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Archive for January, 2012
News from around the web.
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Today, January 27th, is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau. As such, the United Nations has designated this day, each year, as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This year, in particular, the theme is Children and the Holocaust.
Over 1.5 million Jewish children, and tens of thousands of other children were murdered during the Holocaust. “We will never know what these children might have contributed to the world,” said the UN Secretary-General. But, we can make sure that they are not forgotten.
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has collected over 170 million documents relating to victims and survivors of Nazi-era persecution. The World Memory Project community has, in just eight short months, indexed over a million of those records. But, there is still so much more we can do.
Please visit WorldMemoryProject.org to learn more about how you can help. Together we can make records pertaining to this dark time more readily accessible to those who are looking to restore the identities of people the Nazis tried to erase from history. Ancestry.com has committed to making all records keyed by this community available online for free to anyone who wishes to access them.
Please take 15 minutes to watch today’s Ancestry LIVE broadcast. Take a few moments today to remember those victims and survivors of Nazi-era persecution. Then, resolve to do what you can to help educate yourself and others so that we, as a worldwide society, can prevent future genocides.
Until next time…
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Did you catch this week’s Ancestry LIVE broadcast? We talked about Pennsylvania Vital records. We had over 400 people who joined us live in the broadcast and the chat afterwards. And, at last check, over 2,000 of you have watched the archived video on our YouTube channel.
I guess Pennsylvania records are pretty important to you!
Of course, this isn’t a surprise at all. Pennsylvania has been one of the most populous states in the Union since it became a state in 1787. So, chances are, if your family has been in the United States for longer than four or five generations, someone in your ancestry passed through Pennsylvania at some point in time.
You can learn more about Pennsylvania Family History Research in the Ancestry Wiki.
I hope you take the time to learn more. I find that when I understand more about the places my ancestors lived, I understand more about them and their lives. For me, that’s always more important than filling in blanks on a pedigree chart or seeing how far back I can trace my ancestry.
The database released on Ancestry.com this week contains over 7.5 million records obtained from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. You read that right… 7.5 million records. Read the database description (scroll down past the search box) so you know what’s included in this amazing collection. Then, please, dive right in and start searching the Pennsylvania, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985. I would bet many of you are going to find exactly what you’re looking for. Some of you may even find things you didn’t know you were looking for. When you do, be sure to come back here and let me know about it. I love hearing your success stories.
Until next time – Have fun climbing your family tree…
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Our friend Photo Detective Maureen Taylor is holding a funny
family photo contest. Upload your photo with a little information, and get your
friends and family to vote it the “SOS” (Silly Old Snapshot). Prizes include a free
photo consultation sponsored by VoiceQuilt.com, a copy of Fashionable
Folks: Bonnets and Hats, and more. Get
details here.
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Ancestry.com
has
added more than 7 million records from 300 years of Pennsylvania history. The records,
from the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, are in the databases Pennsylvania,
Naturalizations, 1794-1908 and Pennsylvania,
Church and Town Records, 1708-1985.
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Subscription
site British Origins has added the Middlesex
Baptisms Index: 1538-1751, which records nearly 100,000 baptisms—about 300,000
names when you add in parents and sponsors—in Middlesex and London.
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Free genealogy search engine Mocavo has made two big
hires: Michael Leclerc, who spent 15 years with the New England Historic Genealogical
Society, as Chief Genealogist; and Ryan Hunter, a former Wall Street analyst who covered
companies including Ancestry.com, as COO.
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Check this out if you have Revolutionary War or War of 1812 ancestors: Subscription
genealogy site Fold3 is
making its collection of Service
Records of Volunteers, 1784-1811, free through Feb. 5, according to a post
on the site’s Facebook
page.
These images come from 32 rolls of NARA microfilm publication M905. Each soldier’s
“jacket” typically contains cards abstracting entries for the soldier in original
muster rolls, payrolls, receipt rolls, and other lists.
Go
here to search this collection. You’ll need to register for a free account with
the site to view records.
Need research guidance for Revolutionary War and War of 1812 ancestors? Both conflicts
are covered in our guide, Research
Strategies: 10 Lesser-Known Military Conflicts. It’s a $4 download from ShopFamilyTree.com.
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Genealogists have come up with their own version of NaNoWriMo (National
Novel Writing Month, which is in November):
The Family History Writing
Challenge is a monthlong event in February. To play along, just commit to writing
250, 500 or 1,000 words per day (your pick) about your family history—whether it’s
a person, a branch, a place, an era or some other focus.
The
challenge basics and a Q&A are here. Sign
up here to receive daily writing reminders and quotes, as well as links to weekly
advice posts. You also can join discussions in
a forum.
