1. News from Rootsmagic [a popular genealogy database software]: their holiday offers for Rootsmagic users have been extended through the end of the year and they also have created indexes for all of their archived  free webinars.
   
2. Haven't delved into using Billiongraves yet? Here are all the Billiongraves tutorials to help get you started.
   
3. On Genealogy Canada, Elizabeth has a link to an online index of a property atlas of Prince Edward Island.
   
4. Genealogy Trails volunteer contributors uploaded Early Officials for Medina County, Texas.
   
5. And USGenWeb volunteer contributors uploaded 64 files for various counties in the following US States: Florida, Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
6. If you can spare an hour this afternoon for some scanning, you're more than welcome tojoin the Sunday Scanday Facebook Group to help get you motivated to scan for one hour a week. This virtual group "meets" on Sundays at 3pm for just one hour.
   

• Did you miss the 8 genealogy things you needed to know yesterday morning?
• Genealogy Tip: Go Further, Go Longer
• Here are 5 tips to get you unstuck on Ancestry.com.

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

• The iOS app, Memorability, which is a free app right now during its launch period, has just added a new feature -- web viewer for photo books. Check it out! Great way to share your family stories and old photos on that new iOS device you might just be getting from Santa.
• Have a Windows Phone?  The Relative History app allows you to carry around your family tree for referencing while researching...or when explaining the family tree to your relatives during the holidays. [Or whenever you have them cornered. ;) ]

• On the Newspapers.com blog, Laura shows you how to clip an article on Newspapers.com and save it to your Ancestry.com tree. [Handy. Maybe even dandy.]
• The Library of Congress has 2 new books out for sale -- one about the history of American football and one about the history of Italian immigration in America. Both promise to be chock full of photos from the Library's collections. 
• Here's another book recommendation that looks interesting. This time from Michele Simmons Lewis on her blog Ancestoring.
• Yesterday, FamilySearch.org added or updated their databases with either indexed or digitized records for Austria and the US states of Maryland and South Carolina.
• GenealogyTrails.com volunteer contributors recently added records for Peoria County, Illinois; for various counties in Louisiana; for Bourbon County, Kentucky; and for Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.
• And USGenWeb volunteer contributors uploaded 98 files yesterday for various counties in the following US states: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington.

• Did you miss yesterday's 9 genealogy things you needed to know?
• 10 Steps to Fix That Online Family Tree You Started
• Using DocAS on the iPad for Genealogy

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

• SCGS Jamboree Extension Series announced their 2014 schedule for their popular webinars.
• For Evernote users, here's a great how-to for capturing images from the Public Domain and storing them in your Evernote.
• From the Digital Photography School blog here's an introduction to using Picasa for your photos.
• With the holidays quickly approaching, here's how to stream stuff on your iPhone to a TV from Makeuseof.com. Handy for sharing slideshows you've created on your iPhone of old family photos with the family!
• In the Technology for Genealogy Google+ Community, Jerry Kocis shared some nifty tech stuff recently: PowerPoint Timelines Add-In, Dolphin Zero browser; and Amazon's Storybuilder.
• What was your favorite toy when you were a child? Back from hiatus, the Shades of the Departed Magazine is more beautiful than ever teeming with beautiful old photographs of and entertaining articles about -- toys.

• Yesterday, FamilySearch.org added or updated records for Denmark, Hungary, and the US states of Delaware, Massachusetts, and New York.
• Ancestry.com added a new database for the US state of Georgia yesterday.
• And USGenWeb volunteer contributors uploaded 149 files for various counties in the following US states: Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia.

Correction: Yesterday, I stated the 2014 International Newspaper Conference would be held after Rootstech, and that is incorrect. It will be held right before the main Rootstech conference. My apologies. Thanks to Sue for the correction! =)

• Did you miss yesterday's 10 genealogy things you needed to know?
• A Free Family History Gift for the Holidays: the December Issue of Shades

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

Amongst the hustle and bustle of the season, stop for a moment and think about the toys you played with as a child. What did they look like? How did you play with them? Who gave them to you? What was your favorite toy? What happened to it?

