Saturday, September 05, 2009

learning New FamilySearch

How To Use New FamilySearch Correctly:

"Any New FamilySearch patron is welcome to print this manual.

It can be used as a self-study guide. Or, it can be used as a teacher's and student's manual in a New FamilySearch class.

It will be updated whenever there is a significant revision in New FamilySearch; the next update will probably be in early November. (At the bottom of this page, I will identify the pages that have changed, so you won't have to reprint the entire manual.) If you want to be emailed when a major update is released, send an email to GeorgeSonOfCarl@aol.com with the title Add Me To The Update Distribution List.

The manual is 68 pages in length, in PDF format.

To view it, just click the manual.pdf link below.

Or, you can save it to your hard disk (or to a floppy or flashdrive), so you can take it to a copy service to print."

manual.pdf

South African genealogy FAQ

from usenet:-

If you are a newcomer to South African genealogy, you may have a lot of questions. Here are some answers to some of the most frequently asked questions: WHERE'S THE BEST PLACE TO BEGIN? If you're asking this on the Internet, presumably you have access to a web browser, and one of the best places to begin with South African genealogy is right here: http://home.global.co.za/~mercon/ WHERE CAN I FIND SOUTH AFRICAN CENSUS RECORDS? The short answer is: You can't. South African census returns are routinely destroyed after statistical information has been abstracted, so South African genealogists don't use them. WHAT DO SOUTH AFRICAN GENEALOGISTS USE THEN? One of the best places to begin is the records of deceased estates. These usually have a Death Notice, which should (but sometimes doesn't) give you the names of the parents, spouse and children of the deceased, or if the deceased was unmarried, the names of brothers and sisters. They have the wills, if any (except in the Cape, where wills and estate accounts have been filed separately from death notices in the older estates), and the estate accounts. The older ones are in the archives and have computer indexes, and you can search the indexes on the web here: http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs_content.htm but be sure to read the introduction and explanatory text before searching. WHERE CAN I FIND SOUTH AFRICAN SHIPPING LISTS? First, they are not a good place to start looking. They are incomplete, and all over the place. If you want to know if some relative went to South Africa and died here, look in the deceased estates, not the shipping lists. In most cases, shipping lists are a last resort, or a means of providing "filler" information to round out the family history. Secondly, if you do want to try shipping lists, you need to know where your ancestor came from, and roughly when. If the answer is Germany 1859, the shipping lists have been published (Werner Schmidt-Pretoria, _Deutsche Auswanderung nach Sued-Afrika im 19 Jahrhundert_). Some other shipping lists have also been published, but they are fragmentary. If you are looking for ancestors who emigrated to Southern Africa in the period 1890-1925, one possible source is _South Africa_ magazine. This was published in London. The Johannesburg Public Library and the National Library in Tshwane have incomplete runs. You could try other libraries too. They published lists of passengers embarking at British ports for South Africa, and embarking at South African ports for the UK (and sometimes other places). _South Africa_ magazine is a useful source, if you can find it, as it also has birth, marriage and death announcements, and other personal news, usually of the richer members of society. Some of these have been transcribed by Ellen Stanton, and can be seen here: http://www.genealogyworld.net/ellen/shipping/index.html Some other passenger lists and other useful stuff are available at: http://www.genealogyworld.net/ WHERE CAN I FIND WILLS OR PROBATE RECORDS? With the deceased estates. See: http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs_content.htm I did a search on the archives: what do the funny things like DEPOT and VOLUME mean? See the warning above: Be sure to read the introduction and explanatory text before searching. If you didn't, go here now: http://www.national.archives.gov.za/fields.htm HOW DO I GET A BIRTH CERTIFICATE? With some difficulty. First, to apply for one, you need to know the information you probably want to get from the certificate. That's Catch 22. Catches 1-21 are almost as bad. Birth cer- tificates are expensive. They take a long time to get. The indexes are not open to the public so you can't ask someone else to look them up. For more information, and applications forms, see: http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/ The good news is that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS, Mormons) has microfilmed some of the registers, so that if you want the information in the register, as opposed to an official certificate, you can try there. If you want to know what the LDS has, go to their web site: http:// www.familysearch.com or http://www.familysearch.org , Click on LIBRARY, click on FAMILY LIBRARY HISTORY CATALOGUE, click on PLACE NAME enter South Africa Click on Civil Registration Click on HERE right at the bottom so you have a printable copy. HOW DO I GET A MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE? Marriage certificates are of little use to genealogists in South Africa. They do not give the names and occupations of parents. They are as difficult to get as birth certificates. For more information on getting marriage certificates see: http://www.home-affairs.gov.za/ Your best chance of seeing a marriage certificate, however, is if the couple got divorced, and you find a copy in the divorce records. SOME divorce records are in the archives, and you can find them here: http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs_content.htm The archival references to divorces will sometimes speak of "illiquid cases" or "opposed applications", and sometimes there will be both. Make sure you order the right ones. They can be quite useful. Sometimes you can really get the dirt on your ancestors from these things - private detectives' reports on how many times they committed adultery, where and with whom, for example. Also, names and ages of minor children and who got the custody. If you still want a marriage certificate (or birth certificate), you need to apply to the Department of Home Affairs, Private Bag X114, Pretoria, 0001. Before they can issue a certificate, they usually want to know the kind of information you probably hope to get from the certificate. Marriages were registered nationally from 1923 to 1976, and after 1994. Between 1976 and 1994 some "homeland" marriages may have been registered separately. Before 1923 registrations were in the different provinces, and before 1910 in the different colonies. Before 1902 it was in the different republics and colonies. You still apply to the same place, but bear in mind that older registers are kept in the archives, and for a certificate to be written they have to be transferred from the archives to the Department of Home Affairs and then returned. This can take a long time. Also check the information above under "Birth Certificates" on how to find out if any of the marriage registers have been filemed by the LDS Church. Before about 1895 in many places marriages were only recorded in church registers. The situation is a lot more complex than described above, and the complexities are things you can ask about on the list, but the general description should give you some idea of the kind of questions that might be worth asking. WHERE CAN I FIND CHURCH RECORDS? With difficulty. There are well over 8000 separate religious denominations in South Africa, and many people change denominations 3 or more times during their lives. People move to a new town, and join a new denomination or religion, or become agnostics or atheists. The records of these denominations are all over the place too. Some of the older and larger denominations have centralised their records, but most have not. They are kept in local churches and can be damaged or destroyed by damp, acid paper or ink, insects, mice, fire or flood, or simply being tossed out in an over-zealous clean-up. Some of the smaller denominations keep very poor records. Forged marriage cer- tificates are common, especially in rural areas. If you know what denomination your ancestors were, and where they were living, when children were born or they were married, you can ask some specific questions on the SA Genealogy list like "Where are the Wesleyan Methodist Registers for Colesberg in the period 1860- 1880?" But general requests for look ups in church registers without mentioning a particular denomination, time and place are unlikely to get a useful response. WHERE CAN I FIND MILITARY RECORDS? Department of Defence DOCUMENTATION CENTRE Private Bag X289 Pretoria 0001 South Africa Tel 012-322-6350 ext 227 Fax 012-323-5613 The more info you can give the faster they can find details. They have card indexes for military personnel who served in WWI and WWII (a separate index for each war). These give the service number, which can be used to find fuller service records. WHERE CAN I LOOK UP THE PHONE NUMBERS OF LIVING RELATIVES? Turn your web browser to: http://phonebook.yellowpages.co.za/ it's the on-line phone book. WHAT IF MY FAMILY WERE IN OTHER PARTS OF AFRICA? Try asking on the African Genealogy mailing list -- see: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afgen/ WHAT SHOULD I DO NEXT? Go to: http://home.global.co.za/~mercon/sagen.htm and follow the links! -- This FAQ file is maintained by: Steve Hayes Web: http://hayesfam.bravehost.com/stevesig.htm E-mail: hayesstw@gmail.com Last Updated: 5 September 2009 Suggestions for additions or improvements are welcome.

