Archive for September, 2008

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Volunteer Indexing on FamilySearch–Get Hooked!

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

It’s fun, it’s fascinating and it’s almost addictive: I’ve been working on census name indexing with the software from FamilySearch Indexing. I thought it would be something of a chore, and instead found myself loving the data, and wondering about the stories behind them.

For example, in one family, we have Mama and Papa and kids, plus an older lady. The next family has the same last name as the older lady. From the ages, you guess that Mama from the first family is sister to the Papa in the next family, and Grandmama lives with sister, next door to brother. Of course, it would take some research into birth records, marriage records and perhaps even land records to prove that conjecture, but I bet there’s a story there.

Another family has four stair-step girls, a gap of about 5 years, and then a one-year-old boy. Bet there’s the basis of a good novel there!

The process works like this: Each page is indexed by two volunteers, then an arbiter compares the two works, makes corrections, then the final result is uploaded. This volunteer effort is helping to build automated indexes to records from around the world, including census records, church registers, and vital records. The indexes are then put on FamilySearch.org, so that people around the world can access them.  I started out thinking I would do one page a day (40 names) and found I could  not quit with just one. I did five pages my first day. If you volunteered to download the software, and did five pages one day, that’s 240 new names between us. If 200 of us do it, that’s 24,000 new indexed names.

You can choose from these projecrts:

Current FamilySearch Indexing Projects

 

Project

Language

1

Alabama – 1920 US Federal Census

English

2

Argentina Censo 1869 – Buenos Aires

Spanish

3

Brandenburg Kirchenbücher, 1789-1875

German

4

California – 1920 US Federal Census

English

5

España Lugo Registros Parroquiales,  1530-1930

Spanish

6

Florida 1945 Census

English

7

France, Coutances, Paroisses de la Manche, 1792-1906

French

8

Guanajuato Censo de Mexico de 1930

Spanish

9

Guerrero – Censo de Mexico de 1930

Spanish

10

Illinois – 1920 US Federal Census

English

12

Louisiana 1850-1954 Death Certificates

English

13

Massachusetts – 1920 US Federal Census

English

14

Minnesota – 1870 US Federal Census

English

15

Morelos – Censo de Mexico de 1930

Spanish

16

New York – 1870 US Federal Census

English

17

Nicaragua, Managua Civil Records, 1879 – present

Spanish

18

North Carolina – 1870 US Federal Census

English

19

Pennsylvania – 1870 US Federal Census

English

20

Quintana Roo – Censo de Mexico de 1930

Spanish

21

Trento Italy Baptism Records, 1784-1924

Italian

22

UK – Cheshire – Poor Law, 1848 -1967

English

23

Venezuela Mérida Registros Parroquiales, 1654 – 1992

Spanish

 
Before beginning to index, you should read the online instructions at: www.familysearchindexing.org. It only takes a few minutes, and  includes:

  1. Training tutorials. These will help you understand how to use FamilySearch Indexing.
  2. Specific instructions for each project. On this page, you can read about current projects we are indexing. Select a project from the list, and click the underlined text.
  3. Ask a Question. Ask questions relating to the software application or specific indexing projects.
  4. FAQs. These are answers to frequently asked indexing questions.

Give it a try. I’ll bet you like it!

Posted in Genealogy, Genealogy Online, Genealogy Sites | 1 Comment »

Maureen Taylor on The Today Show

Monday, September 15th, 2008

Genealogy Pro Reveals Tips to Help Do-It-Yourself Researchers Get Started. Boston, MA (PRWEB) September 14, 2008 — For millions of Americans researching their family’s history, it can come as a surprise to discover that the information they need is not available at the click of a mouse. They need help, just like Meredith Vieira and the producers of NBC’s The Today Show did when they researched her roots. Who ya gonna call? More and more people, including Vieira, are calling Maureen Taylor (www.photodetective.com), the Photo Detective.
Dubbed “the nation’s foremost historical photo detective” by the Wall Street Journal, Taylor recently appeared on The Today Show (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26455893/) to help viewers find online resources for gathering data about their families. She had worked with Vieira before, when Vieira was a host of NBC’s The View.
Taylor told Vieira, “The first step is to gather all the information you can: relatives’ names, death information, locations, etc. Start with your oldest living relatives and their stories. From that point you can use various online resources — some free and some require a monthly or annual subscriptions.”

