Legacy News

FamilySearch Teams with Footnote.com to Publish Historic Civil War Era Records

from FamilySearch.org 14 May 2008:

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—FamilySearch announced today its records access agreement with Footnote.com to publish two significant Civil War Era databases online—the 1860 U.S. Census and Civil War Pensions Index. The two relevant collections will provide free online access to millions of names of individuals from the 1860 to 1865 period in the United States. The completed databases will expand FamilySearch’s growing, free U.S. Census collection online and Footnote’s Civil War Collection.

The censuses and Civil War pension files are the most used collections of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The 1860 census provides a snapshot of families living during the Civil War Era. The index to the Civil War pension applications allows searchers to quickly see if a Civil War veteran or his widow applied for a pension—which can lead to rich family history information contained in the original pension document.

Under the agreement, FamilySearch will provide the digital images of the original documents for the 1860 U.S. Census, and Footnote.com will provide the indexes to both the 1860 U.S. Census and Civil War Pensions. FamilySearch plans to publish the indexes for both of these collections for free this year at FamilySearch.org. The images of the original documents will also be viewable at Footnote.com or accessed for free through the 4,500 FamilySearch family history centers located worldwide.

As segments of the collections are completed, users will be able to search them at http://pilot.familysearch.org/recordsearch.

Civil War Pensions Index
Ten percent (3 million) of the U.S. population served or fought in the U.S. Civil War, and 2 percent (620,000) died—more American casualties than The American Revolutionary War, World War I, World War II, The War against Mexico, The War of 1812, and the Vietnam War combined. If soldiers or their families applied for a pension from the government, an index card for the pension application should exist.

The index also extends beyond the Civil War to include veterans who served between 1861 to 1917 in the Spanish-American War, the Philippine Insurrection, the Boxer Rebellion, and the regular establishment.

Each card usually lists the soldier's full name, rank, company and regiment, when he enlisted and discharged, and provides a certificate number required to order a copy of the original pension application from NARA. The completed index will allow users to search on a name, or browse by state, arm of service (infantry, cavalry, militia, etc.), regiment, and company to locate individual records.

1860 U.S. Census
The 1860 U.S. Census index will allow users to quickly search the names of 31 million people captured on the census. Additional information includes the age, sex, color, place of birth, and marriage status. Slave schedules show the name of the slave owner, number of slaves owned, number of freed slaves, and the age, color, and gender of the slaves. The names of the slaves were not included in the 1860 Census.

“These record collections provide a valuable view of America during a critical time in its history,” said Russ Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “Together with the other Civil War documents on Footnote.com, visitors are able to piece together a picture of our history that few have seen before.”

Ransom Love, director of Strategic Relationships for FamilySearch, added, “Footnote is targeting U.S. historical records and building their Civil War Collection. FamilySearch wants to provide free indexes to all of the U.S. Censuses online. This joint project helps bring both companies closer to their respective goals.”

FamilySearch Engages FamilyLink.com to Add Features to Popular Online Family History Library Catalog

from FamilySearch.org 14 May 2008:

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—FamilySearch has teamed with FamilyLink.com, Inc. to improve the user experience of the Family History Library Catalog for millions of people worldwide by adding new Web 2.0 functionality and enhancements. The improvements will also enable users to spend research time more efficiently by directing them to the information that will generate the quickest results.

FamilyLink.com’s improvements to the catalog will make it searchable by major online search engines and allow users to annotate item descriptions—increasing their accuracy and enriching the content.

FamilySearch’s Family History Library Catalog is used extensively by genealogy enthusiasts. It is a window to the vast collection of genealogical resources amassed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over the past 100 years—millions of microfilms, fiche, and books from 110+ countries throughout the world.

Genealogists use the popular online catalog to see if FamilySearch has any material that can help them in their research. Materials are then requested through one of FamilySearch’s 4,500 local family history centers worldwide.

“The enhancements FamilyLink.com will help make to the Family History Library Catalog will increase its usability and exposure. Beginners will find it particularly easier to navigate, and searching and browsing will be more rewarding,” said Paul Nauta, Manager of Public Affairs, FamilySearch.

Improved Searching
Upgrades to the Family History Library Catalog will allow it to be combed by the major Web search engines. That means Web searches done by millions of family history enthusiasts who may not have been familiar with the rich content of the Family History Library Catalog will now discover exciting new sources to assist them in their genealogy pursuits.

