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 Monday, May 05, 2008
Eyewitness Report: UK's Biggest Family History Show
Posted by Diane
A giant family history show called Who Do You Think You Are? Live just wrapped up in London. Thirty-year British family history veteran Richard Heaton, who volunteered there, sent us this eyewitness account and some action shots: Who Do You Think You Are is the biggest event of its kind in the UK, with attendance last year of 13,000 visitors. This year the numbers were probably higher still.
 But it’s not just the numbers that make this show stand head and shoulders above the rest—it’s the scope of what’s available for visitors. It has representation from many UK local family local history societies, the online research database companies such as FindMyPast, software suppliers and expert lectures.
But it’s also attended by major archives in England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland; experts on local history, military history, archeology, conservation, the History Channel; even the London Times digital newspaper archive (below). All under one roof for three days.
 Making available a great variety of resources and knowledge—some not immediately connected to family history as we’ve known it—gives the show appeal to a wide audience. The common theme? All exhibitors and visitors share a passion for history.
Over the two days I attended, I had the chance to hold (and of course feel the weight) of a Brown Bess rifle. Chatted to two enthusiasts dressed as Polish Lancers. Sampled lectures covering topics as diverse as Stonehenge, the Battle of Britain 1940, and Jewish family history research.
I also had a good look at the display of military vehicles, including a British WWI tank. I looked at historical objects (below)—coins, bells, buckles, clay pipe bowls and colourful fragments of medieval pottery—once discarded by our ancestors and since recovered from the mud of the Thames River in London. 
But I spent most of my time volunteering to help visitors with research queries, both in the Guild of One-Name Studies booth (below) and as an expert advisor for the Society of Genealogists (both are leading family history societies in the UK). Most visitors I saw came from the UK, but there were a noticeable number of visitors from Canada, Australia, the United States and Ireland.
Visitors’ knowledge levels were equally varied. The success of the UK television show “Who Do You Think You Are?” has clearly encouraged a lot of people to take an interest in their family history. Some were absolute beginners, excited to find ancestors in the UK censuses. Other seasoned researchers were equally pleased to get advice on new sources for 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century research. I finished on Sunday, a little tired and a little hoarse, but very satisfied, having had the opportunity in some way or another to assist over 50 fellow family historians.
Genealogy Events
5/5/2008 5:21:51 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00) 
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Family Tree Firsts—Part Five
Posted by Grace
This weekend I reached another milestone: attending my first genealogy conference, hosted by the Ohio Genealogical Society.
It was seriously awesome to meet so many Family Tree Magazine readers (especially the one who said her favorite part of the mag is "Preserving Memories"). Although I spent most of the weekend helping out at our exhibitor table (see below), I also got to attend a few of the sessions. I sat in on "Pig Blood in the Snow: Court Records Can Solve Problems" mostly because of the name—but also because our upcoming September issue includes an article on court records. I also really enjoyed Jeffrey Alan Bockman's "Using Maps in Genealogical Research." I now know better than to believe Grandma's story about having to walk 4 miles to school each way. 
 Kenny Burck, first vice president of OGS and German research aficionado, was certainly the most decorated genealogist I met last weekend.
All his various badges, medals and pins denote memberships and lineages. (This would be a great picture to try out photo tagging on!) Can anyone top Kenny?
Later, I struck up a conversation with Hans-Friedrich Coordes, who was at the conference representing the KfTN, which tracks down relatives and ancestors in Europe. (I'm a fluent German speaker and like to practice every chance I get!) He was in Cincinnati only for the weekend, but he made an incredible genealogical discovery in the little time he had.
Another exhibitor told him she had ancestors with his surname—from the same town in Ostfriesland Hans-Friedrich is from, even. After comparing some names, they determined they were not-so-distant cousins. He was blown away.
Have any of you made great connections at a conference?
Earlier in Family Tree Firsts:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Family Tree Firsts | Genealogy Events | Genealogy Industry
4/22/2008 5:24:41 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Saturday, April 19, 2008
More From the Ohio Genealogical Society Conference
Posted by Diane
We’re hearing about 600 genealogists have gathered here in Cincinnati for the Ohio Genealogical Society annual conference, yesterday and today at the Sharonville Sheraton hotel.
