Thursday, March 31, 2022

Here is the New Dedicated Website for the 1950 United States Federal Census


Here is the link to the National Archives' dedicated website for the 1950 US Federal census which will be released at 12:01 a.m., April 1, 2022, after the mandated 72-year delay. No waiting for the start of the business day (9 a.m.) this time.

https://1950census.archives.gov/

Have fun searching for your family!

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

 

US National Archives Tweets Start Time is 12:01 AM, Get Your Bunny Slippers Ready

Took a little effort to verify but the the 1950 US Census release start time is 12:01 a.m. April 1, 2022.

 

Remember the US National Archives website page to go to for the link to the dedicated 1950 census website is here. As soon as we know it we will post it our our website as well.

Are you a late nighter? An early starter? Whenever I wake upper? Or I'll get to it when I get to it? Which ever you are ...

Good luck finding your family!

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

MCGG to be a Group for the 1950 US Census Community Project

Macomb County Genealogy Group has registered to be a group for the 1950 US Census Community Project for the FamilySearch.org part of its collaboration with Ancestry.com plan to create its own Artificial Intelligence / Optical Character Recognition created index for the 1950 US Census. 

This 1950 US Federal Census enumeration will be released tomorrow, April 1, 2022.

As soon as the group functionality of the project is activated, we will be able to tell you how to join our group (as well as the project if you have not already joined.)

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

Ready ... Set ... Tomorrow is Less Than 24 hours Away for the 1950 Census Release

Are you excited for tomorrow?

You do recall that TO-MORR-OW is the release day of the 1950 U.S. Federal Census? No, fooling. The 72-year delayed release of this census enumeration is April 1, 2022.

It is the first census to be released with an index.* * Meaning an Artificial Intelligence / Optical Character Recognition of handwriting generated index.


Will the 1950 census index be perfect?
Probably not. But you can provide corrections. So be flexible and have an idea what letters could have been misread as: an a, e, o being read as one of the others. An m, n, w, v not quite read correctly. And even an R read as a K because the ink was very faint on the top. Be creative.

But if you have done your prep work for this census and you know where your people are and the index search is not finding them, then do the search by location or even enumeration district.

Where do I find this census? Keep an eye on the 1950 Census page of the National Archives website. It is there that the link to the new, dedicated 1950 website will be released tomorrow, April 1. Once we see that website URL address is released we will post it here too.

So what do I do tomorrow? After finding the link to the new, dedicated website and going to it, you will decide how to want to search. By name, location or Enumeration District. To get some hints, watch the short presentation the National Archives hosted yesterday, March 30. The recording is already up. However, the chat from the presentation is not available that we can see.

What if ... Yeah, there is a possibility that the new website might crash a bit or a little slow. Be patient. Everyone be patient. Come back later at an odd time of day, or another day, or keep trying.

So get yourself ready for tomorrow. Clear some time from other obligations so you can search for your family in 1950.

Good Luck Everyone!

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

Saturday, March 26, 2022

Additonal MCGG Virtual Meeting Recordings are on Our YouTube Channel

Curious about our talk about the 1950 Census? There are just five ( 5 ) days left until the release of this census enumeration.

You can now watch the recording of the MCGG Combined Virtual Meeting from March 9, 2022. Ready ... Set ... The 1950 Census Release is Next Month! is on our MCGG YouTube channel.

And tonight you should be able to also find our MCGG Combined Virtual Meeting from February too! Look for How to use PowerPoint/Presentations/Slides to Tell a Story in our MCGG 2021-2022 Genealogy Season playlist sometime tonight.

 

Enjoy the recordings. And we hope to see you at our next virtual meeting in April 2022! 

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

Monday, March 21, 2022

Finding Black Ancestors presentation March 28 at Roseville Public Library

The Roseville Public Library is holding an in-person event on Monday, March 28, 2022, at 6:30 p.m. titled Finding Black Ancestors presented by Rozlyn Kelly, president of the Farmington Genealogical Society.

The presentation discusses the unique challenges of African American genealogical research, sharing some of the relevant history and resources available to research. It includes a case study of researching freedom seekers (Underground Railroad), free blacks and enslaved persons.

Register for the event on the Roseville Public Library's Events Calendar.

See you soon someday at our favorite library!

LE

Saturday, March 19, 2022

Our Next MCGG Virtual Meeting is April 13

 Our next MCGG and Let's Talk...Genealogy groups combined virtual meeting is, Wednesday, April 13, 2022, at 7 p.m. using Zoom Meeting. The topic of the meeting is  ... Managing Family Catastrophe in the Early 1900s presented by Beverly Bishop.

