Archive for the ‘Genealogy News’ Category

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I don’t need to write a lot about what you’ll learn from our Map
Your Family History with Google Earth One-Week Workshop, coming up May 17-24,
thanks to this awesome video that Google Earth expert Lisa
Louise Cooke of Genealogy Gems put together:

The workshop offers

video sessions and step-by-step written lessons from Lisa and other Family Tree University
experts on locating ancestral towns, using maps in your research, and using the tools
of Google Earth to explore and display your ancestors’ places in a fascinating way.

And Lisa will be be on hand to answer participants’ Google Earth questions in our
exclusive workshop message board.

Find
out more about the Map Your Family History With Google Earth One-Week Workshop on
FamilyTreeUniversity.com.

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The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI)
has released a new genealogy resource for Northern Ireland.

PRONI, along with FamilySearch, has digitized
the Valuation Revision Books, 1864-1933. These books contain a list of landholders
and their property valuations in counties Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry
and Tyrone.

The records are handy for filling in gaps between Griffiths Valuation (which ends
in 1864) and the 1901 census (the earliest surviving Irish census).

Here’s what the Valuation Revision Book pages look like:

You’ll need to know where your ancestor lived in Northern Ireland to best use the
collection.

Access the
Valuation Revision Books on PRONI’s website (click the Search Valuation revision
Books button on the right). There, you can enter a placename

(city, county, parish, or townland; or a street or ward name in Belfast and Londonderry)
and digitally “flip” through books pertaining to that place. You also can browse by
county and parish.

Note that 44 of the roughly 3,900 books are still be digitized.

Searching for Irish roots? Get in-depth guidance in Family Tree Magazine‘s Ultimate
Irish Genealogy Collection, available only in May. 

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Did you know that May is National Photography
Month?

Of course, photography plays a huge role in family history research. Nothing connects
you with an ancestor and inspires you to discover more about his or her life, than
a photograph.

This one is one of my favorite family pictures. It shows my great-great-grandfather
about 1910 in front of the cigar
store he opened in Cincinnati. He’s standing third from left. His son, my great-grandfather,
is in the doorway on the left.

This National Photo Month, we want to help you celebrate and preserve your favorite
family photos by giving
away one of our new Photo Preservation Kits (now
available in ShopFamilyTree.com).

The kit contains specially selected archival photo storage and preservation products
from archival supplier Gaylord Bros., plus easy-to-follow instructions from Family
Tree Magazine‘s Family Archivist, Sunny Jane Morton. 

You
can enter our National Photo Month Sweepstakes here. And you’ll get two extra
chances to win for every friend who registers using your referral link (which you’ll
get after you submit your entry).

Our National
Photo Month Sweepstakes entry deadline is May 20.

You’ll also find these National Photo Month specials at ShopFamilyTree.com:

• Photo
  Detective Collection: Contains the Family Photo Detective ebook by Maureen
  A. Taylor, Digital Photography Essentials Family Tree University Independent Study
  course, and more
• Amateur
  Photo Restoration video class
• Genealogist’s
  Essential Scanning Kit: Contains our Top 10 Scanning Tips for Genealogy download,
  Digitize Your Genealogy Documents video class, and more

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Genealogy website Mocavo is reviving the spirit of
the Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) volunteer record lookup website in
its Genealogy Karma website.

RAOGK, started by Bridgett and Doc Schneider and one
of Family Tree Magazine‘s 101 best free genealogy websites in 2010, went
offline in 2011.

Genealogy Karma offers a similar, free option
for getting records from a faraway repository or cemetery. You can post a lookup request
and tag it with a keyword (such as “birth record” or “tombstone”) so volunteers can
find it. 

Researchers who register as volunteers with the site can answer your request, do the
lookup and send you the results.

When submitting a lookup request, follow these tips for a faster response:

• Be details. Use indexes to find the volume and page number of the record you need,
  and provide those details in your request. If you want a tombstone photo, call the
  cemetery or search online to find the cemetery location, plot and grave number. 
• Double-check all the names, dates and other information in your request.
• You also might offer to compensate the volunteer for expenses such as mileage and
  postage.

Of course, registering with Genealogy Karma as
a volunteer is the ultimate way to say thank you for a request someone has answered.

Click here
to learn more about how to use the Genealogy Karma site.

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This post has been contributed by the Brown Family on their Great, Great, Great Grand Adventure - 

Who knew that Lobster and Maple Syrup would be such a great combination? While camping in the mountains near Boston, we enjoyed a few day trips to Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. We stopped at a local crab shack and enjoyed our first taste of fried clams, lobster rolls and fresh clam chowder. Let’s just say that our Western taste buds were in a bit of shock. It was a fun experience and yes, we are so glad we made the trek.

