Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

(+) Google for Genealogists - Part 3

This is a Plus Edition article, written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.

NOTE: This is the third and final  installment of a multi-part article. Part #1 is available at http://eogn.com/wp/?p=6206 while Part #2 is available at http://eogn.com/wp/?p=6270.

Google Books

If you haven't used Google Books, you haven't used one of the most useful genealogy tools available! In fact, if you haven't used Google Books lately, you are again missing out on a great resource!

New Zealand's Internal Affairs Widens Online Identity Services

New Zealand's Internal Affairs wants to develop two online applications, logon service and identity verification service.  It is already working with government agencies using the igovt logon service and will pilot the identity verification service with its Birth, Deaths and Marriages unit and genealogist community later this year.

The applications allow companies to authenticate and verify the identity of individuals by electronic means. The logon services were developed for government use to allow users to have one logon for use with different agencies.

Rotary, Google Join Forces

This is not an article about genealogy, unless your ancestor was a Rotarian and managed to be mentioned in the national magazine. What interests me more is that Google is working with a non-profit organization to scan old magazines and possibly other records AT NO CHARGE. I have to wonder if there is an opportunity here for the larger genealogy societies to negotiate a similar deal?

The following was written by The Rotary Foundation:

Rotary has teamed up with Google to make nearly 100 years of The Rotarian available free online.

(+) Questions to Ask Your Elders

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.

For every genealogist who is completely content with the results of his or her efforts, I wonder how many more are nagged by questions they wish they had asked family members when they had the chance. We scour the vital records, consult the census reports, and probe the probate for clues about those lost to us. If you’re lucky enough to have old diaries or letters, you try to piece together their lives to discover what they really thought and felt. We spend hour after hour reconstructing our ancestors’ lives. However, if you have the ultimate good fortune to have older relatives still among you, think of the priceless memories they may have to share today!

"If only I had asked her before she died." How many of us have uttered those words? I know that I have, and I suspect that you have, too. The greatest resource in family history is carried within the memories of our older relatives. Not only are names and dates remembered, but so are the many wonderful stories that were never recorded elsewhere. When someone dies, that information is lost forever.

Ancestry.com in Arbitration over the Drouin Collection

Two newsletter readers have written with news that the Institut généalogique Drouin took The Generation Network Inc. (recently re-named Ancestry.com) into arbitration over the lack of full and proper indexation of the Drouin Collection previously placed on-line by Ancestry.com.

On the 12th of August 2009, the judge named to arbitrate this case sided with Drouin, and declared that The Generations Network (Ancestry.com) has failed in its contractual obligation to properly and fully index the database prior to publication and since publication. The decision grants 60 days to The Generations Network to remedy the situation. Should they fail to do so, the license granted by the Institut Drouin will lapse.

Irish 1911 Census: All Thirty-Two Counties Are Now Online

All counties have now been added to the National Archives of Ireland's free 1911 census website. The 1901 and 1911 censuses are the only surviving full censuses of Ireland open to the public. Both censuses cover the entire island of Ireland. The 1911 census was taken on 2 April 1911.

Ireland's census records are unusual in that the original household manuscript returns survive. These are the forms filled out and signed by the head of each household on census night. Most other countries only have enumerators' books, where family details were transcribed by the person charged with collecting the census information. In Irish records, you can see your ancestor's handwriting, assuming that he or she was the head of household at the time.

The Origins of the Melungeons

Melungeon is a term applied to many people of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia: East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Kentucky. The most common adjective used to describe the Melungeons is “mysterious;” no one seems to know where the Melungeons originated. The Melungeons often did not fit into any of the racial categories that define an individual or group within American society; their neighbors considered them neither white, black, nor Indian.

The Melungeons appear to be of mixed ancestry, and contradictory claims about the origins of these people have existed for centuries. Most modern-day descendants of Melungeon families are generally Caucasian in appearance, often, although not always, with dark hair and eyes, and a swarthy or olive complexion. Descriptions of Melungeons vary widely from observer to observer, from "Middle Eastern" to "Native American" to "light-skinned African American."

You Can Be a Scottish Earl

A rare feudal earldom is about to come up for sale in Scotland. Whoever buys the title will be able to call themselves earl and it might be the last time that such a title will ever be offered. The title could be yours for a measly £500,000 ($813,350 US).

Historic Weather

What was the weather on the day you were born? When your Dad talked about going out in that great blizzard, just how bad was it?  Wolfram Alpha has a number of helpful tools to answer your weather questions, including historical data from weather stations located all over the world.

The Value of a Cemetery Crypt

An occupied crypt at the Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park in Westwood, California has been sold for $4.6 million. The value was probably enhanced by who is buried next door: Marilyn Monroe.

Elsie Poncher, whose husband Richard Poncher is buried in the crypt, sold it online to pay off the mortgage on her Beverly Hills home.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard

Apple released its new upgrade of the OS X operating system today. I had pre-ordered it, so the FedEx driver appeared in my driveway today about 11:00 AM. By 12:30 the new operating system was running on my desktop Mac.

