Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

The Family Memory Card Game

MyHeritage.com, in partnership with AncestryGames.com, has created a new family memory card game. I had a chance to use this game at the recent Who Do You Think You Are? Live! expo in London, England and was impressed with it. This is one of the few genealogy card games I have seen that actually looks appealing to younger family members.

Here is a picture I took of the cards used in a typical family memory card game:

Do E-Books Spell the End of Lending Libraries?

Can libraries and e-books co-exist - or are digital books another threat for the public service? The BBC's Spencer Kelly visited the British Library in London, one of the largest research libraries in the world, to see if it feels threatened by the digital world. It is a very interesting video for anyone who loves books.

You can watch Spencer Kelly's report at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9422250.stm

Ontario's History Goes Online

Owen Ketcheson of Centre Hastings township, Ontario, has more than 500 documents, including photographs from the 19th century, handwritten notes scribbled by his forebears and century-old wedding invitations. Now, thanks to Knowledge Ontario's Community Digitization Project, or CDP, anybody from anywhere in the world is able to browse Ketcheson's extensive historical archive, as long as they have an Internet connection. That's because he submitted it to be scanned and uploaded online at the Tweed Public Library, an institution selected to participate in the program.

St. Louis Central Library Downtown Reopens Genealogy, Local History and Microfilm Collections

The genealogy, local history and microfilm collections of the St. Louis, Missouri, Central Library downtown return to public viewing Monday at a temporary location two blocks west of the main building, which is under renovation. The city library closed the Central Library, 1301 Olive Street, in June to begin $70 million in renovations. It is to reopen in 2012, centennial of the gray-granite landmark.

Details may be found in an article by Tim O'Neal in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at http://goo.gl/LHTQN

Cloud Computing in Earthquake Zones

Japan was reeling after an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit the Northeast coast this morning. The disaster has greatly impacted Tokyo and much of the rest of the country. As a result, much of the Pacific Ocean is under a tsunami warning. The disaster comes as many tech giants were setting up data centers in Tokyo to meet demand for cloud computing services. Luckily for companies and individuals using cloud computing services, the earthquake and tsunami should have little impact on the safety of their data.

Amazon Web Services indicated that the company's cloud computing services are continuing with minor interruptions. Amazon just launched its data center in Tokyo a few weeks ago.

How To Easily Synchronize Folders Outside Dropbox

I love Dropbox and have written about it several times. See http://goo.gl/rnZVf for my past articles about this excellent online backup and file copying program for Macintosh and Windows. I know from comments posted here that a lot of newsletter readers are also using Dropbox.

One of the "downsides" of Dropbox is that its default operation is to only backup and copy files that are in the Dropbox folder and any subfolders under Dropbox. The default operation does not back up \My Documents or \Documents or other folders.

iFamily for Leopard Update to V2.522 is now Available

Warwick Wilson sent a note saying that he has updated iFamily for Leopard to V2.522. This is a popular Macintosh genealogy program that is noted for its very intuitive method of displaying data on the screen. iFamily for Leopard is much more visual than most other genealogy programs.

Warwick writes, "Although a number of bug fixes and interface enhancements are contained in this release there are no new features as such. Upcoming releases will contain new features as I prepare iFamily for the Mac App Store over the coming months."

(+) Are You Still Printing Everything?

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

Consider the environment. Do you really need to print out this article?

I occasionally receive e-mail messages from newsletter readers asking various questions about how to print the newsletter. I also frequently hear comments at genealogy conferences and elsewhere from family historians stating, "I printed it out to save it and..." or similar words.

I have one question: Why?

I believe that many people print information on paper simply as a matter of habit. We were brought up before the age of computers and were taught to record everything on paper. For many of us, we have spent years making photocopies of old records and then storing those papers in various filing systems. Some of us, myself included, have spent a lot of money purchasing four-drawer filing cabinets to store all the various pieces of paper we have accumulated. Yes, I own several such cabinets, which I now consider to be a waste of money and floor space.

Google Lets Users Blacklist Sites From Search Results

Google is giving users the ability to block sites that annoy them from ever showing up again in their search results, via a new link next to search results. This should help you block those spamming sites from your search results. The new links will be visible to English users of Google.com sometime starting this week if those users are using Internet Explorer 8 or 9, Chrome 9 or later, or Firefox 3.5 or later. Users of other web browsers will not see the new option. Non-English users will receive the new changes within a few weeks.

Google apparently is listening to the complaints of users that web results are being polluted by low-value content farms. The new system might even eventually change search results for everyone, according to a company blog post at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/hide-sites-to-find-more-of-what-you.html

Help Wanted: Professional Genealogists in Salt Lake City

Want to work full time as a genealogist? ProGenealogists, a division of Ancestry.com, is looking for a Genealogist Case Manager and an Assistant Genealogist in Salt Lake City.  ProGenealogists provides high quality and cost effective research service to genealogists, law firms, corporations, media outlets, and the general public.  These are 40-hour-a-week positions and are NOT work-from-home opportunities.

New Web Site Lists Professional Genealogy Researchers

Geneapro.com has launched a new free website designed to bring together experienced genealogy researchers with people looking for accurate historical ancestral records and information. You won't find any genealogy records on the site. Instead, you will find contact information for people who are willing to find the information for you. Most of these researchers do charge fees for their efforts.

