Archive for June, 2012

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• The National Trust for Historic Preservation has released its 2012
  list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places. Among the sites named is
  the Ellis Island Hospital Complex on the south side of Ellis Island, where 1.2 million
  immigrants were treated in a state-of-the-art U.S. Public Health Service facility.
  The deteriorating complex is now the subject of Save
  Ellis Island’s fundraising campaign to restore the buildings.

Read
our article about the Ellis Island Hospital Complex on FamilyTreeMagazine.com.

• The SFgenealogy website has added a free, searchable San
  Francisco Colma Cemetery Index. The database includes more than 305,000 burial
  records (1887-2001) for the Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, with more cemeteries to
  be added. If you have San Francisco ancestors, be sure to check
  out the site’s mortuary records, birth and death indexes, and other resources,
  too.

• Genetic genealogy company 23andMe,
  exhibiting at the Southern
  California Genealogy Jamboree this weekend, announced it’ll release four new genealogical
  features for beta testing in the coming weeks. Those are family tree building on the
  site; Ancestry Painting, which breaks down your ancestry based on approximately 20
  world regions; the My Ancestry Page, a “dashboard” summary of your ancestry; and the
  Relative Finder Map View plotting where in the world your matches are.

Learn
more about these upcoming features on 23andMe’s Spittoon blog.

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I’ve had a little taste of Texas genealogy research. The Lone Star
State where my great-grandfather was jailed and
later pardoned for violating local liquor laws, and where my grandfather spent
time in an orphanage and went to college.

So I’m excited about learning how to dig deeper into my Texas family history in our
next webinar!

Texas genealogist Randy Whited will show genealogists how to research their roots
Texas-style in our Texas
Genealogy Crash Course webinar. Here are the details:

• Texas
  Genealogy Crash Course
  
• Wednesday, June 27
• 8 p.m. Eastern (7 Central, 6 Mountain, 5 Pacific)
• 60 minutes

You’ll learn important state history, details on finding records such as vital and
immigration records, the best websites and resources for Texas research—including
the Texas State Library and Archives Commission,
which was helpful in my search—and more.

Webinar attendees you’ll participate in the live event and Q&A session, get access
to the presentation slides and the recording to view again as often as you like, and you’ll
receive a free PDF of our Texas Research Guide book.

Sign
up now to save $10 on your Texas Genealogy Crash Course registration in ShopFamilyTree.com.

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FamilySearch announces that you can now search the 1940 census index
for 18 states free at FamilySearch.org and 1940
Census Community Project partners Archives.com, FindMyPast.com and 1940census.archives.gov (although
I can’t find a name search at 1940census.archives.gov, which is the National Archives’
census website).

That brings the total of searchable states/districts across all 1940 census sites
to 22 (see below for links to the other sites).

FamilySearch’s 18 indexed states are:

• Alaska
• Arizona
• Colorado
• Delaware
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Kansas
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Montana
• Nevada
• New Hampshire
• Oregon
• Utah
• Vermont
• Virginia
• Wyoming

Ancestry.com has
free searchable indexes for

Delaware, Maine, Nevada, New York and Washington, DC; and MyHeritage has
Rhode Island and part of New York.

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Genealogy website Ancestry.com has released a
name index to the 1940 US census for New York. With a population of

13.5 million in 1940, New York State was home more than 10 percent of the country’s
residents.

You can search Ancestry.com’s 1940 census
index (besides New York, it also covers Washington DC, Delaware, Maine and Nevada)
for free here.

Ancestry.com also has added the 1892, 1915 and 1925 New
York state censuses to its subscription databases.

The 1892 census is important as a substitute for the lost 1890 US census, which was
destroyed after a fire at the Census Bureau. Some New York counties are missing from
the 1892 census.

If you’re not an Ancestry.com subscriber, the
1892 census also is searchable free at FamilySearch.org.

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Jealous of those now trekking to Burbank, Calif., for the Southern
California Genealogical Society’s 2012 Genealogy Jamboree this weekend, June 9
and 10?

You can share in some of the fun by watching the 10 sessions that’ll be streamed over
the internet free during the two-day event. 

