To help families discover their ancestors WorldVitalRecords provides free access to U.S. Military Databases

WorldVitalRecords.com Invites Family Historians to Honor Their Veteran Ancestors by Researching Military Records

To help families discover their ancestors WorldVitalRecords provides free access to U.S. Military Databases

PROVO, UT, May 26, 2010– WorldVitalRecords.com, an online family history resource, today announced free public access to all of its United States Military databases  from May 27, 2010 through  June 1, 2010 in honor of Memorial Day.

 “Providing free access to our U.S. Military Records allows the public a chance to find their ancestors and remember their sacrifices,” said Gena Philibert Ortega, Genealogy Community Director for FamilyLink. “Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day and was a day to honor those who died in the Civil War. Since then it has become a day to honor all of our soldiers who have died during war time.”

Featured free U.S. Military records include:

World War II Army Enlistment

This collection includes the names of over 8 million people who enlisted in the army during World War II (1938-1946).  Information in this database includes an enlistee’s birthdate and birthplace, marital status, education level, occupation and more. Researchers can use this information to order military records for their ancestor from the National Personnel Records Center.

Air Force Register Extracts

Over 1.65 million names of Air Force solider who were promoted to the rank of officers are listed in this database from the Uniform Officer Records published by the Department of the Air Force.

Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps

This database includes names and information about  Navy and Marine officers from 1864 to 1973.

Revolutionary War Collection

This new collection of digitized books chronicles the names of the men who fought in the American Revolutionary War  as well as the events. Nine states are represented in this collection: Rhode Island, New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

Vietnam Memorial Index

Dedicated in November 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial honors members of the United States military who died in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War or were still categorized as missing in action (MIA) at the time the monument was built. Its black granite walls are engraved with nearly 60,000 names. The Vietnam Memorial Index pinpoints the panel and line numbers needed to locate a veteran’s name upon the walls of the shrine.

U.S. Korean Causalities 1950-1957

This database contains selected descriptive data about U.S. military personnel who died by hostile means (i.e. battle deaths) as a result of combat duty in the Korean War. The data were usually extracted from Department of Defense Form 1300 (Report of Casualty) as well as from each of the four military services of the Department of Defense. The variables available from each casualty record may include: Name, Military Service Branch, File Reference Number, Service Number, Military Grade or Rank, Pay Grade, Date of Casualty, Service Component, Home of Record (place and state), Birth Date, Cause of Casualty, Aircraft Involvement(air/non-air casualty), Race and Citizenship.  

“All of these military records and more can be found at WorldVitalRecords.com,” added Ortega. “What  better way to honor our ancestors than taking some time to research those who have served in the military.”

Service Records of Confederate Soldiers

This index includes records from the Confederate government and the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The records are card abstracts of original muster roles, returns, rosters, payrolls, appointment books, hospital registers, Union prison registers and rolls, parole rolls, inspection reports, etc. A given soldier may have multiple documents.

World War II Reserve Corps Records

Documenting the period 1938 – 1946, this series contains records of approximately nine million men and women who enlisted in the United States Army, including the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps. In general, the records contain the serial number, name, state and county of residence, place of enlistment, date of enlistment, grade, Army branch, term of enlistment, longevity, nativity (place of birth), year of birth, race, education, civilian occupation, marital status, height and weight (before 1943) and military occupational specialty (1945 and later).

About WorldVitalRecords.com
WorldVitalRecords.com, www.worldvitalrecords.com, is simplifying family history research by providing many easy-to-use tools and resources to discover and connect with others interested in family history. WorldVitalRecords provides access to more than 1.5 billion international and U.S. records. WorldVitalRecords.com provides affordable access to genealogy databases and family history tools used by more than 258,000 monthly visitors. The site registers 3.6 million monthly pages views and serves tens of thousands of paying subscribers. With thousands of databases—including birth, death, military, census, and parish records—WorldVitalRecords.com makes it easy to fill in missing information in your family tree.

WorldVitalRecords  was recently named one of the 50 Most Popular Genealogy Websites by ProGenealogists, http://www.progenealogists.com/top50genealogy2010.htm. WorldVitalRecords is part of the FamilyLink.com, Inc. network of family-focused interactive properties including, GenealogyWise, FamilyLink and the My Family application on Facebook. 

