Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Your Top 5 or 10 Fee-Based Genealogy Sites

 Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

 It's Saturday Night again - 

Time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  Ken McKinlay posted My Top 10 Fee-based Genealogy Sites this past week, so I've made it the challenge this week (thanks to Linda Stufflebean for the suggestion!).

2)  List your Top 5 or 10 top fee-based genealogy sites, and a short reason for listing them.

3)  Share you list on your own blog, in a comment on this post, or on Facebook.  Please leave a link to your list wherever it is.

Here's mine:

1)  Ancestry.com -- it has the most record collections, the most complex search system, the most record hints, etc.  I do a lot of my record finding there.  I'm in it every day.

2)  AmericanAncestors.org -- I have so many New England ancestral families and AA has so many records that other sites don't have.  This is my go-to site for probate records in estate file form, for many vital records, etc.  I'm in it every week at least.

3)  FamilyTreeWebinars.com -- this is my favorite education site, with several recorded webinars every week and a library of about 1,400 webinars.  Amazing breadth her.  I'm in it every week.

4)  MyHeritage.com -- it has many collections, and some are unique to MyHeritage.  The record hints are more accurate than any other site.  I love the search by source for people in my MyHeritage tree.  I'm in it several times a week.

5)  Newspapers.com -- the newspaper collections are wonderful, but the OCR indexing leaves something to be desired.  I'm in this site several times a week, often as a result of a Hint on Ancestry.  

6)  Findmypast.com -- it also has many collections, and some are unique to Findmypast.  I have many English (but no Irish, Scots or Welsh!) ancestral families so the breadth here is very useful.   I wish it had more from records Wiltshire and Somerset, though.  I use the NewspaperArchive and PERSI links occasionally.  I'm in this site several times a week.

7)  GenealogyBank.com -- this newspaper site (plus other useful collections) is excellent, and includes the San Diego papers.  I'm in this site at least once a week.

8)  Geni.com -- this collaborative family tree can be very useful for finding one-name study people, for other researchers with my ancestors, and for relationships with famous people.  I'm in it at least once a week.

9)  Fold3.com -- this site is my go-to site for military records, and it used to be the only site with indexed city directories and big city newspapers.  I'm in this site several times a month.

10)  FamilyTreeDNA.com (I count this as fee-based because I had to pay to use it) -- this DNA site is excellent, and the family trees can help me find distant cousins and most recent common ancestors.

That's my ten.  I don't use Archives.com or VitalSearch.com; I do use 23andMe.com but they don't have match's trees; I don't have a GEDmatch Tier 1 subscription; I do have a Genetic Affairs monthly subscription which was very helpful for DNA clusters before Ancestry canceled it;  I do have Virtual Genealogical Society and DNA Central subscriptions; I don't subscribe to ScotlandsPeople or The Genealogist or any Irish fee site; I don't have any other subscriptions to other fee-based sites to my knowledge.  I didn't consider software programs, genealogical or historical societies (except for NEHGS/AmericanAncestors) subscriptions.  

I know I've missed or forgotten about some websites - I look forward to exploring some that others comment on.

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The URL for this post is: https://www.geneamusings.com/2020/10/saturday-night-genealogy-fun-your-top-5.html

Copyright (c) 2020, Randall J. Seaver

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Genealogist Beware: DeathRecords.org is a Commercial Site

Dick Eastman posted "New Web Site: DeathRecords.org to Help Automate Genealogical Research" today on the Eastman Online Genealogy Newsletter blog.

I was curious so I clicked through to see if it was worthwhile to explore further:

Here is the home page:

I put Isaac Seaver's name in the fields and clicked on "Search Now."

A popup window appeared that said they have access to over 500 million records nationwide, and my search found "over 75" records for Isaac Seaver in the United States.

I clicked the blue "Continue" button and saw essentially the same message:

I clicked the "Continue" button and the order form popped up:

So it looks like I can enter my personal information and my credit card information, and for only one dollar ($1) they will provide a report with all of the information they found, presumably via email.  You can also subscribe for a year at $18.95 per month for up to 25 monthly reports.

Most search requests with even uncommon names return "75 records."  

A search for "Joseph Zxcvbadfas" returns 75 records.  A Google search returns zero matches, an Ancestry.com search returns zero matches or familySearch.org search returns zero matches.

More questions:

*  Will I get only the first 75 records?

*  Can they find my particular John Smith who died in 1675 in Massachusetts?  Or is it just recent records (20th century or later)?

*  Are they only "death records" from some resource?  Or are there other records also?

*  Why can't I input more information, like a place name or a year (or year range) in order to narrow the search?

*  What resources does this web site access?  The site provides no list of resources.

*  How does this "automate" my genealogy search?  Does it give me green leaf hints, or suggested record matches, or add facts to my RootsMagic program?  No, it probably gives me a list of names and other information that I would have to manually enter into my database if they apply to my person.

The "About Us" link indicated that this is really an obituary lookup service.  Does it access only free publicly available databases (like the Rootsweb Obituary Daily Times?)?

Back on the home page, there was a link for a 24/7 Live Chat link, so I engaged that and discussed the resources with "Harry" (which doesn't match the picture of the pretty woman on the chat box):

Here is the conversation I had with "Harry:"

Please wait for a site operator to respond.

You are now chatting with 'Harry'

Harry: Welcome to Customer Service Livechat. In order to pull up your account, could you please provide me the email address, full name and zip code you used to order our services?

you: I don't have an account yet. How extensive are your resources? Is there a list of the resources you use to search for death records?

Harry: Our reports are generated from several databases and we provide all the information available.

you: do I get charged if you don't find anything?

Harry: We offer 100% Money back. If you don't find anything then you can contact us and ask for refund.

you: other websites tell me what resources they use. Do you check Ancestry.com or genealogyBank.com or NewspaperARCHIVE.com or Archives.com or the California Death Index or the Social Security Master Death File?

Harry: Like I said our reports are generated from several databases and we provide all the information available.

you: surely you have a list of all of your databases. Why won't you provide a listing of them?

Harry: I am sorry but I don't have that information.

you: OK, thanks for your help.

Harry: Thanks for chatting. Have a great day.

OK, so I found out that Harry doesn't know what resources they have.  Most genealogy websites tell you, even boast about, their resources.  This site doesn't.

At least the price is relatively low for a "death record."  I resisted the temptation to see what $1 would buy me to find out about Isaac Seaver.

This is a commercial web site for obituary lookups.  The primary market is probably the public who are not genealogists and want to see when their friend or relative died.  But it's probably not a fraud site - it will probably return 75 matches in response to a request and the payment.

In my humble opinion, other websites with more resources are available for genealogy researchers, and many of them are free to use.

Genealogists beware...

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/11/genealogist-beware-deathrecordsorg-is.html

Copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

My Top Ten Most Useful Online Genealogy Databases to Research My Family Tree

James Tanner wrote My Current Top Ten U.S. Databases for Researching My Family Tree yesterday, so I thought I would list my most useful genealogy websites/databases also.  These are specific to me and my interests - yours will probably vary significantly:

1)  Ancestry.com ($$) - With over 31,000 different databases, this is a clear #1 choice.  Vital records, census records, military records, immigration records, books, newspaper records (courtesy of NewspaperARCHIVE), maps, DNA tests and matches, documented Ancestry Member Trees, and more.  Green leaf hints, and historical record matches help.

2)  FamilySearch.org (Free) - historical records (searchable and browsable), books, research wiki, FHL Catalog, Learning Center videos, FamilySearch Family Tree, and more.  In the near future, this may become number one on my hit parade because of access to land and probate records for every state.

3)  MyHeritage/WorldVitalRecords ($$) - The Record Matches in MyHeritage, with a MH/WVR data subscription, provide smart targeted access to records (including census records, Find A Grave, NewspaperARCHIVE, etc.) for persons in my MyHeritage family tree.

4)  Find A Grave (Free) - With over 100 million memorials, this is an excellent site to find cemetery records and more.  Users can request photos of a specific gravesite in a specific cemetery.  Many memorials provide photos of gravestones, leads to other information, and obituaries.

5)  AmericanAncestors ($$) - The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) site focuses on New England and New York, but has online access to two historical newspaper collections and several periodicals outside the region.  I have lots of New England ancestry!

6)  GenealogyBank ($$) - This book, current and historical newspaper site continues to grow, and has San Diego area newspapers now.

7)  Fold3.com ($$) - Ancestry owned, this site has many unique military record collections, and is adding the War of 1812 and Civil War pension files gradually.  It also has selected large city historical newspapers and city directories that are very useful.

8)  Chronicling America (Free) - this historical newspaper site constantly is adding content.

9)  Joe Beine's German Roots (Free) - The list of all of Joe's "Online Genealogy Records, Indexes and Databases" provides links to online collections of vital records, military records, passenger lists, naturalization records, county histories, historical newspapers, German research, and more.

10)  Google (Free) - The Google search engine finds links to anything I search for, plus Google Books, Translate, maps, Google Earth, and Blogger (which I can't live without), Google+ Communities, Hangouts, etc.

Only ten?  Want more? - I have many more favorites - the next five are:

*  FindMyPast.com ($$) - I use it mostly for English records, but it is building a U.S. record collection (it has all U.S. Census records).

*  USGenWeb (Free) - User-submitted web pages for every state, and every county, plus an Archive search covering all states.

*  Internet Archive (Free) - digitized books, media, and more.

*  Rootsweb/Ancestry (Free) - WorldConnect family trees, vital record databases, free pages, message boards and mailing lists are free to access.

*  Family Tree Webinars (Free/$$) - watch live hour-long presentations for free for one week, then you need a subscription.

I have many more items listed by category on my Randy's Genealogy Links page.

