Creating Photo Borders & Mats Using Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner

Family Photo Archive

Today I decided to take some of my treasured family photos and create borders and mats for them using my Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner

I decided to tackle this project using two different methods. First I chose a photo and laid it on a pattern that I like.

My patterns came from my furniture (sofa, chair), my floors (tiles, hardwood), wallpaper and other spots in my house.

Below are examples of putting a photo on a pattern that I like, then taking the lid off my Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner, turning it upside down to scan and pressing the green button.

Photo on Chair

Photo on floor tile

Next I transferred the scans to my computer using the Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner USB adaptor. Here are a few of the actual scans. One very important thing to remember is that if your original photo is crooked (as is my photo of my Grandmother's brother in WW1 uniform) your final scan will not look very good. So what you see here is for example only. I will trim the edges of that photo to make it perfect and redo the scan against the pattern.

You will also find that you need to crop your scan to create a border that is symmetrical as it's difficult to accomplish in the original layout of photo and background

Scan before cropping

Photo needs trimming

Scan after cropping

You can see that it is fairly easy to create a nice mat and border effect for your photos. These can then be printed on a good quality laser printer or they can be put in a digital photo album or you could use a service such as Shutterfly to create a lovely photo book for family.

The second way I will create mats and borders is to scan various patterns around my home and in nature. Then I'll import those into my photo editing software and layer the original photo (which I've scanned using my FlipPal) on top.

Here are some of the patterns I've scanned in preparation for layering photos with backgrounds. I used a tile floor, a lace tablecloth, my kitchen counter and fabric on furniture.

I'm excited about using my Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner to finish creating a unique digital scrapbook of my family photos with my own borders. 

New States Indexed for 1940 US Census

Attention Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Montana family historians! The 1940 census index for those four states is now available at Archives.com
Eighteen states total are now free to search by name.

 Ancestry.com just added the index for New York to their existing indexes for Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, and Nevada.

1892, 1915 & 1925 & 1940 Indexed New York Census Online!

New Yorkers can now search for their roots in the newly indexed 1940 U.S. Federal Census for New York and three state censuses dating to 1892, exclusively on Ancestry.com

PROVO, UTAH – (June 6, 2012) – Ancestry.com the world’s largest online family history resource, has announced an exclusive offer for New Yorkers to jump start their family history research.  Starting today, a valuable select group of record collections, provided through a partnership with the New York State Archives and Library, are now available free to New York state residents.

[Lorine's note - the records can be searched by those not living in New York but you must have an Ancestry subscription unless you are a New York resident]

The new records include the first available online index for the 1940 U.S. Federal Census for New York which includes more than 13 million resident names with details including age, birthplace, street address and residence in 1935. These records reveal a unique snapshot of the state as it emerged from the Great Depression, providing a valuable gateway to New York family information in the years leading up to World War II.

To complement the 1940 Census records, Ancestry.com is offering a bevy of additional records with its New York collection, including two state censuses never before released in digital form and a dozen other relevant collections spanning nearly 400 years of state history.

Ancestry.com has partnered with the New York State Archives to publish the 1925, 1915 and 1892 New York State censuses. Both the 1925 and 1915 censuses are digitized and available for the first time online, and along with the 1892 state census, provide the next step for discovery beyond the revelations of the 1940 Federal Census. These censuses are unique because they fall in the interim years between federal censuses, providing additional insight into population and societal trends in the state. For example, between the 1910 and 1920 federal censuses, New York experienced a population surge of 1.3 million residents due to heavy immigration (14 percent growth). The 1892 state census provides information that was lost when the 1890 U.S. Federal Census was damaged and destroyed by fire in 1921.  New York state residents can access these special New York collections with a simple zip code verification process.

Like many from the Empire State, former New York City Mayor and native New Yorker, Ed Koch, and his family are found throughout many records held at Ancestry.com, including some of the New York collection. Koch’s father, Leib, first appears in a 1910 New York Passenger List when he immigrated to the United States from Ukraine alone at the age of 16. The 1915 New York State Census shows Koch’s father living with his sister in the Bronx. Edward Koch first appears in the 1925 New York State Census, which records him as an infant having been born in the Bronx in 1924. Koch appears again in the 1930 U.S. Federal Census as “Edwin”, residing in an Eastern European Bronx neighborhood where he lived with his parents and brother in a $75/month apartment.

“Like so many New Yorkers, I am extremely proud of our great state and am excited to have the opportunity to access these digitized records with others in the state,” said Koch. “With such a wealth of information now available for free online at Ancestry.com, citizens past and present have the opportunity to embrace their connection to New York.”

Tribute Page: WW1 Paybook Canadian Soldier

Hubs and I found a WW1 Canadian soldier's paybook recently. It showed the soldier owning it was W. A. McCutcheon, Regimental Number 335209

To honour this soldier and his defense of freedom, I decided to research him. Here is my tribute to William Albert McCutcheon born 23 August 1893 in Eramosa Township, Wellington County Ontario.

William enlisted in Guelph on 11 October 1917. He gave his residence as the Homewood Sanitorium in Guelph and his mother Isabel as his next-of-kin. His occupation was as a chauffeur. [Source: Front page of William's Attestation Papers on the CEF Database online at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/cef/001042-119.02-e.php?image_url=http://data2.archives.ca/cef/gat4/136740a.gif&id_nbr=141784]

William's Paybook provides his father's name - William A. McCutcheon of RR1 Guelph and assigns his pay to him. Written in pencil on the third page is the notation that he went overseas on 4 April 1918 and returned to Canada on 26 August 1919. So we know he survived the war.

Passenger List for Saxonia

A stamped note at the back of the book shows that he sailed from London England on August 13, 1918 and landed in Halifax Nova Scotia on August 23rd. Using Ancestry.com I found William on board the Saxonia.

His Miitary Will was noted as having been copied from an older paybook and forwarded to an office in Ottawa Ontario.

There is a record of his pay and also some loose papers tucked inside. One is a Pass giving William permission to go to London England from August 2 to August 4, 1919. It is stapled to a form for reduced fare on train travel.

A second loose paper is a complimentary ticket from the Royal Agricultural Society of England for the Cardiff Show in June 1919. It is signed by William so it appears he hoped to go.

It appears that William lied about his age for his birth registration on Ancestry.com shows him being born in Wellington County in 1891 not 1893 to William McCutcheon and Isabella Matilda Loree. The 1901 Census for Erin, Wellington County shows that William was 9 years old and the eldest of several children: Clara, Melvin, Sarah and Thomas. His father William was born 1860 in Ontario and his mother Isabelle was born 1865 in Ontario.

Isabelle McCutcheon's Death Registration for May 28, 1920 in Erin gives her father's name as Washington Loree and her mother as Ellen Marie Mack. Her husband was the informant.

I could not find a death or marriage record for our soldier William A. McCutcheon so do not know what happened to him after his return to Canada in 1919.

Press Release: USCIS Transfers More Historical Records to National Archives

Great news! USCIS Transfers More Historical Records to National Archives  

Approximately 44,000 Files to be transferred to Archives Facility in San Bruno, Calif.

Release Date May 22, 2012

WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) today announced the transfer of approximately 44,000 additional alien registration records, known as “A-Files,” to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

USCIS transferred the historical records from its San Bruno Federal Records Center to the permanent custody of the National Archives Pacific Region facility in San Bruno, Calif.  It is anticipated that the transferred files will be available to the public beginning today.

This is the fourth in a series of immigration file transfers initiated in June 2009, when USCIS and NARA formalized a schedule to relocate eligible A-Files for permanent preservation in the National Archives.

“It is imperative that we protect and treasure America’s immigration history,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. “The very fabric of our nation can be found in these files and we are pleased to work with our partners at NARA to ensure their preservation and access for future generations.”
 
