Apparently pop music star Justin Timberlake (you may have heard of his role in a certain Super Bowl halftime show wardrobe malfunction) has British roots. On a visit to the United Kingdom, the Tennessee native told a reporter, “There was a British lad
who was in a war, not sure which war, but he ran away from the war because he fell in love with an Indian girl, and that’s where my family tree started.” We’ve never heard that one before. 
It wasn't long before genealogical
gumshoes
got wind of the story; see Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak’s blog entry at http://megansrootsworld.blogspot.com/2006/08/
timberlake-tree-tales.html.
Speaking of
famous folks, a new genealogy
site called MyHeritage
uses photo-recognition software
to find your celebrity lookalike in its database of stars' photos. I doubt the paparazzi will mistake me for “Lost”
star Michelle Rodriguez anytime soon, but the software should have genealogical benefits once MyHeritage is out of beta. Get more details below.
—Diane Haddad, Newsletter Editor
ftmnews-editor@fwpubs.com
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In Your Face
You already may have found your celebrity doppelganger on the new, still-in-beta Web site MyHeritage (http://www.myheritage.com). That feature
got the
Israel-based family history site widespread media coverage outside genealogical circles.
Eventually, the site's photo recognition software will be genealogically practical as well as fun: You'll be able to upload ancestral photos to MyHeritage and
use the software to search other users' photos for matches. MyHeritage CEO Gilad Japhet says the photo database will become increasingly useful as more visitors upload their ancestors' pictures.
The site has other goodies, too, including a
free genealogy software program, family Web site hosting (currently, you need an invitation to create a site—see MyHeritage for details) and a genealogy "super search"of 400-plus genealogy databases, such as EllisIsland.org
(http://ellisisland.org) and the subscription site Ancestry.com (you must be a subscriber to get record details). You can search on a name and up to nine variations, plus a birth year and country. A results table
shows the number of matches per site and sends you to that site for details.
I tried the search on mike haddad and didn't find any positive matches among the 118,000 or so results--which included non-genealogical information such as staff
on a Library and Archives Canada page (with mike and haddad occurring in different names). Webmasters may resolve such quirks as beta testing continues.
Japhet told me the free features will stay free, but he'll probably add fee-based
enhancements
such as an automated Web search. He's working on making the site compatible with the Safari Web browser for Macs; for now, you'll have to surf it using Internet Explorer or Firefox.
Swede Serendipity
Was it fate? Just
as the October
2006 Family Tree Magazine—featuring a guide to researching Swedish ancestors—was rolling off the presses, the Swedish database company Genline (http://www.genline.com)
announced it had nearly finished digitizing that country's church records dating from the 1600s to 1897. That’s a total of 16 million images or 99.95 percent of existing records. (According to Genline, the Swedish national archives is in the process
of locating the other .05 percent.)
Until 2000, the government of Sweden put churches in charge of keeping vital and census information. The resulting records are important sources of details on birth, marriage, death and emigration.
Genline
subscriptions range from one day for $10 to a year for $375; you also can purchase packages of two- or four-hour visits. Family Tree Magazine E-mail Update readers get a special deal on the three-month and yearlong subscriptions—just go to
https://secure.genline.com/medlem/ny.php, register with the site and, under the Societies/Groups section, enter the code FTM06 in the box that corresponds to Family Tree Magazine. You have until Sept. 30 to sign up for the yearlong subscription
special; the three-month offer is good until the end of 2006.
The October 2006 Family Tree Magazine hits newsstands Sept. 5—look for it at your favorite bookstore and at FamilyTreeMagazine.com.
More
Maps
The recently debuted Family Atlas utility from RootsMagic (http://www.rootsmagic.com/familyatlas.htm) already has competition:
Progeny
Software's (http://www.progenygenealogy.com) new Map My Family Tree also geocodes and plots your ancestors' life events on maps, lets you track migrations, and prints and electronically publishes maps.
It also borrows features from Progeny's World Place Finder software, automatically checking your genealogy database for place name mistakes such as typos and missing counties. You can copy and paste corrections into your genealogy file.
Map My Family Tree reads files from nine genealogy programs, including Family Tree Maker, RootsMagic and Personal Ancestral File, in addition to GEDCOM 5.5 files. You
can buy Map My Family Tree for a $39.95 introductory price; the regular price will be $49.95. To use it, you'll need Windows 2000 or XP and 64MB RAM.
