Congratulations to my friend, Lorine McGinnis Schulze, who this week reached the 20th anniversary of her website, Olive Tree Genealogy, an essential recource for those of us researching our Canadian and American ancestors.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles, FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
Olive Tree Genealogy was among the first to bring primary sources to the Internet with its passenger lists of ships from the Netherlands to New York in the 17th century.
When she launched her website in February 1996, Lorine was a pioneer when she developed her website of free online genealogy resources.
To many of us, it’s hard to remember what online genealogy was like 20 years ago. Think back to the olden days of online genealogy research in the mid-1990s.
Lorine reminded me of those days when she wrote, “I was linked to the internet via my phone to a number in Toronto that linked me to rest of the world. It took four days to get email. I had to pay long distance phone charges to get online.”
Not long after Lorine launched Olive Tree Genealogy, Cyndi’s List was created. The following year, in July 1997, Ancestry offered its online subscription database service.
Olive Tree Genealogy has grown from a dozen pages in its first year to more than 2,500 pages of free genealogy records today. Many records Lorine has transcribed herself.
On Olive Tree Genealogy, you will find categories about passenger lists, immigration tips, Canada, military, Loyalists, New Netherland, Native Americans, Palatine genealogy, almshouses, orphan records, Huguenots, Mennonites, Quakers, UK Ireland, and a whole lot more.
Now, Lorine manages ten websites and nine blogs.
Congratulations, Lorine! I don’t know how you’ve managed to find and pull together all those free resources for us for 20 years — but I’m sure glad you did.
To read more about how Olive Tree Genealogy was developed and for links to it and the other websites and blogs, visit Lorine’s blog post, WooHoo! Olive Tree Genealogy is 20 Years Old!!!
