Miami: Steve Morse presents, February 6

Legendary genealogy guru Steve Morse will present two lectures at the 22nd anniversary celebration of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Miami on Sunday, February 6.

The day starts at 10am, at the Greater Miami Jewish Federation, 4200 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami. There is ample, free and secure parking.

Steve will first present "Navigating the New York Census with Less Frustration."

Several state censuses were conducted in New York from 1790. However, the most valuable  for genealogical  purposes are 1905, 1915 and 1925 because of the large immigrant influx. Although there have been assorted aids to work with those censuses, they were often hard to use and applied to only specific years or locations.

Steve's now well-known One-Step rectifies that situation via an online universal finding aid covering all New York City boroughs in each of the three census years. His talk will describe the One-Step approach and compare it to previous methods.

After a short intermission, Steve will offer "The Updated Potpourri of Genealogical Search Tools."

His One-Step website started out as a way to finding passengers in the Ellis Island database, but soon grew to provide help with the 1930 census.

Steve has continued to add new features, and his website now offers some 200 web-based tools in 16 categories.This presentation will describe the current range of availabe tools and provide highlights of each.

Guests and friends are always welcome. There is no admission fee.

For directions and more information, click here.

JewishGen: Hungarian census updated

The Other Hungarian Census 1770-1850 database has been updated with 14,000 new entries for a current total of 70,000 records.

Click here to search the database.

The transcribing team has competed about 99% of the Hungarian 1771-1775 Conscriptio Judaeorum (Jewish Census) records. 

Records from this time used patronymics; surnames were not yet required. The project recommends that researchers conduct a town search. If a name of interest is located, do check the microfilmed record as not all the information has been transcribed. Don't forget that these original records are in Latin! Other data includes occupation, assets and economic condition of the person.

The following countries are represented in the updated data: Bereg, Bihar, Csanad, Esztergom, Lipto, Maramaros, Nyitra, Pest-Pilis-Solt, Saros, Somogy, Szatmar, Szepes, Tolna, Torna, Trencsen, Turocz, Ugocsa, Ung, Veszprem, Zala, and Zemplen (this last county includes an 1806 list for Sztropko District, 1814 Tolerance Tax list and 1821-22 Census of Jewish Arendators).

The project, according to the project coordinator Eric M. Bloch, hopes to obtain more 19th century census records to include in the database.

Israel: Montefiore Censuses online database launched

The online website of the 19th-century Montefiore Censuses of the Jewish population of the Holy Land, Alexandria, Beirut and Sidon has been launched.

There are five censuses of the Holy Land (including Beirut and Sidon), and one of Alexandria. Currently, the censuses of 1839, 1840 (Alexandria) and 1855 are online. Work continues on the remaining censuses.

The Montefiore Endowment had the censuses scanned in stages.

In 2008, it commissioned the Israel Genealogical Society to transcribe them into a modern Hebrew font, transliterate names and translate data into English. IGS genealogists Mathilde Tagger, Rose Feldman and Billie Stein are in charge. The project is being conducted by teams of dedicated volunteers with good language skills and knowledge of Hebrew scripts.

For more information and to search the database, click here. It can be searched in English or Hebrew, making it accessible to linguistically-challenged researchers. Each entry is linked to the original scans permitting researchers to view the transcribed Hebrew and English in addition to the original document. Families are cross-referenced where relevant.

BACKGROUND

These censuses were compiled by Sir Moses Montefiore during his visits to the area, 1839-1875.  between the years 1839 and 1875. Recorded details include personal and family information, occupations, countries of origin, and surveys of Jewish religious institutions. Together, this database is a unique sociological and genealogical record of Jewish life in the area at a specific time.

Montefiore Endowment chair Lucien Gubbay said “The censuses are unusually comprehensive as it is estimated that fewer than 1% of the Jewish inhabitants of Eretz Israel refused to participate because of religious scruples.”

Sir Moses had undertaken to distribute charitable funds collected throughout the world, together with money of his own, to the Jewish poor. Each applicant received a gift of coins (Spanish dollars), according to a fixed scale, from Sir Moses himself. The documents indicate that almost all members of each community participated, not just the poorer ones.

The handwritten manuscripts, in a variety of scripts, belong to the Endowment and can be seen by appointment at its London library. Many entries are difficult to read and - without an index - lacking an index - tracing of individuals is very difficult.

Each entry is linked to the original scans giving the user ability to see not only the transcribed Hebrew and English script but the original document as well. Cross references are also used to link one family with another where relevant.

In all, there are 5 censuses of the Holy Land (including Beirut and Sidon), and one of Alexandria. At present, the censuses of 1839, 1840 (Alexandria) and 1855 are on line. Work is continuing on the remaining censuses.

Montefiore's census of 1839 is probably the first head count of the Jewish population in Eretz Israel since biblical times. He sent standardized forms for information collection but not all the registrars used them. Thus information varies from town to town and community to community. Other censuses were conducted in 1849, 1855, 1866 and 1875, with Alexandria in 1840.


DATABASE INFORMATION

Every adult and child mentioned - even without a name - is listed individually. Parents, if known, were added to the child's listing.

To read more about the various fields and explanations, click the IGS link above. There are notes on orphans, widows, sages and leaders of communities, abbreviations used as surnames, spelling, various languages and accents. For example, the name Yehuda is spelled at least three ways: יהודה, יהודא, יאודה. Hebrew spellings were kept as the scribe wrote it.

Most Sephardim have surnames, while Ashkenazim rarely do. Names of birthplaces of Sephardim changed little over years, while Ashkenazi birthplaces changed many times, due to historical events.

Family Tree Magazine: Best state websites for 2010

Location, location, location! A new best-of list hits the newsstand and cyberspace, covering every US state from Alabama to Wyoming.

Family Tree Magazine has published its 2010 list of best US state sites for genealogy, with 75 sites and at least one from every state.

There are vital records, archives, museums, state encyclopedias, databases, historic newspapers, state libraries, memory projects, digital libraries, special collections, county clerk databases, historical societies, obituary indexes, genealogical societies, military sites, public health sites and more.

State-level government resources offer vital records, wills and probate records, court records, military records; early land records, legislative and other government records; records of orphanages, asylums, prisons and other state institutions; state censuses, and naturalization records, while non-governmental resources may include old newspapers, city directories, biographies, historical maps and photos and oral histories. 

Click the link above to access each of the sites and see what you can find.

Click to your roots from Alabama to Wyoming on these 75 stellar state-focused websites. In genealogy, as in real estate, it’s all about location, location, location. Finding where your ancestors lived is the first step in identifying records about them. Fortunately, the internet-ization of America also has swept over the nation’s state archives, historical and genealogical societies, libraries, vital-records offices and other keepers of genealogical gold. Many of the resources that once gathered dust in various statewide repositories now can be accessed without changing your own location—in front of your computer, that is.

Colorado: Steve Morse seminar, Oct. 10

Steve Morse will offer a full-day genealogy seminar for the Jewish Genealogical Society of Colorado on Sunday, October 10, in Denver.

Dr. Stephen Morse has received the Award of Merit from the National Genealogical Society, the Excellence Award from the Association of Professional Genealogists, and the Outstanding Contribution and Lifetime Achievement Awards from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. A computer professional with a doctorate in electrical engineering, he was the architect of the Intel 8086 (the granddaddy of today's Pentium processor), which sparked the PC revolution 25 years ago.

He'll present The Jewish Calendar Demystified; From DNA to Genetic Genealogy: Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask; One-Step Webpages: A potpourri of genealogical search tools; and One-Step Webpages: A hodgepodge of lesser-known gems.

The program will run from 9am-4pm, at the Jewish Community Center, 350 S. Dahlia St.
Attendees may participate in one program or in all of them. A kosher box lunch is included and snacks will be provided during breaks. Attendance is only via advance registration (October 1 deadline) and payment. No walk-ins permitted.

Fee: JGSCO members: $18, entire day/lunch; others: $40, entire day/lunch plus a one-year JGSCO membership.

Visit the JGSCO website for more information and registration forms.

Israel: Two census databases now available

Researchers of families living in Eretz Israel during 1915 and 1922 have additional resources available to all.

Now on the Israel Genealogical Society website, the following two databases were originally in Hebrew. The names have been transliterated into English to assist linguistically-challenged family historians. Search parameters include exact, starts with, contains or ends with, surname and/or first name.

