Genealogy News Episode 125

Genealogy News

Welcome to the Genealogy News from Geneatopia

I’m Patty Roy, also known as Dinah Larkham in Second Life.

Today is Monday November 12, 2018 and this is Episode 125.

MyHeritage LIVE Conference

The MyHeritage LIVE conference was recently held in Oslo, Norway.

MyHeritage has been releasing tools to make it easier to find out how you are related to your DNA matches. Some of the tools are Smart matches between trees, shared surnames, shared DNA matches and a chromosome browser.

A new feature is shared ancestral places. These are places of birth and death for ancestors on both sides of the DNA match. If there are ancestral places in common, this can be clue for where your common ancestor was located. There is map that shows the ancestral places from your side and the DNA match. Shared locations are highlighted with purple pins. It may also show the city, town or village.

MyHeritage will be adding more historical records. They are working on U.S. city directories from the 1820’s to the 1990’s to be added to MyHeritage soon. This will be nearly one billion records. It will be indexed by name and address.

MyHeritage will be adding newspapers from Europe. They will include newspapers from the Netherlands, Austria and other countries. These newspapers are in different languages and MyHeritage is working on matching names in the newspapers to your family tree in these different languages. More countries will be added later.

The Czech census will be coming to MyHeritage. This is made possible in partnership with FamilySearch. They are also working with FamilySearch on Catholic Church records from Brazil and German civil registration records.

Some other record collections that will be coming to MyHeritage are

• Greece, Sparta church marriages
• 1940 Denmark census
• Illinois, New England and California naturalization indexes
• Philadelphia passenger lists
• New York state death index

At the conference they announced that they have added the years from 1930 – 1947 to the Swedish household examination records. These are fully indexed and adds 17 more years to the collection.

MyHeritage is going to help you reconstruct your ancestor’s DNA. When you have your cousins tested, second cousins, your parents tested and so on, MyHeritage will automate segment painting to create virtual DNA kits for your ancestors. Then you can find DNA matches for these virtual kits. This is in the planning stage right now.

MyHeritage will be able to extract DNA from old envelopes and stamps. This will be done by a partner of MyHeritage and the results will be loaded into MyHeritage.

The founder and CEO of MyHeritage Gilad Japhet talked about some postcards and letters he has that were written by famous people. He will be trying the get the DNA from these items and add it to MyHeritage. He has items from Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill and the daughter of Theodore Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism.

The MyHeritage ethnicity results will be enhanced in the coming year. Also coming will be a more compact view of your matches, the ability to mark matches as favorites, and if the match is maternal or paternal.

Still in development is the Theory of Family Relativity. This will look at the trees at MyHeritage and FamilySearch to try to find a common ancestor with a DNA match. Theories will be presented to you on who the common ancestor could be along with how the theory was created.

The entire MyHeritage website will be getting a facelift. The homepage will be dynamic and will change based on your progress using MyHeritage.

The entire conference was recorded. There were two tracks each day and each track was recorded. The recordings can be found at the MyHeritage Videos Facebook page. I’ll have links in the show notes for each video. The keynote is at the beginning of Genealogy Track Day 1, Part 1. There is also separate video for the keynote that can be found at Vimeo. I’ll also have a link to that in the show notes.

Eventually all the sessions will be at Family Tree Webinars.

Gilad’s Keynote Address – MyHeritage LIVE – November 2018

MyHeritage LIVE 2018 — Genealogy Track (Day 1, Part 1)
MyHeritage LIVE 2018 — Genealogy Track (Day 1, Part 2)
MyHeritage LIVE 2018 — Genealogy Track (Day 2, Part 1)
MyHeritage LIVE 2018 — Genealogy Track (Day 2, Part 2)

MyHeritage LIVE 2018 — DNA Track (Day 1, Part 1)
MyHeritage LIVE 2018 — DNA Track (Day 1, Part 2)
MyHeritage LIVE 2018 — DNA Track (Day 2, Part 1)
MyHeritage LIVE 2018 — DNA Track (Day 2, Part 2)

MyHeritage Wraps Up Amazing First-Ever User Conference in Oslo

New Records at FamilySearch

More new records at FamilySearch

New indexed record collections
California, Pioneer Migration Index, Compiled 1906-1935
Montana, Lewis and Clark County, Military Records, 1904-1918
Oregon, World War I, Veteran State Aid Applications, 1921-1938

The following have new indexed records and images
BillionGraves Index

Next these collections have indexed records added to an existing collection
Dominican Republic Civil Registration, 1801-2010
England, Derbyshire, Church of England Parish Registers, 1537-1918
Georgia, World War I, Statement of Service Cards, 1920-1929
Iowa, Death Records, 1904-1951
Lesotho, Evangelical Church Records, 1828-2005
Liberia, Marriage Records, 1912-2015
Native American, Eastern Cherokee Enrollment Records, 1908-1910
Oklahoma, School Records, 1895-1936
Peru, Diocese of Huacho, Catholic Church Records, 1560-1952
Tennessee, Confederate Pension Applications, Soldiers and Widows, 1891-1965
Washington, Native American, Census Records, 1880-1952

New Free Historical Records on FamilySearch: Week of November 5, 2018

Dallas Public Library Digitizing Book Collection with FamilySearch

The Dallas Public Library will be scanning its extensive family history book collection. They will be working with FamilySearch to do the scanning. The collection contains more than 16,000 books.

The digitized copies will be placed in the FamilySearch’s Family History Books Collection

Dallas Public Library Teams with FamilySearch to Digitize Genealogy Collections

Findmypast New Records

Findmypast has added the Royal Air Force Lists from 1919-1922 and 1938-1945. The Lists come from the women’s branches of the military including the WRENs, WAAF, and Princess Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service.

They’ve added a list of civilians who served in the First World War as recorded in the Windsor Town Council Honour Roll for the period 1914 to 1925. This would be in Queensland.

Over 2 million records have been added to the collection of Billion Graves Cemetery indexes.

Additional records have been added to the Middlesex Monumental Inscriptions collection.

Findmypast Friday November 9th

The National Archives Places Burial Cards of World War I Soldiers Online

The National Archives in the United States has placed online the burial cards of World War I soldiers. The records are arranged alphabetically by name. From the cards you can identify the unit of service and find more information.

Plans are to digitize the series Correspondence, Reports, Telegrams, Applications, and Other Papers Relating to Burials of Service Personnel, 1915-1939. These are also known as “Burial Case Files.” The records contain correspondence, Graves Registration Service forms, headstone applications, Gold Star Mothers’ itineraries, and other pertinent information relating to the burial of the United States military, mainly the U.S. Army.

The World War I files will be digitized first and will be made available in the National Archives Catalog on a rolling basis.

Now Available Online: Burial Cards of World War I Soldiers

The National Archive Places Online Initial Burial Plats for World War I American Soldiers

The National Archives has also placed online the Initial Burial Plats for World War I American Soldiers. These burial plats show where soldiers who were killed in battle are buried. Each grave is identified by the soldier’s name, rank, serial number, and unit, if known. The plats also show surrounding landmarks, buildings, and other markers that could be used to identify the location of the burial.

Newly Digitized Series: Initial Burial Plats for World War I American Soldiers

New York City 1940s Tax Photos

The Department of Records & Information Services in New York City has just released 720,000 images online. They are images of 1940s tax photos. The photos were taken as part to the City’s property tax office assessment process from 1939 to 1941.

There is a photograph of every building in the city at that time. The photos are separated by borough and there is a link to the NYCityMap to find the block and lot number you want to see.

If you want a high-resolution version of a photo, you can make the purchase online.

See What Your Home Once Looked Like With Newly Digitized 1940s Tax Photos

New York Times Digitizing Its Photos

The New York Times is digitizing photos from its archive. There are more than 5 million photos in the archive that date back to the 1870s.

The Times is using Google’s artificial intelligence tools to recognize printed or handwritten text in the photos and they are using Google’s storage and data analysis services.

The New York Times will use the photos in a feature called Past Tense that will spotlight history. The photos won’t be included in a public forum like the Flickr Commons.

