UpFront with NGS

09 June 2016

UKBMD and FREEBMD -- great resources for English and Welsh research and they are FREE

I think I’ve mentioned that I’m English-born and my mother was the first emigrant in her family, hence, all my maternal research involves English records (with one lone Scots branch).

This means that many years ago I discovered FreeBMD and then later UKBMD – great places to start your UK research since vital records started in 1837 in England and Wales and they are so invaluable to one’s research.

Let’s look at each of these websites.

FreeBMD

FreeBMD is an ongoing project, the aim of which is to transcribe the Civil Registration index of births, marriages, and deaths for England and Wales, and to provide free Internet access to the transcribed records. It is a part of the Free UK Genealogy family, which also includes FreeCEN (Census data – 1841-1891 censuses) and FreeREG (Parish Registers – over 35,595,547 records).

The FreeBMD Database was last updated on Fri 13 May 2016 and currently contains 254,285,771 distinct records. That is a lot of records.

Fountain is one of my family names and it’s a somewhat unusual name to find in Lancashire in the early 1800s (I have tracked it back to Yorkshire) and when I search it in the database, many of the entries found are for my ancestors. It’s like a who’s who from my family tree.

If you haven’t check out FreeBMD, FreeCEN or FreeREG when researching English or Welsh ancestors, I suggest you do so.

UKBMD

UKBMD provides 2533 links to websites that offer on-line transcriptions of UK births, marriages, deaths, and censuses. A wide range of other indexes and transcriptions are also available for most counties, these may include parish records, wills, monumental inscriptions etc.

It also has companion projects – UKGDL (UK Genealogical Directories and Lists on the Internet – 1972 links) and UKMFH (UK Military Family History on the Internet – 1488 links).

UKBMD is like Cyndi’s List or Linkpendium in that it is a clearing house (or aggregator) about information housed on other websites. If I research on Lancashire, it brings up not only the previously discussed FreeBMD, FreeCEN, and FreeREG websites and sites like Lancashire BMD (almost 10 million birth, 4.5 million marriage, and 5.8 million death records), many one name study websites, RootsWeb pages, and much more.

What FREE UK websites are faves as you do English & Welsh research?

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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08 June 2016

So Many Genealogy-Related YouTube Channels, So Little Time!

Are you taking advantage of all the videos posted on YouTube related to genealogy and family history research?

For the most part, I often just stumble across videos of interest embedded in a blog post or similar that I am reading. Once watching the video, I will see what other videos were created by the same source – basically, I check out the “channel” in which the video was found. Think of these channels kind of like tv channels except instead of NBC, ABC, CBS, etc., you have NARA, LOC, LVA, Ancestry, etc.

Since these platforms can be overwhelming, this is where finding “channels” of interest is key!

Do know that on YouTube when you visit a new channel, a video will start up immediately, so you will possibly want to pause that video and/or have your sound off as you explore.

Let’s look at a few of the genealogy-related ones that I am aware of or searched out as I wrote this post:

US National Archives

Library of Congress

Smithsonian (there are also separate channels for the various component museums)

FamilySearch

Ancestry

American Ancestors

Genealogy Roadshow (Seasons 1 & 2)

BYU Family History Library

Library of Virginia

Lisa Louise Cooke’s Genealogy Gems

Dear Myrtle

The Swedish Genealogy Guide

Nick Thorne, The Nosey Genealogist (British Family History)

As you can see there is a quite a bit of diversity in who/what has a channel – from national institutions like NARA to state-level ones like the Library of Virginia to individuals.

Something I like about videos is that I can listen to them in the background as I am doing other work (or fun). Then, if something catches my ear, I can pull up the viewer, rewind, and then actually “watch” a segment of interest.

If you know of family history-related YouTube channels that are must "check out" for our community, please post a comment!

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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07 June 2016

NEW 1-Day Subscription Option from RootsIreland -- A good time to be researching Irish Ancestry!

This was great news to read from RootsIreland. In the past, the shortest option was a 1-month subscription at $28 which for many was just enough to discourage researchers from giving it a try. Well, the website now offers a 1 day (24 hours) option. You can look at MUCH material in 1 day!

And, if you find the website just chock full of information and want to extend your subscription, the amount paid for the 1 day option will be deducted from the purchase of a 1, 6 or 12-month subscription as long as you upgrade your subscription within 30 days of the original purchase.

