Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Digitally Preserving Your Family Heritage with Barry Ewell

Barry Ewell will be one of the presenters at the RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City, which is in less than 4 weeks. He will be presenting at 3 PM on the first day of the conference, February 10. Barry's presentation is entitled, Digitally Preserving Your Family Heritage. I have a strong interest in this topic, so this week I called Barry and talked with him at some length about his planned presentation.

From the In-box: Working with Senior Citizens

A newsletter reader sent a message this week asking a question that has me baffled. I don't have a quick answer so I thought I would repeat it here to see if anyone can help. The message states:

I belong to [a local] genealogical society and we have a new member who is elderly and not very knowledgeable about computers and their uses in genealogy. He is subscribed to Ancestry.com but is very confused about what exactly it is and why it is different from genealogy software programs like RootsMagic 4 and Legacy. I have attempted to explain the difference to him but I must not be doing it right because he still does not understand.

More than Two Million Northern New York Historical Newspapers Online

The Northern New York Historical Newspapers web site has been available online for six years. The site continues to add new material and recently added its two millionth page. More than 50 newspaper titles are now available online.

The Northern New York Library Network is provided at http://news.nnyln.net/ by the Northern New York Library Network based in Potsdam. There are currently 18 newspapers from St. Lawrence County available on the NNY Historical Newspapers website. Titles from other counties include Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Jefferson, Lewis and Oswego.

This Newsletter is Fifteen Years Old!

I'm opening a bottle of champagne this week to celebrate. It is a great time of celebration.

Boy, the time does fly! Fifteen years has slipped by in almost the blink of an eye. It seems like only yesterday that I sent the first e-mail newsletter to about 100 people, mostly members of CompuServe's Genealogy Forums. None of them knew in advance that the newsletter would arrive; I simply mailed it to people who I thought might be interested. In 1996 nobody objected to receiving unsolicited bulk mail; the phrase "spam mail" had not yet been invented. I shudder to think if I did the same thing in today's Internet environment.

Here is a quote from that first newsletter published on January 15, 1996:

The Genealogy World of Fifteen Years Ago

This week I decided to take a trip down memory lane. I re-read the first 50 issues of this newsletter, all published in 1996. The genealogy world indeed has changed. Here are a few of the more memorable newsletter items from fifteen years ago, along with a few comments:

Only the more advanced computer users in 1996 had state-of-the-art software: Microsoft's latest operating system, called Windows 95. However, because I was now writing a "techie" genealogy newsletter, I purchased a very high-speed system (a 90-Mhz Pentium I) with a huge amount of memory (32 megabytes) so that I could use the latest professional operating system from Microsoft: Windows NT 3.51. During the year, Microsoft also released Internet Explorer version 3.0. Most of the 30 million users of the World Wide Web used Netscape, however. A few used the older Mosaic web browser.

The annual GENTECH conference was held in Plano, Texas, with several hundred attendees.

Illinois State Genealogical Society Unveils New Website

The following announcement was written by the Illinois State Genealogical Society:

January 15, 2011 – Springfield, IL. The Illinois State Genealogical Society (ISGS) announces the debut of its newly redesigned website available to the public on Saturday, January 15, 2011.

Located at http://www.ilgensoc.org, the new ISGS website features links to ISGS projects as well as links to other records and resources throughout Illinois including those individual genealogical home pages with an Illinois connection!

Magic with Your Digital Camera: Geocoding Your Images with Chris Bair

Chris Bair is one of the presenters scheduled for the RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake City, which is less than 4 weeks from now. His presentation on Friday afternoon will be on Geocoding Your Images. Today, I had a chance to talk with and even see Chris in a two-way video call on Skype. He kindly gave me a sneak preview of his presentation. In fact, he gave me enough of a preview that I am now convinced I want to attend his presentation next month to learn more.

Chris works as a system administrator, making computer networks work at FamilySearch headquarters in Salt Lake City. However, his presentation on geocoding has nothing to do with his employment. It is a personal interest and hobby of his. Chris has become an expert on geocoding and decided to share some of his expertise at the conference.

How to Enter Data on a Tiny Smartphone

Cell phones, so-called "smartphones," and handheld computers keep getting smaller and smaller. In fact, even desktop, laptop, and "netbook" computers also are shrinking in size. One of the biggest challenges is how to enter data as devices become too small to support a standard keyboard.

Chris Harrison has developed a possible solution for the tiny computers of tomorrow.  Skinput is a method in which your skin can become a touch screen device for your computer or MP3 music player.

Quickly Unsubscribe from Spam Mailing Lists

The following is for Gmail users only. Do you receive email messages from spammers or even from legitimate companies that apparently are using mailing lists? You know the type: you get a message or two most every day. It is full of advertising, probably ads you could not care less about. At the bottom of the list, there is a statement of "click here to unsubscribe" or something similar.

Personally, I’m always leery of clicking “unsubscribe” from spam emails I receive, because I’ve found they typically end up creating even more spam. It also irritates me to think that these folks expect me to take action to unsubscribe from their junk when, in fact, I never asked for it in the first place.

Now Google has invented an "automatic unsubscribe" feature for Gmail users. It requires very little work to unsubscribe: one mouseclick when reading the unwanted message.

Preserve Your Family History for FREE at BackupMyTree.com

BackupMyTree is a FREE, automatic backup service that is focused exclusively on genealogy files. I have written before about BackupMyTree at http://goo.gl/gn4IO. However, the online service has matured significantly since my earlier article. New features have been added and one or two shortcomings have been corrected.

I was impressed to learn that BackupMyTree now backs up more than three terabytes of family tree data for more than 16,000 registered users. I decided to try the newest and latest version of BackupMyTree.

What happens to all your genealogy data when your hard drive crashes? Note that I wrote "WHEN your hard drive crashes," not IF it crashes. All hard drives will crash sooner or later. If you have a recent backup available, a hard drive crash can be inconvenient. If you do not have a recent backup available, the same hard drive crash will be a disaster.

U.K. 2011 Census Forms to be Filled Out Online

The U.K. Census takes place on March 27 when every household is required by law to complete the questionnaire with the information gathered helping to plan and prioritise resources and public spending on housing, education, health and transport services for years to come. Forms, complete with an individual bar code, will be posted to each household and, for the first time, people will be able to complete their details via an online form although online access is not a requirement.

At least one city archivist is asking resident to complete their 2011 Census forms correctly for future family historians.

JFK library Opens 1st Online Presidential Archive

I published a couple of articles in recent months about the John F. Kennedy Library's plans to become the nation's first online presidential archive. See http://goo.gl/tO0Uk and http://goo.gl/efPsu for those earlier articles. Now the plans have become a reality. More than 200,000 printed pages, 1,200 recordings and 300 museum artifacts, as well as reels of film and hundreds of photographs, have been digitized and are available online now.

Kennedy himself broached the idea of making his records available to the masses in 1961. At a news conference, a reporter asked if he would consider putting his papers in Washington, rather than his hometown, to make them more accessible to scholars.

"Through scientific means of reproduction ... and this will certainly be increased as time goes on, we will find it possible to reproduce the key documents so that they will be commonly available," the president responded.

Archives.com Announces Grant to Fund Family and Cultural History Projects

Archives.com announced today a grant program to promote and advance family history research and historical preservation. Both individuals (from beginners to professional) and organizations (libraries, historical societies, and archives) are eligible to apply. Here is the announcement written by Archives.com:

PALO ALTO, CA -- January 13, 2011 -- Archives.com, an Inflection brand, today announces its Grant Program, a major initiative to assist individuals and communities with family, communal, and cultural research and preservation projects. The Archives.com Grant will help people and organizations take on historically significant projects that positively impact their family or community.

Broken 1796 Tombstone Returned to Grave

Nobody seems to know how a tombstone from 1796 ended up in the basement of the former Clinton, Connecticut Police Department. Through modern-day communication and some old-fashioned research, the burial plot where the stone belongs has been identified.

The tombstone was discovered on January 4. Town officials asked for help in finding the location of the correct grave of Mrs. Ruth Sackitt, listed on the stone as the "wife of Mr. Solomon Sackitt."

New Mi'kmaq Resource Page

The Halifax, Nova Scotia  Public Libraries has created a new Mi'kmaq Resource page, including images, a beginner guide to genealogy research, resources from the library's catalogue, digital collections, and a selection of articles from various magazines and journals.

You can find the new Mi'kmaq Resource page at http://www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/research/topics/mikmaqresources.html

Library and Archives Canada to go 100% Digital

A recent report from Library and Archives Canada announced that, over the next seven years, the records of Canada’s heritage will be going completely digital. Going digital means it will be easier than ever to research your ancestry because all of the information held by LAC will be available in searchable databases.

Another benefit of storing the information in digital form is that it reduces the impact to the environment. Library and Archives Canada currently sends out about 750,000 photocopies each year and hopes to completely phase out paper copies by April 2011.

Reservations Now Open for the EOGN Readers' Dinner In Mesa, AZ

As promised, reservations are now open for the EOGN Dinner to be held after the close of the Arizona Family History Expo in Mesa, Arizona on January 22. If you would like to join a bunch of genealogists for dinner, please go to http://mesa2011.eventbrite.com/ and make a reservation now for each person in your party.

NOTE: Previous dinners have sold out quickly.

Details of the dinner may be found at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2011/01/saturday-eogn-dinner-at-the-arizona-family-history-expo-in-mesa-arizona.html

Obtain an "Irishness" Certificate

As I first mentioned last June at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/06/certificate-of-irishness-open-to-70-million-people-worldwide.html, the Irish government has been thinking of issuing "Irish certificates." Now the controversial plan is to go ahead. The Republic's Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the scheme for a certificate of Irish heritage would be unveiled within "the next few weeks". It is aimed at up to 80 million people worldwide who are of Irish ancestry but do not qualify for an Irish passport.

The "certificates" do not require proof of Irish descent. No listing of ancestors is required. The applicant simply signs a statement that he or she is of Irish descent.

Many Cleveland, Ohio Burial Records Now Available Online

The East Cuyahoga County Genealogical Society has created an online burial index of all Cleveland-owned cemeteries. Approximately 70 volunteers from all over the country worked from home putting the index together after 359,000 records were imaged and placed onto CDs. About 40% of the digitized records are from the Highland Park cemetery. The others are records primarily from the west side of Cleveland.

London, England Land Tax Valuations 1910 Now Available Online

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

Online archive revealing historic values of London’s famous landmarks published today for the first time – Ancestry.co.uk

• Bank of England, Fleet Street and St Paul’s Cathedral found in records 
• Average London property in 1910 valued at just £14,000, compared to £430,500 today¹
• Homes of famous dramatist Sir W.S. Gilbert and scientist William Crookes uncovered

Ancestry.co.uk, the UK’s favourite family history website², has launched online for the first time the London, England Land Tax Valuations 1910, revealing the historic values of some of the capital’s most famous streets and landmarks from just over a century ago.