Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Experts May Have Found Bones of 10th Century English Princess

She was a beautiful English princess who married one of Europe's most powerful monarchs and dazzled subjects with her charity and charm. Now an international team of scientists say they think they've found the body of Princess Eadgyth (pronounced Edith), a 10th-century noblewoman who has been compared to Princess Diana. Should the skeleton be positively identified as belonging to Eadgyth, it would be oldest remains of any English royal discovered so far.

National Archives Public Meeting Changed to 10:45 AM

The time of the public meeting on January 29 previously described (at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/01/national-archives-public-meeting.html) has been changed from 1 PM to 10:45 AM. Here is the corrected announcement:

The National Archives has issued the following announcement:

“There will be a public meeting on Friday, January 29 at 10:45 AM to discuss how the National Archives meets the needs of the research community.  This will not be a discussion of the details of the research room layout, but rather about researcher needs, and how to meet those needs.  There will be a presentation, followed by an open discussion.  The Archivist and Michael Kurtz will be the speakers, and David McMillen will moderate the program.”

FamilySearch Indexing Update: New Portuguese Interface and Brazil, Rio de Janeiro Marriage Certificates Added

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

20 January 2010
 
FamilySearch Indexing is excited to announce a new Portuguese interface for the program. The first project available in Portuguese is a collection of marriage certificates from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Other new projects this week include the 1910 Census for four states, as well as records from Canada and Germany.
 
New Projects in the Past Two Weeks

• Brasil, Rio de Janeiro—Matrimonios, 1900–1910 [Piloto]
• Canada—1871 Mortality Census
• Deutschland, Westfalen, Minden—Volkszählung, 1880–1900 (In partnership with Mindener Geschichtsverein)
• U.S., Florida—1910 Federal Census
• U.S., Georgia—1910 Federal Census
• U.S., Kansas—1910 Federal Census
• U.S., Louisiana—1910 Federal Census
• U.S., Rhode Island—1905 State Census [Part 3]
  

 (See the chart below for a complete list and current status of all indexing projects.)

African American Newspapers Added To GenealogyBank.com

The following announcement was written by GenealogyBank:

GenealogyBank, a leading online provider of newspapers for family history research, announced today that it will be adding over 280 fully-searchable African-American newspapers with coverage from 1827 to 1999. GenealogyBank released the first 61 newspapers in this new series earlier this month, including coverage from 20 states.

“These newspapers are packed with genealogical and historical details of the African-American experience you simply can’t find in other online sources,” says Tom Kemp, NewsBank’s Director of Genealogy. “Making this robust and often rare content available for everyone to use helps all Americans discover the inspiring stories of our forefathers who paved the way for a better, more diverse America.”

Slave Cabin Sketch Mystery Solved

A 136-year-old pencil sketch of a North Carolina slave cabin that sent a mother and daughter from central Kentucky on a genealogical quest ended a dozen years later last week on a street in College Hill.

Since 1998, Irene Rucker, a retired Keebler factory worker, had been trying to dig up the story behind the fragile piece of paper she found tucked in an antique history book that cost her 50 cents at a mission thrift store in Estill County.

In neat cursive, the artist identified the drawing on the folded half sheet paper. Signed "H.W. Tate," it read, "The Cabin in which I lived when a slave in Clay County, N.C." The back side of the paper was dated November, 1874.

National Archives Public Meeting

The National Archives has issued the following announcement:

“There will be a public meeting on Friday, January 29 at 1 PM to discuss how the National Archives meets the needs of the research community.  This will not be a discussion of the details of the research room layout, but rather about researcher needs, and how to meet those needs.  There will be a presentation, followed by an open discussion.  The Archivist and Michael Kurtz will be the speakers, and David McMillen will moderate the program.”

Follow-up: Internet Explorer Problems

In the January 17 newsletter, I wrote about some newly-discovered security issues with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. You can see the article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/01/german-government-advises-the-public-to-switch-browsers.html.

Today, Microsoft announced plans to release an emergency patch for Internet Explorer very soon to counter the latest problems. The out-of-band update will be released once the company is satisfied that it has been properly tested against all affected versions of Windows. This could happen as early as this weekend. Until then, nobody should be using Internet Explorer.

(+) How Good is a $99 Computer?

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

In the December 23 newsletter, I wrote an article entitled,"The $99 Netbook Computer." The article quoted an announcement from Cherrypal stating that the company would soon be selling a $99 netbook (small laptop) computer. The system will run either the Linux or Windows CE operating systems, will have a small screen, small keyboard, limited memory, a four hour battery, and no hard drive. In fact, it is intended to be used mostly online with the various "cloud applications," such as Google Docs, Zoho Docs, Hotmail, Gmail, and possibly even cloud-based genealogy programs, such as The Next Generation (TNG), PhpGedView, New FamilySearch, Family Tree Explorer, and more. It will also surf the web and read and write email.

How good could a $99 computer be? Could it really be used for serious purposes? Could it be used for genealogy purposes? How about reading and writing email when traveling? I decided to find out.

Brightsolid Reports Healthy Profits

The growing market in online family history research has brought healthy profits for one of the industry leaders. Brightsolid has reported pre-tax profits in the year to March 2009 of more than £2m, on a turnover of £13m.