MCGG members on the mailing list will receive the Zoom Meeting invite in the reminder email to be sent prior to the meeting. New attendees can obtain the invite link using the Library Events calendar on the website of the Mount Clemens Public Library.  

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

Hell Froze Over: NYC Historical Vital Records are Digitized, Online ... Free !

We are catching up after a few days without internet and a few days of catching up due to the outage.

A few days ago, on the morning of Wednesday, March 16, an event happened equivalent to the likes of "the day hell froze over." An exaggeration? Not much.

That morning, the New York City Department of Records and Information Services launched a new website page ...  The NYC Historical Vital Records Project -- with 70% of an estimated 13.3 million records already online. These are searchable WITH digitized images (some in color) for free! (We did say hell froze over.)

What is included? Check the Digital Vital Records menu tab. Under each record type (Births, Deaths, Marriages) there are breakdowns by borough -- Bronx, Kings (Brooklyn), Manhattan, Queens, Richmond (Staten Island) -- showing a bar chart of digitized, not digitized and not available covering the time span of years for the full-page certificates in the collection. Note that Registers/Ledger Books for years prior to 1898 are on microfilm viewable in-person. There is less information in the register format than in the certificate format. If your record type/time period is not online yet be patient. (We know how to do that, right?)

Regardless, thank you NYC for finally making these records available. It is a good start. We are still wanting the older records. And thank you to organizations like Reclaim the Records for its efforts with getting government entities around the country to make records available.

So how do you use this new site? Well, try the search.

There are two main ways: by Certificate Number and by Last Name. But remember this is not a fancy site, the surname may not have been read correctly or it may not be spelled on the record the way you know it. You can reach the search either by the right-side of the main blue bar, or by the Search beta tab in the toolbar/menu above the blue bar.

Initially you have to pick a record type and you have to pick a borough to search.


After you get results, you can discard the borough and/or record type and update your results.


 

When you find your desired records, click and it will be presented as a PDF which you can download ... for FREE!


Our chosen example has a local connection to Macomb County. This is the marriage record for the founding couple Adam and Victoria of Olejnik Farms and Greenhouses on 23 Mile Road. The family-owned farm celebrated its 95th year in business last year.

One tip we have is if you are having trouble finding your people and you have Ancestry.com or access to Ancestry Library Edition, use the various data collections for the indexes for New York, New York and Ancestry's soundex and other similar filter capabilities for the names. For example:

New York, New York, U.S., Index to Death Certificates, 1862-1948

New York, New York, U.S., Index to Birth Certificates, 1866-1909

New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Marriage Index, 1866-1937

New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018

New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Death Index, 1862-1948

New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Birth Index, 1878-1909

There are a few other additional data collections for New York City vital records indexes under the New York collections too. And the webpage for the project has a few additional tips as well.

Have fun and good luck searching!

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Tonight, Wed., Mar. 9 at 7 p.m. is our MCGG Virtual Meeting: Ready ... Set ... The 1950 Census Release is Next Month!

Tonight, Wednesday, March 9, 2022, at 7 p.m., is our MCGG and Let's Talk...Genealogy groups combined virtual meeting. Using Zoom Meeting the topic of the meeting is  ... Ready ... Set ... The 1950 Census Release in Next Month!

We will review and share what we know about this soon to be available census enumeration using our Let’s Talk…Genealogy discussion format.

MCGG members on the mailing list will receive the Zoom Meeting invite in the reminder email to be sent prior to the meeting. New attendees can obtain the invite link using the Library Events calendar on the website of the Mount Clemens Public Library.

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

Sunday, March 6, 2022

AncestryDNA $59 Sale until March 17, 2022; Bundle Options Also on Sale

Though it did not have a sale at RootsTech 2022, AncestryDNA is now on sale until March 17, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. ET. There are a few offers for this sale. Remember shipping and taxes are extra.

The AncestryDNA (autosomal) test regularly $99 is on sale for $59, a savings of 40 dollars.

For just one dollar more, you can get the AncestryDNA test and a 3-month World Explorer subscription for $60 instead of the regular price of $100. But take note that this offer is for new and returning subscribers not for renewal of current subscriptions And, the subscription will automatically renew for $79.95 every three months unless you cancel at least two days before the renewal day using My Account or by contacting customer service.

The AncestryDNA + Traits is on sale for $69, regular price is $119. Shipping and taxes are extra.

Or you can get the AncestryDNA + Traits test and a 6-month All Access subscription for $308 instead of the regular price of $358. But take note that this offer is for new and returning subscribers not for renewal of current subscriptions And, the subscription will automatically renew for $239 every six months unless you cancel at least two days before the renewal day using My Account or by contacting customer service.

