Episode 111 - Military Records, Britains Home Children and Google News

Published May 28, 2011

This week we did a 90 minute presentation of Google Earth for Genealogy for RootsMagic and the response has been fantastic.

 

 

I’ve had so many emails from those of you who attended, and I can just read the excitement in your words.

 

After the Google Search Tips and Tricks webinar Penny wrote: "Loved your last webinar for RootsMagic.  I had the reputation for being pretty sharp with Google searching, but you leave me in the dust."

 

And Eileen wrote: "Fantastic webinar! I can't wait to try it out!"

 

And after the Google Earth for Genealogy webinar Valerie wrote in saying : "Great show, learned a lot!!! Cant wait to get started  with Google Earth!!! Ordered your 2 disks right after the webinar!!!"

 

Mary says "Your Google Earth webinar this evening was golden!  Thank you for giving so much to the genealogy community."

 

Kim wrote: "GREAT Webinar....learned so much.....I'll never get any rest, tonight! Thanks Lisa!"

 

Click here to view recordings of the webinars  

 

NEWS:

Genealogy Gems Premium Podcast Episode 69 features an interview with Richard Gray

 

Deceased Online.com just added 175,000 Northamptonshire burial and cremation records to their website and they should be available online by early July. The first data release comprises burial records for seven towns in the English East Midlands area of north/northeast Northamptonshire: Broughton, Burton Latimer, Cransley, Desborough, Pytchley, Rothwell and Rushden. In all, there are approximately 24,000 records in the first batch of data, dating back to 1888, the largest of which is Rushden. The data comprises register scans and grave details for all 24,000 burials. Photos of all memorials in Broughton, Cransley and Pytchley cemeteries are also included and there are some photos for memorials in other cemeteries.

 

The remaining 151,000 records are from Kettering's two cemeteries, London Rd and Rothwell Rd, and the town's Crematorium which serves a large area stretching across much of north Northamptonshire and into the neighbouring west Cambridgeshire and south Leicestershire. These are expected to be added to the Deceased Online database in early July so put it on your calendar to check back on the website then.

 

FamilySearch just Completee the 1930 Mexico Census and have announced it is Now Available Online for Free! These are part of a total of  59 collections that were updated in this release, comprising 25 million new images and records for 19 U.S. states and 16 countries.  You can search all of these updated collections now for free at http://www.FamilySearch.org .

 

Updated Genealogy Gems App

The Genealogy Gems Podcast app has been updated and is now iPad compatible, in addition to other improvements.

 

Get the Genealogy Gems iPhone App

 

Get the Genealogy Gems Android App 

 

The Genealogist’s google Toolbox at Lulu 

 

Google has abandoned their master-plan to archive the world's newspapers

 

Google announced this month that they have notified their partners in their News Archive project that they would stop accepting, scanning, and indexing microfilm and other archival material from newspapers, and was instead focusing its energies on "newer projects that help the industry, such as Google One Pass, a platform that enables publishers to sell content and subscriptions directly from their own sites."

 

Thanksfully, Google did say in a press release email that it would continue to support the existing archives it has scanned and indexed. It added, "We do not, however, plan to introduce any further features or functionality to the digitized news product."  So it’s not going away, it’s just not going to grow or be officially supported.

 

What we don’t know is whether Google will finish indexing the newspapers it has already scanned. I hope so, but many folks out there aren’t very optimistic about it...We may still see this content pop up in other places, and I will keep my eyes and ears open for that and let you know when I know more.  Seems like a GREAT opportunity for sites like Ancestry or Genealogy bank to step in don’t you think?

 

 

MAILBOX:

 

As we approach the memorial day holiday, Brandt from Washington wrote in with a question about Military Records.  He writes: "I recently found this Civil War pension application index record for one of my ancestors, Alexander B. Shute (and he sent me the card which you can see in the show notes). The index references two applications for pensions, one for an invalid, and one for his widow. Do you know how I could go about...