From time to time we have compiled Snippet’s posts. These have been collections of news from Australian genealogy and history groups, societies and other related organisations.
But as genealogy is worldwide, and in this digital age we can keep up with what’s happening everywhere, here are a few of the recent happenings and announcements of note, just in case you missed them.
AncestryDNA reaches 7 million
The big news just out is that the Ancestry DNA database now had just reached the 7 million testers mark. This is pretty incredible as it was only back in November 2017 that they hit the 6 million mark. So that’s an extra million testers in just a couple of months. Anyway it also means there’s 7 million people who’ve tested to compare your DNA to. www.ancestry.com.au/dna
Update on RootsWeb issues
Back in December 2017 Ancestry found a security flaw in RootsWeb , and subsequently took it offline temporarily until the issues are resolved. The latest update from RootsWeb says the following: “We are on track to bring the mailing lists back online by the end of this month. The mailing list archives will be up and running with current emails in them. We are in the process of importing the old archives into the new system which will take some time. We appreciate your patience as we continue upgrading the systems that run the RootsWeb mailing lists. We know how much value this service provides to our members. Updates on our progress will continue to be posted on the RootsWeb homepage: http://www.rootsweb.com”
Farewell to Your Family History Magazine
As seems to have happened far too often over the past few years, we have to say farewell to another wonderful genealogy magazines. After 15 years England’s “Your Family History” magazine ceases production with their March 2018 (Issue 192) being their last one. The YFH team wrote the following on their Facebook page: “We’re going out in style with a bumper guide to occupational research, and the usual host of other features, covering everything from district nurses and Birmingham roots to the Statistical Accounts of Scotland. Subscribers will receive a letter with their last issue explaining their options. If you have any problems, please call customer service on 0330 333 9492 (customercare@subscribe.yourfamilyhistorymag.co.uk). The editorial department is closed but you can still send a message to yfh@historymags.co.uk, and they will keep an archive of recent issue downloads, the article index, back issues and other information up at www.historymags.co.uk/yfh.
Free Update to Legacy 9 Available
For users of Legacy 9, there is a free update available which includes a total of 97 fixes to lots of little things. You can check the full list of these out here: https://legacyfamilytree.com/RevisionHistory9.asp, and you download the update from here: https://legacyfamilytree.com/DownloadUpdate.asp.
Big News from MyHeritage DNA
MyHeritage has just announced that contacting DNA Matches is now free to all MyHeritage DNA users — both managers of MyHeritage DNA kits and uploaders of DNA data from other companies. They have made this feature free in response to many requests by users. For more on MyHeritage DNA you can watch their recent webinar here. To find out more about MyHeritage DNA click here.
FamilySearch – What’s Coming in 2018?
Based on what FamilySearch has announced as coming, it’s going to be a very exciting year. While there are many new features and facets that they are offering users with their app, with indexing, with their online tree and other things, they also expect to add another 400 million records online throughout the year. You can read their full announcement what’s coming here.
Other big news from MyHeritage is that they have passed one million people DNA tested: 800 000 of whom are tested with MyHeritage and 200 000 are DNA transfers from another company. In an Extreme Genes podcast interview with CeCe Moore 11 Feb 2018 she stated that Myheritage had sold 500 000 DNA tests had been sold during the big sales last year so their database should grow at a great rate. I know I have had some good matches there that have not tested elsewhere.