Genealogy Jamboree Conference App Available

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It is with great pride that we announce that the Mobile App for the 2013 Jamboree is now available for download. We are exceedingly grateful to Ancestry.com for again sponsoring what we think is the Best. App. Ever. for a genealogy conference.

The 2013 App has lots more content, more graphics, more of everything.

If you used either the RootsTech or NGS apps earlier this year, the Jamboree app will be very familiar. Ever since Jamboree launched the first conference app in 2011, our developer, Core-Apps, has become the provider for genealogy conference apps. They understand what genealogists are looking for, and they have helped us create a product that is sure to enrich your experience at Jamboree.

You can find the App by looking for SCGS 2013 (with the space). But here's an even easier method. Click the app graphic above to be taken to the Core-Apps website for Jamboree. No matter which platform you use --  iPad, iTouch, iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, Windows ... even if you don't have a device on which to use an app -- you can go to the Core-Apps page, clink the link and request a text that you can use to download the app.

Features of this year's app:

Create your own personal schedule with the sessions, meetings, social engagements you want to add. You can even link it to your main device calendar.

The Class section includes, for each session:  the date, time, location, description, and speaker name. Options are provided to record class notes and provide feedback by rating the session directly from the app. Syllabus article, when they are provided, are also linked to the class page. While articles are not present for all sessions due to some speakers' requests, you will find a wealth of information that will help you at Jamboree and for years thereafter.

Plot your tour of the exhibit hall. Exhibitors are listed with their booth numbers, contact information, and description. Watch for this section to bloom as the exhibitors add their logos and upload PDFs of their membership forms, special offers or other information they want to share. The Jamboree App is different from others because we including virtual exhibitors, ones not physically at Jamboree, who want to connect with attendees.

In the Speaker section, you'll find photos, bios, and links to all of each speaker's presentations. Find your favorites and get those sessions scheduled first.

You are able to create a profile, make friends with other attendees, upload photos of the conference, and follow and post on Twitter directly from the App. Turn on your settings to receive alerts and keep up to the very minute with all the news.

We still have a couple of surprises up our sleeve so watch for updates.

Please let us know what you think. And share the information with your friends. We can't wait for the world to see it!

P.S. - Exhibitors, watch your inbox for a message from Nina Mancuso of Core-Apps. She will help you get your listing upgraded with graphics and PDF uploads.

P.P.S. - Genealogy Author? Professional Genealogist? Genealogical Society? Member of the genealogical community? If you're interested in becoming a virtual exhibitor, please email phinkel@pacbell.net and put VIRTUAL EXHIBITOR in the subject line. You can read more about your options here.

The 150th Anniversary of the United States Colored Troops

On May 22, 1863, the War Department issued General Orders 143, establishing a Bureau of Colored Troops in the Adjutant General’s Office to recruit and organize African American soldiers to fight for the Union Army. With this order, all African American regiments were designated as United States Colored Troops (USCT). 

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the USCT, and the National Archives is pleased to announce the completion of the USCT Service Records Digitization Project. In partnership with Fold3, the project provides online access to all service records—more than 3.8 million images—of Union volunteers in USCT units. 

From May 22 to 31, the digital collection will be free on www.Fold3.com. (All National Archives collections on Fold3.com can always be viewed for free at any National Archives facility nationwide.)

Compiled military service records (CMSRs) are part of Record Group 94, the Records of the Adjutant General’s Office. They contain card abstracts of entries related to an individual soldier such as muster rolls and regimental returns. 

Many CMSRs also contain original documents called “personal papers,” which are especially valuable to researchers looking for documentation on former slaves. These papers include enlistment papers, correspondence, orders, prisoner-of-war memorandums, casualty reports, or final statements. Unique to the records of the USCT are deeds of manumission, proofs of slave ownership, and bills of sale. 

