- Exciting New Information in an Updated Dataset: The Consular Despatches Dataset More Than Triples in Size, Dr Kenneth W. Heger, Ph.D.
In 2017 MAGS created and uploaded a name-searchable database to help you find records among an important, but underused, series of records – State Department consular despatches. When MAGS posted the dataset, the index covered despatches from approximately one dozen consulates in Germany located mostly in the southern part of what became the German Empire in 1871, an area that had been home to tens of thousands of America’s immigrants from Germany. This article announces the results of those years of work, alerting you that the database has exploded in size, and it now contains indexes to all the American consulates located in Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Germany, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Moreover, since MAGS initially uploaded the dataset, the National Archives has digitized and put online all the records the dataset indexes. With these achievements, it is appropriate to remind you of the dataset, the information you might be able to find, list the consulates indexed, and provide guidance on how to access the records.
- An Escape (or Escapade) Into Czech Records, Bob Greiner
Greiner recounts his experience researching a family history question that took him through Czech records. He explains how he used Ancestry and FamilySearch for family, village, and baptism records to learn more about Joseph Sukup (1897–1983) who was born in Moravia (now the Czech Republic) and spent most of his adult life in Rensselaer County, New York. He also shares handwritten census and marriage records and explains how the Czech Genealogical Word List Wiki page at FamilySearch and the Czechia Research Group in the FamilySearch Community can be used to help with translation.
- The Evolution of the MAGS Database, Bob Greiner
Have you ever wondered how the MAGS database was created or where the data came from? How much work was involved in its creation and who was responsible? In this article, Greiner will explain the origin and processes required to make this unique set of information available to MAGS members. At present there are about twenty record sets available to search in the MAGS database. The current MAGS record sets include a wide variety of data types in each record. This includes names, dates, places, and various other important pieces of information unique to each set. There are also several new record sets and some significant updates to others that will be added in the next several months. This includes a complete name index to all back issues of the MAGS publication Der Kurier from its inception in 1982.
Synopsis of articles in recent issues