Genealogical societies from Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky are here, as well as book vendors and exhibitors including RootsMagic, WorldVitalRecords and the Godfrey Memorial Library. Thursday night, the revamped genealogy department of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County stayed open late for night-owl researchers.
One first-time conference attendee just told me he couldn’t wait to get home—after learning in a class about FamilySearch Labs’ Ohio death certificates collection, he spent hours finding new ancestral information. Now he’s chomping at the bit to enter everything in his software.
A psychic convention is happening in the convention center right across the street from this conference. We thought about organizing a field trip, or sending a contingent to persuade them to open a booth here in the OGS exhibit hall. Imagine the brick wall-breaking potential.
We’ve been taking photos we’ll post early next week in a little slideshow, including one showing the most-decorated genealogist we know. You’ll see what we mean.
Genealogy Events | Genealogy Web Sites
4/19/2008 11:14:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, April 18, 2008
Shaking Things up at OGS
Posted by Diane
Genealogy can rock your world. At least around here it does: Cincinnati welcomed attendees of the Ohio Genealogical Society (OGS) annual conference with an earthquake, unusual for our area. The 5.4 quake was centered west of us near Olney, Ill., which is north of Evansville, In., and it woke me up just before the alarm about 5:45 (I had to walk the dog).
More to come from OGS …
Genealogy Events
4/18/2008 8:19:44 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Mark Your Calendar: Upcoming Genealogy Classes
Posted by Diane
What some people call "spring" and "summer," genealogists refer to as "conference season." Po-tay-to, po-tah-to. Head over to our self-serve events calendar and add your society’s annual meeting, your library's workshop, your family history cruise or other genealogy-related event. (If you need 'em, posting instructions are on the Forum.) Whether your family history travels take you across town or across the country, use our online research trip packing list to make sure you don’t forget anything. Here are just a few of the upcoming genealogical goings-on: - Besides going to classes at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree, June 27-29 in Burbank, Calif., you can attend a genealogy blogger summit, sit in on ethnic research roundtables or access several genealogy databases free in the TechZone. If you’re a Southern California Genealogical Society member, you can register for $65; nonmembers pay $80. Day rates also are available.
- Swing down to Philadelphia Sept. 3-6 for the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference. Hear about regional topics such as Colonial and Mennonite research, as well as broader subjects including tracing women and finding wills. Register for the whole shebang for $175, or a day for $95.
Genealogy Events | Genealogy societies
4/9/2008 10:35:43 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Monday, March 31, 2008
Does Genealogy Make You Smart?
Posted by Diane
American Mensa—the 50,000-member association for highly intelligent people—is making genealogy the focus of its Sept. 12-14 colloquium in Salt Lake City. At Tracking Granny’s Granny: The Genealogy Quest, “Mensans” (who qualify for membership by scoring in the 98th percentile or higher on an intelligence test) will attend sessions on photos, genetic genealogy and online research. They'll also take a field trip to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Family History Library. Registration is open to the public, so folks of humbler intellect are welcome, too. Me, I’d probably be unable to shake the feeling I’m back in sixth grade and just finished my long-division worksheet dead last. Maybe a Mensan, after completing his own family tree in record time, would help me defeat my brick walls. On the other hand, I wonder which came first: the genius or the genealogy? All that ancestral research and reading and analysis is bound to prod your brain into forming new synapses and becoming sharper. Maybe even Mensa sharp. If nothing else, perhaps sitting long enough in a roomful of certifiably smart people will make some of it rub off.