Now think about your ancestors. What kinds of toys do you think your ancestors had? Do you know of any stories passed down in your family about their toys? Perhaps you have a photo or two with your ancestor holding or playing with their toys. Or maybe you're even lucky enough to own a toy your ancestor once played with.

Back from hiatus, the Shades of the Departed Magazine is more beautiful than ever. The December issue is packed with many old photos of toys and articles to get you thinking about your ancestors and their toys, including my In2Genealogy Shades column featuring "Toys, Family Stories, and Junk Piles," which, hopefully, will give you some ideas on how to use toy heirloom clues to help you learn more about your ancestors and their stories as well as give you ideas on how to talk with your living relatives about their toy stories.

And there are many, many more articles in the magazine by very talented writers. You're not going to want to miss a page! Enjoy this holiday feast for the eyes and mind for it will surely make you think of holidays past brimming with toys and family stories.

On The Cover Of Shades
The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe - Editor

Dressed To The  Nines
The Well Dressed Doll - Maureen Taylor

Watch The Birdie
Toys Used As Accessories In Photographic Studios - Brett Payne

In2Genealogy
Toys, Family Stories, & Junk Piles - Caroline Pointer

Appealing Subjects
The Appeal of Toys - Craig Manson

Queen Victoria’s Dolls 
Wooden and Paper - fM

Dervla “Dare” Dreadful
A Dreadful Adventure - A Doll’s Story

The Healing Brush
Use Your Imagination - Janine Smith

An iAncestor Christmas
All I Want For Christmas - Denise Barrett Olson

The Toy Shop Album
Toys In Old Photos

ArtiFacts
Protecting An Antique Book - Denise Levenick

The Last Picture Show
Elijah B. Core - Children’s Portrait Specialist

Click on the image below to read. Or, if for some reason that does not work, here is the direct link: http://issuu.com/shadesofthedeparted/docs/toyspub?e=12781%2004/6067285

The next issue of Shades of the Departed will be on virtual newsstands February 2014 ~ Cops & Robbers. Look for my next In2Genealogy article which will be chock full of research resources for those researching their ancestors on both sides of the law.

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

• Yesterday, the US Senate passed the bipartisan budget bill -- a sad day in the genealogy world as buried in that bill was a 3-year restriction on access to the Social Security Death Index [SSDI], a critical tool in any genealogist's research tool box. However, the Records Preservation and Access Committee [RPAC], a joint committee of FGS, NGS, and IAJGS, is on top of the issue and will be recommending what we, as researchers, will need to do to handle this new research roadblock. For further and in-depth information about the bill that was passed you can read two very informative blog posts by Barbara Matthews on the MGC Sentinel blog: What is Buried in the Budget Bill? SSDI Closure! and What is it about genealogists and the SSDI?

• Speaking of RPAC, here is their end-of-the-year report on the BCG blog. We had some wins and we had some losses.
• MyHeritage has a new Facebook app to help users discover their family history.
• In its move to compete with popular note-taking and cloud storage services like Evernote, Dropbox has added support for PDF annotations and iWork. 
• Are you using court records to help find out more about your ancestors? [I hope so.] Finding where all of them are located is the first problem. In Custodia Legis is the blog for the Law Librarians of Congress. [I don't know about you, but wherever a librarian is located is where I want to be. They know where everything is.] Here is a great roundup of the In Custodia Legis blog posts for 2013, and number two seems very, very helpful for those of us who seek more about our ancestors.
• Yesterday, findmypast Ireland announced they've added the Tank Corps and Royal Tank Corps 1919-1934 to their databases. Over the next few days, these should be added to their other sites' world subscriptions, if they haven't already been added.
• Is the Paper Monster slowly taking you over? On the Olive Tree Genealogy blog, Lorine has begun a new series to help you out with that.
• The FamilySearch blog announced recently the 2014 International Newspaper Conference will be held right after Rootstech. [I mean, right after. So if you haven't already made your hotel and airline reservations for Rootstech 2014, you could totally tack this on to the end of your trip.]
• On the Irish Genealogy News blog, Claire reveals Ireland's Folklore Collection is now online.
• And yesterday the USGenWeb volunteer contributors uploaded 115 files for various counties for various US states. Sadly, due to a technological hiccup in their archives update, only the US state of Alabama's updates were listed. My suggestion would be to go to the USGenWeb's website for whichever state(s) you have research interests in and do a general search of that state's databases.

