Archive for February, 2012

Surname Forum Activity
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I would love more details abt your family. Also, were you aware that there is a Munnelly/Manley family reunion in Co. Mayo this summer? Your family may be interested in going. You can write me at katsjay2@bellsouth.net or go to www.munnellysofcountymayo.com. Kathy
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Surname Forum Activity
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Oh, this is a great connection on a really old posting. Yes, please share!
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Surname Forum Activity
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I did a complete rehab . Orchard Grove Cemetery, Town of Farmington, Washington Co. Wi. Buried there, Riley Manley, 1821-1884, Susan Manley, died July 17, 1903. Rosetta (Manley) Blackwood diedJan. 4, 1871, age 20 years 5 months. Waldo Blackwood, died Sept 21,1883. Son of Jennie Manley and George Blackwood. Rosetta married Josiah Eaton Blackwood. Jennie Married George Algernon Blackwood. deleug77@sbcglobal.net
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News from around the web.
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I absolutely LOVE genealogy conferences. I love meeting new people and running into old friends. I love attending classes to learn new things. And, I love teaching classes where I get to watch people’s eyes light up with discovery. I love spending time in the Ancestry.com booth where I’m able to help people break through brick walls. And, I love helping people look at their family history challenges in a little different light. Oddly, I also enjoy answering the same three or four questions over and over and over again.

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“When does the 1940 census come out?”

The federal government will release the 1940 census to the public on April 2nd, 2012. Ancestry.com will start posting images and working on creating an index right away. These records will be free to search until the end of 2013.

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“Why are you called the Barefoot Genealogist?”

Look at my feet. No shoes. If I can get away with it, even in the Ancestry.com booth at a major genealogy conference, I don’t wear shoes. This works really well around the office, not so well when traipsing through cemeteries.

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“Why can’t I find my ancestor online?”

Their name might not be spelled consistently across all records. You might be limiting your searches too much with the search filters. Oh, and not all genealogy records are online or even publicly available. Let’s figure out where we might find them and then check the Card Catalog to see if we’ve got the records you need. You might also want to check online Family Trees and see if anyone else is researching the same family.

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This past weekend I was able to attend RootsTech 2012. This particular conference, only in its 2nd year, is held in Utah, home to the world famous Family History Library, Ancestry.com, and yours truly. There were dozens of sessions to chose from and over 4200 people in attendance. So, as you can imagine, there was a lot to take in every day of the three day conference.

If you were there, tell me, “What was your favorite thing about the conference?”

If you’ve never attended a genealogy conference I would encourage you to check out the recorded video streams from each of the three days of RootsTech. Maybe, take a look at the schedule to see what kinds of classes are being taught. Then let me know, “If you could attend a class on any genealogy related subject, what would it be?”

Next year RootsTech will be held March 21-23 in Salt Lake City. Between now and then Ancestry.com will be at several other genealogy conferences around the country. Will I finally get to meet you? And, if I do, don’t ask me why I’m called the Barefoot Genealogist. Just admire my great pedicure and my cute toes! Then let’s get busy looking for your ancestors.

Until next time – Have fun climbing your family tree…

Also, watch two presentations below for free that were streamed last week @ RootsTech 2012:

News from around the web.
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On this week’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? award-winning actress Marisa Tomei searches for the truth behind her great-grandfather’s rumored murder. Learn what she uncovers and how getting a look at the big picture changes an entire generation’s view of one hardworking man in the family tree. Ancestry.com is a sponsor of Who Do You Think You Are?, which airs Friday nights at 8/7c on NBC. And join Ancestry.com throughout the season at www.ancestry.com/wdytya for advice and tips to help you discover more about your own family’s history.

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We’re having a CD
and DVD Clearance Event today through Monday at ShopFamilyTree.com!

You’ll save 50 to 75 percent on how-to genealogy products including

• 10 Years of Family Tree Magazine 2000-2009 DVD
• Trace Your Roots Online CD
• Family Tree Passport to Europe CD
• Research Remedies CD
• … and more!

