Mark Your Calendars - UVPAFUG Meeting!

UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP MEETING
The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 9 Apr 2011, from 9 am to noon in the LDS "Red Chapel", 4050 North Timpview Drive (650 East), Provo. Information about the Users Group, main presentations, classes, and class notes are available on the Group website http://uvpafug.org and the press releases are at http://blog.uvpafug.org/ .

The main presentation for this meeting will be by Marilyn Thomsen on EATING AN ELEPHANT ONE BITE AT A TIME: IDEAS TO ORGANIZE YOUR FAMILY HISTORY TIME.  If you feel overwhelmed and don't know where to start on your family history, this presentation will help you set a goal, get organized, and show you how to use a personal coach to help you eat your genealogical elephant.  Marilyn Thomsen graduated with a B.A. in family history from Brigham Young University. Her internship was at the National Archive Branch in Atlanta, Georgia.  Twice she won BYU's award for her family histories.  Recently she served as a US & Canada consultant at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and is currently the Director of the Utah Orem Sunset Heights Tri-Stake Family History Center (located across from Krispy Kremes.)  Her husband, Richard, shares a passion for digging up dead relatives and sharing it with living.

Following the main presentation there will be several classes about family history and technology with something for everyone at any level of expertise. The teachers and classes presently scheduled for this meeting are as follows:  

1. Comparing Ancestral Quest, Legacy, and RootsMagic, by Debbie Gurtler
2. MAC:  Recent DNA experiences--and Reunion Q&A, by Ron Hatch
3. Personalized Help, by Finn Hansen & Don Engstrom
4. Getting Genealogy Clutter Under Control, by Marilyn Thomsen
5. Video of last month's main presentation:  Back-Door Research Breaks Through Brick Walls, by Stephen Ehat
6. Family Insight, by Andrea Schnakenburg
7. Ancestral Quest, by Gaylon Findlay
8. Legacy, by Dean Bennett
9. RootsMagic, by Sue Maxwell.

All meetings of the Users Group are open to the public whether members of the Group or not. The Users Group has the goal of helping individuals use technology to further their family history and there are usually 100-125 attending the monthly meetings on the second Saturdays. The officers are Gerhard Ruf, President; Laurie Castillo, 1st VP; Don Snow, 2nd VP; Liz Kennington, PAFology Editor; Kay Baker, Gerry Eliason, and Don Engstrom working with finances and membership; and Bruce Merrill and Marie Andersen, working with the DVD Library.  Several of these will be there to help with membership, answer questions, distribute the current issue of the monthly newsletter PAFology, and check out DVDs of past presentations and classes to members of the group.  Information about the Users Group, presentations, classes, and class notes can be found at the websites mentioned above.  For further information contact President Gerhard Ruf at pres@uvpafug.org (801-225-6106             801-225-6106 or 1st VP Laurie Castillo atlaurie@everythingisrelative.net or 2nd VP Don Snow at snowd@math.byu.edu.

Generation Maps Contest Ends April 4th!

I'm a little late posting this. There is still time to submit your ideas!

1 week left--We Need Your Help

Only one week left in our re-naming contest.  Generation Maps is growing and we need your help! We have known for quite a while that the name Generation Maps doesn't exactly express what this company does and we are ready now to make a change. So we're offering a  

CONTEST PRIZE
$300 Generation Maps Credit!

That could be

• a working chart every year for the next 10 years
• Two 30x40 giclee charts
• or one HUMONGOUS family reunion charts.

We need your help to come up with a name that expresses the family/heritage aspect of this company and tells of the beautiful and professional charts that we create. But we are also looking for something that is snappy and memorable and expresses the fun we have printing charts for our clients.

You can submit your brilliant new name for Generation Maps athttp://www.generationmaps.com/contest.
Deadline April 4th 2011.

Season Two: The Generations Project

The following is from FamilySearch.

March 28, 2011

Season Two: The Generations Project

Dear Family History Consultants and Family History Center Staff,

The second season of BYUtv’s The Generation Project premiers Monday, March 28 at 7:00 p.m. MDT. The Generations Project is a reality-based family history show that uncovers the remarkable stories and family histories of everyday people. The people take a hands-on journey to learn about their ancestors, and in the process they discover more about themselves.

The second season of The Generations Project “takes you from Germany to Holland to New York's 'Little Pakistan' and everywhere in between, following eleven journeys into the past: the Denkes explore the origins of their children’s life-threatening genetic disease. Kerry hopes his ancestors will help him find his estranged son, and Ty delves into his complicated heritage as a son of Nazi Germany. They along with eight other guests engage with the past to understand the present.”

BYUtv is available through many local satellite and cable companies. In addition, The Generations Project can be viewed live online at http://www.byutv.org (you'll need to register for a free account to view the show live). All episodes are also available to be viewed immediately after airing at http://www.byutv.org/thegenerationsproject/episodes (no registration required).
A link to more information has been placed on the home page of the FamilySearch.org website. Please share the information in this e-mail with others.

Sincerely,
FamilySearch

Mocavo.com Launches as World’s Largest Free Genealogy Search Engine

The following is from Mocavo.

Mocavo.com Launches as World’s Largest Free Genealogy Search Engine
Industry breakthrough provides instant search results for billions of names, dates and places worldwide

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mocavo.com™ (http://www.mocavo.com), a free search engine geared toward genealogists and people interested in learning more about their family history, launches today. Mocavo.com enables the search of more than 50 billion words - including billions of names, dates and places, all within fractions of a second. Mocavo.com fills an important industry need by providing the first large-scale, free search engine for family history research. Coupled with the speed and accuracy by which search results are produced, Mocavo.com represents a major technological breakthrough within the genealogy world.

Mocavo.com has already been met with critical acclaim by several industry experts. Dick Eastman, writer of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and a top blogger in the field, wrote, “All my future genealogy searches will start on Mocavo.com. I've been using the site for a while during its testing and have been very impressed. I suspect you will always have better luck searching for your own surnames of interest on Mocavo.com than on any other search engine.”

Randy Seaver, writer of the popular Genea-Musings blog, said, “Mocavo.com promises to be a genealogist's dream - a search engine focused on free online genealogy resources." Mr. Eastman’s and Mr. Seaver’s full reviews can be found at http://www.eogn.com and http://www.geneamusings.com, respectively.

Starting today, the general public can use Mocavo.com for free. Visitors to www.mocavo.com are simply required to type in the names of interest and click on Search. All related results from industry sources such as genealogy message boards, family trees, state and local historical societies, the Library of Congress, National Archives, Ellis Island, Find A Grave, the Internet Archive, various U.S. state archives, and many tens of thousands of genealogy sites built by individuals will be displayed. Similar to other search engines, Mocavo.com honors site owners by linking directly to their content.

Cliff Shaw, founder and CEO of Mocavo Inc., identifies the current trouble for genealogists and the solution that Mocavo.com provides, “Genealogy has always had the problem of information and potential clues being spread across thousands of disparate web sites and sources. Imagine a world where you have all of the Web’s free genealogy content at your fingertips within seconds. That is Mocavo.com.”

“Mocavo.com has the capacity to index every single piece of free genealogy content found anywhere on the web, and will be growing by leaps and bounds in the coming months,” said Mr. Shaw. “We expect Mocavo.com to shortly offer all of the web’s free genealogy information, searchable and accessible to all – something that has never been done before. It’s set to become the go-to search engine for every family history enthusiast.”

Mocavo Inc. is the brainchild of Cliff Shaw. Mr. Shaw is well known in the industry, having created four successful companies and many innovative technologies, including Smart Matching™, the most successful ancestor-matching algorithm. He created GenForum 14 years ago and it quickly grew to become the number one community for genealogists (now owned by Ancestry.com® (NASDAQ:ACOM)). In the early 2000’s, Mr. Shaw launched GenCircles and Family Tree Legends, becoming the number two family tree publishing site and number two family tree software package respectively (both are now owned by MyHeritage.com). More recently, Mr. Shaw launched the well-received BackupMyTree.com, the industry’s only automatic tree backup solution.

About Mocavo Inc.

Mocavo Inc. operates the world’s largest free genealogy search engine, Mocavo.com, giving genealogists access to the best free genealogy content on the web including billions of names, dates and places. Founded by industry veteran Cliff Shaw, and backed by prominent angel investor, David Cohen, (founder and CEO of TechStars), Mocavo.com seeks to index and make searchable all of the world’s free genealogy information. While Mocavo.com discovers new sites every day, some of the existing sites searchable on Mocavo.com include genealogy message boards, family trees, state and local historical societies, the Library of Congress, National Archives, Ellis Island, Find A Grave, the Internet Archive, various U.S. state archives, and many tens of thousands of genealogy sites built by individuals. For further information, visit http://www.mocavo.com.

