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The following is a news release from Ancestry.com clearly illustrating the continued popularity of genealogy and family history research: “PROVO, Utah, July 2, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ancestry.com (Nasdaq:ACOM), the world’s largest online family history resource, has added its two-millionth active current subscriber. The milestone recently was reached when Yvonne Ocheltree, of Collierville, Tenn., [...]
Origins.net is offering free access to the Prerogative Court of York Wills and Administration as follows: “Prior to the establishment of a government run system for probate in 1858, there existed over 300 church courts where wills could be proved. One of the most important of these was the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of York, [...]
Blockbuster movie The Hunger Games, filmed in North Carolina, has made a hot new tourist spot at Henry River Mill Village, Eastern Burke County, just off Henry River Road. Once you leave Interstate highway 40 you drive about a mile and right before you enter Catawba County you’ll find what is labeled in the movie [...]
The National Genealogical Society (NGS) is in celebration of the July 4 weekend with an announcement of attractive member benefit. Fold3 is offering NGS members a great price-break when they purchase a Fold3 Annual Membership: “The National Genealogical Society is proud to announce a partnership with Fold3, the premier military history website. NGS has worked [...]
Continue reading about The National Genealogical Society (NGS) forms new partnership With Fold3
Gone with the Wind, one of the best-selling novels of all time and the basis for the blockbuster 1939 movie was published June 30, 1936 Serious injuries forced Mitchell to quit her job as a reporter at the Atlanta Journal. Living in a small apartment with her second husband John R. Marsh, Margaret found she [...]
Continue reading about Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind published June 30, 1936
Ancestry.com has added fully indexed online records on the 1940 census for the following six states: Colorado Ohio Pennsylvania Tennesee Vermont Virginia Completion of these indexes now provides search availability of over 39 million records in ten states and the District of Columbia
Continue reading about Six more states now searchable by name in the 1940 census on Ancestry
On July 1st each year, Canadians celebrate Canada Day. On July 1, 1867, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Province of Canada were united as a single country. The union was an outcome of the Constitution Act, which granted Canada a large measure of independence from England. Over the course of a century, Canada gradually [...]
Continue reading about Canadian genealogy records can be searched for free through July 2
During the last ice age, the sea level of our planet dropped and uncovered a vast land bridge between Asia and America This likely permitted the first bands of people to migrate from the Russian far east into what is now Alaska. When the glaciers receded, the new arrivals drove south to the Great Plains [...]
Findmypast has published 4,625 new parish records for Yorkshire, England: “Any of you with Yorkshire roots will want to search these records to see if they hold new information to add to your family tree. The Ryedale Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records, in association with the Federation of Family History Societies. See [...]
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Popular family history and genealogy research website MyHeritage has a new search engine called SuperSearch, now in Beta, specifically to help researchers locate historical records. SuperSearch has been in development since early 2011 and MyHeritage says that it’s one of the most comprehensive products they’ve ever developed. It’s being touted as an exciting moment for [...]
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Findmypast has just published 2 million new Welsh parish registers as follows: “These new records follow the first release of Welsh parish registers earlier this year. This is the first time that the complete Welsh parish baptism, marriage and death records have been made available online. You can now search 5,924,611 records of Church in Wales parish [...]
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The inspiration for some of Shakespeare’s greatest work in the form of rare artefacts will be on display in a major new exhibition at the British Museum. There will be 190 exhibits in the showing, which include important paintings from national and private collections The huge exhibit will feature The blockbuster show will feature 190 [...]
Ancestry.com says: “Recent research from Oxford University shows a wide range of genetic influences throughout the British Isles, hinting at a long history of invasions and settlement by groups from across the European continent throughout history. Now where have we heard that before? Oh, that’s right! AncestryDNA™ has seen similar results in the data from our [...]
Continue reading about Your DNA results may have unexpected ethnicities
A year after mechanical engineer Gottlieb Daimler sold his first luxury gasoline-powered automobile to the sultan of Morocoo in 1899, he formed Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) in his hometown of Cannstatt, Germany. A prominent Austrian diplomat and businessman Emil Jellinek, was enthusiastic about the car and ordered one from Daimler in 1897 but the 6-horsepower 2-cylinder engine [...]
