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Latest Standard Edition Articles

  • 13 Apr 2022 9:12 AM | Anonymous

    The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

    Partnership between Findmypast and the British Library reaches new milestone with over 50 million newspaper pages digitised and now available online at The British Newspaper Archive and Findmypast  

    ·         Behind every news story is a family story, giving Findmypast subscribers the chance to add colour, context and depth to their family tree 

    ·         Project will continue to publish millions more after the extension of this exclusive partnership was announced last year  

    Family history website Findmypast and their partner, the British Library, have this week hit a milestone of digitising 50 million pages on the British Newspaper Archive.  

    Since 2011, Findmypast has worked with the British Library to collate, curate and digitise their enormous newspaper collection, which can be explored online at the British Newspaper Archive and Findmypast.  
     
    The archive is the largest collection of British and Irish newspapers in the world and includes the Daily Mirror, Liverpool Echo, Belfast Telegraph and the Dundee Courier, as well as many other regional publications that are now out of print. 
     
    Across the 18th to 20th century, many cities and towns published several newspapers simultaneously, often aimed at distinct audiences depending on social status, geographical location, or political affiliation. It’s this depth of content that allows people the chance to add richness and context to their family stories. This enormous collection highlights the news, culture, gossip and politics that shaped our ancestors’ lives.  Particularly evocative are the myriad of images that appear across the collection. Some may even catch a glimpse of their family in the millions of pages.

    Families who came or left the UK in recent decades may not feature in other records available on Findmypast like the 1921 Census. Therefore, newspaper articles can be even more pertinent when piecing together a family’s history. Aside from established British and Irish titles, readers can explore stories from Jamaica to Jaipur, with international titles such as The Royal Gazette of Jamaica and The Barbados Agricultural Reporter. 

    As part of a commitment to digitising diverse and culturally important titles, over one million pages are completely free to view without a subscription, both on the British Newspaper Archive and Findmypast. The digitisation of titles like The Keys provide an incredible view of 1930s Black British history, and the likes of the 19th century newspaper The Chartist shines a light on the rights of the working class. 
     
    Findmypast and the British Library have also committed to digitising a further 19 million pages over the coming years, all available to explore on the British Newspaper Archive, or with a Findmypast Pro subscription. 
     
    Mary McKee, Head of Content Operations at Findmypast, said: “We are proud to have reached this incredible milestone of digitising 50 million newspaper pages. Newspapers provide us with history as it happened.  You can explore history through the words of the everyday people who lived it, such as a description of the excitement of the first FA Cup final or the harrowing accounts of prison camps during the Second World War.  It is through our unique partnership with the British Library that we can bring to life the stories of both local legends and international movements for everyone to explore online around the world.” 

    Luke McKernan, Lead Curator of News and Moving Image Collections at the British Library, said: “Our partnership with Findmypast has made the British Library’s extraordinarily rich collection of historical newspapers more accessible for everyone. We are excited to see 50 million newspaper pages now digitised and over one million pages from our collection available for free, without a subscription. We look forward to enabling ever wider audiences in the UK and around the world to access this important and fascinating resource.” 

  • 12 Apr 2022 6:12 PM | Anonymous

    The following announcement was written by the Augusta Genealogical Society:

    When: Saturday, April 23, 2022

    Where: On Line - Webinar - Virtual Genealogical Program

    Time: 1:00 to 2:00 PM

    Cost: Free to AGS members and $10.00 for non members

    Speaker: Steven D. Tuttle, Deputy Director

    Steven D. Tuttle

    Program specifics: Steven D. Tuttle has worked at the South Carolina Department of Archives and History since 1984 and is currently Deputy Director for Archives and Records Management. He has a bachelor's degree in history from the University of North Carolina at Asheville (1981) and a master's degree in library and information science from the University of South Carolina (1992). Steve is the author of two publications, Census Records at the Archives and African American Genealogical Research.

    Registration deadline is April 16. To Register please visit www.augustagensociety.org

    The Augusta Genealogical Society is a non-profit organization established in September 1979.


  • 12 Apr 2022 5:53 PM | Anonymous

    Who says archives are important? For one, the government of Nepal says so.

    Fragile historical parchments and records are rotting away in the government’s archives due to negligence.