In a typical search of the Family History Library Catalog, users first identify known facts about a family and then go through a step-by-step process to locate records. Newly integrated FamilyLink.com tools will help users better identify information. Guided searches will help users decide what they want to learn about their families, point them to relevant records, help them obtain and search the records, provide clues to more information, and assist them with the application of the new information.

As part of the enhancement, FamilyLink.com will make searches more useful by allowing the user to browse, sort (by popularity, relevance, most used, etc.), and perform multiple searches. A new “probability engine” feature will calculate the likelihood that a particular source contains the desired item. It will also be able to search across someone’s entire family tree to determine which ancestry lines have the highest likelihood of success based on known sources.

“We are excited to work with FamilySearch and to add this extensive catalog to our database collections,” said Paul Allen, CEO, FamilyLink.com, Inc. “We have looked at doing this collaboration for quite a while. We will enhance the catalog by connecting it with new innovative tools, along with the best resources of our WorldVitalRecords.com databases, the FamilyLink.com social networking site, and our We’re Related application in Facebook. Putting all of these resources together will dramatically change the meaning of ‘search’ in genealogy.”

Social Networking
FamilyLink.com will also add an annotation feature that will encourage user contributions and make the catalog much more dynamic and current. Users will be able to add or suggest a new source, enhance an existing source by adding a place (location) or a time period, and rate and review a source based on its usefulness.

Another enhancement to the Family History Library Catalog will be its increased interactivity. Every entry in the catalog will link to an online or digital source, if available. The user will then be able to link directly to the publisher, buy the book, or search for the nearest copy.

“FamilySearch is excited to work with FamilyLink.com to enhance the Family History Library Catalog. They are leaders in the Social Networking space and will greatly enhance and extend the catalog and its usefulness to millions of people,” said Ransom Love, FamilySearch Director of Strategic Relations. “We hope this is the first of many other possible opportunities for FamilySearch to outsource key infrastructure components to innovative companies like FamilyLink.com. They will receive access to key resources to help them grow much quicker and FamilySearch’s assets will be upgraded and extended in return.”

“We know that search traffic will increase on both the FamilyLink services and FamilySearch’s site when users discover the new guided search tools,” said FamilyLink.com President David Lifferth. “Last month we had over 700,000 unique visitors and 8.5 million page views. We are predicting that these numbers will more than double after the first quarter of use.”

More About Legacy 7's Upcoming Release

Hi Legacy Users,

We are working very hard to get things ready to release to everyone. The software is mostly ready with just a few more things that we are finishing up and getting ready for prime time.

It's a huge effort to release a program like Legacy and believe me we are working very hard. Doing a pre-release at NGS is a simple thing as all we have to do is take Legacy and the new books and sell them.  Officially releasing takes a bunch of very time consuming behind the scenes work like re-working our website, getting our online store ready for orders, improving our ordering system, mailing lists, press releases, training videos and getting all the other things I can't even think about right now that have to be done for a release of a new product.

We have hired several people to help with the shipping. For the last 10 months we have been selling Legacy 6.0 with the promise that if they buy it we will give them a free Legacy 7.0 as soon as it's ready.  These people have already paid for v7 and we have many, many, many thousands of these people waiting for their promised copies. It's going to take a while to get all these backordered copies out the door, even with all the people we have setup to help. This is a huge project, bigger than we have ever undertaken in the history of our company. We will begin shipping these promised copies starting early next week.

During the week or two that it's going to take to get this huge backlog of orders out the door we'll be working on all the other items needed to go live on our website with v7. It's coming soon and we really are working around the clock trying to get the long awaited Legacy 7.0 out to all of you.

We appreciate your patience and we'll try hard to keep everyone informed as to how it's going. From what we have seen as we have demonstrated Legacy 7 at the various conferences the last couple months we believe all of you will agree that the wait will have been worth it. We have had such positive feedback from the pre-release of Legacy Charting and when we have shown the new source system people have been really excited about it. The source template project was a huge undertaking that you are going to love. It took several man years and cost several hundred thousand dollars to put together this new system. It's so cool and it is going to help everyone do their sources the right way the first time.

We value all of our users and appreciate all that each of you have done to help Legacy become the great success that it has become.  If it wasn't for all of you helping us get the word out to your friends and family we wouldn't be enjoying the growth we have seen. A huge THANK YOU to all of you.

