Genea-Musings: 02/25/24

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Randy (Not) At RootsTech 2024 - Day 3 (Saturday)

I'm not at RootsTech 2024 in Salt Lake City (due to my health issues), but I had a partial day watching virtually from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific time.

I woke up at 3:30 a.m., got up, and read everything, had my banana, watched TV news, DXed a bit, studied my Bible study, got dressed, and off at 7:30 a.m. to the diner for the Men's Bible Study about Matthew 24:36 to 25:13. Had a ham and cheese omelet, then off to see Linda at 10 a.m. at her facility. We played Uno and she didn't indicate she'd missed me for 8 days while I had my cold. Home by 11:30 to have lunch and take a nap. Then online to catch up to RootsTech 2024:

1) Here are the scheduled classes that I watched live online:

* 12:30 p.m.: Unexpected Treasures: Family History in the American State Papers, by Judy G. Russell

* 2 p.m.: What’s in a name? DNA, surnames and one-name studies, by Debbie Kennett

2) Then I watched several on-demand classes from earlier in the day (some "speed-watched"):

* FamilySearch Tech Forum, by Craig Miller, FamilySearch, Michelle Barber, Sarah Hammon, Todd Powell, Bill Mangum. This covered:

FamilySearch Helper (uses AI to answer research questions from FS wiki, FS blog, articles);
Full Text Search – full text transcription of unindexed records, true power is the content, limited collections now(US land and probate, Mexico Notarials, Plantation records), there is a search strategy to filter results;
Family Group Trees – family can use FamilySearch FamilyTree, share information, stories, photos, audio, new mobile app “Together” developed to do it;
FamilySearch Labs – www.familysearch.org/labs/. 5 experiments, including the above.

* You Can DO the DNA #4–See What DNA Success Looks Like: Real Case Studies, by Diahan Southard

* RootsTech 2024 | General Session 3 | Kristin Chenoweth

Findmypast - Rebecca Miskin: highlighted offerings, including new British Home Children collection.
Storied - Kendall Hulet: highlighted offerings, including family tree using FSFT, creating stories, StoryAssist, newspaper records, etc.
Kristen Chenoweth: a dynamic presentation, 4 songs and chats with Kirby.

* FamilySearch + Storied: A Dynamic Duo for Family History Enthusiasts, by Brandon Camp and Heather Haunert.

* Finding Your Common Name Ancestor, by Shaunese Luthy. A case study.

* What's New at FamilySearch for Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 2024, by Todd Powell

FamilySearch Family Tree: 1.56 billion profiles, 125 million added in last year, 275,000 contributors/week, largest single tree is 825 million,
website in 41 languages, adding 4 more in 2024
FamilySearch records have 18.36 billion searchable names, added 600 million in 2023
2024 plans: new records for Peru and Portugal, advances to computer assisted indexing in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, English
100 slides for What's New for LDS members: Family Name Assist; Ordinance Ready Update; My Family Reservation Group; FamilySearch Centers
FamilySearch Labs: Full Text Search; FamilySearch Helper; Family Group Trees - share information and memories with private family group; new pedigree view - show siblings; Tree person quality - about data; Guided Tree; Updated Source Linker; Your contributions;

3) Observations:

RootsTech goes by very quickly. I did three days worth of watching and not much researching or blogging on those three days. It helped to have advance information about the MyHeritage highlights. I was surprised that there weren't more press releases.
I cannot watch everything, so I will watch the things I missed On-Demand over the next few weeks.
I should watch, or at least review, every presentation by FamilySearch, Ancestry, MyHeritage and Findmypast as soon as possible. I missed the FamilySearch Labs announcements and finally saw them today.
Participated in several Chats this afternoon - bah.
Some online presentations had technical problems but solved eventually.
I loved seeing all of the photographs on Facebook from my Facebook Friends. I hope there are more. I was so "homesick" some of the time wanting to experience the personal interaction with my friends and colleagues. I look forward to YouTube videos from the usual suspects (see my Genealogy Education Bytes for starters) - I love them all.
I currently have 49.600 Relatives At RootsTech. The top four didn't change.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2024/03/randy-not-at-rootstech-2024-day-3.html

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 Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- What Have You Done at RootsTech 2024?

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

It's Saturday Night again -

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Come on, everybody, join in and accept the mission and execute it with precision.

