FamilySearch is one of the most popular genealogy websites. It is constantly adding new records to its site. It also has several different genealogy related projects going on, and plenty of other resources for both new and experienced genealogists. Here is what’s new at FamilySearch this week.
FamilySearch is the world’s largest genealogy organization. The website is a service that is provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Helping people connect with their ancestors is an important part of their religious beliefs. The website welcomes all genealogists to use their resources, no matter what their background, culture, or faith happens to be. The website is free to use, and much of the work is done by volunteers.
This week, FamilySearch reports that they are finishing up their seventh week of indexing the 1940 US Census. As of May 18, 2012, they stated on their blog that this project is almost 40% complete. They have a huge team of 111,612 volunteers helping with the indexing and arbitration process. The team has indexed more than 55 million names in just seven weeks. That is astounding!
FamilySearch has also released a video that people have been asking them for. It is a video of a presentation from RootsTech 2012. A stand-up comedian named Ron Tanner presented a lecture that was called “Future of FamilySearch Family Tree”. A link in the FamilySearch blog will take you to where you can watch this video for free.
Will you be visiting the graves of your relatives and ancestor’s this month? If so, then FamilySearch has a suggestion. There is a free app called BillionGraves which is compatible with both the iPhone and with Android smartphones. You can use the app to take photos of your family’s gravestones and upload them to the BillionGraves website.
Other genealogists can search through the website and see those images. FamilySearch has an excellent description of how to go about doing that on their blog. If I am understanding things correctly, it appears that FamilySearch will soon be able to give people access to the extracted information from the BillionGraves’ database.
The FamilySearch Learning Center has a brand new lesson called “What is a Census?” This lesson was created on May 1, 2012. It is beginner skill level and is free to view. The two minute video gives beginning genealogists information about what a census is, what data it contains, and what you can learn from it.
Image by hirotomo on Flickr