family history | Genealogy Gems

DPLA: Introduction to the Digital Public Library of America

by Lisa Cooke | Dec 4, 2013 | 01 What's New, Digital Archives

I’ve blogged before about the relatively new Digital Public Library of America (here’s a post introducing the DPLA and here’s one on historical maps you’ll find there). Now the Library of Congress has posted a 31-minute webcast that features the DPLA content director, Emily Gore. She not only demonstrates some great examples of what you can find in the public portal of the DPLA, but also discusses the potential for gathering even more materials (she gives an example using local sources.) It’s a great introduction to the site, and Gore answers some questions from the audience that seem to be on a lot of people’s minds.

Looking for a more basic intro to the DPLA? Check out this introductory video, too.

We have a WINNER! Family Tree Magazine Giveaway

by Lisa Cooke | Dec 3, 2013 | 01 What's New, Collaborate

Congratulations to Amanda, the winner of our Family Tree Magazine Digital Subscription Giveaway!

We did the giveaway to celebrate my article in the December 2013 issue of Family Tree Magazine, co-written with Genealogy Gems Contributing Editor Sunny Morton. The article is all about collaborating on our genealogy research.

family history genealogy blogs are cousin bait I think it’s cool that Amanda’s big on collaboration herself. She blogs about her research at ABT-UNK. (Yes, that’s the name of her blog: it combines two common genealogy abbreviations for “about” and “unknown.”) Amanda points us to a recent post, “a really good example of collaboration via my blog. The two photos in the post http://www.honeytraveler.com/pharmacy/ were provided by two cousins of different degrees who found me via my blog, and five different people (so far) have been involved in identifying the people in the “Christmas Cousins” picture. I’ve connected with lots of other kin who found me via my blog (including a distant cousin in Lithuania, who helped me break through a brick wall there), and they have provided a wealth of information and wonderful photographs!”

Congratulations, Amanda, both on winning our giveaway and on your excellent research and blog. Keep it up! And thanks to Family Tree Magazine Editor Diane Haddad for donating the subscription.

Family History Episode 9 – Using Census Records

by Lisa Cooke | Dec 3, 2013 | 01 What's New, Census, Family History Podcast

Originally published Fall 2008

Republished Dec. 3, 2013

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Download the Show Notes for this Episode

Welcome to this step-by-step series for beginning genealogists—and more experienced ones who want to brush up or learn something new. I first ran this series in 2008. So many people have asked about it, I’m bringing it back in weekly segments.

Episode 9: Using Census Records

In this episode we start off by talking about a group of records critical to family history research in my home country: U.S. Federal Census Records. You’ll learn not only what to find in the regular schedules, but about the enumerators, the instructions they followed, and special sections like the economic census.

Then in our second segment we go straight to the source: Bill Maury, Chief of History Staff at the U.S. Census Bureau. I’ll be talking to him about the History section of the Census Department’s website. Note the updated Genealogy tab on the site, as well as the Through the Decades tab, which is packed with historical information for each census.

Updates

Since the show first aired, the 1940 U.S. Census has become publicly available. This was the largest, most comprehensive census taken, with over 132 million names of those known as the “greatest generation.” Full indexes and images are available at several sites. Your first stop should be the National Archives’ official 1940 census website to learn about the census itself. Then search it at your favorite genealogy data site in one of the links below.

Finally, I gave you specific instructions in the podcast on searching the 1930 U.S. Census online at Ancestry.com. To specifically search any of the U.S. censuses (or any other record collection) at Ancestry.com, go to the Search tab and select Card Catalog. You’ll see several censuses among the options they give you, or you can enter keywords like “1940 census.”

Links

Search U.S. censuses online at:

worldvitalrecords.com

OR Learn more about researching from microfilm at the National Archives website.