What online genealogy databases are your favorites?  Tell us in comments to this post, or better yet, write your own blog post about them.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/07/my-top-ten-online-genealogy-databases.html

copyright (c) 2013, Randall J. Seaver

Genea-Musings is #80 on the GenealogyInTime Hit Parade

Being a "Numbers Guy," I collected Top 40 music surveys in the 1950s and 1960s, once having the largest collection in the USA.  So I'm partial to Top NN lists of all types.  Especially when I make the list!

Genea-Musings is #80 on the GenealogyInTime digital magazine list of the Top 100 Genealogy Websites for 2013!

And aways down the list, there is little old Genea-Musings at #80:

I am honored and flattered to be on the list.  Thank you, GenealogyInTime, for including my little blog that ticks right along with a staff of 1.0 persons!

The measurement tool that GenealogyInTime used was the Alexa metric of Traffic Rank, which measures global traffic.  The raw data from Alexa is on the Appendix page on the GenealogyInTime Top 100 list page.

There are 5 genealogy blogs in the "Blog" category on the Top 100 list:

#20  Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, written by Dick Eastman (Traffic Rank = 37,064)

#80  Genea-Musings, written by Randy Seaver (Traffic Rank = 192,750)

#89  Geneabloggers, written by Thomas MacEntee (Traffic Rank = 225,568)

#94  GenealogyBlog, written by Leland Meitzler (Traffic Rank = 252,569)

#95  Anglo-Celtic Connections, written by John D. Reid (Traffic Rank = 258,998)

Actually, Kimberly Powell's About Genealogy blog should have been included in the "blog" category but was in the "Articles" category - her articles were written as a blog, and she has an RSS feed.  Her site is #28 on the list with an Alexa Traffic Rank of 54,079.

Congratulations to the above genealogy bloggers on making the Top 100 list.  My understanding is that several other geneabloggers almost made the Top 100.

These traffic rankings fluctuate each month, and I think that I lucked out by getting a large number of hits on some posts in December 2012.  Hey, I don't mind being #2 on the blog list!  Dick Eastman is so far ahead of the rest of us.  He recently wrote that he receives over 74,000 unique visits per day.  In comparison, Genea-Musings received an average of 937 unique visits per day, and 1,584 Page Views per day, in December 2012.  That's a big difference - Dick receives over 75 times my Genea-Musings visits per day.

There are, of course, other measures of traffic, and blogs suffer from the emphasis on Global Traffic Ranking (since the user has to actually go to the website involved).  Blogs can be accessed on RSS readers, Networked Blogs on Facebook, and by email subscription.

One more "hit parade" item - Genea-Musings moved up 10 places from #90 in 2012 to #80 in 2013 - steady progress.  Will Genea-Musings be #1 in 2021?  I doubt it.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2013/01/genea-musings-is-80-on-genealogyintime.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

FindMyPast.com's Terms and Conditions Revised

After Judy G. Russell's post on Monday, titled Terms of Use: findmypast.com, I was concerned that my use of screen shots and document images obtained from the FindMyPast.com's website were prohibited.  I sent an email to FindMyPast.com requesting clarification of some specific areas of concern for me (and others).

Brian Speckart, Marketing Manager of North America for Brightsolid Online Publishing Company Inc., provided a link to the updated FindMyPast.com Terms and Conditions page at https://www.findmypast.com/content/terms-and-conditions.  I appreciate that Brian and the Brightsolid team revised the T&Cs quickly and to the benefit of most researchers, especially professionals and geneabloggers!

Judy G. Russell highlighted the revisions as they apply to professionals and geneabloggers in her post Update: FindMyPast.com Amends Terms on The Legal Genealogist blog.

I encourage every subscriber to read the revised Terms and Conditions at https://www.findmypast.com/content/terms-and-conditions.

Here were the questions that I asked Brian about in my email on Monday, and my interpretation of the revised T&Cs as they apply to my specific questions.  I am not an attorney, so my interpretations may be wrong; if so, I hope that FindMyPast.com will correct any misinterpretations I have:

1)  Can I use a screen capture of the FindMyPast.com website pages, or a snippet (magnified view of part of the image) of the web page, which may contain all or some of a record, on my blog?  If not, why not?

My interpretation:  It is permissible to use a screen capture of a FindMyPast website page, including all or part of the image of a document.  I am unclear about the snippet.

2)  Can I use an image of a record (e.g., census page, parish register, etc.) saved from FindMyPast on my blog?  If not, why not?

My interpretation:  I cannot use an image of a document or record, that I saved to my computer, on my blog without their written permission.  

3)  Can I use the image of a record saved from FindMyPast and attach it to a person or source in my genealogy software program (e.g., RootsMagic)?  If not, why not?

My interpretation:  This was not addressed.  My guess is that I can attach the downloaded record, as long as it was for my personal use, to a person or a source in my genealogy software program.

