Collecting random bits of genealogy news.
The Genealogue has news of tax breaks for genealogists that came out of President Bush’s “State of the Union” address last night, including writing off expenses such as photocopies and database subscriptions.
Teddy Kennedy was quoted as saying “It’s the same old story, this is just like when he gave Ancestry.com a no-bid contract to rebuild the 1890 census.”
Ancestry.com has created a free portal (for the month of February) to celebrate Black History Month in the US. You can access it at African American Research and it provides “free access to this vast collection of historical records detailing the lives of hundreds of thousands of African Americans”.
If you are in the US, you might want to check out a show that PBS is premiering tonight, African American Lives. It traces the family history of nine prominent African Americans, and is shaping up to be one of the highest-profile shows about genealogy that has shown on American TV in years. It is a two-part, four-hour series (tonight and Feb 8th) and will probably repeat throughout the month (check your local listings at the link above).