Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Google to Help Make Public Records Available

By providing free consulting and some software, Google Inc. is helping state governments make reams of public records that are now unavailable or hard to find online easily accessible to Web surfers. The Internet search company hopes to eventually persuade federal agencies to employ the same tools -- an effort that excites advocates of open government but worries some consumer privacy experts.

LostCousins is Free for a Week

The following is an announcement written by LostCousins:

To celebrate the 3rd Birthday of the LostCousins website on May 1 all users will be offered completely free access for a week!

When LostCousins ran a similar offer on the site's 2nd birthday a record number of members discovered previously unknown living relatives (or 'lost cousins'), and it is anticipated that this year's celebrations will be even more successful.

On the Road Once Again, This Time to London

I am traveling almost constantly throughout the month of May. This week I am off to the "Who Do You Think You Are?" conference in London, England. The event features the Society of Genealogists Family History Show, the Military Zone (supported by The History Channel, the UK's leading broadcaster of historical entertainment and documentary programming), House History and more. Speakers will include Dr. Nick Barratt, Bettany Hughes, Dan Snow, David Starkey, Guy Grannum, Jonathan Foyle, Saul David, Paul Crooks and more.

Although I will be carrying a laptop computer and various wireless networking devices, there is always a possibility of being left incommunicado. Don't be surprised if there are no new articles posted to the daily newsletter for a few days. Next Sunday's weekly Plus Edition e-mail newsletter also might be delayed by a day or two.

NERGC 2007 Wrap-up - Pictures Are Available

I just returned from the New England Regional Genealogical Conference in Hartford, Connecticut. As expected, this was a great conference. I believe the total attendance was more than 700, not bad for a regional conference covering only six small states. The event featured presentations by top national and regional genealogical experts. The Connecticut Conference Center is a first-class facility although the attendees, lecture rooms and exhibitors' hall only filled a small part of the available space.

The convention opened under sunny skies on Thursday although I think that was the last time the sun was seen. The remaining days were overcast with frequent showers. Those of us who stayed at the nearby Marriott Hotel didn't mind because we didn't need to go outside. The hotel, restaurant, coffee shops, convention center, and parking garage were all connected.

(+) Host Your Own Genealogy Web Server at Home - Part #3

In the past two weeks I have published "how to" articles describing how to set up a Web server on your in-home Windows or Macintosh computer and how to obtain a domain name for that web server at little or no cost. For many people, this is all the information needed to place web pages on a home computer that anyone else can access. However, anyone with sophisticated network routers or firewalls in their homes may find that access to the web server is being blocked; anyone from the outside world cannot gain access to the web server you have installed behind the firewall/router.

Luckily, there are easy solutions for this problem. A bit of technical expertise is required. However, if you have already succeeded in setting up the web server and getting it registered with a dynamic DNS service as described in the first two articles, you will probably already possess that expertise. If so, you will find this last part to be simple.

In Memoriam: Robert Warner, Sixth Archivist of the United States

Many long-time genealogists will recognize the name Robert Warner. He died Tuesday in Ann Arbor, Michigan at the age of 79.

President Jimmy Carter appointed Warner to be the Sixth Archivist of the United States in 1980, a position he held for the next 22 years. Warner is perhaps best known for presiding over the release of Oval Office recordings.

Update: Encyclopedia of Genealogy

This newsletter sponsors the Encyclopedia of Genealogy, a free online service. While I'm the person who created the "shell" of this new service, much of the information within it is written by newsletter readers like you.

I must admit that I am quite pleased with the Encyclopedia of Genealogy. Many newsletter readers have offered new content or have corrected existing information within the Encyclopedia of Genealogy. Here is a partial list of some of the articles added or updated by newsletter readers and myself in the past few weeks:

Free On Ancestry.com Closed Down by Legal Threats

If you go to the web site FreeOnAncestry.com, you will find the following sad words:

The website "FreeOnAncestry.com" was forced offline by The Generations Network, the parent company of Ancestry.com.

FreeOnAncestry.com was originally built with the approval of the previous affiliate marketing staff of MyFamily.com, the same company before the name change to The Generations Network. They felt a site like FreeOnAncestry.com was a great way to create a positive image and branding to the genealogical community by highlighting the free tools and databases available to the public. It was a way to show genealogists that Ancestry.com was not just a big greedy cash cow that everyone seems to think it is, but a site that does in fact give back to the community.

St. Louis Genealogical Society Website Surpasses 500,000 Names

The following announcement was written by the St. Louis Genealogical Society:

The St. Louis Genealogical Society (StLGS) is proud to announce that its website at http://www.stlgs.org now contains more than half a million names. Over 100 dedicated volunteers have spent tens of thousands of hours entering and proofreading data on past St. Louis area residents. Completely redesigned and released in January 2006 after a year of research and development, and “tweaked” again in January 2007, the StLGS website now encompasses more than 800 web pages with surname data, in about 120 separate data sets, plus three separate databases.  Search for your ancestors today.

British Slave Records to be Released Online

Ancestry.co.uk announced today that the web site will post 3 million names of slaves held across the British Empire in the early 19th century, putting hundreds of thousands of pages of searchable information online to help slaves' descendants research their past. The project will use registers that the British government created between 1813 and 1834 in an effort to stamp out the slave trade by ensuring plantation owners did not buy new slaves. Britain abolished the trade in 1807. Slavery itself was outlawed in the colonies 17 years later.

Information from about 700 registers from 23 British territories and dependencies will be made available online, free of charge, within the next 12 months, said Simon Ziviani, a spokesman for Ancestry.co.uk. The database will be searchable by first and last name, island, plantation, age and sex, he said.

