An interesting press release popped up this morning, World War 1 Soldiers’ Death Records Now Online. This is primarily of interest to genealogists researching relatives who fought and died in the British Army during World War I, and the information was published online by www.1837online.com/.
John P. O’Connor marks the second anniversary of his genealogy column in The Republican (MA) with a good colum, Good time to review genealogy resources, that gives a brief look at past two years’ worth of columns and some of the resources that have been used as well as topics that were covered.
I’m still not sure exactly how it works, but the University College London (UCL) has setup a “Surname Profiler” database. Here’s their description:
A recent research project based at University College London (UCL) has investigated the distribution of surnames in Great Britain, both current and historic, in order to understand patterns of regional economic development, population movement and cultural identity. This website allows users to search the databases that we have created, and to trace the geography and history of their family names.
Right now it’s fairly limited (only the years 1881 or 1998), but it has me very intrigued - it shows a distribution of surnames color-coded by area, i.e. you type in “Keith”, and it will show you those areas where the surname “Keith” is most prevalent - in this case, Scotland, and it breaks it down into smaller areas, and you can toggle back and forth between 1881 and 1998, which is, in and of itself, quite interesting. You can see a pseudo-migration pattern.
It could possibly help with research, but it’s more of a stepping off point - i.e. you could play the law of averages and research in those areas where your surname is most likely to be found.
In honor of Valentine’s Day, The Genealogue presents: Top Ten Reasons to Date a Genealogist
TIME Magazine is carrying an article by Michael D. Lemonick, that covers genetic genealogy research, an area that continues to grow as more people do DNA genealogy research and as more people become interested in their medical genealogy. This is another high profile story, the second or third in the past few weeks (although the others were more concerned with regular genealogy or DNA tracking alone).
Kurt Erick writes in The Pantagraph (Central Illinois) about the Illinois Secretary of State revamping their archives and making genealogy information easier to access, at www.ilsos.gov/genealogy/
Saw this in a story at Genealogy Software News - GenoPro is adding a new feature to version 2.0 of their software (GenoPro 2.0 is in beta right now):
I’ll be traveling for a few days, and won’t have much in the way of internet access.
In the meantime, I’d suggest checking out a new genealogy blog by the same person behind The Genealogue.
It’s called Genealogy Websites I Don’t Hate and looks to be a useful addition to anybody’s bookmarks.
