32 languages. [...]
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The British National Archives is the official archive and publisher for the UK government, and for England and Wales. They are the guardians of some iconic national documents, dating back over 1,000 years. This year the UK National Archives will begin the move towards releasing records when they are 20 years old instead of 30. [...]
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There’s a newly launched gadget on the market which tracks your luggage during a trip that should allay some of the lost buggage fears every time you check one in at the airport. It’s called the Trakdot Luggage Tracker from GlobaTrac LLC and acts like a homing beacon to monitor and locate your bags anywhere [...]
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John Meacham’s book, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, is amazing. It’s a brilliant biography, of a great president, politician, an extremely complex personality and a multidimensional thinker. Thomas Jefferson was a man who hated confrontation but still able to move men and collect and distribute ideas. He learned from his mistakes and through his [...]
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I’ve written several times that any database implementation as large as FamilySearch.org would take time—lots of it. Family Search has a lot to offer free of charge. The latest news is the update of their search process with two new features to help user focus their search to achieve meaningful results. One is to restrict [...]
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Family Tree Magazine says: “Tracking down state-level genealogy records—births, marriages, deaths and more—can be exhausting work, but each year it gets easier and easier as more state historical societies and archives digitize collections and post them online for you to browse or search. They’re also offering more indexes, guides and other tools to help you [...]
Scientists have analyzed rocks from Western Australia and discovered traces of bacteria that might have existed 3.49 billion years ago—a mere billion years after our planet formed. If the find upholds the scrutiny that usually faces claims of fossils this old, it could move scientists one step closer to understanding the first chapters of life [...]
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For people looking for Scottish Ancestors ScotlandsPeople has now released the following BMDs for 1912, 1937, and 1962: “Images from statutory register of births for 1912, the statutory register of marriages for 1937 and the statutory register of deaths for 1962 are now available to view on the ScotlandsPeople website. We hope that you enjoy [...]
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Happy New Year! Enjoy Andre Rieu’s rendition:
In Scotland the word Hogmanay is used to describe the New Year’s Eve celebration on December 31. The holiday is so important in Scotland that it tends to eclipse Christmas and gifts are given and received on New Year’s Eve. The custom of Hogmanay was mentioned in the Elgin, Scotland, records as “hagmonay” and is believed [...]
Ancestry.com is being purchased by Permira Advisers LLP and has issued $300 million of bonds to help fund the buyout even although a court ruled that officials can’t close the deal yet. According to data compiled by Bloomberg the company issued 11 percent 8-year notes at par (an amount or level considered to be average) [...]
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I’ve participated in several Legacy Family Tree Webinars and can recommend them as worthwhile, informative and professional. The list below outlines what’s available for 2013. There’s also a link at the bottom of this post where you can register: “January 2013 Successful On-site Research by Marian Pierre-Louis. 1/16 Best Internet Resources for East European Genealogy [...]
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Ancestry.com now has an App for Windows 8 offering a quick and easy way to view and share your family tree right from your desktop. The App was released into the new Windows Store during the first two weeks of this month and provides an attractive and innovated way to experience and display your tree. [...]
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This year an interesting pamphlet called Passages was included in the neat little plastic pack of handouts visitors receive as they enter the Christmas Village at Charlotte Motor Speedway. So what is Passages? It’s a 35,000 square-foot interactive multi -media exhibition for adults and children currently in Charlotte, North Carolina. It features some of the [...]
Established in November 1989 the European Ethnological Research Centre (EERC) was established as a Charitable Trust with the primary concern being the promotion of research into the everyday life of the people of Scotland and across all levels of society. Originally based at the National Museums of Scotland in Edinburgh its research activities have been [...]
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I’d like to share an article posted on Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter about the U.S government’s national strategy for information sharing and the potential threat to genealogists. Dick Eastman says: “I spent some time this morning reading through a new document released by the White House yesterday. The National Strategy for Information Sharing and Safeguarding [...]
Sixty years of Scottish Census records ranging from1841–1901 has now been published by family history website Genes Reunited. The news release is as follows: “ Scottish census records are an important resource for family historians interested in tracing their Scottish ancestry. The newly added census collection allows people to uncover household transcriptions from 1841 to [...]
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In case you didn’t receive the notice I’m passing this one along to readers. Family Tree DNA and MyHeritage are teaming up once again to offer FTDNA members “a unique, limited time only discount on access to more than 4 billion historical records in MyHeritage’s specialized historical records collection – SuperSearch. SuperSearch is the perfect [...]
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Eneclann is an award winning history and heritage company, based in the Trinity Technology and Enterprise Centre, Dublin, Ireland. Eneclann says: “In August 2012, the National Library of Ireland hosted the ’20×20′ lunchtime series of talks on Irish family history. Organised by Eneclann and Ancestor Network, the assembled experts included genealogists and broadcasters, librarians and [...]
