Kentucky Resources

Kentucky Historical Society Library CatalogThe library's collection of more than 90,000 published works-includes microfilm collections, computer files on CD-ROM, video recordings and other media, as well as rare books, manuscripts and mixed material collections located in the Kentucky Historical Society's Special Collections.

KHS Digital CollectionsAccess digital images, sound, video, and text from the KHS collections of historic photographs, manuscripts, oral history, maps, rare imprints, library resource lists, and museum artifacts.

Online Resources A listing of useful Internet resources, including subscription databases, for doing genealogical and historical research.

Civil Rights Movement in Kentucky Online Digital Media Database A comprehensive collection of audio and video interviews and over 10,000 pages of electronic transcripts. All material is full-text searchable and can be sorted by county, subject or by decade.

Kentucky Historical Marker DatabaseBased on the book Roadside History: A Guide to Kentucky Highway Markers.

Guide to Kentucky Oral History CollectionsKentucky Oral History Commission's guide describes the oral history holdings at repositories throughout the state. Researchers can browse individual collections or perform searches across all repositories.

Kentucky Cemetery Records DatabaseContains hundreds of thousands of names transcribed from gravestones across Kentucky. Volunteers have documented graves, from urban cemeteries to rural plots, as part of the Kentucky Cemetery Records Project.

Kentucky Virtual LibraryKYVL provides access to library catalogs across the state, finding aids for archival collections, online databases and encyclopedias, indexes, and other reference resources. Users in the Center for Kentucky History have access to all KYVL databases. Users outside the Center can contact their local Kentucky librarian for help accessing this service.

Kentuckiana Digital LibraryGateway to rare and unique digitized collections housed in Kentucky archives.

Family Search putting three new databases online

GENEALOGY: Family Search putting three new databases online
By Tamie Dehler Special to the Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Over the past several months Family Search has announced projects involving placing three new databases on line.In March, the Genealogy Society of Utah, FamilySearch, and the Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management (NSARM) announced the completion of a joint project to put scanned and digitized copies the Nova Scotia birth, marriage, and death records on line. To view this database, visit the NSARM web site at www.novascotiagenealogy.com. This database will also be available on FamilySearch.org in the near future.

This past winter, FamilySearch, the Genealogy Society of Utah, and the West Virginia Division of Culture and History completed part of an on-going project–to scan and digitize the West Virginia vital records and allow free viewing on line. .The database and searchable index can be accessed at www.wvculture.org/vrr.

FamilySearch is working with Salt Lake County officials to digitize the records of over 100,000 people who were born between 1890 and 1915 or who died between 1908 and 1945 in Salt Lake County, Utah. This database will eventually be indexed and placed on line at the www.FamilySearch.org Web site.

Read full article here.

Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society

Missed the 2006 meeting of the AAHGS? Sitback & relax; watch it @ rootstelevison.com.

Barbour County Genealogy and Local History Society

The Barbour County Genealogy and Local History Society will host a program titled "Genealogy Bits and Pieces" Saturday, April 28, at 10 a.m. in the Eufaula Carnegie Library auditorium.

The presentation will be given by Ceya Minder, a professional genealogist and co-founder of the
Southeast Alabama Genealogical Society in 1981. Mrs. Minder still holds an active membership
in the organization along with several other genealogical and local history societies in the area. She is an accomplished speaker and author on the topic.

For more information, contact Sharon Simpson at 585-1208 or email mrsbogs@gmail.com

LivingGenealogy

More evidence that Genealogists are harnessing the power of web 2.0.

The following text is from Kevin Knight.

The Future of Free Online Genealogy...An Introduction to LivingGenealogy
Posted April 19th, 2007 by Kevin


LivingGenealogy is a revolution in free online genealogy. Key features:

Ancestor Pages: Users can create a page (using the simple template) for each of their ancestors. Then they (and their relatives) can add photos, memories, journal excerpts, etc., collaboratively authoring their ancestors' biographies and creating a more complete picture of who their ancestors were. In addition to the more complete view we get when more people are involved in telling their ancestors' stories, this information is easy to share and universally available online.

Place Pages: Just like Ancestor Pages, users can create pages dedicated to geographic locales - their ancestors' hometowns, countries, regions, etc. Users who have been there or live there now contribute their photos, information, travel tips, genealogy research ideas, etc. to the page. Users who haven't had the chance to visit their ancestral hometowns can go on a sort of "virtual tour" through the information and photos others upload. Those who are planning a trip to these places can also connect with users who have been there and get tips and insights before they go.

