It seems that Bermuda Slave Register databases, compiled over a decade ago, are finally going to be made available to the public. Following is a teaser from an article in the March 11, 2010 edition of The Royal Gazette. In a press statement, Ombudsman Arlene Brock explained her reasons for forwarding the databases of the 1821 and 1834 registers to the Bermuda College, Bermuda National Museum and National Trust. She said the databases were developed in searchable format by Virginia Bernhard of the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas. Dr. Bernhard gifted the first part to the archives ...

Here’s another fine article by my friend, Tom Fiske: Genealogy has given me a lot of fun, but more importantly it has given me a sense of where I belong in the grand scheme of things. And it is not among royalty, either. No, I sprang from a large collection of average Americans, where everyone is royalty, or at least we think we are as good as anyone else. Royalty is a private club of those who are born to it. They can neither get in voluntarily nor can they leave voluntarily. Royalty is a genetic condition that is not always good. Many of the royals were bad politicians. They were ...

On February 20th, Family History Expos experienced a severe blow when their website was destroyed by a fire suppression accident in the data center that housed their servers. I’m feeling rather lucky, as I just happen to use the same service provider, and of course, data center. The FamilyRootsPublishing.com website wasn’t damaged, leaving my operations unscathed. My GenealogyBlog.com site is hosted with an entirely different provider, so it wasn’t ever in danger. Holly and the Family History Expos crew are rebuilding from the ground up. I want to personally invite my ...

I’m privileged to be speaking at the Virginia Beach Genealogical Society annual seminar this year. The program is on March 20, 2010, just 13 days from now. My lecture topics will be: Organizing, Preserving, Accessing & Sharing Your Genealogy Using Digital Document & Pictures Blogging Your Genealogy USA State and Territorial Censuses & Substitutes Using tax Records to Extend Your Genealogy The March 7, 2010 Virginian-Pilot ran an article about the upcoming program. Following is a copy of it. The link to their page is limited to subscribers, but the illustration below ...

I was able to catch just a portion of “Who Do You Think You Are?” last night, as we were setting up a FRPC display booth at the annual bountiful Family History Fair. However, it’s recorded on Tivo, and available on the web , so I plan to watch it fully the first of the week. The following was received from Anastasia Tyler at Ancesty.com: An hour doesn’t offer much time to delve into the research processes that genealogists used as they traced the family history of actress Sarah Jessica Parker for this week’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? We sat down ...

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak has just announced that her new book,Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History is being released tomorrow! The book is a companion piece to NBC’s ground-breaking new genealogy series, Who Do You Think You Are? , which premiers on Friday. The book is selling at Amazon for $16.47 (Reg. $24.95).

The following Call for Papers was received from Joshua Taylor, National Program Committee, FGS/ISGS 2011 Conference today: Call for Lecture Proposals - “Pathways to the Heartland” 2011 FGS/ISGS National Conference - 7-10 September 2011 The Federation of Genealogical Societies and the Illinois State Genealogical Society are pleased to announce the official call for lecture proposals for our 2011 national conference, “Pathways to the Heartland,” to be held in Springfield, Illinois, 7-10 September 2011. The conference will explore the resources of America’s ...

I got a note today from NEHGS’s Tom Champoux about the success of the “Family History Day” in Boston, sponsored by the New England Historic Genealogical Society and Ancestry.com. The event was held Saturday, Feb 20th at the Westin Copley Place Hotel and brought in more than 700 people from all across New England and New York. Registrants had opportunities to attend lectures by both Ancestry.com and NEHGS staffers. They were also invited to bring in family papers, documents, and photographs for free scanning into electronic format by Ancestry.com. Ancestry states that ...

We set up a Family Roots Publishing Company display of genealogy books and supplies in the Heritage Room at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel this afternoon. We will be displaying product from noon until 9:30 pm on Tuesday and Wednesday also. Then we pack up and head to St. George, Utah for the annual Family History Expo!

For the first time in my life, I found out what a limitation being deaf can be… I’ve normally found ways of working around the issue, but not today… I was invited by someone at NBC Universal to be involved in a conference call (along with many others I’m sure) with Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky of the upcoming NBC series, “Who Do You Think You Are? ” Lisa Kudrow (maybe best known for her 10-year role as Phoebe Buffay in “Friends”) will be the host of the series, while Dan Bucatinsky is the Executive Producer. I’ve been looking ...

I just got a note from my friend, Illya D’Addezio, telling me that genealogists can now view results from the Record Search pilot from within Live Roots . “The FamilySearch Record Search pilot include millions of indexed records, and is expanding each month. When you perform a search in Live Roots, you will see a link to the FamilySearch Record Search feature in the “Available Partner Services” section. You also have the ability to search a specific collection within the Record Search pilot from the corresponding resource page. Resources from the pilot are ...

The following is another interesting and thought-provoking article by my friend, Tom Fiske: Did you ever read the story or see the movie, Mrs Wiggs and the Cabbage Patch? It was an interesting but sad story about poverty-bound people that was produced in the 1930’s. The junior high school I attended drew some of its students from the Cabbage Patch in Louisville, Kentucky. That is where the real Cabbage Patch was situated. One day in a math class, a girl from the Patch area had had enough of this education stuff. She was two years older than the rest of us because she had flunked ...

The Albany, New York City Hall burned on February 10, 1880. However, historians and genealogists alike can thank fire chief James McQuade and Wheeler B. Melius for “saving 700 volumes of records weighing between 12 and 16 pounds each” by throwing them out a narrow window. Following is a teaser from an article in the Feb 10, 2010 edition of the Times Union . By first light, one of the greatest calamities and perhaps most dastardly crimes in the city’s 324-year history was at hand — and a middle-aged bureaucrat by the name of Wheeler B. Melius was well into his ...

Good news. The “Map Guide to German Parish Registers – Oldenburg & Schleswig-Holstein” is again in print in the soft cover edition. If you have ancestors from the area, this book is sure to be or help in your genealogy research. Each volumes of the series does the following: Identifies the parish where an ancestor worshipped based on where they lived. Gives the FHL microfilm number for the family’s parish records. Identifies nearly every city, town, and place that included residents. Visually identifies church parishes for Lutherans & Catholics in ...

The following is another thought-provoking article by my Friend, Tom Fiske. Today I received an email from a man named Vic who is writing a book. He thanked me for help that I have given him over the past two years. And it is true. I gave him family photos and inside information that he could never have gotten any other way. I had the only copies. And the hero of his book, or at least one of the stars, was gay and had no descendants to leave information to. I was glad to give Vic the information. It was given to me by a woman named Betty. I thought it was kind of poignant that I met the ...