Saturday, June 13, 2026

Compendium of Family Biographies, Stories and Videos For My Wife's Schaffner Line

 My wife Linda Joan (Leland) Seaver has an interesting ancestry but there were only a few family stories handed down by her grandparents and parents over the years.  She is the daughter of Leo Severt Leland (1911-2002) and Edna May Schaffner (1913-1979) and was born and educated in San Francisco, California, and became an elementary school teacher.  In 1967, she moved to the San Diego, California area, and married Randall J. Seaver in 1970.

Over decades, I have done genealogical research for her ancestry, and have found quite a bit of information about her ancestral families.  Over the past year, I have written and published genealogical sketches for each couple in her ancestry back through the 2nd great-grandparents (with the exception of her parents). From the genealogical sketches have come AI-assisted biographies based solely on the sketches, and from the biographies have come AI-assisted ancestor life memoirs and stories for each couple. Finally, I have used Google NotebookLM to create infographics, video overviews and slide decks for the biographies and many of the stories.  

The purpose of this blog post is to collect the information for each family line in one compendium for Linda's Schaffner-related ancestral families:

1)  Parents, Leo Severt Leland (1911-2002) and Edna May (Schaffner) Leland (1913-1979):

  • Genealogical Sketch:  pending
2)  Grandparents Paul Frederick Schaffner (1879-1934) and Edna Catherine McKnew (1884-1974):
3)  Great-grandparents Herman Schaffner (1851-1921) and Mary Ann Paul (1854-1908):
4)  Great-grandparents Elijah Pickrell McKnew (1836-1912) and Jane Whittle (1847-1921):

5)  2nd Great-grandparents Frederick Schaffner (1828-1899) and Susanna Hoffman (1830-1855):

6)  2nd Great-grandparents John Charles Paul (1823-1879) and Maria T. Beamish (1827-1909):

7)  2nd Great-grandparents  Jeremiah McKnew (1804-????) and Frances Allethia Pickrell (1810-1845):

8)  2nd Great-grandparents  Alexander Whittle (1818-1853) and Rachel Morley (1818-1861):


============================

First Updated:  13 June 2026
Last Updated:  13 June 2026

                               ==============================================

Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page. Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.

The URL for this post is:  

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Note that all comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately.

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Ask AI: Describe the Life of the Robert Seaver Family in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay in 1658"

I wondered if my AI Assistant Anthropic Claude could provide me with information about an ancestral family's life in 1658 in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony.  My 9th great-grandparents Robert Seaver (1608-1683) and Elizabeth Ballard (1616-1657) had migrated from England to New England in the 1630s, married in 1634, and had five living children in 1658. .  I posted an ABC Biography for them in ABC Biography of Robert Seaver (1608-1683) and Elizabeth (Ballard) Seaver (1616-1657) Family of England and Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony.

I asked Anthropic Claude to create a description of the Robert Seaver family life and work in Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1658, based on the biography and social history.

           (AI NotebookLM Infographic -- Robert Seaver Family Life in 1658 in New England)

The Claude Sonnet 4.6 response was:

The Robert Seaver Family of Roxbury, Massachusetts Bay Colony — 1658

The Family in 1658

The year 1658 found Robert Seaver, now about fifty years old, adjusting to life without his beloved wife Elizabeth, who had died the previous year. His household on the edge of Roxbury, near what is now Center and Amory Streets, was a busy, working place despite the shadow of grief. Five children remained at home or nearby:

  • Shubael, age 18, the eldest son and now a young man capable of full farmwork

  • Caleb and Joshua, twin boys of 16, strong and increasingly useful on the land

  • Elizabeth, age 14, the only surviving daughter, now the woman of the household

  • Nathaniel, age 13, old enough for chores and beginning to learn adult responsibilities

Robert likely relied heavily on young Elizabeth to manage the domestic side of the household—cooking, spinning, preserving food, and caring for her brothers—thrust into that role far sooner than any girl should be. Whether Robert employed a maid servant to assist (as was common in households of his standing) is not recorded, but it would have been a practical necessity.

Daily Work and the Farm

The Seaver homestead was a substantial working farm. Robert's property at this time included his house and garden lot, more than sixty acres of various parcels, salt marsh, and fresh meadow. The rhythms of the family's days were dictated almost entirely by the seasons and the demands of the land.

Spring and Summer

Spring arrived with an explosion of labor. The frozen ground had to be broken up and prepared for planting. Robert and his sons would have cultivated the common crops of Roxbury farming: Indian corn (maize), wheat, rye, barley, and various vegetables including beans, peas, turnips, and onions. Maize was the most important crop—it fed the family, fed the livestock, and could be sold or traded. Every able hand was needed during planting time.

Through the summer months, the boys hoed and weeded the fields, repaired fences to keep livestock from straying into crops, and tended to the animals. Robert kept cattle, which grazed on his pasture land including the parcel at Huckleberry Hill. Cattle were central to a colonial farm's economy—providing milk, butter, cheese, hides, and meat, as well as oxen power for plowing and hauling. He almost certainly kept pigs (easy to feed on kitchen scraps and forage), sheep (for wool), and poultry.

The salt marsh land Robert owned was particularly valuable. Each season, hay was cut from the marsh and stacked into haycocks—we know from the church records of a 1667 fire that one such haycock contained four loads of hay. This marsh hay fed livestock through the long New England winters.

Harvest and Autumn

Autumn was the most intense season. The corn had to be harvested, husked, and stored before the frosts came. Wheat and rye were cut with scythes and threshed. Root vegetables were dug up and stored in the cellar. Hogs were slaughtered and the meat salted or smoked for preservation. Apples from the orchard were pressed into cider—cider being the everyday drink of the colony, far safer than water and far cheaper than ale. Some fruit would be dried for winter.

The boys would have worked from before dawn until dark during harvest weeks, and Robert would have hired day laborers from the town to help with the heaviest work.

Winter

Winter brought a different kind of work. Firewood had to be cut, split, and carried—an enormous undertaking, as colonial fireplaces consumed wood at a prodigious rate to combat the New England cold. Robert's delivery of "three loads of wood for the military watch" mentioned in later town records reflects a skill and resource the family regularly drew upon. Animals had to be fed and watered, fences mended, tools repaired, and equipment prepared for spring. Men often did woodworking, leatherwork, or other crafts indoors during the coldest months.

Elizabeth Seaver: The Daughter of the House

In 1658, fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Seaver bore a burden uncommon even for that era. With her mother just a year in the grave, she was responsible for running the domestic side of a household of six. Her days would have begun before dawn.

The fireplace was the heart of the colonial kitchen, and managing it was a skilled job. Elizabeth would have cooked over an open hearth—hanging iron pots on a crane, baking bread in a Dutch oven nestled in the coals, roasting meat on a spit. The family's diet was wholesome but limited by season: porridge and bread were daily staples, supplemented by salted meat, dried beans, root vegetables, cheese, and eggs. Fresh meat appeared when animals were slaughtered. Fish from local streams and ponds added variety.

Beyond cooking, Elizabeth would have been spinning wool and flax, weaving cloth, sewing and mending the family's clothing, making candles from tallow, preserving food by salting, drying, and pickling, making soap, and keeping the house clean. The cheeses mentioned in the later fire account—when a maid went into the chamber "to order the cheeses"—tell us that cheese-making was a regular domestic activity in the Seaver household.

Education

Education in Roxbury in 1658 was rooted in the Puritan conviction that every person must be able to read the Bible. Massachusetts Bay Colony had passed the famous "Old Deluder Satan Act" in 1647, requiring every town of fifty or more households to maintain a grammar school. Roxbury was one of the earliest towns in the colony to establish a school—the Roxbury Latin School, founded in 1645, was already thirteen years old by 1658.

The boys—Shubael, Caleb, Joshua, and Nathaniel—likely had some formal schooling, at least at the elementary level. Whether Robert sent his sons to the Latin School depended on his ambitions for them. Shubael, at eighteen, would have completed his basic schooling. The twins at sixteen may still have been attending, or they may have been pulled away for full-time farm labor, as was common for farm families. Nathaniel at thirteen would likely have been attending a dame school or the lower grammar school.

Elizabeth, like most girls of her class and time, would have received little if any formal schooling. Her education was entirely domestic—how to run a household, cook, spin, sew, and manage a farm home. She may have learned to read (reading was considered important even for girls, for Bible study), but writing was taught less commonly to girls and arithmetic less still.

At home, education was inseparable from religion. The family would have read the Bible together, memorized scripture and the Catechism, and engaged in daily prayer. Robert, as a respected freeman and later selectman, was certainly literate, and he likely read aloud to his children from scripture, the psalter, and whatever books a household of modest means possessed. Books were expensive and precious; a family Bible, a psalter, and perhaps a few religious texts would have constituted the Seaver library.

