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Latest Standard Edition Articles

  • 9 Nov 2021 8:22 AM | Anonymous

    CROTON-ON-HUDSON, NEW YORK, Nov. 8, 2021 -- The all-volunteer US Black Heritage Project has announced the Black Heritage Family Builders Program. Genealogy volunteers with experience researching African-American families are now offering to build a family tree for anyone with Black heritage for free, without any obligation, and with privacy protections.

    "Understanding our past and honoring our ancestors is vital to understanding ourselves," says US Black Heritage Project Coordinator Denise Jarrett. "If you have always wanted to find out about your family's heritage, but don't know where to begin, our WikiTree volunteers are eager to help you get started."

    To request this free service, a person only needs to provide the volunteers with enough information to connect to a single African-American family member who can be found in the 1940 US Census or other public records from the 1940s. The connection to this person can be fully private. Information from before the 1940s will be public on the WikiTree platform so that it is available to all descendants and cousins.

    "I believe every African American should trace their family tree, but it can be hard or expensive to get started. The Family Builders Program will generously assist thousands of Black Americans in restoring the names of their ancestors."

    --Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr., Professor of African and African American Research at Harvard University and host of PBS TV's "Finding Your Roots"

    The goal of the Family Builders Program is to make it easier for all African Americans to connect with their roots and family members. It also contributes to the US Black Heritage Project's goal to add 50,000 African-American profiles to WikiTree in 2021. Every African-American tree that is grown and connected makes more connections possible.

    For more information, see the US Black Heritage Family Builders home page.


  • 9 Nov 2021 8:11 AM | Anonymous

    For most of us, if we were to discover a few pieces of old mail we would probably just throw it in the trash, right?

    Well, that's not the case for Steven Ellis, a member of the Facebook group Vanished Kalamazoo. Recently, Steven shared a post along with a few photos of what looks like antique envelopes. The caption read,

    "I found some old envelopes the other day from 1926-1929 addressed to 512 Alcott St. In googling the address, it appears that it is now a vacant lot/woods to the right of the house shown at 516 Alcott (at Adelade St) The letters were addressed to Mrs Sam Scott, Mrs Martha LaPorte and Mrs Frank Stern? Three different families sharing the house? Did anyone grow up near here or know the families?"

    You can see the photos of the envelopes here.

    You can see the photos of the envelopes at https://wkfr.com/vintage-letters-found-kalamazoo/.


  • 7 Nov 2021 4:46 PM | Anonymous

    The following announcement was written by Findmypast:

    Explore thousands of new wartime records, special interest newspapers and more

    Explore newly-opened 1939 Register entries, brand new baptism records and a handy new search tool this Findmypast Friday.

    1939 Register

    We’ve opened over 57,000 previously-redacted records from one of the most important twentieth century genealogical resources for England and Wales. Taken on the eve of WW2, the 1939 Register enables you to discover exactly where, how and with whom your ancestor were living. You can also search the register by address to explore the history of a home and see who was living there in 1939.

    As the official home of the 1939 Register, Findmypast holds the most the most up-to-date and extensively-detailed version available online.

    1939 Register – Special Interest Groups search

    Findmypast have also created a new search feature to help you find special interest groups in the 1939 Register. Using their new search field, you can focus your research on disabled people, evacuees, refugees, heavy workers, Welsh language speakers and more.

    Northumberland Baptisms

    Spanning 1753-1919, delve into over 9,000 additional baptism records from several Northumberland parishes. The churches covered by Findmypast’s latest Northumberland update include:

      • Blanchland, St Mary
      • Harbottle
      • North Shields, Bankside Independent
      • North Shields, Low Meeting House Unitarian Chapel
      • North Shields, Middle Street Mission
      • North Shields, Secession Church
      • North Shields, Union St Baptist
      • Tynemouth, Holy Trinity (Western Town)
      • Tynemouth, St Peter (Low Town)

    To see everything Findmypast’s growing Northumberland collection covers, check the parish list.

    Durham Baptisms

    Findmypast have further expanded this collection with over 3,000 records from St Paul’s Church in Ryhope. The latest releases cover 1889-1903.

    Baptism records are essential for taking your family tree back further. They reveal important information on your ancestors' lives including birth years, baptism dates and parents' names.

