National Family History Month Ideas, Resources

From the newsletter of the National Genealogical Society comes these tips and ideas. You can subscribe to this newsletter at this link: http://upfront.ngsgenealogy.org/. When you arrive at the linked page, scroll down near the bottom of the page to the narrow left hand column for chances to subscribe by email or by RSS reader.

UPFRONT WITH NGS
The Blog of the National Genealogical Society
10 OCTOBER 2011
October is Family History Month! Let’s Celebrate …
Special events and activities abound. Do check out if your local society, library, archive, etc have any special events planned!

Some of what has crossed our desk includes:
o Kimberly Powell, About.com talks about how you might celebrate Family History Month
o Family Tree Magazine is offering some Free Webinars:
o Start Writing Your Life Stories with Sunny Jane Morton, author of the book My Life & Times: A Guided Journal For Collecting Your Stories, takes place Thursday, Oct. 13 at 1 pm Eastern Time (noon CT, 11 am MT, 10 am PT). Click here to sign up for this webinar.
o Be a Family History Detective: Secrets to Starting Your Genealogy, with Desmond Walls Allen, author of the book Family History Detective, is scheduled for Oct. 26 at1 pm Eastern Time (noon CT, 11 am MT, 10 am PT). Click here to sign up.
o The State Library of North Carolina has created a page with many tips and great resources for either starting or pursuing your Family History

What is happening in your community or state? Please let us know!
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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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Republication of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS.

Google News Archive – Gone for Good?

Reprinted with permission from the NGS Weekly, 23 September, 2011

If last month you were following the news about Google +, Google Maps and many of the other Google services and their latest and greatest features, the bit of news about the final chapter of the Google News Archives may have escaped your notice.

Read what Kimberly Powell (About.com) had to say about this (18 August 2011) … “I was not a happy camper last night when I went to the main Google News Archive page, previously available at http://news.google.com/archivesearch, only to find it redirecting to the main Google page. Today Google News Archive is still redirecting, although it takes you to the Advanced News Search page. Does this mean Google News Archive is gone for good?

“Read the full article to see what Kimberly learned….

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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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African-American Genealogy Research

There’s no question that an enormous brick wall faces most African-American researchers because of the lack of readily available information especially in the lack of census records during the era of slavery.

Kimberly Powell of About.com Genealogy has listed her top ten online sites for African-American genealogy research at this link: http://genealogy.about.com/od/african_american/tp/best_sites.htm

FREE Genealogy Help at About.com

Familiar with About.com? This all inclusive website/service features (for FREE) advice on all sorts of topics. Particularly helpful to genealogists is Kimberly’s Genealogy Blog at genealogy.about.com.

Kimberly Powell features what seems like a never-ending variety of topics with which she is familiar and has obviously researched. For instance, recently she offered an entry on questions to ask to get your relatives to give their oral histories and an article titled “Family Health History Better Than Genetic Screening.” Many other postings there include sources for searching for information (almost always FREE) and how-to tips.

Thanks to QPL Librarian Delene Delarosa for suggesting this website which I have used so often but that I guess I took too much for granted.