MyHeritage Partners with FamilySearch

by | Oct 19, 2013 | 01 What's New, FamilySearch, MyHeritage, Records & databases

Genealogy industry giants MyHeritage and FamilySearch have just announced a strategic partnership that promises to be a win-win for genealogists everywhere. It looks like FamilySearch’s billions of historical records will get a searchability boost with MyHeritage search technologies and users of both sites will have access to the results.

According to MyHeritage’s press release, “MyHeritage will receive more than 2 billion global historical records from FamilySearch, spanning hundreds of years. Collections include vital records (censuses, births, marriages and deaths) as well as hundreds of other collections from many countries.

Over the next few months, we will add this important content to SuperSearch and unleash MyHeritage technologies – such as Smart Matches and Record Matches – on the new content. This will bring significant new opportunities for MyHeritage users to grow their family trees and enrich their family history.”

FamilySearch users get something great out of this, too. “FamilySearch members will benefit from MyHeritage’s unique technologies which automate family history discoveries,” says the FamilySearch press release. “Smart Matching™ automatically finds connections between user-contributed family trees and Record Matching automatically locates historical records relevant to any person in the family tree. By receiving accurate matches between FamilySearch’s Family Tree profiles and historical record collections, such as birth, death, census, and immigration documents, FamilySearch members will be able to more effectively grow their family trees in size and in depth and add conclusions supported by historical records.” This technology is slated to be applied in 2014.

Got questions? Check out MyHeritage’s official blog post and FAQ regarding the partnership.

Navigate this Cool Free Tool that Lets You Explore U.S. Immigration Settlement Patterns

by | Aug 27, 2013 | 01 What's New, Immigration, Maps

Do you ever wonder why your immigrant ancestors to the U.S. settled in a particular location, especially if it wasn’t the port city they landed in? The New York Times website has a tool that may shed light on your question.

This very cool interactive map displays the settlement patterns of U.S immigrants by nationality since 1880. As you can see from the screen shot below, you can click on ten-year increments to see how things stood at one point in time, or click across several to see how settlement patterns changed.

immigration 1

You can also click on several individual countries for more specific data, as you see here:

immigration 2

Of course, you may still be scratching your head about WHY your folks went a particular place. But if you see they were part of a larger settlement of Poles in the Pittsburgh region in the early 1900s, for example, you’ll know to look for regional and ethnic histories that can give you more “backstory.” You may also discover that they were a definite minority in their new hometown, which hints at a different kind of immigrant experience. In the quest to understanding our immigrant ancestors’ experiences, every clue helps!

You can learn more about another terrific immigration resource by listening to the free Genealogy_Gems_PodcastGenealogy Gems Podcast episode 120. Noted author Steve Luxenberg (Annie’s Ghosts) shares a free online tool that he used to help solve his own family history mystery!

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