Friday, September 04, 2009

talk in Copenhagen at Landsarkivet for Sjælland

"Hvad kan man finde på FamilySearch.org ?" - Foredrag på Landsarkivet for Sjælland

Hvad kan man finde på FamilySearch.org - Mormonkirkens store hjemmeside?

Family Search er Mormonkirkens store hjemmeside og database. Foredraget belyser, hvad man kan finde på FamilySearch.org, der i dag er en af verdens største og mest brugte genealogiske hjemmesider, og hvordan man søger i den.

En dansk vejledning til hjemmeside kan du evt. selv printe ud hjemme inden foredraget på www.genealogi-kbh.dk under "hent og print".

Denne eftermiddag vil vi også se på, hvordan man søger på hjemmesiden www.hammerum-herred.dk, og de muligheder der ligger i at kombinere søgningen på disse to hjemmesider.

Foredragsholder: Anna Margrethe Krogh-Thomsen, formand for Storkøbenhavns Slægtshistoriske Forening.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Computing Service: What is Usenet? A second opinion.

Computing Service: What is Usenet? A second opinion.:

"NEWSGROUP CREATION;------------------

You were better off starting up a mailing list. If you *had to* start a newsgroup, you were best off starting a mailing list anyway - even an informal one - to plan the newsgroup. Get a half dozen people to all agree on the basic goals, topics of conversation, etc. Figure that you have about two months to agree that there's something worth talking about, get a hundred other people to see your way, and run the vote.

