40 Million New Genealogy Records To Help You Locate Your Family History

In December the genealogy records website Findmypast.com released new and exclusive historical records that highlight significant life events of the past.  According to the the company, more than 40 million new records are included.  Here are all the details from their press release:

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 17, 2012) – “The number of records released offers findmypast.com’s users a staggering amount of new data, ranging from exclusive United Kingdom records from as early as 1790 to modern-day vital records from the United States that will add new layers of information for researchers,” said D. Joshua Taylor, lead genealogist for findmypast.com, “Findmypast.com is constantly expanding our collections with thousands of new records being added each month. Moving into 2013, we look forward to increasing our record offerings to include rarer, more exclusive materials, in our dedication to provide the most comprehensive family history resource available.”

Many of the new records that can only be accessed through findmypast.com offer a unique glimpse into history. The Harold Gillies Plastic Surgery set, dating back to World War I, contains fascinating records of some of the world’s first restorative plastic surgery, while the White Star Line Officers’ Books include officer records from the Titanic.

Newly added employment and institutional records including the records of the Merchant Navy Seaman (aka the Merchant Marines) provide unique color to family history that can’t be created from just names and dates. Other record sets include probates and wills, such as the Cheshire Wills and Probates, which often offer crucial clues to link North American family trees back to the United Kingdom.

The full set of exclusive records recently released by findmypast.com includes:

United Kingdom Court & Probate

  • ·   Cheshire Wills and Probate
  • ·   Suffolk Beneficiary Index

United Kingdom Education & Work

  • ·   Cheshire Workhouse Records, Admissions and Discharges
  • ·   Cheshire Workhouse Records, Religious Creeds
  • ·   Derbyshire Workhouse Records
  • ·   Match Workers Strike
  • ·   White Star Line Officers’ Books

United Kingdom Military

  • ·   Army List, 1787
  • ·   Army List, 1798
  • ·   British Officers taken Prisoners of War, 1914-1918
  • ·   De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honor
  • ·   Grenadier Guards, 1656
  • ·   Harold Gillies Plastic Surgery – WWI
  • ·   Harts Army List, 1840
  • ·   Harts Army List, 1888
  • ·   Manchester Employee’s Roll of Honor, 1914-1916
  • ·   Merchant Navy Seamen (aka Merchant Marines)
  • ·   Napoleonic War Records, 1775-1817
  • ·   WWI Naval Casualties
  • ·   Paddington Rifles
  • ·   Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 British Navy & Air Force Officers
  • ·   Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 Officers of Empire serving in British Army
  • ·   Royal Hospital, Chelsea: documents of soldiers awarded deferred pensions, 1838-1896 (WO 131)
  • ·   Royal Hospital, Chelsea: pensioners’ discharge documents 1760-1887, (WO 121)
  • ·   Royal Hospital, Chelsea: pensioners’ discharge documents, foreign regiments, 1816-1817 (WO 122)
  • ·   Royal Hospital, Kilmainham: pensioners’ discharge documents, 1773-1822 (known as WO 119 at the National Archives)
  • ·   Royal Navy Officers Medal Roll, 1914-1920
  • ·   War Office: Imperial Yeomanry, soldiers’ documents, South African War, 1899-1902 (WO 128)
  • ·   WWII POWs – British held in German Territories

In addition to the exclusive records sets, this recent release includes additional records from the United States, Australia and Ireland. An update to the World War I Draft Cards collection provides registrations and actual signatures of more than 11 million young Americans from the beginning of the twentieth century.

Additional records released include:

United States Military

  • ·   Japanese-Americans Relocated during WWII
  • ·   Korean War Casualty File
  • ·   Korean War Deaths
  • ·   Korean War Prisoners of War
  • ·   Korean War Prisoners of War (Repatriated)
  • ·   U.S. Army Casualties, 1961-1981
  • ·   Vietnam Casualties Returned Alive
  • ·   Vietnam War Casualties
  • ·   Vietnam War Deaths
  • ·   WWI Draft Cards
  • ·   WWII Prisoners of War

Life Events

UNITED STATES:

  • ·   Kentucky Birth Records, 1911-2007
  • ·   Kentucky Death Records Index, 1911-1999
  • ·   Kentucky Marriage Records Index, 1973-1999
  • ·   Texas Divorce Records Index, 1968-2010
  • ·   Texas Marriage Records, 1968-2010

