Archive for July, 2012

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You know the saying: A genealogy class a day keeps the brick walls
away.

That’s how I heard it, anyway.

FamilyTree University’s weeklong How
to Research Genealogy Records summer workshop, July 9-15, will show you how to
find and use essential genealogy records.

The virtual workshop gives you an all-access pass to eight pre-recorded video classes,
plus message board discussions and daily chats.

You can watch a class a day, view them all in a marathon session (maybe with an iced
coffee in hand), or download them to watch later, as many times as you want—whatever’s
convenient for you. Then immediately apply what you learn to your own genealogy research.

Classes cover topics including naturalizations, land records, city directories, guardianships,
pre-1850 censuses and more. Click
here to see the full program.

Benefits of the workshop:

• Learn from experts how to research your ancestors in essential genealogy records.

• Watch eight 30-minute video classes on how to research genealogy records for half
  the cost of buying each class individually.

• View classes whenever you have time, even download them to watch later.

• Ask questions and exchange ideas in exclusive daily chats and message board discussions.

• Log in anytime that’s convenient over the week, from wherever you can connect to the
  internet.

Click
here to get more details on the How to Research Genealogy Records summer workshop.

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In honor of Canada Day, which celebrates the
July 1, 1867, enactment of the British
North American Act uniting three colonies into the country of Canada, Ancestry.ca is
offering free access to 40 million historical records today through July 2.
 
The free
records cover the years leading up to and following Confederation and come from
some of the largest collections on Ancestry.ca, including:

• Canadian passenger lists and ocean arrivals: These name the masses of people who arrived
  by ship at port cities across Canada

• The 1871 Census of Canada: This was the first census Canada conducted as a nation.
  It reveals household members, ages, jobs, parents’ birthplaces and more.

• Birth, marriage and death records: These come from British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec
  and Nova Scotia.

• Military records: These come from the War of 1812 and World War I, as well as lists
  of officers from 1832 and 1863 to 1939.

Visit www.ancestry.ca to search the free databases.
You’ll need to register for a free Ancestry.ca account to view your full search results.

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Genealogy website MyHeritage officially launched
its new SuperSearch feature (previously
in beta) today. This brings it into more direct competition with genealogy sites offering
historical records in addition to online family tree sharing.

SuperSearch, part of the site’s subscription offerings, lets you search records and
family trees on MyHeritage. You can run a basic search or used the advanced search
to enter name, relatives’ names, life events (such as birth, marriage or death), and
keywords.

The search will translate names and search records in 38 languages.

Record Matching, another new feature still to come, will automatically search the
records and trees for you.

In addition to MyHeritage family trees, types of records searched include vital records,
census records and indexes, military records, immigration records, school yearbooks,
newspapers and historical books, and more.

The records come from the World Vital Records website, which MyHeritage purchased
last year, as well as MyHeritage’s own additions. New records are being uploaded to
the site.
 

Every day, large numbers of historical records and data are being added and we also
plan to have our time-saving Record Matching technology up and running in a few weeks.
Watch for more information – we’ll let you know when Record Matching is live!

 
SuperSearch is an exciting new service that adds color to family history, improves
by the day, and which positions MyHeritage as a top player in the historical content
market.

You can run a search and use filters on the left side of the page to narrow the results
to the types of records (census, immigration, etc) you want to see. Some collections,
such as the 1940 census, are free to view. If you click on a result for a premium
collection, you’ll get a prompt to subscribe or upgrade your free MyHeritage account.
 

You can read more about SuperSearch in my interview with MyHeritage founder and CEO
Gilad Japhet this past March.

Here’s a video that shows you a little more about how SuperSearch works: