News of the Family History Library 35 North West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150 Vol. 2, No. 5 September/October 1990 News of the Family History Library is published six times yearly by the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. ISSN 1052-8644. Not available by subscription. General information about the hours and services of the Family History Library is available at 801-240-2331. Comments are welcome. Please address them to Editor, News of the Family History Library, 35 North West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84150. From the Director Although we have recently released Ancestral File* and several other significant files on compact disc, the real treasures of the Family History Library are our staff and our research collections. This issue of the News highlights our new collections from Canada, England, and the United States. It also introduces a new FamilySearch* file, the Social Security Death Index, and tells more about Ancestral File. David M. Mayfield FamilySearch FamilySearch is now available in all 50 states and in several Canadian provinces. For example, there are 95 systems in California, 30 in Washington, 29 in Texas, and 23 in Florida. FamilySearch is not available at our centers outside of the United States and Canada, at LDS Church meetinghouses without a family history center, or to individuals or libraries. No telephone, modem, or electronic bulletin board access to FamilySearch is planned. Ancestral File By the end of October, Ancestral File will be distributed to the more than 500 family history centers that already have our FamilySearch computer system. To clarify certain aspects of the file, we offer these notes: Contributing Information to Ancestral File How to contribute. Everyone is invited to contribute information to Ancestral File. All submissions must be on floppy diskettes in GEDCOM (Genealogical Data Communication) format. GEDCOM is a data standard for genealogical computer programs that provides a means of transferring genealogical data between two programs irrespective of how either program structures its files. Besides Personal Ancestral File~ 2.2, the following software uses GEDCOM and is approved as Ancestral File compatible: Roots III * (Commsoft, Inc.) Everyone's Family Tree (Dollarhide Systems, Inc.) Family Roots * (Quinsept, Inc.) Family Ties (Computer Services) Family Tree Maker* Exchange Utility (Banner Blue Software Inc.) Family Tree Print Utility (Common Sense Software) Generation Gap Plus (Flying Pigs Software) What to contribute. You may share with Ancestral File by computerizing the family information you have. Begin with yourself or your children and add as many generations as you can. Be sure to include all the children of each of your direct ancestors. Before contributing your family information, please take time to check the current editon of the file. Try to avoid resubmitting information already in the file. Sending your diskettes. There are no deadlines for sending information to Ancestral File. Mail your diskette(s) to the address below whenever you feel confident that your information is reasonably accurate and complete. Ancestral File Unit, 2WW Family History Department 50 East North Temple Street Salt Lake City, UT 84150 Please be sure to keep a copy of your diskette(s)! Because of the volume of contributions, we cannot return your diskettes, tell you when your information has been added to Ancestral File, or tell you whether your information links to data already in the file. Check future editions of the file to see your material. Family Registry*. We encourage all Family Registry participants to contribute their family information to Ancestral File and, in the file, to indicate their interest in receiving information about specific names. In this way, the approximately 300,000 ~end-of-line~ names in Family Registry will eventually be incorporated into Ancestral File family lines. Source notes. Source notes are not displayed in Ancestral File. However, all notes received on diskette are being electronically stored, and source information submitted when paper was accepted is now on microfilm. More than 530 of these microfilms are listed in the microfiche edition of the Family History Library Catalog~, in the subject section under the heading ~Ancestral File.* Please include source documentation when you submit information. When citing a source, keep these suggestions in mind: Include only genealogical information in the notes you send (don't send personal, autobiographical, or historical notes). Cite the best sources available for each person and event. Describe each source so that anyone else can find it. Mention any peculiarities about the source and its accuracy. Next Edition of Ancestral File The second edition of Ancestral File will be automatically sent to the family history centers with FamilySearch in early 1991. Correcting Information in the File Errors in the file. The first edition of Ancestral File contains duplicate entries, errors from discrepancies in the data submitted, and typing errors. For example, in compiling the file we were not able to merge these two entries for a child of Ezra Roberts and Mary Adkins: Ezra Roberts Jr., born 22 Mar. 1736, died 2 Sep. 1752 Ezra Jr. Roberts, born 22 Mar. 1738, died 2 Sep. 1762 Most errors can be eliminated as contributors