AncestryDNA test results provide an ethnicity/admixture report, a AncestryDNA match list, shared matches, an internal member messaging system, and automatic updates to results. As well as some basic information from ThruLines which is Ancestry's replacement or next generation of New Ancestor Discoveries and DNA Circles. See the chart below.

Be aware that with an active paid subscription to Ancestry, there is fuller access to some DNA features such as all available information about people is shown in ThruLines; Matches' public family trees are viewable instead of just a preview of five generations; and up to seven generations of surnames instead of up to five surnames are shown for direct ancestor surnames from your matches' trees.

From Ancestry.com, a look at AncestryDNA with and without a data membership/subscription.


Access to these extra features end if you discontinue your data subscription. Some of these extra features require a public family tree linked to the AncestryDNA kit.

AncestryDNA Traits now gives a look at 26 personal traits. These traits are:  Birth Weight, Facial Hair Thickness, Omega-3, Photic Sneeze Reflex, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Vitaman E, Wisdom Teeth,
Asparagus Metabolite Detection, Bitter Sensitivity, Cilantro Aversion, Cleft Chin, Earlobe Shape, Earwax Type,
Eye Color, Finger Length, Freckles, Hair Color, Hair Strand Thickness, Hair Type, Iris Patterns, Male Hair Loss, Savory (Umami) Sensitivity, Skin Pigmentation, Sweet Sensitivity, and Unibrow. More traits may be available in the future at an additional cost. There may still be a Compare Feature and Around the World Feature. This add-on is regularly $20 and is on sale for $10.


From Ancestry.com



AncestryDNA is the one DNA/genealogy testing site that does not provide a chromosome browser tool which allows you to see the chromosome segments you share in common with a match which is one of the scientific ways to confirm a match is a true match and not a match by chance. To access a chromosome browser you would need to download your kit's DNA data and upload that data to one of the three companies that do provide a chromosome browser: MyHeritageDNA, Family Tree DNA, and the third-party GedMatch.com website.

We are not sure if the FREESHIPDNA code will work on the Ancestry website with this sale but it does not hurt to try it. 

Do you want just the DNA test and do you want to save on shipping costs? Remember AncestryDNA also sells its test kits on Amazon.com and often at sale prices when it is having a sale. For this sale, as of now when this post was written the AncestryDNA test is listed at $59 and AncestryDNA+Traits is also listed at $69. So, this time the sale price on the Amazon website is as good as the Ancestry website deal or a bit better because shipping is free. 

Also on sale at Amazon is an AncestryDNA plus 3-month World Explorer Subscription on sale for $99 regularly $149. The deal for this package is better at the Ancestry.com website. 

Non-Amazon Prime members get free shipping due to the total cost and because it is fulfilled by Amazon while Amazon Prime members just get quicker 2-day shipping for free. But be cautious and make sure the test kit you are buying is "sold by AncestryDNA Official and fulfilled by Amazon" to insure you are buying a genuine test kit. You will find this information just below the price. See the image below.

Look for this before adding your item to your cart.

 

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

Thursday, March 3, 2022

One Aspect of RootsTech 2022: Sales and Savings for a Limited Time Only

We reminded everyone about RootsTech 2022 starting day. But one aspect of RootsTech conferences that we forgot to highlight are the Expo Hall vendors and their sales and savings.

In prior to the pandemic times, you had to be at the conference physically to take advantage of most of these sales and deals. But in these virtual times, everyone gets to take advantage of these sales and deals. Simply visit the Expo Hall page of the RootsTech website and then visit the virtual booth of those vendors that interest you.

At the bottom of each vendor booth/page, is a promotions section where you will see what sales and saving deals that company is offering. Some deals run through March 8, 2022, but offers will likely vary in their promotion period.

Examples of the sales found are:

  • Family Tree DNA has a list of promo codes for RootsTech 2022 attendees that can be downloadrf from its Vendor Booth/Page. The promo codes are valid from March 3 to March 7, 2022. FamilyFinder is $49 with the promo code so $30 off regular price $79. Save $40 on a Y-37 DNA test regularly $119, sale price $79. Also, get $10 off the Autosomal DNA Upload & Unlock fee of $19 making the sale price $9. There are promo codes on bundles, Y-DNA upgrades, etc. Only one promo code can be used at a time. So plan your shopping. Want different tests for one person, check the bundles. Want to add an upgrade to multiple tests already taken, sign into each test kit and buy with the promo code what you want to add for that test and then sign into the other test and buy what you want for that test. Buying for the first time, again think who you want to test and what you want to test and buy accordingly.
  • As we previously mentioned, MyHeritage is having a promotion for its DNA Data Transfers which gives you access to the DNA tools for free without paying the unlock fee. Essentially, grandfathering your test in before the unlock fee was implemented. MyHeritageDNA autosomal tests are on sale for $49 and the MyHeritage Complete Plan is 50% off. See the vendor booth/page.
  • Legacy Family Tree Webinars is having a 50% off one-year memberships for new members only.
  • Got English ancestry? The Genealogist website has a promo of 70 off its Diamond subscription. (Remember: browse the available collections to make sure there is something for your research before subscribing.)
  • Software MacKiev's Family Tree Maker 2019, regularly $79.95 is on sale for $39.95 with up to 50% off Charting Companion 7 plugin and $5 off Family Book Creator
  • There are many other vendors (like Vivid-Pix, American Ancestors (NEHGS), National Genealogical Society (NGS), New York Genealogical and Biographial Society (NYGBS), to name but a few) in the Expo Hall.