1) What have you done at RootsTech 2024 so far (we're in the third day), either in-person or online? What has been the highlights for you so far?

2) Tell us about your RootsTech 2024 experiences so far in a comment on this post, or in a Facebook post. Please leave a link on this post if you write your own post.

Here's mine:

I have watched many classes virtually online on both days. I captured the titles and authors of the classes I've watched in:

* Randy (Not) At RootsTech 2024 - Day 1 (Thursday)

* Randy (Not) At RootsTech 2024 - Day 2 (Friday)

* Randy (Not) At RootsTech 2024 - Day 3 (Saturday)

I will watch more online classes over the next few weeks.

The highlights so far:

#1 is seeing the Keynote talks by Lynne Jackson about Dred and Harriet Scott, and Nancy Borowick's story about her parents.

#2 is watching Diahan Southard's talks about doing DNA research - I need to do more on finding the Best Known Match, sorting out the Leftovers for my mystery DNA matches, identifying more Best Mystery Matches for them, and then do more genealogy for them.

#3 is watching the FamilySearch Tech Forum session about FamilySearch Labs (https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/). I've played with it but need to improve my searches.

#4 is watching the four Ancestry.com In-booth Demo videos (that are on YouTube) about details of coming features. Prime among them is the enhanced DNA Matches view with cM values for matches that I share with another DNA Match; this will probably be in the ProTools subscription. It was on the Deeper Discoveries with New AncestryDNA® Match Tools with Kyle Miller & Team video.

#5 is seeing all of the photographs on Facebook by my friends actually at RootsTech - they bring back longings and memories.

#6 is just being able to watch the online videos without having to walk around the Expo Hall and spend a lot of time in the Media Hub writing blog posts. But I miss seeing all of my friends and colleagues.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2024/03/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-what-have.html

Added and Updated FamilySearch Record Collections - Week of 24 February to 1 March 2024

I am keeping track of the new and updated his8orical record collections at FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list) every week.

As of 1 March 2024, there are 3,299 historical record collections on FamilySearch (an increase of 2 from last week):

The new and updated collections this week from FamilySearch are:

--- Collections Updated ---

* Italy, Teramo, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1809-1936 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/3006903); 3,942 indexed records with 1,775 record images, ADDED 28-Feb-2024

* Zimbabwe, Diocese of Gokwe, Catholic Church Records, 1956-2022 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000101); 56 indexed records with 4,072 record images, ADDED 01-Mar-2024

--- Collections Updated ---

Argentina, Chaco, Civil Registration, 1889-1946 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4450393); 131,807 indexed records with 131,648 record images (was 131,771 records with 131,612 images), UPDATED 25-Feb-2024
Argentina, Córdoba, Catholic Church Records, 1557-1974 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1974182); 996,425 indexed records with 419,985 record images (was 996,291 records with 419,985 images), UPDATED 28-Feb-2024
Argentina, Jujuy, Civil Registration, 1888-2000 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4489444); 1,679 indexed records with 2,284 record images (was 1,035 records with 1,645 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Belgium, Antwerp, Civil Registration, 1588-1953 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2138481); 960,168 indexed records with 3,208,709 record images (was 960,168 records with 3,208,709 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Belgium, Brabant, Civil Registration, 1582-1950 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1482191); 85,118 indexed records with 6,411,594 record images (was 84,441 records with 6,411,594 images), UPDATED 29-Feb-2024

Belgium, Namur, Civil Registration, 1800-1912 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2138511); 715,155 indexed records with 372,768 record images (was 711,230 records with 372,768 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Bolivia Catholic Church Records, 1566-1996 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1922463); 9,415,103 indexed records with 1,649,601 record images (was 9,409,843 records with 1,649,601 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Brazil, Alagoas, Church Records, 1802-2016 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2820768); 1,232,596 indexed records with 187,327 record images (was 1,227,845 records with 186,458 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Brazil, Mato Grosso, Civil Registration, 1845-2013 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2001286); Index only (835 records), no images (was 835 records with 0 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Brazil, Minas Gerais, Civil Registration, 1879-1949 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/3479702); 923,476 indexed records with 383,989 record images (was 920,548 records with 382,928 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024

