I got some time to work at Ancestry.com the last couple days and I’m thinking that I really need to extend my life several more decades at least – just to keep up with all the hints, and added opportunities for finding new ancestors, cousins and ”kinda’ relatives!” We can do so much more now “genealogically” than what we could do in the past. I’ve been doing genealogy research since the late 1970s. That’s back in the days when we waited by the mailbox hoping for another vital records certificate, a deed, or a probate record. In the 1990s that all began to change. With the advent of AGLL (later HeritageQuest), FamilySearch, Ancestry (and it’s sites FindaGrave, Fold3, and Newspapers.com), GenealogyBank, MyHeritage and FindMyPast – as well as tens of thousands of other Internet sites, our family trees can grow like never before.
This last week I was on a video-chat in which a number of us got a heads-up as to new and updated features at Ancestry. Several that especially interested me were:
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- A new Record Location Search is being rolled out. You will be able to narrow down locations, using on-screen menus – in most cases to the very town or city – worldwide.
- A new Global Search is being added to the Ancestry App. Checking out on “Hints,” and adding data has been wonderful, but this will take online research at Ancestry.com to an entirely new level. I’ve found that I can do all kinds of research while in odd places – anywhere I have a WiFi connection available. Amazing…
- ThruLines – Searches by cm range are in the works.
- On September 25, Ancestry posted the new Newspapers.com Obituary Index. This database consists of facts extracted from obituaries found on Newspapers.com™ dating from the early 1800’s to current. The database Index boasts 750,694,786 records. That’s right – over 3/4 of a billion records. The index officially launches this month (October). Note that the new Newspapers.com index also includes obits found in modern newspapers that are available by purchasing a “Publisher Extra” subscription (beyond the Basic subscription that you might have with an All-Access Ancestry subscription) There is an annual $59.95 fee for the Publisher Extra” sub.
- Last – but not least – A New Leaf begins this weekend – October 5. See my previous post.
