GeneaBabble

I’ve been out of the loop for a while and just heard today about many of the sites associated with USGenWeb moving off of the RootsWeb servers.  You can read more about it here and here.

I think it’s great that they are disassociating (is that a word?) themselves with The Generations Network.  I’ve always believed in the free exchange of information and TGN’s policies are counter to this philosophy.  Don’t get me wrong - I’m not against commercialism or the selling of information.  That’s just not the point of the USGenWeb project.  It should be interesting, anyway, to see how RootsWeb develops from here on out.

Sorry about the recent lack of updates!  Life has a way of smacking you upside the head sometimes.  I’ve been working on some short articles on the use of land surveying in genealogy and I hope to post them soon.

Anyway, here’s a short clip about the goings on at the Family History Library:

Under the Records Access program, unveiled this week at a conference of genealogists in Richmond, Va., the collaboration will provide free services to archives and other records custodians who wish to digitize, index, publish and preserve their collections.
Here’s how it works: An army of volunteers will continue to index data from 2.4 million rolls of microfilm being housed at the LDS Church’s Granite Mountain Records Vault, as well as digitize and index data from other sources. They will collect information already indexed at other sites. Then the records will be posted on the church’s Web site, FamilySearch.org, and opened to the public.  [Read more]

Sounds like some very cool stuff going on.  Remember to thank all the volunteers that give their time so that we can discover and help others discover our family history.

I’m a little late on this one (I put off my taxes until the last minute - shame!), but you can still get free access to Titanic passenger lists at findmypast.com for a limited time. You will find the original handwritten passenger lists as well as transcripts that includ the names, ages and professions of the passengers as well as cabin class. I haven’t really had time to look at it very well, so check it out for yourself and let me know what you find!