October Webinars on Legacy

The following presentations are available at www.familytreewebinars.com in October. Note the six webinars scheduled for Friday, October 8: be sure to check the times for those lectures.

Friday, October 1: "Born a Slave: Rediscovering Arthur Jackson's African American Heritage" by David W. Jackson

Tuesday, October 5: "A Cargo of Criminals: Transportation to Australia" by Carol Baxter.

Wednesday, October 6: "DNA Health Tests and Your Family Health History" by Rick Crume.

Friday, October 8: "Context: A Powerful Tool for Problem Solving " by Elizabeth Shown Mills.

Friday, October 8: "Seven Immigration Methodologies, with Case Studies Across the Centuries" by David S. Ouimette.

Friday, October 8: "Investigate the Neighborhood to Advance Your Research" by Melinda Henningfield. 

Friday, October 8: "What am I missing? Recognizing Research Holes in Available Sources " by Patti Lee Hobbs.

Friday, October 8: "Using Mind Mapping as a Visual Research Plan" by Amy Larner Giroux.

Friday, October 8: "Private Land Claims—Complicated? Yes, but worth it!" by Rick Sayre.

Wednesday, October 15: "Navigating Your Way Through FamilySearch" by Cyndi Ingle.

Friday, October 15: "My ancestors were Irish – or were they?" by Natalie Bodie.

Tuesday, October 19: "My 20 Year Mystery – Finding family origins with Y-DNA" by Shellee Morehead.

Wednesday, October 20: "Comparing the Genealogy Giants 2021: Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast, and MyHeritage" by Sunny Morton.

Wednesday, October 27: "Building Family Trees for Your DNA Matches" by Mary Eberle.

FamilySearch News

FamilySearch Completes Massive Microfilm Digitization Project

Huge news: after 83 years of filming the world’s historical genealogical records, FamilySearch has completed digitizing its 2.4 million rolls of microfilm.  The best part? The archive, which contains information on more than 11.5 billion individuals, is now available for free on FamilySearch.org. 

Over 200 countries and principalities and more than 100 languages are included in the digitized documents. All types of genealogically significant records are included—censuses, births, marriages, deaths, probate, Church, immigration, and more. 

In 1998, FamilySearch began digitizing its microfilm collection—a project that, at the time, was anticipated to take over 50 years to complete. However, advances in technology cut the estimated time to completion by nearly 30 years.

Microfilm scanning began with about 5 employees. As the process developed and evolved, it grew to up to 30 employees using 26 scanners. This work continued even during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

FamilySearch is committed to collecting, preserving, and providing access to the world’s genealogical records to help individuals and families worldwide discover and connect with their family histories. It continues to capture the images of original records at an ever-increasing rate—but digitally, bypassing the need to transfer the information from film.  

Although the digitization of FamilySearch’s microfilm collection is completed, the digitization of new records worldwide continues. FamilySearch is also working to outsource the digitization of its large microfiche collection, which should be completed several years from now.

PhotoTree

 

Legacy News had a column about online genealogy freebies that we might be missing. I was reminded about this excellent website that can help you identify and date old photos. It seemed to be offline for a while, so it's great to see that it is back. 

The tool bar at the top of the home page includes history of photography, identification, gallery, case studies, photo care and more.

Check it out at www.phototree.com.

Cluster Research

Here are some tips from a recent article posted by Family Search Magazine.

If you can't find an ancestor's parent's names, try to identify a sibling and look for their parents.

If you have two persons with the same name in an area, research both to identify their wives and children.

Look for other names that appear in your ancestor's records, such as witnesses, sponsors or survivors in obituaries.

Check several pages in a census to search for others with your ancestor's surname or birthplace.