New Hampshire and Vermont are SWEEEET as Sugar, Maple Sugar that is! We loved learning at Collins Farm how the sugaring process happens and tasting the results of their hard work. We went into Putney, Vermont and had a little taste of Maple ice cream, Maple Popcorn, Maple candy. We had to bring home some rich Maple syrup for our future pancakes and recipes. It was a long drive from Vermont to upstate New York where we did a bit of research on Rob’s family history and our church’s history, then on to the amazing Niagra Falls. We froze while we stood and marveled at the power of that massive waterfall. The kids loved it!

From Buffallo, New York we traveled down the eastern shore of Lake Erie to Kirtland, a small town in Ohio. We did a little more church history and then headed into Dearborn, Michigan to experience the American Dream through the eyes of Henry Ford. What a great place! The Greenfield Village, The Henry Ford museum and the Rouge Factory tour is a must see for anyone who loves America and the entrepreneurial spirit it allows. It was hard to leave our last major stop of history but had to continue on to South Bend, Indiana where we made a visit to see Notre Dame University. So inspiring, and while we were there, we drove over to Shipshewana to learn about the Amish. We found them to be very hospitable, loved our home cooked meal, and were amazed at their beautiful farms. Our girls are convinced that we need to have a buggy and wear bonnets when we get home. Rob is already planning out the small farm he would like to own. Thanks for the memories and the opportunity to relate to a new culture.

As we say goodbye to the East, we know someday we will return. There are so many stones we left unturned, so much research to continue at home and on future trips, and so much to still record and ponder. We look forward to seeing mountains again soon, but will miss the beautiful East Coast!

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Join Ancestry.com’s Barefoot Genealogist, Crista Cowan, for Ancestry Day Las Vegas on Saturday, May 11^th at the LVH Convention Center. Come for a full-day of education and a chance to win fantastic door prizes throughout the day. The grand prize is a World Deluxe Membership and an AncestryDNA kit. Take advantage of the few remaining spaces. Register Today!

Whether you are new to Ancestry.com or a long time user, Ancestry Day will help take your research to the next level. The day’s classes include:

 

Registration is only $25. Ancestry Day will be held in Ballroom A at the LVH Convention Center at 3000 Paradise Road, Las Vegas, NV 89109

The Marriott Springhill Suites Las Vegas Convention Center is offering Ancestry Day guests the following special rate:

King Suite $124 per night
Book King Suite at SpringHill Suites Las Vegas Convention Center for $124 per night

Queen/Queen Suite $124 per night
Book Queen/Queen Suite at SpringHill Suites Las Vegas Convention Center for $124 per night

 

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Finding the maiden names of our female ancestors can be tough.  But sometimes finding the women in our family is difficult even after they get married.  Sometimes they just seem to vanish.

Here’s one who did just that for a while: Mary Jane Hudson. Here, she’s living with her husband, Lewellan Gillespie, and their three sons in Amherst, Virginia, in 1860.

After that, they seem to disappear. Neither Mary Jane Gillespie nor Lewellan Gillespie appears in any subsequent census records. And no death records, either.

So what do you do now?

First, look for the children.  I could not find Lewis or Robert, but I did find Charles Gillespie. He’s living with his grandparents Micajah and Elvira Hudson, Mary Jane’s parents.

 

There could be many possible reasons for this:

1. The family has moved elsewhere and left their son with his grandparents to help out or for some other reason.
2. Lewellan and Mary Jane have both died, leaving Charles an orphan.
3. Lewellan has died, Mary Jane has remarried, and Charles has moved in with his grandparents.

Since I’ve already checked census and death records, marriage records make a logical next step. But there is no marriage record for a Mary Jane Gillespie in Amherst or surrounding counties on Ancestry.com. Now what?

You can widen the search to see if somebody out there knows something you don’t. Ancestry Member Trees and Message Boards can make a good next step. I find a tree that says Mary Jane died in September of 1870 and was married twice: first to Lewellan and then to Benjamin Franklin Campbell.

There are no sources listed, so reaching out to the member who published this would be a good idea.  Maybe he or she knows more than they have included here.

Campbell gives me another name to search, and I find a Benjamin and Mary Campbell in Amherst that might be them.

 

The Ancestry.com and Rootsweb message boards offer another hint:

The Benjamin F. Campbell (or Benjamin Franklin) mentioned in #3 of Lilly's post of April 24th is the son of James W. Campbell and Jane Massie. He moved back to Amherst County and was married 4 times. His first wife was Sarah A. Mays (married 12 Nov. 1857 in Amherst County; second wife, Mary Jane Hudson, m. 13 Sept 1865 in Amherst Co.; third wife, Sally Ann Hudson, m. 27 Oct. 1875; and fourth, Lelia Ann Henson m. 27 Feb. 1890. Benjamin died 16 Dec. 1907 and is buried in the Amherst Cemetery. All of the marriage records can be found and several list James W. Campbell and Jane Massie as his parents.

