Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Are DVDs and CDs Disintegrating?

There have been a number of articles in this newsletter and elsewhere in genealogy publications about long-term storage of magnetic and optical media. Many of us are concerned about the life expectancy of CD-ROM and the newer DVD-ROM disks. "Not to worry," says PC Magazine columnist Lance Ulanoff. He says the real danger comes from greasy fingerprints and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Report #2 from the FGS Conference in Salt Lake City

Today was the second day that the exhibitors' hall was open at the Federation of Genealogical Societies' annual conference in Salt Lake City. I did get a chance to wander and look at new products and services today. Here is a bit of what I saw:

GenCircles Community Relief for Hurricane Katrina Victims

It is nice to see genealogists pitching in to help countrymen in need. The following is from the GenCircles web site:

"Questions and Ancestors" to be Broadcast by KBYU-FM

The following is an announcement from BYU Broadcast Services:

BYU Broadcast Services is pleased to present "Questions and Ancestors," the latest addition to the ANCESTORS series.

Report #1 from the FGS Conference in Salt Lake City

The 2005 annual conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies opened on Wednesday under beautiful sunny skies in Salt Lake City. Attendance on the first day was reported to be more than 1,400 genealogists. The conference is being held in The Salt Palace, a modern, state-of-the-art convention hall that can easily handle gatherings of ten times the number who are at this week's event. The Salt Palace is about a five-minute walk from the famous Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Your Input is Needed: Where to Stay and Eat in Salt Lake City

About once a year I write an article entitled "Where to Stay & Eat in Salt Lake City." It is sort of a genealogist's travel guide to the city of great attraction for all of us. The first article I wrote was based on my own experiences in the city, and subsequent annual updates have included feedback from many newsletter readers. By reading the latest version of the article before you go to Salt Lake City, you can find a good hotel in your price range and also locate restaurants that other genealogists have recommended. Besides being more satisfied with your trip experience, you also can save money by reading this article before traveling to Salt Lake City.

FGS Announces Details About the 2006 Conference

The following is an announcement from the Federation of Genealogical Societies:

The Federation of Genealogical Societies' annual conference will take place August 30  - September 2, 2006 in historic Boston, Massachusetts. The New England Historic Genealogical Society is serving as the local host for this event.

John Grenham named Genealogist-in-Residence at Dublin City Library and Archive

Under the European Union Interreg Celtic Tri programme to promote the shared culture and documentary heritage of Wales, Waterford and Dublin, John Grenham has been appointed Genealogist-in-Residence at Dublin City Library and Archive for six months, to the end of January 2006.

Ancestry.com to be Redesigned

The following is an announcement from Ancestry.com:

Dynamic Redesign Invigorates Ancestry.com

Leading Family History Web Site Enhances Organization and Community Connections

PROVO, Utah, Sept. 7, 2005 - Family history enthusiasts will soon experience the many enhancements MyFamily.com, Inc. has made to its leading family history web site, Ancestry.com.  Ancestry members who subscribe to the world's largest collection of historical records -- more than three billion names and thousands of searchable databases - can anticipate that they will find it easier to keep track of recent research activities, get helpful tips and instruction, organize discoveries in OneWorldTree(sm), and connect to an expanded worldwide community of people researching their family history.   

Expanding Community Connectivity Top Priority for Ancestry.com

The following announcement by Ancestry.com was made at the the Federation of Genealogical Societies this week:

Site's Community Suite of Tools Makes Discovering
and Connecting with Other Researchers Faster and Easier

PROVO, Utah, Sept. 7, 2005 - With more than 10 million unique visitors a month, Ancestry.com is the world leader in online family history research.  Soon, a new community area encompassing a suite of tools expected to be launched on Ancestry this fall will make it easier than ever for members who are researching their family stories to connect with others researching similar interests.   

Modern Day Tea Party in Boston

I have written several times about OpenOffice.org, a free suite of programs that is comparable to Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org contains an excellent word processor, a spreadsheet program, and a presentation program. This free program competes directly with Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

I like OpenOffice.org. In fact, this article is being written with it, even though I also have Microsoft Word installed on the same system. Now the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has cooked up a modern-day Boston Tea Party by planning to dump Microsoft's Office suite and switch to open source software in all state agencies. This may not be the equivalent of dumping all the .doc and .xls files into Boston Harbor to send a message to King Billy (Gates), but the state is dumping them nonetheless, and King Billy may see a revolution in the making.

New book: Witches, Rakes, and Rogues: True Stories of Scam, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in Boston

The following is an announcement from Commonwealth Editions:

Announcing publication of "Witches, Rakes, and Rogues: True Stories of Scam, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in Boston , 1630-1775" by D. Brenton Simons, chief operating officer of the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

GRAMPS 2.0.7 Released

GRAMPS (the Genealogical Research And Management Programming System) is a powerful but free genealogy program for Linux and UNIX. It has a rather loyal following. I reviewed GRAMPS in the March 15, 2005 edition of this newsletter (available here) and then wrote a follow-up when GRAMPS 2.0.0 was released (available here). Now version 2.0.7 has just been released.

5,000 Free Programs for Windows

Here is a list of a bunch of free for Windows XP and Windows 2000. Most of the programs will also work on Windows 98 and ME. The list includes games, anti-virus programs, adware removal programs, backup and restore utilities, music and video media programs, and music and video production programs. There are text-to-speech programs, desktop themes, and a lot more. All programs are totally free of charge and may be downloaded directly from the Internet.

Newsletter Policies

I publish these policies about once a year as reminders. These two policies are for those who subscribe to the newsletter via e-mail or are thinking of subscribing:

Reconstructing Records is a Huge Challenge after Hurricane Katrina

In Bay St. Louis, Miss., part of the courthouse collapsed. In Chalmette, Louisiana, local judges were reportedly stranded at the St. Bernard Parish court, trying to reconstruct records damaged in the flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina. And at the Louisiana Supreme Court in New Orleans, boxes of evidence files were reported to be soaked.

Terabyte DVD Recorder Available This Month

Data storage. Genealogists never seem to have enough. We fill up huge disk drives and demand more. Now it looks like Japan's Hitachi Ltd. may be able to meet our needs.

Irish Mapping Project Reaches Milestone

The following is from ESRI Ireland:

The first phase of Ordnance Survey Ireland’s (OSI) project to develop a digital image archive containing historical maps dating back to 1837 has been completed. The archive will ultimately hold a complete record of the Irish landscape from the earliest hand-drawn maps.

Anger over Western Australian Government's Purchase of Genealogy Records

On August 12, I wrote a brief article about the Western Australian Government purchase of what is being described as the most significant private collection of Aboriginal records and photographs in Australia. The 74,000 individual records and more than 7,000 photographs were gathered over 30 years by Northam genealogist, Jan Goodacre. You can read that short article here.

Donations for Katrina Relief

The Red Cross is taking donations for Katrina Relief on their web site.

If you receive an e-mail from anyone soliciting funds for Katrina relief, delete the e-mail immediately. It will be spam mail sent by a rip-off artist. Any funds you send in response to an e-mail message will never reach hurricane victims. The Red Cross and other legitimate relief agencies do not solicit by e-mail.

Even if the e-mail claims to be from the Red Cross, you will know that it is bogus.