Whoever buried Elizabeth B. Fraser in 1895 (aged 36 years, nine months) picked a secluded and lovely spot in farmland north of Gatineau, overlooking a steep ravine and little creek. Her grave keeps company with some 30 others, Barbers and Langfords and Davidsons who settled and farmed here from the early 1800s on. But this family cemetery is abandoned. Gatineau has grown up around it, so that Highway 50 zooms past on one side and new homes surround it on the other: House, house, cemetery, house, house, all along the rue de l’Épée. Source & Full Story

An announcement by the Ellis Island Foundation: "There is an urgent need to support Ellis Island Online, and I hope you can be one of the supporters of The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation who acts now to make a real difference. You see, the recent recession has been tough on non-profits. Many charitable organizations cut back on services or shut down altogether. But for ten years now, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation has made Ellis Island Online available to you and millions of other Americans for free, and we hope to continue that excellent public service."

An announcement by Truscape Solutions, Inc: "We regret to announce that support for Traces of the Past has been discontinued. Understandably, this will come as a disappointment to many of our users. Many factors contributed to this decision, but first and foremost was our concern about being able to adequately support the App at a time when the service we access for records is undergoing significant and ongoing changes. The current version of Traces will continue to work as long as the service it uses remains available. Unfortunately, that service will soon be discontinued as the ...

Archivists from the Library of Virginia will visit Virginia Beach and Norfolk next month to scan privately held Civil War family documents into the state’s digital collection. Residents who have original photos, letters diaries, hand-drawn maps, military papers and other documents from the war can register with each city to have the items scanned, according to a Virginia Beach city news release. The items must be owned by the person who presents them for scanning. No photocopies will be accepted. Source & Full Story

The small Greek island of Kastellorizo was estimated in 2004 to have produced some 30,000 Australians – a figure which in 2011 is considerably larger. A Perth genealogist, Allan Cresswell, whose mother came from Kastellorizo, started work several years ago on mapping out the genealogy of the island and has stored all the data on a website. “I started off by mapping my own family and then with encouragement extended it to research the Kastellorizian Diaspora. There are now 19,300 persons and 6,600 families listed on the site, together with over 1,700 media items. ...

Archaeologists have uncovered an ancient burial ground in Kent where around a hundred people were laid to rest. The site - dating back to the late Roman era - is on the former Hallets garage site in Canterbury's St Dunstan's. Experts have found hardly any grave goods and since most of the bodies are lying east/west they are believed to be mainly Christian. The excavation is being carried by Canterbury Archaeological Trust. Director Paul Bennett said it was proving to be an exceptionally busy site, with later Anglo-Saxon rubbish pits and buildings. Source & Full Story

It was one of the biggest and probably the bloodiest battle ever fought on British soil. Such was its ferocity almost 1 per cent of the English population was wiped out in a single day. Yet mention the Battle of Towton to most people and you would probably get a blank stare. Next week marks the 550th anniversary of the engagement that changed the course of the Wars of the Roses. It is estimated that between 50,000 and 80,000 soldiers took part in the battle in 1461 between the Houses of York and Lancaster for control of the English throne. An estimated 28,000 men are said to have ...

Funium is set to release an online social game next month -- similar to "Farmville" or "Mafia Wars" -- that deals with real people, real history and real experiences, starring you and your ancestors. That's right, the Funium folks mashed social online gaming with genealogy and came out with a product that CEO Jeff Wells and others hope will bring to the masses the concept of family and lots of it. "Family Village" is set for release mid-April and will be played through Facebook. Source & Full Story

A New Zealand soldier's Bible - lost and found in the trenches in World War One - will be returned to his homeland this week by the family of the British soldier who found it. On April 12 1918, Herbert Hodgson fell into a shell hole during an attack near Messines in Belgium. There he found a Bible encrusted with mud. In his memoirs he wrote: "There was no name inside it but the army service number 34816 had been written across the top outer edges of the pages". He was told by an officer the original owner would be impossible to trace and he should keep it for luck. Source ...

Full Featured - Windows - Purchase Legacy Family Tree 7.5.0.67 has been released. Changes: • FamilySearch - Several fixes and some more speed improvements have been made to our FamilySearch integration tool. • Address Report - Pictures were not printing. Now they are. • Sources - All source citation number overruns have been fixed. • Book Reports - If printing to HTML and including sources, marriage notes were being skipped. Fixed. • Book Reports - When printing Bir,Chr,Dea,Bur notes for a spouse, some other type ...

GeneaNet 2011 Has Launched! New design, improved user interface and contact features... GeneaNet 2011 will make your genealogy research easier! Discover the New GeneaNet Website!

Other Tools - PDAs and Handhelds - Purchase GedStar Pro 4.2.2 has been released. Changes: • Fix conversion of non-ASCII characters (fix for 4.2.0 bug). • Generate version 3 database for new Android V1.7.0 features. • Store correct individual IDs for TMG databases. • Support user-defined "REFN" IDs • Support "private," "excluded," or "sensitive" data markers for TMG and Legacy. • Support TMG dataset IDs.

PDAs and Handhelds - Freeware GedStar Pro for Android 1.7.0 has been released. Changes: • New V3 database support (requires V4.2.0 Windows program). • Export a person's event details to a Catch Note for editing, photo attachment, uploading. Requires installation of (free) Catch Notes app. • All resource "master lists" searchable by name (sources, photos, etc.). • Search by individual ID or by user-defined REFN ID. • Hide or show "private" memos and events (TMG and Legacy features). • Online help pages ...

An open letter from Friends of the Georgia Archives Chair, Virginia Shadron: The Fiscal Year 2012 budget that passed the Georgia House of Representatives on March 11 as HB 78 includes budget reductions that could result in the State Archives closing its doors to the public. The budget contains two items that together would reduce the Archives’ budget by at least $300,000. The Archives’ base budget, after preceding budget cuts, is $4,643,588. Over 65% of that goes to pay fixed costs (such as rent) that cannot be reduced. Source & Full Story

World War II Staff Sgt. Joe R. Sanchez has finally been returned home after being classified as Missing in Action for more than six decades. Sanchez served in the 575th Bombardment Squadron, 391st Bombardment Group, 9th Air Force. His plane was shot down on Dec. 23, 1944. The soldier's remains were identified by using DNA from his niece. The fallen hero was finally returned to Los Angeles on Wednesday. Source & Full Story