NEHGS--Access to new databases!

The following is from NEHGS.

NEHGS PROVIDES ACCESS TO MASSACHUSETTS JEWISH CEMETERY RECORDS

Access Program Part of collaboration with Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts and American Jewish Historical Society

Boston, MA–March 2, 2011 –The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) today announced that, together with the Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts (JCAM), and the American Jewish Historical Society of New England (AJHSNE) have made available for the first time online access to a growing database that currently includes 13 Massachusetts Jewish cemeteries, with approximately 5,000 records. More records are being added weekly until all 106 JCAM cemeteries, which include more than 100,000 total records, are online.

The names in this extensive database cover the years 1844 to the present, and, when completed later this year, will offer access to more than 100,000 names of Jewish Americans buried in Massachusetts.

NEHGS President and CEO, D. Brenton Simons, said, “For genealogists and researchers, this database is a tremendous resource and provides unique access to a set of names vital to Jewish family research. We are pleased to work with AJHS and JCAM in this way. The Jewish Cemetery Association of Massachusetts is a marvelous society for those with Jewish ancestry and we know countless people will benefit from having it available online.”

“This is one of the first of many benefits that will accrue as a result of our strategic partnership with NEHGS,” said Justin Wyner, chair of the Boston Board of Overseers of the American Jewish Historical Society. “This additional resource is of significant genealogical importance. AJHSNE now makes its home inside the NEHGS research center in downtown Boston.

According to JCAM’s Executive Director Stanley Kaplan, “This partnership with NEHGS and AJHS provides people with access to where their loved ones are resting, a source that is known for genealogy,” said Kaplan. “We have broadened …our reach within the community.”

For more information, visit the NEHGS website at www.AmericanAncestors.org , the American Jewish Historical site atwww.ajhsboston.org or visit the Jewish Cemeteries Association of Massachusetts at http://www.jcam.org/.

About NEHGS

Founded in 1845, New England Historic Genealogical Society is the country's leading resource for family history research. We help family historians expand their knowledge, skill, and understanding of their family and its place in history. The NEHGS research center, located at 99-101 Newbury Street, Boston, houses millions of books, journals, manuscripts, photographs, microfilms, documents, records, and other artifacts that date back more than four centuries. NEHGS staff includes some of the leading expert genealogists in the country, specializing in early American, Irish, English, Italian, Scottish, Atlantic and French Canadian, African American, Native American, and Jewish genealogy. Our award-winning website, www.AmericanAncestors.org, provides access to more than 135 million searchable names in 3,000 collections.

FamilySearch Records Update: 9 Million Hungarian Records Added; also New Records for Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Philippines, Spain, U.S., and Zimbabwe

The following is from FamilySearch.


9 Million Hungarian Records Added This Week
New Records for Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Philippines, Spain, U.S., and Zimbabwe Also Added

Can you believe that 11.5 million new international records were added this week? And 9 million of those were from Hungary! FamilySearch continued this week to strengthen its free online international collections by expanding 8 of its collections. It also added 2 million U.S. records. See the table below for more details. Search all of the record collections now for free at FamilySearch.org.

If you enjoy the steady stream of free records added weekly, please consider "giving back" by contributing a little time online as a FamilySearch volunteer. You can start and stop volunteering at any time. Find out more at www.familysearch.org/volunteer/indexing.

