Great News for Pennsylvania Researchers -- Sorta
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- Posted: 25 January 2013
In the latest online newsletter from the Pennsylvania State Archives, it's announced that the digitizing of death certificates from 1906-1962 has commenced, and they should be available by the end of 2013. This is great, right? Well, mostly.
They've partnered with Ancestry.com for the project. So, yes, it's great news if you have an Ancestry.com subscription -- or know someone who does.
I have nothing against free enterprise. Everyone's gotta pay the bills. But I'm always disappointed to find that all roads seem to lead to pay-to-play sites. Especially since, for most of us, this is a hobby, not a paying job. And it really infuriates me when I find a site that purports to provide links to things I'm looking for, but it turns out it's really just a link-farm for Ancestry.com, Archives.com, or Fold3.com.
There are so many organizations and individuals who donate time and materials to make information available at no charge. The death certificates for Missouri, Arizona, and Texas, for example, are online and available for FREE.
I'm surprised I'm not more thrilled by this latest news, considering my attempts to research my husband's family in Pennsylvania have been an exercise in futility. I have never received a response to any inquiry I've sent to Pennsylvania -- and yes, I included the money and the return envelope. Don't know what they did with the envelope. :-)
Link List Updated
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- Posted: 24 January 2013
The link module for Joomla! leaves much to be desired, including the fact that you can't list them in alphabetical order. I finally decided today to see if something could be done about that, and found an extension that makes sense. You no longer have to jump through a bunch of hoops to find ancillary sites with pertinent information.
Hope it helps! Happy hunting!
1940 Census is Online, Indexed and FREE!
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- Posted: 19 January 2013
I don't know how many people know this, but all fifty states in the 1940 census have been completely indexed and are online for searching at FamilySearch. For those of us on slow connections, the images are a bit large, but there's no helping that. Doesn't bother me -- while I wait for them, I manage to get a lot of housework and laundry and "stuff" done. :-)
1962 Missouri Death Certificate Project
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- Posted: 08 January 2013
Mary at the Missouri State Archives has sent notification this morning that the 1962 Missouri death certificates are almost ready for indexing! They've made it amazingly easy to help with this project -- just go to the eVolunteer page and register. You'll get an email when they're ready to go!
It is expected that the images will be ready within the next ten days or so. The last few years, the indexing has been completed in less than three days! Basically, over the weekend! So get your coffee pot ready!
Update: The indexing is complete and the 1962 death certificates are up! Happy hunting!