You’ll
find schedule of the 10 sessions on the Jamboree blog (remember, you need to translate
the times from Pacific to whatever time zone you’re in—this
Pacific time zone converter can help you).

A couple I’ve got my eye on include Lisa Louise Cooke’s class “Projects That Will
Captivate the Non-Genealogists In Your Life” (Saturday at 10 a.m. PT) and Barry J.
Ewell’s “30 Second Genealogist: How to Find Genealogy Answers You Want Now” (Saturday
at 5 p.m. PT).

To watch a session, go
to this Jamboree blog post a little before the scheduled time (translated into
your time zone), click the title of the session and then log in. Attendance is limited,
so try to arrive early.

Speakers permitting, sessions will be available for free viewing after Jamboree is
over.

For
more details, see the Jamboree blog.

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An interesting thing has happened in the last few years: the explosion of social networking and social media. We have been able to be constantly updated about the activities of our friends and relatives like never before…but it’s only a 21st Century manifestation of our tendency to spy on each other.
In historical newspapers, many of which are available at Ancestry.com, you will often find a column labeled “Personal” or “Society” or equivalent, in which many events, trivial and otherwise, are recorded forever about the lives of our ancestors. Here are links to two examples from 1912, one hundred years ago next month (subscription to Ancestry required):

Sheboygan (Wisconsin) Press, 3 January 1912, “Personal Pickups”

The Daily Courier, Connellsville, Pennsylvania, 1 January 1912, “Personal” on column 4 (also see the “Social Calendar”)

 

 

 

Translated to Facebook or Twitter parlance, they don’t seem too far out of place!
“In Milwaukee today!” – @Jbitter1912
“It’s a girl!!” – @MrandMrsJosephMeyer1912
“Love spending time with family!” – @MissLucileMooneyofGlenbeulah1912
“back in madison for another semester” – @HerbertMaurer1912
“Back east for 2 months it will be awesome!” – @MissMarySinclair1912
“Bridge party Thursday” – Mrs. John F. Torrence
(Will you be attending? [ ] Accept [X] Ignore)

You can learn all kinds of stuff, even if a lot of it is simply announcements of who is in town and who is visiting who. You could learn birthdates, a maiden name, a person’s hometown, whether a relative was still living by a certain date, and so on.
There are hundreds of thousands of newspaper images online, and on microfilm in local libraries. Don’t forget about this valuable resource!

News from around the web.
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Mexican actress Karyme Lozano, who plays the mother of the film’s main character José Luis Sánchez del Rio, found the shooting to be an exciting opportunity to rediscover her heritage. Lozano herself immigrated to the US eight years ago, but is a Mexico native whose family comes from Mexico City and Ciudad Madero, in the Northeast Mexican state of Tamaulipas.

Growing up in Mexico City, Lozano wasn’t familiar with the history of the Cristero War. But upon joining the cast of For Greater Glory, she quickly grew intrigued by the Mexican government’s attempt to eradicate religious freedom. She notes, “it was very beautiful and enriching to learn about Mexico’s history in such an important matter that schools don’t talk about”.

Working on a film that shares the hidden past of Mexico’s history also helped Lozano learn more about her own heritage as well. “It wasn’t until I started shooting For Greater Glory that my family told me, ‘You have a Saint in the family!’”, she says, “His name is Rafael Guizar y Valencia, he was my grandmother’s cousin on my mom’s side”.

The revelation of her unique family history has given Lozano further cause to celebrate her heritage.

“It makes me very proud to know that incredibly these brave heroes existed in Mexico, and thanks to them we have freedom of religion. If it weren’t for them, Mexico could be a totally different country now. I feel proud of my heritage!”

Whether your own family has ties to the Cristero War or if you’re simply a lover of history, make sure to check out For Greater Glory when it hits theaters nationwide this Friday 6/1! http://forgreaterglory.com/

 

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• Think you have a relative who served in a household of Britain’s Royal Family? (Perhaps
  as Chocolate Maker to the Queen or Strewer of Herbs?) In celebration of the
  Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, British genealogy website findmypast.co.uk,
  in association with the Royal
  Archives, has added a collection of Royal Household Staff Lists. It covers royal
  residences across the United Kingdom such as Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and
  St. James’ Palace, and includes 50,000 staff records from the reign of King Charles
  II to King George V (1660 to 1924). Details you might learn include the person’s occupation,
  age, length of service and salary.

