Mar 6, 2019

The Genealogy Guys Podcast and Vivid-Pix announced the first winners of the Unsung Heroes Awards at RootsTech 2019. Visit the blog for details about the winners.

Blaine T. Bettinger, Ph.D., J.D., joins us for discussions with Drew about DNA topics on episodes of The Genealogy Guys Podcast starting this week.

The News

• MyHeritage made a number of announcements at RootsTech 2019:
  • Database has doubled since RootsTech 2018.
  • 5 million MyHeritage DNA kits have been sold, the most sales in Europe.
  • New AutoClusters tool has been introduced to MyHeritage DNA.
  • Theory of Family Relativity DNA tool has been introduced to MyHeritage DNA to facilitate matching.
  • MyHeritage has completed digitizing of all of Israel’s cemeteries, searchable online with images, locations, and fully transcribed records.
  • MyHeritage has extended their DNA Quest pro bono initiative to reunite adoptees through free genetic testing.
• Ancestry announced 94 new and updated communities for people of African American and Afro-Caribbean descent.
• Ancestry announced several new DNA tools, and Blaine and Drew will discuss them later.
• Stephen and Tabitha King have donated $1.25 million to the New England Historic Genealogical Society.
• Findmypast added over 23 million new U.S. marriage records to their collection.
• Findmypast also added Yorkshire Baptisms, Marriage Banns, Marriages, and Burials, and an update to the 1939 Register.
• Findmypast has acquired RootsFinder, Inc, a free family tree builder.
• Findmypast announced a project to digitize and publish the 1921 Census of England and Wales.
• The Archives of Manitoba, Canada, is digitizing over 1,000 reels of microfilm for the Hudson’s Bay Company (1670-1870) and placing the records online.
• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has donated $2 million to the International African American Museum being built in Charleston, South Carolina.
• RootsTech London will take place on 24-26 October 2019.
• Drew recaps the highlights of the January 2019 record additions and a look at what’s coming this year.

A Discussion with Blaine T. Bettinger

This week’s discussion between Blaine and Drew focuses on Ancestry.com’s newly announced DNA tools. They include a new tool called ThruLines, and a new tool for working with and marking matches (in beta mode), and a Tree Tagging tool (also in beta mode).

Listener Email

• Listeners Barb and Vicki also responded to Laura’s inquiry in Episode #357 about uses for spreadsheets in genealogy.
• Bill reported he had a loss of data between RootsMagic and Ancestry. George referred him ASAP to RootsMagic’s Customer Support, and also described how he backs up his RootsMagic data on his computer, on Dropbox, and at an offline storage service.
• Tom advises Jewish researchers not to ignore German Catholic records as he has made discoveries of Jewish families’ information in those collections.
• Tom advises us that he has acquired very old photo albums, and that he in one case reunited it with the descendants. But what about the other one?

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