Sweden: ArkivDigital offers free weekend access

Are you searching family that lived in Sweden?

That country will celebrate Genealogy Research Day on Saturday, March 19. Genealogical societies, archives and libraries will be hosting events many localities.

ArkivDigital and its online service - ADOnline2 - will be free this weekend on Saturday and Sunday.

According to a communication from ArkivDigital, "We hope that this offer also will help genealogical societies and archives to demonstrate what modern genealogical research is all about."

The site is the biggest private provider of Swedish church and historical records online. Some 500,000 images are added each month to the current 24 million images available. The digital color images are available via online subscriptions or as CDs.

There is a list of Swedish counties. Click on each county to see the parishes and volumes available.

Genealogists know that good digital images are as readable as the original register pages. While previous efforts were made to photograph the registers, ArkivDigital believes it was important to do it again, in color.

The site details the imaging (1948-1963) of records by the Mormon Church and recent changes in technology:

Future - digital photographs in color

During the 90's and 00's both SVAR and Genline digitalized many of the old microfilms. Many people think that the original books at the archives are as black, and in many cases, unreadable as those images sometimes are. Fortunately that is not the case. It is the copies that are black and hard to read because the technology in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s was not as advanced as today and the copies have been transferred several times since then, making the digital images copies of copies of copies. Since ArkivDigital photograph the old unique source material using modern technology the readability is far superior to the old images.

The site offers a good example of the old imaging (left) versus the new image (right):

Tracing the Tribe is sure that all of us have seen record images as difficult to read and wished that new projects would be undertaken to produce better images.

The procedure for obtaining free access this weekend is somewhat complicated, but check out the instructions here.  It involves installation of the ADOnLine2 program.

Do look at the ArkivDigital site if Swedish records are relevant to your research.

Geneabloggers.com: 33 more blogs revealed!

Here are another 33 blogs focused on genealogy and family history just discovered by Geneabloggers.com's Thomas MacEntee. There are now 1,662 genealogy blogs on the site.

This week's varied topic crop includes individual family history, UK, photography, US, Poland, Canada, Sweden, Hawaii, education, vendor, roots travel, Civil War, military, African-American, cemetery, library, Georgia, Australia, surname, Minnesota, Pacific Island, Kentucky, diary and crafts.

Ainscough Family History-Mawdesley
Individual family history, UK genealogy

Belden Family Alliances: From Then Til Now
Individual family history

Bigger Families, Faces from the Past
Photography blog

Blundering Blindly Backwards
Individual family history, UK genealogy

Byron City Cemetery, Peach County, Georgia
Cemetery blog, Georgia genealogy

Campaspe Genealogy
Australian genealogy, Genealogy library blog

Census Junkie
Genealogy education, Individual family history

Climbing the Genealogy Tree
Genealogy education

Families of Old Hawaii
Hawaiian genealogy, Individual family history, Pacific Islander genealogy

Hawaiian genealogy sure has come a long way from the days when I 1st started searching the web back in 1998. There were a handful of personal sites with info on Hawaiian genealogy back then and some are still around, the same site from the nineties frozen in time. Some are updated and some vanished never to be seen again. Here’s a list of the personal pages (now called blogs?) I have bookmarked, that are still around…

Family History Alive
Individual family history

Finding the Feitner Family
Individual family history (FEITNER, Germany->NY)

A Forest of Oakes
Individual family history (OAKES)

Hearts Turned
Individual family history (LAMOREAUX, HOLLADAY, CLUFF)

The author just turned 19 and says "Too often our generation procrastinates this great work or puts it on others’ shoulders, but there is much we can be doing now. It is our responsibility just as much, if not more, than the older generations."

Heritage Heart
Crafts blog, Genealogy education, Individual family history

Family history can be exciting for today’s generations and it is my quest to offer ideas and solutions for making it fun! No more boring facts, but great stories and ideas for incorporating family heritage into our personal spaces as a reflection of who we are today.