That is quite nice also. Basically, you can’t lose!

If you don’t know about RootsIreland …

RootsIreland offers a unique database of more than 20 million Irish records

It contains data from 34 county genealogy centres on the island of Ireland. The main sources on the site are Irish Catholic and other church records of baptisms, marriages and deaths which are the most important source for tracing Irish ancestry.

The Irish Family History Foundation has been the coordinating body for a network of county genealogy centres and family history societies for over thirty years. The sources available vary for each county so please check our Irish Online Sources for details of what is available on the website.

If you took advantage of this new 1 day option, let us know if you made any finds.

xxx

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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06 June 2016

Are you using Chrome Extensions to Help You Research?

I find “tech” a necessity in my work as I do spend hours every day at my computer doing research, writing reports, adding twigs to Family Tree Maker Files, creating complex timelines and matrices, checking FB for genealogy news, blogging, writing articles, putting material in Dropbox, downloading photos from my cellphone and camera, and much more.

That said, I am not the most tech-savvy person – I try to keep abreast enough to keep afloat and that is about all I can handle.

Let’s take Google Chrome. This is my browser of choice. I know that many like Internet Explorer, Firefox and other options available, and my intent is NOT to start a browser war.

And, I have been known to use a few “extensions” as Google Chrome calls them – the oldest I’ve had in use is Adblock! I’ve also had the Grammarly one for quite a while – it does help me clean up my blog posts and other online missives! For the blog, a couple of years ago I installed Flip It (the extension for Flipboard), since I make sure that the posts from this blog are always available via Flipboard. How could I forget Google Hangouts – my immediate family and I use this to chat regularly, whether we are apart or spread across the house . I also have Pin It! (for Pinterest) and I just haven’t kept up with that one at all – too many social media platforms, too little time!

There are also some mystery extensions that I will need to explore further. Obviously I added them at some point and it might be time to do some housekeeping.

Enough about what I have and use, the reason I started this post was more to talk about what I was unaware of.

Did you know that there are some genealogy-specific extensions?

This was brought to my attention by The Villages Genealogical Society Facebook page. They posted about two of these – Ancestry Family Search Extension (takes vital information from an Ancestry Family Tree profile page and make it easy to search FamilySearch.org using those details) and RootsSearch.

Of course, I needed to further explore this world of family history-related Google Chrome extensions – are there more?!?!

I also discovered DNArboretum (presents 23andME and FTDNA Family Trees in Ahnentafel Format), Hope Chest (searches your family tree on FamilySearch.org), AncestryDNA Help (downloads list of matching users and ancestor information), and DiscoverAncestry^TM (configures your New Tab page to DiscoverAncestry^TM to provide features) … to name a few.

It looks like I should probably spend a bit of time someday trawling around the Chrome Web Store and see what other goodies I might be overlooking.

Have you used any of these? What do you think?

What Chrome extensions do you use that your fellow genealogists might want to investigate? What is your #1 Chrome extension when it comes to genealogy (though it doesn’t have to be directly genealogical in nature)?

Editor’s Note: I should not have to say it and I will -- obviously, neither I nor NGS are endorsing Google Chrome nor any of the mentioned Google Chrome extensions. This information is brought to you as an FYI to use, or not, as you deem fit!

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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03 June 2016

NEHGS Offers ALL New York Databases FREE for Month of June

Here is some news from our friends at NEHGS …

NEHGS offers expertise on challenging Empire State genealogical research with FREE access to all its New York resources on AmericanAncestors.org during June

Research within 23 databases of NEHGS containing genealogical records for New York is FREE
for a full month with registration as a Guest User

June 2, 2016—Boston, Massachusetts—Frequently there’s a New York wall in the way of family historians conducting research that includes ancestors in the Empire State. Today the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) has announced a special feature to help genealogists break through it with FREE Access to all of its New York databases at AmericanAncestors.org/New-York.

New York genealogy can be a challenge, depending on the time, place, and ethnicity of one’s ancestors. For example, finding 18th century Dutch-descended New Yorkers in the Hudson Valley is easier than finding settlers from New England in the same locale. The 1911 fire at the State Library in Albany and the fact that statewide registration of vital records did not start until 1880 can create challenging brick walls for research that includes the Empire State.

