Author: James Tanner

Goldie May Subway Map Now Works with Ancestry.com

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site.   https://youtu.be/9K2E6ZPWxfY Goldie May’s timeline tool, called the Subway Map, now works with Ancestry. You can watch the short demo above to see how this works. You can also view all of the current and future videos from GoldieMay.com on the Goldie May YouTube Channel. See https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDuk8GVz6D_jiyvEFSGJnKw/featured   New...

1950 U.S. Census Project Moving Rapidly Forward

Note: This article was published previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site. If you go to the FamilySearch 1950 U.S. Census Project page at https://www.familysearch.org/getinvolved/1950 you will see that four states have been completed and that only two more are open right now (as of the date of this post). Checking handwriting recognition from Ancestry.com is a different experience from indexing. The...

Changes to Ancestry.com: More than Cosmetic

Note: This article appeared previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site.   Around the time of RootsTech 2022, Ancestry.com introduced some substantial changes to their website without much publicity. Here is an article that gives an overview of the changes. “The New Look and Feel of the Ancestry® Website.” One improvement includes putting a link to your family tree right at the...

Revisiting Proof and Truth in Genealogy

Note: This article was published previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site. Can you prove it? Is what you post in your family tree the truth? In the context of genealogical research, do either of these terms have any meaning? Can these questions even be answered? Genealogical research focuses on a limited part of the world’s history; that part pertaining...

If you don’t share it, you lose it! – Part One

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site. I am writing about losing all the genealogical work you have done during your lifetime. Literally, if you do not share your work with others, particularly those in your family, you will lose it all when you die. I may have written about this before, but it bears...

About Accuracy in Genealogical Research

Note: This article was published previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site.   The fundamental issue with historical research (including genealogical research) is accuracy. How do you establish trust in the conclusions of a historical (i.e. genealogical) researcher? For the purposes of this post and from this point on, I will focus on genealogical research as a subset of historical...

The Return of “What is a Source?”

Note: This article was published previously on the Genealogy’s Star blog site.   I looked back on the list of my blog titles and found that the last time I wrote about what is a source was in 2015. I wrote a very long blog post that few probably understood or read completely through. If you want to try, here...

The WikiTree Challenge Week: A Great Opportunity and Experience

Note: This article was published previously in the Genealogy’s Star blog site.   Somehow, I was chosen to be the focus of a WikiTree Challenge. This is when a team of WikiTree volunteers focus on the tree of a “special guest star.” Quoting from the Help page for the WikiTree Challenge: In 2021 we have focused on “genealogy stars” such as bestselling...

FamilySearch and Computer-assisted Indexing for Digitized Records

Note: This article was previously published on the Genealogy’s Star blog site.   https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2021-10-29/computer-assisted-indexing-familysearch-records-231067This article is interesting from several different aspects. First, there are some interesting and updated statistics. Here is a quote with some of the statistics from the above linked article to start out. In September, FamilySearch announced a milestone 83 years in the making — the completion...

Publication Online of the 1921 Census of England and Wales

Quoting from an email announcement from Findmypast.com, Findmypast and The National Archives have announced that the 1921 Census of England & Wales will be published online on 6 January 2022. From that day forward, everyone will be able to search and explore the census online, only at Findmypast. For the first time, the details of 38 million people captured in over...