UpFront with NGS: Romania

07 June 2017

Digging for Genealogy Gold -- New Resources, 2017 Edition -- Part #4

Digging for Genealogy Gold -- New Resources, 2017 Edition

Part #4

My present continued …

AUSTRIA

Austrian National Archives (Postcards, Books, Newspapers and more)

AUSTRALIA

Convict Records of Australia
State Library of South Australia – Old Colonists (men), Old Colonists (women)
Red Cross WWII Wounded, Missing and Prisoner of War Cards

CANADA

Sessional Papers of the Dominion of Canada, 1867-1925

IRELAND

ROMANIA

Medieval Documents Database (click on upper right and you can bring up an English-language interface)

UNITED STATES

Utah History in Photos (Salt Lake Tribune Negative Collection)
National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution Patriot & Grave Index
Elizabethtown College (PA) Newspaper Database
Gulf South Decorative & Fine Arts Database -- The Classical Institute of the South is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to identifying and documenting fine and decorative art objects in the Gulf South and making that information available to all.
Archives of the Sons and Daughters of the Soddies (KS)
Digitizing Material Culture: Handwritten Recipe Books, 1600-1900 (article) (database)
Missionary Research Library Pamphlets
Louisiana Conference of the United Methodist Church
MEAD – The Magazine of Early American Datasets -- is an online repository of datasets compiled by historians of early North America
The New York Public Library – Maps by Decade
Georgia Confederate Muster Rolls

Editor’s Note: As of today, each of the above links worked. Now, whether the links in any of the identified articles work, I cannot vouch for that. And, armed with the information provided, it should be relatively easy to get to determine where the discussed database currently resides. If you get really stuck, drop me an email and I’ll try to ferret out the recalcitrant link or cross out my entry in the above list!

Editor’s Note: Know of a neat resource that you think might be a hidden gem? Drop an email to UpFront@ngsgenealogy.org.

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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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27 April 2017

Genealogy Indexer – Do NOT let its simplicity fool you!

Genealogy Indexer – Do NOT let its simplicity fool you!

Just over 3 years ago, I introduced you to Genealogy Indexer -- a neat little website that just might have what you need. Back then, the amount of available material was 350,000 pages and now, this website has more than doubled the number of pages available.

Search 850,000 pages of 1,700 historical directories (business, address, telephone, etc., mostly from Central and Eastern Europe), 114,000 pages of 256 yizkor books (memorials to Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust), 32,000 pages of military lists (officers, casualties, etc., mostly from the Russian Empire and Poland), 43,000 pages of community and personal histories, and 24,000 pages of Polish secondary school annual reports and other school sources. New genealogy sources are added weekly.

I keep tabs on this website as my paternal ancestors were Galician – Russian speakers who lived in SE Poland. I once again searched on Malecka and there are so many entries now found. Some as modern as a 1949 Leipzig Address and Business Directory and as old as an 1807/1808 Warsaw Homeowners Directory.

I next searched on Pietrusza (the family came from Pietrusza Wola) and many entries were listed, including those in Russian, Петруша. Also checked into Deszno (another ancestral home place) aka Дешно.

And, there is news from the mastermind behind the website …

There is a major new development at Genealogy Indexer. From the list of directories below, the additions for this week, can you guess what it is? (Scroll down quickly to avoid spoilers!) Something is different about most of these directories from all other 2,500+ sources on the site. 1939 Frankfurt, 1864 Riga, 1897 Danzig, 1936 Stolp, 1856 Silesia... Before this week, it would have been impossible to add these directories, but now I can and will add thousands more like them. What makes them different?

The answer is the font. These directories use Fraktur, Gothic, or blackletter typefaces, which are especially challenging for OCR. I was never before able to accurately OCR these typefaces, so many German-language sources were out of reach. I am delighted to report that obstacle has been overcome.

Thanks to the generosity of OCR software company ABBYY, I am now able to OCR Fraktur/Gothic/blackletter sources using their advanced Recognition Server software with FineReader XIX module.

Thousands of directories and other genealogical sources that I could not make searchable before are now on my to-do list and many are likely being processed as you read this. In addition to enabling OCR of these challenging fonts, Recognition Server has automation capabilities that allow me to dramatically increase the rate at which I add new searchable sources…

This is important to my own research since where my ancestors lived was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and that means that many publications relevant to that research are in German. I used to have a massive German dictionary and to be honest, I found it such a challenge to try and just "read" the printed German text that I pretty much gave up. Who knows, I may resume research into my Galician sometimes in the near future!

To keep abreast of news like this and a list of the most recently added resources, you can subscribe to the Genealogy Indexer Mailing List, http://genealogyindexer.org/news/?p=subscribe&id=1.

So, if you are researching Eastern European roots (or now Egyptian, French, etc), do check out this website.

What particular directory or document reveal your family?

What discovery most surprised you?

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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.

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

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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Follow NGS via Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter