Insider Ketchup for 5 December 2016

Each December I try to take the month off. Ancestry.com and FamilySearch respond by doing lots of interesting things. Still, I’ll try to write as little as possible. Here are the topics I would have liked to write about this week.

Ancestry is offering free access to WWII records on Fold3 in December to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Pearl Harbor this Wednesday. “Go to fold3.com/pearlharbor to explore. Then build a memorial page for your ancestor for free, so that their memory may never be forgotten.”

Mike Provard shared an interesting link about the 2020 census. Thanks, Mike.

Looking for service opportunities this December? FamilySearch suggests that you consider indexing. See “Indexing Goal in December to #LIGHTtheWORLD” on the FamilySearch blog.

Sick of duplicate persons in FamilySearch Family Tree? They published a good article on their blog. See “Merging People in FamilySearch’s Family Tree.”

“Exploring Your DNA Results Further” on the Ancestry blog describes two features of your DNA results you may missed.

Watch online the celebration of the completion of the Freedmen’s Bureau project. It will be held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture on Tuesday, December 6, at 9:00 a.m. eastern standard time. The broadcast will be streamed live at DiscoverFreedmen.org.

FamilySearch is celebrating today the 10th anniversary of Internet-based, volunteer-driven indexing. FamilySearch (and the Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) had previously used CD-ROM, paper, and microfilm based images in its (more properly named) extraction program. As a thank you of sorts, FamilySearch has provided “I HEART families” images that you can use as computer or phone wallpaper or Facebook profile images. See “Celebrating 10 Years of Indexing” on the FamilySearch blog.

Ancestry ProGenealogists is sponsoring scholarships to the major U.S. genealogical institutes. According to their website, “the AncestryProGenealogists Scholarship Program will provide four scholarships that will cover tuition, round-trip standard economy airfare (Ancestry may substitute appropriate ground transportation for awardees who live within 300 miles of the applicable institute), and hotel expenses for one individual each to attend one of the four institutes”

• Genealogical Institute on Federal Records (Gen-Fed)
  Washington, D.C.
  July 10-14, 2017
• Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP)
  Pittsburgh, PA
  June 25-30, 2017 or July 16-21, 2017
• Institute on Genealogical and Historical Research (IGHR)
  Athens, GA
  July 23-28, 2017
• Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG)
  Salt Lake City, UT
  January 21-26, 2018

To enter, visit https://www.progenealogists.com/scholarship.