Earlier this year my father-in-law passed away at the age of 90 - the last living World War II veteran in my family. Luckily for us, we have many of his stories recorded, but for many veterans the stories and memories of their war experiences have died with them. Take time this week from your family history research to learn more about the veterans in your family tree - interview a living veteran, track down a military record, or read online accounts of other military veterans who served with your ancestors. Thank you for honoring our veterans.

If you're like many of us, you (or your parents or grandparents) probably have stacks of old slide carousels loaded up with family memories. Unfortunately, the precious images on those slides are deteriorating with each passing day. Here are several options for converting those pictures to digital format.

Once you've scanned your old family photos or slides into digital format, try these tips for digitally cleaning up those tears, stains, creases and faded images.

As a bonus for your hard work, the digital pictures you've created from those old family slides can now be used in all sorts of creative ways to make great holiday gifts for your family members -- from ornaments to calendars!

Footnote announced today that it will digitize and place online all publicly available U.S. Federal Censuses from 1790 to the most current public census from 1930. The 1860 and 1930 censuses are already online, with digitization of 1900, 1910 and 1920 just getting underway.

So why use the census on Footnote when it is available elsewhere on the Web? Footnote does do it a little differently - offering interactive census pages for each individual which allow users to add comments and insight about that person, upload and attach scanned photos and documents, and identify relatives found in the census by clicking the I'm Related button. Check out the 1930 interactive census page for Jimmy Stewart to see available features.

Footnote also offers an alternative to other subscription genealogy sites, such as Ancestry.com, which offer the complete U.S. census. The census records also make a very nice addition for people subscribing to Footnote for the many other records they offer. Of course, FamilySearch Record Search offers many U.S. Federal Census online for free (along with census records for many states and other countries). They currently have indexes and images for 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1900, plus indexes only for 1880 and 1920.

Check out the latest interactive census additions at Footnote, and sign up to receive an email when images are added for your chosen states.

The Bureau of Land Management's General Land Office records are a great online resource for U.S. genealogists researching ancestors in the thirty federal or public land states. As far as online land records go, however, the GLO is not the only game in town. Many U.S. counties, especially in the eastern part of the country, have started putting their historical deed records online. You might be surprised what you can find!

Most of you probably know that I have a lot of North Carolina ancestors. As a result, I've been very happy with the recent trend of North Carolina counties to place their deeds records online in digitized format. Read more...

Hereditary surnames, the family names passed down from father to son, came much later to England than many other parts of Europe. It was not until almost the 16th century before surnames were in common, everyday use by almost everyone. What's interesting is that the most common surnames in use in England today (according to ONS data) are not all of English origin. Their are several Arabic names in the top 100, along with name of more expected Welsh or Scottish origins.

Is your name one of the most common in use in England today? Do you know what it may mean or where it derives from? While it is fairly difficult to say with a certainty how your specific family name evolved without tracing it all the way back to its progenitor, you can at least learn a little about the common meaning and origin applied to your surname in this list of Top 100 Common English Surnames & Their Meanings.

In the United States, this Thursday marks the end of National Hispanic Heritage Month, a month set aside to celebrate the culture and traditions of U.S. residents who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Ironically, Hispanic Heritage Month doesn't follow the calendar, instead running from September 15 - October 15 each year, because September 15th marks the anniversary of independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In addition, Mexico and Chile celebrate their independence days on Sept. 16 and Sept. 18, respectively. Columbus Day or Día de la Raza, held on October 12, also falls within the 30-day period.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 14 percent of the population (an estimated 42.7 million Americans) claim Hispanic origin, making it the nation's largest ethnic minority. Are you one of them? Celebrate your Hispanic heritage by learning more about your roots:

Tracing Your Hispanic Family Tree

Spanish Surname Meanings & Origins

Tracing Your Family Tree in Mexico

Hispanic Heritage National Parks

Notable Hispanic Women

It comes up in the school setting quite a bit, but even adult adoptees face questions when tracing their family tree and displaying the results. Do I trace my genetic roots or my adoptive family's history? What if I want to do both? The usual printed family tree chart has blanks for one mother, one father, and their ancestors, but no spaces for adoptive, foster, or step parents and their ancestors - not a great fit for many of today's blended families. There are a number of alternatives, however, some of which I address in How to Handle Adoption in the Family Tree. If you have additional suggestions, please add them in the comments below!

October is designated in many U.S. States as "Family History Month," and genealogists everywhere have adopted the month as their own. Whether you're new to genealogy, or have devoted a lifetime to it, celebrate Family History Month with your family this October by trying one (or more) of these ten wonderful ways to research, craft and commemorate your past.

For the first time ever, over one million Holocaust-related records - including millions of names and 26,000 photos from the National Archives - are available online. Footnote.com, in conjunction with the National Archives and Records Administration, has launched a new online digital Holocaust Collection, including:

The new Holocaust Collection at Footnote will be available free for everyone through the month of October. The remaining records at Footnote.com are available through a paid subscription. In addition to the Holocaust records, the Holocaust Collection also includes nearly 600 interactive personal accounts of those who survived or perished in the Holocaust provided by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The project incorporates social networking tools that enable visitors to search for names and add photos, comments and stories, share their insights, and create pages to highlight their discoveries. There will be no charge to access and contribute to these personal pages. Since the collection just launched today, you can probably expect slowness and other oddities - so plan on patience!

Most of us involved in researching our family tree have interviewed at least a relative or two. Asked questions about their parents, grandparents, school life and wedding day. Learned some interesting stories that we've never heard before. But what about those relatives who are no longer with us? Is there a chance anyone ever interviewed them? You might be surprised. For several client projects I've recently worked on I was able to locate an oral history of a close relative online. Maybe not the direct line relative I was looking for - but an uncle, a cousin, a brother.... Their stories gave me great insight into the family, especially into questions I might not have otherwise found the answer too, such as why their family immigrated or why they chose a particular occupation.

There are hundreds of thousands of oral histories available online, in digital, audio or transcribed formats, that anyone researching their family tree should make time to search. Even if you can't locate an oral history for your ancestor or even a close relative, you can learn a lot from the recorded histories of their contemporaries - people from the same community, people with the same type of job, people from the same ethnic background, and even people who lived through the same type of experiences (war, slavery, internment, etc.). Search through the oral family histories on these great sites and you might be surprised what you can find!