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The Ancestry Insider
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The unofficial, unauthorized view of the big genealogy websites. Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.org aren't the best communicators, leaving a need for the Ancestry Insider. The Insider reports on, defends, and constructively criticizes these organizations.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'news and issues'
NFS News: Media Event Excludes Online Community?
Image credit: Chen Wang, Deseret News Craig Miller, FamilySearch director of member needs, demonstrated New FamilySearch (NFS) to LDS-related media representatives recently, according to reports in the Deseret News’s LDS Church News. This wri...
Awards, Awards, and More Awards
I confess that I am no great fan of most of the award chain-letters that circulate. I am honestly honored that genealogy writers of high caliber see fit to pass awards on to me. Let there be no mistake; I admire most all the bloggers that see fit to ...
NFS 1.0 for Non-Mormons
This Thanksgiving may be the first holiday Jay Verkler (President and CEO of FamilySearch) relaxes since the rollout began for New FamilySearch (NFS) in May of 2007. That’s when St. Louis and Reno members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-da...
Free, For a Limited Time
It’s belated news, but in case you haven’t already seen these free offers, read on: Holocaust Collection Free Through End of Year I received the following from Footnote.com. I wanted to provide you an update on our Holocaust Collection.&...
Tim Sullivan Rings Opening Bell
Thursday morning, Tim Sullivan, the CEO of Ancestry.com, rang the opening bell to start trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange. See a video of the event. (You must be a member of Facebook to view the video.) Here's a few shots from the video: A...
News Ketchup: Today\'s the Day
Modification of an image © 2005, The Facey Family Some rights reserved. It’s time for a little news ketchup! Today’s the Ancestry.com IPO Yesterday, Ancestry.com announced the pricing of its IPO at $13.50 per share. And today i...
Ancestry.com Goes Public This Week
Plans seem to be proceeding for Ancestry.com to go public this week. Renaissance Capital has selected Ancestry.com as its featured IPO for the week. You can read more here and here. Yesterday Ancestry.com filed a Form 8-A which I assume officially ...
Ancestry.com Posts FamilySearch Microfilm
I continue to see evidence of improved relations between Ancestry.com and FamilySearch. Last week, an intriguing title caught my eye in the list of new Ancestry.com databases: Thesaurus antiquitatum et historiarum Italiae, Vols. 1-4 (in Italian) ...
Vote for Your Fav 40
Fresh from their successful 101 Best Web Sites awards, Family Tree Magazine is now sponsoring a contest to honor your favorite 40 genealogy blogs. Here’s how it will work: The magazine staff has sifted through the blogs you nominated (see item 7 i...
Why Mormons Build Temples
FamilySearch sponsor, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, held its semi-annual world-wide conference this past weekend. While the Church has prepared a glossy video message to explain to non-Mormons why the Church builds temples, some m...
Drouin Collection Returns and Respect the Fonz
Arthur “The Fonz” Fonzarelli Credit: D.J. Concert Productions Ancestry.com and the Drouin Genealogical Institute have reached an agreement that returns availability of the Drouin Collection to Ancestry.com today, according to Dick Eas...
Library of Michigan: Your Help Is Needed
State of Michigan Library © 2008, Kiddharma David Rencher contacted me yesterday as chair of the Records Preservation and Access Committee (RPAC), a joint committee of the Federation of Genealogical Societies and the National Genealogical So...
Labor Day News Ketchup
Modification of an image © 2005, The Facey Family Some rights reserved. I’m way behind on FamilySearch and Ancestry.com news stories. To ketchup, here’s several news items. Ancestry.com held a 3rd Bloggers Summit during last week...
Whence the Drouin Collection?
Dear Ancestry Insider, One of our patrons noticed that the Drouin Collection is no longer on AncestryLibraryEdition. Do you have any information as to what has happened to this useful Canadian database? Thank you, Annewhite T. Fuller ...
