Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Listen to This Newsletter

I am experimenting with a new feature on this newsletter: you can now listen to the articles on your computer, on your iPod, or on most any other MP3 music player.

When you look at the newsletter's home page at http://blog.eogn.com, you will note that a new icon appears near the top of each article: Listen Now. Clicking on that icon allows you to listen to a computer-generated voice that reads the article to you. You can listen to it directly through your computer's speakers or have it sent to iTunes for later listening on an iPod or iPhone. Another option is to have the article sent to most any other MP3 player that is capable of accepting audio from the Internet. Finally, you can download articles as MP3 files and save them on your local hard drive and listen to them later at your convenience.

Bush Library May Be One of Last Housed in a Building

In an interesting sign of the technology available today, the new George W. Bush Presidential Library could be one of the last brick and mortar institutions of its kind.

Congress is looking for ways to cut the expense of overseeing such buildings, and some researchers say the traditional library setup for keeping presidential documents is outdated in a digital world. One possibility is to digitize all the presidential records and put them online, eliminating the need for costly buildings.

Newspapers at Footnote.com and the 1930 Census - WWII Collection

A few days ago I published an announcement from Footnote.com about a new Great Depression Collection the company has added. That announcement is at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/03/footnotecom-releases-great-depression-collection.html. I then wrote my impressions of the new interactive 1930 U.S. census that is a part of that collection. My comments are at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/03/commentary-footnotes-interactive-1930-census-and-the-great-depression-collection.html.

Now Beau Sharbrough, former VP of Acquisitions at Footnote, has written about his impressions of the new collection and has offered step-by-step instructions in an article titled, “1930 Census - WWII Collection?”

Whose Father Was He?

Several readers wrote yesterday and today about a series of articles appearing this week in the New York Times. It concerns a soldier killed in the American Civil War.

The soldier’s body was found near the center of Gettysburg with no identification — no regimental numbers on his cap, no corps badge on his jacket, no letters, no diary. Nothing save for an ambrotype (an early type of photograph popular in the late 1850s and 1860s) of three small children clutched in his hand. Within a few days the ambrotype came into the possession of Benjamin Schriver, a tavern keeper in the small town of Graeffenburg, about 13 miles west of Gettysburg. Then the story says this photograph of three small children was used for both good and wicked purposes.

Skype for iPhone and iPod Touch

NOTE: This article has nothing to do with genealogy, other than perhaps providing a cheap method for you to call your distant relatives. However, I have written before about Skype and thought I would offer one more article describing its uses.

Skype is the free service that allows you to talk from computer to computer, anywhere in the world. While the basic service is free, low-cost options also are available to place calls to and from normal telephone systems at ridiculously low prices. You can see my earlier articles about Skype at: http://www.google.com/cse?cx=003715150024579880844%3Aulyzue1ivzu&ie=UTF-8&q=Skype&sa=Search.

Even better, you do not need to use a computer, nor do you need to use headphones. At home, I typically use a cordless phone to make and receive Skype calls all over the world. I recently planned my trips to New Zealand and to England, paying two or three cents per minute for Skype calls to make reservations at hotels and rental car companies in those countries. I wrote about using Skype without a computer and without a headset at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/08/use-skype-witho.html.

Today Skype released its newest offering: Skype for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. If you have one of those devices, you can save significant money on long-distance calls by downloading the free Skype application.

A Video Interview with Nick Francis of Ancestral Atlas

A fascinating new online service, called Ancestral Atlas, has appeared within the past few weeks. It is an online community environment that allows people to create and share ancestry-based maps. It is great for displaying locations of births, marriages, and burials of your ancestors as well as the locations of other important places in their lives. For instance, you can use Ancestral Atlas to display the location of family farms or the locations of a battle in which your ancestor was a participant.

I was very impressed with the service the first time I saw it. Others apparently agree with me.  Many genealogists are using the service but so are historical groups, tourist agencies, and many more.

MSN Encarta Encyclopedia to be Discontinued

On October 31, 2009, MSN Encarta Web sites worldwide will be discontinued, with the exception of Encarta Japan, which will be discontinued on December 31, 2009. Additionally, Microsoft will cease to sell Microsoft Student and Encarta Premium software products worldwide by June 2009.

(+) The Best Spam Filter is Free

NOTE: I published this information last year as a Plus Edition article. However, several technical facts have changed since then and the article needed to be updated.

I used to have a spam mail problem. Everybody receives spam mail these days; but because my e-mail address is plastered all over the Web, I get more spam mail than most people. The "spam harvesters" that scour the web looking for e-mail addresses always find mine. About 400 to 800 spam messages per day bombard me, many more than the number of legitimate e-mail messages I receive.

In the past few years, I have experimented with almost every spam filter system that I have ever heard of. Some worked rather well while others were not very effective. However, almost all of them would occasionally delete legitimate e-mail messages. That is, a newsletter reader might send me a message that contains a "spam-like" word or phrase. Many spam filters will delete that message under the assumption that it is spam, even though it is a false assumption.

Deleting a legitimate message is referred to as a "false positive." Sadly, false positives are rather common occurrences. I can excuse an occasional piece of spam that slips through the filter, but I absolutely cannot have legitimate e-mail messages being deleted before I see them!

BookDrive Pro - A Cradle Scanner

I want one of these!

This week, ATIZ of Los Angeles introduced a brand-new cradle scanner, called the BookDrive Pro. It is designed to scan books, maps, newspapers, and other documents without inducing any page curl and with minimal handling of the documents. The result is sharper images and little or no damage to delicate documents being scanned.