Starting in October 1863, a slave owner could offer his slave for enlistment in military service and be entitled to compensation up to $300 upon filing a valid deed of manumission and release, and making satisfactory proof of title. These forms offer researchers rare information and document the life of a slave person in the absence of other vital records. 

Edmund Delaney was a slave who served in Company E of the 117th USCT Infantry. He was 25 years old when he enlisted in August 1864. Delaney’s owner, Harvey C. Graves of Georgetown, Kentucky, filed a compensation claim for his military service in December 1866. Graves stated that he “purchased [Delaney] at private sale when he was quite a small boy and owned him at the time of his enlistment.” 

The claim form was accompanied by a proof of ownership form to which Graves attached a rare “likeness,” or photo of Delaney, and several of Delaney’s letters written to him while serving in Brownsville, Texas. The letters offer us a rare glimpse into his lonely soldier’s life, especially when he laments that no friends have written back to him: 
“somehow most of them seem to be very much afraid of their pens and ink.”  
 

The USCT service records also reveal the social issues faced by free blacks, such as the story of Fortune Wright, a soldier of the 96th USCT Infantry. Wright was a free black man before the Civil War began, and he enlisted in Louisiana in July 1862.

On October 23, 1865, a white doctor and another man thought they observed Wright beating a black woman on a street in Jefferson, Louisiana. When they attempted to reprimand Wright, a fight ensued. Wright—fearing for his life—stabbed the doctor, who was beating him with a cane. The doctor died.    

Wright pleaded not guilty at his court-martial trial but was found guilty of murder and sentenced “to be hanged by the neck until dead” on January 5, 1866.

The accused offered his explanation while in prison in New Orleans. He stated that he was approached by an “immoral colored woman” who put her hand on his shoulder and was “acting her willingness to prostitute her person.” The woman told him to give her a dime. Wright said that he didn’t have a dime, and that if he did have a dime, he would give it to his wife. Wright stated that he was angry with the woman for her insulting conduct and language. If she repeated her language, Wright told her, he would slap her. She did repeat herself, and Wright slapped her. 

The two white men appeared on the scene at this point without knowing how the argument began. As Wright walked away, the doctor followed and struck Wright on the head with a walking cane. Wright reeled around and grabbed the stick while the doctor cursed at him to let go. The doctor grabbed Wright by the collar of his coat and then punched him in the face. The second white man yelled to “kill the damned black yankee [since] there is no law for him.” Wright warned that if they both jumped him, he would cut one with his knife. When he was attacked, Wright stabbed the doctor with his knife.

Wright’s captain and his attorney sent pleas for a postponement of the sentence to Maj. Gen. Edward Canby of the Department of the Gulf. They were hoping for time to appeal to President Andrew Johnson for a pardon based on self-defense. 

Several postponements were granted. The series of the documents leading to President Johnson’s final decision reads like the ultimate page-turner. On February 24, 1866, General Canby received a telegram from the War Department in Washington, DC, stating that President Johnson has ordered that “the [death] sentence be duly carried into execution.” A copy of this message on American Telegraph Company letterhead survives in the service record.
   

Wright was not notified of his fate until the evening before his hanging. A week earlier, Provost Marshal A.M. Jackson was warned in a letter from Eastern District headquarters in Louisiana that “Precaution must be taken that the office of hangman be confided to a capable person so that no disagreeable results may ensue, and that the body be not disturbed until the hangman has pronounced life to be entirely extinct.” 

Jackson’s report of the execution dated the next day describes quite a different scene.

The knot on the rope was not soaped properly and the knot slipped as Wright fell from the platform. Though he was suspended, his neck was not broken and he could still breathe. Wright was taken down and put on the platform a second time. It took fifteen more minutes of strangulation before death took Fortune Wright. Jackson claimed that though the circumstance was “unpleasant,” Wright did not suffer “as he remained insensible from the time of the first fall.”

The stories of the USCT soldiers will be available free to non-subscribers on www.Fold3.com from May 22 to 31, and can be accessed for free at any time on computers at the National Archives.

