Sunday, June 22, 2008

’Ancestor Searching’*

April, 2008

Vol. 3, # 1

*Now in the third year of distribution with over 325 subscribers!

News in the Genealogy World

Leading UK family history website Findmypast.com has completed its project to scan and index the complete set of outbound passenger lists for long-distance voyages from all British ports between 1890 and 1960.

Genealogists are invited to take a free test drive of the newest wall chart software. Compatible with Family Tree Maker, Personal Ancestral File (PAF), Legacy Family Tree, RootsMagic, and GEDCOM files, Legacy Charting takes publishing your family tree to a new level. Downloads available through June 15th.

Researchers with Chicago roots can now search easier thanks to the Newberry Library. Their new project ChicagoAncestors.org allows researchers to obtain information about the city and various neighborhoods. Visitors to the site can also add their own information upon registration (its’s FREE). A valuable tool for anyone who has roots in Chicago and surrounding areas.

A couple of new FREE genealogy software programs of interest are Family Tree Legends and NokTree.com . Family Tree Legends is a downloadable program to use on computers while NokTree is an online software program that allows a group of researchers or relatives to collaborate on recording family history properly.

Doing research in Ireland? While it is a commercial site, there’s useful information to be found at the LibraryIreland website that requires no $$$. Also, the Irish Genealogy area.

Say they were from Canada? Not a problem. The partnership of the Quebec National Library Archives and the Library and Archives Canada has created a new research website called That’s My Family. It already contains a multitude of Canadian research databases with more being added.

WetPaint, PBWiki and Wikispaces are some of the newest sites to offer set up and usage of a ‘Wiki’ website. While Wiki’s are similar to blogs (cousins you might say) but offer built-in search capability and the tagging for each entry for easier referencing. Wet offers unlimited storage space, PKWiki offers 5 GB and Wikispace 2 GB. Also, all three place Google advertising on their wikis, but PBWiki and Wikispaces offer upgrades that are ad-free.

Washington State now offers more than 6 million records online. Through their Digital Archives, such records as marriage, birth, death, state census (1847–1892), military, etc. can be searched for 17 of the state’s 39 counties.

The Immigrant Servants Database goal is to document the more than 75 percent of American colonists who were indentured servants upon arriving in the colonies. This database includes all persons identified as indentured between the years of 1607 through 1820. There are currently over 17,000 listed in the compilation.

Not to be overlooked in the way of a valuable resource is Worldcat. Currently, there are over 1 Billion items listed in the catalogs of more than 10,000 libraries worldwide. An excellent avenue to explore when trying to find a book topic relevant to your family research or simply a family history. Not only are locations for the many various works given but the ability to distinguish which items are available through Interlibrary Loan.

Along a related line, are the records that can be found on the HistoryKat website. Contained within the site can be found US Military records (Revolutionary War to the Mexican War), US Postal records, State Census records (Colorado, Illinois, Oklahoma and Wisconsin) and the US Government Employees Collection (Official Registers of 1829 and 1830). Also available are selected Acts of the US and documents important in US history. While some of the information is viewable FREE, there is an annual subscription rate of $24.95 for total access to all databases.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Genealogy Workshop

Fact: Military ancestors may possibly be found by utilizing the Veterans Affairs Nationwide Gravesite Locator. Many of the listing pre-date the Civil War. For the military personnel buried overseas, the American Battle Monuments Commission’s website is the place to search.

Tip: The USGenWeb Project records can be searched by state is now offered as a ‘one-stop’ place to search. These records are FREE to search and can be found at USGenWeb Search. For more information on the project, go to the USGenWeb National page.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Genealogy News

The Tennessee Valley Genealogical Society will host their Spring Seminar on Saturday, May 3rd. Paul Drake, the author of several books and publications, will be the Speaker with the topic ‘Using 21st Century Methods & Resources in your Research’. The program will start in the Main Library Auditorium at 9 AM and last until 3:30 PM. Lunch is included in the $25.00 fee. Registrations received by April 30th will be guaranteed a meal. For additional information or to request a Registration Form, contact Bob Mixon at wrmixon@comcast.net .

The Federation of Genealogical Societies National Conference will be held in Philadelphia, PA from September 3rd through the 6th. Conference information can be found on their website. Hint: Last year’s at Fort Wayne, IN was AWESOME!

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Check out the Heritage Room's genealogy blog ‘The Bones Collector’ at ...
http://bonescollector.blogspot.com/
More new items have been added. Make sure to bookmark it if you haven’t already.
View our new online website for any genealogy-related events by clicking through to …
http://hpl.lib.al.us/events/genealogy

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Need to unsubscribe? Instructions now included with every email from this list.
Changing email addresses? Use our ‘Sign-Up’ form at … http://hpl.lib.al.us/lists to add your new address.

See You In The Heritage Room!
Richard White
Computer Genealogy Librarian
Huntsville-Madison County Public Library
915 Monroe Street
Huntsville, AL 35801
256.532.2360
rwhite@hpl.lib.al.us

No comments: