Saturday, September 08, 2007

National Archives UK

Help:What can I contribute? - Your Archives: "Your Archives is a site created for and by The National Archives' users. You are encouraged to submit articles about historical records held by The National Archives or elsewhere."

Your Archives is a new wiki. It acts as a community area rather than an official space.

It offers you advice, tips and shortcuts. This can make searching the official The National Archives website that much easier.



The National Archives of the United Kingdom

Closure dates

  • The National Archives, Kew will be closed to the public between 1 December and 16 December 2007 inclusive
  • A further closure will take place in the week commencing 21 January 2008 (to be confirmed)
  • Our online services will not be affected

We will publish more information as soon as it is available on our website, as well as at The National Archives, Kew and at the Family Records Centre.

Changes to Coach Parties

In preparation for the move of The National Archives´ services at the FRC to Kew, we will be changing some of our procedures. This will include changes to coach party access to Kew from January 2008. Find out more about the new coach party procedures

Consultation with visitors to Kew and the FRC

We have been consulting with our visitors to The National Archives and the FRC. Find out more about these visitor consultations please visit the following page

Stay in touch


If you would like to receive regular updates on the progress of the improvements at Kew, then please email improvingkew@nationalarchives.gov.uk


Wednesday, September 05, 2007

findmypast.com and Federation of Family History Societies in online partnership

Findmypast.com | Family Tree, Family History, Find Your Past, UK
he Federation of Family History Societies (FFHS) has today announced that it is joining forces with premier UK family history website findmypast.com to host the FFHS’ pay per view data service at www.findmypast.com.

Until now the FFHS has provided online access to data submitted by local family history societies at its own pay per view website www.familyhistoryonline.net. These records will now gradually be transferred to the findmypast.com website, joining a collection already exceeding 500 million records.

The partnership with findmypast.com offers a number of benefits to contributing family history societies. By integrating Family History Online with the findmypast.com site, the local societies’ data will become searchable in the context of a much wider range of records and will benefit from a significant marketing budget covering online and offline advertising, search engine marketing, sponsorship, PR, outreach and events.

The individual societies will continue to receive royalties each time their records are accessed. Each society will be acknowledged on the findmypast.com website whenever its records are displayed, and the societies will be able to promote themselves on the findmypast site to a wider audience, for example by adding information on becoming a member and a link to their own websites.

Elaine Collins, Commercial Director at findmypast.com said “Family History Online has a valuable data collection that deserves to be brought to the attention of a wider, international audience. We are very excited by the prospect of adding quality records which predate 1837 to the existing findmypast collection.

As the largest UK-based provider of online genealogical data, findmypast.com can provide the appropriate platform to drive much greater traffic and usage to the data. This will result in greater awareness for currently underused datasets such as the National Burial Index, generating increased revenue and recognition for the Federation’s member societies.”

Family historians accessing the FFHS data from its new home on the findmypast website will also benefit. Findmypast.com has earned a strong reputation for the quality of its data and transcriptions, and particularly its customer service. The availability of telephone support and customer transcription error reporting facilities, as well as email support and automatic password reset facilities, sets it apart from other commercial genealogy websites.

Geoff Riggs, Chairman of the Federation of Family History Societies, added: “The Federation’s Executive is extremely pleased to have reached an agreement with findmypast.com to secure the future of our member societies’ online data. We see this as a very timely opportunity to raise significantly both the revenue and the profile of those societies by capitalising on findmypast.com’s undoubted expertise. We are working in harmony with the findmypast.com team to realise our shared aim of bringing our member societies’ records to a growing audience worldwide.”


the only problem is that it will continue to be pay per view

oh dear

Tuesday, September 04, 2007

FTM 2008

rootsweb.com - Family Tree Maker software Board - FTM 2008 Disappointment:

"I just received & installed FTM 2008 and share the angst of the other posters. What a huge disappointment! I've been with FTM since version 5 (May 1998) and have almost 4000 individuals in my family file. I can't believe they would even consider releasing this stripped down useless version.

Could you please share some more information about Legacy?

Thanks in advance."

">>The same ideology was governed this new FTM as the change to the Rootsweb message boards: programmers who don't understand GENEALOGY or how users use the ite
seems are developing garbage.<<
"

rootsweb.com - Family Tree Maker software Board

see also:-

RootsWeb: Genealogy Mailing Lists: FTM-TECH

BROWSE RootsWeb: FTM-TECH-L Archives also the beta test


personally I have not had time to continue my test drive of FTM 2008
but use FTM 16 as my work horse

Monday, September 03, 2007

Province of Newfoundland

Genealogy Site featuring the Canadian Province of Newfoundland. The Newfoundland Grand Banks includes large amounts of original source Material for research: "Newfoundland's Grand Banks Historical District Web Pages"

The purpose of this site is to provide original genealogical and historical data in the form of census information, Provincial wide directory publications, church, parish, and cemetery records, and many other original source documents. It has been created for those desiring to do research in the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

At its inception in April of 1998, it was decided to transcribe and digitize the 1921 census for Newfoundland. Thus, it came to be known by the nickname "Project21, Home of the 1921 Newfoundland Census." Since then the site has added an immense collection of original material. Included are the following complete directory publications on the site: Hutchinson's 1864-65, Lovell's 1871, McAlpine 1894, McAlpine's 1898, McAlpine's 1904, the 1884 Methodist census for Burin, and many others, as well as various church records, graveyard transcriptions, wills transcriptions, additional census documents and many other items too numerous to mention.

This site is currently the largest storehouse of original resource material on the Internet, relating to Newfoundland in North America, and enjoys the largest number of visitors of any site providing genealogical information for the Province of Newfoundland.