    Newspapers

    Findmypast have added over 99,000 brand new pages including seven brand new special interest titles which provide an incredible snapshot of early twentieth century culture. From cars to yachts, from movies to the modern man, these fascinating, full colour titles provide vivid insights into what life was like over one hundred years ago.

    While additional pages have also been added to six existing titles, including:

     

  • 4 Nov 2021 8:28 PM | Anonymous

    Several articles have appeared online in the past few years describing the slowly dying music CD business. In short, sales of music CD disks are being replaced by directly downloading music online to iPods, computers, and other music playback devices. Remember the record and CD stores that used to be available at your local mall? Where have they all gone?

    You can find dozens of articles about the declining sales of music CDs. I certainly can recommend the one at New RIAA Numbers Show That CDs Are All But Dead And Downloads Are On Life Support at https://www.forbes.com/sites/billrosenblatt/2020/09/14/new-riaa-numbers-show-that-cds-are-all-but-dead-and-downloads-are-on-life-support/.

    Those articles got me thinking: if sales of music CDs are plummeting, can data CDs be far behind?

    For about two decades, genealogists have been enthusiastic buyers of genealogy data CDs. At least, looking in my storage area in the basement confirms that I have been an enthusiastic buyer! I have several hundred genealogy data CDs stored in a large box, most of which haven't been touched in years.

    I assume that most other genealogists have also been purchasing CDs. I know the CD-ROM disks from Ancestry.com, (formerly Broderbund, with CDs designed to be read by earlier versions of Family Tree Maker), FamilySearch, HeritageQuest, Genealogical Publishing Company, Heritage Books, Family Chronicle, New England Historic Genealogical Society, Progeny Software, S&N Genealogy Supplies in England, Archive CD Books (from several countries), and dozens of other companies and societies have sold thousands of copies. In addition, I see dozens of independent genealogy CD-ROM disks offered for sale on eBay; most are apparently produced by one-person businesses. Prices vary widely, but $10 to $50 US seems to be the price range for most genealogy CDs with a few others at higher or lower prices.

    Shouldn't we be accessing genealogy information online instead of on CD-ROM disks?

    Why would we ever want to change to online distribution? I see several reasons, some of which are already major factors:

    1. Purchasing a CD with the hope that it might have desired information has always been expensive. In fact, CDs share this problem with books. The difference is that you often can preview a book at a store or at a genealogy convention to see if the information you seek is in the book before you make the purchase. Doing the same with a CD-ROM disk is considerably more difficult. More than once, I have paid significant money for a CD-ROM disk, brought it home, inserted it into my computer, and then been disappointed that there was no information on the disk of interest to me. I have had somewhat similar experiences with printed books as well.

    2. CD-ROM pricing at $10 to $50 per disk probably made sense back in the days when we all used 2,400-baud dial-up modems. In 2010 the FCC reported that approximately 65 percent of Americans subscribed to broadband connections (source: “The Whole Picture: Where America’s Broadband Networks Really Stand” page 26, published by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, available at http://www2.itif.org/2013-whole-picture-america-broadband-networks.pdf). In a later report at https://www.fcc.gov/reports/eighth-broadband-progress-report, the FCC now reports that 94 percent of the American population ha access to broadband, either at work, at school, or at home. We now have faster, more efficient means of delivering large amounts of information than ever before. "Burning" a disk, packaging it, storing it, shipping it, paying for the postage and labor involved, and so on is very expensive when compared to delivering information online. Of course, the consumer ends up paying for those higher expenses.

    3. In most cases, genealogists don't want an entire disk of information. We typically seek information about one person or one family, not an entire community or even a state. Performing an online query for a few dollars and receiving a few hundred bytes of data in return is often much more cost-effective than purchasing an entire disk for $10 to $50, then searching it for those few hundred bytes.

    4. CD-ROM disks are tough to update to correct errors or to add new information. Doing the same online is trivial.

    5. CD-ROM disks easily become obsolete, due to software or even hardware upgrades. Do you own any of the early CD-ROM disks designed to be used with Family Tree Maker? If you are now using a current version of Family Tree Maker, it is no longer easy for you to read the CD-ROM disks you purchased years ago. If you have switched to a different genealogy program, reading those old CD-ROM disks is now impossible.

