AmericanAncestors.org does it again: Cemetery Databases are Free until Nov. 7

It's October 31st. The last day to explore the free access databases opened in honor of Family History Month at AmericanAncestors.org which is the New England Historic Genealogical Society's website.

Though we say goodbye to those databases at AmericanAncestors.org we can say hello to free access to all cemetery databases until November 7.

Again, to access the free databases at AmericanAncestors.org, you simply need to become a guest user using the Guest Registration page. If you are already a registered guest user (or a NEHGS member), simply sign in to access this offer.

Happy Hunting! 

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

Free Index to 1.5 million U.S. National Railroad Pensions is Recently Released

A FREE index to 1.5 million US National Railroad Pensions was recently released on the Genealogy Quick Look.

The Genealogy Quick Look is new online service of the Mid-Continent Public Library's Midwest Genealogy Center that allows users to search the indexes of various genealogical resources.

While the new online resource does not give direct access to the records it does help one locate a pension record. The index covers pensions records from across the United States dating from 1936 to the early 2000s.

The Midwest Genealogy Center is located in Independence, Missouri, and is one of the largest genealogy-focused libraries in the United States.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

Ancestry.com Adds Mexican Vital Records and gives Free Access Oct. 26 thru Nov. 2

Do you have ancestors from Mexico? You might want to visit Ancestry.com this weekend.

Ancestry.com has recently added more than 200 million birth, marriage, death, and church records for Mexico. This collection can be accessed for Free from October 26 until November 2.

Remember, for free access you do not need to subscribe or provide your credit card. Simply register for a free username. You do this by going to the link above and starting a search. Then a pop-up window will show asking for your name and email address. Fill that in and as it says a username and password will be sent to your email.

Of course the various databases that make up this collection are viewable when using Ancestry Library Edition at our favorite library. 

Have fun searching.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

FindMyPast to release 1939 Register on Monday, November 2, as Free to Search but Pay-to-View Not Part of Subscriptions

If you have ancestors or relatives living in England and Wales in 1939, this coming Monday, November 2, may be revealing.

Because on Monday, November 2, FindMyPast is releasing the 1939 Register. According to FindMyPasts announcement email, "Simply put, it’s the most comprehensive survey ever taken of the civil population of England and Wales. Taken at the outbreak of war in September 1939, it contains the personal details of 41 million people, the details the government needed to issue identity cards, ration books and, in post-war Britain, establish the NHS."

According to that same announcement email, it will be free to search the register and to preview the transcript that includes the person’s name, year of birth, town and county of residence. In addition, you’ll be able to see how many other people lived in the house at the time and how many of them are closed due to being younger than 100 years old and still alive.

This will help you to confirm if you’ve found the right person and then you can choose to unlock the record. Unlocking will give you all of the additional information such as address, dates of birth, occupations and marital statuses of everyone that lived there, plus the original record image, maps, newspapers and exclusive photos of the time.

The 1939 Register record set/database collection will not become part of the FindMyPast.com or FindMyPast.co.uk subscription. See the FAQ about the 1939 Register for details. Instead, to unlock a household record it will cost $10.95 per household or $37.95 for a five household bundle.

The latest England and Wales census release is from 1911. Hopefully this look into the family household almost 30 years later is worth the extra cost to view it. Good Luck.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

Library of Michigan Hosts Menacing Michigan Program on October 30th

If you are looking for something to do this Friday Night, October 30th, the Library of Michigan is hosting Menacing Michigan: If You Seek a Scary Peninsula, Look Over Your Shoulder.

Menacing Michigan runs from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Lake Michigan Room on the third floor of the Library of Michigan and consists of two talks.

From 5:30 - 6:30 p.m. is Before They Were Dead: Researching the Living at the Library of Michigan. They used to be alive, presumably.  Use Library collections to research how and where they lived in Michigan.  Library staff will detail resources and methods available for those who want to know the details, fortunate and ill-fated.

From 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. in the Lake Michigan Room is Ghost Hunting in Michigan presented by Bradley Mikulka. Follow along with one of the oldest ghost-hunting groups in Michigan: the SouthEast Michigan Ghost Hunters Society (SEMGHS). Journey through 13 investigations of cemeteries, a comedy club, library, business, hotel, theater, private home, and an old prison. Find out what it’s like to have a ghost follow you home. Meet the spirits at the Purple Rose Theater and discover why they never left. Consider what is growling at Blood Cemetery and run with a black form seen at the Durand Union Station. If you have ever wanted to go on a ghost hunt, but found that you were too afraid, it’s time to put yourself right in the middle of some of the most haunted locations in Michigan. Read this book if you dare, but do so with the lights on!

Happy Halloween.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

The Latest AmericanAncestors.org Sunday Database: Early Families of New England

As we told you earlier the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) is giving free access to a new database on its website AmericanAncestors.org each Sunday this month in celebration of Family History Month.

Each database is free from the Sunday it is opened until the end of October. To take advantage of this free offer you simply need to register as a guest user or sign in with your NEHGS member login.

This week's free database is: "Early Families of New England." You can learn about this project here.

The database opened last week was "Great Migration Begins: Immigrants to N.E. 1620-1633, Vols. I-III."

The other two "free access" databases released earlier this month are: "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910" and "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register."

Good luck finding your ancestors before the end of the month.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

Webinar Schedule for 2016 Announced by Illinois State Genealogical Society

Got plans for the second Tuesday of each month in 2016? If not consider tuning into live webinars at 9 p.m. Eastern Time hosted by the Illinois State Genealogical Society.

The webinars are free to view live and then are archived in the society's member only area. You must register for each webinar prior to its airing. Some registrations are already open.

Topics included in 2016 are: organizing your research process; researching in archives and libraries; using social media; using occupational resources, tracing illegitimate lines; the principles of effective evidence analysis; using journals; and using US postmaster documents. Also covered are reconstructing black communities using benevolent societies; Polish immigration to America; and finding ancestors with ethnic resources.

Lot's of learning opportunities are out there. When we learn of more, we will let you know.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

What Did You Find?! Wednesday Funeral Cards in the Digital Archive

Originally posted at 11:04 a.m., October 21, 2015. Updated to correct a typographical error.

What Did You Find?! Wednesday

For our last What Did You Find?! Wednesday we shared the announcement that Ancestry.com had released its Wills and Probate Records Collection. This Wednesday we want to remind you about a local resource and a certain type of record also related to a person's death.

The Digital Media Archive Homepage

Hopefully, you already know about the Suburban Library Cooperative Digital Media Archive. It's a 24/7 online archive where libraries in the cooperative are digitizing their own local history materials as well as working together on regional collections.

Did you know that included in the archive are various Funeral Card collections?

Distributed at visitations and funerals, funeral cards also called memorial cards can be a fantastic resource especially when the obituary in the newspaper is disappointingly brief or in some cases non-existent. Funeral cards vary in format but usually have an obituary which may be more detailed than what appeared in the newspaper. Sometimes the card includes a photograph of the deceased. Usually you will also find a bible verse or poem.

A Funeral Card Example from the Digital Media Archive.

The Results List

So how do you find these funeral cards in the Suburban Library Cooperative Digital Media Archive? To do a broad search, simply go to the Digital Media Archive and type in Funeral Cards. At present time, you will find 1,722 results. On the left of the results page you can filter the results by the funeral home; location like state; or even by language (English, Polish, Italian, Ukrainian).

To do a specific search use the Advanced Search. Type the surname you are seeking in the "All these words" field and then type Funeral Cards in the "Subject" field.

Results Item Details

On the results page, click on the bold dark blue name/title to bring up a pop-up window where you can see specific details about the item. You will learn a variety of things including who contributed the item, what library contributed the item and any copyright restrictions on the use of the item. (You'll need this information to properly source the item in your genealogy program.) 

Funeral cards in the Digital Media Archive originate from various sources like the Macomb County Genealogy Group's collection or a funeral home's papers. They also have been contributed by library patrons who have allowed a library to digitize their personal collections. When digitization is finished the items are returned to the patron. Look at the item's contributor field to see who holds/owns that particular funeral card.

To actually see the item, simply click on the item image box or the URL for File link or the View Asset link. Because the funeral cards are imaged as PDFs the image box is just a gray box. If the item were an image like a jpg, you would see a thumbnail of the image.

Files and images in the digital archive can be downloaded but remember to follow the copyright restrictions.

Have fun searching! There are lots of different items in the Suburban Library Cooperative Digital Media Archive so take some time to investigate this local resource.

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

This Wednesday's Let's Talk...Genealogy is Search Engine, Search Engine ... Find Me A Match!

This Wednesday, October 14, at 7 p.m. in the Genealogy/Local History Room of the Mount Clemens Public Library is MCGG's Let's Talk...Genealogy meeting.

The discussion topic of the night is Search Engine, Search Engine ... Find Me A Match! We’ll share and review using various search engines and search techniques – our most requested topic this year. Where possible we will do live demonstrations.

See you soon at the Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

October is Family History Month ... Opportunities are Everywhere

So if you remember from prior years, October is Family History Month in the United States. 

Last year we urged everyone to do something for their genealogy whether it was big or small. Many of those ideas we gave to inspire you to do something would still work this year though the celebration day might be different.

But also remember to keep an eye out for savings and free access offers in honor of Family History Month. Like this year's free access to a database each Sunday at AmericanAncestors.org website that we told you about earlier this week. Today's free database is "The New England Historical and Genealogical Register." The Register is the oldest journal in the field of genealogy and history, and it focuses on authoritative compiled genealogies.

There are also several learning opportunities that are taking place this month. Over at the National Archives and Records Administration, there is the National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair on October 21 and 22. This fair will be live broadcasted on YouTube so a few of us might have the opportunity to ask their genealogy experts questions at the ends of their talks. There are five hour-long sessions held each day with the first starting at 10:00 a.m. and that last starting at 2:00 p.m. Session descriptions and handouts are available ... and the fair is FREE!

Also, over at the FamilySearch.org website, there are a variety of webinars scheduled this month. Some of the webinars are part of the United States Research Seminar to be held Oct. 12-16 at various times each day. Handouts are available and there are a variety of topics. In addition, webinars on other areas of research are also scheduled this month. And, again everything is FREE!

There are several organizations that host webinars year-round. Check out our post on webinars from December 2014 and see what each are offering this year. Many of these organizations will likely be announcing their 2016 schedules in the the coming months.

Lastly, don't forget about all the local genealogy and history meetings taking place all around "town."

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

It Is Here ... The Second Microfilm Scanner -- Thanks for Donating and Buying Books !

Photo by Deborah Larsen, MCPL.

Macomb County Genealogy Group (MCGG) and the Mount Clemens Public Library are happy to let you all know that the second microfilm scanner was installed today and is ready for business in the local history/genealogy room of the Mount Clemens Public Library.

The microfilm scanners can print to the library's printer or save to a USB drive so remember to bring some money or your USB drive with you when you come to research. (The library has some USB drives available for purchase just in case you forget yours.) If you do not know or have forgotten how to use the microfilm scanner (or any equipment) please ask a volunteer or a librarian to show you.

A BIG THANK YOU goes out to everyone who donated money; who volunteered to prepare for and staff the Used Book Sale; and for everyone who donated books to and/or bought books at the Used Book Sale. You ALL made this possible.

See you soon at the Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE

NEHGS AmericanAncestors offers Free Database Each Sunday this October

We spotted this late last night. The New England Historic Genealogical Society is offering a Free Database each Sunday of October on its website. Special access to these databases will remain open until the end of the month.

The database released yesterday, Sunday, October 4, is the "Massachusetts Vital Records, 1841-1910."

To access the free databases at AmericanAncestors.org, you simply need to become a guest user using the Guest Registration page. If you are already a registered guest user (or a NEHGS member), simply sign in to access this offer.

Remember if you want to check out more of what the NEHGS website has to offer, the Mount Clemens Public Library has institutional membership access to the website using the internet computers in the local history/genealogy room.

Have fun searching!

See you soon at Mt. Clemens Public Library!
LE