Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Follow-up: State of California Sends Cease-and-Desist Letters to DNA Testing Companies

I wrote about this a few days ago but the situation now seems to be worse. State bureaucrats in California seem intent on shutting down any genetic testing service that provides services to the general public, including companies that provide genealogy DNA testing services. The state apparently only wants to allow "state approved" genetic testing services that supply services directly to doctors and medical centers. This strikes me as a major loss for genealogists and, indeed, for all consumers.

FamilySearch Update: 72 Million Names Added to Mexico Baptism Records Collection

The following was written by FamilySearch:

The Record Search pilot has added 72 million new names to its Mexico Baptism collection online. The collection was transcribed from Mexico parish records dating from 1659 to 1905, and is not necessarily complete for any particular place or region. It also includes records from the Middle America Vital Records Index--Mexico that was published in 1999 on CD only. 

The newly expanded database can be searched for free at http://pilot.familysearch.org. The data was transcribed by FamilySearch's impressive force of volunteer indexers worldwide (see www.familysearchindexing.org).  Volunteers donate a little time each week or month transcribing select information from digital images of original source documents using FamilySearch's online indexing utility. Anyone interested in joining the global, community-based indexing initiative, or wanting to see what projects are currently being indexed, can do so at www.familysearchindexing.org.

Discount Registration Price Extended for FGS Conference

The following announcement was written by the Federation of Genealogical Societies:

The early registration price for “Footprints of Family History,” the 2008 version of the Federation of Genealogical Societies national conference, will be honored until 1 July.

“We realize that people have been grappling with $4 a gallon gas and other economic issues,” said James M. Beidler, an FGS vice president and national co-chair for the conference. “But we hope that people will consider using their federal stimulus rebate checks for a registration and meals to the FGS conference.”

U.K. Historical Occupational Trade Directories Now Online

The following announcement was written by Familyrelatives.com:

Familyrelatives.com is pleased to announce the first of several new and important records to be put online - part of a program to add more than 10 million new records. 

Starting with the most recent records to go online are the Pigot's Trade directories, these are a unique collection and cover 27 counties and provide invaluable information for the 1830's going back as far as the time of William IV.

Have You Used Facial Recognition Software?

A newsletter reader wrote this week with a fascinating question. I cannot help, but I am hoping that perhaps newsletter readers can do so. Have you ever used facial recognition software for genealogy purposes?

Here is an excerpt from the e-mail message I received:

A Graphical Search Engine: SearchMe.com

SearchMe.com is a new search engine that is available as a public beta test. It shows a lot of promise. SearchMe's graphical display of web pages is quite similar to Macintosh and iPod displays: you can "flip" through the pages. Finding relevant web pages usually is faster in SeachMe.com than in traditional search engines such as Google or Yahoo. This is especially true when the pages have lots of graphics or contain sophisticated visual layouts. The results are difficult to describe in words but you will understand within seconds after making your first search.

State of California Sends Cease-and-Desist Letters to DNA Testing Companies

The state of California's Health Department sent cease-and-desist letters to several personal genomic testing companies last week. I haven't been able to find out if any genealogy DNA companies received such letters. The companies do not need to be registered in California but such a letter would seemingly prohibit companies in other states from doing business with California residents.

Encyclopedia of Genealogy Updated

The Encyclopedia of Genealogy now has an all-new "look and feel" as well as an updated set of menus. The result should be a bit easier to use. The basic functionality of the Encyclopedia remains unchanged.

The Encyclopedia of Genealogy is a free-content encyclopedia created by its readers, people like you. It is loosely modeled on the Wikipedia example. I created the "shell" of the Encyclopedia and I then "seeded" it by creating a few pages of information myself. However, most of the pages are the contributions of people like yourself: someone with a bit of expertise on a particular subject who would like to share that knowledge with others.

Time Magazine Names Geni as One of the "Top 50 Web Sites of 2008"

Genealogy sites don’t get mentioned in Time Magazine very often. Therefore it is interesting to see the magazine name Geni.com as one of 50 top websites of 2008. In fact, it was the only genealogy site mentioned.

The following is an extract from the Geni blog:

(+) What's Not in the Index? by George G. Morgan

Everyone's guilty. The first place that most people look in a book is the index. I see it all the time at libraries, in bookstores, and in the exhibit halls at conferences. The first place many people may look in a genealogy society journal is at the index to see if there is a surname they are researching. Even worse, people quickly search the online indexes at web sites and in databases and often bypass the search results if there isn't an exact match. So, what do they  miss?

Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree 2008

The annual Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree is one of the larger genealogy conferences of the year. In fact, it is the largest such conference on the west coast. The 2008 Jamboree will be held soon: June 27, 28, and 29 at the Burbank (California) Airport Marriott.

