New Genealogy Records and Updates

by | Dec 16, 2019 | 01 What's New, Records & databases | 3 comments

Here are the important system and records updates from industry leaders. Each new feature and record offers a new opportunity to learn more about your family history. Let’s get started!

 

new genealogy records and updates

MyHeritage Updates

MyHeritage announced an update their Related Records features on December 16, 2019. Here’s the latest from their blog:

“We recently revamped Related Records in SuperSearch™ to ensure that you don’t miss any important historical records that can lead you to new discoveries.

Related Records, previously known as Record Detective™, shows additional records or family tree profiles that might belong to the person or people featured in the historical record you are currently viewing.

The technology scans the record you’ve discovered in SuperSearch™ and matches it to our entire database of over 10.2 billion historical records and family tree profiles to locate related records.

For example, a birth record could point to a newspaper article about the wedding of the same person, where you could learn about new family members that you weren’t aware of.

To make Related Records more practical and ensure that you won’t miss them, we now show them in a convenient panel on the right-hand side of the record instead of below it.

Related Records are generated by MyHeritage’s record-to-record matching technology, and we’ve just re-calculated these matches, adding hundreds of millions of additional Related Records. This will open the door to many new and exciting discoveries.”

MyHeritage Records

MyHeritage has also been busy adding new records:

Germany, War Graves Index, 1902-1961

An index of 4,234,266 records

“This index of over 4.2 million records containing information on German soldiers and civilians who died in wars or military operations between 1902 and 1961.

 Many of the records are for soldiers killed during World War I or World War II. While the amount of information in each record varies, the vast majority of records contain the following searchable data: first and last name, date of birth, date of death, and place of death. Some records also include birth place, burial place, and military rank.

The burial place is seldom recorded, but when available it can provide valuable information about the location of the grave.

While this is largely an early 20th-century military death index, many women are present in this collection.

In the case of soldiers who went missing, the date of death field may refer to the date on which they went missing. Similarly, the place of death may refer to the place from which they went missing.”

Australia, Military Lists and Awards

An index of Australian military rolls.
960,081 records

United States, Index of Burials, 1900-2019

An index of records from various cemeteries located in the United States.
492,002 records

Australia, Index of Burials, 1900-2019

An index of records from various cemeteries located in Australia.
438,587 records

England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Index of Will Registers, 1384-1858

An index of wills proved before the Prerogative Court of Canterbury and other jurisdictions.
979,653 records

United Kingdom, Royal Navy Ratings’ Service Records, 1853-1928

An index of Royal Navy service records for ratings who entered the service between 1853 and 1928.
803,684 records

United Kingdom, Registry of Shipping and Seamen: Royal Navy Reserve Ratings’ Records of Service, 1908-1958

An index of service record cards of Royal Naval Reserves, mainly those who served during the First World War.
129,896 records

United Kingdom, Royal Air Force Officers’ Index, 1918-1919

An index of service records of those who served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the First World War (1914–1918).
101,411 records

United Kingdom, Royal Marines’ Service Records, 1842-1925

An index of service registers of men who joined the Royal Marines between 1842 and 1925.
112,012 records

United Kingdom, Index of Merchant Seamen’s Campaign Medals, 1939-1945

An index of 108,387 records

United Kingdom, Index of Merchant Seamen’s Campaign Medals, 1914-1918

An index of recipients of British War Medals, Mercantile Marine Medals, and Silver War Badges issued to merchant seamen and officers in the First World War.
157,424 records

United Kingdom, Recommendations for Military Honours and Awards, 1935-1990

An index of recommendations for military honors and awards between 1935 and 1990 to British Army personnel and army personnel from British dominions.
78,497 records

United Kingdom, Royal Navy Officers’ Service Records, 1756-1931

An index of service records for officers who joined the Royal Navy between 1756 and 1931.
66,686 records

United Kingdom, Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve Index, 1903-1922

An index of First World War service records for officers and ratings of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR).
59,784 records

United Kingdom, Index of Death Duty Registers, 1796-1811

An index of 51,146 records

United Kingdom, Admiralty and War Office: Royal Naval Division: Records of Service, 1914-1919

An index of service records of ratings and officers in the Royal Naval Division (RND) during the First World War.
50,017 records

Click here to search for these records at MyHeritage.

 

FamilySearch Records

FamilySearch has also continued to add indexed records. Most are to existing collections, but some are new collections. Here’s what they announced on December 9, 2019.

SALT LAKE CITY, UT—New, free, historical records were added to FamilySearch.org  from American Samoa, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, England, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Venezuela and the United States. Over 800,000 records were added from the Cape Province of Africa (1895-1972.)

