DNA News and Classes at RootsTech 2018

by | Mar 14, 2018 | 01 What's New, DNA, MyHeritage | 1 comment

RootsTech 2018 was so exciting—especially for a genetic genealogist such as myself! There were so many DNA lectures to choose from every day, including the one I’ve recommended at the end of this post. (It was so much fun–I did it with Lisa Louise Cooke! And it’s such an important topic!) But before you watch it, here’s some important DNA news that broke at RootsTech this year.

DNA news from RootsTech 2018

MyHeritage’s Big Tree

Addressing the biggest problem in genetic genealogy, namely the looming What Next? question facing millions of newly swabbed participants, MyHeritage announced the Big Tree. This giant network of genetic and genealogy results will automate much of the match comparison and tree searching to replace your head-scratching with light-bulb moments. They have already made significant headway on this project, as reported in the journal Science, on which MyHeritage’s own chief scientific officer Yaniv Erlich collaborated.

The journal reports that the team of scientists successfully extracted public family trees from Geni.com (a MyHeritage daughter company), and then used a computer program to clean up and link the trees together. It sounds like MyHeritage will be adding genetic data to this kind of tree data in their Big Tree project.

Helping adoptees

MyHeritage is showing support for the 7 million adopted individuals in the United States with their new DNA Quest campaign. Lisa’s already blogged in more detail about this, but in short, MyHeritage will provide 15,000 DNA test kits to eligible adoptees (free of charge) to help them use DNA to reunite them with their biological families. With this initiative they “hope to make this project a shining light for corporate philanthropy and an example to be followed by other commercial companies in their own lines of expertise to make the world a better place.”

MyHeritage has assembled an advisory board of genetic genealogists and genetic counselors to help drive this project and ensure it meets the needs of the community. If you or someone you know is interested in participating, you can head on over to the DNA Quest website to fill out an application. But you better hurry: the application deadline is April 30, 2018.

Living DNA: Matches are coming

The UK-based company Living DNA announced that they plan to add DNA matching to their popular origins test by third quarter 2018. When they launched in October of 2016, LivingDNA was not offering cousin matching, but opted instead to focus all of their resources on providing very detailed origins reports, including breaking down the UK in up to 46 categories. (Living DNA can already detect up to 21 regions in the UK, four in Italy and four in China—and the company is adding more regions all the time. Click here to order a DNA test from Living DNA.)

In the months since their launch, they have been working on a genetic matching system, called Family Networks, that will appeal to a wide range of users and will “reduce the risk of human error and take away the tedious task of figuring out how each person on a user’s list are related to one another.” They are promising an experience that provides “a level of relationship prediction and specificity beyond anything currently on the market.”

So it sounds like if you are currently struggling with turning your DNA matches into genealogical discoveries, our testing companies want you to know you are not alone, and they are working hard to provide solutions to these problems! Time will only tell if they can succeed.

Some of the best DNA news: “No tree required”

At a RootsTech live-streaming session, now free to watch on the RootsTech website, Lisa Louise Cooke and I teamed up to talk about how to work with DNA matches who haven’t posted tree data. It’s true—sometimes you can learn important details about your family history even without their trees. Other people’s trees may include the ancestors you have in common, and with persistent sleuthing, you may be able to find them.
The Author: Diahan Southard

The Author: Diahan Southard

Your DNA Guide

Diahan is Your DNA Guide at Genealogy Gems! She has worked with the Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation, and has been in the genetic genealogy industry since it has been an industry. She holds a degree in Microbiology and her creative side helps her break the science up into delicious bite-sized pieces for you. She’s the author of a full series of DNA guides for genealogists.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

Canadian Genealogy Conference in British Columbia

by | Mar 12, 2018 | 01 What's New, Canadian, Conferences

This Canadian genealogy conference is one of western Canada’s largest. Coming this fall to British Columbia, it features 3 days of learning from 11 acclaimed speakers and a Marketplace to explore new genealogy products.

Canadian genealogy conference coming up

The Kelowna & District Genealogical Society in British Columbia, Canada, is pleased to announce its Harvest Your Family Tree Genealogical Conference and Marketplace, to be held September 28-30, 2018. The conference website describes this event as “one of Western Canada’s largest conferences, featuring three days of learning & discovery, opportunities for one-on-one networking and much more.”