• Did you miss yesterday's 9 genealogy things you needed to know?
• Here are 10 ways to use the Internet as a tool to find offline info [sometimes for FREE].
• The 1 trick you need to access federal population censuses for FREE.

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

• Here are some great car gadgets for genealogists-on-the-go. [You are leaving your house to do some research or grave-hunting, right?]
• For Evernote users: their Android app just got better for editing notes and here are 5 tips for using Evernote on your smartphone. 
• Trying to decide which genealogy database software to use on your Mac? Tamura has a great run-down of Family Tree Maker for Mac 3 to try and help you decide.
• Changing operating systems? Getting rid of Windows? Here is a handy dandy guide to help you with that from PC World.
• MyHistro App offers stories displayed on maps.
• Have Irish ancestors? Here's the latest from Claire on Irish Genealogy News: a new Android app for the 1911 Census; recent updates and upgrades on the Irish Newspaper Archives website; a marriage register index added to Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland [for members only]; and new online mapping software from Heritage Council. 

• The Society of Genealogists announced yesterday they've added more than 12 million records online for their members. [Have they added something you need for your across-the-pond research? Should you become a member? Check out what they have to offer.]
• According to Chris on The British GENES Blog, Origins has added London Poor Law Abstracts to its databases.
• And USGenWeb volunteer contributors uploaded 137 files yesterday for various counties in the following US states: Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Texas.
  

• Did you miss yesterday's 6 genealogy things you needed to know?
• Make a research plan with OneNote. [VIDEOS & freebies]
• Here are 9 family tree apps for your iPad.

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

• On Adventures in Genealogy Education, Angela announced a scholarship for the National Institute on Genealogical Research -- deadline Jan 15th.
• The Legal Genealogist wrote a blog post recently explaining the updates to Family Tree DNA and 23andme. [Must-read.]
• If you have ancestors who hail from the US state of New York, you'll be very, very pleased with Ancestry.com's addition of 7 New York databases yesterday. They also added new databases for London and Romania for those who subscribe to their World subscription service.

• On their Facebook Page, findmypast Ireland announced they've added Sligo Champion to their Irish Newspaper collections. Not on Facebook? Here's a direct link to their website. Over the next few days, these should be added to their other sites' world subscriptions, if they haven't already been added.
• Genealogy Trails volunteer contributors added records [like biographies, military indexes, birth/marriage/death indexes, obits, etc.] to various counties for the US states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kentucky, and New York.
• And USGenWeb volunteer contributors uploaded 115 files for various counties in the following US states: Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Texas.

• Did you miss yesterday's 7 genealogy things you needed to know?
• 10 Steps To Fix That Online Family Tree You Started
• Organize your genealogy with Evernote. [VIDEO & Freebies]

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

• On Gena's Genealogy blog, Gena shares 5 great online resources for researching your Methodist ancestors.
• Mashable has some helpful tips for using Google Maps, and if you really want to learn the ins and outs of using Google Maps to its fullest try Google's own free Mapping with Google Course. 
• Personally, I use and love Photoshop Elements, but if you're looking for some free alternatives, Lifehacker compiled a handy [and dandy] list of 5 free Photoshop alternatives.

• Want to clear your Facebook Search History? Facecrooks shows you how. Speaking of Facebook, here are some things you need to know about Facebook privacy [or a lack thereof].
• Genealogy Hound has recent biography updates for the following US counties and states: Page County, Iowa; Miami County, Ohio; McLean County, Illinois; Lauderdale County, Tennessee and Hickman County, Kentucky. And Franklin County, Arkansas and Knox County, Missouri both are now completed.
• Yesterday, various types of records were updated or added for New Castle County, Delaware on Genealogy Trails. And a Will Index was added for Northumberland County, Pennsylvania.
• And USGenWeb volunteer contributors uploaded 162 files for various counties in the following US states: Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

• Did you miss the 8 genealogy things you needed to know yesterday?
• Here are 15 iPad apps for genealogy and family history researchers.
• Doing these 3 things will profoundly help your genealogy research.

