Begat Chat

The following is an announcement from FamilyLink.com:

WorldVitalRecords.com Launches World Genealogy Collection

A billion names from 33 countries coming online

PROVO, UT, February 4, 2008 -- WorldVitalRecords.com (a service of FamilyLink.com) released today its flagship product, the World Collection, an online genealogy database containing more than 1.5 billion names from 35 countries.

WorldVitalRecords.com's World Collection launch includes significant collections from countries such as: England, Canada, Australia, France, Ireland, Scotland, Hungary, and Portugal.

"All over the world there are wonderful people who are digitizing and preserving historic records," said Paul Allen, CEO, FamilyLink.com, Inc. "During the past year we have traveled and met with these content providers from more than a dozen countries. We are pleased today to announce that many of them have chosen to let us distribute their genealogical databases on the Internet."

More than 20 companies have partnered with WorldVitalRecords.com to make this new collection possible. They include Find My Past, Genealogical Publishing Company, Archive CD Books Australia, British Origins, Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild, Archive CD Books Canada, Eneclann, Quintin Publications, Gould Genealogy, Familias Argentinas, Godfrey Memorial Library, and Moravian Heritage Society.

"This is a very exciting announcement for our WorldVitalRecords.com members. As we enter our second year, we have accomplished much including having more than 24,000 paid subscribers, 2 million users on our We're Related application on Facebook, and have announced 2 billion names in our two major content collections, the US and World Collection. The number two seems to be common theme in this announcement as we enter our second stage," said David Lifferth, President, FamilyLink.com, Inc.

The World Collection includes birth, marriage and death records, census records, passenger lists, immigration lists, emigration records, foreign newspapers, cemetery records, reference materials, land records, family histories, historical records, city directories, business directories, township histories, civil service records, telephone directories, government records, war records, and maps, atlases, and gazetteers.

Census records from the UK comprise WorldVitalRecords.com's largest database in the World Collection. These records include the 1851, 1861, 1881, and 1891, 1901 censuses. These records are the official civil registration records for England and Wales from 1837 to the present. All of these censuses will be periodically posted county by county throughout the year. These censuses include images, and also a key-word searchable index.

"Alongside birth, marriage, and death records, census records are the most important building block for family historians," said Elaine Collins, Commercial Director, Find My Past. "We feel WorldVitalRecords.com is set for success, and we are excited to make our census records more accessible to an American audience who wouldn't normally think of Find My Past as the first place to look for census records."

The Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild (ISTG) lists is another large database containing almost 9,000 passenger lists and millions of names. The ISTG records include information such as surname, captain's name, port of arrival/departure, and name of the ship. These records are the result of the work of more than 500 volunteers over a ten-year period.

"I am very excited about this partnership. I remember when ISTG was one-year old, and everyone was supporting us. In return, I'm happy to partner with WorldVitalRecords.com because they provide a service that is affordable and easily accessible on the Internet," said Patty MacFarlane McCormack, Founder, Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild.

The World Collection also includes newspapers from Australia, the Bahamas, Canada (over 80 newspaper representing all provinces), Chile, Ecuador, England, Ireland, and Mexico (more than 150 newspapers from 15 states).

Genealogical Publishing Company also adds more than 600 large databases to the World Collection including colonial and Irish genealogy, royal ancestry, and family history.

"We have been publishing at Genealogical.com for 55 years, and we look forward to expanding our work into new territories, such as WorldVitalRecords.com," said Barry Chodak, President, Genealogical Publishing Company.

Individuals can access more than 5,000 genealogical databases, more than 2 billion names (these names are being added throughout the year), and the World Collection at WorldVitalRecords.com

About FamilyLink.com, Inc.

FamilyLink.com, Inc. is a family of services that includes WorldVitalRecords.com, FamilyLink.com, and We're Related on Facebook. The focus of the company is to provide innovative tools to connect families.

About World Vital Records, Inc.

Founded in 2006, by Paul Allen and several key members of the original Ancestry.com team, World Vital Records, Inc. provides affordable genealogy databases and family history tools used by more than 470,000 monthly visitors, 6.4 million monthly pages views, and more than 24,000 subscribers. With thousands of databases including birth, death, military, census, and parish records, WorldVitalRecords.com makes it easy to extend your family tree. World Vital Records also runs FamilyLink.com, a social network for genealogists, and We're Related, a popular Facebook application with more than 2 million users. Some of its partners include Everton Publishers, Quintin Publications, Archive CD Books Australia, Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild, Archive CD Books Canada, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., SmallTownPapers®, Accessible Archives, Genealogical Publishing Company, Find My Past, Godfrey Memorial Library, Find A Grave, and FamilySearch™. Investors include vSpring Capital and several angel investors.

