Free translation services

We found this article on a database for Swedish language newspapers published in the U.S. that will be available late 2015. That got us to thinking about where foreign language documents might be translated. Here are some places to go for free translation(by an actual person, not a computer):

Multiple language:

freelang.net 
cucumis.org
linguanaut.com

Russian: russian-lang.ru           
               free-translator.russian-translation-pros.com


French: sylang.com (French language site)

Just make sure you read the rules before submitting your request- most limit the number of characters or words you can send at one time.

My cousin, the Virgin Mary

Just in time for Christmas is this post from the Barking Up the Wrong Tree genealogy blog(scroll down to the Dec 22nd post):

 http://buwt.blogspot.com/

Parish records from Ireland

Those with Irish ancestors may be interested to know that  some 400,000 Irish parish records will become available online, for free, in the summer of 2015. As this article from Catholic News says, you'd have to travel to Ireland to have access otherwise. Thanks to ResearchBuzz for passing this along.

GSHC Newsletter

Here are some highlights from Links and Bridges, the newsletter of The Genealogy Society of Hernando County:

The Genealogy Interest Group has set its schedule for Dec-Oct. They meet at 11 a.m. the West Hernando branch library:
Dec 9th              June 9th
Jan 6th               July 14th
Feb 10th             Aug 11th
Mar 10th             Sep 8th
Apr 14th             Oct 13th
May  12th

.....Go to italiangen.org/records-search/deaths.php for a database of New York deaths compiled by the Genealogy Federation of Long Island.....try elephind.com for millions of articles from more than 2700 historical newspapers....  The Polish Genealogical Society of America has a website for anyone with Polish connections to Chicago.

Visit  http://gshc.tk/  to learn more about the Genealogy Society of Hernando County.

More Free Webinars

These will be broadcast on the 2nd Tuesday of each month by the Illinois State Genealogical Society. Time: 8 pm CENTRAL TIME (9 pm here). The content is not limited to Illinois. You can see the schedule here.

Native Americans in Oklahoma

Ancestry.com has added 3 million + records to its collection of  Native American records. This most recent batch comes from Oklahoma. To access it, please come to the library and go online, either on your own computer or one of the public ones(The Ancestry library edition is not available from home). Click on e-resources on our home page, and then on Ancestry.com in the list of databases. The easiest way to find the new records is to look under Quick Links and click on Recently Added/Updated Collections.

Online translation

From the Family Tree magazine blog, via ResearchBuzz:  if you encounter foreign language documents in your research, here are some tools for translating them.

Five Types of Early 19th Century Photographs

Click here for a 10 minute video from the Olive Tree genealogy blog and YouTube channel.

Genealogy Society of Hernando County website

The GSHC is now online. You can find them at gshc.tk

Webinars for Irish Research

Here's another opportunity for free webinars: The Family History Library is offering a series on Irish sources. The first one is next Monday, the 15th of September at 10 a.m. MDT (that's NOON for us in the East). Here is the complete schedule.

NARA Genealogy Fair online

The National Archives will be broadcasting their genealogy fair live on YouTube in late October. There will be presentations on 17 topics over 3 days.  The schedule is here.

New Jersey databases

If your research takes you to the Garden State, this collection of databases from the New Jersey state archives might help.

1861 Canadian Census update

The release of the 1861 census was plagued by missing and misplaced data. This post on the Discover blog, via ResearchBuzz, reports the correction of 133,000 records.

A genealogy game for kids

This article was posted on the Olive Tree genealogy blog in 2007. A genealogy enthusiast takes her visiting grandchildren on a hunt for their ancestor in a local cemetery. A nice family outing, and

edcuational for the kids.

Who Do You Think You Are

Interested in a  unique way to share your ancestry with family, friends, and the public? Submit information and photos to Who Do You Think You Are? Story and they will turn it into an animated presentation.

