Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Everton Publishing has new owners

The following is an announcement from Everton Publishing Company:

Everton Publishing Company announces new ownership and management, a major reorganization, and public access to the vast, previously unavailable Everton Genealogical Library.

Logan, Utah, September 25, 2004 - The November/December 2004 issue of Everton's Genealogical Helper represents a very important step for the new management and ownership of a company that has long been an icon and leader within the genealogical community. It will give us a chance to demonstrate our resolute commitment to provide genealogists with the absolute finest in quality, accessible educational information, materials and programs, the most comprehensive and technologically advanced research methods, databases and resources, and a wide range of options to memorialize or publish research results.

2005 National Institute on Genealogical Research

The following is an announcement from the National Institute on Genealogical Research:

NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH
10-16 July 2005
Washington, D.C.

The National Institute on Genealogical Research (NIGR) in Washington, D.C. will be held at the National Archives in Washington D.C. and in College Park, Maryland. It offers on-site and in-depth examination of the common and less-known federal records there. This intensive week-long study opportunity is for experienced genealogists and also for archivists, historians and librarians interested in using federal records for genealogical research. It is not an introductory course in genealogy.

Amesbury, Massachusetts' Public Library Documents Moved to Storage

Amesbury Public Library's most historic and rare documents are no longer in town. Amesbury Public Library officials revealed that most of the library's history and genealogy collections were moved last week to a Boston storage facility. Worst of all, the documents are not available to researchers and genealogists. Amesbury is one of the most heavily researched areas for genealogists researching Massachusetts ancestry.

New Hosting Service

The Web pages at http://www.eogn.com have been moved to a new hosting service. The new service is cheaper and also has many more features available than the previous service I used. I hope it is also more reliable as the last hosting service had numerous outages in the past year.

(+) Detecting and Deleting Adware and Trojans

NOTE: This article does not contain any genealogy-related information.

One of the frustrating things about Windows is that it runs slower and slower over time. As you install new software, new items are added to the Windows Registry, additional programs are loaded at start-up, and various memory-resident programs are loaded and remain in use, soaking up memory space and CPU cycles.

In addition to the system slowing down, some viruses and Trojan horse programs can install "adware" in which obnoxious advertisements pop up at various times when you are online. Other programs may “hijack” Internet Explorer, replacing your selected start page with an advertiser’s Web page. Not only are these unwanted intrusions a nuisance, but they also slow down your computer as the programs are running all the time in background. Finally, the more malicious viruses and Trojan horse programs also slow down your system as they try to steal your passwords or redirect your Web browser to pages other than what you think you are accessing. Fortunately, some good folks have created programs that will remove these undesirable intruders, and I found one that you can even use for free.

Genealogy Volunteers Needed in Waltham, Massachusetts

The National Archives, Northeast Region, in Waltham seeks volunteers. Each year, National Archives volunteers explain the purpose of the facility and what an archive is, how to do genealogy and use federal records and help find their ancestors to thousands of visitors. For more information or to receive a volunteer application, contact Priscilla Foley, archives specialist and volunteer coordinator, National Archives, Northeast Region (Boston), 380 Trapelo Road, Waltham, MA 02452, call 781-663-0126, fax 781-663-0156, e-mail priscilla.foley@nara.gov.

(+) A Genealogy Software Challenge

Here is a genealogy software challenge to ponder: can your present genealogy program properly chart all families? Can it properly display the relationships of all the people within its database? Can it do so without wasting a lot of paper?

Digging for Your Roots in Massachusetts

The following is an announcement from the New England Historic Genealogical Society:

Digging for Your Roots in Massachusetts, the first program in our New England States Seminar Series, will take place Saturday, October 23, at the NEHGS Library in Boston. The series is designed to assist beginners and seasoned researchers alike.

Genealogy Info Saved from House Fire

Fire heavily damaged Chris and Julie Blair's El Paso, Illinois, home Monday afternoon, but the couple was able to save some personal possessions from the flames. El Paso Fire Chief Dale Uphoff reported that the fire was contained to the upper part of the two-story house, but the entire home sustained smoke and water damage. Damage to the house, which Uphoff said was a total loss, exceeded $100,000.

