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I have finally decided to move this blog over to it's own dedicated domain name

http://www.genealogybuzz.com

Please update your bookmarks/favorites.

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FHL in SLC & 13 others to get Ancestry.com

The following bulletin was issued by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints today. This is good news for the Family History Library and Centers network and hopefully they will expand it to include all FHCs in the near future.

FamilySearch and The Generations Network Agreement Give Patrons Access to More than 24,000 Ancestry.com Databases and Titles

Provo, UT – December 19, 2007 – FamilySearch and The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com, today announced an agreement that provides free access of Ancestry.com to patrons of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and the 13 largest regional family history centers effective today.

With this new agreement, full access will be provided to more than 24,000 Ancestry.com databases and titles and 5 billion names in family history records. In addition to the Family History Library, the following 13 regional family history centers have been licensed to receive access to Ancestry.com:

Mesa, Arizona
Los Angeles, California
Oakland, California
Orange, California
Sacramento, California
San Diego, California
Idaho Falls, Idaho
Pocatello, Idaho
Las Vegas, Nevada
Logan, Utah
Ogden, Utah
St. George, Utah
Hyde Park, London, England

“We’re excited for our patrons to receive online access to an expanded collection of family history records on Ancestry.com,” said Don Anderson, director of FamilySearch Support. “Ancestry.com’s indexes and digital images of census, immigration, vital, military and other records, combined with the excellent resources of FamilySearch, will increase the likelihood of success for patrons researching their family history.”

The Generations Network and FamilySearch hope to expand access to other family history centers in the future.

FamilySearch patrons at the designated facilities will have access to Ancestry.com’s completely indexed U.S. Federal Census Collection, 1790-1930, and more than 100 million names in passenger lists from 1820-1960, among other U.S. and international record collections. Throughout the past year, Ancestry.com has added indexes to Scotland censuses from 1841-1901, created the largest online collection of military and African American records, and reached more than 4 million user-submitted family trees.

Free access is also available at Brigham Young University Provo, Idaho, and Hawaii campuses, and LDS Business College patrons through a separate agreement with The Generations Network.

“FamilySearch’s Family History Library in Salt Lake City is one of the most important physical centers for family history research in the world, and we are happy that patrons to the Library and these major regional centers will have access to Ancestry.com,” said Tim Sullivan, President and CEO of The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com. “We’ve enjoyed a ten-year working relationship with FamilySearch, and we look forward to continued collaboration on a number of family history projects.”

About Ancestry.com – Visit us at www.ancestry.comWith 24,000 searchable databases and titles and more than 2.5 million active users, Ancestry.com is the No. 1 online source for family history information. Since its launch in 1997, Ancestry.com has been the premier resource for family history, simplifying genealogical research for millions of people by providing them with many easy-to-use tools and resources to build their own unique family trees. The site is home to the only complete online U.S. Federal Census collection, 1790-1930, as well as the world’s largest online collection of U.S. ship passenger list records featuring more than 100 million names, 1820-1960. Ancestry.com is part of The Generations Network, Inc., a leading network of family-focused interactive properties, including www.myfamily.com,www.rootsweb.com, www.genealogy.com and Family Tree Maker. In total, The Generations Network properties receive 8.7 million unique visitors worldwide and more than 416 million page views a month (© comScore Media Metrix, October 2007).

About FamilySearch
FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization that maintains the world’s largest repository of genealogical resources. Patrons may access resources online at FamilySearch.org or through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries. FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. and is registered in the United States of America and other countries.

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Legacy version 7 imminent

Geoff Rasmussen of Millennia Corp, publishers of Legacy Family Tree software, will be coming to Vernon, British Columbia on Dec 1 to talk about the soon to be released Legacy 7. As with all previous versions of Legacy, Legacy will come in two versions, the free version and the Deluxe version. No word as to the upgrade pricing but it will most likely be in the $20-$30 range.

Legacy 7 will include real footnotes/endnotes for RTF reports (yay Geoff!). This feature has been a long time in coming.

Keep checking www.legacyfamilytree.com for the release.

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Family History Consultants Training session

www.familyhistoryliveonline.com is holding a special training session for Family History Consultants on Tuesday 9th October. As the name of the web site suggests, the training is held online and is live (i.e. not recorded).

FAIR AGENDA (all times Mountain Standard Time)
8:00 AM - 8:50 AM Log On and Check Your Sound System
8:55 AM - 9:00 AM Welcome - Gena Philibert Ortega, CA, USA
9:00 AM - 10:00 AM Helping Family History Happen - Sandra Raymond Jarvis, UT,USA
10:10 AM - 11:10 AM Helping Members - Sandra Raymond Jarvis, UT,USA
11:15 AM - 11:45 AM Break
11:50 AM - 12:50 PM Consultant Resources - Gena Philibert Ortega, CA, USA
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Temple and Family History Work - Amy Anderson, CO, USA

I have reviewed the fair syllabus and would recommend this training to family history consultants that are also church members.

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Family Records Center to close

After having a great Summer filled with lots of fun activities with my 2 small kids, I'm back with some sad genealogical news. Apparently the Family Records Center in London is to close next year BUT all of the birth, marriage and death indexes (1837-2007) will be removed on 27 October 2007 prior to next year's closure.

I am not sure why the FRC is closing. Every time I am there it is jam packed (my last visit was in 2004). I can only assume that because indexes are online (albeit for a fee) that they have determined that the center is no long cost effective.

This is the end of an era as the FRC (back then St. Catherine's House) was how I first got into genealogy in 1990-3 when I attended University in London. I used to visit the center regularly to do my family history research and without this center I doubt I would have ever stumbled into this fascinating and enjoyable hobby.

