The DAILY genealogy technology newsletter for genealogy
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Another genealogy-related magazine is being sold. Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine isn't stopping publication but it is being sold to new owners.
An article in MarketingMagazine.co.uk reports that the BBC is selling all non-BBC branded magazines and the rights to publish BBC-branded titles under licensing or contract arrangements to private equity firm Exponent and to dispose of its stakes in a number of magazine-related companies. The article then provides a long list of magazines affected. The Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine is on the list.
The following announcement was written by Lingotek:
Users of the World's Largest Genealogy Organization Can Now Translate Records Such as Birth, Death and Marriage Certificates Into Their Native Languages
DRAPER, UT - Lingotek, the leader in collaborative translation solutions, has announced an exclusive, long-term relationship with FamilySearch. With this agreement, Lingotek will help FamilySearch, the largest genealogy organization in the world, translate historical documents so that users can find family members using their native languages. FamilySearch members can now leverage a community of more than 2,000 users to help translate documents through the Lingotek application, which will be embedded directly into the FamilySearch website.
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
New Collections for Spain and United States Canada, Italy, and Poland Collections Add Images
16 August 2011 Among the thousands of records added to FamilySearch.org this week are new images of testaments (wills) from Cádiz, Spain. Also, be sure to check out new United States military records for Louisiana and Washington as well as a new collection of North Carolina estate files. Estate files can offer an insightful look at an ancestor's living conditions. Additionally, Canada, Italy, and Poland collections were updated. All these records and more can be viewed at FamilySearch.org.
What new services will Ancestry.com offer next to the genealogy community? My crystal ball is no better than anyone else's, but I do think a new help wanted ad on the Ancestry.com web site provides a clue. Here is an excerpt from a recent help wanted ad for a new position in Ancestry.com's San Francisco office:
Ancestry.com is seeking an exceptional candidate to join the Ancestry.com team as a Computational Biologist creating and implementing novel algorithms for genomic analysis. We are mounting a major effort to use genomics to shed light on human diversity, origins and relatedness. The successful candidate will join our efforts to develop, test and apply algorithms for defining the genetic markers that define families and shed light on genetic genealogy.
"The Genealogy Roadshow" is the new series for Irish television network RTÉ, which has been described as a cross between the hit programs "Antiques Roadshow" and "Who Do You Think You Are?" Unlike the earlier programs that featured family histories of celebrities, "The Genealogy Roadshow" focuses on the stories of every-day families.
Among those featured in the first episode is a lady whose relative boarded the HMS Titanic at Cobh on its maiden voyage, and a man searching for his connection to a heroic fighter in the siege of Kilmallock, in county Limerick, during the 1867 Fenian Rising. It also features a Clare man who discovers how his great uncle managed to survive the most brutal battles of the First World War, only to die in the final German Offensive.
The following announcement was written by the Federation of Genealogical Societies:
Offers Easy Access to FGS Services Including Radio, Blog and Webinars
August 15, 2011 – Austin, TX. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) announces the debut of its free mobile application for the iPhone®, iPod Touch® and iPad®. With the new FGS App, FGS resources and services such as FGS Radio, Voice – the FGS blog and webinars are now available to a wider audience.
D. Joshua Taylor is a nationally recognized genealogical author, lecturer, researcher, and is also the former director of education and programs at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. He recently spoke at the Conference on Family History and Genealogy at Brigham Young University and talked about the future of genealogy, saying, “it will no longer be viewed as an ‘old’ activity for the retired. It will be undefined by age, gender and nationality. We’re in prime time now.”
Taylor made several predictions for the near future. Of course, most all of us will agree with his predictions of more information will be simple to download and interactive, there will be more online websites for digital scrapbooks and family histories, and everything will be digital. However, he also predicted:
Every American has a Social Security number, right? Well, there are at least two exceptions in Kentucky. In fact, sisters Raechel and Stephanie Schultz are both trying to obtain Social Security numbers but the federal government is refusing to issue them. The government says they need more proof the sisters were born in the U.S. In order to obtain such documentation in today's world, one needs to first have a Social Security number.
Catch-22.
"I'm proud to be American but they don't want me," 23-year-old Stephanie Schultz told The Associated Press in an interview at their lawyer's office in southeastern Kentucky.
Please feel free to forward the articles in the Standard Edition newsletter to your friends and genealogy acquaintances. You can post them on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere. You can even republish them in your own blog or in your society's printed or online newsletter. You don't have to ask permission.
Someone asked the question today so I'll repeat an article I wrote last year:
Unlike many other web sites, I invite you to copy the articles from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter Standard Edition and to publish them elsewhere. You can publish them in your own web site, in newsgroups, in your society's (printed) newsletter, or most anyplace else, as long as it is for non-commercial purposes. I do ask that you attribute the source of the article(s) you publish.
Newsletter reader "Stony" Stonebraker wrote to tell of a new scanning service that is available. I read about the new service and became enthused. I write about a lot of services and products in this newsletter, but this is one I think I will use frequently!
