This week's news includes: Ancestry.com launches the world's largest collection of Jewish documents; they also have added French collections at their Ancestry.fr site: Paris, France, & Vicinity Births, marriages, Deaths, marriage Banns -- AND -- to their UK site at http://www.ancestry.co.uk the UK incoming Passenger Lists (1878-1920); the National Library of Australia has launched Australia Newspapers at http://ndpbeta.nla.gov.au; Ancestry.com has won the contract to digitize and host key collections from the London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) and the Guildhall Library, representing more than 500 years of records (more details of the content are available at http://www.history.ac.uk/gh/digitisation.htm); The National Archives (TNA) in the U.K. is using Digital Microfilm to make available remote access to four series of military records.

Drew announced that George's newest book, the second edition of The Official Guide to Ancestry.com, has just been released, and it is available at the Ancestry Store.

Drew shares "11 Creative Ways to Pay Homage to the Dead" from the Life Hackery blog at http://lifehackery.com/2008/11/03/life-26/.

This week's listener email includes: Sherry visited a courthouse to access her great-grandfather's probate file, and found that these records are being digitized and will then be thrown away. (She was given her great-grandfather's probate file.); Peter asked about the eBook of Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence Explained, and wants to know if it has Digital Rights Management [Listeners can respond if they know.]; Ian asked about how to cite a source using a location that no longer exists (i.e., Prussia); Gus reports on the status of his search for his grandfather, Vere Preston Marsh; "William comments on huge GEDCOMs on Ancestry.com, and asks about uploading his own research; Claire reports on a new iPhone application (app) that allows people to load a GEDCOM's contents to the iPhone and take it along (George is trying to get this loaded and will report back); Joel suggests that Barry's search in the 1900 U.S. federal census in Kentucky might be aided by using the new upload at http://search.labs.familysearch.org or at Stephen P. Morse's site at http://www.stevemorse.org/census/index.html; Russ asks questions concerning primary and secondary sources, and about using the "complete event;" and Sam shares his concerns about his grandmother's real name and the many spellings in different records throughout her life.

George reports the death on 1 November 2008 of singing sensation Yma Sumac at the estimated age of 86. Miss Sumac, born in Peru, had a phenomenal 6-octave singing voice and had a wonderful recording career in the 1950s and 1960s, and then a cabaret act in the 1970s and 1980s.