    In June 2019, a team from the National Archives reached Taplejung in eastern Nepal to find decaying handwritten parchments, centuries-old manuscripts, and stone inscriptions all lying abandoned.

    There were invaluable centuries-old lalmohar documents and deeds with official seals stacked in nooks and carnies of households, mouldy and decomposing.

    The initial plan for the Archives team was just to copy the text from two historic bronze bells in front of the Nageshvar Temple, but they decided to stay for three more days, digitising 77 historic documents and 95 letters.

    The images of those documents are now in the digital archives, even though the originals have been lost. And these were most likely just a tiny proportion of all the material still out there waiting to be discovered.

    “With neither the resources nor expertise, we have been unable to collect and conserve other historic documents,” admits Bishwa Nath Sitaula, mayor of Aathrai Tribeni municipality in Taplejung.

    You can read more in an article written by Anita Bhetwal and published in the Nepali Times web site at: https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/saving-nepals-archives-from-oblivion/.


  • 12 Apr 2022 9:09 AM | Anonymous

    MyHeritage is proud to share the third installment of the 1950 U.S. Census indexed records (and their corresponding images) from Alaska, New Hampshire, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Last week, MyHeritage published the initial installments of the 1950 U.S. Census Index from Wyoming, Delaware, Vermont, and American Samoa. Today, an additional 763,697 records were added for a total of 1,847,635 historical records in the collection. All of the records are available to search, view, and add to your family tree on MyHeritage for free!

    Search the 1950 United States Census Index collection

    On April 1st, MyHeritage became the first commercial company to publish a full collection of the 1950 U.S. Census images. Additional releases are expected in the weeks ahead until the index is complete. Stay updated on all MyHeritage 1950 Census releases by checking our U.S. Census content hub and dedicated 1950 Census page.

    Taken in April of 1950, the census encompasses the then 48 states in the continental U.S. and its territories: then Alaska, Hawaii, American Samoa, the Panama Canal Zone, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Alaska and Hawaii were later added as states in 1959. 150 million Americans were enumerated in the 1950 U.S. Census, an increase of 14.5% over the 1940 U.S. Census. The MyHeritage 1950 United States Census Index collection contains names, ages, locations, households, relations, genders, races, education, places of birth, and other details of those who were enumerated.

    You can read more in the MyHeritage Blog at: https://bit.ly/3uHUeZH.

  • 12 Apr 2022 8:33 AM | Anonymous

    Gravestone cleaning can turn back the wheels of time to make your ancestor’s final resting place nearly as beautiful as the day their family members gathered there to wish them farewell.

    Time has been hard on gravestones that were originally considered nearly permanent. Weathering, erosion, neglect, and vandalism have all taken their toll.

    While some of this damage cannot be reversed, in other cases, preservation and prevention can make all the difference. And as more people become interested in genealogical research, there is a greater desire to preserve what is left of our ancestor’s legacies in stone.

    By cleaning and caring for historic resting places you can provide an opportunity for future generations to glimpse the past. Then burial grounds will become treasures of information that would otherwise have been forgotten or lost.

    Comment by Dick Eastman:

    I believe that every genealogist should be familiar with the information in this article, whether or not that person ever intends to do the cleaning himself/herself.

    You can learn a lot from the article written by Cathy Wallace and published in the BillionGraves web site at: https://blog.billiongraves.com/gravestone-cleaning-101/. Topics in that article include:

    • Why Should You Clean a Gravestone?
    • When Should You NOT Clean a Gravestone?
    • Sources of Gravestone Damage
    • Understand Laws and Regulations
    • Headstone Cleaning Tips
    • Methods for Gravestone Cleaning


  • 12 Apr 2022 8:12 AM | Anonymous

    Kay Haviland Freilich, a genealogical records specialist, died on Sunday, March 20, 2022. She was 81.

    In the late 1980s, she discovered her real passion for genealogy and became a board-certified genealogical records specialist in 1994 and then a certified genealogical lecturer. In 2012, she was elected as a fellow of the National Genealogical Society.

    She was president of the Board for Certification of Genealogists from 2002 to 2004 and was also a trustee and a member-at-large.

    Freilich authored several articles focused primarily on genealogical research techniques in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly. In 2014, she and her husband authored Genealogy and the Law: A Guide to Legal Sources for the Family Historian.

    Her obituary is available at: https://bit.ly/363Zb5i.