She recommends four websites in particular: www.ancestry.com, where researchers can use the vast amount of online records to create a public or private family tree, www.footnote.com, which is maintained in partnership with the National Archives, and makes the Archives’ records available, www.familysearch.org, the website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with over 1 billion searchable names in the database, www.genealogybank.com which has over 300 years of U.S. newspapers, government documents and more and www.DeadFred.com where people post photos and ask others to identify the people pictured.
Taylor has a unique ability to identify people, places and dates of old photos based on a combination of small details including hairstyles, jewelry, clothing, backgrounds, style of photos and more. Her Boston area office is packed with unusual research materials detailing historical fashions, uniforms, quilt patterns and much more.

“It’s a privilege to help people learn more about their ancestors and to help them add to their family’s story,” said Taylor. “I hope the media attention from The Today Show story will inspire more families to research their own histories and to record information that can be passed down to future generations,” she said.

Taylor has been interested in old family photos since she was a child. After earning a history degree, she worked at the Rhode Island Historical Society. Now, as a photo curator, genealogist, writer and photo identification/preservation expert, the focus of Taylor’s work remains family photography, history and genealogy.

She is the author of a number of magazine articles and books, including Uncovering Your Ancestry, as well as a contributing editor at Family Tree Magazine. In addition, she is a sought-after speaker and genealogy expert, and has been interviewed by numerous regional and national media outlets. Taylor estimates that she has studied over 10,000 photos in the past decade, and receives about 30 requests for help each week. She lives and works in the Boston area.

Posted in Genealogy | 1 Comment »

Sites about the 1900 Galveston Hurricane

Friday, September 12th, 2008

I heard someone on the news today say, “If you were an evil villain and wanted to send a hurricane to the worst possible place for America’s oil industry, Ike would be it.” And when you realize that with modern technology, we have the ability to forecast and prepare for such a storm, and still it is going to be a disaster of major proportions, you wonder about life in Galveston 108 years ago. That storm, as I understand it, had been encountered by some ships’ captains, but of course, no one had any idea of how to tell where a storm would go when it was out there in the Gulf. Some interesting sites about the 1900 Hurricane.

We recommend that first you establish that the family lived in Galveston at the time of the Storm. You can do this by checking the 1899-1900 Galveston city directory located in the Galveston & Texas History Center. This directory lists the head of the household, his occupation and where he lived. Also check the 1900 Federal Census for Galveston County. Taken in June 1900, only three months before the Storm, it lists the family members, their ages, birth month and year, occupation, and whether they immigrated to the United States and in what year. Finally you should check the lists of the dead, including pamphlets, books, and newspaper listings. The Galveston Daily News and the Houston Daily Post have long lists of the dead with up to 4,900 names. Some families died and were never identified. A complete list of the victims will never be known The Rosenberg Library has compiled a “master list” of names taken from these printed lists of victims. These names were checked against the 1899-1900 Galveston city directory to confirm spellings and residences.

 

Posted in And More..., News | 1 Comment »

If you are in New York today. . .

Thursday, September 11th, 2008

Today in New York, the Women’s Forum Second Colloquium of senior women from science, medicine, business, law and the media will discuss  “Visions for the Future: What Will it Mean to Be Human?” The panels will take place 3:30 – 5:30 pm today, followed by The Education Fund Awards at 5:30 and Reception, 6:30 – 7:30 pm, at The Graduate Center / CUNY, 365 Fifth Avenue at 34th Street, Proshansky Auditorium, Concourse Level. To attend or gain information, contact Lynthia Romney, (914) 238-2145; romneycom@aol.com.

The Colloquium will address how Artificial Intelligence, robotics, and genealogy are converging to redefine our society and the ethics that bind it. Moderated by Carol Hymowitz, it will feature:
– Dr. Cynthia Breazeal, Founder and Director, Personal Robotics Group,
MIT
– Judith E. Glaser, CEO, Benchmark Communications
– Amy Harmon, Correspondent, New York Times, Pulitzer Prize, “The DNA
Age”
– Margo L. Jefferson, Professor, Columbia University, Pulitzer Prize
  — Marney Morris, CEO, Animatrix
– Dara Richardson-Heron, M.D., CEO, Komen Greater NYC
– Ann Sarnoff, President, Dow Jones Ventures
– Ellen Schall, Dean, NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public
Service
– Edie Weiner, Futurist, President, Weiner, Edrich, Brown, Inc.
– Alice Young, Partner & Chair of Asia Pacific Practice, Kaye Scholer
LLP

Posted in And More..., News | 1 Comment »

Free SSDI on Genealogy Bank

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008

I love researching in my pajamas, so I love it that my local library has a subscription to Genealogy Bank, which can be accessed by library card holders either within the library or from home. Today it was announced that this online resource has added free Social Security Death Index searches to their extensive collection of newspaper and historial document databases. Maybe your local library also has a subcription, in which case you should definitely take advantage of it.


