Genealogy in the News
Genealogy Society book now available
Hours upon hours of work have gone into the Mineral County Genealogy Society's first book.
The first volume exploring local cemeteries is now available just in time for the holidays.
Mineral Daily News Tribune, Keyser, West Virginia
Kerry's Welsh roots discovered
As the US presidential candidate John Kerry heads into the final stages of his campaign, a west Wales town will be keeping a close eye on his battle with George Bush.
Genealogists in the United States say the Democratic contender from Colorado can trace his ancestry back to Tenby.
BBC
US contender Kerry traces roots to Tenby
A WELSH town is rooting for John Kerry in the forthcoming US presidential election - because they believe he’s a local boy.
A US genealogy site says the Democratic contender from Colorado can trace his ancestry back to a Pembrokeshire couple, William and Elizabeth Jenkins, who emigrated from Tenby in the mid-17th century.
If it is true, it will mean Pembrokeshire has strong links with at least two modern American political families because Hillary Clinton, wife of former President Bill, is also reputed to have ancestors from the county.
icWales, the national website of Wales
Devil of a job finding father
Nicolas Shakespeare is a writer of intellect and grace.
This new non-fiction book sees him holed-up in Tasmania, his chosen home, where he discovers other Shakespeares: not at their keyboards, but wiring houses, fixing leaks and laying bricks. He makes it his business to call them up, to become acquainted.
The other N Shakespeare - Nevin - rides a Suzuki GSXF. His father Gavin admits that English was a subject he failed at school. Neither he nor Nevin has taken much interest in genealogy. “Once they go,” says Nevin, “it’s just a heap of old photos. It’s just history.” Nicholas Shakespeare thinks otherwise.
scotsman.com
How the centuries changed Britain (and it’s not as much as you’d think)
Extraordinary census data to be revealed for the first time.
Today’s grandparents have probably lived through more change than any other generation in history: the Second World War, the Cold War, great advances in medical science and the mass communication revolution. But despite these momentous shifts, patterns of population, employment, poverty, health and education have remained strikingly familiar.
Remarkable maps of the social and economic make-up of Britain are revealed this week on a website which, for the first time, makes public millions of pieces of information about places all over the country.
Guardian Unlimited, UK
Genealogists still have to hit paper trail
The Internet has been a boon to genealogists, enabling them to read queries, cemetery information and family lore that would have been inaccessible just a decade or so ago.
But amid all the hoopla about the cyber age, one inescapable fact remains: Huge quantities of data have never been put online. A complete job of research, therefore, still involves sitting down with a book and reading it, just as our ancestors would have done.
Times Leader, Wilkes-Barre, PA
New Orleans library a good site
The city archives is rich in resources for New Orleans people.
Especially valuable is the newspaper collection of not only most of the New Orleans newspapers since the early 1800s on microfilm, but also microfilm of other Louisiana newspapers. An extensive card file index has been compiled of all the obituaries or death notices that appeared in these papers. The earliest date back to 1836 and the index runs to 1972. Another valuable index is a news index for newspaper news stories, featuring New Orleans people and events
SunHerald, South Mississippi
My roots are African - Teresa Kerry
Now free from 500 years of colonial rule and emerging from a brutal 16-year civil war, Mozambique hopes that its famous daughter will bring an African connection to the White House if her husband John Kerry is elected to the US presidency on November 2.
The wife of the US Democratic presidential contender was born on October 5, 1938, in Maputo, then called Lourenço Marques, and lived in colonial Mozambique until the age of 14 when she was sent to South Africa to continue her studies.
If Kerry wins the US presidency, Teresa would become the first African-born first lady.
iafrica.com
Tour offers look at lives of Civil War soldiers
TARPON SPRINGS - Nestled among the 8,000 graves in Cycadia and Rose cemeteries are the headstones of the Confederate private who made a pact with God to survive a battle, the Union captain who opened Tarpon Springs' first drugstore and the slave who fought for the Confederacy before going on to run his own horse and carriage service.
