Member of ISOGG
Archive for November, 2011
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I wanted to draw your attention to a
post on Megan Smolenyak’s Roots World blog about a disturbing change to the Social
Security Administration’s policy on fulfilling requests for relatives’ for Social
Security applications (called SS-5 forms):
The SSA will block out parents’ names on the SS-5 you requested if the applicant was
born less than 100 years ago and you don’t provide proof the parents are deceased.
If you requested the SS-5 in order to learn those parents’ names in the first place,
of course, you can’t prove they’re deceased. And you’re out the nonrefundable $27
fee you sent with your request.
I haven’t heard a public announcement from the SSA about this policy. Smolenyak
learned of the change after requesting an SS-5.
This comes on the heels of the SSA’s removal
of “protected” death records from the Death Master File, the source of the Social
Security Death Index.
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The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
has selected Inflection—the parent company of the genealogy subscription site Archives.com—to
to design and host a free website for the 1940 census, to be released April 2, 2012
at 9 a.m.
Researchers will be able to browse, view, and download images from the 1940 census. See
NARA’s full announcement here.
To kick off the partnership, Archives.com has created a web
page about the launch of the 1940 Census.
You won’t be able to search the census by name right away on April 2; instead, you’ll
need to know the enumeration district (ED) your relatives lived in and then browse
the records for that district. You can find the ED if you know your ancestor’s address
in 1940 or in 1930.
Here’s
a post about an online tool that can help you determine the ED.
FamilySearch
is heading up an effort to index the 1940 census records ASAP after they’re released,
which will let genealogists search by name.
Subscription website Ancestry.com also
has announced plans
to provide the 1940 census for free, at least through 2013.
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Our publisher Allison Dolan has been slowly digging through the inherited
family archive she’s affectionately calling her “hot genealogy mess.”
Thank goodness for our upcoming Organize
Your Family Archive webinar and the advice from its presenter, Denise
Levenick, because Allison’s found some things she knows have historical value,
but she’s not sure what to do with. Here are some contents of just one of the two
dozen boxes Allison inherited:
Maybe you’ve shopped at a Kroger grocery store? In 1883 in Cincinnati, Bernard Kroger
founded what’s now the largest US grocery chain.
Allison uncovered letters and newspaper clippings from Kroger family members. A handwritten
notecard states that one of her ancestors was B.H. Kroger’s private secretary from
1928 to 1938.
Another treasure is an album full of photos from the South Pacific. It belonged to
a woman named Dorie, who may have been a friend of an aunt.
Color me jealous. We’ll keep showing you more peeks inside this archive.
The Early Bird Special for the Organize
Your Family Archive webinar ends Nov. 20, so if you have your own hot genealogy
mess going on, register
now.
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Subscription genealogy site Ancestry.com is
beta testing a new record image viewer. Here’s what it looks like (this record is my
great-grandparents’ 1900 passenger list):
The interface is similar to the previous viewer, with some new and improved features:
- Faster image loading.
-
Works on more platforms and with more browsers than the previous image viewer, including
Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. Web browser issues were preventing
a large portion of Ancestry.com members from using the previous image viewer. -
New tools, including rotating an image (handy for census returns with the address
written along the side of the page), mirror (flips your record over so you’re reading
it backward, which I’ve heard can help with hard-to-read records), and new zoom controls. -
Easy installation. Most people won’t have to install anything (I didn’t), though you
might need to install a more recent version of the free
Adobe Flash Player.
To try out the new viewer, click on the options button at the top of the current image
viewer:
and then select “Use the Advanced Viewer (Beta)”
Ancestry.com is collecting feedback from
users who try the new viewer. Read more about the new features, see screenshots, and
see the known issues on
the Ancestry.com blog.
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FamilySearch International, which operates the FamilySearch.org free
genealogy website, will have a new chief executive officer. Starting Jan. 2, 2012,
Dennis C. Brimhall will succeed Jay L. Verkler as CEO of FamilySearch.