With more than 82 million death records from 1937 to the present, the SSDI is an essential foundation for anyone interested in their family’s past. Best of all, it can be cross-searched with the thousands of newspapers and government documents available through GenealogyBank, offering researchers unsurpassed firsthand perspectives of the triumphs, struggles and daily lives of their American ancestors. “GenealogyBank’s Social Security Death Index is unique with weekly updates, easy-to-use format and comprehensive coverage,” says Tom Kemp, Genealogy Director for NewsBank, inc. “It’s simply the most comprehensive index online. Making it available for free is our way of giving back to the genealogy community.”The SSDI has long been valued by genealogists as the basis for family history research. The SSDI contains over 82.6 million death records from all 50 states, plus Guam, Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories; as well as the records of over 17 million Americans born in the 19th century and more than 200,000 who died overseas.Exclusive features include the full date of death (including day of the week) and the deceased’s age (expressed in years, months and days).

“GenealogyBank’s convenient format saves users time, money and countless headaches,” adds Kemp.Genealogy sites and blogs are welcome to link to GenealogyBank’s Social Security Death Index. And for users looking to take their research to the next level, GenealogyBank is the ideal resource for discovering the stories behind your family’s past. It provides access to millions of newspapers articles, obituaries, government documents and more spanning four centuries. Each of these original images can be printed and preserved for family scrapbooks.

About GenealogyBankGenealogyBank, a division of NewsBank, inc., supplies individuals interested in family history research with over 300 years of U.S. newspapers, government documents and other historical records in all 50 states. GenealogyBank contains over 231 million family history records including obituaries; birth, marriage and death notices; and much more. GenealogyBank can be found at: www.genealogybank.com.

Posted in Genealogy, Genealogy Online, Genealogy Sites, News | 1 Comment »

Military Records: Taking the BYU Course

Tuesday, September 9th, 2008

Back in August I did a blog entry about “going back to school” as a genealogist by taking some online courses. Brigham Young University offers several free courses, and DearMYRTLE and I agreed we would take the one on Military Records.

This self-paced course can be completed in one day, as it has one lesson of 28 screens with several self-tests along the way. The tests not only give immediate feedback, but also explanations of why your answer was right or wrong.  It also has several appendices with resources and examples.

The best part about this course for me was Appendix A, the Sample Outline, which gives you a good roadmap to what, how, where and why to search military records for genealogical information.

The worst part about the course for me was the directions for using the Family History Library Catalog to locate an index of WWI records. It says:

“The Family History Library has the WWI Draft Records on microfilm. They may be located by:

  • Searching the Family History Library Catalog under the following locality: United States, Military Records, World War, 1914 – 1918, Draft
    Selecting the state, county, and city where your ancestor lived between 1914 and 1918 “

After much clicking I finally came to this page: http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titlefilmnotes&columns=*%2C0%2C0&titleno=371164&disp=Draft+registration%2C+World+War+I++.

It wasn’t easy.

The course also doesn’t note that some military records are available online, at least in transcribed form, from commercial sites such as Ancestry.com.  I was able to find my father’s WWII record, as below, using Ancestry’s search, and much faster than using the FHC technique above.

Dad’sMil

Still, I learned a lot about military records and a printout of the Appendix A will accompany me in my future search for ancestors’ military careers.

Posted in Genealogy, Genealogy Online, Genealogy Sites | No Comments »

Are you registered to vote? Election day soon!

Monday, September 8th, 2008

I want everyone not only to  register to vote, but also actually to vote!

Are you registered? Go to this site, and find out in seconds: Vote Poke https://www.votepoke.org/index.html!

What’s the deadline to register to vote in your state? This page has the information Rock the Vote http://www.rockthevote.com/voting-is-easy/important-dates/

Need a form to register? The National Mail Voter Registration Form is the one document that allows you to register to vote from anywhere in the United States at http://www.eac.gov/index_html1

Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote.
–George Jean Nathan (1882-1958)

Posted in And More... | 1 Comment »

Familybuilder Launches the Familybuilder Global Network at DEMOfall 08

Monday, September 8th, 2008

WILL OFFER DNA TESTING FOR $59.95, THE MOST AFFORDABLE PRICING AVAILABLE ANYWHERE

Web site: http://www.familybuilder.com/

SAN DIEGO, Sept. 8 /PRNewswire/ — Familybuilder today announces from the DEMOfall 08 conference here in San Diego, the launch of the Familybuilder Global Network at Familybuilder.com (http://www.familybuilder.com/ ) and the introduction of $59.95 DNA tests, the most affordable DNA testing available anywhere.