Here's information on the 1915 Census of Tel Aviv:

In the historical archives of Tel-Aviv there is a 1915 census of the first Hebrew city. Tel-Aviv was under the Ottoman regime at that time. It has not yet been discovered who planned this census nor for what purpose. The census was conducted 6 years after the lottery of plots among the members of the "Ahuzat Beit Association" on April 11, 1909. This is considered the official date of the founding of Tel-Aviv.

The census included the following information on the residents: family and first name, occupation, source of income, mother tongue, number of persons residing at the residence, address, and if the person was an actual resident of Tel-Aviv. In addition the census includes information on the condition of the residence: number of rooms, "bath" room, rent paid for the apartment and the name of the owner. If the rooms were shared with other people, their names are mentioned. There are a number of people listed with no residential information.

In 1915, the population of Tel-Aviv was 2,679. They spoke nine different languages, with about half of them speaking Hebrew and Yiddish. ... [click on the link above to read more]

A search for STEIN in the 1915 Tel Aviv database:

Click on the first name and learn the following details:

The 1922 British Mandate Census - covering Petah Tikva & Tel Aviv-Jaffa - is about 20% of the Jewish population of Eretz Israel at that time. The IGS says that, to the best of their knowledge, this is all that remains of the original census.

In 1922, the British undertook the first census of the mandate. At that time, the population stood at 752,048 individuals, including 589,177 Muslims, 83,790 Jews, 71,464 Christians and 7,617 persons belonging to other groups. At the moment, we have only the list of Petah Tikva and Tel Aviv-Jaffa residents.

Here's a sample search for HORO (Horowitz, Horovitz, Horodish, etc.). The first image is part of the list of hits:

The next image is a partial capture of what a researcher will see when clicking on the second name in that list:

The municipal archives of Tel Aviv-Jaffa and Petah Tikvah made the materials available to the IGS.

Note: Although the 1915 Tel Aviv census says "for members only," it is in fact open to all.

Israel: Important new database projects

At the recent IAJGS conference in Los Angeles, the 2010 Stern Grant was awarded to the Israel Genealogical Society.

The grant will make possible the database of name changes as published, beginning in 1949, in the Yalkut Hapirsumim of the Israeli Government.

As data is extracted from each volume, it will be added to a database - open to public access - on the IGS website, and will provide help to those facing brick walls in Israeli research.

In another development, the IGS has launched the online beta site for the "19th Century Montefiore Censuses of the Jewish Population of Eretz Israel, Alexandria, Beirut and Sidon (Saida)."

It is particularly useful for those researching Sephardic families as records are difficult to find. A search for "Iran" produced 34 families. In contrast, a search for "Belarus" received 527 hits, with 40 listing Mogilev and 31 listing Mahilyow (current spelling) as place of birth. Some names seem familiar from my TALALAI research and I will check the names of wives and children in my own records. Perhaps some of my own "missing links" might be in this database!

According to the Montefiore Endowment:

The Montefiore Endowment commissioned the Israel Genealogical Society to transliterate the censuses into modern Hebrew and English scripts and to translate them.

Details include personal and family information, occupations and countries of origin. Less than 1% of the Jewish inhabitants at the time refused to participate on religious grounds, so the censuses are quite detailed. Other residents may not have been included for other reasons, such as personal or political. Read more about these censuses here at IGS.

The manuscripts are the property of the Montefiore Endowment and are in London,. Researchers may view them by appointment. Details are recorded in Hebrew in diverse scripts, many are very difficult to read, there is no index, and tracking of individuals is difficult.

The methodology of the project included:

-- Scanning the original manuscript pages and converting old but still usable microfiche images to PDF format
-- Transcribing the data into spreadsheets
-- Proof-reading and correcting
-- Pasting the different sections into a single spreadsheet for each census
-- Translating and/or transliterating the original Hebrew into the English/Latin alphabet
-- Final proof-reading
-- Converting the spreadsheet into a searchable database.

Since 2008, the IGS and its dedicated volunteers have been working on transcribing the censuses into a modern Hebrew font, to transliterate names and details into English

For the first time, the documents are now in the process of being made available in Hebrew and English with a dual-language search engine to help track individuals and families. Extended families are linked, and there are links to the digitized page.

The project includes five censuses of Eretz Israel (including Beirut and Sidon) and one of Alexandria. Currently, the 1839, 1840 (Alexandria) and 1855 are now online here

The 1849 census will be available in a few months.

