BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)

14 Jan 07 - 11:28 AM (#1936207)
Subject: BS: New UK-based genealogy database
From: katlaughing

Here's a new database of emmigrants' documents from 1890-1960. I thought some of you might find it of interest. It's not too expensive (50 "units" for 5 pounds - it's UK-based.) Just click here for Ancestors on Board.

If you do a search there, it will take you to www.findmypast.com, which used to be called "1837online," and has what looks like tons of info. Never heard of this one before. There are subscription packages and "unit" packages for more flexibility. I suppose it could add up using the unit if one weren't careful. From what I can tell it takes 5 units to view info on each name.

Thanks,

kat

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14 Jan 07 - 04:09 PM (#1936495)
Subject: RE: BS: New UK-based genealogy database
From: GUEST,petr

the ellis island website
www.ellisisland.org has tons of free passenger lists - you just register
a name and email.
There are also a lot of immigrant ships lists already transcribed..

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16 Jul 07 - 01:04 PM (#2104320)
Subject: RE: BS: New UK-based genealogy database
From: katlaughing

There are lots of newish web links posted on a genealogy blog thing a distant cousin of mine runs. You may see a list in each of her postings HERE.

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03 Aug 07 - 12:31 PM (#2118360)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates
From: katlaughing

There is a new for-pay site which looks as though they want to give ancestry.com a run for their money, eventually, called Genealogy Bank dot com. With their special year rate on right now, it works out to just under eight dollars per month. I have searched a couple of their databases and not found anything new, but ya never know.

Anyway, just figured some of you might be interested.

kat

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03 Aug 07 - 06:36 PM (#2118635)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: JohnInKansas

One of the moderately priced sites that LiK just sent her money in to for a subscription has just announced that "from now on" it's free. I think they had their own program, previously at some cost but now thrown in. It sounded like their program made it easy to import info from the site so you could work ofline to enter it into your preferred program. Of course I'm relying on her description of what she was doing so I've obviously misunderstood.

I'll have to see if she wakes up sometime in the next couple of days to see if I can find out which one it is. She seemed to be finding some stuff there to supplement what she'd already found at Ellis Island and a few others, which was the inducement for wasting sending in the money, and it wasn't particularly expensive.

John

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04 Aug 07 - 06:35 PM (#2119290)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: GUEST,mg

Be careful with free sites. I signed up for one that I think was one of the main ones, and have had an incredible amount of Spam since, some of it pretty malicious=looking like those email cards from friends.

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05 Aug 07 - 02:22 AM (#2119484)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates
From: ragdall

GUEST,mg,
I use a Hotmail address to sign up. I don't care how much spam I get there.

GUEST,petr,
Thank you very much for posting the www.ellisisland.org site. In less than five minutes I was able to find the record of my grandmother's arrival there.

rags

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05 Aug 07 - 02:25 AM (#2119486)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: Liz the Squeak

How accessible is this site? I'm pretty far back in my researches but it would be interesting to know if any of the vanished lines made it across the pond. Is it possible to just skim through a list of names to find one I'm related to or is there a search feature?

Haven't been able to access the site itself for some reason...

LTS

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05 Aug 07 - 10:25 AM (#2119639)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates
From: katlaughing

Which site are you asking about LtS?

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05 Aug 07 - 05:14 PM (#2119931)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: Liz the Squeak

The one you set a link to, we're having a little difficulty with some links and that's one of the ones I can't get to.

LTS

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05 Aug 07 - 05:46 PM (#2119948)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates
From: katlaughing

Maybe try a direct link: http://www.genealogybank.com/gbnk/keyword.html

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06 Aug 07 - 02:26 AM (#2120140)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: Liz the Squeak

Ta.

There's a whole page of Dunfords there! I'm going to have to dig up my paper files again, to track down the names I can't track down.

LTS

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06 Aug 07 - 03:14 AM (#2120149)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: Liz the Squeak

Wow, it works!!!

I have found the entry for a 2nd cousin twice removed who made the decision to leave for Australia as a single woman in 1915. If only these records showed us why... it wasn't to follow a loved one, because she didn't marry until the December of 1915 - he wasn't on the boat either.

It's a fun site and I've put the beginnings of a tree up, which although not directly mine, is related, but you don't get much for free do you?! A name, a year, port of leaving, port of destination. Not even a ship name.

