Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Genealogy News Summary for January 2009

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Here's the genealogy news for late December and early November:

1. INTERESTING GENEALOGY WEB SITES

* http://wardepartmentpapers.org/ - Papers of the U.S. War Department 1784-1800 are in this collection of more than 55,000 documents in a free, online format with extensive and searchable metadata linked to digitized images of each document, thereby insuring free access for a wide range of users.
* http://www.itrunsinmyfamily.com/ - The online Family Health History Tool allows people to create a comprehensive family health history report that can be used by a healthcare professional. It is capable of charting complex family relationships and storing pertinent family health information in standardized pedigree nomenclature. It will reduce the amount of time that doctors and other health professionals spend in collecting data, thereby allowing for more time to be spent in evaluation and defining treatment.


* http://askolivetree.blogspot.com/ - Ask Olive Tree Genealogy a Question. Do you need help finding an ancestor? Do you have a genealogy question you would like to ask Lorine Schulze McGinnis? Do you want to know where to find certain genealogy records?

* http://www.newenglandancestors.org/research/services/questionoftheday.asp - David Allen Lambert has started a Question of the Day feature on the http://www.newenglandancestors.org/ web site of the New England Historical and Genealogical Society (NEHGS).


* http://www.famouscensus.com/ - Michael John Neill's Find Famous People in the Census features contests (you can win valuable prizes) and examples of famous people found in the census records.

* http://www.identifinders.com/ - Sharon E. Sergeant and Colleen Fitzpatrick have a web site dedicated to describing forensic genealogy efforts to uncover fraudulent genealogy and family history claims.

* http://www.researchguides.net/census/state.htm - State census records finder (not a complete list).

2. NEW GENEALOGY DATABASES

a) at www.Ancestry.com - subscription site (US = $155.40, World = $299.40) - now available for FREE at San Diego FHC (Institution with World databases) or San Diego City or County Public Libraries (Ancestry Library Edition). Ancestry has over 7 billion names in over 27,100 databases. See new content at http://www.ancestry.com/search/rectype/recent.aspx. New databases this month include:

* 1900 U.S. Federal Census updated - includes revised index prepared by FamilySearch Indexing.
* US Naturalization Records 1791-1992 (World Archives Project) - This collection is currently being indexed by World Archives Project contributors. It contains images of paper indexes to naturalization records (primarily Declarations and Petitions) for various courts (primarily U.S. District and Circuit courts) and years.
* Wisconsin Divorce Records, 1965-1984
* Delaware Marriage Records, 1744-1912
* Florida State Census, 1867-1945
* Sweden Births from Sweden Death Index, 1947-2006 (in Swedish, need World subscription).
* U.K. City and County Directories, 1600s-1900s - This database is a collection of directories (street, commercial, trade, court, post office, etc.) for various areas of the United Kingdom from the 1600s to the 1900s. (need UK or World subscription)
* Netherlands Births and Christenings, 1608-1882; Netherlands Marriages 1637-1892 (in Dutch, need World subscription)
* Denmark Births and Christenings, 1631-1900s; Denmark Marriages, 1631-1900s (in Danish, need World subscription)

What's coming soon at Ancestry? Check out http://landing.ancestry.com/comingsoon/.

b) www.WorldVitalRecords.com - subscription site (US = $39.95 for 1 year, World = $119.95 for 1 year) -- now available for FREE at the San Diego FHC. Over 11,000 databases, over 1.35 billion names. Recently added content is at http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/recentcontentlisting.aspx. New US items are FREE at WVR for 10 days. New databases include:

* 25 titles of United Kingdom vital records from the Anguline Research Archives (ARA). Many of the databases in this collection contain parish registers.
* Abstracts of Wills and Inventories, Fairfax County, Virginia, 1742–1801
Forks of Elkhorn Church: With Genealogies of Early Members Reprinted with Numerous Additions and Corrections
* Early New York Naturalizations: Abstracts of Naturalizations Records from Federal, State, and Local Courts, 1792–1840
* Families of Ancient New Haven, Volumes 1 and 2
* Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records, 27 volumes of the 55-volume-set that covers 137 towns and includes 14,333 typed pages.