Ukraine: Jewish agricultural colonies updated

Material has been added to the Jewish Agricultural Colonies of the Ukraine site, which states:

The study of Jewish agricultural settlement in an organized form in the European Diaspora contributes to an understanding of the endeavors of Jews to improve their social and economic situation under the restrictive and oppressive Tsarist regime.

The Jewish farmers’ efforts were a unique episode in the struggle for Jewish survival in the Diaspora, even as they held to Jewish values and lifestyle.

As archives in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine become more accessible, more new material is now appearing. In those countries, descendants of the colonists are finding material and developing websites. Although most are in the Russian language, various online translation tools help researchers.

Chaim Freedman is the force behind this site.

Here are some highlights:

Two valuable Russian books hold information about the Ekaterinoslav colonies:

L. Uleinikov [Binshtok], Jewish Agricultural Colonies in Ekaterinoslav Province in 1890, St Petersburg, 1891;

I. Kankrin, Jewish Agricultural Colonies of Aleksandrov Uyezd Ekaterinoslav Province, Ekaterinoslav, 1893.

The authors made detailed censuses of the colonies and provided statistics.

The census of the households included an overview of each colony and a summary of its history and assets. Kankrin added detailed house and street handwritten plans of the 10 colonies he studied, and sketches of buildings.

Uleinikov includes complete lists of heads of all families (surname, name and patronymic) in 17 colonies of Ekaterinoslav Province, Aleksandrovsk and Mariupol Uyezds, with detailed record of family composition, military service, type of house, agricultural implements, livestock, land and its subdivision within family and notes about profession etc.

Kankrin studied in a similar fashion 10 colonies in Aleksandrovsk Uyezd and has even more information about colonists' families. He was obsessed with the idea that colonists in reality remained artisans and not worked much as agriculturalistsPartial translations are available.

Other additions to the site:

-- Interview of Ukrainian residents of former Jewish colony Novozaltopol by Father Patrick Desbois; a horrifying account which demonstrates who actually carried out the massacre of nearly 800 Jews.

-- Photographs from the St. Petersburg Film archive and World ORT Photographic archive taken of many colonies in 1904 and 1922 showing public buildings such as schools, synagogues, municipal offices, and farmhouses.

-- "Nayzlatopler Rayon" [Novozlatopol Region] an account of the Sovietized colonies after the Revolution and Civil War.

-- "Destruction of Jewish Tradition under the Soviet Administration" [in process]

-- An article assessing the affect of Sovietization on the destruction of Jewish cultural and religious life with particular reference to the role of the Yevsekzia.

-- Revision lists from colonies Zelenopole and Mezhirech, 1850 and 1858.

-- Memoirs of Grafskoy 1907-1921 by the son of the colony's rabbi. Description of colony life, and reaction to post-Revolution pogroms.

-- Prenumeranten lists from two 1911 books include many residents.

-- A new links page for more information.

Chaim adds that Yakov Pasik's Russian site has been updated with English, photos and maps.

For more information, contact Chaim Freedman.

Seattle: New building history guide

If Seattle, Washington is important in your research, there's a new Seattle Building History Guide that may assist you.

The information was detailed in the Seattle Public Library's Shelf Talk blog.

Now, Seattle history detectives are armed with a new arsenal, a comprehensive compilation of Seattle history resources created by our own Special Collections Department. The new Seattle Building History Guide annotates a wealth of Seattle history research tools and places them in a broader context than ever before. We'll be rolling it out on May 19th at the Third Place Books History Cafe. Afterwards, the guide will be available from our website.

If you only recognize the term "cadastral records" from Polish research, know that similar surveys were done in the early days of Seattle; as well as topographical charts from 1879 and Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from 1893.

Other resources noted:

-- King County Property viewer for building research.

-- There's also information on obituaries, census records, marriage licenses, birth records and more, along with information on Seattle Parks Department , HistoryLink.org, Seattle Municipal Archives Photograph Collection .

Readers can download the Guide as a PDF file with hyperlinks, or print it. The blog post recommended two books as well: Native Seattle: histories from the Crossing Over Place by Coll Thrush; and House Histories: A Guide to the Genealogy of Your Home by Sally Light.

Check the library site today for the new resource.

Footnote: Interactive Census free through April

Our friends at Footnote have announced that their Interactive Census Collection will be free to the public through the end of April.

To view images in this collection, readers only need to register (for free). Footnote currently has available the 1860 and 1930 US censuses, as well as parts of 1900, 1910 and 1920. They are planning to add the balance of the censuses, 1790-1930, by the end of the year.

For more information, click here.

Did you know that Footnote also holds newspaper archives, great historical comic strips, weird news and vintage ads (some of which are not exactly politically correct by today's standards).

Click here to learn more about those interesting collections.

New York: Beyond the basics, April 11

The Jewish Genealogical Society of New York will present "Basics and Beyond," an afternoon family history seminar, on Sunday, April 11.

The program will run from 1-5pm, at UJA-Federation of New York 130 East 59th Street, 7th floor, Manhattan.

Experienced genealogists will present two tracks - for beginners and those more experienced.

Beginners’ Track:
-- How to get started
-- Tracing your family in the US
-- Finding/interpreting census/vital records
-- Crossing the pond: Finding/interpreting passenger arrival/naturalization records

Advanced Track:
-- Organizing, goal-setting, record-keeping
-- What’s new in computer research
-- Researching European records at home

Tracks run simultaneously; participants may attend sessions in either or both tracks

Topics include:

-- Finding and interpreting census and vital records
-- Passenger arrival and naturalization records
-- Computer research
-- Research organization
-- Record-keeping and goal setting
-- Searching European records from home.

Advance registration required, no on-site registration. For more information and registration, click here.

Fee: JGSNY members, $18; others, $25. New member special: $40, includes 2010 JGSNY membership (annual membership alone is $36).

Footnote: Free census access ... for awhile!

Footnote.com is making all of its US census documents accessible for free for a limited time.

No end date was announced, and the Interactive Census Collection is available to all after a simple registration.

According to Footnote.com, this collection provides a unique ability to connect people related to ancestors found on the historical documents. By clicking the “I’m Related” button for a name on the document will identify you as a descendant and also list others that have done the same.

Click here to get started, and you too may find a record bearing an ancestor's name and your own personal connection to the past.

Interactive tools on Footnote allow viewers to enhance documents and add photos, stories, comments and other records.

Each contribution from a Footnote member means that people can find each other and connect to exchange information about their mutual ancestors.

Footnote CEO Russell Wilding says, “TV programs including ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ on NBC and ‘Faces of America’ on PBS will surely increase the interest in family history in the United States.”

He believes that the interactive census collection is a great way to get started for newcomers to family history research.

If you haven't checked out Footnote.com recently, there are now 63 million historical records, including military documents, historical newspapers, city directories and naturalization records.

Check out the census collection for free now - you just might find some interesting connections!

Boston: Hands-On Problem Solving, Feb. 21

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston will host “Problem Solving with Experts – A Research Session” on Sunday, February 21.

It begins at 1:30 pm at Temple Emanuel, 385 Ward St., Newton Centre.

Beginners as well as more experienced attendees will be able to consult with experts for help with family research.

Roundtables will feature the following topics:

-- Getting started with Jewish genealogy
-- Using immigration, naturalization, and vital records
-- Eastern European country-specific research
-- Translation of foreign-language documents (Yiddish, Hebrew, Polish, Russian, German)
-- Holocaust research

Admission: members, free; others, $5. Refreshments will be served. For directions, click here.

For more information, visit JGSGB.

Belarus: Dunilovichi 1834 census, cemetery

Artist and genealogist Susan Weinberg of Minnesota spent six weeks studying Yiddish at the Vilnius Institute and also visited Dunilovichi, Belarus, during the summer of 2009.

While there, she made a copy of the 1834 census for Dunilovichi, which has 375 entries and some 60 surnames.

Susan would like to have it included - to benefit other researchers - on JewishGen's All Belarus Database, but there is a cost to get the translation done. She has already created a ShtetLinks page for the town with extensive information (see link below).

Readers with roots in the area may wish to contribute to this effort.

Where is the shtetl?

It is 82 miles N of Minsk, 80 miles ENE of Vilnius, 18 miles WSW of Hlybokaye (Glebokie) and 16 miles ESE of Pastavy (Postawy). Interestingly, Tracing The Tribe had a TALALAY branch that lived in Glebokie for a short period of time.