Religion and Church Life

For the Seaver family, as for all of Puritan Roxbury, religion was not a compartment of life—it was the very air they breathed. The First Church of Roxbury was the center of community life, and attendance was not just expected but required by social convention and community pressure.

On the Sabbath—Sunday—all work ceased. The family would have walked to the meetinghouse (which stood near the center of town) morning and afternoon. Sabbath services were long by modern standards: two full services separated by a midday break, each lasting two hours or more. The congregation sat on hard wooden benches, men and women often on separate sides. The minister preached lengthy sermons on scripture, and the congregation sang psalms from memory or from the Bay Psalm Book (published in Cambridge in 1640).

Robert Seaver was a full church member, having been admitted to the congregation likely around the time of his arrival in 1634. His late wife Elizabeth had also been a church member, the records noting her "godly conversation." Church membership in Puritan New England required a public profession of saving grace before the congregation—a serious and often emotionally difficult step. Robert's children would have been baptized as infants but would not become full members until they could make their own professions of faith as young adults.

The minister at the First Church of Roxbury in 1658 was John Eliot, the famous "Apostle to the Indians." Robert and his family would have sat under Eliot's preaching for decades—listening to the man who was translating the Bible into the Algonquian language and establishing "praying towns" for converted Native Americans. Robert signed a petition about Harvard students, and the intellectual life of the colony would have filtered into Eliot's sermons and the family's consciousness.

The Sabbath afternoon, after the second service, was one of the few times in the week devoted to rest—though for the Puritans, "rest" meant more prayer, scripture reading, and quiet reflection, not games or entertainment.

Community Activities

Robert Seaver was a pillar of the Roxbury community, and this involvement would have shaped the whole family's social world.

By 1658, Robert had already served as a freeman and signed petitions to the General Court. His later service as constable (1655), bayly (1663), and selectman (1665) reflects a reputation built over years of civic engagement. Town meetings were held regularly, and as a freeman, Robert participated in the governance of Roxbury—deciding on land grants, roads, taxes, and community affairs.

The boys, as they grew older, would have participated in the training band—the local militia. Military training days were held on the common, where men and older boys drilled with muskets, pikes, and other weapons. These training days were also social occasions, some of the few times the community gathered in a less strictly religious setting. Robert's later service in King Philip's War suggests he took military obligations seriously throughout his life.

Neighbors were essential to survival, and the Seavers' neighbors—the Bowles, Eliot, Craft, Lyon, and Pritchard families named in the property records—were also their social world. Collaborative work such as barn raisings, harvesting bees, and corn huskings brought the community together. These events combined labor with fellowship and were some of the liveliest social occasions available in Puritan Roxbury.

Entertainment and Leisure

Puritanism is often misunderstood as joyless, but the Seavers would have found genuine pleasure in the rhythms of their community life—pleasure that was simply different from what we know today.

Music was permitted and enjoyed in Puritan homes, though not in church services with instruments. Psalm-singing was universal and deeply beloved. Robert's family would have sung psalms together at home and known many by heart. Simple ballads and folk songs from England would have been sung as well, particularly by the younger children.

Storytelling around the fire on long winter evenings was a primary form of entertainment. Robert, by 1658, had twenty-four years of New England life to draw on—memories of the crossing, stories of early Roxbury, the challenges of building a new community. He was also, by this time, a man who had lived through enough historical events—the Pequot War, the Antinomian Controversy, the founding of Harvard—to have a rich fund of tales.

Seasonal celebrations within Puritan bounds provided moments of joy. Though the Puritans rejected Christmas and Easter as "Popish" holidays, Thanksgiving gatherings—giving thanks after a good harvest—were occasions of genuine festivity with special foods, visiting, and community fellowship.

The boys would have found recreation in fishing, hunting, and swimming in the ponds and streams near Roxbury when their work permitted. Shubael, Caleb, and Joshua, as teenagers and young men, would have engaged in the friendly competitions of skill—shooting, wrestling, and racing—that were common among young men everywhere. These activities also had practical value in a society where physical strength and marksmanship were essential.

Reading, though limited by the scarcity of books, provided intellectual stimulation. The Bible, psalter, almanacs, and occasional pamphlets or sermons in print circulated through the community.

A Family in Transition

The year 1658 was a pivotal one for the Seavers. They were a family at a crossroads: grieving Elizabeth's loss, running a substantial farm with a father in his prime and four growing children, deeply embedded in the religious and civic life of one of the most important towns in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Within a few years, Shubael would be ready to start his own household, the twins would reach adulthood, and Robert himself would marry again. But in 1658, they were still together, working the land their father had built up over twenty-five years, worshipping at the feet of John Eliot, and forging the character that would carry the Seaver name through generations of New England history.

