Genealogy News Summary for June, 2008

Here is the Genealogy News for June sent out to the CVGS member email list today and discussed at today's CVGS Research Group.

1. INTERESTING GENEALOGY WEB SITES

* http://stevemorse.org/ -- Steve Morse's One-Stop web site has added Phonetic Name Matching, Searching Naturalization Records in One Step, Searching Reference Books, New Orleans Ship Records, French Revolutionary Calendar Converter and Muslim Calendar Converter, and an Arabic Transliterator

* http://www.newyorkancestors.org/ -- New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston launched a new Web portal highlighting the wide range of databases, publications, and articles focusing on New York state research. This is a subscription site.

* http://www.myheritage.com/research now searches across more than 12 billion records in over 1,500 databases to provide you the most extensive genealogy searches available anywhere on the Internet, and it's free. It also takes a long time to complete!

* http://www.wnylegacy.org/index.php has Holland Land Company Maps at the State University of New York (SUNY Fredonia).These maps are mainly about New York state and western New York at that - from Herkimer County west, but also contain early maps from Pennsylvania to Maine to Georgia and points in between.

* Genealogy Sleuth - research by country, state, record type, etc. - see:

** United States: http://www.progenealogists.com/genealogysleuthb.htm;
** International Genealogy Sleuth - ttp://www.progenealogists.com/genealogysleuthi.htm;
** Specialty Sites for Genealogy Research (Belgium, Danish, German, Great Britain, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Slovakian, Swedish, Swiss and West Indies) - http://www.progenealogists.com/specialtysites.htm

2. NEW GENEALOGY DATABASES

a) http://www.ancestry.com/ - subscription site (US = $155.40, World = $299.40, now available for FREE at San Diego FHC has Ancestry Institution with World databases, or at Chula Vista, Carlsbad, San Diego City and San Diego County Public Libraries which have Ancestry Library Edition); Ancestry has over 7 billion names in over 25,800 databases. See new content at http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/recent.aspx. New databases include:

** Tennessee Tombstone Inscriptions, Manuscripts, Bible Records, Will Books, etc.

** North Carolina Death Certificates, 1909-1975.

** Many Virginia genealogy books

** Updated England and Wales Birth, Marriage and Death Indexes, 1837-1983.

Borders Bookstore in Plaza Bonita has Ancestry World Deluxe collection available for FREE access on their computer system. See http://www.geneamusings.com/2008/05/ancestry-adventures-at-borders.html.

b) http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/ - subscription site (US = $49.95 for 2 years, World = $149.95, now available for FREE access at the San Diego FHC) has over 9,200 databases, over 1 billion names. Recently added content is at http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/recentcontentlisting.aspx. New items are FREE at WVR for 10 days. New databases include:

** over 800 databases from the Godfrey Memorial Library. The databases include books in the categories of correspondence, family histories, genealogies, biographies, memoirs, autobiographies, diaries and from extracts from diaries, and writings and works of famous people.

** 30 years of Naval Academy content from E-Yearbook.com. The Naval Academy database contains a complete list of all of the midshipmen who attended the academy. The database also provides interesting details about the midshipmen, such as their personalities, likes, dislikes, nicknames, what they were known for, as well as historical information.

c) http://www.footnote.com/ - subscription site ($59.96 annual retail, $7.95 monthly, now available for FREE at San Diego FHC, they offer 7-day FREE trial) has 382 Titles, over 37 million images, over 1 million images free. Content list at http://www.footnote.com/documents.php. Information added this month includes:

** The entire collection of military photos will be made permanently free on the site. The collection features over 80,000 photos from WWII and Vietnam making it the largest collection of its kind on the web.

** 1860 US Census is now 81% complete.

** Confederate Soldiers for AL, GA, MS, LA, TX, TN, SC, NC, VA (partially complete

d) http://www.genealogybank.com/ - subscription site (trial $9.95 for one month, $69.95 for 12 months) has archives for 2,500 U.S. newspapers in all 50 states, from the 1600s to the present day, with over 224 million family history records, over 28 million obituaries, more than 119 million historical newspaper articles, and more than 11,700 historical books.

** Added content from 126 newspapers in 23 states.

e) http://www.findmypast.com/ - a UK subscription site (30 days 14.95 pounds, 12 months 89.95 pounds, also pay-per-view options) offers England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland databases.