cooperate by compiling information about their ancestors and submitting it only once. New *edit* function. The second edition of Ancestral File will include an *edit* function. This function will allow patrons to correct data in the file, whether or not they originally submitted it, if they cite a source for the change. All corrections citing a source will be displayed in future editions of Ancestral File. As with information initially sent to Ancestral File, we do not verify the accuracy of your corrections. Nor can we contact you to tell you that your original submission has been modified. Please review the accuracy of your intended changes and communicate with other researchers before making corrections. File restrictions. Because of privacy rights, Ancestral File displays the word *living* for most individuals born within the past 95 years. Do not correct data for these entries unless someone labeled as *living* in the file is now deceased. In this instance, please send us the death information on a diskette in GEDCOM format. If you have submitted information about a living person and cannot find it in Ancestral File, please do not resubmit it. The original information has been electronically stored. Submitters Ancestral File lists all those who submit information about a particular ancestor (however, the date that information was submitted is not included). These lists of submitters may be printed, but they cannot be copied to diskette. Copying to Diskette To copy, or *download,* information from Ancestral File to a diskette, you may use a formatted diskette of any size or density. You may copy pedigrees with or without the accompanying family groups. Most FamilySearch systems will allow 9 or 13 generations to be copied to diskette during each download. The time needed to copy to diskette varies. For example, it takes 75 minutes to copy the Elmer Roberts information~including Elmer and 2,875 of his relatives~to a diskette. It takes only 5 minutes to copy the 515 relatives of Christopher Merkley. Although many people copy information from Ancestral File, it is not possible to ~catch~ computer viruses by doing so. Descendancy Charts Lists of descendants will be available in a future edition of Ancestral File. Additional Help Please note the following for additional questions about Ancestral File (area code 801): General questions: Ancestral File Unit, 240-4874. Pre-1500 research questions: Medieval Families Unit, 240-2399. Software questions: Personal Ancestral File, 240-2584. News media questions: Tom Daniels, 240-3335. Copyright questions: Greg Brown, 240-4679. Adding massive databases: Jay Roberts, 240-2466 FamilySearch distribution: Bonnie Dirksen, 240-3977. New FamilySearch File: Social Security Death Index The Social Security Death Index lists many deceased persons who had Social Security numbers and whose deaths were reported to the Social Security Administration. Most of the file names (38 million of them) are for people who died from 1962 through 1988. However, the file also lists 1.5 million people who died from 1937 through 1962. The information in the index came from United States government records and is in the public domain. The Index is now on four compact discs at the Family History Library. In late 1990, we plan to distribute it to our centers with FamilySearch. We do not provide a search or copy service for the Social Security Death Index. Anyone may use it to find information on their own family and friends who are deceased. You do not need a Social Security Number to search the index. The Social Security Index features: Birth and death dates for 39.5 million people Information on place of last residence Search options for exact or similar surname spellings Option to copy data to diskette for use at home New Acquisitions for the United States Our microfilming and purchases this year included many federal and national sources. The Family History Library Locality Catalog contains the following new records for researchers. In the compact disc edition, find these records under the locality (country, state, or other) and the topic (biography, military record, or other). In the microfiche edition, look for the catalog headings indicated below. United States - Biography - Encyclopedias American Biographical Archive, 1700-1920s. Includes 300,000 biographies, mostly from the United States, Canada, and England (letters A-L on 884 microfiche). United States - Military Records - Revolution, 1775-1783 Miscellaneous Numbered Records (the Manuscript File) of the Revolutionary War. Includes 35,000 documents such as letters, pay accounts, oaths of allegiance, pensions, and enlistment papers (125 microfilms and an index on 39 microfilms). United States - Military Records - Civil War 1861-1865 Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens or Business Firms. 350,000 alphabetical files of original documents and vouchers describing the interaction of people or businesses with the Confederacy (1158 films). United States - Military Records - Pensions Index to the General Correspondence of the Record and Pension Office, 1889-1904 (385 films). Organization Index to Pension Files of Veterans Who Served between 1861 and 1917. This collection has cards for the pension applications of many veterans from several wars, especially from the Civil War. It differs from the popular General Pension Index, 1861-1934, because it is arranged first by the name of the military unit, rather than by the name of the applicant (45 films). United States - Native Races Letters and Registers of Letters Received, 1824-1881, by the U.S. Office of Indian Affairs. Includes documents of emigration, claims, trader licenses, annuity payments, and Indian lands (1088 films). Pennsylvania - Naturalization and Citizenship Indexes to Petitions of U.S. Circuit and District Courts for the Pennsylvania Eastern District, 1795-1951 (60 films). U.S. District Court, Pennsylvania Eastern District, Petitions and Records, 1795-1931 (321 films). U.S. District Court, Pennsylvania Western District, Petitions, 1820-1931 (429 films). New Acquisitions for Canada Ontario - Land and Property Crown Land Records Index, 1786-1868. Has personal and place names extracted from surveyor's letters, land rolls, land sales, and petitions (8 films). The Ontario Archives Land Record Index, 1780s-1910s. Over 230,000 entries, listing only original grants to settlers. For the first time, this index on 128 microfiches is available for circulation to LDS family history centers. Petitions for Land Grants and Leases, 1780s-1867. Includes indexes, reports, certificates, and other documentation submitted in support of individual requests (349 films). Quebec - Notarial Records The Family History Library is acquiring microfilm copies of records of Quebec notaries whose practice began before 1850. Substantial holdings are now available from two of the ten regional branches of the Archives Nationales du Qubec. You can locate the microfilm numbers in two ways: 1.Microfiche edition of the Family History Library Catalog. Look in the Author-Title section under the name of the notary. Search the Locality section, under *Quebec, County Name or City Name - Notarial Records.* 2.Compact disc edition of the Catalog. Use the Locality Search, specifying *Quebec, County Name or City Name - Notarial Records.* The records are listed chronologically by the date each notary began his practice. Note, however, that these records are filed under the location of the county where the archive is located that houses the records, not under the name of the county or city where the notary practiced. The library collection includes more than 1,000 microfilms of notarial records for Ile-de-Montral, and another 2,200 for other counties in Quebec. (We also have important notarial records for New Orleans, Louisiana, on more than 2,600 microfilms.) Notaries were practicing in French Canada by 1650. Most of the residents of Quebec, rich or poor, English- or French-speaking, are mentioned in the actes notaries or minutes de notaire. In areas such as Quebec, a notary (notaire or protonotaire) was needed for~ Marriage contracts, Property inventories and estate settlements, Conveyances of land, Guardianship contracts. Guides to the Records To help you find notarial records, the Family History Library has acquired 2,548 microfiche from records at the Archives Nationales du Qubec. Arranged alphabetically by the name of the notary, this collection contains chronological lists and indexes of original documents. The microfiches are listed in the Family History Library Catalog under the heading *Quebec - Notarial Records - Indexes.* Records of most notaries named in this finding aid are not yet available at the Family History Library. A list of notaries is in Index des greffes des notaires decedes 1645-1948 (FHL book 971.4 N3L, microfiche 6046554). It lists notaries by region and by the date each began his practice. Another listing, which includes where the records were deposited, is in Tableau de l'ordre des notaires de la province de Quebec (FHL book 971.4 N3t). Some of the earliest notarial records are indexed and inventoried in the 26 volumes of Inventaire des greffes des notaires du regime francais, 1634-1760 (FHL book 971.4 N3q). New Acquisitions for the British Isles In the last year, we have microfilmed records in 26 counties in England, 3 in Wales, and 1 in Ireland. These include parish registers (1538-1985), nonconformist records, probates, marriage licenses, marine and seamen files, taxation lists, voting records, and poor relief lists. We also significantly increased the library's collection of church records for the English counties of Durham, Lincoln, and Somerset. Presently, we are cataloging a collection of the wills for all of England and Wales for the years 1858 to 1898. Related records which are already available are in the microfiche edition under the following heading. England - Probate Records Index to Death Duty Registers in the Estate Duty Office, 1812-1857. Includes indexes to files from country courts. These registers help you locate abstracts and copies of wills for which there was a probate tax and registration with a court (89 films). Death Duty Register for Wills in the Country Courts, 1812-1840 (675 films). Death Duty Register for Abstracts of Administrations in the Country Courts, 1812-1857 (82 films). Personal Ancestral File is a registered trademark, and FamilySearch, Ancestral File, Family History Library Catalog, and Family Registry are trademarks of Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Roots III is a trademark of Commsoft, Inc., Family Roots is a trademark of Quinsept, Inc., and Family Tree Maker is a trademark of Banner Blue Software Inc.