Over the last several weeks Ancestry.com has added some new features and some new content to their site. Check these out...
Ancestry.com New Features
New Paging Control for Sweden Church Records
The
Sweden Church Records is an important collection for those doing Swedish
research. This unique collection contains over 20 million images, but
no name index. You would typically browse or
search by location and date to narrow down the images you need to
evaluate.
Some of these images have hand-written cross references to other pages in the collection. These page numbers do not correspond to image numbers. We have implemented a Page
Number control in the interactive image viewer that helps users get to the correct page number.
Save an Image after Browsing
Prior to
this update, if you did any browse action after coming into the
interactive image viewer - next page, previous page, changing a setting
in the browse breadcrumb – and tried to save the
image, your only option was to "Save to Computer" unless you
opened up the Index panel, selected a person, and then clicked Save.
There was similar, but worse, experience on the old Content Viewer.
Now, you
can select the person (record) on the image that you want to save and
select the person in the tree you want to save it to in one simple step.
Updates to sliding controls for search results
We are
expanding the functionality of the sliding controls in your search
results to allow more of the fields entered in the search form to be
controlled by sliders – up to 10 fields. Additionally,
we have improved the display of the fields entered that are not
editable with sliders. With this update users can expand the section of
fields below the sliders to see all of the entered search criteria.
NOTE: These sliders actually save time in searching with Ancestry. They are exactly the same categories as previously available, but now you don't have to back up to the prior page, or edit the search, and then run the search again. It cuts out a lot of load time by performing the functions on the same page.
Ancestry.com April New Content
U.S., Military Registers, 1862–1970 (update)
Records
(new): 657,627
More men and women guarding the home front.
London,
England, Selected Poor Law Removal and Settlement Records, 1828–1930 (update)
Records (new): 72,000
We’re adding Bethnal Green Settlement records this month. According to the
Guardian, while Bethnal Green has developed some trendy spots of
late, including a boutique hotel, there are still “alleys that look like
they’d do you mischief.”
Savannah, Georgia, Registers of Free Persons of Color,
1817–1864
Records: 11,329
Prior to changes brought on by the Civil War, free
persons of color in Savannah had to register with the city. An 1839
ordinance also required owners of slaves and guardians of free persons
of color to register and obtain badges before
permitting their charges to be employed. You’ll find those registers
here.
Florida
and South Carolina, Airline Passenger Arrivals, 1907–1957
Records (new): 17,518
Among the records from ships and planes being added
in this update are alien and Chinese crew lists for vessels arriving at
Charleston.
New South Wales, Australia, Butts of Marriage Licenses, 1813–1835, 1894
Records: 1,300
Registers and butts for marriage licenses issued in
New South Wales, Australia, 1813–1835, 1894. A butt is the portion of a
certificate that remains in a certificate or license book. (It’s also
the object of a joke. Which we won’t be making
here.)
Texas, Naturalization Records, 1881–1992
Records: 219,154
This database contains original U.S. naturalization
records from the state of Texas. For people applying to be citizens of
the U.S., not Texas. Just to be clear.
New South Wales, Census and Population Books,
1811–1825
Records: 55,887
Find out who was who, where, worked for whom, and
owned what in these population, land, and stock books from New South
Wales, 1811–1825. (While some of the records do count cattle, they are
not listed by name.)
Isle
of Wight, England, Methodist Registers, 1813–1937
Records: 17,241 Images: 4524
How’s this for a curious fact: The Isle of Wight is
the smallest county in England—at high tide. It was also home to
various Wesleyan Methodist, United Methodist, Primitive Methodist, and
Bible Christian congregations whose baptism and
marriage records you can find in this collection. (Queen Victoria and
Jimi Hendrix both visited the isle, but neither was a Methodist.)
San Juan, Puerto Rico, Passenger and Crew Lists,
1901–1954 (update)
Records (new): 1,236,035
We’re adding 1.2 million new records to this index
to manifests of aliens arriving at San Juan and Ponce, Puerto Rico. In
them, you might discover anything from where these folks came from to
details on their luggage.
Brazoria
County, Texas Marriage, 1870–2012
Records: 210,399
Brazoria County bills itself as the place “Where
Texas began.” Since these are Brazoria County marriage records rather
than birth records, we can’t confirm that.
New
South Wales, Australia, Convict Applications for the Publication of Banns, 1828–1830, 1838–1839
Records: 3,309
During these early years of New South Wales
history, convicts who wanted to marry had to get official permission.
Applications can provide everything from name and age to an applicant’s
sentence and year of arrival or even comments on his
(or her) character. Plus, these folks lived in places with great names,
like Bathurst, Sackville Reach, and Field of Mars.
Manchester,
England, Non-Conformist Births and Baptisms, 1758–1912
Records: 197,227
Manchester, England, Non-Conformist Marriages, 1758–1937
Records: 103,637
Manchester, England, Non-Conformist Deaths and Burials, 1758–1987
Records: 97,860
Manchester has been inhabited since the Romans
pitched up in 79 A.D. John Dalton came up with atomic theory in
Manchester. Rolls and Royce met here. And it’s the birthplace of the
oldest professional football league on the planet—as well
as these free-thinking folks who told Henry VIII they didn’t want to be
a part of his new church, thank you very much.
Germany, Confederation of Jews, 1930–1944
Records: 1,662
The Confederation of Jews in Germany
(Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland) became a repository for
thousands of documents that have been recorded on microfiche. This
database contains a list of people with files in the collection
and the relevant fiche number.
Germany,
Sachsenhausen Deaths, 1938–1942
Records: 1,504
In the early years of the Sachsenhausen
concentration camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, deaths in the camp
were recorded at the Oranienburg civil registry office. Including these.
Pennsylvania, Death Certificates, 1906–1962
Records: 2,477,238
The thing about death records like these is they
provide a summary of a life: name, address, gender, race, age, parents’
names and birthplaces—you get the idea. Our first installment to this
database includes records for 1906–1924.