When I
put together a family history narrative a couple of years ago, I noticed some
holes in my research, came up with ideas for next steps and saw how much progress
I’d made. Even better, it was an easily digestible way to share me research with my
family.
Need motivation? Here’s how
to get around five common reasons for not writing family history. And here are six
quick ideas for writing family history.
If you want in-depth guidance for writing a family history, look into the FTU course
and workshop Write
Your Family History. By the end of the session, you’ll have an outline for your
family’s story and a start on your narrative.
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The January
2012 Family Tree Magazine Podcast, hosted by Lisa
Louise Cooke, is ready for your listening pleasure! In this free podcast episode:
- tips on organizing your family archive
- using Evernote to keep your genealogical research organized
- sneak peek at the upcoming season of “Who Do You Think You Are?”
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Plus: the one trick that will help you make new friends in the online genealogical
community
Listen in iTunes or on
FamilyTreeMagazine.com.
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If you’ll be sitting out next week’s RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City as attendees
giddily blog, Facebook and Tweet about it:
You’ll be able to watch many of the classes online. RootsTech will live stream all
the keynote lectures and other sessions taking place in classroom 155 of the convention
center.
I checked over the RootsTech
session schedule for each day (look in the left column for the room number and
click each presentation title for details about it), and found great presentations
going on all day in this room 155. My top picks are:
- Effective Database Search Tactics by Kory Meyerink, Feb. 2, 1:45-2:45 p.m.
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Twitter: It’s Not Just “What I Had For Breakfast” Anymore by Thomas MacEntee, Feb.
2, 3-4 p.m. - Genealogists “Go Mobile” by Sandra Crowley, Feb. 3, 1:45-2:45 p.m.
- Genealogy Podcasts and Blogs 101 by Lisa Louise Cooke, Feb. 4 9:45-10:45 a.m.
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Privacy in a Collaborative Environment by Noah Tutak, CEO of Geni.com, Feb. 4, 1:45-2:45
p.m.
Remember, all session times are in Mountain Time. Details about how to access the
live-stream sessions are still to come—watch the RootsTech
website and this blog.
If you’re going to be at RootsTech (like our own Allison Dolan and Kerry Scott), you
can make sure you check off your conference to-do and to-see lists with the RootsTech2012
app for iPad, iPhone and Android.
You can get them from the Apple App Store or the Android Marketplace and use them
to keep track of your scedule, see venue maps, get conference news and more. Randy
Seaver goes into detail about the app at his Genea-Musings blog.
RootsTech, organized by FamilySearch, takes place
Feb. 2-4 in Salt Lake City.
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The National Archives and Records Administration has started a Transcription
Pilot Project as part of its new Citizen
Archivist Dashboard.
You can contribute to transcriptions and help make historical documents more accessible
to the public.
The pilot project includes more than 300 documents (about 1,000 pages) dating from
the late 18th to the 20th century: letters to a civil war spy, fugitive slave case
files, suffrage petitions and more. All are digitized in NARA’s online catalog; the
transcriptions will make them text-searchable.
Just a few of the interesting documents I saw were
- George Summers Letter on Confederate War Prisoners
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the petition of Jacob Cook in a Fugitive Slave Petition Book from the District Court
for the District of Maryland - an 1866 contract between “James Mitchell and Dick and Wife” from the Freedmen’s Bureau
- Ann Taylor v. Thomas Hart indenture case file from 1773.
If you want to learn more about a document, you can click on the title, then look
for the National Archives Indentifier number and click on that.
You can search for documents to transcribe or browse
them by difficulty level (beginner, intermediate or advanced), year it was created,
and the status of transcription (“Not Yet Started,” “Partially Transcribed” or “Completed”).
If you want to participate, see the project’s Transcription
Tips, Frequently
Asked Questions and Policy pages.
The Citizen Archivist Dashboard also
offers opportunities to tag images and records, upload photos of records and contribute
to online articles.
News from around the web.
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Brightsolid, the British genealogy company with sites including Findmypast.co.uk and Findmypast.ie (for
Irish records), has announced that it’ll again sponsor the RootsTech conference
this year—and that it’ll use the conference as a platform to launch a new product
for the US market.
Feb. 2, Brightsolid CEO Chris van der Kuyl will address a Brightsolid-sponsored RootsTech
lunch with a talk on, “Why Everyone Deserves Their Own Episode of ‘Who Do You Think
You Are?’ and How Brightsolid Will Help You Get There.”
Hmmm …
Remember that Brightsolid
also has joined the 1940 Census Community Project, along with FamilySearch and Archives.com,
which turned some American genealogists’ heads.
Of course, we’ll let you know what the big news is when it’s announced.
The RootsTech conference, organized
by FamilySearch, focuses on technology in genealogy. It takes place Feb. 2-4 in Salt
Lake City.