Genealogy Data Entry Techniques

In the course of a week, I get to see a lot of genealogy data. Some of what I see is abysmal. Many otherwise highly-skilled genealogists do not seem to know that their keyboards have a SHIFT key! Instead, they simply turn on CAPS LOCK and then ignore upper and lower case after that.

100,000th Obituary entered into Arkansas Genealogy Database

The Pine Bluff/Jefferson County Library System reached a milestone late last week after Sylvia Moore entered the 100,000th obituary into an index and genealogy database.

The Archivists' Toolkit

NYU's library system has announced plans to develop software for an intercollegiate database that will make archival processing more efficient, a library official said. The system, called "The Archivists' Toolkit," will allow universities and other research institutions to compile their archives into a online database, making the scholarship available worldwide.

American Population Before the Federal Census of 1790

Most genealogists are familiar with census records. The U.S. government created its first census in 1790 for the purpose of apportioning seats in the House of Representatives and assessing direct federal taxes. A new census has been created every ten years since then and, of course, direct federal taxes are still with us.

USGenWeb Cited in the Dan Rather Controversy

The Dan Rather and CBS News controversy is all over the newspapers these days, as well as on radio and television news. The story in USA Today and elsewhere cites a certain Lucy Ramirez. As the USA Today article states, "Burkett now maintains that the source of the papers was Lucy Ramirez, who he says phoned him from Houston in March to offer the documents. USA TODAY has been unable to locate Ramirez."

The USGenWeb Census Project

The U.S. census records have been available for years on microfilm. In the past few years, two commercial companies (Ancestry.com and ProQuest/HeritageQuest Online) have been digitizing the original census records and placing them online, along with computer-searchable indexes. However, access to these online records is expensive since the commercial companies need to recover the large investments they made in digitizing and indexing these records.

USGenWeb has an ambitions project underway that should result in transcribed copies (not the originals) of these same records, available to everyone at no cost. The project aims to transcribe all the data found in each census entry. This is in contrast to the commercial databases that create simple indexes of names and then link them to scanned images of original documents for all the details.

NEHGS Celebrates Forty Years on Newbury Street in Boston

The following is an announcement from the New England Historic Genealogical Society:

The New England Historic Genealogical Society will be holding an anniversary open house at 101 Newbury Street on Thursday, September 23, 2004, from 2 to 6 p.m. The theme is "Celebrating Forty Years on Newbury Street," in recognition of the Society's move to its present location in the fall of 1964. The Society was founded in 1845.

Ancestral Roots: A Book Review

This week I had a chance to read a book with a very long title: Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists Who Came to America Before 1700. In fact, this is the eighth edition of a book first published in 1950 by Frederick Lewis Weis. Following Mr. Weis' death, later editions were continued by the late Walter Lee Shepard, Jr. The Eighth Edition is edited with additions and corrections by William R. Beall and Kaleen E. Beall.

Saving Orphaned Books

Who owns the rights to genealogy books years after they go out of print? How can we legally preserve the information in these books so that it is easily available to future generations? The rights belong to the copyright holder and his or her heirs for many years. However, these heirs often cannot be found. The present U.S. copyright laws make this difficult, but a new lawsuit may change all that.

My Misfortune

This week's newsletter is a bit shorter than usual. While on a business trip this week, I twisted my back and popped or damaged the sacroiliac joint in the lower back. Being alone in a hotel room at the time made things even worse, as initially I was unable to stand or walk. This is nothing new; it has happened to me before.

I am at home now and am recuperating. However, I cannot stand or even sit at the computer for more than a few minutes at a time. Therefore, I haven't done as much writing as usual.

I suspect next week's newsletter will be back to about normal size. In the meantime, don't forget that new articles are posted immediately on the Daily Edition of this newsletter at http://blog.eogn.com. You might check there occasionally.

Family Tree Legends 4.0 Released

Pearl Street Software has just released version 4.0 of their excellent genealogy program called Family Tree Legends. I have always been impressed with the earlier versions and expect the new one to be as good or better. As soon as I get back on my feet, I hope to put the new version through its paces and then write about it in this newsletter.

In the meantime, keep an eye on http://www.familytreelegends.com for more information.