The unique New York databases on AmericanAncestors.org—the data-rich website of NEHGS—offer thousands of early American records for finding lost New York ancestors. 23 databases including church records, property records, marriage notices, and cemetery inscriptions are all within the online collection of the New York resources of NEHGS. The experts at NEHGS know the best resources for New York genealogy and can teach you to use them effectively.

Of particular interest to family historians seeking New York data are two databases offered FREE during this special, month-long program of NEHGS:

Abstracts of Wills, Admins., and Guardianships in NY State, 1787-1835
This database contains transcriptions for more than 50 counties within the state of New York. This compilation of Abstracts of New York Wills, Administrations, and Guardianships was created by William Applebie Daniel Eardeley. The original materials are part of the Brooklyn Historical Society's manuscript collection. Eardeley abstracted original estate proceedings in the counties of New York. In addition he indexed all the names in his abstracts, i.e. those of the decedents, executors, administrators, petitioners, guardians, witnesses, named beneficiaries, and minor children. Although the original title of the collection refers to the years 1691 to 1860, the bulk of the material concerns the period 1787 to 1835.

New York: Albany County Deeds, 1630-1894
The Index to the public records of the County of Albany, State of New York, 1630-1894 was compiled and printed pursuant to the laws of 1893, under direction of Wheeler B. Melius, Superintendent [1893-1906] of the Albany County (N.Y.) Board of Supervisors. This important fourteen volume set of 302,300 land transactions in Albany County, searchable by grantor, grantee, corporation and date of transaction represents some of the only surviving early records of Albany, NY after a devastating fire on February 10, 1880 at Albany City Hall destroyed or severely damaged many records for the city and county. The database is complete with records from all volumes, 1-14.

Throughout the month of June, these and all other New York databases on the website of NEHGS are FREE to Guest Users. Users who register for FREE access may browse a wide variety of New York records, subject guides, articles, and publications and view other resources at AmericanAncestors.org/New-York. Unlimited access to all one billion plus records on AmericanAncestors.org and other benefits are through membership at NEHGS.

About American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society

The founding genealogical society in America, New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) was established in 1845. Today it has a national collecting scope and serves more than 150,000 constituents through an award-winning website, www.AmericanAncestors.org. Since 1845, NEHGS has been the country’s leading comprehensive resource for genealogists and family historians of every skill level. Today NEHGS provides constituents with worldwide access to some of the most important and valuable research tools anywhere.

American Ancestors is the public brand and user experience of NEHGS representing the expertise and resources available for family historians of all levels when researching their origins across the country and around the world. NEHGS’s resources, expertise, and service are unmatched in the field and their leading staff of on-site and online genealogists includes experts in early American, Irish, English, Scottish, Italian, Atlantic and French Canadian, African American, Native American, Chinese, and Jewish research. Expert assistance is available to members and nonmembers in a variety of ways. The NEHGS library and archive, located at 99-101 Newbury Street in downtown Boston, Massachusetts is home to more than 28 million items, including manuscript documents, genealogical records, books, photographs, and other items dating back hundreds of years.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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02 June 2016

Twelve Genealogists Win Free Passes to the NGS Conference

The Villages Genealogical Society scholarship winners with NGS President Jordan Jones

Thanks to a “scholarship,” ten lucky individuals attended the recent NGS 2016 Family History Conference in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

The Villages Genealogical Society had a drawing among its 1,500 members to award $400 to ten members so that the recipients could attend the 2016 NGS Conference. Congratulations to the winners: Irene Sherrill Harrison, Pat Adams, Donna Yambasky, Barbara A Bateman, Mary Frances Gerace, Betty MacDuff, Joanne Read, Ruth Bogert Wible, Donna Koeppel, and Pat Rand.

The Pinellas Genealogical Society, located in Pinellas County on Florida’s west coast, also encouraged its members to attend the NGS conference, since it was in Florida this year. Members interested in or already planning to attend the conference were able to purchase tickets for a drawing on 13 February 2016. (One ticket cost $1, 6 for $5, and 13 for $10. Members could purchase as many as they wished to increase their odds of winning.) The drawing was held at the Society’s annual seminar. Two tickets were randomly selected, and each winner was reimbursed the full-conference registration costs after they registered. The lucky winners were Debbie Schuler and Patricia Riggs, and both attended the conference.

