Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Haywood, North Carolina Groups to Merge

The Haywood Genealogical Society merged with the Haywood Historical Society, following a Nov. 3 meeting of 33 members from both groups.

The new society has named itself the Historical and Genealogical Society of Haywood County.

Gravestones Hold Secrets to Earth's Climate Past

I never would have thought about this. However, after reading about it, the idea makes perfect sense. Scientists believe gravestones may hold secrets of how the Earth's atmosphere has changed over the centuries, and those scientists are now asking for the public's help to read these stones.

Little by little, atmospheric gases dissolved in raindrops cause the marble in gravestones to erode. As such, headstones can serve as diaries of changes in atmospheric chemistry over the years due to pollution and other factors.

Archivist of the United States has his Finger on History

This month, David Ferriero took a look at the check the United States wrote in 1867 to purchase Alaska for $7.1 million.

Why?

"Because I could," Ferriero said.

That is the beginning of an interesting article about the new Archivist of the United States that was written by Cate Lecuyer and published in the Gloucester (Massachusetts) Daily Times Online. The Archivist is a native of nearby Beverly, Massachusetts and this is sort of a "hometown boy makes good" article. Lecuyer also wrote some things that may be of interest to genealogists:

Prep Work Begins for 2010 Census

The 2010 Census doesn’t start until March, but preparations are already underway.

The U.S. Census counts every resident in the United States, and is required by the Constitution to take place every 10 years. In fact, the census is not conducted for the convenience of genealogists, although some of us may need to be reminded of that fact. Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States requires a periodic census in order to determine the apportionment of seats in the House of Representatives and for no other reason:

The actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of 10 years, in such manner as they shall by Law direct.

Security Concerns of 1900

Glenn Fleishman has written an article entitled The Killer App of 1900, pointing out that the privacy fears and phobias of more than 100 years ago were little different from today. Today's news is full of stories about people who are afraid of technology being used to invade their privacy. Yet, the following words were written in 1900 A.D.:

“Electric lights are different. Electricity is not in any sense a necessity, and under no conditions is it universally used by the people of a community. It is but a luxury enjoyed by a small proportion of the members of any municipality, and yet if the [municipal power] plant be owned and operated by the city, the burden of such ownership and operation must be borne by all the people through taxation.

“Now, electric light is not a necessity for every member of the community. It is not the business of any one to see that I use electricity, or gas, or oil in my house, or even that I use any form of artificial light at all.”

State Census Records Online

Miriam Robbins Midkiff has written a great article on her AnceStories blog listing all the known state census records that are available online. She writes:

How are state censuses helpful in genealogy? They were often held in the years between the decennial federal censuses; many were enumerated in years ending in "5," such as 1885, 1895, etc. They are also a great substitute for the missing 1890 Federal Censuses. If your ancestor lived in a territory prior to statehood, chances are you'll find him or her enumerated several times, since territories often took multiple censuses in order to prove they had enough residents to be admitted to the Union. Finally, state censuses contain answers to questions that aren't normally asked in federal censuses: complete birth dates, specific birth locations, detailed information about your ancestor's farm (acreage owned, number of cattle, pounds of butter yielded in the past year, or bushels of wheat harvested). They often show lists of marriages by township in states that did not yet require keeping of vital records; names of churches and industries within the township, showing a larger picture of the community; and even details such as whether your ancestor served in the military or had a log or frame home!

Create a Blog for Yourself or Your Society

Individuals and companies publish blogs for a variety of reasons. Some blogs are launched for marketing purposes; others are posted just for fun. Here are a few things you can do with a personal or professional blog:

Personal Blogs:

• Journal – Most sites support private blogs that can be used as a journal or public blogs for sharing. Some bloggers use weblogs to publish their travelogue, personal thoughts, or daily events.
• Special Interest – Write on your favorite hobby or subject. Share tips on genealogy, historical topics, cooking, photography, gaming, or other hobby. You can write on any subject from Victorian Literature to Zhu Zhu Pets. There are no boundaries.
• Family or Society Blog – Most blog services let you set up multiple users with passwords. With this arrangement you can start a family or society blog. Family or society members can login and add posts and images to share with the rest of the members.

Texas Genealogical Society Donates $10,000 to Victoria College Foundation

According to an announcement from the Victoria College Foundation, the Victoria County (Texas) Genealogical Society recently donated $10,000 to The Victoria College Foundation. The donation will be used to purchase digital collection management software that will enable the VC/UHV Library to provide digital access to many of the collections in the Victoria Regional History Center.

This is the fourth time the society has donated that amount to the VC Foundation. The first two volumes of "The History and Heritage of Victoria County" were published in 2000, with the third volume published in 2003. Profits from the sale of these books have enabled VCGS to give these donations to the VC Foundation.

Free Document Scanning at the Mesa, AZ Family History Expo

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com and Family History Expos:

Ancestry.com and Family History Expos have teamed up to help people digitize their precious family documents – for free at the second annual Mesa, Arizona Family History Expo, Jan. 22-23. Family photos and documents will be scanned at the conference, for free, on Ancestry.com’s professional scanning equipment.

Register today for an appointment to have your documents scanned free. Expo attendees can sign up for 15-minute scanning sessions on Friday, January 22, and Saturday, January 23, to be held during the exhibit hall hours. Scanning-session signs-ups will open each morning—sign up Friday morning for a Friday time slot, Saturday morning for a Saturday time slot. Details on the scanning room location to come soon.

Who Do You Think You Are? Producers Confirm Takeover Offer

The maker of hit television shows Who Do You Think You Are?, Supernanny and New Tricks has confirmed it is evaluating an initial approach from a buy-out consortium. Shed Media said Bowmark Capital and Darwin Private Equity were working with members of its management team over a possible deal.

Four directors including chief executive Nick Southgate own almost a third of the business, which is currently valued at £73 million.

Volunteers Preserve 150,000 Maine Historic Court Documents

It was a daunting task. One hundred boxes of unnamed materials and documents found in the attic, crawl spaces and closets of the Washington County, Maine Courthouse needed to be preserved.

Five years later, a team of volunteers, using grants and small county appropriations, have inventoried, flattened, placed in numbered acid-free file folders, photographed and compiled on CD some 150,000 documents, including transactions and data from as far back as 1791.

(+) A Genealogy Software Challenge

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

Here is a genealogy software challenge to ponder: can your present genealogy program properly chart all families? Can it properly display the relationships of all the people within its database? Can it do so without wasting a lot of paper?

Let's try a test based upon history. Fifteen men and twelve women went to an isolated island in 1789 and lived without outside contact for many years. In fact, even today, the island has few visitors and almost no new immigrants. Every one of today's 50 island residents is related to the other 49 in many, many ways. Everyone is everyone else's second cousin as well as third cousin and probably also a sixth cousin eight times removed. If you were to enter that island's entire population since 1789 into your genealogy program, will it display the relationships properly?

Genealogical Society Releases Book on Queensland Pioneer Stories

The following announcement was written by the Genealogical Society of Queensland, Australia:

Minister for Infrastructure and Planning and State Member of Stafford Stirling Hinchliffe has launched the Genealogical Society of Queensland's historical book Queenslanders: - Pioneer Families 1859-1901.

Mr Hinchliffe said the Queensland Government granted the Genealogical Society of Queensland $10,000 in Q150 Community Funding, as part of Queensland's 150th Celebrations 2009.

"If there's one organisation that can track down Queensland pioneering families, it has to be the Genealogical Society of Queensland," Mr Hinchliffe said.

i-gotU GPS Device for Your Digital Camera

This must be the ultimate gadget for that photography buff on your Christmas list. “i-gotU” is a tiny device that tracks where you have been. That's it! All it does is track your location. With a built-in GPS satellite tracking receiver and 16 megabytes of built-in flash memory, the i-gotU device records your exact location (plus or minus ten feet or so) every few seconds and stores it in memory. It will store up to 65,000 locations, each recorded with the exact time you were at that location. What makes this device so useful is the included software that allows the stored locations to be used in so many ways.

Perhaps the most obvious use is in digital photography. You can automatically add geotags to every photo. That is, if you carry the i-gotU device in your pocket or in your camera bag, and if you make sure the date/time information in your camera is accurate within a very few seconds, you can always record the exact location of every picture you take. The latitude and longitude can automatically be added to each picture. That can be really useful for recording vacation trips or for hiking in the mountains or even when taking pictures at the family reunion.

As soon as you plug in i-gotU GPS Logger to your computer, your trips and current position are displayed effortlessly on Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, or Bing Maps.

Michael John Neill's New Casefile Clues

If you have been reading this newsletter for some time, you may remember Michael John Neill's series of articles that were published here, called "Casefile Clues." Michael has now moved on to expand his writing on his own web site and email newsletter, which is also appropriately titled "Casefile Clues." Michael is now publishing more articles than ever.

Michael is an expert in genealogy research methodology. He finds the logical results in difficult research tasks, sometimes seeking out seemingly illogical answers that turn out to be the truth. He always analyzes the reasons "why" a document was made and how it "fits" into the question at hand. He uses examples that will benefit the rest of us, making us all better genealogists. What I like best about Michael's articles is his style of writing: easy to read and understand. No mumbo-jumbo here! Michael writes in plain English for all of us.

Buy a Scottish Barony Title

Ah, the life of a Scottish baron is for me. And it is so easy to become a Baron. All you need is money!

According to a web site that claims to sell Scottish titles:

Scottish barons, depending upon their inclination, often take an active part in the affairs of their barony. One baron has recently helped towards the restoration of the village hall and War Memorial. Another baron has recently endowed an annual prize for the best student at the local agricultural college.

There is no typical profile of the modern baron. Many barons have purchased their baronies to cement their family ties with Scotland. Others because of their keen interest in Scottish history and some because they wanted to treat themselves to something unique.

Do It Yourself Book Scanner

I have written before about book scanners. You place a bound book into one of these behemoths, push a button, and walk away. You can return an hour or so later to find the entire book has been scanned and digitized. There is only one problem: these automated robotic scanners can cost thousands of dollars or more. A lot more.

Daniel Reetz dreamed of a book scanner that could crunch textbooks and spit out digital files he could then read on his PC. He had only one problem: he didn't have $100,000 to spare. So he did what any enterprising person would do: he built his own.

Mary Keen, R.I.P.

British Columbia lost a volunteer champion last week when Mary Keen passed away after a battle with ovarian cancer.

As a long-time volunteer for the Richmond, British Columbia Archives, Keen was instrumental in the growth of the Friends of the Richmond Archives group, which had just 20 volunteers when she started, and currently has in the neighbourhood of 250.

FamilySearch Indexing Update

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

10 December 2009
More projects were added this week for Argentina, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Perú, and the U.S. (See New Projects below for details.) New state censuses were added for Minnesota, Rhode Island and South Dakota. FamilySearch patrons are finding the indexes for state censuses very helpful because the state censuses can help fill in the gaps between the Federal censuses where applicable.
 
Volunteers can help 24/7 by registering and downloading a project of interest at FamilySearchIndexing.org. Completed projects and digital image collections can be searched at pilot.familysearch.org.

(+) Beware Rogue Software

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

Did your Windows computer suddenly pop up a window that claims your system is infected with viruses? That might be a false statement. In this article I’ll explain what it means and how to get rid of it before it creates real havoc for you.

Rogue software is becoming common. I often fix computer problems for others, and I have seen this problem quite a few times. Rogue software can enter your computer any number of ways. Perhaps you visited a reputable web site that has been compromised. Perhaps you received an email message from a friend that had an attached file. (Your friend may not even know that the email message was sent in his or her name.) In one recent case, a web cam purchased in a computer store contained drivers on a CD-ROM in the box. That CD-ROM disk was infected with rogue software. (The manufacturer has since recalled all the affected devices.) For a story about one such problem, read the article on Yahoo News at http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20091204/tc_pcworld/thanksgivingwebcampromoleadstomalware.