The following press release was written by Lisa Kenefick, owner of Geneapro.com:

Geneapro.com has launched a new website designed to bring together experienced genealogy researchers with people looking for accurate historical ancestral records and information.

RootsTech Streaming Videos Now Available

Thanks to a tip from Amy Johnson Crow (of Amy’s Genealogy, Etc. Blog) for telling all of us that streaming videos of some of the presenters at RootsTech are now available online.  Click on the links to watch each video:

• Jay Verkler: "RootsTech: Turning Roots, Branches, Trees into Nodes, Links, Graphs"
• Barry Ewell: "Digitally Preserving Your Family Heritage"
• Curt Witcher:  "The Changing Face of Genealogy"
• Brian Pugh: "Cloud Computing: What it is and how it is being used"
• Thomas MacEntee:  "Virtual Presentations Roundtable"
• Brewster Kahle:  "Personal Archiving and Primary Documents"

History Professor Teaches "Dead in Virginia"

George Mason University history professor Mills Kelly, by his own admission, always has liked cemeteries, in part for what they tell us about the past. Now, he's designed a course designed to get his students out among the gravestones. He calls it "Dead in Virginia."

Looking for a new way to teach old things, Kelly requires students enrolled in the 300-level historical methods course to choose a family cemetery in or around Fairfax County and dig up as much information as they can about those buried there.

Grand Opening Held at new Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives

The grand opening of the Northeast Arkansas Regional Archives was held Thursday in Powhatan. Located on the grounds of the Powhatan Historic State Park, the facility came to be through a collaboration between Arkansas State Parks and the Arkansas History Commission, with assistance from the Lawrence County Historical Society.

For members of the Lawrence County Historical Society, it represented a long-awaited homecoming for records that have been in the society's care for many years.

FamilySearch Adds New U.S. and Mexico Records

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

New U.S. records from MO, NC, NJ, OH, VT, WV

Record collections for Mexico and the U.S. were expanded this week. The Mexico 1930 Census is drawing closer to completion with the addition of the state of Pueblaóway to go FamilySearch volunteers! Patrons will also find new records from Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Vermont, and West Virginia (see table below for more details). Search them now for free at FamilySearch.org.

U.S. Version of Who Do You Think You Are? Season 1 on DVD

If you missed some of the episodes of last season's Who Do You Think You Are? (U.S. version), you can now purchase the entire series on DVD. Each episode features a different celebrity; season one's lineup consists of Sarah Jessica Parker, Emmitt Smith (NFL star), Lisa Kudrow (also one of the program's executive producers), Matthew Broderick (also Parker's husband), Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon, and Spike Lee.

The series on DVD does not include advertisements. Therefore, what is listed as a 60-minute program actually runs in about 41 minutes. Also, one of the many complaints of the first season involve the pause before every commercial break when the story also stops dead in its tracks to run clips of what's coming up, followed by more clips of what you've just seen. Thankfully, that was corrected in Season 2. Another "problem" with Season 1 is that every shows begins with a long teaser for the entire season, followed by another teaser for the show you're about to watch. The result is about 20 minutes of original material in each episode.

The Library of the Future? No. Today.

There is no mention of a genealogy and local history room, but you do have to take notice of the features of the new Fountaindale, Illinois Public Library: flat-screen TVs, video games, self-checkout stations, a variety of e-readers, and a cafe. Library officials say the new facility is a blueprint for libraries of the future, and will focus on using new technologies.

From the article: "The Fountaindale Public Library, with its state-of-the-art, Wi-Fi equipped space, is starkly different from the previous antiquated library, a nearby one-story brick structure built in 1975 that awaits the wrecking ball. Officials are hopeful the new facility attracts a demographic libraries haven't seen in a number of years - young professionals."

Personal Digital Archiving Conference

Staff from the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program attended the Personal Digital Archiving 2011 Conference in San Francisco on February 24-25. Held at the Internet Archive, the meeting aimed to share information and build a practitioner community for ensuring long term access to personal digital information.

According to information published in the Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter at http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/news/newsletter/201103.pdf, about 200 people attended the conference. There were representatives from large and small collecting institutions, large and small companies and academic departments, as well as a number of unaffiliated individuals.

Preserving Our Digital Heritage: The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program 2010 Report

The National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program 2010 Report has just been released. It documents the achievements of the Library of Congress and its NDIIPP partners working together to create sustainable long-term access to digital materials.

Ancestry.co.uk Now Finds Living Relatives

Ancestry.co.uk has added a new service to find living people in the United Kingdom. The service is offered by a new business partner and is free for up to ten searches per day. The free searches provide "preview pages" that contain basic information accessed from the phonebook. You'll be given the following details, where available: name, city/town and telephone number. If you want to access more detailed information and enjoy unlimited free result previews, you can purchase a credit package to suit your needs.

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

New service ‘moves family history research into the present day’

Ancestry.co.uk, the UK’s favourite family history website , has enhanced its product range by adding Living Relative Search  - a service new by PeopleTracer  to help Ancestry members locate living UK-based relatives.