User Groups: Anyone can create and join user groups. These can be public (like everybody with ancestors from Liverpool) or private (like secure family-specific groups where family members can collaborate on research and keep up to speed on each other's progress). User groups are a great way to connect with others and leverage each other's resources and insights to create synergies and avoid duplication of efforts.

Local History Event

RED CLAY, WHITE WATER, AND BLUES: PROGRAMS ON THE HISTORY OF COLUMBUS

All programs are free and open to the public

"The Economic Effects of the Chattahoochee River on Columbus"
Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Columbus Public Library
3000 Macon Road

Speakers:
Dr. Virginia Causey of Columbus State University will talk about the importance of the Chattahoochee in Columbus’s economic history.

Dr. Carole Rutland, director of RiverWay South, will discuss ecotourism in the Chattahoochee Valley.

Tracy Spencer of Columbus RiverWatch will describe plans to breach two downtown dams and bring whitewater back to the river.

For more information contact program director Virginia Causey, Department of History
706-565-3633

Beyond Face Value: Depictions of Slavery in Confederate Currency

More Social History than genealogy but worth mentioning and a very well done online exhibit of a fascinating subject and period of time. Beyond Face Value was created by the LSU Library Special Collections.

"Many Southern notes did not feature images of slavery; this exhibit focuses on the ones that did. This collection features notes issued and circulated in the South during the Antebellum, Civil War, and Reconstruction Eras. Notes were issued by various entities, including the Confederate government, state governments, merchants, and railroad companies."

Birmingham Public Library Local Databases

Here are databases from the BPL:

Alabama Coal Mine Fatalities, 1898-1938
Death in Alabama's mines was a grim fact in the first half of the 20th century. Falling rocks, cave-ins, explosions, electrocutions, fire, machinery accidents, and runaway mine cars took the lives of Alabama miners both collectively and one by one. From 1898 through 1938, Alabama mine inspectors recorded 2,188 deaths in the coalmines. The Alabama Coal Mine Fatalities Database compiled in the Government Documents Department of the Birmingham Public Library identifies the miners, the mines, the dates the men died, and the accidents that killed them.

Alabama Episcopal Church Registers
The Alabama Episcopal Church Registers are a part of the records of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama preserved in the Archives of the Birmingham Public Library. The Alabama Episcopal Church Registers lists confirmations, baptisms, marriages, burials and more for 14000+ people in a growing list of Alabama parishes.

Alabama Inventors Database
Be it known that I, Mary Anderson, a citizen of the United States, residing at Birmingham, in the county of Jefferson and state of Alabama, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Window-Cleaning Devices, of which the following is a specification. So begin the words of the famous patent granted on November 10, 1902, for the first version of windshield wipers. Within ten years, this Alabama innovation became a standard feature on automobiles. Scanned images of the original documents of this patent and thousands of others issued to inventive Alabamians are available from the United States Patent and Trademark Office by way of the Alabama Inventors Database, a project of the Government Documents Department of the Birmingham Public Library.

Obituary Index : Birmingham Area Newspapers
The Obituary Index : Birmingham Area Newspapers database is an ongoing project of the Government Documents Department of the Birmingham Public Library. Obituaries from three Birmingham area newspapers are included: the Birmingham News, the Birmingham World, and the Methodist Christian Advocate.

Red Mountain Cemetery Interments
Birmingham's startling growth in the late 19th century brought instant prosperity and fame for the privileged. To the less fortunate, urban life delivered its portion of misery, disease, and poverty. In 1888 Judge Alexander O. Lane purchased land on the south side of Red Mountain to create a burial ground for the indigent dead. By 1906, 4,711 paupers were buried in Red Mountain Cemetery, now the site of Lane Park and the Birmingham Zoo. The database for the Red Mountain Cemetery Record of Interments preserves the records of these deaths and provides fragments of information about the lives these individuals once lived.

WPA Index to Alabama Biography
The "WPA Index to Alabama Biography" was a Works Progress Administration project begun in the 1930's then abandoned when funding for the WPA was curtailed. Although the index was never completed, over 97 titles such as Who's Who in America, other biographical dictionaries, and local histories were indexed by the workers. It is an invaluable tool for researching Alabama biographical sources.

