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Two days ago, I posted a short article listing the celebrities to be featured on next season's episodes of Who Do You Think You Are? Today, further details were announced by NBC and by Ancestry.com, a major sponsor of the show. The following was written by Ancestry.com:
December 16, 2010 NBC Announces the Celebrities Tracing Their Family Trees on Season Two of ‘Who Do You Think You Are?’ Premiering February 4
Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Rosie O’Donnell, Steve Buscemi, Kim Cattrall, Lionel Richie, Vanessa Williams and Ashley Judd Take a Look Inside Their Family Histories on NBC’s Genealogy Alternative Series Produced by Lisa Kudrow
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif. – December 16, 2010 – Viewers can take an up-close and personal look inside the family history of some of today’s most beloved and iconic celebrities when NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” returns for its second season on Friday, February 4 (8-9 p.m. ET). The celebrities who star in the series are Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw, Rosie O’Donnell, Steve Buscemi, Kim Cattrall, Lionel Richie, Vanessa Williams and Ashley Judd.
I participated in a conference call today sponsored by FamilySearch. The purpose of the call was to describe several recent changes as well as changes to be made in the near future. However, one statement about search techniques stuck in my mind.
Employees of FamilySearch (and probably all the other major online database providers) spend a lot of time and effort watching how users perform searches on the site and analyzing the results. The purpose is to learn and to make future adjustments to the site to improve search capabilities. Those who monitor and analyze users say they have noticed that genealogy newcomers typically perform searches in a very different manner than do the "old pros." I suspect the experienced users typically end up with more productive results although no statistics are available to prove that assumption.
Several newsletter readers who normally read this newsletter's RSS feed with the Yahoo RSS Reader have reported problems in recent weeks. The Yahoo RSS Reader apparently is no longer working with the EOGN newsletter and also has problems with a lot of other web sites.
Here is one typical report, received today: "I'm sending you this in case you aren't aware of the problem. I have a page on both MyYahoo and iGoogle that pulls in RSS feeds from various genealogy blogs. I have your feed on both sites, but only the Google seems to be current. The Yahoo RSS feed hasn't changed in a month. I've tested on both Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.6. Just thought I'd let you know."
The web site of the Monroe County Historical Museum in Monroe, Michigan (at http://www.co.monroe.mi.us/government/departments_offices/museum/index.html) reports, "The Museum is currently on the county's chopping block due to the budget situation. Show your interest in our mission and support our staff, programs, attendance, etc. A Friends group is also forming - join now!"
The museum, which sits on the site of General George A. Custer's home, displays exhibits of the life and family of Gen. George Armstrong Custer along with Native American culture, early French-Canadian settlers, Victoriana, the Civil War and Monroe County's veterans, maps, punt gun, seasonal displays and many materials from local history. Closing this valuable resource would be a loss to many people.
A "Hug the Museum" event is being planned for this Saturday, December 18th, at 10:00 a.m. It will be followed by an open house in the museum.
The Library of Michigan has been undergoing upheaval in recent months with budget cuts and threats of being closed entirely. Now the bad news has been announced. The following information was posted on the Library of Michigan's web site at http://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,1607,7-140-54504---,00.html:
Due to significant reductions in the Library of Michigan's operations funding and staffing, the Library is implementing the following changes:
The Dallas Genealogical Society awarded Christine Rose the 2010 Lloyd deWitt Bockstruck Distinguished Service Award which recognizes an individual who has consistently and selflessly contributed to the field of genealogy.
Christine Rose is a Certified Genealogist, Certified Genealogical Lecturer, and Fellow, American Society of Genealogists. Her lecturing experience includes national conferences (National Genealogical Society, Federation of Genealogical Societies, and GENTECH), and many regional and local seminars including the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society in New York City; seminars in Chicago, Illinois; San Francisco, California; Long Island, New York, and many others, including the Dallas 2007 Institute.
Over the holidays, millions of family gatherings will occur in homes all across the world. In the cases of families separated by great distances, telephone calls will be made. In fact, with speakerphones in use on both ends, entire families may chat together at once. Now, thanks to a new product from Microsoft, families can video conference across the miles, using either standard or widescreen televisions.