Thanks, Ken McGinnis

Legacy Family Tree 7.0 (Pre-Release Edition) to be released at NGS this week

If you are going to be at the National Genealogical Society Conference this week in Kansas City, Missouri, we invite you to visit the Legacy Family Tree booth where we will be displaying the new features in Legacy Family Tree version 7.0.

In fact, Legacy 7.0 will be available for purchase as a special pre-release edition. You will be the first to try out Legacy 7.0's new mapping, sourcing, and wall charting features (lots of other new features too - to be announced soon). This special pre-release edition is only available to attendees of the NGS conference.

When will Legacy 7 be available to everyone?

Okay, here's a little more information than the "soon" answer....For those who purchased Legacy 6.0 from July 1, 2007 to the present, we will begin shipping your upgrades next week. There's a lot of them to be shipped out, so thank you for your patience. Our hope is to make Legacy 7.0 available from our online store by the beginning of June.

Exhibit Hall Hours (free to the public)

• Wednesday, May 14 - 9:00am to 5:30pm
• Thursday, May 15 - 9:00am to 6:00pm
• Friday, May 16 - 9:00am to 5:30pm
• Saturday, May 17 - 9:00am to 3:00pm

Legacy NGS Conference Lecture

• Thursday - 9:30am - Citing Sources Evidence-Explained Style Using Legacy's New SourceWriter

Our Booth

Don't miss the opportunity to visit personally with the Legacy developers. Visit us in booths 615 and 617.

Legacy Charting - New Update Now Available - Pre-Release version 7.0.094

A new update to Legacy Charting Pre-Release edition is now available for free download. Below is a list of the new additions and minor fixes.

New

• Added the ability to display the Prefix and Suffix fields for names
• Added DPI control for exported file types (50 DPI to 600 DPI)

Fixed

• The sort order of children now follows Legacy's sort order
• Fixed sizing problems with PDf and export file types
• In some Fan Charts, there was missing information for individuals. Fixed.
• Fixed some problems with backgrounds and memory leaks. Should run even faster now.
• Fixed some printing issues.

How to Download the update

To update to the latest version of Legacy Charting Pre-Release edition:

1. Open Legacy Charting and click on the Tips & Updates tab in the upper right.
2. In the upper left, click on the Download New Update Now link.

If you haven't yet installed Legacy Charting Pre-Release edition...

Please visit www.LegacyCharting.com.

New Genealogy Guides for England and Scotland

from FamilySearch.org on May 2, 2008:

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—FamilySearch announced today the release of two new free research tools that will help those with British and Scottish roots to find their ancestors. The research guides, Finding Records of Your Ancestors, England, and Finding Records of Your Ancestors, Scotland feature easy-to-follow instructions, colorful graphics, and removable worksheets. Free copies can be viewed, downloaded, or printed online at FamilySearch.org.

The guides will help take the guesswork out of British and Scottish genealogical research by simplifying the process and giving users a specific, proven strategy to use. In an inviting workbook style, the guides show users which records to search, what to look for, and what tools to use. The steps and tools needed to navigate British and Scottish historical records to find ancestors are colorfully outlined.

Finding Records of Your Ancestors, England and Finding Records of Your Ancestors, Scotland, are the latest additions to the popular series of free online publications. The guides are designed for those who have already gathered some family history information about their British or Scottish ancestors and are ready to search public and private records—they are must-have reference tools for researchers of British or Scottish genealogy.

The guides explain different types of records in England and Scotland and instruct the user when and how to use specific records. Real-life case studies allow readers to see for themselves how the research process works. Expert search tips, including tips on how to use the Family History Library Catalog, are included. Also included are maps, key dates in British and Scottish histories, and guides for reading respective genealogical records.

Other guides in the Finding Records of Your Ancestors series include African American, Denmark, Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Jewish, Mexico, Norway, and Sweden.

FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization that maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources. Patrons may access resources online at FamilySearch.org or through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries. FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. and is registered in the United States of America and other countries.

FamilySearch Teams with Findmypast.com to Increase Online Access to British Historical Records

from FamilySearch.org on May 2, 2008:

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—FamilySearch announced today it is working with the UK family history Web site www.findmypast.com and The National Archives of the United Kingdom to increase access to select British historical records. The first major projects will provide access to millions of names of deceased British soldiers and seamen from eighteenth to twentieth century.