Acclaimed speakers from Australia, USA and Canada will present on 31 topics for beginners to seasoned researchers:

  • DNA with world-renowned genetic genealogist Blaine Bettinger and Lesley Anderson of Ancestry DNA;
  • Hands-on learning about Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and internet searching for family historians;
  • Connecting with relatives and records through social networking;
  • Organizing your computer & your research;
  • Getting the most out of Ancestry, the Canadian Census, Library & Archives Canada databases and learning about more great places and techniques to find records;
  • Inspiring ideas for writing your family history, wringing out every clue from documents, and putting those family photos to work;
  • Expert advice for finding your ancestors in Eastern Europe, England, Ireland, Canada and Australia.

According to the site, “Our Marketplace will be bursting with information and the products you need to take your genealogical pursuits to the next level, including Ancestry. Add to this, the KDGS Family & Local History Research Centre’s Open House, Meet the Speakers Reception, Guided Historic Cemetery Walking Tour and bushels of fabulous Door Prizes and Raffles all set in Kelowna during Apple & Grape Harvest Season… making THIS an event not to be missed!”

Click here to learn more about this Canadian genealogy conference and to find registration information.

More genealogy events

​Internationally-acclaimed genealogy speaker Lisa Louise Cooke has spoken at this conference in the past. Click here to see a list of her upcoming events and locations.
About the Author: Sunny Morton

About the Author: Sunny Morton

Sunny is a Contributing Editor at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems; her voice is often heard on the Genealogy Gems Podcast and Premium Podcasts. She’s  known for her expertise on the world’s biggest family history websites (she’s the author of Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites); writing personal and family histories (she also wrote Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy); and sharing her favorite reads for the Genealogy Gems Book Club.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

4 Must-Explore Ancestry.com Collections

by | Mar 10, 2018 | 01 What's New, Ancestry, Maps, Records & databases

Some Ancestry.com collections are super valuable but, for one reason or another, are easy to miss. You DON’T want to miss these four exclusive Ancestry.com collections that were hand-picked by an Ancestry staffer: landowner maps, iconic shopping catalog images, Prohibition-era identification cards and even WWII-era motion pictures.

4 Ancestry.com collections you don’t want to miss

Recently at RootsTech 2018, I compared historical record collections on the genealogy giants (Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com). An Ancestry.com staffer saw my lecture and emailed me with some of his favorite (and exclusive) Ancestry.com collections that don’t appear among your ‘shaky leaf’ hints, so they’re easy to miss. The descriptions below come from him or the site, and I’ve added some sample images–including a map showing the location of my great-great grandfather’s land.

Sears, Roebuck and Co. Catalogs, 1896-1993

“Do you know what your great-grandparents would have worn? What would they have wanted for Christmas? Get an idea by looking at the Sears Catalog through the years. The original 1888 mailer carrying watches and jewelry expanded into a catalog in 1894 that kept growing offering an ever-widening range of products: sewing machines, sporting goods, musical instruments, saddles, firearms, buggies, bicycles, baby carriages, and clothing. In the late 1800s the catalog began carrying Christmas holiday items leading to its eventual status as the “Wish Book.”

Other interesting facts about the Sears and Roebuck Catalog include some of the people who were involved in the making of it. Big name 40s and 50s film stars Lauren Bacall and Susan Hayward model fashions in pages of the catalog. Also featured are Ted Williams, a major baseball player in the 40s; Al Unser, a race car driver; and Gene Autry, “The Singing Cowboy.”

If your ancestor was a member of a fraternal organization such as the Freemasons or the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, you may be able to find pictures of pins created for their organizations. Music history in America also credits Sears catalog with changing American lifestyle because of the inexpensive but quality musical instruments offered through mail order.”

Prohibition agent identification cards, 1920-1925

“With the enactment of the Volstead Act in 1920, Prohibition agents were called upon to do the often unpopular work of enforcing the law, which included shutting down speakeasies and stills and interrupting the trafficking of bootleg alcoholic beverages. This collection contains identification card files for prohibition agents, prohibition inspectors, prohibition directors, warehouse agents, narcotics agents, and narcotics inspectors in the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s Prohibition Unit.”