FamilySearch Adds More Than 1.1 Million Records and Images to Illinois County Marriages

FamilySearch has added more than 2.25 million index records and images this week from Argentina, Austria, Italy, Paraguay, Portugal, Spain, and the United States. Notable collection updates include the 1,152,830 index records and images from the U.S., Illinois, County Marriages, 1810-1934, collection, and the 244,523 images from the Spain, Province of Valencia, Municipal Records, 1611-1935, collection. See the table below for the full list of updates. Search these diverse collections and more than 3.5 billion other records for free atFamilySearch.org.

Searchable historic records are made available on FamilySearch.org through the help of thousands of volunteers from around the world. These volunteers transcribe (index) information from digital copies of handwritten records to make them easily searchable online. More volunteers are needed (particularly those who can read foreign languages) to keep pace with the large number of digital images being published online at FamilySearch.org. Learn more about volunteering to help provide free access to the world’s historic genealogical records online at FamilySearch.org.

FamilySearch is the largest genealogy organization in the world. FamilySearch is a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Millions of people use FamilySearch records, resources, and services to learn more about their family history. To help in this great pursuit, FamilySearch and its predecessors have been actively gathering, preserving, and sharing genealogical records worldwide for over 100 years. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources for free at FamilySearch.org or through more than 4,600 family history centers in 132 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Collection Indexed Records Digital Images Comments Argentina, Santa Fe, Catholic Church Records, 1634-1975 1,834 0 Added index records to an existing collection. Austria, Seigniorial Records, 1537-1888 0 100,829 Added images to an existing collection. Italy, Como, Como, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1929 0 10,431 Added images to an existing collection. Italy, Cuneo, Alba, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1910 0 3,369 Added images to an existing collection. Italy, Cuneo, Saluzzo, Civil Registration (Tribunale), 1866-1942 0 106,557 Added images to an existing collection. Paraguay, Miscellaneous Records, 1509-1977 0 200,980 Added images to an existing collection. Portugal, Beja, Catholic Church Records, 1550-1911 0 116,091 Added images to an existing collection. Portugal, Portalegre, Catholic Church Records, 1859-1911 0 146,187 Added images to an existing collection. Spain, Province of Valencia, Municipal Records, 1611-1935 0 244,523 Added images to an existing collection. U.S., Georgia, Fulton County Records from the Atlanta History Center, 1827-1933 0 31,670 New browsable image collection. U.S., Illinois, County Marriages, 1810-1934 702,642 450,188 Added index records and images to an existing collection. U.S., Indiana, Marriages, 1811-1959 42,579 0 Added index records to an existing collection. U.S., Oklahoma, County Marriages, 1891-1959 0 2,533 Added images to an existing collection.

MyHeritage Offers Free Access to US Military Records through May 28th

In honor of this special day, we are proud to provide free access - through May 28 - to our most popular collections of US military records.

Search now

Journey back in time to some of the most important conflicts in world history that not only impacted families in the US, but millions of families worldwide.

Formerly known as Decoration Day - later changed to Memorial Day and observed on the last Monday of May - traditions include placing flowers on graves of fallen soldiers, flying flags at half-mast from dawn until noon, parades, picnics, fireworks and more . . .

The observance originated following the Civil War, but was extended after World War I to honor all those who died in battle while serving in the US military.

Memorial Day celebrates family heritage, as we remember our ancestors and look forward to a good future.

Families get together to share stories of military ancestors, to remember the lives of those who fought for the nation, and to visit the graves of ancestors, whether or not they were casualties of war. Many of us can claim at least one relative who has served in the military, or been impacted by war.

Interested in digging deeper into the lives of your ancestors and their military stories?

Discover the wartime roles your relatives played in our online record database of US military records. This free offer ends May 28, so hurry and start your search today!

MyHeritage wishes a meaningful and enjoyable celebration to you and your family .

How will you observe this special day?