Genealogy Events
3/31/2008 1:44:32 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Tuesday, March 18, 2008
News From the BYU Computerized Genealogy Conference
Posted by Diane
Family Tree Magazine’s contributing editor and technology guru Rick Crume crashed the Brigham Young University Computerized Genealogy Conference last weekend in Provo, Utah. He reports more than 700 attendees absorbed nearly 100 presentations and explored a large exhibit area. Here's what Rick had to say about developments he uncovered there: FamilySearch makeover updateThe revamped Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Family History Library Web site, still in the testing stage, is gradually being rolled out to the church’s temple districts around the world. It’ll be open to the general public once data security issues are addressed. “New” FamilySearch offers collaboration, multimedia and improved searching. It’ll attempt to consolidate all the family information located in several databases on “old” FamilySearch. As a shared database open for users to collaborate on, the new FamilySearch is fundamentally different from the current site, which doesn’t let you alter data someone else submitted. You’ll be able to submit information to the new site in GEDCOM format, but you can’t download data as a GEDCOM. Working with other service providers is the new site’s strong suit. Several genealogy programs, including Ancestral Quest, Legacy Family Tree and RootsMagic (but not Family Tree Maker or FamilySearch’s own Personal Ancestral File), will let you synchronize the family files on your computer with New FamilySearch. And you’ll be able to use these programs free at Family History Centers for three years. Progeny’s Charting Companion utilities will combine family information from the renewed site with photos from another site to create a photo family tree chart. And Generations Maps will let you order a chart made from names on the new FamilySearch. Work is underway to digitize the Family History Library’s collection. FamilySearch Labs' Record Search already lets you search millions of indexed names. How many searches was that?Tim Sullivan, president and CEO of The Generations Network, rattled off a string of statistics on his company, whose divisions include Ancestry.com, RootsWeb, MyFamily.com and Genealogy.com. Amazingly, Genealogy.com still ranks as the third most popular genealogy Web site, even though TGN virtually abandoned the site after acquiring it several years ago. Sullivan noted Ancestry.com processes 20 million search requests a day. TGN has invested almost $69 million to digitize records over the past 10 years; $10 million a year now goes toward digitization. In the works: scanning some of the National Archives’ 9 billion undigitized documents. Sullivan emphasized RootsWeb will remain free despite the change in its domain name to rootsweb.ancestry.com. From the genealogy social networking front ...Genealogy social networking sites are multiplying like crazy. Geni now has a million registered users. A new entrant in the field, Family Pursuit, lets you and your relatives use a Web-based genealogy program to collaborate on family history research. Findmypast.com’s upgraded online family tree, PedigreeSoft, will debut in two or three months with a new URL, www.familytreeexplorer.com. And some new products and services
- Family Photoloom, which should be available this month, lets you tag faces in photos and link them to genealogical data
- Heritage Collector lets you organize your digital photos, label people in them and create family history scrapbooks
- Biographywiki.com is a wiki that accepts biographies of anyone, famous or not, but the person must be deceased
- USFamilyTree.com, coming in April, aims to make tracking down your ancestors’ descendants more efficient.
Genealogy Events | Genealogy Industry | Genealogy Software | Genealogy Web Sites
3/18/2008 4:34:26 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, February 27, 2008 Monday, February 11, 2008
Family History Expo Slide Show
Posted by Allison
For those of you who couldn't make it to the Family History Expo 2008 in St. George, Utah, last weekend—and those who want to relive the fun—watch this slideshow of images from the event:
Genealogy Events | Genealogy fun | Videos
2/11/2008 5:05:09 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Saturday, February 09, 2008
News and Notes from the Family History Expo
Posted by Allison
The first day of MyAncestorsFound’s Family History Expo 2008 saw a flurry of activity in the exhibit hall—here at the Family Tree Magazine booth, I barely had a moment to catch my breath. But today I had the opportunity to cruise the hall and learn about new developments in the industry. The buzzword for this event has been “New FamilySearch”—referring to the highly anticipated revamp of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ genealogy Web site, which is scheduled to go public in early 2009. Several classes focused on how the new system works, and what it means to genealogists. Developers from AncestralQuest, PAFInsight and RootsMagic genealogy software gave demos on how their programs will “sync” with the New FamilySearch. Here’s a snapshot of other news: - Newcomer FamilyPursuit is a Web-based family tree program that aims to make it easy for families to collaborate on recording and researching genealogy. It’s currently in a public beta phase—you can get sneak peek at its features on the Web site, or sign up to become a tester.
