Friday, October 29, 2010

Genealogical Treats at FamilySearch Beta - New Collections

While I was out pursuing real-life opportunities yesterday, Paul Nauta of FamilySearch sent out a press notice about new additions to the FamilySearch Beta Historical Record Collections.  Here is the press release:

No Halloween Trick, Just Genealogical Treats
Over 2 million records from 6 countries now available

October 27, 2010: People with ancestors from Ghana now have free online access to valuable census records, the first images from that African country to be published on FamilySearch. Other new collections include over two million indexed records from Germany, Norway, Puerto Rico, and three U.S. states: Arkansas, Idaho, and Minnesota. Search these records now at http://beta.familysearch.org/.

 See the chart below for the complete list of newly added or updated collections.

Project: - Indexed Records - Digital Images - Comments 
  • Germany, Ludwigshafen Church Record Extractions and Family Registers:  106,564 digital images - New indexed records  
  • Germany, 1890 - Mecklenburg-Schwerin Census: 31,499 indexed records - Additional images added
  • Ghana, 1982-1984 - Census: 458,716 digital images - New indexed records added
  • Norway, 1875 - Census: 41,701 indexed records - Additional images added
  • Puerto Rico, Civil Registration, 1836-2001:  3,763 indexed records - Additional images added
  • U.S., Arkansas County Marriages, 1837-1957: 94,181 indexed records; 43,301 digital images - Additional records and images added
  • U.S., Idaho, County Marriages, 1864-1950: 148,053 indexed records; 62,274 digital images - New indexed records and images
  • U.S., Minnesota State Census, 1905:  1,973,884 indexed records; 52,150 digital images - New indexed records and images
  • U.S., Minnesota, State Census, 1865:  3,396 indexed records - New indexed records
FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

These collections are, in some cases, incomplete.  They are all new to the FamilySearch Beta site, and they do not appear on the FamilySearch Record Search Pilot site.  Therefore, it is incumbent on researchers to not use the Record Search Pilot site if you are doing a global search for a person - use the FamilySearch Beta site.

For reference purposes, the FamilySearch Beta site now has 477 collections available, while the Record Search Pilot site has 443.  There are no "red stars" on the Record Search Pilot sites since they have not added any new content there since late September.

Thank you to Paul and FamilySearch for providing an easy way to determine what is new in this record release. 

Disclosure: I am not an employee, contractor or affiliate of FamilySearch. FamilySearch has not remunerated me in any way to write this article.


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