Today...

Today has been filled with so many different emotions.  I have been happy, sad, nervous and excited.  This is all due to a job change.  Today, was my last day working for WorldVitalRecords / FamilyLink.  I've been employed there since Aug 2008.  That just seems like eons ago, but then again just yesterday.

At the recent NGS conference I happened to mention to Bruce Buzbee, the Roots Magician of RootsMagic, that I would love to work for him.  He said he would love to have me work for him.  In fact he was actually looking for someone. A few emails later and I was signed up.  I  gave my two week notice at FamilyLink and today was my last day.

My wonderful supervisors and co-workers gave me a little going away party.  That was so touching.  I didn't know what to say.  I will miss them. You always mean to stay in touch but life happens.  I sure hope I don't loose contact with them.  I am a willing volunteer for beta-testing if they need me, so I really hope they take me up on the offer.

Tomorrow, I will sit down with Bruce and get some training on my new job.  I will be doing tech support by phone and email.  The best, most terrific thing, is I can do this all from home.  That also means no more walking over to ask someone a question.  Though there is always chat. Funny thing is you can be sitting in the same room as someone just a couple cubicles away and actually chat more over IM than you do in person.  Chatting won't be that strange of a work tool for me which is good.

My emotions like I said have been full range. I will miss the people I leave. I am excited to work with another set of great people.  I just have to say I am so blessed.  I live in the right place for someone into genealogy. Utah Valley is the headquarters to a lot of great genealogy companies and I can say I work/worked for two of them.

FamilySearch News: 2010 FamilySearch Software Award Recipients Announced

19 May 2010                                                        

2010 FamilySearch Software Award Recipients Announced

SALT LAKE CITY—Recipients of the 2010 FamilySearch Software Awards were announced at the FamilySearch Developers Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. The 14 recipients were recognized for their outstanding and innovative work in advancing products and technologies that integrate with FamilySearch’s emerging suite of products and services.

The annual FamilySearch Software Awards has been established to encourage and recognize software development that benefits the growing demands and needs of family history consumers. “The awards formally recognize the software achievements of those developers and companies that are making important contributions to the family history and genealogy industry,” said Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch developer services product manager.

The Best New Product awards were given to applicants in different platform categories. Products with specific features deemed important to the growth of the industry received the Best New Feature award. Community Player awards recognized individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the software developer community.

The following recipients were announced and awards presented at the FamilySearch Developers Conference:

Best New Product Awards

·         The MagiKey for the “Best New Windows” product

·         Arcalife for the “Best New Web site”

·         MobileTree for “Best New Mobile” product

·         FamilyInsight for “Best New Macintosh” product

Best New Feature Awards

·         OurFamilogy for “Best Research” feature

·         SharingTime for “Best Collaboration” feature

·         Genetree for “Best DNA” feature

·         Ancestral Hunt for the “Best Geo-Mapping” feature

·         FamilyPursuit for the “Best Groups” feature

·         Photoloom for the “Best Media” feature

·         FamilyChArtist for the “Best Print” feature

·         AppleTree for the “Best Celebrity Tree” feature

Community Player Awards

·         Gaylon Finlay, Incline Software, “Bug Hunter” award

·         Michael Booth and Bruce Buzbee, Roots Magic, “Trailblazer” award

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Patrons can access FamilySearch services and resources free online atFamilySearch.org or through over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

British Library and brightsolid partnership to digitise up to 40 million pages of historic newspapers

• Mass digitisation to make millions of newspaper pages available online and in the Library’s reading rooms
• Innovative deal will help safeguard the future of the world’s greatest newspaper archive

The British Library’s Chief Executive, Dame Lynne Brindley, will today announce a major new partnership between the Library and online publisher brightsolid, owner of online brands including findmypast.co.uk and Friends Reunited. The ten-year agreement will deliver the most significant mass digitisation of newspapers the UK has ever seen: up to 40 million historic pages from the national newspaper collection will be digitised, making large parts of this unparalleled resource available online for the first time.


Spanning three centuries and including 52,000 local, regional, national and international titles, the British Library holds one of the world’s finest collections of newspapers. Each year the Newspaper Library at Colindale is used by 30,000 researchers in subjects ranging from family history and genealogy to sports statistics, politics and industrial history. This vast resource is held mainly in hard copy and microfilm, necessitating a trip to the north London site for people wishing to use the collection.


