Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

(+) Genealogy on a Stick

The following is a Plus Edition article, written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. Please do not forward this article to others without the author's permission.

Now you can carry your favorite computer programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more with you. You can use them on any Windows computer, all without leaving any personal data behind.

PortableApps is a collection of free software programs that can be run from a jump drive or thumb drive, sometimes called a memory stick or simply "a stick." This is a great way of carrying your programs with you. You can install the PortableApps software, plus an email program, a word processor, a web browser, a photo editing program, all sorts of games, and more onto a jump drive and take it with you.

GPS Replaces Headstones in Calgary Cemeteries

The City of Calgary has a new strategy for the city's soon-to-be-full cemeteries: green burials and GPS locators for finding the dead.

Four of Calgary's five municipal cemeteries are full, and officials estimate the Queen's Park burial lands, which opened in 1940, will run out of space within 10 years. A council committee has approved a strategy that incorporates technology, including global positioning system units, and environmentally friendly techniques to make the most use of new cemetery land.

Giant among Giants awarded to Mary Edmond

The following is from the WOOD-TV web site:

The Giants Awards, an event that honors the accomplishments of African-American community leaders in West Michigan, were handed out Saturday night. The Grand Rapids Community College Diversity Learning Center accepted nominations throughout the year and more than a dozen leaders were honored at this 28th annual event.

12 recipients are given various awards and then the "Giant among Giants" award, the most prestigious honor, is handed out.

The "Giant among Giants" award for 2010 was given to Grand Rapids resident Mary Edmond. Edmond is a former educator and administrator with the Grand Rapids Public Schools. She worked in the district for 32 years.

Hoax: Politician's Horse Thieving and Train Robbing Ancestor

File this one under "urban legends." For years, people have sent me stories they found on the Internet, claiming that the ancestor of some politician was a horse thief and a train robber. In years past, the claim was for ancestors of Al Gore or Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden or Stephane Dion (the former leader of Canada's Liberal Party) or Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska (who was convicted a while ago on seven felony counts of violation of ethics laws) or others. I must have received dozens of the these messages since I started publishing this newsletter 14 years ago, and I received one more today. The latest story making the rounds claims that Congressman Harry Reid's great-great uncle, Remus Reid, was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889. Sometimes a picture accompanies the email message.

There is only one problem: the stories are fictitious. In fact, I'd bet money that Congressman Harry Reid never had a great-great uncle named Remus. Admittedly, I haven't researched that myself, but I'd consider it strange if Harry Reid, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton all had uncles named Remus and if all of these uncles with the same first name had been hanged.

The Security of Cloud Computing - a Definitive Answer

I have written several times recently about cloud computing (see http://tinyurl.com/yjtadoh). I believe cloud computing is the wave of the future for genealogy record keeping as well as for many, many other purposes. There are many advantages to keeping your data on web servers that are available from anyplace with an Internet connection and that have frequent backups made. Data stored in cloud computing environments may be either private or shared with others, depending upon the preferences of the user and of the programmers who created the particular application that is running in the cloud. Different applications will implement privacy in different ways.

Storing critical data on a cloud computing provider's servers raises several questions. Can the employees of the cloud provider be able to see your data or change it? Can other customers of the cloud provider hack into your data and get access to it? And what about privacy issues and government regulations?

In fact, these are all real possibilities if proper precautions are not taken. System administrators have dealt with many of these issues for years in other environments, but cloud computing raises the concerns even higher than ever before. In the comments sections of some of my previous articles about cloud computing, newsletter readers have voiced legitimate concerns about cloud computing security. Luckily, there are known and proven solutions to these concerns.

Personal Ancestry Writer II Version 91 Released

Personal Ancestry Writer II (often referred to as PAWriter) is a free genealogy program for Macintosh computers. The program has a new update: Version 91 was released earlier today.

Changes from version 90 include:

The limitation on list boxes of a maximum of 30,000 entries at a time is now removed. All entries are now displayed. This applies to when the Find Person button is clicked (or command-F is pressed or Person menu > Find Person by Name is chosen); when the Find Tagged button is clicked (or option-command-F is pressed or Person menu > Find Tagged Person by Name is chosen); when Edit menu > Copy Name, Tag menu > Tag People whose Names Contain, or Tag Menu > Tag People with a Place Containing is chosen, as well as for the list of citations displayed when Citation menu > Edit Citations is chosen. You can still type the first few letters (or more) of an entry and press tab to jump to the first entry in the list that starts with those letters.

Conversations with the Dead

The Genealogical Society of Yuma (Arizona) has a great idea for generating publicity and I suspect it is a fund raiser as well. The society is sponsoring the eighth annual Dining with the Dead barbecue and guided tour of the Yuma City Cemetery. The idea is to relive history with some of the pioneers of Yuma who are buried there.