4)  Can I use the image of a record saved from FindMyPast and attach it to a person or a source in an online family tree (e.g., Ancestry Member Tree, Geni.com, MyHeritage, FMP, etc.)?  If not, why not.

My interpretation:  I cannot "share" a downloaded and attached document image in an online family tree.  It's unclear if I can attach the document image to a FindMyPast.com family tree.

5)  If I am not permitted to do any or all of the above according to the T&Cs, will FindMyPast.com grant me permission to do them? If so, which ones will FMP grant me permission to do?  Or do I have to request permission in each instance?

My interpretation:  I need to request written permission for every document image that I want to post to my blog, or put in a periodical or book publication, or add to an online family tree.

6)  Since I have already posted some screen captures on my blog, will FMP permit me to remove them from my blog posts without any penalty if that is not permitted?

My interpretation:  FindMyPast.com now permits screen captures, so this is not an issue.

7)  Who owns the copyright or database rights to the England and Wales Census Record images, the parish register index and images, the images from the Civil Registration books, etc.?  Are those spelled out anywhere when a user accesses the database?

My interpretation:  Other organizations and individuals own the intellectual property rights to the document images.  The property rights holders are usually identified on most records.

8)  Why are there limitations on posting images to a blog, or including them in a book?  Do the holders of the copyright for the image require this?

My interpretation:  No direct response here, but it's implied in 7) above!

Things are not "wonderful" for professional genealogists who are performing client work.  The FindMyPast Terms and Conditions require the use of "Pay As You Go" Credits for client work.  The Credits for the World Subscription offer was $13.95 for 100 credits.  Most record transcriptions, and most record images cost between 5 and 30 credits.  Therefore, it may relatively expensive (much more than $60 a year) to do extensive online research for clients at FindMyPast.com. 

Another piece of good news today - the $4.95 per month World Subscription offer is still available. If that interests you, I encourage you to subscribe immediately because the company set aside only so many at this special price.  The special offer may end at any time!

What do my readers think?  Are my interpretations correct?  Please comment!  also identify other questions that pertain to these issues.

My thanks to Judy Russell for highlighting this issue on her blog and on Facebook.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/08/findmypastcoms-terms-and-conditions.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

TANSTAAFL - 2012 Update

In Thomas MacEntee's Genea-Opportunities series this week on Geneabloggers, he posted Genealogy - Whjat Do You Mean It isn't Free? A 2012 Update.  I'm providing my own comments a day after...

I wrote something on this topic back in 2007 - see TANSTAAFL.  Here is my update of that post:

There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL). We've all heard that throughout our lives - as children, as students, as adults, as workers, as players, as genealogists. It takes money for the world to go around. If you're getting something for free, then someone else is paying for it.

DearMYRTLE and Jasia posted back in 2007 about the "hidden" costs of all of the free genealogy data we have available to us - the web sites, genealogy societies, databases, search engines etc. Someone pays - the web site owner, the advertisers, or you and me. I want to address the "you and me" part of it.

Every so often, someone posts a rant on one of my mailing lists decrying the cost of joining a genealogy society, the cost of an Ancestry (or other commercial site) subscription, or the use of user-contributed databases by a commercial web site. Once in awhile, a person in my genealogy society meetings goes off on the subscription genealogy websites, especially Ancestry.com.  I understand that many people are on limited incomes, and have to make priorities in their spending - genealogy may not be a necessary cost when a person is financially squeezed. But sometimes the rant is based on the notion that "someone wants to rip me off," or "they only want to make a big profit."

To my mind, a commercial genealogy company like Ancestry.com (which has Rootsweb, Ancestry, MyFamily, Genealogy.com, FamilyTreeMaker, Fold3, Archibes.com and other sites under its umbrella) is in a competitive business of providing information to customers (you and me). They offer an annual US Deluxe subscription (all of the US-based collections) for $155.40 a year, and an annual World Deluxe subscription for $299.40 (all collections). When you consider this on a daily basis, it is $0.43 a day for the US and $0.82 for the World. That is a pretty good deal IF you will use it on a regular basis.

Consider also that access to many of Ancestry's databases is available at libraries in the US in the form of Ancestry Library Edition. And that they provide access to Rootsweb (databases, mailing lists, message boards, freepages, society web pages, etc) for free. 

I don't know about you, but my Ancestry subscription is probably the wisest and smartest genealogy investment I've made in the last ten years. I use it almost every day. I can use it any time of day, at home on my desktop, at others homes or on vacation on my laptop or another computer, or on my smart phone and tablet device.

The biggest value, though, is the time (and money) it saves me - I can search databases and documents that I would otherwise have to travel a distance to find (incurring transportation and lodging costs), or find and copy at a local repository (copy costs, film rentals), or hire a professional genealogist to find (lookups or copies from a distant repository). I can download images from it and save them digitally - I don't have to abstract or transcribe it by hand to obtain a copy.