Click
here to see everything included in our CD and DVD Clearance Event!

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• FamilySearch has added another 30 million new,
  free records to its historical records website—16 million indexed names and 14 million
  browsable images. Highlighting the additions are new databases from Canada, England,
  Germany, Italy, Micronesia, Slovenia and the United States. The new records also include
  millions of US births, marriages and deaths, and over 9 million church records from
  Sweden. See
  the list of new collections here.

FamilySearch also has launched a free mobile app for the iPad, iPhone
and Droid that lets volunteers index digitized records. You can find it by searching
for FamilySearch Indexing in the Apple App Store or Android Marketplace.

• Ancestry.com is giving away not
  one but three grand prize $10,000 family history trips in its Ultimate
  Family History Journey Sweepstakes. And 20 first prize winners will get an Ancestry.com
  World Explorer membership. You can enter daily through May 18.

• Library and Archives Canada is
  starting a monthly podcast series called Discover Library and Archives Canada (LAC):
  Your History, Your Documentary Heritage. Episodes will introduce you to LAC services
  and archivists. You can subscribe to episodes using RSS or iTunes, or tune
  in on the LAC website.

• The Civil War Trust is holding its
  16th annual battlefield cleanup called Park Day on Saturday, March 31. More than 100
  sites in 25 states are taking part, with activities ranging from trash removal to
  trail building. Click here
  to find a site near you and learn about specific projects.

• The National Genealogical Society has a new online
  events calendar where organizations that have a valid subscription to NGS can
  list their events (and, of course, you
  can look for events to attend). The calendar isn’t searchable, but you can use
  your browser’s Find function (control-F or command-F) to look for a particular topic,
  place, date or speaker.

• Genealogists have formed the Family History
  Information Standards Organisation (FHISO), to develop standards for the digital
  representation and sharing of family history informaiton. The goal is to make data
  exchanging work with different genealogy websites, software, applications and other
  services. FHISO will sponsor the Build
  a BetterGEDCOM Project, a grassroots effort started last year.

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Tonight on NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” actress Marisa Tomei explores her roots
in Italy and tries to unravel a murder mystery in her family.

Here’s a preview video of Tomei receiving a letter from her 83-year-old Italian first
cousin twice removed.

Of course we’ll blog about the episode right here.

Ready to research your own Italian roots? Consult our $4
downloadable Italian Genealogy Guide and the book Finding
Italian Roots: The Complete Guide for Americans by John Philip Colletta.

And see our “Who Do You
Think You Are?” page for beginning research resources including our free downloadable
Getting Started Cheat Sheet, plus show news and tweets.

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If you’re researching African-American ancestors, we’ve got a great deal on our Family
Tree University course Finding
African-American Ancestors in Newspapers: Research Strategies for Success, with
instructor Tim Pinnick.

Thanks to a sponsorship from GenealogyBank,
registration in the four-week session starting Feb. 20 is just $39.99 (down from the
regular $99.99). So if you’ve been thinking about taking this course, now’s the time.

You
can learn more about the class and see the syllabus here. Past students have been
surprised at the number of newspapers that have been published in the United States
covering African-American communities.

Also check out Tim’s
Newspapers forum at Afrigeneas, one of our favorite genealogy websites for those
tracing African-American roots.

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The RootsTech conference was the
talk of the genealogy world last week. For those of you catching up on conference
news, here’s a listing of our RootsTech posts:

• Mocavo
  Rolls Out New Content, Features
• GeneTree
  Introduces New Test, Consultation Service
• 1940
  Census Community Project Update
• Brightsolid
  to Launch 1st Pay-As-You-Go Census Records Site
• Ancestry.com
  to Live-Stream its RootsTech Presentations
• RootsTech:
  Sessions You Can Watch From Home
• Four
  Genealogists to Compete for Top Honors at RootsTech

Keep an eye on RootsTech.org and Ancestry.com’s
YouTube channel for each organization’s recorded presentations to become available.

Next year, RootsTech will be a little later in the year, March 21-23, in Salt Lake
City.