For those of you interested in this amazing resource, most of the records have been transcribed and are available for free on http://freebmd.rootsweb.com or www.ancestry.com.

If you don't have access to the Internet, many Family History Centers have actual reproductions (not transcriptions) of the index on microfilm and microfiche on site and if your local FHC doesn't have the index you are looking for it can be ordered in from the main library in Salt Lake City which has them all.

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Correction re FamilySearch premium services

I received the following press release from FamilySearch.org

Correction Regarding Premium Online Services

The premium online services described below and in the 29 May 2007 e-mail are not yet available. We will inform you as they become available.

We apologize for any misunderstanding we caused.


New Premium Services Available for Free through Family History Centers

FamilySearch announced the addition of new premium online genealogy services [that will become] available for free through its family history center network. The expanded services are in keeping with FamilySearch’s goal to provide increased economical access to records that will assist individuals in family history pursuits. Following is a list and description of the new resources.

Footnote (www.footnote.com)
Footnote is a subscription-based website that features searchable, original documents that provide users a view of the events, places and people that shaped the American nation and the world. The site will have over 25 million digital images by the end of 2007. Footnote is currently working with FamilySearch to index the American Revolutionary War Pension files. Additional projects with FamilySearch are under development.

Individuals with Footnote subscriptions will still be able to sign in with the same Footnote username and password they use at home to save, annotate, and upload content.

Godfrey Memorial Library (www.godfrey.org)
Godfrey Memorial Library has an extensive collection of essential resources to assist genealogical and historical research. Resources include newspapers, city and business directories, vital records, printed census records, state, county, and local histories, as well as numerous family histories, family bible records, and service and pension records.

Heritage Quest/ProQuest (www.heritagequestonline.com)
Heritage Quest online includes the complete set of U.S. Federal Census images from 1790 to 1930 including names and indexes for many of the sets. Users will be able to find people and places located in over 20,000 published family and local histories and PERSI, an index of over 1.9 million genealogy and local history articles. Other online databases include Revolutionary War Pension, Bounty-Land Warrant Application files, and the Freedman Bank Records.

Access to this service will be limited to 1400 family history centers in North America. Patrons should contact their local family history center to see if this service is available if their local center. Family history center directors should contact Family History Center Support with questions.

Kindred Konnections (www.kindredkonnections.com)
Kindred Konnections has over 230 million pedigree linked names with submitter information. The online pedigrees are not merged, but maintained by individual patrons. There are additional databases of birth, marriage, death, and census records that are automatically searched along with the pedigree linked data. Segments of pedigrees can be downloaded.

World Vital Records (WorldVitalRecords.com)
WorldVitalRecords.com provides access to research helps and has a wide variety of international records.

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Godfrey Memorial Library access at Family History Centers

The following is a press release from the Godfrey Memorial Library:

"We are excited to include Godfrey Memorial Library to our list of premium databases or services offered throughout FamilySearch centers worldwide. They provide some premier resources that will certainly be of great value to FamilySearch center patrons," said Paul Nauta, manager of public affairs for FamilySearch. "In return Godfrey Memorial Library will significantly broaden its reach and awareness by being introduced to scores of researchers through 4500 FamilySearch facilities in over 70 countries," Nauta added.

Many new genealogical websites and services are coming online everyday, making more and more records available. FamilySearch is teaming up with these online service providers like Godfrey Memorial Library to introduce patrons to these exciting services and provide even greater online access to the world's genealogical records. These premium services are available for free in family history centers, the Family History Library and FamilySearch operated centers.

FamilySearch is committed to providing as much genealogical data as possible to its patrons quickly and economically. The accomplishment of this initiative will come in part from its own programs, and others will come from affiliations with service providers like Godfrey Memorial Library. This will allow maximum and efficient use of industry resources.

Godfrey Memorial Library can greatly increase awareness of its services through the FamilySearch public distribution channels. FamilySearch workers will innately help patrons become familiar with and use Godfrey's online services. Patrons to FamilySearch facilities get access to Godfrey's databases-an otherwise fee-based online service. The FamilySearch resources are frequented by mostly enthusiasts and professional researchers; many of which may elect to subscribe personally to the services for home or remote access.

Richard E. Black, Director
Godfrey Memorial Library
134 Newfield StreetMiddletown, CT 06457
(860) 346-4375
richard@godfrey.org

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Google News Archive Server

I would like to respond to a comment a reader left in response to my article on Google News Archive Server published in Internet Genealogy Magazine May 2007. This reader stated that I had misled them as ALL the articles for their search were subscription based. This is simply NOT true.

While original copies of the articles are often subscription based, transcriptions are usually FREE. This particular reader was interested in a ship, "Xylon", and to prove my point here is what I found.

Here is a sample result:
The Evening Times (Newspaper) - August 27, 1906, Cumberland, MarylandSubscription - Evening Times - NewspaperArchive - Aug 27, 1906
Mr. Bell is a Forty-niner, AND was at The time of which he speaks on his way from Baltimore TO San Francisco on The ship Xylon. This vessel, With a large ...
Related web pages

Once I click on the result:
As you will see above, yes there is a big ad to sign up for full access to the original, but in the lower left corner (I have highlighted this with the red box) is the transcription available for FREE.

I guess the reader failed to notice this when they reviewed the page.

I checked a few other entries and it was the same situation. The reader has been distracted by the ad and hasn't noticed the transcribed text is right on the screen.

If you understand the way Google works, it can't access pages hidden behind subscriptions (it doesn't have one) so whenever you see text in a search result listing it means that it has to be on the page somewhere. The fact that the listing had extracted some actual newspaper text meant that it was available on the page (as demonstrated above).

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