Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Man Finds 188-year-old Bible in Trash Bin

Michael Hoskins discovered a 188-year-old King James Bible in a New Jersey town's trash bin. The sheepskin-covered book was printed in Pittsburgh in 1818 and, according to Hoskins' research, is one of less than six copies in existence.

Hoskins also looked into the Bible's history and discovered that it belonged to the Enoch family. "So, I also did research on the Internet and found a descendant of Isaac Enoch, one of the names listed in the Bible," Hoskins said.

New York Genealogists Petition State Library for HeritageQuest Online Access

Several genealogists in New York state have banded together and are asking other genealogists to sign a petition. Once the signatures are collected online, the petition will be sent to Janet Welch, New York State Librarian & Assistant Commissioner for Libraries.

The petition requests that the New York State Library subscribe to HeritageQuest Online, a service of ProQuest, and specifically to offer in-home remote access to all New York state residents. ProQuest offers the option for in-home remote access for library patrons by to all public libraries.

(+) A Very Cheap Method of Making Off-site Backups

Do you have a current backup of your genealogy data? How about your checkbook program, last year's income tax, your family's digital photographs, and other important documents?

All disk drives will fail sooner or later. It is not a question of IF your disk drive will fail, it is only a matter of WHEN. Unfortunately, predicting the time and date of a hard drive failure is about as easy as predicting next year's stock market numbers. The failure may not happen for years, or it may happen five minutes from now. The only thing that is certain is that it will eventually fail.

Free or Low-cost In-home Access to HeritageQuest Online

Did you know that you might already have free access to HeritageQuest Online? Or that you may be able to obtain such access easily?

HeritageQuest Online is a great genealogy resource that provides images of original U.S. Census records, Revolutionary War pension records, Freedman's Bank records, and more. My favorite is the library of 20,000+ family and local history books with every word in every book indexed. I use HeritageQuest Online frequently in my own genealogy research efforts.

Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History

Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History is perhaps the most definitive guide to British genealogy ever written. In the nine years since its release, Mark Herber's book has won awards and accolades from many organizations. Now Mr. Herber has even improved on his original work by releasing a Second Edition, containing thousands of updates and new material. I had a chance to review the Second Edition this week and must say that I am very impressed with it.

New Genealogy E-Magazine: Digital Genealogist

The following is an announcement from Liz Kelley Kerstens:

Ancestry has discontinued its magazine Genealogical Computing, effective with the July/August/September 2006 issue that is currently in the mail. As editor of GC for the past nearly seven years, I still believe there's a need for a magazine devoted to genealogy and technology. To that end, I am starting my own magazine later this year. It will be called Digital Genealogist and will be delivered to subscribers as a PDF. It will be similar in format and content to Genealogical Computing. In fact, a lot of the authors and columnists will continue to write for me in the new publication, including Drew Smith, popular Cybrarian columnist. The first issue of Digital Genealogist will be sent out via PDF attachment to subscribers in November 2006.

Grandpa Wouldn't Even Know You

The New York Times has an interesting article that discusses how modern humans are "So Big and Healthy Nowadays That Grandpa Wouldn't Even Know You." The article describes the impact of antibiotics and modern medicine on humans in their youth. The "baby boomers" of today have an overall level of health far higher than their parents did in middle age, and reason stands that their children will have even better health to look forward to.

Graves Searched for "Black Paul Bunyan"

Archaeologists have begun digging up the 200-year-old graves of a slave family in hopes of separating fact from fiction in the legend of "the black Paul Bunyan." The dig has the blessing of more than a dozen descendants of Venture Smith who believe science can finally lend credence to the tales they have heard all their lives about the fabulous feats of strength that helped the lumberjack slave win his freedom.

GenMates: a MySpace Alternative for Genealogists

The following is an announcement from GenMates. I have not yet had an opportunity to review this new service but thought you might be interested in the announcement:

Manchester, UK July 27, 2006 -- July 2006 sees the launch of GenMates, which is a social networking site for genealogists and those interested in family, garden and home areas.

Genealogists are great networkers, as the many forums that cater to them demonstrate. With the launch of GenMates they now have the opportunity to take their genealogy and family research to the next level.

