Sunday, January 26, 2014

Italian Civil Registration Records

List of most recently added Italian records on FamilySearch.org
(Current as of March, 2014)
Find an Indexing Project at FamilySearch.org
You're in luck if your ancestors were Italian! Under an agreement with the Italian state archives (Direzione Generale per gli Archivi) signed in 2011, FamilySearch has been microfilming and publishing civil registration records from Italy. When the project is complete, all birth, marriage, and death records from 1802 to 1940 will be available online at FamilySearch.org. 



Sunday, January 19, 2014

Canadian Records on FamilySearch.org


Do you have Canadians in your family tree?  Check out the resources for Canada at FamilySearch.org. Collections currently include birth, marriage and death; church, census, cemetery, military, land, court, and ship passenger records, and the list is growing. Records for some parts of Canada date to the early 1700's.

While you can search all of those collections simultaneously by entering basic criteria (first name, last name, birth and/or death information) on the main search screen at FamilySearch.org, you will get more useful results by searching collections individually.  To see the list of collections for Canada, go to FamilySearch.org and click on the Search tab.  Scroll down until you see the map of the world, then click on the link for Canada in the list of geographies.  Narrow the list of results to a specific province by clicking on the link (Ontario, for example).  Keep in mind that any Canada-wide collections (like the 1901 Canada census) will not be included in the province-specific list, even though that province was included in that census.

For more information about researching your ancestors from Canada, see the FamilySearch wiki article on Canada, or stop by the Family History Center.

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Where to begin?

Has it been a few months (or years?!) since you did anything with your family history?  Wondering where to begin?  Take just five minutes today to log in to FamilySearch.org to see your Family Tree.  (Your LDS.org account login and password are also your FamilySearch.org login and password.)  Once you're logged in and viewing the tree, click one of the small right arrows to display additional generations.  

FamilySearch Record in need of help!
This one needs death dates and places,
marriage date and place.
Each generation should list the full name of both father and mother and should display both birth and death years.  If there are blanks where years should be, or if the word "deceased" is there instead of a year, begin by finding and recording that information.

Depending on where and when your ancestor lived, FamilySearch may have records available to help you fill in those blanks, and document (prove) that information.

Don't wait until you "have time."  Next time you're on the computer to check email, update your facebook status, or browse Pinterest, start by looking at your family tree first!  If you find a blank you can't quickly fill, stop by the Family History Center for help.