Crash Course In Genealogy now @ Amazon.com

I was surprised this morning to be told that my forthcoming book, Crash Course in Genealogy, is now listed at Amazon.com. It is listed as being available June 30th. It isn't even listed on the publisher's site yet. I hope it is available a little earlier than that--at least in time for the American Library Association Annual Conference in New Orleans in late June. However, I am just expecting to get the page proofs back from the editor later today. I'll then have to proofread the manuscript one more time and create an index. That should be completed before April 14th when we leave for a short trip to babysit two of our grandchildren while their parents attend a wedding.


It would have been ideal to have been able to have the book in hand before the National Genealogical Society Conference in Charleston, SC in May and the Jamboree of the Southern California Genealogical Society in Burbank in early June. The latter is possible but unlikely.


Although Crash Course in Genealogy is intended prepare library workers to assist family history researchers who come into their libraries, it will also provide step by step guidance to genealogists. This book provides information about the questions asked on the 1940 US Census which will be opened to the public a year from this coming Saturday. It gives an overview of incorporating DNA testing into family history research. Tips are also provided on taking family research back to Europe.

Attention Genealogists Researching South Carolina

Yesterday FamilySearch posted an item of interests to those of you who have ancestors in South Carolina:

March 28, 2011 - 10:18am by murphynw

In just a few short months, genealogists from around the world will flock to Charleston, South Carolina, for one of the largest yearly family history events in the United States– the National Genealogical Society Conference. The 2011 National Genealogical Society (NGS) Conference will be held in Charleston on 11-14 May 2011. To learn more, visit the Conference website.

To show support for this event and to help people seeking South Carolina ancestors, FamilySearch staff are currently working to expand the content in the South Carolina pages in the FamilySearch Research Wiki.

FamilySearch Research Wiki is a collection of thousands of research articles containing information on record types and localities around the world. The wiki is available for free atwww.familysearch.org, in the Learn section.

In order to give South Carolina the treatment it deserves, FamilySearch needs your help. Volunteers of all knowledge and skill levels are needed to complete simple and easy to do tasks, only some of which require local expertise.

Volunteers will have the opportunity to work with Family History Library staff to improve the quality of the South Carolina information in the Research Wiki about deeds, military records, wills, genealogical societies, compiled genealogies, libraries, and much more.

If you have a few hours to share and would like to help out, contact FamilySearch at USWiki@familysearch.org to learn more.

Check out what’s already been completed at wiki.familysearch.org/en/South Carolina. Already involved and want to get others excited? Download, print, and hang up a poster about the FamilySearch Wiki by going to: South Carolina poster.

New Search Engine for Genealogy: Mocavo.com

There is a new search engine aimed at helping family history researchers. It is called Mocavo. Check it out and see what you think.Below is how it describes itself on its home page: 


"The world’s largest free genealogy search engine, Mocavo.com, provides genealogists access to the best free genealogy content on the web including billions of names, dates and places worldwide. Mocavo.com seeks to index and make searchable all of the world’s free genealogy information. While Mocavo.com discovers new sites every day, some of the existing sites searchable on Mocavo.com include genealogy message boards, family trees, state and local historical societies, the Library of Congress, National Archives, Ellis Island, Find A Grave, the Internet Archive, various U.S. state archives, and many tens of thousands of genealogy sites built by individuals. Similar to other search engines, Mocavo.com honors site owners by linking directly to their content."

RootsMagic Webinars

If you use RootsMagic or are thinking about it, you should check out their series of free webinars. The next one is this afternoon at 4:00 PM Pacific time (7:00 Eastern).  Also when you are on this page, check the list of past webinars that you can download and watch on your computer at your leisure. 


Today's topic is  Creating Custom Reports with RootsMagic. This is a convenient and cost effective way to learn how to get more out of you genealogy software and to share your family history with others.

Posting family history online

Greetings Dave!

I remember you had mentioned in one of your classes that you don't have your tree(s) posted out there for just everyone. Would you please share what program or site you use? I do not have my tree posted on Ancestry but would like to get it out there in the hopes of finding others. I did have a bit of a problem when, through Family Tree Maker, Ancestry wanted me to post it then charge me membership! That was years ago before I finally did sign up with Ancestry. I'm sure there are others who would like to post their work but not run into the problems of their work getting hijacked & re-posted with wrong info.

Thanks for being our local resource!

Jamboree 2011

The schedule for the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree 2011 has just been released. The event held adjacent to the Burbank Airport promises to provide something in its schedule for genealogists at all levels and interests. This event is fast becoming one of the best attended genealogy events. Take a look at the program and you will see why.

WDYTYA the Magazine

For those of you who are fans of Who Do You Think You Are on NBC who want more, there is Who Do You Think You Are the Magazine. The magazine version is based in Britain where this program has been running on BBC for several years. If you would like to see some spin off stories or some segments of shows, you might want to check it out. The February issue includes the following articles:

► Solved! Break through your top ten brick walls
► Discover your medical ancestors

► Inbound passenger lists

► Best genealogical blogs

► Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE preview

► Boer War letters

Irish Trilogy of Walter Macken

For those of you with Irish ancestors, Walter Macken's acclaimed Irish Trilogy will help you understand their struggles for daily survival and against the political and religious oppression of the English Protestants. The three books are set in the mid-17th, mid-19th and early 20th centuries. Traumatic events described in each of them triggered emigration that may account for why you were not born in Ireland. It helps to read the books in order as they supposedly follow several generations of one Irish family. However, that is not necessary as the characters do not continue from one book to another.

Seek The Fair Land begins in 1641 amidst the Cromwellian invasion. It paints a grim picture of the brutality that was used to try to "convert" the Catholic Irish under threat of torture and/or death. This depiction seems to indicate that the Nazis really didn't invent much new during the Holocaust.

The Silent People picks up the narrative in the 19th century as the Potato Famine  of the late 1840s approachs and Irish representation in the British political process begins to try to make basic reforms in the Irish social and economic systems. The Irish population had exploded in the early decades of that century but would soon be reduced by one half by the combination of starvation, disease and emigration that resulted from the almost total failure of potato crops in consecutive years as the result of a blight that attacked the crops.

The Scorching Wind continues the story in the early 20th century as families were torn apart in the Irish fight for freedom from Britain.

Taken together these three books will help you to understand the forces that  shaped the daily lives of your Irish ancestors. 

Tim McGraw and Rosie O'Donnell Next Up on WDYTYA

I hope many of you got to watch the first new episode of Who Do You Think You Are? featuring Vanessa Williams. Her quest was a heartwarming story. If you missed it last Friday night, you can view it online.


The next two episodes will feature country music star Tim McGraw and television personality Rosie O'Donnell. These shows will air on Friday nights February 11th and February 18th respectively. A preview of the show in which Tim finds what name was really on his birth certificate is now available as a teaser. Who really was his daddy?


A preview should be available soon of Rosie's journey of discovery of information about her mother who  died of cancer in 1973 at the age of 39 when Rosie was still a child. 

DNA helps African-American trace his roots back to African royalty

 

A recent article posted at MSNBC, Family roots get tangled up in Africa, chronicles the success of an African-American man in making connections with relatives back in Africa. I hope this attention being focused during Black History Month will help convince many African Americans that they can learn quite a bit about their family histories. 

While African-American family history research is not without its challenges, it is not significantly different from that of other Americans until one gets back to 1870. Americans of other ethnic groups also face a variety of challenges as researchers push closer back to the water's edge. 

Hopefully the story linked above and coverage of the family stories of Vanessa Williams and Lionel Richie during the second season of Who Do You Think You Are?, which debuts tomorrow night on NBC, will encourage African Americans to search for their ancestral roots. Celebrating Black History Month, Ancestry is releasing new documents of interest.