Digitzing typed documents

Here is some advice on how to digitize typewritten documents so that they can be stored electronically, emailed, etc. Copy and paste this link to your browser:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/11/technology/personaltech/digitizing-the-family-history.html?_r=2

Our source for this is  Links and Bridges, the newsletter of the Genealogy Society of Hernando County.  The GSHC is always welcoming new members. Meetings are at 10 a.m. each third Friday, at the LDS Family History Center, 21043 Yontz Road, Brooksville. Contact  Bunny Ryczek, 352-515-5294.

Tennesee family Bibles online

Are any of your people from the Volunteer State? The State Library of Tennessee has put 1500 family bibles online in a searchable database. Here is an article about it. The link to the collection is tnos.net/TSLA/Bibleproject.

Marine Corps Casualty Cards

From Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, via ResearchBuzz: Casualty cards for Marines killed, wounded, or MIA 1941-50 can be accessed on line. Cards for Korea and Vietnam are coming soon. Read about it and find the link to the database here.

Free access to WWI records

ResearchBuzz passed this along: free access to WWI records  from myheritage.com through July 31st. July 28th is the 100th anniversary of the start of the "War to End All Wars".

Genealogy Software review

If you are considering buying genealogy software, ConsumerSearch.com published this review.

Researching with the census

Here is a brief but potentially helpful article from Mocavo.com on using the census in your research. Among other things, the author explains how the census can provide information that is not obvious at first glance. Scrutinizing the questions asked and answers provided in each column of the form and then thinking them through may lead your research in new directions.

Indexing at FamilySearch.org

If you have Internet access and some spare time, here is an opportunity for you to contribute to a worldwide genealogy database. familysearch.org is always looking for volunteer indexers to enter information from original documents into a searchable online database. Go to the website and click on "indexing", and in just a few minutes you can download the software and set up an account. Before finding a project to work on, click on "get started" and scroll down to the indexing tutorials and guidelines to become familiar with the process.

Family Seach will keep track of how many records you enter, and also let you know how accurate your  indexing is- each record is indexed by two volunteers, and an arbitrator decides who is correct when your entry disagrees with the that of the other volunteer.

Tip: After you download a project, look for the link to the project guidelines. Also, when trying to decypher a handwritten name, open a 2nd tab in your browser and go to this website:

worldvitalrecords.com/browsesurnames  

Hispanic Research Webinar for English speakers June 21st

This webinar would be of interest to an English speaking genealogist who wants to do Hispanic research or help a Hispanic person with their research. You can get the details from the family search blog here.
Thanks to ResearchBuzz for letting us know.

Poznan Project

If you are researching your Polish ancestors, and "Posen" is listed as their place of origin, this may be of  interest: a searchable online database of 19th century marriage records from the historic Greater Poland (then Prussian Province of Poznan). You can read about it at the project website.
Thanks to our Outreach Services Librarian for passing this on to us.
                                             

E-book of Ancestry.com books

familytreeuniversity.com has created an e-book of tips for using ancestry.com . It is free and available for download here.
If you are new to the Hernando County Public library, you may not be aware that the ancestry.com library edition is available at the library, during library hours. Just click on "e-resources" on  the homepage. Ancestry is listed first in the alphabetical list of databases. (Note: Some of the features discussed in this guide are not available in the library edition).

WWII records

With Memorial Day approaching,  Fold3.com, the military genealogy site,  is allowing free access to its World War II records through May 31st.

Free Irish records

If you have Irish ancestors, you probably know that the 1901 and 1911 Irish censuses have been online for some time. Now, the Irish Archives, FamilySearch, and findmypast.ie have partnered to put some new material online: pre- 1901 census and other information that survived a 1922 fire at the records office in Dublin. The data is free and can be found here, at Ireland's national archives website.

Cemetery Resource Protection Training

If you have an interest in preserving our cemeteries and burial grounds, here is a training opportunity, just up the road in Gainesville:
http://flpublicarchaeology.org/programs/CRPTconf.php

Quaker data at Ancestry.com

The Genealogy Insider blog at Family Tree Magazine informs us that Ancestry.com has added millions of new records on Quakers.