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

• This past week on Saving Stories, Robin Foster showed how she was able to break down some research brick walls using delayed birth certificates on Ancestry.com.
• On the hm-how-can-we-do-this-for-other-things front, here is an interesting project where they are mapping library book markings from books that escaped the destruction of World War II. This project helps to give a sense of where pre-war libraries were once located. [It gives me ideas...lots of them. You?]

• I think this is an interesting picture the National Archives shared publicly on their Facebook Page -- a reporter going through records that were the basis for the "The Lobotomy Files," a series of articles by The Wall Street Journal revealing the tragedy that befell many American WWII soldiers after they made it home. And, of course, this begs the question in family historians' minds, "Did this happen to my ancestor?"
• Gmail now automatically scans email images for viral content and then automatically allows images to be seen without the user needing to approve it. However, here's a way to shut that off if you want to do this manually.
• Here are this week's upcoming genealogy webinars, chats, and hangouts that have been posted on the Geneawebinars Calendar. 
• If you use a Facebook Page to get the word out about your family history, here's why you probably are not getting the engagement you want -- people can't SEE it in their news feeds very easily and the way they do things on Facebook isn't going to revert back to the "old way" any time soon. This is one of the reasons why you should be putting family history information on your own website and then share links to your website on your Facebook Page. [Applies to businesses and organizations as well. You need a Facebook presence so those on Facebook can find you and your organization, but your central location for information should always be your own website with a blog. It's where you do "business" after all.] 
• Recently, GenealogyTrails.com volunteer contributors added new information to their website for various counties in the US state of Tennessee; for various counties in the US state of Michigan; and new school-related information for Woodford County, Illinois. 
• Yesterday, USGenWeb volunteer contributors uploaded 118 files for various counties in the following US states: Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia.

• Last Sunday, there were 7 genealogy things you missed.
• On Monday, there were 6 genealogy things you missed.
• On Tuesday, there were 11 genealogy things you missed.
• On Wednesday, there were 7 genealogy things you missed.
• On Thursday, there were 10 genealogy things you missed.
• On FRIDAY-the-13th, there were 7 genealogy things you missed.
• And, yesterday, there were 13 genealogy things you missed.

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.

• The Legal Genealogist says we need to act again to help save access to the SSDI and she tells us exactly what we can do to help.
• Have Oklahoma ancestors? Genealogy Trails volunteer contributors added a whole slew of biographies for various counties in the US state of Oklahoma.
• According to the Verge blog, the new Google Tips is quite handy for those wanting to know more about using Google's various products.
• And my apologies. The Ayr Advertiser - BMD Index, 1803-1835 I mentioned on Thursday is not free to use, but free to register. [Thank you to Wayne for pointing that out!]
• And now that we are "across the pond" <grin> here are the latest updates and additions of online records mentioned by Chris on The British Genes Blog: the very interesting crowd-sourcing of The Letters of 1916; the Italian Prisoner of War Camp records now at Forces War Records; and more military burials on DeceasedOnline.com.

• More from across the pond another interesting crowd-sourcing project this time by The British Library. Can you help them?
• Still across the pond...Clare on the Irish Genealogy News blog lists recent additions to the Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives.
• On Genealogy Canada, Elizabeth shares a new database, British Women's Emigration Association Database. She also gives a little background on how and why the information was created in the first place which is really helpful.
• On the Ancestry.com blog, Kristie Wells announced Family Tree Maker Mac 3 was just released.
• Trying to go paperless? Have Apple products? Here is a guide from Makeuseof.com to help you out.
• On the FamilySearch blog, Todd Knowles announced the 2014 Annual conference dates for the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies.
• Also, yesterday FamilySearch.org added or updated records for the countries of Brazil, England, Korea, Peru; and the US states of Alabama, Idaho, Missouri, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Virginia; and the US region of New England.
• And the USGenweb volunteer contributors uploaded 232 files yesterday for various counties in the following US states: Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia.

• Did you miss yesterday's 7 genealogy things you needed to know?
• Here are 15 iPad Apps for genealogy and family history researchers.
• Here's a quick & easy holiday craft gift idea that will WOW! your family. [Or at least get them telling family stories.]

Happy Researching!
~Caroline
© Copyright 2013 4YourFamilyStory.com -- All Rights Reserved.