Check out the latest records FamilySearch added to their collections — more US GenealogyBank Obituaries, Supreme Court case files from North Carolina, more death certificates for Utah, and naturalization indexes for Rhode Island Plus, more updates to international collections. 

​Quite a variety of records were recently added or updated to FamilySearch.org! A little something for everyone (hopefully) to explore during the holidays.
​

• Australia Tasmania Civil Registration (District Registers) 1839-1938
• BillionGraves Index
• Delaware Vital Records 1650-1974
• England Kent Parish Registers 1538-1911
• England Kent Register of Electors 1570-1907
• England Lancashire Cheshire Yorkshire Parish Registers 1603-1909
• England Lancashire Parish Registers 1538-1910
• Find A Grave Index
• ​Italy Pescara Civil Registration (State Archive) 1809-1929
• Italy Ragusa Civil Registration (State Archive) 1900-1940
• Italy Reggio Calabria Civil Registration (State Archive) 1896-1943
• Italy Savona Civil Registration (State Archive) 1806-1813 1838-1936
• Missouri Pre-WWII Adjutant General Enlistment Contracts 1900-1941
• Netherlands Zuid-Holland Province Civil Registration 1679-1942
• Philippines Manila Civil Registration 1899-1984
• Spain Province of Sevilla Municipal Records 1293-1966
• Tennessee County Marriages 1790-1950
• United States Census 1940
• United States GenealogyBank Obituaries 1980-2014
• Utah Weber Ogden John David Eccles Photograph Collection 1951-1976
• Wales Glamorgan West Glamorgan Electoral Registers 1839-1925

~Caroline

For those with roots in mostly Latin America or Eastern Europe will be pleased with the latest updates to FamilySearch's collections. ​Time to grab that cup of coffee and start diving in!

• Argentina National Census 1869
• Brazil São Paulo Immigration Cards 1902-1980
• Czech Republic Land Records 1450-1889
• Dominican Republic Civil Registration 1801-2010
• El Salvador Civil Registration 1704-1977​
• Montana County Births and Deaths 1840-2004
• Ukraine Kyiv Orthodox Consistory Church Book Duplicates 1840-1896
• United States Rosters of Revolutionary War Soldiers and Sailors 1775-1783

​​

~Caroline

PBS' Genealogy Roadshow hits the road again to tape season 3. The next two stops will be in Florida and Texas.

If you are in the Miami, Florida area Sunday, November 1st go down to the History Miami Museum, 101 West Flagler St, and visit with genealogy societies, historical societies, and vendors to get help with your family history — no matter your skill level. Plus, have fun being a part of the taping of Genealogy Roadshow! Line forms outside at 8am and taping begins promptly at 9am and continues through about 6:30pm.

If you are in the Houston, Texas area Sunday, November 22nd go down to the beautiful Julia Ideson Building (Houston Public Library system) on 550 McKinney St., and visit with genealogy societies, historical societies, and vendors to get help with your family history — no matter your skill level! I will be there representing the Federation of Genealogical Societies so come visit and have fun being a part of the taping of Genealogy Roadshow! Line forms at 8am and taping begins promptly at 9am and continues through about 6:30 pm.

Season 3 will air 17 May 2016 on PBS.

~Caroline

I don't covet much. Besides it being one of the big top 10 Thou Shall Nots (the listicle of all listicles for Christians), it's a waste of time to covet. Okay, there was that time when I was eight that I coveted my best friend Christie's above ground ivy-covered atomic bomb fallout shelter that she had in her backyard. That was SO cool in the late 1970s to play in. One day we were princesses locked in the tower by the mean old witch of a queen. Another, we were mad scientists. 

We played in that thing for hours upon hours until I had to go home for dinner at dark thirty. So, you can't blame me too much for coveting that, right?

Like I said, I don't covet much as an adult. [Hard to beat the fallout-shelter-then-playhouse.] However, I felt a twinge of yearning when I saw this new dynamic search map on Ancestry.

Most of you are probably aware (at least, I hope you are) of the handy dandy clickable search map on the Ancestry Search Page. It looks like this:

You simply click on the map the state you want to search the database collections of (or the name of the state below the map) and you get the following.