• The Civil War Trust is holding its annual
  photo contest. You can enter your Civil War battlefield photos in five categories
  for prizes including publication of your image, a trust membership, and registration
  to the trust’s annual conference. Enter before Aug. 26 by uploading photos to the
  Trust’s Flickr group—be sure to tag your image as directed in the contest
  rules. (Last year’s winning photos are pretty impressive—view
  them here.)

• UK cemetery site DeceasedOnline.com has
  added records for 120,000 mostly rural Scottish burials. The records comprise from
  99 cemeteries and burial grounds, with the oldest dating back to 1526. That brings
  the total of Scottish cemeteries with records on the site to 250. Once you search
  for a record, you can use pay-per-view credits or subscribe to view the full information
  it contains.

News from around the web.
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Subscription genealogy website Fold3 is opening
up its War of 1812 records for free access during June.

This is prime time for researching ancestors who were soldiers in the War of 1812.
The war started
200 years ago June 18 when the United States declared war on Great Britain.

Fold3′s collection has more than 400,000 record images. That includes 233,000 images
of War of 1812 pension files never before available online. Here’s an overview of
the free databases:

• War of 1812 Pension Application Files: These
  pension and bounty land records are being digitized as a project
  with the Federation of Genealogical Societies. So far, only 3 percent of the records
  are digitized in Fold3′s collection—but who knows, you may get lucky.

• War of 1812 Service Records: These records
  consist of cards compiled from muster, pay, receipt and other rolls for soldiers and
  sailors who served in the war. For each person named, you’ll usually learn his service
  dates, terms of service, monthly pay, where he served, and other notes.

• War of 1812 Prize Cases, Southern District Court,
  NY: These records relate to British vessels seized by American privateers and
  US Navy vessels. “Prize courts” helped dispose of the ship and its cargo as war prizes,
  and the records document questions asked of sailors, witnesses and others.

• Letters Received by the Adjutant General, 1805-1821: This
  correspondence came from Army officers and enlisted men, the Secretary of War, President
  and other officials, and it deals with Army personnel and administrative matters. 
  The records are part of NARA
  record group 94.

Start searching Fold3′s War of 1812 collections
here. You can search them all at once using the search box at the top of the page,
or scroll down and click a collection title to search just those records.

For more help researching your War of 1812 ancestors, look for our how-to guide by David
Allen Lambert in the July/August 2012 Family Tree Magazine (it starts mailing
to subscribers in early June).

The War of 1812 is also covered in our guide
to researching ancestors in 10 of America’s “lesser-known” military conflicts.

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Need a quick, fun way to say
“Happy birthday!” or “Happy
anniversary!” to a loved one? Here’s a way to create a personalized, memorable
greeting—and at just 99 cents, it’s more economical than a store-bought card.

Each of our Birth
Year or Anniversary Memory
Pages is a one-page PDF download full of fun trivia from the year of the birth or
wedding, including.

• top news and events
• movies, songs, fads and celebrity births
• average prices of common goods
• notable inventions and advancements in technology and transportation

After you download the PDF, just open it in Adobe Reader (a free
download if you don’t already have it), type in the recipient’s name and birth
or wedding information, and save. Then you could:

• print and frame the customized page to create a personal gift
• print the page for an album of birthday memories
• mail the printed page or attach it to a present, as you would a card
• send it as an e-card via email
• post a digital image of the page to Facebook

You also could print the page and then write in the recipient’s name and other information.

Birth
Year Memory Pages are available for each year from 1930 through 2010, and you
can also get memory
pages covering decades from the 1930s through 2000s.

Anniversary
Memory Pages are available in five-year increments from 10th to 70th. This one’s
for a couple celebrating 25 years in 2012:

Take
a look at our Birth Year and Anniversary Memory Pages now in ShopFamilyTree.com.