Maine Historical Library Renovation

If you are planning on traveling to Maine to do genealogy research this summer, you will want to be aware of construction at the Maine Historical Society Research Library in Portland. The following was written by the Maine Historical Society:

Maine Historical Society Research Library Renovation News

This summer MHS will begin the centennial renovation and expansion of its Research Library which was built in 1907. This is an exciting and necessary project and will lead to better care for our collections and a better research experience for all of our users.

Who Do You Think You Are? A Conference in London

What may be the largest genealogy and history fair of 2007 will be held in a few days: May 5 though 7 in London, England. More than 15,000 people are expected at the "Who Do You Think You Are?" conference. This show is sponsored by the popular U.K. television show of the same name, as well as the Daily Telegraph and Ancestry.co.uk.

The Society of Genealogists Family History Show will take place as part of the Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE National History Show. The Society of Genealogists Family History Show will be a "show within a show."

I'll also be there, along with the other 15,000 attendees.

I hope to write about this huge conference in this newsletter each day that I am there and may be able to post a few photographs of the festivities. However, if you can be in London for the May bank holiday weekend, I'd suggest you attend in person and see for yourself. You can see the likes of David Starkey, Dan Snow, Neil Oliver, Bettany Hughes, Saul David, Nick Barratt, and Jonathan Foyle. You can read more about them at http://tinyurl.com/38rhlx.

Wikipedia on CD-ROM

I have written often about Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia. While not perfect, Wikipedia is becoming the dominant encyclopedia of today.

While "free" is a good thing, the requirement for an Internet connection may be a bit of a problem. What do you do when you are in a college class without wireless network access? How do you access Wikipedia while soaring 38,000 feet above the earth in some airliner? Now the (also free) Wikipedia CD-ROM comes to your rescue.

Handwriting Provides Clues to Ancestors' Personality

Working on a local history project, Floyd Ramsey was puzzled while researching Dolly Copp, a 19th century farm woman who seemed gregarious, but fidgeted nervously with her necklace beads whenever a stagecoach stopped near her farm in Gorham, N.H. "The beads part didn't fit in," Ramsey recalled.

When he learned that Irene P. Lambert could produce a personality sketch from a sample of Copp's handwriting, he gave it a try. After studying Copp's handwriting, Lambert concluded that, while Copp was a strong-willed woman who enjoyed people, she also was self-conscious, afraid strangers would laugh at her.

BCG Adds to Website

The following announcement was written by the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG):

The Board for Certification of Genealogists is proud to announce additions to its website.

“Who Was Aunt Mary? A Brief Case Study in Identification and Kinship ‘Correction;” by Carmen J. Finley, PhD, CG, demonstrates how to build a case with strong evidence and a reliable conclusion even when the relationship is not correctly given. “Aunt Mary’s” two letters gave tantalizing clues to her identity, but nothing in the extensive family genealogy revealed who she was.

Genealogy Seminar at Sea

I have written before about genealogy cruises. They are popping up everywhere and for good reasons: they are educational as well as a lot of fun. Here is an announcement for another one that I just received. The following announcement was written by Fly Away Travel:

Fly Away Travel in Canton OH is taking reservations for their 2nd Annual Genealogy Seminar at Sea, October 27 - November 3, 2007.  This year's seminar at sea will be hosted on board Royal Caribbean's brand new Liberty of the Seas, sailing the warm Caribbean waters and visiting the islands of Puerto Rico, St. Maarten & Royal Caribbean's private island of Labadee. 

You Can Help Test the Next FamilySearch.org

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns and operates one of the biggest and most popular genealogy web sites in the world: www.FamilySearch.org. Hundreds of thousands of Mormons and non-Mormons alike use this web site every month. Hundreds of millions of genealogical records may be found there. Of course, a web site like this one is never static: a group of product managers, software developers, database administrators, and many more keep adding new features and improving existing services.

Now the Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (also known as the Mormons) has several new tools available for beta testing. That is, the Church is experimenting with new and probably better services. To make sure the services are better, the genealogy public is invited to test the features on a web site known as "FamilySearch Labs." If the testing is successful, these new and/or updated services will be moved to the main www.FamilySearch.org about six months from now.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is inviting any and all genealogists to participate in the test. They are especially seeking genealogy newcomers. After all, one of the major objectives is to make a web site that is user-friendly and easily understood by newcomers. Who can test that best of all? The newcomers!

New Jersey Historical Documents and Artifacts Damaged in Flood

Nearly 1,000 priceless Revolutionary War era historical objects and documents were damaged last week. Antique furniture is now being sprayed in an attempt to stop the mold, and soggy piles of documents from the late 1700's have been frozen in an attempt to preserve them.  Meanwhile, state bureaucrats are involved in a high-level blame game.

Mozy Goes Big Time

I have written several times about Mozy, an online backup service that encrypts your critical data files and then stores them on Mozy's servers. The service works continuously as a background process, making sure that your backups are up to date at all times without any intervention by you required. I use Mozy to create continuous backups on my Windows and Macintosh systems. You can read my earlier articles about Mozy at http://tinyurl.com/3bgre5.

Today the company announced a major new customer for its MozyPro service for corporations: General Electric will now back up 300,000 computers by using MozyPro.

On the Road Again

I am headed out this week to Hartford, Connecticut. I'll be attending the New England Regional Genealogical Conference, often called "NERGC."

While I will be carrying a laptop computer and various wireless network devices, there is always a possibility of being left incommunicado. Don't be surprised if there are no new articles posted to the daily newsletter for a few days. Next Sunday's weekly Plus Edition e-mail newsletter also might be delayed by a day or two. Luckily, Hartford is a short trip from my home so any delays should be minimal.