================================

The AI Google NotebookLM Video Overview of this story is in:  

This is historical fiction based on known events in the lives of my ancestors -- it might have been this way. Robert and Elizabeth (Ballard) Seaver are my 9th great-grandparents, and I have significant information about this family from the available records, but I know nothing about their day-to-day lives.

As always, I am amazed at what life was like in any place over 370 years ago. This description of their family life in colonial New England is interesting and so different from our current daily activities.

After I read these types of social history summaries, I wish that I could be a time traveler for one day to visit this Smith family in 1658 New England and witness their daily lives.  I'm glad that the general lifestyles and occupations are known from historical records and witness accounts.

==============================================

Links to my blog posts about using Artificial Intelligence are on my Randy's AI and Genealogy page.  Links to AI information and articles about Artificial Intelligence in Genealogy by other genealogists are on my AI and Genealogy Compendium page.

Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

The URL for this post is: 

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post.  Share it on X, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below.  Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.  Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not appear immediately.

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Friday, June 12, 2026

Added and Updated FamilySearch Record Collections - Week of 6 to 12 June 2026

 Each week, I try to keep track of the number of Full-Text Search collections (indexed, searchable) and the Images collections (browsable but not searchable) -- see Sections 1) and 2) below. In addition, I list the genealogy historical record collections (often name-indexed) that are added, removed, and/or updated on FamilySearch and listed on the Historical Record Collection list  --  See Section 3.

1)  As of 12 June 2026, there are now 6,663 searchable and full-text transcribed image collections on FamilySearch Full-Text Search this week, a decrease of 5 from last week. There are over 1.99 BILLION "results" in the collections.  It is not possible to see which collections are new.

 2)  As of 12 June 2026, there are now 24,819 browsable (some indexed, none transcribed) image lections on FamilySearch Images this week, a decrease of 2 from last week. There are over 6.055 BILLION images in these collections.  There are 2,118 collections from the United States, 7,076 from Europe and 221 from Canada.  It is not possible to see which collections are new.


3)  As of 12 June 2026, there are 3,434 Historical Record Collections (many indexed, browsable) on FamilySearch (a decrease of 3 from last week):

The Deleted, Added and Updated Historical Record Collections this week include:

-- Collections Deleted ---

Iowa, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1945 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2796750); Index only (63 records), no images, DELETED
Philippines, Bicol, Civil Registration, 1783-2008 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000343); 20,169 indexed records with 803,949 record images, DELETED
Philippines, Calabarzon, Church Records 1710-1983 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000323); 1,478,024 indexed records with 236,829 record images, DELETED
Philippines, Metro Manila, Church Records, 1723-1982 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000337); 362,559 indexed records with 167,613 record images, DELETED
Philippines, Mimaropa, Church Records, 1821-1937 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000339); 69,724 indexed records with 31,989 record images, DELETED

--- Collections Added ---

*  Indiana, Indianapolis, Crown Hill Cemetery, Funeral Home Records, 1834-1959 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000492); 105,322 indexed records with 105,144 record images, ADDED 06-Jan-2026
*  Italy, Piedmont, Alessandria, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1926 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000130); 12,714 indexed records with 4,565 record images, ADDED 01-Apr-2026

--- Collections Updated ---

Argentina, Buenos Aires, Catholic Church Records, 1635-2017 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1972912); 2,815,879 indexed records with 978,396 record images (was 2,773,107 records with 978,396 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Argentina, Capital Federal, Catholic Church Records, 1640-1978 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1974184); 175,308 indexed records with 998,148 record images (was 1,544,630 records with 998,148 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Argentina, Corrientes, Catholic Church Records, 1734-2013 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1974183); 277,437 indexed records with 207,943 record images (was 253,044 records with 207,943 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Argentina, Entre Ríos, Catholic Church Records, 1764-2011 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1974185); 345,942 indexed records with 235,772 record images (was 545,131 records with 235,772 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026

