Archive for the ‘Genealogy News’ Category

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News from around the web.
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If you have New England ancestors, or any US ancestors, at least one of these
value packs from Family Tree Magazine will help you discover more about them.

They’re both bargain-priced at ShopFamilyTree.com,
and even better, they both qualify for free shipping:

• The New
  England Genealogy Value Pack gathers tools for researching your family tree
  in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. You’ll
  get webinars, our newly updated State Research Guides, webinars and the Researching
  your Colonial New England Ancestors book.

Get
all the details on the New England Genealogy Value Pack here.

• Want search strategies for hard-to-find relatives in the census? Techniques to go
  beyond your basic names, ages and relationships, and mine census records for clues
  to your ancestors’ everyday lives and which records you should look for next?

Our Census
Research Value Pack has video classes and books to improve your census research
skills. Get
all the details on the Census Research Value Pack here.

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Chris Burton was simply hoping to discover his ancestors’ homelands when he took his AncestryDNA test. But when his test results came in, Chris, who was adopted at birth, learned he had a close family connection, possibly a first cousin. Would that link him to his birth family?

Watch the whole story unfold as Chris sits down with Katie Couric on Katie!

This is just one example of the power of making new family connections. See what you can discover about yourself with AncestryDNA. Now $99. Get your AncestryDNA test today.

Chris and his Mom talk about the past and our own Ken Chahine describes the kinds of connections that have already been made through AncestryDNA.

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There was a sense of power, a new found freedom wrapped inside your first library card. It meant someone knew you, trusted you and wanted to help.

Turns out, they still do. And libraries and librarians prove this every day as they help countless individual discover historical facts about their family and their history.

Ancestry.com has billions of online historical records with details about your family and others around the globe. These records are supported by additional fine details you can find at local libraries. From amazing historical and genealogical collections, our local libraries — and the amazing librarians who support them — are the perfect place to discover a new angle, source or clue that breaks your search wide open.

Ancestry.com is available in more than 2000 libraries worldwide. But we couldn’t do it without you. So to all the librarians out there, a big thank you for everything you do that helps us get closer to our ancestors.

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• MyHeritage has released
  version 7 of its free family tree software, Family Tree Builder. Among the major
  highlights is the ability to synchronize your tree between the software on your computer
  and your online tree at MyHeritage.com. You’ll then be able to access your tree from
  your phone or tablet using the MyHeritage app.

Version 7 also lets you use the sites Record Matching service, which automatically
searches MyHeritage collections and trees for your ancestors (you’ll need a subscription
to view some results). Other updates include a more graphical look and support for
40 languages, including Chinese and Korean. Read
more details on the MyHeritage blog.

• There’s a new database
  of burials at Hart Island, the public burial ground (“potter’s field”) for New
  York City. The earliest recorded burial there dates to May 1881; however, the database
  covers burials since 1977.

• A new PBS series called “Genealogy Roadshow” is looking for people with family history
  mysteries to be on the show. Check
  out the casting call here; the deadline is May 12.

• Heredis is having a sale through April 28 on its family tree software for PC (37 percent
  off, at $24.99) and Mac (33 percent off, at $39.99). Find out more about the software at
  the Heredis website.

• Another sale is coming up in honor of DNA
  Day, April 25: Family Tree DNA is offering a sale on its Family FInder test, as
  well as its lowest-ever price for the Full Mitochondrial Sequencing and for mtDNA
  upgrades to the full sequence. The sale ends April 22; get
  more details about these tests at FamilyTreeDNA.com.

  You can learn how to use your DNA test results in our Intro
  to DNA Crash Course webinar with the
  Genetic Genealogist Blaine Bettinger, taking place on DNA Day.

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You have a couple of days left to take advantage of these free
database offers from sites where you’d normally need to subscribe or hope your library subscribes:

• Ancestry.com has made its marriage
  records collection free to search through April 21 at midnight ET. These records
  are great sources for female ancestors’ maiden names and sometimes the couples’ parents’
  names, in addition to the marriage date and place. You’ll need to register for a free
  account, if you don’t already have one, to view records.

• ProQuest’s Historic MapWorks Library Edition (link
  to it from this page) is free to at-home users through April 20 in honor of National
  Library Week. Here, you can browse by place or search for an address, keyword or GPS
  coordinates to find old landowner and other maps. (The landowner maps aren’t indexed
  by name here, so you need to search for the place and then find the person’s name
  on a map.) You can download maps and overlay the maps with Google maps to pinpoint
  the modern location.