The Dundee-based company owns findmypast.com and runs the official Scottish genealogy website, scotlandspeople.gov.uk, under contract with the General Register Office for Scotland, the National Archives and the court of the Lord Lyon. The company also has agreed to take over Friends Reunited from ITV plc although that deal has not yet been completed.

A New Computer Revolution is Rising Around Us

WARNING: This article contains personal opinions.

I am fortunate in that I am able to attend several genealogy conferences most years. After listening to presentations and talking with presenters and attendees, I often walk away with one phrase echoing in my mind: “web-based.”

We are in the midst of a computer revolution, both in genealogy and in almost all other uses of personal computers. For the past 25 years or so, home computers have exploded in use. During that time, almost all programs we have used were obtained on disk or possibly by download, then installed and executed directly on each computer, usually without connection to any other computer system. This has worked well although each home computer operated as an “island,” isolated from other computers in the neighborhood and around the world.

A Little-Known Government Genealogy Service

A little-known program of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) provides genealogy information that may be difficult or impossible to obtain elsewhere. The records include naturalization files, visa applications and citizenship tests, and may reveal family secrets and mysteries.

Under the USCIS Genealogy Program, which started in 2008, requests are usually completed within 90 days. For $20, the government will run a search of the name, as long as the person is deceased. If there are records available, the government charges additional fees for the files.

German Government Advises the Public to Switch Browsers

This has nothing to do with genealogy but I believe all Windows users should be aware of this. Following the hack and stealing of data from Google, Adobe and about 3 dozen other major companies, the German government has advised the public to switch to alternative browsers.  The German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (known as BSI) recommends that all Internet Explorer users switch to an alternative browser. They may resume using Explorer after a fix is issued by Microsoft for a critical vulnerability that has been implicated in the Chinese cyberattack against Google.

Snoop Dogg Shocked by Genealogy Results

Snoop Dogg was reportedly shocked after genealogy results showed that he is just 71 per cent sub-Saharan African. The results showed that Dogg (real name Cordozar Calvin Broadus) is 6 per cent European and 23 per cent Native American.

"We got to have a re-vote, this ain't right," said the 38-year-old.

Footnote.com Named Best Genealogy Organization of 2009

Footnote.com (one of the sponsors of this newsletter) was named the Best Genealogy Organization of 2009 by Tamura Jones. Her site reviewed many of the industries products and sites and Footnote.com was listed as the best organization.

The article states that “Footnote simply did what it should be doing; continue to enlarge and improve its collections. It introduced the interactive census of 1930, and later announced it will make all the US census available this way.

Otago Settlers Museum's Archives Section to be Closed

Most of the Otago Settlers Museum's archives section in Dunedin, New Zealand will be closed to the public until the museum's redevelopment is completed in late 2012, but the portrait photograph collection will remain available and will soon be online.

One of New Zealand's finest social history museums, Otago Settlers Museum, established in 1898, stands to the south of Dunedin's Railway Station. The roof of the former NZR bus station building will be replaced this year as part of the $35 million redevelopment, requiring the archives to be packed away for safekeeping.

Creating a Blog the Easy Way

Are you interested in creating a personal blog? You might use a blog for posting the results of your genealogy research, for finding long-lost cousins, for posting your bowling league's news, for posting pictures of your cat, or for most any other imaginable purpose. There are dozens of blogging services to choose from, and most of them are very easy to use. However, I suspect the Posterous blogging service has to be the absolute easiest blogging service around. Can you send an email message? If so, you can create and maintain a blog on Posterous.com.

You can include pictures, videos, music, and most any sort of attached file. One feature that impressed me is that you can create group sites, such as a private blog just for family or friends. You can add your friends’ or family’s email addresses to any Posterous site you control. Then they email post@sitename.posterous.com to post to the blog. They don't even need to create an account.

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers): the Limerick Papers

Detailed records of an Irish religious group dating back to the 18th century have been made available for public viewing on the Internet. The Religious Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers, was founded in 1652 and records of Limerick and Clare members and their activities can now be accessed on Limerick City Council's website.

A Disk Drive in the Cloud

I have written before about the advantages of backing up your files to an online service. This strikes me as a great application for cloud computing: storing computer backups. Now another vendor has entered this crowded marketplace: Google.

Within a couple of weeks, anyone with a free Google Applications account will be able to upload, access, search and share files of any type from any computer, be it Windows, Macintosh, Linux, or even the various handheld computer operating systems.   The files can be as big as 250 megabytes. The files may be shared with others or not, at the uploader's discretion.

Ancestry Magazine Discontinues Publication

Sad news published today on the AncestryMagazine.com web site:

For 25 years, Ancestry magazine has been a valuable, timely resource for family history professionals, hobbyists, and novices alike. For a variety of reasons, the time has come for us to discontinue publication. Over the last few years, we have found that with the expanded accessibility of terrific family history content published online at Ancestry.com we can reach a larger and broader audience than the limited distribution of a print publication.

Discover the Joys of Genealogy with Helen F. M. Leary, CG (Emeritus), FASG, FNGS

The following announcement was written by the U.S. National Genealogical Society:

ARLINGTON, VA, JANUARY 15, 2010: The National Genealogical Society announces a series of interviews with Helen Leary, whose recognition in the field of genealogy includes Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists and Fellow of the National Genealogical Society. See the interviews at www.ngsgenealogy.org at the Videos and Publications tab.