County Land Ownership Maps (US), 1860-1918

“Land ownership maps are portrayals of land purchased, granted, or inherited. They range in complexity from rough outlines of the boundaries of one tract of land to detailed county atlases showing every landowner at the time of compilation.

These maps are valuable to genealogists because they often contain the names of landowners, they predate topographic maps, they show important historical township and county boundaries [and] can include photos of county officers, landholders, and some buildings and homes. This database contains approximately 1,200 U.S. county land ownership atlases from the Library of Congress’ Geography and Maps division, covering the years 1860-1918…These maps can be searched by state, county, year and owner’s name.”

Note from Sunny: This collection has proven valuable to me because it helped me locate my great-great grandfather’s property on a Pennsylvania map. Shown here!

WWII Newsreels, 1942-1946

“Newsreels averaged 10 minutes in length and consisted of U.S. military footage depicting allied military operations and other events from the home front. Much of the footage was taken by military combat photographers and is in excellent condition.

This database contains all 267 issues of the ‘United News’ newsreels. Some of the more well-known WWII events depicted in these newsreels includes: Marines Raise Flag Over Iwo Jima, D-Day, Japanese Sign Final Surrender, Invasion of Sicily, and MacArthur Returns to the Philippines.

Note from Sunny: Search this database using keywords relating to your family, such as places, military units or a descriptive term such as engineer. The sample footage shown here, “Yanks help repair French railroad” appears in this Ancestry.com collection. (For ease of display on our site, we’re showing you the same footage from YouTube.)

Learn more about the genealogy giants

Learn more about what’s on Ancestry.com and the other genealogy giants, FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com). I specialize in comparing these sites to each other so you’ll know where to turn to meet your research needs. Click here to read more about the genealogy giants and to see my exclusive quick reference guide, Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites. It’s arguably the smartest investment you can make before investing time and subscription dollars in the major genealogy websites.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

About the Author: Sunny Morton

About the Author: Sunny Morton

Sunny is a Contributing Editor at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems; her voice is often heard on the Genealogy Gems Podcast and Premium Podcasts. She’s  known for her expertise on the world’s biggest family history websites (she’s the author of Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites); writing personal and family histories (she also wrote Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy); and sharing her favorite reads for the Genealogy Gems Book Club.

New Genealogy Records on the Genealogy Giants

by | Mar 9, 2018 | 01 What's New, Genealogy Giants Websites, Records & databases

Millions of new genealogy records for Australia, the British Isles, the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Central and South America have been added to Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, Findmypast.com and MyHeritage.com, the “genealogy giants.”

This week, we’ve sorted them by site, in case you’re just using one or two of them. But we do think you should know about them all! Click here for in-depth comparisons of the genealogy giants.

New genealogy records on Ancestry.com

Australia. Subscribers may search a new collection, Victoria, Australia, Asylum Records, 1853-1940. According to the description, “This collection is comprised of Asylum Records between 1853-1940 from the Public Record Office Victoria. The following information will typically be found: name of patient, age and birth place of patient, date admitted into asylum, reason they were admitted and photographs also occasionally appear.”

England. The new collection, Worcestershire, England, Extracted Church of England Parish Records, 1541-1812, “is a collection of historical parish registers from Worcestershire, England…The records include baptisms/christenings, burials, marriages, tombstone inscriptions, obituaries, tax lists, wills, and other miscellaneous types of records. All of the data was converted as it was originally presented in various published registers and books.”

Another new collection, Liverpool, England, Electoral Registers, 1832-1970 “contains yearly registers listing names and residences of people in Liverpool, who were eligible to vote in elections. These year-by-year registers can help place your ancestors in a particular place and possibly also reveal a bit about property they owned.”

Poland. A new index, USHMM: Poland, Jewish Holocaust Survivors Registered in Warsaw, 1945-1946, “was indexed by World Memory Project contributors from the digitized holdings of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum…This database contains more than 31,000 registration cards completed by Jewish survivors in Warsaw after the war, in order to register with the Central Committee of Polish Jews (Centralny Komitet Żydów w Polsce). While the cards themselves were compiled in Warsaw, only 15,270 individuals have Warsaw listed as their postwar residence. The original documents are held by the Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, Poland.”

