Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Is Your Genealogy Software Ready for the Future?

I am writing this article while seated at a desk in my home. I am staring at a large monitor on the desk and typing these words on a keyboard that sits on that desk. The keyboard is connected to a big, boxy computer on my desk. This is how I use a computer most of the time. It is the same method that I used twenty-five years ago, in 1985.

Of course, I do also use a laptop computer, and that has changed things slightly. Nonetheless, the laptop is merely a miniaturized copy of a desktop computer, and I use it in more or less the same manner as the desktop, except that I am not chained to the desk at home. I can use it in different locations, but the way I use it remains the same.

The hardware has changed dramatically in the past twenty-five years but the method by which I use a computer remains the same: I sit in a chair and type on the keyboard and stare at a monitor.

All this is now changing and, by the year 2015, desktop computers will constitute just 18% of the consumer PC market, according to Forrester Research. Last year, sales of laptops eclipsed sales of desktops for the first time, and new devices such as the Apple iPad, the various smart cell phones, and other portable computing devices threaten to change the way we use computers.

The desktop is dying.

Tennessee Valley Publishing to Shut Down

A small Knoxville publishing company has pumped out more than 800 histories of people and organizations from all over the country for the past 20 years, but it has gone largely unnoticed by the Knoxville market.

Dwain and Margaret Kitchel's Tennessee Valley Publishing is one of only about 80 or so companies in the country doing their kind of business - publishing family histories, genealogy books, city and county histories, and institutional and church histories.

But it's all coming to an end. They're phasing out their business and retiring (again).

(+) Buy a New Computer or Upgrade the Old?

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

This weekend I faced a quandary that I suspect many others face. I purchased my laptop computer several years ago, and it was a state-of-the-art system at that time. However, “state-of-the-art” is a moving target. By today's standards, the laptop is a bit slow and has limited hard disk drive space. I began to think about replacing it.

The 80-gigabyte hard drive in this laptop spins at 4,200 rpm (revolutions per minute). That is no longer state-of-the-art. By 2010 standards, that's a slow disk drive with limited capacity. A few weeks ago, I was editing video of my daughter's wedding when I filled up the hard drive. Oooops! The system crashed when it could no longer find space on the hard drive for writing. Luckily, I still had the orignal, unedited video available in the camera, so I didn't lose anything other than a couple of hours of labor. Still, I need a bigger hard drive if I am going to edit videos. A faster hard drive would be nice, as well.

NARA Lists Microfilm Publications and Original Records Digitized by Commercial Partners

The National Archives and Records Administration has now posted a list of all the documents that have been digitized and placed online by commercial partners. The partners are Ancestry.com and Footnote.com.

If you want to see what is available online, first go to http://www.archives.gov/digitization/digitized-by-partners.html

Thomas Edison - In His Own Words

On October 21, 1929, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and President Herbert Hoover shared a stage. Earlier in the evening, Albert Einstein had joined them via a recording made in Berlin, Germany and then sent to the occasion. The evening's words were recorded on a device called a pallophotophone.

Edison died two years later. The recordings were one of the few occasions in which Edison's voice was ever recorded and possibly the last such recording every made of his voice. The recordings remained untouched for eighty years until archivist Chris Hunter grew curious about 13 undocumented film canisters tucked away on a bottom shelf among 5 million items in the basement archives of the Schenectady Museum & Suits-Bueche Planetarium. He enlisted the help of John Schneiter, a former GE engineer and holder of 16 patents, who, in turn, asked for help from his old co-worker, Russ DeMuth, an engineer at the GE Global Research Center in Niskayuna.

The trio did something remarkable: they resurrected the voice of the ailing 82-year-old Thomas Edison.

She Fell Off a Horse... and Woke Up with a Scottish Accent

Did a minor brain injury awaken hidden voices of her ancestors? Sharon Campbell-Rayment of Kent Bridge, Ontario, fell off her horse in July 2008 and was knocked unconscious when she banged her head - then woke up with a Scottish accent.

The baffled mother of two has never been to Scotland but does have Scottish ancestors. After the accident, she was left speechless for several days. When her voice finally returned, she spoke with a thick Scottish brogue. Along with the rolled r's, dropped g's, longer a's and softer s's, new words crept into her vocabulary.

Ozzy Osbourne To Be Genetically Decoded

DNA research lab Knome has announced that it is going to sequence Ozzy's entire genome. Ozzy, the former lead singer of Black Sabbath, reality television star, and spokesman for World of Warcraft, has been selected so they can discover, among other things, how drugs are absorbed in the body.

No, the company is serious. The amount of abuse Ozzy has put himself through and survived is a large part of why he was chosen. The test hopefully will provide information on how drugs are absorbed in the body. The 61-year-old Ozzy has lived a life that would presumably kill any ordinary person.

Genealogy May Affect Clinical Differences in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Patients

The following was written by the European League Against Rheumatism:

Rome, Italy, Friday 18 June 2010: The effects of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) may differ based on the individual patient's genealogical heritage, according to results of a new study presented today at EULAR 2010, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Rome, Italy. In particular, the study reinforced differences in SLE phenotype found between Northern and Southern European subpopulations.

Genealogy Programs for Windows

NOTE: I usually publish an update to this article about once a year. In fact, several new Windows genealogy programs have appeared in the past twelve months.

The following is a list of all the more popular genealogy programs that I know of that are actively being marketed for Windows users in North America. In fact, more than one hundred genealogy programs have been offered to Windows users over the years, and a handful of them are still available for purchase today. However, not all of them are being actively developed and supported. For this list, I will focus only on the products that are current and still have developers writing updates, bug fixes, and new releases.