The United States Government first began keeping the individual case files in 1944 to document the interactions between individual aliens and the U.S. government. A-Files are unique because they contain not only demographic information, but in many cases also include a number of other personal and historical documents, such as photographs, foreign birth certificates, marriage licenses and interview transcripts.

The A-Files being moved to the National Archives Pacific Region facility represent immigrants born between the 1860s and 1910. The top three countries of origin represented are Japan (42 percent), the Philippines (34 percent) and China (6 percent). A number of other countries are represented in the A-Files, including Mexico, Portugal and Canada.

In keeping with the 2009 schedule, A-Files located at the San Bruno Federal Records Center will be added to the holdings of the National Archives Pacific Region in San Bruno; all other A-Files will be transferred to the National Archives in Kansas City, Mo. as they become eligible.

USCIS currently maintains approximately 59 million A-Files. In addition to the A-Files that have been transferred to San Bruno, about 477,000 have been transferred to the permanent custody of the National Archives in Kansas City. About 90 percent of those files represent immigrants who came to the United States before 1960.

Once the A-Files are in NARA custody, they will be available to the public inNational Archives research rooms and indexed in NARA’s online Archival Research Catalog. Copies of the A-Files can also be requested by mail.

For more information about A-File research at the National Archives, visit their website. Additional immigration information and links to resources related to genealogical research are available on USCIS’s website.

Finding a Genealogy Blog to Follow

How do you find genealogy blogs you want to read? There are so many out there that it's impossible to read them all.

Here are two ways of finding a blog or two that you enjoy:

1. The Genealogy News service was launched in July 2010 - available in a daily or weekly edition - which gets delivered right to your email inbox. Over 30,000 genealogists have signed up to receive this FREE service that highlights items published at Genealogy Today, along with news stories from top genealogy bloggers and publishers. Signup at http://www.TheGenealogyNews.com/

2. If you want to choose from thousands of genealogy focused blogs, here's a list of over 2500. You'll have to take a quick look at each one to decide which appeal to you http://www.geneabloggers.com/genealogy-blogs/

I subscribe to most of my chosen genealogy blogs in Google Reader. That allows me to go to one site and read all my chosen blogs there.  And I'm signed up to get a daily email of The Genealogy News which gives me the top genealogy blog stories of the day.

Free War of 1812 Records on Fold3

Fold3 will be opening up all of their War of 1812 records to the public for free during June. This is in commemoration of the 200^th anniversary of the commencement of the war.

The collection consists of more than 400,000 images including 233,000 images from the War of 1812 Pension Files never before available online. The following databases provided for free included:

• War of 1812 Pension Files
• War of 1812 Prize Cases, Southern District Court, NY
• Letters Received by The Adjutant General, 1805-1821
• War of 1812 Service Records

40th SCGS Summer Genealogy Workshop

Friday, July 13 9:00a.m. to 8:00p.m. at South Carolina Archives and History Center, Columbia, SC

 

Internationally known genealogist Tony Burroughs and immediate past president of the National Genealogical Society, Jan Alpert, will present the latest research methods and information sources in fast-changing the field of genealogy.

The two-day event also will feature many other speakers, both national and state, who will provide attendees with the tools needed to successfully trace families.

Why it Pays to Follow and Post on Genealogy Forums

My new sister-in-law never knew her grandmother. All she knew was a first name - Mabel. Mabel had a son (the father of my sister-in-law) who she gave up for adoption in 1914 and all the family knew was that she worked for a wealthy family in London England.

As a surprise for my sister-in-law I've been researching her family for the past year. I started with her dad's birth certificate from PRO, which didn't reveal his father's name but gave me more information about Mabel.

Using that plus a marriage record, I was able to trace Mabel and her family back several generations. But all I could find on Mabel was that she never married and died in 1977.

So I began tracing Mabel's siblings - one brother and one sister. The sister died young but her brother married, had one son and that son had four children. I told my sister-in-law that if she wanted I would try to find and contact the four children (they would be her cousins) but she should be prepared for reactions ranging from overjoyed to know of new family to refusal to acknowledge her.

Long story short, I follow various genealogy forums online. In order to know when new posts are made to certain forums, I make sure I post responses to others queries. That way I get an email when anyone posts on that topic. I also post queries.

Two days ago I received an email notification that a man had posted in a forum I watch where the topic is Mabel's surname.

I was blown away by this new post. Someone had posted looking for information on his grandfather - Mable's brother! I wrote to him privately and told him about Mabel and her son. I wasn't sure if he would respond or if the family knew about Mabel's son. But I got lucky. He responded with "this is a bombshell but I'm overjoyed"

In an exchange of emails I have learned that he knew his "Aunt Mabel" very well and that he visited her frequently until her death. He's now filled me in on many details of Mabel's life and personality. She was well-loved by her family but no one alive now knew of her son.

Ironically she lived less than 11 miles from her son when he was an adult. It is so sad that he never got to meet her but my sister-in-law is thrilled to find out about her mysterious grandmother.

Best of all, my new contact is in the process of asking his mother for photos of Mabel.

Had I not been watching this particular surname forum it's unlikely I'd have found Mable's nephew. Serendipity at work!

Queen Victoria's Journals Online

In celebration of her Diamond Jubilee, and of Queen Victoria's birthday on 24 May, Queen Elizabeth II has made the journals of Queen Victoria available to the public.

The journals provide a picture of Queen Victoria's life from the first entry in 1832 at the age of 13 until 10 days before her death aged 81 in 1901.

Digital images of every page in Queen Victoria's diaries are available at Queen Victoria's Journals . Full transcriptions and keyword searching of the journal entries cover the period from Queen Victoria's first diary entry in July 1832 to her marriage to Prince Albert in February 1840

This is an ongoing project and journal entries will continue to be transcribed.

Boy Finds Photo of Long Dead Uncle in Garage Sale Camera

This is such an odd story that I felt compelled to share it. A 13 year old boy bought a camera at a garage sale. He got it home and opened it to find a photo of his uncle who'd been killed several years before.

The family who owned the camera have no known connection to the boy or his uncle. 

Read the complete details of this strange tale of serendipity in Wichita Kansas

A Genealogist's Birthday Card

 Okay maybe it's just me but I think this is the cutest card ever!

It might be a bit young for my son who has a 30-something birthday coming up very soon, but I liked it enough to buy it anyway.

Sure hope he isn't reading my Olive Tree Genealogy blog today.....

I wish there were more genealogy themed cards available. I realize I could make one myself but I like store-bought ones.

And I like ones I can send and get via mail the old-fashioned way, not a digital card.

I'm not fussy, I just know what I like! I prefer a card I can save.  And I save far too many! I have many dozens in my Genealogy Treasures Blanket Box.

How about you? Are you totally into digital? Or do you like the look and feel of one you get in the mail?

Brewster Collection Added to NYGB eLibrary

The following announcement was received by Olive Tree Genealogy from The New York Genealogical & Biographical Society

Brewster Collection Added to NYG&B eLibrary 

Emma Brewster Jones

Our digital library now includes all 27 portions of the Brewster Collection donated by Miss Emma C. Brewster Jones in 1908. This genealogical material on the descendants of Elder William Brewster, passenger on the Mayflower, contains extensive material on lines of descent through female Brewster family members.

The new material in the digital library is particularly exciting as it contains material on the female lines; none of this was included in her two-volume Brewster Genealogy published in 1907. Surnames listed include: Bartlett, Christophers, Coolidge, Freeman, Fosdick, Knowles, Mayo, Paine, Pickett, Prence, Prince, Starr, Turner, and Wetherell.

