Get Organized - Gen Research Spreadsheets

If you're looking for a way to organize your genealogy research, try Thomas MacEntee's Excel spreadsheets. You can download them here. After you click on "Enable Editing" you can save it to your desired location.

At the bottom you can see the different tabs. Displayed above is the sample log, but researchers should find the Research Log, To Do List, and Search Attempts a great way to keep track of their research. The Citation Formats and Evidence Evaluation are useful tools to refer to when you need to know how to cite a source or evaluate a source.

JO

FamilySearch Digital Records

Do you want just the online resources from the catalog at FamilySearch.org?

From the “search” drop down menu, click “catalog”  Search by place.  After entering the place name you are interested in, note that below the place name search box,  search box that says “search these family history centers “.  Use that drop down menu to choose “online” and click “search” This way the results will be only for those records that are online.  This pulls from the catalog all the records for the place that you are researching that are online.  This is an easy way to discover from the catalog which records are digitally available without search through the results from a regular catalog search. 

SK

Just answer the question

From the Whiteside Chronicle, a Whiteside County, Illinois newspaper, October 4, 1870

Arkansas law releases original birth certificates to adoptees

House Bill 1636 bill passed both the house and senate without dissent on either side, much to do with the bill's provision to allow birth parents up to a year to decide if they would like to redact their name from the original birth certificate to maintain their anonymity.

The bill establishes the right of adoptees to request access to their original birth certificate after the age of 21.

HB 1636 was signed into law by Governor Hutchinson last Thursday  

SK

http://katv.com/news/local/law-plans-to-unseal-thousands-of-previously-sealed-birth-certificates-of-adopted-arkansans

Digital Public Library of America

A free, national digital library providing access to millions of materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the U.S., including letters, yearbooks, military records, family bibles, historical photographs, maps, and more.

https://dp.la

SB

New York State research

Online collections and publications for New York State research (requires a subscription to the New York Genealogical and Biographical (NYG&B) Society).

www.newyorkfamilyhistory.org

SB

Digital Library of Georgia

Digital access to a statewide collection of historical newspapers, obituaries, funeral programs, photographs, maps, and more.

http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu

SB

Staff Meeting Notes - 03/14/2017

(MH) 5 Minute Resource Sharing:  reviewed tips from Cary Hall's "Organized or Trashed" talk at AKGS, including the importance of pedigree charts/family group sheets as well as using lineage society pedigree charts (which are of a slightly different format)

(SK) Required Training - Pronunciator Intro:  30 minute training required for all HPL frontline staff - be sure to sign the sheet on the table in the lounge when completed

(SK) Flash Drives For Sale:  $5 each, 2 GB in size, limit 2 per person; see instruction sheet in the plastic bag by the coin box at RD1 for more information on how to sell these items

(SK) Clayton House - 100 Year Anniversary:  CLF will host an event 2nd week of September; Sue is working on some gathering some photos and information in preparation for this event

(SK) Booking the Guest House / Main House:  reminder that we do not book the Guest House or Main House to any new outside groups; only exceptions mentioned were the three established groups that routinely use it: African American His. Gen. Soc., Hispanic Gen. Soc., and Meller's group (NCNW)

(SK) New Ricoh Printer/Copier:  You have to swipe your badge to access your print jobs and other features of the new copier; it is faster and does double-sided printing by default, but more labor-intensive; see IW for an intro if you want to use it; the small printer that sits behind ID is still the default printer for any print jobs sent from RD1 and RD2

(Team) Team Reports:

• JO - make sure all microfilm readers and printers are properly turned off when closing MPD
• SK - volunteer Steve Price's book indexes will soon be available on the Clayton website
• IW - progress is being made on the cataloging backlog of family histories
• IW - new book collection: "[State] in the American Revolution" - filed in USA section

(SK) Team Building:   Staff worked in pairs with one staff member describing a physical object and the other staff member drawing it as closely as possible based on the description; exercise teaches the importance of clear communication

Posted by SB

That squiggly circle by the signature - what's that all about?

Ever wonder just what that squiggly circle near a name on an old document means, or the history behind it?  Read Judy "The Legal Genealogist" Russell's latest blog post and find out.  
http://www.legalgenealogist.com/2017/03/15/and-sealing-wax/

SK

The Beyond Kin Project

The Beyond Kin Project was conceived by Donna Cox Baker and Frazine K. Taylor in 2016 to encourage the collection of historical documentation on enslaved people by the descendants of slaveholders to help connect them to African-American genealogists. The founders of the Beyond Kin Project are looking to create relational software enabling researchers to attach non-kinship ties between slaves and slaveholders. You can learn more about the "The Beyond Kin Project" at http://beyondkin.gegbound.com


RS

Holocaust Research - New Card Indexes Online

The International Tracing Service (ITS) is an archive and a center for documenting National Socialist persecution and the liberated survivors and is located in Germany.  ITS recently published two new card indexes online; the Index of the Reich Association of Jews In Germany and material on death camp marches.  You will also find an artifact tracing service. It’s goal is to reunite artifacts from concentration camps with the families of the owner. Included are digital images of the indexes and artifacts.  

https://www.its-arolsen.org/en/press/press/press-detail/news/detail/News/card-index-on-jewish-victims-of-nazi-persecution-now-online/

SK