** Added to its collection of over 10 million National Burial Index records, which go back to 1538. These parish records are crucial for any family historian as they predate the start of civil registration in England and Wales in 1837. The index gives the date and place of burial as well as age at death

f) http://pilot.familysearch.org/ - the LDS FREE site for indexed and browsable databases -- recent new content includes:

** 1850 US Census indexing is 67% complete (100% browsable)

** England Baptisms and Marriages, 1700 to 1900 (LDS contributed records)

** Mexico Baptisms and Marriages, 1700 to 1900 (LDS contributed records)

** Texas Death Index and Certificates, 1890-1976 - 100% complete.

** Philadelphia, PA Marriage Indexes, 1885-1951 - index only, not searchable.

** West Virginia Birth Index, 1853-1930 (indexing 36% complete)

3. GENEALOGY EDUCATION

* The Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree is June 27-29, 2008 in Burbank. See http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/ for more information.

* http://www.genclass.org/, a leading online genealogy course provider, has recently partnered with FamilyLink.com, Inc. to provide free introductory courses exclusively to http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/ members.

* http://www.ancestry.com/ has created a number of new Webinars - all of the ones available are listed here. All Webinars are free to anyone - you don't have to be an Ancestry subscriber. The upcoming Webinars that you can participate in (you do have to register) include:

** June 17, 2008 8:00 PM EDT - Irish Ancestry - Part of the Ethnic Ancestry Seminar Series;
** June 24, 2008 8:00 PM EDT - Polish Ancestry - Part of the Ethnic Ancestry Seminar Series;
** July 1, 2008 8:00 PM EDT - Italian Ancestry - Part of the Ethnic Ancestry Seminar Series.

The Archived Webinar videos can be viewed any time, you just can't participate in the Webinar. The recently archived Webinars include:

** New Enhancements to FTM 2008 (presented June 5, 2008);
** English Ancestry (presented June 3, 2008); Introduction to Family Trees on Ancestry (presented May 27, 2008);
** June 10, 2008 8:00 PM EDT - German Ancestry - Part of the Ethnic Ancestry Seminar Series;

* The Ancestry Store is offering a FREE eBook titled "Military Records at Ancestry.com" by Esther Yu Sumner, published in 2007 by The Generations Network. You can download the eBook in PDF format from here. The file is large - 16.9 mb, so you will need a cable or DSL connection or better.

* The Learn Web Skills (http://www.learnwebskills.com/) web site provides tutorial instruction in genealogy research to individuals working alone or in a group. The site has an online genealogy tutorial that is excellent for both beginning and veteran Internet online researchers. See http://cvgencafe.blogspot.com/2008/06/learnwebskills-online-tutorial.html.

4. SOFTWARE

* Millennia Corporation has released Legacy Family Tree version 7.0 for Microsoft Windows. The program offers Wall Charts, Automated Mapping, SourceWriter and a host of new features (Deluxe version is $29.95 downloaded). They offer a FREE Standard version that has many, but not all, of the features of the Deluxe version.

* Family Tree Builder 2.0 can be downloaded for FREE from http://www.myheritage.com/.

* The Master Genealogist (TMG) Version 7 can be downloaded from http://www.whollygenes.com/ and used for a one-month free trial.

5. ANNOUNCEMENTS

* Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland (http://www.apgi.ie/) announced that the National Library of Ireland now allows public access to their microfilm copies of Roman Catholic parish registers for Cashel & Emly, Cloyne and Kerry. The National Library’s collection of microfilms covers the surviving pre-1881 baptismal and marriage records of almost all Roman Catholic parishes throughout Ireland. These records are fundamental to genealogical research for most people of Irish descent.

* The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com, today announced an agreement that makes millions of historical records more easily available to the American public. The agreement allows for the ongoing digitization of a wealth of historical content, including immigration, birth, marriage, death and military records.

* The US Citizenship and Immigration Service (CIS) rules for a fee-for-service genealogy program will go into effect on August 13, 2008. The cost per index or record/file request (from a microfilm) will be $20 and $35 for a textual record. The types of historical records available under the new program are: -

** Naturalization certificate files(C-files) from September 27, 1906-April 1, 1956 (from all federal, state, municipal courts and more);
** Microfilmed alien registration forms from August 1, 1940 to March 31, 1944; - Visa files from July 1, 1924 to March 31, 1944; - Registry files from March 2, 1929 to March 31, 1944; Alien files numbered below 8 million and dated prior to May 1,1951

To request records under this new program, a special form must be used: Form G-1041 for index or Form G 1041A for records request. Requests may be submitted electronically on the electronic forms through its site http://www.uscis.gov/. When requests are made online then payment form used MUST be a credit card.

* http://www.worldgenweb.org/, a non-profit, volunteer based organization dedicated to providing genealogical and historical records and resources for world-wide access, recently partnered with FamilyLink.com, Inc.