Dec 30, 2023

News You Can Use and Share

• The Genealogy Guys Learn site is still on sale through January 1, 2024!
• MyHeritage announces the release of a new exclusive collection: marriage certificates for North Rhine and Westphalia from 1874 through 1899.
• MyHeritage announces the release of AI Record Finder™, an interactive, free text chat to help locate historical records about an ancestor among MH’s 20 billion records.
• MyHeritage announces the release of AI Biographer™, which compiles a Wikipedia-like article about a person’s life. It uses details from matching historical records and family tree profiles.
• The Society of Genealogists has officially reopened at its new address on Wharf Road in London, England.
• The Society of Genealogists has launched a brand-new search tool called SoG Explore.
• The Guys give a shout-out to Graham Walter, who has been named Chairman of the Society of Genealogists’ Trustees.
• Scottish Indexes reached a new milestone with the addition of 180,000 prison record entries among over half a million records from 38 Scottish Prisons. Visit https://www.scottishindexes.com/ScotlandsCriminalDatabase.aspx.
• Drew recaps the highlights of the newest record releases at FamilySearch from October and November 2023.

Listener Email

• Ashley asks about uploading Ancestry DNA results to MyHeritage as compared with taking a test there.
• Ashley also asks about searching probate court books for records of the institutionalization of a great-grand-uncle in Dayton, Ohio, and needs suggestions to help find his records.
• Jean Daniel from Metz, France, asks for suggestions about locating records for a 4x grandfather who spent some years in the U.S.
• Kelly is looking for ideas to help locate records about her great aunt, Wilhemine Mae Rauch (b. 1909 in Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio, USA), and twice married to Floyd Stevens. Listener suggestions are also requested.

The Guys give a shout-out to Scott Fisher for his years of work on the Extreme Genes Podcast, which is ending this month.

The Guys recommend a new podcast by Mike Scozzari called “Roots: Everyone Has a Story,” which can be found at https://www.michaelscozzari.com/podcast.

Drew and George talk about some of the topics most likely to dominate in 2024, including AI, DNA, and conferences.

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And don’t forget to order Drew’s new book, Generation by Generation: A Modern Approach to the Basics of Genealogy, from Genealogical Publishing Company (https://genealogical.com/) or Amazon.com.

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