Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

British Library Adds Caribbean History to Online Collection

The British Library has launched a new collection online, called Caribbean Views. The new offering includes more than 1,000 images, maps and texts from the 18th and early 19th Centuries and reveals the contrasting experiences of life on and around plantations in the former British colonies.

Uncovering Your Ancestry through Family Photographs

This week I had a chance to read a new book by Maureen Taylor. Actually, Uncovering Your Ancestry through Family Photographs is an update of a great book. Maureen wrote the original book in the year 2000, and it quickly became a standard reference. She has now written a second edition with a lot of new material.

Heritage Creations Files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy

I was saddened to read the following words from Leland Meitzler on his Genealogy Blog:

This is a blog I never expected to ever write, but circumstances have dictated that I do so today.

Put in simple terms - I'm broke and am in the process of filing for Chapter 7 personal bankruptcy.

On the Road Again

This week I will be traveling to St. George, Utah, to attend the Genealogy and Family Heritage Jamboree to be held Friday and Saturday at the Dixie Convention Center. This event is sponsored by My Ancestors Found with a lot of assistance from the Washington County PAF User's Group. Given the long list of presenters and vendors to be at the event, this is shaping up to be one of the larger genealogy conferences this year in North America.

St. George is in the southwest corner of Utah, close to both the Arizona and Nevada borders. It is about a six-hour drive from Salt Lake City. However, I am flying to Las Vegas, which I am told is only a two-hour drive away from the conference center.

FindUSA Shuts Down

FindUSA was a very popular online service to help you find missing relatives and old friends. You could search for living or recently deceased Americans. The searches returned a lot of information, such as full name, date of birth, addresses for the past 30+ years; property records; court records; links to every person who lived at those addresses for the past 30 years, and much more. Typical reports provided links to individuals, their parents, spouses, and adult children. Apparently the service was a bit too successful and too powerful.

In Memoriam: Sandra Devlin

Sandra Devlin was a veteran journalist of 30+ years and a self-confessed genealogy addict. After a 25-year career as a daily newspaper reporter, photographer, editor, and managing editor in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and southern and northern Ontario, followed by a three-year stint as a community college journalism instructor in Prince Edward Island, Sandra decided in 1996 to become a freelance genealogy journalist. Her weekly genealogy column was published in more than 12 newspapers in the Maritime Provinces.

Western Union Stops Sending Telegrams

The end of an era occurred this week with very few raised eyebrows. After 145 years of business, Western Union has announced that the company will no longer send telegrams.

Many of us have "family archives" that contain one or more Western Union telegrams, often bearing bad news.

Black History Month at Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com has created a free portal (for the month of February) called the African American Research Center. This new portal helps celebrate Black History Month in the US. The portal provides "free access to this vast collection of historical records detailing the lives of hundreds of thousands of African Americans."

FGS Request For Services

The Federation of Genealogical Societies is looking to contract for the following administrative assistant services:

Was the Statue of Liberty a Symbol of Freedom for American Blacks?

The Statue of Liberty has long stood as a beacon of hope to immigrants. Millions of immigrants from Europe got their first glimpse of America when they spied the grand lady upon sailing into New York harbor. The Statue of Liberty is widely recognized as a symbol of freedom for immigrants.

Rumors have circulated for years claiming that Lady Liberty created by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi originally had another meaning. Many believe that the statue was intended, at least in part, as a monument to freed black American slaves.