Has your society ever considered offering scholarships or other incentives so that members might better be able to attend a national genealogical conference? If so, we’d love to hear about it.

Does your society have an Organizational Subscription to NGS? Did you know that if you do, three organization officers or directors can attend an NGS Family History Conference at the membership rate? Please make sure that you are taking advantage of this organizational member benefit.

As we look towards the 2017 conference in Raleigh, NC, consider whether your organization/society might be able to provide an incentive to encourage interested individuals to attend. As The Villages Genealogical Society, your organization might provide a scholarship, or it could arrange a group bus to cut travel costs, find external sponsors to partially underwrite attendance, or whatever other incentive comes to mind and is practical.

Attending a national conference is an unparalleled experience and your society’s creativity in supporting its members’ attendance just might make a difference to at least one genealogist who otherwise would not have attended.

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The Villages is the largest retirement community in the world, occupying approximately 40 square miles in parts of three counties. With the newest Village on the drawing board, the area is now about twice the size of the New York Borough of Manhattan. There are three town squares with nightly entertainment. Villagers get around their community on over 50,000 golf carts (many electric) on over 100 miles of golf cart paths. The Villages Metropolitan Statistical Area has been the fastest growing MSA in the country for three years in a row. The current population is estimated at 115,000. The Villages has by far the world’s largest golf facility, with 621 holes at buildout.

The Villages Genealogical Society was founded in 1993. It began as a club of 15 members. It is now the largest genealogical society in Florida, and one of the largest local societies in the United States. The society currently operates 13 Special Interest Groups (SIGs) including Brick Wall Solutions SIG - Get help from others to solve your problem!, British Genealogy SIG - Join this roundtable discussion and solve your problem!, Eastern European SIG - Discuss problems & share your knowledge on Eastern European Ancestors., Family Tree Marker Users SIG - Ask questions about using this software, and more!

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The Pinellas Genealogy Society was founded by a small group of people whose interest in genealogy led them to establish The Florida Society for Genealogical Research, Inc. on May 27, 1972. On July 16, 1972, the first meeting of the Board of Directors was held in Pinellas Park. The name was changed to the Pinellas Genealogy Society, Inc. (PGS) in 1982. On January 17, 1991 Jay Dobkin, PGS member and Largo Library Special Collections Librarian, facilitated a contract between the Society and Largo Library. A mutual agreement was made that the Pinellas Genealogy Society would provide volunteers in the Special Collections/Genealogy Department and present educational classes and workshops in exchange for the library’s agreement to house the PGS genealogical collection. Thus began the Society’s amiable association with the Largo Library.

Through the Pinellas Genealogy Society quarterly publication The Pinellas Genealogist, the society shares genealogical experiences, family histories, primary records such as death records, bible records, baptismal records, and birth records with members and Societies participating in a mutual quarterly exchange.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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01 June 2016

Raleigh (NC) Accent Fades ... an evolving southern community

Many in Raleigh (NC) Don’t Sound Like Their Ancestors

With increased mobility when combined with economic necessity or preference, many move away from where they were born and often from where their ancestors spent generations.

Of course, then you have people like me of “emigrant mutt” ancestry, who grew up in New England and now lives in a southern state, North Carolina, in the mentioned city of Raleigh.

Ignoring my particular data point, Dick Eastman in a blog post last year, Do You Speak Like Your Ancestors? If You are from Raleigh, the Answer is “Probably Not.”, talks about the town where I live and it’s ever evolving linguistic nature.

North Carolina State University (NCSU) has a long reputation of doing excellent research into linguistics. Some of you may have heard of Walt Wolfram, who has done unparalleled research into sociolinguistics.

The post by Dick Eastman refers to the research done, funded by a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant where it was discovered that As a Southern community changes, an accent fades.

I know that my children, when attending school, had almost no Raleigh-born children in their classes, never mind those born in North Carolina. Or, if they were born in North Carolina, their parents had been born and lived elsewhere. None of their friends ever had a southern drawl or anything close.

Just another reminder that what we “see” or “hear” now may be quite different from what our ancestors experienced in the same locale.

Has your community experienced something similar? A change in the once local accent?

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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