Again, there is no source to go back and examine, but the post does provide some clues on where to go look.  And some suggestions on what happened to Mary Jane.

There are still plenty of questions.  What happened to Lewellan? Was he killed in the Civil War? And what happened to Robert and Lewis?

We always hope to find our ancestors right where we expect them, leaving behind a trail of easy-to-follow clues.  But there are always a few who seem to try to remain in the shadows.  Look everywhere!  The answers are out there.

Happy Searching!

Ancestry Anne

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• In commemoration of the sesquicentennial of the Civil War, the Civil
  War Trust, History,
  and the Center
  for Civil War Photography are calling for submissions to the 2013 Civil War Photo
  Contest. Amateur photographers age 13 and older can enter in five categories by uploading
  photos to the Civil War Trust’s Flickr page and tagging them for the correct category.
  The deadline is August 16.
  

You’ll
find the rules and entry instructions here.

• FamilySearch has added more than 1.7 million index records and images to its free FamilySearch.org record
  search (click on the Search link at the top of the site). The records come from Austria,
  Brazil, China, Germany, Hungary, Italy, New Zealand, Poland, Ukraine, and the United
  States. You can see
  the full list of updates and click through to search or (for as-yet unindexed record
  images) browse here.
  

• Ancestry.com will hold an Ancestry Day in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 11 (the Saturday
  of next week’s National Genealogical
  Society conference in Vegas). Registration for Ancestry Day costs $25; you can register
  and view the program here. 

• If you’ll be across the country in Washington, DC, during May, look into attending
  one of the genealogy records workshops at the National
  Archives. Topics include Civil War court martial records (May 15), nonpopulation
  censuses (May 18), and a genealogy clinic (May 18). You’ll
  find details here (scroll down to May).
  

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Genealogy site MyHeritage
announced that it has added the entire collection of US decennial censuses from 1790
to 1930—searchable indexes and record images.

MyHeritage has offered the 1940 US census since shortly after it was released to the
public last year.

The census records are accessible with a MyHeritage.com
annual data subscription (on spacial for $6.35 per month, billed annually) or
with prepurchased credits (5,600
credits cost $39.95 and are good for 180 days). That’s except for the 1940 census,
which is free to search and view, along with select other collections.

If you have a tree on MyHeritage, the census records also will be included in Record
Matching notifications. Also in MyHeritage.com’s records collection are vital,
military, immigration, newspaper and other records.

Census records are among the most popular resources for family historians, and often
the starting point for new researchers. This addition brings MyHeritage into closer
competition with Ancestry.com as a commercial provider
of records for genealogy research.

I’m still checking into where MyHeritage’s 1790-to-1930 census records were imaged
and indexed. (Update: That information isn’t being released due to a confidentiality
agreement, according to MyHeritage spokesperson Schelly Talalay Dardashti.) Its 1940
census was indexed separately from both the records on Ancestry.com and those on FamilySearch/findmypast/Archives.com,
giving you another search option for hard-to-find family in 1940.

Another plus for using MyHeritage.com: The website is available in 40
languages, making its records searchable by people all over the world who had
family in the United States. 

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FamilySearch.org made news last month in genealogy circles when it relaunched
a polished new FamilySearch.org website.

The new FamilySearch.org relocates some
favorite features (to
the consternation of several genealogy bloggers), updates its Family Tree online
trees program, and emphasizes the new photo and story uploading features, as well
as the attractive fan chart.

In our May 9 webinar, Making
the Most of FamilySearch.org, you’ll get a tour the new site and learn to make
the best use of its ancestor-searching potential.

Our presenter, Family Tree Magazine contributing editor Rick
Crume, will show you:

• how to navigate the redesigned FamilySearch.org

• the best search strategies for FamilySearch.org’s free genealogy records databases

• how to find and use the genealogy records databases that aren’t covered by the FamilySearch.org
  global search

• differences between the site’s new Family Tree program and its user-submitted Genealogies

• how to access FamilySearch records that aren’t online

• how to take advantage of FamilySearch.org’s genealogy help features

• … and more

You can submit your questions about FamilySearch.org to Rick before the webinar, and
there’ll be a Q&A session at the end. 

Webinar participants will receive our how-to guide for ordering FamilySearch microfilm,
a PDF handout of the presentation slides and access to view the webinar again as many
times as they like.

The Making
the Most of FamilySearch.org webinar is May 9 at 7 p.m. Eastern (6 p.m. Central,
5 p.m. Mountain and 4 p.m. Pacific). For a limited time, you can save
$10 on your registration with our early bird special!

Click here to learn more and register for Making
the Most of FamilySearch.org.