- Milennia Corp. is preparing to release version 7 of its Legacy Family Tree software in March. The new edition will add wall charts and source templates, among other features
- GenealogyBank, the subscription Web site for historical newspapers, government records and primary documents, is adding hundreds of Hispanic newspapers to its collection.
- Ancestry DNA, the genetic genealogy arm of data megasite Ancestry.com, will be adding surname groups this spring, along with groups for different geographic locations and haplogroups.
- Add Family Tree and Me to the list of companies offering decorative family tree charts. Owner Shirlene Dymock aims to provide designs elegant enough to display in your living room—see samples of the layouts, backgrounds and frames online.
- Online genealogy TV channel RootsTelevision has now posted all the episodes of both PBS “Ancestors” series. You’ll also be able to catch interviews from the Expo on RootsTelevision.
- Podcaster Lisa Louise Cooke was also busy doing interviews during the Expo. Among the conversations to be featured in upcoming episodes: Richard Black of the Godfrey Memorial Library, Kathy Meade of Swedish church records Web site Genline, and presenter Kathryn Lake Hogan speaking about immigration resources. Visit Genealogy Gems for details on subscribing to this free online radio show.
- Speaking of Swedish records, Meade tipped me off to a recent news story on genealogi.se about a reinterpretation of Swedish law that would allow more-recent church records to be digitized and posted online—shrinking the 100-year waiting period to 70 or 85. Watch this blog for announcements on where and when those records may become available to you.
FamilySearch | Genealogy Events | Genealogy Industry | Genealogy Software | Genealogy Web Sites | Videos
2/9/2008 11:08:17 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Friday, February 08, 2008
Pirating Genealogies
Posted by Allison
 Arrr, where’re me ancestors? Hundreds of family history enthusiasts are here at the two-day Family History Expo 2008 in St. George, Utah, to answer that question. The event kicked off Friday morning with the “Pirates of the Pedigree” keynote address, and appropriately, costumed volunteers are on hand in the exhibit hall to assist vendors and attendees. Put on by Utah-based research firm MyAncestorsFound, the Expo features a variety of classes and an exhibit hall packed with genealogical products and services—including sponsors FamilySearch, Cherry Creek Radio, Ancestry.com, World Vital Records, DearMYRTLE, TheSpectrum.com, Generation Maps, Footnote, RootsTelevision, Godfrey Memorial Library, and our very own Family Tree Magazine. Stay tuned for news and observations as the Expo continues. 
Genealogy Events
2/8/2008 5:15:28 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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The Family History Expo Is on in St. George
Posted by Diane
The Family History Expo, sponsored by your friendly neighborhood Family Tree Magazine, is happening today and tomorrow, Feb. 8 and 9, in St. George, Utah. (You may know the Expo by its former name, the Genealogy and Family Heritage Jamboree.) Editor Allison Stacy is there, handing out magazines and taking in some classes. If you’re going, stop by booth 419 to say hi. Didn’t pre-register? No problem—you can sign up at the door for $65. That gets you enhanced research skills through 101 presentations from experts in a variety of topics, an audience with more than 50 vendors and exhibitors, opportunities to commune with fellow researchers, and chances to win drawings and door prizes (maybe even one containing a few Family Tree books).
Genealogy Events
2/8/2008 8:50:57 AM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Monday, December 03, 2007
Family Tree Magazine Sponsors Family History Expo
Posted by Diane
Guess what? We’re sponsoring ourselves a genealogy conference! Family Tree Magazine is the key sponsor for the fourth annual Family History Expo, Feb. 8 and 9 in St. George, Utah. The conference (formerly the Genealogy and Family Heritage Jamboree) draws speakers from all over the United States, including Trace Your Roots With DNA co-author and Ancestry.com historian Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, Reading Early American Handwriting author Kip Sperry, DearMYRTLE blogger Pat Richley, World Vital Records president David Lifferth, RootsMagic president Bruce Buzbee and others. The exhibit hall will feature more than 60 exhibitors, including F amily Tree Magazine in booth 419. Each attendee gets a free Family Tree Magazine, plus chances to win prizes such as subscriptions and The Family Tree Resource Book for Genealogists (Family Tree Books, $29.99). Registration costs $60 in advance (sign up online at MyAncestorsFound) or $65 at the door. Here’s a little extra incentive: Nestled in the southwest corner of Utah, St. George is a balmy 50 to 60 degrees in February, when those of us in more northern locales are shivering through bone-chilling temps. I thought you’d come around!
