Disclaimer: I am a MyHeritage Friend and receive a complimentary subscription. However, my opinion isn’t influenced in any way. I only promote great products on this blog and try not to do it too often!

UPDATE: Free Scandinavian Records – 5-8 June 2025!!!

In honor of both Danish Constitution Day and Swedish National Day, MyHeritage is opening up every Danish and Swedish historical record — over 350 million in total — for free, from June 5–8, 2025!

The Danish records include 31 collections with church books, censuses, newspapers, and more, covering vital events and everyday life since 1787; and the Swedish collections span from the 1600s onward, featuring household examination rolls, birth and death records, military lists, and more. Just last month, we added a collection of Swedish passenger lists documenting the names, birthplaces, residences, and destinations of Swedes who left the country between 1869 and 1951.

MyHeritage made two big announcements this week. I received an email, but their blog gives more complete information.

The first concerns the addition of a collection of French newspapers:

We’re happy to announce the release of a new historical record collection on MyHeritage: France, Names & Stories in Newspapers. This collection includes 731 million structured records extracted from French newspapers. These records were created using advanced AI technology developed in-house by MyHeritage.

This is the first Names & Stories collection on MyHeritage in a language other than English — following the 11.6 billion English-language records published previously in 15 other collections.

Search France, Names & Stories in Newspapers

Historical newspapers offer rich details for family history that official records often lack. They add color and context — stories of everyday life, personal achievements, public recognition, photos, and much more. With the Names & Stories collections, these stories are searchable and also matched to your family tree. You can uncover surprising new details — even about relatives you didn’t think to search for.

Records in this collection typically include full names and identified relationships, relevant locations, occupations, and associated institutions, as well as the newspaper title, publication date, and place. They provide a snippet of text from the newspaper, a short article summary generated by AI, and the full scanned text (OCR) of the article. In addition, each record includes a link to view the original full scan of the newspaper page on the Gallica.fr website.

Second, MyHeritage has a new partnership with Scan Cafe. Again, the blog post is way more complete than my message:

We’re excited to announce a new partnership with ScanCafe, the leading photo and video digitization service in the U.S., to provide an easy and safe way to digitize family memories. Through this collaboration, MyHeritage users in the United States can digitize their media with ScanCafe, and have it automatically transferred for safekeeping on MyHeritage through a seamless and secure account integration.

MyHeritage offers so many unique collections and opportunities for genealogy researchers. If you aren’t already a subscriber, check it out!

It’s time for my yearly edition of Genealogy Research Toolboxes found on bloggers’ websites. As always, there are a few new websites and I’ve removed past links to sites that have gone dormant.

Bloggers who have chosen to add research toolboxes have spent a lot of time to compile helpful links for researchers. Be sure to leave a comment letting them know how helpful those websites are.

The 2025 list:

A Tree With No Name – This is a new entry to the toolbox list. Doris Kenney has a growing collection of both free and fee genealogy resources.

ABT UNK – Location Links has a list for Chicago and several other places

AI Genealogy Insights – Check out Steve Little’s Genealogy Bots tab to learn more about AI.

Ancestral Findings – There is a Surnames tab at the top right with a drop down menu, including one on Hard to Find Surnames.

Anxiously Engaged! – Peggy Lauritzen has a number of buttons leading to multiple categories of resources.

Auntie Jen’s Family Trees – Links tab includes blogs, podcasts, YouTube and Facebook genealogy

Board for Certification of Genealogists – Check out the BCG Learning Center.

Destination: Austin Family – Thomas MacEntee’s websites with links to all kinds of genealogy resources.

DNAeXplained – Genetic Genealogy – Roberta Estes’ HELP button has links all about DNA and its use in genealogical research.

Empty Branches on the Family Tree – While you are browsing bloggers’ research toolboxes, I hope you will take a look at mine, too. Category links are located right under the header image on the home page and a number of new links have been added during the past year.

Evidence Explained – Elizabeth Shown Mills’ website is the place to go for source citation tips.

Family Tree Knots – Check out the Links of Interest button under the header.

Find Lost Russian & Ukrainian Family – Vera Miller has a LINKS button to lots of Russian/Eastern European resources

Fortify Your Family Tree – DiAnn Iamarino Ohama shares her resources in tabs under her header image.

Genea-Musings – Visit Randy Seaver’s  “Randy’s Genealogy Links” right next to his HOME button. NEW in 2025 – Randy has also created a robust AI & Genealogy Compendium tab.

Genealogy à la Carte – Gail Dever has a robust list of tools for those with Canadian roots and created an ever-growing list of Canadian genealogy groups on Facebook.

Genealogy by Paula – Paula Stuart-Warren has a RESOURCES button with a long list of her favorite research links.

Heart of the Family – Elizabeth O’Neal has a Resources tab on the home page tool bar

Irish Family Roots – Donna Moughty’s focus is Ireland with links.

Jana’s Genealogy and Family History Blog – Check out Jana Last’s Research Toolbox link in the top button bar

Journey to the Past – NEW in 2025 – Brenda has a Toolbox tab with a lengthy list of resources.

Karen’s Chatt – Look for the Links tab at the right top area and follow the drop down menu for many links on various topics.

Kitty Cooper’s Blog – Kitty has multiple buttons with links to DNA and genealogy information

Leaves and Branches – Colleen Brown Pasquale has multiple tabs under her header image.

MarieB’s Genealogy Blog – Southeastern USA – There is a DNA Tools and References link

My Ancestors and Me – There are a number of Resources tabs on the home page tool bar.

My Tapley Tree. . . and its Branches – NEW in 2025 – Click on Liz’s Research toolbox for her resources list.

Olive Tree Genealogy – Lorine McGinnis Schulze passed away, but her husband is maintaining her website, which is a huge research toolbox for ships’ passenger lists, along with links to many other Canadian and American records.

Past Presence – Linda has a wide range of resources, including Chinese Genealogy, Canada, Europe and the USA.

Spartan Roots – NEW in 2025 – Carol’s focus is Greek research. Click on the Resources for Lakonian Research tab.

The Advancing Genealogist – There are links Resources and a neat, unique Law Library Index.

The Ancestor Hunt – Kenneth Marks’ website is the place to go for links to online newspapers!

Treasure Chest of Memories – Laura has a Resources tab with several categories at the top of her home page.

Writing My Past – Teresa has a lengthy set of links to all things genealogy.

That’s it for this year. If I’ve missed bloggers, please leave a comment so their blog toolbox can be added to this list!