There were time-honored rituals for newsgroup creation, designed mostly to minimize the amount of work that news administrators (the people who have managed to corral a bunch of disk space to store news) had to do; in particular, this involved minimizing the number of mail messages they had to read every day.

The process involved handing off responsibility to a group of people well-steeped in ritual (the Usenet Volunteer Votetakers) who ran through the process for you."

Anthony Camp genealogist

User:Anthony Camp - FamilySearch Wiki: "Anthony Camp, M.B.E., B.A.Hons., Hon.F.S.G., F.U.G.A., lives in London and was formerly the Director of the Society of Genealogists 1979-98, having joined the staff there as a Research Assistant in 1957 and being Director of Research 1963-79. He was awarded the M.B.E. for services to the Society in 1999, the first genealogist to be so honoured."

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Jean Morichon RIP

Jean Morichon - Google Search:
"Nous venons d'apprendre avec regret le décès de Jean Morichon ancien président de la Fédération française de généalogie, le vendredi 28 août .."

from my usenet mail :-
In Bourges on 28 August 2009 Jean Morichon passed away. He was 83 years old.

Jean Morichon was 2nd vice-president of the International Academy of
Genealogy (AIH).

All his life was dedicated to genealogy and family history, he was also
president of Union généalogique du Centre (France) from 1980 to 2007 and of
Cercle Généalogique du Haut-Berry (France), was founder in 1998 of Académie
internationale de généalogie where was also Treasurer until 2008. From 1998
to 2004 he was President of Fédération française de généalogie, and in 1997
was the organizer of XIV National Congress of Genealogy in Bourges and in
2005 the organizer of the IV International Colloquium of Genealogy of
International Academy of Genealogy in Paris

His obsequies will be on Friday 4th September at 3 PM in the Cathedral of Bourges.



Pier Felice degli Uberti

Secretary General of CIGH (ad interim) and AIG

South Wales: Monmouthshire: Perthîr

THE OLD REGISTER BOOK OF THE CATHOLIC MISSION OF PERTHÎR
IN THE PARISH OF ROCKFIELD AND COUNTY OF MONMOUTH
1758 TO 1799

South Wales: Monmouthshire: Perthîr: "The County of Mounmouth, and especially the north-eastern half of the shire, is remarkable for the fidelity with which its inhabitants clung to the Catholic Church throughout the penal times. The Calvanistic Methodist movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, which tardily but effectually protestantized Wales as a whole, left almost untouched the Cambro-British or Silurian population of Gwent and the Celtic part of Herefordshire. Here, therefore, we have the only instance of a people who, though Welsh by race, are not Puritan in religion.

It is necessary to add that, since the date of Catholic Emancipation, the Church has greatly lost ground in this her ancient stronghold. This loss is due to the extinction of the old Catholic families of gentry, to the submersion of the yeomen and, still more, to the enormous emigration of the original peasantry, consequent upon the decay of agriculture. Truth compels one to say that apathy and a failure of the old missionary spirit have largely contributed to the 'leakage'. Perhaps, also, man values less a treasure of which no one seeks to forcibly deprive him, than one the possession whereof is perilous to his liberty and life."

Utah Valley PAF Users Group

Utah Valley PAF Users Group - Press Releases: "UTAH VALLEY PAF USERS GROUP MEETING

The next regular, second-Saturday-of-the-month meeting of the Utah Valley PAF (Personal Ancestral File) Users Group will be on Saturday, 12 Sep 2009, from 9 am until noon in the Edgewood/Riverside LDS Chapel, 3511 North 180 East, Provo, Utah. The chapel is in the Provo 'River Bottoms' behind the Jamestown shopping plaza on the east side of University Avenue. You get to it by turning east from University Avenue at 3700 North ('Will's Pit Stop') and then south on 180 East. There is a map showing the location on the group's website http://uvpafug.org .

The main presentation for this meeting will be by Crista Cowan on IF YOU GET STUCK GOING BACKWARD, GO FORWARD: TRACING DESCENDANTS OF YOUR ANCESTORS.

Are you stuck in your march back through time identifying ancestors? Turn around. Revitalize your research. Rekindle your desire to continue with some success. Descendancy research utilizes much of the same methodology as ancestral research, but can lead to a whole new way of looking at your genealogy. Often it can lead to the discovery of cousins who have missing pieces of the puzzle needed to complete your picture of common ancestors.