Readers might know this shtetl by some of its other names: Dunilovichi (Russian), Dunilowicze (Polish), Dunilovitsch (Yiddish), Dunilavichi (Belarus), Dunilavicy, Danilevitch, Dunalovitch, Dunovitz, Duniloviche, Danilevicai, Dunilovicy, Dunilaviciy. It looks like this in Belarusian: Дунілавічы; in Russian: Дуниловичи; and in Yiddish: דונילאוויטש

She also visited the Dunilovichi cemetery, but it was nearly impossible to walk through as it was so overgrown and stones have fallen (see above photo).

Susan reports that there is now an opportunity to work with the Jewish Heritage Research Group of Belarus to arrange for an annual site clean-up, during which vegetation would be cut back and fallen stones lifted.

"We are fortunate that there is an intact cemetery in this shtetl as so many others have been destroyed," she writes.

Photos on these pages were received from Susan, who writes that she would very much appreciate the efforts of Tracing the Tribe and its readers to assist in both these projects.

The Dunilovichi site contains extensive information, including name lists, gravestones, families, maps, photographs and more.

Contact Susan directly for more information.

She researches and paints her family history, which focuses on Poland, Ukraine and Belarus. During her Vilnius summer, she conducted research in the archives and traveled to her family's Belarus shtetls.

Since her return, Susan has created Shtetlink websites for Dunilovichi and Radom, published an article in Avotaynu and is now developing a body of artwork based on her travels. Her art addresses family history themes through painting and collage. She also does genealogy consulting and lectures frequently on genealogy topics.

Additionally, Susan is a geneablogger - see her Layers of the Onion: A Family History Exploration. She began blogging last summer when she studied Yiddish at the Vilnius Yiddish Institute for six weeks.

UK: 1939 census may hold answers

Looking for ancestors who lived in the UK in 1939? The following new resource may help, according to London researcher Laurence Harris.

While census records are a major source of information for family historians and genealogists, access to recent records is limited in most countries, thus access to this 1939 collection may be useful to researchers.

Laurence writes that there has been a UK census (England and Wales), recording individual names and other relevant details, every 10 years since 1841, with 1911 being the last publicly released census data for individuals:

• There was a 1921 census (data to be released in 2021).


• The 1931 census data was destroyed during WWII.


• There was no 1941 census due to the war.


• There is a massive gap (1911-1951) in currently available UK census information.


• In preparation for war, an effective census (1939 National Registration Act) was taken on September 29, 1939, including such details as name, sex, age, occupation, marital status and membership in the armed forces.


• Data was later used for issuance of ID cards, post-war National Insurance numbers, and other purposes.

In a recent development, individuals may now apply to have a copy of the data in this 1939 register (relating to those then living in England or Wales) by applying to The Information Centre of the NHS (National Health Service).

CAVEAT: Data is only supplied about individuals known by the NHS to be deceased (they know about the deaths of most individuals who died in the UK) or whom the researcher can prove is deceased.

Laurence has personally contacted the NHS department handling applications for 1939 data and shared the following information.

There are two main ways of applying:

• Supply the full name and (exact) date of birth of an individual - and you will be sent all the details they have about that individual including their 1939 address, OR


• Supply a 1939 address in the UK and they will supply the details of up to 10 persons living at that address at that time.

The data is not publicly available online, and each application costs a hefty non-refundable £42. CAVEAT: The fee is non-refundable even if no information is found or if it is incomplete or illegible, or if information is located but cannot be released because it relates to a person whose death cannot be proved by the NHS or the researcher.

However, says Laurence, "Despite the high cost of obtaining this data and the restrictions on its availability, this unique source may provide some researchers with breakthrough information about their ancestors at the outbreak of WWII."

For details about the process (England and Wales only), click here for the application form, payment information and more. For access to the 1939 Scottish data, click here for more information.

Researchers should bear in mind, adds Laurence, that to get details of family members in 1939 - if you don't know their September 1939 address - might require two separate sequential applications:

• Step 1: Apply to obtain an address, AND


• Step 2: Apply to find out who else was living at that address.

No information will be given for individuals who are or could be living.

Those who request an address search will only be provided the names and details of people known to be deceased. If there were other family members who could still be alive, the researcher will not be told.

Readers who would like more information about this data or other sources for tracing people who lived in - or passed through the UK - from 1880-1950, should contact Laurence, who is a specialist in UK Jewish family history research.