    6. CD-ROM disks are rugged, but not indestructible. Heat, sunlight, or a playful puppy can destroy a CD-ROM disk quickly. In contrast, data stored in modern data centers with proper on-site and off-site backups is almost indestructible. Fires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other major disasters are already handled every year by thousands of data centers that have made proper off-site backups. That's not to trivialize the task; recovering from any major disaster is always difficult, but it has already been done hundreds of times by commercial, non-profit, military, and government data centers alike.

    For reference, look at Amazon's experience with the earthquake a few years ago in Japan. Amazon's S3 customers were back online within hours following the earthquake although most of those customers never realized their data was now being hosted on servers in other parts of the world. While the Tokyo data center was seriously damaged and power at the data center was unavailable for weeks, Amazon's off-site backups were restored to servers in other continents, and the customers were back in business following a short interruption of a few hours.

    Will your CD-ROM disks be operational after a major disaster?

    7. For a long time, CD-ROM databases offered certain advantages that online solutions couldn't match. They were relatively fast, and a lot of data was conveniently stored in one place. That made sense in the days of 2,400 baud modems or even 56K baud modems. Retrieving data from a CD is faster than doing the same online at those speeds. Does it still make sense today when most of us are using multi-megabit-per-second broadband connections?

    8. Some of today's computers don't even have CD-ROM drives, and that trend is growing. I own three laptops: an Apple MacBook running Mac OS X, an Acer laptop with an i5 processor running Windows 8, and a Chromebook running the Chrome operating system. Each of these laptop computers weighs about three pounds, and none of them contain a CD-ROM drive. Apple no longer includes CD-ROM drives in the Mac desktop computers. Other manufacturers are likewise beginning to omit CD-ROM drives.

    The last time I looked, iPhones, iPads, Android tablets, and other handheld computing devices also are not equipped with CD-ROM drives although most all of them easily retrieve genealogy information online via high-speed wireless connections.

    All this makes sense in this age of inexpensive, multi-terabyte hard drives, multi-gigabyte flash drives, and high-speed, always-on Internet connectivity, both wired and wireless. We now have faster and cheaper ways of obtaining information than through the use of CD-ROM disks.

    I recently purchased an inexpensive electronic reprint of an old, out-of-copyright book from someone on eBay: “History of Penobscot County, Maine.” It was shipped to me on a CD-ROM disk. Since the computers I use regularly don't have CD-ROM drives, and because I want the information to be available any time I am using a computer, I used an older computer to copy the entire CD-ROM disk to the ebooks folder I have in Dropbox. I then tossed the CD disk into that same box in the basement that I mentioned earlier. I haven't touched many of those disks in years. The few disks in the box that are still readable by today's software, such as PDF files, were copied to the Dropbox ebooks folder a long time ago. The others are useless except perhaps for use as coffee cup coasters.

    Comment: Stupid me! I later found the same book was available as a free download from Google Books. (sigh) I could have downloaded it within a minute or two at no charge instead of spending money and then waiting several days for a disk to arrive in the mail. Even better, I also could search the entire online book within seconds, looking for any names, locations, or other text that I seek. I couldn't do that with the CD-ROM disk prior to purchasing it.

    Having the reprinted book on the hard drives of my computers is much more convenient and faster than using the CD. In fact, I can even open the book on a tablet computer or smartphone when traveling. I find electronic storage to be far more useful than storing on plastic disks.

    Fortunately, tens of thousands of old genealogy books are available free of charge as electronic downloads from Google Books, Archive.org, Allen County Public Library, Brigham Young University's Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University Hawaii's Joseph F. Smith Library, LDS Church History Library, Family History Library, Houston Public Library - Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research, Mid-Continent Public Library - Midwest Genealogy Center, and elsewhere.

    The computer landscape is very different now than it was ten years ago. "Online, everywhere, all the time" seems to be the current mantra. Wireless access is almost universal. Online access is cheaper for the consumer, cheaper for the producer, easier to use, faster in most cases, and requires less storage space than does publishing the same information on CD-ROM disks.

    Will CD-ROM disks go the route of buggy whips? Probably not overnight, but I do believe the change is inevitable.


  • 4 Nov 2021 7:13 PM | Anonymous

    A NEW online resource will help “unlock history” by giving access to First World War archives.

    The Ogilby Muster (TOM) has launched following a four year project funded by a LIBOR grant from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Salisbury-based Army Museums Ogilby Trust.