Crista Cowan is the owner and operator of Legacy Family History Services. She has been involved in family history research for over 20 years, actively doing client research for the past eight years.
She specializes in descendancy research, Jewish Immigration, and sharing family history with the genealogically challenged.

Crista is an active member of the Association of Professional Genealogist (APG), currently serving her second term as president of the Utah Valley chapter. She regularly teaches Family History classes at her local LDS Family History Center and has been employed at Ancestry.com since 2004."

Monday, August 31, 2009

Institut généalogique Drouin FAQ

Institut généalogique Drouin: "Jean-Pierre-Yves Pepin is the current owner of the Drouin Genealogical Institute, of the commercial rights of the various collections (except when the rights were resold), and of the trade marks like Institut généalogique Drouin. Mr. Pepin is a publisher and a genealogist. He takes care of buying and selling the books and of other products.

Sébastien Robert is at the head of all the digitized documents and publicity of the Drouin Institute. He is the webmaster. He is a communication bachelor at Université de Montréal. Like Mr. Pepin, he takes care of buying and selling the books and of other products.. Despite his young age, he is a genealogy lover. .

Denis Beauregard is the English representant of the Drouin Institute. His role, is to be the in-between for the English-speakers and customers out of Quebec. Mr. Beauregard is also a well-known genealogist."

Institut généalogique Drouin

Institut généalogique Drouin: "The Drouin Genealogical Institute was for a while the most important company performing genealogical researches in Quebec. Genealogy is now a very popular hobby and the genealogical patrimony of the Institute is now for sale. We invite you to read the history of the genealogical Institute Drouin"

Ancestry and the Drouin Collection

Olive Tree Genealogy Blog: Ancestry in arbitration over the Drouin Collection:
"According to reliable sources the Institut généalogique Drouin took The Generation Network Inc. into arbitration over the lack of full and proper indexation of the Drouin Collection previously put on-line by Ancestry.

On the 12th of August 2009, the judge named to arbitrate this case sided with Drouin, and declared that Ancestry has failed in its contractual obligation to properly and fully index the database prior to publication and since publication. The decision grants 60 (days) to Tje Generations Network to remedy the situation. Should they fail to do so, the license granted by the Institut Drouin will lapse.

The parties must still meet on September 9, 2009 to decide on the amount of damages caused by this breach of contract. Following this decision, Jean Pierre Pépin has asked that Ancestry remove the Drouin collection from internet access until such time as it is fully and properly indexed.

The Drouin collection is not available on Ancestry.com,"

Institut généalogique Drouin - Google Search

UrsaMaj blogger

The Big Bear: Summer: "The past 4 weeks, I have, once again, been teaching the Family History class in our ward. This is the first set of classes I have taught since we had access to the New Family Search program, so I have spent some time going thought the training and trying to use the new system. I guess I am spoiled being a Macintosh user, also being a past manager of information technology.

To be kind, let me say that the New Family Search is a “work in Process.” When I was in business, I would never expose my company to a Beta version of a system, yet that is what the New Family Search program is.

That makes us all “Guinea Pigs”, who get to debug the system. Everyone who asks me, I tell them to continue to use whatever system they are currently using. If they have not been using an existing system, then go with the New Family Search, but expect a lot of changes as the system evolves. I’ll get down off my soapbox now."

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Nordstrand Island in Friesia

nordstrand:
"During the night of October 11-12, 1634, a raging storm destroyed the coastline of North Friesland. In a few hours, the flood accompanying this storm, swept away complete villages, hamlets and even islands from the face of the earth.
About 15,000 people lost their lives that disastrous night ,a pivotal event in human history within this region and beyond.
Nordstrand Island - where more than 6,000 people drowned- suffered the most devastation.

The tremendous power of the water destroyed about 50 miles of the coast between Nordstrand Island and the Danish border. At Eiderstedt, the area south of Nordstrand Island, 2,106 people drowned, despite being protected by dikes 18-20 feet high.

Inside Klixbüll's church, people marked the water level on the wall: 14 feet above ground level.
This was the second great flood in the history of the North Frisian region. In 1362, a similar flood, known as the “Grote Manndränke”, ravaged the same area, but little is known about that disaster."

Apple genealogy

Apple - Downloads - Home & Learning - MacFamilyTree: "MacFamilyTree 5.6.2

A modern and highly popular genealogy application. With MacFamilyTree users can create family trees and display them in multiple ways. MacFamily helps you to generate vivid views and diagrams: Ancestor and Fan Charts, Virtual Tree and Virtual Globe complement Statistics and Timeline for analysis."

Genealogy's Star: New FamilySearch release date announce for 29 Stakes

Genealogy's Star: New FamilySearch release date announce for 29 Stakes: "29 Stakes in the St. George Temple District have an announced release date of 31 August 2009."