Salt Lake County Birth Records Available Electronically

Salt Lake County, Utah, has partnered with the Genealogical Society of Utah to make digital copies of more than 100,000 of the county's oldest birth and death records. The information took two months to burn onto DVD. Now it is available for armchair historians through county offices. In about a year, the same records will become available on the World Wide Web.

Finding Genealogy Records and Books on eBay

Perhaps one of the greatest overlooked genealogy resources is the huge "online garage sale" at eBay. For years before the invention of the Internet, I scoured flea markets and yard sales looking for old books, hand-written records, family Bibles, photographs, and anything else that would assist my search for ancestry. So, why not do the same with the online equivalent of yard sales and flea markets: eBay?

Ephemera: The Blog

Ephemera is defined as "printed matter of passing interest." Genealogists often find themselves looking for ephemera as well as the more common records that we all know about. Ephemera may include old magazines, handbills, all sorts of advertisements, and other documents that our ancestors might have discarded in their time.

NARA Proposes a Change in Research/Exhibit Hours in DC Area

The following is a press release from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA):

** High Priority **

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) published today, July 25, 2006, in the Federal Register an interim final rule requesting public comment on a change in the hours for conducting research at the National Archives Building (DC) and National Archives at College Park (MD) and for visiting the Rotunda and National Archives Experience on the Constitution Ave side of the National Archives Building.

On AOL Newsletter Deliverability

This newsletter's daily e-mail updates are sent to you through a service called FeedBlitz. FeedBlitz is reporting problems with delivering those messages to AOL members. Here is a quote from the notice I received this morning from FeedBlitz:

Mike Dodd Joins Omniture

Many people in the genealogy business will recognize the name Mike Dodd. He spent the past four years serving in various executive-level capacities at MyFamily.com, Inc., including senior vice president and general manager of the Commerce Business Unit, vice president of New Channel Marketing, International Marketing and Business Development. His friends and acquaintances will be interested to learn that he is now at Omniture, Inc.

ALPHA TO OMEGA Launches New Web Site

The following is an announcement from Alpha To Omega:

Alpha To Omega™ The Genealogy Bookmaker  has posted an informative new web site for family genealogy enthusiasts at www.alphatoomega.us.  The new site allows visitors to see how easy it is to turn genealogy research into a personalized book for each member of a family tree using Alpha To Omega™ The Genealogy Bookmaker software.

NYC Family History Fair Canceled

The following is an announcement from Steven Siegel, Family History Fair Coordinator for the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc.:

The Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (ART) regrets to announce that the NYC Family History Fair will not take place in October 2006.

Yorkshire Now Available on 1841 England and Wales Census

The following is an announcement from Origins Network:

1841 England and Wales Census news

England and Wales's largest county, Yorkshire is now available for searching on British Origins 1841 England and Wales Census. Around 1.6 million names can be found in the Yorkshire records which are all fully indexed and all the images are available for viewing online.

(+) Upgrading the Digital Camera

Like many people, I have owned and used digital cameras for years. I have always used them as "electronic box cameras." That is, I just aim and shoot. The results have been variable: I have captured some great shots as well as quite a few not-so-great images.

I have never paid much attention to photo composition, shutter speeds, focal lengths, or other photographic mumbo-jumbo. In fact, the digital cameras that I have owned never had much capability to alter those settings. All I know is that each new camera I purchased over the years had more megapixels than the previous one. After all, having more megapixels is a good thing, isn't it?

Pocket Genealogist Version 3.0

I have carried my entire genealogy database in my pocket for some time now. In fact, for the past few months my genealogy database has been in my cell phone. Whenever I leave home, the records of 3,000+ people in my family tree go with me. That includes all relevant facts, text notes, and source citations. At genealogy conferences or society meetings, I can quickly compare notes with others. When doing research at a genealogy library, a county courthouse, or other archive, I can take the cell phone out of my pocket and easily compare new information against the research I have already completed.

All of this is possible with a program called The Pocket Genealogist, produced by Northern Hills Software. A new version of The Pocket Genealogist was released recently, and this week I had an opportunity to upgrade.