20 July 2015

British Library Using Robots to Preserve Newspapers



Newspapers are crumbling faster than they can be preserved, or at least that is how it often feels!

An article, Not fade away... how robots are preserving our old newspapers, about part of the efforts by the British Library to preserve the British newspaper heritage has a Sci-Fi feel to it and yet this technology is in use right now rushing against time ...

A gigantic robotic vault, the National Newspaper Building in Boston Spa, near Leeds, is the British Library’s high-tech approach to safeguarding what it rather endearingly terms “the national memory” – 750m pages of news, covering more than three centuries of goings-on, as reported in papers across the nation. From political turmoil to humanitarian crisis, murder cases to local marriage notices, it’s all here. And it’s growing. “We’re adding something like 1,200 titles every week,” says Alasdair Bruce, manager of the British Library Newspaper Programme.

The article goes on to discuss other preservation elements, the challenges of preservation and digitization and recognition that even when digitization occurs, can we ensure that the digital format will be preserved and accessible!

Kind of reminds me of when it seems for every question I get an answer to, about ten or more new questions emerge ...

Yet, that doesn’t stop us from answering questions nor will it stop entities like the British Library from doing all they can to preserve its holdings for future generations.






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17 July 2015

One Person Can Do So Much! Virtual Volunteering (NARA)



We sometimes wonder can one person really make a difference.  I know that my belief is yes!

This post on The National Archives NARATIONS blog, Virtual Volunteering, Retirement Project 2.0, seems to support my belief –

Recently I met Alex Smith through an email he sent to catalog@nara.gov. Through our correspondence I learned that he began transcribing our records as a retirement project. I was really interested in transcription through the eyes of a Citizen Archivist and Mr. Smith was kind enough to answer my questions.

If you would like to become a Citizen Archivist and tag, transcribe, subtitle or upload and share visit http://www.archives.gov/citizen-archivist/

This short blog post gives you the personal perspective of one volunteer and why he gravitated to the Citizen Archivist project and how he’s been so successful with it.  Flexibility over when to work on items, from where to work on items, what items to work on, and the subject matter of the worked on items are just a few of what “hooked” Alex Smith.

I know that our local genealogy societies, while not using a spiffy interface like the Citizen Archivist project, have made use of PDF Files, cloud storage, and other techniques to make it incredibly easy for non-local members to help abstract or transcribe documents.

Do you know a very successful Virtual Volunteer?
What project(s) have they worked on?
What have you found the benefits of Virtual Volunteering to Be?
Any tips for those looking to dive into Virtual Volunteering?






Editor’s Note: Related articles ...







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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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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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16 July 2015

Do You Have Suggestions for NARA’s Digitization Priorities?


NARA has an ambitious digitization plan – digitize all its holdings!

Obviously, this won’t happen overnight!  The National Archives staff has been holding internal discussions about what the priorities should be for what to digitize sooner than later and now it’s our turn to have a say!

From now until August 14th, engage in the discussion about digitization priorities in our online town hall on Crowd Hall.  Post ideas, provide feedback, and make suggestions about what we should digitize.  Then vote on your favorites.  Since our holdings cover a lot of topics, we’ve broken them down into broad categories.  While not a comprehensive list, hopefully, the topics below will spark some lively discussions:

§        Science/Tech/Health: Agriculture, Environment, Public Health, Science and Technology, Space and Aviation
§        Military & Veterans: Military/Wars, Veterans
§        Culture & Heritage: Civil/Political Rights, Genealogy, Ethnic Heritage, Immigration/Emigration
§        Government & Law: Diplomacy/Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, Court Records, Law Enforcement, Maritime Administration, Geography and Land Use

Read more about the process and other ways to share your priorities.

I’m sure as genealogists and family historians, we all have some ideas on what we would like to see digitized from the NARA holdings! 

Please share this opportunity wherever you find members of our community!




Editor’s Note: Emphasis/Underlined topics are mine..  Obviously any listed topic can have relevance to our community and the emphasis is on those records which we seem to more regularly use in as we pursue ancestors.




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15 July 2015

FBI Records -- The Vault (FREE Access to select FOIA requested documents)


It’s amazing how a couple of years can go by and then I’m reminded of a resource.  That is the case with FBI Records: The Vault.

Obviously the description provided has not been updated since it says the same things it did back a couple of years ago!  The collection has definitely expanded in the intervening years and the best way to get a summary view of how is to click on “Recently Added” (right hand side navigation).  You can also search, check out the A-Z index, or look into a particular category.

This is the type of resource that is unlikely to talk about your ancestors directly, unless they were infamous, and it is great for giving you historical context.

I was reminded of Emma Goldman after watching a historically-based TV show where she was mentioned.  I had done some research on her and various collaborators back in 2006 and I put in a bunch of FOIA requests to the FBI, NARA and elsewhere.  Maybe some of those papers are now part of this collection!?!  Most of her entries in this database are related to Julius Rosenberg.

Did a particular topic catch your eye?
Did you find a relative mentioned?















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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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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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14 July 2015

Fuel The Find -- Worldwide Indexing Event (7-14 Aug 2015)


(Español) vento de indexación a nivel mundial, IMPULSE LA BÚSQUEDA
(Deutch) Weltweite Indexierungsaktion, TREIBSTOFF FÜR DIE SUCHE
(Português) Evento Mundial de Indexação, ACELERAR A PESQUISA
(Русский) Всемирный марафон по индексированию, ПЛАМЯ ОТКРЫТИЙ
(日本語世界規模の索引作成イベント, 探求作業に燃料を注ぐ


FamilySearch is again hosting a worldwide indexing event, Fuel the Find.

