9 Million Free Browsable Images from 9 Countries Added

New Records for Brazil, Canada, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala,

Italy, Mexico, U.S., and Venezuela

The bounty just keeps coming from FamilySearch’s digital pipeline. Mexico collections earned the top spot this week, with nearly 5 million new browsable images added. The Mexico records date from 1545 to 1984. In addition to Mexico, FamilySearch continued this week to strengthen its freeonline international collections by expanding 7 more of its collections. Millions more records or images were added for Brazil, Canada, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Italy, and Venezuela. The U.S. collections were also expanded, with new data for California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New York, Texas, Union Provost Marshal’s File, and Virginia. See the table below for more details. You can search all of the record collections now for free at FamilySearch.org.

If you enjoy the steady stream of free records added weekly, please consider “giving back” by contributing a little time online as a FamilySearch volunteer. You can start and stop volunteering at any time. Find out more at indexing.familysearch.org.

Collection	Records	Images	Comment
Brazil, Catholic Church Records	0	1,007,788	New images added to existing collection: Minas Gerais: Diocese of Luz, Diocese of Patos de Minas; Paraná: Archdiocese of Curitiba; Rio Grande Do Sul: Diocese of Santa Cruz Do Sul; Sao Paulo: Archdiocese of Sao Paulo, Diocese of Itapeva, Diocese of Presidente Prudente.
Canada, Quebec, Notarial Records, 1800-1900	0	113,475	Added browsable images to existing collection.
Chile, Concepcion, Civil Registration, 1885-1903	0	696,721	New browsable image collection.
El Salvador, Civil Registration Records, 1836-1910	0	41,876	New browsable image collection.
Guatemala Civil Registration, 1877-1934	0	5,241	New browsable image collection.
Italy, Civil Registration, 1806-1940	0	115,035	New browsable images added to existing collection: Rovigo, Oristano, Trieste, and Teramo.
Mexico, Chiapas, Catholic Church Records, 1558-1978	0	752,385	New browsable image collection.
Mexico, Guanajuato, Catholic Church Records, 1576-1984	0	168,067	New browsable image collection.
Mexico, Morelos, Catholic Church Records, 1598-1969	0	1,448	New browsable image collection.
Mexico, Nayarit, Catholic Church Records, 1596-1967	0	452,505	New browsable image collection.
Mexico, Puebla, Catholic Church Records, 1545-1970	0	4,378,429	New browsable image collection.
U.S., California, County Marriages, 1850-1952	281,432	0	New index collection.
U.S., California, San Diego Naturalization Index, 1868-1958	22,506	0	Records courtesy of Footnote.com. Indexed records linked to images on Footnote.com.
U.S., California, San Mateo County Records, 1856-1967	0	18,857	New browsable image collection.
U.S., Illinois, Probate Records, 1819-1970	0	244,131	New browsable image collection.
U.S., Louisiana Confederate Pensions, 1898-1950	0	198,414	New browsable image collection.
U.S., Louisiana, Orleans Parish Estate Files, 1804-1846	0	83,768	Added browsable images to existing collection.
U.S., Maine, State Archive Collections	0	13,919	New browsable image collection.
U.S., Montana, Rosebud County Records	0	40,990	Added browsable images to existing collection.
U.S., Nebraska, Broken Bow Homestead Records, 1890-1908	39,373	0	Records courtesy of Footnote.com. Indexed records linked to images on Footnote.com.
U.S., New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1891	0	422,545	New browsable image collection.
U.S., New York, Kings County Estate Files, 1866-1923	26,082	492,465	Added images and index to existing collection.
U.S., Texas, Mills County Clerk Records, 1841-1985	0	1,506	Added images to existing collection.
U.S., Union Provost Marshal Files of Two or More Civilians, 1861-1866	0	107,471	New browsable image collection.
U.S., Virginia, Surry County Marriage Records, 1735-1950	0	19,618	New browsable image collection.
Venezuela, Civil Registration	0	88,680	New browsable image collection.

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org orthrough over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

9 Million Hungarian Records Added This Week

New Records for Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Philippines, 
Spain, U.S., and Zimbabwe Also Added

Can you believe that 11.5 million new international records were added this week? And 9 million of those were from Hungary! FamilySearch continued this week to strengthen its free online international collections by expanding 8 of its collections. It also added 2 million U.S. records. See the table below for more details. Search all of the record collections now for free at FamilySearch.org.

If you enjoy the steady stream of free records added weekly, please consider “giving back” by contributing a little time online as a FamilySearch volunteer. You can start and stop volunteering at any time. Find out more at indexing.familysearch.org.

Collection	Records	Images	Comment
Argentina, Catholic Church Records	0	202,698	Images added.
Brazil, Catholic Church Records	0	156,092	Images added. Minas Gerais, Diocese of Luz, Diocese of Patos de Minas; Paraná: Archdiocese of Curitiba; Rio Grande Do Sul, Diocese of Santa Cruz Do Sul; Sao Paulo, Diocese of Itapeva, Diocese of Presidente Prudente
Germany, Baden, Church Book Duplicates, 1810-1869	58,296	12,011	Portion of Achern index added.
Germany, Mecklenburg-Schwerin Census, 1890	37,625	864	Last portion of this census is now added.
Germany, Posen, Church Book Duplicates, 1794-1874	113,713	0	Records added to this collection. Images can be found at www.landesarhiv-brandenburg.de.
Hungary Catholic Church Records	9,065,513	0	Partial publication of records. First installment (38%) of a much larger collection that will be published over the next year.
Italy, Civil Registration, 1806-1940	0	119,921	More localities added: Revere, San Giorgio di Mantova, San Martino dall' Argine, Sermide, and Teramo
Philippines, Manila Civil Registration, 1899-1994	0	1,535,971	Images added.
Spain, Lugo Diocese, Catholic Parish Records, 1550-1930	11,629	0	Additional index data added to this collection.
U.S., Colorado State Census, 1885	0	3,520	New browsable collection.
U.S., Illinois State Census, 1855	256,004	0	Name indexes for the 1885 Illinois State Census. The census names the head of household. Schedules do not exist for the following counties: Carroll, Champaign, Franklin, Gallatin, Henry, Jefferson, Jo Davies, Lake, Stark, Will, and Woodford.
U.S., Texas, Comanche County Records, 1858-1955	0	283,870	Images added to existing content.
U.S., Texas, Mills County Clerk Records, 1841-1985	0	61,358	Images added to existing content.
U.S., Union Provost Marshal Files of Individual Civilians, 1861-1866	0	2,798	Images added to existing content.
U.S., Veterans Administration Pension Payment Cards, 1907-1933	0	1,800,495	New browsable image collection.
Zimbabwe, Death Notices, 1904-1976	0	328,546	Death notices from Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe, Rhodesia Death Registers, 1890-1977; Index to Death Register, 1892-1977	0	74,045	Register of deaths of citizens of Rhodesia.

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org orthrough over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Relive RootsTech 2011

Popular Conference Makes Select Presentations Available for Free Online

11 March 2011

SALT LAKE CITY—If you missed the popular inaugural RootsTech 2011 conference, you can now at least get a sampling of what all the excitement was about. The wildly popular new technology and family history conference held last month in Salt Lake City, Utah, made its keynote addresses and a few other popular presentations available online today free of charge. The six free presentations can be viewed at RootsTech.org.

“The scope of the RootsTech conference was unique. We wanted to try to fulfill a need to bring technology users (family history buffs and anyone interested in genealogy) and technology creators (developers, programmers, engineers) together in a unique, fun environment to collaborate and move the genealogy industry forward through technology,” said Anne Roach, RootsTech conference chair. And bring them together it did.

The inaugural conference, hosted by FamilySearch, was a runaway success. With over 3,000 in-person attendees and another 4,500 attending remotely over the Internet, it was arguably one of the largest genealogy-related conferences ever held in the country. In-person attendees hailed from 42 states and 15 countries. Some came from as far away as China, New Zealand, Australia, Namibia, and Israel.

Paul Nauta, RootsTech public relations chair, reported that there were over 40 bloggers in attendance. “Between online articles, blog posts, and nonstop tweets, the online community was buzzing 24 hours a day during the conference and for weeks following—and amazingly, articles and tweets are still going strong,” noted Nauta.

The new conference was pulled together quickly by industry standards—in about 6 months. “The fact that we were able to attract as many conference goers as we did in such a short amount of time testifies to the interest there is in technology and family history,” said Roach. “And we’ve put the videos of the keynotes and other presentations online for free to give others a chance to share in the RootsTech experience; to give them a taste of what they can expect for 2012,” added Roach.

A highlight of the conference was the extensive community networking—community zone (exhibit hall), collaboration stations, and unconferencing sessions. These integrated features produced an open conference atmosphere that seemed to be ideal to introduce technology creators to genealogy technology users and to foster discussions, learning, collaboration, and future industry developments.

Unconferencing sessions—impromptu, participant-driven discussion forums that promote brainstorming, the sharing of ideas, and innovation—were totally new to genealogy attendees, but were more familiar to the technologists. Attendees took advantage of unconferencing sessions to discuss user needs with technology developers and to brainstorm new ideas and solutions. “People emerged from these [unconferencing sessions] with eyes sparkling, and I overheard several people describing conversations between developers and genealogists that left both feeling validated and motivated,” said Polly FitzGerald Kimitt, an attendee and 

author of Pollyblog.

The RootsTech 2012 conference is scheduled for February 2–4 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

In addition to the six video presentations mentioned above, video interviews of other conference speakers and developers can be watched at Genealogy Gems YouTube.

About RootsTech

RootsTech is a new conference designed to bring technologists together with genealogists to learn from each other and find solutions to the challenges faced in family history research today. The conference’s activities and offerings are focused on content that will help genealogists and family historians discover exciting new research tools while enabling technology creators to learn the latest development techniques from industry leaders and pioneers.

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U.S. and Mexico Records Added This Week

New U.S. records from MO, NC, NJ, OH, VT, WV

Record collections for Mexico and the U.S. were expanded this week. The Mexico 1930 Census is drawing closer to completion with the addition of the state of Puebla—way to go FamilySearch volunteers! Patrons will also find new records from Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Vermont, and West Virginia (see table below for more details). Search them now for free at FamilySearch.org.

If you enjoy the steady stream of free records added weekly, please consider “giving back” by contributing a little time online as a FamilySearch volunteer. You can start and stop anytime. Find out more at indexing.familysearch.org.

Collection	Records	Images	Comment
Mexico Census, 1930 (Puebla)	1,151,608	2,337	Additional state added to the Mexico 1930 Census.
Mexico, Distrito Federal, Catholic Church Records, 1886-1933	87,199	79	Updated collection.
U.S., Missouri, Confederate Pension Applications and Soldiers Home Applications	0	27,874	New collection.
U.S., North Carolina Deaths, 1931-1994	9,777	0	Name index to deaths recorded in North Carolina.
U.S., Ohio, Cuyahoga County Probate Files, 1813-1900	0	90,601	Additional images added to the probate case files from the Cuyahoga County Courthouse in Cleveland. Files arranged by docket number, case number, and date.
U.S., Vermont, Vital Records, 1760-1954	221,293	729,956	Index cards of town clerk transcriptions of births, marriages, and deaths, 1760-1954.
U.S., World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942 (WV, NJ)	686,269	1,178,358	West Virginia and New Jersey cards added.

FamilySearch International is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch has been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.