The availability of genealogy information on the Internet continues to grow, but it’s up to you to keep abreast of what is being added.
Notices about new material on websites, both free or paid, are few and far between. Subscribers to ancestry.com can check the home page and see new listings. However, familysearch.org, the free Mormon-supported site, adds material from all over the world on a monthly basis, but, unless you get their press releases, it's hard to know what has been added, and harder still to know what is important to you.
The usgenweb.org free genealogy site, where every county in the U.S. has a page, is run by volunteers, and the quality varies. Some counties have great material, others are dormant, and all need active coordinators.
The Georgia Archives and other state archives or libraries also add new material each year, without much fanfare.
Newspaper sites abound, such as genealogybank.com and newspapers.com, and they constantly add new holdings.
Active genealogists need to put all these sites on their research checklist and check back often to see what is new in their areas of interest.
Johnny Mercer presentation
Glenn Eskew, a professor of history at Georgia State University, will speak on his book “Johnny Mercer: Southern Songwriter for the World” at the Georgia Archives Lunch and Learn Seminar at noon Oct. 9. He also will play video recordings of some of the Savannah-born songwriter’s most popular works. The Mercer book was published in 2013 by the University of Georgia Press.
The seminar is free; bring your own lunch. For further information, check georgiaarchives.org or call 678-364-3710.
Georgia State University's Special Collections and Archives holds a great collection of Mercer material and exhibits some of it. Some of his music can be listened to at research.library.gsu.edu/mercer.
Huguenot Bible records
"National Huguenot Society Bible Records" by Arthur Finnell, abstracted from the records of the society, is a book published in 2009, but it can be viewed free and searchable via Google Books.
It’s worth a look if you think you have a Huguenot family in your ancestry. The current location of your family Bible might be unknown, and books like this help preserve those records.
It’s available in some genealogy library collections as well.
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