Continue reading about Mercedes brand name registered on June 23, 1902
New indexed records and digital images have been added to the FamilySearch.org database as follows: “FamilySearch published new, free records online for Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Czech Republic, England, Georgia, Indonesia, Italy, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, and the United States. The 1940 US Census Community Project continues to progress [...]
I thought that this infographic from Frugal Dad via LinkedIn today is an interesting et cetera: “This infographic created by Jason at Frugal Dad shows that almost all media comes from the same six sources. That’s consolidated from 50 companies back in 1983. NOTE: This infographic is from last year and is missing some key transactions. GE does not [...]
Continue reading about 90% of the media in the United States is controlled by 6 corporations
ScotlandsPeople has posted the following announcement: “We have changed the pricing and payment method for purchasing Wills & Testaments documents on the ScotlandsPeople website. Instead of purchasing a Will & Testament through a separate transaction, these documents can now be viewed using ScotlandsPeople credits. As an introductory offer we have also reduced the cost from £5 GBP [...]
Continue reading about ScotlandsPeople has cut prices for buying wills and testaments
Given our history, it’s really not hard to imagine that African Americans have a significant line-up European ancestors. However, it’s a lot more interesting and enlightening for each individual who is actually able to learn who they are through actual research and evidence of their family roots. Given the availability of research materials online it’s [...]
Continue reading about Michelle Obama’s roots: The ties that bind
Findmypast.co.uk has just published 25,000 new records as follows: “We’ve just added more than 25,000 new Royal Household records to our collection: Establishment Lists for Master of the Household’s Department 1835-1924: 7,158 records Establishment Lists for the Royal Mews 1717-1924: 18,281 records The new records represent an addition to the Royal Household records we published earlier this [...]
Continue reading about New Royal Household records just published to Findmypast
Findmypast.co.uk has just published about 70,000 new parish records for Sheffield, England, as follows: “We’ve just published almost 70,000 new parish records for Sheffield on findmypast.co.uk The records span the vast period 1767 to 1986 and will be essential to anyone with ancestors from Sheffield. The Sheffield & District Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records, [...]
Continue reading about 70,000 newly Sheffield parish records added to Brightsolid’s Findmypast
DNA analysis is making more progress with every day that passes and it’s easy to believe that we will soon be able to pinpoint our genetic ancestry with a clarity that would have seemed impossible only a handful of years ago. Genetics has already transformed many of our notions of ethnic identity to the point [...]
Continue reading about Ancestry testing goes for a higher level of accuracy using whole genomes
Beavers mate for life and according to Discovery News beavers are among the best dads in the animal kingdom. One beaver widower who lost his long-time mate called “Dad” lives in a Martinez, California beaver colony was suddenly left with three young kits to care for when his partner died suddenly of an infection. They had previously raised [...]
Continue reading about Happy Father’s Day! See how a single parent beaver dad gives a dam
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has recently published an updated Open Government Plan for 2012-2014 designed to guide their efforts “in transparency, participation, and collaboration”. Although I can’t agree with the transparency, participation, and collaboration mantra for all government organizations, I believe that NARA always puts its best foot forward. Unlike some other [...]
Continue reading about National Archives and Records Administration agenda for 2012-2014
Here’s a timely reminder from Ancestry about free access to War of 1812 records at Fold3: “On June 18, 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain officially launching the War of 1812. In the 200 years since, it has become a forgotten war, perhaps best remembered by school children as when The Star-Spangled Bannerwas written. [...]
Prisoner of War records for WWI and WWII are now available for research at Findmypast as follows: “Search for your ancestors in new WWI and WWII Prisoner of War records published today on findmypast.co.uk These records hold vital information about men taken prisoner of war during both World Wars. Naval and Military Press provided findmypast.co.uk [...]
