New books at the Library

Two updated Mayflower "silver books" have cone out this year, and were hand-delivered by Brenda Hayes straight from the General Society of Mayflower Descendants in Plymouth (thank you, Brenda!)  They are:

• The Descendants of Elder William Brewster through his son Jonathan, Generations 5 & 6 (v. 24, pt.2)
• The Descendants of Thomas Rogers through his grandchildren Thomas Rogers and Elizabeth Rogers, Generation 6 (v.19, pt.2)

With the 200th anniversary of the Mayflower's voyage coming next year, we are keeping this collection updated.

At the recent NERGC meeting I purchased another "hot off the press" item, the second edition of Genealogy standards issued by the Board for Certification of Genealogists, based in Washington DC. This is the organization responsible for certifying individuals as Certified Genealogist (CG) or Certified Genealogical Lecturer (CGL).  Since the first edition of this standard was issued in 2013, developments in DNA have required a number of new standards.  Sections of the book are:

1. The Genealogical Proof standard
2. Standards for Documenting
3. Standards for Researching
4. Standards for Writing
5. Standards for Genealogical Educators
6. Standards for Continuing Education

Appendices include a Code of Ethics, glossary, and resources list, plus information about the Board's certification and other activities.

Received at the Library

In honor of tax time Internet genealogy for April/May 2018 has a couple of articles designed to help your budget. In "Save money on your genealogy!" the author has great suggestions for looking for discounts and taking advantage of free services, such as educational websites and social media sites like Thomas MacEntee's genealogy bargains (https://www.genealogybargains.com/).  [For signing up for MacEntee's newsletter today, I scored a free e-book called DNA buying guide!]  Another article visits the Internet Archive, an enormous free site with 15 million searchable books and texts.  In addition to printed material it contains audio, video, images, software and more.  Although US based it contains a good deal of international material in many languages.  A project is underway to provide links from Worldcat (the most comprehensive library catalog in existence) to books in the Internet Archive.  This site also includes snapshots of old websites (over 310 billion, yes billion, of them) in the Wayback Machine feature.  An extensive article gives a tutorial on interfacing Roots Magic software with Ancestry and other sites.  A review explains Writely, an app designed to get you moving on your resolve to write your family history with daily reminders and more. A new photo service called MemoryWeb is also reviewed.  Other articles cover the rewards of oral history interviews, pharmacy records, and using shoes as an example of a theme to unite family history stories.

The spring 2018 edition of American Ancestors is a special issue entitled "Your guide to the Mayflower 400th Anniversary."  Activities that NEHGS (publisher of American Ancestors) will undertake to celebrate this milestone include "events, tours, books, articles, exhibitions, educational opportunities, ceremonies, commemorations, and more" according to the society's president.  An estimated 35 million people are descended from the Mayflower pilgrims.  A new feature of this anniversary is acknowledgment of the role of the Wampanoag in the Pilgrims' story, celebrated in a traveling exhibit.  Partner organizations have also formed in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to help highlight the Pilgrims' origins in the Old World.  Mayflower-related articles include essays on a couple of my own forebears, Stephen Hopkins (his baptismal church) and Priscilla Alden (her female descendants).  If you are gearing up to try to connect yourself to these pioneers, see the article "A Guide to Proving Mayflower Ancestry."