New York. A new collection, New York State, Marriage Index, 1881-1967 “consists of indexes of marriages from the state of New York between the years 1881 and 1967. The collection contains only indexes to records, but the certificate number can be used to order a copy of the original certificate. Details vary, but may include names of bride or groom, marriage date, and place and certificate number.

Scotland. The new collection, Edinburgh, Scotland, Electoral Registers, 1832-1966, “contains yearly registers listing names and residences of people in Edinburgh, Scotland, who were eligible to vote in elections.” Another new collection, Fife, Scotland, School Admissions and Discharges, 1867-1916, “is a collection of School Admission and Discharges for schools in Fife, Scotland…These records are lists of children who were admitted to and discharged from schools. When education was required, children could be discharged from their schooling if they were needed to work to help support the family. The records vary by school and some are more detailed than others.”

United Kingdom. A new Ancestry.com collection, UK, Registers of Employees of the East India Company and the India Office, 1746-1939, “lists the employees, both civil and military, of the East India Company and later, the India Office. You may be able to find (where available): Name, Military Rank, Place of residence or military service, Date of death, Place of death, Date of marriage and Name of parents.”

New genealogy records on FamilySearch.org

Because there’s so much to find on FamilySearch.org (in so many different places), we recommend you consult an expert resource like the Unofficial Guide to FamilySearch by Dana McCullough.

Check out these collections—all of them free:

Australia. Over a half million indexed records have been added to the collection, Australia Cemetery Inscriptions, 1802-2005. The site describes the collection as “Cards of cemetery inscriptions from many cemeteries throughout Australia. The majority of the cemeteries are in Queensland, but there are some in New South Wales, Norfolk Island, Tasmania, and Western Australia. Some cards include information culled from local newspapers which sometimes include birth and marriage announcements.”

Austria. Nearly 200,000 digital images and nearly 300,000 indexed names have been added to Austria, Vienna Population Cards, 1850-1896. These are described as “population cards for individual residents of the city of Vienna, Austria. The cards include: name; birth date and place; marital status; old and new places of residence; and dates of arrival and departure. Frequently the names of the spouse and children are listed. Many people from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Eastern Europe passed through Vienna and may be included on these cards.”

Brazil. Nearly 100,000 indexed names have been added to Brazil, Santa Catarina, Catholic Church Records, 1714-1977. These are “baptism, marriage, and death records created by various Catholic parishes and diocese in the state of Santa Catarina. Some of these records have been indexed and are searchable as part of this collection.”

Colombia. A new collection with more than 170,000 indexed names is Colombia, Diocese of Barranquilla, Catholic Church Records, 1808-1985. These are “Catholic Church records created by parishes in the Diocese of Barranquilla, Colombia. These records include: baptisms, confirmations, marriages, marriage investigation files, deaths, and indexes. Some of these records have been indexed and are searchable as part of this collection. Additional indexed records will be published as they become available.”

El Salvador. Nearly 200,000 indexed names have been added to El Salvador Civil Registration, 1704-2001. According to the description, these records are “Births, marriages, deaths, indexes and other records created by civil registration offices in El Salvador.”

Peru. Nearly 275,000 indexed names have been added to Peru, Lima, Civil Registration, 1874-1996. These are “births, marriages, deaths, indexes and other records created by civil registration offices in the department of Lima, Peru.”

Russia. Over 180,000 record images have been published online in a new collection, Russia, Karelia Poll Tax Census (Revision Lists), 1782-1858. These are “images of family lists for the tax-paying population (about 95% of the population) conducted primarily in the years 1782, 1795, 1811, 1816, 1833-1834, 1850-1851, and 1857-1858. Some outlying years are included. Localities reflect the places that existed during the period of the Russian Empire since the records were created at that time.”

