The DAILY genealogy technology newsletter for genealogy
consumers, packed with straight talk - hold the sugar coating - whether
the vendors like it or not!
The 1940 census will be released in less than two years. (See my earlier article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/07/release-of-the-1940-census.html.) The information contained in that census has been described in a number of places. Now you can see the training films that were shown to the 1940 enumerators (census takers) before they created the records.
Four short films were created by the US Census Bureau prior to 1940 to train enumerators on their general duties and responsibilities, as well as the correct procedures for filling out the 1940 census. Those films have now been digitized and are available online.
The following announcement was written by the Federation of Genealogical Societies:
KNOXVILLE–If your kids are looking for something fun and unique to do this summer, an upcoming free genealogy camp may be just the answer. The FamilySearch Kids Camp will be held on Saturday, August 21, 9 a.m. to noon, at the Knoxville Convention Center in conjunction with the Federation of Genealogical Societies’ national conference. This free event requires advanced registration.
After counting the residents once every ten years for the past 200 years, the British government may stop counting. Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister responsible for the census, said the census is an expensive and inaccurate way of measuring the number of people in Britain. Instead, the Government is examining different and cheaper ways to count the population more regularly, using existing public and private databases, including credit reference agencies.
ComputerActive has a review written by Anthony Dhanendran of the UK edition of Family Tree Maker 2010 Platinum. The program sold in the UK includes the program includes access to the UK version of Ancestry.co.uk's websites.
The review finds the program to be "a good-looking program that makes creating or editing a family tree a pleasure." However, Anthony Dhanendran also found some faults with the program.
In 1996, four board members of the Irish Cultural Heritage Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin chipped in a quarter apiece to buy a historic church building at N. 22nd St. and W. Wisconsin Ave. for just a dollar. Today, it's possible the building, cheap as it was back then, could end up being too expensive to keep.
Karen Prendergast, board president of the center, said that an expensive roof repair, the loss of an Irish dance school that outgrew its rental space and a two-year, recession-driven drop in contributions have put the organization in a deep hole. "We need to probably know by August if the building is going up for sale," Prendergast said.
Want an older relative to use the computer, send e-mail, and chat online with you? The SimplicITy computer is made just for them. It is aimed at people aged over 60 who are unfamiliar with personal computers. The computer is as basic as you can get it. You just take it out of the box, plug it in and it all loads for you.
As the name implies, the SimplicITy computer is very simple to operate as it has only six icons on the desktop. The six buttons direct users to basic tasks, such as e-mail and chat. It has no log-in screen when it starts up, contains no drop-down menus and comes pre-loaded with 17 video tutorials. The e-mail system is a modified version of an Italian design called Eldy. All SimplicITy users with an eldy.org address will be able to chat to each other via the "chat" button.
Fred Monosson, a Boston Jewish multimillionaire, purchased one of the first privately-owned portable color movie cameras in the 1940s, then traveled to Europe and Israel to record the historical formation of the state of Israel in color. He used color films, which nobody else could afford at that time. The films were later stored in a Boston attic and forgotten. His grandchildren recently cleaned out the house to prepare it for sale and were about to throw out the old films, believing that nobody would want them. However, one of the grandchildren decided to first call a friend who was an Israeli movie director.
When he first saw the films, the director couldn't believe his eyes. The dozens of hours of color films contain footage of many significant events in the history of Israel, events that had never before been seen in color. People easily identifiable on these color films include a very young Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Tabenkin (head of the Palmach), as well as British Mandate soldiers walking the streets of Jerusalem.
Yesterday, I published an article entitled "World's Oldest Person?" at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/07/worlds-oldest-person.html about a claim by authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia stating that a woman from a remote mountain village is turning 130 years old. If true, the woman would be the oldest person on Earth, despite some undocumented claims of even older people elsewhere. The article claimed that authorities displayed two Soviet-era documents noting her date of birth as indicated in her birth certificate, which had been lost.
Today, the wire services are reporting that Antisa Khvichava's claims are also undocumented.
If you receive an email message like the one shown below, ignore it. It is a scam. Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of these messages are being sent from scam artists. Nobody was robbed and nobody is sitting without funds (and, if they were, the U.S. Embassy and Travelers' Aid and their credit card companies would help).
Here is one the many such messages I have received in recent days, complete with all typo errors intact:
Authorities in the former Soviet republic of Georgia claim a woman from a remote mountain village is turning 130, reportedly making her the oldest person on Earth. Antisa Khvichava from western Georgia reportedly was born on July 8, 1880.
Authorities visited the woman Thursday in her village of Sachire and displayed two Soviet-era documents noting her date of birth as indicated in her birth certificate, which had been lost.
The records of commissioned officers of the Royal Navy dating back 163 years have been published online for the first time by Familyrelatives.com
Familyrelatives.com is pleased to release the most comprehensive online collection of Royal Navy Lists from 1847 to 1945. More than 2 million names are included in the Lists which date from the mid – 19th Century (or the Eleventh Period in Navy History) when Britain was involved in a number of conflicts.
