Genealogy News
Below is a summary of the most interesting genealogy news. Click on the links for the full genealogy news story.
Genealogy This Week - 24 July 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Update on Australian Trove; Zip Code Finder; The End of Forgetting; What the Library of Congress Archives Today; Who Needs an E-book Reader?...{Click here to read the full column}
Genealogy This Week - 17 July 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Tracking American Counties; Your Privacy; More About Us; Preserving 2010 Sounds; Ancestry Expands to Sweden; Building Anglo-Saxon Roots; The Rise of the Silver Surfer...{Click here to read the full article}
Canada Alters Format of Future Censuses - Census data composes the core of most family trees. A census is often the only official historical source that tracks the evolution of the family unit. Thus, genealogists get upset when governments propose radical changes to the way censuses are conducted. Canada is the latest country to propose a radical rethink of their census...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 10 July 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Searching for Free Public Records; US National Archives Launches First Wiki; National Archives YouTube Channel; JFK Library to Build First Digitized Presidential Archives; Top 1,000 Websites Worldwide...{Click here to read the full article}
Apple iPad and Genealogy - Apple announced this week that it has now sold three million iPads just 80 days after the product was launched in the United States. To put this in perspective, it took Apple 270 days to sell an equivalent number of iPhones and 2.5 years to sell that many iPods. Clearly Apple has a winner on its hands. What makes the iPad so special? We have completed our extensive testing of the iPad and present our thoughtful impressions on the product and its usefulness for genealogy...{Click here to read the full article}
Google Caffeine = Big Genealogy News - A very important announcement came out of Google this week that will have a profound impact on genealogy. Google launched a new search index called Caffeine. Why is this important to genealogy? Let us explain...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 5 June 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: A Great Genealogy Brick Wall Solution for Newspapers; Genealogy Travel to Ireland; Genealogy Travel to England and London; Ireland 1901 Census Now Online; Personalize Your Google Search...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 22 May 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: How to Find the US 1890 Census; British Library to Digitize Newspaper Collection; Google to Offer Encrypted Search; Google Wave Goes Public; Genealogy Triage...{Click here to read the full article}
Marriage and Age Differences - The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research has just put out a study on marriage, life expectancy and age differences. An analysis of the study provides an interesting genealogy brick wall solution. The study is interesting in itself (the study proves that men live longer if they have a younger wife, whereas women are best off if they marry someone the same age). However, what caught our eye was the graph showing the average age of marriage in the United States...{Click here to read the full article}
US 1780s Census Found - A researcher at Kean University in New Jersey has stumbled upon a rare find. Buried in John Kean’s papers (for whom the university was named) was a ledger summarizing the population of the United States in the mid 1780s. According to the Kean ledger, the 1780s census was based on an “actual enumeration”. If true, then this is at least four years before the first official national census, which was held in 1790... {Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 15 May 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: A Tool for Tracing First Names; A Tool for Tracing Last Names; Personal Archiving Week; Nominate Your Favorite Genealogy Article; How Do You Store Lots and Lots of Genealogy Records? ... {Click here to read the full article}
A Ray of Hope for India Genealogy Records - Genealogy records from India are as rare as albino tigers, unless your ancestors were expats from the UK. Not only are genealogy records generally not available online, but many of the paper records are also not accessible to the general public. This is somewhat surprising given that a) India was a former British colony and b) as such, has some decent genealogy records. So where are all of India’s genealogy records? The answer may surprise some people...{Click here to read the full article}
