Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Palatine to America Library Closes

The Palatine to America Library has been closed. The library collection contains over 5000 books, journals, and other print material. The collection is being relocated to the Columbus Metropolitan Library in Columbus, Ohio. It is anticipated the Palatine Collection will be available for use sometime in the first quarter of 2009.

(+) Thousands of Free Genealogy and Family History Books

One of the biggest strengths of the Internet is the ability to disseminate information. Whether you are looking for the latest international news, stock market reports, baseball scores, the technical manual for an obscure piece of electronics, or a book about your family tree, the information probably is available on the Internet. For this article, I'll focus solely on genealogy books and local history books. History books printed 75 to 150 years ago often mention local residents and can be valuable resources for genealogists.

Finding old genealogy and history books has been difficult for many people, especially those who live some distance from the homes of their ancestors. Sure, if you seek a history book about Massachusetts towns, you can probably find many of them in any large library in Massachusetts. But what do you do if you live in a small town in Nebraska?

Ancestral Quest 12.1

One excellent genealogy program that doesn't seem to gather much publicity is Ancestral Quest, a Windows genealogy program produced by Incline Software. For some time, this program was promoted as a replacement product for the defunct Personal Ancestral File (PAF) program that was developed by the Mormon Church. (The PAF program of the LDS church was based on an older version of Ancestral Quest.) Ancestral Quest does everything that PAF ever did and quite a bit more besides.

However, developer Gaylon Findlay has not been resting on his laurels. He continues to develop new features. He has now announced the release of Ancestral Quest 12.1 which contains leading-edge features not yet available in any other genealogy program. Specifically, Ancestral Quest 12.1 adds the capability to compare and synchronize local databases with the Family Tree database of new.FamilySearch.org. I believe this is the first genealogy program to offer such a capability.

“Antebellum Old Pickens District, S.C.” wins State Book Prize

Historian Jerry Alexander's fourth book, “Antebellum Old Pickens District, S.C.” that has garnered its author the coveted Best in South Carolina local history book award in the South Carolina Genealogical Society’s statewide 2008 Publications Competition.

For Alexander, the win resulted in his second trip to accept the honors. His earlier book “The Cateechee Story” about vanishing mill villages won the honor in 2005.

Legacy Genealogy Cruise 2009 Announced

The 2008 genealogy cruise season has drawn to a close, but the planning is already underway for next year's cruises. The first one announced sounds like a fascinating vacation. The producers of Legacy Family Tree software are planning a 12-day cruise with stops in Barcelona, Rome, Naples, Dubrovnik, Venice, Athens, Izmir, and Istanbul. The cruise will be on board the Norwegian Cruise Line's Jade cruise ship.

Those planning on joining this cruise will travel on their own to Barcelona, Spain, in order to board the ship. The Norwegian Cruise Line’s Jade ship will leave Barcelona on 5 September 2009 and spend one day at sea before arriving in Rome. The next day the ship will be in Naples, followed by another full day at sea and then a stop at Dubrovnik (Croatia) and the next day in Venice. Another full day at sea will follow, and the remainder of the voyage will feature stops every day: Katakolon (Greece), Athens, Izmir (Turkey), with final arrival in Istanbul on 17 September 2009.

110 Years of Life Magazine Photos Now Online

I love those glossy photographs that Life Magazine is famous for. Now the magazine has placed 10 million photographs on Google's servers. The photographs range from Margaret Bourke-White's harrowing depictions of the just-liberated concentration camps to Dorothea Lange's haunting photo of a migrant mother to pictures of men walking on the Moon.

One picture that I especially like is that of a parade on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1865.

APG Announces Election Results

The following announcement was written by the   Association of Professional Genealogists:

WESTMINSTER, Colo., November 21 – The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), the world’s leading professional organization of family history and related professionals, announced the results of its 2008 election. Ten board members were elected to two-year terms for 2009-2010. Two nominating committee members were elected to one-year terms.

Broadmoor's Archives Are Now Available to the Public

Broadmoor Hospital at Crowthorne in Berkshire, England has housed thousands of mental patients, including a Jack the Ripper suspect, the artist Richard Dadd, a would-be assassin of Queen Victoria, one of the contributors to the first Oxford English Dictionary, and thousands of every-day citizens. Now the hospital has opened its Victorian archives to the public for the first time, having spent the last two years listing and repairing the hospital's records with a £200,000 grant from the Wellcome Trust.

MyHeritage and Family Tree DNA Partner to Help People Trace Family History Using DNA

Two companies in the genealogy world have now partnered to expand their offerings: MyHeritage and Family Tree DNA. In addition, the two companies are offering a discounted price for readers of this newsletter. If you go to http://www.familytreedna.com/cj.aspx?ftdna_ref=392, you can receive a discount from  MyHeritage that will save you up to $60, depending upon the package selected.

