Graves in 19,000 churchyards in England are to be digitally mapped in a seven-year project that will be a boon to people researching family history.

The Church of England is to launch a free website next year that will eventually list every grave memorial in every churchyard in the country.

The ancient church of St Bega on the shores of Bassenthwaite Lake in Cumbria is the first churchyard to be scanned by surveyors using sophisticated laser equipment.

“This impressive national project will make a huge difference to those researching family history, as well as easing the administrative burden on parishes,” said Andrew Rumsey, the C of E’s lead bishop for church buildings.

“It will improve management of burial grounds, and make information more fully accessible than ever before.

“It will soon be possible to visit almost any Anglican burial ground in the country and see in real time the location of burial plots. For those researching at distance in the UK or overseas, the digital records will place detailed information from churchyards at their fingertips.”

The new free web-based record system is due to launch next spring, with the option to subscribe to additional services.

You can read more in an article by Harriet Sherwood published in The Guardian at https://bit.ly/3gNF4dO.

Today is the first day of the month. That is still a good time to back up your genealogy files. Then test your backups!

Your backups aren't worth much unless you make a quick test by restoring a small file or two after the backup is completed.

Actually, you can make backups at any time. However, it is easier and safer if you have a specific schedule. The first day of the month is easy to remember, so I would suggest you back up your genealogy files at least on the first day of every month, if not more often. (My computers automatically make off-site backups of all new files every few minutes.)

Given the events of the past few months with genealogy websites laying off employees and cutting back on services, you now need backup copies of everything more than ever. What happens if the company that holds your online data either goes off line or simply deletes the service where your data is held? If you have copies of everything stored either in your own computer, what happens if you have a hard drive crash or other disaster? If you have one or more recent backup copies, such a loss would be inconvenient but not a disaster.

Of course, you might want to back up more than your genealogy files. Family photographs, your checkbook register, all sorts of word processing documents, email messages, and much more need to be backed up regularly. Why not do that on the first day of each month? or even more often?

The following was written by MyHeritage:

In honor of Labor Day, we’re pleased to announce that for the first week of September, we’re offering access to all census records on MyHeritage for free, from September 1–8, 2021!

Search Census & Voter Lists on MyHeritage now for free

The Census & Voter Lists category on MyHeritage encompasses a vast repository of over 1.3 billion records, including census records from the U.S., U.K., Ireland, Scandinavia, and Canada as well as electoral rolls and other records from Australia, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Armenia, Greece, and much more. These records offer valuable snapshots of the lives of people living in these locations throughout history, especially from the 19th century onward. Censuses are particularly valuable in that they can help you watch the lives of your ancestors unfold as they move from location to location, get married or divorced, have children, or change careers. Some of these collections include high-resolution scans of the original records.

Records on MyHeritage are always free to search, but to view the records, you generally need a paid Data or Complete plan. This week, however, all census and voter list records are completely free for all to access and enjoy.

If you’re researching ancestors from another country, you may find this opportunity particularly useful. Thanks to MyHeritage’s Global Name Translation™ technology, you can find records even in languages other than your own. The algorithm identifies additional versions of the names you’re searching for, including nicknames and versions in other languages, and will locate records that match. The census and voter list collections include, for example, electoral rolls from Greece that are recorded in Greek — but you can still search them in your native language, and you’ll see the results translated back into your language for you.

This offer ends September 8, so don’t wait — search the Census & Voter Lists on MyHeritage for free now!

The following announcement was written by Fold3:

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is an agency within the United States Department of Defense. Their mission is to recover the remains of military personnel who are listed as prisoners of war or missing in action from past conflicts. We’ve added a new collection of indexed records for the estimated 82,000 American military and civilian personnel still missing in action. The index covers multiple conflicts including WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, and more recent conflicts including Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

The DPAA collection is divided into two groups. Group A, which consists of 38,000 missing service members whose remains are considered recoverable; and Group B consists of 44,000 missing service members whose remains are considered unrecoverable.z

You can read more at: https://blog.fold3.com/new-pow-mia-records-added.

The following is a press release written by Ancestry.com. 

LEHI, Utah & SAN FRANCISCO, August 31, 2021 - Ancestry®, the global leader in family history, today announced that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Geneanet, a leading French genealogy company. With over 30 billion records from more than 80 countries, Ancestry helps customers discover new details about their family story and ancestors. The terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.

