Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Research News for November 2007

Here is the genealogy news of interest to me since late October. We discussed these items at the CVGS Research Group meeting today. I've separated them into categories below.

1. NEW GENEALOGY WEB SITES

* http://home.byu.net/ks4/ - An alphabetical list of useful Family History Internet sites provided by Kip Sperry.

* www.FamilyTreeSearcher.com - searches 8 different web sites for your search target. It's useful.

* www.MyHeritage.com - searches over 900 different web sites with databases for your search target. It's useful.

* Some of the Premium Databases at the San Diego Family History Center are available for Free access on their computers. WorldVitalRecords, Footnote and Godfrey Memorial Library databases are available.

* New FamilySearch is also available at the FHC, but only if you are an LDS church member.

2. NEW GENEALOGY DATABASES

a) at www.Ancestry.com

* US Passport Applications, 1795-1925.
* US Historic Land Ownership and Land Reference Atlases - 1507-2000.
* New Jersey State Census, 1895
* Missouri Marriages before 1840
* Muster and Pay Rolls for the Revolutionary War
* Oklahoma Territorial Census, 1890 and 1907

b) Www.WorldvitalRecords.com

* Digitized and searchable books from the Quintin Publications Collection are being added regularly. This week, most of the books are family histories for surnames that begin with the letters L and T. Other books in the collection include state and local histories.

* As a result of the partnership between World Vital Records, Inc. and Godfrey Memorial Library, more than 1,200 pre-1923 funeral sermons and memorials will be available at www.WorldVitalRecords.com.

c) www.Footnote.com - information added to
* Naturalization Records – PA & MA
* Revolutionary War Pension Files
* Navy Widows' Certificates
* Texas Birth Records

3. GENEALOGY SOFTWARE

* Free Webinars are available at www.ancestry.com for AncestryPress and FamilyTreeMaker 2008. You can view a 60 minute presentation - hearing the speaker and viewing the slides. Go to www.ancestry.com, click on the Help button (upper right corner), then click on the Webinar tab and you will see the selection. Here are links to the webinars on the Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe blog:
** "Search like the Pros" webinar -- http://cvgencafe.blogspot.com/2007/11/ancestrys-search-like-pros-webinar.html
** "FamilyTreeMaker 2008" webinar -- http://cvgencafe.blogspot.com/2007/11/ftm-2008-webinar-available-online.html
** "AncestryPress" webinar -- http://cvgencafe.blogspot.com/2007/11/ancestrypress-webinar-is-available.html

* Check out www.NothingButSoftware.com for special deals for genealogy software and an Ancestry subscription. For instance, you can buy FamilyTreeMaker 16, with GenSmarts and a number of digital books, plus a one-year US Deluxe Ancestry subscription, for $59.95 plus shipping. This is a great deal for Ancestry alone - the software is a bonus (but you have to install the software in order to get the Ancestry subscription).

4. ANNOUNCEMENTS

* ProQuest and the Allen County (IN) Public Library announced an update to the PERiodical Source Index (PERSI). With this update, PERSI now contains more than 2 million citations from over 6,600 periodicals published in the United States, Canada, and abroad. The new release includes indexing for over 132,000 articles from 2006 and 2007. PERSI can be accessed online at HeritageQuestOnline through Carlsbad Library.

* The National Genealogical Society announced that the 30th Annual Conference in the States and Family History Fair of the National Genealogical Society from May 14-18, 2008 in Kansas City, Missouri. The 2008 conference will be held in conjunction with local hosts.

* www.WorldVitalRecords.com now offers the following Preservation Package services (they claim at a discount to commercial services):
** Converting 8mm, 16mm, miniDVs and VHS tapes to a DVD
** Scanning photos and documents
** Digitizing slides and negatives
** Secure storage filing
A check of commercial web sites who perform the 8 mm film to DVD service reveals costs on the order of 10 to 12 cents per foot.

* "Census Substitutes and State Census Records" (two volumes) by William Dollarhide was announced. The substitutes are those name lists derived from tax lists, directories, military lists, land ownership lists, voter registrations, and other compilations of names of residents for an entire state, one or more counties of a state, or one or more towns of a county. Thirty-seven states conducted colonial, territorial, or state censuses that are extant and available for research today.

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