Remembering....

Many of my family have served in the military. Today I remember and thank them:

My father cecil McGinnis was a Lieutenant in WW2.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


His brother Clare also served in the Canadian Army.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 



My grandfather Charles Fuller was in the Buffs in Kent England.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


My grandmother's brother Ernest Simpson was also in the Buffs and in the Canadian Army in WW1.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


My other grandmother's brothers (photo is her youngest brother Philip Edgar Peer who was killed during WW1) all served in the Canadian Army


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

James Simpson, my great-grandfather's brother, served in WW1 in England

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


My son is currently in the Canadian Military.

African American Funeral Programs available 1933-2008

And another announcement from the Digital Library of Georgia!

The Digital Library of Georgia is pleased to announce the availability of a new online resource: African American Funeral Programs from the East Central Georgia Regional Library at http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/funeral.

The African American Funeral Programs from the East Central Georgia Regional Library online collection consists of over one thousand funeral programs ranging from 1933 to 2008 (with the bulk of the collection beginning in the 1960s) from the Eula M. Ramsey Johnson Memorial Funeral Program Collection. A majority of the programs are from churches in Augusta, Georgia, and the surrounding area, with a few outliers in other states such as New York and Florida. The programs typically contain a photograph of the deceased, an obituary, a list of surviving relatives, and the order of service. The collection provides extensive genealogical information about the deceased, including birth and death dates, maiden names, names of relatives, past residences, and place of burial. Alongside this genealogical information, the obituaries provide a rich source of local history about African Americans. Many of the people included in this collection were prominent in their communities, and many were involved locally in the struggle for civil rights.

Additional digitization projects are currently underway and will be announced as they become available online at the Digital Library of Georgia. Based at the University of Georgia Libraries, the Digital Library of Georgia is an initiative of GALILEO, the state's virtual library.

The African American Funeral Programs from the East Central Georgia Regional Library is a project of the Digital Library of Georgia in association with the East Central Georgia Regional Library as part of Georgia HomePLACE. The project is supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

For more information, please contact them at http://www.galileo.usg.edu/contact/.

Digital Library of Georgia brings 3 Georgia newspapers online!

Press Release follows

The Digital Library of Georgia is pleased to announce the free online availability of three historic Georgia newspapers: the Macon Telegraph Archive, the Columbus Enquirer Archive, and the Milledgeville Historic Newspapers Archive. Each extensive archive provides historic newspaper page images that are both full-text searchable and can be browsed by date. Zooming and printing capabilities are provided for each page image (via a DjVu browser plug-in).

The Macon Telegraph Archive (http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/telegraph) offers online access to weekly, daily, and semi-weekly issues under various titles spanning the years 1826 through 1908, and includes over 51,000 page images.

The Columbus Enquirer Archive (http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/enquirer) provides online access to weekly, daily and tri-weekly issues under various titles spanning the years 1828 through 1890. The archive includes more than 32,000 page images.

The Milledgeville Historic Newspapers Archive (http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/milledgeville) offers online access to eleven historic newspaper titles spanning the years 1808 through 1920 (including the Civil War years when Milledgeville was the state capitol). The archive includes over 49,000 page images.

Additional newspaper digitization projects are currently underway and will be announced as they become available online at the Digital Library of Georgia. Based at the University of Georgia Libraries, the Digital Library of Georgia is an initiative of GALILEO, the state's virtual library.

The Columbus Enquirer Archive, Columbus Enquirer Archive, and Milledgeville Historic Newspapers Archive are projects of the Digital Library of Georgia as part of the Georgia HomePLACE initiative. The projects are supported with federal LSTA funds administered by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

For more information, please contact us at http://www.galileo.usg.edu/contact/.

Updates from Newspaper Archive

One of the many things I like about NewspaperARCHIVE.com is that you can get e-mail updates when new articles are added to the archive matching your search criteria.

I'm always searching for VOLLICK and FOLLICK anywhere, anytime in North America. So it's a challenge for me to remember what I've searched and where (and which individual!). So the email notification of new articles with my surnames of interest is a huge advantage and help to me in my genealogy hunt.

NewspaperARCHIVE.com is now adding content at a rate of more than 80,000 pages per day - that's roughly one page every second!

I couldn't possibly keep up with searching manually every single day and I'm loving this email notification benefit.


















































q

Expert Connect Services

Ancestry.com has a very interesting custom research tool called Expert Connect.

Expert Connect services Expert Connect Services consist of five ways to get help with your family history research.

* Record Pickup: Save yourself a cross-country trip. Hire a researcher in another state to visit a specific archive, collect the record you need and mail it to you.

* Local Photo: Get a picture of your grandmother's headstone without leaving your living room. Pay a genealogist who lives near her old hometown to snap the photo for you.

* Ask an Expert: Pose a research question to a panel of experts, but only pay for the most useful answer. Then proceed with your research on your own.

* Record Lookup: Hire a professional to verify a hunch you have about an ancestor. Rely on an expert to identify the document you need and track it down for you.