Wouldn't it be better to have live video conferencing than a simple telephone call? Not only can families talk, but they can see each other as well. This is great for seeing the new grandchildren, the nieces and nephews who are growing rapidly, or the new sweater that Aunt Martha received for Christmas. Indeed, video conferencing is much more personal and even heart-warming than a simple audio conversation.
The U.S.television program, "Who Do You Think You Are?" will return to the airwaves early in 2011. NBC announced today that the new season of the show will include series guests Tim McGraw, Lionel Richie, Ashley Judd, Steve Buscemi, Vanessa Williams, Rosie O'Donnell and Kim Cattrall. Details may be found at http://goo.gl/qyMB2
The Archives.gov web site has received a major facelift. This site is operated by the National Archives and Records Administration. Now the information is easier to search than ever before.
The Archives.gov website is the public face of a year-long series of changes: from an enhanced social media presence, a revamped Federal Register website and a new Archives researcher wiki space:
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
Updated Site Now Available; More Improvements to Come
SALT LAKE CITY–FamilySearch announced several changes today for its family history website, FamilySearch.org. Online patrons will find millions of new records and images, over 40,000 helpful articles, over 100 interactive courses of instruction, and a dynamic forum to ask personal genealogy questions. The changes have been in testing for some time. FamilySearch will continue to implement the new website in phases to ensure all critical elements are functioning as desired. Once complete, the website will be promoted more broadly.
The new site offers the following free benefits to FamilySearch patrons:
The following announcement was written by Lisa Louise Cooke:
Ever since we launched the Genealogy Gems Podcast App for the iPhone and iPod Touch earlier this year (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-genealogy-gems-podcast/id337736531?mt=8), we’ve heard from Android users that they want to be able to stream the show on their mobile devices too. And now they can! The Genealogy Gems Podcast Companion App for Android is now LIVE in the Android marketplace!
The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
This is an update to a Plus Edition article I published nearly a year ago. The article has been expanded significantly with additional information, so I am publishing it again.
Genealogists and millions of others have saved hundreds of millions of digital photographs on their hard drives as well as on CD-ROM disks. Perhaps the most popular file format for digital photographs is JPG (or JPEG), a commonly used method of compression for photographic images. The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10 to 1 compression with little perceivable loss in image quality.
JPEG is the most common image format used by digital cameras and other photographic image capture devices, such as scanners. It is also the most common format for storing and transmitting photographic images on the World Wide Web.
This is a continuation of the recent articles in this newsletter about eBook Readers. I suspect genealogists purchase more books than does the average person, so we tend to examine any new book publishing technologies as they become available. Now Amazon has increased the options for reading books published in Kindle format. Even better, anyone can sell Kindle books on their own web site. I see opportunities here for many small publishers, including those who publish genealogy books.
Kindle for Web was first announced some months ago. However, Amazon originally restricted users to reading only the first chapter or two within the browser. To read "the rest of the story," the user had to purchase the book on a Kindle (or Kindle for iPad). Amazon has now lifted that restriction.
Starting now, anyone who installs Kindle software can now read entire books on any iOS device (iPhone, iPad, or iPad Touch), Android, BlackBerry, Macintosh, Windows PC, or an actual Kindle.
If you subscribe to the Plus Edition newsletter, I send a copy to you every week. It is usually sent on Sunday evenings although occasionally on Mondays. I send the Plus Edition newsletter to EVERY subscriber EVERY week. Unfortunately, I estimate that only 95% to 98% of them are delivered. The remainder get blocked by spam filters or placed in spam folders or blocked entirely.
I often receive email messages from subscribers who report they are not receiving the email versions of the newsletter. Sadly, I have no control over that.
The decision of which email messages are placed in your in-box versus what to delete or what is placed in your spam folder is made at your email provider's mail servers or possibly in the email program you use in your computer. I have no control over those servers and programs.
