Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

U.S. Version of Who Do You Think You Are? to be Broadcast in the U.K.

UKTV has picked up the U.S. version of Who Do You Think You Are? from Outright Distribution for its family entertainment channel Watch.

UKTV now holds the exclusive U.K. multichannel and non-linear broadcast rights for the show, which will premiere on Watch later this year.

Paul Moreton, the Watch channel head, said: "I’m incredibly delighted that we’ve secured the U.S. version of Who Do You Think You Are? Getting such an invaluable insight into the lives of some of Hollywood’s biggest stars means this is real must-see family telly, perfect for Watch."

Mormon Church Gives First Lady Michelle Obama a Volume of Her Family History

LDS Church apostle Dallin Oaks presented first lady Michelle Obama with a copy of her family's genealogy during a short visit to the White House on Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat and a member of the Mormon church, arranged the meeting and accompanied Oaks and other LDS officials to a sit-down private visit with Mrs. Obama, where she received a copy her family's ancestral history.

Google Street View Now Covers 95 Percent of UK Roads

Google Street view has received a major update: anyone can now look at 95 percent of the UK's roads. You may be able to see where your ancestors lived, although not the view they saw in "the good old days." Even static landmarks such as Stonehenge have been captured.

Google Street View was introduced to the UK last March, but was originally only available in 25 major cities.

Charles Hall, R.I.P.

Genealogical friends will want to know of Charles Hall's recent passing. He was particularly involved in German-American genealogy and a friend to all. He authored 10 books to help genealogists in the German and Prussian areas. He also founded two genealogical societies: Palatines to America and the Federation of Eastern European Family History Societies.

Tips for Tracing Irish Roots

It is St. Patrick's Day. I was going to write an article about how to trace your Irish ancestry but there are two problems:  (1.) I am not an expert on Irish ancestry and (2.) someone else already beat me to it.

Julie Miller is a professional genealogist, an excellent writer, and noted lecturer. She knows a LOT about researching Irish roots. Julie wrote an excellent article, Tips for Tracing Irish Roots, which has been published in the Broomfield Enterprise.

(+) Adding 3G to the iPad

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

As mentioned in yesterday's newsletter, I recently ordered an Apple iPad tablet computer. I expect delivery on or about April 3. The iPad is available with varying amounts of memory and can also be ordered with or without 3G wireless networking.

All iPads include wi-fi wireless networking at no additional charge. While normally very fast, wi-fi requires the user to be within 100 or 200 feet of a wi-fi base station, normally referred to as a "hotspot." Such hotspots can be installed in homes, and you will also find many more in restaurants, coffee shops, airport waiting lounges, and even on some commuter trains. The short range of wi-fi hotspots limits the usefulness of such connections.

The Irish Cultural Centre of New England

One of the better resources for learning about your Irish ancestors is the Irish Cultural Centre of New England (the ICCNE). Housed in a thatched-roof, whitewashed stone cottage amid acres of green fields, although behind a mundane stretch of office park buildings, the Centre promotes the importance of Irish History and Culture through several offerings:

1. Availability of an outstanding campus, open and accessible to all
2. The Music / Dance / Arts / Literature of the Irish people
3. Sports as an important part of the Irish Culture
4. Applying Irish History to Modern Day Realities
5. Language and Genealogy
6. An Umbrella organization, helping other organizations to prosper

The National Archives at New York City is Moving

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

The National Archives at New York City is pleased to announce that within the next two years we will move our office to the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House at One Bowling Green in New York City. Our new home will be located in the same building as the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian. The building is currently known as the Custom House building, designed by Cass Gilbert in the Beaux Arts style and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Phantom Street in Derry's Census

Beware the census transcriptions! Here is a perfect story about why you always want to look at images of original records:

Genealogists searching the online Irish census of 1911 for their Derry ancestors have been left puzzled by a "phantom" street in the city. More than 100 homes are listed on a "Lesky Road" in Derry's Urban 4 district, which roughly covers the modern day Bogside. There is but one problem: Lesky Road does not exist today and apparently never did in the past.

Tennessee State Library and Archives Sets Workshop on "Quilts of Tennessee"

The Tennessee State Library and Archives will host the latest in a series of workshops and seminars titled, “Quilts of Tennessee: What they Can Tell Us About Our Ancestors,” April 17. The workshop will be held from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m. at the State Library and Archives building, located at 403 Seventh Ave. N. in Nashville.

Lori D. Lockhart, a fourth generation Tennessee quilter and archivist at TSLA, will conduct the workshop, which is free and open to the public.

Follow-Up: New Zealand May Combine National Library and National Archives

On March 8, I wrote about a plan to combine the National Library of New Zealand and the National Archives of New Zealand into the Department of Internal Affairs. That article is still available at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/03/new-zealand-may-combine-national-library-and-national-archives-into-the-department-of-internal-affai.html. Now, New Zealand archivists say they are waiting "in the dark" and are increasingly worried about a lack of information and consultation over moves to restructure Archives New Zealand.

