Genealogy Insider

Fee-Free Weekends at Historic Parks

Diane — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:01:30 GMT

Want to immerse yourself in history but still save a few bucks this summer? Plan to visit a national park on one of these two entrance fee-free weekends:

July 18-19

August 15-16

You've got more than 100 parks to choose from, including Georgia’s forts Pulaski and Frederica, Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Indiana, Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland, Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument in New Mexico, and Fort Laramie National Historic Site in Wyoming.

Learn more about National Park Service fee-free weekends here.

FamilyLink Launches "Facebook for Genealogists"

Diane — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:01:37 GMT

FamilyLink has launched a new social networking site especially for genealogists called GenealogyWise.

Randy Seaver, whose Genea-Musings blog clued us in to the quiet launch of GenealogyWise, has posted some screenshots and thoughts. FamilyLink likely invited a small group to join so the site will already be lively when an official announcement goes out.

GenealogyWise does appear to be buzzing with activity. Similar to Facebook, you create a profile, find friends, set up groups, upload photos and invite people to events. There’s also a discussion forum, blog and video areas any GenealogyWise member can contribute to, a genealogy search (this links you to the World Vital Records subscription site), a store (also goes to World Vital Records) and a chat area.

FamilyLink is also owner of World Vital Records, the We’re Related and MyFamily Facebook applications, WorldHistory.com interactive history site, and several other ventures.

Interestingly, FamilyLink has another genealogy social network, FamilyHistoryLink, launched in 2007 as FamilyLink (it was renamed when the company took FamilyLink as its corporate name). FamilyHistoryLink still wears a beta label and looks dated in comparison to GenealogyWise. I wonder if FamilyLink will phase it out?

Facebook has a well-established genealogy community, with more than 500 genealogy groups and several genealogy applications. Can GenealogyWise compete?

Would you stick with the all-encompassing Facebook, switch to GenealogyWise’s dedicated genealogy network, or use both—or neither? Let us know by clicking Comments below.

World’s Oldest Bible Reconstructed Online

Diane — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:39:32 GMT

A Bible handwritten in the fourth century, edited as many as 800 years later, and portioned off in the 1800s has been made whole online.

The Codex Sinaiticus (“Sinai book”), the world’s oldest Christian Bible at 1,600 years old, was in a Sinai desert monastery when a scholar found it in 1844. He removed portions over the years to publish them, and most of the ancient Greek text ended up in Britain via St. Petersburg.

The institutions that hold parts of the manuscript—the United Kingdom’s British Library; the University Library in Leipzig, Germany; the National Library of Russia in St. Petersburg; and St. Catherine's Monastery in Sinai—joined the project to put the Codex Sinaiticus online.

Its 400 leaves of parchment (prepared animal skin) include the complete New Testament, much of the Old Testament, plus books not officially part of either.

You can browse the pages by book, chapter and verse; read an English translation for some of it; learn how the book was created, digitized and conserved, and read historical research about it.

Though Codex Sinaiticus isn’t a strictly genealogical project, the in-depth look inside a globe-spanning historical digitization project is fascinating.

The Generations Network Becomes Ancestry.com

Diane — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 12:06:59 GMT

Online genealogy business The Generations Network has changed its name to Ancestry.com.

The new moniker acknowledges subscription genealogy Web site Ancestry.com as the company’s most prominent brand, says CEO Tim Sullivan. "Our company has a long and fascinating history, and we've been through several name changes over the years. But we started with Ancestry.com, and it now feels completely natural to let our company once again share the Ancestry.com brand with our flagship product."

Here’s a timeline of Ancestry.com’s name changes:
1983: Ancestry
1997: Ancestry.com
1999: MyFamily.com
2006: The Generations Network
2009: Ancestry.com

Gotta say that we like the shorter, print-friendlier name—no more bulky references to announcements from “Tim Sullivan, CEO of The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.com …” in the magazine.

Other Ancestry.com properties include Family Tree Maker, Genealogy.com, MyFamily.com, Rootsweb, MyCanvas and several international genealogy sites.

