Nu? What's New? Vol. 22 No. 41

Underlined words are links to sites with additional information.

Editorial Encourages More Opening Hours for Library Archives Canada

Jan Meisels Allen, Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee, notes an editorial in the Toronto Star that questions why Library Archives Canada (LAC) isn’t allowing patrons sufficient access to its facilities. The Star states that, “schools and libraries are figuring out how to open safely and have been open for well over a month. Why have some of Canada’s major archives been so slow to reopen?”

In Ottawa, as of a few weeks ago, researchers are able to work in LAC for a maximum of four three-hour sessions a week, notes the editorial. “This is creating an impossible situation for historical researchers. Archival research is the very definition of painstaking work. Historical research takes time, lots of it, reading government documents; entire runs of a newspaper over the period of study; volumes of letters and diaries of individuals.”

The editorial can be found at https://tinyurl.com/pse56cym.

Lecture: O’ Canada: Researching Your Canadian Jewish Ancestors from Afar
The Santa Cruz Jewish Genealogy Society will present an online lecture, “O’ Canada: Researching Your Canadian Jewish Ancestors from Afar” on October 24 at 1 pm Pacific Time (4 pm Eastern). Guest lecturer is Marion Werle.

The presentation covers the major sources of Canadian genealogical records–government, general genealogy websites, educational and other institutions – and includes ship manifests, naturalization records, Canadian census and census substitutes, city directories, voter lists, 1940 residence records, Jewish communal institutions, vital records, cemetery data, military records and local histories.

The lecture is free to members, $5 to non-members. Register at https://tinyurl.com/a2j2jpc.

Journal Your Research

An aspect of my personal genealogy research that I am proud of is that, for the first few years, I kept a journal of all my discoveries and failures. It allowed me to share with my extended family how I was able to determine that all persons named Mokotoff (and name variants) are related. We are descendants of my great-great-great grandfather and his two wives.

FamilySearch has created a number of essays on how to create a journal and what it should include. One is “What to Write in a Journal” located at https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/what-to-write-in-journal/. FamilySearch notes that there are websites designed to assist its users in keeping a journal. This is discussed at https://www.familysearch.org/blog/en/online-journaling/.

Roots Less Traveled to Return to NBC Television
Roots Less Traveled, the genealogy show about relatives as they set out on an adventure to discover stories in their family tree, is coming back to NBC television. No specific times were given.

The announcement is at https://www.ancestry.com/cs/tv-shows/roots-less-traveled.

Researching Jewish Families in America: New England Jewish Roots

The recent JewishGen Talks webinar “Researching Jewish Families in America: New England Jewish Roots” is now available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ww4KU-pXFE. The talk was part of JewishGen’s continuing “Researching Jewish Families in America” series of JewishGen Talks highlighting archives, museums and historical society collections of interest to family historians.

The talk focused on New England Jewish resources and repositories with collections about the Jews of New England. It was co-sponsored by the New England Jewish History Collaborative (nejhc.org).

“A Nation of Descendants: Politics and the Practice of Genealogy in U.S. History”

On October 20 at 1pm ET, Francesca Morgan, author of “A Nation of Descendants: Politics and the Practice of Genealogy in U.S. History,” will give a presentation on how genealogy has always mattered in the U.S., whether for taking stock of kin when organizing a family reunion or drawing on membership—by blood or other means—to claim land rights, inheritance, learn about medical histories, biological parentage, and ethnicity.

Additional information, including how to register, can be found at https://archivesfoundation.org/ event/nationofdescendants/. The lecture is sponsored by the U.S. National Archives Foundation.

MyHeritage Adds 463M Historical Records from France to Its Collection

MyHeritage has added to its collection 463M historical records from France. It was made possible through the acquisition of the French genealogy company, Filae. The collection covers nearly every department in France and includes an index of the transcribed records and digital images of the original documents.

This brings MyHeritage’s total number of historical records to 15.6B. The announcement can be found at https://tinyurl.com/yfe4ke7c.

FamilySearch Adds 1.1M Records This Week

FamilySearch took a breather this week, adding only 1.1M index records. More than 49% of the record count is attributed to the Liberia census of 2008. The complete list can be found at https://tinyurl.com/2k7rb2sp. This site provides direct links to the individual collections. They include records from Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Liberia, Mexico, Panama. Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tuvalu, 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.

New Collections at Ancestry.com

Ancestry has added/updated the following record groups at their site. The list with links to individual collections can be found at https://www.ancestry.com/cs/recent-collections. Announced collections may not be complete for the dates specified and will be added at some later date. There is also no indication of how many records were added to the updated collections.

New Collections
Ireland, Irish Emigration Lists, 1833–1839
Palm Beach County, Florida, U.S., Naturalization Records, 1823–1974

Updated Collections
Alabama, U.S., Naturalization Records, 1888–1991
Washington, U.S., Naturalizations, 1853–1980
Florida, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1822–1850
California, U.S., State Court Naturalization Records, 1850–1986