Wait Until You See These Awesome Family History Videos!


Want to stop your family members
from rolling their eyes when you
show them their genealogy?

Show them a video instead! Create extraordinary videos of your family history with Animoto.
Its fast, free & shockingly easy to use! No special skills are required!
I promise!

 

Get Inspired with These Family History Videos

(For best viewing, watch in FULL SCREEN mode. Click the Full Screen button in bottom right corner of each video. Press Escape to return to page.)

How about the story of your company, or organization:

How about celebrating an ancestor’s birthday? I put this on social media on my Grandma’s birthday:

Tips on Creating Videos Like These

Visit this page which features step-by-step tutorial videos. Then check out these articles:

How to Create Captivating Family History Videos
and How to Share Family History with the Non-Genealogists in Your Family

(Full disclosure: This page contains affiliate links and we will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on our links. Thank you for supporting the free Genealogy Gems blog & podcast!)

Article Archive

Let us help you fill your genealogy newsletter! All societies and libraries have free access to our extensive article archive, and permission to republish the articles in your society newsletter. (Your editor will LOVE this feature!) Being the editor of a genealogy...

Ending 2016 on a High Note with New and Updated Genealogical Collections

End 2016 on a high note with these new and updated genealogical record collections. Lisa soaked in Christmas tunes of Harlan County Kentucky’s pride and joy, Jordan Smith (winner of The Voice,) in a concert over the holidays. Harlan County can also be very proud of their incredible genealogical records. Today we are highlighting their county GenWeb page. This U.S. county GenWeb page has gone above and beyond in making Harlan County, Kentucky records accessible to the masses. Also this week, United Kingdom apprenticeship records, parish records, and Scotland mental health and prison records.

dig these new record collections

United States – Harlan County, Kentucky Records

This is not a new collection, though it may be new to you. Discovering the many U.S. GenWeb sites dedicated to genealogy is a great help to many. This week, we wanted to give a special hat’s off to the amazing work that Harlan County, Kentucky has done on their GenWeb page.

Harlan county birth 1852

You will find digital images of people, places, schools, and newspaper clippings, but the best part is their extensive birth, marriage, and death indexes. The marriage records begin as early as 1818 and end about 1925. The birth record index begins in 1852 – 1940, though some years are missing. Lastly, the death records begin in 1852 – 1959, with a special collection on coal miners deaths.

In addition to these great findings, the Harlan County Kentucky GenWeb also has:

  • Censuses

    Christian music superstar Michael W. Smith accompanies Jordan Smith singing “O Holy Night” in Dallas, Texas. 2016.

  • Court records
  • Tax records
  • Deeds
  • Wills
  • Military records
  • Bios
  • Family files

 

United Kingdom – Gloucester – Apprenticeship Records

The Gloucester Apprentices 1595-1700 at Findmypast contain over 20,000 apprentices, masters, and their relatives who were listed in the Calendar of the Registers of Apprentices of the City of Gloucester 1595-1700. The calendar has been digitized with optical character recognition (OCR), which allows you to search images of text for your ancestor’s name or a keyword.

Each record will list the apprentices trade, residence, the name of their father, the name of their master, the name of their master’s wife, the length of their term and the amount they were paid at the end of their training.

These records will be particularly helpful for those unable to find civil or church records regarding their ancestors.

United Kingdom – Kent – Parish Records

Also at Findmypast this week, over 36,000 new additions have been made to the Kent Parish Records collection. Specifically:

·         Over 14,000 additional baptisms

·         Over 1,000 additional banns records

·         Over 11,000 additional marriages

·         Over 9,000 additional burials

These new records date as far back as 1538 and cover the parishes of Wrotham, Stansted, Wouldham, Southfleet, and Leybourne.

Scotland – Mental Health Records

The Scotland Mental Health Institutions Admissions 1857-1859 at Findmypast include over 1,000 records from over 50 mental health institutions including asylums and poorhouses. Though these records tell a sad story, they may help you to piece together the family story.

Each record includes a transcript of an original document and may provide your ancestors’ birth place, birth date, former residence, and the institution they were sent to and the date of their admission.

Scotland – Prison Registers

You can search over 17,000 transcripts of prison registers in the Findmypast collection titled Scotland Prison Registers Index 1828-1884.

Each record lists the prisoners age, birth year, birth place, occupation, former residence, offence and place of imprisonment.

Start the New Year off Right

findmypast_1Here’s a New Year bargain you can’t ignore – 10% off 12 month premium subscriptions to Findmypast. Today is the last day to save! They have over 2 billion (yes, that’s billion with a B!) records and more are added every day. Make 2017 a year full of fascinating family history discoveries by clicking on this image link below.

Danish Delights in New and Updated Genealogical Records This Week

Genealogical records and research for your Denmark ancestors has just gotten a little easier! New and updated genealogical collections for Danish genealogy have been added to FamilySearch. Also new this week, new and updated records for Sweden, Hungary, Britain, and Ireland.

dig these new record collections

Denmark – Census

It was truly a Danish delight when we heard the 1916 Denmark Census is now available at FamilySearch. Danish genealogy is just a bit easier with the availability of this census, especially when paired with the already published 1911 Denmark Census, also at FamilySearch.

This is an every-name index to the 1916 census of Denmark. This index was created by MyHeritage from images provided by the National Archives of Denmark. The collection at FamilySearch includes an index or abstract version in English and a digital image of the original.

