The DAILY genealogy technology newsletter for genealogy
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The marriage of genealogy and genetics may be saving lives in two families – one in Utah and the other in New York – descended from the same colonial ancestor. And future research may help many more. Many living members of the affected families are separated by as many as 14 generations from English colonist George Fry and had no idea that they were at such a significant increased risk of cancer.
Last year, scientists at the Huntsman Cancer Institute announced they had discovered that the families carried the same genetic mutation, responsible for a 1,600 percent increased risk of colon cancer. They said that they hoped that, with education and screening, those who have the mutation could stop the cancer before it starts.
On Tuesday, study leader Deborah Neklason said that's just what has happened.
The following announcement was written by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration:
WASHINGTON, March 25 -- The National Archives will host its fifth annual Genealogy Fair. This year's two-day program will showcase Federal records located at the National Archives and professional genealogy organizations' resources for family history research. Sessions include introductions to genealogy research, census records, Freedman's Bureau records, immigration records, Congressional records, Native American records, and much more. National Archives staff will demonstrate how to use databases including the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) and Access to Archival Databases (AAD). The fair will provide information and guidance for experienced genealogy professionals and novices alike. Winners of the National Archives Awards for Excellence in Genealogy will be announced at a ceremony during the fair. The fair is free and open to the public, and presented in partnership with the Foundation for the National Archives and The Generations Network. For a schedule of lectures and demonstrations, see: http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro/know-your-records/genealogy-fair.
Several newsletter readers wrote to call attention to an excellent article on the BBC web site about Irish immigrants to America.
In 1832, 57 emigrants from Donegal, Derry and the surrounding counties set sail for a new life in America. They found work on the railroads, but within weeks they were all dead, struck down by cholera - or possibly even murdered by locals who believed the immigrants had brought the disease with them.
The following announcement was written by RootsMagic, Inc.:
SPRINGVILLE, Utah. — March 25, 2009 — RootsMagic, Inc. today announced the official release of RootsMagic 4, the latest version of the award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history easy and enjoyable. With the release comes a free trial version of the software as well as a discount offer for owners of other software products.
Did the Sundance Kid really die along with Butch Cassidy in South America, or did he live to a ripe old age in Utah? DNA evidence may soon answer the question.
The Oscar-winning movie "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" more or less followed the official version of Utah's most famous outlaws: Butch and Sundance high-tailed it to South America. Things didn't go well there. In a shootout with the Bolivian Army in 1908, both outlaws died in a blaze of gunfire, if not necessarily glory.
Dr. John McCullough, who has long experience as a forensic anthropologist, told us, "Two gringos definitely died, but we just don't know which ones."
Roots Television has a must-watch video for genealogists trying to manage their digital photos. The video shows how to label your digital genealogy images so you and others can easily identify them later. There are plenty of free good programs available to change the canvas size and add text. This example uses GIMP. "GIMP" stands for GNU Image Manipulation Program and is free for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.
John Smithers of Raleigh, NC had spent more than six decades looking for clues about the father who abandoned him, his sister and their mother when he was just a baby. At 82, he had about given up on ever learning what happened to James William Smithers. He had long suspected his father got in trouble with the law and fled abroad. Decades ago, it was easy enough to disappear, and Smithers' father had seemingly vanished into thin air.
On the other side of the world, Lucinda Gray had always wondered what her father's life was like before he moved mysteriously from the United States to Australia. She had spent years just trying to find out his real name.
I received a message from newsletter reader Paula Snyder that caught ny interest:
I attended an MTGS meeting yesterday where Jack Masters, Doug Drake and Bill Puryear presented information on their book to be published this summer. It is a fantastic piece of work and includes 1500 North Carolina land grants in 11 middle Tennessee counties. They have just begun taking pre-publication orders.
I recently had a chance to talk with Ian Tester about the 1911 census recently released in England and Wales. More than 16 million images have been scanned in and can be accessed on www.1911census.co.uk.
