Genealogy News

♦  Now through March 24th, Ancestry is offering 6 month memberships for 1/2 off! Take advantage of their Spring Sale here.

♦  Irish roots? MyHeritage is offering free access to their Irish record collection through March 18th. Details at the MyHeritage blog.

♦  St Patrick's sale on Irish books at Genalogical.com. Save 20% now through March 20th. Details here.

♦  Free webinar - Germany's Shifting Map: What It Means For Your Research - presented by Katherine Schober of Germanology Unlocked. Three dates to choose from: March 18th, 19th, or 20th. Register for free now.

♦  Check out Fishwrap, the official blog of Newpapers.com, for information about the 2.5 million pages of Irish newspapers recently added to their archive. 

♦  A new genealogical resource book titled San Agustín de Laredo Baptisms, 1823-1845, Laredo, Texas is now available on Amazon. It picks up where Gloria Villa Cadena & Angel Sepulveda Brown’s book, Annotated Baptisms 1789 to 1823 of San Agustin de Laredo (present day Laredo, Texas), published in 2008 by Los Bexareños Genealogical Society, left off. The baptisms, translated from Spanish to English, are the focus; however, Grace Scruggs Rolph also shares her mother’s family story, reveals answers to long buried secrets, and why it is so important to use traditional research methods in conjunction with DNA analysis.

♦  MyHeritage has released their new DNA ethnicity model: Ethnicity Estimate v2.5. This MyHeritage Blog article provides much information about this exciting new ethnicity model including these highlights: 

• Identifies 24 percentage-based European ethnicities.

• Quite a few of the new percentage-based ethnicities, such as Armenian, are unique to MyHeritage and not identified by other tests.

• Distinguishes between 15 different Jewish ethnicities, more than most other DNA tests on the market.

♦  American Ancestors will host an online seminar April 2-30, Revolutionary War Research: Tracing Patriot and Loyalist Ancestors. This five week course will delve into the many primary and published records that can help document your Patriot or Loyalist ancestors. Learn more.

Specials During Roots Tech

There are lots of sales that go on during RootsTech (March 6-8). I'll keep updating this as I find more sales, check back often.

The RootsTech Expo Hall is open and is full of deals. 

Ancestry - 50% off membership March 6-8

Legacy Family Tree Webinars - 50% off annual membership

GenealogyBank - 60% of annual membership offer ends March 10, 2025

Family Tree DNA - Here is a link to discount codes to use when you check out. 

MyHeritage - Upload your dna results and unlock advanced DNA features for free, forever until March 9, 2025. Link

RootsMagic  - Save 50% on software - RootsMagic 10, Personal Historian, and Family Atlas. 

Genealogy TV - https://genealogytv.org/about-the-genealogy-tv-academy/ Promo Code GTVA25% Sale Ends March 9, 2025

Germanology Unlocked - New Course - Discounts on The Complete Guide to German Genealogy class,  Reading Old German Handwriting class, German for Genealogists class, and books.  

FamilyTree - 25% off orders at store.familytreemagazine.com Use Code FTM-25 at checkout. 

Related Faces - 20% off your first subscription. Offer expires 4/30/2025. relatedfaces.com

BanyanDNA - Stop by booth for a 20% discount. 

YourDNAGuide - Special prices for those who can't attend RootsTech in person

The Photo Detective - Book bundles - print and ebook  ends March 9, 2025

Shared cM Project With Editable Boxes

Shared cM Project with Editable Boxes

The Shared cM Project was built with data from known relationships. The chart provides estimates on how much DNA should be shared for different relationships. 

There is an editable version available. Enter the amount of shared cM between the tester and the match. The possible relationships will be highlighted. Click in the relationship box and enter the names of the tester or ancestral couple. Name the chart and download an image of it to keep as you research. 

https://dnapainter.com/tools/sharedcmv2

Free Access to Marriage Records on MyHeritage for Valentines Day

 MyHeritage is offering free access to all 279 marriage record collections - over 881 million historical records through February 16, 2025. 

