Issue 13.16
Every couple of weeks FamilySearch releases a new collections update. There were 25 new collections in the latest release. These included: Brazil Pernambuco Civil Registration 1804-2014, California San Pedro Immigration Office Special Inquiry Records 1930-1936, Denmark Deeds and Mortgages 1572-1928, England Cornwall and Devon Parish Registers 1538-2010, Hawaii Index to Filipino Arrivals to Honolulu 1946.
Illinois was well represented with Illinois Church Marriages 1805-1985, Illinois Civil Marriages 1833-1889 and Illinois County Marriages 1811-2007. Some of these records were indexed; others are just digital records now available to browse while they wait in the queue to be indexed. This is the case with Indiana Marriages 1811-2007.
More records are now available for Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Peru, Spain Province of Cadiz, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Especially of interest are the newly indexed Utah LDS Missionary Registers from 1860 to 1910.
Over 34,000 United States Freedmen’s Bureau Marriages are now indexed and searchable and 1.1 million United States War of 1812 Index to Service Records. All of these searchable historical records are made available on FamilySearch.org through the help of thousands of online volunteers worldwide. These volunteers transcribe or index information from digital copies of handwritten records to make them easily searchable online. More volunteers are always needed, particularly those who can read foreign languages, to keep pace with the large number of digital images being published weekly online on FamilySearch.org.
To see how you can volunteer to help provide free access to the world’s historical genealogical records online, see FamilySearch.org/Indexing. It is such a help to have an index for records. This makes family history so much easier than it was before. We used to have to travel to Salt Lake City to the Family History Library or order a microfilm and wait two weeks for it to be delivered. Then we would have to look at each image, searching for the ancestor. Now the microfilms have been scanned and digitized, touched up to make them easier to read and put into batches. The batches are then indexed so that all we need to do is go to https://familysearch.org/search/ and type in a name and up come all of the records that match what you type in. You can narrow it down to specific places, record collections, years, relationships, etc. It is 100% easier than before.
For more information, contact Shanna Jones shannasjones@msn.com http://ssj.myitworks.com/