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The American Revolution Center, a non-partisan organization, owns an amazing collection of manuscripts, rare books, paintings, sculpture, textiles and weapons has now unveiled plans to build The Museum of the American Revolution, where the collection will be displayed as a living memorial. The collection is currently highlighted on their website listed below. The most recent [...]
FamilySearch.org says: “One of the most often used and impressive features ofFamilySearch.org is the massive collection of genealogy records. FamilySearch has the largest collection of genealogical collections in the world with billions of records available to the public free of charge. FamilySearch has recently released two new videos that discuss this massive collection of genealogical records. The [...]
Continue reading about Two New Genealogy Videos from Family Search
Every time I try to move away from Google and try another method to research information or revisit an approach, I wind up returning to Google. The idea of trying another research channel was my response to the recent privacy issues aired as a result of Google’s method of collecting personal information. Google is it [...]
Continue reading about New search features in Google Trends and Google Searches
It’s amazing what fear of the unknown can conjure up. About to be put up for auction in Britain is an 1890s vampire-slaying kit described as “almost complete and in good condition” and expected to fetch up to $2,000. The vampire-slaying tools are housed in a blue velvet lined mahogany box with the inner cover [...]
Arlington National Cemetery will soon be the first national burial site to go digital via a smartphone app due to be on the market in the fall. With the power of GPS technology visitors will be able to more easily find loved ones buried in the cemetery. Also included is an online component which will [...]
Continue reading about A new high-tech App to help visitors pinpoint graves at Arlington Cemetery
A lot of us miss seeing and listening to brutally frank comments from Simon Cowell on American Idol. Let’s face it, the show hasn’t been quite the same since he picked up his marbles and moved on. Simon Cowell, one of the richest individuals in the world of entertainment, is the fourth post in Roy [...]
Continue reading about Interesting roots: Simon Cowell’s family tree
The DNA Consultants Blog is a great source of inspiration and information and yesterday’s post is an interesting read. Long before the days of DNA testing scientists, Thomas Jefferson and Constantine Rafinesque, demonstrated the genetic similarity between native Americans and Turkic peoples of the Altai region of southern Siberia. I thought the comment at the [...]
Continue reading about Native Americans and Turkic people of southern Siberia share common ancestors
More than 7,500 new parish records for North West Kent are available at findmypast.co.uk as follows: “Anyone with Kent ancestors will be keen to search the records for new details to add to their family tree. The North West Kent Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records, in association with the Federation of Family [...]
Continue reading about Additional North West Kent parish records added to findmypast.co.uk
Shares of Ancestry.com rose today after a news report that the company is looking for a buyer. I’m not surprised—this is probably the best time to consider selling. According to the consistently reliable Bloomberg Ancestry.com “is weighing a sale and is working with Frank Quattrone’s Qatalyst Partners LLC to find buyers.” Although Ancestry is declining [...]
Continue reading about Ancestry stock rose today amid reports that it may be for sale
It’s amazing to know that 13.5 million people lived in New York in 1940. It was the country’s biggest state at that time and the census pages are chock full of fascinating folks. Ancestry.com has now just launched the 1940 U.S. Federal Census Index for the Empire State, which now joins the District of Columbia, [...]
The Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree has gained in popularity during the past four years. This year the conference is scheduled to take place in Burbank, from Friday, June 8th through Sunday, June 10th. There are two Pre-events scheduled on Thursday June 7, one Family History Writers Conference and two, the Tech-Track. They look like terrific events [...]
Continue reading about Free SCGS Jamboree sessions streamed free of charge June 9 and 10
FamilySearch.org has reached a milestone with their 1940 Census project. To date 51.88% of the census has been indexed. It doesn’t mean that 50% of the census has a searchable index. Unfortunately end users won’t see that for a while. It has taken 2 months to reach the current status thanks to the legion of [...]
Continue reading about Update on progress of 1940 Census indexing project
Fold3 is a subscription website that provides convenient access to US military records, including the stories, photos, and personal documents of the men and women who served. It’s a very useful site for Historians, Family Historians, Researchers, Teachers and much more. For my readers who live outside the U.S. the Fold3 names is derived from [...]