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This weekend only, if you’re a member of Ancestry.com you can save on a DNA test. AncestryDNA is giving people the opportunity to purchase the new AncestryDNA test “at the $99 introductory price*. That’s a $30 savings! This innovative, new way to research your family history ties directly into your existing Ancestry.com account and leverages [...]
Would you believe, dairy farmers in Poland used clay strainers to turn cow’s milk into cheese 7000 years ago. That’s a long time ago when you consider our modern day calendar at 2012. There was a lot going on in medieval times. The earliest evidence to date of cheese-making began before people developed the ability [...]
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A recent blog post on the Ancestry blog addressed a problem that most of us experience—how to clean up duplicates on your family tree. Situations such as a distant cousin who also appears as “Uncle George’s wife”. If you’d like to learn the simple process on how to clean up the duplicates, click on Ancestry.com/blog.
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It seems a long time since car owners were able to fix their own cars with simple parts and even a home made device. I remember successfully starting my old Ford using a ball point pen to open the carburetor. These days we are only too well aware that computers control your car’s every function. [...]
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The 2013 NGS Family history Conference is scheduled to take place in Las Vegas from 8–11 May, as follows: “Registration is now open for the NGS 2013 Family History Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The conference will take place 8–11 May 2013 at the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. For additional information and to register [...]
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Starting on the 25th of the Jewish month of Kislev, Hanukkah is a Jewish holiday celebrated for eight days and nights. It coincides with late November or late December on the secular calendar. This year Hanukkah begins today, December 8, at sundown. It all began in 168 B.C.E. when the Jewish Temple was seized by [...]
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At 7:55 a.m. December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy, a Japanese dive bomber bearing the red symbol of the Rising Sun of Japan on its wings appeared out of the clouds above the island of Oahu, Hawaii. A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes followed, descending on the U.S. naval base at [...]
The following is a PRNewswire release about the next phase of the National Geographic Genographic . The new stage of research harnesses powerful genetic technology to continue exploration of the historic pathways of human migration: “WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ – The National Geographic Society today announced the next phase of its Genographic Project — the [...]
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Stonehenge is one of the world’s most enduring mysteries, one that every passing generation wants to solve and yet no one has been able to proffer any substantive conclusion. We still don’t know why ancient people, probably the Druids who were Celtic priests, built the enigmatic megaliths. Stonehenge is located in Wiltshire, England, and I, [...]
Continue reading about New Study challenges timeline for the construction of Stonehenge
Ancestry.com has published the following Instagram Facebook contest to celebrate the holidays. To access the contest you have to click “Like”: “As family historians, we always wish our ancestors had documented and passed down more. Especially around the holidays as I spend time with family, I think of my ancestors more than ever. What was [...]
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The following press release from Ancestry.com is about the launch of their new online newspaper website offering a high quality collection of digitized and completely searchable U.S. newspapers dating back centuries: “PROVO, Utah, Nov. 29, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM), the world’s largest online family history resource, today announced the launch of Newspapers.com, [...]
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St. Andrews is the Patron Saint of Scotland and although widely celebrated on Novemer 30th in Scotland every year since the 6th century, St. Andrew’s Day isn’t recognized as a public holiday. There are about 40 million people throughout the world who claim Scottish descent, so you can well imagine that there’s a multitude of [...]
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MyHeritage.com second only to Ancestry.com in the world of family history services, which helps people delve into their ancestry and connect with long-lost relatives has acquired Los Angles company Geni.com in an eight figure deal that combines cash and equity. The Israeli company did not disclose how much it paid for Los Angeles-based Geni.com but [...]
PRWeb consistently offers a diverse selection of press releases and this one is certainly a surprise. Many of us thought that “Bigfoot” was a mythical creature like the “Loch Ness Monster”. A team of scientists can apparently verify that a 5-year DNA study, under peer-review, confirms the existence of a novel hominin hybrid species living [...]
As you will see from the newsletter below, there are great reasons to visit the ScotlandsPeople website. In this letter you can see, among others, a sample of the will of Lord Kelvin( 1824 to 1907). William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, was a Belfast, Northern Ireland, born British mathematical physicist and engineer, Lord Kelvin is [...]
Deceased Online has added 13 cemeteries and burial grounds to the Scottish Memorial Inscriptions collection now available. These are listed below together with location and earliest readable year. Site Name Earliest Readable Year New Calton Burial Ground, Edinburgh 1746 Invergarry Cemetery, Highlands 1957 Cromdale and Advie, Morayshire 1768 Old Monklands Cemetery 1632 Biggar Churchyard and [...]
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