The partnership between the British Library and brightsolid will enable the digitisation of a minimum of 4 million pages of newspapers over the first two years. Over the course of ten years, the agreement aims to deliver up to 40 million pages as the mass digitisation process becomes progressively more efficient and as in-copyright content is scanned following negotiation with rightsholders.


Delivering the keynote speech at the Westminster eForum this morning (Wednesday 19 May), Dame Lynne Brindley outlined how the partnership will transform access to this vital part of the national memory.


 “I am delighted to announce the British Library’s partnership with brightsolid to embark upon the most significant programme of newspaper digitisation this country has ever seen,” said Dame Lynne. “Historic newspapers are an invaluable resource for historians, researchers, genealogists, students and many others, bringing past events and people to life with great immediacy and in rich detail. Mass digitisation unlocks the riches of our newspaper collections by making them available online to users across the UK and around the world; by making these pages fully searchable we will transform a research process which previously relied on scrolling through page after page of microfilm or print. brightsolidhave an excellent track record of digitising archive materials and making them available to new audiences – I look forward to announcing the web service resulting from this partnership, which will launch and then steadily grow from next year.”


Digitised material will include extensive coverage of local, regional and national press across three and a half centuries. It will focus on specific geographic areas, along with periods such as the census years between 1841 and 1911. Additional categories will be developed looking at key events and themes such as the Crimean War, the Boer War and the suffragette movement. The aim will be to build a ‘critical mass’ of material for researchers – particularly in the fields of family history and genealogy.


brightsolid, a subsidiary of Dundee-based publisher DC Thomson, was selected following an EU procurement process. brightsolid has previously delivered the highly successful 1911census.co.uk project in partnership with The National Archives (TNA) and owns the leading family history resources findmypast.co.uk and genesreunited.co.uk. brightsolid is taking on the commercial and technical risks of the project, with no direct costs to the British Library. The firm will digitise content from the British Library Newspaper Library, which it will then make available online via a paid-for website as well as integrating it into its family history websites.


This resource will be available for free to users on-site at the British Library and copies of all scanned materials will be deposited with the Library to be held in the national collection in perpetuity.


Chris van der Kuyl, Chief Executive of brightsolid, said: “We’re delighted to be working with the British Library on such an exciting project. Digitisation will mean that those people who haven’t previously been able to access the physical resource will now be able to access it from anywhere at any time.  In particular it is an important resource for the genealogy community, which we are closely involved with through our brandsfindmypast.co.uk and genesreunited.co.uk, helping them to bring to life how their ancestors lived.  It will also offer a unique insight into major events and key periods of historical interest.  


“We’re also closely linked to the publishing community through our parent company, DC Thomson and we very much see this project as a collaboration with the industry.  In fact we are already in dialogue with some rightsholders and expect this to continue throughout the project.  As a business, our core strength is in building innovative online businesses around people and places, and this project fits perfectly within our expertise.  We are looking forward to working with the British Library on this project and developing this hugely important online resource.”


Along with out-of-copyright material from the newspaper archive – defined in this context as pre-1900 newspaper material – the partnership will also seek to digitise a range of in-copyright material, with the agreement of the relevant rightsholders. This copyright material will, with the express permission of the publishers, be made available via the online resource – providing fuller coverage for users and a much-needed revenue stream for the rightsholders.


David Fordham, President of the Newspaper Society said: “This initiative is a hugely significant and exciting development which will unlock many of the great newspaper treasures that lie within the millions of pages in the British Library Newspaper archive at Colindale. It represents a particularly exciting opportunity for regional newspapers which have a long and rich heritage and capture changing times in local and regional areas across the centuries. I look forward to watching the project develop and hope that it makes a major contribution to the industry.”


The successful appointment of brightsolid as its newspaper digitisation partner will help the British Library to fulfil its strategic goals of long-term preservation of and access to the national newspaper collection. The Library’s newspaper strategy aims to secure the future of this unique resource by moving the hard-copy collections from the current building at Colindale to a purpose-built storage facility in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire. Access to the collection will be provided via microfilm and digital copies made available at the Library’s main site at St Pancras.