With a large and growing European community of more than 4 million members, Geneanet is available in ten languages and more than 25 countries. Combining Geneanet's free family tree platform and engaged community with Ancestry’s global subscriber base and unparalleled historical records will enable family history discoveries and connections for even more people around the world.

Ancestry, which already offers the largest collection of European records, is also investing in digitizing and indexing a national collection of French historical records, including the complete French census and birth, marriage and death records which will be available soon, accelerating family history discoveries and connections between people in France and those around the world with French heritage.

“We are thrilled to welcome Geneanet to the Ancestry family and look forward to working together to grow our global community so that more people can easily discover, craft and connect around their family story,” said Deb Liu, Ancestry President and CEO. “Ancestry is committed to continued investment in Geneanet’s free tree-building platform and the volunteer spirit of its community.”

“This is an exciting next step for Geneanet and for our community. We will preserve our business model and continue to focus on what we do well, building a highly-engaged community of passionate users. Our members will greatly benefit from Ancestry’s vast record collections and global network as they build their family trees and connect with new relatives and share their family stories,” said Jacques Le Marois, Founder and CEO of Geneanet. “I am delighted to build the next chapter together and look forward to the opportunity to play an active role in the company’s future.”

Upon closing, Geneanet will operate as an independent business in the Ancestry portfolio of companies. Jacques Le Marois, Founder and CEO of Geneanet, will remain in his role as the head of the Geneanet website and community.

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 more than 30 billion records and over 20 million people in our growing consumer DNA network, customers can discover their family story and gain a new level of understanding about their lives. 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.

It is with great sadness that I report the death of a good friend. 

Connie Bradbury, was born in Hysham, Montana, on Dec. 1, 1939, to Edith Harper and RJ Malcolm. Connie passed away on Aug. 20, 2021, in St. George, Utah, due to complications from a stroke, with her loving and devoted husband, Jim, right by her side.

Connie was raised in Big Timber, Montana, and attended and graduated from Big Timber High School. Later she went on to study business administration at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and genealogy at Brigham Young University.

You can read Connie's full obituary at https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/newsminer/name/constance-bradbury-obituary?pid=199962426.

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. 

Consider the environment. Do you really need to print out this article?

I occasionally receive e-mail messages from newsletter readers asking various questions about how to print articles published in this newsletter. I also frequently hear comments at genealogy conferences and elsewhere from family historians stating, "I printed it out to save it and..." or similar words.

I have one question: Why?

I believe that many people print information on paper simply as a matter of habit. We were brought up before the age of computers and were taught to record everything on paper. For many of us, we have spent years making photocopies of old records and then storing those papers in various filing systems. Some of us, myself included, have spent a lot of money purchasing four-drawer filing cabinets to store all the various pieces of paper we have accumulated. Yes, I own two four-drawer filing cabinets, which I now consider to be a waste of money and floor space.

When computers were in their infancy, we printed things for long-term storage. Computers prior to the year 2000 had limited storage capacity, making it difficult to guarantee future access to stored documents. In addition, the media of choice up to about the year 2000 was not designed for long-term storage. The floppy disk drives that were commonly used had a life expectancy measured in months or perhaps a very few years. CD-ROM disks were introduced in the 1990s, but the life expectancy of those plastic disks isn't much greater than that of floppies. Most of us have always assumed that paper was the best choice for long-term storage.

Even worse, use of removable disk media isn't convenient; identifying and retrieving information stored on a removable disk (or flashdrive) kept on a shelf requires some sort of a sophisticated filing system which most of us have never created. No matter how good the filing system is, searching for an obscure word or phrase in the middle of thousands of documents stored in hundreds of disks sitting on the shelf is usually a frustrating experience.

Indeed, there have always been good reasons for storing records on paper.

Until now.

The remainder of this article is reserved for Plus Edition subscribers only. If you have a Plus Edition subscription, you may read the full article at: https://eogn.com/(*)-Plus-Edition-News-Articles/10962047.

If you are not yet a Plus Edition subscriber, you can learn more about such subscriptions and even upgrade to a Plus Edition subscription immediately at https://eogn.com/page-18077.