  I searched for Colerain township in Ohio, in hopes of finding the location of my Depenbrock
  relatives’ farm—and I found it. This is part of an 1884 township map; I’ve highlighted
  the farm.
  

The Depenbrock property borders on the land of my great-great-grandmother’s brother’s
wife’s family.

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The “Coming Soon” banner on the FamilySearch.org website
since last month’s RootsTech conference has been replaced by this:

FamilySearch just flipped the switch on several site enhancements and a polished new
look. FamilySearch’s announcement says the site enhancements will “allow visitors
to collaboratively build their family tree online, preserve and share precious family
photos and stories, and receive personal research assistance—all for free.”

Besides the recently
released FamilySearch Family Tree, new FamilySearch.org features include:

• Photos and Stories: Upload photos of ancestors, share them through social media,
  tag them and add them to profiles in your tree.
• Fan Chart: Turns your FamilySearch family tree into an interactive fan chart,
  or lets you add your tree to FamilySearch as you create the fan chart
• Live Help: Call or chat with a FamilySearch volunteer online, or find a FamilySearch
  Center/Family History Center near you

I clicked on the photos area, and it looks like FamilySearch is using an invitation
system to avoid overloading the site. I got a message that all of today’s invites
are taken, and to check back at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

What do you think of the new FamilySearch.org?

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Seeking genealogy news, help understanding your family tree
software, essential research advice, or simply the feeling that
someone shares the family history journey you’ve embarked on?

All these and more are available from the bloggers on the 2013
list of the Family Tree 40 top genealogy blogs. Congratulations to these
dedicated researchers and writers!

To quote Family Tree Magazine‘s contributing editor David A. Fryxell, who wrote
about the Family Tree 40 in our May/June 2013 issue (on newsstands and at ShopFamilyTree.com April
30), “Let’s tip our collective hats to those bloggers who stick with it and keep sharing
their wit, wisdom and family history finds with us … In making this year’s selections,
we paid particular attention to that stick-to-itiveness standard.” And “We love blogs
packed with information, but we also adore those brimming with the blogger’s personality.”

You can
read about the Family Tree 40 and click through to each blog from FamilyTreeMagazine.com.
They’re arranged into these categories:

• Good advice (genealogy tips and how-tos)
• Tech support (reviews and instructions for genealogy technology)
• Gravestone matters (tombstone photos, cemetery research tips)
• Heritage help (researching ancestors of specific ethnicities and national backgrounds)
• Shop talk (genealogy news and new products)
• Story time (the bloggers’ personal research and family history)

We also encourage genealogists to look beyond our list to find genealogy blogs that
might help answer their research questions, illuminate an ancestral hometown, or bring
entertainment to a ho-hum day. The combo of research needs and blog-reading preferences
is different for every genealogist, and we all can be thankful that topics and writing
styles in the genealogy blogging community are just as varied.

Here are a few ways to find genealogy blogs you’ll love:

• Browse the blog directory
  at Geneabloggers.
• Run a Google Blog Search on topics
  of interest to you.
• Check the blogrolls of blogs you already read.
• Ask your genealogy buddies about their favorite blogs.

As the main blogger here at the Genealogy Insider blog, I know how hard it can be
to find the inspiration—and the time—to put up a post every day or several times a
week. I give personal props to the Family Tree 40 and all the genealogy bloggers out
there. Thanks for the work you do!

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Please be aware that AncestryDNA will undergo scheduled maintenance early Friday morning, 12 April 2013, from about 12:00 AM to 4:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time.

We will be updating the servers that process DNA results and DNA member matches to support the growing DNA database.

In order to make these updates, you will not be able to access your DNA results during this brief maintenance period. We appreciate your patience as we make this very important update so we can continue to deliver AncestryDNA results and power new discoveries through DNA.

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Early this morning the World Archives Project community achieved a huge milestone- 100,000,000 records keyed! The record count started in June 2008 and we reached 100,000,000 records early this morning.

The 166 indexes created through the World Archives Project are free for anyone to search. If you would like to join our community of contributors and play a role in helping others find their ancestors you can learn more here.

Thank you to the thousands of contributors who have given of their time to key these records!