Watch the December Family Tree Magazine for a review of both programs.
Combining DNA
The Houston-based genetic genealogy company Family Tree DNA (http://www.familytreedna.com)
will purchase DNA-Fingerprint (http://www.dna-fingerprint.com), a smaller testing company headquartered in Berlin. The enlarged company's new laboratory is scheduled
to open Sept. 15 in Houston.
New DNA-Fingerprint customers will send their samples to Family Tree DNA, which
also will handle customer support for those tests. The new laboratory will process current DNA-Fingerprint customers' tests without
service interruptions. DNA-Fingerprint tests will be available to Family Tree DNA customers once the lab is operational.
Family Tree DNA founder Bennett Greenspan hopes the acquisition will lead to new opportunities for German surname
project administrators to access participants in Europe's German-speaking countries.
Where the Women Are
As any genealogist knows, finding a female ancestor can be a bear of a challenge. Once you know her maiden name and her parents' names, however, you can bust open an entirely new field of research. Although there
are several ways to locate female
ancestors, one of my favorites is through death records.
Read more about researching female ancestors at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/ancestornews/current.html.
Nancy Hendrickson is a family historian, freelance writer and the author of the book Finding Your Roots Online, on sale now at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/store.
Browse the archive of her AncestorNews columns at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/ancestornews/previous.html.
Check out's what's going on at Family Tree Magazine:
One Who Shall Remain Nameless
Q. My great-grandparents Minnie and Meyer Gilbert had a child in South Bend, Ind., in 1895. I have a copy
of the birth record, but it didn’t
give the name.
They had five other children, the next of whom, Phillip, was born in 1898 and died in 1907. The 1900 census lists the family in Toledo, Ohio, with Phillip, but not this first child. I conclude the first child died before the
1900 census, but I’ve been unsuccessful in finding a record of the death. I've searched death indexes, obituaries and cemeteries. What other resources are available for death information about an infant?
A. For the answer, see http://www.familytreemagazine.com/nowwhatonline/current.html.
Read more Q&A with the experts at
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/nowwhatonline/previous.html.
Unhidden Treasure
Until recently, Mike Duckwall was an addicted genealogist who didn’t own many photos or family papers—until he found another relative’s research and a big box of pictures in his uncle’s closet. Someone
had even labeled all the pictures except those in a photo album. This is one of them.
Let's find out who it might be. Visit http://www.familytreemagazine.com/
photos/current.htm.
Expert photo historian Maureen A. Taylor, author of Discovering Your Ancestry Through Family Photographs, second edition (Family Tree Books, $24.99 from http://www.familytreemagazine.com/store), helps
readers analyze old family pictures in this Web-exclusive column. If you have a family photo mystery for Taylor to solve, check out our Submission Guidelines at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/photos/photohelp.htm.
Boston, Mass.
Aug. 30-Sept. 2
Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference
James M. Beidler
Topics:
- Find Your Society's Sense of Place
- "Duplicate" Documents That Aren't the Same
Maureen A. Taylor
Topics:
- Workshop: Identifying and Preserving Family Photographs
- More than Scraps and Paste: Scrapbooks and Family History
- Using Photographs as a Genealogical Document
- Is My Pet Frog Part of My Family? Children and Genealogy in the Classroom
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak
Genealogical
Speakers Guild/International Society of Family History Writers and Editors Luncheon
Topic:
- Finding Your Voice: Speaking and Writing in the Genealogical World
For more information, see www.fgs.org/2006conf/FGS-2006.htm.
Jamestown, N.D.
Rick Crume
Sept. 5
James River Genealogy Club
Topic:
- Oh, Canada Online! Tracing Your Canadian Roots on the Web
For more information, contact Mary Kuhn at amkuhn@daktel.com or (701) 952-5299.
Conroe, Texas
Emily Anne Croom
Sept. 11
Montgomery County Historical and Genealogical Society meeting at Montgomery County Central Library
Topic:
- Sifting Through the Ashes: Research in "Burned Counties"
For more information, e-mail clmgjm2@livingston.net.
PUBLISH YOUR FAMILY HISTORY. Preserve and share your precious family research. Personal coaching. Many options. www.GatewayPress.com
RootsMagic Genealogy Software - "An excellent
choice for any genealogist" says Family Tree Magazine. Get a free trial copy at http://www.RootsMagic.com
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