Highland Experience SCOTLAND
Genealogy vendor, Scottish genealogy

The author (now living in New York) runs a custom tour company - Highland Experience Tours USA - focusing on Scottish roots.

Kendricks of San Francisco
California genealogy, Individual family history (KENDRICK)

Kentucky Kinfolks
Individual family history, Kentucky genealogy

Let Freedom Ring!
African-American genealogy blog, Individual family history, US Civil War blog

150th Year anniversary of the American Civil War ~ a blog documenting my personal journey and research riscoveries of the people, places, events, and other things related to the Civil War era.

May Hill’s WWII Diaries
Diary blog, UK genealogy

Blog editor Tom Ambridge is the grandson of May Hill, an English seaside villager who wrote wonderful diaries and poetry during WWII. Her diary began November 27, 1940. Each entry appears exactly 70 years after the original was written.

Minnesota Native Daughter
Individual family history, Minnesota genealogy

My Genealogy Obsession
Individual family history

My Journey Back
Canadian genealogy, Individual family history

My Savage Family
Individual family history (SAVAGE, UK->US)

Ontario Genealogist
Canadian genealogy, Individual family history

Polish families from Żywiec-Zabłocie, Polska
Individual family history, Polish genealogy

My Polish great grandpa was orphaned during the Chicago flu epidemic of 1918 & spent his life looking for all of his siblings. Some family stayed in Chicago & some returned to Poland. Some family was Catholic, & some are believed to be Jewish.

Prairie Bluestem
Individual family history

Saint Cross Upheaval
Individual family history

Stray Bones
Individual family history

Tipton Tales and Trails
Individual family history (TIPTON)

Vintage Aerial Blog
Genealogy vendor blog

Vintage Aerial connects personal memories and family history to photos of the places where the memories were made and the history took place. ... Our collection of over 25 million photographs spans the second half of the 20th century, documenting a time in American history when life revolved around rural communities and small farms. ... It uses the latest in digital imaging and data storage technology to preserve these heirlooms. We are saving yesterday’s memories with today’s technology, for the tomorrows to come.

Whispers From The Past/Tales Told
Individual family history (TOMLINSON-HEPWORTH-KIDGELL-CASHMORE-BURNS-MACDUFF-PERRINS-PHIPPEN-HUDSON, etc.)

Witch Genealogist with a Black Cat
Individual family history, Swedish genealogy

WorldFamilies.Net
DNA genealogy, Genealogy vendor blog, Surname blog (BARTON)

One of the largest Surname DNA Projects (250+ members) in the world, as well as a Barton family-wide historical society, newsletter, database, website. Evolved into World Families Network (2004) to help other Surname Projects by sharing learning and providing general information. ...

Read much more about each blog here at Geneabloggers.com, or visit those in which you may have an interest.

Ancestry.com to acquire Swedish Genline.se

Ancestry.com announced today that it has agreed to acquire the leading Swedish family history website Genline.se, according to a GlobeNewsWire press release.

The offer of US$6.7 million was accepted by the Genline board of directors.

Genline has more than 17,000 paying members and 26 million digitized pages of Swedish church records from the 16th-20th centuries. In 2009, it reported income of US$2.4 million.

Genline also operates Familjeband.se, a web-based genealogy software and community for people interested in family, genealogy and local heritage, and Bygdeband, a social networking archive that enables local heritage societies to digitize their archives.

New Resource: SCIRUS finds people!

Are there academics or scientists in your family? Would you like to know? Do you want to cast a wider family search net? Here's a new resource to help you.

SCIRUS.com is considered the most comprehensive science-specific search engine on the Internet, it searches more than 380 million science-specific Web pages. Researchers can pinpoint scientific, scholarly, technical and medical data; find the newest reports, articles, patents, journals, websites, homepages, courseware and repository information that other search engines might miss; and help scientists and researchers.

Importantly, it is also great for genealogists and family researchers looking to cast a wider net.

My search centered on our TALALAY and DARDASHTI families, and I was very pleased with the results.

