Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

New Ancestry.com and ProQuest.com Partnership

The online newsgroups have been buzzing all week, and on Friday it became official: one of the strongest rivalries in the genealogy business world has been between ProQuest and MyFamily.com, operators of Ancestry.com, but now the two are becoming business partners.

World Place Advisor Version 1.2

Copyright 2004 by Mark Lang, BA (Computer Science)

NOTE: This article is written by guest author Mark Lang in Australia. The article is copyright by the author and cannot be republished elsewhere without his permission.

A few weeks ago, Progeny Software Inc. of Wolfville, Nova Scotia, invited me to take a look at their updated product, World Place Advisor. Originally called Place Auditor, this became World Place Advisor 1.1 in an update, then in this version, is now a Universal Edition (WPA-ue).

(+) Olive Software's ActivePaper Archive

One of the largest and most powerful of online newspaper archives is Olive Software's ActivePaper Archive, usually referred to simply as "Olive." The service scans microfilmed or hard-copy newspaper collections. The software then analyzes and indexes the “entities” (such as articles, graphics, and advertisements) to allow for powerful full-text searching within the original context of the newspaper's typeset and design. The results are available on the Web, including full images of every page in the original newspapers as well as the OCR (optical character recognition) texts.

(+) Microsoft Word for $33.99

Let's face it. Microsoft Word is the standard word processor of today. Some people may love it, many more of us hate it, but we begrudgingly admit that Word is the dominant word processor of today. There is only one problem: Word normally sells for $200 or more. That is a lot of money if all you want to do is put some words onto paper or into a file. Heck, there are complete computer systems selling for not much more money!

The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records

Anyone who is researching ancestors in the state of Connecticut soon finds references to "The Barbour Collection." In fact, this is one of the most extensive collections in genealogy and is the definitive source for early Connecticut records.

Essex County, Massachusetts, Wills Online

If you have ancestors in the northeastern corner of Massachusetts, you will be interested in Wills of our Essex County Ancestors. This section of RootsWeb.com contains many wills filed before 1850 in Essex County. Each will was transcribed by a volunteer with coordination provided by David Colby Young. The service is open and free of charge to everyone.

Most Popular First Names

When you start looking at large numbers of old records, you begin to see a pattern of first names. Many names are used again and again in a single family. Other names, such as Hezekiah, may have been popular at one time but not today. Many babies are named after popular figures of the time, such as George Washington Smith or Lorenzo Dow Jones.

Creating All New Surnames in a Nation

Are you aware that the entire nation of Mongolia has not used surnames (family names) for more than sixty years? Most people in that country have no concept of their genealogy.

Free Translations

One of the challenges in genealogy searches is deciphering documents written in the languages of your ancestors. While you may have inherited many physical characteristics from your forebears, language ability probably was not one of them. How can you read documents written in French or Dutch or Italian?

More Genealogy Blogs

I introduced a new blog for the Standard Edition of this newsletter two weeks ago. The Plus Edition will probably be converted to a blog within the next few weeks.

Free Google E-mail Account with One Gigabyte of Storage

This week I signed up for a free e-mail account on Google's new Gmail service. Of course, there are many free e-mail services, such as HotMail, Yahoo, MyWay.com, and others. However, Google's new free Gmail e-mail service has several features not found in the others, including:

Anti-Spyware Bill Moves Closer To Passage

As posted earlier this week on the EOGN newsletter blog at http://blog.eogn.com:

I have written before about the spyware or "scumware" programs that surreptitiously get loaded on your PC, only to display unwanted ads on your screen and to gather information about your Web surfing habits and report the results to online marketers of dubious reputation. Sadly, at least two genealogy-related companies have used these questionable marketing techniques (although one company assures me that they have since dropped this intrusive "service.")

Digital Bugle

The haunting sound of "Taps" is traditional at a military funeral. Typically, a bugler (or trumpet player) plays the 24 notes from a location that is a bit of a distance away from the grave site. There is only one problem: the Pentagon and the Veterans Administration are having a difficult time finding enough buglers for the 1,800 veterans who are dying each day.

Anti-spyware bill moves closer to passage

I have written before about the spyware or "scumware" programs that surreptitiously get loaded on your PC, only to display unwanted ads on your screen and to gather information about your Web surfing habits and report the results to online marketers of dubious reputation. Sadly, at least two genealogy-related companies have used these questionable marketing techniques (although one company assures me that they have since dropped this intrusive "service.")

(+) Irish Citizenship is Now Restricted

In the March 15, 2004, Plus Edition of this newsletter, I described how anyone with Irish parents or grandparents could claim "Citizenship by Descent." Irish descendants could obtain Irish citizenship and even an Irish passport. U.S. citizens could even claim dual citizenship and legally have two passports, a distinct advantage for several reasons. However, a referendum in Ireland last week is changing some of the rules.

(+) Online Genealogy Classes

When I started search for my family tree, I lived in a small rural community in northeastern Vermont. I didn't know anyone who was expert at genealogy research methodologies, so I was unable to ask for advice. If there was a local course available, I never heard about it. I learned the hard way, like many of you reading this newsletter. I wasted a lot of time, made errors, and slowly discovered what many others already knew. Today, training courses are available to help newcomers come up to speed quickly. Such courses have been taught in person for years but now are also available in an "e-learning" (electronic learning) environment. Had the Internet been available back in my early days, I could have saved time, money, and frustration. This week I thought I would describe some of the training courses that are available to you today.

"Indian Chief" Escapes Jail Sentence for False Genealogy Claims

Two weeks ago I wrote about Ronald A. Roberts, who calls himself Chief Golden Eagle. I wrote:

Times are difficult for Sachem Golden Eagle of the Western Mohegan Indian tribe. It seems that he is not a sachem and not even an Indian. His name isn't Golden Eagle; it is Ronald A. Roberts. Now he is awaiting sentencing on his recent conviction for filing false documents. The documents in question were the "proof" of his claims of having Native American ancestry.

RootsMagic 2

NOTE: This article is written by guest author Mark Lang in Australia. The article is copyright by the author and cannot be republished elsewhere without his permission.

I was recently given the opportunity to try out this latest version of RootsMagic. If you want to re-read what Dick Eastman wrote about the version 1 pre-release, you can view it on the archives at http://www.eogn.com/archives/news0251.htm#RootsMagic.

The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding, Version 4

Darrin Lythgoe has created genealogy software that you can upload and install on a Web server. You then upload your genealogy information in GEDCOM format to the same Web server, along with any pictures you wish to use. You can also enter data manually, if you prefer. Unlike most genealogy Web pages, the information is not stored as normal HTML files. Instead, it is stored in a database on the Web server, and pages are dynamically generated "on the fly" when a viewer visits your Web site. Your genealogy information is stored in MySQL database tables and dynamically displayed in attractive fashion with PHP (a scripting language). Darrin calls his software "The Next Generation."

Increased fees at Detroit's Burton Historical Collection

The following is an announcement from the Detroit Public Library Commission:

For Immediate Release June 15, 2004

State Funding Cuts Result In New Library Fees

Today the Detroit Public Library Commission approved a new fee schedule for non-Detroit residents. Effective August 1, 2004, the Detroit Public Library (DPL) will institute an annual charge of $100 per person or household for service to customers who do not live in the City of Detroit. Following the lead of suburban libraries, including Canton, Ann Arbor, and Kalamazoo, this non-resident fee will help offset the costs of library services.