How Our Ancestors Celebrated the Fourth of July

Diane — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:48:16 GMT

Did you know John Adams thought we all should celebrate the Fourth of July on the second of July—the day in 1776 when the Second Continental Congress voted to approve Richard Henry Lee’s resolution of independence?

Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail, “The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America ... It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward.”

But Americans chose to solemnize and celebrate on July 4, the date Congress finally approved the Declaration of Independence. Here are some of the ways our ancestors marked the occasion:

In 1777, in Bristol, RI, 13 gunshots were fired on July 4, once at morning and again at evening. Philadelphians rang bells, fired guns and lit candles.

In 1778, Gen. George Washington gave his soldiers a double ration of rum on July 4 and ordered an artillery salute.

In 1781, Massachusetts recognized July 4 as a state celebration.

In 1785, Bristol held a Fourth of July parade—now the United States’ oldest continuous Independence Day celebration.

In 1817, the Erie Canal broke ground in Rome, NY.

In 1828, Charles Carroll broke ground on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

In 1848, workers laid the cornerstone of the Washington Monument.

In 1870, Congress made Independence Day an unpaid holiday for federal employees.

In 1938, the Fourth became a paid federal holiday (three years later, Congress corrected the omission of Washington, DC, employees from this legislation).

In 1973, the Boston Pops Orchestra began hosting an annual music and fireworks show alongside the Charles River.

Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, the only two signers of the Declaration of Independence to become president, died on July 4, 1826—the 50th birthday of the United States. Get more Fourth of July history on this American University professor’s Web site.

Genealogy News Corral: June 29 to July 2

Diane — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:18:55 GMT

This week’s news roundup is coming at you a day early, but it's still chock-full:

The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.com, has a poignant new ad campaign you’ll probably catch on some media or other (if you’re worried you’ll miss it, see it on Ancestry.com’s YouTube channel).

Ancestry.com also has developed an Ancient Ancestry Finder that guesses your haplogroup (ancestral origins) based on a few questions. It’s fun, and the haplogroups have cute names such as "Boatbuilders" and "Inventors," but keep in mind it's not necessarily accurate. At the end, you get a pitch to buy a $79 DNA test to determine if the Finder is correct.

If you’ve been thinking of trying the databases at NewEnglandAncestors.org, now might be the time. The New England Historic Genealogical Society is offering $15 off new memberships during July.

This week, FamilySearch enhanced its free Record Search Pilot with 12 new collections, which have records from Argentina, Australia, Mexico, Netherlands, and Spain. New United States collections were added for Delaware, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Utah.

International indexing projects now underway involve records from the Czech Republic; Baden, Germany; and South Africa—click here if you’re interested in volunteering.

Following on the heels of Footnote’s partnership with newspaper publisher Gannett, ProQuest announced it’s adding Gannett papers to its Newsstand data service (offered through libraries). ProQuest will offer the papers back to 1977; Footnote is digitizing older editions.

The Houston Metropolitan Research Center (HMRC) at the Houston Public Library's downtown Julia Ideson Building is changing its research hours during a renovation. Now through Aug. 31, HMRC is open Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 1 to Oct. 31, it'll be open by appointment—call (832) 393-1313 to make one.

Footnote, Gannett Kick Off Partnership With 60s Flashbacks

Diane — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:02:47 GMT

Subscription historical records site Footnote struck a deal to digitize newspapers from Gannett Co., the largest newspaper publisher in the United States with 84 dailies including USA Today.

With the upcoming 40th anniversaries of the Apollo moon landing July 16 and the Woodstock music festival August 15-18, Footnote started with newspapers covering these events—Florida Today and New York’s Poughkeepsie Journal.

You can relive these two landmark events free (or experience them for the first time) at Footnote’s Moon Landing and Woodstock pages.

Footnote will continue to digitize the full run of these and other Gannett newspapers.

Free Genome Scanning Offer

Diane — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:01:51 GMT

A new genome profiling service called TruGenetics has an introductory offer: The first 10,000 registrants at the site get free genome scanning.

You can get start registering with TruGenetics here.

Genome profiling can give you information about deep ancestry—where your ancient ancestors came from, but not information that’s likely to help you find relatives within a genealogically researchable time frame. 23andme, a similar service, charges $399 for genome scanning.