There are quite a few academics and scientists in our TALALAY family, and this search engine found them. From Dr. Paul Talalay of Johns Hopkins Medical School, to Dr. Mikhail Talalai (a Russian historian who lives in Italy), Dr. Pavel Talalai (Misha's brother in Saint Petersburg, a specialist in deep-sea ice), Dr. Alexander Talalai (communications) and many others, including Dr. Boris Talalai (originally of Saint Petersburg, now Beersheva University). Paul's daughter Rachel, a film/documentary producer, even got a mention.

Results: For TALALAY, there were 9,835 hits;  for TALALAI, 58 hits (this is the Russian spelling and also for a family of Polish Catholics in New Jersey and elsewhere). There were even 261 hits for TALALLA (sometimes the Spanish spelling as LL=LY, which can also be Talalya). A search for TALALAJ (a variant Polish spelling) produced 274 hits for people in Poland, the US and elsewhere. TALLALAY produced 13 hits, seemingly with TALALAY misspelled (I knew the people referred to, such as cousin Paul).

Our DARDASHTI family is also well-represented: Cardiologists Drs. Iraj Dardashti and Omid Dardashti; musician/anthropologist Dr. Galeet Dardashti; some in Iran (although I have no way of figuring out how they might be related at this point in time); some in Germany, Sweden, Norway; Dr. Kambiz Dardashti, our Philadelphia cousin Ephi Dardashti, and more. Tracing the Tribe even got a mention on a posting on the Sephardi Studies Caucus. There were 1,055 hits, with just one for DARDASHTY (a variant rare spelling).

Areas represented cover medicine, research, patents, culture, technology, anthropology and much more. It is well worth a visit and a search, particularly if you are dealing with an uncommon name.

Tracing the Tribe is not sure if a search for COHEN will turn up useful information for a particular family. Non-family names, such as my old New York pediatrician, Isaac Newton Kugelmass - who was in his 90s when I last knew him - got six mentions.

It is so successful at locating these types of results that it was voted Best Specialty Search Engine (2001. 2002) and Best Director or Search Engine Website (2004-2007).

And, since Tracing the Tribe often brings readers more than esoteric bits of information, here's the background on how the organizers selected the name SCIRUS:

"To the Eleusinians who were warring against Erechtheus, came a man, Scirus by name, who was a seer from Dodona, and who also established at Phalerum the ancient temple of Athena Sciras. After he had fallen in the battle, the Eleusinians buried him near a winter-flowing river and the name of the region and the river is from that of the hero."

We chose the name Scirus because seers and prophets are said to judge the signs of what is to come. And science is a visionary discipline in which you are continuously working on new ideas and developments. The Scirus search engine will pro-actively support your role as a seer.

*Excerpt from "The Description of Greece" by Pausanias, translated by August A. Imholtz, Jr., CIS Executive Editor

Check it out and see if Scirus can help you. See what you can find.

Europe: Youth discover Jewish roots, culture

Young Europeans are discovering their roots and learning that Jewishness is about culture, according to a JTA article by Ben Harris.

Founded in 2001, the academic institute Paideia grew out of a Swedish government commission to investigate the country's Holocaust role. Based in Stockholm, it works to promote Jewish culture across Europe, according to the story, and believes those committed to Jewish culture can acquire, through education, a Jewish identity. It is also open to non-Jews interested in Jewish life and Jewish culture.

Its year-long fellowship in Jewish texts immerses students and educates them for activist roles in European Jewish life. A summer 10-day project offers training and networking to social entrepreneurs with projects to stimulate Jewish culture.

The program receives six times as many applicants as it accepts. Most are not raised as identified Jews, some aren't Jewish at all. Paideia is a Greek concept indicating that culture may be transmitted via education rather than blood, and has implications for those in secular communities.

Some participants:

A lapsed Polish Catholic cites the “Jewish sparks in my soul” when explaining his affinity for klezmer and his desire to foster intercultural exchange through Jewish music.