Where You Can Find Over a Million British Church Records that are Now Indexed!

by Lisa Cooke | Dec 3, 2013 | 01 What's New, British, Church, FamilySearch

Over a million Church of England records from the county of Norfolk are among materials now indexed at FamilySearch.org.

Happisburgh church of St. Mary’s, Norfolk. Image by Martin at Flickr Creative Commons.

The collection includes bishops’ registers of baptisms, marriages and burials from the mid-1600s to the mid-1900s.

Baptismal records may include the child’s name, date and place of baptism, parents’ names and residence, legitimacy status of the child, father’s occupation and minister’s name.
Marriage records may include the names, ages, marital status and residence of bride and groom; date and place of marriage; fathers of the bride and groom and information on whether banns were published.
Burial records may include the name, age, and residence of the deceased and the date and parish of burial.

The Church of England was a state-sponsored church. This helps genealogists because it means that most everyone who lived there (until the mid-1800s or so) is likely to show up in Church of England records. So if you had English ancestors who lived in Norfolk, take a look. These images have been online since 2010, but the new index makes them a lot easier to search!

FamilySearch Updates Include VA Pension Cards, South American Records

by Lisa Cooke | Dec 1, 2013 | 01 What's New, FamilySearch, Military, Records & databases

FamilySearch recently added another 192 million+ images and indexed records from North and South America and Europe to its growing FREE online collections. In the list at the bottom of this post you’ll find content from Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, and Wales.

Notable collection updates include the 314,910 images from the Spain, Province of Barcelona, Municipal Records, 1387–1936,

collection, the 576,176 indexed records from the United States Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907–1933, collection, and the 189,395,454

Sample image from “United States Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933.” Index and images. FamilySearch. https://familysearch.org : accessed 2013.

indexed records from the United States Public Records Index.

Here’s an example of a V.A. pension card, created by the Bureau of Pensions and Veterans Administration to record payments to veterans, widows and other dependents. FamilySearch describes the cards this way: “On the front of the cards for invalid veterans are recorded the name of veteran, his certificate number, his unit or arm of Service, the disability for which pensioned, the law or laws under which pensioned, the class of pension or certificate, the rate of pension, the effective date of pension, the date of the certificate, any fees paid, the name of the pension agency or group transferred from (if applicable), the date of death, the date the Bureau was notified, the former roll number, and ‘home.’ On the reverse side of the form appears the name of the veteran, his certificate number, and the record of the individual payments. The army and navy widow’s cards are similar to the invalids’ cards with the addition of the widow’s name and occasionally information regarding payments made to minors, but they do not indicate if the veteran had a disability.”

Collection	Indexed Records	Digital Images	Comments
Brazil, Mato Grosso, Civil Registration, 1848-2013	0	126,870	Added images to an existing collection.
Brazil, Minas Gerais, Catholic Church Records, 1706-1999	0	827	Added images to an existing collection.
Brazil, Pernambuco, Civil Registration, 1804-2013	0	94,516	Added images to an existing collection.
Colombia, Catholic Church Records, 1600-2012	0	111,526	Added images to an existing collection.
Peru, Puno, Civil Registration, 1890-2005	0	176,918	Added images to an existing collection.
Spain, Province of Barcelona, Municipal Records, 1387-1936	0	314,910	Added images to an existing collection.
Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1839	0	2,552	New browsable image collection.
Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1842	0	2,851	New browsable image collection.
Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1845	0	3,062	New browsable image collection.
Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1850	0	2,968	New browsable image collection.
Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1860	0	20,530	New browsable image collection.
Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1870	0	22,554	New browsable image collection.
U.S., Alabama, County Marriages, 1809-1950	324,971	690,459	Added indexed records and images to an existing collection.
United States Public Records Index	189,395,454	0	Added indexed records to an existing collection.
United States Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933	576,176	0	Added indexed records to an existing collection.
United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918	644,004	0	Added indexed records to an existing collection.
Wales, Court and Miscellaneous Records, 1542-1911	0	84,676	Added images to an existing collection.