Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Civil War Letters Given to Michigan Archives

A Grand Haven, Michigan man has donated one of the nation's largest collections of Civil War-era letters to the state archives. State Archivist Mark Harvey says the collection consists of correspondence between Wallace Ewing's great-grandparents sent from 1856 through 1865.

Boston University Launches New Certificate Program in Genealogical Research

The following announcement was written by Boston University:

Outstanding faculty at Boston University teaches the Genealogical Proof Standard® in the new Ancestral Research and Genealogy Certificate Program. Classes will be held on Saturdays over a 14-week period starting January 17, 2009. To learn more about the Genealogical Research Certificate Program at Boston University, visit http://professional.bu.edu/cpe/Genealogy.asp.

Boston, MA - December 30, 2008 -- Boston University's Metropolitan College has announced the January 17 launch of its new Certificate in Genealogical Research, offered by the University's Center for Professional Education.

Michael John Neill to Write for EOGN

I am immensely pleased to announce that Michael John Neill has agreed to contribute articles to Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (EOGN). Starting today, his articles will appear more or less weekly in the Plus Edition of this newsletter.

Many people will recognize Michael John Neill's name; he has been writing genealogy-related articles for a number of magazines and web sites for twenty years. Michael has been actively involved in genealogical research since the age of thirteen and has been writing about his family history experiences for a variety of publications. He has a master's degree in mathematics, is on the faculty of Carl Sandburg College in Galesburg, Illinois, and was on the faculty of the former Genealogical Institute of Mid-America. Michael has lectured at NGS, FGS, and numerous local and regional conferences. He is one-half Ostfriesen by ancestry and also descends from numerous families from the middle colonies and the upper South. His children have nineteenth century ancestors from several countries and ethnic regions, including England, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, and Belgium, and French-Canadians in Quebec. Michael is particularly interested in studying chains of migration for individuals sharing a common culture or ethnic heritage.

(+) In Context by Michael John Neill

Genealogists usually look at records decades after the events have taken place. Even when we are fortunate enough to view a document in the location where it was recorded, we are looking at it years after it has been created and with an entirely different perspective from the individual who gave the information for the record. As a result, there are times when it is very easy to fail to view a document in the context in which it was created, in its historical, geographical, political, and cultural setting. To view a document with the appropriate background is not always easy. But failure to maintain a perspective may at the very least cause us to miss cues. At the very worst, it may cause us to make incorrect interpretations.

NIST Guides Genetic Genealogy Labs Toward Improved Accuracy

Anyone who has watched crime dramas on TV knows that forensic scientists can use DNA "profiling" to identify people from evidence gathered at a crime scene, establish a paternity link or help free an innocent person who has been wrongly jailed. A lesser known but rapidly growing application of DNA profiling is tracing a person's paternal ancestry - a process known as genetic genealogy. The laboratories performing this testing often differ in their results, making data comparison between labs difficult and casting doubt on reported genetic matches. Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) recently published a paper* with recommendations for genealogy testing that they hope will improve the accuracy and reliability of the product.

You can read more at the Medical News Today web site at http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/134099.php.

AFFHO Congress 2009

A major genealogy conference will commence in two and a half weeks. If you can be there, I think you will enjoy it immensely. I will quickly mention that the conference is being held in Auckland, New Zealand. That's very convenient for a few readers of this newsletter although I suspect the majority of subscribers will be unable to attend. However, if you can make, it, I bet you will not regret it!

The Australasian Federation of Family History Organisations is sponsoring a five-day conference to be held at Kings College, Auckland. The local host is the New Zealand Society of Genealogists, Inc. The location at Kings College sounds great. Not only is it well-equipped with lecture halls for all the presentations, but attendees are invited to stay in moderately-priced accommodations on campus, including a choice of single rooms, twin rooms or dormitories. Most of the rooms also have kitchenettes. I wish more genealogy conferences could be held at colleges and universities. I have been to a couple such conferences in Canada and have always been impressed at the first-class results provided at a modest price.

The Orphan Trains

From the 1850s through the 1920s, New York City was teeming with tens of thousands of homeless and orphaned children. To survive, these so-called "street urchins" resorted to begging, stealing, or forming gangs to commit violence. Some children worked in factories and slept in doorways or flophouses. The children roamed the streets and slums with little or no hope of a successful future. Their numbers were stunningly large; an estimated 30,000 children were homeless in New York City in the 1850s.

Charles Loring Brace, the founder of The Children's Aid Society, believed that there was a way to change the futures of these children. By removing youngsters from the poverty and debauchery of the city streets and placing them in morally upright farm families, he thought they would have a chance to escape a lifetime of suffering.

(+) Who’s Afraid of Land Records? - Part II - by George G. Morgan

Last week’s column was the first in a three-part series concerning land and property records. In it, I discussed a little background of United States land records, explained some very basic land transfer terminology related to working with these records, and provided a glossary of common U.S. property terms that you are likely to encounter in your research.

Land and property records are among the most numerous records in existence, and they can be a rich source of genealogical information, about both the property and the family. They are unique and therefore require some preliminary understanding of their purpose and content before you can glean the most from them. Like census schedules, wills, and passenger lists, land and property records are simply another format with which you need to become familiar.

This week’s column will discuss the land measurement systems, and how to locate  common land and property documents.

Public Asked to Identify Relatives Shown in Old El Paso Photographs

A photographer who chronicled life in the southwest captured the images but we don't know who all those people are who posed for the pictures. You may have the answer.

"[Construction] workers found a number of boxes of old negatives in a storage area when they were wrecking out the inside of the building and they took them to the pawn shop and asked whether they were worth anything," said Claudia Rivers of University of Texas El Paso's Special Collections.

