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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

MyHeritage adds millions of historical records


The news of new collections being added to a large online database is getting so common that it hardly merits attention. But this case is different. MyHeritage.com is striking out in a new direction. Rather than create a huge clone of Ancestry.com, MyHeritage has chosen to create a dedicated search engine to search records on other websites. Yes, that means that when you upload your family tree information to MyHeritage.com, after subscribing to the service, the Record Matching technology will immediately begin to look for records in other websites as well as the ones in WorldVitalRecords.com owned by MyHeritage.com. Since I loaded my GEDCOM file into MyHeritage.com's Family Trees, I have found literally thousands of original documents, including hundreds of direct links to FindAGrave.com and other sites with copies of original documents. Understand this, when you have a subscription to MyHeritage.com, all of these records plus many, many more are automatically searched for each person in your database.

So here is the press release from their blog about the newly added connections to online records:
We've recently added millions of new records to MyHeritage's data collections. 
The international collections include headstones, military records, yearbooks and even wanted posters and mugshots! 
The records are searchable on MyHeritage's SuperSearch engine and are integrated with MyHeritage's Record Matching technology. This means that MyHeritage users will automatically receive notifications about records from these collections that match individuals in their family trees. 
Here's some more information and links to the main collections we've added: 
Interment.net- We've licensed a collection of over 4 million online international cemetery entries from Interment.net. This is a fantastic resource to find burial information about relatives from around the globe. 
Genealogy Today - We've partnered with Genealogy Today to provide over 750,000 documents and high quality images from a wide range of fascinating sources including school catalogs, telephone directories, Masonic lodge rosters, funeral notices, insurance claims, church member lists, prison records, criminal mugshots and wanted posters. 
Historic U.S. Maps - United States property atlases, antiquarian maps, nautical charts, bird's-eye views and special collections (including celestial maps, portraits, and other historical images). With more than 1.5 million individual map images to explore, find out where your ancestors lived, see the names of their neighbors and trace the former owners of the land which could well be ancestors of your ancestors. 
Canadian Headstones - We've partnered with CanadianHeadstones.com to provide 500,000 images and transcriptions of Canadian headstones, helping you research your Canadian ancestry. 
U.S. Army Casualties 1961 - 1981 - This collection contains information about U.S. Army personnel and their dependents who died or were injured worldwide, including missing-in-action and prisoners of war. It includes a large number of records relating to the Vietnam Conflict, 1961-1975. 
British Militia Attestations Index, Royal Garrison Artillery, 1872 - 1915 - This collection currently contains the names of over 86,000 recruits from across England and Scotland and an index of a further 12,500 men from Ireland. These documents were completed at the time of recruitment and contain much personal data which is extremely useful for genealogical research. 
We've added hundreds of other unique collections extremely useful for searching specific locations or events. Here are some examples:
Volume of Records Relating To the Early History of Boston, Containing Boston Marriages From 1752 - 1809Deaths Reported in Manhattan, 1902State Teachers College, Yearbook (North Adams, Massachusetts)Massachusetts Soldiers And Sailors of the Revolutionary War, a Compilation From the Archives, Volume 131892 Births Published in 3 San Francisco Newspapers: Examiner, Chronicle, Morning Call

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