Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

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.

(+) How to Become an Accredited Genealogist

In this newsletter you frequently see letters appended after the names of individuals, such as CG or AG. This means that the individual has received a genealogy accreditation of some level. This week I thought I would describe the various certifications and tell why you might be interested in obtaining certification.