A group of 10 will re-enact the historical figures whose lives had significant impact on the city. Visitors will be led through the graveyard and will have a chance to meet and talk with the re-enactors.

African American Cultural Festival at the North Carolina Museum of History

The following announcement was written by the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources:

Get a jump-start on February’s Black History Month celebrations at the Jan. 30 African American Cultural Festival at the N.C. Museum of History (www.ncmuseumofhistory.org) in Raleigh. More than 50 presenters from across the state will share their history and culture at the free program from 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. Legendary Bluesman Big Ron Hunter will perform, N.C. Association of Black Storytellers members will present, and historical dramas based on the life of colonial poet Phyllis Wheatley and the work of cabinet-maker Thomas Day will be shared.

Apple iPad: The Day After

Thousands of articles have been posted online in the past twenty-four hours describing what is included and what is not included in the newly-announced iPad. I haven't read all the articles but I did read quite a few. Here are a few quotes that I consider relevant:

From: Craig Kanalley, Traffic & Trends Editor for the Huffington Post, at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-kanalley/ipad-apps-will-define-the_b_440334.html:

This device is revolutionary and it raises the bar on eReaders of the future. Why get a Kindle or a Nook (sorry guys) when you can also display images and videos in high-quality, listen to your favorite music, surf the Web, check your e-mail, and do countless other things?

Kanalley also wrote:

I can only imagine displaying beautiful family trees and swiping historical photos on my iPad. Not to mention its capabilities for research inputting new data and conducting interviews. As a research tool alone, it's sure to have amazing potential, but as a collaboration tool and way to display work, it can easily become invaluable for every genealogist to have.

An iPocket for Your iPad

I own a number of pieces of clothing produced by Scottevest. I even wrote about them three years ago in an article entitled Suitable Attire for the Genealogist.

Within an hour after the iPad announcement, the graphic shown to the right appeared on the Scottevest site along with a tagline touting it as "the first & only clothing line with a pocket for the iPad." The company's CEO said the pocket, originally designed to stow things like magazines, newspapers and maps, can easily accommodate a device with the specs of the newly announced Apple gizmo.

You can read more at http://www.scottevest.com.

AT&T Gives $100,000 to Foundation for the National Archives

The following announcement was written by the Foundation for the National Archives:

NOTE: The Foundation for the National Archives is not part of the National Archives and is not run by the government. The Foundation for the National Archives is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that since 1992 has served as the National Archives’ private partner in introducing new audiences to the educational power of original records.

Grant to Support Discovering the Civil War Exhibition

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 -- AT&T has contributed $100,000 to the Foundation for the National Archives in support of the National Archives Experience's upcoming exhibition Discovering the Civil War.

AT&T's contribution will be used to enhance the educational components of the exhibition through the development of public programming, online content, publications, and outreach materials.

Fire Destroys Historic Building and Genealogy Society Records

Fire destroyed residential units and several businesses when it ripped through an Otho Street complex in Inverell, New South Wales, Australia during the early hours of Sunday morning. Among the devastated residents and businesses is the Inverell District Family History Group.

NOTE: This is NOT the Inverell Genealogical & Historical Society, Inc., a different society with a somewhat similar name.

Volunteers have worked tirelessly over the years to piece together records and photos of Inverell’s history. The group apparently never created digital copies of the holdings. The Inverell District Family History Group has lost all their archives, books, family histories as well as various other records on paper and film as well as their CD collection, which are almost all irreplaceable.

National Archives Celebrates African-American History Month in February

The following announcement was written by the U.S. National Archives and records Administration:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28 -- The National Archives will celebrate African-American History Month in February with special films, public programs, book talks, and lectures, including a special event on the legacy of John Hope Franklin. These events are free and open to the public and will be held at the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., and at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland.

Visitors to the William G. McGowan Theater should enter at the Special Events Entrance at Constitution Ave. and 7th St., NW. Visitors to all programs in the National Archives Building Research Center (Room G-24) should use the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance, between 7th and 9th Streets, NW. The National Archives at College Park, MD, is located at 8601 Adelphi Road. Both locations are fully accessible. For directions, see: http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro.

Apple's iPad and Genealogy

Apple CEO Steve Jobs today announced a new tablet computer to be called the iPad. This device has been hyped more in the past few months than the Super Bowl. Thousands of news articles have appeared online and in print, trying to guess what the new device would be. All the guesswork ended today when Jobs unveiled a one-pound, battery-powered computer with a 9.7 inch screen.

