Italian Project Update

Indexers Celebrate Record-Setting Italian Ancestors Project Weekend

September 30, 2013 By Courtney Connolly

Did you participate in the Italian Ancestors Project record-setting weekend? On September 13–15, volunteers from around the world joined together to index and arbitrate 134,986 Italian records (approximately 400,000 names). Participants were invited to index and arbitrate over 35,000 Italian records in just 48 hours—slightly more than the previous high. Due to the enthusiasm and dedication of many volunteers, the event goal was significantly exceeded.
This contribution will add significantly to the searchable records available to individuals looking for their Italian ancestors. Thousands of family researchers will be forever grateful for the efforts to make these names available.
Thank you to all who participated in the Italian Ancestors Project record-setting weekend and who continue to contribute to the Italian Ancestors Project. To learn more about this project, including the millions of Italian records remaining to be indexed, visit FamilySearch.org/Italian-ancestors.

Where can you see 1,000,000 photos?

We Hit One Million Photos!

September 10, 2013 By Rob Goates

Since we launched the enhanced FamilySearch.org in April, we have seen a tremendous amount of interest in our photos and stories features.  We are pleased (excited! ecstatic!) to announce a major milestone—as of this week, more than one million photos have been uploaded to the site.
“With the help of our users, we are creating the world’s largest, free collection of family history photos,” said Tim Cross, senior product manager of FamilySearch Photos and Stories. “We see this as a major achievement toward preserving, sharing, and uniquely identifying family history memories for people from all over the world.”
All photos uploaded to FamilySearch Photos and Stories will be preserved forever in our state-of-the-art archive facilities. The tags identifying the people in the photos will be preserved as well, so descendants will have a permanent, central location to find and access these precious ancestral photos.
To discover any photos and stories already submitted of your ancestors, simply visit the FamilySearch Photos and Stories page and click on the blue “Find photos of your ancestors” button (you will be prompted to log in).

UPDATE: Here is the one millionth photo!

Ancestry.com and FamilySearch to work on records together

FamilySearch and Ancestry.com Working Together to Make More Records Available Online

September 6, 2013 By FamilySearch

FamilySearch and Ancestry.com recently announced a joint agreement to begin a 5-year effort to digitize and index more than 1 billion records from around the world. FamilySearch is excited to be a partner in this significant project that will provide greater accessibility to these valuable records. Building strategic partnerships is and will continue to be an important part of our vision, and we look forward to additional exciting announcements in the future.
This partnership will result in making significant global historical records available to people everywhere. Dennis Brimhall, President of FamilySearch, added yesterday, “Expanding online access to historical records through this type of collaboration can help millions more people discover and share their family’s history.”
FamilySearch will continue to make our records available to the public for free. It remains our commitment to make as many genealogical records and resources available at no cost.
We look forward to more exciting developments as we continue to work with leading organizations in the genealogy community. The future of family history is truly exciting.

Julia Gillard speaks to young adults in Australia, gets gift of Genealogy

Politics off the agenda as Julia Gillard makes rare public appearance

Date

September 2, 2013

Adrian Lowe

Reporter, theage.com.au

Julia Gillard with partner Tim Mathieson at their Altona home. Photo: Craig Abraham

Former prime minister Julia Gillard made a rare public appearance at the weekend, making a keynote speech at a religious function in her western Melbourne electorate.
Just hours after Kevin Rudd launched Labor's election campaign, Ms Gillard was the guest of honour at an event of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where she was presented with a series of documents detailing her family history.
Ms Gillard, who is retiring from politics after Saturday's election, spoke of the influence her parents had on her during her speech at the Werribee church.

But apart from a brief reference on how to keep focused under pressure, political events were not discussed. Instead, Ms Gillard talked about families, and said she now had an understanding of a broader sense of family since becoming a great-aunt.
In front of a crowd of about 250, mostly young adults, the former PM said learning to prioritise had been helpful while she was working as prime minister.
"There is always a million things happening at once [when you're prime minister] and you could lose the hours of every day chasing down the million things that are happening, or you could concentrate and do the two or three big things that are going to make the longest-term impact or difference," she said.
"When people are running at you with the million things, it can be hard to discipline for that, but it's incredibly important discipline and I think the younger you learn it, the easier it becomes."
The church, colloquially known as Mormons, makes family history work a priority because of its belief that families continue beyond mortality.
Volunteer researchers traced back Ms Gillard's ancestry to four generations, and provided her with a written history featuring stories about her ancestors.
The church has previously presented Mr Rudd and his predecessor, John Howard, with their genealogy, as well as US presidents Barack Obama and George W Bush. Sunday's presentation was the first in Australia to be held in public.
Ms Gillard, the member for Labor, is being replaced as Labor candidate in the seat by Joanne Ryan.