Free Webinar Weekends for June - from Legacy Family Tree Webinars

They are bringing you both 1) brand new webinars and 2) unlocked webinars from the members-only library. You will have free access to these throughout each weekend. 

Each weekend they will bring to you a different track of classes:

• Technology, June 12-14, 6 classes
• Great Britain, June 19-21, 6 classes
• African American, June 26-28, 6 classes

To participate, register for the live introductory webinar at www.FamilyTreeWebinars.com/June which will give you instructions for viewing the classes.

Also, see their blogpost for further details.

DNA Quest from MyHeritage DNA - Now Goes Global

I just got an e-mail from MyHeritage announcing that their DNA Quest program for reuniting adoptees with their biological families has now gone global. 

Hi, Nancy

Last month we launched DNA Quest, a new pro bono initiative to help adoptees and their birth families reunite through genetic testing. The initiative, initially launched in the USA only, received an amazing response. More than 10,000 applications were submitted so far to receive free DNA kits, from the quota of 15,000 free DNA kits pledged by MyHeritage, worth more than one million dollars.

Being that the deadline for submissions is the end of April 2018 and there are still about 3 more weeks to go, and in light of the many requests we received from the community to expand DNA Quest worldwide, we decided to increase the scope of the project, from USA-only to global. This means that people are now eligible to participate in DNA Quest regardless of their place of residence and regardless of where the adoption took place.

Please help us spread the word on social media, especially with the news about DNA Quest going global, and include a link to the www.dnaquest.org website to make this dream a reality for families around the world. Read more here.

Hurry - Free Webinars Offer Ends Sept 21st

Legacy Family Tree Webinars is celebrating their 7th Anniversary by allowing everyone access to their 15 most requested webinars.

Time is running out! The free week of viewing started on Thursday Sept. 14th and there are 4 days left to have a marathon of learning pleasure.

The original post is on Legacy News here.

Which classes are free?

• Finding Your Early 1800s US Ancestors Online with James M. Baker, PhD, CG
• Ten Brick Wall Tips for Beginners with Marian Pierre-Louis
• Organizing Your Genetic Genealogy with Diahan Southard
• FamilyBrowse - Another Way to Look at FamilySearch.org with Mary Kircher Roddy
• Google Search Strategies for Common Surnames with Lisa Louise Cooke
• Watch Geoff Live: Adding Online Records to Legacy with Geoff Rasmussen
• Solutions for Missing and Scarce Records with Tom Jones, Ph.D, CG, CGL
• Ten Hidden Resources Every Genealogist Should Know with Lisa Alzo
• Tips and Tricks to Organizing Your Genealogy with Shannon Combs-Bennett
• Digital Images for Genealogists and Technologists with Geoff Rasmussen
• Locating Pennsylvania Vital and Religious Records with Lisa Alzo
• Finding and Using Land Ownership Maps with Rick Sayre, CG, CGL, FUGA
• Using Evernote for Genealogy with Lisa Louise Cooke
• 50 Websites Every Genealogist Should Know with Gena Philibert-Ortega
• Crafting Ancestor Profiles from Start to Finish with Lisa Alzo

I have found that a membership to this service is well worthwhile.

LostCousins – Free subscriptions for new Canadian members – Limited Time Offer

LostCousins is a UK website, but as Peter mentioned, many Canadians have UK cousins and vice versa. I have found a few myself as I added both Canadian and UK census records to make connections. I echo Peter in hoping that a lot more Canadians will enter data, and maybe I'll get more connections too. This site works best if you put in aunts, uncles and cousins as well as your own direct line> Nancy

by Peter Calver, LostCousins (originally posted on the OGS e-weekly update 1/7/2017)

There are over 5,000 LostCousins members who live in Canada (and thousands more who have Canadian relatives, including me), but it's not very many for a country with a population of over 35 million. So far only 55,000 of the more than 4 million Canadians recorded on the 1881 Census have been claimed!

So to encourage more family historians to join I'm offering 6 MONTHS FREE to new members in Canada who have ancestors recorded on the 1881 Canada census or any of the other censuses we use at LostCousins. To take advantage of this offer the new member should enter the code CANADADAY in the offer codes box at the bottom of the registration page. This offer is not open to existing members, but I do have a complementary offer for them - see below.

For the benefit of potential new members reading this page the address of the LostCousins website is:  https://lostcousins.com/

There's no catch - you won't be asked to provide credit card or bank details, and after your 6 months is up you'll still have access to all the information you've entered, and all the connections you have made with cousins around the world. Of course, you'll receive an invitation to renew your subscription, but you will be under absolutely no obligation to do so.
Most people who buy a LostCousins subscription do so because they want to support the LostCousins project, and help LostCousins stay independent.