Sanborn® Maps of Florida

The Sanborn® Fire Insurance Company Maps of Florida comprise a collection of more than 300 bibliographic units in more than 3,000 map sheets.

The maps were mainly designed to help fire insurance agents determine the degree of damage to a property and show accurate information to help them determine risks and establish premiums. They showed the size (including color-coding), shape and construction of buildings brick, adobe, frame, etc), dwellings (including hotels and churches), and other structures such as
bridges, docks and barns. Along with fire stations, you could also find water facilities, sprinklers, hydrants, cisterns, and alarm boxes as well as firewalls, windows, doors, elevators and chimneys and roof types. The maps included street names, property boundaries and lot lines, and house and block numbers. Other information such as the latest census figures, prevailing winds; railroad lines and Indian reservations and topography were included. Today, the maps are an invaluable guide to inner-city history, land use, and historic preservation.

This collection of public domain maps was digitized from the printed maps held in the collections of the Smathers Libraries ' Map & Imagery Library, on the campus of the University of Florida (Gainesville, FL).

"Sanborn", "Sanborn Map", "Sanborn Map Company", and "Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps" are recognized trademarks of the Sanborn Map Company, a subsidiary of Environmental Data Resources, Inc. (EDR). The presentation of historic Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps of Florida on this site is in no way connected with either the Sanborn Map Company or Environmental Data Resources, Inc.

PhpGedView

For those that use a commercial family genealogy software, I suggest making the switch to PhpGedView. PhpGedView is a FREE open source genealogy program which allows you to view and edit your genealogy on your website. PhpGedView offers editing capabilities, privacy functions, GEDCOM files uploads, and multimedia support.

PhpGedView also doubles as a social networking site by allowing others working on your family tree access online.

If the social networking thing is not for you, a local install creates a powerful genealogy reporting tool, with family group charts, lineages, calenders, multimedia archives, research note organizer, and a host of other features.

The major drawback for the average user is the technical issue of installation. Basically you have to set up a web server on your PC. Those familiar with PHP, MySQL, Apache and CLI will not have issues, but for those who are not will need to seek professional assistance.

Technical issues aside, this is an awesome product!

View sites using PhpGedView here.

Family Link Beta Launch April 18

FamilyLink, the newest social genealogy networking Web site created to rapidly link people across the world will have its beta launch tomorrow (Wednesday, April 18)! FamilyLink will be absolutely FREE to access. Users can view the profiles of other individuals, communicate with individuals who have researched or are currently researching in their area of interest through the City Link feature, meet new individuals who also participate in the service, share photos, genealogical information, and post comments. (Read more information in the press release tomorrow.)

Additional features include a news feed system, Ancestor Pages, announcements pages, email features, shared connections between WorldVitalRecords.com and FamilyLink.com, and will soon include a family tree.

Discontinued Access to Ancestry.com Databases @ FHC's

Although not breaking news, this news release may have been missed by some genealogist. Looks like the business model for genealogy databases is to limit institutional licenses and seek individual subscriptions...

For many years, Ancestry.com has provided free access to patrons of family history centers around the world. Ancestry has informed the Church that as of April 1, 2007, it will discontinue this free access to the full Ancestry.com service. Free access through Ancestry.com to the following databases will continue:
1. Index and images for the 1880, 1900 and 1920 U.S. censuses
2. Full name indices for the British 1841-1891 censuses (England and Wales)
3. World War I draft cards indices as created and miscellaneous other databases

Free access is likely to be discontinued for the remainder of the Ancestry.com databases
including:
1. Index and images for the 1930 U.S. census
2. Index and images for the 1901 British census (England, Scotland, and Wales)

At this point, Ancestry.com is not offering an option for family history centers to independently purchase commercial or library site licenses. Patrons, of course, may choose to subscribe directly to Ancestry.com.

Free access to online databases is important and we therefore intend to add many new databases to FamilySearch.org (the website of the Mormon Family History Library). Much of the data preparation will be accomplished through the online indexing program available at FamilySearchIndexing.org. We encourage you to visit the website to learn more. Volunteers have already begun indexing the 1900 U.S. census and other projects. Other censuses and vital record collections will be indexed as soon as the 1900 U.S. census project is completed. The more volunteers that participate, the sooner access can be provided. Since access to databases on FamilySearch.org is free to all, we anticipate that this will be of great interest to individuals around the world. We are also exploring opportunities to provide broader access to additional databases from other online service providers.

