Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Find This Book in a Library

Google Books recently added "Find this book in a library" links on many books in the company's huge database. This should be a big help to genealogists looking for a book on a family surname, a book on local history, or one of many other books. Google Book Search helps readers locate nearby libraries where they can borrow titles of interest. These links direct you to OCLC's Open WorldCat, the online computer library catalog that lists the contents of libraries around the world..

Census Mortality Schedules Research Tool Released

The following press release was written by GenealogyBuff.com:

GenealogyBuff.com released a new research tool this week for researching census mortality schedules which have been transcribed and posted across the web. MortalitySchedules.com is a directory of these schedules which provides a search function to find surnames for genealogy research.

Port Neches, TX - July 21, 2007 -- GenealogyBuff.com announced the release of a new online research tool this week. This tool, MortalitySchedules.com, indexes and links to online transcriptions of the Federal Census Mortality Schedules which were taken during census years 1850, 1860, 1870, and 1880. These schedules list deaths which occurred in the enumeration district for the previous year.

NYG&B Implodes

A huge controversy has surrounded the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) in recent weeks. The Board of Directors proposed that all 5,000 members be booted out of the organization, save for the fifteen people who sit on the Board of Directors. That's right: the proposal stated that there will only be fifteen members, and they alone should run the society. The fifteen people will not be answerable to anyone else. Today's treasury, library, and all other assets will become the sole property of the very small genealogy society, controlled entirely by fifteen people.

The proposal generated a huge uproar amongst members, complete with accusations, questions and shouts of... well, all sorts of shouts. For details, read my earlier article entitled NYG&B Proposes to Implode at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/07/nygb-proposes-t.html. I'd suggest that you also read the roughly 40 comments at the end of the article, all posted after the article was published. Most of the comments came from NYG&B members. Maybe I should call them "soon to be ex-NYG&B members." One comment was posted by Waddell W. Stillman, Chairman of the Board of Trustees, New York Genealogical & Biographical Society. As you might expect, he defended the proposal.

The official meeting and vote was held Thursday at NYG&B headquarters in New York City.

North Dakota State Archives Building Nearly Complete

In September of 2005, a groundbreaking ceremony was held in Bismarck for a $5.7 million expansion of the North Dakota State Archives. Now that the new addition is nearly complete, the archives staff members are getting ready to make the most of their added space. It`s a major project that will provide a big boost to efforts to preserve the state`s rich heritage.

The North Dakota Heritage Center is in the final stages of construction, The limestone tiles which are going up, one by one, have been carefully selected to match the fascade of the current building which was constructed in 1980.

Footnote Affiliate Program

Hosting a web site or even a blog can be expensive. You need to pay hosting fees, optionally pay for a domain name (and renew it every so often), and may need to purchase software, images and more. Of course, you also invest many hours of hard work in the site.

Are you looking for ways to earn money to cover expenses and to reward you for all of the hard work you have put into the site or blog? Use of affiliate advertising may be the answer. Footnote.com has recently announced an affiliate program that offers history-related and family history-related ads for your site that will help you pay the bills.

Family Tree Maker 2008 UK Edition

TWR Computing has announced the release of Family Tree Maker 2008 UK Edition. The new version is expected to be available for shipment late August 2007. The Family Tree Maker 2008 UK Edition Single CD full version sells fort £19.99 inclusive. This pack will also upgrade from Family Tree Maker versions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 2005, 2006 and 16.

Follow-up: LDS Church Announces 3 Online Resources for Jewish Genealogical Researchers

Yesterday I published a short article about the LDS Church adding new databases focusing on Jewish resources. Today, the Church issued a press release that offers details:

New Jewish Family History Resources Online

FamilySearch Releases Free Database and Research Guides

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH— FamilySearch added to its substantial Jewish genealogical collection with the addition of its new Jewish Family History Resources online. The announcement was made in conjunction with the 27th International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies Conference in Salt Lake City this week. The new web page includes a new Jewish genealogy database, the Knowles Collection, as well as a new research guide, Tracing Your Jewish Ancestors. The new features can be accessed for free at FamilySearch.org. FamilySearch provides numerous free tools and resources for anyone researching Jewish ancestry.

Descendants of Slaves of President Madison Hold Reunion

Roots' author Alex Haley would have been thrilled by the extraordinary reunion of the descendants of slaves of President James Madison and their passionate search to learn more about their ancestors. Haley would have been especially pleased that more than 100 descendants of African Americans enslaved at President James Madison's Montpelier plantation attended the three-day reunion and spent considerable time learning new techniques for tracing their genealogical roots.

LDS Church Announces 3 Online Resources for Jewish Genealogical Researchers

The Deseret Morning News is reporting that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced on Tuesday that it has made available three new online resources to aid with Jewish genealogical research. The announcement was made at the 27th International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies is meeting this week in Salt Lake City.

Open Library Project Announced

Think about the largest library in the world. Then multiply its size by a thousand, maybe by ten thousand, maybe more. That's the ambitious goal of the newly announced Open Library Project.

The Open Library wants to have a copy of every book. That is not every book that is presently for sale, or every important book, or even every book in English, but simply every book ever published. Of course, no building is big enough to house such a collection of printed books, so it will need to be located in the only suitable space: on the Internet.

