FAMILY HISTORY CENTER CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAYS

The Family History Center will be closed Dec 20 - Jan 8.  We will only be open this week, Dec 18 from 10 - 1pm and Dec 19 from  6:30 - 8:30 pm.  Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year

FAMILY HISTORY CENTER THANKSGIVING WEEK HOURS

The family history center will be open from 10 - 1 pm today . The 1 - 4 pm shift will be closed. The FHC will also be closed this Thursday, Nov. 15 and all of next week for the Thanksgiving holiday. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and we will be open Nov. 27 to help you with your genealogy.

FAMILY HISTORY CENTER CLOSED IN AFTERNOON, SEPT 18

The family history center will closed from 1 - 4 pm, Tuesday - Sept 18.  Our Southeast Kentucky expert will be available from 10 -1 pm

FAMILY HISTORY CENTER CLOSED SEPT 12

The young ladies from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints have reserved the family history center for Wednesday evening, Sept 12.  They are participating in a group activity and want to learn about how to index historical records.  One example of efforts of volunteer indexing is the 1940 census which is now a searchable database.

FAMILY HISTORY CENTER CLOSED, SEPT 6

BE SURE TO CHECK...

If you are wanting to visit the Athens family history center, please check the Athens Family History Center facebook page to check for real time closings.  It is best to take a look before you leave from home.  Sometimes closings are last minute emergency closings.

ATHENS FAMILY HISTORY CENTER TIME CHANGE

One of our consultant teams has been called out of town at the last moment.  The family history center will be open today from 10 - 1 pm but the afternoon shift will be closed.  We are open Wednesday night 6:30 - 8:30 pm  and Thursday evening 5:30 pm - 8 pm

Early Bird Special

"Indians, Squatters, Settlers and Soldiers in the "Old Southwest"

Don't Miss Out 

2012 Early  Bird  Registration 

Ends July 1^st

Save up to $50 on registration!
 

The Federation of Genealogical Societies invites you to the FGS 2012 Conference for the Nation's Genealogists. A number of FamilySearch activities associated with this conference in Birmingham, Alabama will enhance the experience for all FamilySearch fans who choose to attend. If you register by Sunday, July 1st you'll save up to $50 on the registration fees. Click here to register - don't delay! Remember, the early bird gets the worm, and saves money too!

FAMILY HISTORY CENTER CLOSED

The FHC is closed Tuesday, June 19 from 1 - 4 pm but we will be here in the morning 10 - 1 pm. Due to a family emergency, the FHC will be closed on Thursdays until July 12.  PLEASE check the facebook page before you come; it have any last minute changes to schedule. Link on the right side under websites.

FAMILY SEARCH AND BILLION GRAVES

On our FamilySearch blog we have been providing our readers with a lot of information about a website called BillionGraves.com which is owned and operated by AppTime, LLC. We like what they have to offer to the public and feel that they have a bright future in the field of genealogy and family history research. BillionGraves aims to provide an expansive family history database for records and images from cemeteries located around the world by engaging volunteers using BillionGraves mobile applications. Digitized images of each gravestone will be tagged with GPS coordinates to make finding an ancestor’s graves a very simple matter of using a mobile cell phone. Their database is growing every day as volunteers gather images of headstones from around the world. Their goal is to collect images and GPS coordinates of one billion graves, which we feel is a very realistic goal.

With that in mind, effective immediately, FamilySearch would like to announce that we will be adding to FamilySearch the growing indexes of Billion Graves’ database.  Find out more.

FAMILY HISTORY SUMMER SCHEDULE

Summer is here and that means vacation time.  Some of our consultants are visiting with family this month so the center schedule is below:

June 12 - Open from 10 am - 1pm; closed 1 - 4 pm
June 14 - Closed
June 19 - Open from 10 am - 1pm; closed 1- 4 pm
July   4 - Closed
July   5 - Closed
July 17 - Closed from 10 am 1pm; Open 1 - 4 pm

NORMAL SCHEDULE APPLIES TO ALL OTHER TIMES

1940 U.S. CENSUS PROJECT HALFWAY COMPLETE

The halfway point for indexing the 1940 U.S. census is fast approaching. 