AUSTRALIA

  • ·   Northern Territory Anglican Baptisms and Confirmations, 1900-1947
  • ·   Northern Territory Anglican Burials, 1900-1968
  • ·   Northern Territory Anglican Marriages, 1902-1953

IRELAND

  • ·   Irish Catholic Church Directories, 1836-37

Census Land and Surveys

 AUSTRALIA

  • ·   Northern Territory Census, 1881-1921
  • ·   Northern Territory Electoral Rolls, 1895-1940 

Institutions & Organizations

AUSTRALIA

  • ·   Northern Territory Parliamentary Index, 1884-1890

Newspapers, Directories & Social History

AUSTRALIA

  • ·   Northern Territory Section of the Queensland Post Office Directory, 1920-1921

Disaster Preparedness for Genealogists Part 2: Duplicate the Past

hurry_with_the_medical_kit_300_clr_8472In celebration of National Preparedness Month in the United States, I’m running a four-part post on securing your family history archive and research against disasters. Last week I talked about assessing and prioritizing your original family artifacts, photographs and documents. This week’s tip:

DUPLICATE THE PAST. There’s no true substitute for an original family Bible, but if it’s lost, you at least want to have a copy. Scan your original photos, documents, and other flat artifacts—including the important pages of that Bible. While you could carefully use a flatbed scanner, consider a portable scanner or a mobile scanning app like Genius Scan or Scanner Pro.

Next, photograph dimensional family artifacts like artwork, handicrafts, clothing, military and school memorabilia, etc. Use a regular digital camera or the camera on your phone or tablet/iPad. Make sure you label the photos by using the metadata fields in digital files or by printing them out and captioning them in an album. Consider using the Heirloom Inventory Kit developed by the folks at Family Tree Magazine to create an archival record of your artifacts with images, stories and more.

Next week, we’ll tackle a third topic: preserving original documents, photos and heirlooms.

What To Do If a Scrapbook Gets Wet (or Photo Album or Pictures)

water damaged scrapbookWhen family scrapbooks get wet, the result is not pretty. In fact, it can be quite dire for the scrapbook and its precious contents.

“Water can cause the bleeding of inks and dyes in journal entries, digital photographs, and decorative papers, causing them to appear blurry or streaked,” says this article in Scrapbook Retailer. “When exposed to water, some prints and materials will soften and stick to adjacent surfaces. Papers that get wet can become distorted or warped and some may even dissolve completely in water.”

Even more yucky? “Dirty water from sewage leaks, floodwaters from rivers, and colored liquids like fruit juices make the clean-up process more difficult and staining of the album materials more likely.”

Preventing the damage in the first place is of course the best option, but it’s not always an option we’re given. Floods happen. Spills happen. Windows get left open.

So what to do if a scrapbook gets wet? Or a photo album or loose pictures?

First, says the Library of Congress, “Take necessary safety precautions  if the water is contaminated with sewage or other hazards or if there is active (wet or furry) mold growth.”

“In general, wet photographs should be air dried or frozen as quickly as possible,” states the Northeast Document Conservation Center website. “Once they are stabilized by either of these methods, there is time to decide what course of action to take.” But don’t delay too long, they say. “Time is of the essence: the longer the period of time between the emergency and salvage, the greater the amount of permanent damage that will occur.”

A few more tips from that same article on the Northeast Document Conservation Center website, written by Gary Albright:

  • Save prints before plastic-based films, as the latter will last longer.
  • Allow water to drain off photos first, as needed. Then air dry photographs, face up, laying flat on paper towels. Negatives should be hung to dry.
  • Separate wet photos from each other and other items (like a scrapbook page) as much as possible.
  • If photos are stuck together, freeze them as a bunch, wrapped in wax paper. Then thaw them. As they gradually thaw, peel photos off and let them air dry.
  • Don’t worry if pictures curl up while they are drying. You can flatten them once they’re totally dry.

Unfortunately, some very old photo types will not survive a water bath at all. Others may weather a quick dip but not long-term exposure to dampness. It’s SO important to preserve images digitally! You can scan entire album pages if they fit on your scanner, so you can record captions or the arrangement of pictures on a page. Or use a scanner like Flip-Pal that has stitching software to help stitch together larger images.

