Family Tree University

Google announced last week that it has quadrupled its searchable archive of historical news articles, many of which are free to access.
From the Genealogy Insider Blog  

The National Archives just announced that it has launched what it calls a Narations blog.  The new blog is going to focus on online public access to records of the U.S. National Archives

The Salt Lake City Family History Expo is almost here

MyHeritage.com, has announced the release of Family Tree Builder 4.0.   The Family Tree Builder software is available for free download

Read the article about Googleâs new improved search BBC News 

MAILBOX:
Sean Lamb shared his recent discoveries and then had some questions about the 1930 census and the Office Use Only columns.

GEM:  IPUMS USA website

The site is described as âCensus microdata for social and economic researchâ.  Itâs an excellent and little known web site that is dedicated to collecting and distributing US census data. Its goals are to:

• Collect and preserve data and documentation
• Harmonize data  
• Disseminate the data absolutely free

1850 â 1950 Enumerator Instructions

1930 Enumerator Instructions  

But as the column implies, the census taker was instructed not to write in column 26D so in this case the instructions canât help much.  Column 26D was filled in by the staff at the census bureau after the census taker completed the task.  The codes written in the column were to assist them in tabulating statistical information which they reported to Congress.

Unfortunately these numbers really donât provide additional information because they just reflect what was written in the Occupation columns by the census taker

GEM: Tools for Occupation Codes
But if you have a curious streak and would like to see exactly what the codes meant Iâve got a gem for you.  Steve Morse the author of the One Step Tools shares your curiosity and he created a page on his website called  âDeciphering Language and Nativity Codes Appended to the 1930 Census in One Step.â 

You can learn what the occupation codes in Column 26D mean by visiting this page: âDeciphering Occupation Codes Appended to the 1930 Census in One Step.â  

GEM: Agricultural Census (Non-Population Census)
Farm # - It refers to the Special census called the Farm Schedule
Listen to Family Tree Magazine podcast #12 Census secrets with Curt Witcher for more information.

Non-population census at the National Archives
Agricultural census
Where to find the records at the National Archives

GEM: Member Connect with Ancestry
David Graham. Director of Product Management at Ancestry.com gives us a tour of the new Member Connect feature.   

NEWS:

For the month of August 2009 Footnote.com is providing free access to the 1930 census images.  To get the free access just go to  www.footnote.com/1930census/ and register with your email address. 

Genealogy Insider Blog by Diane Haddad at Family Tree Magazine.  National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections  (NUCMUC) is celebrating it's 50^th year.

National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections is a free Library of Congress program.  Information about the manuscript collections of participating US libraries is being entered into the WorldCat library catalog search engine.

Family History: Genealogy Made Easy
Episode 38 - Features the Footnote Maven

Randy Seaver"s article on the Genea-musings blog

Footnote Mavenâs post about the episode

Episode 39 of the Family History podcast features the very gifted writer Denise Levenick who write the Family Curator blog, and also has an alyer ego known as Penny Dreadful who writes occasionally for the Footnote Mavenâs Shades of the Departed blog.

And you get two bloggers in this episode because it also features my interview with Schelly Talalay Dardashti who writes the Tracing the Tribe blog on Jewish genealogy. 

Both these ladies are very experienced bloggers and will give you great tips on blogging, including dispelling the myth that you have to be technically inclined to blog!  

Google Books:
Read Lisaâs blog post on the subject 

Books Rights Registry 

So what do you think about this?  Have you published your family history?  Does it matter to you who owns the digital rights to your work?  Iâd like to hear your thoughts on this.  Email Lisa or call the voice mail line at 925 272-4021 to have your thoughts included on the show.

GEM:  Profile America
August 1 - First US Census

GEM: Tony Burroughs
Tony Burroughs is an internationally known genealogist, author, and former adjunct genealogy professor at Chicago State University. He lectures throughout the United States and Canada on all aspects of genealogy.  

 
(Above: Lacey Cooke, Tony Burroughs, Lisa Cooke)

He is the author of the book Black Roots: A Beginners Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree published by the Fireside Division of Simon & Schuster and I recently had a chance to sit down and talk with Tony about his work and his approach to the research process.    

Tony was so much fun to talk to  and has so much knowledge about such a variety of subjects.   If youâd like to see my interview with Tony that was filmed at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree you can view it in itâs entirety at the Genealogy Gems YouTube Channel.

GEM: My Mother Was A Quilter by Lee Drew
Lee's Website his FamHist Blog  and his Lineagekeeper blog

GEM:  Profile America
August 2 â The First News Reel

Sign up for the free Genealogy Gems e-Newsletter: 
To stay up on everything going on at Genealogy Gems be sure and sign up for the free e-newsletter. Just go to the website and click the Sign up button in the column on the left and when you do that youâll get the 20 page e-book on Google Research strategies as a thank you gift. 

See Lisa in person:
Family History Expo
Sandy, Utah just outside Salt Lake City
August 28 & 29, 2009

Email Lisa with your questions and comments