The library has ancestry.com available inside the library only. Just come to your local branch with your laptop (or use one of our computers). From our home page,  click on "e-resources". Ancestry is at the top of the list. Search the databases using the keyword, "Quaker".

Here is something interesting,  courtesy of the Genealogy Insider blog on the Family Tree Magazine website: a free online tool from the New York Public Library called the  Map Warper. This program allows you to overlay and old map on to a new one, then digitally rectify them. A brief video tutorial is available on the site. There are 20,000+ maps available.

Scanning basics

Here is a short article on the basics of scanning, published by Mike Ashenfelder on the Library of Congress website. Purpose: "helping people create the best possible digitization of their photos and documents for preservation". 

Thanks to ResearchBuzz again for directing us to this article.

Genealogy Society of Hernando County

Some highlights from Links and Bridges, the GSHC newsletter:

The 37th Annual Conference of the Florida State Genealogical Society will be held at the Hilton University of Florida  Conference Center on March 28-30. Keynote speaker will be Lisa Louise Cooke, producer and host of the Genealogy Gems podcast.  Click here for the brochure.

Judy G. Russell, certified genealogist and well-known lecturer, will speak at the Imperial Polk Genealogical Society seminar in Lakeland on April 12th. Go to the Society's website for details.

The New England Historical Society now has a blog, Vita Brevis , featuring genealogy news, short essays, and posts on research methods.

This month's issue of Links and Bridges contains more interesting and helpful information and is  available for reading at the Main and West branches of the library. The society is always welcoming new members. Meetings are at 10 a.m. each third Friday, at the LDS Family History Center, 21043 Yontz Road, Brooksville. Contact  Bunny Ryczek, 352-515-5294.

Best genealogy blogs

Family Tree magazine has posted its list of the best genealogy blogs for 2013.

YouTube

YouTube is home to a large collection of videos on genealogy. Kenneth Marks' "Ancestor Hunt"
channel is a good one. We found among other things a video on using Google's news archive to search newspapers.
You can use your webcam, smart phone or video camera to create your own videos on YouTube.
For more professional looking videos, the library has Creation Stations at both the Spring Hill and West Hernando branches. 

Black History records

From the blog at  the military records website, Fold3:

"In recognition of Black History Month, Fold3 is offering free access to all publications in its Black History Collection through the end of February".

Thanks to ResearchBuzz for passing this along.

Facebook

Facebook has become a gathering place for genealogists. This article  from Cyndi's list gives some helpful advice on how to use Facebook as a research tool.

Website for webinars

ResearchBuzz let us know about this site for genealogy webinars: blog.geneawebinars.com

The Genealogy Society of Hernando County Newsletter

A few highlights from Links and Bridges, the GSHC newsletter for Jan-Feb:

GSHC will have a table at the Heritage Day event at the May-Springer House on February 22nd, form 10-4. ....Ann Palmer will present "The ABC's of Early American Handwriting" at the Feb 1st meeting of the Florida Genealogical Society. The event will start at 11 at the John F. German Public Library, 900 N. Ashley Drive, in Tampa....Dick Eastman will be the guest speaker  the Citrus County annual seminar, scheduled for Feb. 15th from 10-2:30 a the Good Shepard Lutheran Church, 439 E. Norvell Bryant Hway, in Hernando. Contact Mary Ann Machonkin at 352-382-5515 for registration information.

he Genealogy Society of Hernando County meets at 10 a.m. each third Friday, at the LDS Family History Center, 21043 Yontz Road, Brooksville. Contact  Bunny Ryczek, 352-515-5294.

Irish Casualties from WWI

Google and the government of Ireland have collaborated to provide names and data for the 49,000 Irish soldiers who died in WWI. Click here , scroll down to paragraph 3, and click on "name list".
An article about it from it from siliconrepublic can be found  here.

Pinterest

Here is an article on using the website Pinterest for your family history.