Findmypast.com and FamilySearch were recently awarded licenses by The National Archives to digitize and make available both the Chelsea Pensioners retired soldiers records between 1760 and 1914, and the Merchant Seamen’s collection of records dating from 1835 to 1941.

Chelsea Pensioners and Militia Records
The three-year project will digitize and index nine million images from the War Office’s Royal Hospital Chelsea Soldiers’ Service documents dating from 1760 and Militia Attestation Papers documents from 1870, through to 1913.

The records truly bring to life the comings and goings of pensioners (patients) in the Royal Hospital Chelsea, including each ex-serviceman’s name, age, birthplace and service history, as well as details of physical appearance, conduct sheet, previous occupation, and in some cases the reason for discharge. After 1883, details of marriages and children may also appear.

Merchant Seamen Records
The Board of Trade’s merchant seamen records from the periods 1835 to 1844 and 1918 to 1941 will also be digitized and indexed. When the project is complete, the public will be able to easily search online for the names and date and place of birth of ancestors who served as merchant seamen.

Many of the twentieth century records include portrait photographs of the sailors as well as personal details and summaries of their voyages. The records include people of many nationalities and women’s service records.

Nearly a third of UK families have ancestors who served as a merchant seaman, and many Americans have British roots, making this series of records extremely important to genealogists and family historians.

Digitization partnership
FamilySearch will digitize the records on site at The National Archives, and Findmypast.com will create indexes and transcriptions to enable online patrons to easily search the records and images at both www.findmypast.com and www.familysearch.org.

Elaine Collins, Commercial Director at findmypast.com said, “This is great news for anyone who has hit a brick wall in their family history research. Servicemen and merchant seamen played a hugely important role in the United Kingdom’s military, economic and social history. The details included in these two sets of records will open up a wealth of new information about their lives to family history enthusiasts and military historians alike.”

Ransom Love, director of Strategic Relationships for FamilySearch, added, “FamilySearch is working with cultural institutions like The National Archives [of the United Kingdom] and genealogy-related companies like FindMyPast.com to preserve and provide access to genealogical records faster, more effectively, and more efficiently. We are excited to begin the Chelsea and Merchant Seaman projects with FindMyPast.com and The National Archive and look forward to more exciting initiatives together in the near future.”

Dan Jones, Head of Business Development at The National Archives, said, “Being able to add these popular records to the growing list of The National Archives’ resources available digitally is yet more evidence of the importance and effectiveness of forming partnerships across the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. We are very pleased to be able to announce the start of these two exciting projects and the continuation of The National Archives’ strong relationship with findmypast.com and FamilySearch.”

FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization that maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources. Patrons may access resources online at FamilySearch.org or through the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries. FamilySearch is a trademark of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. and is registered in the United States of America and other countries.

Legacy Charting Tip: Hiding Branches

Question from Ian:

Is there a way to delete specified branches when printing a chart? This would allow certain families to be printed, but ignore those of little interest for that particular chart.

Answer from Millennia:

Yes Ian, this is certainly possible. But only if you are using Legacy Family Tree. Say you want to create a Descendant Chart in Legacy Charting where the starting couple has ten children. Suppose you only want to show the descendants of children 1-4. Follow these steps to suppress children 5-10 from the chart.

1. In Legacy, open the Individual's Information screen for children 5-10. In the lower right, mark the child as being "Private". Click Save and repeat for each child.
2. Launch Legacy Charting. On the Home tab, click on the Privacy Options button, and place a check mark next to "Suppress private individuals". (See image below.)

Your Descendant Chart will now only show the descendants of children 1-4. To again show all children, simply deselect the "Suppress private individuals" option.

Geography and Genealogy - Lessons Learned

This weekend I traveled to Bristol, Indiana to speak to the Elkhart County Genealogical Society. Had I practiced what I preached my journey there and back would have been more enjoyable.

My 6AM flight from Phoenix, Arizona to Chicago, Illinois went fine. My flight from Chicago to South Bend, Indiana was supposed to have left shortly after my arrival to Chicago. Running through the terminal I arrived at the gate only to learn that my 1:00 departure was delayed until 3:45. Not a big deal, delays happen. I ate lunch. When the airplane arrived at 6:00 they learned it had mechanical problems and switched us to another airplane which left Chicago after 8:00 that night. Shortly after takeoff the pilot mentioned that our short trip to South Bend would only last 15 minutes.