Installing OS X.6 (also known as "Snow Leopard") was a typical Macintosh experience: nothing unexpected happened. I simply unpacked the newly-arrived box, inserted the single DVD-ROM disk into the Mac, and followed the instructions that appeared on the screen. About an hour later everything finished, and the Snow Leopard operating system was functional. I have now used the new operating system more than an hour and, so far, everything works as expected.

Archivist Seeks Help Identifying NZ WWII Flyers

An Australian researcher is asking the public to help her identify Kiwi airmen depicted in over 100 photos found and retrieved from a military rubbish dump. The airmen all belonged to the RNZAF No.6 Flying Boat Squadron, formed in 1942 and charged with hunting Japanese boats in the Pacific during World War II.

Australian archivist Jenny Scott is asking for assistance. Her father, Flight Lieutenant Alastair Scott, originally rescued the photos.

Video: The Human Family Tree

This Sunday, August 30th, at 9 PM on the National Geographic Channel, Dr. Spencer Wells goes to a Queens, New York neighborhood, takes DNA samples from the diverse population there, and traces the very different journeys their ancestors took out of the common “cradle of humanity” - East Africa - to the present day New York borough.

By taking DNA samples on a single day on a single street, Dr. Wells shows how we are all cousins in the family of mankind.

Customer Rebellion Concerning Proposed U.K. National Archives Budget Cuts

I wrote recently about proposed changes at The National Archives of Great Britain. Click here and here to read my earlier articles.

The proposed cuts will "gut" The National Archives. In the name of saving money, the management "consultants" proposed reducing of staff and elimination of many of the services that The National Archives (TNA) is chartered to provide. TNA’s proposals claim to cut their operating costs by 10%, or £4.2m. In fact, the proposals appear to cut more than 10% of the services. Genealogists, historians, and the general public have expressed anger and dismay at the proposed cuts.

Waterford, Ireland Central Library Adds Roman Catholic Parish Registers

Central Library has acquired the Roman Catholic Parish Registers for Waterford City and County. These Registers are one of the main sources for genealogical researchers beginning to investigate their family history as they provide the earliest direct source of family information in Ireland. These Registers previously were difficult to access but are now freely available to researchers who visit the Central Library in Waterford.

For more information, contact Central Library at +353 051 849975.

(+) Living With an All-In-One

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.

One of the smaller revolutions of the computer industry almost slipped past me. I have ignored the recent growth of "all-in-one" printers. I have owned and used a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 1320 printer for years, and it continues to perform flawlessly. It even prints on both sides of a sheet of paper. I have it connected to a Macintosh system which, in turn, shares the LaserJet on the network in my home. The laser printer is available to all the computers in my home, as long as the Macintosh is powered up. I can print to it from my Macintosh, Windows, and Linux desktop systems as well as from my laptop, and family members can also print to it from their computers.

Of course, the LaserJet 1320 only prints in black-and-white. Color laser printers are available today but at higher prices. Color inkjet printers are available at rather low prices, typically starting at $40 or so.

I am still happy with my LaserJet's performance, but in recent months I have become aware that I am missing a few things.

APG to Split Mailing List

The following announcement was written by Jake Gehring, President of the Association of Professional Genealogists:

To all members of the Association of Professional Genealogists,

For several years the APG Board has discussed the possibility of a “members only” APG Mail List. Two years ago we began an experiment with the APG Forums, a web-based discussion feature on the Members Only section of www.apgen.org, but this offering has not been heavily used. Much of our feedback on the forums expresses the value of convenient, e-mail-based communication.

As a result, the APG Board voted to create two mail lists, one for members only and another, which we call the “APG Public Mailing List.”

World War Two POW Records Released Online at Ancestry.ca

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.ca:

More than 100,000 records of WWII British and Commonwealth POWs published online

• Records include British and Commonwealth personnel imprisoned between 1939 and 1945 in Germany, Austria and Poland
• Thousands of Canadians may find ancestors in this collection
• These POW records have never before been available online

Follow-Up: Why You Need a Second (and Better) E-mail Address

On February 6 of this year, I posted an article telling why you don't want to use the e-mail service from your Internet provider. Instead, you should be using an e-mail service provided by an independent e-mail provider (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Fastmail, etc.).

I described a recent nightmare for 234,000 former Verizon customers in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont who suddenly found their Internet service was being changed to a smaller company, FairPoint Communications. The former Verizon customers all had assigned e-mail addresses ending in "@verizon.net" and were suddenly told that their e-mail addresses had been changed.

Now the problem is getting worse.

iPhone Meets Genome

Here is some interesting technology: carry your genome information with you wherever you go, thanks to an Apple iPhone and cloud computing:

With employees spread across five continents, effective mobile communications are essential for Illumina, a San Diego, CA-based biotechnology company that designs breakthrough tools for genetic analysis. Using iPhone, sales reps can track customers, executives can manage employees, and everyone can stay in touch. And soon Illumina will make it possible for consumers to carry their personal genomes with them on iPhone.