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June 2012 Newsletter


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We're Making It Easier for You to Search GenealogyBank!

You have asked for additional search tools and we are happy to announce that several new search tools and other features are coming soon to GenealogyBank.

This will make it even easier to search for key newspaper records such as obituaries, birth records, engagement & marriage notices, and passenger lists.

Once these changes are made available, you'll be able to access them by clicking on the "Try the New GenealogyBank.com!" link on top of the GenealogyBank homepage.



New Ways of Searching

Let's preview these new search tools and see how they work.

In the middle of our new homepage we've placed links to four of the most popular types of newspaper articles our members like to search: obituaries, birth records, engagement & marriage notices, and passenger lists.

Start your search by clicking on one of these record categories.



Engagement & Marriage Notices

For example, click on "Engagement & Marriage Notices." This calls up the search form for just those types of newspaper articles.

I am looking for any articles about the wedding of William Kimball and Clarissa Colby. They were married in 1817 in Concord, New Hampshire.



I want to keep the search as simple as possible to find every article, so I typed in only their surnames and the year they were married.

Depending on the search results I get back, I can add more search terms to narrow down the results.

Do you see that list of states on the right side of the search form?

If I wanted to I could use that states list to narrow this search to only the newspapers from one state.

In this case they were married in New Hampshire, so I could check the "New Hampshire" box. But I want to start off by seeing all possible articles—so in my initial search I won't check that box.



Wow—that was easy!

I found four articles about their wedding!

Amazing—GenealogyBank cut through 1.2 billion articles and found exactly what I was looking for.

The first article was published in the New Hampshire Gazette, a Portland, New Hampshire, newspaper, and the other three were in Massachusetts newspapers.

Tip: In the early 1800s it was common for New England families to move to neighboring states, seeking new opportunities and growing communities, where they stayed and raised their families. Newspaper editors routinely published the good news of marriages or births from neighboring states to keep their readers informed.

Obituaries

You have asked for it—and now you can begin your obituaries search with one search form that excludes all the other article types and just finds obituaries and death records.

Begin by clicking on the "Obituaries" link on the home page. This calls up the search form you need to begin your obituaries search.



Let's look for Ebenezer Huse.

I last found him in the 1870 census but not in the 1880 census. So, I assume that he died around that time period, but I don't know where or when.

Let's type in: Ebenezer Huse and the date range 1870–1880.



Nice. Two articles about our Ebenezer Huse.



Now we know he died on 8 February 1874 in Lowell, Massachusetts.

Birth Records

The "Birth Records" search works like the "Engagement & Marriage Notices" and "Obituaries" searches just described. Clicking on "Birth Records" calls up the search form for these records. Give it a try. (For a sample birth records search, see the "Search Tips" article in this issue of the newsletter.)

Passenger Lists

Let's try the new Passenger Lists search. Newspapers routinely published the lists of incoming passengers—both from overseas and for Americans relocating within the United States.



I was searching for David Stone. I knew that he was from County Kilkenny and had immigrated to Iowa. However, each census report gives differing years for his arrival.

So, I did a search using his last name, where he was from, and a range of years: Stone—Kilkenny—1880-1890.



That worked: there he is in the second search result.



Now we know that he arrived on 15 February 1882 onboard the steamer Catalonia.

But wait—there's more. Along with search tools, we've added some new features.

Look at the top of the new home page and you'll see we've added a Learning Center and Store.



Learning Center

Click on the "Learning Center" tab to watch the latest how-to videos, read postings from our GenealogyBank Blog, and catch up on all the articles from past issues of our Newsletter.



Store

Click on the "Store" tab and choose from a wide selection of the latest family history books and guides.



Be sure to make full use of these new search tools and features on GenealogyBank—all coming soon.

Feedback

Please click the "Site Feedback?" link at the top of our new home page and let us know how you like these additions to GenealogyBank.

And feel free to make other suggestions of features you'd like to see added to GenealogyBank. We appreciate your input!