Archive for the ‘Home’ Category
Birds of Passage
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries millions of Eastern and Southern immigrants left their countries for America with the intent of making enough money to return home one day in a better financial position. They worked long hours during the peak seasons and returned home to their families during the winter months. These immigrants were commonly referred to as Birds of Passage. It is not uncommon that some of the children born to these men were conceived during a visit home which is a great hint for looking for additional manifests for your ancestor.
Southern Italians were often discriminated against. Many changed their names to sound more “American” and often lived in very poor and unhealthy environments in the larger cities in New York. Often groups of immigrants from the same towns migrated to the same areas.
My great grandfather and many of his paesani all settled in Colorado to work in the mines there. Once the mining industry died down, some returned home, others moved to places such as Utah and Idaho and some, like my great grandfather chose to remain.
About 75% of all Italian immigrants eventually returned to their homes permanently once they had earned enough money to live a more comfortable life. It is also not uncommon to see the descendants of those same immigrants leaving their homes for the US many, many years later.
PDF Find My Past Special Offer – Part #2
This just in from our friends at Find My Past:
Our World Cup widows offer for the second England match is now much more flexible, particularly for those of you based outside of the UK.
- It’s simple – sign in after 9am on Friday, and choose when to use your 90 minutes
You are now able to use the records at findmypast.co.uk at a time that suits you. We’ve been working hard to improve the speed of the site after the overwhelming popularity of our first offer so that even more customers will be able to benefit from it.
The free 90 minutes are available as a single continuous period and will begin the moment you sign into findmypast.co.uk between the times above.
Please note: If you have asked findmypast.co.uk to remember your details and are normally signed in automatically, your 90 minutes of free access will begin from the moment you visit findmypast.co.uk during the free period.
If you need a helping hand with your research, take a look at our video tutorials or our Getting Started page which provide clear advice on how to use our records.
We’d love to hear about any discoveries you make while our records are free to view – post anything you’d like to share with us and our readers on our Facebook page.
Pass this on to friends, family or anyone else you think might want to make the most of our free family history records. Also see Special Offer from Find My Past written 11 Jun 2010.
Special Offer from Find My Past
Not everyone watches Soccer so for all those genealogy non – soccer fans, findmypast.co.uk is offering a special deal.
From our friends at findmypast.co.uk:
The World Cup is now upon us and we thought it would only be fair to provide some entertainment for all you non-football fans out there:
Whenever England play a match, you’ll be able to access all our records for free!*
What you need to know about this fantastic offer:
- When England play, you don’t pay: 30 minutes before each England game kicks off, all the records on findmypast.co.uk will be free to view for 3 hours
- You can view our original images and transcriptions of all our records for free including birth, marriage and death records 1538-2006, census records including the 1911 census and our Chelsea Pensioners British Army Service Records 1760-1913 – to name just a few
- Normally you would need a subscription or PayAsYouGo credits to view our records – some of which normally cost 30 credits each – so to be able to see them for free is a rare opportunity
- Keep an eye on our blog for a competition to enter during each England match. You’ll need to answer all the questions correctly for a chance to win, so make sure you don’t miss any. The prize is a goodie bag containing a digital camera, vouchers for a year’s Full subscription plus much more
It’s simple – just register and start viewing. All you need to do to make use of this unique offer is register on findmypast.co.uk as you’ll need to sign in to view the records.
Visit our World Cup page for more information.
If you need a helping hand with your research, take a look at our video tutorials or our Getting Started page which provide clear advice on how to use our records.
We’d love to hear about any discoveries you make while our records are free to view – post anything you’d like to share with us and our readers on our Facebook page.
Pass this email on to friends, family or anyone else you think might want to make the most of our free family history records.
Happy researching!
The findmypast.co.uk team*All records available using our Full subscription (including the 1911 Census) will be free: Living Relatives searches and Memorial scrolls are not included.
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Free Online Class: Family Tree Maker 2010–Advanced Topics
Ancestry.com provides a free online class : Family Tree Maker 2010 -Advanced Topics on 16 Jun 2010 at 8 p.m. Eastern Standard time.
Ancestry will show you how to get the most out of your Family Tree Maker product and will feature such topics as:
- Publishing charts and reports
- Working with Web Search
- Merging
- Exporting different branches of your tree
- Using keyboard shortcuts
- Attaching and detaching people
- Choosing relationship types (for spouses and children)
- Resolving unrecognized place names
They will also have experts on hand to answer any questions you may have which you may submit prior to the class by visiting Family Tree Maker blog. Advance registration details can be found here.
Free Civil War Documents on Footnote.com – Limited Time
Footnote has worked with the US National Archives to put millions of Civil War records online and now, for the month of June you can view the collection free of charge.
Included in the collection are thousands of photos, maps, service records, and pension files, as well as some personal accounts and writings making it the largest collection of it’s kind.
When you log on you will go straight to the Civil War Website Pages and upon browsing the links you can view a copy of Abraham Lincoln and family on the 1860 Census.
While I’m not sure this will help me with my Italian family research it is still worth looking through and may aid you in yours so take advantage of the free offer and look through the site. You never know what you may find!
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Italian Allegati
When I first decided to extract microfilm records from the LDS, I made the mistake of ordering birth records. What I should have ordered instead were the Allegati.
Allegati are basically records that were required to be presented by a couple who intended to get married. They would include both the future bride and groom’s birth act or baptismal records, any previous marriage records and a copy of the death act of the first spouse, if applicable, and any death records of the bride and grooms parents (this of course would not apply if the parents were still living). Once all the correct documentation was received and the banns posted three times, the couple was free to marry.
So consider ordering these if available from your local Family History Center first and you may just find several other records included!
MyHeritage Top 100 Genealogy Sites
The sites below have been selected by MyHeritage as the top 100 Genealogy Sites for 2010. Many of these blogs belong to active members of the GeneaBloggers Community. If you have a genealogy related blog you would like to share, then you definitely should consider submitting it to GeneaBloggers. You may also want to participate in Facebook‘s 52 Weeks To Better Genealogy challenges.
Congratulations to all of this year’s winners!
Betty’s Boneyard Genealogy Blog
Dr. Bill Tells Ancestor Stories
Family Oral History Using Digital Tools
Genealogy is Ruthless Without Me
Paula’s Genealogical Eclectica
Scottish Genealogy News and Events
Shauna Hicks History Enterprises
Smoky Mountain Family Historian
The Association of Graveyard Rabbits
TJLGenes: Preserving Our Family History
1901 Irish Census and Church Records
The National Archives of Ireland in partnership with the Library and Archives Canada, will launch the entire 1901 Irish Census collection on their website available for viewing starting Jun 3, 2010 free of charge. Look for more and more resources available from Archives all over the world as several projects are underway.
Also, from my Family History Centre newsletter, written by Helen Billing:
More Irish Church Records
The Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport of the Government of Ireland has put transcriptions of church records online at its website: Irish Genealogy. They currently include 1.3 million church records of baptism, marriage and death records available to view free of charge. Of these, 734,000 Church records are from Dublin City and 600,000 records are from Kerry. More records will be added in June for Carlow, and Cork (City and West Cork).
You can subscribe to this bulletin by contacting:
Toronto Family History Centre
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
24 Ferrand Drive (Don Mills & Eglinton) M3C 3V4
Phone: 416 422 5480 Ext. 111.
Email: Toronto_FHC@bellnet.ca
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OGS Conference 2010 – Follow Up
Over 700 people attended and participated in this years Ontario Genealogy Conference held last weekend in Toronto. I spoke with several people who attended the Conference (due to expected events I was not able to attend after all) – all who enjoyed the event immensely and were excited about the sessions they attended. I met with a good friend of mine, Henri Malizia on Sunday night who flew in for the Conference from the US and we discussed the series over dinner. Henri has been extracting the records for Settefrati, Frosinone, Italy and has joined with Family Search to host those records on the website where they will be available to researchers everywhere for free.
John Philip Colletta was a big hit with the crowd – one person’s summary about the way she felt was “John Coletta was amazing to listen and watch.. such an icon to Italian American Genealogy”. I’m also told he had a wonderful sense of humour and really inspired the group to pursue their Italian ancestry.
I hope to be posting some of the highlights of the weekend soon.
Next year’s OGS will be held in Hamilton, Ontario, during May 13th to May 15th.
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Photographic Restoration – Heirloom Art Studio
Last fall while attending the First Annual Festa dei Nonni in Windsor Ontario, sponsored by the Italian Genealogy and Heraldry Society of Canada, I was fortunate enough to meet with a very special and amazing artist, Kathryn Rutherford from Heirloom Art Studio. Kathryn has not only received several awards for her outstanding work but has restored many family portraits over the years. She showcased some of her work at the Festa last Fall and I was amazed with her award winning SPIRIT PAINTINGS in which she adds the spirits of her great grandparents into her portraits.
Kathryn’s studio is located at 2616 Wears Valley Rd, Sevierville, TN. You can also view her blog at Fine Artist at Heirloom Art Studio for updates on her latest works.
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