Last year we were blown away to see over 66,000 participants come together in a 24-hour period for the Worldwide Indexing Event. This year we are making it a whole week long and we’re going for a record of 100,000 volunteers (current one-week record: 91,721)!

Join volunteers from around the world to help “Fuel the Find” August 7-14 (wherever you are). You will have one week to participate by indexing at least one batch in the language of your choice. If you are fluent in French, Italian, Portuguese, or Spanish—our focus languages for 2015—please help index records in one of those languages. Special training will soon be available to help you prepare!

Read/learn more on the event Facebook (FB) page or via the FamilySearch Blog or via the Worldwide Indexing Event page.

If you are not already signed up as an indexer, I would suggest you do that in advance.

Additionally, tips are provided on the various mentioned pages on how to best participate (and not overload the servers in the process!).  The best and least stressful event is one where not everybody is trying to work at once!

Did you participate in the 2014 event?  Do you have any tips for those considering participating in the 2015 event?






Editor's Note: all non-English verbiage taken from event page







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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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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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13 July 2015

Global Name Translation (TM) Technology launched by MyHeritage


If you’ve ever researched names across multiple countries, it doesn’t take long to realize that there is no such thing as “a” name.  Both forenames and surnames were often translated as ancestors moved from one country to another.  Sometimes within one generation, a family may have lived in several different locations.

Back when I was doing a lot of European research, I used to keep name translation lists by my side so that as I was researching passenger lists I would be able to better consider all the different ways my ancestors names might have been spelled.

Well, MyHeritage recently accounted its Global Name TranslationTM Technology.

We’re delighted to announce the launch of Global Name Translation™, a new technology unique to MyHeritage, to help break through those language barriers in the quest to uncover your past.

This innovation now makes it even easier to discover your global roots. The technology automatically translates names found in historical records and family trees from one language into another, at very high accuracy, generating all plausible translations, to facilitate matches between names in different languages. In addition, a manual search on MyHeritage's SuperSearch, will return results in other languages, automatically translated into the language of the query.

Read the full news release for more details and examples of how the new feature works.

I did a quick test of this on a name that always was a bit of a challenge for me – Wasil Barna (though one challenge was enumerators and clerks often reversing the name!).  I was curious to see what “finds” the new feature yielded.  Besides Wasil/Wasyl it came up with Vasile and most impressively Basillus and Bazyli – these were two variants that I did come across and were important when I researched passenger records (he was listed as Barna Bazyli) and records in Poland (Basilius Barna). 

It took me quite a while to correlate these found names with what I started with, Wasil!  With the new MyHeritage Global Name TranslationTM Technology I would have been able to recognize these records for their relevance that much faster!

NOTE: I do not currently have a subscription to MyHeritage which prevented my accessing any records and I was still able to use the "search" feature to determine what name variants were located in the MyHeritage database.  

Let us know if the MyHeritage Global Name TranslationTM Technology helps you identify relevant family records that you would have previously overlooked !





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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Republication of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission to UpFront@ngsgenealogy.org. All republished articles may not be edited or reworded and must contain the copyright statement found at the bottom of each UpFront article.
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09 July 2015

National Library of Ireland releases Roman Catholic parish registers



I have had today circled on my calendar since I first heard about this project!

The National Library of Ireland has released its entire collection of Roman Catholic parish registers as images organized by parish.

There is a great article on Irish Genealogy News which walks you through key features of the new website.

Example of a Parish for which digitized microfilm images are available

Do note that there are not parish registers available for all parishes on this website.  For those not included, you are provided information as to where those records might be find such as via ...
Makes me wish I had Irish ancestry! 

If you do and make a great find, please let us know!

Like the warmth of the sun 
And the light of the day, 
May the luck of the Irish 
shine bright on your way.








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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Republication of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission to UpFront@ngsgenealogy.org. All republished articles may not be edited or reworded and must contain the copyright statement found at the bottom of each UpFront article.
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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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08 July 2015

Another Crowdsourcing Project to Benefit Genealogists



Got crowdsourcing on the brain after the post last week on the new Freedmen’s Bureau Records project.

The British Library has introduced LibCrowds – a crowdsourcing platform aimed at enhancing access to British Library collections.

Today we launch LibCrowds, a platform dedicated to the hosting of experimental crowdsourcing projects aimed at enhancing access to British Library collections.

Our first project series, Convert-a-Card, is dedicated to the retro-conversion of printed card catalogues into electronic records, in order to make them available to a worldwide audience via our ExploreBL catalogue, which already includes nearly 57 million records.

The initial focus of Convert-a-Card is the Asian and African collections, and the catalogues involved are from the Chinese and the Indonesian collections ...

Read the full PR here.

Besides the Freedmen’s Bureau Records Project and LibCrowds, are you aware of any other NEW crowdsourcing projects that family historians will directly benefit from?







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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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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.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Republication of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission to UpFront@ngsgenealogy.org. All republished articles may not be edited or reworded and must contain the copyright statement found at the bottom of each UpFront article.
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