Nu? What's New? Vol. 22 No. 06

Underlined words are links to sites with additional information.

Google Earth for Genealogy

“Google Earth for Genealogy: Putting Your Ancestors on the Map” is the title of an article at the website of New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B).

Maps and mapping software have long been under-utilized as tools for family history research, but can be incredibly useful resources for genealogists of all skill levels. Thanks to recent advances in the field of geospatial technology, family history researchers have never been better positioned to start using this technology to their advantage. In a two-part article, NYG&B reviews a number of ways the family history researcher can leverage these tools to make more discoveries and form a greater, more holistic understanding of their ancestors' world. The first part introduces the technology and suggests ways to add your own family history information to a map. It can be found at http://tinyurl.com/yhfdfwh7.

RootsTech Attendance May Exceed 250,000

Earlier this week the RootsTech conference registrations exceeded 230,000. It is not unreasonable that the number will exceed 250,000 by the time the three-day online conference starts on February 25. Registration is at no charge. Because it is an online conference it will likely include speakers from all over the world.

Visit the conference website at https://www.rootstech.org/?lang=eng for more detailed information.

Complete Guide to U.S. State Census Records by Year

Family History Daily has published an article titled “The Complete Guide to U.S. State Census Records by Year.” State censuses identified heads-of-households and family groups, and focused on questions of birthplace, age, and occupation. Typically, they were taken half way between federal censuses which are taken every decade in years ending in (0).

The article can be found at https://tinyurl.com/v9xbr7sc. Family History Daily”has also published “The Ultimate Quick Reference Guide to the U.S. Census for Genealogy” at http://tinyurl.com/cn21eddt.

JewishGen Talks Lecture on Polish-Jewish Genealogy
and Protecting Polish Jewish Cemeteries

The latest in the series of JewishGen Talks will discuss Polish-Jewish genealogy and protecting Polish Jewish cemeteries. Speakers will discuss protecting the physical history of our ancestors in the tombstones and Jewish cemeteries of Poland. Jewish Records Indexing will describe the use of its new Polish-Jewish cemetery tombstone database. JewishGen will describe their extensive Poland collection.

The online lecture is on February 9 at 2pm Eastern Time. Registration is free with a suggested donation. Register at http://bit.ly/JewishGenTalks-Poland.

More Irish Vital Records Available

Jan Meisels Allen, Chairperson of the IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee, reports that the Irish Government’s free website, https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/, added birth register entries for 1920, marriage entries for 1945 and death register entries for 1970. You can search birth records from 1864–1920, marriage register records (non-Catholic) from 1845–1945 and death register records from 1871–1970. (https://www.irishgenealogy.ie/en/news)

To search the civil records go to http://tinyurl.com/rnv2f2ar. To read what is available see http://tinyurl.com/8prq0t5a.

Filae Adds 8M Records in January

The French site, Filae, has added 8M records in January. They include:
• Gard, Civil records, 1792–1904: 7.8M people
• France, BMD Indexes, 1550–1940: 291,000 people

The site is located at http://tinyurl.com/5e5ms4jx.

Wiener Library Places Holocaust Survivor Testimonies Online

Wiener Holocaust Library in London is placing online its Holocaust survivor testimonies. To date 380 accounts are accessible. The rest of the 1,185 testimonies will go online later this year. The announcement can be found at http://tinyurl.com/1e4qh817.

Two DNA Testing Firms Discover Valentine’s Day
Two DNA testing firms are giving discounts in recognition of Valentine’s Day.

23andMe. Ancestry + Traits Services $99. No discount
Ancestry. $99. No discount.
Family Tree DNA. $59. Discount ends February 14.
MyHeritage. $59. Offer ends February 14.

FamilySearch Adds 1.5M Records This Week

A list of recent additions to FamilySearch, 1.5M index records, can be found at http://tinyurl.com/jek7gq1g. This site provides direct links to the individual collections. They include records from Argentina Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, England, Finland, France, Guatemala, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Puerto Rico, Samoa, South Africa, Spain, United States and Venezuela.

Note that at the website, announced collections may not be complete for the dates specified and will be added at some later date. Also note that counts shown in the announcement are the number added, not the total number available in the collection, which can be greater.

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