Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

The Victoria (B.C.) Times Colonist Back Issues to Go Online

There is no better source of information on the early years of a community than its newspaper. Now a new resource is going online, giving lots of details about the early days of Victoria, British Columbia.

The old Daily Colonist newspaper, which merged with the Victoria Times in 1980 to become the Times Colonist, will go online this week.

Know Your Family's Medical History, Know Your Risk

Linda Shrieves has written an article in the Orlando Sentinel that should be required reading for all genealogists as well as for practically everyone else. She writes (in part):

Genealogy has long been used to trace family histories -- to find out who your ancestors were and where they came from. But now some people are using genealogy to learn whether they're at risk for diseases ranging from diabetes to cancer to heart disease.

Help Wanted: TV Show Staff Genealogist

Paul McGrath was the Staff Genealogist at Ancestors in the Attic, a very popular Canadian television program. Sadly, Paul passed away a few weeks ago. (See my November 07, 2008 article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/11/paul-mcgrath-ri.html for details.)

The program staff needs to find a replacement for Paul. That's big shoes to fill, but also is a great opportunity for the right person.

Here is the announcement:

National Archivist Allen Weinstein Resigns

The following announcement was written by the office of Allen Weinstein:

WASHINGTON, Dec 09, 2008 -- On December 7, historian Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, submitted his resignation to the president, effective December 19, 2008. Professor Weinstein, who has Parkinson's disease, cited health reasons for his decision.

Schindler’s List & Holocaust Database Amongst 300+ Historical Jewish Collections Launching Free Online

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

Access to major historical records will have significant impact on Canada’s Jewish population – world’s fourth largest

(Toronto, ON – December 9, 2008) The Generations Network, parent company of the global network of Ancestry websites including Ancestry.ca, and JewishGen, a non-profit organization dedicated to researching and promoting Jewish family history, have announced a partnership designed to provide free, easier online access to more than 10 million* Jewish historical records.

Familybuilder Debuts Familybuilder DNA Tests

The following announcement was written by Familybuilder

Familybuilder DNA  Enables  Consumers to Discover Their DNA with the Most Affordable Kit Worldwide

NEW YORK, NY – New York City-based Familybuilder‚ (http://www.familybuilder.com), the fastest-growing genealogy service on the Internet used by more than 5 million people on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, and Orkut, today announces the release of Familybuilder DNA, its line of popularly-priced home genealogy DNA tests.

Familybuilder DNA (https://dna.familybuilder.com) available for a limited time at the special introductory price of $59.95, offers both paternal (YDNA) and maternal (mtDNA) tests. Consumers who swab their cheeks will receive an ancient migration map, DNA markers (for YDNA) or differences relative to the Revised Cambridge Reference Sequence (for mtDNA), and a description of their haplogroup.

Simon Fowler joins Pharos

The following announcement was written by Pharos Teaching & Tutoring Limited:

Top military historian Simon Fowler joins Pharos’ roster of family history experts to lead a Pharos online course on researching military ancestors. Starting on 20 January 2009, the five-week course will look at the major resources available online and in record offices, such as The National Archives and the Imperial War Museum.

(+) Sources to Try: Something Old, Something New by Lloyd Bockstruck

Hermann Friedrich Macco of Aachen, Germany, spent much of his career collecting information about the emigration of persons and families from Switzerland to the Palatinate bordering the Rhine River. Following the Thirty Years War, Swiss emigrants came into Germany to repopulate the areas that had been decimated of their inhabitants, and the trend continued. Macco based much of his research on the parish registers in Switzerland and Germany as well as the letters of liberation of the serfs in Switzerland.

Google Your Family Tree

Dan Lynch has written an excellent new book called, "Google Your Family Tree." I have now had a chance to read it twice and must say that I am even more impressed with the second reading than I was with the first. The reason is that Dan has added even more material.

Dan wrote the first draft of this book a few months ago and sent manuscript copies of it to a number of people for their input. The manuscript copies were sent before he submitted it to a publisher. I was fortunate enough to be one of those reviewers and I read the version that Dan had printed on his own computer. I offered a few suggestions and apparently his other reviewers offered many more. The final book that I read this week is much larger and contains even more material than the manuscript I read earlier this year. I was enthused with the original manuscript but must say that the final version improves the book still further.

(+) Handmade Genealogy Gifts by George G. Morgan

Genealogists are clever people on many levels. We have a better perspective of our family’s history than most other family members, and we can use our creativity to help tell the stories. It therefore comes as no surprise that the best gifts we can give to our families are those that we make ourselves. It is no wonder that, in the current economic climate, frugal genealogists are opting for less expensive gift options that they can make or create. I have a few suggestions for relatively simple gift projects, and it is not too late to get started.