I haven’t tested this offer. If you do, post a comment here and let me know what you think.

Thanks to Family Tree Magazine contributing editor Rick Crume for this tip!

Search Canadian Passenger Lists Free Through July 3

Diane — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:43:55 GMT

To celebrate Canada Day, subscription genealogy data service Ancestry.ca—the Canadian sister site to Ancestry.com—is making its collection of passenger lists from Canadian ports free through July 3.

The lists cover 1865 to 1935 and include names of more than 5.6 million individuals. An estimated 37 percent of Canada’s population has ancestors in the lists. US residents also may have relatives who arrived in Canada, then later traveled south to settle in the States.

See the full announcement here.

Access the Canadian passenger list collection here.

Canada Day, formerly Dominion Day, is July 1. It celebrates the anniversary of the British North America Act of 1867, which united Canada as a country of four provinces.

New Online Local History Collection Launches for Libraries

Diane — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:10:26 GMT

A local history-focused genealogy database may be coming soon to a library near you.

Arcadia Publishing and the electronic publisher Alexander Street Press have launched a new site called Local and Regional History Online: A History of American Life in Images and Texts.

It’ll eventually contain more than a million photos, postcards and maps, plus stories of immigrants, laborers and newsmakers, from all over the United States and some parts of Canada. They're from Arcadia’s 5,000 photo-rich local history books. Click here to see titles of books included so far.

If your library subscribes, you'll be able to use Local and Regional History Online at the library or from home through the library’s Web site.

You can search texts for a name or other term, or search for a book title, author, place it’s about, subject, “featured” person, historical event, date range, organization name or ethnic group. You also can browse these categories.

I was lucky enough to try out the search. If you get to use the site, search for ancestors’ names, but also try names of churches, schools, parks, organizations, employers, neighborhoods, streets, ethnic groups, events and other topics.

This may be a glitch, but my search results didn’t link directly to the page with the match—instead, I was taken to the main page for the book with the matching term. Then I searched again to go to the right page.

Note that many Arcadia books are available for limited preview in Google Book Search, which is how I found this 1920s photo of my great-grandmother’s house in Bellevue, Ky.

Learn more about Local and Regional History Online here. Thanks to Family Tree Magazine contributing editor Sharon DeBartolo Carmack for this tip.

FamilyLink Ponders GenSeek Road Show

Diane — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:14:49 GMT

Paul Allen, CEO of FamilyLink, has posted a request for “GenSeekers,” people willing to step out of their lives for a year and drive around the country to meet with genealogists and archivists in small communities. The goal: raise awareness of GenSeek.

GenSeek is a forthcoming site that’s a partnership between FamilyLink and FamilySearch. The site is expected to feature a Web 2.0 version of the Family History Library catalog, along with the opportunity for libraries and other repositories to list their own content.

You can get a notification when GenSeek is ready for launch by entering your e-mail address here.

The GenSeek partnership was announced at the National Genealogical Society Conference in May 2008. This past March, FamilyLink president Steve Nickle gave genealogy Gems Podcaster Lisa Louise Cooke late May as a target release date.

If Allen’s vision works out, the GenSeekers will have all expenses paid, be outfitted with mobile technology, and have a team back at the office to help plan meetings and publish the seekers’ findings. But will the Genseekers have anything to demo?

Bringing the Family History to the Reunion

Diane — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 13:13:00 GMT

This weekend we drove out to southeastern Indiana for my dad’s mom’s family reunion on the dairy farm my grand-uncle and -aunt started in 1934.

With so many new faces showing up at this every-other-year affair, it gets hard to keep track of who’s who. I loved my grand-aunt's generationally color-coded system for creating name tags:

Above is my husband’s name tag, with my grandma’s name in green (her brother and his wife owned the farm), my dad in black, and my own and my husband’s names in blue.

I also got to add Greg to one of the genealogy charts she hung up around the room.

She also brought old family photos and snapshots from past reunions.

Activities included catching up ...

getting to know the local residents ...

and playing basketball by the barn, at least for awhile.