Long Island: Exploring the 1940 census, Jan. 24

Explore the 1940 census with NARA's Dorothy Dougherty, at the next meeting of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Long Island (New York) on Sunday, January 24.

The program begins at 2pm at the Mid-Island JCC, in Plainview.

The 1940 Census will be made publicly available in April 2012, and this workshop will prepare family historians by describing the genealogical information contained in this database.

This census was conducted during the Great Depression and the New Deal, on the brink of US involvement in World War II, and documents Americans during a time of national struggle.

Dorothy Dougherty is the public programs specialist for the National Archives' Northeast Region branch in New York. Her responsibilities include public, education and outreach efforts.

Her NARA career has also included development, training and deployment of NARA's online Archival Research Catalog, (ARC). And she has been a Manhattan research consultant, New York State Archives Records Manager, and a historical museum interpreter.

She holds a master's degree in history with an archives certificate (CW Post, LIU, New York)

For directions and more information, view the JGSLI site.

Names: How many of each?

Names, names. How many of each name are there and how do the respondents identify in regard to their ethnicity or race?

A Facebook blog entry was the focus for a Wall Street Journal article on comparing diversity of its members with the US Census Genealogy Project.

How do Facebook members compare to the Genealogy Project listing the most popular surnames?

Facebook data team researchers Lars Backstrom, Jonathan Chang, Cameron Marlow and Itamar Rosenn wrote that they were interested in finding out more about the composition of race and ethnicity among Facebook users. So they compared Facebook users’ surnames with data from the US Census Bureau's Genealogy Project, which measured the frequency of the most popular 150,000 surnames in the United States along with the race and ethnicity associated with the person who had each one.

The Wall Street Journal story appeared in Digits, its blog on technology news and insights, which referred readers to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Genealogy Project.

That link provides three files. The first is the methodology and definitions. The second: an Excel list of the top 1,000 names; the third: a list of names appearing 100 times or more, for a total of more than 151,000 names.

To read more about what the data scientists at Facebook found, read the links above.

Tracing the Tribe did its own look-see on the third list of names for DARDASHTI and TALALAY, as I certainly didn't expect to see them among the 1,000 most popular surnames.

DARDASHTI ranked 112,365 with a count of 145 individuals.

That was surprising as we have more than 1,000 relatives in Greater Los Angeles with this name. If it were only 145 individuals, family weddings - and even Passover seders - would be much smaller.

The probability of finding the name in every 100,000 people is 0.05; 80.69% identified White, 0% Black, 0% Asian, 17.93% as two races, and data was suppressed for American Indian/Alaska Native and Hispanic.

This is understandable as Persians believe they are Asian (Iran is in Asia), but the Los Angeles School District and other city/federal similar lists put Asian under Caucasian. And there are a few marriages in the family that include other races.

TALALAY did not appear - it is such a rare name anywhere and appeared in no variant spelling of the 35 original name spellings. However, reflecting the name change in 1905 by my immigrant great-grandfather, the adopted surname TOLLIN was in the list and ranked 84.310 with a count of 207 individuals.

While most TALALAY became TOLLIN, so did others named TOLCHINSKY - as I've discovered over the years. Not all TOLLIN are TALALAY. The percentage found in every 100,000 individuals was 0.08%; 94.2% identified white; 3.38% identified black, 0% American Indian/Alaska Native, Data was suppressed for two race and Hispanic.

Have you checked your own names of interest?

Canada: Online resource additions, updates

Does Canada figure in your family quest? Regardless of whether your ancestors were just "passing through" or stayed in Canada, the updates to the Library and Archives of Canada (LAC) may be quite helpful.

There are some 12 million new records, in total.

Recent updates include:

2,000 digital images added - Board of Guardians database update
104,000 digital images added - Passenger Lists database update
40,000 digital images added - Citizenship Montreal Circuit Court database update
180,000 digital images added - Canadian Naturalization database.

Corrections were made to the databases for Home Children, Canadian Expeditionary Force and Killed in Action.

The Canadian Genealogy Centre (CGC) at LAC has added three pages - Finnish, Ukrainian and German ethno-cultural - to the already online resource pages for Aboriginal peoples, Acadians (French Canadians), Blacks, Chinese, Irish, Jewish, Metis and Poles.