Some people have bemoaned the fact that there are so many commercial genealogy web sites now available and that they cost money. The fact is that these web sites (I'm thinking MyHeritage/WorldVitalRecords, GenealogyBank, AmericanAncestors, and FindMyPast here) are providing access to unique documents and databases that are not available at the Ancestry or LDS web sites - they are providing a service to their subscribers.

My view is that competition is GREAT for genealogy - when there are several content providers, they will fight for customers and continue to increase their product and their holdings. The worst thing that would happen to genealogy would be if one commercial company swallowed all of the others.

I, as a subscriber, have to make the choice whether to subscribe or not, based on the database offerings and my perceived need for them. Even so, the costs are not exorbitant to my way of thinking when considered as a daily or weekly cost. I could subscribe to all of those databases mentioned above for about $1.50 per day. I imagine that I spend $1.50 a day on things I "want" but don't "need." Heck, my cable modem connection costs me about $1.50 a day, and I use it for about 6 to 8 hours daily - I definitely "need" it!.  My smart phone is $2 a day for phone, message and web access.

I am especially grateful for the work done by the LDS church in providing - totally free - a large research library in Salt Lake City, 4,500 Family History Centers all over the world, access to millions of data microforms, and the https://www.familysearch.org/ web site with over 1,200 historical record collections (and more on the way), the research wiki, the research courses, and much more.  This organization will continue to add new databases and documents over the next many years, and is collaborating with several of the subscription sites to make their databases available at LDS facilities - for free.

What makes the most sense to me is for each researcher to evaluate their available income for genealogy-related activities, and budget accordingly. If you are not going to use a genealogy subscription service more often than once a month, it makes no sense to subscribe - you can go to a library or an FHC and find almost every thing that is available. If you are doing research every day, a personal subscription makes a lot of sense.

TANSTAAFL is a true statement - but in my humble opinion, genealogy resources on the Internet are almost FREE, and I am happy and grateful that commercial genealogy companies exist to provide data and information to their customers. I hope that they keep up the good work - and the competition - because all genealogists and family historians will benefit.

Note: I am not a member of the LDS church, or an employee or affiliate of any of the web sites mentioned. I do have a US Ancestry subscription that I pay for. I'm just a genealogy guy who is having a lot of fun searching for my own ancestors and helping other people in their searches.
The URL for this post is:

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Tuesday's Tip - SamPubCo has Probate Indexes and more

This week's Tuesday's Tip is:  Look on the SamPubCo website (www.sampubco.com) to find probate records for your ancestors, especially in New York!

David Samuelson is the proprietor of SamPubCo, and it is a business venture.  If you order something from the site, you will have to pay for it.  My understanding is that Mr. Samuelson has access to the LDS Family History Library microfilms and provides digital or paper copies of over 230,000 records for a fee.

The home page of the website looks like this:

There are links on the home page to Wills, Guardianships, Naturalizations, Letters of Administration, Letters Testamentary, Surrogate's Records/Probate Files, and Census.  For each category, there are links to the states available, and on the state pages there are links to the counties available.  Within a county, there are links to alphabetical lists of the records, along with the list of record volume numbers for the county.

If you see a record that you want, you write down the type of record, the state, the county, plus the volume and page number of the record.  You then fill out a text-based order form (either by hand or in a word processor) and submit it to SamPubCo (either by email or by snail mail - email is cheaper!).  You pay with either a credit card, PayPal or an echeck online, or a personal check if by mail.

I was interested in the KNAPP surname in Dutchess County, New York.  Here are the available Wills:

The available Surrogate's Records/Probate Files for Dutchess County were:

On the page with the Wills is a link for the list of volumes for Dutchess County (http://www.sampubco.com/wills/volumes/nydutchess.htm) which provides a list of the volume numbers and years:

The other record types have similar listings of record volumes.

SamPubCo seems to have concentrated on New York, and on Wills.  However, check all of the record types to determine if your ancestors of interest are available.  

The alternative for all researchers who want these records is to either travel to the State/County of interest and access the records in a County office, go to the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and access the records on microfilm, order microfilms from the FHL at a local FamilySearch Center and read/copy them there, or to hire a local researcher to find and copy the records for you.  SamPubCo gives you a fairly cost effective option if your ancestor is listed in his files.

The URL for this post is:  http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/04/tuesdays-tip-sampubco-has-probate.html

Copyright (c) 2012, Randall J. Seaver

Checking out Historic Map Works

FamilyLink.com and Historic Map Works publicized their partnership yesterday - you can read the press release here. It is unclear how users will access the Historic Map Works site through FamilyLink.com - will it be through a search or browse on www.WorldVitalRecords.com, or through the FamilyLink Plus subscription (which may or may not be different from the WVR subscription - I don't know!).

I decided to look into the Historic Map Works site. I registered for a Free Account, and the welcome page showed:




The site notes that:

"Your account has been successfully created with the username rjseaver. An email containing your login information has been sent to the email address you provided. We have automatically logged you in. You can manage your account by clicking the "My Account" link in the menu. We have added $0.90 of Bonus Credit to your account to get you started (that's 45 map views)! To get started, add credit to your account or buy an inclusive subscription.