If you're already a LostCousins member you won't be able to take advantage of the offer for new members, but I have an equally good offer for you. When you enter the code HALFPRICECANADA on the Subscribe (or Renew Subscription) page you'll be able to buy a 12 month subscription for half-price, which means that you too will be getting 6 months free. You can do this even if you have an existing subscription, just so long as it doesn't have more than a year to run.

This offer is to thank you for telling potential new members about the LostCousins site - which you can do using your My Referrals page or by posting on blogs or forums. Remember to tell them about the 6 months free and give them the code (or else provide a link to this page).

Both of these offers WILL EXPIRE JULY 10^TH, SO ACT NOW!

BREAKING NEWS! FREE Find My Past Starter subscription!

OGS is giving its 2017 members the Starter Package subscription at Findmypast - for FREE! That’s a value of US $34.95 (that's almost Cdn. $50!!) included with your individual membership fee, AND - If you join or renew before December 31st, the OGS individual member fee could be $31.50 - see https://goo.gl/XfiAe5 

To see some of the categories of records available on Findmypast in this offer, visit our website and click on the Grow our Family button or click here: https://goo.gl/hZwFJu !!

Members for 2017 will be sent an email with instructions for subscribing to Findmypast. Instructions will also be posted in the Members Only section of our website. SO JOIN OGS NOW for 2017 and get started exploring all of these records!

LostCousins is FREE next weekend

It's their 12th birthday, and next weekend the LostCousins site will be completely free - it's a great opportunity to contact the cousins you've already found, and to find new cousins. The offer runs from Friday 29th April to Monday 2nd May.

LostCousins identifies members who share the same ancestors by comparing the information each member has entered on their My Ancestors page. After all, if you and another member have both entered the same relative, the two of you must also be related to each other!

Once you've entered your information the rest is automatic - all you need to do is click the Search button whenever you want to search for new cousins! 

What makes all this possible? The fact that every LostCousins member is taking information from the same online censuses.

Where can you find the census data? Most of the censuses have been selected because they are available free online. Usually only the transcription is free, not the images of the handwritten census schedules - but where that's the case all the information you need will be available as part of the transcription.

There is a very good help page on the site.

Check Out Your Australian Relatives!

Ancestry is opening up their Australian records for free from January 22 to January 26 (Australian time).

Did you have a branch of your family that went to Australia? Check it out here.

FindMyPast Offers Free Access This Weekend

This weekend FindMyPast.co.uk is making billions of world records FREE to explore. From 7:00 am EST on Friday 22nd to 7:00 am EST on Monday 25th January 2016 dive into the newspaper archive, birth, marriage and death records, crime collections, and so much more.

Go to the website here.

FindMyPast Free Weekend!

It's time to explore British, Irish, US records on FindMyPast! Also includes newspapers and military records!

As announced on the FindMyPast newsletter:

If you are not a subscriber to FindMyPast, they have announced a free weekend 18 - 21 September. If you are a subscriber, they will extend your subscription by 3 days!

For more information, go to FindMyPast Free Weekend.

Free Weekend at Ancestry UK

FREE ACCESS EASTER WEEKEND! Free access to Ancestry.uk starting today through Monday, April 6th. For those of you who don’t have a World subscription, this might be a good way to access those UK records. Visit http://ancestry.co.uk for more information.

Hope you find some of your British relatives!

Lost Cousins Website Free for the Weekend

LostCousins is completely FREE this weekend ENDS TUESDAY

LostCousins is free this weekend, and the good news is that you've got an extra 48 hours, because my offer doesn't end until midnight on Tuesday 10th February. 

As you find relatives on the 1841, 1881, and 1911 censuses it makes sense to enter them on your My Ancestors page straightaway, so that I can link you with the other members - your 'lost cousins' - who have already entered them. Simply click the Search button and the LostCousins computer will automatically check every entry you've made against the millions of entries made by other members.

Tip: it doesn't matter if your new-found cousins don't reply before midnight on Tuesday - as long as you have initiated contact during the offer period (by clicking 'Make contact' on your My Cousins page), you'll be OK.

Of course, you won't always get an instant match - somebody has to be the first person to enter a particular relative - but once you've entered your relatives your cousins will be able to find you (and you only have to click the Search button to look for matches all over again). 

Tip: the 1881 census is the one that's most likely to link you to your 'lost cousins', and you'll get most matches when you enter the members of your ancestors' extended families - their brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, and cousins. 

Peter Calver

Founder, LostCousins

Read about this unique website here.