Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

New Guide to The Historic Cemeteries of Oyster Bay

Oyster Bay (Long Island) Town Historian John Hammond has written another book. Supervisor John Venditto made the announcement that the town now has available a guide for genealogists entitled Historic Cemeteries of Oyster Bay. Mr. Hammond said, "My phone has been going crazy after an article by Bill Beyer in the Sunday, March 18 issue of Newsday." The book is only available by calling him at his office in town hall.

(+) Moving From a Desktop to a Laptop Computer

A newsletter reader wrote this week, asking a number of excellent questions. Here is an excerpt from that message:

Dear Mr. Eastman,

You were very helpful a year ago when I was looking at genealogy software to acquire. I have several new questions for you now that I am ready to buy a laptop to take with me when I do genealogical research.

1. Do you recommend any particular basic software, memory, accessory requirements for a laptop that is to be used primarily for genealogical research? I would like a laptop to which I could export slide shows for display and/or lecture purposes.
2. Will I need to buy another version of TMG [The Master Genealogist] software to download on the laptop or can I transfer the software I already own onto another machine? Is it possible to export slide-shows as long as the software programs are identical or from the same supplier?
3. What is the best way to transfer data back and forth from the new laptop into my PC, and vice versa? If that best way is by burning data into a CD-ROM, how time-consuming a process is that? I'd like a short process possible!

Thank you in advance,

Great questions! I thought I would share my thoughts with all Plus Edition readers as I suspect that others may have similar questions. Let's take the questions one at a time.

A New Computer Revolution is Rising Around Us

WARNING: This article contains personal opinions.

I recently attended the 10th Annual Computerized Family History & Genealogy Conference held at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. This annual conference focuses heavily on the use of technology within genealogy. After listening to presentations and talking with presenters and attendees for several days, I walked away with one phrase echoing in my mind: "web-based."

AncestralManor.com Offers Six Weeks of Family History Teleconferences

The following press release was written by AncestralManor.com:

International authors and educators to present teleconference workshops on family history in March and April, 2007.

AncestralManor.com to host six-week teleconference series on family history. A six-week series of teleconference presentations on a wide variety of family history topics will be offered from March 18 – April 23, 2007 at 8 PM each evening by the AncestralManor.com of Waltham, MA. Over twenty-five notable historians, authors, educators and entrepreneurs will discuss everything from new methods for using traditional resources to emerging on-line resources and technological tools for family historians and practical case studies will abound throughout the series.

BCG Upcoming Events

The Board for Certification of Genealogists has created a new page of upcoming events at http://bcgcertification.org/calendar.html. You will be able use this webpage as a reference for learning where a certification seminar will be held or where the BCG booth with the portfolios that travel with the booth will be accessible.

Logan County's History goes on CD

Researching Logan County, Illinois history has just become easier.

Stringer's "History of Logan County," has long been the bible for historians far and near seeking information about the early years of the county. Now the book is available on searchable CD from the Logan County Genealogical and Historical Society.

Recent Changes at Footnote.com

Disclaimer: This article describes recent changes at Footnote, Inc., the sponsors of this newsletter. There is a possibility that I am displaying some bias in favor of the sponsor, although I honestly don't think that is the case. I'll simply mention the possibility and then let you judge for yourself.

Numerous changes have been made recently at Footnote.com site. This is the company that recently signed an agreement with the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to place images of millions of historic documents online. The site is valuable for genealogists, historians, re-enactors, railroad enthusiasts, aviation historians, and many, many others. More than four and a half million documents are already online with many more being added every month.

Usability Research Help Wanted in Utah

Footnote.com is looking for volunteers to “test drive” the website on Thursday March 29th. The company is looking for eight volunteers who are 40 years or older and live within driving distance of Lindon, UT.

Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics Online

More than one million records of interest to genealogists have recently been placed online. The records include:

Nova Scotia Births 1864-1877
Nova Scotia Marriages 1864-1930
Nova Scotia Deaths 1864-1877 and 1908-1955

Best of all, these are not just simple transcriptions with associated transcription errors. Instead, when you find a name you can then view an image of the actual document in the original handwriting, all at no charge. If you want a higher quality image or a printed copy of the document, you must pay a fee.

So You Lost a $38 Billion File?

I have written often (http://tinyurl.com/2nuwwd) about the need to make frequent backup copies of your genealogy data, as well as other computerized information that is important to you. Old family photographs and documents also should be scanned for backup purposes. In fact, I have always pointed out that one backup copy is not enough; you need two or more copies, stored in different locations. It appears that a computer technician in Alaska has not been reading my articles. The information he lost tracked $38 billion in assets.

The computer technician needed to reformat a disk drive at the Alaska Department of Revenue. While doing routine maintenance work, he accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account - one of Alaska residents' biggest perks. To make matters worse, he mistakenly reformatted the backup drive, as well.

The situation became grim when the department discovered its second backups on tapes were unreadable.