Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

It’s 2015! Do You Know Where Your Data Is?

One of the fun things about writing this newsletter is that I get to exchange ideas with a lot of people about the technology issues of researching one's family tree. I get to meet people in person, talk on the telephone, and exchange e-mail messages with genealogists all over the world. I find that I learn a lot as a result.

A newsletter reader wrote recently to describe his tale of woe. He is unhappy with his current genealogy software and asked about any "reliable" genealogy software that will be supported for years into the future. He has already switched genealogy programs once, with some difficulty, and is reluctant to switch again. However, he is also unhappy with his present choice.

Delaware’s Older Births, Deaths, Marriages are Free Online

Through collaboration between the Delaware Public Archives, Delaware Division of Libraries and Ancestry.com, a family researcher can now use their Delaware Library Card (free for Delaware residents, $25 for non-residents) at home to find Delaware births through 1908; and Delaware marriages and deaths through 1933.

These original records, in the possession of the Delaware Public Archives, have been digitized, alphabetized and placed on the Ancestry.com website. These vital statistics cover all three counties in Delaware.

(+) Update: Store Your Files Online at No or Low Cost

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

In the September 29 newsletter, I published a Plus Edition article at http://goo.gl/rBXt describing a number of online file storage services that are useful for making backups and also for sharing files or making files available to you when traveling. One of the services I described has now announced a major upgrade.

RootsTech 2011 Conference in Salt Lake City

RootsTech will be a new, three-day conference designed to bring technologists together with genealogists so they can learn from each other and find ways to work together to develop new genealogy products and services. The conference will be held on February 10 through 12 in Salt Lake City. I listened to a briefing last week by two of the organizers, Anne Roach and Ann Harrison of FamilySearch. They described the plans in some detail. I was already planning to attend this conference; but, after listening to Anne and Ann's presentation, I am even more excited than before. This is shaping up to be a great conference!

This conference will replace the annual BYU Computerized Genealogy Conference normally held in Provo. The RootsTech conference is sponsored by FamilySearch, Brigham Young University, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Ancestry.com, the Federation of Genealogical Societies, and the National Genealogical Society.

RootsTech will serve two audiences: technology users and technology creators. Quoting from the RootsTech web site:

Announcing an EOGN Dinner after RootsTech in Salt Lake City

For years, I have hosted dinners shortly after the closing of many of the larger genealogy conferences. I always invite the readers of this newsletter and their guests. I am delighted to announce that there will be another such dinner on February 12, 2011, immediately after the end of the RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City.

These EOGN (Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter) dinners are for those who have no other dinner plans on a Saturday evening after the conference has ended. Each dinner is (very) informal, usually noisy, and is a place to relax amongst friends after the hubbub of the conference. In this case, the word "friends" might mean long-time friends or perhaps new friends you meet at the conference or even at the Saturday evening dinner. After all, genealogists are a friendly group! Everyone is invited.

Witches in Your Family Tree

This is the time of year for ghosts, goblins, and other such superstitions. However, perhaps it is also a time to pause and reflect on the horrors of those who suffered in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1692. The witches of Salem and nearby towns probably have hundreds of thousands of present-day descendants (including Pam, the editor of this newsletter, who descends from Rebecca Nurse). If you have ancestry from early Essex County, Massachusetts, you have an excellent chance of finding a connection to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692.

Salem, Massachusetts, and the surrounding towns in Essex County were among the first settled in this country. Most of the towns were established prior to 1640. By the time of the witchcraft trials of 1692, a complete legal system of courts and clerks was well established. Records were written, and many of them have been preserved. Even if your ancestors are not among those accused, it is quite possible that you can find them mentioned as witnesses, those who gave depositions, or perhaps even those who served on a jury.

Agents Raid Home of ex-National Archives Official

Federal agents raided the home of a former National Archives and Records Administration  employee after watchdogs said the agency is leaving itself vulnerable to significant security breaches by failing to properly safeguard sensitive information. About a dozen federal and local agents executed a search warrant Tuesday at the Rockville, Maryland home of Leslie Waffen.

A law enforcement official said five U.S. Marshals agents assisted three or four agents with the National Archives Office of Inspector General. They were backed up by a Montgomery County Police squad car.

