The DAILY genealogy technology newsletter for genealogy
consumers, packed with straight talk - hold the sugar coating - whether
the vendors like it or not!
As mentioned earlier this week in this newsletter, the Board for Certification of Genealogists is changing its certification process. Here is the official press release:
The Board for Certification of Genealogsts announced that, effective immediately, it has consolidated three research categories into one category that will be called Certified Genealogist. All those holding a current credential as Certified Genealogical Records Specialist, Certified Lineage Specialist, or Certified Genealogist will hold the designation of Certified Genealogist. The board also established application requirements for the single credential and voted to continue the existing renewal requirements for those already certified.
Sir Sean Connery is probably the most famous Scotsman alive today. He is so much a supporter of Scotland that he has a tattoo on his arm, which reads "Scotland Forever." However, his Connery ancestors are from Ireland.
According to an article in the Scotsman, Sean Connery's great grandfather was James Connery, a tinker from Wexford who moved to Scotland to find a better life. His death certificate showed that he worked in Scotland as a labourer.
Pocket PC magazine has announced the Finalists in its Fifth Annual Best Software Awards. Over 80 Windows Mobile experts voted on over 700 software titles in 85 Pocket PC, 23 Smartphone, and 22 Developer Software categories.
In the genealogy category, the two finalists are: CE My Family and Pocket Genealogist.
You've likely heard it said, "Back in the good old days, people were much shorter. They were old at thirty-nine and dead at forty."
Maybe not. Such claims have circulated for years, but Carolyn Freeman Travers, Research Manager at Plimoth Plantation, disagrees. She also has evidence to back up her claims.
Thomas Jay Kemp is stepping down Friday, Oct 21st from his position as Director of the Godfrey Memorial Library. He has accepted the newly created position of Director of Genealogy Products at NewsBank, Inc.
Many people are creating CD-ROM disks of their genealogy data. Creating your own CD-ROM disks has become very cost-effective in the past year or so; internal CD-ROM writers now sell for as little as $39.95 and frequently come packaged with new computers. The blank disks are also cheap. It is now easy to write your reports and databases to a CD-ROM disk to give to someone else.
I cannot even express my reaction to this story. From the Nashua (New Hampshire) Telegraph Online:
Bones from a Civil War gravesite that had been offered for sale should receive a military funeral, a leader of a Civil War re-enactment group said Monday. But the owner of the bones would not say what will happen to them, calling them "private property."
The Board for Certification of Genealogists is one of two genealogy certifying 0rganizations in the United States. Most professional genealogists as well as many advanced amateurs earn certifications as proof of their expertise. In short, those that add the letters CG, CLS, CGRS, CGL or CGI after their name have proven that they possess the knowledge and skills that exemplify the standards articulated in the BCG Genealogical Standards Manual. Now those standards are changing.
Have you heard about newsreaders and blogs and RSS and all that stuff, but don't know how to read those things? Are you leery about installing software on your computer? If you answered "yes" to either of those questions, Google has the answer for you. Best of all, it is a free solution.
The Belfast & Province of Ulster Local and Family History Fair will be held at the Ulster Museum in Belfast this Friday and Saturday, October 21 and 22.
A newsletter reader wrote this week, "Any way to filter out announcements from (domain name deleted) and its multitudinous affiliates? They drive me nuts!!!!!"
I have deleted the company's name from the message, but let's just say that it is a well-known company that serves the genealogy marketplace.
The quick answer is, "Yes, and it's easy to do." You can decide what kind of mail you consider as junk, and you can decide what you want to do with it - all without even looking at your e-mail inbox.
If genealogy books were rated by the pound, the book I examined this week would be number one. I don't recall ever picking up a single genealogy book as thick and heavy as this one. Of course, genealogy books are not graded by heft. Nonetheless, this particular book is the definitive guide to descents from the Magna Carta Barons of 1215 A.D. for over 200 individuals who emigrated from the British Isles to the North American colonies in the 17th century.
I am delighted to announce the addition of a new section to this newsletter: Announcements. The new section will include all sorts of press releases and announcements from genealogy vendors around the world.
KStableau for Windows will generate HTML files for displaying graphical family trees and will even allow you to upload the charts to a personal genealogy web site. Such a chart is a great way to visualize your family tree. You can also use it to analyze kinship amongst distantly-related individuals. It also shows inbreeding. (Before you chuckle, keep in mind that every person on the face of the earth has significant inbreeding in his or her family tree. Yes, that includes you. There are only so many ancestors to go around, and nobody has a completely separate set. You certainly have duplicates in your family tree, even if you haven't discovered them yet.)
CemEditor2 is a Windows program that organizes and manages cemetery photos and transcriptions into a searchable database. Data may be entered by hand or by reading files from other database or spreadsheet programs. CemEditor2 also includes features to publish information on CD-ROM disks as well as web pages, books, and books with pictures.
Over the years, millions of foreign-born immigrants have become American citizens. Until they earn their citizenship papers, they are often referred to as "aliens." None are more alien than one person who will become a naturalized American on Monday in a ceremony in Arlington, Texas.
Would you like to quickly put your ancestry information onto your web site? There are many ways of doing so. One method is to obtain a computer program to automatically generate the pages for you. That can be intimidating, inconvenient, or possibly expensive, depending upon which program you select.
I have written a number of times about free programs that are nearly as good as their commercial competitors. Now PC Magazine has done the same. The magazine's editors have identified 17 nifty free software packages that will deliver just about anything you need - from anti-virus and anti-spyware programs to office suites, image managers, and more.
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