Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

What Can RSS Do For You?

What is RSS?

With billions of web pages online today, keeping up-to-date with the information you want can be a drag. Wouldn't it be easier to have the latest news and features delivered directly to you, rather than you clicking from site to site?

Benjamin Franklin Home in London to Open to the Public

In his lifetime, Benjamin Franklin lived in a number of places. It seems ironic that the only home that still survives is the one in London, just a few steps from famed Trafalgar Square. Franklin lived here from 1757 to 1775.

Everton Collection Collecting Dust

Adam Benson writes in the Logan, Utah Herald Journal that one of the largest privately held genealogical collections in the country remains locked up and inaccessible to the public. The reason stated is that Logan Library Director Ronald Jenkins has been unable to find a full-time librarian to catalogue and oversee the daily operations of the $1.7 million collection.

Info for FGS 2006 Conference Exhibitors

The Federation of Genealogical Societies has now opened registration for exhibitors for its 2006 conference to be held August 30 through September 2 in Boston. If you or your employer would like to exhibit at this conference, go to http://www.fgs.org/2006conf/conf-exhibitor-information.htm.

Godfrey Library to Drop HeritageQuest Online

As reported yesterday in various genealogy newsgroups and blogs, the Godfrey Memorial Library in Middletown, Connecticut, is in the process of dropping HeritageQuest Online from its portfolio of offerings. The information floating around online is confusing, and some comments that I read contradicted other online comments. I was bewildered. Today I talked with Godfrey Library Director Richard E. Black and received the "inside story."

Convert Black & White Photos to Color

Recolored is a Windows application that helps you with the otherwise difficult and time-consuming task of colorizing black and white photos. Based on the latest developments in computer assisted image colorization, Recolored makes it possible for anyone to achieve professional looking results. This should be an excellent tool for anyone who wishes to restore old family photographs.

(You can click on these images to see larger photos.)

To add color to a photo, all you have to do is add markings to the different regions of the image, indicating how it should be colorized. Then click the Colorize button, and let the software do the rest.

Family History Center Microfilm Rental Fees Increase

The following is an excerpt from an announcement to all Family History Center Directors from the Family History Support department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

The microfilm circulation loan fees will be changed effective 15 January 2006.

SunTzu Worm Attacks PhpGedView

PhpGedView is a very powerful genealogy program that runs on web servers. You can read my review of this powerhouse here.

Now an Internet worm is targeting PhpGedView websites. Luckily, the fix is very simple. If you have a PhpGedView site, you can obtain the fix at http://www.phpgedview.net.

Heritage Societies Reported to be Growing

Warning: This article contains personal opinions.

I often hear reports that genealogy societies are shrinking. The numbers of members reportedly are falling annually; and therefore, budgets also are constantly shrinking. Attendance at some of the long-established national conferences also is declining. The reasons given vary although "competition from the Internet" seems to be the most common explanation offered.

It was with pleasant surprise that I read this week that heritage societies are doing the opposite: they are growing comfortably.

The Real Causes of Identity Theft

Many people think that identity theft is a crime committed by professional thieves who operate large scams. These same people think the only way to stop identity theft is to pass laws. (As if we didn't have enough laws already that are not being enforced today.) You can find hundreds of ridiculous newspaper and magazine articles about the need to lock up vital records of 100 years ago or even older in the name of "preventing identity theft."

2006 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy

The 2006 Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy will be held Jan. 9-13 in Salt Lake City. This year's event will offer courses on Scottish and Eastern European research, as well as U.S. research.

General Land Office (GLO) Records Web site is now back on line

The Bureau of Land Management has announced that the General Land Office (GLO) Records Web site is now back on line. The site was offline for sometime due to a court order.

One problem: As I sit here writing these words, the site seems to be down. Perhaps it is a temporary outage.

In Memoriam: Anna Walker Fitzgerald

Anna Walker Fitzgerald was an invaluable resource for those researching their ancestors in Boone County, Kentucky. She spent decades gathering information on families and ensuring it was preserved.

My Recent Non-Genealogy Articles

I have recently published a number of technical articles that have nothing to do with genealogy. Since they are not genealogy-related, I will not publish them in this newsletter. However, if you have an interest in any of the topics below, you may be interested in reading these articles at the addresses listed:

VA Expands Online Grave Site Locator

The Veterans Affairs Department has significantly increased its online list of burial locations and information inscribed on the markers to more than 5 million grave sites for veterans for whom VA has provided grave markers.

Three Newsletter Sections in One

As this newsletter has expanded in the past few years, it has been split into three separate sections:

1. The main newsletter
2. Other Genealogy News from around the World Wide Web
3. Genealogy Announcements from companies and societies

A couple of newsletter readers recently suggested, "Gee, it would be nice if I could read all three sections on one page." Now you can.

Brush Up on your Photo Editing with 4 Free Programs

Most digital cameras come with basic software that helps organize and manipulate photos. But those programs tend to be limited. Before you spend a fortune rectifying the problem, check out these free programs in Kim Komando's article in USA Today. Some are excellent.

Click here to read the article.

Durham Records Online adds matching service, reduces prices

Durham Records Online, a website with over 1.6 million searchable census and parish records of County Durham, England, has added several new features and has sharply reduced their prices for the holidays.

The full announcement may be found at http://announcements.eogn.com/2005/12/durham_records_.html

Related post: Durham Records Online adds matching service, reduces prices

Is Your Last Name Slade? You May Inherit a Mansion

Free to one lucky American named Slade, a 16-room English mansion surrounded by 1,300 acres of prime land in southwestern England. But be prepared to work for it.

Baronet Sir Benjamin Slade, 59, has no heir, but is desperate to pass his ancestral home, Maunsel Home - now a busy entertainment venue - to someone in the family. So he has given a DNA sample to a team of genealogists, who will search for the closest match among Americans called Slade; some 5,000 are estimated to live in North Carolina alone.

Social Security Administration's Death Master File on DVD

Genealogists use the Social Security Death Index as an excellent tool to find information about ancestors born in the twentieth or late nineteenth centuries. If you would like to purchase your own copy of this database, you can send a check for "only" $6,900 for an annual subscription.

Fortunately, a number of web sites have the same data available online at no charge. The owners of those web sites may be interested in a new option available from the Social Security Administration: the database is now available on a single DVD-ROM disk. Previously it was available only on a set of several CD-ROM disks or on magnetic tape cartridges.