Facebook Blatantly Breaches People's Privacy Again and Again and Again - It seems like an entire week cannot go by without another story surfacing about Facebook blatantly breaching people’s privacy. Recently, MacWorld magazine reported that Facebook is secretly adding applications to people’s profiles. This kind of aggressive behaviour on the part of Facebook has happened so many times that we have lost count. What does this mean to Facebook users? ...{Click here to read the full article}
Charles Darwin's Tangled Family Tree - Charles Darwin’s family tree was a tangled mess of inbreeding and ill health according to a recent study in the medical journal BioScience. Darwin, famous for his studies of evolution, crossbreeding and inbreeding, actually did not follow his own advice. He married his first cousin from the Wedgwood family. Apparently, cousin-to-cousin marriage was not uncommon in the Darwin family...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 8 May 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Europeana; Directory of Genealogy Libraries in the US; Facebook Blatantly Breaches People's Privacy Again and Again and Again; Two Free Genealogy Books...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 24 April 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week it is all about genealogy brick wall solutions. Here are four of them: US National Archives Publishes Complete List of Subscription Genealogy Records; Tracking Down People; Tracking Down US Government Employees; Tracing Names of British Origin...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 10 April 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: National Library Week = Free Genealogy Databases; Rare 1790 First US Census to be Auctioned; A Beautiful 1798 Map of Dublin...{Click here to read the full article}
Apple's iPad Takes a Bite out of Reading - This week Apple launched the iPad. This device has the potential to be a game-changer in terms of how people read on the internet. Certainly, it will be of interest to genealogists and others who like to read electronic books, magazines or newspapers online...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 27 March 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: FamilySearch Labs; Links Between China and the West Go Back Millenium; A New Person Seach Engine; Are You a Google Chrome User?; How Pervasive is Google?...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 20 March 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Free Irish Records Until Sunday; Members of the UK's National Trust Can Save 25% on Genealogy Records; The Census is Tracking You; The Inside History of Facebook; Fun Facts for St. Patrick's Day; Decapitated Vikings Found at London Olympic Site...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 6 March 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Searching for Ancestors in Kent; Tag Galaxy; Tracking Tweets in Real Time; Data Tagging a Headstone; Stealing IDs from Genealogy Websites...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 20 February 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Take the Genealogy In Time™ Date Test; Identify the Language; The Great Genealogy Microfilm Giveaway; Test Your Internet Speed; Check Your Computer Stats; Build a Runway, Destroy a Cemetery; Secrets of King Tut Revealed...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 13 February 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: A Useful African American Web Portal; The USGenWeb Project; Get Ready for the US 2010 Census; The Forgotten US Federal Census of 1885; Google Buzz; The Growth of Social Media in RealTime...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 6 February 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Tracing Your Ancestors Through Drink; Black History Month; Big Changes at Facebook; Who Has the Biggest RSS News Reader?; How to Get Through to Customer Support; Don't Get Buried in Denver...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 30 January 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: How to Read Old Handwriting; British Library Launches Virtual History Timeline; Luxembourg National Library Now Online; US National Archives to Ban Photography; Lowcountry Africana; Bing Adds Features; Microsoft to Delete Yahoo and Bing Search Data After Three Months; Facebook Privacy - What Privacy?...{Click here to read the full article}
Apple's iPad: Changing the Way We Read Online - Apple launched their new electronic book reader this week, calling it the iPad. Thin, elegant and cool, it is everything that Apple fans have come to expect from the company. Technically a tablet computer, the iPad is positioned to fill the gap between the small screen of a smart phone and the full functionality of a laptop. It has the potential to greatly change the way we read and do our genealogy research online...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 23 January 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: View Historic Sites with Google Street View; UK National Archives Podcasts for Genealogists; An Apple, a Tree and Sir Isaac Newton; When Genealogists Get Angry; Updated Stats on the Internet; Is This Website Down?...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 16 January 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Using Maps in Genealogy; Online Versus Offline Records; Civil War Records; Remove Unwanted Programs From Your Computer; Consolidate Your Instant Messaging and Social Networks; The Library of All Libraries...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 9 January 2010 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Celebrating Christmas at the White House; Australians Descended from English Aristrocracy?; Surnames Traced on Facebook; Victorian Diary Now Online; Interactive Map of Native American Place Names; Google Real-time Search Really is Real Time...{Click here to read the full article}
Top Ten Genealogy News Stories and Genealogy Themes of 2010 - We have searched through the Genealogy In Time™ News Archive to highlight what we consider to be the Top Ten Genealogy News Stories and Genealogy Themes of 2009. This is the second year we have presented our top ten genealogy list...{Click here to read the full article}
Facebook Announces Tighter Privacy Standards - Facebook announced this week that they were going to implement tighter privacy standards. The announcement came after a year in which Facebook was heavily criticized on multiple fronts for its weak privacy settings. We were part of that criticism as the first genealogy website to warn people in the spring of this year that there were serious privacy concerns with popular genealogy applications on Facebook like We’re Related...{Click here to read the full article}
Genealogy This Week - 5 December 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Use a Map to Navigate the News; How to Stay Safe on Facebook; Interesting Statistics About Facebook; Rare Chance to Look at the Culture of Old Europe; How the US Once Tried to Bail Out Thanksgiving...{Click here to read the full articles}
Genealogy This Week - 21 November 2009 - It was a very quiet week in genealogy. We thought we would take the time to review a trio of free Windows utility software programs that are particularly useful to genealogists....{Click here to read the full story}
Private Archives of Franklin Roosevelt to Become Public - Franklin D. Roosevelt was a pivotal figure in the history of the United States. As president, he brought the United States out of the Great Depression and led his country through much of World War II. In spite of his prominence in American history, however, there is still much about the man that historians do not know. This may soon change when the last major archives of Franklin Roosevelt become public. These archives consist of 14 boxes of handwritten notes and correspondence that have been held in private hands until now...{Click here to read the full story}
Genealogy This Week - 14 November 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: PRDH - A Great Internet Site to Trace Your French Canadian Roots; US National Archives Launches an Online Reservation System; The Map that Named America; Sources Database from the National Library of Ireland; Visual Mapping of the National Archives of Australia; Man Accidentally Attends His Own Funeral...[More]
Google Adds New Privacy Tools: Implications for Genealogy - Google added new privacy tools this week in an attempt to stay ahead of privacy concerns. Users who have signed up for Gmail, Blogger, Picasa and YouTube will now be able to see a “dashboard” that shows what privacy information Google has collected about them. Users will then have the ability to edit and delete the privacy information. This has implications for genealogy...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 7 November 2009 - This week we thought we would do something a little different and talk about the Ancestry.com IPO (Initial Public Offering) share listing that occurred this week. This is the first time a private genealogy company has done a large public share listing. What makes this particularly interesting to genealogists is that Ancestry.com is by far the largest company in the field of genealogy.
When a company goes public, they have to release a wealth of information about their company, their business model and their industry. In this case, the company, the business model and the industry is all about genealogy. The IPO document alone runs to 156 pages. We read it. We also read several analysts’ reports on the company and talked to various people in the industry.
