VIDEO & SHOW NOTES: Video #4 of our 25 Websites for Genealogy Playlist. In this video, my guest presenter Gena Philibert-Ortega covers digital collection websites that are must-haves for family history research. You’ll find plenty of genealogy gems waiting for free at websites #18 through 22.
Websites 18 through 22 of our 25 Websites for Genealogy
Some of these websites will be new to you, and others are going to be very familiar to you. In talking about the familiar websites, I want to get you thinking about them differently, explain a little bit more about what you can do at these websites, and how to get the most out of them.
In this series of 25 Websites for Genealogy, we’re going to be looking at websites in different categories. Our third category is Digital Collection websites (#18 through 22).
At the DPLA you can search for public domain research materials that will benefit your genealogy research. It offers a searchable access to millions of items including photographs, manuscripts, books, sounds, moving images, and more from libraries, archives, and museums around the United States.
According to Lisa Louise Cooke, Google Books is the tool you should use every day for genealogy. It puts 25 million digitized and searchable free books at your fingertips.
Learn much more about how to get the most out of Google Books with these videos by Lisa Louise Cooke:
If you’re looking for new information about your family history, an important website to add to your research list is the Internet Archive. It’s a free website that attempts to archive the web, and that includes a vast array of genealogy materials!
Founded in 2008, the non-profit HathiTrust provides access to 18+ million digitized items in the HathiTrust Digital Library. Reading access varies depending on the item and whether you belong to a participating organization, but it’s definitely worth a look.
It’s hard to keep up with the content constantly being added online at FamilySearch! If you (like me) spent the past month squeezing the last bit of travel and sun from the summer, you may have missed some great new content. Here’s a recap:
More than a half million images to a growing collection of Italy’s Civil Registrations;
Nearly a million indexed Jamaican and a quarter million Chilean civil registrations;
More than 2.5 million indexed recods from New Zealand passenger lists (1855-1973);
Nearly a half-million indexed names from Boston passenger lists (1820-1891);
Over 41 million indexed names added to the U.S. Public Record Index.
Search these and 3.5 billion more records at FamilySearch.org. Records are always free to search here, thanks both to the organization itself and thousands of volunteers around the world who index records. Join the effort here!
Here’s this week’s roundup of new genealogy records online. Highlights: Canadian marriages, German emigrants, Philippines civil registrations, Russian and Ukrainian church records and Michigan marriages.
CANADA – MARRIAGES. A new collection of district marriage register images for Ontario, Canada (1801-1858) is now free to browse at FamilySearch.org. Most entries are for the 1830s-1850s.
GERMANY – EMIGRANTS. The (former) Grand Duchy of Oldenburg Emigrants database just passed the 100.000 person mark. According to a note from the site host, “The database contains beside the emigrant itself also the family members we could trace in Germany or the Country to which he migrated.” Learn more at this blog post from the Oldenburgische Gesellschaft für Familienkunde. Click here to hear online German records expert Jim Beidler talk about new German records online.
PHILIPPINES – CIVIL REGISTRATIONS. FamilySearch.org has added 1.7 million+ browsable records to an existing collection of Philippines national civil registration records (1945-1984). These are described as “marriage and death certificates from various localities,” excluding Manila, for which there is a separate database.
RUSSIA – CHURCH. Nearly half a million browsable records have been added to a free FamilySearch.org collection of church books for Tatarstan, Russia (1721-1939). These are described as “images of births and baptisms, marriages, deaths and burials performed by priests of the Russian Orthodox Church in the republic of Tatarstan.” More records are being added as they are available.
UKRAINE – CHURCH. Another 205,000 browsable records have been added to a free FamilySearch.org collection of church book duplicates for Kyiv, Ukraine (1734-1920).
Thanks for sharing this post about new genealogy records online with your genealogy buddies on your favorite social media sites! We love spreading good news.
In this episode, Lisa welcomes Mary Tedesco, a co-host of PBS’ Genealogy Roadshow. Mary shares stories and tips about tracing Italian and Italian-American roots. Also:
FamilySearch updates since the end of microfilm lending (and how YOU helped make the last days of lending more effective);
A listener uses Google to find her mysterious great-grandmother, with a success story she calls a “game-changer” for her genealogy research.
The premiere of Military Minutes with Michael Strauss
DOUBLE THE FUN WITH MORE GENEALOGY GEMS PODCAST
This episode launches the NEW twice-monthly Genealogy Gems Podcast format. From now on, watch for two free episodes every month, each about 35-45 minutes long.
If you haven’t downloaded the Genealogy Gems app for easier listening on your mobile device, consider doing so now to make it twice as easy on yourself?and get twice the bonus content from now on!