Members will be interested to know that the NYG&B acquired the Brewster Collection almost 100 years ago, and a description was published in The New York Genealogical and Biographical Record, (Vol. 044, No.3).

Click here for a complete breakdown of the volumes and chapters within this collection.    

A Tip for Using Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner (and a Coupon!)

Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner came to my rescue once again. Such a simple thing but it saved me some time and trouble. I'd promised my daughter a copy of one 8 1/2x11 sheet of paper. That doesn't sound like a big deal but the sheet is colored and I needed the copy to retain the original colors. I couldn't photocopy it and mail to her because I don't have a color copier.

I could have gone up to Staples and paid to have it copied but that's a 20 minute drive each way and with the cost of gas plus my time spent doing this, it seemed like there had to be a better way. Not that my daughter isn't worth it, she is!! But I wanted to get the copy to her quickly, and I was laid up with my bad hip. So the drive was out of the question.

My main computer is not hooked up since I'm in process of moving to my new office space, so that means no big scanner hooked up either.  I could have used my iPhone camera but the page was mostly text and that always seems a little blurry to me on a camera picture.

Then I remembered my Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner! All I had to do was make two quick scans (one for each section of the page I needed) Then insert the memory card into the USB adapter, pop it into my MacBookAir and within seconds I had both scans ready to email to my daughter. I didn't bother with the stitching abiiity because that wasn't necessary but I could have done that quickly too.

So that's my new tip for using your Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner. Don't have a Flip-Pal? No worries, here's two May coupons for you to choose from if you want to purchase one.

May Flora

May 22 – May 31 Use Promotion Code: gc512a

Purchase a Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner and receive a grey Flip-Pal Carry Case FREE! (Please note: this is the neoprene, not deluxe carry case. Both items must be in your shopping cart.)

May Fauna

May 22 – May 31 Use Promotion Code: dcs512a

Purchase a Flip-Pal Mobile Scanner with Digital Creativity Suite 3.0 DVD and get a Flip-Pal mobile scanner Sketch Kit FREE! (Both items must be in your shopping cart.)

Six States Indexed for 1940 US Census on FamilySearch

The following announcement was received by Olive Tree Genealogy from FamilySearch

1940 U.S. Census Community Project Nearly Halfway Complete

22 May 2012

The halfway point for indexing the 1940 U.S. census is fast approaching. 

 

Congratulations and thank you to all of the volunteers participating in this unprecedented genealogical community effort. Currently more than 20 states are at or above 85 percent complete. Six states—Delaware, Colorado, Kansas, Oregon, Virginia, and New Hampshire—are now indexed and searchable by name, location, and family relations. And thanks to the efforts of more than 100,000 volunteers, more states will be added in the coming weeks. Follow the day-to-day indexing status at the1940census.com dashboard and search completed states at familysearch.org/1940census.

 

Current and Completed Projects

To view a list of currently available indexing projects, along with their record language and completion percentage, visit the FamilySearch indexing updates page. To learn more about individual projects, view the FamilySearch projects page.

 

View the FamilySearch projects page to see the full list of available projects and to learn more about how to participate in various projects.

 

From Record to Reality - Gleaning Your Family's Story of Service

Olive Tree Genealogy is very pleased to present an article by Guest Author Marie Rundquist. Marie's books (listed at end of article) are available at  buybooksontheweb.com (Infinity Publishing), Barnes and Noble, along with other Internet and E-book sources. 

From Record to Reality

Gleaning Your Family's Story of Service

by Marie Rundquist

May 2012

At Memorial Day events and backyard barbecues, we cherish the memories of our beloved men and women in uniform, share their treasured photographs, and display their medals of honor, but what do we really know of their stories?  As time passes, and wartime memories fade, an ancestor's military registration record, limited to the most basic of vital information, may be the only evidence of his service to his country.  While genealogists highlight marriages, births, and family lines in their research, military service is often incidental -- a footnote annotation in a charted family tree.  When I initially researched my own family history, I found elaborate details related to my ancestors' marriages, births, and deaths, but noted only a cursory mention of their military careers.  


