Fees may rise 500% for some genealogy records in the USA

From CNN: The cost of getting genealogical records from the government could go up nearly 500%. An effort is underway to stop that.

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the agency that oversees the country's immigration and naturalization system, has proposed significantly increasing fees for a number of applications and documents, including historical records of deceased immigrants who came to the United States between the late-19th and mid-20th centuries.

In some cases, the proposed fees would amount to an increase of nearly 500% -- making what was once a relatively affordable process out of reach for many people.

A group of genealogists, historians and records-access advocates is organizing a public campaign to persuade the USCIS not to hike the fees.

Who Do You Think You Are list of Family History Websites

Who Do You Think You Are has a list of recommended Family History Websites on its blog: 50 Family History Websites to watch in 2020

Revealing hidden Jewish ancestry

From NPR: Trove Of Recipes Dating Back To Inquisition Reveals A Family's Secret Jewish Roots
December 22, 20197:29 AM ET
Heard on Weekend Edition Sunday
GREG ALLEN

In a trove of old family recipes, Genie Milgrom found clues that led her to Inquisition-era Spain and her family's hidden Jewish heritage. Milgrom is a Cuban-American, now 65, who was raised a devout Catholic. Several years ago, when her Mom became ill, Milgrom went through her things and found a collection of recipes that had been recorded and handed down by generations of aunts and grandmothers. Some of the recipes traced all the way back to Inquisition-era Spain and Portugal.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2019/12/22/789864201/trove-of-recipes-dating-back-to-inquisition-reveals-a-familys-secret-jewish-root

My Immigrant Ancestors with known Origins from England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and France

Here is a list of my immigrant ancestors with a known origin in the British Isles and France. More will be added as prepared.

England:

• 1621, Thomas Farley, wife, Jane, and daughter, Ann, to Jamestown, from Worcester, Worcester, England. Documentation: Records of the Jamestown Company; Will of his father Roger Farley. Correspondence with brother Humphrey Farley, merchant of London.
• Abt. 1640, Matthew Moulthrop, from Bridlington, Yorkshire, and wife, Jane Nichol, from Wraby, Lincolnshire, to New Haven Colony. Documentation: Articles by Patricia Law Hatcher in The American Genealogist, vol. 74.
• Abt 1640, Samuel Hotchkiss, from Dodington, Whitchurch Parish, Shropshire, to New Haven Colony, d. 1663. Documentation: Will of father, John Hotchkiss.
• 1653John Burnett, mentioned as imported to Virginia as an Indentured Servant. 1656/7 Finished Indenture. Purchased land on Piscataway Creek, in Lancaster County (later Rappahannock and then Essex County), Virginia. Iventory 1686. Wife Lucretia (Lues, Lois, Lucy) LNU Burnett, her Will in 1709, Essex County, Virginia. See, .John and Lucretia Burnett of Essex County, Virginia.
• Bef 1690, Joseph Phipps, and wife, Mary or Sarah Benefield, from Abington, Berkshire. Documentation: Reading (Eng.) Monthly Meeting, his will in 1716, her biography published in The Friend. Comparison of children in England and Pennsylvania.
• 1717, George Boone, and wife, Mary Maugridge. He was from Stoke Canon, Devonshire, and she was from Bradnich, Devonshire. They settled in Pennsylvania. Ancestors of Daniel Boone.
• 1771, James Harvey May, alias Emanuel King. Documentation: Records of The Old Bailey. Transported from Middlesex Gaol on the ship Justitia to Virginia.

Wales:

• 1693, or 1694, Maud Richards, wife of Rowland Powell. She was from Llanllwch, Carmarthen, Wales. He is presumed to be Welsh. Immigrated to Pennsylvania. Documentation: Certificate from St Peters Parish, Carmarthen, Wales. Married at Radnor Monthly Meeting in 1694.

Scotland:

• 1635, John Burnett, and wife, Lucretia Johnston, from Aberdeen to Old Rappahannock, Virginia. Documentation: Called "Merchant of Glascow" in Charter from King Charles II. Ship Abraham of London.

Ireland:

• 1727-1728, George Aston, from Wicklow, and wife, Elizabeth Hunter, from Ballinaclash, Wicklow, Ireland. First to London, then to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Documentation: London, England, Monthly Meeting; Philadelphia Monthly Meeting. Member of Delaware and Pennsylvania legislatures.

France:

• Abt 1660, Benois Brasseur (Benjamin Brashear) and his wife, Mary [Richeford?], are called "subjects of the King of France" in their Denization paper from Lord Baltimore. He is first found in Nancemond and Lower Norfolk, Virginia, and then moves to "The Cliffs" in Calvert County, Maryland. He was a Justice of the Peace and died in 1663 without a will. Mary wrote a will before her marriage to Thomas Starling. The home of Benois Brasseur, "Upper Bennett", was in existence in 1957 and was located at "The Cliffs" in Calvert Co., Maryland. it was purchased from Richard Bennett, Esq., colonial Governor of both Virginia and Maryland.