Please inform patrons regarding our plans to provide access to records and invite them to help by participating in the FamilySearch Indexing projects. We will communicate as more information becomes available. Thank you for all that you do on behalf of our patrons. fhcsupport@support.familysearch.org

Jeffrey Haines, CG, Georgia Genealogical

*Saturday May 5 - Featuring Jeffrey Haines, CG, Georgia Genealogical
Society Spring Seminar 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.*

*Topics:*
*South Carolina** Courts and their Records*
South Carolina has had a complex legal history. This lecture will review the various courts of law, equity, and admiralty that have operated in the colony and state and present examples of the records generated by them.

*South Carolina** Land Records *

South Carolina is blessed with a wealth of early records of land transactions. This talk will discuss the various processes by which people obtained land in the colony and state. Case studies will illustrate the records generated by these processes and how they are used in solving genealogical problems.

*Irksome Quirks and Hidden Gems: Things That Make South Carolina
Research Different *
Research in the Palmetto State presents many challenges, but there are also many opportunities and under-used records. This lecture will highlight some of the things that make South Carolina research unique. Case studies will illustrate the use of some of these records in solving
genealogical problems.

*Barbados** and the Southern Colonies*
Throughout much of the 17th Century, Barbados was England’s largest and most important colony in the New World. This lecture presents an overview of the early colonial history of Barbados and her interaction with Britain’s southern colonies on the mainland. The discussion of
research will include the speaker’s experiences in this country and abroad.

*Fees*: $25 Members; $35 Non-Members
Reservations must be postmarked by *25 April 2007* to ensure that your handouts will be available. A $5 surcharge will be assessed for registrations postmarked after 25 April 2007.

*Contact Info*:
Laura W. Carter, 706-369-9420

Meeting at NARA Southeast Regional, 5780 Jonesboro Road, Morrow, Georgia
30260

Georgia Genealogical Society Fall Seminar @ Columbus Public Library

Save the date:
6 October 2007 - GGS Fall Seminar Featuring Lloyd Bockstruck

Date: 6 October 2007 Place: The Columbus Library, Columbus, Georgia

Registration: 8:30am-9:00am Meeting: 9:00 am - 4:00 pm
Fees: $25 Members; $35 Non-Members

More information forthcoming.......

WeRelate.org

Another step in the Web 2.0 sphere...And why shouldn't genealogists be at the front of Web 2.0? Isn't genealogy predicated on social networking, resource sharing and resource dissemination?


The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library (Fort Wayne, Indiana) and the Foundation for On-Line Genealogy, Inc., announce a partnership in operating WeRelate.org, a new social networking website for genealogy. WeRelate.org is totally FREE and makes it easy to upload family trees and images, find and connect with other family members, share research easily, and extend lines. WeRelate.org is now the largest English language genealogical wiki in the world. In the past few weeks, WeRelate.org has uploaded over 73,000 ancestor wiki pages. WeRelate.org also has more than 430,000 wiki pages for current and historical inhabited places, 115,000 given and surname wiki pages, and 1.3 million wiki source pages.


WeRelate.org offers:
Family Tree Explorer. WeRelate.org recently released the online Family Tree Explorer, which makes creating and navigating family trees easier than ever before. The Family Tree Explorer displays pedigree, descendancy, or combined pedigree/descendancy views (showing as many generations as desired) on the left side of a split screen with detailed ancestor or family information on the right.

GEDCOM upload. People can create pages for their ancestors one at a time or by uploading GEDCOM files. Nicely formatted life stories including biographies, annotated photos, scanned source documents, and 44 different life events can be created without the need to know HTML.
Annotated images. Researchers can upload all their documentation and family photos, so they can completely document their work online. Annotations are notes attached to images. This allows researchers to label each person in a group photograph or point out information in a hard-to-read original document.

Work on the same page. Since cousins all work on the same web page, they won't need to endure merging their GEDCOMs or endless rounds of photocopying and mailing. Each participant can share research successes and dead ends, instantly and online. Research can be efficiently coordinated, planned, and organized.

