The DAILY genealogy technology newsletter for genealogy
consumers, packed with straight talk - hold the sugar coating - whether
the vendors like it or not!
I was asked a question this week: "Is there any program that will convert a GEDCOM file to HTML web pages?" My answer was: "Yes, you can choose from dozens of such programs."
My correspondent apparently was looking for some sort of a utility program that converts directly from GEDCOM to HTML. However, I'd suggest that most all of today's genealogy programs will import GEDCOM files and most all of today's genealogy programs will also create HTML files for a web site.
Here is a quote I have read many times: “Genealogy is the second fastest growing hobby in the United States, next to gardening.”
One problem: I cannot find an original source for this claimed "fact." As genealogists, we shouldn't be making claims when we do not have source citations. We should know better!
Can anyone provide a citation to the original proof? If so, I will publish the source citation in a future newsletter and then we can all use this "fact" properly.
Writing in the Washington Post, Ed O'Keefe reports that a team of experts at the U.S. Census Bureau is planning for the 2020 Census even as temporary workers are knocking on doors to complete the 2010 Census. Final answers won't be needed for about eight years, but the team hopes to keep costs below the $14.7 billion budget for the 2010 Census and to make it possible for at least some Americans to answer census questions via the Internet.
“None of us can imagine doing a 2020 Census without an Internet option,” Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said in an interview. Though he's overseeing the 2010 Census, most of his tenure will be tied to 2020 preparations -- and he's pushing for a more efficient operation with fewer people.
Building your family tree can be a fun and rewarding activity. Here are some tips to help you get started:
There are many web sites and software packages out there that can help you trace your family history without having to deal with Grandma.
If you are of European descent, don't be surprised to find that your ancestors were a bunch of bored, repressed, self-loathing people with blockish physiques.
Keep in mind that entire branches of your family tree can be taken out with a simple Magic Marker.
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
SALT LAKE CITY—Recipients of the 2010 FamilySearch Software Awards were announced at the FamilySearch Developers Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. The 14 recipients were recognized for their outstanding and innovative work in advancing products and technologies that integrate with FamilySearch’s emerging suite of products and services.
The annual FamilySearch Software Awards has been established to encourage and recognize software development that benefits the growing demands and needs of family history consumers. “The awards formally recognize the software achievements of those developers and companies that are making important contributions to the family history and genealogy industry,” said Gordon Clarke, FamilySearch developer services product manager.
An interesting city government web site will provide a map and even aerial photographs showing the location of the building where you or your ancestors lived in New York City. You key in a specific address and the result is a map of the area showing an outline of every building.
After locating a building, click "Show Additional Information" and data will be provided such as lot frontage, depth and area; year built; gross floor area; number of residential units; and whether it has been designated as a Landmark building.
Archivist David Ferriero will put on his best Alex Trebek impersonation and quiz audience members on their historical knowledge for prizes from the Archives gift shop. The contest will start at noon Thursday.
“It does coincide with our recently opened [Discovering the] Civil War exhibit, so you might expect some Civil War questions,” Ferriero said. “The hope is that [contestants] will be enticed to go see the exhibit.”
The show’s producers worked with Archives staff to develop clues and answers. And Trebek filmed the clues at the Archives, where fans swarmed him to pose for photos, according to Archives staff.
A father in Leicestershire is reunited with his son after decades - with the help of Facebook. Both two had each searched for the other for years, then they finally connected, almost accidentally, on Facebook. It is a great story.
Detroit is planning to destroy as many as 10,000 vacant homes, many of them historic. The plan is to "reconfigure the city" to reflect its shrinking population. Jim Braden sent a message saying, "Genealogists should be encouraged to photograph these homes before they're gone, and maybe even demand that Detroit photo document any property before it is demolished."
The following announcement was written by the St. Louis Genealogical Society:
The St. Louis Genealogical Society released three important new products on CD for Missouri research at its fortieth annual Family History Conference on Saturday, May 16.
St. Louis Burials, Volume 3, is the third in the Society’s ongoing project to record every burial in every cemetery in St. Louis City and County. This newly released CD product includes over 330,000 interments in 21 cemeteries, including Bellefontaine (a large, historic non-denominational cemetery with burials of many famous Americans, including William Clark, Sarah Teasdale, William Tecumsah Sherman, Eberhard Anheuser, and Adolphus Busch) and Washington Park (the largest African-American cemetery in the state). Information on this CD (when available) includes names, dates and locations of birth, death, and burial, maiden names of women, ages, marital status, mortuaries, gravesite locations, and more.