“The success of our 19^th Century British Library Newspapers website demonstrated the public’s huge appetite for digitised historic newspaper content,” added Dame Lynne. “Our new partnership with brightsolid will enable us to deliver a huge increase in the amount of digitised material available – transforming access and searchability for users on and off-site and reducing wear-and-tear on our often fragile collection items. It will help the newspaper collection to remain relevant for a new generation of researchers, more used to accessing research information via their laptop than travelling to a physical location.”


She concluded: “The British Library’s newspaper archive is one of the world’s great newspaper collections. Through this partnership with brightsolid we will make millions more pages accessible – and to many more people.”

Riverton Family History Library

I've been following the discussions on the new Riverton Family History Library scheduled to open sometime in June.  I first posted about the new library in my article "24 Family History Centers  in the Salt Lake Area to Close".

The Ancestral Insider has posted an excellent article "FamilySearch Consolidating Utah Family History Centers" that gives a little more background on the building.

Al Hartmann/The Salt Lake Tribune 8/5/2009 (Salt Lake Tribune)

The AI has a link to the Salt Lake Tribune article "LDS Church Moves Computer Operations" dated 8/7/2009,  about the Church's purchase of the former Intel building at 3740 West 13400 S. So now we have our first glimpse of the building.

On FCHNET Don Snow posted about his recent trip out to see the new facilities.

My wife and I went up to Riverton to see the new Riverton FamilySearch Library last week and it is really something. It's in the 4-story building near 134th South and Bangerter Highway. The Church bought the building from Intel a couple of years ago when Intel let it go on a "fire sale". The Church calls the building the

Riverton Office Building and it already houses some offices like Welfare Services and Employment Services and some IT departments. The Riverton FamilySearch Library is on the main floor. It has 127 computer stations all linked to the FHL computers, plus several wonderfully equipped teaching rooms nearby, including one large one. The large one divides into fourths and each of the fourths seats 100, I think it is, and is equipped as a classroom. All the classrooms and seminar rooms have LCD projectors in the ceilings, plus flat panel computer monitor screens at the front. I understand that they are going to have about 50,000 microfilms, but I didn't hear how many film readers. Nor do I know how many hardcopy FH books they plan to have. There is also a large cafeteria on the main floor that's the size of the one in the Church Office Building. There is plenty of free parking right in front of the building and the building looks brand new, though it's been there for several years. I don't think Intel every fully moved into it. We were told the FS Library

Open House is planned for sometime in June and the Library will be open for patrons sometime after that. They are already planning evening FH classes and a FH seminar and are hoping that all the FH consultants from the FHC's that are closing will volunteer there. It was really impressive.

Don

When I learn more details on the open house planned sometime in June, for the Riverton Family History Library,  I will let you know.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

The Granite Mountain Records Vault Videos

During the opening session of the National Genealogical Society Conference (NGS) Jay Verkler, CEO of FamilySearch gave a wonderful address "From the Granite Mountain to the Ends of the World."  I thought you would enjoy watching the virtual tour of the Granite Mountain Vault as much as I did.

The Granite Mountain Vault - Part One


The Granite Mountain Vault - Part Two


The Granite Mountain Vault - Part Three
In 2004 a cyclone struck the island of Niue, destroying all vital records. FamilySearch had filmed the records and was able to provide a copy of the original records to the island.

Compilation of Articles on Four Recent Genealogy Conferences

Recently I attended the BYU Computerized Family History and Genealogy Conference and the National Genealogical Society (NGS) Conference held in the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City, Utah.  It was six wonderful days of conference that made me feel like I was in a Genealogy Disney World.  I loved every minute of it.

I have been collection articles by the local papers and others that are great reads on the conferences.  The four conferences held were:

• BYU's Conference on Computerized Family History and Genealogy - Monday, April 26, and Tuesday, April 27
• FamilySearch's Developers Conference for software developers - Tuesday, April 27
• BYU's Family History Technology Workshop - Wednesday, April 28
• The National Genealogical Society's annual conference - Wednesday, April 28, to Saturday, May 1.

Since a lot of the articles overlap I have decided to just give everyone the links broken down by the contributors.  Have a great time reading.