At least with the UK Genealogy sites, you can at least view a transcript for free, you only pay if you want a print or view the original.

Ah well.. it's nice to find one relative there.

LTS

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07 Aug 07 - 01:27 PM (#2120915)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates
From: GUEST,petr

Ive found the ellis island site here quite useful
for finding several relatives, one was my wifes great grandfather who came over from Holland in 1905 (my wifes aunt who was a genealogy buff had been looking for records of his arrival for years - was impressed that I managed to find it in a matter of minutes)

I did find you have to play with spelling and try approximations or various European spellings, as well there are probably more than a few transcription errors.

We had a great aunt josephine who came over to Chicago in the early 1900s and later amassed quite a fortune from being a midwife, chiropractor as well as doing illegal abortions which landed her in jail more than once. When my dad researched his genealogy he found that his great-great grandmother was a state licensed midwife in Bohemia and had a copy of the birth records from her home town and
where she had been midwife to a great many people (another midwife was named appropriately Anna Stork)

when searching for Josephine we knew her name was Petru but found her under Petrova.. 1908 The mystery was that Petru was her married name and yet it was listed in the ships manifest that she was coming to meet her brother Frank Petru in Chicago and that her family in Bohemia was also called Petru. We know that it must have been her as it gave the exact name of her mother Antonia, and that she came from Radenin - which is quite a small town. And yet her marital status was single.

(We know that she was married and know her husbands name but when another aunt was sent to live with her in 1913 and ended up stuck because of the war, by this time there was no husband-) There was some talk that he was an alcoholic so he may have died by then. However back in Europe, they did talk about him being an American businessman.

Delving into the past can be quite interesting, for instance we found that our family name was taken on when our ancestors bought a farm and gradually came to be known by the same last name as the original owners, who had sold it in 1660. The family later sold or lost the farm in the 1870s, and when my father happened to visit the farmhouse in the mid90s and spoke at length with the landlady, who said oh everyone calls me that because I live in the house but my name is actually something else.. (so the farm still continues to name people)

The other items I eventually hope to find is whether a g-g-g-g grandfather who was a retired soldier when he married at 1820 (after 15 years service) actually fought in Austerlitz..
(back in the 60s

Another branch of the family ostensibly came to America after the eldest son fell in love with the (low status) daughter of the local town executioner against the families wishes and the family sold the farm and gave them money to go to America.

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08 Aug 07 - 04:11 AM (#2121468)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: Lepus Rex

The Ellis Island site is great. Completely useless, when it comes to researching my own family, but great nonetheless.

I have a three (free) sites I'd like to recommend, though they're probably of limited value to most here:

Firstly, my all-time personal favourite genealogy site: Arkivalieronline.dk, The Danish State Archives Online, which consists of most of the available parish records from what is now Denmark (usually pre-1900), as well as tons of old census records. Large, scanned images of the actual kirkebøger, all free. Basically the same stuff you'd get if you ordered it microfilm/fiche at your local FHC, but you don't have to get dressed and pay a bunch of money to access it. Baptisms, confirmations, burials, records of people leaving and joining the parish, etc. The Danish government kicks ass.

The downside, if one would consider this a downside, is that it's not indexed. I mean, other than by date and location. And signing up is kind of a pain in the ass, and if you have trouble reading Danish, sending an email to the webmaster is a good idea. Oh, yeah: the site is all in Danish, and the records can be either in Danish or German, often written in some fairly indecipherable scribbling. But... that's part of the fun, right?

Also incredibly useful is the Norwegian Digitalarkivet, which is even in English. (The site, not the records.) Pretty much the same sort of content you'll find on the Danish site, although these records usually don't go back as far as the Danish ones, yet. The Norwegian government also rocks.

The Genealogical Society of Finland has shitloads of info online, useful for, uh, Finns, mostly. They've got an index of parish records, seachable by name, patronymic, farm name, etc. Very nice. Scanned images would be nicer, but I'm not complaining. :)

---Lepus Rex

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08 Aug 07 - 08:28 PM (#2122146)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: Lepus Rex

Found this one this morning, and it's awesome. Don't get all excited: It's Finnish, heh. Anyways, digiarkisto.org has those Finnish parish record images I was wishing for. They seem to be obtaining the scans from volunteers, so it's a small collection, so far. Oh, and it's also free. And partially in English. The Mormons have a good guide to Finnish church records.

---Lepus Rex

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20 Aug 08 - 10:51 PM (#2419156)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: katlaughing

Looks as if a bunch of new stuff has been added to one of the LDS free sites: Family History Archive with a good, easy to use search function.

This looks like a good place to keep an eye on for new sites and updates: USA Roots.

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21 Aug 08 - 07:48 PM (#2419815)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates
From: Rowan

I have found the entry for a 2nd cousin twice removed who made the decision to leave for Australia as a single woman in 1915. If only these records showed us why... it wasn't to follow a loved one, because she didn't marry until the December of 1915 - he wasn't on the boat either.

It's a fun site and I've put the beginnings of a tree up, which although not directly mine, is related, but you don't get much for free do you?! A name, a year, port of leaving, port of destination. Not even a ship name.


Liz, you may find the Oz National Archives MIgration Index useful. But you probably already knew that.

Cheers, Rowan

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22 Aug 08 - 08:16 PM (#2420405)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates
From: GUEST,petr

http://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/

Ive found the above, although a pay site very useful in tracing my wifes ancestry.. you pay something like $12 Can. and can search for and view a number of documents..

also for Czechs there is this digital archive -
they are in the process of scanning, birth & marriage parish books going back centuries and slowly adding to the archive..
they are high quality scans but you have to know where to look
and be able to read Czech, and Latin and German help - even so you may spend a long time trying to decipher the writing..


http://digi.ceskearchivy.cz/

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here is the digi archives link

if you go to matriky
and rimskokatolicka cirkve

and choose a letter (for towns alphabetically)
and choose a book to view

theres hundreds.. and more being added.

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23 Aug 08 - 12:27 PM (#2420712)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: Bill D

In RootsWeb, I found a long series of one little branch of my family which I thought was no longer on the WWW. There was a site which no longer exists, but the same information is in RootsWeb. I don't suscribe to Ancestry.com, so I didn't realize there was a sort of 'free' version. I'm still not sure of how they are related, but I got my GedCom of Descendants of Caleb Farabee there.
(William Lindsey Day in that list was my paternal grandfather.) The Farabees were quite a family and evidently good records were kept of them. My great grandfather, Tarsus, married one Farrabee girl..[probably upset them all *grin*] My maternal grandmother's links go back only to her father.

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24 Aug 08 - 09:47 AM (#2421157)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: GUEST,beachcomber

I have just recently been informed that the records of more counties in Ireland from the "Censuses " of early 1900s have now been put on the web also. I've seen some already for County Cork and there is a map to show just what areas are available.
Sorry cannot offer one of those linking "blueys" , I'm technically disadvantaged still.

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06 Oct 08 - 01:15 PM (#2458516)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: katlaughing

Have any of you seen the new books available on Amazon, through their collaboration with Ancestry dot com, called the My Family - The Surname in History series? There's more HERE. I think $29.95 for about 98 pages is kind of expensive esp. when each book may not contain anything specific to one's family. I'd be interested in hearing from any of you who may have one of these books. Thanks!

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08 Jan 09 - 10:46 PM (#2535665)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: katlaughing

Oh, boy, I think I may have found a treasure trove, at a price but a trove. There is a seller on ebay, from Canada, who specialises in CDs of old genealogical books in pdf format. I just bought one which has a ton of info, something like 8 books full of info on my maternal grandma's family.

There are some really interesting ones on Scotland, including THIS ONE which, if oyu scroll down about halfway, lists "A Sheaf of Scottish Songs and Ballads! Published in 1900, so probably nothing we don't already have here, but still so interesting.

Off to do more looking!

kat

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09 Jan 09 - 06:53 AM (#2535826)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: bfdk

Happy browsing, kat, it's always such a thrill finding new pieces of information. 8 BOOKS???

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09 Jan 09 - 12:51 PM (#2536177)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: katlaughing

Thanks!

Oh! Just checked the Listing for what I bought, again, and it's 50 books all on CD, searchable pdf!! This is exciting!!

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11 Feb 09 - 03:39 PM (#2564224)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: katlaughing

Just got in another CD in pdf format. One of the books included is Highland Clans of Scotland Vols 1 & 2...779 pages! Then there is Scottish Highlands Prior to 1783 An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch (sic) Highlanders in America Prior to the Peace of 1783 together with notices of Highland Regiments and Biographical Sketches - 463 pages and, 548 pages of the Great Landowners of Great Britain and Ireland - A list of all owners of 3,000 acres and upwards etc. (it's a long and flowery title), plus there is the one file I was esp. interested in Clan Ewing of Scotland - Early History and Contribution to America - 390 pages.

We've never been able to trace the Ewings in my family past my gggrandfather, so I hope I find him in one of these!

This is exciting...to be able to access these via my computer...the internet etc. is just incredible!

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09 Apr 11 - 10:35 AM (#3131911)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: katlaughing

Just heard on NPR that ancestry.com is offering FREE access to American Civil War records this week.

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30 Aug 11 - 01:34 PM (#3215281)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: katlaughing

Here's one I've never heard of: Genealogy Bank dot com. It does cost, but supposedly has more newspaper records for all fifty states than any other resource and adding more all the time. If you use Legacy Family Tree they are offering a 20% off annual membership.

kat

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26 Nov 11 - 07:32 PM (#3264003)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: katlaughing

Just came across this one, sent to me via another "seeker." It's free:

Genealogy Quest

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27 Nov 11 - 03:31 PM (#3264361)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: Rusty Dobro

Can anyone recommend a source for info on (extra-marital) offspring of Benjamin Franklin? I'm one of four known descendants by a liaison of his in London, possibly with a woman named Wilkinson, but perhaps understandably, this kind of detail doesn't find its way into the standard biographies.

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27 Nov 11 - 04:03 PM (#3264371)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: VirginiaTam

Might as well plug the one just launched from where I work.

Essex Ancestors

Maybe if they make enough money they can afford to keep me in a job. Not likely. I think the plan is to make it all digital so they don't have to pay any staff.

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27 Nov 11 - 09:20 PM (#3264468)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: Janie

Williams DNA project is a useful site to help the many, many Williams narrow in on their particular Williams line, at least for those in the USA, but only if you have a male Williams relative descended paternally from a Williams line who is willing to provide a DNA sample, and either pay for it or allow you to pay for it. Strongly recommend springing for at least the 25 marker test, and 37 is even better. Anything shorter probably won't provide a strong enough link to a Williams group to be useful to you.

Williams is the 3rd most common surname in the country and it can be very easy to go barking up the wrong tree. The more Williams who participate the more useful this site will be. YDNA is not a substitute for genealogical research, but can help confirm or refute the some of the assumptions and theories researchers often make to try to fill in the significant gaps in documentation that nearly always are present, and which has led more than one researcher down the wrong path.

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27 Nov 11 - 10:46 PM (#3264511)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: katlaughing

Rusty, it might not be the answer you seek, but there is some interesting info on Roots Web, HERE.

GOOD luck,

kat

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27 Nov 11 - 10:58 PM (#3264518)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: open mike

www.ancestry.com

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27 Nov 11 - 11:12 PM (#3264521)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: open mike

Benjamin Franklin had a wife in France...a black woman who worked for him...as I recall..

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28 Nov 11 - 04:11 AM (#3264591)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: Rusty Dobro

Thanks, kat, that was interesting. I imagine I'll never know for certain either way, but I have established that even during his lifetime, BF had a reputation as a ladies' man.

My father's middle name was Franklin, but he never gave it any thought until we went to my grandmother's funeral and met two elderly cousins of his. These were very nice, quiet old ladies who shared a home and a Morris Minor car in South London, and we were surprised when they said they were just back from Philadelphia. They explained that they had just wanted to see Franklin's home city before they were too old.

They told us of the connection, though they had no details, and years later when I started tracing my family tree, I found the name Franklin going back in the male line to the early 19C, where I'm stuck for the time being. It's curious , though, that a (very) working-class London family would have maintained this tradition, but there's no-one left to ask now.

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28 Nov 11 - 04:50 AM (#3264613)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: Rusty Dobro

Aw, leave me with my dreams....! Thanks anyway.

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28 Nov 11 - 10:51 PM (#3265177)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: open mike

www.rootsweb.com

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28 Nov 11 - 11:22 PM (#3265187)
Subject: RE: BS: New genealogy databases (ongoing updates)
From: Rapparee

Ben Franklin's son also supported the British during the Revolution.

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