St. Petersburg Times
October is a fine time to begin doing genealogy
October is Family History Month, when we celebrate our families and our search for information about them. It is a fine time to begin doing genealogy.
The Columbian, Clark County, Washington
Local Saltsville has unique history
Jim Glanville captured in a picture what he said could be possible “only in America;” the great-great-grandson of a Confederate soldier, Jim Bordwine, and the great-great-grandson of a black Union soldier, David Brown, shaking hands. Earlier that day both men had participated in the rededication of the town’s black cemetery that had fallen into disrepair.
Collegiate Times
Sligo attracts big names in genealogy
Sligo became the first county outside Dublin to host the International Genealogy Festival which brought the biggest names in the field to the town.
The International Genealogy Festival was held from Thursday September 30 to Sunday October 3 and attracted both local people and those who travelled from the USA, to find out more about their Irish roots.
Sligo Weekender
Taipei councilor slams age limit on civic groups
A Taipei City councilor yesterday urged the Ministry of the Interior to remove its restriction on senior-citizen participation in civic groups. The Civic Group Personnel Management Regulation stipulates that people older than 65 are not allowed to join civic groups.
"The number of genealogy groups makes up over 10 percent of the civic groups registered in Taipei. Furthermore, according to a survey conducted by the Bureau of Social Affairs, out of 172 groups questioned, the leaders of 112 of them are over the age of 65. Sixty-five percent of these people do not meet the regulation," Li Keng said.
The Taipei Times
Spy Technology Helps Leicester University Put History Online
Using technology developed for intelligence agencies, the new Historical Directories website offers access to over 500,000 records. Courtesy Historical Directories.
"The historical directories website is one of the most significant genealogy tools that has ever been launched in the UK," said Ian Clark, senior technologist at Archive Quest, who created the project in partnership with the University of Leicester and software company, ZyLAB.
24 Hour Museum
DNA Testing - Those Difficult Female Lines
Mitochondrial DNA -- it sounds scary. But it is really just a DNA sequence which can be used to trace the female lines in your family tree - your mother, her mother, your mother's mother, and so on. Mitochondria DNA, mtDNA for short, is found in both males and females, andis inherited from your mother. Only females pass on mtDNA to their children, but males do inherit it from their mother, even if they can't pass it on.
About.com, Genealogy Blog
Civil War vet gets gift from great grandson
James Henry Grayham's tombstone is much easier to read than those of his buddies from the Civil War.
Thanks to his great grandson, the Union solider now has a new, 3-foot-tall, granite marker. The Department of Veterans Affairs provides them free to soldiers.
Grimes learned about the monuments after attending a genealogy seminar. He is a Civil War buff and interested in family history, which he researches with the help of his cousins.
The News Enterprise, Hardin County, Kentucky
Woman takes on feat of tracing history of black families
Tracing ancestry complicated because of slavery
However, King recently made a discovery that could help in her search. "In a little article, I found out who owned my grandfather," she said. She also has a tattered piece of newspaper from Buckingham County from the late 1920s with an obituary of her grandfather's brother, the slave of a doctor in the community. King said her next step is to research him. She also looks to white families for pieces of information about hers.
News Leader, Central Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
Genealogy is the New National Craze
A recent survey by Genes Reunited, the UK’s largest online genealogy and ancestry website, has revealed that tracing the family tree is turning into a national craze that spans generations. The site has become so popular that two million names are being added every month, with families being connected every 52 seconds.
OnlyPunjab.com, India
Finding ties that bind
Bob and Phyllis Duncan's relatives left their family reunion with a memorable gift.
In September, they presented their loved ones with 24 years of genealogical research into the Duncan family tree. The couple created three bound editions, complete with biographies, photos and newspaper articles about family.
The Wildomar couple spent the past two decades researching the Duncan, Stark and Park families, all related to Bob.
The Press, Enterprise, Riverside County, California