* Custom Research: Outsource an entire section of your family tree, or recruit a seasoned genealogist for a project that's beyond your experience or time availability.

This is a great idea for those who live far from needed records, or are stuck on a difficult ancestor or who just need guidance in what to do next.

Ah, the Good Ole Days!

When I started researching my genealogy it was sporadic, with years of non-genealogy in between spurts of frantic searching. But then I began researching in earnest in the days I refer to as B.I. (Before the Internet)

I was thinking about it this week. Do you remember B.I.? Before Windows. Before Cyndis List. Before Ancestry.com. Before this wonderful cyber world we know now.

I worked on my computer in DOS (remember, this was also B.W. - Before Windows), and joined a few BBS (Bulletin Board Services). I had to dial long distance from my home to the nearest big city to pick up the BBS.

It cost me a fortune in long-distance charges so I would dial in, download the BBS "mail" and log off. Then I'd read the messages offline, respond offline and dial in again to upload (post) my responses. There was a 4 to 5 day lag time between sending my messages and seeing responses.

Hard to imagine, but we still managed to get our genealogy research done! Snail mail was important, I would pore over queries in all the genealogy newsletters I received. Then I'd write to anyone who seemed to be looking for the same ancestors I was! I waited in anticipation day after day, anxious to see what the next day's mail would bring.

I look back on that as a very satisfying genealogy experience, there was something quite wonderful about the feeling you got when that huge package of material arrived in the mail from another researcher.

I miss that. Now I research online. Don't get me wrong, I love the convenience of online research. I love the speed of finding ancestors online compared to snail mail and going out to libraries and archives.

But it's kind of like buying from E-Bay instead of going out to the antique store or junk store or flea market and experiencing that "aha!" moment when you spot a treasure buried under a pile of junk... There's a great deal of satisfaction in slogging through reel after reel of microfilm - unindexed microfilm - and finally spotting your ancestor's name!

Now when I get a package in the mail (which is infrequent as most items are scanned and sent via email), it is for material I already know is coming. I'm not complaining, it's all good and it's genealogy information I want and need BUT I don't have that same sense of wonderment or anticipation as I did back in the days of B.I.

I love the Internet. I would never want to return to B.I. But I would love to have the awe and excitement of snail mail anticipation back again. So my goal for 2010 is to find a way to rediscover the thrill of the hunt and I welcome any suggestions from readers on how to do this. Yes I want it all! I want the convenience and speed of online genealogy plus the thrill and anticipation of the good ole B.I. days.

ENTIRE U.S. CENSUS GOES INTERACTIVE WITH FOOTNOTE.COM

Footnote.com to feature original documents from every publicly available U.S. Federal Census from 1790 to 1930

Lindon, UT – October 29, 2009 – Today Footnote.comannounced it will digitize and create a searchable database for all publicly available U.S. Federal Censuses ranging from the first U.S. Census taken in 1790 to the most current public census from 1930.

Through its partnership with The National Archives, Footnote.com will add more than 9.5 million images featuring over a half a billion names to its extensive online record collection.

“The census is the most heavily used body of records from the National Archives,” explains Cynthia Fox, Deputy Director at the National Archives. “In addition to names and ages, they are used to obtain dates for naturalizations and the year of immigration. This information can then be used to locate additional records.”

With over 60 million historical records already online, Footnote.com will use the U.S. Census records to tie content together, creating a pathway to discover additional records that previously have been difficult to find.

“We see the census as a highway leading back to the 18th century,” explains Russ Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “This Census Highway provides off-ramps leading to additional records on the site such as naturalization records, historical newspapers, military records and more. Going forward, Footnote.com will continue to add valuable and unique collections that will enhance the census collection.”

To date, Footnote.com has already completed census collections from two key decades: 1930 and 1860. As more census decades are added to the site, visitors to Footnote.com can view the status for each decade and sign up for an email notification when more records are added to the site for a particular year.

In addition to making these records more accessible, Footnote.com is advancing the way people use the census by creating an interactive experience. Footnote Members can enrich the census records by adding their own contributions. For any person found in the census, users can:

* Add comments and insights about that person
* Upload and attach scanned photos or documents related to that person
* Generate a Footnote Page for any individual that features stories, a photo gallery, timeline and map
* Identify relatives found in the census by clicking the I’m Related button

“The most popular feature of our Interactive Census is the I’m Related button,” states Roger Bell, Senior Vice President of Product Development at Footnote.com. “This provides an easy way for people to show relations and actually use the census records to make connections with others that may be related to the same person.”

Footnote.com works with the National Archives and other organizations to add at least a million new documents and photos a month to the site. Since launching the site in January 2007, Footnote.com has digitized and added over 60 million original source records to the site, including records pertaining to the Holocaust, American Wars, Historical Newspapers and more.

“We will continue to move aggressively to add records to the site, specifically those that are requested by our members and others that are not otherwise available on the Internet,” said Wilding.

Visit Footnote.com to see how the census on Footnote.com can truly be an interactive experience.