Winding up an exhausting conference,  three day, on the main stage my pick is the final presentation, Shared DNA Matches – the only DNA Tool You will Ever Need, by Diahan Southard who has had a really busy RootsTech.

There’s a choice of 7 sessions at 11:30 AM EST including
Discover the FamilySearch Wiki WOW Factor!, by Lisa Louise Cooke; Expanding Your Family Tree with SideView and More AncestryDNA Innovations, by Crista Cowan.

It’s no easier at 3:30 pm EST with Creating the DeepBand: An Anchor Beyond the Census in England, by Richard Taylor Rowley; Are You Related to Royalty? by Myko Clelland; and Follow the Money! Records of the Record Makers, by Judy G. Russell.

A third installment of the MyHeritage DNA Quest project to reunite adoptees with their birth families through DNA testing has been launched.

5,000 DNA kits will be donated to adoptees and family members searching for people who were adopted. Anyone in the world over the age of 18 who meets that criteria is welcome to apply from now until 17 March 2023.

Find out more here.

Announced at Rootstech, the display of your family tree is now colour coded. Boxes are coloured according to your grandparent, blue for father’s father, green for father’s mother, pink for mother’s father and yellow for mother’s mother. You can turn it off as an option.  Colouring of the box surround remains for gender, blue for male, pink for female.

Legacies of British Slavery

This collection from University College London comprises individuals who were compensated, a total of £20 million in 1833 (£3 billion in 2023 equivalent) for the loss of their “property” with the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

There are just over 60,000 transcripts, which can include biographical information, names of spouses, and addresses. Be sure to click through the UCL website for more detail. The Legacies of British Slavery project at UCL was designed to shed light on the ways that the slavery system has shaped British history.

Nottingham Catholic Records

Over 290,000 new Baptisms,  Marriages, Burials or Congregational records have been added for the Diocese of Nottingham, which covers Nottingham, Derby, Rutland, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. The earliest records are for 1641 and run up to 1913. These detail-rich biographical records can include names of godparents, witnesses to marriages and more, and include original images to explore. Simply add Nottingham as the diocese into your search of England Roman Catholic.

Today. Here are my picks for the main stage.

10 AM EST — DO GENEALOGY Step-By-Step
Diahan Southard, Janet Hovorka, Crista Cowan

4:30 PM — MyHeritage | Sponsor Highlight
5:00 PM — How third-party DNA tools can help with your family history research
Jonny Perl

There’s a long list of presentations, starting at 9 AM EST  and through to 8 PM with an Australia-focus presentation.

A free new feature that estimates familial relationships between DNA Matches. For every DNA Match, cM Explainer™ offers detailed predictions of possible relationships between the two people and the respective probabilities of each relationship. It also determines their most recent common ancestor, and displays a diagram showing their relationship path.

Give it a try here.

A new suite of tools in the Ancestry® app makes it easier to create and share your family stories with the world in a few steps.

Find out more here.

Today, Thursday 2 March is the first day of RootsTech 2023, there’s an embarrassment of choice online.

Find the streaming schedule of ten main stage presentations, and typically four or more other sessions in parallel, starting at 10 am EST, at  https://www.familysearch.org/rootstech/calendar

Looking to find out what’s new from the big companies?

At 11:30 am EST Craig Miller presents What’s New at FamilySearch 2023?

At 5:00 pm EST Crista Cowan presents What’s New at Ancestry 2023?

Did you know there are also 353 on-demand sessions, shorter than regular presentations, some promos of just a couple of minutes.

Scotland, Prison Registers
This collection contains prisoner records from various prisons in Scotland, between the years 1791 and 1937. Records typically include the name of the prisoner, year and place of birth, residence, and the year and place of imprisonment.
These 215,819 records are sourced from Scottish Indexes.
Check out Learning Zone – Scottish Prison Registers for more background.

Scotland, Crown Counsel Procedure Books
This collection contains 153,989 records of individuals who have been brought to trial in various courts in Scotland, between the years 1587 and 1968. Records typically include the name of the individual and the date and place where the trial took place.
To dig deeper check out this video from Scottish Indexes.

 This BBC item reports that a tender has been issued to online family history companies; the winning bidder will be able to host all the digitised records for Guernsey on its website.

The Manitoba Vital Statistics Branch provides convenient access to indexes of their provincial BMD records for births more than 100 years ago, marriages more than 80 years ago, and deaths more than 70 years ago.

Ancestry makes these available to search as “Web” databases.

The latest updates are:

Births: 719,060 events
Marriages: 447,279 events
Deaths: 580,338 events