Saturday, November 10, 2007

Scanning Service

WorldVitalRecords Blog » WorldVitalRecords.com Introduces Valuable Scanning Service (Photos, Documents, Videos, and Slides):
"WorldVitalRecords.com now offers this important service of preserving photos, documents, videos, and slides. Preservation packages at WorldVitalRecords.com are currently being offered at 50-70% off of the retail value. Recently, we sent out a survey to our WorldVitalRecords.com panel.

We asked them a handful of questions about photo preservation. The first question was, “How concerned are you about preserving family photos, videos and documents in digital format?” Ninety-one percent of our panel said they were either concerned or very concerned. • 67 percent of our panel said they had photos that were 80-100+ years old. • 51 percent of our panel said they were interested or very interested in a service that converted 8mm and VHS tapes to a DVD. (WorldVitalRecords.com now offers this service! Call 1-888-377-0588!) • 50 percent of our panel said they were interested or very interested in a service that could upload their photos to a secure site to share with other family members of their choice I really love these surveys!

At WorldVitalRecords.com we use a survey program called Qualtrics, and it has been an important instrument in helping us understand who our customers are, their needs, their interests, etc. These survey results show that many of our subscribers car"

Canadian families

Voici ma famille - That's my family

A new Canadian genealogy search engine, developed and maintained by Bibliotheque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), allows you to search for information on Canadian ancestors across multiple genealogy and family history databases hosted by federal, provincial and territorial archives centers and libraries.

Right now many of the available sources are from the free genealogy databases at Library and Archives Canada. There are also sources from the British Columbia Archives, Saskatchewan Genealogical Society, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), Nova Scotia Archives & Records Management and the Public Archives and Records Office of Prince Edward Island.

The layout and search is very nice, and the site is available in both French and English.
Some searches return citations or film numbers while others show digital images of the actual documents (e.g. city directories).


from San Diego Genealogical Society - November 2007 Newsletter
and
Genea-Musings: SDGS Program on 11/10 - DNA Research:
and with thanks to Randy Seaver, Chula Vista, California, United States"

Friday, November 09, 2007

history of houses in UK

Trace the history of your house - Times Online

Start by looking at the title deeds, which may contain details of past transactions. If you don’t have them, they may be held by your mortgage provider, solicitor or local library.

Apply to the Land Registry for a copy of the registration records of your house. These will exist only if your house has changed hands since compulsory registration was introduced:

1899 in London,

1979 in Scotland,

1990 in England and Wales,

2003 in Northern Ireland.

If your house is registered, you will receive details of sales, boundary plans, owners, mortgages and other historical information (landregistry.gov.uk , scotlandlandregistry.co.uk , ireland-landregistry.co.uk ).

Historical Societies Museums

Historical Societies Museums: "Museums with some relevance to Historical Societies. - We depend on the data we have for each museum in our archive to correctly assemble this list. - If you see a museum that does not seem to belong, or do not see one that should be here, please be patient while we expand the criteria of our listings to include more about Historical Societies. - We have 382 museums listed here."

ThinkGenealogy

ThinkGenealogy » Jumping Curves by Better Online Source Citation:
"I like the fact the WorldVitalRecords geocodes all records added to their site. Why you are at it, why don’t you add source citations in metadata/xml form following the conventions in Elizabeth Shown Mills book, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace?

Currently source citation is hard. When it is available, it is in text format that must be copied and pasted into your genealogy program. But source citation is vital so that proper evaluation of evidence can be done and so that constant re-examination of the same records can be avoided. If when you click on a document to download the image, the link was instead something like an rss link that has metadata with it (think rss enclosure tag) and if that xml format were a standard then genealogy software could read the information, add the image to the application, and add the proper source citation. What could be easier for a user than every time a document image is downloaded from an online database, the source was automatically cited? The software developers would be half way there as they would then just need to add a way to manually add the same information for offline sources."

Mark Tucker is a software architect by day and a family historian on as many nights and weekends as possible.
More about Mark...

The biggest newbie mistake I ever made was not adding sources to my trees from the very beginning

WorldVitalRecords geocodes all records added to their site. - Google Search

geocode: Definition and Much More from Answers.com: "A Geocode representation is derived from the following geospatial attributes: 1. Latitude 2. Longitude 3. Altitude 4. Date 5. Local Time 6. Global Time 7."

geocoding: Information and Much More from Answers.com

The problems begin with historical data - for example streets and buildings which no longer exist, or all the old ecclesiastical or administrative parishes and counties which have been replaced by newer systems at the behest of politicians.

Accessible Archives

Accessible Archives: "was founded in 1990 with the goal of utilizing computer technology to make available vast quantities of archived historical information, previously furnished only on microfilm. In pursuit of this vision, primary source material has been selected to reflect a broad view of the times, and has been assembled into databases with a strict attention to detail allowing access to specific information with pinpoint accuracy. Our ON-LINE full text search capability and digital imaging permits the user to search and manipulate information in ways never before possible."

  • K-12 Schools (Elementary, Middle & High Schools.)
  • Public Libraries or Historical Societies.
  • Personal Subcriptions (no free trials available. Individual subscriptions are $49.95 annually.
  • Accessible Archives | Subscribe
WorldVitalRecords Blog » Accessible Archives Makes Searching For Records Easier With New Site Design and Global Search Feature:
"Accessible Archives has a wide variety of archived historical information from the 18th and 19th centuries.