25novpost_1

This census was taken for the countries of Denmark, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and the Danish West Indies, however, only the records for Denmark are available at FamilySearch. The enumeration for Denmark was divided into three sections with a different form for each of the sections: Copenhagen city, other cities, and rural areas.

This census names each individual in the home and includes: sex, calculated birth date and year, marital status, relationship to head-of-household, and residence.

Other genealogy record collections for Denmark can be found on FamilySearch, too. See the entire list here.

Sweden – Church Records

FamilySearch has four Swedish church record collections that have recently been updated. Church records are especially helpful when civil records such as birth, marriage, and deaths, are not available. Check out these four updated collections and their titles below.

Sweden, Västmanland Church Records, 1538-1901; index 1622-1860 43,976
Sweden, Värmland Church Records, 1509-1925; index 1640-1860 Browse Images
Sweden, Skaraborg Church Records, 1612-1921; index 1625-1860 Browse Images  
Sweden, Västerbotten Church Records, 1619-1896; index, 1688-1860 36,337

Hungary – Civil Registration

More records have been added to the Hungarian Civil Registration records at FamilySearch as well. This collection includes the years 1895-1980.

The records are bound volumes of pre-printed forms with event information recorded by hand. From 1895 through 1906, the forms are one page per event, but beginning in 1907 each event occupies one row in a printed table, so there are multiple events recorded per page. The records are in Hungarian.

Civil registrations include birth, marriage, and death records. You may be able to find the following information in each of these groups:

Birth records:

  • Date and place of birth
  • Name of child
  • Gender and religion
  • Parents’ names and mother’s age
  • Parents’ religion
  • Signature of informant

Marriage records:

  • Date and place of marriage
  • Groom’s name, date and place of birth
  • Groom’s religion and occupation
  • Groom’s parents’ names
  • Bride’s name, date and place of birth
  • Bride’s religion and occupation
  • Bride’s parents’ names
  • Witnesses’ names and their residence
  • Additional remarks

Death records:

  • Name and age of deceased
  • Date, time, and place of death
  • Deceased’s residence and occupation
  • Deceased’s religion
  • Spouse’s name
  • Parents’ names
  • Cause of death
  • Signatures of informant

United Kingdom – 1939 Register

Like a census, the Register can tell you a lot about how your ancestors. You can find names, occupations, and more. The 1939 Register of more than 32.8 million records is now available at Findmypast.

The 1939 Register is pretty unique. It required people to explain exactly what they did. General terms, such as Foreman, Overseer, Doctor, Mill-hand, Porter or Farmer, were not acceptable. Instead, people were asked to be as specific as possible, giving details of the trade.

Additional information you will find on the Register includes:

  • Name
  • Full date of birth
  • Address
  • Marital status
  • Occupation

Ireland – Directories

Also at Findmypast, the Ireland, 19th Century Directories allow you to search more than 120 volumes of directories that contain more than 74 thousand records. Listings may include your ancestor’s occupation, place of business, or home address.

These directories were published annually, which means that you can easily track your ancestor year to year.

You will want to be aware that most of the details in the directories were collected six months before publication; therefore, all the listings are six months old.

The records are presented as PDFs (portable digital files). This feature allows you to narrow your search by publication, year and page number. After selecting an image, you can read through the whole directory by using the previous and next buttons at the top of the image.

Learn more about Danish Genealogy

Read some great gems in our article Digitized Danish Records at MyHeritage!

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!

How to Create a Coloring Book for Family History

create a coloring bookColoring books are all the rage for adults and kids. Let this project and these free online tools inspire you to create a coloring book to celebrate your heritage.

Last Christmas, my mom Cheryl McClellan created a coloring book for our extended family out of family artwork. She requested copies of line drawings from every willing relative, especially her grandchildren (ages 3-20). Then she added her own childhood artwork, some of mine, and some of her mother’s, so four generations are represented.

create a coloring book

The flowers on the left, originally painted by my grandma, wasn’t as easily colored because of all the dark areas. My mom’s childhood drawing and my son’s, on the right, both made very “colorable” images.

Then she simply photocopied each page to make it into a coloring page. She experimented with the black-and-white settings until she got the best quality reproductions for coloring.

The grandchildren’s artwork came out the best because they created images meant to be colored (with lots of lines and spaces and no shading). The older artwork reproduced with varying degrees of success. But all were fun to include. She chose not to bind the completed book, so the pages would be easier to color, but instead put each person’s collection of coloring pages in large envelopes.

More tools and ideas: Create a coloring book

To create your own family coloring book, gather family photos (or artwork) from your family archive that would be interesting to color. Consider pictures of relatives, homes, heirlooms, or other objects of significance to your current family life or your family history. The best images will have plenty of contrast in them (lights and darks).

Choose your favorite free online photo editing tool, if you have one. Examples include Pixlr.com and Snapstouch.com. I chose Snapstouch because it’s super easy. Here are the instructions on Snapstouch:

1. From the home page, select which final visual effect you prefer: I chose Sketch. (Depending on the photo and the desired effect, you might also choose Drawing or Outline.)

2. Choose your image file from your computer.

3. Select additional options, as shown here. (In Sketch mode, you can choose a darker pencil sketch and faces to be refined).

4. Click UPLOAD. Wait for the file to upload to the site.

5. After the upload is complete, you’ll see the option to click SKETCH. Click and wait for a moment.

6. If the final image is not to your liking, play with the options (you don’t need to re-upload the photo to do this). OR switch to a different visual effect and experiment.

7. Click DOWNLOAD when you’ve got the image you want.

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