At a recent memorial service for my husband's paternal uncle, we had the opportunity to witness the presentation of an American flag by an Honor Guard, a stunning tribute to my husband's “Uncle Ed” and his service to his country.  At Ed's viewing, there were many stories shared about his love of family, his devotion to his real-estate career, his ability to organize community events, and put people at ease, but little was said about his military service.  As he was laid to rest, and an American flag, folded into the shape of a three-cornered hat, was presented by the Honor Guard to surviving family, all in attendance were at once reminded that Ed had enlisted in the the military during World War II, and were deeply moved.


Ed's World War II enlistment record offers an abbreviated view of a high school graduate with machine-shop training, a single man with dependents, who were his immediate family. Challenged to complete Ed's story of service, I searched the 1930 Federal Census records and discovered that Ed was, in fact, the youngest in a family of eight, that his mother and father were originally from Poland.  I examined the census reports of adjacent households in Trenton, New Jersey's sixth ward, observed numbers of Czechoslovakian and Polish surnames in close proximity, and concluded that Ed lived in a tightly-knit, Eastern European immigrant community.  I browsed the recently published 1940 Federal Census and unearthed the roots of Ed's (and my husband's) deeply ingrained work-ethic, for according to the enumerator, Ed's three elder brothers all contributed to the household, and each held a job – as, respectively, a night-club musician, a factory-worker, and my father-in-law was, at the time of the1940 Federal Census, an apprentice linoleum layer for a department store.  According to the census taker, Polish was the language most commonly spoken at home in Ed's neighborhood..  


A 1941 parish directory was shared at Ed's memorial service, its pages lined with the photographs of young men in uniform, their faces full of hope, eyes bright and shining.  Leafing through the directory, I was reminded that while most view senior year as a launching point for college and careers, for a high school graduating class in the early 1940s, senior year was a weigh-station on a long and perilous journey – one that for many would end on foreign shores.  From a published obituary, I learned that Ed was an Air Force veteran of World War II, who served in the Asiatic Pacific campaign.  After returning home, Ed approached life with boundless optimism  -- that he, as a survivor of World War II,  had the opportunity to marry, buy a home, build a career, educate his children, and be of help to  his family and friends ranked highest among his concerns. A lover of music and song, and a devoted family man, Ed didn't “sweat the small stuff.”  Quibbling over trivial and insignificant events of the day simply didn't factor into Ed's priorities – nor did quibbling factor into his brother's priorities, as I recall, and certainly my husband is not a quibbler..


By extending my research beyond a single military registration record, to include the 1930 and 1940 Federal Census, newspaper articles, and other published sources, I gained insight into a family's shared traits, uncovered the greater reality that upheld “Uncle Ed's” military enlistment record, and, in honor of Memorial Day, advanced one enlisted man's story of service from footnote to front-and-center.



Marie Rundquist is a DNA project manager, collaborative research community moderator, president of an information systems consulting firm and author of Revisiting Anne Marie: How an Amerindian Woman of Seventeenth-Century Nova Scotia and a DNA Match Redefine “American” Heritage and Cajun by Any Other Name Recovering the Lost History of a Family and a People. For more information visit: http://dna-genealogy-history.com

Turn a Genealogy Guess Into a Working Theory

Davida asked Olive Tree Genealogy an interesting question and one that I think is asked by many newcomers to genealogy.

Here's her question:

In the 1870 census, I found 14 males with the name Blake in St Peters, Beaufort, SC.  My question is could it be that these males were related. I realize that it's kind of hard to tell just from census records but being that there are such few of them, I thought that maybe the older men were possibly brothers who had sons and those sons had sons.

Davida - you've come up with a good guess for those fourteen Blake males.  They could indeed be related. But it's only a guess. You have no evidence to support your guess. And there are other possibilities:

* The older men could be cousins.
* The men could be from unrelated Blake families.
* They could be related but much further back than brothers or first cousins.