Brazil, Paraná, Civil Registration, 1852-1996 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2016194); 3,182,627 indexed records with 1,689,031 record images (was 3,178,690 records with 1,689,031 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Brazil, Pará, Civil Registration, 1815-1995 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4473609); 274,289 indexed records with 82,537 record images (was 270,271 records with 81,236 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul, Civil Registration, 1860-2006 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/3741255); 1,729,589 indexed records with 878,316 record images (was 1,724,401 records with 879,312 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Civil Registration, 1829-2012 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1582573); 6,918,787 indexed records with 5,100,470 record images (was 6,922,083 records with 5,100,470 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Brazil, Santa Catarina, Civil Registration, 1850-1999 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2016197); 767,849 indexed records with 1,037,638 record images (was 767,843 records with 1,037,638 images), UPDATED 25-Feb-2024

Brazil, Sergipe, Catholic Church Records, 1785-1994 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2177298); 1,298,026 indexed records with 273,847 record images (was 1,295,575 records with 273,847 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Chile, Catholic Church Records, 1633-2015 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/3405096); 8,309,330 indexed records with 1,050,726 record images (was 8,292,433 records with 1,048,272 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Colombia, Catholic Church Records, 1576-2018 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1726975); 26,665,032 indexed records with 12,659,776 record images (was 26,648,192 records with 12,659,776 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Costa Rica, Catholic Church Records, 1595-1992 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1460016); 4,339,477 indexed records with 962,203 record images (was 4,339,269 records with 962,203 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Croatia, Church Books, 1516-1994 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2040054); 2,997,178 indexed records with 1,421,761 record images (was 2,996,962 records with 1,421,761 images), UPDATED 27-Feb-2024

Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kisantu Diocese, Catholic Church Records, 1894-2016 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000138); 204 indexed records with 79 record images (was 159 records with 63 images), UPDATED 28-Feb-2024
Dominican Republic Civil Registration, 1801-2010 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1619814); 7,557,712 indexed records with 3,416,801 record images (was 7,557,712 records with 3,416,801 images), UPDATED 29-Feb-2024
England and Wales Census, 1871 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1538354); 22,933,411 indexed records with 1,281,291 record images (was 12,983,349 records with 1,281,291 images), UPDATED 23-Feb-2024
Germany, North Rhine-Westphalia, Wuppertal, Civil Registration, 1810-1930 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000010); 126,370 indexed records with 123,388 record images (was 124,803 records with 121,911 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Gibraltar, Church Records, 1697-1991 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4453925); 57,209 indexed records with 5,934 record images (was 57,012 records with 5,890 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024

Guadeloupe, Church Records, 1639-1830 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4316498); 571 indexed records with 145 record images (was 565 records with 145 images), UPDATED 26-Feb-2024
Guadeloupe, Civil Registration Records, 1792-1872 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4293709); 748 indexed records with 97 record images (was 713 records with 159 images), UPDATED 29-Feb-2024
Guatemala, Chiquimula, Civil Registration, 1877-2008 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2790265); 456,998 indexed records with 357,088 record images (was 456,687 records with 356,822 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Guatemala, Guatemala, Civil Registration, 1877-2006 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2075150); 4,590,974 indexed records with 1,486 record images (was 4,590,940 records with 1,486 images), UPDATED 29-Feb-2024
Guatemala, Huehuetenango, Civil Registration, 1877-1994 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2451045); 1,005,783 indexed records with 17,993 record images (was 1,003,895 records with 17,993 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024

Guatemala, Izabal, Civil Registration, 1877-1994 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2443319); 422,536 indexed records with 9,848 record images (was 422,438 records with 9,848 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Haiti, Archdiocese of Port-au-Prince, Catholic Church Records, 1866-2017 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4279947); 95,760 indexed records with 18,493 record images (was 94,104 records with 18,231 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Ireland, Catholic Parish Registers, 1740-1900 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2820100); 5,821,329 indexed records with 203,754 record images (was 5,770,029 records with 198,516 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Italy, Agrigento, Civil Registration (State Archive), 1820-1865 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2480962); 34,501 indexed records with 1,218,927 record images (was 33,815 records with 1,218,927 images), UPDATED 28-Feb-2024
Massachusetts State Vital Records, 1841-1925 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1928860); 11,744,902 indexed records with 742,594 record images (was 11,744,902 records with 742,594 images), UPDATED 27-Feb-2024