Genealogy Events
12/3/2007 4:59:23 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)
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Wednesday, August 22, 2007
More New Stuff Spotted at FGS
Posted by Diane
We’ve blogged about Federation of Genealogical Societies conference news from FamilySearch, The Generations Network, RootsTelevision and us here at Family Tree Magazine. We also found these new products and services meant to make your genealogical life easier: - World Vital Records has partnered with the National Genealogical Society to provide society management services including member benefits (in the form of World Vital Records subscription discounts), membership renewal processing, online data hosting and a Web platform (on FamilyLink) for member communication.
- Genlighten.com is a not-yet-available service that matches people who have well-defined research tasks that need doing (such as getting an obituary from library microfilm) with experienced—but not necessarily professional—researchers who'll complete them for a fee. Expect a launch by March 2008.
- FacTree from The Genealogy Shop is a Windows utility for entering data into your genealogy software. The theory is, you type data into an online form that approximates the source document, and facTree puts the data in the right format and place in your software. You can try it free with the 1880 census; other facTree forms cost $3.50.
- Ages-Online is a Web-based genealogy program you can access from any Internet-connected computer. It has features similar to traditional software and backs up your data nightly, though not all packages support multimedia files. Subscriptions range from $39.95 (Economy) to $109.95 (Deluxe) per year.
- Several Web sites, such as Geni, Footnote, WeRelate and FamilyLink, have enhanced or added free social networking features that let you upload photos, post research information, build trees and collaborate with other researchers. Watch upcoming issues of Family Tree Magazine for more information on genealogy social networking.
Genealogy Events | Genealogy Industry | Genealogy societies | Genealogy Software | Genealogy Web Sites
8/22/2007 4:07:03 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Friday, August 17, 2007
What's New From the FGS Conference
Posted by Diane
We’re reporting live from the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference (which is much better than reporting dead). Here's visual evidence the Family Tree Magazine staff isn't just goofing off here in Fort Wayne:  In conference news, the social networking site Geni (it's pronounced “jeenee”) is exhibiting at its first national genealogy show, and the site has a lot more features than when we first told you about its debut several months ago. That includes various ways to view and navigate through your family tree, image upload and privacy options. It’s a pretty slick site, and it’s free. The historical records subscription and pay-per-view site Footnote has enhanced its social features, too. Anyone with a basic (free) membership can create a profile, upload photo and documents, annotate them and add “story pages” about ancestors and records. Footnote webmasters made these elements more noticeable by showing the newest user contributions on the home page. You don’t have to pay to see records members have contributed, either. Footnote users will be glad to hear a new, more-sophisticated search function is in the works. Subscription Web site Ancestry.com (another Web site you may have heard of) has announced a partnership with the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the oldest genealogical society in the country. You’ll hear more details in a few weeks, but the society will share records with Ancestry.com in return for discounted subscriptions for its members.
Genealogy Events | Genealogy Industry | Genealogy Web Sites
8/17/2007 2:48:13 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Thursday, August 16, 2007
FGS and RootsTelevision Honor "Roots" 30th Anniversary
Posted by Diane
Chris Haley, nephew of Roots author Alex Haley, strolled into this morning’s Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference opening singing the Banana Boat song (the one that goes “Day-o”). Turns out it’s the 30th anniversary of the publication of Roots, the book some say propelled genealogy fervor to the big time. The younger Haley—special guest of the genealogy-focused Internet tv station RootsTelevision—is associate reference director for the Maryland archives, makes films and acts (which is why he looked perfectly natural singing the Banana Boat song at 8:11 a.m. to a roomful of people who for a split second didn’t quite know what was happening). You want to see a love of family history personified, that’s him. Later, Haley turned the tables and interviewed me for RootsTelevision. Snippets will be on the site along with those from other interviews. RootsTelevision also has added 24 channels, each with segments specializing in a different genealogy topic. All but one are free and you can watch all of it at your convenience. Genealogists get their own version of YouTube, too: You can upload your genealogy videos to RootsTelevision's RootsTube.
