The DAILY genealogy technology newsletter for genealogy
consumers, packed with straight talk - hold the sugar coating - whether
the vendors like it or not!
New projects for Italy, New Zealand, Perú, and the U.S. were added this month. FamilySearch has 42 international indexing projects underway currently (see charts below). It has a growing need for more volunteers who can help with the increasing number of foreign language projects. Please feel free to encourage and recruit friends, family, colleagues, and society or special interest group members to help with any projects of interest. Sign up is easy at FamilySearch Indexing. The average assignment only takes about 30 minutes to complete. Many volunteers make quick work—which equates to quicker access to the completed indexes!
Scottish musician Dougie MacLean will discover if he has any skeletons in his closet when his family’s roots are revealed at a special event on Friday.
Caldeonia singer MacLean has been working with Dr. Bruce Durie from Strathclyde University, which is hosting the International Genealogy Festival this week, to delve into his Scots past. STV has placed an interesting video interview online, featuring Dougie MacLean and Dr. Bruce Durie.
We all know that you inherit many things from your ancestors, but back disorders? I found the following press release to be quite interesting:
NEW YORK – The molecular diagnostics company Axial Biotech has reached an agreement with the University of Utah that allows it to use the university's genealogical and family history database to study genetic associations for back disorders, the firm said today.
In the 28 May 2009 newsletter, I described what was then a newly-announced product from Google, called "Wave." I remarked that "The service seems to combine Gmail and Google Docs into an interesting free-form workspace that could be used to write documents collaboratively, plan events, play games or discuss a recent news." Wave allows customers to create a customizable communications and collaboration tool without any software other than an Internet browser. The product sounded as if it could be useful for genealogy applications, especially web-based applications, but, at that time, Google had not released many details.
Programmers are now using the newly-released developer preview of Google's Wave. Details of the new product are beginning to appear on the web, based on first-hand accounts of what it's really like to use. Ben Rometsch, a developer with U.K. Web development firm Solid State, blogged that it's "probably the most advanced application in a browser that I've seen."
The following was written by the Michigan Genealogical Council:
Date: July 22nd 2009
Fellow Michigan genealogists and library supporters -
Now is the time for Michiganians to come to the aid of our state's history and learning.
Your Michigan Genealogical Council is planning a public assembly in Lansing to show our legislators and fellow citizens that we care about our state's past. On Wednesday the 5th of August, let's assemble at the State Capitol, on the lawn. We have reserved the North and South lawns, and the steps. Time, 9:45 a.m. The State Senate goes into session at 10 a.m., the only time in the next few weeks we can be certain our legislators will be assembled at Lansing.
The Fulton History web site has a great collection of old newspapers and photographs. The photographs seem to be mostly reproductions of old postcards. You can obtain a rather good view of the places your New York ancestors lived as well as being able to read about the events in their lives. As the web site says, "Finding The Angels & The Devils In The Family Tree Since 2003."
The web site is a searchable repository of many, but not all, of the old newspapers published in New York State. The newspapers found on this site have been scanned by production grade Wicks and Wilson Microfilm scanners. The microfilm was obtained from the State of New York Newspaper Project (conducted in the 1970s and early 1980’s) and/or from libraries, historical societies, or private individuals who wanted to share what they had.
The Norwegian American Genealogical Center, Madison, Wisconsin, is announcing the completion of its publication, Norwegian Immigrants to the United States: A Biographical Directory, 1825-1850.
The conclusion of this important resource, a significant addition to the field of immigration history, was accomplished with the recent publication of its fifth and final volume, which contains information for all known Norwegian immigrants who arrived in the United States during the year 1850. The earlier volumes in the series, published between 1993 and 2004, provide information for immigrants arriving from Norway between 1825 and 1849.
Want to take a genealogy cruise to some exotic location? If so, where? Dave Berdan and the folks at Millennia Software, producers of Legacy Family Tree, want to know your suggestions.
Dave wrote, "As we plan for our Legacy Genealogy Cruise for next year (2010) we are doing a survey to see where everyone wants to go."
Ah, the good old days: Super-8 movies, playing music on an audio tape, TV channels with a single digit, rotary dial televisions with no remote control, ("Hey Junior, will you change it to channel 5?"), 8-track cartridges, or vinyl records. How about Betamax tapes?
I was a bit surprised when I recently talked with my daughter and mentioned I would call her. I made a rotary motion with my forefinger, as if I was dialing an old-fashioned rotary dial phone. You know: the kind of phones we all had before touchtone phones became available. My daughter had no idea what I was doing.