The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
Judging from the number of disks around my office, I must create a lot of CD-ROM disks. I have stacks of disks containing digital photographs, back copies of newsletters, and lots of backup disks of data from my hard drives. Occasionally, I also create DVD disks, both video and high-density DVD data disks. You can always tell the disks that I created: they have the obviously homemade appearance, distinguished by a hand-scribbled label made with a felt tip marker. A few of them have gummed labels attached instead.
The gummed labels are so retro. They are obviously homemade. I also find it inconvenient to insert the gummed label into the printer, print it, then peel the label off the backing and paste it precisely in place on the disk. Even with the two or three alignment tools I have collected over the years, it seems like the labels often end up slightly off center. Anything off center on a spinning disk creates “wobble.” If your automobile has ever had a wheel out of balance, you know what I mean. Such “wobble” quickly wears out bearings and other mechanical pieces in an automobile or in a CD-ROM drive. If the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive in your computer fails, the problem may have been caused by the use of off-center gummed labels.
Most of us are "traditional genealogists." By "traditional," I mean we research our own ancestry, tracing families back through the generations, regardless of where they lived. Such a study produces the answers to "Who am I and where did I come from?" However, not everyone researches their own ancestry. Many people research communities. Even when looking for your own ancestors, when you are unable to find the parents of a particular person, studying all the families in their community may provide clues.
FamilySearch’s Community Trees are lineage-linked genealogies from specific time periods and geographic localities around the world. The information also includes the supporting sources. Each Community Tree is a searchable database with views of individuals, families, ancestors and descendants, as well as printing options. Typical community trees might include all the families in a town or village or perhaps all the families of a particular church. The word "community" might be expanded to include a large geographic area, such as "all the Portuguese families of Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts."
Almost all genealogists are aware of the many services offered by FamilySearch in researching ancestors. However, many people may not be aware of the community tree projects that are also organized by FamilySearch.
While the time between Christmas and New Year’s Day is often spent with family and friends, it is also a good occasion to sort through family memorabilia. Those cards the kids made for your birthday, the ticket stubs from a rock concert, and great-aunt Betsy’s wedding certificate — what is worth keeping, and what should be thrown away? What is clutter, and what is keepsake?
William Addams Reitwiesner discovered that presidents Warren G. Harding, Richard M. Nixon and Jimmy Carter were cousins; that the singer Madonna is related to Camilla Parker Bowles, consort to Prince Charles; that President Obama had ancestors who were slave owners; and that at least one U.S. senator was related to Elvis.
The following article has nothing to do with genealogy. However, it is an interest of mine: I love to save money. I thought I would publish this in case you feel the same.
The days of paying extravagant fees just to stay in touch with scattered family members are just about gone. The tools for calling around the country or even around the world for pennies per minute have been available for several years. Now those tools have reached a state that simplifies the use and makes this just about irresistible for anyone who wants to stay in touch with anyone else, anywhere.
I have written a number of times about Skype, an online VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) service that allows you to make free voice calls to other Skype users all over the world. There is no monthly charge for basic Skype service.
For a small fee, you can also call regular telephones all over the world as well. I have used Skype for several years, and I love it. I typically place all my long distance calls on Skype or on Google Voice, either free of cost when calling others who have Skype accounts, or (when using Google Voice) free of charge when calling old-fashioned telephones in the U.S. and Canada, or prices ranging from two cents to five cents per minute when calling regular telephones in most other countries. Calls to some third world counties can cost more.
Several people have told me, "But I don't want to wear a headset and be tied to my computer when making phone calls. I also don't want to leave my computer on all the time." In fact, you don't need to do any of those. You don't even need a computer to use Skype! You will need a broadband Internet connection, however.
John Shinal of FINS.com has published an article that will interest many of Ancestry.com's customers. Scott Sorenson, Ancestry.com's vice president of software development, recently relocated to San Francisco and is beefing up Ancestry.com’s engineering ranks. Sorenson told FINS.com he’s looking to hire between 25 and 40 product developers, as well as data analysts trained in machine learning, a new type of data modeling that uses artificial intelligence to try and predict online behavior.
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