Love Finding Old Maps Online? Help “Index” Them!

The Beaver Map, 1715. By Special Collections Toronto Public Library. Flickr, via Wikimedia Commons.

Recently I’ve seen two calls for volunteers to help “georeference” old maps. Basically, you’re tagging the maps in a way similar to tagging photos of people on social media sites. This makes finding old maps online easier and more accurate. It also allows sites to overlay the old and new maps. “Some places have changed significantly or disappeared completely, creating a puzzle that reveals an exciting contrast,” explains the British Library.

These two sites are asking for volunteers:

The British Library Online Gallery. The British Library is asking for volunteers to help georeference 50,000 maps it’s put online. Go right to the site and you’ll see the invitation to help on the home page. You’ll also see that you can click on a tab to search maps that are already georeferenced! The British Library tells its volunteers: “Your name will be credited, and your efforts will significantly improve public access to these collections. Contributors can see the results of their work, as well as the progress of the pilot and other participants, and the top contributor will be publicly announced.”

David Rumsey Historical Maps. This mega-maps site is also looking for volunteers to help add locations to its online map collections. On the home page, click on the left where it says Georeferencer: Help Add Location to Maps.

We blog about maps a lot here at Genealogy Gems. To learn more about using old maps online and for genealogy, go to our home page and search on the Maps category on the lower left side of the page. Additionally, Genealogy Gems Premium members have access to full-length video classes like these:

Not a Genealogy Gems Premium member? Click here to become one!

Why Your Genealogy Research Could be Going to the Dogs

 

Did your Irish ancestors have a dog? Over 3.5 million Irish Dog Licence registers have been added to a collection already online at

“More Besties from the Clonbrock Estate.” Taken September 22, 1883. National Library of Ireland photograph, posted at Flickr Creative Commons National Library of Ireland on the Commons page. No known copyright restrictions.

FindMyPast. “Now containing over 6 million records, the Irish Dog Licences list not only the name, breed, colour and sex of your ancestor’s four legged friend, but also the owner’s address and the date the licence was issued, making them a valuable census substitute,” says a recent FMP press release.

Also new on the site are other notable collections, as described by FMP:

  • Trade Union Membership registers (3.4 million+ records) with digitized images of original records books from 9 different unions. The documents include details about individual members such as payments made, benefits received, names of spouses, and a number of unions published profiles of their members or those who held offices. Many unions kept detailed records for when a member joined, paid their subscription, applied for funeral benefits or superannuation (retirement). These records allow you to follow your ancestor’s progress within the union and perhaps uncover previously unknown details of their working lives and careers. The documents can also include details about the trade unions themselves, such as directories of secretaries, meeting dates and times and items of trade union business. Many trade unions also included international branches from Ireland to Australia to Spain and Belgium.
  • Indexes to over 28,000 articles in 2000+ PERSI-indexed periodicals. These include magazines, newsletters and journals, according to location, topic, surname, ethnicity and methodology. (Learn more about PERSI on FindMyPast in our blog post on the topic.)
  • Peninsular War, British Army Officers 1808-1814 dataset, compiled by Captain Lionel S. Challis of the Queen’s Westminster Rifles shortly after WW1. Using Army lists, Gazettes, despatches, official records and regimental histories, Challis gathered information on more than 9,600 officers who fought for control of the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars and recorded them on index cards. Each record contains an image of the original handwritten index cards and a transcript.
  • South Australia Births 1842-1928. Over 727,000 records and date back to when the compulsory registration of births first began in 1842. Sourced from an index transcribed by volunteers from the South Australian Genealogy and Heraldry Society Inc., each records consists of a transcript that usually includes the child’s full name, gender, date of birth, place of birth and registration number. The names of both parents will also be included and in some cases the mother’s maiden name will also be present. South Australia’s colonial origins are unique in Australia as a freely settled, planned British province.
  • South Australia Marriages 1842-1937 contain over 457,000 records. Each record includes a transcript that can contain a variety of information such as the first and last names of the bride and groom, their ages, birth years, marital status, the date and place of their marriage as well as their fathers’ first and last names.
  • South Australia Deaths 1842-1972 contain over 605,000 records and span 130 years of the state’s history. Each record consists of a transcript that usually lists the deceased’s full name, gender, status, birth year, date of death, place of death, residence, the name of the informant who notified authorities of their death and their relationship to the informant.

Ancestry_searchAre you making the most of your online searches at FindMyPast and other genealogy websites? What about on Google? Learn more about search strategies that work in this blog post!

New Canadian Genealogy Vital Records & 1851 Census Online

Featured this week are new records for Canada, including the 1851 Canada Census, and BMD for Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Other records include new Irish collections, updated New Zealand birth, marriage, and death collections, new marriage record collections for England, and the launch of the New York State Death Index. 

Canadian Genealogy

Canadian Genealogy: New Online

Ancestry.com has new collections for Saskatchewan, Canada available online now. These collections include Cemetery Transcripts (1850-1994) and Catholic Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials (1867-1932). These collections are both also available on MyHeritage.

Claire Banton, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) 

Also at Ancestry this week are new records for Manitoba, Canada. You can search Baptisms, Marriages, and Burials (1834-1959), and keep in mind that some of the records in this collection pre-date Manitoba’s creation as a province, and, as a result, are from locations that do not exist in present-day Manitoba. Some records may also appear in French. You can also explore Manitoba Census Indexes (1832-1856 & 1870).

The 1851 Canada Census is available now at Findmypast. It contains over 1.3 million records and images for Canada West (Ontario) and Canada East (Quebec), New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. This collection is also available at MyHeritage, as well as at the Library and Archives Canada (though their search tools may not be quite as robust).

For fabulous quick tips on Canadian research, take a listen to Lisa’s interview with Claire Banton of the Library and Archives Canada (LAC). Available free on the Genealogy Gems Podcast episode #199.

Irish Military & Bank Records

County Cork. A new database of Irish soldiers is now available online: Deserters, acts of heroism, and IRA murders unearthed. According to the site: “The details of some 2,187 people – soldiers and their families – recorded mainly in the registers of Ballincollig Garrison Chapel have been recovered using the registers of baptisms, marriages and burials between 1810 and 1922 now in the safe custody of the RCB Library, and further research using a variety of additional resources have further unlocked their hidden stories.”

Snippet from a detailed spreadsheet containing information on the 2,187 soldiers and their families recorded in the registers of Ballincollig Garrison Chapel.

Newstalk. The Central Bank of Ireland opens its archives up to the public, including an online catalog. According to a recent article: “The bank says the archives can now be used for public research purposes for the first time. They include a range of materials created and acquired by the bank – such as objects, documents, and ledgers dating from 1786 to 1986.” All materials are open to the public in a dedicated research room, and an online catalog is available to determine what materials may be of interest.

Updated New Zealand Collections

Thousands of records have been added to Findmypast’s collection for New Zealand. Updates include 19,000 added to the Birth Index 1848 onward, 10,000 records added to the Marriage Index 1854 onward, and over 32,000 records added to the Death Index 1848 onward.

British Marriage Records: New Online

It’s wedding bells for Britain! Findmypast has a new collection of Oxfordshire Marriage Bonds 1634-1849 with over 46,000 records. You can also browse the new British Marriage Licenses 1446-1837 collection, where 15 English counties are represented including London, Lancashire, Suffolk, Exeter, Lincoln, Yorkshire, and more. Lastly, explore the thousands of Fleet marriages in Findmypast’s new collection of England Clandestine Marriages 1667-1754 of over 42,000 records.

United States: Newspapers & More

New York. Ancestry.com has just launched a collection of New York State death indexes 1880 to 1956. Ancestry says that “the collection includes more than 5 million names of people who died in New York State.” This death index is available online elsewhere for free, but Ancestry subscribers will appreciate the convenience of searching it on the site.

Colorado. Colorado Virtual Library: “The Colorado Historic Newspapers Collection recently added four new titles; the Brush Lariat (1884-1885), the Morgan County Republican (1912-1920), the Louisville Times (1942-2007), and the Whitehorn News (1897-1907). These four new titles, added by a longtime CHNC partner and two new partners, join 205 titles of historic Colorado newspapers.”

Florida. The Greater North Miami Historical Society had a collection of historical images. Its historical collection dates back to the 1930s and includes over 4,000 negatives, photographs, and other items. *Only a fraction of the material has been put online and the project continues.

Newspapers (Seattle, WA, Boston, MA, & Washington D.C.)
Accessible Archives has announced the completion of additional titles in its African American Newspapers and Women’s Suffrage collections. The five newspapers are now fully imaged and searchable. These tiles range from mid-19th century to early 20th century.

Disclosure: This post 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!

Add Your Local Paper to Digitized Newspapers Online with NEH Funding

Does your local library, historical or genealogical society have a newspaper collection to  share? Let the NEH help!History unfolded Holocaust Project

The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is accepting proposals from institutions hoping to participate in the the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). This program creates “a national, digital resource of historically significant newspapers published between 1836 and 1922 in U.S. states and territories.” Guidelines for 2014 are now available and proposals must be submitted by January 15, 2014.

According to the press release, “Each award supports a 2-year project to digitally convert 100,000 newspaper pages from that state’s collections, primarily from microfilm negative. Titles may be printed in Danish, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish. The program provides access to this resource through the Chronicling America web site hosted by the Library of Congress. The site currently includes more than 6.6 million newspaper pages in English, French, German, and Spanish, from more than 1100 titles digitized by institutions in 30 states.”

For more program information, please visit the NEH’s program page or this page for technical information from the Library of Congress. Click here to see what institutions have participated.

I can’t say enough good things about this and other initiatives to  support more digitized newspapers online. My book How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers will provide you with more about using these awesome resources to flesh out your family’s story, a tried and true research process, and loads of resources. Check it out in paperback or pdf e-book!

RootsTech 2014: Must-Have Tips for Visiting the Family History Library

microfilm

RT-Blogger-badge-150sqWhether you’re going to RootsTech next week or not, at some point in your genealogical research you’ll want to use the Family History Library (FHL). The FHL, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, has 6.875 billion historical records on microfilm, which contain an estimated 20.6 billion names. That’s a lot of ancestors!

The FHL and its sponsor organization, FamilySearch International, are busy digitizing and indexing all those records, but it’s going to take some time. And some of those records may never be digitized because of publication rights limitations or other issues. So you should know how to access all those great microfilms!

Yesterday I republished Episode 16 of the original Family History: Genealogy Made Easy podcast. It features a great interview with Margery Bell on using the Family History Library. The show notes have updated tips on using the online catalog.  Click here for some must-have tips on preparing for your visit. You’ll get a lot more out of your limited time in the library if you know exactly what information you’re looking for and where you’re going to look for it!

 

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