Tweeting Presentations Policy
Remember that tweets are limited to 140 characters, less the conference hashtag. Hence, tweets often use abbreviations, bad grammar, and lack proper punctuation. Some of these may be corrected for re-publication here on my blog, but not all. That’s...
The Ancestry ‘Tweety’ Insider (#FHX09-SLC)
“Say, I taut I taw a puddy tat!” With so many translators on the Internet—including Pig Latin—you’d think there would be one for Tweety Bird-speak. Fortunately, there are plenty of web sites to assist Twitter users. Today would be a good ...
Insider Incites Intellectual Property Profundity
It is still weird every time I see people of note take note of a nobody like me. Saturday a poster on the APG (Association of Professional Genealogists) mailing list made note of my detailed reports of the BYU Genealogy Conference and recommended fur...
3-days free: World Vital Records
FamilySearch affiliate, WorldVitalRecords.com has announced a free, 3-day promotion for all its historical and genealogical records beginning Tuesday, 11 August 2009 through Thursday, 13 August 2009. The promotion celebrates the largest single-...
See the Ancestry Insider this month at Salt Lake Expo
Come see me later this month. I’m presenting at the Salt Lake City Family History Expo 2009, to be held August 28-29 in… wait for it… Sandy, Utah! It’s at the South Towne Exposition Center. I’ve attended important exhibitions there, like...
Free 1930 US Census
FamilySearch affiliate, Footnote.com has announced a free promotion for its new database, the 1930 U.S. Federal Census. Access it for free until the end of August 2009 at www.footnote.com/1930census . Remember that as a FamilySearch affiliate, al...
Ancestry.com Going Public
Dick Eastman broke the news Monday evening that Ancestry.com is going public. They have filed Form S-1, their initial public offering (IPO) registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The number of shares and offering p...
Ancestry.com Catch-up
The conference last week has thrown me off my groove. There’ve been important updates at Ancestry.com that I need to tell you about in case you depend on me for your Ancestry.com news. As I’m behind, I’ll draw from the company’s press release...
NARA 2009 Strategic Plan
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has posted a draft of their 2009 Strategic Plan update. By law, they must update the plan at least every 3 years and the last update was done in 2006. One interesting change since the las...
Come See Me At The BYU Conference
At the Disneyland Resort, one attraction invites park visitors to discover what Disney cartoon character best matches their personality (I’m Jiminy Cricket). One question used in the evaluation is, Would you rather have lunch with nice peopl...
It’s Not Stonehenge Nor The Generations Network
You’ll recall last week I posted this picture and asked where you thought it might be: You may even recall the hint: This magnificent circle of stones is located next to a highway. Looking for a genealogical-world tie-in? The highway ...
Ancestry Insider Named to Top 101
When I met Family Tree Magazine’s Diane Haddad earlier this year I admitted that each article I published was done in fear that my writing skills were lacking. She was a darling; she reassured me and told me not to worry. So it was an especial t...
Where’s Waldo… er… the Ancestry Insider?
Last weekend I took a little trip to celebrate the summer solstice. Can you guess where I was? Tell ya’ what. To make things easy for you, we took photographs. Not obvious enough for you? Fine, another hint. This magnificent circle of stones is...
Son of Blogger: Summit 2
Saturday I participated in the “Son of Blogger” summit at the Southern California Genealogy Society Jamboree 2009. I’m nursing a head cold, so I had to wear a mask to avoid infecting anyone. ;-) Here are the panel members and some of their pan...
Utah Vital Records Fees to Increase in July
Fees are increasing in a couple of weeks for vital records from the state of Utah. This table shows the increases that go into effect on 1 July 2009: Old New Certified abstract birth or declaration of paternity ...
See the Insider at the SCGS 2009 Jamboree
The Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) Genealogy Jamboree is coming up Friday-Sunday, 26-28 June 2009 at the Burbank Airport Marriott Hotel and Convention Center. And I’m going to be part of a panel discussion, “Summit 2: Son of Blo...