Google AI helps NYT get a handle on 5 million photo archive

Detroit Jewish Chronicle and the Detroit Jewish News

The University of Michigan has released a free searchable database of more than 100 years of digital copies of the Detroit Jewish Chronicle and the Detroit Jewish News. The Detroit Jewish News Digital Archive contains every issue of the Detroit Jewish Chronicle (1916-1951) and the Detroit Jewish News (1942-present). Future issues of the Detroit Jewish News will be added

You will be able to browse by date or use a full-text search.

NEW DIGITAL ARCHIVE AT U-M HIGHLIGHTS HISTORY OF DETROIT’S JEWISH COMMUNITY

Additions at DigitalNC

DigitalNC, the online library for institutions across North Carolina, has added a couple of new things. A batch of scrapbooks documenting Durham’s United Fund Campaign are available at DigitalNC.

And some maps and blueprints have been added for the city of Chapel Hill dating from 1929 to 1963.

Durham United Fund Scrapbooks Online Now

Maps, Sketches, and Blueprints from Chapel Hill Historical Society Now Online at DigitalNC

Ha-Shilth-Sa Newspaper Photo Archive

Canada’s oldest First Nation’s newspaper the Ha-Shilth-Sa is putting its photo archive online. There are over 30,000 images.

The photos will gradually be placed online at Flickr and can be accessed through the Ha-Shilth-Sa website. The photos will be organized by category and you will be able to label the photos to identify people, places and context.

Ha-Shilth-Sa photo archives released to the public

Quebec Newspaper La Presse to Digitize Photos

The Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ) is digitizing photos from the Montreal newspaper, La Presse. This is a daily French-language newspaper.

So far 100 photographs have been digitized and can be found at the Archives website.

Quebec Archives digitizing La Presse newspaper photos

TheGenealogist Adds First World War Records

TheGenealogist, a subscription site in the UK, has added First World War records. There are over 42,000 records of Officers that died during the war as well as additional Rolls of Honour and over 30,000 War Memorials, War Graves plans, maps and listings.

TheGenealogist announces First World War records additions

1985 Swedish Census at ArkivDigital

ArkivDigital, the subscription site for Swedish records, has added the 1985 Swedish census to its site. It contains the full name, address, date of birth and date of last change in marital status. It shows everyone who lived in the same household.

ArkivDigital is working on placing online the Swedish population in 1940.

Population of Sweden 1985

Who Do You Think You Are? Season 11

The new season of Who Do You Think You Are? will be starting on TLC on Monday, December 3rd at 10 P.M. Eastern. There will be only 4 episodes. The last season had 6 episodes.

The four celebrities for this season are Mandy Moore, Josh Duhamel, Matthew Morrison and Regina King. Each episode features a celebrity tracing their family history.

Mandy Moore discovers ancestors who live in Australia, Josh Duhamel travels to England to find out about his ancestors, Matthew Morrison finds out about his Revolutionary War ancestors, and Regina King finds an ancestor who was a passionate civil rights activist in Alabama.

Who Do You Think You Are? returns December 3

RootsTech Keynote Saroo Brierley

RootsTech has announced one of the keynote speakers. Saroo Brierly will be the keynote on Friday, March 1st.

A movie was made about Saroo’s life. It was called Lion and it was based in India. As a 5 year old boy Saroo was waiting for his brother to return to the train station. He boarded a train thinking he would find his brother and found himself lost. Eventually he was adopted by an Australian couple.

As an adult he used Google Earth to try to find his childhood home and a made trip there. He started asking local people about his family and eventually was reunited with them.

Saroo Brierley: Inspiration for Lion Movie to Keynote RootsTech 2019

RootsTech 2019 App

The mobile app for RootsTech 2019 is available for iOS and Android. The app lets you navigate the conference, build a personalized schedule, find exhibitors, and connect with other attendees.

I’ll have a link in the show notes to a blog post that describes in detail how to use all the features in the app.

10 Ways the Mobile App Will Improve Your RootsTech Experience

Be sure to check out the calendar at Geneatopia.com for the webinars coming up.

The calendar also has all the Google Hangouts that are scheduled, events going on in Second Life, and online events that you pay for.

And that’s it for this episode.

You can send email to [e-mail]

You can find links to things mentioned in this show in the show notes at Geneatopia.com as well as a transcript. The transcript can also be found in the Geneatopia Flipboard magazine.

This is episode 125.

Thanks for listening.