Ancestry World Obituary Collection

This is a post from Ancestry.com:

For more than three decades, AncestryⓇ has been a pioneer in family history research, developing innovative research tools and adding new content to our unparalleled historical record collections that enable people around the world to uncover their unique family story.
Today, we are proud to announce the launch of our new Newspapers.com Obituary Collection, as well as an upgrade to our U.S. Obituary Collection, adding to what is now the world’s largest, searchable digital archive of over 262 million worldwide obituaries and death announcements, containing almost 1 billion searchable family members.

Ancestry World Obituary Collection

My families from 1621-1820

• A Jamestown Settlement, Jamestown Road, Williamsburg, VA, USA
• B Portland, ME, USA
• C New Haven, CT, USA
• D Strawbery Banke Museum, Hancock Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA
• E Norfolk, VA, USA
• F Northumberland County, VA, USA
• G St Mary's City, MD, USA
• H Wicomico County, MD, USA
• I Philadelphia, PA, USA
• J Whitley County, KY, USA

Between 1760 and 1820 several of my ancestors were in the New River area of Virginia and North Carolina. Particularly in Washington and Grayson counties in Virginia, and Ashe and Wilkes counties in NC. A number of those families came from New York, New Jersey, and Delaware.

The GU272 Project:

The GU272 Legacy

In 1838, Maryland's Jesuit priests sold hundreds of men, women, and children to Southern plantations to raise money for the construction of Georgetown University. Though they faced incredible hardship, most didn't perish. They married and raised children. Today, more than 8,000 of their descendants have been located through genealogical research. Use this site to search for an ancestor and to hear the stories of the descendants.

Mother's Day DNA test prices

Mother's Day autosomal test prices:

23andme. $99. Also a $30 discount on the Health & Ancestry package.
Ancestry. $59. Offer ends May 13.
Family Tree DNA. $79.
Living DNA, $79.
MyHeritage. $69. Sales ends May 13.

Finding my parents' marriage information

Both of my parents have been gone for many years. I had been told that they were married at the First Baptist Church in Ludlow, Kentucky, in 1947. Although I had a leather-bound genealogy my mother started and her Bible, I did not have a copy of their marriage certificate. Searching the county records online never found them and the Church said they did not have any records for that year.

Recently I subscribed to Newspapers.com and found the announcement of the issue of a marriage license to them. Writing to the Boone County Clerk of Court office I was able to get a copy of the marriage license and the return of marriage. In it my father was listed as being in the Navy and living in Brooklyn, New York, and my mother as living in Cincinnati. Since I already knew my father was working on a Navy tub boat in New York Harbour at that time, I am now looking to see if he was living on-base at the Brooklyn Navy Yard or somewhere off-base and if my mother also lived in Brooklyn for sometime.

I had used other newspaper databases without luck before I finally subscribed to Newspapers.com. So always try every resource.

Black Friday genetic genealogy DNA tests

The following companies are offering reduced cost autosomal DNA tests. These tests can be used to reliably find immediate family and cousins out to 4th or 5th cousins. Less reliably, they can give you ethnic ancestry results.

• MyHeritage DNA - $49 plus free shipping with coupon code Free18 (ends Nov 23)
• 23andMe - $69 per kit, shipping extra, or $129 for the Ancestry + Health version (ends Nov 25)
• AncestryDNA - $49 per kit, plus shipping (ends Nov 26)
• Family Tree DNA - $39 per DNA test, shipping extra (ends Nov 26)
• LivingDNA through Findmypast, $59 plus shipping (ends Nov 26)
• LivingDNA direct - $69 per kit, plus shipping (no posted end date)

I have tested at all of these companies.

I recommend the following testing strategy:
Test at AncestryDNA and 23andMe and then upload the raw data to the others. This is the lowest cost strategy and gets your results into the largest commercial genetic genealogy databases.

An additional upload is to Gedmatch. This will allow people who have tested at only one company to match other people from different companies. Gedmatch has both free and fee services. The free services get you their matching service.

There is a new company Dante Labs, doing whole genome testing for $199.00 (L169.00) for Black Friday Week. This is a 30x coverage of your whole genome and can be used for learning about medical propensities. Not really useful for genealogy.

If you already have a test result, be sure to upload to MyHeritage and Living DNA before 1 December to avoid their new fee schedule.

If you are interested in graphical representation of your relative network, Rootsfinder is another company to join before 1 December.

NOTE: I do not earn any money from your using any of these links.