Thursday, January 24, 2008

Ancestry Magazine - Digital Copy free to Ancestry.com Subscribers


Ancestry.com


Did you know that Ancestry.com subscribers receive a copy of the Ancestry Digital Magazine for FREE? I didn't know that, and I have a subscription to Ancestry.

Now that I know I should be receiving the magazine, I will be on the lookout for my copy in my e-mail.

Here is the notice on Recent Website Additions at Ancestry way down at the bottom of the page.


FREE Ancestry Digital Magazine

As an Ancestry.com member with an annual subscription, you now also receive a FREE subscription to the digital version of Ancestry Magazine. You get the ideas, inspiration, and insight from our print magazine in an easy-to-use desktop format—delivered 6 times each year to your inbox for as long as you remain a paid subscriber.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Database Links at Ancestry.com


Ancestry.com


I can never find these links on the Ancestry site when I am looking for them, so I'm posting them here for easy reference:

New and updated databases
A detailed List of all new and updated databases listed by date added.

New Featured Collections
What's New and Coming Soon Featured Collections of Large Databases.

Ancestry.com Searchable Card Catalog
Search the Card Catalog by database name, keyword, year range, or record type to find Ancestry.com databases.

Complete List of All Ancestry Databases
Complete alphabetical list of all Ancestry.com's 26,000 databases.

Free Ancestry Databases
List of Ancestry.com FREE databases.

I find it helpful to check the new databases frequently to make sure I don't miss anything that is relevant to my genealogy search. I recently found Ancestry.com had posted the indexed
1895 New Jersey census without any fanfare - something I had been waiting for anxiously.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Search the Books in your Home Library Using Google

With the My Library feature in the Google Book Search , you can create an online customized personal library of the genealogy books you own and then quickly search the pages of your home library collection using Google.

To set this up, use the Google Book Search to find the books you own, then click the Add to my library link. Or import your books by typing in a list of ISBN numbers to save them all at once.

Now you can easily search your own home library using Google and not miss any references in your books. This is so much easier and so much more thorough than taking every book you own off the shelf and checking the index (and hoping what you are looking for has been indexed).

You can organize your My Library collection by adding your own labels, ratings, and book reviews.

If you have a genealogy research buddy, you can easily share your library by passing along your My Library URL.

I started doing creating my own MyLibrary and found that some of my books have not yet been scanned by Google, so I cannot search all my books yet, but I was surprised at how many obscure books I was able to find in the Google book search.

The Ancestry Store Sale


Ancestry.com



I was pleasantly surprised when I visited the The Ancestry Store this morning to find that many of the items are on sale including Family Tree Maker 2008.

The Ancestry Store says that for a limited time you can get 15% off a lot of the products in the store. This includes reference books, history books, cookbooks, software, maps and photo reproductions, scrapbook supplies and more. It appears all the sale items are marked with the sales price in red, but the Ancestry site says to enter the coupon code "Winter" at checkout to receive the discount.

Ancestry doesn't say when the sale ends, but it looks like a great opportunity to pick up some items on your wish list. Check it out.

The Ancestry Store

Looking for more coupon codes, sales, discounts or other deals at Ancestry.com? Go to Ancestry Sales, Discounts, and Coupons

Sunday, January 06, 2008

Google Time Zone Query

If you ever have to make a phone call to someone in a different time zone, you can query Google to find out the time in that time zone before you make the call. This doesn't work for small towns, so you may have to ask about the nearest large town.

The format is:
time Salt Lake City Utah


Simply enter the word time followed by the city name and state name into the Google search box. Google gives this answer:

10:28 AM Wednesday (MST) - Time in Salt Lake City, Utah


This works for large cities worldwide.

time Nancy France

6:29 PM Wednesday (CET) - Time in Nancy, France



Very handy for those like me who are time-zone-challenged and never know whether to add or subtract hours to my local time.