NEHGS Adds About 5 Million Seachable Names Online

Improved databases provide access to nearly 400 years of information.

Boston, MA – January 2009 – New England Historic Genealogical Society is pleased to announce the addition of about 5 million names to its databases during 2008 to help its more than 20,000 members around the country with their family history research.

NEHGS has more than 100 volunteers around the country who help scan and digitize the vast collection housed at NEHGS’ 7-story research library located at 99 Newbury Street in Boston.

Sam Sturgis, NEHGS Coordinator of Website Database Development, said, “Our goal is to digitize one or two databases every week and make them available on our Web site. Last year we achieved that and more and we are grateful to our volunteers for their assistance with this enormous task.”

The NEHGS Web site, www.NewEnglandAncestors.org, contains the most complete set of electronically searchable pre-1910 Massachusetts vital records available anywhere. This past year these databases were expanded and improved. Scans of 46,431 record pages were added to the 1910 database, and volunteers corrected errors in about 60,000 records. In the 1850 database 32,422 record pages were added, and an estimated 100,000 errors corrected. About 1,134,770 records in this database were checked for errors, and the project, begun in 2007, is now about 80% complete. On top of these improvements, 2008 also saw the addition of 1,316,076 names to the website’s databases. Another 3,683,712 names were added to the Social Security Death Index database. This brings the grand total of new names added to 4,999,788.

The NEHGS Web site, www.NewEnglandAncestors.org, has been providing access to important research information including vital records, published genealogies, manuscript archives, and other records since 1999. The site receives more than 15,000 hits per day.

About NEHGS

The New England Historic Genealogical Society, founded in 1845, is the country's oldest non-profit genealogical organization. With more than 20,000 members nationally, NEHGS collects, preserves, and interprets materials to help make accessible the histories of families in America. Located at 99-101 Newbury Street in Boston, the NEHGS research library is home to more than 12 million books, journals, photographs, documents, records, and microfilms. NEHGS also boasts one of the largest genealogy manuscript collections in the country, covering more than four centuries of local and family history.

NEHGS And CSG Team up to bring Popular Journal Online

CSG Nutmegger now available as online searchable database.

Boston, MA & East Hartford, CT – January 22, 2009 – The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) and the Connecticut Society of Genealogists (CSG) announce today the first phase of bringing the CSG’s flagship journal The Connecticut Nutmegger online as a searchable database, available to members on both organizations’ Websites.

The Connecticut Nutmegger has served as the “journal of record” for the CSG since 1968. During this time it has captured a wealth of information for genealogists such as vital records, probate records, bible records, headstone records, memorials and other useful records. The Nutmegger also presents well-documented family histories and genealogical articles, covering hundreds of families – mainly with Connecticut ties. Published articles include commentary on and corrections to previously published family lines, vital records and town histories. Book reviews, research tips, queries and other valuable tools for genealogists are also available.

Dick Tomlinson, Chair, CSG Publication Committee, said, “This project cuts new ground in cooperation between the Connecticut Society of Genealogists and the New England Historic Genealogical Society. It benefits the members of both organizations by bringing forty years of accumulated genealogical treasures off the bookshelves and into digital databases.”

NEHGS President and CEO, D. Brenton Simons, said, “We are pleased to work with CSG in this way. The Nutmegger is a marvelous resource for those researching in Connecticut and we know countless people will benefit from having it available online.”

This database will be released in stages over the next year, starting this week with volumes 1-6, which cover the years 1968, its first year, through 1973. Additional sets of five volumes will be added periodically throughout this coming year. The database search facility is very similar to that of the NEHGS Register and allows searches by last and/or first name, or by subject keywords. Images of the original pages may be seen from the search results page. It is also possible to browse the pages of the Nutmegger by entering a Year (or volume number) and a page number. This first installment indexes 12,347 names and 477 subject records.

For more information on The Nutmegger, visit the CSG Website, www.csginc.org or the NEHGS Website, www.NewEnglandAncestors.org.

About NEHGS

The New England Historic Genealogical Society, founded in 1845, is the country's oldest non-profit genealogical organization. With more than 20,000 members nationally, NEHGS collects, preserves, and interprets materials to help make accessible the histories of families in America. Located at 99-101 Newbury Street in Boston, the NEHGS research library is home to more than 12 million books, journals, photographs, documents, records, and microfilms. NEHGS also boasts one of the largest genealogy manuscript collections in the country, covering more than four centuries of local and family history.

About CSG

The Connecticut Society of Genealogists, Inc. was founded in 1968 to serve those interested in genealogy and family history and has a particular focus on Connecticut. CSG is a non-profit genealogical organization with more than 3,300 members nation-wide. Through meetings, seminars, classes, publications and other resources, CSG seeks to aid its members and to make genealogical data more readily available. It maintains a research library, including more than 18,000 member charts, at 175 Maple St. in East Hartford, CT that is open to the public M-F from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mailing address: P.O. Box 435, Glastonbury, CT, 06033. Phone: (860) 569-0002. For more information visit www.csginc.org.