New Illness Unique to French Canadians

Here is one more thing that you may have inherited from your ancestors: Mednik syndrome.

Mednik syndrome is a rare and debilitating genetic disorder unique to French Canadians. Using genetic mapping and ascending genealogy, eight people have been identified with the mutation, and half of them died before age two, said neurologist Patrick Cossette of the University of Montreal Hospital Centre's Research Centre.

Web Database Catalogs Slaves' Trans-Atlantic Treks

Historians hope a new Web database will help bring millions of blacks closer to their African ancestors who were forced onto slave ships, connecting them to their heritage in a way that has long been possible for white Europeans.

"Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database" launched Friday in conjunction with a conference at Emory University marking the bicentennial of the official end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in 1808. Emory spearheaded the two-year interactive project, which is free to the public.

Amazon Launches Public Data Sets, Including U.S. Census Data

Amazon launched a new service this week, called the Public Data Sets service. The project encourages developers, researchers, universities, and businesses to upload large (non-confidential) data sets to Amazon and then let others integrate that data into their own applications hosted on Amazon. Indeed, Amazon is a leader in "cloud computing" on Amazon Web Services (AWS), providing programs that run on Amazon's servers instead of your own computer but accessed in a web browser as if you were executing the program(s) locally.

Amazon has already loaded the several huge databases, including U.S. census databases, and is seeking more. However, genealogists shouldn't get too excited just yet: the census databases are not the ones that we all want to use.

New Interactive World War II Collection on Footnote.com

In commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day, Footnote.com together with the National Archives held a press conference Friday, Dec. 5 in Washington DC to announce the new Interactive World War II Collection on Footnote. Within this collection you will find:

First Ancestry.com World Archives Project Record Collection Complete

You may recall that The Generations Network launched the World Archives Project last September. Now the company has announced the completion of the first set of records.

The original announcement stated: "...the World Archives Project allows individuals to transcribe information from images of original historical records and to create indexes that will remain accessible for free on Ancestry.com and on Ancestry’s localized sites in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, and Italy. Active contributors* will soon be able to access all original images that are part of the World Archives Project. Organizations can also partner with the World Archives Project and sponsor indexing projects. Ancestry.com will donate a digital copy of the sponsored index and images back to partnering organizations."

Google Adds 20 Million Digitized Historical Newspaper Pages

Everyone's favorite search engine is now adding 20 million newspaper pages to its collection. The newspapers are mostly Canadian papers, purchased from PaperofRecord.com. However, some newspapers from the United States, Mexico and Europe are included in the collection.

PaperofRecord was the first to digitize the entire history of the Toronto Star. The company has also digitized historical documents including the Diaries of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest serving Prime Minister. (See http://king.collectionscanada.ca/EN/default.asp.)

Here is the official announcement from Google and Paperofrecord.com:

FamilySearch Record Search Update

The following records were added to the FamilySearch Record Search pilot. They can be searched for free at FamilySearch.org.

Call for Papers: 2009 BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy Conference

The following announcement was written by the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy:

2009 BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy “Strengthening Ties That Bind Families Together Forever”

Tuesday July 28 through Friday July 31, 2009

Proposals are now being accepted for the 2009 BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy, which will be held Tuesday, July 28 through Friday, 31 July at the Conference Center, BYU campus, Provo, Utah.

The Generations Network May Make Acquisitions, Go Public

The Salt Lake Tribune has an article about The Generations Network's new CFO (see the TGN announcement I posted earlier at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/12/the-generations.html.)

The Tribune's article goes deeper than the original announcement. It quotes The Generations Network CEO Tim Sullivan as saying, "I wouldn't say we have plans to take it public," but he added that making a public offering is part of the expertise the company's owners bring to the Provo-based company. "We're going to do whatever we should do to maximize value for our shareholders and service our members and subscribers," said Sullivan.

The Generations Network Appoints New Chief Financial Officer

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

Howard Hochhauser, CFO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, to Take CFO Post. Current CFO, David Rinn to Lead New Corporate Development Group.

PROVO, Utah, Dec 03, 2008 -- The Generations Network, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com, today announced the appointment of Howard Hochhauser as Chief Financial Officer. Hochhauser, currently CFO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc. will join TGN in early January. Current CFO David Rinn will lead a newly established Strategy and Corporate Development group.