Continue reading about Fold3 opens War of 1812 records for free until June 30th
The Scots have a rare humor when it comes to death and if you’ve heard some to the irreverent Scottish jokes about the subject you’d understand. Don’t get wrong my generation also had a healthy respect for the dead. We always enjoyed those visits to the cemetery on Sunday’s, which usually included a walk around [...]
The following press release from Ancestry.com gives details of U.S. Marine Corps activities during World War II and the Korean War. Many iconic celebrities are part of the collection, including: Ted Williams, Bea Arthur, accused JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, Steve McQueen, F. Lee Bailey, Gene Hackman, Dan Rather, Jim Lehrer, Harvey Keitel, Ed McMahon [...]
Continue reading about Military history of Ted Williams, Lee Harvey Oswald, Bea Arthur and more…
If you’ve ever wondered if any family member worked in the Royal Household or, you’ve heard someone in the know talk about it, Findmypast.co has added royal staff records to their ever growing database. The following news release includes a link where you search free of charge, but transcripts and scanned images of the original [...]
Continue reading about British royal household staff records now online
Google Places is no more. Almost a year ago Google announced that the company would merge or integrate Google Places and Google+ Pages. Well, it is all happening today with Google Places pages entirely replaced by Google+ Local pages. Today, about 80 million Google Place pages have been automatically converted into 80 million Google+ Local pages. It [...]
Continue reading about Google makes Google+ the center of gravity for local search
With a name like “Big Ben” one might think we’re talking about a North American grizzly bear. Big Ben is actually a famous clock on top of 320-foot-high St. Stephen’s tower. Those classic pictures of the British Houses of Parliament in London wouldn’t be the same without that famous tower-clock. If you’d been around to [...]
Continue reading about Big Ben goes into operation in London 153 years ago today
Findmypast Ireland has made a second batch of records available from the Irish Petty Sessions books as follows: “Today we launch online the second batch of records from the Petty Sessions order books (1850-1910), one of the greatest untapped resources for those tracing their Irish roots. The original Petty Sessions records are held at the [...]
Continue reading about Findmypast releases more records from the Irish Petty Sessions order books
The first million dollar allocation as part of a plan to restore historical monuments around the world is being distributed by American Express in conjunction with The World Monument Fund. The plan is to provide million dollar restoration to six historic landmarks located in Brazil, Mexico, India, New Zealand, Japan and the United Kingdom. Respected [...]
Continue reading about A global plan to restore major historic landmarks
I’ve found the International Genealogical Index (IGI) available at FamilysSearch.org very useful in the past. It has been a mix of community indexed sources and community contributed records. Apparently this mix meant that the records weren’t equally reliable. The problem is in the process of being resolved with the creation of two separate collections searchable [...]
Continue reading about New search feature for the International Genealogical Index (IGI)
Family Search has a lot to offer and it’s free. There’s a new feature called My Source Box. It’s a useful new place to bookmark a source record and organize them into folders. People with access to the Family Tree can locate a record and add it to the source box for addition to the [...]
Memorial Day is our federal holiday that originated after the American Civil War to commemorate the fallen. It is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation’s service. The ever popular patriotic song God Bless the U.S.A., written and recorded by Lee Greenwood, serves to remind us of the sacrifice by [...]
Continue reading about Have a wonderful Memorial Day Celebration—God Bless the USA
The National Archives at San Francisco officially opened 40,000 case files on immigrants to the United States on May 22, 2012. The research room was dedicated to U.S. Representative Tom Lantos who pushed to have the files re-designated as records of permanent historical value. Transferred from the U.S. Cititzenship and Immigration Servives (USCIS), the files [...]
It would be hard to miss the promotion by FamilySearch.org of BillionGraves.com which is owned and operated by AppTime. Family Historians and Genealogists will love the constantly expanding database of records and images from cemeteries around the world. Digitized images of each gravestone will be tagged with GPS coordinates to make finding your ancestors an [...]
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (UMD) has announced the addition of 14 Portuguese-language newspapers published in California from 1855–1940 to its Portuguese-American Digital Newspaper Collection. As part of a collaborative project with the special collections J.A. Freitas Library, which is a special collections library owned and operated by the Supreme Council of P.F.S.A. in California [...]
A wooden hulled vessel believed to have sunk in an estimated 4000 feet of water about 200 miles off the Northern Gulf Coast shore by ocean researchers who were exploring the depths of the Gulf of Mexico. The shipwreck was laden with artifacts, such as, anchors, navigational instruments, glass bottles, cannons, boxes of muskets and [...]
Continue reading about 200 year-old shipwreck found at a depth of 4000 feet in the Gulf of Mexico
The 1940 census has caused quite a stir in the genealogy and family history community. I’ve written about it several times with progress updates and I thought it has just about been covered by everyone.Wait up! there’s more. The fact that 1940 census has had amazing coverage in national publications is truly impressive. The best [...]
Continue reading about The pre-war 1940 U.S. census is a factual gold mine for family historians
If you’re ancestors hailed from the counties of Suffolk and Kent in England you’ll be interested to know that Findmypast.co.uk has published more than 180,000 new parish records for Suffolk and North West Kent as follows: “The Suffolk Family History Society and North West Kent Family History Society provided findmypast.co.uk with these records, in association with the [...]
I’m sure the venue for next year’s National Genealogical Society’s in Las Vegas will be a popular one. The press release is as follows: “Arlington, VA, 17 May 2012. The National Genealogical Society (NGS) announced at their Family History Conference in Cincinnati last week that the 2013 NGS Family History Conference, Building New Bridges, will be [...]
Continue reading about NGS 2013 Family History Conference in Las Vegas Building New Bridges
I’ve just read an interesting article posted online by the Irish Times regarding Y-DNA with which I agree. There’s a lot of sales patter and technical jargon out there, but the principle behind genealogical Y-DNA testing is simple and logical. The Y-DNA chromosome is passed along intact from father to son. A random mutation is [...]
The following news release from Ancestry.com and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum World Memory Project marks the first anniversary of their partnership. There are three new collections including information on Poles, Jews, and other victims with more than 1.3 million records indexed from the museum’s archives: “WASHINGTON, DC/PROVO, UTAH, May 10, 2012 — Records [...]
When one thinks of Lawrence of Arabia the epic 1962 movie starring Peter O’Toole usually springs to mind. The movie characterizes Lawrence’s experience in Arabia during World War I, in particular his attacks on Aqaba and Damascus, as well as, his involvement in the Arab National Council. Known to the world as Lawrence of Arabia, [...]
Dr. Paul R. Billings, renowned genomics expert has been added to the Board of Directors at Ancestry.com. The press release is as follows: “PROVO, Utah, May 16, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq:ACOM), the world’s largest online family history resource, today announced that renowned genomics expert Dr. Paul R. Billings has been appointed [...]
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Devonshire, England, is a beautiful place, if you have ancestors who hailed from Devon the following 3.5 million records from Findmypast.co.uk will help you find them. For a small area 3.5 million is a lot of records: “Search new Plymouth and Devon parish records covering 3.5 million people and five centuries on findmypast.co.uk These records [...]
Continue reading about New Plymouth and Devon records for 3.5 million people on Findmypast
Priceless Catholic church collections to be returned to north-east Scotland after more than 50 years
Two priceless Catholic collections originally housed in the Blairs Seminary outside of Aberdeen, Scotland, are being returned to the area after 54 years to be housed this time at the University of Aberdeen. This is a big event given the dark history of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. In fact, the archives cover some [...]
The British National Archives has made Olympic and Paralympic documents and images available online for the 19th 20th and 21st centuries. This is a first. The new site called The Olympic Record has a timeline, which enables researchers to brows material from summer Olympics from the Athens games in 1896 to the Beijing games in 2008. [...]
It’s that time already! The next Roots Tech conference is scheduled to take place in Salt Lake City, Utah, from March 21-23, 2013. Even if you’re not planning to present the schedule the ideas for sessions in the following call for presentations appearing on the Upfront with NGS blog will be of interest: “The world [...]
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