The following list is in alphabetical order:

Update: FGS Conference Hotels

I recently published an announcement (at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/06/3rd-fgs-conference-hotel.html) written by the Federation of Genealogical Societies concerning hotel room availability at the upcoming FGS conference in Knoxville, Tennessee. The announcement says that the conference hotels have no more rooms available and suggested making reservations at a third hotel.

Gee, I hate to contradict these announcements but today I made a reservation at the Holiday Inn at 525 Henley Street in Knoxville, one of the supposedly unavailable conference hotels. Even better, by going directly to the hotel's web site, I got a rate that was a few dollars cheaper than the FGS "discounted" price for rooms at that hotel. I never mentioned the FGS and ended up with a slightly cheaper price. My reservation was made entirely online, no phone call involved.

pH Testing Pen

Genealogists are advised to record information destined for long-term storage onto acid-free paper. One question: how can you tell if the paper is acid free?

If still in the packaging, you can hopefully read the label to make sure. If it is truly acid-free, the packaging usually says so. Any paper packaging that doesn't say “acid free” probably does contain acids but how do you make sure? Also, how do you check paper that has already been removed from the packaging? How about something that was printed years ago? Was it printed on acid-free paper or do you need to copy it to modern acid-free paper?

Luckily, a pH Testing Pen can answer all those questions. Best of all, it only costs $3 to $6 or so.

Stars Announced for the Next U.K. "Who Do You Think You Are?" Series

Rupert Everett, Jason Donovan, Alan Cumming, Bruce Forsyth and Monty Don are among the stars tracing their family history for the next U.K. series of "Who Do You Think You Are?" The nine-part series will return to BBC later this year.

Everett, star of films such as My Best Friend's Wedding, will be seen uncovering a family mystery after the recent death of his father and finds a living relative 'in the most unexpected place', according to the BBC. British TV presenter Forsyth, 82, finds a letter suggesting his great-grandfather, a leading landscape gardener, was also a bigamist.

3rd FGS Conference Hotel

The annual conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies will be held in Knoxville, Tennessee on August 18 through 21. One problem: the two conference hotels have been fully booked for some time. No more rooms are available. However, Lori Thornton has sent news of a third nearby hotel that is offering a discount to attendees:

New Zealand’s Family History Fair

Jan Gow sent information about a major genealogy conference to be held in Hamilton, New Zealand, on 16 to 18 July. Whether a beginner or an experienced researcher, this weekend will provide something for everyone.

Everything is in one location at the Fair:

(+) Can You Blog From the iPad?

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

I just finished my third trip with the Apple iPad. I have been writing new articles with it almost daily during all three trips. First, let me tell you the answer. Then I'll explain the details.

Question: Can you blog with the iPad?

Answer: Yes, but I am using a MacBook laptop to write this article. That should tell you something.

Details:

How Steve Jobs Beats Presentation Panic

Yesterday I wrote "Another Lesson Learned About Backups," a story about a genealogy presenter's last-minute panic when her PowerPoint slides disappeared minutes before her scheduled presentation. She handled it well, however.

An article in today's MacWorld tells of a similar problem recently faced by another presenter: Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple. While demonstrating the new iPhone 4, the wi-fi connection failed. That was a critical part of Jobs' demonstration. Author Thomas Wailgum first describes how Steve Jobs handled the situation, then goes on to offer hints of how you can handle unexpected problems when you are making presentations.

First African American in Georgia to be Inducted into National Society Sons of the American Revolution

The following announcement was written by the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution:

Atlanta, GA (June 15, 2010) -- On Tuesday, June 29th at 11:30 a.m., history will be made as the first African American in the state of Georgia will be inducted into the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution (NSSAR). In a ceremony at the Georgia State Capitol, Lieutenant Commander Michael Nolden Henderson, a retired U.S. Naval Officer and graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, will be acknowledged by induction into the Button Gwinnett Chapter, the Georgia Society SAR for his efforts in tracing his Louisiana Creole ancestry to an American Revolutionary War patriot.

Ancestry.com Inc. Promotes Josh Hanna

This couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I've known Josh Hanna for several years and can report that he is both a nice guy and also a genealogy expert. It's great to learn of his promotion. The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com:

PROVO, Utah, June 15, 2010 -- Ancestry.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM), the world's largest online family history resource, today announced the appointment of Josh Hanna to Executive Vice President and Head of Global Marketing. He was previously Senior Vice President and General Manager of International, a position he held in London since July 2006. In this new role, Hanna will be based in Ancestry's San Francisco office and will be responsible for all of Ancestry.com's worldwide marketing, public relations, business development, and subscription sales activities.

Genealogical Society Hosts Witching Demonstration

I wrote recently about using witching (also known as "dowsing") to find graves. The Troy Genealogical Society recently invited "dowser" Shirley Daiber, of Aviston, to demonstrate her skills in witching for graves. They all met at the Troy City Cemetery, and Daiber used two copper wires to find the locations of graves and show the difference between a child's grave and an adult's.

According to an article in the Suburban Journals web site, all in attendance also tried the same thing. Bob Kilzer, of Maryville, was probably the most successful. He was able to walk around the grounds and find some unmarked graves. By poking the rod down a few inches, he was able to find the headstone that had fallen years before and been covered with dirt and grass.

Ancestry.com to Acquire Sweden's Genline.se

This is a major announcement for anyone researching Swedish ancestry. The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com, Inc.:

Ancestry.com Inc., the world's largest online family history resource, today announced that it has agreed to acquire the leading Swedish family history website Genline.se.

Total consideration for Genline is approximately US$6.7 million, to be paid in cash at closing. The offer has been accepted by Genline's Board of Directors but remains subject to approval of Genline Holding AB's public shareholders and other ordinary course closing conditions.