Genealogy Repository Updates

  Family history sites rolled out several AI, record, and newspaper-access enhancements this week that are immediately usable in day‑to‑day research and blogging. familysearch +6 FamilySearch.org FamilySearch is expanding its AI‑driven full‑text handwriting search to additional languages, making more newly digitized records name‑searchable. geneamusings +1 New discovery assistants and an interactive help chatbot are being emphasized for 2026, designed to surface the most promising hints and answer research questions from wiki, blog, and help content. familysearch +1 Recent record releases (Jan 1–15) include new and updated collections from at least 35 countries, with examples such as Benin civil registration and multiple Brazilian church record sets. theancestorhunt +1 Try this now: Run a surname/place search using Full‑Text Search on a non‑English collection you use often, then compare what you can now find versus your older search notes. geneamusings +1 A...

  FamilySearch Recent public summaries show large January 2026 expansions plus weekly incremental changes. familysearch +2 Some notable current/recently announced collections: Worldwide – Find a Grave Index (expanded; 137,627,893 indexed records). [ familysearch ] ​ Benin – Civil Registration of Deaths, 1891–2016 (new/updated). [ theancestorhunt ] ​ Brazil – Alagoas, Church Records, 1802–2016 (new/updated). [ theancestorhunt ] ​ Brazil – Bahia, Catholic Church Records (new/updated). [ theancestorhunt ] ​ Ongoing: as of 23 Jan 2026, c. 3,431 Historical Record Collections, with new items and ~70 updated collections in the preceding week, though FamilySearch does not flag all by name in the catalog list. geneamusings +1 Where to monitor: FamilySearch Blog “New Historical Records” posts. familysearch +1 Weekly “Added and Updated FamilySearch Record Collections” summaries on Genea-Musings. geneamusings +1 MyHeritage For 1–15 January 2026 there were 8 new and 12 upd...