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Yes, you read that right — the OGS 2008 Conference! I’m trying to figure out what happened to 2007 
OGS will have its 2008 conference April 17-19 in Cincinnati. There are two “extra” sessions on Thursday, April 17, and full days of sessions on both Friday, April 18 and Saturday, April 19. The schedule looks very interesting, with a little (or a lot!) for everyone.
Check out the info on the OGS 2008 Conference at www.ogs.org/conference2008
They’re at it again! This time, FamilySearch Indexing has announced a partnership with the National Archives. The press release states:
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) of the United States and FamilySearch today announced an agreement that will lead to the digitization of millions of historical documents over time. The bulk of the digital images and related indices will be freely accessible through www.FamilySearch.org, 4,500 family history centers worldwide, or at the National Archives and its Regional Centers. …
Under the new agreement, FamilySearch will be operating highly specialized digital cameras 5 days a week at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. FamilySearch intends to extend the digitization services to select regional facilities at a later date. That means there will be a continuous flow of new data for genealogy buffs to explore for years to come. It also means FamilySearch will be able to digitize the thousands of microfilms it has already created from NARA’s holdings, providing access to millions of images for genealogists to search from the convenience of their home computers with Internet access.
The first fruit of this effort is a portion of a very large collection of Civil War records, already underway. In this pilot project, FamilySearch will digitize the first 3,150 Civil War widow pension application files (approximately 500,000 pages). After digitization, these historical documents will be indexed and posted online by Footnote.com with the indices also available for free on www.FamilySearch.org. FamilySearch intends to do all 1,280,000 of these files over the coming years.
It wasn’t too long ago that we never thought we’d see records like these digitized, let alone indexed and online!
FamilySearch Indexing is an incredible project started by the Family History Library. (Technically, FamilySearch Indexing is part of the FamilySearch. The names do get confusing.) The goal is to digitize the microfilm held in the Granite Mountain Records Vault, index it, and put it online. Just a few years ago, we thought that the microfilm would never be digitized in our lifetimes, let alone indexed and put online!
One of the first major FSI projects was Georgia Death Certificates. I received a press release today saying that the index and the images are now online! They can be accessed at the Georgia State Archives website — www.georgiaarchives.org (click on “Virtual Vault”) and at labs.familysearch.org.
The Ohio Genealogical Society is sponsoring the indexing of early Ohio tax records. I am hopeful that some of the images and data will be online very soon.
If you would like to help out with any of the FamilySearch Indexing projects, visit the site, read about the projects, and follow the instructions for registering to volunteer. You can do it from home and you can do as much or as little as you’d like.
This is a very exciting time to be involved in genealogy!
