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The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
I've decided to move. Well, not my personal possessions, my clothes, my tools, or even my computers. I am moving my data. I am moving to the cloud.
First, here is a quick definition of a cloud as the word is used in computer technology.
Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information are provided to computers and other devices on demand, similar to the electricity grid. In other words, most computing functions and data storage are provided by remote computers connected via the Internet. The computing power is shared amongst many users, and each user obtains as much or as little computing power and storage space as he or she needs. Expenses are also shared and the result is more computing capability per dollar spent for everyone.
Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE, held every year in London, is the biggest family history event of its kind in the world. The three-day conference typically attracts about 15,000 genealogists, newcomers and long-time experts alike. This year, the organizers are hoping to bump that number up a bit.
This will be the fifth Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE show and, for those that have been before, the 2011 show should be even bigger and better than before. New events have been lined up. This year, the show will be held in a different, and bigger, space than before although it is at the same location as always: Olympia Hall.
The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has indexed and digitized early wills from the three District Probate Registries of Armagh, Belfast and Londonderry between the years 1858 and 1900.
Speaking today about the Wills application, Culture Minister Nelson McCausland said: “One of PRONI’s key goals is to digitise key cultural resources and make them easily available to a worldwide audience. This free of charge application will therefore be of enormous assistance to anyone trying to trace their genealogical roots and will be of particular help to those wanting to begin their research from the comfort of their own home.
Many theories of Christopher Columbus' origins exist, but none have yet been proved. Some suggest that Columbus was a Catalan nobleman who rebelled against King Ferdinand's father, King John II, by engaging in piracy on behalf of the French, and then hid his origins to win favor with the son. Others maintain that he was the illegitimate child of Prince Carlos de Viana, a Majorcan nobleman related to Ferdinand and Isabella. Still others suggest that Columbus was a Jew whose family fled to Genoa to escape persecution.
Now Portuguese historian Manuel Rosa says that Columbus was really the son of exiled Polish King Vladislav III and a Portuguese noblewoman, and that he lied to protect his father's true identity.
You can now obtain a great insight to how your ancestors lived. For many rural families, the Sears Roebuck catalog was their only means of obtaining goods not stocked by merchants in the nearby village. Did they buy a house from Sears? Many families did in 1910. The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com:
This Holiday Season, Relive America’s Yesteryear and Peer into the Historic Catalogs of Sears, Roebuck and Company
PROVO, Utah, Nov. 30, 2010 — Ancestry.com today announced that it is making available the complete collection of Sears, Roebuck and Company catalogs from the spring and fall seasons, spanning 1896 to 1993.
Comprising more than 250,000 pages, the collection is available online for the first time ever, providing a unique glimpse into how Americans lived beginning in the late nineteenth century and beyond—from how they dressed and decorated their homes to how they worked and played.
“One of the most exciting elements of family history is discovering what life was like for our ancestors,” said Quinton Atkinson, director of content acquisition for Ancestry.com. “These catalogs represent a glimpse into the lives of our family members—from the toys they played with to what they wore on their wedding day. We hope our users have fun browsing these nostalgic catalogs and learning more about the different eras in which our ancestors lived.”
Hawaii's state archivist, Susan Shaner, spends much of her time worrying about just that. On Monday, December 2, Governor Linda Lingle will finish her term and Neil Abercrombie will be sworn in as Governor of Hawaii. What happens to the state records when the new governor is sworn in at noon?
Where do old government Web pages go when the administration changes? If it's a state record, it must be preserved, according to state law.
I have always tried to write about genealogy and the underlying technology that is useful for genealogy research. I often write about computers, hardware, software, networks, scanners, photography, and other things that I think every genealogist with a computer should know. Along the way, I have often written about viruses because I always felt that virus knowledge is critical for all computer owners.
I used to write about the latest viruses once every few months. As time went by, I found myself writing about viruses more and more often. Now the rate at which new viruses are released has ballooned. If I had the time, I could be writing about newly-released viruses every day. That would detract from the time available to write about genealogy-related articles.
Effective immediately after this article is published, I will stop writing about new viruses.There are too many of them, especially for Windows.
The Linux Genealogy CD is a great way to take Linux for a "test drive" without changing anything on your PC. Once downloaded and stored properly on a CD-ROM disk, the Linux Genealogy CD can be used as a boot disk. You insert the CD into your PC's CD disk drive, boot directly from the CD, and load Linux. You can run Linux as long as you wish but it never writes anything to your hard drive (unless you specifically tell it to). When finished, you boot down, remove the CD, boot again, and the system returns to Windows, exactly the same as before. Nothing has been changed.
The Linux Genealogy CD also has another option. If you wish, you can tell it to reformat the hard drive, destroying Windows in the process, and then install Linux and the programs included on the "live CD." Of course, that is an option and will not happen until you click a couple of times to answer the question, "Are you really sure you want to do this?" You will never accidentally re-format your hard drive.
Many Linux "live CDs" are available these days, but the Linux Genealogy CD is the only "live CD" I know of that includes a genealogy program, namely Gramps. Now, the producer of the Linux Genealogy CD has released a new version.
