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The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com.au:
We’re excited to announce the launch of the Australia Birth, Marriage and Death Index, a compilation of the records of those who were born, married or died in Australia between the years 1788 and 1985.
In a project that has taken four years to complete, the online index has been assembled into one fully searchable database from microfilm sourced from state record offices and archives where the records are available online or on fiche, but not in one place or in one format.
The following announcement was written by MyHeritage.com and JewishGen.org:
JewishGen and MyHeritage.com collaborate to build the Family Tree of the Jewish People
Tel Aviv, Israel; London, UK and Los Angeles, US – MyHeritage.com and JewishGen.org are now working together to invigorate the Family Tree of the Jewish People (FTJP) project.
Under this collaboration, family trees built with a special version of MyHeritage.com available at http://www.myheritage.com/jewishgen, with the consent of the tree creators, will be transferred periodically to the FTJP for digital safekeeping. Privacy controls, using the MyHeritage.com tools, can be set according to the wishes of the tree creator. Data of existing MyHeritage.com users will not be transferred.
The following announcement was written by the Newberry Library:
The Newberry Library is pleased to announce the completion and release of its Digital Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, a dataset that covers every day-to-day change in the size, shape, location, name, organization, and attachment of each U.S. county and state from the creation of the first county in 1634 through 2000.
The new Canadian plan to collect less information on the 2011 census has created a lot of controversy and that controversy will not go away. I wrote about this two weeks ago in my "Genealogists Slam New Restrictions on Canadian Census Information" article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/06/genealogists-slam-new-restrictions-on-canadian-census-information.html and the complaints have gotten even louder since then. Now an editorial in The Globe and Mail, one of Canada's leading newspapers, says:
Here's one way for the Harper government to change public policy: consult with those affected, seek public input and then move forward if the idea works. Here's an alternative approach: consult informally with a few politicians, undertake no formal review, and announce the change out of the blue. The government has taken the second route with its change to census-taking in Canada, and is now refusing to budge in the face of broad outcry.
You can now order civil registration certificates online from the General Register Office in Ireland. The process appears to be simple although, admittedly, I haven't tried it yet.
To order the certificates, to to the General Register Office web site at http://www.groireland.ie and click on “Apply for cert."
Genealogist and historian Vitaly Semionoff has created a YouTube that describes some of the problems he faces while researching material in Russian archives. An old dilapidated church served as the archival center for the entire Tula Oblast. This brief discussion was presented in Tula, Russia in September 2009.
Megan Smolenyak was recently involved in researching the genealogy of a World War I soldier whose body was recently discovered 88 years after the battle in which he died. As Megan writes, "The case was challenging, partly because the soldier was an Irish immigrant. Born in County Galway in 1892, he, a sister and two brothers had come to America, but only the sister married. She was swiftly widowed, so had only one child, who in turn, had only one child. It was this lean trail that I followed to Michael Frisbie, Private Costello's great-grand-nephew."
I have recently published articles about online scams and now there is a YouTube video of a very similar in-person scam. In fact, it is an advertisement for Internet Explorer 8, but it also shows just how gullible many of us are. There is a lesson here for all of us.
The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
NOTE: This article will probably interest only those newsletter readers who build web pages or want to do so. However, that includes me as I often build HTML web pages for this newsletter's web site. I have switched to a free, easy-to-use HTML editor, and thought I would share my experience with those of you who might be interested.
It's not often that I stop using a $400 program and switch to a free program in its place. Yet, that's exactly what I have done in recent weeks.
The Senate passed by voice vote legislation (S 2872), as amended, to reauthorize the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. The commission, a part of the National Archives, offers grants each year to help preserve and make accessible records and archives concerning U.S. history.
You can find the Senate Report on the bill (111-213) by searching for S 2872 in Thomas at http://Thomas.loc.gov
Thanks to countless hours of work by two volunteers over the last five years, now there's more information than ever before on the veterans buried in town, which has been printed and is available to view in the Town Office.