Mexico, Michoacán, Catholic Church Records, 1555-1996 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1883388); 5,837,807 indexed records with 5,283,986 record images (was 5,828,026 records with 5,283,986 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Mexico, Puebla, Catholic Church Records, 1545-1977 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1837906); 9,012,823 indexed records with 6,124,553 record images (was 9,011,905 records with 6,124,553 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Mexico, Querétaro, Catholic Church Records, 1590-1970 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1881200); 3,039,907 indexed records with 1,380,077 record images (was 3,039,871 records with 1,380,077 images), UPDATED 28-Feb-2024
Missouri, County Naturalization Records, 1830-1985 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1880587); 348,032 indexed records with 898 record images (was 346,823 records with 898 images), UPDATED 29-Feb-2024
Netherlands, Noord-Holland, Civil Registration, 1811-1950 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2020117); 1,973,243 indexed records with 6,635,049 record images (was 1,973,243 records with 6,635,049 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024

New Zealand, Cemetery Transcriptions, 1840-1981 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2780088); 488,045 indexed records with 22,720 record images (was 486,930 records with 22,680 images), UPDATED 28-Feb-2024
Norway Church Books, 1815-1930 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4237104); 14,405,425 indexed records with 1,288,153 record images (was 14,405,425 records with 1,288,153 images), UPDATED 23-Feb-2024
Ohio Births and Christenings, 1821-1962 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1680845); Index only (1,340,325 records), no images (was 1,340,325 records with 0 images), UPDATED 23-Feb-2024
Ohio, Stillbirths, 1918-1953 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000024); 186,070 indexed records with 185,881 record images (was 184,410 records with 184,226 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Palau, Church Records, 1921-1940 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4491580); 3,873 indexed records with 295 record images (was 3,854 records with 294 images), UPDATED 27-Feb-2024

Paraguay, Civil Registration, 1842-2012 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000049); 7,494 indexed records with 9,368 record images (was 7,093 records with 8,605 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Pennsylvania, County Marriages, 1885-1950 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1589502); 3,476,780 indexed records with 1,789,697 record images (was 3,476,780 records with 1,789,697 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Peru, Arequipa, Catholic Church Records, 1660-2020 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4447275); 422,314 indexed records with 137,733 record images (was 422,289 records with 125,828 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Peru, Catholic Church Records, 1603-1992 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1877097); 21,084,063 indexed records with 4,192,353 record images (was 21,077,887 records with 4,192,353 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Portugal, Setúbal, Catholic Church Records, 1555-1911 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1935451); 1,092,023 indexed records with 829,309 record images (was 1,091,886 records with 829,309 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024

Puerto Rico, Catholic Church Records, 1645-1969 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1807092); 3,320,270 indexed records with 191,547 record images (was 3,320,181 records with 191,547 images), UPDATED 29-Feb-2024
Puerto Rico, Civil Registration, 1805-2001 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1682798); 5,091,547 indexed records with 4,581,756 record images (was 5,091,355 records with 4,581,756 images), UPDATED 29-Feb-2024
Russia, Lutheran Church Book Duplicates, 1833-1885 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1469151); 405,925 indexed records with 128,317 record images (was 401,733 records with 128,317 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Slovakia Church and Synagogue Books, 1592-1935 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1554443); 21,937,522 indexed records with 1,615,473 record images (was 21,935,297 records with 1,615,473 images), UPDATED 28-Feb-2024
South Africa, Western Cape, Deceased Estate Files, 1951-1958 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4319131); 510,713 indexed records with 343,756 record images (was 508,607 records with 343,740 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024

Sri Lanka, Colombo District, Dutch Reformed Church Records, 1677-1990 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1780708); 46,403 indexed records with 33,965 record images (was 46,402 records with 33,965 images), UPDATED 29-Feb-2024
St. Lucia, Church Records, 1751-1793 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4449051); 122 indexed records with 26 record images (was 121 records with 25 images), UPDATED 25-Feb-2024
Texas, Hidalgo County, Marriage Records, 1875-2021 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000017); 169,746 indexed records with 237,356 record images (was 165,231 records with 224,188 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
United States City and Business Directories, ca. 1749 - ca. 1990 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/3754697); 63,198,823 indexed records with 377,020 record images (was 63,198,823 records with 395,560 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
United States, New York Land Records, 1630-1975 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2078654); 65,331,509 indexed records with 8,129,310 record images (was 65,331,414 records with 8,129,310 images), UPDATED 23-Feb-2024

