OVER 1.8 MILLION NATIVE AMERICAN RECORDS RELEASED ON FOOTNOTE.COM

-Original records dating back to early 1700s become available on the Internet for the first time-

Lindon, UT – November 19, 2009 – Footnote.com announced today the release of their latest interactive collection of historical records: the Native American collection. Working together with the National Archives and Allen County Library, Footnote.com has created a unique collection that will help people discover new details about Native American history.

The Footnote Interactive Native American Collection features original historical documents including:

· Ratified Indian Treaties – dating back to 1722

· Indian Census Rolls – featuring personal information including age, place of residence and degree of Indian blood

· The Guion Miller Roll – perhaps the most important source of Cherokee genealogical research

· Dawes Packets – containing original applications for tribal enrollments

· And other documents relating to the Five Civilized Tribes

Footnote’s Native American microsite creates an interactive environment where members can search, annotate and add comments to the original documents. Additionally, visitors can view pages for many of the Native American tribes that include historical events on a timeline and map, a photo gallery, stories and comments added by the community.

“Much like putting a puzzle together, Footnote.com brings pieces together in the form of historical documents to create a more vibrant picture of the events and people of the past,” says Justin Schroepfer, Marketing Director at Footnote.com. “Together with the online community we are discovering a side of history that you cannot find in text books.”

Footnote.com also provides a free service where visitors can create their own web pages for their Native American family. “Native Americans have a rich oral history,” explains Russ Wilding, CEO of Footnote.com. “We hope that the online community will use Footnote Pages to preserve these stories, which will help ensure that they do not become lost to future generations.”

Visit the Native American Collection to see how Native American history has become an interactive experience.

January 11-15, 2010 – Salt Lake City, Utah

The Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) will be held at the downtown Radisson Hotel. The following courses are planned:

Course 1 = American Records and Research: Focusing on Families
Course 2 = Mid-Atlantic Research (New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.)
Course 3 = Scottish Research
Course 4 = Central and Eastern European Research
Course 5 = Immigrant Origins
Course 6 = Computers and Technology
Course 7 = Advanced Genealogical Methods
Course 8 = Producing a Quality Narrative
Course 9 = American Land and Court Records
Course 10 = Problem Solving
Course 11 = Accreditation and Certification Preparation
Course 12 = U.S. Military

UGA Member SLIG Course Registration fees: $280 by 16 Nov 2009, thereafter $305.
Non-UGA Member SLIG Course Registration fees: $320 by 16 Nov 2009, thereafter $345.

For more information, see http://www.infouga.org

Dutch American Heritage Day

Do you have Dutch ancestry? Dutch-American Heritage Day is on November 16. My Dutch ancestry can be seen on the New Netherland section of Olive Tree Genealogy website. New Netherland was owned by the Dutch, then sold to the English and became New York, so if your ancestors were early settlers in that State, you too may have Dutch ancestry.

Following is the official proclamation of President Bush, declaring November 16 1991 as Dutch-American heritage Day. Since that time November 16 has been celebrated by the US-Dutch community.

DUTCH-AMERICAN HERITAGE DAY, 1991
By the President of the United States of America, George Bush
A Proclamation

On November 16, 1776, a small American warship, the ANDREW DORIA, sailed into the harbor of the tiny Dutch island of St. Eustatius in the West Indies.

Continue reading at http://thehague.usembassy.gov/

Belgian Red Star Line Museum looking for emigrant photographs, memorabilia & stories

Between 1873 and 1934 the legendary shipping company Red Star Line transported more than two million passengers to . Poor European emigrants in search of the American Dream, but also affluent passengers travelling for business or pleasure left for . They departed from the city of Antwerp (Belgium, ), where the port warehouses of the Red Star Line were situated.

To this day those Red Star Line warehouses are preserved. For many passengers they represented the last stop on the European mainland. It was there that, just before their departure, the emigrants travelling in third class underwent a medical examination and were disinfected, while clerks scrutinized their documents.

The Red Star Line buildings are protected monuments. They are part of the communal memory of innumerous new Americans. They had long been standing empty and were pleading for a new purpose. In the spring of 2012 the new Red Star Line Museum | People on the Move will open its doors at this historic location. It will be a place of remembrance, experience, debate and research into international mobility, both past and present. The story of Red Star Line and its passengers will be brought to life once more.

Do you have any old Red Star Line items such as postcards, luggage, diaries or photos? Are there travel stories or objects preserved in the family archive? Maybe you too can contribute to the new museum collection. Send an e-mail to redstarline@stad.antwerpen.be or call (+32)3 206 03 50. Perhaps your family item will find its way into the future museum… All tips are welcome!

More information at http://www.redstarline.be

Free US Military Records on Ancestry Until Nov. 13th

Press Release from Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com Publishes for the First Time Online Collection of Twentieth-Century Navy Records

Site Celebrates Veterans Day with Free Access to Entire U.S. Military Records Collection

PROVO, UT (Nov. 11, 2009) – Ancestry.com today added more than 600 Navy cruise books to its online collection of military records to commemorate Veterans Day. This historic effort is the result of an agreement between Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online resource for family history, and the United States Navy. As part of the agreement, Ancestry.com set up scanners on location at the Navy Department Library in Washington, DC, and has spent several months digitizing the cruise books for this occasion.

The collection of Navy cruise books, available exclusively online at Ancestry.com, represents nearly 40 years of cruises following World War II (1950-1988) and chronicles an estimated 450,000 servicemen deployed at sea during that time. Styled after yearbooks, the cruise books include the names and photographs of individuals who served aboard the ship and highlight not only significant milestones that took place during the cruise, but also the day-to-day life on board ship. While not every Navy cruise was documented in a cruise book, the Navy Department Library has on file an estimated 3,500 cruise books, which Ancestry.com plans to digitize and add to this collection over time.

“When Ancestry.com approached the Navy about digitizing these cruise books for online access, we were thrilled,” said Captain Charles Todd Creekman, Jr., USN (Ret.) Executive Director of the Naval Historical Foundation. “A cruise book offers an insider’s perspective into what these sailors experienced, and the strong camaraderie they established, while serving their country at sea.”
The Navy cruise books are part of Ancestry.com’s U.S. Military Collection, which includes 100 million names that span more than three centuries of American military service.

“When you have a family member who has served in the Armed Forces, you can’t help but be proud,” said Tim Sullivan, CEO of Ancestry.com. “This Veterans Day, we’re celebrating America’s military heroes of yesterday and today and invite every American with military roots to see if they can learn something new about their family member on Ancestry.com.”

In honor of America’s military heroes, the entire U.S. Military Collection on Ancestry.com can be searched free through Nov. 13.

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/.