Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

New Croatian Genealogy Web Site

A new Croatian Family History & Genealogy web site went live today. It contains various resources interesting for genealogy researchers who has the focus on Croatians and their heritage. The site includes Directory of most common Croatian surnames as well as first (given) names, the Croatian Parishes address book, news articles and educational material on how to start your Croatian Genealogy research.

The web site is supported by Sambunjak Genealogy Research, a group of dedicated genealogy specialists that offer research services for anyone whose ancestors are from Croatia or Slovenia. Their experience and knowledge gained during years of genealogy research will be offered to the public through this web site.

$8.7-Million Intended to Connect Whalers to Their Ancestors

I love government pork barrel programs, even the ones with a slight genealogy connection. Writing in the Family Roots and Branches Genealogy blog, Gayle Van Horn describes an $8.7-Million government "cultural exchange program" to connect whalers in Massachusetts with their whaling ancestors in Alaska and Hawaii. (The project got harpooned.)

New Archivist of the United States: David Ferriero

President Obama is said to have picked David S. Ferriero, now chief executive of the research libraries at The New York Public Library, to be the Archivist of the United States.

The selection, which had been rumored among historians, was reported earlier today by the National Coalition for History's newsletter. A spokesman for The New York Public Library declined to comment.

A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration Documents

The Jewish Genealogical Society of Illinois (JGSI) is pleased to announce the publication of the third edition of "A Translation Guide to 19th-Century Polish-Language Civil-Registration Documents (including Birth, Marriage and Death Records)." This resource helps anyone with roots in Poland locate ancestral towns on a modern map, determine if old vital records exist, and learn how to acquire, decipher and translate the records.

GPS Technology Used To Create New Zealand Cemetery Database

Wairarapa residents may soon be finding their long lost aunty from Tinui without ever leaving home using the latest satellite technology.

Wairarapa Archivist Gareth Winter said he suggested the Masterton District Council add data from cemeteries not yet on its online burial register, but use GPS technology to give it a little extra information.

TalkingScot is Back Online

The following was written by the TalkingScot Administration Group:

Dear TalkingScot Members

TalkingScot has been successfully re-loaded to it's old home at talkingscot.com/forum2/index.php.

Salt Lake Family History Expo Teaches "Tech to Trace Your Roots"

The following is part of an announcement written by Family History Expos:

Family historians (and those even mildly interested in researching their roots) can learn all about the latest techniques and technology at the Salt Lake City, Utah Family History Expo, Aug. 28 and 29.

Ancestry.ca Adds Online England and Wales Birth Indexes, 1837-2005

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.ca:

10M CANADIANS CAN NOW FIND BRITISH ROOTS WITH NEWLY RELEASED UK BIRTH INDEXES

Famous names in the collection include Kate Winslet, Prince William and John Lennon

(Toronto, July 27, 2009) – Ancestry.ca, Canada’s leading family history website, has launched online the England and Wales Birth Indexes, 1837-2005, which contain more than 134 million fully searchable names of everyone born in England and Wales, from the very beginning of civil registration.

Universities Placing Arizona State Archives Information About Migration Online

"Why Arizona?" is a collaborative effort among the three state universities to digitally archive migration-related materials in time for the Arizona centennial in 2012. The photos, video, text and audio recordings will be showcased at whyarizona.org. The project is funded through multiple sources, including the universities and the Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records.

FGS Conference in Little Rock

The following was written by the (U.S.) Federation of Genealogical Societies:

Only a month left till genealogists descend on Little Rock!

In just a month, genealogists from all over the United States and beyond will be getting together in Little Rock for four full days of learning more about genealogy, finding cousins, seeing how much is online, seeing how much is not online, figuring out how to get the most out of records, determining what archives or libraries have the answers, helping your genealogy society, and spending some money in the large Exhibit Hall. Don’t let this event pass you by. The Arkansas Genealogical Society is the host for this event which is the annual conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies. You will be hearing about this event for years to come and will feel sad if you weren’t a part of it.

(+) Along Those Lines: Are You Living Social? by George G. Morgan

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

It’s no longer possible to be a solitary genealogy researcher, regardless of where you live. The Internet has provided so very many opportunities to us over the years. Not only can we access webpages, databases, message boards, and mailing lists, but we can publish our own blogs and participate in collaborative projects in wikis. A more recent addition to our toolkits is the social networking site. There are a number of them on the Web, and if you’re not yet involved, it’s time to jump in and take advantage of “living social” with other genealogists.

What is a Social Network?

Ohio Historical Society Faces Cuts Amid 42 Percent Drop in State Funding

The Ohio Historical Society, the official repository of the state's recorded history, faces a 42 percent drop in state funding -- from $13.5 million last year to $7.9 million in 2010 -- in the budget signed by Gov. Ted Strickland last week.

The society reported this week that it will trim hours and scale back plans for Civil War sesquicentennial observances. It also will cut pay and reduce to less than half the staff of 400 it had in 2001.

TalkingScot Update

NOTE: This is an update to earlier articles posted at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/07/talkingscot-is-alive.html.

The following was written on behalf of the Administration Group of TalkingScot (TSAG) by Andrew Paterson:

The unannounced closure of TalkingScot's former web hosts resulted in TalkingScot and a number of other websites disappearing from the web on 06 July. The host disappeared completely and could not be contacted at all. We had to regain control of www.talkingscot.com domain name and find a new host website to rebuild the site on. Now we have control back of the www.talkingscot.com domain name we can rebuild the site on our new hosts' server. However it is taking time. Please bear with us through these difficulties.