Many well-known professional genealogists, among them Tom Underhill, Arlene Eakle, and Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, will speak about online and traditional resources, tech applications for genealogy, including several DNA talks, German ancestry, genealogy applications for today, such as family health histories, dealing with family secrets and black sheep, finding living relatives, and more. I will also be making several presentations at this year's Jamboree.

Bill Dollarhide Hospitalized

Friends of noted author and lecturer Bill Dollarhide will want to know that he had two "silent heart attacks" that went undetected at the time. Only some weeks later did he start to complain about the symptoms he had endured since then. Upon seeing a doctor, he was immediately hospitalized and this week surgeons inserted four stents into two of Bill’s arteries.

Details are available on Leland Meitzler's blog at http://genealogyblog.com/general/bill-dollarhide-recovering-from-surgery-at-the-va-hospital-in-salt-lake-city-6939.

Video: Genealogy Center's Military Symposium

The Allen County (Indiana) Public Library's Genealogy Center is hosting a Military Symposium on September 26 and 27 with special guest lecturer Marie V. Melchiori, CGRS, CGL. I discovered a cute video advertisement for the Symposium on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30522iY14FA. Part #2 of the video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfXWjgVCZy4.

Gee, some of those "actors" look familiar!

You can also read about the symposium at http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/genealogy/Military%20Symposium.pdf.

Surname Suggestion List

Matt Combs has written a simple, but very useful, Windows program that will interest many genealogists. The "Surname Suggestion List" will assist you in searching the web for information on your surnames.

Once you download and install the program on your computer, you enter a surname of interest and click on the SEARCH button. The program then creates three lists of similar-sounding surnames.  The lists are based on how close the names sound to the surname you entered. The lists are labeled according to their relationship with your entry:

Ancestry.com Doubles Its Newspapers Collection

The following announcement was written by The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.com:

Ancestry.com has doubled the size of its newspaper collection - adding a billion names and 20 million images. Culled from a cross section of American newspapers, from large and small towns alike, this collection has newspapers beginning in the early 1800s and some extending into the 2000s. (Available years vary by newspaper.) As an example, the collection includes newspaper titles such as:

Change the Font Size

I occasionally receive questions about this newsletter similar to one in my in-box this week:  "Please tell me how to enlarge this article ... I cannot read this small print." I thought I'd answer here so that everyone will see the answer.

You can change the print size on ANY web page at any time. That is, you can change the print size not only on this newsletter's site, but also on almost every other web page you visit. The command is already built into your web browser. The exact command will depend upon which web browser you use:

Everton’s Genealogical Helper Adds New Online Edition

The following announcement was written by Everton’s Genealogical Helper:

New Online Edition of Everton’s Genealogical Helper will debut July 1. Subscribe today for only $10.00.

LOGAN, Utah, June 12, 2008. Genealogy Online, Inc., publisher of Everton’s Genealogical Helper, today announced the publication of the Genealogical Helper in an Online Edition. The Online Edition is an identical copy of the 176-page paper edition – complete with hotlinks to the hundreds of website addresses found therein.

Launch Date – The new Online Edition will launch on July 1 – simultaneous with the home delivery and newsstand date of the paper edition of the July-August issue.

NYG&B Building For Sale for $33 Million

The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society (NYG&B) recently fired all its members except for the fifteen members of the Board of Directors. In effect, the society now has only fifteen members – its  Board of Directors. (See my earlier articles at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/07/nygb-implodes.html and at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/07/nygb-proposes-t.html.) The Board now controls the Society and all its assets with no one looking over their shoulders. The Board previously had announced that they would sell the building. Now an ad for the building has appeared with an asking price of $33 million.

Join the Unclaimed Persons Group

On May 28 I wrote about a new video on Roots Television called "Unclaimed Persons." (See http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/05/unclaimed-perso.html.) The video describes the efforts to find the families of deceased individuals. The result was so successful that a new group is being formed to allow genealogists to use their people finding skills to find relatives of other deceased individuals. The following announcement was written by Roots Television:

Looking for a Few Good Sleuths
June 11, 2008

When RootsTelevision.com launched Unclaimed Persons this month, the hope was to bring attention to a virtually unknown epidemic, but also offer a potential solution. The epidemic? Literally unclaimed persons. Many of us are familiar with John and Jane Does, but very few are aware of the struggles of coroners' offices across the country to find the next of kin for the ever-growing number of people who are identified, but have no one to claim them. The solution? An unlikely teaming of coroners and genealogists working together to find the families of the unclaimed.

FamilySearch Update: 1850 U.S. Census (Select States), Czech Republic, and Philadelphia Marriages

The FamilySearch Record Search pilot has just added 3.1 million records from the 1850 U.S. Census for the states of Maine, New Jersey, and Ohio. An additional 117,000 unindexed digital images were added for Philadelphia marriages and Czech Republic church books. These collections can be searched for free at http://pilot.familysearch.org.