The following was written by Findmypast:

Findmypast is home to the largest collection of Irish family records online. This week’s Findmypast Friday sees their vast collection grow again with thousands of new and exclusive Poor Law records.

Waterford Poor Law Unions Board of Guardians Minute Books

Over 158,000 additional records covering Kilmacthomas and Dungarvan between 1845 and 1921 have been added to the collection.

The Board of Guardians were charged with the task of distributing relief to the completely destitute in each Union. They operated workhouses which were built to hold 600-800 inmates, but were overwhelmed with thousands coming to their doors seeking salvation from disease and starvation.

Including both transcripts and images of original documents, these minute books contain the names and details of inmates, staff and suppliers, weekly reports of how many men and women were housed in the workhouse, how many were discharged or died, the number of births and more. 

They often deal with individual cases in some detail and also record the workhouse expenditures such food, clothing or salaries and the number of inmates receiving medical treatments.

Clare Poor Law Union Board of Guardians Minute Books

Over 21,000 new records from Kilrush Union have also been added to Findmypast’s Clare Poor Law collections. Also including both transcripts and images, these new additions cover meeting minutes dated between 1848 and 1870.

Alongside Findmypast’s workhouse records from Clare and Waterford, you’ll also find collections from Dublin, Donegal, Galway and Sligo on Findmypast. Few workhouse registers survive in Ireland, and in their absence the Board of Guardian minute books are often the only record of who was housed there.

Newspapers

Eight new papers have joined Findmypast’s newspaper archives this week, including;

• • British Army Despatch covering 1848-1856
  • City Chronicle covering 1840-1843
  • Commercial Chronicle (London) covering 1816 and 1819-1822
  • Fleming’s British Farmers’ Chronicle covering 1864
  • London Mercury 1828 covering 1828
  • London Mercury 1847 covering 1847-1848
  • Sainsbury’s Weekly Register and Advertising Journal covering 1859-1863
  • Thacker’s Overland News for India and the Colonies covering 1860-1863

While additional pages have been added to the following titles:

• • Brief from 1879
  • Bury Free Press from 1982-1984 and 1986
  • Glasgow Courier from 1848
  • Liverpool Journal of Commerce covering 1870, 1882, 1911-1917, 1921-1927, 1929, and 1931-1939
  • Newmarket Journal from 1882-1896, 1898-1911, 1913-1917, and 1982-1984
  • Pilot (London) from 1815
  • Press (London) from 1861-1866
  • Sheerness Times Guardian from 1885, 1887, 1895, 1897, 1899-1900, 1902-1910, 1912-1915, 1922-1939, 1981 and 1987
  • Weekly Times (London) from 1830-1831
  • Widnes Examiner from 1917

The following press release was written by FamilySearch:

SALT LAKE CITY, UT--FamilySearch announced its September 2021 free Family History Library webinars.  Nine sessions will focus on beginner and intermediate British genealogy research outside of Great Britain and 10 Spanish language webinars will be offered. Additional webinars include beginner research for Austrailia, Canada, and Jamaica. FamilySearch specific classes will teach how to add memories, use the catalog, correct relationships in the Family Tree, merge duplicate records, and suggestions for writing family stories.

Spanish speakers have the option of the following 10 webinars:

• • Investigación Genealógica en Colombia
  • Genealógica en Centroamérica
  • Los Registros de Migración
  • Los Pleitos de Hidalguía
  • Los Registros Militares
  • Derribando Muros de Ladrillos 
  • Los Recuerdos
  • Los siete Sacramentos de la Iglesia Católica en los registros parroquiales
  • Aventuras de Evidencia en los camios de Europa
  • El uso de las aplicaciones en la investigación genealógica. 

No registration is required. See the table of classes below for more details. To view a webinar on the date and time listed, click the 'Yes' to the right of the class title. The 'Yes' link will take you to the webinar.

If you cannot attend a live event, most sessions are recorded and can be viewed later at your convenience at Family History Library classes and webinars. 

All class times are in Mountain Daylight Time (MDT).

Find and share this announcement from the FamilySearch Newsroom.