Like I said, handy dandy. You can also click on the tabs above the map to select different countries. All very nice. But then I was on Twitter and saw the Ancestry UK Twitter account tweet this:

So I clicked on their link and then gasped! Take a look at this:

You can zoom in and out with the roller ball on your mouse. Or, if on your iPad, you can use your fingers in what I like to call the pinch and anti-pinch moves to zoom in and out. Fancy schmancy. And then when you click (or tap) on the collections map marker, it tells you the number of collections Ancestry has for that state and then gives you this on another page on your computer:

And then it looks like this on the iPad:

I want that new Explore(r) Map like I wanted that ivy-covered fallout shelter playhouse in *my* backyard. 

Christie never taunted me like this.

Do you have it? Have you seen it?

~Caroline

Previously MyHeritage released Instant Discoveries™ in December 2014 to make it easier for newcomers to family history to begin their family-seeking journey. When launched, using MyHeritage's Smart Matching™, New Discoveries™ allowed a user to add a "package" of family history to their tree all at once as long as a person in their tree matched a branch in an existing tree in MyHeritage's database of user-created family trees. The "package" can contain up to 40-50 people. Thus, giving the user a whole new branch of people to their tree.

Now, this feature is available to all  MyHeritage users. So, instead of carefully adding people to their family tree, MyHeritage users will be able to add 40-50 people at a time to their family tree using MyHeritage's Smart Technology™ and New Discoveries™.

My extreme caution to MyHeritage users is that they fully research those 40-50 people before adding them to their tree because even if they are not sure if they are truly related to these people, Smart Technology™ will turn around and use their family tree to help match with another person's tree. And so on and so on. But that's only if the user cares about if they are truly related to these people. If not and they are just wanting to have a little fun, then go for it. It makes for a fun game. Some matches might even be correct if the tree they add from is correct.

After all, no technology—smart or otherwise—is checking the validity of any information contained in a tree or the "packages" of information. It is matching data entered. If it matches, then it suggests you add it. But if the original information they suggest is wrong and it matches your wrong information you got from another online family tree service, then it will be wrong.

MyHeritage has also created this nifty World Map of Discoveries. With this interactive map, you can watch users having fun as they add these Instant Discoveries™ to their trees on MyHeritage all across the world "almost" in real time. Are they truly related to those people they are adding to their family tree? Not sure. But the map is fun to watch.

For more information about Instant Discoveries™, please visit the MyHeritage Blog.

So, what do you think? Do you use MyHeritage? Will you be using Instant Discoveries™? And if so, will you check the validity of the information before adding the "package" or after or not at all? Comment below.

~Caroline

The following press release and 30% lifetime discount offer was just received from HistoryLines. Disclosure: I met Jeff Haddon, co-founder of HistoryLines, at FGS 2014 in San Antonio, Texas, where he showed me HistoryLines. I then viewed it in beta, and I also received and took advantage of a lifetime 50% discount off the regular membership price available to beta testers. And next up from me is a blog post about using HistoryLines, but take a look at their press release and their offer. ~Caroline

Site provides instant life sketches and personal timelines for ancestors, saving genealogists time

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This press release was just received from the Guild of One-Name Studies. ~Caroline

Join the Guild of One-Name Studies at the Who Do You Think You Are? – Live Birmingham show (16th to 18th April 2015), thereby saving £1 on the normal rate for April joiners and receive a special “show time only” goody bag.

A special show offer of £22 will cover full membership to the Guild of One-Name Studies for a period of 19 months up to 1 November 2016. The current rate for anyone taking out an extended Guild membership in April 2015 is £23.  New Guild members joining at the show will receive a goody bag comprising a “Special Guild 8Gb USB drive” (priced £9.00 at the show) which has the Guilds Members handbook, The Art of One-Name Studies “Seven Pillars of Wisdom” book (hard copy usually £7.00), the 2014 Guild Register and all 132 back issues of the Guild Journal of One-Name Studies pre-loaded, a Guild Lanyard and a Guild pen, along with their normal Guild joining pack.

All visitors attending the Guild stand will also be offered free prints of the distribution map for their selected surname as recorded in the British 1881 census provided by Steve Archer’s “Surname Atlas” program.

This special offer of full membership to the Guild of One-Name Studies for a period of 19 months up to 1 November 2016 is also available Worldwide via the Guild’s website – www.one-name.org from the 16th April 2015.  The joining fee is: UK £22.00, Australia AUS$44.00. Canada CAN$44.00, Europe €31.00, New Zealand NZ$47.00 and USA US$37.00.

Details of all the Guild facilities can be found at: www.one-name.org/guildsvces.html

- where you can find more about:

• undertaking a one-name study
• the benefits of joining the Guild of One-Name Studies
• the assistance members of the Guild can provide to anyone researching their family history on any of the 8,500 plus names currently being researched

The sliding scale of subscriptions, depending on the month of joining, can be found at www.one-name.org/guildansubs.html

Cliff Kemball, the Guild Publicity Manager, said today:

“Visit the Guild Stand (Stand T7-T9) at the WDYTYA Birmingham show (16th to 18th April 2015) and learn more about the Guild of One-Name Studies and what excellent value for money membership of the Guild provides. Alternatively join the Guild on-line at http://www.one-name.org/about-the-guild/how-to-join.html from the 16th April and benefit from the reduced membership fee.”

I'm trying to find evidence of a birth in 1860. I have his birth date and place from his death certificate and the census records loosely support that but I need something closer in time to when he was born. His obituary cannot be found which would not be closer, but still... 

And he died intestate and rather poor. His wife was appointed administratrix over...almost nothing. (I hate those slim envelopes in the mail from courthouses most of the time and this was one of those times.) Again, not closer in time to his birth.

I first thought that since his mother had grown up Catholic and married in the Catholic church, it might not be so hard. After all, I already knew the Catholic records for Galveston, Texas were pretty easy to access.

However, the archivist at the Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston disabused me of that silly notion rather quickly with a thin envelope in the mail of her own. She also seemed kind of sad in her letter to me about not finding it or his marriage record. I was almost consoled by that. <grin>

So, it would seem this family line had a change in church denomination. Maybe. But I had no clue which denomination his father had been or what anyone else in the family had been.

I knew my guy had been married in Galveston because I finally obtained his marriage record. Only cost me a day of driving in the pouring rain with high winds and a Fitbit. (Yes, I lost my Fitbit that day either in the McDonald's I stopped at to go to the bathroom or at the courthouse or in either of those establishment's parking lots. Stupid thing had been popping off lately and it did one last time...in the pouring rain.)

When I got home and dried off I looked at the marriage record and transcribed it and the other lovely records I managed to wrangle from an obstinate clerk and then cooked dinner.

Several days later I'm looking in the Galveston, Texas newspaper not for my guy but his brothers. Everyone is prominent in this family because of their grandfather and great uncle and two are lawyers including my guy. However, other than being a lawyer and advertising his business, his paper trail is slim. (Of course.) His lawyer brother is in the papers too because he flirted with politics. So, I get lots of hits for both of them in the newspaper searches.

But his other brother?

A minister. At least, that's what his death certificate lists as his occupation and the census records too.

So, I was looking in the newspaper to see what I could see about the minister in this prominent family. And on the day this minister brother was ordained as a Presbyterian Minister up north, there was a 3 column write-up in the newspaper about it in Galveston. And I carefully began to read it. (Okay, I first skimmed it for personal family information which was at the end and quite abundant but I'd expect no less from this prominent family.) But then I went back and carefully read it from the beginning and then I recognized a name...

...a name of one of the ministers a part of my guy's brother's ordination.

I pulled out my guy's marriage record and voila. The minister who had married my guy had also been a part of his brother's ordination and according to the article was the minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Galveston who had been next on my list to look up in the newspaper but wasn't my first choice because I figured he'd pop up a lot in the search. (Could you imagine? The christenings, marriages, & funerals he presided over as well as the titles of the sermons he gave? Because it appears after looking him up those made the papers too.)

Of course, the city directories would have identified him as well, but I just thought, perhaps, since this was a prominent family in Galveston that my guy's minister brother would have showed up in the paper for...something. (And I had other clues I was looking for as well.)

And a quick Google search told me the church was still open. So I called and found out that their historical records are kept at the Rosenberg Library.

Of course, I already knew she meant the Galveston and Texas History Center which is the archives on the 3rd floor of the library which has an online searchable database of finding aids of their manuscript collections. And, presto — I have an inventory of all the church's records that they have.

Looks like I'll be going back to the Island to see what I can see. (I'll have plenty of steps. Just no Fitbit to count them. If you lose your Fitbit but you still step, does it count?)

But the clue was his brother was a minister.

~Caroline