New genealogy records on Findmypast.com

England: Derbyshire Parish Records. “Brand new records covering the parishes of Alvaston, Boulton, Chellaston, Holbrook, Longford, Newton Solney and Wilne have been added to our collection of Derbyshire Parish records, including: 255,626 baptisms; 126,083 marriages; and 16,902 burials.…Parish records generally begin from 1538 after the Church of England mandated the keeping of parish registers in 1537. Baptisms, marriages and burials were all recorded in a single volume until 1774, when the law changed to require a separate marriage register and another one for banns (or proclamations of an intent to marry). Standardized forms for these registers appeared in 1812.”

US Catholic parish records

  • Illinois (Archdiocese of Chicago). Search over 411,000 baptismal registers, over 153,000 parish marriage records, over 37,000 parish burial records and over 1.9 million cemetery records (burial index cards, burial registers, daily burial logs, and registers of cemetery lot owners). The parish records span from the late 1800s up to 1925 and the cemetery records from 1864-1989. In baptismal records, discover the date and location of baptisms, the names of parents and family residence. Marriage records include “the couple’s marriage date, marriage location, the names of their parents and the names of any witnesses.” All have both transcripts and images of original records. The Archdiocese of Chicago was first established in 1843 and serves the Catholic population of Cook and Lake Counties in northeastern Illinois.
  • Maryland (Archdiocese of Baltimore). Subscribers may now browse “over 54,000 individual baptism, marriage, burial, communion, and confirmation registers from the Archdiocese of Baltimore in their entirety. The registers span the years from 1782 to 1918 and can provide a variety of important biographical details about your ancestor.” Click here to start browsing!
  • New York (Archdiocese of NY). “Search brand new indexes of Sacramental Registers, released in partnership with the Archdiocese of New York, of both baptisms and marriages “covering the boroughs of Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island in New York City, as well as the Counties of Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester. The records date back to 1785, span more than 130 years of the region’s history and come from more than 230 parishes across the Archdiocese.

New genealogy records on MyHeritage.com

Get the most out of MyHeritage.com, a genealogy giant with a global user base and free family websites! Check out our essential (yet inexpensive) MyHeritage.com Quick Reference Guide, available in the Genealogy Gems store.

England & Wales: 1939 Register. This huge addition was announced during RootsTech 2018 last week. According to a press release, “Prepared on the eve of World War II, with 33 million searchable records, the 1939 Register is the most complete census-like collection for the population of England and Wales between 1911 and 1951….For each household member, the 1939 Register records name, gender, address, birth date, marital status, place of residence, and occupation….The 1939 Register collection is not exclusive, but other than MyHeritage, it is currently available on only one other website [Findmypast.com]. The initial collection on MyHeritage includes an index, without images.”

Canada: Canadian Obituaries, 1997-2017 is a new collection of “2 million records, documenting obituaries and memorials from the 10 Canadian provinces, spanning mostly 1997-2017. It includes the name of the deceased, the date of death, the publication source including locality information, and the text of the obituary or memorial — in English or French depending on the source. When available, a photograph of the deceased is also included.”

Share with your friends!

Who do you know with ancestors in Australia? England? Scotland? Austria? The United States? Poland? Brazil? Peru? Russia? The other countries mentioned above? Why not take a second and share this post with them? Thank you–you’re a gem!

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

About the Author: Sunny Morton

About the Author: Sunny Morton

Sunny is a Contributing Editor at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems; her voice is often heard on the Genealogy Gems Podcast and Premium Podcasts. She’s  known for her expertise on the world’s biggest family history websites (she’s the author of Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites); writing personal and family histories (she also wrote Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy); and sharing her favorite reads for the Genealogy Gems Book Club.

New State Genealogy Records Online

by | Mar 2, 2018 | 01 What's New, Records & databases, United States

Local and state genealogy records can be some of the best resources for tracing your family history in the United States.

Check out these new or updated collections from 15 different states: AR, FL, GA, ID, IL, IN, MD, MA, NE, NJ, NM, NC, SC, TX and WY.

State genealogy records now online

Arkansas. The University of Arkansas at Little Rock website reports that “a history class at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has created a new digital index of Phillips County death certificates from 1917 to 1922. Dr. Brian Mitchell’s American Urban History Class created the index during the fall 2017 semester and donated the archive to the Arkansas History Commission so it can be made available for public use.”

