News You Can Use and Share!

• MyHeritage added 235 million historical records in February and 794 million historical records in March.
• MyHeritage released a new DNA facility named Ancient Origins, with which you can trace your origins back 10,000 years.
• MyHeritage introduced Cousin Finder.
• MyHeritage has published United States World War II Draft Registrations, 1940-1947.
• FamilySearch has added free historical records from 32 countries in April.
• FamilySearch has introduced the new FamilySearch Catalog.
• American Ancestors will open its new Family Heritage Experience on 25 April 2025 at its facility in Boston, Massachusetts.

Listener Email

• Tom discussed records obtained from the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. He addresses how to obtain copies of all pages of the personnel file.
• Nancy asks for suggestions for naming computer files for women’s records.
• Michael Fagan has developed a tool to print large family tree posters. The tool is free at https://faganm.com/diagram/.
• Laura wrote about using French spoliation claims in learning more about her ancestors.
• Julie bought a used Flip-Pal scanner, but it did not come with the stitching software to reconstitute the area images. George suggested visiting https://flip-pal.com/support/.
• Karen has read in Drew’s Organize Your Genealogy book about using Evernote software. Drew assures her that Evernote is still a valuable tool.
• Ashley wrote to share more about the U.S. Federal Census and the 1880 Agricultural Census Schedule for North Carolina. She suggests additional places to locate images and indices that otherwise have not been digitized and added at FamilySearch, MyHeritage, and Ancestry.
• Gonzolo wants information about importing an old Family Tree Maker software file (.ftw) and generating a GEDCOM file. Drew suggested using RootsMagic Essentials software to do this.
• Nancy writes about having located a birth record for a woman in 1909 on which the birth certificate states that it was a single birth. However, the 1910 census lists two daughters of the age to have been born in 1909. How can you reconcile this?
• Donna is seeking help in locating a death record for Susan Godfrey and marriage records.

Drew provides a recap of his time at RootsTech.

Drew will be presenting at the Ohio Genealogical Society Spring Conference in Sandusky, Ohio, from 30 April to 3 May 2025.

Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com with your questions and comments.

News You Can Use and Share!

• MyHeritage added 1.2 billion historical records in January.
• MyHeritage released Ethnicity Estimate v2.5, the long-awaited ethnicity model, including 79 different ethnicities

Listener Email

• Tom asks if there are reference materials for using AI in genealogical and historical research. (Not YouTube)
• Pam is searching for immigration and naturalization records for a couple who arrived ca. 1893 and wants to know if other resources are available to help locate those records. George recommends the Stephen P. Morse One-Step pages at stevemorse.org for U.S. ships’ passenger lists and the Library and Archives Canada website at library-archives.canada.ca/eng/ and look for the collection of Immigration Records at library-archives.canada.ca/eng/collection/research-help/genealogy-family-history/immigration/Pages/immigration.aspx.
• Tom is seeking ships’ passenger lists for ancestors who came to the U.S. or Canada in 1879-1880. George suggests the same records he recommends to Pam above.
• Jean Daniel in France provides us a fascinating update on his research into his 4x grandfather, Blaise Farny.
• Anne wrote to follow up on research into Calvin and Rhoda Reed. She discusses Cayuga County, New York, and places that she has used for different records resources.
• Tom discusses his research into the USS Trigger en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Trigger_(SS-564)). He has been using AI tools, including ChatGPT (https://chatgpt.com/), Perplexity (https://www.perplexity.ai/), and Claude AI (ttps://claude.ai/).

Drew will be presenting at RootsTech 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 6-8 March. Registration for RootsTech is open for on-site attendance and virtual sessions. Visit www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/ for details.

Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com with your questions and comments.

The Guys wish everyone a Happy New Year!

George gives a shout-out to Ed Brown for his continued support for the podcast!

News You Can Use and Share

• The Genealogy Guys issued a press release announcing the discontinuation of the Genealogy Guys Learn subscription educational website effective 1 January 2025. The Guys have partnered with Legacy Family Tree Webinars to migrate their video content to Legacy over time.
• MyHeritage has announced the suspension of services in Russia due to Russian regulations concerning hosting personal data on its web service.
• MyHeritage recapped its growth in 2024 with impressive statistics.
• MyHeritage announced the completion of images and indexes for 15 collections of newspaper names and stories at OldNews.com. This is an addition of 11.6 billion records.
• Legacy Family Tree Webinars, a subsidiary of MyHeritage, announced that registration is now open for 2025.
• FamilySearch added free historical record collections in December 2024 from 49 countries.
• FamilySearch has announced its plans for 2025.

Listener Email

• Several people responded on the subject of genealogy-based trips to Ireland, similar to those that Irish expert Donna M. Moughty offered. We share their suggestions.
• Brian also responds to the question of whether there is a genealogy podcast that shares people’s stories of family history research.
• Christina asks whether it is worthwhile to upgrade from RootsMagic 9 to RootsMagic 10, and The Guys respond.
• In addition to Brian, Kamai responded to a previous podcast’s query about podcasts specifically related to family histories. Crista Cowan, known as The Barefoot Genealogist, has a podcast called Stories That Live in Us at https://www.cristacowan.com/stories-that-live-in-us-podcast.
• Kenith is searching for Calvin Reed, his wife Rhoda (?), and their daughter, Eliza Ruth Reed, Ohio. If you have information or research suggestions, please email The Guys.

George is working on a family book and sought the 1880 U.S. Federal Census Agricultural Schedules for Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. It highlights the critical absence of Agricultural Schedules, Manufacturing Schedules, Mortality Schedules, some Slave Schedules (1850 and 1860), and the unique 7-page 1880 Federal Census’ Defective, Delinquent, and Dependent Schedules. These documents all enhance the context of our ancestors’ lives and provide insights into the communities and potentially new resource clues. The originals of many of these documents were returned to individual states, and have found their way into state archives, state libraries, county courthouses, and other places. George wants the sites like MyHeritage, Ancestry, FamilySearch, Findmypast, and others to actively renew their research to locate, digitize, and index these census documents before they are completely lost.

Drew will be speaking at the Genealogical Society of Kendall County, Texas, on Saturday, 15 February 2025. See https://gskctx.org/ for details.

Drew will also be presenting in person at RootsTech 2025 in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 6-8 March 2025. Registration for RootsTech is open for on-site attendance and virtual sessions.Visit https://www.familysearch.org/en/rootstech/ for details.

Please let us hear from you at genealogyguys@gmail.com with your questions and comments.