Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Florida State Genealogical Society announces Award Winners

The Florida State Genealogical Society has established several awards and one scholarship that are presented at their yearly conference. This year's winners are: Todd W. Booth, Theora Frisbee, Margaret M. Harris, Laura Raines, Neil Armstrong, Jon Ferguson, J.K. "Buddy" Irby, Ann Myrece James, Judith Richbourg Jolly, Thelma Powell, Rebecca Brown Saunders, Howard Smith and the Osceola Library System.

Full details are available at  http://announcements.eogn.com/2005/11/florida_state_g.html

Update: Generating Fake Family Trees Automatically

An uproar in the genealogy community in recent weeks now seems to have calmed down. The owner of FakeFamily.com has taken the site offline.

Google Donates $3 Million to Scan Old Documents

Google is giving $3 million to the U.S. Library of Congress to help set up a system for creating digital copies of rare documents from around the world. This is not directly related to genealogy but one has to believe that the effort will greatly aid genealogists.

Biotech Billionaire Sorenson to Receive Award

Billionaire biotech entrepreneur James LeVoy Sorenson will receive A Giant In Our City award from the Salt Lake Chamber at a dinner in his honor on Feb. 15. Sorenson, a Rexburg, Idaho, native, moved to Salt Lake City in 1946 to sell pharmaceuticals to physicians.

Chinese Canadian Genealogy

The Chinese community in Canada has a long history dating back to the 19th century. There are many resources available to Canadians of Chinese origin who would like to explore their Chinese-Canadian history. Now the Vancouver Public Library and the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of British Columbia have developed a Chinese Canadian genealogy website.

A Gumbo Thanksgiving

Every year I pause to give thanks for all the wonderful things that I enjoy in my life: family, friends, food, and a nice place to live. This year I paused even a bit longer after reading about families in New Orleans who are working hard to recover their lives.

Millennia Software's Genealogy Cruise is a Success

This seems to be the season for genealogy cruises, and the folks at Millennia Software recently had a very successful event. Millennia is the producer of Legacy Family Tree, a leading genealogy program for Windows. The cruise certainly appealed to Legacy users although there were several genealogy presentations that were not directly related to the program.

Adding Disk Space to Your In-Home Network

This week I added a lot of disk space to my in-home network. I now have an additional 320 gigabytes of storage, all of it available to the multiple Windows, Macintosh and Linux computers that I have at home.  The total cost was a bit over $200.

Update: Encyclopedia of Genealogy

A few months ago, I created a free online service for genealogists, called the Encyclopedia of Genealogy. While I'm the person who created the "shell" of this new service, newsletter readers like you write much of the information within it. If you missed the announcement, you can read it here.

Historic Cookbook Causes a Stir

What did our ancestors eat? One of the oldest-known cookbooks in England has left historians in a stew over its obscure recipes. Her Cookery Book, written in 1742 by Mary Swanwick, includes a range of unknown dishes, such as squichanary pye and Stoughtons drops. The cookbook also includes instructions for stewed calf's head.

Gun Laws in Plimoth Colony

Gun laws are nothing new. Even the residents of Plimoth Colony passed laws governing firearms back in the early 1600s. Well, there was one major difference. Any member of the militia who came to church in Plimoth Colony WITHOUT a loaded gun was subject to a fine.

Family Historian Version 3

Calico Pie has announced that version 3 of the company's popular Family Historian genealogy program for Windows will be released in January. As a promotional offer, anyone who buys Family Historian 2.1 now from participating dealers can get a free upgrade to version 3 when it becomes available.

Simon Orde, Managing Director of Calico Pie, describing the new release:

Queering the Family Tree Initiative Launches Posters

At first glance, the family tree posters dotted along the main hallway of the City View Alternative School in Toronto just seem more colorful and artistic than the conventional genealogical diagram. It's only upon closer inspection that one can see the real difference: this family tree has no names, just words: heterosexual, bisexual, queer, lesbian, straight, intersex, transgender, questioning, gay, transsexual, and two-spirit.

False and Faked Mayflower Genealogy

Over the past two centuries, many people have--either deliberately or because of poor research--published accounts of Mayflower ancestry that are completely false. 

Caleb Johnson has collected the most commonly known false and faked Mayflower lines and has created a web page listing them. If you "have Mayflower ancestry," you might want to check the list at http://members.aol.com/calebj/hoaxes.html

Mayflower Ancestors

This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the United States. On this day, we remember the many brave immigrants who persevered in the face of hardships to create a better life for themselves and their descendants. All Americans owe thanks to their ancestors, whether they arrived on the Mayflower or in the centuries thereafter. This is an excellent week to spend a bit of time researching your immigrant ancestors, regardless of their arrival date.

FamilySearch Archive Adds Large West Virginia Online Genealogy Database

Thanks to the help of FamilySearch Archive (Genealogy Society of Utah), searching those elusive ancestors with West Virginian origins or connections may now be just a mouse click away. FamilySearch scanned and indexed the records and the West Virginia Division of Culture and History is hosting them online. The free database consists of millions of West Virginia births, deaths, and marriages-a goldmine for genealogists and historians. Researchers and curiosity seekers can now search and view scanned images of original birth, death, and marriage records from six counties, as well as most statewide death certificates from 1917-54.

The full text of the announcement may be found at http://eogn.typepad.com/announcements/2005/11/familysearch_ar.html

Genealogists Drop Out, Move to Iowa

I mentioned Adrian and Leslie Brisee in this newsletter more than a year ago. The New York couple read a listing for an abandoned school building on eBay. It sounded like what they were looking for; so, the couple drove from their home in New York to Iowa to inspect the building. They made an offer, and it was accepted soon after. Adrian said he needed the room to store his genealogy books. (You can read that article here.)

There must be a lot of books involved. The Brisee's previous home was a former hotel near Albany - not just a room, but the entire hotel. "The (hotel) ceilings were starting to sag because of the books," Leslie said. The books are Adrian's. He is into genealogy.

"It started as a hobby, but it got out of control," according to Adrian. Today he has over 12,000 items.

APG Call for Papers

The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) has issued a Call for Papers for the Professional Management Conference (PMC) to be held 15 August 2007 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. You can read the full text of the announcement in the Announcements section of this newsletter.

BYU Family History Archive

One of the greatest online genealogy resources seems to receive little publicity. The Harold B. Lee Library at BYU has a major project underway of offering genealogy history books online. Staff members are scanning the books and placing them online at the rate of about 100 titles per week. The 5,000 titles already available include diaries, biographies, and numerous family history books. The books are easily searched.

Peel County, Ontario Database of Second World War Veterans

In recognition of the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, the Region of Peel Archives has released a searchable collection of rare service cards from the Peel War Records Board.