by Lisa Cooke | Sep 23, 2013 | 01 What's New, FamilySearch, Organization, Photographs
FamilySearch users have created one of the largest family photo albums in the world in record time: one million images in just under five months. That’s a lot of pictures upload, tagged, linked to relatives and now just waiting for us to go in and snag copies.
Why the massive response? Pick your favorite reason:
- uploading photos from your computer, smart phone or tablet is easy;
- If you post a photo, you can share a direct link through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest or email;
- pictures are publicly available to anyone (with or without a FamilySearch account);
- you can caption pictures and tag subjects to link them to their profile in FamilySearch’s family tree;
- you can collaborate with other descendants to identify everyone in a group photo;
- the site promises free online storage of your digital images forever (“. Every photo is backed up with a redundant system and preserved in state-of-the-art archive facilities”).
If you have a tree at FamilySearch (which is free), you can easily click to see what pictures others have uploaded of your relatives. Just log in, click Photos, then Find Photos of your Ancestors.
FamilySearch offers these tips for sharing your photos on their site:
“If you don’t have a traditional scanner, you can use your cell phone. Just take a picture of your family photos, use the browser on your phone, and go to FamilySearch.org. Then click on Photos, and proceed from there.
If you know photos that exist of your ancestors but belong to other family members, contact these relatives and ask them to publish the photos to your family’s tree, or set a date to scan or take pictures of their collection. You can also send out a request for family photos over social media to your relatives. If there are family heirlooms (photos, furniture, bric-a-brac, letters, mementos, medals), take pictures of them and upload the photos to the profiles of your ancestors in the family tree. Then stories can be added by anyone to support the photos and describe them. These photos and stories will become keepsakes for everyone to have and will be preserved freely for future generations.”
Check out this 4-minute video on using Photos and Stories feature at FamilySearch, and you can contribute to the next million photos!
by Lisa Cooke | Jun 5, 2013 | 01 What's New, FamilySearch, Records & databases
Millions of new images and indexed records are added to FamilySearch.org every week. But here’s one that particularly caught my eye: 5.6 million records from Massachusetts Land Records dating from 1620 to the 1980s.
Massachusetts Land Records, Hampshire County, sample deed from browsable record set at FamilySearch.org.
It’s a browsable collection of “land and property records from the Massachusetts Land Office and county courthouses. Records include land grants, patents, deeds, and mortgages. This collection includes all counties in Massachusetts.” Though these images aren’t indexed in FamilySearch per se, I noticed that when I clicked on a sample county (Hampshire), there were alphabetical deed indexes dating back as far as the records themselves. So it looks like in at least some cases, you’ll be able to browse those indexes and then find the deeds you want.
Looking for other new records just added to FamilySearch.org? Check out the table below.
|
|
| Collection |
Indexed Records |
Digital Images |
Comments |
| Austria, Seigniorial Records, 1537–1888 |
0 |
237,988 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| Brazil, Piauí, Civil Registration, 1875-2012 |
0 |
116,423 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| China, Cemetery Records, 1820-1983 |
0 |
72,747 |
New browsable image collection. |
| China, Collection of Genealogies, 1239-2011 |
0 |
204,422 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| Honduras, Civil Registration, 1841-1968 |
0 |
337,367 |
New browsable image collection. |
| Luxembourg, Civil Registration, 1793-1923 |
0 |
84,251 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| Peru, Amazonas, Civil Registration, 1939-1995 |
0 |
5,417 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| Portugal, Beja, Catholic Church Records, 1550-1911 |
0 |
94,902 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| Portugal, Braga, Priest Application Files (Genere et Moribus), 1596-1911 |
0 |
69,030 |
New browsable image collection. |
| Portugal, Évora, Civil Registration and Miscellaneous Records, 1554-1938 |
0 |
5,708 |
New browsable image collection. |
| Portugal, Viana do Castelo, Catholic Church Records, 1537-1909 |
0 |
83,446 |
Added images to an existing collection. |
| Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1811 |
0 |
2,387 |
New browsable image collection. |
| Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1818 |
0 |
2,369 |
New browsable image collection. |
| Switzerland, Fribourg, Census, 1834 |
0 |
2,436 |
New browsable image collection. |
| U.S., Hawaii, Honolulu Passenger Lists, 1900-1953 |
0 |
191,701 |
New browsable image collection. |
| U.S., Idaho, Gooding County Records, 1879-1962 |
0 |
52,108 |
New browsable image collection. |
| U.S., Maine, Piscataquis County, Deed Books, 1838-1902 |
0 |
56,970 |
New browsable image collection. |
| U.S., Massachusetts, Land Records, 1620-1986 |
0 |
5,766,135 |
New browsable image collection. |
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by Lisa Cooke | May 21, 2013 | 01 What's New, FamilySearch, Inspiration, iPad, Maps, Technology
A new app for FamilySearch.org users lets you map your ancestors’ birthplaces. It retrieves information about your ancestors from your data at FamilySearch.org. It’s called Family Map and it looks like this:
Family Map app for FamilySearch.org users.
While there are lots of maps online, it’s fun to see your relatives all mapped at once (with no extra effort from yourself). This tool is especially great for sharing your family history with relatives. They can see at a glance your family migration patterns, remark on the number of people who stayed in the old hometown (or didn’t) and put themselves in context.
Thanks to Devin Ashby at FamilySearch for tipping me off to this app. The app is FamilyMap – Scoutic and is available
on iTunes for $1.99.
