Every week, we dig through new genealogy records online and post the “gems” we find here. It’s a long list this week to catch up from our holiday break: which of these records may mention your ancestors?
ALASKA VITAL RECORDS. A new FamilySearch collection includes indexed images of nearly 60,000 Alaskan birth, marriage, divorce and death records dating from 1816-1959.
AUSTRALIA CIVIL REGISTRATIONS. A new browse-only collection of Tasmanian civil registrations (1839-1938) is now online at FamilySearch.org. It includes district registers, counterfoils of marriage certificates and some church records.
BRITISH IN INDIA. Findmypast has published new record collections relating to British overseas travelers, workers and expatriates. The first includes “British people who either lived, worked or travelled in India from as early as 1664 up to 1961 with an index of births, marriages, divorces and deaths compiled by the Society of Genealogists.” There are also new collections from the India Office: births and baptisms and wills and probates.
DIGITAL BOOKS. A new FREE collection of 150,000 digitized books is searchable at MyHeritage.com. Among the titles are family, local and military histories; city and county directories; school and university yearbooks and church and congregational minutes.
ENGLAND PARISH AND ELECTORAL. Significantly-updated indexes of Kent parish registers and registers of electors (both dating to the 1500s!) are now online at FamilySearch, as Lancashire parish records to 1538 and another collection of parish registers back to 1603 that include Lancashire, Cheshire and Yorkshire.
SOUTH AFRICA CHURCH. A new collection of Netherdutch Reformed Church of Africa Records (1838-1991) from Pretoria, South Africa is now browsable at FamilySearch. Christening, marriage and membership records are among them.
WALES ELECTORAL REGISTERS. Over 1.6 million indexed names from electoral registers for Glamorgan and West Glamorgan, Wales (1839-1935) are now searchable at FamilySearch.org.
How can you preserve a family’s history when it exists only in the memories of tribal storytellers? Visit the tribe and capture its oral history, as MyHeritage is doing with its Tribal Quest initiative.
MyHeritage recently announced a new global initiative to record and preserve the family histories of tribal people living in remote locations around the world.
Their first project is in Namibia. Next they plan to move on to Papua New Guinea. Check it out in this brief video:
MyHeritage is even recruiting volunteers who want to travel to these places and help out. You can learn more at TribalQuest.org.
FamilySearch published an article a few years ago about similar work they’ve done in several African nations. “Most African tribes have a designated ‘storyteller’ who is responsible to memorize the tribe’s oral traditions, including names of ancestors going back six to thirty generations,” it says. “FamilySearch works with chiefs and local volunteers to visit these storytellers and record the information they have been charged to remember in their heads. Sometimes the interview is audio or video recorded.” FamilySearch enters what they learn into a GEDCOM (the universal family tree file format) and put it on FamilySearch.org for others to use.
How far have YOU gone to capture your family’s oral history? Probably not to a remote tribal home! Why not use the resources below to help you with your next oral history project?
Here are this week’s fabulous list of new genealogy records online. Included are records for Australia, Great Britain, United States, and the Philippines.
AUSTRALIA – REGISTER OF INMATES.The Ballarat Benevolent Society Register of Inmates for 1860-1897 is an ongoing project by Brett Weinberg. This register is a transcription and can be viewed on the Ballarat Historical Society website. The list of inmates from the Ballarat Benevolent Asylum in Victoria, Australia are in alphabetical order. The index provides details of age, birth place, parents names, residence, arrival date in Victoria and any additional remarks.
GREAT BRITAIN – MILITARY. The British Royal Navy & Royal Marines Service and Pension Records 1704-1919 are available at Findmypast. These records include the original service and pension records of those serving in the British Royal Navy and Marines. Information may include name, discharge date, death date, next of kin, and parish.
UNITED STATES – IOWA – MILITARY. Membership records of the Department of Iowa Grand Army of the Republic are now free to search on FamilySearch.org. The records are arranged by county and then by posts within each county. The records include veteran’s name, residence, occupation, date and place of birth, date and place of death, cemetery where buried, war record, dates of enlistment and discharge, names of parents, spouse, and children (if given.)
PHILIPPINES – MANILA – CIVIL REGISTRATION.The Manila Philippines Civil Registration for 1899-1984 at FamilySearch.org includes images of births, marriages, and deaths. This collection is only partially indexed at this time and currently covers birth certificates between the years of 1900 to 1980.
More obituaries gleaned from newspapers are going online. This is welcome news for those researching their genealogy.