Search Marriage Records Now

Marriage records offer incredible insights, revealing details like names, birthplaces, residences, and even parents' names. This limited-time offer lets you dive into these records for free - no subscription required. 

RootsTech - March 6-8, 2025

 

RootsTech, the largest genealogy conference, takes place March 6-8, and it is free to attend online. There are over 150 online sessions. If you haven't registered yet, use this link Register Here. Sessions are available after the conference ends in case you can't watch all the sessions you want to in one weekend. 

Roundtable Recap - Census Records

The February 6^th Roundtable topic of census records was a nice refresher as most of us have used census records often in our research. The question of where to find census records elicited the common responses of Family Search, Ancestry, My Heritage, the National Archives (NARA), and a couple of suggestions for international census records – Find My Past and the Danish Archives.

The Family Search Wiki is an outstanding source for census information. A quick search there on the general term ‘census’ brought up pages of hits for both the United States and international records and information. Census records can also be searched at the Wiki by choosing a specific location first then picking Census from the Record Types list.

Did you know there was a federal census taken in 1885? This census was not mandatory, and the states of Florida, Nebraska, Colorado and the Dakota and New Mexico territories were the only participants. More information about this census can be found at The National Archives. The 1885 census included four schedules: population, agriculture, manufactures, and mortality.

Other general notes from the Roundtable:

If the census copy located at one site is poor, be sure to check other sites. The scan quality can vary between websites. Likewise, if your ancestor isn’t found in the index at one provider, check with another as their name might be mistranscribed at one site and not the other.

Do not make relationship assumptions, even for the censuses that include relationship to head of household. The adult male and female may or may not be the parents of all or even some of the listed children. Early deaths often led to additional marriages and blended households. The children could be a mix of full, half, or step siblings, cousins or other relatives, or even neighbor children taken in after an unfortunate event.

The 1880 census for St. Louis, Missouri, was enumerated twice, once in June and then again in November. City officials of that time were unsatisfied with the June enumeration believing the population numbers were too low and demanded it be redone. Researchers will find inconsistencies between the two enumerations.

Mortality schedules were taken along with population schedules during the 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1885 censuses. People who had died June 1^st through May 31^st prior to the census year were included. Deaths were not always reported in the past, so the mortality schedules are helpful to researchers. If you are fortunate to have had an ancestor listed on a mortality schedule, you will find a wealth of information similar to what is found on current death certificates.

Some websites are more comprehensive than others. A good one to check out is One Step Webpages by Steve Morse.

A helpful tool mentioned during the Roundtable and listed on the handout is the Narrowing Birth Dates Calendar offered for free at Genohistory.

Always review the phrasing of questions asked for each census. They vary by census and make a difference in how to interpret and record the information found. The questions may be found at various websites. The handout provided for this Roundtable also includes these questions and much more information as well as links to helpful websites.

A key thing to remember is that census records provide clues for further research but should not be accepted as actual facts without further documentation.

The February Roundtable – Census Records video is now available, along with the detailed handout provided by our President, Barbara Coakley. Members of Genealogy Friends should check their email for the link. If you are not currently a member and are interested in joining, please see the Genealogy Friends website.  

Relatives at RootsTech?

Are you participating in RootsTech this year, either in person or virtually? If so, you might enjoy this blog post by Roberta Estes - Relatives at RootsTech Reveals Cousins and Provides DNA Candidates. She shares how to find out if any of your relatives have also registered for RootsTech. There are several ways to sort through your list of participating relatives such as location, by ancestor, and family line. Roberta mentions to check back often because more people will be registering. The final day Relatives at RootsTech will be available is April 12th. 

I found out that Roberta and I are 10th cousins. These connections do need to be verified. For example, I have documented 6-7 generations back on that line but need to confirm beyond that. It's interesting to see the connections that pop up to other attendees, but it's even more exciting to be given a list of clues to follow that will hopefully lead to more confirmed ancestors.