American Samoa 

American Samoa, Vital Records, 1850-1972  
3,550 indexed records 
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Brazil

Brazil, Santa Catarina, Civil Registration, 1850-1999  
8,512 indexed records 
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Chile

Chile, Catholic Church Records, 1710-1928  
7,707 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Colombia 

Colombia, Bogotá, Burial Permits, 1960-1991  
79,631 indexed records 
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Croatia

Croatia, Delnice Deanery Catholic Church Books, 1725-1926   
2,870 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Costa Rica

Costa Rica, Civil Registration, 1823-1975     
151,856 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

England

England, Herefordshire Bishop’s Transcripts, 1583-1898  
599 indexed records 
Added indexed records to an existing collection

England, Huntingdonshire Parish Registers  
52,367 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

England, Oxfordshire Parish Registers 1538-1904
51,159 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

England, Yorkshire Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1613-1887 
2,587 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

England, Cambridge Parish Registers, 1538-1983      
468,063 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

France

France, Vienne, Military Draft Cards, 1867-1921
3,633 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Ireland 

Ireland, James Alexander Henderson, The Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory for 1856  
37,363 indexed records 
New indexed records collection

Ireland, Thom’s Irish Almanac & Official Directory 1868 
103,355 indexed records    
New indexed records collection

Northern Ireland, Tithe Applotment Books, 1822-1837
175,575 indexed records
New indexed records collection

Ireland and Britain, Transatlantic Migration from North America, 1858-1870
42,695 indexed records
New indexed records collection

Ireland, Thom’s Official Directory of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1894, Irish Section
121,181 indexed records
New indexed records collection

Ireland, Thom’s Official Directory, 1910
131,734 indexed records
New indexed records collection

Italy 

Italy, Trieste, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1924-1944
100 indexed records
New indexed records collection

Netherlands

Netherlands, Archival Indexes, Vital Records, 1600-2000
101,765 indexed records (over several weeks)
Added indexed records to an existing collection

New Zealand      

New Zealand, Archives New Zealand, Probate Records, 1843-1998
637 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Peru

Peru, Amazonas, Civil Registration, 1935-1999
26,959 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Peru, Ayacucho, Civil Registration, 1903-1999
1,394 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Peru, Huánuco, Civil Registration, 1889-1997
23,227 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Peru, Prelature of Yauyos-Cañete-Huarochirí, Catholic Church Records, 1665-2018
1,494 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Peru, Tacna, Civil Registration, 1850-1998
193,495 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico, Civil Registration, 1805-2001
714 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

South Africa

South Africa, Cape Province, Civil Deaths, 1895-1972
818,292 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

United States

Alabama

Alabama, Confederate Pension Applications, ca. 1880-1930’s
168,372 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Alabama, County Birth Registers, 1881-1930 
8,206 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Arkansas

Arkansas Confederate Pensions, 1901-1929  
96,713 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

California, San Francisco Arrivals

United States, California, List of United States Citizens Arriving at San Francisco, 1930-1949
434,995 indexed records
New indexed records collection

Georgia

Georgia, Chatham, Savannah, Laurel Grove Cemetery Record Keeper’s Book (colored), 1852-1942      
24,094 indexed records   
New indexed records collection

Georgia, Columbus, Linwood and Porterdale Colored Cemeteries, Interment Records, 1866-2000       
28,946 indexed records  
New indexed records collection

Georgia, County Delayed Birth and Death Records, 1870-1960           
202 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Hawaii

Hawaii, Board of Health, Marriage Record Indexes, 1909-1989     
85,716 indexed records          
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Hawaii, Hansen’s Disease Records, Kalaupapa Census Index, 1839-1970                                 
2,336 indexed records    
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Louisiana

Louisiana, New Orleans, Interment Registers, 1836-1972   
133,660 indexed records         
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Louisiana, Orleans Parish, Birth Records, 1819-1906         
85,840 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Louisiana, New Orleans Index to Passenger Lists, 1853-1952         
151,894 indexed records
New indexed records collection

South Carolina

South Carolina, Charleston County, Charleston, Birth Registers, 1901-1926     
14,132 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Tennessee

Tennessee, Davidson County, Nashville City Cemetery Records, 1843-1962  
18,187 indexed records           
New indexed records collection

Tennessee, Shelby County, Memphis, Board of Health Death Records, 1848-1913  
1,121 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Texas

Texas, Harrison County Delayed Birth Records, 1860-1933          
23 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

U.S. Obituaries

United States, GenealogyBank Historical Newspaper Obituaries, 1815-2011     
8,829,622 indexed records
Added indexed records to an existing collection

Venezuela           

Venezuela, Catholic Church Records, 1577-1995  
109,788 indexed records             
Added indexed records to an existing collection

FamilySearch Update

Also recently announced by FamilySearch:

FamilySearch Adds Ability to Document All Family Relationships 
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (10 December 2019)

“The FamilySearch Family Tree now provides the ability for users to document all family relationships, including same-sex relationships.”