Verkler will assist with the transition for several months as a consultant.
FamilySearch regularly rotates its senior leaders, according to yesterday’s
announcement.
Under Verkler’s decade of leadership, FamilySearch has become a genealogy industry
leader in enhancing online access to genealogy records through technological innovation
and partnerships with genealogy businesses, records repositories and societies. Especially
notable has been the FamilySearch
Indexing project, which has mobilized tens of thousands of volunteers worldwide
to index digitized records, making them searchable online.
Brimhall has held positions of increasing responsibility in the Church of Jesus Christ
of Latter-day Saints, which sponsors FamilySearch. Before that, he was president and
CEO of the University of Colorado Hospital in Denver from 1988 until 2005.
“I am very excited to help lead the work of FamilySearch, to continue the great things
that have been done and move forward in new directions as appropriate,” he says.
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Do you have American Indian ancestry? Many genealogists believe they do and want to
find out for sure. Others know they do but don’t know how to research those ancestors.
Now’s a good time to look for resources: November is National
American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month.
In 1915, Rev. Sherman Coolidge, an Arapaho and president of the American Indian Association,
declared the second Saturday of May as American Indian Day and appealed for recognition
of American Indians as citizens (Indians
were recognized as citizens in 1924).
Later that year, on Dec. 14, Red Fox James, a member of the Blackfeet tribe, arrived
at the White House with 24 state government endorsements for a national day to honor
American Indians. (Here’s
a photo from the Library of Congress.) He’d gathered them riding on horseback
from state to state.
The first National American Indian Heritage Month was in 1990. (More
on national observances here.)
Here are some free FamilyTreeMagazine.com articles to help you trace American Indian
roots:
-
American
Indian genealogy websites -
Research
tips for tracing Cherokee roots -
Researching
Cherokee who weren’t removed from their lands -
American
Indian online photo collections -
American
indian genealogy books -
Family Tree Magazine Podcast: October
2009 episode with expert advice on researching American Indian roots
ShopFamilyTree.com resources include:
-
American
Indian Genealogy Guide Digital Download -
The
Historical Atlas of Native Americans -
State research guides for Oklahoma, Alaska and other
states where your American Indian ancestors lived.
Some of our favorite websites for American Indian research are:
-
Access Genealogy:
Lots of free records and articles for tribes across the country. -
National
Archvies and Records Administration: Native American Research: Not many records
are online, but you’ll learn what records the archives has, see finding aids for Bureau
of Indian Affairs records, and find articles to help you plan your research.
You’ll also find indexes to the Final Rolls of Citizens and Freedmen of the Five Civilized
Tribes in Indian Territory, March 4, 1907 (known as the Dawes
Roll) and Applications Submitted for the Eastern Cherokee Roll of 1909 (the Guion-Miller
Roll).
-
University
of Oklahoma Indian-Pioneer Papers Oral History Collection: Search the index to
this collection by personal name, place name, or subject. Typescripts of interviews
about the settlement of Oklahoma and Indian territories, as well as the condition
and conduct of life there, cover the time period from 1861 to 1936. -
ITGenWeb: This
USGenWeb project site contains information on researching tribes that were removed
to Indian Territory, located in what’s now Oklahoma. -
Oklahoma
Historical Society American Indian Archives: The OHS archives have records for
tribes in Indian and Oklahoma territories. -
The Kansas
Historical Society has digitized papers and a partial index of correspondence
from William Clark and later agents’ tenure as Superintendent, US Office of Indian
Affairs, Central Superintendency, St. Louis (most of the collection dates from the
early to mid-1800s).
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Have you ever dreamed of discovering your roots and visiting the country of your ancestors? Now might be your chance if you are the winner of the Follow Your Roots: Visit Europe contest, sponsored by visiteurope.com and ancestry.com.
Entering the contest is simple: just submit a family photo and description of the person(s) in the photo and their significance to following your roots back to Europe for your chance to win a trip for two to explore the country of your heritage. The official submission period runs from November 8 through November 28, with a voting round beginning on November 28 to determine the top 10 entries.