"Why Should I Add Credit?
When you add credit to your BASIC PAY-PER-USE account, it can be used to access our premium features such as Enhanced Zoom, Address Search, Directory Viewing, Downloads-at-Home, and Print-at-Home functions. When you use one of these features, the appropriate amount of credit is automatically deducted from your account. Credit can also be used toward the purchase of any print, framed print, or gift item on the site."

The site offers a pay-per-view option (you add money with a credit card) , a monthly subscription ($29.99) or a yearly subscription ($249.99):



What are the relative benefits between a pay-per-use account and a subscription: The table below shows the benefits:

The pay-per-use account permits Collection Viewing, Research Functions, and a way to keep track of favorites.

The additional features for a subscriber include bookmarking maps in Historic Earth, 50 "Prints at home" per month, 10 PDF (72 dpi) downloads per month, 10 JPEG (72 dpi) downloads per month, and 1 300-dpi JPEG download per month.

For the pay-per-use account, the user has to pay 99 cents per Print-at-Home print, $4.99 for a PDF or JPEG (72 dpi) per download, or $19.99 for a JPEG (300-dpi) download.

The user can search for a given city, county or state - the "Search" page has a simple search box:

I input Killingly, Connecticut to see what was offered , and received this list of maps available:

I clicked on one of these maps, and was able to see the requested map in an (approximate) 8 inches high and 11 inches wide window. The image has a watermark on it. The user can zoom in on the image and move it around - to the extent that you can see the family names on the maps.
I did not show you a screen shot of the Killingly CT map because it might violate the copyright notice. The copyright notice is here. The Terms and Conditions note that:

"You may not download, print, take, use, or copy any image from this website without reading, understanding and complying with the following image usage terms. All images created by Historic Map Works™, either electronic images or artworks, product and web design, shown on this website or elsewhere, are ©Historic Map Works™."

and notes that:

"All images are watermarked.
* For better quality prints and higher detail you can crop this image here.
* High quality prints can be obtained by ordering from our purchase page.
* If you require an image without watermark or you wish to use an image for a use which is not covered in the terms and conditions above, please consult our FAQ section here.

This copyright policy seems to preclude any use of the map images in another online or published work without their approval."

Does Historic Map Works own the copyright to the original maps? I doubt it. Other companies sell these same images in publications. The copyright is likely for the images of the pages, and any improvement to them, and the indexing involved. Does any reader know more about this?

Many of these maps are also offered, often freely, on county and state websites, although without the indexing or the viewing capabilities offered by Historic Map Works.

Back to the issue of access through FamilyLink.com:

* Will users be able to view and download images through the FamilyLink subscription?
* Will users be limited to a number of views or downloads each month?

* Will the images be with or without the watermark?

In my opinion, this collection will be a major boost for FamilyLink IF it is included as part of the WorldVitalRecords subscription, and if unlimited downloads are permitted.

Have you checked out Genlighten's services recently?

...
One of the most intriguing genealogy success stories (at least in my view) is Genlighten, the brainchild of Dean Richardson (who also writes the Genlighten blog).

Genlighten is a commercial genealogy research service (and there are others). Dean has enlisted many genealogy researchers to perform lookups or research in specific repositories or for specific records. The process is described in the FAQ page here. Genlighten receives a portion of the fees for connecting the client with the provider.

Occasionally, Dean highlights one of the providers in a blog post. Today, that person is Michael Hait from the Washington DC area. As part of the interview with Michael, he lists the specific research services that Michael provides. It's an impressive list:

* Maryland Death Certificates, 1875-1982
* Colonial Maryland probate records, 1635-1777
* Search of Maryland County Deed Indexes, 1635-present
* 1867 Texas Voter Registration List (all counties), 1867
* Prince George’s County, Maryland, Wills, 1696-1963

* Maryland Land Patents, 1637-2000
* Prince George’s County, Maryland Marriage Licenses/Records, 1777-1886
* 1783 Maryland Tax Assessment, 1783
* 1776 Maryland State Census, 1776
* Civil War pension files - Union, 1865-1950

Some of those really intrigued me, because my wife has Maryland and DC ancestry (McKnew, Pickrell, Prather, others).

For instance, a lookup in the Prince George's County Wills costs $5 if the index search is unsuccessful, and $15 if the records are found and provided.

What about the Union Civil War pension files? Michael charges $6 for an unsuccessful index search, and $50 for obtaining and providing the complete pension file. That's a real bargain - it costs at least $75 to obtain the file from NARA by mail.

What research needs do you have? Have you checked the Genlighten provider list, and the genealogy services and documents they can provide for a reasonable cost to you?

The list of services and providers is here. Is there something on this list that you need? You can select a specific country and see the services offered for that country. The Genlighten Overview for Lookup Clients is here.