(FamilySearch) “encourages genealogical accuracy based on original source records and contains over a billion user-contributed lineage-linked records. Patrons are now able to document same-sex relationships, including same-sex marriages and same-sex adoptions.”

“When adding a spouse or parent to the FamilySearch Family Tree, the user can now add a spouse or parent of the same sex.  The Family Tree mobile app will also support this new capacity after users install the necessary updates.”

Official Statement from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 

Ancestry Record Updates

Here are the latest new and updated historical genealogy records from Ancestry:

Updated:
Australia and New Zealand, Find A Grave Index, 1800s-Current

Updated:
U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current

Updated:
Brazil, Find A Grave Index, 1800s-Current

New:
New York State, Card Index to Supreme Court and Court of Chancery Documents, 1648-1848

New:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Marriages, 1838-1911

New:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Births, 1839-1911

New:
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Deaths, 1854-1911

Updated:
Norway, Find A Grave Index, 1800s-Current

Updated:
Sweden, Find A Grave Index, 1800s-Current

Updated:
Italy, Find A Grave Index, 1800s-Current

Updated:
Germany, Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current 

Updated:
Mexico, Find A Grave Index, 1800s-Current

Trove: Australia Digitized Newspapers and More

by | Apr 24, 2016 | 01 What's New, Australian, Digital Archives, Libraries, Maps, Newspaper

This free video (below) introduces Trove, The National Library of Australia’s online catalog and digital archive for all things Australian. Trove digital archives genealogy

If you have roots in Australia, I hope you are using Trove. When I first covered it in the Genealogy Gems podcast a while back, it was a fairly new resource and I shared how it is chock full of 76 million digitized newspaper articles. Now that number exceeds 200 million records! The site has expanded its other content, too. If you haven’t looked for your Aussie roots on Trove recently, you’re really missing out!

Trove helps you find and use resources relating to Australia. It’s more than a search engine. Trove brings together content from libraries, museums, archives and other research organisations and gives you tools to explore and build.

Trove is many things: a community, a set of services, an aggregation of metadata, and a growing repository of fulltext digital resources.

Best of all, Trove is yours, created and maintained by the National Library of Australia.

Australian genealogy congress bannerThat’s how the site introduces itself, and it sure lives up to its claim. As shown in the video below, Trove lets you search among “zones” of online content:

  • digitized newspapers; journals, articles and data sets;
  • online and offline books, audiobooks, theses and pamphlets;
  • pictures, photos and objects;
  • music, sound and video files;
  • maps, atlases, charts and globes;
  • diaries, letters and personal papers;
  • archived websites;
  • people and organizations; and
  • a zone for user-created lists.

You can browse these zones individually or search them all with a single click. You can search for just items available online, in Australian-only content, or just in libraries you specify. Creating a free user ID allows you to personalize your experience and participate in online forums. From my U.S. perspective, it would be like having the Library of Congress main website and all its offshoots such as Chronicling America rolled up together with WorldCat, ArchiveGrid, Internet Archive and its Wayback Machine–but focused entirely on my country.

When it comes to those nearly-200 million newspaper articles, you can search these by keyword or browse by newspaper title, state, date, category (article, ad or list) or tag. Refine search results by place, title, Newspaper Book Covercategory, whether illustrated, decade and even the length of the article. You can even sign up to receive alerts to newly-posted material that matches your search criteria.

Remember, newspaper research in genealogy isn’t just about obituaries or wedding anniversary announcements. It’s about understanding the daily lives of our ancestors, and I share more strategies on uncovering these gems in my book How to Find Your Family History in Newspapers (available as an e-book or in print).

Here’s a video from the National Library of Australia with an overview of Trove:

Click here to search newspapers on Trove now.

MORE Australia Genealogy Gems

New Australia Genealogy Records Online

AncestryDNA in Australia and New Zealand

Assisted Immigration: Queensland Passenger Lists

 

 

Genealogy Gems Podcast Episode 238

by | Feb 12, 2020 | 01 What's New, Genealogy Gems Podcast | 4 comments

The Genealogy Gems Podcast is the leading genealogy and family history show. Launched in 2007, the show is hosted by genealogy author, keynote presenter, and video producer Lisa Louise Cooke. The podcast features genealogy news, interviews, stories and how-to instruction. It can be found in all major podcasting directories, or download the exclusive Genealogy Gems Podcast app to listen to all the episodes and receive bonus content.

