One of the coolest genetic tools in the genealogist's toolbox (especially for those of us of the female persuasion without Y-DNA) is the relatively new autosomal DNA test. This month Ancestry.com entered the market, joining 23andme.com and FamilyTreeDNA, with their own autosomal DNA test known as AncestryDNA. In the interest of full disclosure, I was one of the ones lucky enough to receive my results during the beta period as Ancestry.com offered me a free test for review, but I was more excited about the quicker results than the free test. I would have happily paid for the test, and already have my name on the waiting list to order a few more for some relatives in the hopes of possibly solving a few genealogical mysteries. Other autosomal tests which I have had done include 23andme.com's Relative Finder ($299, with no subscription required) and FamilyTreeDNA's Family Finder ($289, no subscription required).

Ancestry.com's new AncestryDNA test is currently being offered for an introductory rate of $99, but is available only for Ancestry.com subscribers. This is a great rate, so if you are interested in pursuing autosomal DNA testing I would highly recommend taking advantage of it. Their genetic database isn't yet nearly the size of FamilyTree DNA, but they have a huge potential list of participants in their own current customer database of 1.87 million subscribers -- and I think will be especially good at attracting those with a more casual interest in genetic testing who might not otherwise seek out such a service. They also link results directly to Ancestry Member Trees (when available), which can really help to narrow the focus for potential ancestral matches.

On the downside, Read More...

Ancestry.com released an interesting new collection this week, the WWII Cadet Nursing Corps Card Files. The more than 300,000 records, including more than 124,000 young women between the ages of 17 and 35, date between 1942 and 1948 and provide an interesting look at the young women who joined this program to ensure that the United States had enough nurses to care for its citizens on both the home and war fronts. As a part of the program, cadets went through an accelerated training that fit a 36-month course into a 30-month period. Senior cadets then served their last six months in civilian, military and veteran hospitals and other public health agencies, which freed up registered nurses to help with the war effort. All cadets received a scholarship and a monthly stipend, effectively giving these young women an education they otherwise may not have been able to afford.

It is interesting to note that for many of the young women, there is more than one record available, including a Membership Card A and a Membership Card B, each indexed separately. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is represented in the collection with more than 5,000 records, including that of Eveline E. Broadwell, who was born on 7 April 1927 and enrolled in the Cadet Nursing Corps from Imperial, PA, at Pittsburgh Hospital on 16 June 1945 (Membership Card A). Membership Card B names her father as John E. Broadwell, and states that she had been living in Imperial for at least 10 years prior to her admission to the Corps. This card also has a back, which tells us she learned about the Cadet Nursing Corps over the radio.

The US WWII Cadet Nursing Corps Records are available online at Ancestry.com (subscription required). If you don't already have a membership to Ancestry.com, or are looking for an interesting gift for a special lady in your life, Ancestry.com is offering a 10% discount on Ancestry.com Gift Memberships through Mother's Day.

Ancestry.com announced this afternoon that it has entered into an agreement to acquire family history website Archives.com for approximately $100 million in cash and assumed liabilities. You can view the full press release on GeneaPress. Archives.com offers access to over 2.1 billion historical records and in just over two years has grown to more than $380,000 paying subscribers at an annual subscription fee of $39.95.

Now before you start grumbling about Ancestry.com gobbling up everything, it is important to realize that Ancestry sees Archives.com as a complementary offering, not a competitor, and plans to continue operating the site much as it is now with different search options, mostly different record sets, and a lower subscription rate. Much as with Ancestry's acquisition of Fold3, Archives.com will continue to retain its own brand, website, and customer base under the Ancestry.com umbrella. According to Ancestry.com CEO Tim Sullivan, Archives.com will not become a clone of Ancestry. Ancestry.com likes the vision that Archives.com has for its online family history service, and plans to leverage the resources of Ancestry.com along with the employees of Inflection/Archives.com to help achieve these goals. As a separate product from Ancestry.com, Archives.com will continue to focus on attracting new users to family history with a product that is affordable and easy to use.

It is frustrating as a volunteer FamilySearch indexer to spend oodles of extra time making sure you get every last name and detail deciphered correctly, only to have an arbitrator come back and undo your hard work because they didn't spend the same quality time. Or to have one of your batches come back with multiple arbitrated changes -- for situations such as blank lines and 1935 place of residence where you feel you have followed the rules correctly. From an arbitrator's point of view, however, I can say it is equally frustrating having to ding an excellent indexer's arbitration results for a easily avoided, minor error repeated over and over.

Just so we are all on the same page here, this is not a rant or grumble about poor indexing or arbitration -- far from it. I applaud everyone who is volunteering their time to help make the 1940 census more easily available to all (not to mention that there are many genealogical discoveries to be made with the use of an index). We aren't all perfect (at least I'm not). But for all of you out there helping to index and/or arbitrate the 1940 US Census index for FamilySearch, here are some tips and resources to help us all get it right and eliminate most if not all of the frustration. Read More...