Do you want to be a Genlighten lookup provider? You can be - the Genlighten Lookup Provider FAQ is here.

I'm tempted! I need to check for records in Dodge County, Wisconsin and Hillsborough County, NH, Mercer County, PA, and Jefferson County, NY.

Disclosure: I am not an employee, contractor or affiliate of Genlighten, and have received no remuneration for writing this blog post. I do know and enjoy the company of Dean Richardson, and appreciate his efforts to bring affordable research services to the genealogy world.

Ancestry.com Offering 15% Savings on NEW Subscriptions

The weekly PARADE Magazine, which comes in the San Diego Union-Tribune and many other Sunday newspapers, had a spread about Ancestry.com. Included was a 15% off a membership to http://www.ancestry.com/.

The Ancestry.com "membership" deal is on this page on Ancestry.com. An annual U.S. Deluxe membership would be $132.00, and an annual World Deluxe membership would be $254.40. Similar reductions are available for a three-month or one-month subscription. However, full membership prices are in effect after the end of whatever term a subscriber chooses.

There is a restriction for this deal -- to persons that have not had an Ancestry.com subscription in the last 90 days. That lets me out.

The deal expires 10 July 2010 at Midnight (presumably, that is midnight after 9 July?).

There seem to be few, if any, other Ancestry.com subscription deals available at this time for new subscribers or for renewing subscribers.

This is pretty smart marketing by Ancestry.com. I wonder why they did it in early July instead of during or right after the Who Do You Think You Are? TV series? Perhaps the summer is a historical low period for new subscriptions.

The Parade article has a link to the article How to Build Your Family Tree, with a three-step research process, which includes this quote:

"...You can search for historical records at family history sites like Ancestry.com (in fact, your family tree at Ancestry.com will search the records for you automatically). Start with a parent or grandparent and you may discover marriage details, military records, passenger lists, census records and more. And forget about paperwork: online historic records can be viewed directly from your computer and saved in your family tree for easy access."

I almost fell off my pedestal laughing ... but would have been buried under my paper mountain, little of which was obtained, or can be obtained, from online record sources.

Disclosure: I am not an employee, contractor or affiliate of Ancestry.com, and have received no remuneration for this article. I am a fully paid US Deluxe subscriber to Ancestry.com.

2010 FamilySearch Software Awards - what they mean

..
The FamilySearch 2010 Software Awards were announced in late April by FamilySearch at the Developers Conference. You can read the press release at Renee Zamora's blog (among others - I briefly met Renee at the NGS Conference) that was released yesterday (why did they wait over three weeks?).

The following recipients were announced and the awards were presented at the FamilySearch Developers Conference:

1) Best New Product Awards

* The MagiKey for the “Best New Windows” product -- http://www.themagikey.com/
* Arcalife for the “Best New Web site” -- http://www.arcalife.com/
* MobileTree for “Best New Mobile” product -- http://www.mobiletree.me/
* FamilyInsight for “Best New Macintosh” product -- http://www.ohanasoftware.com/


2) Best New Feature Awards

* OurFamilogy for “Best Research” feature -- http://www.family-genealogy.com/
* SharingTime for “Best Collaboration” feature -- http://www.sharingtime.com/
* Genetree for “Best DNA” feature -- http://www.genetree.com/
* Ancestral Hunt for the “Best Geo-Mapping” feature -- http://www.ancestralhunt.com/
* FamilyPursuit for the “Best Groups” feature -- http://www.familypursuit.com/
* Photoloom for the “Best Media” feature -- http://www.photoloom.com/
* FamilyChArtist for the “Best Print” feature --- www.generationmaps.com/chartist/
* AppleTree for the “Best Celebrity Tree” feature -- http://www.appletree.com/


3) Community Player Awards

* Gaylon Finlay, Incline Software, “Bug Hunter” award -- http://www.ancquest.com/
* Michael Booth and Bruce Buzbee, Roots Magic, “Trailblazer” award -- http://www.rootsmagic.com/

These software awards are important for ALL genealogists (not just genealogists who are LDS church members) because these companies are either FamilySearch certified affiliates already or are striving to be affiliates. As certified affiliates, it is very likely that there will be links to these companies in the New FamilySearch Family Tree online database.

I speculated about how online collaboration was going to occur in New FamilySearch Family Tree in my post Genealogy Collaboration, Take Two, which noted that Sharing Time (http://www.sharingtime.com/) was one of the companies working with FamilySearch to enable real-time collaboration.

My speculation is that persons with a family tree database in RootsMagic will be able to add their tree content to the Family Tree database from within RootsMagic without using a GEDCOM file. Changes to the family tree added to RootsMagic may be able to be added to FamilySearch Family Tree through some sort of synchronization process. Likewise, if your tree data is in FamilySearch, then you can click on Family ChArtist from within New FamilySearch Family Tree and create a beautiful tree chart. And so forth for each software company listed.