A 25-year-old Hungarian born to intermarried parents and working to create an Israeli cultural center in Budapest says he would not be crushed if his children decide not to engage in Jewish life.

An Armenian Christian wants to start a Judaic studies seminar at an Armenian university that would highlight shared elements of Armenian and Jewish history.

A German Jewish journalist who became interested in Judaism through an ex-girlfriend aims to start an Internet show focusing on the weekly Torah portion and Israeli culture.

Jewish consciousness is rising among both Jews and non-Jews in Jewish Europe in some very secular places. In Sweden, for example, only 3% attend regular religious services, but assimilated Jews want to reassert their identities.

The trend has been in evidence in Central and Eastern Europe since the fall of communism 20 years ago paved the way for many to rediscover Jewish roots. But even in Western Europe, the emergence of the European Union coupled with the growing diversity of the region’s population has prompted a reassertion of national identities, including among Jews.

“With that sort of multiculturalism, and I think with the united Europe, your roots become more important,” said Gabriel Urwitz, a leader of the Stockholm Jewish community and the chairman of Paideia. ...

“So even people that three generations ago were Jewish and knew about it, until quite recently they never said a word about it,” Urwitz said. “Now all of a sudden they feel they can somehow search that root and to some extent promote it and find their own way into it.”

The group's founding director Barbara Spectre says this has a secular quality. Many participants come from small communities with weak to no Jewish communal institutions, few Jewish religious opportunities and the likelihood of high intermarriage.

“They don't have those components and yet they choose to be Jewish,” Spectre said. “The question is, of course, why would one do this? It's a tremendously important question. And I think that they can act as sort of informants to us, the rest of the Jewish world.”

A non-Jewish participant who completed this year's fellowship is klezmer guitarist Piotr Mirski, of Lublin, Poland.

“I realized that I shared somehow the experience of Jewish people in Poland, and it drives me to make something against it, against exclusion,” Mirski told JTA. “My main goal is to build bridges between people.”

The goal of his project (Jazz Midrash-The Hebrew Songbook) is to produce two CDs, including one with original Polish-language songs based on Jewish stories, and to promote the book and CDs with street festivals in Polish towns that once had major Jewish communities.

Read the complete article at the link above.

Feeling stressed? Maybe this will help

Forbes.com just put out the list of the top 10 happiest countries to live in.

According to a British Medical Journal 2005, research in several countries indicated that although individuals typically get richer during their lifetimes, they don't get happier. What brings joy is family, social and community networks.

Tracing the Tribe hopes that includes genealogy communities!

Here's the list:

1- Denmark
2- Finland
3- Netherlands
4- Sweden
5- Ireland
6- Canada
7- Switzerland
8- New Zealand
9- Norway
10- Belgium

Data was used from last year's Gallup World Poll conducted in 140 countries, which asked respondents whether they had experienced six different forms of positive or negative feelings within the last day.

Sample questions: Did you enjoy something you did yesterday? Were you proud of something you did yesteday? Did you learn something yesterday? Were you treated with respect yesterday? No more than 1,000 people, age 15 or older, were surveyed in each country. and the poll was scored from 1-100. The average score was 62.4.

Genealogists would likely answer these questions positively!

Overall economic health was a strong factor. Although the global economic crisis has been felt in every nation, those scoring highest in this poll had some of the highest GDPs per capita in the world.

However, wealth wasn't the highest indicator. Although Norway ranked highest in GDP per capita, it ranked ninth in the list, despite a GDP per capita of nearly $100,000. New Zealand's GDP per capita was only a little more than $30,000, yet ranked eighth.

Another important factor is work-life balance. Scandinavian countries work 37 hours per week or less. Low-scoring China has a 47-hour workweek and a GDP per capita of only $3,600.

Low unemployment contributes to happiness. The OECD resercher says "not having a job makes one substantially less satisfied." Top-ranked Denmark has an unemployment rate of only 2%; the Netherlands, 4.5%; the US, 9% - which didn't make the top 10.

Read the complete article here.