I must say that Ian was dressed in a rather unusual manner, wearing a cap and gown. In this video, he explains why he was dressed that way.
Ancestry24.co.za, South Africa's premier genealogy and ancestral website, has partnered with the Anglican Church in making the marriage and baptism records of St George's Cathedral in Cape Town accessible online. St George's is the oldest cathedral in southern Africa and is the mother church of the Anglican diocese of Cape Town.
Gerard Lodge has created a new web site that looks great. Gerard writes, "There is a lot of free information on this site for people with ancestors in Greater Manchester and Lancashire, UK. Amongst many, many pieces of information it contains the prison record entries of the Manchester Martyrs and their associates who were involved in the storming of the police van in 1867."
The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
I recently decided to purchase a new notebook or “netbook” sized computer. Because I travel a lot, small size and light weight are very important to me. A new class of computers called “netbooks” has appeared in the past year or so, all of them weighing less than three pounds and all of them able to slip into an overcoat pocket or into the carry-on baggage that I typically take when traveling.
Shrubs 2.0 is a genealogy program for the Apple iPhone and iPOD Touch. This program will allow you to carry your genealogy database in your pocket or purse.
The display of information in Shrubs 2.0 is mostly text-based; there are no pedigree charts or other graphics. However, it does seem to work well with rather quick display of data. The program creates indexes of individuals, indexes of marriages, and a list of individual and family events (with sources). You can display any of the indexes and touch any line of data. Shrubs 2.0 then displays the detailed information about that person, marriage, or event.
The following announcement was written by John Pfost:
Several of you have asked how you can learn more about The Next Generation of Genealogy Sitebuilding (TNG). So I have written a couple of papers that provide a complete introduction to TNG.
Find A Grave at http://www.findagrave.com is a very popular web site that features a database of gravestones and locations. The database is temporarily offline although it is expected to be back online within a few hours.
The home page and several other pages are still in operation. However, any attempt to access the database results in the following message:
The U.S. version of Who Do You Think You Are? will be broadcast in a few weeks. The genealogy-based television program has been scheduled. It will be broadcast at 7 p.m. April 20 on NBC. (The exact time might vary from one time zone to another. Check your local listings.)
The program is based on the popular BBC documentary series of the same name and will explore the family histories of celebrities including Lisa Kudrow, Sarah Jessica Parker and Susan Sarandon.
The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by George G. Morgan.
Family stories can be very disturbing to genealogists. It’s not that we’re necessarily shocked by what we are told or what we discover. In fact, there’s a certain excitement to learning some juicy fact about a family member. What’s disturbing is that information is either withheld or that stories that are told are sanitized in order to “protect” the family name or reputation. As a result, we have to work that much harder to discover the truth.
On the 14th January Steven Smyrl, CIGO Executive Liaison Officer, gave oral evidence before the Northern Ireland Assembly's Finance & Personnel Scrunity Committee in relation to the Civil Registration Bill 2008. Steven was joined in giving evidence by Robert Davison, former Hon. Secretary of the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland (APGI). The Bill will amend the Births and Deaths Registration (Northern Ireland) Order 1976 and thereby allow the General Register Office of Northern Ireland (GRONI) to modernise the delivery of this vital service. Clauses 13 & 22 of the Bill will allow the creation of an Internet-based access service to scanned images of the original register entries, which date back to 1845. Scanned images will be available on-line of all birth records compiled over 100 years ago; marriages over 75 years ago and deaths over 50 years ago. It is hoped that this service will begin within the next two years.
This sounds morbid, but do you have a method of passing on important information to others in the case of your death? David Eagleman, a neuroscientist at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has had plenty of time to think about the issue.
"I work in the world's largest medical center, and what you see here every day is people showing up in ambulances who didn't expect that just five minutes earlier," he said. "If you suddenly die or go into a coma, there can be a lot of things that are only in your head in terms of where things are stored, where your passwords are."
He set up a site called Deathswitch, where people can set up e-mails that will be sent out automatically if they don't check in at intervals they specify, like once a week.
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