Here are some of the key points that we have gleaned about Ancestry.com, the field of genealogy and how genealogy is evolving...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 31 October 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: London Cemetery Reusing Graves; I Don't Recognize That Old File Extension; How to Spot Email Scams; Facebooklite...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 24 October 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Link Genealogy In Time™ to Social Network Sites; Finding Free UK Genealogy Records; US National Archives and Records Administration to Shrink Services; British Library to Preserve National Newspaper Collection; Childhood Home of Canada's First Prime Minister to be Demolished; Microsoft's Bing Search Engine to Focus on Social Search; Google to Index Tweets and to Launch Social Search...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 17 October 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Facebook's We're Related Application in Trouble Again; How Big is Facebook; Windows 7 Launches Next Week; Windows 7 to Usher in a New Era of Computing; Google to Launch an Electronic Bookstore; A Camera That Can Capture Your Entire Life...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 3 October 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new resources, tools and stories for genealogists. This week: Searching US Land Patent Records; Funny First Names; October is American Archives Month; Microsoft Issues Free Security Software; Dropbox Now Available for the iPhone; Apple Quietly Buys a Mapping Company; Cemetery Thefts Back on the Increase...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 26 September 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new tools, resources and stories for genealogists. This week: Large Hoard of Anglo-Saxon Gold Found; Longest Family Tree; Footnote.com Hits 60 Million Mark; Co-workers Discover They are Brothers; Family Reunion Celebrates the Centennial...[More]
Ancestors of Modern Scandinavians Immigrated to Region - A new DNA study from ancient remains has thrown into question the origin of modern Scandinavians. The study just published in the journal Current Biology suggests that modern Scandinavians do not come from ancient hunter-gatherers who inhabited the region more than 4,000 years ago. Until now, it had always been believed that modern Scandinavians were the direct descendants of people who had always lived in the region...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 19 September 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new tools, resources and stories for genealogists. This week: Searching Canadian Genealogy Records; Volunteers Do Make a Difference at FamilySearch.org; Rebuilding Rome in a Day; How the World is Connected by Internet; Read Google News by Flipping Pages...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 12 September 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new tools, resources and stories for genealogists. This week: David Rumsey Map Collection; Historic Map Works; Become a Cloud Computer User Today; Twitter to Allow Ads; Facebook Lite; FanCheck; Go to the Cemetery to Get Internet Access...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 5 September 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new tools, resources and stories for genealogists. This week: Google QuickLinks; Software that Can Read Ancient Handwriting; First Names Do Run in Families; The Internet Celebrates 40 Years; Keeping Your Friends Too Close...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 29 August 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new tools, resources and stories for genealogists. This week: Finding Gravesites of US Veterans; Early Advertisements; Apple Launches a New Operating System; Do IPhones Explode?; Volunteers Needed to Translate Swedish Church Records; How Newspapers Write Obituaries of Famous People; Remember the Alamo? A New Battle is Brewing...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 22 August 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new tools, resources and stories for genealogists. This week: Online Irish Records, World Archives Project, A Free Tool to Read Text in Images; Collaborate on Picasa Web Albums; On Top of Marilyn Monroe for All Eternity...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 15 August 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new tools, resources and stories for genealogists. This week: Google Creates a Serious Newspaper Archive; US Library of Congress Genealogy Reading Room; US National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections; US Federal Depository Libraries; Last Name Distribution Heat Maps; Google Reader Allows You to Share Content...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 1 August 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new tools, resources and stories for genealogists. This week: Microsoft and Yahoo are Getting Married; Make Your Own Tombstone; Free Access to UK 1911 Census; Amazing 1920s Iconic Photographs; Visit Stonehenge for Free; American Civil War Website; African American Cemeteries...[More]
Genealogy This Week - 25 July 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new tools, resources and stories for genealogists. This week: Tough Move to Microsoft Version 7; Directory of US Genealogical Libraries; Using Cemeteries to Track Global Climate Change; How Quickly Things Change; Oldest UK Television...[More]
Genealogy Learned This Week - 18 July 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new tools, resources and stories for genealogists. This week: Bing versus Google for Genealogy Searches; Ontario Invests $15 million in Online Genealogy Research; Understanding the UK National Archives; Late Motherhood Linked to Longer Family Lifespans; News Websites to Charge for Content?; Oldest Archaeological Site in Maryland; US Revolutionary War Gravesite Overrun?...[More]
Regulator Finds Facebook has Serious Privacy Gaps - The world’s largest social networking site has been taken to task over its “serious privacy gaps”. Facebook has become the focus of an investigation by Canada’s Privacy Commissioner. The results of this investigation are likely to have significant implications for genealogy even for those genealogists who do not use Facebook...[More]
Learned This Week 11 July 2009 - Our weekly compilation of interesting new tools, resources and stories for genealogists. This week: Library Thing; World's Oldest Bible Reunited Online; Software Cannot Sort Out Human Relationships; US National Archives Losses Stuff (Again); Long Forgotten Old Hobbies; Wimbleton Fans Park in Graveyard...[More]