Town Clerk Judith Stratton and retired resident Florence Beebe began the project without veterans in mind when the pair took on a project to plot out each cemetery in town to record who is buried and where. The two are also trying to get as much information about the soldiers as possible -- including military ranks, ancestries, location and date of birth and death, in addition to where they are buried.
This is an update to an article I published last year. I have changed hardware since then and have updated my procedures. This article reflects those changes.
I keep my computers and genealogy material in a small room at our house. I am sure the folks who built the house intended this room to be a child's bedroom, but there are no children in the house, so I have converted it into something I call "my office." I bet many people reading this article have done the same with a spare room in their homes.
I have several computers, two printers, and a 27-inch wide monitor in this room, along with two VoIP telephones, a fiber optic Internet modem, a wi-fi router, oversized hi-fi speakers connected to the computers, and a few other pieces of hardware. Luckily, those are all rather small, and advancing technology results in smaller and smaller devices appearing every year. I occasionally replace aging hardware, and the newer devices are almost always smaller than the old ones. However, I have a huge space problem: books and magazines.
I sat down yesterday evening to read a new book by Maureen Taylor with significant contributions by David Allen Lambert: The Last Muster - Images of the Revolutionary War Generation. I figured I'd spend an hour or so speed-reading it, and then I would write a review and go to bed early. I was wrong! I ended up reading every word, looking at every picture, and not writing the review at all until today. The book is that interesting. I finally went to bed at 1:30 AM. I'm blaming Maureen for my lack of sleep.
The Last Muster - Images of the Revolutionary War Generation is a collection of pictures and stories of the last survivors of the American Revolutionary War and some of their family members.
Pictures of Revolutionary War veterans? But photography didn't exist back then!
I wrote yesterday about Maine's new rules restricting access to vital records. An article in this morning's Maine Sunday telegram clarifies the requirements for identification:
The Tulare, California Public Library, including its extensive genealogy collection, is moving. It has stood at the corner of F Street and Tulare for more than 47 years. However, that location was shut down on July 10.
Tulare's new $14 million library opens July 27 at the southwest corner of M Street and Cross Avenue. The new location will feature more room, new bookcases, additional computers and added materials.
The Ancestor Search Blog has an interesting story about online genealogy information that was thought to be lost forever. Quoting from the article:
Back when the internet was new, one of the places genealogists started putting their family trees was Geocities. During these last 15 years, a whole lot of genealogy info was stored on Geocities. Family trees, Civil War regiments, burial locations, you name it. When Yahoo closed Geocities last year, a lot of info was lost forever for internet genealogy researchers. While many active webmasters moved their sites, all too many did not.
The following is a comedy sketch featuring comedian Alexander Armstrong. He is to be featured in a future episode of the British version of Who Do You Think You Are? In this "out take," he learns some startling "truths" about his family while examining census records.
A new law goes into effect Monday that will severely limit access to vital records in Maine. In order to obtain copies of vital records that are less than 100 years old, the new law will limit access to the following:
The person named on the record
The person's spouse, domestic partner, parents and descendants
Those with a legal need (custodian, guardian, attorney, physician et. al.)
Genealogists who have a state-issued researcher identification card
Aster Software has released a new version of FamViewer, a program that allows you to view GEDCOM genealogy database files on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Once a GEDCOM file is downloaded and imported you can view individuals, families, notes and sources. Navigate the family tree with a touch. You can carry your genealogy database with you wherever you bring your iPhone or iPod Touch.
Synium Software has now released a public beta of version 6.0. According to the Synium Software web site, this new release of one of the leading Macintosh genealogy programs includes:
Visually create your Family Tree
With MacFamilyTree 6, we rethought the way you enter your family data. And right now, there is no more intuitive and more practical way of entering your information that we know of. The new Family Tree Editor, a much enhanced version of the former Family Assistant, gives you both the structure, as well as the details. You'll see who is related to whom without searching lengthy lists, while editing a person's information is just a click away. That way, whether you are an experienced user or a genealogy novice, you will find the right person to edit in no time, so you can dedicate more of your precious time to research.
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