Collection	Records	Images	Comment
Argentina, Catholic Church Records	0	202,698	Images added.
Brazil, Catholic Church Records	0	156,092	Images added. Minas Gerais, Diocese of Luz, Diocese of Patos de Minas; Paraná: Archdiocese of Curitiba; Rio Grande Do Sul, Diocese of Santa Cruz Do Sul; Sao Paulo, Diocese of Itapeva, Diocese of Presidente Prudente
Germany, Baden, Church Book Duplicates, 1810-1869	58,296	12,011	Portion of Achern index added.
Germany, Mecklenburg-Schwerin Census, 1890	37,625	864	Last portion of this census is now added.
Germany, Posen, Church Book Duplicates, 1794-1874	113,713	0	Records added to this collection. Images can be found at www.landesarhiv-brandenburg.de.
Hungary Catholic Church Records	9,065,513	0	Partial publication of records. First installment (38%) of a much larger collection that will be published over the next year.
Italy, Civil Registration, 1806-1940	0	119,921	More localities added: Revere, San Giorgio di Mantova, San Martino dall' Argine, Sermide, and Teramo
Philippines, Manila Civil Registration, 1899-1994	0	1,535,971	Images added.
Spain, Lugo Diocese, Catholic Parish Records, 1550-1930	11,629	0	Additional index data added to this collection.
U.S., Colorado State Census, 1885	0	3,520	New browsable collection.
U.S., Illinois State Census, 1855	256,004	0	Name indexes for the 1885 Illinois State Census. The census names the head of household. Schedules do not exist for the following counties: Carroll, Champaign, Franklin, Gallatin, Henry, Jefferson, Jo Davies, Lake, Stark, Will, and Woodford.
U.S., Texas, Comanche County Records, 1858-1955	0	283,870	Images added to existing content.
U.S., Texas, Mills County Clerk Records, 1841-1985	0	61,358	Images added to existing content.
U.S., Union Provost Marshal Files of Individual Civilians, 1861-1866	0	2,798	Images added to existing content.
U.S., Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933	0	1,800,495	New browsable image collection.
Zimbabwe, Death Notices, 1904-1976	0	328,546	Death notices from Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe, Rhodesia Death Registers, 1890-1977; Index to Death Register, 1892-1977	0	74,045	Register of deaths of citizens of Rhodesia.

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 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. 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.

Mozy vs BackBlaze

After investing all the time in energy into my genealogy files I have developed multiple backup plans to keep them safe.  One plan was using an online backup service called Mozy. Ever since Mozy doubled their price for backing up my almost 100GB external drive I have been researching for alternatives.

Carbonite is highly recommend but I couldn't see anywhere on their website the ability to pay monthly.  The biggest drawback for me was the $54.95 yearly cost is only for your internal hard drive on your computer.  I store everything on an external hard drive and only use the C drive of my computer for program files. So I couldn't see that Carbonite would save me money if I had to pay for backing up my external hard drive.

Finally I have stumbled upon a solution - Backblaze!  It cost $5.00 a month for unlimited back up of the internal and external hard drives attached to my computer. In fact if you have an external drive that you backup it will save your files online for 30 days, even if the external is unplugged from your computer during that time frame. Just plug in the external and back it up once every 30 days and your good to go. This means the external I have for my laptop, and my flash drives can all get backed up for no additional charge.

Another benefit to Backblaze is how lite weight the program is.  It's not a resource hog like Mozy was.  Sometimes I had issues with Mozy even opening to let me see what I was backing up.  Not an issue with Backblaze. It is snapper at backing my files online too.  I figure it averaged 5GB each night (8 hrs) when I turned up the speed.

Backblaze automatically backups everything on your computer, except for iTunes Podcasts and certain file types.  In the setting you can adjust it to include some of the excluded files types if you want. Backblaze uses Military grade encryption. It also allows you to set a private encryption key for extra security if desired.

I really like Backblaze and am so glad that Mozy raised their prices so I could go out and find such a wonderful alternative.

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

Ohana Software Webinars

The following is from Ohana Software.

— UPCOMING WEBINARS —

Increasing Productivity on the FamilySearch Website  Guest Presenter: Andrea Schnakenburg  Learn how to increase your productivity using Sharing Time™, a new tool that integrates into the FamilySearch™ website. Quickly link to and auto-search dozens of Internet resources, e-mail collaborators in seconds, and focus your research on ancestors that are closest to being ready for temple work. NOTE: This webinar will only be 30-45 minutes.      Thursday, March 24, 2011           Register Now   8:00 PM - 8:45 PM MDT

Newspapers: Bring your Ancestors    to Life   Guest Presenter: Thomas J Kemp- Director of Genealogy  Products - NewsBank, inc.  Discover how GenealogyBank can help you tap into a   wealth of information about your ancestors from first-hand accounts in historical newspapers—material that simply can’t be found in other sources.  You’ll be fascinated by the stories, names, dates, places and events that have played a role in your family’s history.   Learn what to look for in historical newspapers and how GenealogyBank.com can help you. Tuesday, April 5, 2011                     Register Now 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM MDT