  • 12 Apr 2022 8:02 AM | Anonymous

    Lynn Turner has been named the new director of the FamilySearch Family History Library, FamilySearch announced Monday.

    Turner has served as the assistant director for the last three years under the leadership of director David E. Rencher. Turner will replace Rencher, who will continue as FamilySearch’s Chief Genealogical Officer.

    “You need somebody who understands family history and genealogy, and they need to be part of the genealogical profession because the genealogical world looks at the director as as one of them,” Rencher said. “Lynn fills that space but he also has an incredible business mind.”

    Turner expressed gratitude for those who have helped him prepare for this new opportunity.

    “I’m excited to stand on the shoulders of the giants that have come before me and paved the way,” he said.

    Who was the previous Family History Library director?

    Rencher has been serving as both the director of the Family History Library and FamilySearch’s Chief Genealogical Officer since the fall of 2018.

    Rencher’s top focus as director of the Family History Library was to provide high quality customer service and help patrons to have a “heart-turning experience” as they discover and learn about their ancestors, he said.

    Rencher and Turner also worked together in overseeing the latest upgrade to the Family History Library before it reopened in July 2021.

    You can read more in FamilySearch's announcement of the promotion at https://www.familysearch.org/en/blog/lynn-turner-new-familysearch-family-history-library-director.


  • 11 Apr 2022 5:44 PM | Anonymous

    From downstate to upstate, numerous African American burial sites dot New York. Some are in full view, while some are obscured. Yet all are reminders of both the rich history of Americans and the shameful past of segregation.

    These sites include prominent ones like the African Burial Ground National Monument in Lower Manhattan. Also in the ranks are ones hidden within larger cemeteries like Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn. There are those forgotten for years until supporters stepped forward to preserve them like the Pine Street African Burial Ground in Kingston. Some are even buried literally by development like the African Methodist Episcopal Church Cemetery in Staten Island.

    A number of individuals buried in these sites were enslaved in a state that didn't ban the practice for two centuries. The New York legislature ended it on March 31, 1817, by approving July 4, 1827, as the date of final emancipation.

    You can read more in an article by Ricardo Kaulessar and published in the MSN web site at: https://bit.ly/3KD9lZJ.

  • 11 Apr 2022 5:36 PM | Anonymous

    Two University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign researchers are developing resources for studying the Deseret Alphabet, which was created by the Mormons and used briefly in the 19th century.

    Linguistics professor Ryan Shosted and computer science professor Neal Davis created the Illinois Deseret Consortium to make available online searchable transcriptions of texts written in Deseret for researchers to study and also to help people rediscover the alphabet.

    Their website, at go.illinois.edu/deseret, includes phonemic transcriptions of texts using a computer-readable script so researchers can search for the phonemic spellings without using the Deseret characters, as well as computer-readable transcriptions in the alphabet.

    Shosted’s research interest is phonetics, and Deseret is a phonetic alphabet, using symbols to spell words the way they sound. Growing up in Salt Lake City, Shosted remembers his grandmother’s unique pronunciations. She and other members of her generation pronounced the “or” sound as “ar” – so “cord” sounds like “card” and “fork” sounds like “fark.” He wondered if texts written in Deseret would offer evidence of that way of speaking in the mid-19th century.

    The Deseret Alphabet grew out of the Mormon interest in spelling reform and shorthand that began when they were headquartered in Nauvoo in western Illinois in the 1840s, Shosted said. They wanted to be able to quickly write down the words of church leaders and make them available to the public. Education was a priority for the Mormons, and they also were interested in making English easier to read, he said.

    You can read more in an article by Jodi Heckel  published in the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign web site at: https://news.illinois.edu/view/6367/1858823463.

  • 11 Apr 2022 8:14 AM | Anonymous

    You have to wonder why anyone would do this.

    Waxahachie police are searching for those responsible for vandalizing hundreds of gravestones in its city cemetery. There is a major fundraising effort underway for repairs.

    Organizers say so far, they have only raised around a third of the money needed to get it back to what it once was.

    It is the central location for the city. And for the past month, the sight has not been pleasant.

    Headstones for Waxahachie’s founding fathers, like the first physician, first business owners, and many more need repairs after being deliberately destroyed last month.

    You can read more in an article in the Local12 web site at: https://bit.ly/3vcVa7n.


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