Search Up a Storm

Genealogy.com’s Internet Family Archives are virtually blooming with new collections of family history data. In the last few months, a total of 16 sets of records were added to this online subscription database, which you can search for names and view digitized images of original records. The recent additions include:

• Illinois 1900 Census Records

• Connecticut Family Histories, 1600s to 1800s

• Mayflower Vital Records, Deeds and Wills, 1600s to 1900s

• Immigrants to America, 1600s to 1800s

• New York, 1900 Census Data

• Virginia Colonial Records, 1600s to 1800s

• Irish Immigrants to North America, 1803 to 1871

• Scottish Immigrants to North America, 1600s to 1800s

Since its launch last year, the archives have grown to 43 million names in 51 different titles. The growth is part of Genealogy.com’s conscious shift from software products (such as Family Tree Maker) toward online pay-to-access databases. Each title costs from $29.99 to $59.99 to access; for an extra $5, you also can purchase the CD version. For more information on the Internet Family Archives, see <www.genealogy.com/ifa/co_main.html>.

Meanwhile, A&E Television Networks bought Genealogy.com to add to its interactive lineup of history-related sites. “It’s a natural fit,” says A&E spokesman Gary Morgenstein, with the Web extensions of A&E, Biography and the History Channel. Genealogy.com’s software and online tools will attract more visitors — and shoppers — to A&E Web sites and stores, say company executives. At the same time, they hope A&E’s recognizable brand name will lend itself well to the genealogy company’s products.

LOOKING FOR living history?

Flip to page 36, where you’ll find an extended version of our best bets for celebrating your heritage and bringing the past to life. “Blasts from the Past” offers a state-by-state sampling of 115 festivals, re-enactments and special museums across the country. Our regular Living History feature will be back in its normal place next issue.

PLYMOUTH, MASS.

UKRAINIAN BOOST

A gift of $3.5 million will help buy the Ukrainian Museum in New York City a new home. The institution devoted to Ukrainian life and culture will soon begin construction on a museum building and exhibition facility in lower Manhattan. Currently, the museum houses more than 40,000 objects of fine art, photographs, books and other items with artistic and historic significance to Ukrainian culture. “Our dream of creating a modern, representative museum of Ukrainian culture, that would reflect the spirit of Ukraine and the proud heritage of its people, may now be realized,” says Olha Hnateyko, president of the museum’s board of trustees. For more information, see <www.ukrainianmuseum.org> or call (212) 228-0110.

Is That a Genealogist in Your Pocket?

Hooked on handhelds for your on-the-go research? Check out Pocket Genealogist (Northern Hills Software, $15), the newest program for synchronizing the GEDCOM files you create on your home computer with your handheld computer. This software works with Windows CE devices running version 2.0 or higher, including PocketPCs, Palm-Size PCs, Handheld Pro and Handheld PCs. See <www.northernhillssoftware.com/pgenie.htm> for details. For a review of other genealogy software programs for handheld computers, see the December 2000 issue of Family Tree Magazine.

For weekly updates on the world of family history, subscribe to Family Tree Magazine‘s free e-mail newsletter at <www.familytreemagazine.com/newsletter.asp>.

Worth Watching

Dred Scott goes digital

Deteriorating documents from the landmark Dred Scott case that challenged Missouri’s slavery law in 1857 are now digitized and available on the Internet. The court documents are being preserved as part of a “digital partnership” among the Washington University Libraries, the Missouri State Archives and the St. Louis Circuit Clerk. The project involves restoring and indexing 4 million pages of court files relating to slavery up to 1875. View the Dred Scott records at <www.library.wustl.edu/vlib/dredscott/>.

Connecticut connection

Those of you with ancestral links to Connecticut will love this: Three research institutions have teamed up to post 14,000 images of the state’s history online. Connecticut History Online will provide free access to prints, photographs and drawings from the Connecticut Historical Society, Mystic Seaport and the University of Connecticut’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center. According to the site’s creators, its content “reflects the state’s social, educational, political, civic and cultural life from 1800 to 1950.” Already, 2,200 images are up and searchable at <www.lib.uconn.edu/cho> and the rest are due to be completed by this summer.

Scottish gateway

Remember Scotland.net? The country’s top Web site recently re-launched as Scotland On Line <www.scotlandonline.com> with “channels” focused on news, sports, travel and more. Perhaps most interesting to you will be its heritage channel at <www.scotlandonline.com/heritage/>. Both fun and informative, you can drink up the facts on whiskey (“the water of life”) or find your family tartan, historic timelines and biographies of “Great Scots.”