Pedigree maps. Automatically generated pedigree maps show where the people in a five-generation pedigree chart migrated across time and place.

Automated collaboration. Email notifications are sent to interested persons whenever a fellow genealogist adds something new to a “watched” page. Messages can also be sent inside the system, so researchers can work together without exchanging email addresses or other personal information.

The Foundation for On-Line Genealogy, Inc. will continue developing the software and hosting the web site, and the Allen County Public Library will provide administrative and support services. WeRelate is a FREE public service supported by tax-deductible donations. The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library houses over an acre of genealogy materials under one roof and is the second largest genealogy library in the world.


The Foundation for On-Line Genealogy is a non-profit organization dedicated to making family history research easier, faster, and more rewarding.
Retrieved from "http://www.werelate.org/wiki/WeRelate:Press_release,_March_2007"

Geni.com - Genealogy done 2.0

I blogged about geni.com back in February but found this article that focuses on the business side of Geni.com. Looks like geni.com is a niche filler in this web 2.0 environment... Read the article here Geni.com - Genealogy done 2.0 by mykaroshi.

Land and Property

Very Interesting article by Arlene Eakle:
You Can Understand the Meanings of the Documents: You Cannot Take the Law for Granted!

African American Lives Casting

When African American Lives first aired in February 2006, over eleven million people watched me help eight celebrity guests reclaim their lost roots. Since then, I have been deluged with requests from viewers wanting to know how they too can use genealogy and genetics to learn about their family history.

To acknowledge this interest, and believing that all of us can benefit from exploring our past, I have decided to help one 'regular' African American person discover his or her forgotten ancestry - and that person could be YOU!

To have your family history researched by the genealogists & geneticists featured on African American Lives - and to have me reveal your results to you 'on camera', all you have to do is read our guidelines, check out our FAQ's, and then complete and submit our online application form - all before May 4, 2007.

North Carolina State Archives

Renovation Work to Close State Archives May 1 Through July 10 The Search Room of the North Carolina State Archives will be closed from May 1 through July 10, due to renovations at the Department of Cultural Resources building. The Archives preserve and make available historical materials relating to North Carolina.

"During this time, our staff will inventory all stacks materials, rather than waiting for January when the Archives has traditionally closed for inventory," said Sarah Koonts, head of Collections Management for Archives and History. "We hope that the time gained then as a result of inventory already being completed will help mitigate the loss of Search Room access caused by renovation work."

While the Archives are closed, patrons are urged to other repositories for their North Carolina research. The NC ECHO website (www.ncecho.org) lists North Carolina repositories and the types of records that they hold. Many of the Archives' records have been microfilmed and the film may be available in other repositories. Institutions most likely to have copies of such microfilm are:
a.. Family History Centers associated with Latter Day Saints churches
b.. Local history rooms of public libraries, including many out of
state
c.. Olivia Raney Local History Library (Wake County)
d.. Community colleges
e.. University libraries
For more information go to the Archives' blog at www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/archives/default.htm or call (919) 807-7310.

STATE LIBRARY OF OHIO NEWS....

After many years, GENEALOGY SERVICES AT THE STATE LIBRARY OF OHIO ARE ENDING COMPLETELY as of April 19, 2007. The entire genealogy collectionis being moved to the main location of the Columbus Metropolitan Libraryat 96 S. Grant Ave. on the east side of downtown Columbus (near GrantHospital). The collection will be available for use there BEGINNINGAPRIL 25. They will provide in-the-library access to the same onlinegenealogy services. Some advantages of the new location are: Extended Hours -- the newlocation is a public library that includes evening and weekend hours;Larger Staff -- the new location has over three times the number of staff working in the Genealogy area; a Larger Budget to add material to the collection. Beginning April 25, 2007, here is the contact information for Genealogyservives:Columbus Metropolitan LibraryGenealogy, History and TravelAttn: Genealogy96 S. Grant Ave.Columbus, OH 43215614-645-2275 (ask for Genealogy)E-mail: history@columbuslibrary.orgWeb site: www.columbuslibrary.orgThank you for your use of the services at the State Library of Ohio.

Another Piece of Ellis Island Reopens

Abandoned and fallen into disuse for decades, a significant piece of American immigrant history is reopening on Ellis Island following extensive restoration. Read more here

Excuse our progress...site redesign underway