Numerous pages have been updated (many are corrections). These updates include French record abbreviations, bibliography, Canadian Forces (after 1918-WWII), criminal records, divorces, events, WWI, genealogical societies, Irish, Jewish, newspapers, Northwest Mounted Police, notarial records, provincial and territory archives, provincial land records and reference sites.

Additionally, there has been a release of indexes and digital images for the Censuses of 1861, 1871 and 1916; digitized Census returns (1851-1916) are on multiple websites. See the CGC for more information.

By 2011, according to the Libraries and Archives Canada site, all digital images and indexes for Census returns will be on the LAC website, which can be searched here.

Footnote.com: Answering some questions

Every time that an online site announces the addition of new collections, you can be sure that geneabloggers will chime in with questions and suggestions.

Footnote.com's recent announcement has produced responses by both Diane Haddad of the Genealogy Insider blog at Family Tree Magazine and Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings.

Diane asked Footnote's Justin Schroepfer a few good questions about the recent interactive census announcement. Her post provided the questions (below) and Justin's answers:

1. Is Footnote creating new census images and indexes? How is this being done?

2. When will we start seeing the new censuses added to the site? What states will be first? When do you anticipate the collection will be complete?

3. Looking down the road, how will the census addition affect Footnote’s subscription pricing ($79.95 per year or $11.95 per month)?

4. Will changes to the workings of the site be necessary to accommodate the added data, searches and traffic?

Check out Diane's post at the link above for the answers.

On the same subject, Randy Seaver's post on Genea-Musings offered an excellent suggestion for Footnote.com to consider.

The site offers Footnote Pages for the 1930 Federal Census (and many other collections), so visitors can create a page for each individual of interest. This means that each census can create a separate page for each person. The problem is that there will be multiple census pages created for one individual listed in many censuses.

Randy's suggestion:

In my humble opinion, Footnote.com needs to find a way to combine the several records for a person so that there is only one Footnote Page for an individual. If they can accomplish that, then Footnote.com may well be the best place online to have a wiki environment collection of Person Pages, with user-submitted photographs, documents, stories, vital records, etc.

Excellent idea, Randy!

Footnote.com: Entire US census to go interactive

Today, Footnote.com announced that it will digitize and create a searchable database for all publicly available US Federal Censuses (1790-1930), featuring the original documents.

This means that Footnote, which offers wonderful online resources in original documents, will add more than 9.5 million images and more than a half-billion names - through its partnership with the National Archives - to the company's already extensive online record collection, currently at 60 million historical records, available by subscription.

According to NARA Deputy Director Cynthia Fox:

“The census is the most heavily used body of records from the National Archives. In addition to names and ages, they are used to obtain dates for naturalizations and the year of immigration. This information can then be used to locate additional records.”

Footnote will use the US Census records to tie content together, creating a pathway to discover additional records that have been previously difficult to find.

According to Footnote's CEO Russ Wilding:

“We see the census as a highway leading back to the 18th century. This Census Highway provides off-ramps leading to additional records on the site such as naturalization records, historical newspapers, military records and more. Going forward, Footnote.com will continue to add valuable and unique collections that will enhance the census collection.”

Footnote.com has already completed census collections from two key decades: 1930 and 1860. Visitors to the site can view status reports for each decade and sign up for email alerts when more records are added for a particular year. For more information, view the Census Progress Page.

Footnote members will also be able to take advantage of the interactive experience by adding their own contributions.

For any person found in the census, users can:

-- Add comments and insights about that person.
-- Upload and attach scanned photos or documents related to that person.
-- Generate a Footnote Page for any individual that features stories, a photo gallery, timeline and map.
-- Identify relatives found in the census by clicking the I’m Related button.

To see how it works, check out the 1930 Interactive Census record for Jimmy Stewart.

According to Roger Bell, senior vice president of product development, the most popular feature of the Interactive Census is the "I'm Related" button.

“This provides an easy way for people to show relations and actually use the census records to make connections with others that may be related to the same person.”

Did you know that Footnote works with the National Archives and other organizations to add at least a million new documents and photos each month? Collections include the new Holocaust resources, as well as collections on American Wars, Historical Newspapers and more.

CEO Russ Wilding says that the company will continue to move aggressively to add records to the site, specifically those that are requested by our members and others not otherwise available on the Internet.

All of this is excellent news for far-flung global researchers who simply cannot access these records on site due to distance (and expense), as well as for the rest of us.

For more information, click here.