MyHeritage is granting free access to millions of military records
In honour of Memorial Day MyHeritage is offering free access to their military records until May 28th.
You can read more about the free records on the MyHeritage blog.
FGS Ambassador Blogging Prompt – Why Genealogy Conferences?
Conferences are fantastic and everyone should attend at least one a year. I know sometimes it is difficult to get to them because of distance and the cost involved. These days we can get a lot of information from the conference on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and sometimes live streaming.
The FGS Conference this year is in Fort Wayne Indiana which has the Allen County Public Library. It is is one of the largest genealogy libraries around. I was able to attend the conference the last time it was in Fort Wayne and got to research at the APCL for the first time. You wouldn’t believe all the research possibilities!
Genealogy conferences provide a lot of networking opportunities and the chance to meet new people. I always meet at least five new people at every conference I attend. The fun part is meeting the bloggers I follow on a regular basis in person. Putting a name to the face and having a nice conversation about genealogy without the noticeable glaze over that you get from family and friends who aren’t interested in your passion.
Besides being able to do some research at the ACPL the lectures offered by FGS this year are great. I am not representing a society but I still find the society lecture series informative. This year I am looking at “Creating Master Databases from Local Genealogical Resources” and “Creating a Virtual Cemetery Project.”
The methodology stream holds a lot of interest for me as well. This year I would like to learn more about DNA. Of course you always want to see speakers like Elizabeth Shown Mills and Thomas W. Jones not to mention Paul Milner. Since I am from Canada I am interested in lectures on the Border States such as Ohio, New York and Michigan. It can also be the lure of a great story even if I have no interest in the area of research.
All these are on offer this year at the FGS Conference in Fort Wayne Indiana. Have you registered yet? Why not go in and see what is available on the program schedule. Don’t forget to start working on your research plan for the ACPL.
See you in Fort Wayne!
©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved
Ruth’s Recommendations
This week’s favourite blog posts cover a couple of weeks because I was away at the NGS conference in Las Vegas and then took several days in Salt Lake City to do some research.
Abroad in the yard had a post called “Century Chest’ time capsule reveals pristine 100 year-old artefacts and messages for the future.” This was a very interesting post about a time capsule found in an Oklahoma church.
Randy Seaver from Genea-Musings has a post called “Changes to the Evidence Analysis Process Map in GPS.” Looks like there are some changes coming and I am sure more discussion.
This is not exactly a blog post but a friend sent me this link to a newspaper report from The West Australian Regional Newspapers called “Genealogist finally has the answers.” Now I just wish the Family History Society of Rockingham and Districts recorded this presentation so I could know how it turned out.
The Mocavo Genealogy Blog has a post called “Tracking Your Genealogy Library: iBookshelf” this is about an app in iTunes to help you keep track of your genealogical library.
Chris Paton of the British GENES blog is “amused by a small archival storm over in the United States” in the post called “Cataloguing conundrums!” He also has several other posts. The first is “TNA adds digitised naturalisation and denization papers.” These records cover the period from 1801 to 1871 and can be searched at The National Archives in Kew.
“Irish wills calendars 1858-1922 now online” is an announcement from the National Archives of Ireland and the addition of this record group to their genealogy platform. It is free to search and view.
“WW1 Lantern slides found in Belfast church loft” is about the discovery of 77 lantern slides depicting Belfast soldiers from the First World War. If your ancestor is on one of the 77 slides then what a treasure.
The last of the British GENES posts is “Who Do You Think You Are Live 2014 – change of dates” they have changed the dates for the show next year starting on Thursday 20th February and going to Saturday 22nd February.
The Irish Genealogy News Blog has several posts of interest. The first is “Follow the decade of 100 years ago on Century Ireland.” This post looks at a new website that tells the story of “Ireland’s most tumultuous years: 1912-1923.” It is worth a look.
The next post is “17th-century Ireland revealed in 300-year-old-maps” This is about the Down Survey website and the maps from 1656 to 1658.
The last post is “1926 Irish census moves closer to release?” What I don’t like is the question mark at the end. There may be problems with the private members bill to amend the wording of the Statistics Act.
I am very pleased it is a long weekend in Canada because that means that the Canadian Lib Genie (aka Elise) got to post on Librarians Helping Canadian Genealogists Climb Family Trees. Her post is called “Baptism record that appears to solve mystery of Samuel de Champlain’s birth arrives in Canada.” This post makes me want to take a trip to Ottawa to the Museum of Civilization to view the document and others that mark the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s trip up the Ottawa River to the Ottawa Valley.
What were your favourite blog posts?
Let me know in the comments below.
Other bloggers that write their own lists are:
Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog
Genealogy Insider – Genealogy News Corral
©2013 – Blair Archival Research All Rights Reserved