If you’re listening through the Genealogy Gems app, your bonus content for this episode is?. TheGenealogy Gems app is FREE in Google Play and is only $2.99 for Windows, iPhone and iPad users.
FAMILYSEARCH RECORDS ACCESS UPDATE
ALL of the microfilmed records that have been rented in the past 5 years have now been digitized, over 1.5 million films.
From now on, if you need a film that hasn’t been digitized yet, you can call FamilySearch Support toll-free (866-406-1830) and request it for the priority digitization list.
They continue to digitally scan about 1000 films per day. (That sounds like a lot, but at this rate it will still take them until 2020 to be done.)
New digital images are being put in the FamilySearch Catalog as soon as possible. This is not the main digital record search area! It will take collections a while to appear here. Instead, under the Search tab, select Catalog, and then search by place and record type or other categories. This is a master catalog of all the Family History Library’s collections, online and offline, and when you click on an item’s individual description, you’ll be able to see a link to its digitized version if it’s available.
If you or anyone else had any films on loan in family history centers and FamilySearch affiliate libraries when the lending program ended, those automatically have extended loan status, which means they can stay there indefinitely unless the management decides to send them back.
If all else fails, you can still go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, UT and order microfilmed records to view, or you can hire someone to do it for you.
FamilySearch Affiliate libraries now have access to nearly all of the restricted image collections as family history centers.
Click here to read or listen to Lisa’s special interview with Diane Loosle of FamilySearch. It goes into much more detail about accessing records on the site, at affiliate libraries and more.
Click here to read the August 30, 2017 update from FamilySearch.
To save 30% off a Care.com Premium membership, visit care.com/gemswhen you subscribe.
I had so much fun opening the box. They even sent me an apron!
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NEWS: FREE GENEALOGY WEBINAR FROM NYC
Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems presents:
Reveal Your Unique Story through DNA & Family History sponsored by Animoto
Saturday, September 23, 2017 11:00 AM EST
Turn DNA results into your family history
Turn your family history into a compelling story
Turn your compelling story into a video!
Learn from Lisa Louise Cooke, Diahan Southard and Animoto’s Beth Forester:
Your DNA testing options (there are more than you think), and possible outcomes
The best free resources for going beyond DNA, back several generations in your family (quickly!)
Creative ideas for filling in the story gaps
How to expand your story in ways you never expected by finding DNA connections
Share the story you’ve uncovered with the world through riveting video
Lisa chat with Hannah about Hurricane Harvey
Keep your family history research, photos, tree software files, videos and all other computer files safely backed up with Backblaze, the official cloud-based computer backup system for Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems. Learn more athttp://www.backblaze.com/Lisa.
MAILBOX: KRISTIN’S SUCCESS STORY
“Among the handful of mystery photographs of my grandmother as a child and the strangers who sat beside her, was a brief article from a newspaper. It was a lesson in manners, titled ‘Silence is Golden’ and it was written by Merton Markert, a student of the Modern Classics. A photo of a young woman with a disheveled Gibson hairdo was attached.”
Try Ebay! Lisa found a listing for a commencement program from 1902, old post cards of the school, and other yearbooks from Lancaster High School. Sign up for a free Ebay account, run a search, and then click to Follow the search. You will then be alerted to future auctions that match your criteria.
Click here for tips on finding yearbooks and other school records.
Genealogy Gems Premium member perk: Premium Podcast episode 16 has great tips for using Ebay to find family history treasures. Click here to learn more about Premium membership.
INTERVIEW: MARY TEDESCO of Genealogy Roadshow
MARY M. Tedesco is a professional genealogist, speaker, and author. She is a host and genealogist on PBS’ Genealogy Roadshow” and Founder of ORIGINS ITALY. Mary speaks fluent Italian and travels often to Italy to conduct client genealogical research and visit family. She is co-author of Tracing Your Italian Ancestors.
Click hereto watch a free interview with Mary Tedesco with more tips on doing Italian genealogy research.
Michael Strauss, AG is the principal owner of Genealogy Research Network and an Accredited Genealogist since 1995. He is a native of Pennsylvania and a resident of Utah and has been an avid genealogist for more than 30 years. Strauss holds a BA in History and is a United States Coast Guard veteran.
BONUS handout to celebrate this new segment: Click here for a 4-page handout on U.S. draft registration records by Michael L. Strauss.
d sun from the summer, you may have missed some great new content. Here’s a recap:
Here’s this week’s roundup of new genealogy records online. Highlights: Canadian marriages, German emigrants, Philippines civil registrations, Russian and Ukrainian church records and Michigan marriages.
Thanks for sharing this post about new genealogy records online with your genealogy buddies on your favorite social media sites! We love spreading good news.
