The DAILY genealogy technology newsletter for genealogy
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the vendors like it or not!
Google Voice is one of my favorite applications. I use this telephone service several times a day. It has transformed the method I use for phone calls.
With Google Voice, there is no hardware to purchase and no new telephone equipment required. You can use it with or without a computer. The voice calls are never sent to your computer so you don't have to wear headphones or anything like that. You simply use the normal telephone(s) you already have.
Google had originally announced that all outgoing calls to US and Canadian telephone numbers would be free of charge until the end of this year. However, today Google announced the company is extending free calls through all of 2011.
I have written a number of times about Memory Medallions, a coin-size, stainless steel-encased microchip for gravestone markers that tells the dead person's story in text, photos, video or audio histories, which visitors can access by pointing their Internet-enabled cell phones at it. Now the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has an excellent story about these high tech devices.
Here are some pictures I took of the Memory Medallions and of inventor Glenn Toothman at a recent genealogy conference (click on any image to see a larger picture):
The following announcement was written by the International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists:
The International Commission for the Accreditation of Professional Genealogists (ICAPGen) has recently announced a new cemetery grant program called “Whispers from the Dust", to help fund cemeteries who want to preserve and modernize their maps and databases.
The Macoupin County Historical Society plans to provide the public with more opportunities to do family research once it builds a new facility. Construction is expected to start in early spring. The new building will house genealogy and meeting rooms, as well as the society’s office.
The society’s president, Dan Hauter, said the one-story, handicapped-accessible building will more available to the public. Some records now are stored in the mansion’s basement and attic.
You can read more in an article by Debra Landis in The State Journal-Register at http://goo.gl/6HW5a
The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
It’s important to make backups, but there aren’t many free services that offer unlimited space for them. I have now found a method of making free, secure, off-site backups of almost unlimited size.
I have written a number of times about making regular backups. In fact, I recommend that everyone always have at least two current backups: one stored locally for convenience and another stored "off site" that will be protected in case of theft, fire, flood, hurricane, a burst water pipe, tornado, accidents, or any other disaster that will destroy both your computer and all backups stored nearby. Having two current backups stored in different locations is critical, but having three, four, or even more current backups provides even more insurance.
Every genealogist and family historian, from beginner to professional, will at some time confront the issue of source citations. Although great advances have been made in recent years to standardize and simplify citations, it is still too difficult. Mark Tucker has created a video that shows how citing online sources can be easier.
A centuries-old institution that oversees Scottish heraldry and coats of arms has appointed its first woman to a leading role. Elizabeth Roads, 59, from Edinburgh, is the first female herald at the Court of the Lord Lyon following a 35-year career at the official heraldry office for Scotland.
She is the first woman in the UK to hold the role of herald. The equivalent body in England - the College of Arms - has never had a female in the post. Roads started work at the court in 1975.
We don't normally associate American Indians with the U.S. Civil War. However, historians report that many Indians did fight. Estimates of the number of American Indians who fought for either the Union or the Confederacy vary widely; several sources cite numbers ranging from about 6,000 to over 20,000 men.
Earlier this month, descendants of Company K of the First Michigan Sharpshooters returned to the park to meet with Superintendent Lewis Rogers and his staff and pay homage to their ancestors. Company K consisted entirely of American Indians from Michigan who enlisted in the Union Army.
I've written often about cloud computing and the possibilities available when using rented disk space and rented computing power. Writing in his "Storage Bits" column on ZDNet, Robin Harris describes a recent experience by a large biotech research group that needed a lot of CPU cycles to run some simulations.
The article is full of technical buzzwords and terminology. If you are interested in the technical details, I'll refer you to Robin's article at http://goo.gl/HJDqQ. However, I am more interested in the business details. Robin Harris' article describes the flexibility and low costs of cloud computing. There are lessons to be learned here for individuals and large corporations alike.
An 80-year-old man launched a hammer attack on his wife's 63-year-old lover after catching the couple kissing, a London court heard. Stuart Pask, a retired production engineer, battered John Hanson over the head repeatedly with a hammer in front of horrified commuters in London's Waterloo Station after a meeting at the Society of Genealogists. Mr. Pask apparently was distraught because he believed his wife had been having an affair with Mr. Hanson.