Uruguay Civil Registration, 1879-1930 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1837849); Index only (1,185,092 records), no images (was 1,175,283 records with 0 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Venezuela Civil Registration, 1873-2003 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1823609); 1,114,455 indexed records with 586,312 record images (was 1,110,966 records with 586,312 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Venezuela, Archdiocese of Caracas, Catholic Church Records, 1638-2020 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4465438); 225,699 indexed records with 80,532 record images (was 216,735 records with 79,143 images), UPDATED 01-Mar-2024
Virginia, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Birth Records, 1853-1896 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000046); 1,947,652 indexed records with 42,487 record images (was 1,947,438 records with 42,480 images), UPDATED 29-Feb-2024
Zimbabwe, Diocese of Mutare, Catholic Church Records, 1898-2022 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/5000105); 12,438 indexed records with 38,391 record images (was 12,358 records with 38,387 images), UPDATED 29-Feb-2024

--- Collections with new images ---

Oregon, Naturalization Records, 1859-1991 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/4279955); 3,562 indexed records with 3,562 record images (was 3,562 records with 3,538 images), last updated 23-Nov-2021

--- Collections with records removed ---

Peru, Lima, Civil Registration, 1874-1996 (https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1430936); 5,766,159 indexed records with 4,403,080 record images (was 5,766,163 records with 4,403,080 images), last updated 30-Dec-2022

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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!

In order to select a specific record collection on FamilySearch, go to https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list and use the "Filter by collection name" feature in the upper left-hand corner and use keywords (e.g. "church england") to find collections with those keywords.

Each one of the collections listed above has a Research Wiki page (use the "Learn more" link). It would be very useful if the Wiki page for each collection listed the dates for when the collection was added as a new collection and the dates for major updates also.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2024/03/added-and-updated-familysearch-record.html

Copyright (c) 2024 Randall J. Seaver

Note that all comments are moderated, so they may not be posted immediately.

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 Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.

Friday, March 1, 2024

Randy (Not) At RootsTech 2024 - Day 2 (Friday)

I'm not at RootsTech 2024 in Salt Lake City (due to my health issues), but I had a full day watching virtually from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Pacific time.

1) Here are the scheduled classes that I watched live online:

* 7 a.m. Did My Family Get Skipped? Mining Census Records for Missing Ancestors, By Nicole Gilkison LaRue

* 8:30 a.m.: You CanDO the DNA #2–Get Your Best Ethnicity Estimate, by Diahan Southard

* 10 a.m.: RootsTech2024 | General Session 2 | Lynne Jackson and Nancy Borowick -

MyHeritage highlights by Aaron Godfrey, including new DNA ethnicities, AI Biographer, AI Record Finder, DNA test upload, OldNews.com announcement;
Lynne Jackson – Dred Scott history and foundation;
American Ancestors 10 million Names project – African-American enslaved people, 10MillionNames.org;
Nancy Borowick – photographer. How do you want to be remembered? Remembering is everything. Family is everything.

* 12:30 p.m.: You Can DO the DNA #3–Light Your DNA Match List onFire!, by Diahan Southard.

* 2 p.m.: BrickWalls! Real? or Created Through Faulty Research?, by Barbara Vines Little

* 3:30 p.m.: Uncovering Family History with MyHeritage’s AI Tools, by Ran Snir

2) I also watched these classes from earlier:

* FamilySearch Tech Forum, by Craig Miller, FamilySearch, Michelle Barber, Sarah Hammon, Todd Powell, Bill Mangum

* Looking for Dutch ancestors: the basics, by John Boeren

3) There were press releases on Thursday and Friday from:

* MyHeritage: MyHeritage launches OldNews.com

* FileShadow: FileShadow Announces Support for Person Identification, Drag & Drop Attach, and Import, View, Edit, and Write Photo Metadata.

4) There are many vendor specials available for in-person and virtual attendees at RootsTech 2024. Thomas MacEntee has them at https://genealogybargains.com/incredible-genealogy-sale/.

5) There is one more day at RootsTech 2024 - go watch Saturday classes, and/or watch some from earlier days, at https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/schedule?day=2024-03-02.