Remember you have one year to view the sessions on a vast array of genealogy topics. There is something for just about everyone. But remember the RootsTech 2022 sales and offers are for a limited time only.

See you someday soon at our favorite library!
LE



March 9 is Our Next MCGG Virtual Meeting: The 1950 Census is the Topic

 Our next MCGG and Let's Talk...Genealogy groups combined virtual meeting is, Wednesday, March 9, 2022, at 7 p.m. using Zoom Meeting. The topic of the meeting is  ... Ready ... Set ... The 1950 Census Release in Next Month!

We will review and share what we know about this soon to be available census enumeration using our Let’s Talk…Genealogy discussion format.

MCGG members on the mailing list will receive the Zoom Meeting invite in the reminder email to be sent prior to the meeting. New attendees can obtain the invite link using the Library Events calendar on the website of the Mount Clemens Public Library.

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Mount Clemens Announced as 1 of 2 Winners of 2022 DigMichNews Grant Contest: Congratulations to All Involved

Team #DigMountClemens did it!

This morning Clarke Historical Library announced the winner of the 2022 DigMichNews Grant Contest -- that contest where you tweet as much as you can for your favorite institution/location to help it win the contest to digitize its local newspaper.

This morning Mount Clemens and East Lansing were announced the winners. The contest ran from Feb. 21 to Feb. 28.

 

Congratulations Mount Clemens Public Library and its supporters who tweet voted #DigMountClemens.

See you soon someday at our favorite library!
LE

March 1-8 Transfer Your DNA Data, Get Free Access to All DNA Features Forever: Don't Miss Out on this Opportunity

MyHeritageDNA is having its once in a great while Limited Time Only: Upload Your DNA Data to MyHeritage and Get Free Access to ALL DNA Features. AKA what we call the "Grandfathered In Sale."

While uploading DNA data to MyHeritageDNA is free, it only lets you see your matches and use the internal messaging system. To unlock the DNA tools it normally requires either a $29 one-time unlock fee or having an active data subscription. With this opportunity running from today, March 1 through March 8, 2022, you simply upload your DNA data from another autosomal DNA testing company and the unlock fee is waived. Your uploaded test gets grandfathered in to have all the DNA tools for free forever.

Here is the link to the MyHeritage Blog Article. There are also instructions for how to download your DNA data from different autosomal DNA testing companies if you have not done so already.

If you have been waiting for Ancestry.com to change its mind about a chromosome browser, this is a way to get access to one. Tell your relatives about the "sale" opportunity and see if they will transfer their DNA data to MyHeritageDNA too. It is free.

This is the time to get your DNA into another "pool to fish in" if you are seeking unknown biological connections. This is the time to get your DNA results from another company without any advanced DNA tools like a chromosome browser to a site with advanced DNA tools to help you make and understand connections. Don't miss out on this opportunity!

See you soon (someday) at our favorite library!
LE

RootsTech 2022 Starts Thursday; Free, Virtual Event from March 3 - 5, 2022

Rootstech 2022 begins in two days@ It runs from Thursday, March 3 to Saturday, March 5 and is completely virtual.

While most of the 900 sessions were pre-recorded, each day does have some Live Streamed events both featured speakers and in the Expo Hall. All the sessions will remain up and available until just before RootsTech 2023. The website is similar to last year's event but with some improvements.

Registration is still open. If you register for RootsTech 2022 with your free FamilySearch account you can choose to register for All-Access which gets you the ability to create your own PlayList of Sessions; the ability to FamilySearch Chat with industry experts and friends; and Relatives at RootsTech which shows you which attendees are related to you using the info in your FamilySearch Family Tree.

Session Syllabus Handouts are available. On each class session page, underneath the video player and the class description, you will see a link to the speaker bio and download links for any handouts that speakers have created for the class.

So much to learn!

See you soon (someday) at our favorite library!
LE