c) www.Footnote.com - subscription site ($69.96 annual retail, $11.95 monthly) - now available for FREE at San Diego FHC. They offer 7-day FREE trial. 455 Titles, over 48 million images, over 1 million free. Content list at http://www.footnote.com/documents.php. Information added this month includes:

* US City Directories for Newark, San Francisco, Pittsburgh
* World War II Collection - Interactive USS Arizona Memorial; WWII Hero Pages (over 8.8 million created); WWII Photos; WWII Documents

d) www.GenealogyBank.com - subscription site (trial $9.95 for 30 days, $69.95 for 12 months). It has archives for over 2,500 U.S. historical newspapers in all 50 states, from the 1600s to the present day, with over 224 million family history records, over 29 million obituaries from more than 1,140 newspapers in more than 130 million historical newspaper articles, and more than 11,700 historical books.
* Added 63 titles from 24 states

e) http://pilot.familysearch.org/ - the LDS FREE site for indexed and browsable databases -- new content includes:
* Arizona Death Certificates
* Hungary Obituaries, 1840-1990
* 1870 US Census 99% complete


f) http://www.1911census.co.uk/ - 1911 England and Wales census is online. The index is free. You have to register and pay, using pay-as-you-go credits, to view, download or print the actual records.

3. GENEALOGY EDUCATION

* http://www.pharostutors.com/ - The Guild of One-Name Studies and Pharos Teaching and Tutoring Ltd are pleased to announce a brand new five week introductory course on One-Name Studies, starting 27th April 2009. The course covers surnames and their history; core records needed for one-name studies; the analyses of one-name data and all the practical aspects of running a one-name study. The price of the course is £42.99.

* http://professional.bu.edu/cpe/Genealogy.asp - Outstanding faculty at Boston University teaches the Genealogical Proof Standard® in the new Ancestral Research and Genealogy Certificate Program. Classes will be held on Saturdays over a 14-week period starting January 17, 2009.

* National Genealogical Society Conference in the States is in Raleigh, North Carolina from 13 May to 16 May 2009. Registration forms are on Conference web page here. The Family History Conference program is listed here. The Program has tracks for BCG, Migration, Carolinas, GenTech, Working with Records, States, Ethnic, Methodology, NARA, Military, Workshops, Land, Libraries, Basics, etc.

* http://www.zroots.com/tutorials1.htm - two new Searching at Ancestry.com tutorials by Barbara Renick, a noted Southern California genealogist and conference/seminar lecturer.

4. SOFTWARE

* http://myblood-line.com/ - MyBlood is a brand new genealogy program from Belgium. It is currently in Alpha test. It is available in two versions: Windows and Macintosh. English, French, and Dutch versions are available today and the program includes a Translator Tool to help you translate everything in the application. MyBlood is a visual program: almost everything is oriented around pictures, graphs and historical timelines. It can import GEDCOM files so that you do not have to re-enter all your data into this new program. The Alpha version of MyBlood is free, but to be able to save changes, you need to register for a free license key. The program will be a commercial product once the regular version is released. Pricing has not yet been announced.

* Family Tree Builder 3 - MyHeritage, one of the world’s most popular family Web sites, today announced the launch of Family Tree Builder 3, a powerful software program that MyHeritage members can download and use to build family trees, research family history and add content like photos and videos. It is freely available on www.MyHeritage.com.

* http://www.tamurajones.net/ - Modern Software Experience: Tamura Jones' web site is comprised of original articles dealing with genealogy, browser, office and other software packages. In each article, he analyzes the program components and features, tests them with his own databases, and constructively criticizes the package - what does it do well, what could it do better, where is it dangerous, etc.

5. ANNOUNCEMENTS


* www.MyHeritage.com has limited free family tree databases to 500 persons. They offer a Premium ($3.95/month, up to 2,500 persons) or a Premium Plus ($9.95/month, unlimited database) plans.

* www.Geni.com has a Pro plan ($4.95/month) for additional benefits over basic account.

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