The Genealogy Guys Podcast #241 - 2012 September 16

The news includes: FamilySearch announces that the 1940 U.S. Federal Census indexing project is wrapped up, and that indexing is beginning on the new U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Community Project. Visit http://familysearch.org/immigration for more information and to volunteer. Another indexing project has begun: the Italian Ancestors Project. Visit http://familysearch.org/italian-ancestors for more information and to volunteer. The Federation of Genealogical Societies has announced the publication of the new 2nd edition of Bylaws Workbook: A Handbook for New and Established Societies. The book is available through Amazon findmypast.com announces major expansions of its U.S. Records Collection. findmypast.com also announces a partnership with the Federation of Genealogical Societies to preserve, digitize, and provide access to local records from genealogical societies across the U.S. Listener email includes: Allen asked whether The Guys know anything about the Dutch research site at Genlias. The site will disappear on 1 November 2012, but another site may be taking its place as WieWasWie. The Guys suggest going to that site's blog at http://www.wiewaswieblog.nl, translating it from Dutch to English using a tool such as Google Translate, and reading details about the change. Connie and Sharon both wrote about the volunteer photographers in cemeteries as a result of requests made through Find A Grave Jim wrote about old small town newspapers that may have published lists of deaths for the week or deaths for the year. Carole asked for suggestions about where to locate records of Bronze Star military awardees. Thomas asked about using the podcast recordings in local genealogical society meetings. Pat asked about merchant ship records. Evan asked about an ancestor who left Germany for the United States and then went to South Africa. George discussed some information received about FamilySearch and its progress in digitizing microfilm. He also discussed current crews acquiring digital images around the world. You can contact [email protected] to learn about opportunities to become involved. Drew discussed the formation of the Family History Information Standards Organisation (FHISO) and its plans to develop data standards for genealogy-related data. Drew also discussed the discontinuation of the group, Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness (RAOGK) and his search for other groups forming to take over this volunteer activity.