Parish Registers of Wales to go Online for First Time

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

• 8,000,000 records to be indexed in two years
• Records date back to the 16th century

Family history website www.findmypast.co.uk is making available online for the very first time fully searchable indexes and images of the parish registers of Wales. The project is taking place with the permission of the Church in Wales and Welsh Archive Services and findmypast.co.uk is working with FamilySearch International, the world's largest repository of genealogical records, to digitise the records.

Research Assistant Help Wanted in Toronto

The Columbus Centre in Toronto is looking for a "Research Assistant for Canadian Historical Recognition Program Project: Italian Canadians During World War II." The candidate MUST be able to read, write, and speak Italian.

The job description states:

The Columbus Centre’s most recent project Italian Canadians During World War II will acknowledge, commemorate, educate and increase knowledge about the internments that occurred during this period. Funded by the Canadian Citizenship and Multiculturalism Community Historical Recognition Program (CHRP), the project will focus on the collection of the personal memories of surviving internees and family members. These video histories will form a national archive, along with related print, photographic and other resources. The resulting archive will be shared with the Italian community and general public through a permanent exhibit housed at the Columbus Centre, a virtual and interactive exhibit and an online version of the archive accessible via the internet, and a publication.

Ancestry.com Inc. Reports 2010 Third Quarter Results

Ancestry.com released its third fiscal quarter results today and the numbers look good. Subscriber growth was up 34% year-over-year and total revenue was up 39% year-over-year. The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com:

PROVO, Utah, Oct. 28, 2010 -- Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM), the world's largest online family history resource, today reported financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2010.

"Solid execution of our marketing initiatives and ongoing advancements in our core service offering are supporting the continued strength in subscriber gains that we've seen throughout the year both domestically and internationally, and we are again increasing our outlook for 2010," said Tim Sullivan, Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry.com. "Our rapid growth is enabling us to continue investing in marketing, product improvement and talent, all of which are central to our growth strategy, and we are doing so without sacrificing delivery of outstanding financial performance."

Update: More Records Added to FamilySearch

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

28 October 2010

No Halloween Trick, Just Genealogical Treats

Over 2 million records from 6 countries now available

People with ancestors from Ghana now have free online access to valuable census records, the first images from that African country to be published on FamilySearch. Other new collections include over two million indexed records from Germany, Norway, Puerto Rico, and three U.S. states: Arkansas, Idaho, and Minnesota. Search these records now at http://Beta.FamilySearch.org.

See the chart below for the complete list of newly added or updated collections.

Millions of French Family History Records Free This All Saints Day Weekend on Ancestry.ca

I see a number of my ancestors mentioned here. The following announcement was written by Ancestry.ca:

Website launches free access to 50 million French names and releases new collection of Quebec Land Grants
 
Toronto, ON - (October 28, 2010) Ancestry.ca, Canada’s leading family history website, today kicks off a massive campaign in celebration of All Saints Day, offering the majority of its historic records from France, roughly 50 million names, free to search from October 30 to November 1, 2010.
 
For more than seven million Canadians with French heritage, this represents unprecedented access to hundreds of collections of records containing information about their ancestors.
 
Ancestry.ca also announced the launch of a new collection, Quebec, Canada, Land Grants, 1763-1890, containing almost 35,000 records spanning nearly 130 years of Quebec’s growth.

Anglo-Boer War Records Go Online

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

FindMyPast.co.uk Publishes Online Over 260,000 Records from the 2nd Boer War

• Boer War Deaths 1899-1902 now available to search on findmypast.co.uk
• Details of over 260,000 names of the men and women who served the British Empire forces
• Includes the most up to date casualty list of 59,000 casualties with more background than ever before

Leading family history website www.findmypast.co.uk has published online the Register of the Second Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902, recording individual servicemen, nurses and civilians who served with the British Imperial Forces during the Second Anglo-Boer War.

Gedstar Pro for Android Smartphones

The following announcement was written by GHCS Software:

GHCS Software of Rochester, Michigan, announces the release of the first version of GedStar Pro for Android smartphones. GedStar Pro was previously one of the most popular genealogy programs for “Palm Pilot” PDAs, and all of that product’s powerful data viewing capabilities have been ported to the new platform.