FamilyInsight for Beginners  Presenter: Cina Johnson  Do you know how FamilyInsight can help?  Are you a new  user of FamilyInsight?  Do you know what we mean by file clean up?  Have you only used FamilyInsight to find records on the new FamilySearch? Join us to learn how to use the other features that FamilyInsight has to offer. Find out if you have unlinked people or pedigrees, or duplicate records for some individuals, in your file. Learn how you can improve your file by correcting your place names so they are consistent and recognized by the new FamilySearch. See how simple it is to merge people and much more! FamilyInsight is a powerful but often underutilized tool. Tuesday, April 19, 2011                    Register Now 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM MDT

Genealogy Survey link

I just took this survey and am passing along the information if you care to join in.


The following is from Myles Proudfoot

Dear Renee,

I see you were an official RootsTech Blogger. I attended RootsTech this year and came away feeling very inspired to go discover more about the new generation of genealogists. As a way to give back to the genealogy community I have created a research survey about people's genealogy habits, attitudes and origins.

My background is 15 years in market and consumer research with a large consumer goods company, as well as a long term interest in family history. So I'm applying my professional experience in the genealogy world. I will be happy to share the results with libraries, family history organizations or societies at no cost. If the results are really interesting I hope to share a paper at the next RootsTech about the new generation of family historians.

I am looking now for respondents to take the survey from all over the world. I invite you participate if you wish, but more importantly to share the link to this survey with your readers, or with any genealogy-minded friends and associates. I am especially interested in having a good representation of new genealogists, and LDS members. Hoping you can help.

Access to the survey: http://tinyurl.com/69kntun

Yours
Myles Proudfoot
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mylesproudfoot@MylesProudfoot

RootsTech News: RootsTech Keynotes and Select Presentations Now Available for Free Viewing Online

The following is from FamilySearch.

Relive RootsTech 2011

Popular Conference Makes Select Presentations Available for Free Online

11 March 2011

SALT LAKE CITY—If you missed the popular inaugural RootsTech 2011 conference, you can now at least get a sampling of what all the excitement was about. The wildly popular new technology and family history conference held last month in Salt Lake City, Utah, made its keynote addresses and a few other popular presentations available online today free of charge. The six free presentations can be viewed at RootsTech.org.

“The scope of the RootsTech conference was unique. We wanted to try to fulfill a need to bring technology users (family history buffs and anyone interested in genealogy) and technology creators (developers, programmers, engineers) together in a unique, fun environment to collaborate and move the genealogy industry forward through technology,” said Anne Roach, RootsTech conference chair. And bring them together it did.

The inaugural conference, hosted by FamilySearch, was a runaway success. With over 3,000 in-person attendees and another 4,500 attending remotely over the Internet, it was arguably one of the largest genealogy-related conferences ever held in the country. In-person attendees hailed from 42 states and 15 countries. Some came from as far away as China, New Zealand, Australia, Namibia, and Israel.

Paul Nauta, RootsTech public relations chair, reported that there were over 40 bloggers in attendance. “Between online articles, blog posts, and nonstop tweets, the online community was buzzing 24 hours a day during the conference and for weeks following—and amazingly, articles and tweets are still going strong,” noted Nauta.

The new conference was pulled together quickly by industry standards—in about 6 months. “The fact that we were able to attract as many conference goers as we did in such a short amount of time testifies to the interest there is in technology and family history,” said Roach. “And we’ve put the videos of the keynotes and other presentations online for free to give others a chance to share in the RootsTech experience; to give them a taste of what they can expect for 2012,” added Roach.

A highlight of the conference was the extensive community networking—community zone (exhibit hall), collaboration stations, and unconferencing sessions. These integrated features produced an open conference atmosphere that seemed to be ideal to introduce technology creators to genealogy technology users and to foster discussions, learning, collaboration, and future industry developments.

Unconferencing sessions—impromptu, participant-driven discussion forums that promote brainstorming, the sharing of ideas, and innovation—were totally new to genealogy attendees, but were more familiar to the technologists. Attendees took advantage of unconferencing sessions to discuss user needs with technology developers and to brainstorm new ideas and solutions. “People emerged from these [unconferencing sessions] with eyes sparkling, and I overheard several people describing conversations between developers and genealogists that left both feeling validated and motivated,” said Polly FitzGerald Kimitt, an attendee and author of Pollyblog.

