Published: October 27, 2007 03:17 pm         

Genealogy: FamilySearch completes two new online projects

TERRE HAUTE — FamilySearch has announced the completion of two new online projects and asks for volunteers to help them in a third.

FamilySearch Record Services, the Georgia Archives, and the Georgia State Office of Vital Records and Statistics recently entered into a cooperative effort to place the Georgia death certificates online. Now approximately 275,000 Georgia death records from 1919-1927 can be viewed for free at one of two Web sites. The sites have an online searchable index that is linked to a scanned digital image of each death record. These can be viewed by going to www.GeorgiaArchives.org (go to the virtual vault), or at labs.familysearch.org.

A second group of records recently made available by Family Search in collaboration with the Utah State Archives consists of the digital images of the state’s historic brand books. Brands started being registered in Utah in 1851 in order to provide the means for an owner to identify his stock and to prevent the use of duplicate brands by different livestock owners. The historic brand books from 1849 to 1930 are now on line at historyresearch.utah.gov/digital/540.htm, including a full text search and a name index. Entries in the books include a picture of the brand symbol, the location on the body that the brand was placed, the name of the person registering the brand, the date of registration, and the applicant’s county of residence. If your ancestor was a rancher, having a record and image of his registered brand would be an interesting addition to the family records comparable to having a family crest.

FamilySearch is also launching a Latin America project and needs 10,000 volunteers who can read both English and Spanish to help index Mexican, Argentine, and other Latin American records for placement on the Internet. The first records to be indexed will be the 1930 Mexican census. Volunteers would download one census page at a time onto their home computers, index that page, and send it back to Family search. Each page would take about 30 minutes to index and volunteers would work at their own pace, accepting only as many pages as they have time for. If you want to be a part of this exciting project, register at FamilySearchIndexing.org. Por favor!

Queries

n I am looking for any family descended from Ephriam Brown, born 1826 in Kentucky and died June 17, 1903, near Clay County, Indiana. He was married to Elizabeth Neal. One of his sons, Henry Clay Brown, born Oct. 12, 1870, in Kentucky, married Zilphia Ann VonCannon on May 14, 1893, in Clay County. He died Aug. 6, 1933, in Clay County. I am looking for information on his family and his son Ephriam Max Brown is of great interest. I know the family still lives in the area, and hope to hear from them. Contact Niki Barker, 257 Pleasant Point Dr., Beaufort, SC 29907, e-mail pickeyniki@yahoo.com.

n Seeking information on Samuel F. or E. Willey, born about 1831 in Indiana. He married Eliza Brock about 1869. He was a veteran of the Civil War, Company B, 31st Indiana. They had four children: Ellen Willey, born about 1871 and married W. D. Gray; William Benton Willey, born about 1873 and married Myrtle (surname possibly McCormick); Alfred H. Willey born about 1879; and Edna Willey, who married a K. O. Risher. I think Samuel also had a brother named Alfred who died in 1921 in Vigo County, Indiana. I also believe that Samuel and Alfred were the sons of Samuel and Anna Willey and from Fayette County, Indiana. Please contact Donna Cooper, 53006 Tulain, Elkhart, IN 46514, e-mail dkcooper6@comcast.net.