Well, for all the genealogists out there or anyone researching their family trees, this may be good news and it may be bad news... Ancestry CEO Tim Sullivan stated: "We will maintain Find A Grave as a free website, will retain its existing policies and mode of operation, and look forward to working with Jim Tipton and the entire Find A Grave team to accelerate the development of tools designed to make it even easier for the Find A Grave community to fulfill its original mission to capture every tombstone on earth."
This may have all started when Ancestry began to collaborate with Find A Grave. Ancestry's leafs will show up when Find A Grave matches an entry in your on-line tree or your Family Tree Maker tree. Note that BillionGraves.com is also showing up. Can there be another "collaboration" in the future? Can there be a melding of Find A Grave and Billion Graves? One is certainly substantially larger than the other. And one is certainly more technically advanced that the other as well!
There's an interesting article by Tom MacEntee at www.hackgenealogy.com that you might find interesting.
30 September 2013
29 September 2013
A Family Subject and a Genealogy Subect!
Announcement! Announcement! My niece has delivered the newest member of the clan. Raegan Louise was born this morning in Leland, NC weighing in at 8 lbs. 9 oz. She, like her cousin Lillie Rae, is named for her grandfather, Ray. Sammie and her sister Chris have cleverly used the spelling "RAE" for their father's name "RAY"...
But now, the boy/girl balance is out of whack. The combined score between my sister and I is 4 boys and 5 girls! We'll keep you posted!!
But now, the boy/girl balance is out of whack. The combined score between my sister and I is 4 boys and 5 girls! We'll keep you posted!!
When all else fails, hire a professional genealogist
Great advice...Interesting interview! Hire a local, New England oriented professional genealogist, Old Bones! Visit my site at Old Bones Genealogy or contact me directly at dave@oldbones.info!
Parent's Rights versus Grandparent's Interests - Insights from the Law
There is a fantastically informative and often entertaining blog from a renowned genealogist, lawyer and overall interesting person, Judy G Russell. Visit www.legalgenealogist.com for today's post "Games grandparents play." (Sorry...the hyperlinks don't seem to be working today!) It's a subject that, frankly, I never thought about. But at the same time, I've never had an urge to swab any of our grandkids without their parent's knowledge. Perhaps we'll get to that someday. There's just a few more pressing priorities at this time!
I subscribe to "The Legal Genealogist" and manage to read most of what she presents. I strongly recommend that you subscribe as well...Lots of good "stuff"! I've seen her speak at several venues, heard her on several webinars and look forward to the next chance I get to be further enlightened.
Speaking of grandkids, our family was blessed again this morning with the latest bundle to join the clan. Raegan Louise was born this morning and weighed in at 8 pounds 9 ounces. Her name is taken from her grandfather's first name, Ray, and her paternal great grandmother's name, Louise. She has a cousin named Lillie Rae whose middle name is after the same grandfather Ray. I think it's very creative that the sisters chose to name their girls after their father. And good luck to Sammie, Chad and Raegan!
I subscribe to "The Legal Genealogist" and manage to read most of what she presents. I strongly recommend that you subscribe as well...Lots of good "stuff"! I've seen her speak at several venues, heard her on several webinars and look forward to the next chance I get to be further enlightened.
Speaking of grandkids, our family was blessed again this morning with the latest bundle to join the clan. Raegan Louise was born this morning and weighed in at 8 pounds 9 ounces. Her name is taken from her grandfather's first name, Ray, and her paternal great grandmother's name, Louise. She has a cousin named Lillie Rae whose middle name is after the same grandfather Ray. I think it's very creative that the sisters chose to name their girls after their father. And good luck to Sammie, Chad and Raegan!
28 September 2013
National Archives Tutorials On-Line!
I subscribed to a series of webcasts given by NARA on many subjects. It was a "Virtual Genealogy Fair" about a month ago. I can't remember the exact subjects presented but they are all interesting to anyone conducting genealogical research who can make use of the amazing amount of data available.
I watched the first but didn't have time to sit for the rest. So I subscribed to UStreamTV which has archived many or possibly all of the programs from the National Archives. So far, I've received 12 e-mails with links to various shows. That's fine with me. It makes it convenient for me to grab one when I can devote an hour or to watching it from start to finish.
I could copy the links (which have about 200 characters each!!), convert or shorten them in TinyURL and post them here. Or, if you'd like me to forward one or two or all of these e-mails so that you can watch these broadcasts, send a note privately to me at dave@oldbones.info.
I'm going to attempt to attach a "Contact Form" to the bottom of this post which may make it easier for you to contact me. I tried it once before but I'm not sure if it worked! Supposedly, all I have to do is click the "Add Contact Form" button.... Sure, I can do that!!
[contact-form][contact-field label='Name' type='name' required='1'/][contact-field label='Email' type='email' required='1'/][contact-field label='Website' type='url'/][contact-field label='Comment' type='textarea' required='1'/][/contact-form]
I watched the first but didn't have time to sit for the rest. So I subscribed to UStreamTV which has archived many or possibly all of the programs from the National Archives. So far, I've received 12 e-mails with links to various shows. That's fine with me. It makes it convenient for me to grab one when I can devote an hour or to watching it from start to finish.
I could copy the links (which have about 200 characters each!!), convert or shorten them in TinyURL and post them here. Or, if you'd like me to forward one or two or all of these e-mails so that you can watch these broadcasts, send a note privately to me at dave@oldbones.info.