At present, we are operating under a system of directors and coordinators, all of whom are volunteers, plus hundreds of additional volunteers who have helped in everything from getting material, typing and transcribing the material or to anything else that has been needed. These are the people who have really made this site what it is today. Our thanks to every one of them for their efforts and assistance.

Founders Message:

Project21 was initially expected to be completed in a six month time frame, but now it seems to have developed into an on going project with no end in sight as new material is being received on a daily basis. As founder of this site, I envision a continuing growth as more and more Newfoundlanders search for their family histories. Funding for these projects has been provided mainly by those who have transcribed the material. They have donated both time and money to obtain material, in addition to typing the transcriptions. With each new project, many of these same people continue to put their time and money into the site. If you feel that these projects are worthwhile please help to support us with a donation of either time or financial aid. This will enable the site to continue to grow as it continues. See below for the addresses where you can send your donation. One is a US address and the other is a Canadian address. Donations will be accepted in either currency (US or Canadian). The money will be used to obtain new material to put on the site. With support from those of you who find the information on this site useful, it will not be as heavy a load for the current group of contributors.

Bill Crant
1650 South Post Road, Apt. 204
Weston, FL 33331
USA

Don Tate
717 Agena Ave. NW
Palm Bay, FL 32907
USA

Swedish Genealogy Online

Genline :: Research Swedish Genealogy Online and Discover your Swedish Ancestry and Heritage: "Search your Swedish ancestry in millions of pages of original Swedish Church Records with Genline FamilyFinder. Get started and log in to the Swedish Church Records archive as a test user and demo Genline FamilyFinder at no cost."

Genline :: Swedish Church Records were the organ of civil registration too and many priests conducted a local census of their congregation I am told

What is the Swedish Church Records archive?

Genline's Swedish Church Records archive consists of photographic quality images scanned from microfilm of the original church records. These microfilms are direct copies of the masters kept at the Swedish National Archives in Stockholm.


What Swedish Church Records are included in our archive?

Our church records archive includes records from the 16th-20th century. These records consist of birth/baptismal, confirmation, marriage, death/burial, church ledgers and household examination rolls. These are the main sources of genealogical information in Sweden. In some cases we will be complementing these church records with those kept by a government agency known as Statistics Sweden (abbreviated as SCB).


Why are some volumes in the Swedish Church Records archives missing?

We are aware that there are still some missing volumes in the Swedish Church Records archives. In some cases the film lists that we have purchased from the Swedish National Archives have not been accurate and genline is trying to locate the missing material.

Parallel to this, our production staff has started to check the volumes in the Swedish Church Records archive to verify that they have been published correctly.

Parishes currently available - Genline :: Products and Prices
also available at Helsingborg Library which I visited on Saturday to search in the local collection.

Helsingborgs stad - Stadsbiblioteket: "Mitt i centrum och mitt i Stadsparken höjer sig biblioteket i mörkbrunt Helsingborgstegel. Biblioteket ritades av arkitekten Jörgen Michelsen och invigdes 1965. Under 2004 renoverades och förnyades Helsingborgs Stadsbibliotek."

Helsingborg Central Library - a photoset on Flickr - View as slideshow (open in a new window)

from my email:-
You dont have to go to Sweden for that - Gentofte hovedbibliotek in Denmark has
Genline too.

http://www.genbib.dk/529

but you have to know which parish to go for and that is not possible one the
computers downstairs where genline is on. You have to search for the parish
on your own computer at home.

On the whole Gentofte hovedbibliotek is rather good. I have sent them down
into the store lots of times for Kraks vejviser!

They also have Berlingeren, but their film apparater are difficult, I always
get someone to do it for me.

also I see:-

Ancestry Library

Adgang på alle pc'ere på Gentofte Bibliotekerne

Genealogisk database målrettet biblioteksbrugere med ca. 4 milliarder navne i mere end 4000 samlinger/databaser. Omfatter oplysninger fra amerikanske folketællinger, militære kilder, retslige dokumenter, kirkebøger, immigrationslister, passagerlister m.m. samt lignende kilder fra England og enkelte andre europæiske lande.

GeneLine Gel Doc Workstations

Spectroline.com - LAB - GeneLine Gel Doc Workstations: "A complete line of automated image documentation systems that provide consistent, reliable image acquisition and analysis instantly! Choose from full system, component-based systems, or mix-and-match components for your own individual application needs."

Spectroline.com - LAB - UV Viewing and Photodocumentation Cabinets: "For superior fluorescence analysis and photo-documentation, the Spectroline cabinets are the building units of any system. Featuring modular designs, and by combining with our Spectroline UV lamps and transilluminators, both epi- and trans-illumination is possible. Documentation is easily achieved with convenient snap-on adapters for standard cameras. This versatility allows for customized UV viewing and documentation systems that meet your unique requirements."

used for recovering data from water damaged documents for example

Sunday, September 02, 2007

Daughters of the American Revolution

DAR | Daughters of the American Revolution

DAR | Library - Online Catalog: "When searching for information on the DAR Library's holdings in this catalog one must be aware of some specific search strategies and abbreviations: Searching Place Names in the subject area 1. Type in the name of a county as: Otter Tail Co., Minnesota, not Otter Tail County, Minnesota. 2. Type in the name of a state or country completely. Do not use postal or other abbreviations. 3. In the DAR Library subject headings are arranged geographically with the place name appearing first and the actual subject following such as: Beaverhead Co., Montana - History Sunflower Co., Mississippi - Marriage records Topeka, Kansas - Cemetery Records. Idaho - Land Records Mexico - Genealogy"