6) Observations:

Not much, if anything, about family trees.
Lots about stories.
Every company is doing artificial intelligence tasks.
Technical problems at the beginning.
Many in-person and virtual presentations have handouts which can be helpful.
Now up to over 46,000 Relatives at RootsTech.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2024/03/randy-not-at-rootstech-2024-day-2-friday.html

MyHeritage Launches OldNews.com: A New Website for Exploring Historical Newspapers

I received this information from MyHeritage today:

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MyHeritage Launches OldNews.com: A New Website for Exploring Historical Newspapers

OldNews.com includes hundreds of millions of pages from thousands of historical newspaper titles from the U.S., Europe, Oceania and more

TEL AVIV, Israel & LEHI, Utah, March 1, 2024 — MyHeritage, the leading global family history platform, announced today the launch of OldNews.com, an innovative website for historical newspapers. OldNews.com enables genealogists, researchers, and history enthusiasts to search, save, and share articles about people and events throughout history. At launch, OldNews.com includes a huge repository of hundreds of millions of historical newspaper pages from around the world, with millions more added monthly. The website features easy navigation and consists of a diverse range of high-quality publications, from major international newspapers to small-town journals and gazettes.

At launch, OldNews.com more than doubles the amount of historical newspaper content that was previously available on MyHeritage. The website includes all the historical newspapers from MyHeritage, plus new, unique content. The new content was processed using best-in-class optical character recognition (OCR) technology and enhanced with sophisticated algorithms developed in-house by MyHeritage.

Historical newspapers offer a treasure trove of stories that are rich in detail. In the past, you didn’t need to be famous to appear in the newspaper; anyone could be found in them, which makes them of tremendous value to genealogists, historians, and educators. Whether you are looking to discover fascinating stories about your ancestors and the wider historical context of their lives, or want to gain deeper insights into watershed moments in history, OldNews.com is a vital resource for you. In addition to headline news, historical newspapers offer valuable details about life events such as birth announcements, marriage announcements and obituaries; sports and culture; lifestyle news; advertisements, and more.

OldNews.com offers a wide range of publications from local, national, and international news, with extensive coverage of the 1800s and 1900s. At launch, the site includes newspapers from publications across the U.S., Canada, U.K., Austria, the Netherlands, and Australia. Millions of newspaper pages are added each month, and content from additional countries will be added in the future. The site is available in 11 languages: English, French, German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese. More newspapers in some of these languages will be added soon.

“Historical newspapers contain a wealth of information and provide an unparalleled level of detail about the past,” says Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. “We are launching OldNews.com to serve as our focal point for historical newspapers, with a robust content offering. This release is just the beginning; we have an incredible pipeline of additional content and features, and ambitious plans to make OldNews.com the number one online repository of international historical newspapers beyond the English-speaking world. On a personal level, I’ve uncovered wonderful insights into my own family history through historical newspapers, and I’m confident OldNews.com will deliver similar, exceptional value to researchers of all kinds. For genealogists, nothing beats OldNews!”

The website includes an easy-to-use search engine so anyone can quickly and effortlessly find information on a person, topic, or event. Every search result includes a zoomed-in thumbnail image of the article, with the terms from the search query highlighted. The search terms are also highlighted when viewing the full article. Additional browsing capabilities and new features such as saving and sharing newspaper clippings will be added in the coming months.

OldNews.com is a subscription-based service, and customers can start a 7-day free trial to explore the content before committing to an annual OldNews.com Pro subscription, which costs $99/year with 25% off the first year.

Content from OldNews.com is also accessible with MyHeritage’s new Omni subscription plan, launched today. The Omni plan is a one-stop shop for genealogy and a superset of MyHeritage’s Complete plan. It includes full access to all features and content on MyHeritage, plus all newspapers on OldNews.com, a Geni.com Pro plan, all 2,136 genealogy and DNA webinars on Legacy Family Tree Webinars, and unlimited photo scanning using MyHeritage’s Reimagine photo app. The new Omni plan gives family history enthusiasts of all levels highly affordable access to a vast range of family tree tools, historical records, historical newspapers, innovative technologies, and expert knowledge to help propel their research to new heights. This combines many of the best tools and services in the genealogy industry into one subscription plan that is much more affordable than when purchased separately.

Existing MyHeritage users can log in to OldNews.com with their MyHeritage account credentials, and new users registering via OldNews.com can use the same login credentials to access MyHeritage. OldNews.com supports Two-Factor Authentication, for enhanced security.