Florida. Subscription website Newspapers.com recently added these titles: “Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times), as well as the Tampa Tribune and the Tampa Times.” According to the site, “The Tampa Bay Times, currently Florida’s largest paper, got its start in 1884 as a small weekly paper called the West Hillsborough Times. During the 1890s, the paper moved to St. Petersburg and the name was changed to the St. Petersburg Times, a title it would retain for more than a century.”

Also: the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has created a new statewide database of “cold cases.” It features more than 400 unsolved cases, according to this article.

Georgia. The blog of the Digital Library of Georgia has announced “the addition of over 10,000 digitized pages of African American funeral programs to the Augusta Public Library’s Eula M. Ramsey Johnson Memorial Funeral Program Collection. Spanning 1933-2017 and consisting of over 3,000 programs, the digital collection provides both a rich source of genealogical information and local history about the African American community. Programs are freely available online through the DLG.”

Also at the Digital Library of Georgia: Henry L. Benning Civil War materials are now available online. During the Civil War, Henry L. Benning “served as Colonel of the 17th Georgia Infantry in twenty-one engagements including Antietam, Gettysburg, and Chickamauga… Benning’s war correspondence deals with his service throughout the war and includes orders sent to him, reports of engagements, both those sent to him and those he submitted to his superiors.”

Idaho. Genealogy giant Findmypast.com has published Idaho, Southeast Counties Obituaries 1864-2007. The collection includes over 9,000 browsable images of “obituaries collected and printed in various Idaho newspapers. The collection is not confined to deaths that occurred in Idaho; obituaries of native Idahoans who died out of state were sent in to Idaho newspapers and are also included. Discover biographical details including key dates and life events of those included in these records.”

Another of the giants, Ancestry.com, has published Idaho, Old Penitentiary Prison Records, 1882-1961. According to the collection description, “This collection contains prison records from between the years of 1882 and 1961. The various documents found in this collection may contain the following information: name of inmate, age and race of inmate, birth date and place, marriage date and place, date of trial, date of pardon, date of conviction, spouse of inmate and other miscellaneous information such as physical attributes and the crime committed may be found.”

Illinois. Illinois State University reports that back issues of the university newspaper, The Vidette, are now online. “The archive currently holds approximately 75 volumes—from the first edition dating back to February of 1888 to May of 1963. Within those 75 volumes, there are 2,621 issues and over 21,300 pages. The Vidette Digital Archives plan to continue adding more volumes in the future.”

Indiana. Now at genealogy giant and subscription website MyHeritage.com is a collection of Indiana Newspapers, 1847-2009, a collection of 1,014,820 pages in 44 newspaper titles. The largest numbers of pages come from The Rochester Sentinal, Times-Union, The Madison Courier, Warsaw Times-Union, The News-Sentinel, Warsaw Daily Times and Warsaw Union.

Maryland. MyHeritage.com has also published  Maryland Newspapers, 1790-2009, a collection of 475,492 pages in 10 newspaper titles. Titles in this collection include (Baltimore) Afro-American, (Baltimore) American and Commercial Advertiser, Baltimore Herald, The Hancock News, The Maryland Herald, The Weekly Herald, The Baltimore Bee and American Eagle.

Massachusetts. The New England Historic Genealogical Society has recently added to its collections on AmericanAncestors.org:

  • new parishes available in the image-only Archdiocese of Boston database, Massachusetts: Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston Records, 1789-1900: Anthony of Padua (Brighton), St. Margaret (Dorchester), St. Rose of Lima (Chelsea), fourteen volumes from St. Stephen’s in Boston’s North End (this parish was initially known as St. John the Baptist, and served primarily Irish immigrants);  and St. James the Greater in Boston is located in what is now Chinatown, although many Irish immigrants lived in the neighborhood in the 1800s.
  • new sketches in Western Massachusetts Families in 1790. This database focuses on families listed in the 1790 census in historic Berkshire and Hampshire Counties, an area which also includes parts of modern Franklin and Hampden Counties. The new sketches are: Asaph Stebbins, Daniel Smith, Eldad Parsons, Elijah Bardwell, Israel Cowles, John Cowles, Sr., Joseph Bardwell, Joseph Bardwell, Jr., Martin Bardwell, Obadiah Bardwell, and Timothy Cowles.
  • new volumes in Mayflower Families Fifth Generation Descendants, 1700-1880: Billington, John (Vol. 21), Hopkins, Stephen (Vol. 6), and Alden, John (Vol. 16, part 5).

Nebraska. Subscription site Newspapers.com reports these new additions to its lineup: “the Lincoln Journal Star and some related papers: the Lincoln Star, the Nebraska State Journal, the Weekly Nebraska State Journal, the Sunday Journal and Star, the Courier, and the Lincoln Evening Call. Coverage for the Lincoln Journal Star alone spans more than a century (1881-2009) and includes nearly 1.6 million newspaper images.

New Jersey. Genealogy giant MyHeritage.com has published New Jersey Newspapers, 1859-1946, a collection of 277,295 pages in 7 newspaper titles. Titles in this collection include Paterson Daily Press, Daily True American, Newark Sunday Call, Camden Democrat, The Bayonne Herald, The Paterson Weekly Press, The Political Intelligence and New Jersey Advertiser.

New Mexico. Ancestry.com has published a new database relating not just to New Mexico history but the “old” Mexico that preceded it. Materials in the collection New Mexico, Census, Military, and Other Records of Mexico, 1821-1846 “vary but include records from the provincial administration, treasury, legislative, local government, judicial cases, military, Indian affairs, and some period newspapers. Lists in the hacienda, military, and miscellaneous record groups have been indexed; other record groups can be browsed by year and record group.

North Carolina. The State Archives of North Carolina announced a new digital collection: Secretary of State Wills. “The digital collection contains wills from 1663 to 1789. These are loose original wills probated in the province. After 1760 most original wills were kept by the clerk in the county in which they were probated, though there are some wills after 1760 in the collection.”

Additionally, more newspaper content continues to appear on Digital North Carolina. Click the announcements below to read more details:

South Carolina. A new digital history resource explores Latino history and communities in the Low Country. “Las voces del Low Country” is the name of the exhibit and it “documents the little-known history of Latinos in the Charleston area through oral interviews conducted between 2012 and 2014, photographs, historic documents, and artistic images.” Click here to read more about it.

Also, Findmypast.com has published (or updated) several collections relating to South Carolina:

·         South Carolina, Will Transcripts 1782-1866 (an index to more than 181,000 will transcripts)

·         South Carolina, Plats for State Land Grants 1784-1868 (an index to more than a quarter million records)

·         South Carolina, Legislative Papers 1782-1929 (more than 228,000 records)

·         South Carolina, Criminal Court Records. (transcripts for 1769-1944)

·         South Carolina, Records of Confederate Veterans 1909 – 1973 (index of lists and pension applications)

Texas. Findmypast.com has published  Texas, Laredo Arrival Manifests 1903-1955, with over 1.3 million records. “Explore images of arrival manifests from the border town of Laredo in Texas. This National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) collection will enable you to discover your ancestors’ names, ages, nationalities, and physical descriptions.”

Wyoming. The University of Wyoming has put online a digitized version of a state atlas designed for use by schoolchildren. But these maps may be valuable for understanding the geography of your Wyoming ancestor’s life, too. Click on the Interactive web pages tab to see a list of maps. Among them are those relating to physical geography, but also related to people. For example, there are maps showing emigrant trails, landmarks and forts; railroad expansion, stage roads and cattle trails; migration in and out of the state; land ownership and more.

More state genealogy records and tips

Local and state research is often the key to discovering your U.S. ancestors! Read these articles for more gems on finding genealogy resources in states and locales across the country.

 
About the Author: Sunny Morton

About the Author: Sunny Morton

Sunny is a Contributing Editor at Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems; her voice is often heard on the Genealogy Gems Podcast and Premium Podcasts. She’s  known for her expertise on the world’s biggest family history websites (she’s the author of Genealogy Giants: Comparing the 4 Major Websites); writing personal and family histories (she also wrote Story of My Life: A Workbook for Preserving Your Legacy); and sharing her favorite reads for the Genealogy Gems Book Club.

Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links and Genealogy Gems will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Genealogy Gems!

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