    It is an online platform which provides access to archives held in regimental museums across the UK - preserving the experiences and memories of those who served in the First World War for future generations.

    Trustee of the Army Museums Ogilby Trust the Hon Katherine Swinfen Eady, said: “With the opening of the TOM Platform we are given a wonderful key to unlock history. As historians this is an invaluable gift, as family members researching their beloved lost relatives, it is equally as important.

    “TOM allows us to piece together the truth left behind by the subjects, to build up that wonderful pattern of a jigsaw and find the missing fragments of information. It is especially important as it will help us all further our knowledge and understanding of not just the military side of the First World War, but the social aspect of an event in history that affected and shaped this country and the world.”

    With more than 75 participating collections, and more set to join in 2022, TOM will eventually hold more than two million items including some never-before-seen material.

    Covering the period 1900 to 1929, the platform contains documents, photographs, letters, diaries and more, all related to the British Army and the men and women who served.

    The Trust’s director Andrew Lloyd says the digitisation of these archives provides a legacy for the future and that a key aim of the project was to make as much of this material as possible available to the public.

    At the moment there are about 1.7 million items on the online platform.

    You can read more about this new online resource in an article by Kay Griffin published in the Salisbury Journal at: https://www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/19687940.ogilby-muster-first-world-war-online-archive-set-launch/.


  • 4 Nov 2021 7:03 PM | Anonymous

    The following is a press release from Ancestry.ca:

      • For the first time, 2,500 images and more than 100 newsreels depicting scenes from combat and routine life during WWII are available on Ancestry.ca
      • These photo and video collections provide a window into the lives of those on the front line and homefront, allowing Canadians the chance to create deeper connections to their families' WWII experiences
      • Ancestry is offering free access to these new collections and all global military records from November 1 to November 12

    TORONTO, Nov. 3, 2021 /CNW/ - This Remembrance Day, Ancestry®, the global leader in family history, is encouraging Canadians to build deeper personal connections with their families' lives during the world wars, by providing free access to two Canadian World War II record collections that are new to the site, including video newsreels and photographs featuring photographs of men and women who served in the Canadian Forces during the conflict.

    The World War II Newsreels, 1942-1945 and Faces of the Second World War, 1941-1945 collections feature 2,500 photographic images and 106 video newsreels that bring to life many aspects of Canada's contributions to World War II, from combat and routine life on the front lines of France, Holland and beyond, to military training, war materials production, city building projects, and Armistice celebrations on home soil. 

    At the onset of World War II, the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau recommended the Army form a special film and photographic unit, to distribute material worldwide to boost morale and further the war effort. As a result, the Army created a public relations unit in 1940 that would become the basis for photographic units formed by all three military branches (The Army, Air Force and Navy). The resulting material created by these units – available in these collections on Ancestry – was circulated by a variety of local and international newspapers and newsreels.

    Some highlights from the newsreel collection include:

      • A 1945 newsreel from Vancouver, BC, showing how "wartime speed" was employed to build a new home in a mere eight hours, creating new housing developments for the many shipyard and airfield workers who contributed to World War II from the Canadian homefront
      • A 1944 newsreel from Simcoe, ON, introducing local identical twins and flight lieutenants Alan and Eric Sherlock at RCAF Bomber Command after completing their second bombing operation overseas
      • A 1945 newsreel from Montreal, QC, where the famous Royal Highland Regiment, or Blackwatch of Canada, were given a hero's welcome with a full parade on St. James Street.

    While digitised paper documents such as military service and casualty records provide important facts and information about our family connections to World War II, photo or video content adds further context to life at the time and may be able to offer people insight into their ancestors' experiences. Whether it's the muddy boots of a tired soldier serving in Europe, footage showing the scale of the war production in Canadian factories on the homefront or an image of a loving embrace as service men and women arrive back home on Canadian soil for this first time in years, these collections can help spark emotional connections to this period in time.    

    Additionally, for the first time, information from these photographs and newsreels are indexed on Ancestry, making it easier for Canadians to directly search for their ancestors and connect these visual records to their family trees online.

    Simon Pearce, military family history expert from Ancestry says, "Canada's military and civilians played a key role during WWII. Learning about the experiences of our ancestors during the conflict through amazing resources such as these photos and newsreels can help provide a personal connection to Remembrance Day and an understanding of how the conflict may have shaped our family histories. Now is the perfect time to explore collections such as these on Ancestry, so we can honour the memory of our ancestors and feel a deeper bond to the past."

