Hamburg Passenger Lists now indexed for 1850-1914

I just learned that the Hamburg Passenger Lists have been updated on Ancestry.com. (URL: http://search.ancestry.com/search/db.aspx?dbid=1068.) The name index now covers 1850-1914 (previously it was 1877-1914). This means that the bulk of this collection is now indexed, including the time period of peak migration through that port. The only remaining piece to index are the records following WWI (1920-1934). (You can still browse the images, though).

The update adds over eight hundred thousand new records to the index, which now includes over 4.6 million names.

(Note that they have not updated the little yellow notification in the search box to reflect the expanded index coverage yet. The "About this database" section has the updated coverage information, though. I have also tested numerous searches for the earlier years back to 1850 and they are working.)

Want Emotionally Healthy Children? Tell Family Stories - Church News and Events

Want Emotionally Healthy Children? Tell Family Stories
Social science research helps confirm what genealogists have felt all along--that there are significant benefits to sharing family history with young people.

All new FamilySearch

FamilySearch (http://www.familysearch.org) has had more than a face lift, it has some great new features that will make it a much more engaging place to discover and share family history.  New features include an interactive fan chart view of your tree, the ability to add photos and stories, and a redesigned help section that highlights the free personal help and other learning tools available on the site.  Check out the new features at https://familysearch.org/whats-new/.

Can't we all get along?

"Can't we all  get along?" I like this question posed by Tim Sullivan at RootsTech, to which he also answered, "Yes!"  He was referring to whether beginners and experts can collaborate together on the same family history platform.  He was referring to the Ancestry.com website, but I would broaden that question to the entire genealogical community across the many varied platforms that exist today, including various free or fee-based online records sites, genealogy software programs, apps, etc.  Can't we all get along? Can't we all work together?

I just came out of a meeting with FHISO, a budding organization trying to do just that: bring together voices from the full spectrum of the genealogical community, including vendors, genealogical societies, and individual family history researchers in order to develop standard methods for sharing information.  As users of genealogical products, we would all love to have more seamless ways of making and sharing discoveries and conclusions, across different web sites, mobile devices, and client software applications.  FHISO organizers are busily working to build a framework for all of us to work together to make this a reality.

Bringing together this group is a little bit like trying to sit the whole extended family down to plan a major family event.  There goes Uncle Bill again, thinking he is in charge of everything, and Grandpa is making sarcastic comments from the peanut gallery, while Charles and Linda are just trying to make sure everyone is included and has a say.

It felt a bit like that in the meeting on FHISO today, as members of the panel, which included such distinguished genealogists as D. Joshua Taylor and Drew Smith, and representation from FGS and major vendors like Ancestry.com, FindMyPast, and RootsMagic, instead found themselves in the hot seat.  Many in the room misunderstood, thinking that the panel is FHISO and that they are the audience, and that this committee "up there" was going to be handing down standards.  That's not it at all.  We are all part of the same family, folks!  If you care about making family history data easier to manage and share, if you care about standardization, if you want your voice heard, then you, too, have a seat at the table.  Let's not give the people who are trying to bring us all together a hard time.  Let's join them, and come with a willingness to do our part to make this family thing a success.

Collaboration is Key

I have been very pleased to hear the CEOs of FamilySearch and Ancestry.com talk about working together as partners.  Both keynote addresses at RootsTech have highlighted the relationship between the two organizations.  There is a new spirit of cooperation that is refreshing and exciting.  The first big collaboration will be a project to digitize and index millions of U.S. probate records. I look forward to finding out

FGS RPAC announces SSDI Call to Action Kit

The Federation of Genealogical Societies Records Preservation and Access Committee has announced a new SSDI Call to Action Kit.  From the RPAC site: "Your help is needed to help Save the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) as an accessible resource for the genealogical community and others."  The "kit" consists a list of action items that individuals can take to help save this vital family history resource.  The steps are not hard to take, but will make a difference.  Take action!  And spread the word! http://www.fgs.org/rpac/2012/02/13/new-ssdi-call-to-action-kit/

Save the Social Security Death Index

Genealogists! Only 3,666 have signed the petition to save the Social Security Death Index (SSDI).  (https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/take-steps-stop-fraudulent-tax-refund-claims-based-upon-identity-theft-recently-deceased-infants/SghL35V4)  Supporting this petition helps prevent fraud and it also helps family history. Privacy advocates are calling for the Social Security Death Master File to be restricted from public use, because it is potentially used by criminals for identify theft. A better solution is for the IRS to start actually using the Social Security Death Master file to filter out fraudulent tax filings. The same Social Security Death file is a very important resource for everyone seeking the family history in the United States. Locking it up would mean that generations of Americans would lose a vital link to their past. Help educate our elected lawmakers on this issue. Everyone agrees that identity theft and fraud must be prevented. The answer is not to lock up public information. The answer is to make proper use of that information. For more information, go to the FGS Records Preservation and Access Committee page http://www.fgs.org/rpac/.

Information-Hoarders vs Information-Sharers

As a follow-up to my post on lifelong learning, I wanted to say a word about lifelong teaching.  As we strive to always be learning, we should also strive to always be sharing knowledge with others.  There are two types of people: information-hoarders and information-sharers.  The hoarders have the mistaken notion that their expertise is enhanced by building up their own personal store of information and meting it out to others only on an as-needed basis, taking care not to share too freely, lest others start to rival their level of knowledge.  In my observation, many information hoarders are unaware of their tendency to withhold information, although there are some who know what they are doing, and it is their personal philosophy to continue carefully guarding their information.  Knowledge, after all, is power.

But the wonderful thing about knowledge is that is not diminished when it is given away.  When I teach something to someone else, I still know it.  In fact, I usually come to know it better through the act of teaching.  And while those who hoard information may think they are strengthening their position over others, it is in fact those who are willing to teach others what they know who tend to have greater influence.  In many cases, people go to the information hoarder only because they have to, but not because they want to.  They may hold the person with the knowledge in awe, but they will more likely fear them or begrudge them, rather than admire them.  And the moment they can turn to an alternative source of information, one that is more freely given, they will.  If someone is willing to teach what they know, others will come to them willingly.

It is a simple principle, but one that is very often not understood or followed, especially in the workplace.  It is also, unfortunately, a tendency for some who aspire to be professionals, including professional genealogists, to be stingy with information.  The idea seems to be that those who hold the information have the competitive edge in getting clients, landing the better jobs, and making a name for themselves in the professional community.  Thankfully, this seems to affect the minority of genealogists, as in my experience, genealogists tend to be very happy to share what they know with others. And, ironically perhaps, it is those who are the most eager to share and teach who are in fact the most successful, and the most highly regarded.

Lifelong Learning

It has been said that the more you know, the more you realize you don't know.  I have found that is as true of genealogy as any other subject.  I have recently stepped up my efforts to expand my genealogical knowledge by reading more and attending more conferences.  I have attended three conferences so far this year, and renewed subscriptions to three major genealogical publications, with a goal to read each one before the next issue comes out.  (Harder than it sounds.)  I have also started reading more genealogy blog posts and listening to more to podcasts.  One might thing that after a while, this would all get quite repetitive and I would run out of new things to learn.  I mean, how much can one say about any topic, let alone genealogy?  Yet, I am continually amazed that, with each new blog post or article I read, conference lecture I attend, or podcast I listen to, I learn something new--often multiple things.  After 20 years at this, I feel like I am still just scratching the surface of the available knowledge.  It is both exciting and overwhelming, but I guess that is also part of why it is so addicting.  The more I learn, the more I want to learn.

I have been referred to by some as a genealogy expert, but one thing every "expert" should know is that the moment you declare yourself an expert, that is the moment that you risk stagnating.  Every moment of every day, there are new ideas, new methods, and new technologies being discovered that you don't yet know anything about, not to mention the fact that the body of knowledge is already so vast that one person can not possibly know it all.  Rather than aspire to become experts, we should aspire to an awareness of the need to never stop learning, and to develop the information literacy skill to continue learning all our lives.

Discovering a New Cousin

I was attending one of several lectures by D. Joshua Taylor this week at the BYU Conference on Family History & Genealogy when up flashed the name of one of my ancestors on the screen.  I spoke to Josh afterward and, lo and behold, we share the same 3rd great-grandfather.  Josh's name has been familiar to me, but I didn't realize that it wasn't just because he is well-known in genealogy circles. In fact, Josh has been a member of the family association that I started, and also a member of my Ancestry.com online family tree, for quite some time now.  I just didn't connect before now that it was the same person.  What's more, he has sent me some of the best stuff that has been shared on the family site.  I have several documents about the family that he mailed to me, including early 19th century land grants signed by President Andrew Jackson as well pension files and other records.  He was finding these and sending them to share on our family site more than 11 years ago--when he was only 14 or 15 years old!  Josh got hooked on genealogy when he was only about 10 and soon after was to be seen frequenting genealogy conferences.  He was presenting lectures while still in his teens, and is now at the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston, with two masters degrees under his belt, still in his twenties.  As a professional genealogist nearing 40, I was impressed with how much I learned this week from Josh, who has been at this nearly as long as I have, though he is a dozen years my junior.  And here I thought, having started this at age 19, that I was one of the representatives of the young generation of genealogists! It doesn't depress me, though, or make me feel old.  I am just happy to see that this wonderful pursuit of family history is capturing the energy and the passion of each succeeding generation.