MyHeritage has added new functionality to its online product. Based on user feedback and especially to feedback from respected genealogists around the world about the importance of being able to document the source of a family history discovery, MyHeritage now is providing more functionality to sources and citations.
I have written a number of times about Dropbox, a free program I think every Windows, Macintosh, and Linux user should use. You can see my earlier articles at http://goo.gl/T4nOL. One drawback to the program is that it has always been in beta test as the company continued to develop new features and to squash occasional bugs. Now the company must have confidence in the latest version. The beta is over. Today, Dropbox version 1.0 became available for all.
Dropbox is a combination online backup program as well as a file replication program. If you own two or more computers, you can use Dropbox to automatically keep files synchronized on all computers, iPhones, Android phones, as well as on Dropbox's servers. If you only own one computer, Dropbox functions as an excellent backup system, storing your files on Dropbox's safe and secure servers. Create a new word processing file or an update to your genealogy program's database? Dropbox will automatically copy the file(s) to your other computer(s). You can later access the file(s) from the other computer or cell phone or from a web browser. The program also features industrial-grade encryption. Even the Dropbox employees are unable to read your files.
The Rockingham (Vermont) Free Public Library was flooded over the weekend, and now library staff are waiting to find out the extent of the damage. The "History Room" contained historical records, local books, and genealogical records, many of which are irreplaceable.
When you enter phrases into the Google Books Ngram Viewer, it displays a graph showing how those phrases have occurred in a corpus of books (e.g., "British English", "English Fiction", "French") over the selected years. Let's look at a sample graph:
Sad news for many genealogists: the Provo, Utah Tabernacle went up in flames early Friday morning from an unknown cause. The roof has collapsed into the structure and the building is probably not salvageable. It was one of the oldest buildings in Utah.
You can read more about the fire on dozens of web sites if you start at http://goo.gl/YNHai
As sad as this news is, I doubt if there is any huge loss for genealogists. While there may have been genealogy materials stored in the building, I doubt if these were the only copies. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has wisely created duplicate copies of almost all their holdings on microfilm and, more recently, in digital images. A single fire in any one location will not destroy a significant amount of the Church's records.
I have written often about cloud-based applications, especially productivity programs, such as Google Docs, Zoho Docs, and Microsoft Office Web Apps. Now Oracle has joined in with the company's own products.
Oracle Cloud Office is billed as a Web and mobile suite that “enables Web 2.0-style collaboration and mobile document access.” Cloud Office promises promises compatibility with Microsoft Office and integration with Open Office 3.3, which was also launched Wednesday. On a blog post at http://blogs.oracle.com/office/2010/12/oracle_announces_oracle_cloud_office_and_oracle_open_office_33_1.html, Oracle provides a demonstration video and other data.
How many land trusts have been held 350 years? William Paine established a land trust to benefit the Ipswich, Massachusetts schools. The trustees of the Little Neck Land Trust now hope to sell the land to the current tenants for $29.1 million. The descendants of William Paine are objecting.
“The sale is in direct opposition to William’s wishes,” said Patrick Payne, of Ruther Glen, Virginia. “His will clearly states the land is never to be sold and never to be wasted. Right now, it seems like it’s being wasted. For the [trustees] to suggest to sell the property is a breach of their responsibilities. Some things in life are sacred and a person’s last will and testament is right up there. This is the oldest land trust in America. We just want to see it handled the way it was meant to be handled.”
The South Dakota State Historical Society-Archives is joining the Society of American Archivists in launching the “I Found it in the Archives” contest. The contest is designed to bring awareness and understanding about archives and the role of archivists. The contest asks people who have used the collections of the State Archives at the Cultural Heritage Center in Pierre to share their stories.
Roughly two-thirds of all Americans who have an Internet connection in their homes use broadband. We tend to think of that as "high speed." But is it?
The U.S. ranks 25th in the world in average Internet connection speeds, and nearly half of all U.S. residents' Internet connections fall below the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's minimum definition of broadband, at 4 megabits per second download, according to a new report.
The following was written by Library and Archives Canada:
Ottawa, December 16, 2010 - Library and Archives Canada is pleased to make the 1916 census of the Prairie provinces available online.
In order to track the high rates of population growth in western Canada during the early years of the 20th century, the Canadian government called for a special census of the Prairie provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta). The first census was conducted in 1906, followed by another in 1916.
Access to the digitized images of the 1916 census is available online in two different ways:
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