Got Canadian roots? If so, listen up. Dick Eastman’s newsletter first introduced me to the Canadian Headstone Photos Project a couple of years ago, and since then I have been watching this project grow over time. Now I know that not every Australian has Canadian connections, but many do, so I thought this would be of interest.

This week FamilySearch has added 23.9 million indexed records to their collection on online data. Notable collection updates include over 19 million images from the new UK WWI Service Records 1914-20 collection, 2 million index records from the US World War I Draft Registration Cards 1917-1918, nearly a million NY passenger & crew lists …

It was only a few days into 2013 when news emereged that BillionGraves had been sold to Otter Creek Holdings, which is a working strategic partner with American Granite and Memorials, Inc. and American Monument (Utah). Otter Creek Holdings and their affiliate, American Monument, understands the connection people have to families’ headstones – they work with them every day. So BillionGraves could not have asked for a better home!

The world’s best genealogy website FamilySearch, has just added another 19 million, that’s right 19 M-I-L-L-I-O-N more indexed records and images to its free online searchable database. Austria, Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Italy, Ivory Coast, NZ, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, US, UK, Venezuela and Wales are all covered

Good news for all researchers, GenealogyInTime Magazine who is now the fifth largest free genealogy website in the world (this is based on Alexa stats, and the largest free genealogy websites in order are FamilySearch, Find A Grave, Geni, GeneaNet followed by GenealogyInTime Magazine), has just added 400 million new records to their two free search engines.

Ancestry.com.au have just announced that they are giving you FREE Access to 200 million immigration records until Sunday, 26 August 2012 (11.59pm AEST). The collections cover Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Ireland, the United States and Europe, and they include passenger lists, convict transportations, passport records, naturalisation records, border crossing lists, crew lists and a whole bunch more.

Findmypast have just introduced their new World Collection subscription which gives you access to search collections from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and the United States in one place for a single fee. Subscribing to the World Collection gives you access to over a billion records, with that number growing rapidly. And until August 31 2012, they are offering an introductory 10% discount off new subscriptions.

FamilySearch is one of the most used websites for genealogy research – and why not, it’s got the largest collection of genealogy records online (in the billions), and it is free, so who wouldn’t. But do you know just how FamilySearch works? And how best to search their website? FamilySearch has recently released two videos that discuss this massive collection of genealogical records, and will lead you to discover more about FamilySearch and their records.

If your genealogy wish for 2012 was for more new records to be added online, FamilySearch was certainly listening, as they’ve started the year off with a bang by releasing 119 million new (not-previously-online) records … and of course, being on FamilySearch they are all FREE.

For the many people who are researching Irish heritage … if you have convicts or criminals in your family, it just a whole lot easier, thanks to Findmypast.ie putting over 4 million Irish Prison Records online.

We’re not quite at the end of the month, yet July has been a has been a BIG, BIG month for new genealogy records online, particularly with the big players in the field. Military records, Wills, Business records, Convicts, Civil Registrations, Parish Registers, Directories, and Cemetery records

It’s always great to hear of new records being released, more so when it relates to Ireland. Irish research can be quite hard and time-consuming due to the lack of census records. A key record which gives information is the Irish Pension Records. Irish-Genealogy.com has spent 20 years copying handwritten pension applications which cover all of Ireland …

What a HUGE day yesterday was for Irish genealogists and researchers around the world, as findmypast Ireland (findmypast.ie) was launched. People can easily navigate and search over 4 million records that are available on www.findmypast.ie and discover their past no matter where they are in the world …