CBS News has a heart warming story about a man in Canton, Ohio who helped others at the depths of the Great Depression in 1933. Ted Gup's 80 year-old mother handed him a suitcase labeled "Memoirs" filled with letters dated the same week in December 1933, all addressed to someone named Mr. B. Virdot. Rita Braver tells has the story of a mysterious benefactor who in the Great Depression, sent gifts to those in need.
There story has a bit of a genealogy connection as well, as Ted Gup found many descendants of those who benefited from his grandfather's generosity.
Everyone has a story to tell and pass along. Someone out there will be interested, said Curt Hanson, an archivist who heads the Department of Special collections at the University of North Dakota’s Chester Fritz Library.
For instance, letters written by people who lived through the Great Depression help tell the story of what life was like back then. The description of farming with horses would be priceless today.
Here is the Christmas present for the patriot who has everything: a Chia set of the Presidents plus a Chia Statue of Liberty.
The company that brought us the Chia pet and the Clapper has now expanded into history. This is not a skit from Saturday Night Live, folks; this is real. After all, nothing is too tacky for the American public.
During a 1962 news conference, a reporter asked President John F. Kennedy if he’d consider locating his presidential library in Washington, D.C., after leaving the White House so scholars and historians would have the broadest possible access to it. No, he replied playfully, “I’m going to put it in Cambridge, Massachusetts.”
Then Kennedy talked more seriously, and with uncanny foresight, about the future preservation and dissemination of his White House archives. “Through scientific means of reproduction, microfilms and all the rest,” he said, “it’s possible to make documents available” not only to scholars visiting his library but to anyone interested in presidential history.
Kennedy's presidential library did not end up in Cambridge. Instead, it is only a few miles away in South Boston.
Kennedy had no concept of what the World Wide Web could do to make his library available to everyone without a need to travel to Massachusetts. Now, thanks to the staff at the Library, Kennedy's prediction is becoming true, even going beyond what he had envisioned.
I would like your advice on the best way to scan negatives with good quality results on a budget. I tried my Canon flatbed. It seems to do a good job, but takes a long time to scan at a good resolution. I tried a cheap negative scanner with terrible results. The good negative scanners are very expensive. I am considering places like CVS and online scanning services.
After scanning an old negative of my parents wedding that was about 60 years old and seeing the results, I want to do more negative scanning. I would like to see what you and other readers recommend.
In the nearly 15 years I have been publishing this newsletter, I think I have written the following statement at least twenty times: "Prices of disk storage continue to drop." Indeed, the price of storing megabytes or even gigabytes of information has dropped rapidly ever since the first computers appeared. The trend isn't slowing down. If anything, it is accelerating.
I frequently receive questions from newsletter readers asking, "How do I print an article in the newsletter?" I thought I would write a quick "how to" and will add it to the newsletter's FAQs (frequently-asked questions). These instructions work on this newsletter's web site and probably on about 99% of all other web sites.
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) of the Central Plains at 400 West Pershing Road, Kansas City, Missouri is looking for volunteers to assist in several capacities related to archived records and genealogy.
Positions are available greeting and assisting visitors in the Research Room, working on the preservation of historical 19th and 20th century documents, as well as on Outreach projects: preparing and presenting talks regarding how to research NARA's genealogical records.
GeneaQuilts is a new visualization technique for representing large genealogies of up to several thousand individuals. The visualization takes the form of a diagonally-filled matrix, where rows are individuals and columns are nuclear families. The system includes an overview, a timeline, search and filtering components, and a new interaction technique called Bring & Slide that allows fluid navigation in very large genealogies.
The tiny chart above (of Greek gods) gives a miniature representation of GeneaQuilts. Click on the above image to see a larger version.
A newsletter reader writes: "As we grow old we wonder what to do with the genealogical materials and data we've collected over the years. Most of my data is published in one or more of several family books, but there there is always more than goes in the books. And the sources and documents we've collected, what is the best place for them if no family members are particularly interested?"
I have a few thoughts but must admit I don't have a good answer that totally meets this person's needs. Any ideas?
Google is trying to crack into Microsoft's dominance of productivity programs for office and home use. Microsoft Office consists of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and perhaps a few other programs, depending upon which version of Microsoft Office you purchase. Microsoft Office is horribly over-priced (in my opinion) and generates huge profits for Microsoft. The company adds new features of questionable value every 2 or 3 years in an attempt to "roll the customer base," convincing customers they really need to upgrade to the latest version and thereby generate still more profits. Of course, Microsoft isn't the only company to use such tactics.
The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
Ten days ago, I published a Plus Edition article (at http://eogn.com/wp/?p=12953) that tells how to recycle an old computer by converting it into a home file server. In that article, I described several different products and then praised one feature in Windows Home Server, called Drive Extender. Now Microsoft says it is removing Drive Extender from future versions of Windows Home Server.
In the article, I wrote, "Even if you plug in several big hard drives, you’ll never wonder if that movie file is on the C:, D:, or H: drive again. Windows Home Server spans all drives using Drive Extender so that all files are located in a single folder namespace with no drive letters. All drives combined appear as one drive on the server. The remote user never sees a prompt for a C: drive or D: drive or anything similar. All the user will see is “server” and then folders on that server."
Sadly, that feature will not be available in future purchases of Windows Home Server or if you upgrade an existing server to a new version.
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