George is out of town speaking for the North Carolina Genealogical Society, so Drew hosts this episode, beginning with the following news items:
- British Origins adds South London burials to its London collection.
- The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) announces a new partnership with its German equivalent, the German Association of Genealogical Associations (DAGV).
- FamilySearch indexing volunteers reach the 1 billion record milestone.
- Houstory thanks The Genealogy Guys for their previous coverage of their Heirloom Registry product.
- Ancestry.co.uk adds Wiltshire Church Records and Wiltshire Quaker Birth & Death records to its collection.
- AncestryDNA makes it easier to communicate with people who match, improves its website for mobile users, and provides the ability to download raw DNA data.
- Tim Sullivan, CEO of Ancestry.com, makes several important announcements at RootsTech 2013, including the new partnership with FamilySearch to digitize 140 million pages of U.S. probate records; spending $100 million to digitize, index, and put online new content; the availability of AncestryDNA for $99 for everyone (not just Ancestry subscribers); the increase in size of the AncestryDNA database; the update to the Ancestry.com iOS app; and the significant percentage of younger users coming into Ancestry.com using mobile devices.
- FamilySearch adds significant new collections for such areas as Georgia and Washington county marriages; civil records for Bologna, Italy; and court records for Trumbull County, Ohio
Drew shares 3 interviews from RootsTech 2013, including:
- Judy G. Russell, who blogs at The Legal Genealogist
- Chris van der Kuyl, CEO of brightsolid (provider of FindMyPast.com)
- David Adelman, CEO of ReelGenie