Mormon Times
Four genealogy conferences coming up – 23 Apr 2010
Highlights of National Genealogical Society conference – 26 Apr 2010
Ten new web services impact family history's future - 27 Apr 2010
Person pages are the wave of genealogy future – 27 Apr 2010
Digitizing family history treasures - 28 Apr 2010
Ellis Island records have problems - 28 Apr 2010
Genealogy, technology and the 'The Princess Bride' - 28 Apr 2010
Librarians Day launches family history gathering – 28 Apr 2010
Four family history techno-gizmos presented at BYU workshop - 29 Apr 2010
Church adding 300 million names to new online site – 29 Apr 2010
A bucket list for family history - 30 Apr 2010
Family connections help create ‘spirit of unity’ – 30 Apr 2010
‘Addicts’ revel in finding ancestry – 30 Apr 2010
Keeping the stuff you keep: preserving documents, photos - 1 May 2010
National Genealogical Society’s exhibition hall plenty lively – 1 May 2010
Research ancestors' historical context for meaning - 2 May 2010
Train up your voice recognition software – 4 May 2010
Digitization changes family history, but still need for non-digital – 5 May 2010
Finding women: the ultimate family history brick wall – 8 May 2010
Where do 300 million names come from? - 9 May 2010
Camp aims to get kids interested in family history - 11 May 2010

Deseret News
Highlights of U.S. genealogical society conference - 25 Apr 2010
Utah - the land of family history - 27 Apr 2010
Mormon church to add 300 million names this week to online genealogy pool - 28 Apr 2010
Mormon church's storied Granite Mountain vault opened for virtual tour - 28 Apr 2010
Salt Lake City Family History Conference: Family connections help create 'spirit of unity' - 29 Apr 2010
History is centered in the family, historian David McCullough says - 29 Apr 2010

Newsroom - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
FamilySearch Shares Plans to Digitize Billions of Records Stored at Granite Mountain Records Vault - 28 Apr 2010
"A Celebration of Family History" Delights Thousands of Genealogy Enthusiast - 30 Apr 2010

LDS Church News
Attracting the young through computerized genealogy – 26 Apr 2010
Family History, a week of conferences – 1 May 2010
A lot doing a little – 1 May 2010
Sharing the Joy – 4 May 2010
Preserving, sharing records of world – 8 May 2010

The Salt Lake Tribune
Sorenson Molecular hits genealogy milestone with 100,000 DNA samples – 28 Apr 2010
Family history specialists to converge on SLC – 30 Apr 2010
FamilySearch adds 300 million names – 30 Apr 2010

Standard-Examiner
Genealogy file moving to digital – 2 May 2010

BYU
FamilySearch 2010 and Beyond – 16 Apr 2010

KSL
Family history enthusiasts coming to Utah for national conference – 26 Apr 2010
LDS Church offers insight into how genealogy work is going digital – 28 Apr 2010

Other Blogs

Amie Jane Leavitt - A Family History Celebration – 30 Apr 2010
Circlemending - Music, Family History, and an Unforgettable Evening in Salt Lake - 29 Apr 2010

Genealogy Insider
A Celebration of Family History - 30 Apr 2010
WDYTYA? Recap: Spike Lee Episode - 1 May 2010

Genea-Musings
Genealogy Collaboration, Take Two – 30 Apr 2010
Randy’s NGS 2010 Conference Photos – Post 3 - 6 May 2010

Gramma's House
Our Treat Last Thursday Night - 2 May 2010
Granite Mountain Vaults Update - 4 May 2010

Granite Genealogy - Summary of NGS Conference in Salt Lake City - 5 May 2010

Legacy Family Tree Newsletter - The Granite Mountain Records Vault - take the virtual tour - 11 May 2010

Plano Consultants - FamilySearch Presentations at NGS Syllabi – 2 May 2010

The Ancestry Insider
A Celebration of Family History - 5 May 2010
Family Tree Maker Support For New FamilySearch – 6 May 2010

Software Press Releases

ourFamily*ology Announces Access to FamilySearch Records

AncestorsWaiting.com Combs LDS Genealogy Database to Quickly Identify Ancestors to Take to the Temple

Real-Time Collaborations, Inc. Announces Beta Launch of SharingTime, a New Web-based Service That Brings Social Networking Capabilities to New FamilySearch – 27 Apr 2010

Eastman’s Online Genealogy News

Traces of the Past for iPhone – 8 May 2010

GenealogGee.com – A Genealogy Bookmarking Site – 7 May 2010

Ancestry Press Release

Ancestry.com Previews MAC version of Family Tree Maker Software

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

24 Family History Centers in the Salt Lake Area to Close

Today's Mormon Times article "Family history centers in Salt Lake area will be consolidated" by Aaron Shill, explains that the resources found in these closed 24 Family History Centers will be consolidated into...