Argentina, La Pampa, Catholic Church Records, 1882-1976 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1974187); 53,127 indexed records with 25,879 record images (was 52,628 records with 25,879 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Argentina, La Rioja, Catholic Church Records, 1714-1970 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1974188); 79,234 indexed records with 74,259 record images (was 74,759 records with 74,259 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Argentina, Mendoza, Catholic Church Records, 1665-1975 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1974189); 198,739 indexed records with 144,042 record images (was 341,870 records with 144,042 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Argentina, San Juan, Catholic Church Records, 1655-2013 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1974194); 200,938 indexed records with 83,087 record images (was 200,707 records with 83,087 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Australia, South Australia, Probate Case Files, 1849-1935 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000064); 58,970 indexed records with 18,873 record images (was 58,883 records with 18,853 images), UPDATED 05-Jun-2026

Bolivia, Catholic Church Records, 1566-2020 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1922463); 9,825,511 indexed records with 1,649,601 record images (was 9,825,511 records with 1,649,601 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Chile, Catholic Church Records, 1633-2015 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/3405096); 8,804,944 indexed records with 1,250,421 record images (was 8,680,076 records with 1,129,390 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Colombia, Archivo Distrital de Bogota, Obituary Books, 1900-1940 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000257); 172,407 indexed records with 28,232 record images (was 172,322 records with 28,224 images), UPDATED 05-Jun-2026
Colombia, Migration Records, 1885-2014 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000159); 6,802,274 indexed records with 6,576,246 record images (was 6,739,551 records with 6,511,777 images), UPDATED 12-Jun-2026
Connecticut, Vital Records, Prior to 1850 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2843390); 437,950 indexed records with 413,744 record images (was 437,710 records with 413,517 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026

Costa Rica, Catholic Church Records, 1595-2022 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1460016); 320,205 indexed records with 962,203 record images (was 2,627,233 records with 962,203 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
England and Wales, National Index of Wills and Administrations, 1858-1957 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2451051); Index only (8,412,453 records), no images (was 8,412,182 records with 0 images), UPDATED 08-Jun-2026
England, Armed Forces and Overseas Vital Records, 1360-1981 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000359); 68,064 indexed records with 13,883 record images (was 8,440 records with 3,213 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
England, Bedfordshire, Parish Registers, 1538-1983 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2836129); 369,450 indexed records with 30,432 record images (was 369,289 records with 30,420 images), UPDATED 09-Jun-2026
England, Lincolnshire, Parish Registers, 1538-1990 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2540411); 1,312,197 indexed records with 384,258 record images (was 1,308,057 records with 367,266 images), UPDATED 08-Jun-2026

England, Northamptonshire, Non-conformist Records, 1651-1895 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2806100); Index only (69,192 records), no images (was 69,184 records with 0 images), UPDATED 09-Jun-2026
England, Surrey, Parish Registers, 1536-1992 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2475028); Index only (1,733,702 records), no images (was 1,731,594 records with 0 images), UPDATED 08-Jun-2026
Guatemala, Catholic Church Records, 1581-2023 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1614809); 4,875,195 indexed records with 1,160,338 record images (was 4,850,185 records with 1,160,338 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Italy, Brindisi, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1809-1955 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2328379); 132,503 indexed records with 827,146 record images (was 228,127 records with 827,146 images), UPDATED 08-Jun-2026
Kansas, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1945 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2796751); 397,247 indexed records with 124,434 record images (was 199,218 records with 124,434 images), UPDATED 05-Jun-2026

Missouri, Births, 1817-1939 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2524491); Index only (127,462 records), no images (was 127,281 records with 0 images), UPDATED 05-Jun-2026
Nevada County Birth and Death Records, 1871-1992 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2053817); 31,123 indexed records with 14,425 record images (was 29,759 records with 14,425 images), UPDATED 05-Jun-2026
New Hampshire, World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1940-1947 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2999488); 105,459 indexed records with 119,849 record images (was 120,500 records with 119,849 images), UPDATED 07-Jun-2026
New York, Record of Naturalized Voters Registered, 1872-1878 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4117523); 584,240 indexed records with 6,739 record images (was 583,073 records with 6,726 images), UPDATED 08-Jun-2026
New Zealand, Civil Records Indexes, 1800-1966 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2697870); 2,331,241 indexed records with 2 record images (was 2,331,241 records with 2 images), UPDATED 08-Jun-2026

North Dakota, County Marriages, 1872-2000 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2550852); 17,428 indexed records with 91,457 record images (was 17,364 records with 91,457 images), UPDATED 05-Jun-2026
Ohio, WWI Index and Return Cards, 1916-1920 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/3039663); 101,597 indexed records with 101,155 record images (was 100,669 records with 100,361 images), UPDATED 11-Jun-2026
Peru, Arequipa, Catholic Church Records, 1660-2020 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4447275); Index only (65,525 records), no images (was 79,184 records with 0 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Peru, Catholic Church Records, 1556-2023 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1877097); Index only (3,447,829 records), no images (was 3,443,710 records with 0 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Peru, Huánuco, Catholic Church Records, 1660-2020 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4439346); Index only (18,431 records), no images (was 18,431 records with 0 images), UPDATED 09-Jun-2026

Philippines Civil Registration (National), 1945-1996 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1852584); 1,651 indexed records with 20,274,621 record images (was 5,508,941 records with 20,274,621 images), UPDATED 10-Jun-2026
Slovakia, Church and Synagogue Books, 1592-1935 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1554443); 19,040,243 indexed records with 1,615,473 record images (was 18,821,075 records with 1,615,473 images), UPDATED 09-Jun-2026
Texas, Cooke County, Deeds, 1895-1924 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2804974); 32,795 indexed records with 29,117 record images (was 32,703 records with 29,072 images), UPDATED 05-Jun-2026
United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2968245); 6,932,735 indexed records with 5,608,947 record images (was 6,932,344 records with 5,611,122 images), UPDATED 11-Jun-2026
Wyoming, Reclaim the Records, State Archives Vital Records, 1908-1966 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2837991); 299,202 indexed records with 193,351 record images (was 299,187 records with 193,347 images), UPDATED 11-Jun-2026

--- Collections with new images ---

Argentina, Buenos Aires City, Civil Registration, 1811-1980 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000077); 1 indexed records with 10,192 record images (was 1 records with 10,191 images), last updated 26-Nov-2024
Brazil, Alagoas, Civil Registration, 1876-2023 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4469403); 1 indexed records with 454,223 record images (was 1 records with 454,222 images), last updated 07-Jun-2024
Brazil, Maranhão, Civil Registration, 1827-2022 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4469402); 1 indexed records with 906,195 record images (was 1 records with 906,193 images), last updated 07-Jun-2024
England, Deaths and Burials, 1538-1991 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1473016); 13,095,153 indexed records with 111,999 record images (was 13,095,153 records with 111,545 images), last updated 31-Jan-2026
Georgia, Wills and Deeds, ca. 1700s-2017 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/3158836); 1 indexed records with 5,472 record images (was 1 records with 5,470 images), last updated 07-Jun-2024

--- Collections with images removed ---

--- Collections with new records ---

--- Collections with records removed ---

United States, Public Records, 1970-2009 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2199956); Index only (875,600,596 records), no images (was 875,600,604 records with 0 images), last updated 23-Dec-2025
United States, Residence Database, 1970-2024 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000290); Index only (413,858,224 records), no images (was 413,858,248 records with 0 images), last updated 22-Jun-2024

===================================

My friend and SDGS colleague, Marshall, has come up with a way to determine which collections are ADDED, DELETED or UPDATED, and to alphabetize the entries in each category. Thanks to Marshall for helping me out here!

Marshall notes that there are:

  • 3,434 Historical Record Collection entries
  • 5 removed entries
  • 2  added entries 
  • 39 updated entries
  • 5 entries with more or fewer images 
  • 2 entries with more or fewer records
Marshsll's list shows 3,434 Historical Record Collections this week, a decrease of 3 collections. The image above shows 3,434 collections, so the website number is in sync with Marshall's list number.

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See previous FamilySearch-related blog posts in        https://www.geneamusings.com/search/label/FamilySearch

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Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

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Added and Updated Ancestry.com Record Collections - Week of 6 to 12 June 2026

 The following genealogy record collections were added to the Ancestry.com Card Catalog page by "Date Updated" during the period from 6 to 12 June 2026: 

The ADDED and Updated collections include:

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The complete Ancestry.com Card Catalog is at https://search.ancestry.com/search/CardCatalog.aspx.

By my count, there are 1 NEW record collections ADDED this past week, per the list above. There are now 33,942 collections available as of 12 June, an INCREASE of 1 from last week. 

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Disclosure: I pay for an All-Access subscription from Ancestry.com. In past years, Ancestry.com provided a complimentary All Access subscription, an autosomal DNA test, material considerations for travel expenses to meetings, and hosted events and meals that I attended in Salt Lake City.

The URL for this post is:  https://www.geneamusings.com/2026/06/added-and-updated-ancestrycom-record_0177446410.html

 Copyright (c) 2026, Randall J. Seaver

Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the "Comments" link at the bottom of each post. Share it on Facebook, X, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com. Please note that all Comments are moderated so they may not appear immediately.

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