15 minutes!

I waited 7 hours in Chicago for a 15 minute flight. Had I known South Bend was so close to Chicago I could have easily taken a bus and arrived in plenty of time to relax and prepare for the seminar the following morning.

The seminar went great. My airplane was to leave the next morning at 9:20. Not too bad, even got to sleep in a bit for a change. When I arrived, the agent announced that our flight was cancelled and that they automatically booked me on the same flight the next day. Well, I learned from my mistakes, and took a bus to Chicago - a short 3 hour drive. I managed to get a stand-by ticket and arrived home in Phoenix just a few hours later than expected.

Not understanding geography in our genealogy research will cause even greater delays. The image below represents Asa Clark Brown's travels. He lived in Massachusetts in 1810. By 1820 he was living in Pennsylvania. He had several children born between 1810-1820. Without understanding the geographical relationship between the two places, it would be difficult to estimate that these children could have been born in New York. (Map courtesy of Legacy version 7, to be released soon. It will map the entire world.)

I recently spoke with a researcher at a conference who has struggled on their ancestor for 30 years. Their family group record stated that John Smith was born in Woodstock, Windham County, Connecticut in 1717. This map, taken from AniMap, is what Connecticut looks like today. Sure enough, Woodstock is in Windham County, Connecticut.

However, using AniMap you can select the year, and AniMap will show you the county boundaries as they existed at the time. The map below shows that not only was Woodstock not in Windham County in 1717 (it was in Suffolk County), it was in a completely different state - Massachusetts! Knowing this, the researcher should be looking in Suffolk County, Massachusetts records for the time period.

 

For U.S. researchers, understanding this historical geography is made easier both because of the AniMap software and the U.S. County historical database that is included in Legacy Family Tree. As you are typing in the dates and places of your ancestors, if you type in a county that did not exist for the time period, Legacy will immediately display a message:

Legacy will also produce a report of all of your locations, displaying potential historical location problems. This report is accessed by clicking on the Tools menu, then clicking on USA County Verifier.

Before getting too immersed in your research, pull out a map. Learn about the location's surroundings. Use AniMap to make sure you have the correct jurisdiction for the time period. And if you have a 15-minute flight, sometimes it's just faster to walk. :)

Legacy Genealogy Cruise - single female needed to share cabin

If you are a single female with a desire to attend this year's Legacy Genealogy Cruise to Europe, please contact us. We need a roommate for one of our female Legacy cruisers to share an inside cabin.

For more information about our 5th annual Legacy Genealogy Cruise, please visit http://www.legacyfamilytree.com/CruiseInfo_2008.asp.

For more information, please contact our cruise coordinator, Christy Downing at christy@agelessway.com.

Special Sale - Digital Family History Guidebook - 25% off

If you have a digital camera or a scanner, this book (available for download) is a must-have. It explains all the rules and "mine fields" for digital imaging. Learn about easier scanning, using sound, digital cameras, video and GPS, making digital scrapbooks, creating hard-bound books, preservation & archiving, and much more.

*Only $14.95 until April 30! You save 25%. No special coupons required.

Written by Heritage Collector Suite's Marlo Schuldt, Digital Family History Guidebook includes over 200 pages in the following chapters:

Chapter 1 - Where to Begin?
Are you frustrated trying to determine the best place to start organizing all your family history photos and files? The Guidebook will provide you with some easy and logical ways to get started. Doing it right the first time will save time, money and frustration later.

Chapter 2 - Easier Scanning
Quality scans make a big difference when printing or zooming in on photos later. Step-by-step instructions are included such as the five most important steps to a great scan and more.

Chapter 3 - Using Sound and Narration
Using sound is easier than you think. All you need is an inexpensive microphone or a cable to attached to your cassette recorder. Use a microphone to tell stories, create oral histories. Learn to edit your narrations.Copy the priceless old cassette tapes to your computer with recordings of grandma or other family members. Save time, money and get better quality by doing it yourself. Internet links are provided for free sound editing software.