A new family history library, designed to create more space, extended hours and expanded resources for family history work, will open next month in the south end of the Salt Lake Valley. The Riverton FamilySearch Library will be an asset similar to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

This is exciting news. More details are given on the new The Riverton FamilySearch Library.

The new library will have 127 patron computers, multiple training rooms, a large auditorium and a collection of microfilm. Patrons will have access to subscription genealogy sites, such as Ancestry.com, that would not be available at a smaller family history center.

The spacious Riverton facility will also allow for regular seminars and training sessions, similar to those held at the Salt Lake library. It will also provide a convenient alternative for those who can't always get to the downtown library.

I can't wait until it opens. This will be closer than Salt Lake for me and hopefully have better parking facilities than BYU's FHL.

The Riverton FamilySearch Library is located in church offices at the intersection of 13400 South and Bangerter Highway.  

An open house is tentatively scheduled for mid-June, followed by the public opening. Exact dates have not been determined.

See ya tomorrow, for tomorrow is always another genealogy day!

570,000 new shareholder records go online at findmypast.co.uk

The following is from FindMyPast.com

FINDMYPAST.CO.UK’S GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY SHAREHOLDER INDEX NOW COMPLETE

·         Over half a million GWR records available to search

·         Full colour scanned images of the original pages from the ledgers

·         Shareholders include Charles Dickens, William Ewart Gladstone and Lewis Carroll

Today findmypast.co.uk, a leading UK family history website, has made available for the first time online the full Great Western Railway Shareholder Index (GWR) along with colour images of the original records. The index includes over 570,464 records covering the period from 1835 to 1932 recording 440,000 shareholders and related parties, such as executors and spouses. The records indicate when the original shares went through a change of ownership.

The availability of the index on findmypast.co.uk has been achieved in partnership with the Society of Genealogists, who previously held the original paper index at their London headquarters. The index dates from when the GWR was created in 1835 and continues through to 1932. The records contain some famous names such as Charles Dickens, William Ewart Gladstone and Lewis Carroll, under his real name, Charles Ludwidge Dodgson.

The Society of Genealogists originally produced its GWR Shareholder Index from ledgers created by the Great Western Railway. The original ledgers were compiled by the company for transactions relating to all shareholdings which changed hands other than by simple sale. In the records the name of the shareholder is given together with an address, the names of the other parties (executors or legatees for death; husbands for marriages), dates of death, probate, marriage or another event. The purpose of these records was to record change of ownership of the shares, the death of the original shareholder being the most likely cause of an event.

The infamous Great Western Railway was built along a network of tunnels, bridges and viaducts linking London to the West Country and Wales. Bristol merchants were desperate for effective transport links to London, to prevent the emergence of Liverpool as the country's second port. In 1833, the famous engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was appointed chief engineer. He also became a shareholder, appearing in the index following his death from a stroke in 1859.

Debra Chatfield, Marketing Manager at findmypast.co.uk, said: “By working with the Society of Genealogists, we have been able to make these extraordinary and unique records available to all for the first time through the findmypast.co.uk website, giving people the opportunity to explore another area of their family history.”

Else Churchill, Genealogist at the Society of Genealogists adds: “The Society of Genealogists is delighted to make these fascinating and unusual records available to the public through findmypast.co.uk. Projects such as this will allow us to continue to preserve these and other rare records for future generations.”

The majority of events within the index are deaths in England and Wales. However, other events also caused shares to go through a change of ownership. They are as follows:

• Death 94%
• Marriage 1.4%
• Power of Attorney 0.8%
• Change of Name 0.8%
• Lunatics 0.1%
• Bankrupts 0.07%
• Others 2.83%

Most events relate to individuals in England and Wales, but there are also a significant number of Scottish, Irish and overseas records:

• England & Wales 93.6%
• Scotland 4%
• Ireland 1.4%
• Overseas 1%

For more information log on to www.findmypast.co.uk 

About findmypast.co.uk

Leading UK family history website findmypast.co.uk (formerly 1837online.com) was the first company to make the complete birth, marriage and death indexes for England & Wales available online in April 2003.