A panel of visiteurope.com judges will select the grand prize winner who will receive the trip for two, along with an annual World Membership to ancestry.com and an annual membership to MyCanvas.com.
Enter the contest and learn more at http://www.facebook.com/visiteurope.
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Join the Family Tree Maker team tonight, Wednesday, November 9th at 8:00 pm (Eastern Standard Time) for a free webinar that will teach you about the new features in Family Tree Maker 2012. You’ll learn about:
- TreeSync—the ability to link and synchronize your desktop tree with an online tree at Ancestry.
- The new blended families display option.
- The new descendancy report.
You can even get questions answered by the developers who work on the software. Information will apply to both PC and Mac users.
It’s not too late—you can still register for the webinar by clicking here.
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This past Saturday, Ancestry.com and the California Genealogical Society brought you Ancestry Day in San Francisco 2011, a day to discover and celebrate your family history. The exciting event helped a number of attendees start or hone their genealogical skills with informative classes, expert consultations and more.
There were dozens of classes that covered a wide range of topics like:
- Getting started in family history
- Finding immigrationa and emigration records online
- Locating living family members and lost relatives
- Getting the most out of your Ancestry.com membership
- Using maps in your genealogical research
- How social networking can further your family history research
And if you were one of the many who were not able to attend this great event, don’t worry, we have some classes available to you online for FREE! Four classes of the day’s events were pushed across Livestream, Ancestry.com’s live events channel. We have the classes now available for you to watch in replay.
Emigration & Immigration Records Online with Crista Cowan “Barefoot Genealogist”
Have you always wanted to know where your ancestors came from before they embarked on a life in America? Are you convinced your grandmother’s name was changed at Ellis Island? We’ll share with you our top tips for finding your immigrant ancestory and tracing them back to the Old Country, no matter which country that is. We’ll also share with you the TOP FIVE assumptions you shouldn’t make when doing immigration research.
Watch the class here:
How to Find Civil War Roots on Ancestry.com with Anne Mitchell “Ancestry Anne”
Learn how to identify your Civil War ancestors, create a research plan, collect and interpret the records and tell the story.
Watch the class here:
Five Quick Tips for Digging UP Answers at Ancestry.com with Jeanie Croasmun
Learn from someone else’s mistakes – your instructor’s – as she walks you through her six-year battle to find an immigrant family in the 20th century. You’ll leave with solid tips and how-to instructions leading to research gold at Ancestry.com
Watch the class here:
Find them Fast: Secrets to Searching Your Family History on Ancestry.com with Laura Dansbury
Want to make more discoveries? Want to find out how to search more efficiently on Ancestry.com? In this class, we will talk about and demonstrate how to create better searches and use what you find to discover more about your ancestors. We will focus on using search forms and filters, how to use place pages, how to find and recreate your recent searches, find help on specific record types, use wildcards, and much more.
Watch the class here:
Stay tuned for more event we will bringing you live in 2012 via Livestream and to stay up to date on all future Ancestry events, on and offline. Be sure to fan us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. You’ll also be able to watch all of our videos on our YouTube channel as well.
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Join Ancestry’s own barefoot genealogist, Crista Cowan, as she shows you the answer to this week’s question: I’m trying to trace my immigrant grandparents in the early 1900s, what are some tricks to finding them in the passenger lists?
The event will be happening today, November 8, @ 1 pm EST (10 am PST).
The broadcast will be aired on the Ancestry.com Livestream channel, as well as from our Livestream Tab on Facebook.
And if you can’t make it? Don’t worry, you’ll be able to watch the event recording right after it’s over on the Ancestry.com Facebook page.
About our experts:
Crista Cowan has been with Ancestry.com since 2004; her interest in family history, however, reaches all the way back to childhood. Send Crista questions for future events at ask@ancestry.com.
Watch the Livestream broadcast below: