Genealogy News – February/March 2023

A new series that I’m starting here is the “Genealogy News” posts. Putting it simply, I’m collating the news from big-name genealogy societies, archives and other genie organisations from Australia and elsewhere, and have listed it here for you. As for how often I’ll do it, I’m thinking monthly at this stage, but it will depend on what news is available, so we’ll see.

As RootsTech (the world’s biggest genie conference) was held recently, there were a lots of posts from numours people relating to the event. For this list I’ve chosen to not include them. They’re still listed on their blogs, so you can check them out if you wish. Anyway, now on with the news …

23andMe
Raising Awareness of Rare Disease
New Algorithm Cleans Up 23andMe Family Tree

Ancestry
Ancestry Launches Storymaker Studio
Celebrating 40 Years of Family History Discoveries

Australian War Memorial
Meet the women in construction at the Australian War Memorial
Australia’s first Academy Award 80 years on
Untold stories of Australian sailors and airmen revealed
Australian War Memorial’s new galleries take flight

FamilySearch
New Free Historical Records on FamilySearch 6 February 2023
The Family History Library Is Now the FamilySearch Library
New Free Historical Records on FamilySearch 30 January 2023
Updated and Redesigned FamilySearch Help

FamilyTreeDNA
FamilyTreeDNA Has Added 5,000 Ancient Connections to Our Database
Big Y-700 DNA Testing Breaks Down Brick Walls in Family with African Ancestry
Introducing the New FTDNATiP™ Report for Y-STRs
The Group Time Tree: A New Big Y Tool for FamilyTreeDNA Group Projects

Findmypast
Honour your heritage with over 100,000 new records, including female shipbuilders and engineers
Delve into the dark legacy of British slavery and the daily life of Nottingham’s churches this week
Enrich your tree with over 200,000 new records, from Lincolnshire to West Yorkshire
Celebrate the civil service and more with nearly a million new records

GEDmatch
GEDmatch sold again
GEDmatch owners Verogen bought by QIAGEN for US $150 million

MyHeritage
5 Women Inventors Whose Innovations Changed the World
MyHeritage Announces Third Installment of DNA Quest Initiative
Introducing Color Coding for Family Trees
Introducing cM Explainer to Predict Relationships Between DNA Matches With Greater Accuracy
Daniel’s Favorites: 10 MyHeritage Features Our Genealogy Expert Can’t Live Without

National Archives of Australia
The Captain’s treasures: Flinders’ letters and books join archival collection
Discovering Anzacs website decommissioned, making way for innovative new digital experiences
Frozen memories, now digital: Antarctic photographic collections preserved for future generations

RootsMagic
It’s here! RootsMagic 9!

ScotlandsPeople
Scottish Handwriting 1500-1700: a self-help pack available to buy
Our Records: One-hour-old: the youngest person enumerated in the 1921 census

The Genealogist
New Release: 1871 UK Census households now plotted on Map Explorer
More than 355 Square Miles of additional Lloyd George Domesday records released on TheGenealogist’s Map Explorer
TheGenealogist adds more than 342,500 to their 1939 Register, opening previously closed records

Trove
Batter up, ladies: Australia’s first women’s cricket match played in front of spectators
New in March 2023
Major Digitisation of Defence Service Newspapers [this was news late 2022, but I’ve included it in case you missed it]