The New FamilySearch Family Tree database is currently available only to LDS church members, but FamilySearch has said that it will be opened to the genealogy world in late 2010 or early 2011.

Someone at the NGS Conference told me something like this: "All of the certified affiliates are entrepreneurial companies - they saw the opportunities and are pursuing them. Much of the content produced by these companies will be hosted by the companies, and not on FamilySearch servers. FamilySearch will provide the family tree data, and links to the services." I don't recall who made that comment to me (if you did it, I would appreciate knowing, but then you might want to remain anonymous - your choice. Sorry, I'm a bad reporter here... I forgot to write down my source!).

That's why I think that it is important to investigate and test out these award winning companies. They are going to be the "winners" in their specialized field and many more genealogy researchers will be able to use those services whether through New FamilySearch Family Tree or not.

Some of the selected software winners are already online with significant content and anybody can use them if they wish to. Many of these companies had an exhibit at the NGS 2010 Conference and may be at the SCGS Jamboree in June in Burbank, and at the FGS Conference in August in Knoxville.

As I mentioned above - this is my own speculation based on what I've read, seen and heard over the past months - I'm trying to read the tea leaves here without knowing who is pouring the hot water. If I'm wrong with my speculation, I would like to know it (even anonymously via email, rjseaver@cox.net). I had only a few responses to my earlier posts about collaboration, but nobody said I was wrong.

UPDATED 4 p.m.: A reader provided the link to the New FamilySearch list of certified affiliates - see http://www.familysearch.org/eng/affiliates/index.html. There are descriptions of each product and their compatibility with New FamilySearch Family Tree. Note the Certified Features Legend at the bottom of the page. Interesting!!

First Pass at Family ChArtist

The new Family ChArtist product from Generation Maps was released today.

Janet Hovorka has been providing tutorials daily on The Chart Chick blog trying to help the customer base get ready for this product.




The Family ChArtist product is an online family tree chart creation website where you, as the customer, can design your own chart, and can order the finished product from Generation Maps for a set price (depending on the size of your chart, and the quality of the canvas you select).

Family ChArtist offers a FREE 8.5 x 11 print of a 4-generation family tree chart - you can save it to their system and to your computer as a JPG file, and print it on your printer.

Here is a screen shot of one of my 8.5 x 11 4-generation charts:

Changing the background image is easy with the ribbon of thumbnail images at the bottom of the screen:

As you can see, the user can modify the horizontal and vertical box spacing, box width, add a title and/or a saying, add a background (including your own image if you choose), LDS temple images, borders and embellishments using the tabs at the bottom of the screen. The right-hand side of the screen provides details of your design for the specific tab you are working in.

Here is the screen view of my 8.5 x 11 chart ready to be printed out on my printer - it is 16 mb in size:

If you want a larger wall chart, you can design them up to 36 x 48 inches. I could get six generations to fit nicely on this size chart in a Bow-Tie configuration:

And with another background:

And with an LDS Temple added over the image:

For a stretched Matte Canvas print, the 36 x 48 chart sells for $215.95, for a Matte Canvas print 139.95, for a Vinyl print $79.95. for Professional Paper $59.95, and for Standard Bond paper $34.95. An extra print is half price.

The choices of chart types is limited right now to a pedigree chart or a bow-tie chart. The user cannot change the text size, color or font of the family tree data, or the box and line colors or weights. I imagine that those features will be added over time as the program and website mature.

The Family ChArtist system works fairly well. I had some glitches:

* loading a GEDCOM file from Family Tree Maker resulted in taking a long time finding myself in the jumbled list of 39,000 persons. I finally made a GEDCOM in RootsMagic and the list was in RIN order - found myself easily!

* I couldn't get my own image to load as a background picture.

* Changing the LDS temple image wouldn't load either.

* I had trouble the first time I tried to get the 8.5 x 11 size print and had to start over. It worked fine the second time.

Janet's posts on The Chart Chick blog provide many more examples of the different looks that can be achieved with this system, and provides some step-by-step tutorials on how to get started and use the program.

For a new product, Family ChArtist is off to an auspicious start. I look forward to experimenting with it in future weeks.

Disclosure: I am not an employee of Generation Maps, nor have I been paid for writing about this product. I do think I will like it!

JMK Genealogy Gifts: Dating Tips for Genealogists

I love the humor of Jimmy Kavanagh on the JMK Genealogy Gifts web site, and have bought several of his products before.

His latest "fun" product is "Dating Tips for Genealogists" - you can get it on T-shirts, coffee mugs, mousemats, coasters, etc.

Great one! This may be fodder for a SNGF in the near future! Hmm, I wonder if he asked Pat and Gordon for some tips?

Thank you, Jimmy, for the morning laugh!

If you want some genealogy oriented T-shirts or other products, Jimmy's JMK Genealogy Gifts is a good place to start. I love wearing my T-shirts and getting, um, stares at them! [Hey, that's just one of them...]