Related to Barack Obama or to other VIPs? – Search for relatives now on dynastree

New York - Jan. 20, 2009. Searching one’s family roots can have surprising results. For example, America’s new president Barack Obama and actor Brad Pitt are ninth cousins. The mightiest man in the world is not the only VIP with a special familial relationship. In recent times, the connection between Hillary Clinton and Angelina Jolie and Victoria Beckham’s German roots have been reported on. The ex-Spice Girl is a Swabian! Her great-great-grandfather, Carl Heinrich Pfänder (1819-1876), comes from Heilbronn, Germany.

For the users of the family network dynastree (www.dynastree.com) it has become even easier to search for relatives all over the world and trace their potentially famous roots. Only 18 month after launch, more than 70 million entered persons can be found in the database.

By means of the simple search function, the data of more than 5 million family trees worldwide can be searched for relatives or friends in a matter of seconds. Especially the high popularity of the US platform leads to a large number of users from the States who have built or uploaded their family tree. Getting into contact is simple due to an easy-to-use messaging system so that famousness-factor and possible familial relationships can be researched directly.

About dynastree
Apart from the English site, the services are available in Germany (www.verwandt.de), in Poland (www.moikrewni.pl), Spain and South America (www.miparentela.com), Portugal (www.meusparentes.com.pt), Brazil (www.meusparentes.com.br), the Netherlands (www.verwant.nl), Italy (www.parentistretti.it) and France (www.familleunie.fr). The platform will continue expanding to other European countries as well as worldwide. dynastree is supported by leading Business Angels, Hasso Plattner Ventures and Neuhaus Partners, a well-known venture capitalist.

Adventures in FamilySearch Indexing: Week 70

This past week my mind has been obsessed with finding a replacement for my Google Notebook. I've used it to organize my genealogy research and my life. I was devastated when Google announced that they would stop development of it this week. They said they would continue to let those that have a Google Notebook use it, but to me the handwriting was on the wall.

I have looked at and compared so many different replacements that I am blurred eyed. I found nothing that compared to my Google Notebook setup. The other thing I was worried about with an online storage of my notes is that this same scenerio could happen with another company. This lead me to wish my old TreePad Plus program would run on a flash drive. I just assumed it wouldn't. It does have an ebook creator that could at least give me access to my notes. After-all this is the method I was using until I turned into a Googlite.

I hopped on the TreePad website to see if there had been any new updates. While poking around I read somewhere that it ran on a flash drive. This was exciting news to me, it could possibly be my answer. After some experimenting I was delighted to find out how well it works off the flash drive. After a week of moaning now I have peace and joy.

I just might start wearing that flash drive around my neck. On it will be my TreePad database and in the near future a copy of RootsMagic-To-Go. This will be heaven, to have my genealogy at my finger tips wherever I go.

Now you wonder what all this has to do with FamilySearch Indexing. Not much, I just can't focus well on indexing when my mind is full of clutter. My computer time right now would have been spent focusing on a solution to my problem, if it wasn't already resolved. Hopefully my little side trip and discovery will be of some use to you also. Problem solved, NEXT!

As I always begin my FamilySearch Indexing I check for any new messages from Headquarters. There are two this week. The first one is on My Messages in the program.

From: Headquarters
Subject: Indexing Tip - Zoom Out
Date: 13 Jan 2009

Every time you download a batch, zoom out to see the full image and find all of the records on the document. Sometimes an image contains a two-page document and the second page may not be visible when zoomed in at 37% or more. For example, most images in the Arkansas Marriage III project contain two pages.

To zoom out and view the full image:

1. On the toolbar, click the magnifying glass icon with the minus (-) sign.
2. Continue to click the icon until you can see the entire image.
   

Note: To zoom back in to index the records, click the magnifying glass icon with the plus (+) sign.

Our second message is off the FamilySearch Indexing website.

January 16, 2009: Administrative Reports Available

Administrators and stake extraction directors can run their reports again. Refer to the broadcast message in the indexing application for more information.

I don't see any broadcast messages in the indexing application so it must only be available to administrators and directors. I'm sure some of you will find that note useful. I never see/hear any reports on how my stake is doing in indexing. Guess I'm in never, never land over here.

Last week I tried to work on the Illinois 1920 US Federal Census because they mentioned them in a message from headquarters. It was available so I downloaded two batches. My second batch was funny and sad at the same time. The funny part was it was sheet 1 and family 1 for that town's census. You could see the census taker's handwriting very legible and then slowly it got worse down the sheet. You could see what duplication of the same entry did after a while. The sad part was it had 6 widows or widowers on that one sheet. It was sad to see all these families with children without one parent. It made me wonder what could of happened to so many adults. World War I or the flu epidemic could be a possibilities.

I had more time so I did one more batch of the Illinois 1920 US Federal Census. The ink on the page would get really clear and then fade to almost nothing. It made me wonder what type of pens they were using in 1920? Whoever it was they made sure they got every drop out of their ink before they re-dipped or reloaded the pen.

So, the total today is three batches of 50 each, making it 150 individuals indexed. My grand total to date is 10,323. This was a nice break for me for the week. Indexing is really relaxing when you let yourself just focus on what you are reading. Well, I'm off to go transfer some Google Notebook items into my TreePad database.

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