I'm going to attempt to attach a "Contact Form" to the bottom of this post which may make it easier for you to contact me. I tried it once before but I'm not sure if it worked! Supposedly, all I have to do is click the "Add Contact Form" button.... Sure, I can do that!!
[contact-form][contact-field label='Name' type='name' required='1'/][contact-field label='Email' type='email' required='1'/][contact-field label='Website' type='url'/][contact-field label='Comment' type='textarea' required='1'/][/contact-form]
More Massachusetts Vital Records Available at FamilySearch --- Indexing
Documents from the Massachusetts Vital Records from 1916 to 1920 and amendments from 1841 to 1920 are going up at FamilySearch.
The page at the web site states: This collection is being published as images become available.
My guess is that the more people who volunteer to index the records, the faster the project will be completed. Anyone can volunteer to help. If you're so inclined, visit FamilySearch, click on the icon labelled "Indexing" and follow the instructions. You'll have to download a small program, but it's no big deal! I've done quite a bit of indexing myself.
After you've been indexing for a while, they may ask you if you're interested in arbitrating. Here' s how it works: After you've downloaded the software, you log in and are presented with a list of documents that require indexing. The documents are rated for difficulty from 1 (easy) to 5 (difficult). For example, it would be easier to index a 1940 US census than a 15th century Portuguese baptismal record. Unless you speak 15th century Portuguese!!
Each document is indexed by two separate volunteers. Then that work is made available to arbitrators who make decisions when the indexers don't agree on what's written in the document. For example, is it "Daniel" or "David". Is it "Louisa" or "Lovisa". The arbitrators decide and then the document can be uploaded and made available for searching.
It's been a while and there might be a few tweaks in how they operate, but I can't imagine it's changed much. At any rate, the good news is that more records are being made available for on-line research!
The page at the web site states: This collection is being published as images become available.
My guess is that the more people who volunteer to index the records, the faster the project will be completed. Anyone can volunteer to help. If you're so inclined, visit FamilySearch, click on the icon labelled "Indexing" and follow the instructions. You'll have to download a small program, but it's no big deal! I've done quite a bit of indexing myself.
After you've been indexing for a while, they may ask you if you're interested in arbitrating. Here' s how it works: After you've downloaded the software, you log in and are presented with a list of documents that require indexing. The documents are rated for difficulty from 1 (easy) to 5 (difficult). For example, it would be easier to index a 1940 US census than a 15th century Portuguese baptismal record. Unless you speak 15th century Portuguese!!
Each document is indexed by two separate volunteers. Then that work is made available to arbitrators who make decisions when the indexers don't agree on what's written in the document. For example, is it "Daniel" or "David". Is it "Louisa" or "Lovisa". The arbitrators decide and then the document can be uploaded and made available for searching.
It's been a while and there might be a few tweaks in how they operate, but I can't imagine it's changed much. At any rate, the good news is that more records are being made available for on-line research!
Related articles
- U.S. Gov't to Release Census Covering the Great Depression (theblaze.com)
- Vineyard will host "Indexathon", October 19th, 2013 (yservebyu.wordpress.com)
- October is National Family History Month (dupagecountygenealogicalsociety.wordpress.com)
- Scottish Roots & Scotland's People (agenealogyinbaltimore.wordpress.com)
27 September 2013
Old Bones on TV??? Old Bones on TV!!!
For the fourth time, I was asked to be interviewed for the Ludlow (Mass) Community TV program. Lillian Genthner is the host. Her husband had been a Shriners clown for many years performing under the name "Buttercup". So Lillian adopted the name "Mrs. Buttercup." Initially, her programs were mostly arts and crafts or story telling. But in the past year or so, she's been "branching out"!
Since she's been researching her own family for several years, she became very interested in the "Introduction to Genealogy and Family Research" that I conducted at the First Church in Ludlow where she is a member. She attended my first series there. After the last session, she asked if I'd like to be interviewed for local TV. I was very interested and so far we've had 4 sessions. I could go on and on about what we've talked about. But it's probably easier for me to just offer you the link to the last program. All the others are archived at this site, so you can certainly go back and watch the others.
Here's the link to the latest interview of Old Bones Genealogy at Ludlow Community TV.
I'd love to hear your comments (be nice!) or feel free to contact me directly about this or any other post!
Thanks!
[contact-form][contact-field label='Name' type='name' required='1'/][contact-field label='Email' type='email' required='1'/][contact-field label='Website' type='url'/][contact-field label='Comment' type='textarea' required='1'/][/contact-form]
Since she's been researching her own family for several years, she became very interested in the "Introduction to Genealogy and Family Research" that I conducted at the First Church in Ludlow where she is a member. She attended my first series there. After the last session, she asked if I'd like to be interviewed for local TV. I was very interested and so far we've had 4 sessions. I could go on and on about what we've talked about. But it's probably easier for me to just offer you the link to the last program. All the others are archived at this site, so you can certainly go back and watch the others.
Here's the link to the latest interview of Old Bones Genealogy at Ludlow Community TV.
I'd love to hear your comments (be nice!) or feel free to contact me directly about this or any other post!
Thanks!
[contact-form][contact-field label='Name' type='name' required='1'/][contact-field label='Email' type='email' required='1'/][contact-field label='Website' type='url'/][contact-field label='Comment' type='textarea' required='1'/][/contact-form]
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