Newmilns Heritage App

The recently launched Newmilns Heritage App has been commissioned by the Newmilns Heritage Association. Developed by the Newmilns Heritage Group, it has been funded from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The app was launched on Saturday, 10th May 2025, at a Heritage event in Newmilns Church Hall.

The impressive app includes a self-guided one-hour walking tour around the East Ayrshire town, a treasure hunt at Loudon Parish Church graveyard, eye spy challenges around the town, audio and video media content, maps, and more. 

The app is free to access via Google Play Store or Apple's App Store. For further details visit https://www.lovenewmilns.org/newmilns-heritage-app.

Chris   

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Photo Scanner now available on MyHeritage app

From MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com)

There’s nothing like indulging that sweet sense of nostalgia when you look at old photos. We’re delighted to announce that we’ve made it even easier to scan family photos using the MyHeritage mobile app. We recently added a powerful, state-of-the art Photo Scanner that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to capture entire album pages in one tap. The new Photo Scanner uses the same technology that we use in Reimagine, our standalone app for preserving and improving your family photos that we released last year. Users were excited to efficiently scan their cherished photos and have them sync with their MyHeritage family site. We’re excited to bring the same powerful technology to the MyHeritage mobile app, so you can preserve your family photos and improve them with our suite of photo features! 

For further details visit https://blog.myheritage.com/2024/05/new-multi-photo-scanner-on-the-myheritage-mobile-app

(With thanks to Daniel Horowitz)

Chris 

Order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors in the UK at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. For purchase in tthe USA visit https://www.penandswordbooks.com. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, on Threads at @scottishgenesblog and via Mastodon at https://mastodon.scot/@ScottishGENES.

Ancestry releases Storymaker Studio tool for app

From Ancestry (www.ancestry.co.uk):

LEHI, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ancestry®, the global leader in family history, announced today the launch of Storymaker Studio, a new feature in the Ancestry app that easily allows users to create bite-sized stories from their family history and share them within the Ancestry community and on their personal social media channels. Now with Storymaker Studio it’s easier than ever to turn those stories, combined with personal family memories and heirlooms, into engaging, shareable content.

Storymaker Studio is a centralized, one-stop destination to curate facts, images, records and memories and tell the stories of your family history. With this new tool, members can upload and enhance photos and images, record and upload audio files (for the first time on Ancestry), integrate photos with audio, and publish their Ancestry Stories to their trees, on their personal social channels and within the Ancestry community. We all have a storyteller inside us but with Storymaker Studio you can become the storymaker for your family’s history.

“Historical records and family trees are the cornerstone of genealogy research, showing moments of times and the relationships between people in several generations of a family,” said Ancestry Corporate Genealogist Crista Cowan. “Yet all of us know they are so much more than that. They capture love stories, triumphs, struggles and bravery - the stories of our family and heritage. They are the blueprint of what makes us, us.”

To get started using Storymaker Studio, users can download or update the Ancestry mobile app and choose a story prompt. From there, they can easily add images, historical records and audio recordings to tell the story of their family and then publish to the Ancestry community, save to their tree, or share to their social media channels.

Storymaker Studio is currently free with the Ancestry mobile app. Check out the storymaker studio at https://www.ancestry.com/storymaker and share your story on Ancestry and social media using #MyAncestryStory. 

(Source: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230302005125/en/Ancestry%C2%AE-Launches-Storymaker-Studio)

Chris

Pre-order Tracing Your Belfast Ancestors at https://bit.ly/BelfastAncestors. Also available - Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records, Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

MyHeritage's new Photo Storyteller feature

From Daniel Horowitz at MyHeritage (www.myheritage.com):

As genealogists we strive to preserve our family history and share it with our family and the next generations. I’m happy to announce the release of the MyHeritage Photo Storyteller™ — an important new feature that empowers you to take charge of a critical aspect of preserving your family history — to record the stories behind your favorite family photos and attach the audio narrative to the photos.

The Photo Storyteller™ is available on the free MyHeritage mobile app and enables you to easily record yourself or interview your family members, describing the real story behind any of your family photos. You'll enjoy gaining deeper insight into your photos and sharing the recordings with your family members (turning any photo into a voice-enriched video) so you can reminisce about times gone by. By recording your loved ones, those photo stories will turn into memories that your family will hold precious in the future.

To record a story behind a photo, open the MyHeritage mobile app. Tap the Photos icon on the main screen, tap on any photo, and then tap the microphone icon to record the photo’s story.

For further details visit https://blog.myheritage.com/2021/01/introducing-the-myheritage-photo-storyteller/

(With thanks to Daniel Horowitz)

Chris

Pre-order my next book, Sharing Your Family History Online, at https://bit.ly/SharingFamHist. My book Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is also out, as are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.

Records now searchable through FindmyPast app

From FindmyPast (www.findmypast.co.uk):

Major app-date: record searching is now live

Good news: you can now search for records from the Findmypast app. You can also filter and sort the results and with a paid subscription, view transcripts and images to print or download.

To use this feature, download the app (or update date it if you already have it) and you’ll see a search magnifying glass at the bottom of your screen. You can find out more about the free Findmypast mobile app and all its great features at https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/getting-started/findmypast-app.

For the latest records releases, including records for Yorkshire, Derbyshire and Peru, visit https://www.findmypast.co.uk/blog/new/records-app-search.

Chris

My next 5 week Scotland 1750-1850: Beyond the Old Parish Registers course starts July 6th - see https://www.pharostutors.com/details.php?coursenumber=302. My next book, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scottish2 is now out, also available are Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed) at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Irish1 and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records at http://bit.ly/ChrisPaton-Scotland1. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.