The following was received from Michael Glickman of the Center for Jewish History in New York City:
As part of our efforts to improve and enhance services for researchers, the Center for Jewish History is pleased to announce that we are extending the operating hours of the Lillian Goldman Reading Room and the Ackman & Ziff Family Genealogy Institute to six days a week.
Beginning on Sunday, June 6, 2010, scholars, students and the general public will have the opportunity to conduct onsite research every Sunday from 11am – 4pm.
The following announcement was written by brightsolid:
Mass digitisation to make millions of newspaper pages available online and in the Library’s reading rooms
Innovative deal will help safeguard the future of the world’s greatest newspaper archive
The British Library’s Chief Executive, Dame Lynne Brindley, will today announce a major new partnership between the Library and online publisher brightsolid, owner of online brands including findmypast.co.uk and Friends Reunited. The ten-year agreement will deliver the most significant mass digitisation of newspapers the UK has ever seen: up to 40 million historic pages from the national newspaper collection will be digitised, making large parts of this unparalleled resource available online for the first time.
Curators at Kean University recently found a population count of the United States done at least four years before the country's first official census in 1790, according to a report in the New York Times.
The paper, which was all handwritten, was in a ledger with files from John Kean, a delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, according to the report. A heading on Kean’s enumeration says it was presented to the Constitutional Convention. The count appears to have been conducted by the states separately between 1781 and 1786, apparently in person.
Companies that sell gene tests to help people trace their lineage offer “no quality assurance guarantee” and should strengthen the science behind their services, researchers led by a Duke University scientist said.
Ancestry.com Inc. in Provo, Utah, Pathway Genomics Corp. in San Diego, and 23andMe Inc. in Mountain View, California, are among almost 40 companies worldwide that sell such products. Officials from these enterprises should meet with geneticists, physicians and U.S. agencies to “brainstorm” about ways to improve their tests and databases, seven scientists said in a report published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
I have written recently about Branches, a new genealogy program for Windows. Now the producing company has produced a video that shows the program in operation. You can see the programs methods of zooming in and out, entering data, and more.
OvergroundOnline has produced a video with interesting, although brief, interviews of many experts at last February's Who Do You Think You Are Live 2010 event, the UK's largest family history exhibition held in London. Those interviewed include: Allison Tweedie of the Who Do You Think You Are Live staff, Annabel Bernhardt of Ancestry.co.uk, Max Blankfeld of Family Tree DNA, Annabel Bernhardt, Frank Townsend, Penny Law of Family History Monthly, Princess Maria Sviatopolk-Mirski, Sharon Tomlin, and Verna Wilkins of Tamarind Books.
The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
If your genealogy society is thinking of creating a web site or of improving an existing web site, one discussion is sure to arise sooner or later: how much information should the society place on the web site?
Should the ENTIRE society newsletter be published online? Or should the newsletter be held back as a "benefit of membership" and only made available to paid members?
A 2010 Census worker is pressing charges against a Mount Laurel, New Jersey resident after the apparently irate resident smashed the worker’s cell phone, police said.
The census worker filed a complaint at the township police department after a May 15 confrontation with occupants at a home in the 4500 block of Fenwick Lane, police said.
PC Magazine reports that European researchers have deposited a "digital genome" in a secret bunker deep in the Swiss Alps. Accompanied by burly security guards in black uniforms, scientists carried a time capsule through a labyrinth of tunnels and five security zones to a vault near the slopes of chic ski resort Gstaad.
The huge collection of digital data will provide the blueprint for future generations to read data stored using defunct technology. The sealed box containing the key to unpick defunct digital formats will be locked away for the next quarter of a century behind a 3-1/2 ton door strong enough to resist nuclear attack at the data storage facility, known as the Swiss Fort Knox.
The following is a major new enhancement of a product that has been available for some time. The ProQuest® Sanborn Maps Geo Edition is a great tool for finding an ancestor's property and for learning about the neighborhood in which he or she lived.
Like all other ProQuest products, ProQuest® Sanborn Maps Geo Edition is available through participating libraries, usually free of charge to the user. Ask at your local library. Even if your local library does not subscribe to ProQuest® Sanborn Maps, most reference librarians will know which nearby libraries do subscribe.
The following announcement was written by ProQuest:
Geo Edition is now world’s largest collection of historical GIS-enabled urban maps
May 18, 2010 (ANN ARBOR, Mich.) -- ProQuest is using a proprietary geo-referencing technology to significantly enhance discovery in its Sanborn Map collection, one of libraries’ most consulted sources of historical maps. ProQuest® Sanborn Maps Geo Edition makes map research faster by enabling users to instantly pinpoint historical locations using modern geographic information. The collection is now the world’s largest source of historical GIS-enabled urban maps.
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