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In the September 27 newsletter I wrote, "I have received suggestions from a number of newsletter readers to add a discussion board (some people call it a "forum") to the Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter's web site. I am not sure if this is a good idea or not and would like to obtain your opinion. If enough people think it is a good idea, I'll do it." I then set up an online survey and asked newsletter readers to give their opinions.
Stop by RootsBooks, your one-stop online genealogy bookstore. RootsBooks is the genealogy store for books, computers, software and more. Rootsbooks has two divisions:
Sarah Palin is a tenth cousin of Princess Diana, according to Ancestry.com. Both women are descendants of John Strong and his wife Abigail Ford. Strong was born around 1605 in England and emigrated to the United States.
Mrs. Palin is also the ninth cousin once removed of President Franklin D Roosevelt. Their common ancestor is Reverend John Lothrop, who arrived in Massachusetts in 1634.
Researchers at the University of Leicester are trying to develop techniques that an one day enable police to work out criminals' surnames just by analysing their DNA.
Dr. Turi King, Wellcome Trust postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Genetics, has found that men with the same British surname are highly likely to be genetically linked. She insists that her findings have implications in the fields of forensics, genealogy, epidemiology, and the history of surnames.
The following announcement was written by WorldVitalRecords.com:
Steve Nickle and Jim Ericson bring new vision and strong leadership to WorldVitalRecords.com.
Provo, UT, October 08, 2008 -- WorldVitalRecords.com, an online genealogy service of FamilyLink.com, Inc., announced a new leadership team with Steve Nickle as the company’s new president, and Jim Erickson as Vice President, Marketing. Paul Allen will remain as CEO.
The following announcement was written by The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.com:
PROVO, Utah, Oct 08, 2008 -- If George Washington had been America's king instead of its first president, an 82-year-old retired regional manager from San Antonio, Texas would be King of America today. As red and blue battleground states emerge in the upcoming presidential election, Americans may be interested to know that Senator Barack Obama has deep roots in Ohio or that Senator John McCain has family members from North Carolina on both sides of his family tree. And research into Governor Sarah Palin's family history revealed she is the 10th cousin to Lady Diana Spencer, Britain's beloved Princess Di, as well as a distant cousin to Franklin D. Roosevelt, one of the country's most popular presidents.
As the country prepares to elect the 44th U.S. president, genealogy experts at Ancestry.com, the world's largest online family history resource, researched answers to some interesting questions surrounding this year's landmark presidential election. From the lineage of the first president, to the family roots of today's presidential and vice presidential candidates, the findings may evoke an interesting debate.
Hundreds of thousands of historic records will be freely available online
Today's announcement is particularly interesting because it illustrates a cooperation amongst multiple organizations. The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, and the National Association of Government Archive and Records Administrators:
Salt Lake City, Utah—Ancestry.com, FamilySearch, and the National Association of Government Archive and Records Administrators (NAGARA) announced on July 24, 2008, that Judge Bill Spicer and the Probate Division of the Summit County Common Pleas Court in Akron, Ohio, were awarded a 2008 grant for the digitization of Summit County marriage, birth, and death records. The court’s grant was one of only two awarded in 2008. This significant grant will make it possible for Summit County to digitally preserve and provide free online access to select historical documents.
Want to have a great vacation and also learn a bit about genealogy? If so, I heartily recommend taking a genealogy cruise! I speak from experience: I just returned from a seven-day cruise along the Mexican Riviera as part of the 2008 RootsMagic cruise.
This year's RootsMagic cruise included stops in Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta. These are very popular Mexican tourist stops, and for good reason: they are neat, and clean and have great food and entertainment. Many of the genealogists went on various expeditions, including jungle tours, ecology tours, rides on catamarans, skin diving, and more. I mostly enjoyed the authentic Mexican food in all three cities.
If you click on the thumbnail image to the right, you'll see a photograph of Jon Bauman, better known as "Bowzer." Bowzer was the bass singer in the ‘70’s band Sha Na Na, which played at Woodstock and later starred in the Sha Na Na television show, the #1 syndicated television show of the time.
As you can see from the picture, Bowzer recently had an encounter with a group of genealogists on the RootsMagic cruise.
Bauman currently tours extensively with his group, Bowzer and the Stingrays, and was an entertainer on board the cruise ship, Vision of the Seas. He and his band played one evening in the ship's theater to a crowd of enthusiastic rockers. I had a chance to sit in the front row and must say that I enjoyed the show. A lot of the folks on the RootsMagic cruise were also in the audience, and I think they all enjoyed it, too.
Washington State Digital Archives contain about 74 million records, all online. People can look up marriage licenses, birth and death certificates, census data, military service, election data, property deeds and even old pictures. Chief Spokane Garry's death certificate, for instance, is linked with a photograph.
"And that's just the beginning, the first baby steps," said State Archivist Jerry Handfield, who was in Cheney on Saturday for an open house of the digital archives, which are housed at Eastern Washington University.
The New York Genealogical and Biographical Society has announced the society headquarters will be relocating to 36 W. 44th St., New York City, in the spring of 2009.
As announced some months ago, the Society's library and other collections will be transferred to the New York City Public Library.
The weekly Plus Edition of this newsletter was scheduled to be sent last night. However, it has not yet been sent and I am not sure when it will go.
I was scheduled to fly from Los Angeles to Providence, Rhode Island yesterday. That involved a plane change in Newark, New Jersey. However, the Newark airport was busy when I arrived. I boarded the plane to Providence a bit late. We then taxied out and sat on the ramp for more than an hour. Eventually, the flight was canceled because of fog in Providence. The Providence airport was closed to all flights.
Genealogical research produces a lot of “stuff,” such as documents, books, binders, journals, photographs, CDs, and a mountain of paper. How can you possibly get all that “stuff” organized? While every genealogical researcher’s collection and focus is different, there are lots of ways to get things organized.
The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) Conference will be held in Philadelphia in August 2009. In this video, Mark Halpern, Program Chair, and David Mink, Co-Chair, talk about the plans for this conference.
Leland Meitzler is well known within the genealogy community as a magazine editor, author, and lecturer on a wide variety of topics. Nowadays he is the Editor of Everton's Genealogical Helper. He and I recently discussed the features of the magazine and the online edition, as well as his blog, GenealogyBlog.com, that provides news from the world of genealogy.
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
3 October 2008
Over 29 million new names were posted this past week on the FamilySearch Record Search pilot. Kudos to the FamilySearch volunteer indexers for their monumental contributions! The chart below lists the current indexing projects and their completion status. Volunteers can help any time by registering or downloading a current project at www.familysearch.org (click on Index Records>Volunteer or Start Indexing) or www.familysearchindexing.org.
Project Spotlight: United Kingdom, Cheshire Poor Law
I recently had a chance to sit and talk with an old friend: David Lambert, the Online Genealogist at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. We talked about the assistance he provides to genealogists, as well as the exploration he has done in the areas of military research, American Indian research and as a baseball historian.
*Let Us Help You Get Started With Your Genealogy!*
*Discovering Family History* isthe latest magazine from the publishers of Family Chronicle and Internet Genealogy. This new magazine is for people who are starting their family history, need a refresher or are tackling a new aspect of their genealogy. In the December issue: Postal History & Genealogy, Basic Training in Military Records, Genealogy Myths Busted!, What is GEDCOM?... and more.
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