Congratulations and thank you to all of the volunteers participating in this unprecedented genealogical community effort. Currently more than 20 states are at or above 85 percent complete. Six states—Delaware, Colorado, Kansas, Oregon, Virginia, and New Hampshire—are now indexed and searchable by name, location, and family relations. And thanks to the efforts of more than 100,000 volunteers, more states will be added in the coming weeks. Follow the day-to-day indexing status at the1940census.com dashboard and search completed states at familysearch.org/1940census.

Recently Completed Projects

Note: Recently completed projects have been removed from the available online indexing batches and will now go through a final completion check process. They will be published at familysearch.org in the near future. 

•  U.S., Indiana—1940 Federal Census
• U.S., Nevada—1940 Federal Census
• U.S., Texas—Deaths, 1890–1976 [Part B]
• U.S., Wyoming—1940 Federal Census
• U.S., Alaska—1940 Federal Census
• U.S., Arizona—1940 Federal Census
• U.S., Florida—1940 Federal Census
• U.S., Texas—County Marriages 1837–1977 [Part C]
• U.S., Idaho—1940 Federal Census
• U.S., Vermont—1940 Federal Census
• U.S., Montana—1940 Federal Census
• U.S., Veterans Pension Cards, 1907–1933 [Part A]
• U.S., Mississippi—1940 Federal Census
• Canada, Ontario—Marriages, 1869–1927 [Part B]

GOOGLE TOOLBAR AND GENEALOGY

A MUST use tool for any online genealogy and family tree researcher.

This video show you how to easily install and use a special feature on the Google Toolbar that will reduce the strain on your eyes.  VIDEO LINK

Visit my "Treasure Maps How-to Genealogy" site for tons of free genealogy helps, tips and tutorials.

HISTORICAL RECORDS ADDED THIS SPRING

RECORDS ADDED THIS SPRING LIST:  https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list


Here are the Alabama records but of course there is much more

Alabama, Births and Christenings, 1881-1930	6,841	12 Mar 2012
Alabama, Civil War Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, 1861-1865	1,213,534	21 Apr 2012
Alabama, Civil War Service Records of Union Soldiers, 1861-1865	31,582	21 Apr 2012
Alabama, County Estate Records, 1800-1996	25,297	28 Feb 2012
Alabama, County Marriages, 1809-1950	566,839	8 May 2012
Alabama, County Probate Records	Browse Images	18 May 2011
Alabama, Deaths and Burials, 1881-1952	105,825	4 May 2010
Alabama, Deaths, 1908-1974	1,858,819	5 May 2010
Alabama, Madison County Chancery and Circuit Court Records, 1847-1950	Browse Images	10 May 2012
Alabama, Marriages, 1816-1957	1,516,339	22 Mar 2012
Alabama, State Census, 1855	34,978	12 Dec 2011
Alabama, State Census, 1866	243,781	12 Dec 2011
Alabama, Sumter County Circuit Court Files, 1840-1950	Browse Images	4 Jan 2012

CLOSED THIS AFTERNOON DUE TO ILLNESS

The family History Center will be closed the afternoon of May 29.  The morning shift is still available to help you with your genealogy.  Shift time 10 am - 4 pm.

FAMILY HISTORY CENTER CLOSURE

The Thursday Shift, May 24, will be closed today.  The Center will be operating on regular schedule next Week with our Tuesday shifts, 10 am - 1 pm and 1pm - 4 pm.  Please check the Athens Family History Facebook page for real time closures.  Emergencies do happen.

FAMILY HISTORY CENTER CLOSURE

The Athens Family History Center's Tuesday afternoon shift will be closed, May 8.  The center will be open for it's morning shift 10 - 1 pm.  The center will be open Wednesday 6:30 - 8 pm and Thursday 5:30 - 8 pm

UPDATE ON 1940 CENSUS

Genealogists are rightly excited about the 1940 census being released. It is available to everyone through the web site of the National Archives and Records Administration:

http://www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/ . 

Unfortunately, the name index is a work in progress. You can see how much of your state has been done on the web site: www.familysearch.org/1940census . You go to the appropriate county and state, and then search the enumeration districts. The latter usually has some form of index by street. City directories, if available, can be a big help but it can be a slow process. 

Efforts are being made to create a name index and, so far, the District of Columbia and Nevada have been done. (In 1940, even Cullman County had more people than the entire state of Nevada.) The 1940 census never had a soundex index.  The federal census has been compiled roughly every ten years since 1790 for determining the population for purposes of apportioning the members of Congress. In 1885, a census was taken for the few states willing to help pay for it, such as Florida , to reflect their growth in population. The 1920 census was taken but was ignored by the then Republican Congress and President because it would have given the Democrats new districts as Americans were moving from the country to the cities in greater numbers). 

Some of the census records, such as for Alabama in 1820, have been lost from before 1830. State censuses, tax lists, federal land records, voter records etc. can sometimes supplement or substitute for federal census records. The censuses for 1790 through 1840 are only lists of heads of households with statistical descriptions of each household, including counting members of the household who are older than the head of the household and people living in the household who are not family members. Indians were usually excluded from the censuses before 1870.   Censuses began listing each free person starting in 1850. When a census is 72 years old, it is opened to the general public although anyone can purchase a copy of any federal census record where the person appears, even for 2010.

The census is intended to reflect the population of the United States on a specific day of the year. For 1940, it was April 1. On that day, the census takers began going door to door asking questions of people at home and, for those people not at home, of neighbors. It took weeks and weeks to compile the census and sometimes the information more accurately reflects the household on the day that the census taker visited than on April 1, 1940. If the person being interviewed was a member of the household, that fact is indicated on the census.

Aside from the usual questions about age, race, sex, place of birth, marital status, occupation etc., the 1940 census reflected the Great Depression and President Roosevelt’s New Deal. Special questions were asked about employment status, income, residence in 1935, participation in government work programs, military service etc. Five percent of the families had a longer supplemental questionnaire to provide the government with statistical data. 

Bob Davis

NEWS FROM WALLACE STATE ARCHIVES

Our genealogy collection will be closed May 8 through 12, May 26-28,and June 2.

We will be offering genealogical seminars this summer including:

June 8-9            Introduction to Genealogy

June 22              Southern Genealogy

June 23              Civil War Genealogy

July 13               Advanced Genealogy

July 14               Book Publishing

Each class starts at 9 AM and ends at 2PM. The cost is $35 for any or all of the above together. You can pay and register when you come to class. The classes will be taught in the library depending on space available. We meet in the basement.

Our old friend Frazine Taylor, formerly the head of the search room at the Alabama Department of Archives and History, was on the national television show Finding Your Roots last Sunday night.

This Saturday I will be speaking on the Revolutionary War battle of Kettle Creek, Georgia, February 14, 1779, at the Grove Hill Methodist Church in Grove Hill, Alabama, from 215 PM to 315 PM. It is part of a day long symposium being put on by the Clarke County Museum , 251-275 8684.

Bob Davis

NEW WELSH RECORDS ONLINE

Nearly 4 million new Welsh records on findmypast.co.uk

March 2012

We have just published almost 4 million Welsh parish registers on findmypast.co.uk

This is the first time that the complete Welsh parish baptism, marriage and death records have been published online and is fantastic news for anyone with Welsh ancestors.

The records cover Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Glamorganshire. Further details are as follows:

• Baptisms: 1,418,921 records covering 1538-1911
• Marriages: 950,254 records covering 1539-1926
• Banns: 340,002 records covering 1701-1926
• Burials: 1,169,685 records covering 1539-2007

Find out detailed information about the coverage of the records (PDF)

Coming soon are records for the following counties: Anglesey, Brecknockshire, Caernarvonshire, Merionethshire, Monmouthshire, Montgomeryshire, Pembrokeshire and Radnorshire.

We are proud to be working with the National Library of Wales and the Welsh County Archivists Group to bring you these records.

INTERESTED IN HELPING BRING MORE RECORDS TO THE NET?

Indexing Newsletter

Special Edition: Arbitration Secrets Revealed In this edition of the FamilySearch indexing newsletter we discuss arbitration in detail, aiming to clarify misperceptions, debunk myths, and ask for help from both indexers and arbitrators. Just follow the links below. Languages Deutsch Italiano Español Русский Français Português 日本語 Polski Nederlands Svenska Now is Not the Time to Get Cold Feet about Arbitration Over 3 million images are waiting to be published Read the Full Story Learning to Like the Referee Why arbitrators are necessary and deserve our respect Read the Full Story "Pay No Attention to that Man Behind the Curtain" Revealing the truth about arbitrators Read the Full Story Ten Commandments for Arbitrators We're doing great, but we can always do better Read the Full Story Arbitration Results Ruining Your Day? What they mean and how you can help Read the Full Story What "Final" Really Means Is arbitration really data's last chance? Read the Full Story FAQs Answers to the most common questions about arbitration Read the Full Story