Following the transcription, scanning and indexing of over two million images, the company launched the first website to allow the public easy and fast access to the complete indexes, which until then had only been available on microfiche film in specialist archives and libraries. The launch was instrumental in creating the widespread and growing interest in genealogy seen in the UK today.

Findmypast.co.uk has subsequently digitised many more family history records and now offers access to over 750 million records dating as far back as 1538. This allows family historians and novice genealogists to search for their ancestors among comprehensive collections of military records, census, migration, occupation directories, and current electoral roll data, as well as the original comprehensive birth, marriage and death records.

In November 2006 findmypast.co.uk launched the ancestorsonboard.com microsite in association with The National Archives to publish outbound passenger lists for long-distance voyages departing all British ports between 1890 and 1960.

As well as providing access to historical records, findmypast.co.uk is also developing a range of online tools to help people discover and share their family history more easily, beginning with the launch of Family Tree Explorer in July 2007.

In April 2007, findmypast.co.uk’s then parent company Title Research Group received the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2007 in recognition of their achievement.

Findmypast.co.uk was acquired in December 2007 by brightsolid, the company who were awarded The National Archives’ contract to publish online the 1911 census, which it launched in January 2009.

About The Society of Genealogists

The Society of Genealogists (SoG)

The Society of Genealogists is an educational charity the purpose of which is to “promote, encourage and foster the study, science and knowledge of genealogy". The Society’s premises in Central London house the largest family history research library in the UK. The Society of Genealogists’ Library is open to members and paying non-members.

Holdings include:

• Unique research collections
• Document Collection of manuscript family history research notes
• Thousands of compiled family histories and biographies
• Thousands of parish records
• Boyd's Marriage Index covering some 2,600 parish registers with nearly seven million names
• Nonconformist registers
• Memorial inscriptions
• Local histories, poll books and directories
• Sources for apprenticeships, trades, professions and occupations
• Published emigration records for the British overseas

FamilySearch Collection Update: New records added online for Czech Republic, Mexico, and U.S.

The following is from FamilySearch.

Eight new searchable collections were updated or added this week at FamilySearch.org—millions of new free images and records.

This week the complete name indexes for the states of Alabama, Colorado, and Illinois were published online at FamilySearch’s Record Search pilot (FamilySearch.org, click Search Records, and then click Record Search pilot) or Beta.FamilySearch.org.

The Delaware state birth records, 1875 Minnesota State Census, and Illinois, Cook County birth records were also added.

Also released was a digital image collection of church records from Litomerice, Czech Republic—60,000 images! Consumers will see these types of collections more and more online as FamilySearch digitizes microfilms in its Granite Mountain Records Vault. Instead of a microfilm reader in a local family history center, patrons use FamilySearch’s image viewer online to search these high quality digital collections—and they are accessible 24/7.

See the chart below for the complete list of all the newly added or improved collections.

None of this would be possible without the great contributions of many online FamilySearch volunteers. These individuals donate the time and effort needed to make these collections freely available to FamilySearch patrons. If you would like to help by donating a few minutes here and there online with projects of personal interest, become a FamilySearch community volunteer atFamilySearchIndexing.org. Many hands produce great work. Thank you for your support!

Collection Name	Indexed Records	Digital Images	Comments
Czech Republic, Litomerice State Regional Archive Church Records 1552-1905, pt. 03 - WP		60573	Browsable images only
Mexico Census 1930 Index, Yucatan	378550	1061300
U.S Delaware State Birth Records 1861-1922 - FSI	121234	93600
U.S Illinois, Cook County Birth Registers 1873-1908	1240000	33245
U.S 1875 Minnesota State Census	475000	13600	Must be registered to see images.
US Federal Census, 1910, Alabama	1870520	46763
US Federal Census, 1910, Colorado	767680	19192
US Federal Census, 1910, Illinois	5024520	125613

About FamilySearch

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter—day Saints. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.