FamilySearch is one of the most popular genealogy websites. Genealogists use it because it has a vast amount of records that can be searched, and because they frequently add new collections of records and documents. The website is free to use, which is nice for genealogists who are on a budget. Here is what is new at FamilySearch this week.
FamilySearch is the world’s largest genealogy organization. The website is provided by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Genealogists of all faiths, or who do not hold any religious beliefs, are all welcome to use the resources at FamilySearch. The website is free, and much of the work behind it is done by volunteers.
Billion Graves is owned and operated by AppTime, LLC. As of May 25, 2012, FamilySearch will be adding itself to the growing indexes of Billion Graves’ database. It is a partnering relationship that began over two years ago. What does this mean for genealogists? It means that you will soon be able to start at the FamilySearch website and search through indexed photos of tombstones that are part of the records at BillionGraves. This will provided free of charge.
FamilySearch has an update on their project of indexing the records of the 1940 United States Census. They have been working on this for a total of eight weeks and are now about 46% of the way finished with it. There are now fourteen states that have been published and that genealogists can search through. Those states are: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Oregon, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming. A total of 64,384,188 names have completed the indexing and arbitration process.
There have been a couple of new features added to the FamilySearch website. One of them is the IGI, or International Genealogical Index. This has been split into two collections. The Community Indexed IGI has vital records and church records. It has been organized by location and event, (such as a birth ora christening), and by date. The Community Contributed IGI has personal family information that was submitted by individuals to the LDS Church. In some cases, the sources of this information is unknown.
They have also added a feature called My Source Box. To use it, you must be signed into the FamilySearch system. My Source Box lets you bookmark a source record and organize it into folders. This can be helpful for genealogists because it would prevent you from having to do the exact same search over again.
Image by Katie Walker on Flickr