The RootsTech 2012 conference is scheduled for February 2–4 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In addition to the six video presentations mentioned above, video interviews of other conference speakers and developers can be watched at Genealogy Gems YouTube.

About RootsTech

RootsTech is a new conference designed to bring technologists together with genealogists to learn from each other and find solutions to the challenges faced in family history research today. The conference’s activities and offerings are focused on content that will help genealogists and family historians discover exciting new research tools while enabling technology creators to learn the latest development techniques from industry leaders and pioneers.

FamilySearch Records Update: U.S. and Mexico Records Added This Week; New U.S. records from MO, NC, NJ, OH, VT, WV

The following is from FamilySearch.

U.S. and Mexico Records Added This Week

New U.S. records from MO, NC, NJ, OH, VT, WV
Record collections for Mexico and the U.S. were expanded this week. The Mexico 1930 Census is drawing closer to completion with the addition of the state of Puebla—way to go FamilySearch volunteers! Patrons will also find new records from Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Vermont, and West Virginia (see table below for more details). Search them now for free at FamilySearch.org.

If you enjoy the steady stream of free records added weekly, please consider "giving back" by contributing a little time online as a FamilySearch volunteer. You can start and stop anytime. Find out more at indexing.familysearch.org.

Collection	Records	Images	Comment
Mexico Census, 1930 (Puebla)	1,151,608	2,337	Additional state added to the Mexico 1930 Census.
Mexico, Distrito Federal, Catholic Church Records, 1886-1933	87,199	79	Updated collection.
U.S., Missouri, Confederate Pension Applications and Soldiers Home Applications	0	27,874	New collection.
U.S., North Carolina Deaths, 1931-1994	9,777	0	Name index to deaths recorded in North Carolina.
U.S., Ohio, Cuyahoga County Probate Files, 1813-1900	0	90,601	Additional images added to the probate case files from the Cuyahoga County Courthouse in Cleveland. Files arranged by docket number, case number, and date.
U.S., Vermont, Vital Records, 1760-1954	221,293	729,956	Index cards of town clerk transcriptions of births, marriages, and deaths, 1760-1954.
U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 (WV, NJ)	686,269	1,178,358	West Virginia and New Jersey cards added.

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 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. 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.

Riverton Saturday Seminar - Mark Your Calendars!

The following is from FamilySearch.

Free Seminar on a Watershed Movement in Discovering

Where to Find Your Ancestors

The Riverton FamilySearch Library Hosts Event on March 19

RIVERTON, UTAH—The rapid digitization of records online is a crucial event in genealogy today, but records are appearing so fast on so many websites that most genealogists have no way to know where to find the best record. At this month’s Saturday Seminar, hosted by the Riverton FamilySearch Library, keynote speaker Michael Ritchey will address the topic “The Power of We: A Watershed Movement in Discovering Where to Find Your Ancestors.” He will discuss the efforts of the genealogical community to harness their collective knowledge to show the records currently available worldwide.

This month’s seminar will be held on Saturday, March 19, 2011, from 9:00 a.m. to noon. Following the keynote presentation, there will be two blocks of classes that will cover topics of interest to both beginning and advanced family historians.

Classes to be held from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. are:

• “The Joy of Family History: How to Inspire Members and Leaders”—Tara Burgeson
• “Care and Repair of Photographs”—Janet Hovorka
• “ Cut 10 Years off Your Learning Curve”—Barry Ewell
• “Advanced New FamilySearch Techniques, Part 1”—Cathy Anderegg
• “Utah Research Advice: Creating a One-Stop Shop Together”—Michael Ritchey

The classes available from 11:00 a.m. to noon are:

• “African American Research”—Joan Healey
• “Using RootsMagic with New FamilySearch, LDS Features”—Sue Maxwell
• “Are You My Mother? Finding the Maiden Names in Your Tree”—Bret Peterson 
• “Advanced New FamilySearch Techniques, Part 2”—Cathy Anderegg

Registration is not required for this free seminar. Also, the library will be open until 5:00 p.m. that day for patrons desiring to do individual family history research. For more information, please visit www.familysearch.org/fhc/riverton.