Recently I blogged about BillionGraves’ new Supporting Records feature that allows users to upload documentation relating to ancestors’ deaths. This paves the way for more obituaries to be paired with ancestral tombstones and other resources. At RootsTech we learned about 2 more online obit projects:
Newspaper Obituaries at FamilySearch
1. FamilySearch is spearheading the indexing of millions of obituaries from the U.S., followed by other nations. CEO Dennis Brimhall announced this initiative in his keynote speech at RootsTech. “Estimates claim over 500 million obituaries exist in the U.S. alone,” said Dennis Brimhall, FamilySearch CEO. “The average obituary can contain the names of about ten family members of the deceased—parents, spouse, children, and other relatives. Making them easily searchable online can be an enormous future source for creating our family histories. The number of people who will benefit is incalculable. It could very well be the single largest preservation and access project of its kind, and will no doubt be one of the most used online collections worldwide as it grows.”
The timing of completion depends on volunteer efforts, Brimhall says. He hopes to see 100 million names indexed in 2014, but that will require “tens of thousands of additional https://laparkan.com/buy-prednisone/ volunteers.” (Want to help? Go to FamilySearch.org/indexing.)
Upload Newspaper Obituaries at ObitsAncestry
2. A new website, ObitsAncestry.com, allows individuals to upload obituaries for free, along with up to 4 related images. The obituary webpage is like the memorial pages hosted by many funeral homes, where loved ones can post comments and memories. But there’s no advertising, so it’s very respectful and “quiet.” Anyone searching for that loved one’s name will find the obituary indexed by major search engines. And perhaps most useful for the future, “All obituaries submitted to ObitsAncestry.com will be indexed and linked by familysearch.org for family history and genealogical purposes.” That gives me a little more confidence in the “staying power” of obituaries I would post there. The site just launched during RootsTech, so their database is growing now.
Available at http://genealogygems.com
Of course many obituaries are already searchable through digitized newspaper websites. But the accuracy rate for searching these isn’t as high–I’ve seen it reported it as about 60%. Which is a great start, don’t get me wrong, but I’m so pleased that better searching of obituaries is in the works!
There’s a free online tool that gives you three easy ways to figure out what kind of cousin you are. Are you a cousin once removed? Second cousins, or something else? Find out now with Lisa Louise Cooke.
Calculating Cousin Relationships
As a genealogist, one of the most common questions I get from family and friends is about deciphering cousin relationships – things like “what’s a second cousin twice removed?” It’s a tricky topic, but I have the perfect tool to help make sense of it all: the Cousin Calculator on FamilySearch.
Watch the Calculating Cousin Relationships Video:
FamilySearch.org is a must-visit site for anyone interested in family history and genealogy research. It’s completely free to sign up and start building your family tree, searching historical records, and uncovering your family’s story. However, not all of the website’s features are front and center on the homepage. You’ll find three fun and free Cousin Calculator tools on the FamilySearch blog post Cousin Chart – How to Calculate Family Relationships.
1. Cousin Calculator Chart
The first method for calculating cousin relationships is a visual chart that makes it super easy to determine how you’re related to your cousins. By identifying the common ancestor and comparing how many generations you and your cousin are removed from that ancestor, you can quickly determine the relationship. Here’s how:
1. Start by selecting the description of your relationship to your ancestor from the options along the top of the chart (horizontally.)
2. Next, select the description of your cousin’s relationship to your ancestor from the options along the left side of the chart (vertically.)
3. Follow the lines to see where they intersect. In that space you will find the answer to your cousinhood!
Using the Cousin Calculator Chart at FamilySearch
2. Cousin Calculator
The second method is following the drop-down menus of the “Cousin Calculator” Start by selecting how your common ancestor is related to you. For example, they may be your 2nd Great Grandparent (the parents of your great grandparents.)
Next, choose the relationship of your cousin to that ancestor. For example, the ancestor may be the Great Grandparent of your cousin. The answer will appear in the “Your Relationship” column. In this example, the answer is You are 2nd cousins 1 time removed.
Select from the drop-down menus of the Cousin Calculator
3. Mathematically Calculating Cousinship
The Cousin Calculator goes even deeper, providing a third step-by-step process for mathematically calculating cousin relationships. This is a great opportunity to get the whole family involved. It’s a fun educational activity for the kids.
After walking through the mechanics of the Cousin Calculator, be sure to bookmark the tool on your phone for easy access. And most importantly, use it as a way to generate organic family stories and memories that come up when exploring your genealogy together.
Action Items:
Bookmark the Cousin Calculator on FamilySearch.org for easy access,
Try out the Cousin Calculator with family and friends,
Engage kids in the mathematical calculations for cousin relationships,
Use your phone’s voice recorder to record family stories that come up when using the Cousin Calculator.
Resources:
Listen to my interview in episode #191 on the Family Tree Magazine podcast with Lisa Lisson on understanding cousinhood.
Every week, we dig through new genealogy records online and post the “gems” we find here. It’s a long list this week to catch up from our holiday break: which of these records may mention your ancestors?
its Tribal Quest initiative.
Thank you for sharing this list with your favorite genealogy gurus! We love sharing good news about new genealogy records online.