The Royal Navy has played a central role in Britain ’s history for centuries. It is the oldest of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces and is the Senior of the three Services. Founded by Henry VIII a professional and national naval force was in existence when King Charles II came to the throne in 1660. At the time he inherited a huge fleet of 154 ships and it was the beginning of the Royal Navy as we know it today.
The following announcement was written by the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations:
Yesterday Dr. David Craig, the Director of the National Archives of Ireland, was presented with the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations’ (CIGO) annual ‘Award for Excellence in Genealogy’ in recognition of the completion of its mammoth project to create an on-line database of indexed scanned images from the 1901 & 1911 census returns for Ireland.
In presenting the Award CIGO Chairman, Steven Smyrl, said that “while over the past 20 years CIGO had regularly used constructive criticism to encourage improvement in access to records held by public and private bodies, it was also just as important to recognise achievement. The National Archives’ was to be commended for its commitment to creating the census database and for making it freely available to millions worldwide through the Internet.”
Ancestry.com has spent more than a decade building the world’s largest online family history resource. With billions of historical records and powerful search tools, you can discover, preserve and share your unique family story.
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
SALT LAKE CITY–A valuable resource for Jewish genealogical research has expanded to include records from all over the world. The popular Knowles Collection from FamilySearch is a free database connecting Jewish records of 115,000 people in 30 countries. The combining of those records into one collection makes it easier for researches to find family sources.
“One of the biggest problems with Jewish records is that they are held all over the place and one person can have records in multiple locations,” FamilySearch research consultant and the collection’s manager, Todd Knowles, said. “That means someone just starting to research their Jewish ancestry will have to drive from archive to archive and from synagogue to synagogue to find what they are looking for. What this collection does is put all the records in one location, which is an incredible time and cost savings for patrons.”
The Dallas Public Library has one of the best genealogy departments of any public library in the United States. Sadly, that may soon end. The department is on the chopping block for the second straight year because of budget deficits facing the Dallas City Council.
The Dallas Genealogical Society warns, "We are heading for a disaster with the Dallas City Council refusing to even consider a tax hike to cover their $130 million projected budget shortfall. Since the Dallas Public Library system shares the same budget with essential services like Police and Fire, you know who will be deemed more 'essential.' To make matters worse the Library administration has decided to sacrifice the downtown research library for the branch libraries because the council representatives hear more from their voters about curtailing services in their particular area."
10 years in the making, the historic Walter Kidd Schoolhouse in Highland Grove, Ontario will be reopened as a genealogy museum, thanks to the hard work and commitment of a community dedicated to seeing the project through. The project has primarily been the work of the schoolhouse historical society who raised much-needed funds, including a $15,000 Trillium Foundation grant and community fundraisers.
The schoolhouse was originally located on Dyno Road, before being moved to Highway 28 in Wilberforce.
Yes, it is a trick question. The song claims that Crockett was "born on a mountain top in Tennessee." In fact, he was actually born in the State of Franklin.
Where? The State of Franklin is one of the least-known bits of American history.
The State of Franklin was set up in 1784 out of the westerly portion of
the colonial state of North Carolina. While government officials in
"the State of Franklin" claimed that Franklin was a state in the
newly-formed United States of America, Franklin was never officially
admitted into the Union of the United States and existed for only four
years. Davy Crockett was born in the territory during those four years.
Peter Hirtle sent an interesting note about an online resource that can be useful to genealogists. The sites mentioned are primarily for finding information about living people or those who died within the past few years. I don't see anything on the list for records of 100 years ago.
The following announcement was written by Family History Expos:
KANSAS CITY, MO--Nationally acclaimed Family History Expos will make its debut Midwest appearance in Kansas City, MO, July 30-31 with a special feature tour on July 29. The Expo will feature more than 100 family history-related classes taught by national experts at KCI Expo Center 11730 N. Ambassador Drive.
Keynote speaker Lori Cox-Paul, director of Archival Operations for the National Archives at Kansas City (serving the Central Plains Region) will address family history enthusiasts from throughout the nation on July 30, 8 a.m., at the Exhibit Hall Classroom. The keynote address is free to the public and will be based on the theme, Finding Your Family: Turning the Spotlight on Resources from the National Archives at Kansas City. The opening session is free and opened to the public.
The Herald reports that Scottish scientists have found a way to identify a person’s family roots to within a few miles, raising the possibility that city dwellers could soon trace their descendants back to their ancestral village.
Edinburgh University experts used volunteers from small communities in the north of Scotland, Italy and Croatia to quickly scan half a million DNA letters – the chemical combinations that make up our genes – and pinpointed in some cases 100% accurately where their distant relatives lived.
Recent Comments