    To commemorate Remembrance Day, Ancestry is providing free access to all global military records on the site, including World War II Newsreels, 1942-1945 and Faces of the Second World War, 1941-1945, from November 1st to the 12th*, allowing Canadians to search through records, videos and images to discover the untold stories of how their ancestors may have supported the country's World War II effort.

    Click on the media assets folder to access select images and newsreel footage from Ancestry's World War II Newsreels, 1942-1945 and Faces of the Second World War, 1941-1945 collections.

    Visit www.ancestry.ca/remembrance to access Canadian Remembrance Day collections and explore your own family tree.

    *Free access to global Ancestry® military records from 1 Nov - 11 2021 at 11:59 p.m. ET. Registration required. After the free access period ends, you will only be able to view the records in the featured collections using a paid Ancestry.ca membership. Terms apply.

    About Ancestry®
    Ancestry®, the global leader in family history and consumer genomics, empowers journeys of personal discovery to enrich lives. With our unparalleled collection of over 30 billion records and over 20 million AncestryDNA kits to date, customers can discover their family story. For over 30 years, we've built trusted relationships with millions of people who have chosen us as the platform for discovering, preserving and sharing the most important information about themselves and their families.

  • 2 Nov 2021 6:16 PM | Anonymous

    The following was written by the IAJGS (International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies) Records Access Alert mailing list:

    Genomeweb reported on November 2, 2021 that a class-action lawsuit alleges Ancestry violated the rights of customers under a state genetic privacy law which forbids disclosure of their genetic information to unauthorized third parties without written consent.  To read the Genomeweb report see:

    https://www.genomeweb.com/business-news/lawsuit-claims-genetic-testing-company-ancestry-violated-illinois-privacy-act

    The posting states, “The suit was filed late last week by an Illinois minor called A.K. through his legal guardian Kelsi Kingsley in the US District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. It alleges that "thousands if not millions" of individuals' genetic information, including the defendant's, was illegally disclosed to Blackstone, the multinational private equity company that acquired Ancestry last year for $4.7 billion.”

    The lawsuit specifically claims that Ancestry violated the plaintiffs' rights under the Illinois Genetic Information Privacy Act, or GIPA. Similar to the federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, or GINA, GIPA became law in Illinois in 2020. It provides that "persons, such as [the] defendant, may not release and/or disclose genetic testing and information derived from genetic testing to anyone other than the individual tested or to persons specifically authorized in writing."

    The lawsuit states, Ancestry’s consumer genomics business "uses DNA collected from its customers' saliva to provide its customers with information about their heritage as well as genetically related health characteristics." This resulted in Ancestry.com collecting a "massive database of genetic information" that in part made it an attractive acquisition target for Blackstone.

    The lawsuit alleges, that Blackstone acquired all of the accompanying information gathered by Ancestry including personal information that could be used to identify individual plaintiffs, including first and last names, email addresses, and/or home addresses, including age and gender in some instances.

    the plaintiff is seeking an injunction requiring Ancestry to comply with GIPA; an award of damages, including statutory damages of $15,000 for each willful and/or reckless violation of GIPA or actual damages, whichever greater; an award of statutory damages of $2,500 for each negligent violation of GIPA or actual damages, whichever greater; as well as costs and attorneys' fees.

    At the time of this posting there was no press release or blog post about this on the Ancestry site. Genomeweb said in their posting they received an emailed statement from an Ancestry spokesperson that  "Ancestry believes this suit is without merit and will vigorously defend against these baseless claims."

    As reported previously, Ancestry announced earlier this year it would discontinue its next-generation sequencing-based consumer genomic offering and health service to focus nearly exclusively on family history and genetic genealogy.

    To read the previous postings about Ancestry, DNA, mergers, privacy issues and more go to the archives of the IAJGS Records Access Alert at:  http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/private/records-access-alerts/.

    You must be registered to access the archives.  To register go to: http://lists.iajgs.org/mailman/listinfo/records-access-alerts and follow the instructions to enter your email address, full name and which genealogical

    organization with whom you are affiliated   You will receive an email response that you have to reply to or the subscription will not be finalized.