Some 50,000 negatives photos are now part of a special collection at the University of Texas at El Paso. They're from a photography studio that for 70 years captured life on the border.

VHS Is Dead

This newsletter often talks about new or emerging technologies. Perhaps it is time to note the death of another technology that nearly all of us have used in the past.

In case you haven't heard, VHS videotape is dead.

Nobody manufactures VHS videotapes anymore. The major chain stores, such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy, stopped selling VHS recorders and players some years ago. Not long after, the manufacturers of videotapes stopped manufacturing them, due to a lack of sales outlets and a lack of sales.

A New Life Online for Rare Publications

The following is a quote from the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Journal-Gazette:

Deep in the catacombs of the Allen County Library, in a darkened room, 10 black-cloaked “scribes” quietly pore over yellowed texts:

• “The History of Natrona County, Wyoming, 1888-1922.”
• “Cornwall Parish Registers, Marriages, 1853-1913.”
• “Fort Wayne, Indiana, City Directory, 1864-1865.”

But these scribes aren’t people – they’re state-of-the-art scanning machines from non-profit Internet Archive, the library basement’s out-of-sight secret. The basement lab will play a vital role in digitizing the former Lincoln Museum collection for public access.

Readers' Comments Are Now Available as an RSS Newsfeed

Many newsletter readers use RSS newsreaders to quickly and easily retrieve the articles in this newsletter. Newsreaders are computer programs that automatically retrieve information from web sites that support the RSS standard and then store the information on a user's computer. Information available in RSS format includes this newsletter's articles as well as news, weather forecasts, stock market information, airline arrival times, UPS shipping information, and much more.

RSS provides a faster and easier method of having the latest information available from as many sites as the user wishes to monitor, including new articles published at this newsletter's web site at http://www.eogn.com.

For an explanation of RSS and of RSS newsreaders, see my earlier “What Can RSS Do For You?” article at: http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2005/12/rss_explained.html.

A couple of weeks ago I added something new to www.eogn.com: RSS newsfeeds of the comments that others post to the various articles published here. I have been testing it and everything seems to work well. I think now is the time to announce the service.

(+) Pennsylvania’s First Germans and Their Borough - From Lloyd's Library by Lloyd Bockstruck

Unlike England with its College of Arms, the United States has no governmental agency to maintain pedigrees of our nation’s families. Since we do not, we have to rely upon the nation’s hereditary societies for doing so.

It was in 1895 that a group of gentlemen met to organize the Colonial Society of Pennsylvania. The criterion for membership was a descent from a colonist, male or female, who settled in any British colony which became part of the United States of America prior to 1700. One of its goals was to collect, preserve, and publish records and documents relating to the early history of Pennsylvania. Just nine years after its founding, the society published Records of the Court of New Castle on Delaware 1676-1681. Six more volumes of court records followed.

The seventh volume of court records of Pennsylvania and Delaware has recently been released, and it completes the century-long commitment of the society.

Holiday Greetings

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very merry and happy holiday season. May peace and joy be with you this season and throughout the coming year.

New Blog Supports "Basics of Genealogy Reference"

Jack Simpson is well known in genealogy circles. He is the Curator of Local and Family History at the Newberry Library in Chicago and is a recognized genealogy expert. He also teaches Genealogy 101, an online course, through the American Library Association. He also recently released a book, Basics of Genealogy Reference. Now Jack has created a blog that will supplement the book with new material as it becomes available.

What To Do With All Those Christmas Cards

Diana Lynn Tibert has published a great article in the Kings County (New Brunswick) Record about Christmas cards, She writes, "Yes, Christmas cards are significant to genealogy research." She then goes on to describe her method of tracking "almost every known address for family members regardless if I send them a card. I always buy a large book, so it will last 20 years or more."

You can read this interesting article at http://kingscorecord.canadaeast.com/news/article/519815.

Geni Adds New Holiday Calendar, Pro Features

Geni, the online genealogy and social networking site run by ex-PayPal cofounder David Sacks, has rolled out two new features. According to the firm in an announcement to users Friday, it has added popular holidays to its calendar, and also added new virtual gifts for those holidays which can be sent to family.

National Heraldic Register Proposed in Ireland

A Bill has been introduced in Seanad Éireann (Irish Senate) by Senator Alex White that aims to establish a sound legislative basis for all Grants of Arms made by the Chief Heralds of Ireland from 1943 and to provide for related matters. The National Library last year stopped the Office of the Chief Herald from making any further awards of arms due to concerns that it had no legal powers to do so. (See my earlier article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/10/irish-coats-of-.html.)

Irish Roots: New Genealogical Records Available Online

The following was written by Library and Archives Canada:

(Ottawa) December 22, 2008 — Library and Archives Canada is pleased to announce that its partner, the National Archives of Ireland, has launched the next important phase of an online census research tool for the Irish counties of Antrim, Kerry, and Down for 1911. The census records for all counties for 1911 and for 1901 will be made available online throughout 2009.

(+) Who’s Afraid of Land Records? Part I by George G. Morgan

Land and property records are among the most interesting documentary evidence available to genealogists. They potentially contain a wealth of genealogical information, or they may present clues to other people’s information. They also are among the most numerous records available. Unfortunately, many genealogy researchers are afraid of the prospect of working with these records. They may be put off by the legal terminology, the measurement systems used, and the prospect of tracing ownership of a piece of property. They fail to take the time to learn about them and how to work with them. However, as with any other record type, some advance study of the topic, the time period, and the location will prepare you for your research.

This week I am starting a three-part series concerning United States land and property records. The series will address the following topics: