Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Horse 'n Buggy Words

Note from EOGN newsletter editor Pam Cerutti:

Burr Morse is the seventh generation of Morse farmers at the Morse Farm Maple Sugarworks in Montpelier, Vermont (a delightful place to visit!). I met Burr when he took a rare day away from the farm to meet up with me and another Morse descendant, Jane Morse. We all trekked into the woods of Medfield, Massachusetts, to watch archeologists excavate the purported house site of our common immigrant, Samuel Morse. It turns out that Burr is also a wonderful storyteller with a wealth of local lore that he taps for articles about bygone days. I thought Dick's readers might enjoy one of Burr's yarns, and he graciously consented to this reprint. You can find more on the Morse Farm, its country store, and lots more at www.morsefarm.com.

The following was written by and is copyright by Burr Morse:

Gol dang that slang! Yup, that's what we say when we're plum fed up with all the four letter words and human expressions that get bantered about, overused, misused, and mistaken for something worthwhile. My wife and I are both Vermonters with roots as old as the hills and we prefer the words that our grandparents used. She suggested the other day that I write a column on the subject and I thought that sounded like just the cat's meow, speaking of an aging expression. My Grandpa Morse oft used that term, "the cat's meow," to mean something that's good and appropriate. I always thought it was great to credit kitty-cats with so much good stuff, in view of all the expressions that are demeaning to animals like "pig headed, slice of the squeal, shoot the bull, grease monkey, and snake-in-the-grass".

GenealogyBank Offers Society Fundraiser

GenealogyBank is working with societies on a fundraiser for the holidays. The company is offering societies a bonus of $10 for every person that signs up for a one-year subscription or $25 for every person that signs up for a two-year subscription to GenealogyBank. This is tracked by a special URL and an offer code.

Susan Sarandon learns about Welsh Roots

According to an article in the BBC's web site, Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon's search for her family history has brought her to Wales. Born Susan Abigail Tomalin in New York, the Hollywood star has been tracing her family tree for a BBC programme.

The Book Your Ancestors Read: The Old Farmers Almanac

It's official: the 2007 edition of The Old Farmers Almanac is now out in the stores. If your ancestors have been in the United States for a few generations, there's an excellent chance that your parents, grandparents, great grandparents, and even earlier generations read this same book. After all, it has been published every year since 1793, making it the oldest continuously published periodical in North America.

Family Tree DNA Offers Testing with Guaranteed Placement on Tree of Mankind

The following announcement was written by Family Tree DNA"

HOUSTON-- Family Tree DNA, the first company to make DNA testing available for genealogical purposes, is now taking the basic DNA test to determine genealogy a step farther.  By performing an additional process on a test sample, the company will be able to add an anthropological component to each of its tests and provide all of its clients with data on deep family ancestry, becoming the first Genetic Genealogy company to offer a DNA test with guaranteed placement on the correct branch of the tree of mankind. 

Free Online Storage at DropBoks

Would you like a simple method of storing backup copies of critical data files off-site? This would be a great place to keep a backup copy of your genealogy database. How about an easy method of swapping files between home and the office? Oh yes, should this service also be available free of charge? In fact, it shouldn't even have advertising?

DropBoks may be your answer.

Ancestry.com Extends Free Offer to U.S. Immigration Records

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com:

PROVO, Utah, Nov. 28 -- Ancestry.com, the world's largest online family history resource, today announced it is extending free access to the most extensive immigration records collection online through the end of the year. On November 9, the company released the most comprehensive collection of all readily available U.S. passenger list records from 1820 to 1960, providing access to more than 100 million names from the height of U.S. immigration. Ancestry.com originally offered free access to its immigration records through November 30 to celebrate the launch of the passenger list collection. Due to overwhelming response, the company is now extending the offer through the end of 2006.

Genealogist's Address Book, Version 5.3

Elizabeth Petty Bentley is well known as the author of the Genealogist's Address Book. This frequently-updated book has been available for years and has become the standard "Yellow Pages" listing of genealogy societies; national, state, and county courthouses and archives; land and probate offices; all sorts of museums; lineage societies; adoption registries; computer interest groups; newspaper columns; newsletters; booksellers; and much, much more. In fact, the author suggests that the latest edition might be properly called, "The Genealogist's and Historian's Address Book," because it now includes many more primarily historical resources, such as the New York State town and village historians and many museum libraries. The latest version of the Genealogist's Address Book now contains more than 28,000 listings worldwide, filling 15,269 pages.

Studying a Family's Health History Can Change the Future

The Salt Lake Tribune has an article that should be required reading for all genealogists. It describes how the study of your family's medical history may save your life or the lives of your loved ones.

The article by Lisa Rosetta describes the search conducted by Starr Hailey Campbell, a lady mentioned several times in past editions of this newsletter. As Starr mapped out her family health history, she began to realize the breast cancer she is battling today may have roots in her kin's DNA, stretching back at least three generations. Her father died of kidney cancer. Her grandfather died of stomach cancer. Her great-grandfather also died of cancer.

Archived Newspaper Searches on Google

Google continues to expand its information management capabilities into more and more areas. One item of interest to genealogists is called Google News Archive.

Last September, Google rolled out its "200-year" News Archive Search, offering full-text content from The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and third-party sources such as LexisNexis, HighBeam, and Thomson Gale. You can search the News Archive at http://news.google.com/archivesearch, or by clicking the "News archive search" on the Google News web page. If Google detects that your regular web search query would retrieve archived articles, it sometimes even includes those in the search results page.