Duplicating Federal Videos for an Online Archive

A group of volunteers is helping the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration place videos online for easy public access. The International Amateur Scanning League, an invention of the longtime public information advocate Carl Malamud, plans to upload the archives’ collection of 3,000 DVDs in what Mr. Malamud calls an “experiment in crowd-sourced digitization.”

The league is a small demonstration that volunteers can sometimes achieve what bureaucracies can’t or won’t. David S. Ferriero, the archivist of the United States, said the archives were fully supportive of what the citizen group was doing.

Chelsea Pensioners' Service Records go Online at Findmypast.co.uk

The following announcement was written by findmypast.co.uk:

Today leading family history website findmypast.co.uk  launches its most exciting record collection online since the 1911 census - The Chelsea Pensioners' British Army Service Records - in association with The National Archives and in partnership with FamilySearch.

Known as "WO 97" at The National Archives, these most frequently viewed records are now online at findmypast.co.uk for the first time ever. The collection comprises over 6 million full colour images of the service records of soldiers in the British Army in receipt of a pension administered by The Royal Hospital Chelsea, and who were discharged between the dates 1760 and 1913.

I Ordered an Apple iPad

As I wrote a few weeks ago, Apple recently 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. The announcement stopped the guesswork: the iPad will be a one-pound, battery-powered computer with a 9.7 inch screen.

You can watch the introduction of the iPad at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU6isGR3PaM

Apple started accepting orders a few days ago on Friday, March 12, and reportedly sold 120,000 units the first day. I ordered one early that morning, and I plan to write about it once I receive it. The delivery is planned for April 3. I will first spend a bit of "hands on" time. I will load several genealogy applications on the iPad. I hope to describe my successes or failures in this newsletter a day or two after delivery.

Second Week of "Who Do You Think You Are?" More Popular than the First

The new genealogy series Who Do You Think You Are improved in its second week and helped NBC to second place on Friday, just 0.1 behind leader CBS, according to Nielsen overnights.

"Who" averaged a 1.8 adults 18-49 rating, up 13 percent over a 1.6 for the previous week's debut and up 50 percent over the network's average for the 8 p.m. timeslot last year.

Did Your Ancestor Live in One of Britain's Stately Homes?

Visitors to Britain's stately homes will be able to find out whether their ancestors were the lords of the manor, or merely the scullery maids, under a new research programme backed by the National Trust. The organisation is helping to fund investigations into the family trees of the people who lived and worked in Britain's stately homes through the centuries.

It has been estimated that as many as one in five people have links to members of the aristocracy, famous historical figures or rich landowners.

However, there is no guarantee that a link to a grand estate will be glamorous: you might find that your forebear at the manor was actually the butler, the footman, or merely the chambermaid.

Family Tree Maker Webinar on March 24th

The following is from the Ancestry.com Blog:

If you’ve mastered the basics of Family Tree Maker and you’re ready to learn more, join us for a free webinar on March 24th at 8:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time. Watch as the experts demonstrate some of the advanced features available in Family Tree Maker 2010. You’ll learn how to work with the Web Merge feature, resolve unidentified place names, export different branches of your family tree, and much more. To attend the Advanced Topics webinar, click here to register.

Scam Watch: Your Family Name

Beware of the ads that recently have appeared on late-night television and on the web. These ads insinuate that they can trace your name back in time to its origins. Actually, the ads are carefully worded to always say "the origins of your name," not the "origins of your ancestors."

The ads state, "Your ancestors left you a precious legacy: your family name." The same ads also claim to offer an "extremely detailed family history" and "a scroll of your family name and origin and meaning." The Internet ad also offers "2 specially researched reports on why your ancestors got their family name and why there is a Coat of Arms listed under your family name."

Of course, the advertisements neglect to mention there is no such thing as a "family coat of arms" (except in Japan and a few rare exceptions in the Netherlands) and names came from many places. 

Census Bureau Seeks Volunteers Who Can Ride a Snowmobile

Ten years ago, somewhere in Oxford County near the town of Fryeburg, a Maine resident was living in an unorganized township with no clear roads to his domicile. We know the resident was there, U.S. Census employee David Slagger said Saturday, because that person responded to a questionnaire sent out in the last census.

The resident will be counted again as the 2010 Census gets under way this month. To do that, a census worker will have to take a 16-mile snowmobile or all-terrain vehicle ride into the woods and then snowshoe or hike another mile to find the resident.

(+) How to Remotely Control a Distant Computer

...or perhaps a computer that is not so distant

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

Remote control software for desktop and laptop computers has been available for years. All systems administrators of large data centers are familiar with these programs, as are many "work from home" individuals who need to control computers at the office on nights and weekends. However, the same technology is available to everyone; you do not need to be a systems professional in order to access the computer on your desk at the office when you’re not there or the one at home when you are traveling.

With remote control software, you can connect to your home or office system to check your e-mail. You can use a database, word processor, or other program that is installed on your home system but not on your laptop. You can connect to the office to run business applications. Want to check your genealogy program when traveling? You can do so from many miles away, even if you are using a different operating system.

I use one of these remote access products frequently. When traveling, I can connect to my computer at home and use it just as if I was seated in front of my computer at home.