Working along with any genealogy program that runs on the user’s PC, GedStar Pro can import data not only from GEDCOM files, but also directly from the databases of “The Master Genealogist” and “Legacy Family Tree.” On the smartphone, it displays all of the user’s data, such as events, facts, sources, notes, and even photos.

Proprietor Doug Gordon says, “I’ve found that my Android smartphone can do everything that my old PDA used to do and then some, so it made perfect sense to port GedStar Pro to this powerful new platform and get my family history back into my pocket. We’ve got all the basics available right now and plan to keep adding features in the future.”

New Trojan Program Attacks Macintosh Computers

Windows users have been plagued for years with viruses, keyloggers, Trojan horse programs, and other forms of malware (malevolent software). During this time, Macintosh users have simply smiled as their computers were safe and secure. Most Mac users don't even bother purchasing anti-virus programs as they have never had a need for such things. This complacency may be ending, however.

A newly discovered Trojan horse spreading through social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, targets Apple's Mac OS X operating system, including the latest version, 10.6 Snow Leopard, by baiting users into clicking a link. Computers become infected when someone visits a social networking site and sees a message that reads, "Is this you in this video?" Clicking the infected link loads an infected file into your computer.

Antivirus firm Intego issued a notice Wednesday suggesting that the Trojan, a Mac version of the "Koobface" worm, carries a "low risk." The security firm said that the current Mac OS X implementation is flawed, though it admitted the threat exists and is likely to become a more legitimate concern in the future. Apple is expected to soon release an operating system update that will block the new Trojan.

Dropbox: File Synching and Sharing Made Easy

I have written before (see http://goo.gl/NqyQ) about Dropbox, my favorite program for synching files through the Internet and for making sure I have always backed up the latest version of critical files within seconds after creation or modification. Lots of other people seem to agree with me. Writing in the Windows Secrets newsletter, Michael Lasky heaps praises on the program:

There's no shortage of services offering file sharing, synching, and collaboration through the Internet.

But one service stands out from the rest. Dropbox is one of those simple applications that, once installed, quickly become an indispensable part of your computing process.

Rip-off Artists Obtain Information from Genealogy Web Sites

Two former Utah residents who were living in a travel trailer in Durham, Maine, have been arrested and charged with aggravated forgery. Frank Terhaar and Michelle Hank, formerly of Salt Lake City, concocted a scheme in which they used the birth certificates of dead people and information from genealogical Web sites to obtain Maine identification credentials with the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

(+) Video Chats with Your Grandchildren

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

Modern technology can be a great aid in reducing the impact of separation from relatives. One lady recently told me that she reads bedtime stories to her grandchildren every evening, even though those grandchildren are 2,500 miles away. Of course, she could do the same with a telephone conversation. However, thanks to low-cost video teleconferencing, she can also show her grandchildren the illustrations in each book she is reading. In turn, the children can show her their new pajamas or the art work they completed in school today or even the black eye earned in the schoolyard.

I have been using video chats or video teleconferencing services for years, mostly in business situations. However, since I have a brand-new grandchild, I am now quite interested in video chats within the family.

Transforming NARA in Line with the Principles of Open Government

David Ferriero's blog today discusses the plans for transforming the National Archives and Records Administration in line with the principles of open government. He writes:

"It’s time for us to step out of our comfort zones and rethink how we operate as an agency."

and

"I am calling on all of you to be champions of change as we move forward. Staff, researchers, and citizen archivists will need to be flexible and forward looking, open to the challenges, and ready to participate.

"Are you in?"

This is refreshing news to read from the head of an agency that has long been known for changing slowly, if ever.

Be sure to read it and comment if you wish.  Go to: http://blogs.archives.gov/aotus/?p=1841

New NEHGS Scanning Service

This is a great idea! Perhaps more genealogy societies should purchase these commercial-grade large scanners and make them available to members? The following was written by the New England Historic Genealogical Society:

In response to the popularity of the document scanner at the Family History Day in Boston last week, the New England Historic Genealogical Society is implementing a new scanning service. Visitors may bring in documents, including oversized books and manuscripts, to be scanned and saved as a digital file on a USB drive. An NEHGS staff person will scan the materials.