    Jan Meisels Allen
    Chairperson, IAJGS Public Records Access Monitoring Committee

  • 2 Nov 2021 9:55 AM | Anonymous

    "Since its dedication on October 28, 1886, the Statue of Liberty has stood at the gateway to the United States as an icon of freedom and hope for people all over the world. With her torch soaring 305 feet over New York Harbor, this impressive statue was often the first glimpse of the United States spotted by immigrants arriving by sea. Many of these immigrants were fleeing oppression, poverty, and despair, and the Statue of Liberty was their first welcome to the new life they were about to begin in the Land of Opportunity.

    "The Statue of Liberty was a gift to the United States from France. It was designed by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, and its metal framework was built by Gustave Eiffel (who also built the iconic tower in Paris that bears his name). The statue depicts Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty, with a torch held high in her right hand and a tablet with the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence inscribed in Roman numerals in her left."

    You can learn a lot more about the Statue of Liberty in an article in the MyHeritage Blog at: https://blog.myheritage.com/2021/10/lady-liberty-the-statue-that-welcomed-millions-of-immigrants-to-america-turns-135/

  • 2 Nov 2021 9:27 AM | Anonymous

    The following press release was written by FamilySearch:

    SALT LAKE CITY, UT—The FamilySearch Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, is moving to Phase 2 reopening plans. Beginning November 6, 2021, the library will expand its days of operation to include Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Phase 1 included Monday through Friday only). Starting the week of November 15, 2021, the library is tentatively scheduled to open on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. by appointment only.

    Evening access will be limited to main floor services unless otherwise requested. Individuals, and youth, church, and genealogical groups will be able to make appointments. Group reservations for daytime hours are available now under the Visit Us tab on the Family History Library web page. Evening reservations will be available in the same manner as they become available. Appointments will be based on space and equipment availability for up to 150 people.

    In recent months, the Family History Library has undergone major renovations and improvements to better serve guests. A newly completed visitor breakroom on the main floor provides more space and comfortable seating for guests to eat and relax and can comfortably accommodate groups. Tables and seating have been upgraded and additional vending machines provide a variety of food options.

    The facilities on the research floors have been updated with more research materials, computer stations with multiple monitors, adjustable desktops, better ADA handicapped access, and an improved personal help system.

    HOLIDAY SCHEDULE

    Phase 2 hours will continue through the holiday season, and holiday activities will include the library’s traditional “Christmas Around the World” event. The library will be closed on Thanksgiving Day and from December 23 through 26. It will reopen on Monday, December 27 and remain open with Phase 2 hours through New Year’s Eve. The Family History Library web page will provide up-to-date information on hours and library activities.

    FAMILY HISTORY CENTERS AND AFFILIATE LIBRARIES

    FamilySearch family history centers and affiliate libraries around the world work in association with the Family History Library; however, their hours of operation are directed by their local ecclesiastical leaders and applicable government guidelines. If you plan to visit a local FamilySearch center soon, please call ahead to verify its hours of operation.

    POPULAR SERVICES

    Popular distance services will continue, including online one-on-one virtual consultationslibrary look-up servicesFamilySearch Communities, and a growing selection of online classes and webinars.

    The Family History Library is the flagship discovery facility of FamilySearch International and a popular destination. It serves beginner to professional family history patrons from all over the world and is a top tourist attraction for the state of Utah. It will continue to expand its hours of operation based on current conditions, staffing capacity, and ecclesiastical guidelines.

    Find and share this announcement online in the FamilySearch Newsroom.

    About FamilySearch

    FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 5,000 family history centers in 129 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.


  • 1 Nov 2021 7:44 AM | Anonymous

    On a recent episode of the TV genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? Josh Widdicombe discovered he was a descendant of Edward I, who died more than 700 years ago.

    But he hasn't been the only example. Soap star Danny Dyer found on the BBC family history show he was related to Edward III, Alexander Armstrong was descended from William the Conqueror and the rower Sir Matthew Pinsent was another relative of Edward I.

    So what's going on? Are the genes that put kings on thrones now producing a celebrity aristocracy? Or are these just remarkable and unusual, needle-in-a-haystack, coincidences?

    What this really shows, according to genealogy experts, is that if you look back far enough a surprisingly high number of people will find a royal ancestor.

    You can read a lot more in an article by Sean Coughlan published in the BBC News web site at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59041055

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