Click below to listen to this episode:

Podcast host: Lisa Louise Cooke
February 2020
Download the episode mp3

Do you love genealogy, mysteries and puzzle solving? Well in this episode we have not one but two tales of mystery.

The first has a Valentine’s theme centered around a mysterious love letter. Professional genealogist Kathleen Ackerman will be here to share how a love letter that was missing its last page took her on a genealogical journey full of surprises.

Our second story is a mystery full of twists,  turns and murder that will ultimately resurrect your faith that what you think is lost, may still be found.

Genealogy News

Ancestry Lays off 6 Percent of Employees due to Consumer Slump

23andMe laid off 100 employees due to slowing DNA kit sales

Genealogy Gems Mailbox

The Genealogy Gems Mailbox

Emails from Genealogy Gems Podcast listeners.

Frank recently wrote in saying that he listened to Genealogy Gems Podcast episode 227 and my conversation with Ran Snir, MyHeritage DNA Product Manager about their genetic genealogy tools The Theory of Family Relativity™  and AutoClusters. This got him thinking about his own test results and a frustration he has had trying to find matches and records in pursuit of this Galician roots. 

Frank writes:

“Ancestry’s records are almost non-existent, except for some parish records, but this is the region from which Cuba and Argentina were populated, and the ultimate ancestry of Cubans in the US. I have done the AncestryDNA test but my matches are few and far between.

On the other hand, I have worked with a Spanish genealogist and have some records that go back to the 17th century. Is there any program like Ancestry,  23andme, or My Heritage, that can do Galician (Spanish) genealogy well.”

Regarding DNA matches and testing pools:

DNA companies test all types of people and because testers can download their results and upload them to other companies, their pools of people are becoming more similar. Generally, they don’t focus on particular groups. They just report the results based on the pool they currently have. 

Regarding genealogy records:

Start with the FamilySearch Wiki page on Galicia includes links to records within each province.

Conduct a Google Search: Galician (Spanish) genealogy “Galicia”. Click here to see the Google search results.

Additional Resources:

The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox Third Edition by Lisa Louise Cooke available in the Genealogy Gems Store.

The Genealogist's Google Toolbox Third edition Lisa Louise Cooke

Available in the Genealogy Gems Store.

Lisa’s video classes and handouts on Google search are included in Genealogy Gems Premium Membership. Learn more here.

Genealogy Gems premium elearning

Click to learn more about Genealogy Gems Premium Membership.

From Linda:

“I am a regular listener to your podcasts.  And I am the family historian.  I recently received a trove of documents from my Uncle who had been working to chart the family for 25 years.  He passed away last year.  His most recent quest was to find as many old family pictures as possible and I have continued to reach out to distant relatives.  I enjoyed the recent podcast about the New York photographer website and hope it will help me identify people in some of these very old pictures. 

(Episode 236 – Interview with David Lowe, Specialist for the Photography Collection at the New York Public Library on a free tool they provide that can help you identify your old photos. Also a discussion of how to find unindexed records at Ancestry.com.)

My question:  a friend of mine has inherited all of her family’s old family pictures.  The pictures are from the late 1800’s.  She doesn’t know who most of the people are.  She is not interested in learning and apparently there aren’t any members of the family who have taken the role of family historian.  Is there anything to do with these pictures other than to dispose of them?  It makes me sad to know that no one is interested.  When I learned a branch of my family tree had tossed all of their old family pictures, I felt awful and it has taken me some time to accept that I might not ever find replacements for this branch.”

There are ways to make real progress identifying photos. I’m going to be covering more of this on upcoming episodes. I would start by asking your friend to write down states / counties / towns where she thinks her family lived, as well as her direct ancestors as far as she knows (even if it’s just grandparents or great grandparents.) With some basic genealogical info on the most recent members of the family and some possible locations, you could then post at least some of the photos on Deadfred.com.

This is a site where people search on families and locations and other identifying information to find unidentified photos of their family members. Many, many photos have made their way to family historians through DeadFred. 

If you don’t have time to post them on DeadFred, and you do know the county where some of the photos came from, you could offer to donate them to the local genealogical society. They might be willing to take them, and their volunteers might be willing to do it. 

I agree with you, it would be such a shame to toss them because you can be sure there is someone out there who would treasure them and may even hold answers. 

