Geneabloggers discovers 13 new genblogs

Thomas MacEntee at GeneaBloggers is always on the hunt for new genealogy and family history blogs.

This week he's discovered 13 of them, bringing a total of 1,209 genealogy blogs at Geneabloggers.

The list - see it here - includes blogs focused on individual family history, Illinois genealogy, research service blogs, Maine and New England genealogy, Missouri genealogy, a genealogy vendor blog, Jewish and UK genealogy (Todd Knowles' blog, which Tracing the Tribe has previously noted) and DNA.

Thanks, Thomas, for all your hard work!

JewishGen: Worldwide burial registry updated

The JewishGen Online Worldwide Burial Registry (JOWBR) database has been updated with more than 108,000 new records and some 13,000 additional photos.

There are 170 new cemeteries with updates to another 155 cemeteries in 19 countries. The database now holds more than 1.4 million records from some 2,700 cemeteries or sections in 46 countries.

View JOWBR here. New users should click here for information.

Here are some of the new additions:

-- Iasi, Romania: nearly 32,000 added; database now 65,000.

-- Lodz, Poland: Organization of Former Residents of Lodz in
Israel has given permission to add their burial register names to both JOWBR and JRI-Poland, totalling some 70,000-75,000 records. This update offers the first 12,000 records.

--Lodz, Poland: More than 2,000 burials recorded by the IDF and the Yad LeZehava Holocaust Research Institute in three sections of the Lodz cemetery; database now has 3,400 burials.

-- Louisville, Kentucky: Herman Meyer & Son Funeral Home has compiled extensive information on burials from seven Jewish cemeteries in the city; database totals nearly 11,500 records. Additional information on Kentucky resources and headstone photos.

-- Baltimore, Maryland: Jewish Museum of Maryland and Deb Weiner for 9,900 records from the Belair Road and Berrymans Lane Baltimore Hebrew Cemeteries.

-- Maine: Harris Gleckman of Project Shammas - "Documenting Maine Jewry" - for nearly 6,500 records from 16 Maine cemeteries and sections.

-- American Jewish Archives (AJA): US and Caribbean cemetery records from The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives (AJA), Cincinnati, Ohio; more than 6,000 records from 36 cemeteries.

-- Pennsauken, New Jersey: Rabbi Gary Gans submitted 6,000 records from the Crescent Memorial Park.

-- Liepaja, Latvia: 3,600 records from the town of Liepaja,
Latvia.

-- Bathurst Lawn Memorial Park and Pardes Shalom Cemetery, Ontario: JGS of Canada-Toronto; more than 3,200 records from 122 updated and new sections of these Canadian cemeteries.

-- South Carolina Cemeteries: Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina; 2,200 burial records and 365 photos from five South Carolina cemeteries.

-- Petach Tikvah, Israel: TSegulah Cemetery; some 2,200 additional photos.

-- Sacramento, California: 2,200 records from the Home of Peace Cemetery.

-- Various US States: More than 2,100 records from 25 cemeteries in nine states, by Julian Preisler.

-- Colma, California: San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society, nearly 2,100 records from the second book of burial records from Home of
Peace Cemetery & Emanu-El Mausoleum.

-- New Jersey: Jewish Historical Society of North Jersey; more than 1,000 records from
five cemeteries.

-- Bavarian Cemeteries: JewishGen and the Bavarian State Ministry of Science, Research and Arts/Center of Bavarian History. ; nearly 700 translations from seven cemeteries, and other civil document data.

-- German Cemeteries: 650 records from 21 small German cemeteries.

-- South Africa: 450 records and 550 photos from 13 cemeteries. For more information, click here.

Many donors - individuals and societies - have submitted information. To see how you can help, visit JOWBR at JewishGen.

Maine: Jewish database project

The Maine Jewish History Project, has data on more than 20,000 Jews. It began in 2004, as researchers began to improve Mount Sinai Cemetery's records. They then added data on Jews in and around Portland since the 1800s, and it expanded to a statewide database.

Information has currently been entered for 250 Maine cities and towns - the largest being Portland, Bangor and Lewiston - and information on at least 120 Jewish organizations. There are 1,400 photographs of headstones; although the first known Jewish burial was in 1860, most deaths in the database are in the 20th century.

Future plans include collecting oral histories from elderly community members.

Organizers say the project's growth illustrates the power of the Internet in compiling genealogical information and history. For security reasons (information on living persons), full access is available only on request, However, the full burial index is available publicly, searchable by person's name, organization or cemetery (there are seven in Maine).

The project is mainly fueled by volunteers, although it hopes to raise $20,000 by the end of 2008, triggering a $40,000 grant from the Sam Cohen Foundation.

Read more here.