No.48 (genealogy news and tips worldwide)

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• Irish records FREE:   The largest online collection of Irish records (more than 116 million records, including images) will be FREE until 11.59pm (GMT) Friday 17 Mar 2017.


• AncestryDNA:   Until 19 Mar 2017, save up to 30% on Ancestry's DNA test for genealogy (the one you've seen advertised on TV).


• More discounts:   New discount offers (relevant worldwide) are coming soon, so check Genealogy Discounts and Freebies this weekend. If you use ChangeDetection to monitor that page, log in at www.changedetection.com and edit your alert for http://www.judywebster.com.au/specials.html to 'daily'. If new offers are added twice in one week, you will then be alerted twice instead of missing one.


• Conference & Fair:   The 'Footsteps in Time' Family and Local History Conference and free Fair is at Southport (Gold Coast, Queensland), 19th to 21st May 2017. I'm looking forward to it. Conference registration closes 14th April.


• Catholic records:   The Catholic Heritage Collection (available only on FindMyPast) is a growing online digitised and indexed collection of Roman Catholic records for Ireland, Britain and the USA. Most of the records have never before been accessible by the public, either offline or online.


• Electoral rolls:   You can do either a name search or an address search in the Australian electoral rolls collection at FindMyPast. The new search page explains which State and Commonwealth rolls are included. There are some for Queensland, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and more rolls will be added in the future. Ignore the 'birth year' search field (it doesn't help).


• Gen-Ebooks:   Genealogy Ebooks (known as Gen-Ebooks) is one of Australia's largest Ebook stores for genealogy. They currently have over 550 titles, with more being added every month, all instantly downloadable. They offer four 50% discount specials each month.


• Web pages from GEDCOM:   GedSite by John Cardinal is a new program that creates 'family tree Web pages from GEDCOM files. It generates narrative or grid style person pages, a master index, a surname index, source pages and any other pages you want to add. You can review the pages on your own computer before you share them via DVD or flash drive or publish them on the Web. I expect GedSite to be even more popular than John's other program (SecondSite for The Master Genealogist, which I use to create the family tree on my Website).


• Digitised records:   Many records from around the world have been digitised but not indexed. You just have to know how to find them! See Image-Only Collections.


• 53,000 names:   You'll find information about an amazing number of interstate and overseas folk, as well as locals, in records at Queensland State Archives. My Web site has over 53,000 names from original documents there. See the list of record types, with links to alphabetical lists of names.

(This post first appeared on http://updatesgenie.blogspot.com/2017/03/no48-genealogy-news-and-tips-worldwide.html.)
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No.40 (genealogy news and discounts worldwide)

Book by Chris Paton

Links open in new windows.

• Irish land records:   Paul Milner has written a comprehensive review of Chris Paton's book Discover Irish Land Records.


• FindMyPast discounts:   Until midnight 17 Mar 2016 you can get a 1-month World subscription at FindMyPast for just $1, or you can get 20% off a 12-month World subscription. To find out about future discounts, go to Genealogy Discounts and Freebies, click the bar marked 'Receive email when this page changes', and follow the instructions. Select 'daily' as the frequency (not 'weekly') so you don't miss short-term offers that last less than a week.


• My other sites:   When I hear about discounts and freebies for genealogy, I often mention them first on my Facebook page.


• 1939 Register:   A 12-month Britain or World subscription to FindMyPast now gives you unlimited free access to the 1939 Register for England and Wales (including images of the original documents).


• Pastoral runs:   The Queensland State Archives Web site now has an index to rents payable on pastoral runs 1860-1911.


• Toowoomba seminar:   On Sat. 2 Apr 2016 I'm giving two talks to members of Toowoomba & Darling Downs Family History Society ('Not Just the Patient: how hospital and asylum records tell the story of a family' and 'Ancestors who Moved or Vanished'). For more details see my 'Talks' page.


• Cairns seminar:   The two talks I'm giving at Cairns Library on Sat. 16 Apr 2016 are 'Scallywags, Scoundrels and Vanishing Relatives' and 'Researching Illegitimate Children'. For more details see my 'Talks' page.


• Handouts from my talks:   If you were on Unlock the Past's genealogy conference/cruise (Barrier Reef, March 6th-13th) and want a free copy of the handouts from my first two talks, email me at the address shown on my Web site, quoting your name and town as shown in the '11th Unlock the Past cruise group' list. There was no handout for my third talk ('Researching Illegitimate Children') because there is already a mini-guide.


• Wednesday's Webpage:   The Wednesday's Webpage for Genealogy series will resume next week, but if the level of interest doesn't increase, it may be discontinued.


• Recommended reading:   5 Tips for Finding Women's Obituaries, by Amy Johnson Crow.

(This post first appeared on https://updatesgenie.blogspot.com/2016/03/no40-genealogy-news-and-discounts.html.)
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