Episode 114 - Online Security, Records Roundup, Genealogy Blogging

Published July 21, 2011

Git yer lasso and git ready for the Genealogy Records Roundup in this episode. Then I’ll show you how to improve your online security, introduce you to family history blogger Becky Jamison, and share my own person story of genealogical serendipity.

Records Round Up
The Library and Archives Canada has announced the launch of an updated version of its finding aid to locate electoral districts in its federal voters' lists collection from 1935 to 1980. This updated version provides for each of the 892 microfilm reels of the collection, the electoral year, the province, the exact name of the electoral district and the page numbers for each microfilm. 

You can find it at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-911.006-e.html

The Library and Archives Canada also recently announced the release of a new version of the online database Lower Canada Land Petitions (1626-1865).   

This version includes digitized images of the actual petitions for all individuals listed in the database. Corrections to entries, including suggestions received from users, have also been integrated into this updated version. You can find the database at www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/lower-canada/index-e.html. 

FamilySearch has added Free Records for 10 Countries. And their U.S. collection additions include records from Iowa, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Vermont, and Wisconsin. Collections covering several countries were updated.  Germany and Mexico church records were the two largest collections added. 

You’ll also find 25 million new images of historic records for 16 countries including records for Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Wales AND over 8 million civil registration records for the Netherlands.  

The 1930 U.S. Census indexing project is also coming to a completion.  They will now start some new U.S. projects that you might want to consider helping out with as a volunteer. They have plans to building a nationwide marriage index. There are several projects already underway, and many new marriage projects are coming.

They have started a Civil War era initiative that will include record collections expanding before and after the Civil War, which should come in very handy. 

Archives.com.  While they are newcomers to the genealogy records field, they are getting new records out there as well.   

Archives.com recently announce that there are 17 million new U.S. vital and military records available on Archives.com! These new birth, death, marriage, and military records make up 30 unique collections. Here is a quick summary of the new records:

Military Personnel Records - including personnel records from the Vietnam War and Gulf War eras. They boast nearly 16 million in all, and say that these records cover individuals who served in the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and National Guard.  

In the Vital Records category they have added Texas Birth, Death, and Marriage Records - dating anywhere from 1800 to 2011 and cover the following counties: Fort Bend, El Paso, Cooke, Montgomery, Tarrant, Burnet, Hood, Denton, and Kaufman. There are 1.4 million new Texas records in total. They have also added Colorado Marriage and Death Records from Delta County, located in the western part of the state. Over nine thousand new records have been added.

South Carolina Marriage Records - a collection of four thousand early South Carolina marriages covers years 1641 to 1799. 

 Comprehensive listing of all of these newly added records

Future U.S. Records: 1940 Census
Here in the U.S. we are already talking about records that aren’t due for another year.  Yep, we’re talking the 1940 US Population Census Schedules.

It’s still more than 9 months away, but in the time it takes to bring a new descendant into the world the National Archives will be delivering the 1940 US Population Schedules to the public.

And there are a couple of guys who have been on the forefront of this event, none other than Steve Morse and Joel Weintraub.  And Joel has been my special guest on a past Premium episode. 

Of course we are all chomping at the bit to dig into the 1940 census even though there won’t be an index when it’s first released. However, the guys have put out a press release about what you can do to get ready to search, so let me give you the scoop here:

It says: “It will not be name indexed, so it will be necessary to do an address search in order to find families.  Address searching involves knowing the ED (enumeration district) in which the address is located..   The National Archives (NARA)  earlier this year indicated they had plans to make available in 2011 the...