Wikis are exciting tools to provide information.   The concept behind them is that “we are smarter than me.” In other words, no one  person can know everything about any subject. There is always someone who knows additional details about any subject that can be named. If we could combine our accumulated knowledge and make it available to others, we would all be better for it.

Certainly, that is true in the field of family history. With 50 states and over 3,000 counties or county-equivalents in the United States alone, no one person can ever hope to personally know all of the details about the records and research tools available for all of those localities. Add to that all of the countries of the world and their respective jurisdictions and the problem only grows. And each of those jurisdictions are responsible for many different types of records and documents. No wonder researchers have difficulty knowing about all the records that are available to them.

But now a research wiki is available to help us. It is the Research Wiki provided to the world, free of charge, by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  At the present time, the Research Wiki has nearly 60,000 pages of information about the records of the world, their content, availability, and importance to family history researchers. This tool is a growing, dynamic source of information, with new pages being added daily. Links to sources of information are also included, as well as addresses and descriptions of records depositories where documents may be found.

Visit the Research Wiki at wiki.familysearch.org for valuable research information. And if you have knowledge or records, indexes, websites, or other helpful research tools, share your knowledge with others by contributing to the Research Wiki.

The above is from Family History Expos, Inc. website

Barbara Algaze

JGSLA Librarian

This is a great site for World War II research.

Check it out.

Introducing…The World Memory Project

Would you like to take part in an interesting and meaningful project? (Sorry, PC users only) Please read the following release from Ancestry regarding an incredible opportunity to get important records online for all of us. I have been keying for several years on the Ancestry projects, anad find it a wonderful way to use my downtime. With enough records keyed, you will also be eligible for a discount on ancestry subscriptions. Please read on.

Almost three years ago we started the Ancestry World Archives Project with a vision of involving the genealogy community to make more records accessible and free. Since that time more than 76,000 of you have helped to index over 71 million records. As collections of records are completed we’ve been putting them online for free for anyone to search. You have helped thousands of people discover their family history by preserving historical documents that might otherwise be lost.

This month, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ancestry.com announced the launch of the World Memory Project. The goal is to build the largest free online resource for information about victims and survivors of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution during World War II.

The Museum’s archives contain information on well over 17 million people targeted by Nazi racial and political policies, including Jews, Poles, Roma, Ukrainians, political prisoners, and many others. The Museum assists thousands of people worldwide every year who are searching for information about individuals in its collections. The World Memory Project will greatly expand the accessibility of the Museum’s archival collection and enable millions of people to search for their own answers online.

“The Nazis’ genocidal policies quickly turned millions of individual lives, filled with hopes and dreams, into massive statistics that are hard to comprehend. Through our partnership with Ancestry.com, we hope to remind the public that the Holocaust is not about numbers but about individuals just like us and to help families uncover histories they thought were lost,” says Sara J. Bloomfield, Director, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. “The Museum’s vast archives contain documentation that may be the only remaining link to an individual life. Preserving these personal histories is one of the most powerful ways we can learn from history and honor the victims.”

Despite the Nazis’ efforts to erase human history, millions of their victims’ experiences were recorded in documents that still exist today. The World Memory Project enables anyone to help bring this information online – one record and a few minutes at a time – to help families discover the fate of lost loved ones and forge new connections that transcend war and time. While the documents will remain in the Museum’s collections, copies can be obtained upon request to the Museum. The indexes, including names, dates, and other information from the documents, will be made searchable online for free.

That is where you come in.

If you have been keying for a while, we hope you will take a look at the new World Memory Project collections and contribute some time and effort to keying information from these records. If you haven’t keyed in a while, we hope you will take this opportunity to rediscover the Ancestry World Archives Project and to contribute to this very worthwhile effort. All the collections you see in the keying tool and on the AWAP Dashboard beginning with the acronym “USHMM” (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) are part of this new World Memory Project.

We are here to help bring information from these significant records to light. Many of us are not genealogists. Many of us are new to indexing. All of us have a desire to see the information from these important records preserved and made more accessible than ever. Together we create a unique and powerful community.

“It is an honor to have the opportunity to work with such a respected institution to provide people around the world the access to these truly important collections,” said Tim Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry.com. “It is our hope that by making these collections easier to search, victims and their families will finally be able to answer difficult but significant questions about the fate of their loved ones, and in doing so, complete and preserve such significant family stories.”

For those of you who have joined us this past month – Welcome! To all of you who are part of the Ancestry World Archives Project contributors’ community – Thank you! Even a few minutes of your time could help families discover what happened to their loved ones and restore the identities of people the Nazis tried to erase from history. The power of truth is in your hands.

Subject: Seeking Stories from Jewish Refugees Who Came through Angel Island
From: Janice Sellers
Date: Tue, 12 Apr 2011 22:59:08 -0700

The Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation (AIISF) promotes a greater understanding of Pacific Coast immigration and its role in shaping America’s past, present, and future. Currently, AIISF is asking for help in locating Jewish refugees who came to San Francisco in the late 1930′s and 1940, and their descendants.

AIISF hosts a database (http://aiisf.org/history/ai-jewish-refugees) with information about 132 Jewish immigrants who were processed at Angel Island Immigration Station. The database was compiled by volunteers who reviewed files at the National Archives branch in San Bruno, California. Please contact AIISF at the e-mail address or phone number listed on the Web site if you recognize any of the individuals listed in the database. AIISF would like to interview the individuals or their descendants in order to get their full stories.

Janice M. Sellers
http://ancestraldiscoveries.blogspot.com/

The Hebrew Confederate Cemetery, located in Richmond, Virginia, is the only Jewish military cemetery in the world outside of Israel. It was created by the anti-Semitism of the two Confederate military cemeteries, in Spotsylvania Court House and Fredericksburg. They refused to bury the Jewish Confederate soldiers killed in the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and Wilderness. They didn’t want “Jewish boys” in their cemeteries.

Read more about it here:

http://www.seraphicpress.com/archives/2011/01/post_196.php

The website also contains the names of soldiers buried in this cemetery.