Public Records

Bronner Burgess Obituary

01/23/08. I am saddened to report on the passing of William Bronner Burgess, age 2, after falling into an indoor swimming pool at home. Bronner is the son of Rick and Sherri Burgess. You may know Rick from The Rick and Bubba Show, where he is co-host. Our thoughts are with the entire Burgess Family during this painful time. Rick and Sherri have three other sons, Blake, Brooks and Brody, and a daughter, Brandi.

 

 

To read the full obituary from The Jacksonville News, click here.

 

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Free Obituary Templates

When reviewing obituaries, it is helpful to know that most follow a fairly standard template format.  However, it seems there may be some confusion as to what this format is and, when reviewing or writing an obituary, what type of format to use or expect. To assist with this, we’ve reviewed a number of free obituary templates sites and present two of them here for your research.  Please let us know if we missed anything.

http://obituaryguide.com

This website has suggestions for those who wish to write an obituary for themselves or for a loved one. The purpose is to help one write an obituary that is lively, accurate and memorable.

You can visit their section on templates by clicking here.

Write Express
Write Express is a site that sells letter writing software.  However, it also has an interesting tip about writing obituaries that may help for those looking for free obituary templates.

Writing an obituary will never be easy, but if the task has fallen on your shoulders, a good set of free obituary templates may assist you in doing it well.

 

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Blank Family Tree with Step-by-Step Instructions

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U.S. Southern Claims Comission and U.S. Freedmen Bureau

Truly an amazing post from the folks over at Ancestry.com. In Honor of Black History Month, Just-Released Civil War-Era Marriage and Southern Claims Commission Documents Allow African-Americans Additional Chance to Uncover Heritage PROVO, Utah, Feb. 7 /PRNewswire/ — African-Americans seeking to discover family roots obscured by slavery may be one step closer to their heritage.

 

 

Ancestry.com, the world’s largest online family history resource, today expanded the largest online repository of African-American family history records with two new collections that provide unique insights into African- American family history: Freedman’s Marriage Records and Southern Claims Commission Records.

“While these documents depict the horrors of slavery, they also provide invaluable information that help uncover ancestors’ life stories,” said Megan Smolenyak, Chief Family Historian for Ancestry.com. “These documents further cement the fact that African-Americans can discover their family’s heritage, even those ancestors enslaved prior to the Civil War. We’re seeing an increasing interest among African-Americans in tracing their roots, especially as collections such as these are made available and accessible online, rather than stored away in archives.”

 

Ancestry.com is releasing the following databases in honor of Black History Month:

• 1871-1880 U.S. Southern Claims Commission Master Index
• 1871-1880 U.S. Southern Claims Commission, Allowed Claims
• 1871-1880 U.S. Southern Claims Commission, Disallowed and Barred Claims
• 1865-1872 (Updated) U.S. Freedmen Bureau Records of Field Offices
• 1861-1869 U.S. Freedmen’s Marriage Records

Read the full post at   http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2008/02/06/civil-war-era-marriage-and-southern-claims-commission-documents-now-available/.

 

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National Archives Announces Extended Research Room Hours

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, February 1, 2008
National Archives Announces Extended Research Room Hours

Washington, DC. . . Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein announced today that the National Archives will restore its evening and weekend hours in its Washington, DC and College Park, MD, research rooms. Effective the week of April 14, 2008, the extended hours will be 9 A.M. to 9 P.M. Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday and 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Saturday. Hours on Monday and Tuesday will continue to be 9 A.M to 5 P.M.

Congress and the President provided a one-time appropriation of $1.3 million in the National Archives Fiscal Year 2008 budget to restore these hours. The funds will be used to hire new archival research room staff and to cover the costs of utilities, maintenance, and security during the extended hours.

“I am very grateful to the Congress and the President for their recognition of the importance of making our documentary heritage as widely available as possible. Extending the research room hours goes a long way in helping us attain this goal.

This increase in hours underlines our commitment to open government,” the Archivist said in making the announcement. “I would also like to acknowledge the enthusiastic support of our user communities,” he added.

Research room hours at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC and at the College Park facility were reduced in October 2006 as a cost-savings measure. Since then, the National Archives has had extended hours only once a month on Thursday and Friday evenings and on Saturdays. Prior to October 2006, the National Archives extended hours were Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. The change from Tuesday to Wednesday evening late hours was implemented to make it more convenient and cost-effective for out-of-town researchers who travel to the National Archives for research.

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For more information, contact the National Archives Public Affairs staff at 202-357-5300.

 

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International Collections – World Vital Records

Posted by Diane Haddad at Genealogy Insider…

Starting Monday, Feb. 4, FamilyLink’s World Vital Records subscription database site will be outfitted with a new, gargantuan World Collection of international records.  Built through partnerships with more than 20 record-holding organizations, the World Collection has more than 1.5 billion records from about 35 countries, including England, Canada, Australia, France, Ireland, Scotland, Hungary and Portugal.

 

It’ll double World Vital Records’ offerings.  Some of the new collection’s major components (more…)

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Dachau Concentration Camp Records

The Dachau Concentration Camp Records are a chilling yet important tool for those searching for relatives who may have been impacted by the world wars.Dachua was the first concentration camp established, and registered over 200,000 prisoners over its history.

 

 

 

The data contained in these records may include:

• Family name
• Given name
• Date of birth
• Place of birth
• Last place of residence
• Street or provincial location
• Prisoner number
• Category of prisoner
• Date of arrival in Dachau
• Ultimate fate of prisoner in Dachau

Read more about Dachau Concentration Camp Records

Search Dachau Concentration Camp Records

Stephen Morse has a great website with numerous genealogy search references and information.  I strongly recommend a visit.

 

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Congress approves plans for new National Archives facility

Congress has approved the U.S. General Services Administration’s (GSA) plan to build a new 525,000-square-foot facility in St. Louis for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). GSA announced plans in June 2007 to build a facility for NARA’s National Personnel Records Center on 23.5 acres it bought at 1829 Dunn Road. NARA’s National Personnel Records Center is one of the agency’s largest operations with a central repository of personnel-related records for both military and civil service employees, including military personnel files of Gen. Douglas MacArthur, Elvis Presley, Ted Williams and former Presidents George H.W. Bush and John F. Kennedy, among many other notables.

GSA is in the process of selecting a developer…

Read the full story at www.bizjournals.com

 

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Man arrested in eBay sale of historic documents

I came across this article from Jean-Yves BAXTER at Genealogy Blog today. According to the article, Daniel Lorello, a State employee of New York, has been arrested for stealing historic documents and selling them on eBay. He has been charged with possession of stolen property, grand larceny and fraud. His crimes were discovered after someone saw the items posted for sale on eBay and alerted the authorities. Included in the missing documents are copies of the Davy Crockett Almanacs and a letter from Vice President John C. Calhoun in 1823.

 

Read the full story.

Wow…

 

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National Archives Budget Increased for FY08

A press release issued by the National Archives today indicates that they will receive funding in the amount of $411.1 million this fiscal year. This represents a 20.5 percent increase over the 2007 Fiscal Year. NARA has not received regular appropriations in the past, and therefore is funded under the $555 billion 2007 Consolidation Appropriations Act.

Read the full news release

 

A 20% increase is a lot.  However, it sounds like they were overdue.  Let us know if you disagree.

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US Department of Veterans Affairs

Wondering if the VA has any records you can use to obtain the military history of a friend or relative? The short answer is no. The U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs does not maintain  such as military units assigned to, dates and places of assignment, pay records, etc. For information about military records, visit the National Archives Records Administration website at http://www.archives.gov/.

 

 

I’ll post about The National Archives shortly; they have some interesting news today about increases in budgets.

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