In a pinch, snap pictures with your mobile device: close-ups of photographs and captions, and full-page images that at least capture how it’s laid out (even if at a lower resolution). Mobile Genealogy: How to Use Your Tablet and Smartphone for Family History Research by Lisa Louise Cooke has a chapter on digital imaging apps that can help you digitally preserve family albums and scrapbooks–whether they’ve gotten wet or not.

Christmas in July BackblazeLisa Louise Cooke trusts all our computer files–including images, sound files and videos that have taken thousands of hours to create–to Backblaze online backup service, the official backup of Genealogy Gems. For about $5 a month (or $50 for an entire year), you can protect your files, too. It only takes a couple of minutes to give yourself the peace of mind of knowing that, even if disaster strikes, you’ll still be able to recover your digital files quickly and easily. Go to www.Backblaze.com/Lisa to get started.

 

 

Raw DNA Data: A Missing Piece to Your DNA Puzzle

Your DNA test results come with raw DNA data. This raw data is the next piece in your DNA puzzle. Your DNA Guide, Diahan Southard, shares some interesting facts about raw DNA data and its use. Dig in and learn why!

Raw DNA Data how-to

What is Raw DNA Data?

Raw DNA data is the actual output file created by the DNA testing company. You can access your raw data at each testing company, and I strongly encourage that you do. You will need to download and save your raw data results to your computer. For instructions on how to do this, head on over to this page on my Your DNA Guide website.

This file contains your little DNA values at over 700,000 locations tested by your testing company. Any company with the right set-up and analysis tools can help you find matches with other people, and make additional genealogical discoveries. They may also be able to tell you if you like cilantro and are likely to have high blood sugar!

Raw DNA Data Research Projects and Destinations

Raw DNA data has to have a place to go. There are several research projects underway that utilize your data from any of the big four testing companies (Family Tree DNA, 23andMe, MyHeritage DNA, and AncestryDNA) for various genealogical or genetic purposes.

Raw DNA data at DNA Land

Home page of the DNA Land website

Let’s look at four examples of places you might upload your raw DNA data.

1. Family Tree DNA. If you have tested at 23andMe or AncestryDNA, you can transfer your raw data file to Family Tree DNA for free! You can access all of your matches and use the matching tools. For an additional $19, you can get access to the ethnicity features and other tools.

2. DNA Land. The not-for-profit DNA Land has over 26,000 individuals who have voluntarily uploaded their autosomal DNA test results into their website to be used for research purposes. Their self-stated goal is to “make genetic discoveries for the benefit of humanity.”

3. MyHeritage. MyHeritage also accepts your raw DNA data for incorporation into their genealogical database. You can upload your results for free and receive access to matches along with the ability to contact them. For a one-time fee of $29, you can unlock access to all of MyHeritage DNA’s features and tools as well. Learn more and upload your data here.

4. Geni.com. Geni.com (a family tree collaboration tool) jumped on the DNA bandwagon and announced they too would be integrating DNA into their family tree tool. Utilizing a partnership with Family Tree DNA, Geni.com is utilizing all three kinds of DNA (autosomal, YDNA, and mDNA) in their offering. The interface looks much like what you would see at your testing company: a list of matches with some family tree information.

The biggest takeaway from the recent influx of destinations for your raw DNA data shows us that the integration of DNA into genealogy is in full swing. I estimate every genealogy company and every major genealogy software will offer some kind of DNA integration within the next five years. DNA has certainly earned a permanent spot as a genealogical record type!

A Word of Caution

With all of these options available, and surely more to come, you will want to be careful about who you are giving your raw data to. Make sure you are comfortable with the company and its goals. Be sure you understand what role your DNA will be playing in their research, as well. These are exciting times in the world of genealogy.

Take the Next Steps in Your DNA Journey

10 DNA Guides BundleWherever you are in your DNA journey, we can help!

Take your very first steps and learn how to get started using DNA testing for family history.

If you have already taken the plunge, learn how to harness the power of DNA matching.

For the most help in understanding DNA for family history, take a look at the ten different DNA guides in both print and digital form from Your DNA Guide, Diahan Southard.

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