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Disclosure: I receive a complimentary subscription to MyHeritage, and have received other material consideration in past years. I uploaded my autosomal DNA raw data to their DNA product. This does not affect my objective analysis of MyHeritage products. I am a subscriber to Family Tree Webinars and love it.

The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2024/03/myheritage-launches-oldnewscom-new.html

Added and Updated Ancestry.com Record Collections - Week of 24 February to 1 March 2024

The following genealogy record collections were listed on the Recently Added and Updated Collections page during the period from 24 February to 1 March 2024:

The ADDED and Updated collections include:

* Geneanet Community Trees Index; indexed records without record images, Updated 02/27/2024

* Somme, France, Births, Marriages, and Deaths, 1526-1996; indexed records without record images, Updated 02/27/2024

* Northern Ireland, Headstone Indexes, 1658-2018; indexed records without record images, ADDED 02/26/2024

* New York State, U.S., Death Index, 1957-1972; indexed records without record images, Updated 02/26/2024

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

By my count, there were 41NEW record collections ADDED this past week, per the list above. There are now 33,423 collections available as of 1 March, an INCREASE of 1 from last week.

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Disclosure: I receive a complimentary World Explorer subscription from Ancestry.com, for which I am thankful. Ancestry.com has provided material considerations for travel expenses to meetings, and has hosted events and meals that I have attended in Salt Lake City, in past years.

The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2024/03/added-and-updated-ancestrycom-record.html

Please note that all Comments are moderated so they may not appear immediately.

Thursday, February 29, 2024

Randy (Not) At RootsTech 2024 - Day 1 (Thursday)

I'm not at RootsTech 2024 in Salt Lake City (due to my health issues), but I had a full day watching virtually from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Pacific time.

1) Here are the scheduled classes that I watched online:

7 a.m.: Fixing Sticky Problems in FamilySearch Family Tree, by Kathryn Grant. Excellent advice on how to fix erroneous merges.

8:30 a.m.: Who is My Ancestor? Tracing Individuals with Similar Names, by D. Joshua Taylor. We all have them!

10 a.m.: RootsTech2024 | General Session 1 | Henry Cho – Steve Rockwood, CristaCowan (Ancestry), Henry Cho. Rockwood showed the very emotional "Remember" video again. Crista highlighted recent new Ancestry features. Cho was funny, but the audience took awhile to laugh.

11:15 a.m.: GeneticGenealogy Turns 25: DNA Experts Tell Their Stories, Diahan Southard and 7 DNA Pioneers. An interesting review of genetic genealogy history by 8 experts.

12:30 p.m. : What’s New at Ancestry® in 2024, by Crista Cowan. More information about new Ancestry features.

2. p.m.: Innovation and Tech Forum 2024, by Jared Spataro (Microsoft), Jon Morrey (FamilySearch), Jonathan Gibson (Living History AI), Laryn Brown (Storied), Max Ejberowicz and Ariel Mathov (EmulateMe), Cameron Graham (Storii), and Hunter Cannon (Ancestry). Spataro was excellent with simple yet illuminating examples. Living History AI and EmulateMe are historical people telling their stories. Storii is a phone call system to record stories for future access by descendants. I wondered if EmulateMe would show my avatar video in their segment in the Innovation and Tech Forum. They didn't, but Ariel did mention my name!

3:30 p.m.: Climbing Your Branch of the FamilySearch Family Tree, by Alice Childs. Lots of useful information for folks using FSFT.

2) I also visited the online Expo Hall:

Everything there is text or video. I could not get the Chat to work with any vendor.

I watched the four Ancestry.com In-Booth Demos available (also on YouTube at this time):

* DNA Compare: A Powerful New Way to Win Arguments at Family Dinners with Kyle Miller & Sarah Taylor**. Compare traits, ethnicities, and communities with family and matches.

* Ancestry® and Beyond with Lisa Cook. Collection information, tree-building, story-telling, Newspapers, com, FindAGrave, and Fold3 information.

* Deeper Discoveries with New AncestryDNA® Match Tools with Kyle Miller & Team**. It appears that ProTools will include an enhanced Matches view (cM values of shared matches with a Match) and an indicator for matches with a triangulated segment. Will those enhanced features require a ProTools subscription?

* HowAI is Accelerating Discoveries at Ancestry® with Hunter Cannon. Digitizing records, preserving memories, sharing with others, more color buttons, ethnicity information, life story information, and research assistant.

