Friday Genealogy News

Big News:

I want to highlight this and urge others to reach out to the Indiana state legislators about this, even if you’re from out of state (there’s a link to that in the article). This is going all around Facebook as well and I encourage you to pass on the word!

• The Indiana Genealogical Society Blog posted an announcement yesterday that the State Budget Bill for Indiana proposes a cut in funding to the Indiana State Library. With that, the proposal includes elimination of the Genealogy Department of the State Library! There are links in the article for Indiana residents to contact their state legislature AND there are links for people out of state who want to do research in the library. So please, take some time to read it through and then weigh in with a state legislator!

More Genealogy Tidbits

• The Ancestor Hunt posted a list of over 160 newspaper collection links! Definitely worth checking out!
• Ever wonder why ancestors didn’t smile? This article by Crestleaf.com discusses the issues and gets rid of the myths.
• DIY History is a website created by the University of Iowa where anyone can create an account and help out the library by transcribing old manuscripts. They have quite a number of topics to choose from: World War II, Civil War, World War I, Pioneer Lives, and more. Check it out! It’s great practice for genealogists and it helps a library’s documents become a lot more useful to the public and other researchers.
• Rescued Film Project – I posted this on my Facebook page and encourage everyone to check it out! The photographer finds and rescues old rolls of undeveloped film and then develops them very carefully. The results are pretty amazing. Watch the 10 minute video on his biggest find from a soldier in World War II.
• Hack Genealogy recently had a Research Right: Tracking and Evaluating Your Genealogy Research Boot Camp and are offering the entire event in one product. Through 31 January it’s at a reduced price of $9.95!
• Dear Myrtle is hosting a GenLaw study group which starts tomorrow! You can check out more information on the book (Genealogy and the Law) and the study group here.
• The University of Notre Dame Archives  has new online databases: the Records from the Diocese of Louisiana and the Floridas from 1576-1803. Check out more information about it here and see Dick Eastman’s post about it here.
• Dick Eastman’s Newsletter recently posted about new information available from the National Archives and Records Administration. This isn’t quite genealogy related, but I found it to be interesting and wished to share. It’s information on Project Blue Book – the UFO reports! Seriously, how neat is that!

Have a good Friday everyone!