If you’ve got a reunion coming up, check out these tips on bringing your family history into the picture and these recommended resources.

Genealogy News Corral: June 22-26

Diane — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:13:56 GMT

Here are some of the news items we rounded up this week:

To keep tabs on this weekend’s Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank, visit the Genealogy Gems blog, Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and Genea-Musings. Twitter users can search for #scgs09.

The Federation of Genealogical Societies 2009 conference early bird registration deadline is next Wednesday, July 1. Make the deadline and you’ll pay $175, a savings of $50. Register online or by mail (must be postmarked no later than July 1).

The conference is Sept. 2-5 in Little Rock, Ark.

The New England Historic and Genealogical Society is organizing a few genealogy research trips, led by expert genealogists. Groups are headed to St. John’s, Newfoundland, July 12-19; the NEHGS Library in Boston Aug. 10-15; Edinburgh, Scotland, Sept. 20-27; and Salt Lake City Oct. 25-Nov. 1.

Find more details and prices on NEHGS’ events calendar.

Keep an eye on Miriam Midkiff's city directories portal Online City, County and Rural Directories. This week, she's added links to directories from more than a dozen US states and several Canadian provinces.

In response to a survey, FamilyLink updated its We’re Related Facebook application to let users put pets at the bottoms of their pedigree charts. (I'm not sure what the chart-with-pet looks like, so if you've done this, send me a picture.) It sounds fun—let’s just hope no one gets Bruno and Great-grandpa Charlie mixed up.

New Live Roots Tools Manage Your Genealogy Research Projects

Diane — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 14:55:31 GMT

Genealogy Today enhanced its Live Roots genealogy metasearch site—one of our 101 Best Web sites for genealogy in 2009—with tools that help you manage your research projects.

We told you a bit about these about last month. The new tools will help you keep track of resources you turn up using Live Roots, as well as your offline searches.

For the site to remember your research information, you first need a free Team Roots membership. Then you can use the project management tools via four new buttons that appear throughout the site:

Follow: bookmarks resources
Comment: lets you comments on resources
Record: keep a research log of Live Roots and other searches
Share: e-mail notices about resources to friends and family

You can create as many projects as you want—say, one for your mom’s grandfather, who seems to have disappeared between 1885 and 1900; another for your dad’s paternal line in New England; a third for your spouse’s Missouri family; and so on. Within each project, you can track your:

Recent Activity: a running history of your interaction with Live Roots features
Ancestor Notecards: profiles of your brick wall ancestors, which remain are accessible throughout Live Roots (so you don’t have to retype the name every time you search)
Related Resources: items you’ve "followed", so you can quickly revisit them; you can search across the transcriptions you’ve followed
Research History: your research log
Personal Library: catalog your own private collection
Research Notepad: a simple way record miscellaneous genealogy notes, such as a to-do list or the phone number for the library in Granddad’s hometown
External Resources: lets you configure links to your research activities on other sites, such Flickr or Twitter

See more information on Live Roots’ new project management tools here.

Free: Search Louisiana Obituary Index 1804-1972

Diane — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:55:39 GMT

The Louisiana Biography and Obituary Index is now online at the New Orleans Public Library Web site.

The database has references to obituaries and death notices published in New Orleans newspapers from 1804 to 1972, and biographical information from older Louisiana biography collections.

You can use three options to find a name in the database:

Use the basic search form (below) to search by surname, first and middle names, and the death date. You can use an asterisk (*) as a wildcard at the beginning or end of a name. A Browse button by each field lets you select from an alphabetical listing of all available terms for that field. The Search button is at the bottom of the form.

Click the Advanced Search link to add age, birth date, cause of death and other terms.

At the bottom of the basic search form, click a letter of the alphabet to browse entries for surnames beginning with that letter. (I wasn’t able to get any of these surname listings to load.)

Matches give you the publication name, date and page number where you can find the original obituary or biographical information. Click Ordering Obituaries for instructions on requesting the item (the cost is $2 per item).

The index is from the New Orleans Public Library's card file of more than 650,000 names. Putting it online was a nearly-10-year endeavor of the library and the Historic New Orleans Collection.