MyHeritageThe free podcast is sponsored by MyHeritage

GEM: The Scrapbook Mystery

 

Bill and his dad in 1973

1973: Bill with his dad about six months before he died. (Courtesy of Bill Compton)

 

The Compton Scrapbook

The Compton Scrapbook (courtesy of Bill Compton.)

 

Article featuring William R. Compton in the Scrapbook

Article featuring William R. Compton in the Scrapbook (Courtesy of Bill Compton)

 

William R. Compton, US Marshall

William R. Compton, US Marshall (Courtesy of Bill Compton)

 

Donald Clark featured in the news

Donald Clark featured in the news

Read the news about the murder that occurred on the property where the scrapbook was found:Centerville Fire contained on property where triple murder suspect Donald Clark lived

Resources Discussed:

Learn more about how to blog about your family history. It may just lead to a treasure like it did for Bill. Here is a collection of articles at Genealogy Gems on family history blogging.

Learn more about how to set up your own blog by watching the videos on how to blog at my Genealogy Gems YouTube channel.

Visit Bill Compton’s blog.

The free podcast is sponsored by RootsMagic

Rootsmagic

GEM: The Love Letter

Kathleen Ackerman graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of General Studies: Family History degree in April 2012. She now has her own research company, Finding Ties that Bind. She is also working on a Master’s Degree in Genealogy, Paleography and Heraldry from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland.

Kathleen Ackerman

Kathleen Ackerman

Kathleen is the director for the Cave Creek Arizona Family History Center.  She loves to help others as they learn about their family history. For seven years, she served as the Treasurer and British Institute Director for the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History.  Besides her volunteer and school work, she spends most of her free time either working on her husband’s English and Scottish lines or playing with her granddaughter.

“In 2010, my mother found three pages of a letter addressed to “Mamie” among my grandparent’s things. My grandmother has passed away and my grandfather did not remember who Mamie was or why they had the letter. My mom sent me the letter in hopes that I could figure it out.”

Mamie - a genealogy mystery

Miriam (Mamie) Smith Patelzick 1891-1911 (Photo courtesy of Kathleen Ackerman)

 The last page which may have contained the writer’s signature was missing. This is where Kathleen’s search began.

The first three pages of the love letter

The first three pages of the love letter. (Courtesy of Kathleen Ackerman)

Kathleen turned to census records from the time period, and Google Maps to verify where Medicine Lodge was in comparison to Small, Idaho, the place from which the letter was sent. No such town could be found.

She then turned to old maps to see if the town had once existed. She used maps on the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection website. She found a map of Idaho from 1909, that showed Small, Medicine Lodge river and Reno (all mentioned in letter). They were all in Fremont County, Idaho. Her confidence that she had the right person grew.

Historic Map of Idaho

1909 Idaho map published by Geo. F. Cram, Chicago (DavidRumsey.com)

The search moved on into vital records. A marriage certificate for Mamie and William Patelzick in Dec 1910 was located.Perhaps they had eloped?

Spoiler Alert: If you haven’t listened to the episode yet. The next image reveals the writer of the letter.

Later, Kathleen’s mother surprisingly found the final page of the letter:

Found! The last page of the love letter.

Found! The last page of the love letter. (Courtesy of Kathleen Ackerman)

A surprise indeed, and a mystery solved!

Thank you to Kathleen Ackerman for sharing her story! You can visit her at her website, Finding Ties that Bind.

Don’t wait another day. Get the computer backup that I use: www.backblaze.com/Lisa

Backblaze lisa louise cooke

Announcing the Next Generation of Google for Genealogy

The Genealogist’s Google Toolbox By Lisa Louise Cooke

Discover the answers to your family history mysteries using cutting-edge Google search strategies. A comprehensive resource for all of Google’s free tools, this easy-to-follow book provides the how-to information you need in plain English. You will first gain a strong foundation in how to search quickly and effectively. Then you’ll dig deeper into solving real-life challenges that genealogists regularly face. This book will show you how to flex your new Google muscles by mining each of the free tools to deliver satisfying and enlightening results. You will develop a mastery of Google that will serve you now and for years to come.

This book features:

  • Step-by-step clear instructions and loads of images that help you easily follow along.
  • Tips for searching faster and achieving better results to solve the real challenges that genealogists face.
  • How to go beyond Google search by using the wide range of powerful free tools that Google offers.
  • Cutting-edge technology like Google Earth to tell your family’s stories in new and exciting ways!
The Genealogist's Google Toolbox Third edition Lisa Louise Cooke

Click this image to order your copy of the book.

Download the Show Notes PDF in the Genealogy Gems Podcast app. 

 

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