All of the Accessible Archives’ collections are available at WorldVitalRecords.com including the American County Histories to 1900, The Liberator (1831-1865), The Civil War: A Newspaper Perspective, The Pennsylvania Genealogical Catalogue Chester County (1809-1870), The Pennsylvania Gazette (1728-1800), African-American Newspapers: The 19th Century, and Godey`s Lady`s Book (1830-1885)."

4th Annual Family History EXPO in St. George, Utah

DearMYRTLE: FamilySearch and My Ancestors Found Team Up to Sponsor the 4th Annual Family History EXPO in St. George, Utah

MORGAN, UTAH - FamilySearch and My Ancestors Found (MAF) announce the 4th annual Family History EXPO in St. George, Utah, February 8-9, 2008. The EXPO (formerly known as the Genealogy and Family Heritage Jamboree) has become one of the largest and best attended family history events in the country.

and some more shows are already using the same name "Family History EXPO" - Google Search

TEXAS Genealogy

Genealogy Conference Opens Friday: "The Texas State Genealogical Society will hold its 47th Annual Conference on Friday and Saturday at the Holiday Inn Select, 5701 S. Broadway Ave., Tyler, East Texas Genealogy Society publicity chairman Scott Fitzgerald said. The featured speakers are George G. Morgan and Drew Smith, who are also known as 'The Genealogy Guys.' They produce an hour-long podcast on genealogy subjects each week that can be downloaded and listened to on computer or MP3 player. The ETGS is the local host for this conference."

Attendees will be invited to submit their genealogy problems or brickwalls, and if chosen, to record their question and the "Genealogy Guys'" answer for broadcast on future podcasts.

The Lone Star Chapter of the Association of Professionals Genealogists will offer free 15 minutes consultations for attendees on their genealogy related problems, Fitzgerald said.

A registration form can be found at their Web site http://lonestarapg.com/roadshow_form.pdf and should be brought to the conference.

At the TSGS Awards Banquet, Hopkins County native John Sellers will discuss "The Women in My Past." TSGS will also give out many awards with cash prizes for writing by individuals, publications by partner societies, Web sites by individuals and partner societies, student projects and volunteer of the year. Pre-registration is recommended but walk-ins will be accepted. Registration forms can be printed from the TSGS Web site at http://www.rootsweb.com/~txsgs/conference.pdf.

For more information or to request a registration form, call Fitzgerald at 903-539-5572 or send an e-mail to scottfitzgerald@tyler.net.


"Texas State Genealogical Society" - Google Search

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Maps from our Collections - National Library of Scotland

Manchester Guardian

The Guardian and Observer Digital Archive: " will eventually contain the digital reproduction of every page, article and advert published in the Guardian (since 1821) and the Observer (since 1791 – the oldest Sunday paper in the world).

For this launch the archive covers the period of 1821-1975 for the Guardian and 1900-1975 for the Observer as we are still working on digitising the remaining material.

From early 2008 onwards the entire archive up to 2003 will be available – more than 1.2m pages covering all major historic events over 212 years as reported at the time."

Roots Television

World's First Genealogical Wave! (Roots Television | Megan's Roots World): "What I believe to be the world's first genealogical wave took place a few days ago -- appropriately enough -- on a somewhat wave-tossed cruise ship. I just got back from the annual Wholly Genes cruise and had a blast -- and along with my co-conspirator, Dick Eastman, snagged footage of this genealogical first!

Many thanks to Bob Velke and the entire Wholly Genes gang, as well as my 350 fellow genies. One of the best aspects of genealogical cruising is the camaraderie, and this one was as good as it gets. If you've been thinking about taking your family history on the seven seas, but aren't sure what to expect, keep an eye on Roots Television for some upcoming videos -- including more terrific interviews by Dick Eastman!"

AOL folk Dae and Jayne were there too

"Wholly Genes cruise" - Google Search

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

which regiment circa 1915?

which regiment circa 1915? - a photoset on Flickr


which_regiment_partial click for partially restored and bigger

which_regiment click for original

possibly South Wales Borderers?

from the MON county list on Rootsweb
for Dawn Cumbley

View as slideshow (open in a new window

Sunday, November 04, 2007

French-Canadian genealogy

PRDH - Programme de recherche en démographie historique. Généalogie canadienne-française du Québe

Thanks to the quantity and quality of the information it is making available to researchers, the PRDH site represents a major contribution to Quebec genealogy. It adds to an already imposing sum of knowledge on the Quebec ancestors of French-Canadians accumulated from the efforts of a great number of researchers. This activity has continued across the technology revolution; the PRDH site thus joins on the internet numerous other sites dedicated fully or in part to French-Canadian genealogy. We did not deem it useful to repeat what others have already done by listing here all those sites; instead, we will mention a couple of sites who centralise this type of information, and add some specific sites we feel are of particular interest for our visitors. But first, you could visit " The 1852 and 1881 Historical Censuses of Canada " where you will be allowed to research for free the 1852 and 1881 censuses!

and a lot more links

glossary french genealogy - Google Search

SephardicGen Resources

Sephardic Genealogy and Sephardim, Jewish Genealogy

The most comprehensive site for Sephardic Jewish
Genealogy. Sephardic History, Names, searchable Databases, Gazetteer,
Consolidated Sephardic Surname Index (CISS), Calendar Tools, Crypto-Jews
and Anusim, extensive Bibliography and much more.