3) I also noted that the number on Online sessions have increased to 200 total - with 38 On-Demand sessions added. Check them out. I added a number of them to My Playlist.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2024/02/randy-not-at-rootstech-2024-day-1.html

MyHeritage Introduces All-New Profile Pages With Hints

I received thes information from Daniel Horowitz of MyHeritage today:

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Today we released all-new profile pages on MyHeritage! The profile page is among the most visited pages on MyHeritage, and is one of the most valuable ones for genealogists. Many users requested that we add additional capabilities to the page and offered suggestions for how to make it more useful. You asked, and we listened! This is a whole new experience that is more than just a single page; it’s a centralized hub for everything known about a person.

Not only do the profile pages remain free, they are now more useful than ever!

This major enhancement includes a more organized layout and useful features so you can review the existing information about a person, add or edit new details directly on the page, research the person, and much more. The list of functionalities is extensive, and this blog post covers the highlights. To try each and every one, we encourage you to visit your tree, open the new profile pages, and start exploring!

We’ve also added Hints, which are a unique, highly useful way of presenting new details from your matches within the context of an individual profile. Hints rely on the same matching technology you know from Smart Matches™ and Record Matches, but package it in a new way that focuses on the new information that you don’t have, for the individual whose profile you are now viewing. Hints surface the matches that are available to you and can enrich your tree in three very important ways: by adding more complete life events, more complete details for life events already listed in the tree, such as a birth place or birth date, or revealing new relatives.

The new profile pages are available on the MyHeritage website on desktop. We will soon add Hints to the MyHeritage mobile app as well.

Read all about the new profile pages and Hints in the blog post.

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Treasure Chest Thursday - 1848 Baptism of Thomas Richman (1848-1917) in Trowbridge, Wiltshire

It's Treasure Chest Thursday - an opportunity to look in my digital image files to see what treasures I can find for my family history research and genealogy musings.

The treasure today is the 1848 baptism entry for Thomas Richman in the Wiltshire, England, Non-Conformists Baptisms, Marriages and Burial Records, 1810-1987:

The baptism entry is the third entry in the list:

The abstract of this record is::

* When Baptized: July 13 [1848]

* Child's Name: Thomas

* Parents Christian Names: James & Hannah

* Parents Surname: Richman

* Abode: Hilperton

* Child's Age: June 10 1848

* Minister: W'm Box

The source citation for this record is (using Evidence Explained 4th edition template 10):

Wiltshire Non-Conformist Registers, Thomas Richman baptism entry, 13 July 1848; imaged, "Wiltshire, England Non-Conformists Baptisms, Marriages and Burial Records, 1810-1987," Ancestry.com (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/61766/images/61766_302022005560_3245-00041 : accessed 28 February 2024) > Methodists > Trowbridge, Manvers St > Mixed > 1843-1863 > image 40 of 114; citing Wiltshire Non-Conformist Registers, Chippenham, Wiltshire, England: Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre.

This is an entry in the register for the Manvers Street Wesleyan-Methodist Chapel in Trowbridge, Wiltshire. It is an Original Source with Primary Information and Direct Evidence of the baptism of Thomas Richman.

Thomas Richman (1848-1917) was born 10 June 1848 in Hilperton, Wiltshire, the son of James and Hannah (Rich) Richman. He was baptized on 13 July 1848 in the Manvers Street Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in Trowbridge. The Richman family migrated to Rhode Island and Connecticut in 1856, and Thomas Richmond married Julia E. White on 20 June 1868 in Killingly, Connecticut. Thomas died 9 November 1917 in Clinton, Massachusetts.

Before I found this record on Ancestry.com, I was unable to find a baptism in the Hilperton (Church of England) parish records, but I found his birth entry in the Civil Registration. Hannah (Rich) Richman was probably baptized in this same church in 1824, and the record was copied into the Hilperton parish registers in 1837, but her baptism record is not in this Non-Conformist Register at Ancestry.com.

Thomas and Julia (White) Richmond are my great-grandparents; they had 9 children, including my grandmother Alma Bessie Richmond (1882-1962) who married Frederick Walton Seaver (1876-1942) in 1900 in Leominster, Massachusetts.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2024/02/treasure-chest-thursday-1848-baptism-of.html

All comments are moderated, and may not appear immediately after posting.