The Genealogy Guys Podcast #238 - 2012 July 8

The news includes: FamilySearch.org has completed many states in the 1940 U.S. Federal Census and other projects including South American, U.K., Scotland, Slovakian, Philippines, and Swedish records. The Federation of Genealogical Societies announced that a generous donation of $135,000 has been received from the estate of the late Jon Stedman and is designated for the Preserve the Pensions – War of 1812 Pension Digitization Fund. The Illinois State Genealogical Society has announced a War of 1812 Pension Fund Challenge in the amount of $10,000. RootsMagic has announced the release of two new CDs of RootsMagic webinars, Volumes 3 and 4. The webinars are still available to view online or download, but there have been many requests to bundle the webinars into CDs. The Michigan Department of Education and the Department of Natural Resources have agreed to move selected materials of the Family History Collections at the Library of Michigan to the reading room of the Archives of Michigan. The 2012 winners of the Suzanne Winsor Freeman Student Grant were announced at the Southern California Genealogical Society Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank. The winners are Elyse Doerflinger and A.C. Ivory. Each received a check for $500. Congratulations! MyHeritage.com has announced that the milestone of 1 billion profiles has been reached. In addition, the company announced its new SuperSearch facility. The Guild of One-Name Studies announced the publication of a new book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom: The Art of One-Name Studies. Ancestry.com has recently added 7 more states’ indexes for the 1940 U.S. Federal Census at its site: CO, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA, VT. The Federation of Genealogical Societies announced the appointment of Patricia W. Rand as its treasurer. The Florida Genealogical Society (Tampa) has awarded its 2011 Volunteer of the Year Award to George G. Morgan. Listener email includes: Pat suggested additional meanings for the term “NG” that appears in some fields on census records. Henry shared several ways to perform and improve free searches on the Internet. Neil asks The Guys about the ethics of how to handle potentially damaging information discovered during one’s research. Phil reports back on advice The Guys gave him about contacting the Special Collections area of the library at Kent State University. He did so and was able to obtain 105 pages of copied materials from the 19th century for his family. He also contacted a presidential library and obtained some copies of extracted materials! Bill has been researching an ancestor, John Greenough. However, in his email, he also discussed the importance of using FamilySearch.org and becoming familiar with the ways that can be used to effectively search their millions of records. Richard marked a milestone in his listening to The Guys’ podcast episodes. Kyle McWhirter has been working on a tool that provides statistics for surnames in the U.S. It is a Surname/Family Name Popularity Index, and it can be accessed at http://family-names.findthedata.org. Richard asked The Guys several important questions about completing a family history started by a distant cousin for the Dimmitt family. Mike wrote to discuss “term graves” and his experiences with a Chicago cemetery. The Guys ask for comments and suggestions from our listeners. J.T. asks questions about autosomal DNA testing and database sizes. Janet wrote with questions about her husband’s ancestors (Mansfield) who moved from Virginia to Kentucky. She is trying to determine the correct Samuel Mansfield.