At Familybuilder.com, people can now leverage online social networks and the Internet at-large, to tap into Familybuilder’s vast database of family trees — one of the largest in the world with over 20 million family tree profiles — to assist in their personal genealogy research and to connect with their family members like never before. Anyone seeking to research their family history or connect with relatives online can now simply link together family tree profiles that may exist on the popular social networks, including Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Orkut, and Hi5. Individuals who do not use social networks to aid in their family research can now create and access millions of family tree profiles on Familybuilder.com.

Familybuilder is committed to helping people find and track family members who are alive and well, representing a major departure from standard genealogy services dedicated to helping people find deceased family members.

Familybuilder also announces today that starting October 15, 2008 it will offer highly affordable genealogy DNA tests — priced at an unprecedented $59.95 — to help people learn more about their lineages and find long lost relatives. By combining its social networking prowess and the lowest price point found anywhere, Familybuilder seeks to bring DNA to the masses.

The $59.95 offering is the lowest available anywhere for DNA testing. This pricing, and the market it will serve, is unprecedented: no genealogy service caters to the 300-400 million people who use social networks to research their family trees. The largest consumer DNA database on the market today (FamilyTreeDNA.com) contains only 209k records, which demonstrates the untapped nature of this market and its huge potential.

Familybuilder offers both paternal (YDNA) and maternal (mtDNA) DNA tests. The YDNA test is a 17-marker test (as compared to FamilyTreeDNA’s 12 markers) and its mtDNA test will analyze 420 base pairs of the HV1 region. The DNA kit arrives by mail in closed cover, and provides simple instructions to collect a DNA sample. The entire process takes only a few minutes to complete. The return postage is prepaid. Familybuilder will provide the DNA results online, and by email.

Familybuilder will be expanding its DNA lineup in the future and is committed to continuously driving the costs of these tests down over time.

Familybuilder is a NYC-based software company that builds genealogy and family-oriented applications. Familybuilder is the only genealogy service to run a family tree application on all the major social networks (Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, Hi5, and Orkut) and is the only genealogy service to bridge together family trees across these networks and the Internet at-large. Familybuilder is quickly becoming one of the most-used genealogy services online and is ranked as the #4 online genealogy service in the world (per comScore) with over 4 million users and over 20 million family tree profiles as part of its Family Tree application.   Further information on the Familybuilder Global Network, its DNA offerings and links to its Family Tree applications on the various social networks can be found at http://www.familybuilder.com/.

Dick Eastman is part of this company.  Dick started the CompuServe genealogy forum, where he  built a community of family historians over the next 14 years.  For the last 12-plus years, Dick has written and published one of the best sources of information for the genealogist, “Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter.”

Posted in Genealogy Online, Genealogy Sites, News | 3 Comments »

Today in History

Friday, September 5th, 2008

One way to research genealogy is to learn more about history and the events that affected our ancestors. So here is a short list of events in history on September 5, to get your imagination going.

Posted in And More..., Genealogy | 1 Comment »

The Vitalsearch Company Worldwide, Inc. has new data.

Thursday, September 4th, 2008

 (Vitalsearch specializes in Birth, Marriage and Death databases)
Database completions and developments:

  • Washington State-Compiled Births (updated):
    • 1946-1949: Vitalsearch Premium Search Members* may enter here (Virtual-Film); (Soundex). All viewers can see a sample image.
    • 1950-1954: Vitalsearch Premium Search Members* may enter here (Virtual-Film); (Soundex). All viewers can see a sample image.
  • New Haven (CT) Births (updated):
    • ~1650 to ~1750 (organized with deaths and marriages by family name:)
      • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
    • ~1750 to ~1864:
      • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
    • ~1864 to ~1874:
      • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
    • ~1874 to ~1878:
      • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
    • ~1878 to ~1894:
      • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
    • ~1895 to ~1899:
      • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
    • 1900 to 1910:
      • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
    • Transcribed Data:
      • ~1750 to ~1878:
        • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
      • ~1878 to ~1898:
        • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
      • ~1898 to ~1908:
        • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
  • New Haven (CT) Deaths (updated):
    • ~1650 to ~1750 (organized with births and marriages by family name:)
      • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
    • ~1750 to ~1860:
      • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
    • ~1860 to ~1869:
      • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
    • ~1869 to ~1878:
      • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
    • ~1878 to ~1894:
      • Premium Search Members* can view Here (Virtual-Film). All viewers can see a sample image.
  • New Haven (CT) Marriages (updated):

    Please visit the Membership Registration Page/a> for membership information and more news..

Posted in Genealogy, Genealogy Sites | 1 Comment »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »