News stories for the week include: The Generations Network, parent
of Ancestry.com, is to be acquired by Spectrum Equity Investors;
the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) (
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/)
opens access to more than 6M new military personnel records,
including all the Official Military Personnel Files (OMPFs) prior
to 1946; Individual Deceased Personnel Files (IDPFs) can be
obtained by following instructions at
http://www.no-quarter.org/gui/nq_idpf.php; Nova Scotia
Vital Records Database for BMDs is available free at
http://novascotiagenealogy.com; Georgia Death
Certificates (1919-1927) are now available online at
http://www.GeorgiaArchives.org (Virtual Vault link);
the Canadian Genealogy Centre (
http://www.collectionscanada.gc/ca/genealogy)
has two new search tools -
Ancestors Search and
That's My Family;
NEHGS and
Ancestry.com announce new
member benefits as part of a collaborative agreement, including
reduced joint membership fees; Sorenson Companies has launched a
new Genetree (http://www.genetree.com), a DNA testing and social
networking site; The National Archives (UK) will digitize the 1911
census (see press release at
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/stories/156.htm?homepage=news);
The Guys will be key speakers at the Texas State Genealogical
Society Conference in Tyler, Texas, on November 9-10, 2008
(information at
http://www.rootsweb.com/~txsgs/conference.pdf); George
begins teaching U.S. Immigration and Naturalization course at
Pharos (
http://www.pharostutors.com) and announces other
upcoming courses there.
Listener e-mail includes:
- A request for guidance on locating an old Web site gone
missing. Drew suggests going to http://www.archive.org/ and entering the old
address in the Wayback Machine box.
- A listener reports being able to successfully run Family Tree
Maker from his flash drive (thumb drive).
- A listener asks abut the quality of courses from the National
Institute for Genealogical Studies (http://www.genealogicalstudies.com/) and their
helpfulness in achieving certification from the Board for
Certification of Genealogists (http://www.bcgcertification.org). George responds that
the NIGS classes are excellent and will help provide a firm
educational foundation for certification.
George's "Web Site of the Week" is NewsBank Inc. and its product,
America's Genealogy Bank (
http://www.newsbank.com/genealogists/).
The Guys discuss America's Genealogy Bank, some search hints, and
George relates some finds that caused him to do the "Genealogy
Happy Dance."
Drew discusses outreach programs offered by libraries. The Guys ask
for listener input about what services they have and/or want
libraries to provide to them as genealogists.