Genealogy Events | Genealogy Web Sites
8/16/2007 6:08:54 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Genealogy Heaven at Allen County Library
Posted by Diane
Yesterday, the first day of the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Fort Wayne, Ind., the staff at the nearby Allen County Public Library’s Genealogy Center shelved 11,460 books and other materials. That's just a fraction of the largest public library genealogy collection in the country, and conference attendees are eager for the chance to search for ancestors between lectures. Astounding is a good word for the center. Yesterday we toured some of the giant collection of 350,000+ books (including 55,000 family histories; an impressive array of county histories, school yearbooks and records indexes) and 513,000 “microtexts” (microfilm and microfiche). Those include censuses, passenger lists and more. Hoosiers and non-Hoosiers come here for the resources covering counties
across America, plus countries overseas. The library’s staff are
the folks behind the Periodical Source Index, too, which references
genealogical and historical periodicals dating back to 1800. Soon you can see more details in a video of the tour in an online video—we’ll
let you know when you can see this truly quality visual experience.
Genealogy Events | Libraries and Archives
8/16/2007 5:30:27 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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New Genealogy Society Fundraiser Announced
Posted by Allison
As the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) conference kicked off yesterday, the society announced partnerships with several genealogy companies, including our own Family Tree Magazine.
These partnerships are designed to help FGS and its 500-plus member societies earn much-needed funds for programs, volunteer projects and other efforts to benefit and grow the genealogical community. When individual members of FGS societies purchase the partners’ products, those companies will donate a portion of the sales back to the societies.
Family Tree Magazine initiated the partnership program with FGS, and we’ve launched a Web site that makes it easy for member groups to participate in our fundraiser. Societies can go to HelpFGS.org and download a button to put on their Web sites. Then individual members can visit to society’s site to sign up for a $24 new subscription, and we’ll donate $6 of the proceeds to that member society and $6 to FGS.
Further information and FAQs are on the HelpFGS.org Web site.
Other partners include genealogy records Web sites Footnote and Ancestry.com, and Legacy Family Tree software.
Genealogy Events | Genealogy societies
8/16/2007 12:06:00 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Live from the FGS Conference
Posted by Allison
Family Tree Magazine staffers are at the Federation of Genealogical Societies conference in Fort Wayne, Ind., this week. During the conference, we’ll have the opportunity to tour the new Allen County Public Library facilities—featuring the largest public-library genealogy collection in the country—and catch up on the latest products, services and resources for genealogists. We’ll be sharing that news with you throughout the conference, so stay tuned to the Genealogy Insider blog for updates.
Genealogy Events | Genealogy Industry | Genealogy societies
8/15/2007 8:57:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
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Wednesday, May 23, 2007
News From NGS
Posted by Allison
Where better to hold a genealogy gathering than the backyard of America’s first permanent English colony? For this year’s National Genealogical Society (NGS) conference, last week in Richmond, Va., organizers joined in Jamestown’s 400th anniversary celebration: The keynote session explored virtual resources for studying Jamestown’s history, and a descendant of settler John Rolfe and Pocahontas entertained the banquet audience. With nearby Civil War battlefields, Revolutionary-era sites and Colonial Willliamsburg, Richmond proved a popular location—around 2,000 genealogists reportedly attended the conference this year, up from recent years’ turnout. Those who stopped by the Family History Fair in the Richmond Convention Center learned of new and forthcoming genealogical products and services. If you didn’t make it—or missed the announcements—here’s the scoop: • Visitors to the Family History Library’s booth got a sneak peek at the revamped search interface coming to the FamilySearch Web site. The new system not only integrates information from FamilySearch’s various databases, its results also will link to digitized records—though only a tiny fraction of the library’s vast holdings will be available when the site relaunches this fall. (But more record images will be coming online soon: See “Not-So-Silent Partners.”) Booth workers also showed off the easy-to-use | |