I haven't had a chance to get my hands on a BookDrive Pro just yet. After all, they were only announced this week. However, I did talk today with Nick Warnock at ATIZ. He patiently answered my questions and offered additional information about his company's new scanner.

If you have ever tried to scan a bound book by using a normal flatbed scanner, you are probably already familiar with page curl. If you turn a book upside down and place it on a normal flatbed scanner, such as any of the scanners for sale at your local computer store, you will note that the outer two-thirds of each page will scan well. However, as you get closer and closer to the bound edge of a page, the image is degraded. The binding prevents the entire page from being placed flat on the scanning surface. The result is referred to as "page curl." The image is not very useful, and using OCR software to decode the words on the page will probably be impossible.

See the images in this article for examples; click on any image to see a larger picture.

Pathway Genomics Announces New DNA Genealogy Testing Kit

The following was written by Pathway Genomics:

As DNA testing opened fascinating new discoveries about personal heritage, Pathway Genomics hired some of the world’s leading genetic genealogists to deliver more precise and detailed information than you ever thought possible.

Beware the Conficker Virus

What is perhaps the worst computer virus ever created is due to launch on April 1st, All Fools' Day. Many online sites report that millions of Windows PCs are already infected with the Conficker virus which is now in hibernation, waiting for April 1st to wake up and inflict damage.

I'll skip all the technical discussion about this virus simply because thousands of other web sites already have that information. For details, look at: http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&=&q=conficker&btnG=Google+Search&aq=1&oq=confi.

After reading what seems like hundreds of dire "warnings," three things seem obvious:

Rivlin Family Celebrates the Birth of its 50,000th Member

Some family associations do a great job of documenting all the descendants of a particular ancestor. A Jewish family whose history can be traced back more than 450 years celebrated the birth of its 50,000th member in Jerusalem on Monday at a special family event.

The Rivlin family consists of 22 documented generations and has researched its roots back to Vienna in 1550.

Geni.com Announces Pro Accounts

The following announcement was written by Geni.com:

Leading genealogy site Geni.com announced today the availability of Pro accounts (http://pro.geni.com) with additional features and tools for power users. New Pro features include Advanced Search and Tree Statistics.

Los Angeles, CA - March 30, 2009 -- Leading genealogy site Geni.com announced today the availability of Pro accounts with additional features and tools for power users. Pro Account benefits include:

Southern California Genealogical Society Announces New Publications

The Southern California Genealogical Society has announced two new sets of publications. Here is the first announcement:

Southern California Genealogical Society Publications Announcement Immigration and Naturalization Series Declarations of Intent - Los Angeles

The Southern California Genealogical Society is proud to announce the publication of four new volumes in its Immigration and Naturalization Series.  The following publications are now available for purchase in softbound and CD versions at http://tinyurl.com/c7544u

(+) Along Those Lines...: “Plan Your Family Reunion Now” by George G. Morgan

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by George G. Morgan.

The warm summer months are coming, and it will soon be time for those wonderful family reunions. I just returned from Flint, Michigan, after speaking at the Flint Area Convention and Visitors Bureau’s 17th annual Reunion-Reunion show. More than 200 attendees and a wide range of vendors converged there for ideas and resources for their reunions. Flint is a great city with something for absolutely everyone, and their Convention and Visitors Bureau has a wonderful staff of planners who can provide you with contacts for all the resources you need to orchestrate the perfect reunion or meeting.

Many types of reunions draw people from all walks of life. These include family reunions, class reunions, church groups’ homecomings and reunions, veterans groups’ reunions, fraternities’ and sororities’ reunions, sports teams’ reunions, company retirees’ annual gatherings, and more. Anyone who has ever planned and coordinated a reunion event knows that it takes time and energy to plan and execute such a gathering.

NGS Conference for RV'ers

Are you planning to attend the NGS conference in Raleigh, North Carolina on 13-16 May 2009? If so, will you be traveling in an RV? If you answered "yes" to both questions, Carolyn Putterman has news that you will want to read:

Dick,

If at all possible could you post an alternative lodging option to the NGS Conference?

Pocket Genealogist 3.32 Released

The Pocket Genealogist is a great program for Windows Mobile handheld computers and smartphones. You can read my earlier articles about the Pocket Genealogist at http://www.google.com/cse?cx=003715150024579880844%3Aulyzue1ivzu&ie=UTF-8&q=%22Pocket+Genealogist%22&sa=Search.

Now producer Northern Hills Software has released an updated version. Changes in the new version 3.32 include:

Ohio Historical Society Closed This Week

Among recent cost-saving measures to be taken as a result of recent cuts to state funding, the Ohio Historical Society will furlough its employees at specified sites for the week of March 28-April 3, 2009.

The following is from the Ohio Historical Society web site:

Please Post Comments in the Appropriate Places

We seem to have had a rash of off-topic comments posted here in the past day or two. Please keep in mind that EVERY article in this newsletter has a comments section at the end of the article. If you have a comment about that article, please post it at the end of that article, not at the end of some other article.

Library of Congress embraces YouTube, iTunes

The U.S. Library of Congress has begun uploading its audio archives to iTunes, and it will soon begin to post videos on YouTube, in an effort to make its materials easier for the public to access.

The library already offers the materials at its own Web site, LOC.gov, and through interactive exhibitions on its new, personalized Web site at myLOC.gov, but the expansion to YouTube and Apple's iTunes is part of the library's efforts to make its 15.3 million digital items more accessible, said Matt Raymond, the library's director of communications.