Chapter 4 - Digital Cameras, Video and GPS Managing and finding your photos later and suggestions for buying a new camera are included . Converting Old Home Movies - do's,& don'ts. Read this chapter BEFORE you invest a lot of money getting your old movies converted to a DVD.Why You Need to Start Using GPS. New and fun things you can do - free software links. Adding screen captures of satellite images is both fun and adds realism to family history.

Chapter 5 - Digital Scrapbooking Presents a different perspective about how to take advantage of new technology and samples of how to create digital scrapbooks. Something new and very different from traditional scrapbooking.

Chapter 6 - Interactive Storytelling Stories are a real treat and the spice of life. This chapter offers some excellent suggestions that will help you put new life into old stories. You will discover some new ways to tell stories and make them more interesting. Mixed Media Collections. Are you struggling with how to organize ALL your materials - photos, sound files, video clips, text documents, PDFs and other file types? The Guidebook will show you how to make your file collections more useful and organized.

Chapter 7 - Creating a Bound History Ways to save money and things you need to know and avoid BEFORE you begin. What's Paper grain? Have you even opened a book that resisted staying open? Have you seen a book with a broken or cracked spine? These are few of the symptoms of a book that has been printed and bound with the paper grain running in the wrong direction. There is much more you need to know. Chapter 7 takes you through each step required to create a beautiful history or biography. Checklists and simplified instructions will make it easy.

Chapter 8 - Preserving & Archiving Ways to find and protect your treasures while saving hard drive space. Don't wait until you have a hard drive crash or a virus attacks your computer.

Chapter 9 - Understanding Your Computer Basic computer terminology is explained in everyday terms. Computer hardware is explained. If you are gong to buy a new computer you need to read this chapter first. Suggestions for maintaining your computer.

*Only $14.95 until April 30! You save 25%. No special coupons required.

* Available as an electronic book only (PDF).

Legacy Charting - New Backgrounds Now Available

Legacy Charting, software that creates large-scale wall charts of your family tree, now has new background images available for free download.

Legacy Charting will be included with the soon-to-be-released Legacy Family Tree 7.0. This special pre-release edition of Legacy Charting is available for free download and will be fully functional through June 15, 2008. Download it here.

When you install Legacy Charting, it includes a collection of 40 background images and textures. We have now created a special Backgrounds page on the Legacy Charting website where you can download additional high-quality background images, or even contribute your own digital pictures to share with other "wall-charters".

Visit http://www.legacycharting.com/backgrounds.htm to download the new images or share yours with us.

How to add a background image to a chart

In Legacy Charting, follow these steps to add a background image:

1. Click on the Appearance tab, then click on the Background button.
2. Click on Select image, select your desired image, and click Open.
3. In the Display Options, select your preferred option. Stretch to frame works well with larger images.
4. Finally, adjust the transparency. Then click anywhere on the chart.

Descendant Chart (2 generations) without a background:

 

Descendant Chart (2 generations) with a background:

Washington State Death Index, 1907-1960, Now Online

While browsing FamilySearch's new Record Search site, I noticed that they had recently published a state-wide index to Washington's death certificates for 1907-1960. In fact, Record Search is beginning to add quite a collection of free indexes and images, thanks primarily to the wonderful FamilySearch Indexing project.

I've previously used the microfilm version of this index to locate members of my Brown family who died in Washington, but in some places the filming was so bad that it was very difficult to locate any of the family.

In particular, I have been searching for the death of Amelia Shopfer, who was born abt 1874 in Ohio, the wife of Ralph L. Brown. I knew that she died sometime between 1930 and 1951, probably in Washington. As I prepared to search the index, my heart raced because of my anticipation. I typed in her name, entered her approximate birth year and clicked search. The third entry in the list was her!!! It listed her exact death date and place, her age at death, her spouse (Ralph L.), and even her parents.

Time for another Genealogy Happy Dance!

Thank you to all FamilySearch Indexing indexers for your hard work in making this index available. To learn more about the world-wide indexing projects, visit www.FamilySearchIndexing.com.

To search this database, or any of the others, visit http://labs.familysearch.org and click on the Record Search link. You will first have to register (free), and then you will have access to the collections.

37 million historical French-Canadian names launch online: Drouin Collection

From Ancestry.ca:

(Montreal, QC – April 8 2008) Ancestry.ca, Canada’s leading family history website, today announced the online launch of the fully searchable indexes for the historic Drouin Collection, which contains Quebec records spanning 346 years from 1621 to 1967.

Starting with 29 million names for the years 1850 to 1967, the indexes will include 37 million names in baptism, marriage and burial records, and also a compilation of church records from Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and various New England states, when complete in mid-2008.

Included in The Drouin Collection are the ancestors of some of Canada’s most famous French-Canadians and Quebeckers such as Pierre Trudeau, William Shatner, John Labatt and Henri and Maurice Richard. (original images available)

Family history enthusiasts can also trace their lineage back to the founding families of Quebec and Acadia, which includes that of Zacharie Cloutier, a common ancestor of distant cousins Celine Dion, Madonna and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. (Cloutier family tree / original images available)

From the early 1600s, the Catholic parishes of Quebec kept meticulous records of their members’ baptisms, marriages and burials. The Quebec Government soon required the Catholic Church to provide it with copies of all its records and in doing so became the central holder for Quebec’s vital records. 

In 1899 a lawyer named Joseph Drouin founded The Drouin Genealogical Institute, using Quebec’s vital records to research and sell family genealogies. His son Gabriel assumed stewardship in 1938, dedicating himself to microfilming and indexing Quebec’s vital records; this important work formed what became the Institute’s principal reference collection.

The collection remained the property of the Institute until Gabriel’s death in 1980, after which it was sold to the genealogist Jean-Pierre Pepin who created The Drouin Institute, which was dedicated to preserving the collection intact and in Quebec.

Recognising its historical significance, Ancestry.ca secured the right to host the collection online.  It launched the original images – more than 12 million in total – in 2007, and in partnership with The University of Montreal has now indexed the collection to make it searchable online for the first time.

The Drouin Collection can be searched in French or English language by name, date, place, church or institution, and religion.

Ancestry.ca senior vice president Josh Hanna comments: “As an estimated five million Canadians have French ancestry, The Drouin Collection is of huge national relevance, and especially to French-Canadian family history researchers.” 

“It is important that the exceptional work of Joseph and Gabriel Drouin be made widely available for all to use and enjoy, whether they be French-Canadian family history enthusiasts or those from the U.S. and elsewhere in the world with French-Canadian cousins.”

Ancestry.ca user Gail Mamers comments: “One piece of critical information that I discovered through The Drouin Collection on Ancestry.ca is that my grandparents were married, something that was not confirmed before this.”

“My aunt was so happy to hear this information that she cried. Having the Collection indexed will allow more people to make interesting discoveries about their own past because it will take a fraction of the time and effort.”

Ancestry.ca user Desmond Ireland comments: “I have studied genealogy for more than a decade and by indexing this incredible collection of records, Ancestry.ca has enabled me to search more easily and effectively for my family history. They’ve taken genealogical research out of the library and brought it to my personal computer.”

* At launch the indexes will contain 29 million searchable names. The remaining eight million names will be live on Ancestry.ca by mid-2008.

Searching is open to subscribers of Ancestry.ca. Visit www.ancestry.ca/drouin for more information.

Legacy Tip: How To Create a Custom Report

Recently a major new database was published online for Missouri researchers. The Missouri State Archives announced that the Missouri Death Certificates from 1910-1957 were now indexed, linked, and available for free online searching.

Since some of my ancestors died in Missouri, I now want to search for and obtain the death certificates I lacked. Using Legacy Family Tree's search tools, it was easy to identify those ancestors who died during this time period in Missouri.

1. In Legacy, click on the Search button in the main toolbar.
2. Enter the criteria as shown in the image below.
3. Click on the Create List button.

The resulting list is a list of everyone in your family file that died in Missouri between 1910-1957, and will likely have a death certificate in the database.

How to print the search list

1. From the Search List (which is just a filtered version of the Name List), click on the Print button at the bottom.
2. Select the desired fields to be included in the report. (See image below.)
3. Click on the Preview button to see what the report will look like before you print it, or the Print button to print immediately.

Notice in the Optional Fields section, Relationship is one of the choices. However, it is not one of the default choices. To select other optional fields:

1. Click on the Customize button.
2. Click on the button with 3 dots next to a field name that you would like to replace.
3. Click on the desired field name, and click Select.
4. Click Close.
5. Make sure there is a check mark next to the new field.

To change the report title, click on the Options tab, and type the desired title.