Here is the announcement:

Update: Family Historian for Windows now Available in the U.S. at Target

On November 14, I published an announcement concerning Family Historian, a genealogy program for Windows that has been very popular in England. In fact, I reviewed the program a couple of times in past years. The article I published a few days ago was an announcement that the program will now be sold in the United States, especially at Target stores.

One item that was notably absent in the announcement was any mention of price. Several people asked about the price in comments at the end of the article. Today I did some on-site investigative journalism: I visited a local Target store.

Need a Presentation? Use an Online Video

Do you need a presentation at your next genealogy society meeting? Here's a method that you may not have thought about. I used it successfully this past weekend.

Discover Fun Facts Transcribing Historic Canadian Censuses

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

Completed Indexes Will Be Free Online

Ontario, Canada—FamilySearch International announced its plans to make the indexes to available Canadian censuses accessible online for free with the help of online volunteer indexers and an agreement with Ancestry.ca. The first censuses completed will be those from 1861, 1871, and 1916. Online volunteers are needed to help transcribe select information from digital images of the historical documents into easily searchable indexes. The completed indexes will be available for free at www.familysearch.org.

Obama May Be Unable To Use BlackBerry at The White House

Genealogists who use computers can appreciate the marriage of technology with paper-based records. Sometimes that is a rocky marriage: the two do not always work well together. Now President-Elect Barack Obama may have a quandary.

Obama has long used a Blackberry device for communications. Like millions of other Blackberry addicts, he depends on it to conduct day-to-day business in an efficient manner. During the campaign, he told associates to never send him paper memos or reports. Instead, he wanted all reports sent to his Blackberry device. One can assume that he would like to continue that practice as President.

Washington State Names New Digital Archivist

How many states have digital archivists to make sure that today's records are available to future generations? Washington State obviously does, as evidenced by this announcement:

Kerry Barbour is taking the reins of the state's Digital Archives office in Cheney, bringing with her nearly 20 years of information technology experience.

"I am excited that Kerry Barbour has agreed to join our Digital Archives team," said Washington State Archivist Jerry Handfield. "Kerry has managed many successful technology projects in state government. She will take us to the next level in our mission to preserve Washington's legal and historical records and make our documents of democracy accessible to our citizens."

(+) Is it Protected Under Copyright Laws?

Genealogists often republish materials from old books as well as from archives, courthouses Web sites, and other sources. Sadly, many modern day genealogists simply ignore copyright laws. Doing so can result in an unpleasant notice from a law firm appearing in your mailbox. The laws that limit someone’s right to copy a work have changed in recent years. Your awareness of the current laws can protect you from land mines of liability as you prepare your research for publication.

Video Interview: Cyndi Howells

Perhaps the best-known genealogy site is Cyndi's List, run by Cyndi Howells. I caught up with Cyndi on the 4th annual Wholly Genes cruise and had a chance to talk with her about the categorized, cross-referenced list of more than 265,000 genealogy sites on the Internet. Cyndi offered her insights into genealogy and into the operation of her popular web site.

Genealogy Meets Social Networking at Genoom.com

The following announcement was written by Genoom.com:

Social media takes on the family network with family history / genealogy-based social network, www.Genoom.com. Genoom recently added Chinese language support - the network is now fully accessible in 17 different languages, letting users connect with, and stay in touch with, family across the globe.

Barcelona, Spain - November 17, 2008 -- Family networking site, www.Genoom.com, makes social networking a truly global affair with support for 17 languages, including the latest addition of traditional and simplified Chinese. The social network caters to families interested in staying in touch with relatives near and far, sharing family trees and genealogical research, and more in a private and secure online environment.

Video Interview: Buzzy Jackson

I recently had a chance to talk with Buzzy Jackson, a historian, author and genealogist. She wrote author of "A Bad Woman Feeling Good" on her research for her next book, which is about the world of genealogy. "The Jackson 5,000" is expected to be published in 2010. She described the process of writing books and her discoveries in genealogy.

Online Genealogy Dictionaries and Lists

I have been collecting URLs (Web addresses) of various online dictionaries and lists that are useful to genealogists. These are useful when trying to decode foreign or obsolete words often found in genealogy work. Here are a few of my favorites:

Plus Edition Subscribers: Please Read. I Give Up!

NOTE: This is a repeat of an article I published about a year and a half ago. It seems that spam filters are even more of a problem today than they were last year. I frequently receive messages from Plus Edition subscribers stating that they have not received the newsletters. However, it seems that the newsletters were always sent, only to be deleted by spam filters at the receiving mail server.

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. Therefore, I provide the Plus Edition newsletter online at http://plus.eogn.com. You can always read the online version, regardless of what your e-mail provider does to your in-box.

I also guarantee that I will SEND the Plus Edition newsletter to every subscriber's e-mail address every week. Notice that I wrote that I guarantee that I will SEND it. That is not a guarantee that you will RECEIVE it as that is beyond my control.