Google con­tin­ues to offer new fea­tures and prod­ucts that can be of use to geneal­o­gists. Among the most inter­est­ing recent releas­es is the abil­i­ty to dial cell phones and land lines from with­in G‑Mail using your com­put­er’s speak­ers and micro­phone and Google Voice tech­nol­o­gy. This allows for free long dis­tance calls, at least through 2011.… Con­tin­ue read­ing New Google Offer­ings

Over the next five years, we will be observ­ing the sesqui­cen­ten­ni­al of the Civ­il War. On Decem­ber 20, 1860, that is, 150 years ago, this week, for exam­ple, South Car­oli­na seced­ed from the Union, touch­ing off a wave of seces­sions that led to the War itself. While the war is often described these days as… Con­tin­ue read­ing 150 Years Ago …

Ancestry.com has post­ed a new search page: http://search.ancestry.com/search/ The search itself does not seem to have changed. I still get some strange results, includ­ing names or locales that seem unre­lat­ed to the search I entered. What inter­ests me, how­ev­er, is that the map at the bot­tom of this search page leads to a lot of… Con­tin­ue read­ing Nav­i­gat­ing Places on Ancestry’s New Search Page

Fam­il­y­Search, the geneal­o­gy records arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat­ter-day Saints, is busy scan­ning and index­ing the bulk of their 2.6 mil­lion reels of micro­film. The index­ing process is a col­lab­o­ra­tive “crowd sourc­ing” web project, involv­ing the genealog­i­cal com­mu­ni­ty. In fact, since May, the Fam­il­y­Search web­site has released dig­i­tized and crowd-source indexed… Con­tin­ue read­ing Fam­il­y­Search Index­ing

Fifty-sev­en Irish-Amer­i­­can rail­road work­ers sup­pos­ed­ly died of cholera in 1832. It turns out the they may have been mur­dered, per­haps because of fear that they might be car­ry­ing cholera. Researchers from Immac­u­la­ta Col­lege and Penn­syl­va­nia state and local gov­ern­ments have been over­see­ing an archae­o­log­i­cal dig at the site since 2004. In 2009, they announced that… Con­tin­ue read­ing The Mys­te­ri­ous Death of 57 Irish Immi­grants

Dur­ing the FGS Con­fer­ence, Fam­il­y­Search made a con­cert­ed effort to engage peo­ple with their wiki, which is at http://wiki.familysearch.org/. The goal of the Fam­il­y­Search wiki is to build a com­mon loca­tion for research rec­om­men­da­tions. It has been a while since I looked at the Fam­il­y­Search Wiki. The site now has more than 40,000 entries. Like… Con­tin­ue read­ing FGS Con­fer­ence — Fam­il­y­Search Wiki

Here are a few ran­dom notes from the FGS Con­fer­ence in Knoxville, Ten­nessee. Root­sTech Con­fer­ence: Just pri­or to the com­mence­ment of the FGS Con­fer­ence, Fam­il­y­Search announced the Root­sTech Con­fer­ence: “Tech­nol­o­gists and geneal­o­gists from around the world will gath­er at the first annu­al Root­sTech Con­fer­ence in Salt Lake City, Utah, Feb­ru­ary 10–12, 2011. The new con­fer­ence,… Con­tin­ue read­ing Ran­dom Notes from the FGS Con­fer­ence

This evening at the 2010 FGS Con­fer­ence in Knoxville, Ten­nessee, there was an out­ing to the Muse­um of Appalachia. The muse­um is “a liv­ing his­to­ry muse­um of pio­neer, fron­tier, and ear­ly arti­facts of moun­tain life in the South­ern Appalachi­ans.” It includes a col­lec­tion of build­ings, folk arts and crafts, and music, com­mem­o­rat­ing and extend­ing the… Con­tin­ue read­ing FGS 2010: Knoxville – The Muse­um of Appalachia

Today was the begin­ning of the 2010 Fed­er­a­tion of Genealog­i­cal Soci­eties con­fer­ence in Knoxville, Ten­nessee. There have been quite a few good lec­tures, and it has got­ten off to a promis­ing start. What was most pow­er­ful for me was attend­ing the FGS lun­cheon and hear­ing David S. Fer­riero, the 10th Archivist of the Unit­ed States… Con­tin­ue read­ing FGS 2010: Knoxville — David S. Fer­riero

Vin­cent J. Can­na­to’s Amer­i­can Pas­sage: The His­to­ry of Ellis Island aims to cov­er the whole record­ed his­to­ry of the island. The book starts with the his­to­ry of the island long before any­one thought of it as a way sta­tion for immi­grants. The Dutch named in Lit­tle Oys­ter Island, as it sat among the oys­ter beds near the… Con­tin­ue read­ing Book Review: Amer­i­can Pas­sage: The His­to­ry of Ellis Island