DATE/TIME	CLASS	WEBINAR
Thu, Sep 2, 10:00 AM MDT	Skimming the Surface: A Look into Quebec Notarial Records (Beginner)	Yes
Tue, Sep 7, 10:00 AM MDT	Merging Duplicate Records in FamilySearch Family Tree (Beginner)	Yes
Mon, Sep 13, 10:00 AM MDT	Using the FamilySearch Catalog (Beginner)	Yes
Mon, Sep 13, 1:00 PM MDT	Never to be Forgotten: Suggestions for Writing Family Stories (Beginner)	Yes
Tue, Sep 14, 10:00 AM MDT	Correcting Relationships in FamilySearch Family Tree (Beginner)	Yes
Thu, Sep 16, 10:00 AM MDT	Genealogy in Canada's Western Provinces (Beginner)	Yes
Sat, Sep 18, 9:00 AM MDT	The British Empire, 1500-1800 (Beginner)	Yes
Sat, Sep 18, 9:30 AM MDT	The British Empire, 1800-2000 (Beginner)	Yes
Sat, Sep 18, 10:00 AM MDT	Birth, Marriage, and Death Records of British Abroad (Intermediate)	Yes
Sat, Sep 18, 11:00 AM MDT	British Naturalization Records (Intermediate)	Yes
Sat, Sep 18, 11:30 AM MDT	Beginning Australian Research (Beginner)	Yes
Sat, Sep 18, 12:00 PM MDT	Beginning British New Zealand (Beginner)	Yes
Sat, Sep 18, 1:30 PM MDT	Introduction to Jamaican Research (Beginner)	Yes
Sat, Sep 18, 2:00 PM MDT	British Caribbean Research in Colonial Office Records (Intermediate)	Yes
Sat, Sep 18, 3:00 PM MDT	British East India (Intermediate)	Yes
Thu, Mar 18, 3:30 PM MDT	British South Africa (Intermediate)	Yes
Sat, Sep 18, 4:00 PM MDT	British in the South Seas (Intermediate)	Yes
Thu, Sep 23, 10:00 AM MDT	Ask Your United States and Canada Research Questions (Beginner)	Yes
Fri, Sep 24, 2:00 PM MDT	Investigación Genealógica en Colombia (Intermediate) [Genealogical Research in Colombia (Spanish)]	Yes
Fri, Sep 24, 3:30 PM MDT	Genealógica en Centroamérica (Intermediate) [Genealogical in Central America (Spanish)]	Yes
Fri, Sep 24, 5:00 PM MDT	Los Registros de Migración (Intermediate) [Migration Records (Spanish)]	Yes
Sat, Sep 25, 9:00 AM MDT	Los Pleitos de Hidalguía (Advanced) [The Lawsuits of Hidalguía (Spanish)]	Yes
Sat, Sep 25, 10:30 AM MDT	Los Registros Militares: Un tesoro de inforamación a tu alcance (Intermediate) [Military Records: A Treasury of Information at Your Fingertips (Spanish)]	Yes
Sat, Sep 25, 12:00 PM MDT	Derribando Muros de Ladrillos: Un caso de estudio (Intermediate) [Tearing Down Brick Walls: A Case Study (Spanish)]	Yes
Sat, Sep 25, 1:15 PM MDT	Los siete Sacramentos de la Iglesia Católica en los registros parroquiales (Intermediate) [The Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church in Parish Records (Spanish)]	Yes
Sat, Sep 25, 2:30 PM MDT	Aventuras de Evidencia en los camios de Europa (Intermediate) [Evidence Adventures in Europe's Changes (Spanish)]	Yes
Sat, Sep 25, 3:45 PM MDT	El uso de las aplicaciones en la investigación genealógica (Intermediate) [The use of applications in genealogical research (Spanish)]	Yes
Sat, Sep 25, 5:00 PM MDT	Los Recuerdos: parte esencial de nuestra investigación genealógica (Beginner) [Memories: an essential part of our genealogical research (Spanish)]	Yes
Tue, Sep 28, 10:00 AM MDT	Adding Memories to FamilySearch Family Tree (Beginner)	Yes

Want more? Peruse over 1,000 free, on-demand sessions from RootsTech Connect 2021.

Visit Classes and Online Webinars for more information.

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.

One of the things I enjoy the most about writing this newsletter is that I get to enjoy installing and experimenting with all sorts of genealogy programs on all sorts of computers. Obviously, I have some opinions as to which is "the best" or second best grogram(s) or whatever. One program that I enjoy using is Gramps, and yet I am amazed at how few people use this powerhouse

Gramps is a FREE genealogy program that is both intuitive for hobbyists and feature-complete that is suitable for even professional genealogists to use.  The Gramps name stands for Genealogical Research and Analysis Management Programming System.

Gramps is a community project, created, developed and governed by genealogists. In other words, it is not created by a commercial organization. Instead, Gramps is created by and supported by genealogists, including people just like you and me.

I am impressed by the number of features available within Gramps. It has most everything that demanding genealogists expect from a genealogy program. 

Gramps is available in a number of langages, including English, French, Spanish, German, Finnish, Hungarian, Hebrew, Dutch, Russian, Slovenian, and even Chinese. If you prefer a language that is not presently supported, you are even encouraged to help create the menus in whatever language you desire. (See https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Translating_the_Gramps_User_manual for more information about that.)

Gramps is a community project, created, developed and governed by genealogists. Did I mention again that it is FREE and available for you right now? Gramps is one of the more complete programs to use and yet it has more features than several other programs that cost money. All you need to do is download it, install it, and start using it. Gramps currently runs on Linux, Microsoft Windows, Apple MacOS, Solaris, BSD, other UNIX-like systems. For more information about getting Gramps, see the Download page at https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Download.

OK, I will admit that a few years ago downloading and installing Gramps was a bit difficult for users of Windows and Macintosh systems. The Linux version installed rather easily but installing it on Windows or Macintosh systems required downloading and installing additional programs in order to make it work on those systems. To be blunt, that was still easy if, and only if, you were a Windows or Macintosh expert. However, the knowledge required discouraged many Windows ands Macintosh "newbies" and I suspect that many such people threw up their hands in frustration when trying to gather and install all the bits and pieces required to make it work.

I must say that I recently installed the Windows and Macintosh versions again and found that the software developers have made majhor improvements to the installation procedures. It is now as easy to install as any other Windows or Macintosh genealogy program. Computer newcomers will now enjoy installing and using Gramps. It is now a suitable program for "newbies, both newcomers to computers and to genealogy.

Gramps helps you track your family tree. It allows you to store, edit, and research genealogical data. Gramps attempts to provide all of the common capabilities of other genealogical programs, but, more importantly, to provide an additional capability of integration not common to these programs. This is the ability to input any bits and pieces of information directly into Gramps and rearrange/manipulate any/all data events in the entire database (in any order or sequence) to assist the user in doing research, analysis and correlation with the potential of filling relationship gaps. Yet it does all this in a user-friendly manner that works for newcomers and "old hands" alike.

Gramps is compatible with all other modern genealogy programs via the use of GEDCOM files. (You can find more information about GEDCOM files at https://www.gedcom.org/.) If you already have your genealogy database in Family Tree Maker or some other genealogy program, you can copy it free of charge into Gramps. I found the process of converting your datbase to be simple and intuitive. 

So how do you learn more about Gramps?  There are several ways.

Since Gramps is written by and supported by non-commercial volunteers, you will not find flashy advertising nor will you find enthusiastic corporate employees promoting the program at various in-person genealogy conferences and other events. After all, as a non-commercial enterprise, Gramps does not have a budget for marketing, sales, and the various in-person events.

Instead, you can go to the place you might expect: the web. 

First, go to the Gramps web site at: https://gramps-project.org/blog/. You will find a wealth of information there, enough to keep you busy for several hours.

You can also download the program there but would suggest you familiarize yourself with Gramps first.

Next, look at https://gramps-project.org/blog/features/.

Next, familiarize yourself with the many screenshots that are available, starting at Gramps 5.1 Wiki Manual and then going through the available screenshots at https://gramps-project.org/wiki/index.php/Screenshots.

Finally, switch to YouTube. (Isn't everything available on YouTube?) Watch the video "Gramps Tutorial #1: Downloading, Installing, & Uninstalling on Windows 10" available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUFULVnWqvQ&list=PLTsnHZgQEXwwi3cGVeBT1KHIviZazzUCg (similar information for Macintosh and Linux is quite simpilar so watching this Windows tutorial will still benefit users of other operating systems). 

Once you have finished with those, start will all the video tutorials starting at https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=gramps+genealogy. You will now be a Gramps expert even though you have not yet touched the program!

Finally, download the program, install it, and start using it.

I hope you will enjoy Gramps!