GeneaSofts in English

Jean-Yves Baxter launched the French version of the GeneaSofts website in September 2005 and it immediately became very popular amongst French-speaking genealogists. He has now expanded the site by supplying English language articles that seem to mirror the French articles.

GeneaSofts is a blog-format web site that gives daily news about genealogy software, web-based user interfaces and other genealogy technology news. The English version has been in operation for a few months but M. Baxter did not announce it until now as he was still making the site perfect.

Genealogists Fight Closing of Public Records

The following was written by the Keep Genealogical Records Open Workgroup:

Genealogists fight closing of public records as guise in war against ID theft and terrorism

A group of genealogists announced today that they have begun a project to educate governmental leaders and the public that closing or restricting access to many public records will have little impact on preventing an enormous identity theft problem or terrorism attacks in the United States.

“Federal and state governments have been closing or trying to close many public records or limiting the public’s access to them, especially vital records--birth, marriages, and deaths,” explains Jean Foster Kelley, CG (Certified Genealogist) of Tampa, Florida. “They want to protect people’s privacy, prevent identity theft, and prevent terrorism,” she says. “But we find there’s no evidence that open public records contribute to identity theft or terrorism to any measurable degree."

(+) How to Make Money Selling Genealogy Information - Part V

I have written four previous articles about how to make money by selling genealogy information. Those articles covered the basics and should get you started in business. This week I'll write a follow-up article with a suggestion for someone who has already been in the business for a few months and is starting to have some success.

Changes and Updates at Footnote

Footnote.com was launched early this year as a history site that contains images of original documents. The documents on the web site appeal to historians, history teachers and students, genealogists, railroad enthusiasts, re-enactors, local historical societies, social scientists, and many, many others. Footnote.com also sponsors the Standard Edition of this newsletter.

With help from beta users, Footnote.com  was already very user-friendly at the time of its launch. Since then, the programmers have made further improvements to that software, even as the acquisition folks continued to add new content. Today I thought I would mention some of the recent software improvements made at www.footnote.com. These improvements give the user a richer experience in the quality and nature of information and also make that information easier to find. I am especially impressed with some of the ease-of-use improvements made to help users add  their own information to footnote.com.

Response from NYG&B

A few days ago, I wrote a brief article about the controversy surrounding the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society's proposal to drastically alter its membership structure. In that article, I also republished a message from concerned NYG&B member Roger Joslyn. Many newsletter readers have added comments to the end of the article since then.

Waddell W. Stillman, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society has now added a detailed commentary explaining some of the reasons why the board first decided to sell the Society's headquarters building and now proposes to change the membership structure of the Society.

GoogleReport.org

A new website looks like an interesting tool for harvesting useful information from the online jungle. While I don't believe it is particularly suitable for finding your ancestors, it may be very helpful to genealogists who are seeking information about the times and places in which those ancestors lived. I found it to be a great method of finding history of an area, including the places where your ancestors lived.

GoogleReport.org is described as an "online report creator tool." It creates intelligent reports on your questions, compiled from relevant websites. In operation, it appears to be a cross between Google and Wikipedia.

Intern Gets 15 Months for National Archives Theft

A book dealer who stole scores of Civil War documents from U.S. archives and sold them on eBay was sentenced Thursday to 15 months in prison.

Denning McTague, 40, worked as an unpaid intern last summer at the National Archives and Records Administration branch in Philadelphia to complete a master's degree program. Assigned to organize Civil War papers, he took to stuffing them into his yellow legal pads and walking out with them.

(+) Follow-up: Comment on Genealogy Libraries and Buildings

A few days ago I published a Plus Edition article entitled, Comment on Genealogy Libraries and Buildings. Several newsletter readers soon added their comments on the Plus Edition subscribers' web site at http://www.eogn.com/blogplus/2007/07/_comment_on_genealogy_librarie.html. You can read all the comments there. A Plus Edition subscriber's user name and password will be required.

While the original article focused on books and the buildings that house those books, the comments soon switched to a discussion of how to store records in digital format. David Greene, coeditor and publisher of The American Genealogist  (TAG), rightly pointed out that storing records in any form of digital format entails some risk.

Plus Edition Subscribers: Please Read. I Give Up!

For the past couple of years, I have spent eight to ten hours per week writing e-mail messages about problems with spam filters. I suspect that some of you are tired of reading my messages and articles about this problem.

In short, after spending thousands of dollars on bulk mail servers and after consulting with various industry experts, I must conclude that there is no way to guarantee e-mail delivery to 100% of the Plus Edition subscribers.

Government Investigations of Frank Lloyd Wright

The Bureau of Investigation, predecessor to the FBI, was investigating Frank Lloyd Wright in the early 1900s. Records recently added to Footnote.com show that B of I officials wanted to "throw a scare into him". You can find the original records in the Bureau of Investigation Case Files at http://www.footnote.com/spotlight/11/the-investigations-of-fra.

These records are an excellent example of the information found in the Bureau of Investigation Case Files. The governmental agency investigated hundreds of thousands of Americans, famous and not so famous people alike. In fact, most of these were investigations of private citizens, often conducted without their knowledge.