TIP OF THE WEEK –
CONFERENCE KEEPER WEBSITE
Would you like one place to stay informed of family history conferences, seminars, workshops, and other genealogy events? Then www.ConferenceKeeper.org might be your place. Their goal is to increase the availability of information about opportunities for genealogists and family historians by providing details on Genealogy Conferences & Events, to genealogists’ knowledge, skills and enjoyment of genealogical research.
TIP OF THE WEEK –
COMMUNITIES AT FAMILYSEARCH
SGS had a full house for the Spring Virtual Seminar with guest speaker Dr Fritz Juengling. One tip offered at this seminar was about a resource at FamilySearch.org you may not be aware of – online FamilySearch Community Research Groups – where like minded people can ask or answer research questions and share resources. You can join any of dozens of different research groups. Join a group to get help yourself, or to share your expertise with others. Groups cover geographical areas, as well as areas of interest. Example group include the likes of Georgia, Germany, Greece, Genetic Genealogy, Adoption, African American Genealogy Research, First Nations of North America, Family Bibles, just to name a few.
Need help with your research? Once you join a group you can:
Or join a group to offer your help to others by:
Get involved and make these groups more valuable for everyone! Like FamilySearch itself, these community research groups are available to you absolutely free of charge. Start here to find a group that interests you:
https://community.familysearch.org/
TIP OF THE WEEK –
MAPS ONLINE AT LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
This question came up on the SGS Networking Group Facebook page, “Is there an online map of Seattle as it would have looked in the 1940 census?” Normally a King County resident would go to the downtown Seattle Public Library and search the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, but with SPL closed, what is a person to do?
Group member, Darren, advised that while Seattle Public Library has an extensive map collection, they do not have much online. He suggested checking for Sanborn maps online at the Library of Congress website. Great, they had maps of Seattle, King County, WA for years pretty close to 1940.
Whether you want an old Sanborn map for Portland, Cumberland County, ME or Portland, Multnomah County, OR, you may be able to find it with a simple online search at :
https://loc.gov/maps
TIP OF THE WEEK –
AROLSEN ARCHIVES NOW ONLINE
The Arolsen Archives–International Centre on Nazi Persecution (formerly known as the International Tracing Service) reached a milestone this week and now has all 26 million of its documents available online. This collection includes information on 21 million people who were displaced, persecuted and murdered by the Nazis. The new uploads include data on the deportations of Jews, Roma and Sinti from the former German Empire, Austria, Bohemia and Moravia.
What documents can you find in the Arolsen Archives and helpful hints on searching for them can be found here: https://collections.arolsen-archives.org/en/help/
TIP OF THE WEEK –
HELP WITH PHOTOS, SLIDES & NEGATIVES
At the end of the virtual SGS Membership Meeting last week, members were asked if they had anything to share. A couple members recommended products for repairing and digitizing old photos, negatives, slides, film, and documents.
The first product is called “RESTORE” by Vivid-Pix.com. With this software you can instantly improve the picture quality of those old faded scanned photos, slides, or documents. There are versions for Windows or Mac computers. The Free Trial Version provides all the features of Vivid-Pix “RESTORE” and 10 Free Fixes.
The next product is Kodak’s Scanza, a self-contained scanner built to scan slides, negatives, and films of various sizes (35mm, 126, 110, Super 8, and 8mm film) onto your computer via USB cable, or directly to a SD card. That’s right, you don’t even need a computer. Speedier and more convenient than a flatbed scanner and capable of basic adjustments for color correction and brightness is what the reviewers say.
You can find full descriptions and reviews of both these items online. Check them out for yourself. Possibly one of these will be just what you need for your particular family photos archiving project.
TIP OF THE WEEK –
ENJOY ROOTSTECH 2020 VIDEO SESSIONS
Thanks to Karen P for this tip she shared with the Seattle Genealogical Society Networking Facebook group.
Recorded class sessions from the RootsTech 2020 Conference are available for anyone to view for free! Karen highly recommends Blaine Bettinger’s presentation “DNA, Genealogy, and Law Enforcement: All the Facts”.
Here’s the link where you can watch free video of many of the sessions from RootsTech 2020, as well as RootsTech 2019:
https://www.rootstech.org/video-archive
TIP OF THE WEEK –
FINDING AN ADDRESS IN THE CENSUS Thanks to Jeremiah for his comment on the Seattle Genealogical Society Networking Group’s Facebook page. He pointed out another of Steve Morse’s great tools for genealogists. It’s a way to search a US census by address in case you can’t find what you need by searching the census with the index.
Say you want to know who lived in your house in 1910. Or, in another scenario, you have ancestors you can find by name in the 1940 and 1920 censuses, but you can’t find them by name in the 1930 census. So you want to locate their 1920 and 1940 addresses in the 1930 census. How do you do that?
To browse the census searching for an address is much easier if you can find something called an ED (Enumeration District) number. And here’s where Steve’s tool, “Unified Census ED Finder” (Obtaining the Census Enumeration District for an 1880 to 1950 Location in One Step), will come in handy. Try it out for yourself here:
https://stevemorse.org/census/unified.html
TIP OF THE WEEK – HONORING SUFFRAGISTS
This year is the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th
Amendment by Congress which gave women of the United States voting
rights in every state of the union for the first time. One educational
project honoring this occasion is a joint effort of the Washington
State Historical Society, the Women’s History Consortium, and the
Women’s Commission. At Find-a-Grave, they have built and continue to
add to a virtual cemetery and memorials for known suffragists of
Washington State. It’s 66 memorials and growing. You can visit this
virtual cemetery here:
TIP OF THE WEEK –
PGSA MEMBERSHIP IS NEW AT SGS SGS has purchased a subscription to the Polish Genealogical Society of America (PGSA) which includes on-line access to a members-only area and databases, plus access to the quarterly journal, ‘Rodziny’, with articles specific to Polish genealogy. If you are involved in Polish genealogy, come into the SGS Library and access PGSA.ORG from our patron computers.
TIP OF THE WEEK – FOLD3 NEW UK RECORDS
If you have an ancestor who may have served in the military of the
United Kingdom between 1806-1915, be sure to check out the collection
recently added to FOLD3, “UK, Militia Attestation Papers, 1806-1915”.
Fold3 explains Attestation Form data was collected on the soldier at the time of recruitment. It forms a record of military service for those who fought in conflicts during the 1806-1915 time period. The Attestation Paper contains a wealth of information about the soldier such as parish, town, and county of birth, address at the time of enlistment, age, trade or job, a physical description of the soldier, as well as the name and address of next of kin. The files list military service rendered and whether a soldier was wounded or received medals or decorations. Quite often the date of discharge is noted. The collection is arranged alphabetically under regiments and in order of seniority.
If you don’t have a Fold3 subscription of your own, come into the SGS Library and access it via one of our patron computers.