The following was written by Library and Archives Canada:
New Version of the Canadian Naturalization 1915-1932 Database Ottawa, July 22, 2009 - Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce the release of a new version of the Canadian Naturalization 1915-1932 online database. It now includes the names of 206,731 individuals who applied for and received status as naturalized Canadians from 1915 to 1932. This database is one of the few Canadian genealogical resources specifically designed to benefit those researchers with roots outside of the British Commonwealth. References located in the database can be used to request copies of the actual naturalization records, which are held by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.
Scots from all over the world joined their native cousins for the opening day of Strathclyde University's International Genealogy Festival. The launch was attended by ex-pats from Australia, America, Canada and South Africa and a host of locals, all eager to learn more about their family roots.
A bid has been launched to save historic documents, including a letter written by Oliver Cromwell, which are being put at risk by the warm wet weather in Shropshire, England. Historical experts say that thousands of pounds need to be spent to carry out an upgrade of the air conditioning at Oswestry’s Guildhall where the archives, which date back hundreds of years, are kept.
I wrote recently about the cemetery employees at the Burr Oak Cemetery near Chicago who illegally dug up graves, disposed of the bodies, re-sold the plots, and pocketed the money.
Now NPR has produced an in-depth story of the background of Burr Oak Cemetery, including interviews with well-known Black genealogist Tony Burroughs and with Rutgers University professor Clement Price. The program discusses the Burr Oak case and the history of black cemeteries.
The detailed service records of 250,000 medieval soldiers - including archers who served with Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt - have gone online.The database of those who fought in the Hundred Years War reveals salaries, sickness records and who was knighted.
The full profiles of soldiers from 1369 AD to 1453 AD will allow researchers to piece together details of their lives.
Writing a genealogy newsletter has lots of benefits. For one, I get to meet and talk with many interesting people. Roots Television recently recorded a conversation I had with Katherine Hope Borges, Director of the International Society of Genetic Genealogy. In this recorded video, Katherine described DNA testing as a genealogical research tool. She did show how to provide a DNA sample. (Hint: You don't provide blood.) She also addressed the issue of privacy.
President Barack Obama met with the leader of the Mormon church today in the Oval Office, thanking the religion's president for a thorough history of the first family. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Thomas S. Monson presented Obama with details of his family's genealogy during their first face-to-face meeting.
"I'm grateful for the genealogical records that they brought with them and am looking forward to reading through the materials with my daughters," Obama said in a statement after the meeting. "It's something our family will treasure for years to come."
Put this one in your genealogy database: the name of the groom is Kelly Hildebrandt and the name of the bride is Kelly Hildebrandt. Yes, it is real. Best of all, they met online.
Kelly Hildebrandt, female, age 20, went searching last February for people who shared her name on Facebook. She found Kelly Hildebrandt, male, of Lubbock, Texas. The female Kelly sent her male counterpart a brief message.
Skipping many of the details, the couple are now engaged to be married.
On July 8, I wrote about the fallacy of identity thieves guessing your Social Security number. Despite misleading claims in the news media, the fact remains that thieves have only a one-in-ten thousand chance of decoding your Social Security Number, the same as making random guesses.
Of course, thieves don't use random guesses as there are easier methods of stealing your identity information. A recent news article describes how Chris Paget cruised the streets of San Francisco and in twenty minutes found identifying information of six Americans without having to guess any Social Security Numbers. In fact, he never left his car. The process apparently was simple. The information was freely given to him by government documents.
Government bureaucrats seem intent on locking up access to public domain information, such as birth, marriage, and death records, as well as Social Security Numbers of deceased individuals. But those same government bureaucrats also seem to ignore the far greater security problems – those created by government bureaucrats.
Saturday was a day of, “Hello family — meet your family!” It all began with a passing remark made by Mary Garrett that her grandparents, Judson A. and Ida May Smith, were buried in Sterling, Colorado. That remark sparked her daughter, Sherry Cook, to begin a journey that would end with 76 people who were part of a family gathering in Sterling Saturday to meet each other, many for the first time, and to honor the memory of their ancestors. All of them were descendants of Judson and Ida May Smith.
Cook, of Brush, decided to do some research on the Internet and found a name through an ancestry posting that was related to the family. She contacted Marie DeSoto by e-mail to find out how she was related and what she knew about the family history. DeSoto, who is a cousin and lives in Washington State, had taken over the compiling of her family genealogy when her mother passed away and had done some posting on Ancestry.com.
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