The Saturday Seminars will be held on the third Saturday of each month. The Riverton FamilySearch Library is located in the LDS Riverton Office Building at 3740 Market Center Drive. The facility is near the intersection of Bangerter Highway and 13400 South, just east of The Home Depot.

RootsTech Video Presentations Online

The long awaited RootsTech videos, of select presentations, are now available online at the RootsTech's website: http://rootstech.familysearch.org/video.php

The ones currently available are:

• Jay Verkler
• Barry Ewell
• Curt Witcher
• Brian Pugh
• Thomas MacEntee
• Brewster Kahle

Below is the Jay Verkler presentation.  To see the other videos visit the link above.

2011 Family Tree Magazine Top 40

WAHOO!! I am so excited. My readers have put me on the top 40 list.  Thank you so much!


http://familytreemagazine.com/article/40-best-genealogy-blogs-2011

Findmypast.co.uk to digitise British Library's UK electoral register and India Office record collections

The following is from FindMyPast.

British Library and findmypast.co.uk to digitise 5 million pages of family history records

       - Selections from the India Office Records and a century of electoral registers will be made available online

The British Library and family history website findmypast.co.uk are to digitise a treasure trove of family history resources held by the Library, making them available online and fully searchable for the first time.

The project will involve the scanning of UK electoral registers covering the century that followed the Reform Act of 1832, along with records of baptisms, marriages and burials drawn from the archives of the India Office. When available online, these collections will enable historians, genealogists and family history researchers to make connections and track down details of ancestors and others at the click of a mouse - work that would previously have necessitated visits to the Library's Reading Rooms and many hours of laborious manual searching.

The British Library holds the national collection of electoral registers covering the whole of the United Kingdom.  The registers contain a vast range of names, addresses and other genealogical information.


"Digitisation of the electoral registers will transform the work of people wishing to use them for family history research," said Jennie Grimshaw, the Library's curator for Social Policy and Official Publications. "Printed electoral registers are arranged by polling district within constituency and names are not indexed, so the process of finding an address to confirm names of residents is currently incredibly laborious. Digitisation represents a huge breakthrough as users will be able to search for names and addresses, thereby pinpointing the individuals and ancestors they're looking for."


The other holdings included in the large-scale digitisation are drawn from the archives of the East India Company and the India Office. These records relate to Britons living and working in the Indian sub-continent during the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, up to Independence in 1948. They include over 1,000 volumes of ecclesiastical returns of births, marriages and burials, together with applications for civil and military service, and details of pension payments to individuals.

Antonia Moon, curator of post-1858 India Office Records said, "These records are an outstanding resource for researchers whose ancestors had connections with British India, whether as servants of the administration or as private inhabitants."


The partnership between the British Library and findmypast.co.uk followed a competitive tender process and will see five million pages of UK electoral registers and India Office records digitised over the next year. The resources will become available via findmypast.co.uk and in the British Library's Reading Rooms from early 2012; online access will be available to findmypast.co.uk subscribers and pay-as-you-go customers - access to users in the British Library Reading Rooms will be free.

Simon Bell, the British Library's Head of Licensing and Product Development, said: "We are delighted to announce this exciting new partnership between the British Library and findmypast.co.uk, which will deliver an online and fully searchable resource that will prove immensely valuable to family history researchers in unlocking a treasure trove of content that up to now has only been available either on microfilm or within the pages of bound volumes. The Library will receive copies of the digitised images created for this project, so as well as transforming access for current researchers, we will also retain digital versions of these collections in perpetuity, for the benefit of future researchers."

Elaine Collins, Commercial Director at findmypast.co.uk, said: "We're very excited to be involved with this fascinating project. The electoral rolls are the great missing link for family historians: after censuses and civil registration indexes, they provide the widest coverage of the whole population. To have Irish and Scottish records alongside England and Wales is also a huge advantage. These records will join the 1911 Census, Chelsea Pensioner Service Records and many more datasets available online at findmypast.co.uk, which enable people to make fantastic discoveries day after day."

About The British LibraryThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The British Library's collections include 150 million items from every era of written human history beginning with Chinese oracle bones dating from 300 BC, right up to the latest e-journals.www.bl.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 that was awarded The National Archives' contract to publish online the 1911 census, which it launched in January 2009.