MacFamilyTree version 5.6

I have been using a Macintosh genealogy program for the past few days. MacFamilyTree has the best display of family relationships I have ever seen. It is sort of a three-dimensional, fully interactive pedigree chart. You can see it in operation at http://www.synium.de/products/macfamilytree/index.html#Demo%20Movie. But I am getting ahead of myself.

MacFamilyTree by Synium Software GmbH is a modern and highly popular genealogy application. It will install and operate on any Macintosh manufactured in the last few years. It performs all the functions you expect of a modern genealogy program: you can enter your data and then display family trees in multiple ways, including ancestor and fan charts, printed text reports, multimedia "scrapbooks," statistics, timelines, and more. The program imports and exports GEDCOM files as well. The program's "Virtual Globe" is also noteworthy: it plots your ancestors' locations on maps or on a globe. Best of all, a huge Internet-based library of geographic places provides MacFamilyTree with over 1.5 million names and coordinates for locations worldwide.

Win a Free Computer from Legacy Family Tree

The folks at Legacy Family Tree are giving away a computer. Not just any computer, but an Acer Netbook PC, one of the hottest little systems in the market. Of course, there are a few strings attached...

First, you have to submit your entry at the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy being held next week. You do not have to register for the conference to be eligible to win the computer, but you do have to turn in the entry form (it's a crossword puzzle) to the Legacy booth by 4:00 pm on Thursday and be present for the drawing. The drawing will be held at the end of the "Legacy & New FamilySearch" class which begins at 5:15 pm in room 2258. The class is free and is open to the public; you do not have to register at the conference and pay for admission but you absolutely must be present to win.

All the contest rules are explained on the entry form. You can download the form online, or you can pick one up from the Legacy booth starting Tuesday morning.

Professor Gates and Sgt. Crowley Said to be Related

There's a bunch of malarkey (is that an Irish word?) floating around in the news services today, stating that Professor Gates and Sgt. Crowley are related. These news stories claim that "both men are said to be descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages."

Yeah, so what? EVERYONE with Irish ancestry is probably descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages. This is a non-story. It is about the same as saying, "All Irish men and women are related." I'd be more impressed if they were NOT related.

It must have been a slow news day.

Windows 7 to be Released in October

Microsoft has confirmed that the the latest version of the company's operating system will be available on retail shelves on October 22. Many manufacturers will also start selling Windows 7 pre-installed on new PCs beginning on that date.

A few million beta testers, myself included, have been running pre-release versions of Windows 7 for some months. I have been impressed with the performance: it seems to run faster than did Vista and Windows 7 hasn't locked up or crashed my PC even once. That's a great record for beta software.

Finding Your Female Ancestor in the Newspaper

Researching your elusive female ancestor can be difficult. Surname changes at marriage and the seemingly lack of records documenting the lives of women can make it difficult to conduct research in the same way you would for a male ancestor.

Writing in the WorldVitalRecords.com Family History Bulletin, Gena Philibert Ortega offers some suggestions on how to find more information about those elusive female ancestors. She especially suggests newspaper announcements of weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and other celebrations. She also gives references to several online sources of digitized newspapers.

(+) Casefile Clues by Michael John Neill: To My Daughter I Leave A Tombstone: Completely Reading An Estate Settlement

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Michael John Neill.

We've seen Barbara Haase before in Casefile Clues columns, particularly her involvement in the settlement of her husband's 1850 era probate. This week we take a look at some items from her own 1900 era estate settlement and see how the entire estate record may finally answer some questions and leave others unanswered.

The packet of papers for Barbara's estate was rather large (or at least larger than those for most of my relatives). Fortunately the estate records of Hancock County, Illinois, have been microfilmed by the Family History Library. Instead of making paper copies of the entire set of papers, I scanned them. I did not have time to read and analyze each page while at the library, and at the time I was mainly concerned about each image being as readable as possible. I was also concerned that if I copied only "selected" pages that something on an "unselected" page would be crucial.

Most of the records were typical. Barbara's estate listed her real property in the inventory, but the list of income received by the executor did not include any amounts from the sale of real estate. In reading through the individual estate papers, I noticed requests from the executor to have the court approve his payment of taxes while the estate was being settled. There were no requests to sell the property, either privately or at public auction. While the property she owned was not large, I knew there had to be some disposition of her ownership in Block 10 of Wilson's Addition to the City of Warsaw. It was just a question of finding it.

Automatic Home Library Software for Windows, Macintosh and iPhone

Book Collector is a program that automatically catalogs your book collection. You simply scan the ISBN barcodes in your books. If you don't have a scanner or of there is no ISBN barcode in the book, you can manually enter either the ISBN number or the author's name and title. Book Collector will search online for information about the book and then quickly download all the book's details and even the cover images. It will also retrieve the Library of Congress Numbers (LCCN) and Dewey classifications, in case you organize your home library that way. (Doesn't everyone?) Once you scan a barcode, the program will automatically retrieve all the information available from a number of online databases. That can save a lot of data input work!

You can also enter a location for each book, be it an alphanumeric code or simply the “living room bookcase.” That location code makes it easy to find the book in the future: simply look it up in Book Collector!

Book Collector will provide a complete catalog of your book collection with minimal work.