Family Search Discontinues Microfilm Service

Over 1.5 million microfilms (ca. 1.5 billion images) have been digitized by FamilySearch, including the most requested collections based on microfilm loan records worldwide. In addition, many records that FamilySearch has not yet published can be found online on partner or free archive websites. FamilySearch plans to finish microfilm digitization by 2020.

The following is an extract from the announcement from FamilySearch:

On September 1, 2017, FamilySearch will discontinue its microfilm distribution services. (The last day to order microfilm will be on August 31, 2017.)

The change is the result of significant progress made in FamilySearch’s microfilm digitization efforts and the obsolescence of microfilm technology.

• Online access to digital images of records allows FamilySearch to reach many more people, faster and more efficiently.
• FamilySearch is a global leader in historic records preservation and access, with billions of the world’s genealogical records in its collections.
• Over 1.5 million microfilms (ca. 1.5 billion images) have been digitized by FamilySearch, including the most requested collections based on microfilm loan records worldwide.
• The remaining microfilms should be digitized by the end of 2020, and all new records from its ongoing global efforts are already using digital camera equipment.
• Family history centers will continue to provide access to relevant technology, premium subscription services, and digital records, including restricted content not available at home.

You can read the full announcement at: http://bit.ly/2sGGePz.

Frequently Asked Questions about the change may be found at: http://bit.ly/2s6OvO6.

Do you have comments, questions, or corrections to this article? If so, please post your words at the end of this article in the Standard Edition newsletter’s web site where everyone can benefit from your words. You might also want to read comments posted by others there.

From Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter June 26, 2017

The Family Tree Polish, Czech And Slovak Genealogy Guide: How to Trace Your Family Tree in Eastern Europe

Trace your Eastern European ancestors from American shores back to the old country. This in-depth guide will walk you step-by-step through the exciting--and challenging--journey of finding your Polish, Czech, or Slovak roots. You'll learn how to identify immigrant ancestors, find your family's town of origin, locate key genealogical resources, decipher foreign-language records, and untangle the region's complicated history. The book also includes timelines, sample records, resource lists, and sample record request letters to aid your research.

Diocese of Brooklyn

Genealogical Records for the Diocese of Brooklyn and Queens FAQ

Where can I find sacramental records?
The sacramental records of the Diocese of Brooklyn have not been centralized. This means that
you must contact the appropriate parish to obtain a sacramental record, supplying them with the
name and date you want them to check. To contact the appropriate parish you will need to
determine their address during the time period you are interested in.

What records do parishes have?
Canon law requires every parish to permanently keep records of baptism, confirmation and
marriage. Many parishes retain records of first communion, but not all, since it is not required by
canon law. While some parishes kept records of sick calls and funerals, this was not always the
case.

U.S. National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair Videos

The U.S. National Archives held a Virtual Genealogy Fair on October 21 & 22. Presenters included Archivist of the United States David S. Ferriero, Executive for Research Services William A. Mayer, and a number of other genealogy experts from National Archives locations across the nation. The presentations focused on tips and techniques for using Federal records at the National Archives for genealogy research.
The lectures are now available on YouTube. The first day’s presentations are available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-rDaFVYJhU while Day 2 may be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4o3_Ox_cUY.
You can also download copies of the slides and the presentation handouts at https://www.archives.gov/calendar/genealogy-fair/2015/schedule-handouts.html.

Make Those Skeletons Dance: Exploring Your Family’s Dark Side

How well do you know your ancestors? Most of us want to believe our ancestors were hard-working, noble, or  “salt-of-the-earth” types. However, the reality is that if we go back far enough, we all can dig up a few proverbial “skeletons in the closet.” Join Lisa Alzo for this webinar. If you missed this webinar you can see it by clicking on the following link and typing the password "skeletons".
https://vimeo.com/145162589

1891 Norwegian Census is now Available

According to an announcement by The National Archives of Norway:

“The Norwegian 1891 Census consists of one sheet per person and one sheet per house/residence. These sheets have all been scanned and published in ordered series for the 559 cities and municipalities (herred) that existed in Norway at the time of the census.

“Apart from name and occupation, most of the information in the census sheets is in printed letters. You need to access the information from the house lists. In these lists you will find reference to the person lists.

“For Kristiania/Oslo, the address book of 1891 is scanned and available to simplify the information retrieval.”

You can learn more at http://goo.gl/W8a4Aa. That web page also contains links to the many pages of the 1891 Census of Norway.

Forever.com

Glen Meakem has launched Forever.com, which Meakem says is the world’s first permanent online media storage and sharing service. Forever claims to offer you one home for all your stories and special moments. The web site makes it easy to store, organize, share and print your family photos for generations. The web site also offers a “Forever Guarantee.”Your Guaranteed Storage is backed up in multiple places across multiple regions, ensuring you will never lose any of your photos. Over time, Forever.com will even migrate your files to newer formats as old formats become obsolete.

Explore Your Family Tree with FTAnalyzer 5

Genealogy sites MyHeritage.com and Ancestry.com as well as genealogy programs like RootsMagic, Legacy Family Tree, AncestralQuest, Family Historian, and many others are great for presenting family trees, displaying your data in a straightforward graphical form. However, one Windows program allows you to really understand your tree, to spot problems, links, and patterns you might have missed.

FTAnalyzer is an open source tool for Windows which imports your data in the form of a GEDCOM file, then analyzes it by using a number of useful reports, providing details you might not have uncovered any other way.

Latin In Irish Registers

Latin in Irish Registers The Irish Genealogy Toolkit website has a helpful guide to translating the Latin used in Roman Catholic baptism, marriage, and death registers.

Catholic Cemeteries in Brooklyn

Catholic Cemeteries in Brooklyn

Catholic cemeteries in the Diocese of Brooklyn in New York now offer a search engine to help you find the site of a grave.Enter your loved one's information to get location information such as crypts / niches, section, row, and grave number.

Free Access to New York Records from Home

Free Ancestry.com for New York State Residents. An agreement between the New York State Archives and ancestry.com website now gives New Yorkers an opportunity to save considerable money while using the site for genealogy research from home. Only NY items that have been copied to the ancestry.com website from archives are available. Free Access to Ancestry.com/New York Records from Home

Find Land Records for New York City

Search by Parcel, Block or Address to locate land records in New York City.

Find Deeds from Queens.

Digging for Deeds. (article)

Courthouse Research For Family Historians

Finally--the only guidebook devoted exclusively to research in America's courthouses. Full of essentials starting with preparation, interacting with the clerks, using the indexes, and what to expect to find in each courthoiuse office. But it doesn't stop there. Evaluating the records and using them to solve genealogical problems are included. For those who can't travel to the courthouse personally, use of the Internet, microfilm, and published books of abstracts are discussed.

Red Book, American State, County, and Town Sources

No scholarly reference library is complete without a copy of Ancestry's Red Book. In it, you will find both general and specific information essential to researchers of American records. This revised 3rd edition provides updated county and town listings within the same overall state-by-state organization. Whether you are looking for your ancestors in the northeastern states, the South, the West, or somewhere in the middle, ""Ancestry's Red Book has information on records and holdings for every county in the United States.

HistoryGeo.com

Arphax Publishing Company is a leading Historical Reference Publisher specializing in original land-ownership maps. Since 2005, they have published original-landowner map-books for 500 U.S. Counties. Recently they added 3.3 million land records. You can search their database for free but there is a subscription price to see the property map. Searches may be done under surname.

Force War Records

Force War Records is the sister site of Forces Reunited, the leading British military community on the web with more than one million members and reuniting veterans since 2001, part of Clever Digit Media Ltd.

The site was created in 2008 upon the request of some Forces Reunited members who were looking for information on their ancestors but had come up against dead ends with the usual genealogy sites. Since inception we have gone on to add over seven million individuals records and a ton of supplementary military data not found on any other sites and are currently adding over 200,000 records a month.

Digital Public Library of America

Today we viewed an interesting workshop given by Lisa Louise Cooke entitled "Five Ways To Enhance Your Genealogy Research Using Old Maps." We learned about using Google Maps to overlay historical maps of a particular area with regards to your family history research. These historical maps can assist you in your research and add to your story. We also received a list of recommended websites where some of these historical maps could be found.


When I returned to my desk I started reading Dick Eastman's newsletter which covered Digital Public Library of America another good website to go to when looking for old maps of interest to your research. I found a Beers's map for my home town Deer Park from 1888. This map was digitized by New York Public Library and is downloadable and available for printing. You could also overlay the map on the Google Maps website or upload to a blog, etc.

Biggest digitisation of Irish genealogy records set to begin

The National Library of Ireland is to digitise more than 400,000 images of Catholic parish register microfilms and publish them online for free. For more information visit this link: http://www.siliconrepublic.com/digital-life/item/39614-biggest-digitisation-of/

80,000 Electronic Genealogy Books Available

There are more than 80,000 electronic books available at the following websites, according to Dick Eastman Newsletter visit his article at http://eogn.com/wp/?p=33631#more-33631 to read more about it. Visit these websites to access these collections.
Google Books
Archive.org
Allen County Public Library
Brigham Young University Harold B. Lee Library
Brigham Young University Hawaii Joseph F. Smith Library
Church History Library
Family History Library
Houston Public Library – Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research
Mid-Continent Public Library – Midwest Genealogy Center
Pennsylvania State University Libraries’ Digitized Collections

Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness is Back

The http://www.raogk.org web site now states, “RAOGK is a global volunteer organization. At one time we had over 4000 volunteers in every U.S. state and many international locations, and helped thousands of researchers. We are trying to rebuild the RAOGK site. It will take a little more time to get it back to its former glory. Our volunteers take time to do everything from looking up courthouse records to taking pictures of tombstones. All they ask in return is reimbursement for their expenses (never their time) and a thank you.”Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness