The Guys are back after an extended health crisis.

News You Can Use and Share!

• MyHeritage added 540 million historical records in May and 1.25 billion records in June! Among these are 731 million records from French newspapers, part of a push to expand its vast collections of new records from non-English language resources.
• Vivid-Pix has partnered with the National Institute for Dementia Education (NIDE) and PocketRN, through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, to assist in caring for aging memory care patients and their caregivers.
• FamilySearch International and Michigan State University have announced an extensive expansion to MSU’s online collection, Enslaved, at https://enslaved.org/, and at FamilySearch.org. The new dataset uses the 1900 U.S. federal census records to document formerly enslaved individuals and their families. (Enslaved.org is worthy of your financial support.)
• FamilySearch added 30 million new records from eight (8) countries, including Italian civil registration records, Brazilian cemetery records, and records from the American Medical Association's deceased physicians (1864-1968).

Listener Email

• Joanne was thrilled with MyHeritage’s addition of 1926 Canada Census records of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan. These included both of her parents!
• Judi shares that Essex County, New Jersey, newspapers are accessible at the Newark [NJ] Public Library, and that the Newark News can be searched online. (See https://www.npl.org/collections-services/charles-f-cummings-new-jersey-information-center/inventory-of-new-jersey-newspapers-on-microfilm/.)
• Ken has been researching Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and local studies. He has used census records and military documents, and he warns that there are transcription errors (manual and mechanized) that researchers should be alert to these, and continue their personal research to locate and include the original documents whenever possible.
• Laura writes to share some issues she has had with Newspapers.com and the responses she received from the company. She discusses the need to be alerted by online companies of known problems on that they are working to resolve.
• Jana responded to Drew’s comments about Tennessee records, and she discusses that ‘missing’ individuals may have migrated to Georgia, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. Consider common migration patterns and check for records in other states.
• Paula is greatly concerned about shrinking genealogical societies. She is searching for resources and forums for discussions of strategies. George suggested contacting the National Genealogical Society for assistance.
• Mary is seeking advice on determining the parentage of an illegitimate ancestor. Drew offers advice about the use of DNA testing strategies.
• Lisa asks about the 1860 U.S. federal census agricultural census. Column 44 asks about molasses and its suggestions of values of the source: M for maple and S for sorghum. She has seen the value of ‘CC’ and wonders what that indicates. The Guys cannot find anything in any enumerator instructions, and they ask other listeners to share their knowledge and experience on this issue.

Drew provides a recap of his experiences at the South Carolina Genealogical Society’s Summer Workshop in Columbia in July.

Drew will be presenting at the International Jewish Genealogical Society Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana, soon and shares some thoughts.

Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com with your questions and comments.

News You Can Use and Share!

• MyHeritage added 235 million historical records in February and 794 million historical records in March.
• MyHeritage released a new DNA facility named Ancient Origins, with which you can trace your origins back 10,000 years.
• MyHeritage introduced Cousin Finder.
• MyHeritage has published United States World War II Draft Registrations, 1940-1947.
• FamilySearch has added free historical records from 32 countries in April.
• FamilySearch has introduced the new FamilySearch Catalog.
• American Ancestors will open its new Family Heritage Experience on 25 April 2025 at its facility in Boston, Massachusetts.

Listener Email

• Tom discussed records obtained from the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. He addresses how to obtain copies of all pages of the personnel file.
• Nancy asks for suggestions for naming computer files for women’s records.
• Michael Fagan has developed a tool to print large family tree posters. The tool is free at https://faganm.com/diagram/.
• Laura wrote about using French spoliation claims in learning more about her ancestors.
• Julie bought a used Flip-Pal scanner, but it did not come with the stitching software to reconstitute the area images. George suggested visiting https://flip-pal.com/support/.
• Karen has read in Drew’s Organize Your Genealogy book about using Evernote software. Drew assures her that Evernote is still a valuable tool.
• Ashley wrote to share more about the U.S. Federal Census and the 1880 Agricultural Census Schedule for North Carolina. She suggests additional places to locate images and indices that otherwise have not been digitized and added at FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and Ancestry.
• Gonzolo wants information about importing an old Family Tree Maker software file (.ftw) and generating a GEDCOM file. Drew suggested using RootsMagic Essentials software to do this.
• Nancy writes about having located a birth record for a woman in 1909 on which the birth certificate states that it was a single birth. However, the 1910 census lists two daughters of the age to have been born in 1909. How can you reconcile this?
• Donna is seeking help in locating a death record for Susan Godfrey and marriage records.

Drew provides a recap of his time at RootsTech.

Drew will be presenting at the Ohio Genealogical Society Spring Conference in Sandusky, Ohio, from 30 April to 3 May 2025.

Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com with your questions and comments.

News You Can Use and Share!

• MyHeritage added 1.2 billion historical records in January.
• MyHeritage released Ethnicity Estimate v2.5, the long-awaited ethnicity model, including 79 different ethnicities

Listener Email

• Tom asks if there are reference materials for using AI in genealogical and historical research. (Not YouTube)
• Pam is searching for immigration and naturalization records for a couple who arrived ca. 1893 and wants to know if other resources are available to help locate those records. George recommends the Stephen P. Morse One-Step pages at stevemorse.com for U.S. ships’ passenger lists and the Library and Archives Canada website at library-archives.canada.ca/eng/ and look for the collection of Immigration Records at library-archives.canada.ca/eng/collection/research-help/genealogy-family-history/immigration/Pages/immigration.aspx.
• Tom is seeking ships’ passenger lists for ancestors who came to the U.S. or Canada in 1879-1880. George suggests the same records he recommends to Pam above.
• Jean Daniel in France provides us a fascinating update on his research into his 4x grandfather, Blaise Farny.
• Anne wrote to follow up on research into Calvin and Rhoda Reed. She discusses Cayuga County, New York, and places that she has used for different records resources.
• Tom discusses his research into the USS Trigger en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Trigger_(SS-564)). He has been using AI tools, including ChatGPT (https://chatgpt.com/), Perplexity (https://www.perplexity.ai/), and Claude AI (ttps://claude.ai/).

Drew will be presenting at RootsTech 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 6-8 March. Registration for RootsTech is open for on-site attendance and virtual sessions. Visit www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/ for details.

Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com with your questions and comments.