LIST THE POSSIBILITIES

Adding your guess to the mix we see that we have four good possibilities. So let's simplify it.

1. the men are related in some way or
2. the men are not related

FIND THE EVIDENCE

Your job as a genealogist is to find evidence that supports your guess (older men are brothers) or disproves it.  

You can start by listing the family groups you know from the 1870 census. Then search 1860 and 1850 census records to see if you can fit more of the men into proven families.

Look for other records that will help you straighten out those Blake males. Church records for baptisms, marriages or deaths. Obituaries in newspapers.  These are only a few of the record sources you should try next.

NEVER ASSUME

The most important piece of advice I can give is to NOT make assumptions! Create working theories if you like, such as your guess that the older men could be brothers. That can be your working theory. But don't assume it's correct. Work to prove or disprove it. If it turns out to be correct, pat yourself on the back and continue on. If it turns out to be wrong, form a new working theory and go from there.

It's okay to guess. It's okay to form a theory. But after you've formulated a guess or theory, you have to look for evidence that supports it. Because good Genealogy is based on facts and evidence, not guesses or unproven theories.

FREE International Immigration Records on Ancestry.ca this Weekend

This Victoria Day Weekend Ancestry.ca is offering 200 million historical immigration records from around the world for free, until May 21st.

Immigration and travel records tell the story of your ancestors as they made the courageous decision to immigrate, travel or become a citizen of a new country. With 200 million immigration records from Canada, United Kingdom, the U.S. and several other countries from around the world at your disposal, you may uncover the answers you’ve been looking for. Explore passenger lists, naturalization records, border crossings, crew lists, immigration and emigration books, passports and more as you discover your family’s journey to Canada.

The story of your ancestors’ journey to a new country is waiting to be uncovered. Search Ancestry.ca international immigration records for free, this Victoria Day Weekend only until May 21st.

Press Release: More States Indexed for 1940 US Census

The following announcement was received by Olive Tree Genealogy 

From Archives.com

We are happy to announce that the 1940 census name index for three more states - Florida, Utah, and Wyoming - are now available for free at Archives.com . (Archives members can also search these records in the Member area.)

These states join Colorado, Delaware, Kansas, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Virginia as part of the quickly-growing 1940 census index.

The Frustration Over Online Family Trees Gone Bad

This morning on my personal Facebook page I posted a rant for my status update. I ranted about online family trees that were rife with huge errors. Errors that included linking a census record for a man aged 29 to a man of the same name who was over 70. And yes, the owner of the tree had his birth year correct in the tree.

A second error involved a marriage to his wife, correctly identified in this online tree. Children born to the couple were also correctly identified with birth years beginning in 1801. But the tree owner linked to a marriage in 1832 stating this was for the man and his wife. Not only is that impossible given the birth years of their children but a quick click on the link showed the marriage to be in a different state and for a man with the same name but marrying an entirely different wife!

And so  I vented, expressing my dismay at the public posting of a tree so obviously incorrect. And the fact that at least six other researchers had copied the mistakes and posted them to their own public trees.

My rant, to my surprise, generated a heated discussion! It's been very interesting and some excellent ideas and suggestions were given for combating these types of errors without becoming the genealogy police.

It's tricky to critique another person's tree. Most of us don't take kindly to being told we're wrong. And it doesn't seem to matter how gently or kindly you express it, the bottom line is - you're telling someone they goofed.

Most of us agreed that the best method is to instruct through online tutorials, webinars, video how tos, to be come a mentor and to lead by example.  I often write  articles that I hope will guide those new to genealogy and help them become better genealogists.  You can find some of these on Olive Tree Genealogy blog under the topic heading TUTORIALS in the right side nav bar.  And there's an abundance of material out there to allow all of us, from the beginner to the experienced, to learn something new.

What's your opinion? 

Credit: Image from Fotolia