The new computer is a design often called a tablet and sometimes referred to as a slate computer. The iPad has no physical keyboard. It is simply a screen with no hinged cover. It looks like a digital picture frame and, in fact, can be used as a picture frame to display digital photos. It obviously will compete with the many netbook computers available today that run Windows, Linux, or Windows CE operating systems.

Can Emmitt Smith Help Save NBC from the 'Tonight Show' Mess?

Ex-Cowboy football great Emmitt Smith will help try save NBC from its Tonight Show/Jay Leno debacle as he makes an appearance on a new network show.

The former running back will appear on a new alternative series “Who Do You Think You Are?” premiering Friday, March 5 at 7 p.m. Central. The show is part of a new revamped schedule after Jay Leno's weekday 10 p.m. show was canceled, with Leno retaking the "Tonight Show" slot from Conan O'Brien.

New Film for the NGS Conference

This past week the audio/visual department of the LDS Church went to the BYU campus in Hawaii looking for five individuals to star in a short film for the upcoming National Genealogical Society conference that will be held in Salt Lake City.

The three- to four-minute film is based on the true story of Mailie, a woman who searched for her grandmother who resided in the Molokai Leper Colony. The movie will depict her grandmother’s hardships and show the importance of getting to know your roots. The story of Mailie’s search for her grandmother will be a segment of a 12-minute film.

(+) A Nifty Gadget for Recording Podcasts

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

I suspect this article will appeal to a small segment of newsletter readers. However, if you record podcasts or want to do so in the future, read on. If you are in a band of some sort, you also will be interested in this device. In fact, you can record most anything, such as your grandchild's first words.

First, let's define a podcast. 

Podcasts are really "Internet radio broadcasts" that you can listen to on your computer or with most any portable music player, such as an Apple iPod. Unlike radio broadcasts, however, you can listen to podcasts whenever you wish. Podcasts are simply computerized audio files that you can download to your computer or music player and then listen to them at your convenience. In fact, you can listen to them time and again if you wish.

Unlike radio broadcasts, these "Internet broadcasts" are not subject to static, fading, or atmospheric noise. If recorded properly, these audio broadcasts should have great audio quality; they will sound almost like someone talking while seated next to you. That's true whether the "broadcaster" is in your home town, in Australia, or in Stockholm. 

APGQ Advertising Sales Representative Opening

APGQ is looking for a motivated advertising sales representative. The successful candidate will have a combination of ad sales experience, knowledge of the APGQ, and a familiarity with the genealogy community. Job duties include maintaining current advertiser relationships, developing new ones through a proactive sales approach, provide sales contracts to APG administrative staff, and work with staff to ensure correct and timely invoicing of all advertising. Sales representative will earn $100/issue, plus 20% of collected ad revenues. Interested candidates should send an introductory letter and resume to Kathleen Hinckley, Executive Director, admin@apgen.org.

(+) New Thinking About Europe’s Y-chromosome Origins

Or, how the farmers out-reproduced the hunter-gatherers

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Chris Pomery.

There’s a popular television show that’s been airing in the UK recently, called Farmer Wants A Wife. Each week, a farmer (and it’s usually a young beefy one) selects a couple of suitable lasses to try out the working life on his farm for five days, and we armchair consumers get to root for one or the other before he makes his choice. It’s a TV concept that’s been built around news stories about young men in rural communities finding it hard to find a spouse who is willing to take on the tough and often financially precarious life of being a farmer in modern Britain.

A new academic paper on the origins of Europe’s most ubiquitous Y-chromosome, published 19 January, suggests that it wasn’t always thus. Indeed its author summary says at one point that “most European Y chromosomes descend from Near Eastern farmers” while “most maternal lineages descend from hunter-gatherers, suggesting reproductive advantage for farming males over indigenous hunter-gatherer males during the cultural transition from hunter-gathering to farming.”

Those few words might seem almost innocuous, but they go right to the heart of a thirty-year debate which asks: how was Europe populated as the farming revolution took hold across the continent ten millennia ago? Was the westerly spread of farming from the Near East the result of the farmers migrating, or was it that the idea and techniques of farming were spread by hunter-gatherers themselves as they learned them and passed them on without any large-scale human migration?

Genealogy Entrepreneurs

Mormon Entrepreneur is a magazine dedicated to covering the Latter-day Saint business world. It is published online every other month. The current edition contains fascinating interviews with five founders of genealogy businesses:

Russell Wilding, Footnote.com Founder & CEO, who describes the technology challenges of digitizing microfilm.

Paul Allen, FamilyLink.com Founder & CEO; Ancestry.com Founder, who describes the fun and difficulties of starting a business.