21 February 2026

 Here is a concise weekly briefing 

FamilySearch.org

  • FamilySearch reports over 18 million new or expanded records from 32 countries in its February 2026 update, including major North American and Oceania additions.familysearch+1

  • Highlights include the expanded 1921 Canada census (1.8M records) and a substantial set of expanded U.S. federal censuses from 1790 through 1950 plus WWII draft registrations.[familysearch]​

  • New Zealand Cemetery Transcriptions (1835–2006) gained more than 1.4M indexed records, and South Australia wills and probate were also expanded.[familysearch]​

Try this week

  • Run a census-comparison project on a single U.S. ancestor across the newly expanded 1790–1930 and 1950 census entries to test consistency of age, residence, and household composition.[familysearch]​

  • For Canadian lines, sample the updated 1921 Canada census and compare enumerator details (religion, origin, occupation) to earlier Canadian census entries for the same families.[familysearch]​

Ancestry.com

  • Public discussion points to at least two new beta features surfacing on Ancestry’s online tree pages in mid‑February 2026 (reported 17 February), intended to streamline how you interact with individuals in your tree.[facebook]​

  • Earlier 2025 platform changes still shaping current research include the “star” option to prioritize key ancestors, Smart Search enhancements, and tighter integration between DNA matches and individual profile pages.[youtube]​[ancestry]​

Try this week

  • Test the current Tree page interface for any new beta toggles Ancestry has exposed to your account (e.g., layout options, quick‑action panels, or new ways to surface hints) and document before/after screenshots for a how‑to post.[facebook]​

  • Use the existing “star” feature plus Smart Search to build a focused workflow around one research question (e.g., “Who were the parents of X?”), then note whether prioritizing that ancestor alters suggested records or hint quality.[youtube]​

MyHeritage.com

  • MyHeritage added or updated 12 collections between 1–15 February 2026 (2 new, 10 updated), continuing a rapid publication cadence.[theancestorhunt]​

  • Ancestor Hunt notes that “eight new collections” were added in a recent week, including Canadian Nova Scotia births, marriages, and deaths and German records from North Rhine‑Westphalia, alongside other international sets.[facebook]​

  • Ongoing platform growth since early February has increased the catalog by billions of records overall, especially in newspapers and civil registrations.[youtube]​geneamusings+1

Try this week

  • For maritime and Atlantic Canada research, sample the Nova Scotia BMD collections to see how MyHeritage indexing handles variant spellings and religious affiliations.geneamusings+1

  • If you work European lines, test the updated German North Rhine‑Westphalia materials against known church books or civil registers to evaluate completeness and geographic coverage.theancestorhunt+1

Newspapers.com

  • Newspapers.com recently announced a major expansion with 149 new titles from 13 U.S. states, Canada, England, Wales, Samoa, and almost a million new pages from Australian newspapers spanning more than 200 years.[blog.newspapers]​

  • A January 2026 announcement also flagged more than 200 additional papers added to the archive, reflecting a continued push into both U.S. regional titles and Canadian content.[blog.newspapers]​

  • New titles include small‑town weeklies in the Midwest and specialized Australian papers such as The Advertiser, The Mail, and several illustrated or pictorial formats that can be rich for social history and photo content.[blog.newspapers]​

Try this week

  • Build a location‑focused search: pick one county or town relevant to your research and search across the newly added titles (especially the Australian and Welsh papers) for emigrant families or surname clusters.[blog.newspapers]​

  • For blog content, pull one “story behind the clipping” from a newly added small‑town paper—such as a wedding notice or church event—and write it up as a narrative case study with images and citations.newspapers+1

Elephind.com

  • Elephind was relaunched in September 2025 with semantic search and an AI‑assistant, and it continues to aggregate thousands of historic newspaper titles worldwide via the Veridian platform.wikipedia+1

  • Current Elephind documentation stresses that new newspaper collections are added regularly as participating libraries and projects update their Veridian‑based sites.veridiansoftware+1

  • The platform’s aim remains to offer “one‑stop” searching across many small and otherwise hard‑to‑discover local newspaper projects, many of which are not fully indexed in general web search engines.lcgsco+1

Try this week

  • Run the same search phrase (for example, a distinctive surname + town) on Elephind and one paid newspaper site, then compare coverage and OCR quality—an ideal side‑by‑side experiment for a methodology blog post.veridiansoftware+1

  • Explore Elephind’s “List of Titles” view to identify lesser‑known regional projects relevant to your own lines, then add a curated list of these free resources to your blog’s research links page.elephind+1

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