Posted by at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I recently received an invitation from ArtsResources.net to add my url to their site. Before I added it I decided to look through all the genealogy links they currently have and I was impressed with the long list. I am going to have fun looking through some of these websites.

Here is the list.

Posted by at 12:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It appears that the New Family Search that we've all been beta-testing for a few years now is live in 7 different temples:

Orlando, FL
St. Louis, MO
Billings, MT
Reno, NV
Albuquerque, NM
Cardston, Alberta, Canada
Villahermosa, Mexico

And 19 other temples have recently been announced to operate with the new program within 90 days:

Boston, MA
Detroit, MI
Columbus, OH
Winter Quarters, NE
Bismark, ND
Snowflake, AZ
Mesa, AZ
Las Vegas, NV
Dallas, TX
Baton Rouge, LA
San Antonio, TX
Sacramento, CA
Fresno, CA
Redlands, CA
San Diego, CA
Oakland, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Laie, HI
Kona, HI

I'm very excited to see my temple, Sacramento, CA, announced for the next 90 days. I will run some temple names as soon as they start using the new Family Search and let you know how it goes!

Renee Zamora has a spreadsheet of all the temple districts here.

There are currently 124 operating LDS temples and 12 announced or under construction. To see a complete list, click here.

Posted by at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

How many of you have heard that line before? I've heard at least 5 members of the LDS church say that their genealogy is all done. "So-and-So" has done it all. Real genealogists roll their eyes or just smile a fake smile.

There's an article in this month's Ensign titled, It's All Been Done. Loretta Evans lists some questions to think about if this is how you feel.

* Have you made records of your own life?

* Do you have accurate records of your immediate family?

* Do you have copies of your ancestors’ records?

* Have you checked your genealogy for completeness and accuracy?

* Have you found your ancestors in original documents?

* Do you have a family organization?

* Have you considered descendancy research?

* What do you know about your ancestors’ lives?

* Do you have family photographs or documents?

* Do you own family heirlooms?

* Do you have time to serve others in family history?

Posted by at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I found a great list of items to be included in our personal and family histories at the LDS website. They come from one of their lesson manuals, Lesson 19: Family and Personal Histories,” The Latter-day Saint Woman: Basic Manual for Women, Part B, 152.

The following items could be included in a Personal History:

1. Name in full

2. Birth: day, month, and year; house, hospital, or other location where born; town, county, and state or country; family circumstances at time of birth

3. Father: complete name; date and place of birth; his father’s name; his mother’s maiden name

4. Mother: maiden name; date and place of birth; her father’s name; her mother’s maiden name

5. Brothers and sisters: names; dates and places of birth; names of spouses and children; other information

6. Blessing: when named and blessed—day, month, and year; where blessed—ward or branch, stake or district, town, county, and state or country; by whom blessed

7. Baptism: where—ward or branch, stake or district, town, county, and state or country; when—day, month, and year; by whom

8. Confirmation: when—day, month, and year; where—ward or branch, stake or district, town, county, and state or country; by whom

9. Patriarchal blessing: date, place, and name of patriarch

10. Schooling: when and where first schooling took place, schools attended, teachers remembered best, certificates or diplomas received, outstanding experiences

11. Marriage: to whom; day, month, and year; place of ceremony—town, county, and state or country; circumstances of courtship and ceremony

12. Childhood memories: adventures, accidents, thoughts, amusing incidents, friends, and so on

13. Faith-promoting experiences: personal; in other family members’ lives that affected you; circumstances surrounding your conversion to the gospel

14. Health: record, including sickness and accidents

15. Home life: duties in the home, home activities, relationship with brothers and sisters, places lived, family trips and vacations, pets

16. Hobbies and talents: musical, artistic, and creative abilities; lessons and workshops taken; things you like to do

17. Goals and future plans: things to accomplish in vocation, home life, or Church service

18. Other incidents: include Church experiences

19. Include appropriate pictures, if available, to enhance your story

The Family History should include much of the same information as a personal history. Here are a few other ideas:

1. National origin.

2. Places and dates of residence.

3. Occupations.

4. The first family member to be converted to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and names of missionaries who taught him or her the gospel.

Information to be included in a Personal Journal:

1. Goals, hopes, and aspirations

2. Work experiences

3. Problems and how they were resolved

4. Joys and sorrows with family members

5. Relationships with others

6. Deepest thoughts

7. Faith-promoting experiences

8. Significant family events

9. Triumph over adversity

10. Special learning experiences

11. Personal testimony

12. Counsel for future generations who will read the journal

Posted by at 7:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)