I received the following note from Steven C. Smyrl FIGRS, MAPGI, the Executive Liaison Officer for the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations:

The Irish government has announced that indexes to birth, death & marriage records which date from 1845 are soon to be made available through its genealogy portal www.irishgenealogy.ie. This is terrific news, announced in CIGO’s 21st year, the year in which it ‘comes of age’.

Founded as the GRO Users Group, but soon after renamed the...

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Joanna Maria has published a list of what she believes are the six best FREE genealogy programs. I am not sure if I agree exactly with her list or not, but I will agree with five of the six. The remaining one she listed is a program I have not used so I don't yet have an opinion about that one. The title of "best" is open for discussion but her list is a great starting point for that discussion.

You can read Joanna Maria's list of the 6 Best FREE Genealogy Software at ...

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NBC had a very successful series in "Who Do You Think You Are?" but canceled the television programs after three seasons. Producers Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky have since negotiated a deal with TLC Network (see my earlier articles by starting at http://goo.gl/zzidk) and now have announced the premiere date for a new season: July 23  at 9 PM Eastern, 8 PM Central. Ancestry.com will remain as the sponsor.

TLC will air eight one-hour episodes in the new season. The...

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Is it time to stop the presses?

It seems that every week I report in this newsletter about more and more genealogy books that are being converted to electronic format. Sure, old books have been digitized for several years now. However, even new books are now appearing as electronic publications. The Kindle, Nook, and other e-book readers are hot items these days. Now the world's first completely paperless public library is scheduled to open this summer in San Antonio, Texas.

The...

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The following announcement was written by Genealogical.com:

BALTIMORE, May 22, 2013 -- Between 1937 and 1938, the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Project Administration (WPA) conducted thousands of interviews with former African-American slaves. While historians have known about these oral histories for some time, few researchers have exploited the genealogical potential of these sources--until now!

For the first time, the DVD series Generations, by Dr. James M. Rose, presents these...

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