I have been scanning genealogy books in preparation for "downsizing" someday. As I move closer to retirement, I realize that I will someday move to smaller living quarters without room for all the books and magazines I have accumulated. I won't have room for the required bookshelves. The answer seems obvious: digitize them! Thousands of books can be stored in a very small computer or in a tablet computer or even a flash drive.
The problem is that my progress to date has been slow. Scanning a book is a tedious process, and I haven't completed the scanning of very many books. Now a new online service promises to do the job for me at a modest price: one dollar per 100-page book. The same service will also scan documents, photographs, business cards, and even the old greeting cards from relatives I have been saving all these years.
Genealogists spend millions of dollars every year traveling to the areas where their ancestors lived. They spend money on hotels, restaurants, gasoline purchases, and, oh yes, photocopying fees. However, many state tourism organizations seem to ignore this potential source of wealth. Now, Oklahoma appears to understand the economic impact.
The Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Department has launched a new feature on the agency's website, www.TravelOK.com/genealogy, which assists visitors seeking to connect with their familial ancestry. Home to 39 Federally recognized Indian tribes, countless waves of pioneer settlers and the genesis of the great Okie migration during the Dust Bowl days, Oklahoma holds the keys to unlocking many family histories. The new genealogy section is a user-friendly tool that guides visitors through a wealth of ancestral research destinations and resources throughout Oklahoma.
In commemoration of its 100th Anniversary, the (U.K.) Society of Genealogists has been awarded the Julian Bickersteth Memorial Medal by the Institute of Heraldic and Genealogical Studies. The award is made to persons or organisations who have made notable and exemplary contributions to genealogy and family history studies in the judgement of and at the discretion of the Institute’s Trustees.
You can read more on the Society of Genealogists' web site at http://goo.gl/H4Pii.
According to an article by Matthew Holehouse, published in the Daily Telegraph, 1,600 folders of documents reported missing since 2005 include letters from Sir Winston Churchill to General Franco, the Spanish dictator; minutes of Harold Wilson's meetings with the Queen; and documents from the courts of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Charles I. Dozens of regimental diaries, medal records and squadron and battleship logbooks have also seemingly disappeared.
Some of the files, many of which contain the sole copies of historical documents, have not been seen since the early 1990s and fewer than a half have been recovered, according to a register of missing items released under freedom of information laws.
Online genealogy site Geni.com has announced significant changes in the way the web site operates. Writing in the Geni.com Blog, marketing director "George" states:
"Today, we announce the release of new permissions that are designed to accelerate the growth and improve the quality of the world family tree. Geni Pro subscribers now have full permission to add on to, edit, and merge profiles in the historical parts of the tree. Non-Pros can no longer add new profiles to the historical tree or merge profiles. By making these permissions more consistent, we ensure that anyone who can add a new profile to the historical tree can immediately merge it with any existing duplicates. These changes will benefit all of us as the world family tree continues to get bigger and better.
The Jewish Genealogy Society of Cleveland’s library has dug new roots. The entire collection, formerly housed at Menorah Park, is now beginning to fill the shelves of the Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple library.
Obscure city directories, college and high-school yearbooks, family histories, and old Jewish newspapers are available. The collection was moved in order to make the genealogy society’s collection more accessible to the public.
You can read more in an article by Arlene Fine in the Cleveland Jewish News at http://goo.gl/QD2Bq.
William Jerry (Champ) Champion has created a YouTube video that shows a quick and easy way to read and photograph grave markers that are worn or have become discolored. In years past, genealogists have used a variety of materials to improve legibility of tombstones, from shaving cream to chalk and a variety of other materials. However, most of those methods reportedly damage the stone to some extent. Many of the materials are abrasive and also may leave chemicals behind that cause long-term damage. However, Champ claims the use of flour creates no damage.
Not everyone agrees. Some so-called "experts" will tell you that flour is harmful because it can penetrate into small pores of the stone, and, when wet, the flour will swell and can cause flaking of the stone. Some also claim that flour contains yeast, which encourages the growth of lichens and micro-organisms that can then live and grow in the stone, causing expansion and cracking. Technically, flour does not contain yeast when first ground. However, yeast floats in the air most everywhere and may land on flour, where it may flourish.
Historic New England is a 101-year-old nonprofit organization that works to preserve objects, structures, and sites throughout the region. The organization, working with HistoryPin, is part of a growing trend among historians and archivists to use mapping technology to connect photos, objects, and other information to maps to engage an audience.
Boston.com has an interesting story by Jeremy C. Fox, with accompanying photos, describing the work of Historic New England and its web site with historic photographs. You can read the article at http://goo.gl/jZORP.
You can now read Kindle-formatted books on your computer, using either the Chrome or Safari web browsers. It works on Windows or Macintosh or Linux laptop and desktop computers as well as on the Apple iPad and even on the Google Chromebook laptops. Amazon promises that support for additional browsers will be available soon.
Once set up, you’ll need to authorize your browser to create offline storage so your Kindle book can be downloaded for offline reading. Next, find a book in the online Kindle store, download it, and start reading. You can adjust the font size, margins and brightness. You can also bookmark pages, but there’s no facility for highlighting or taking notes.
I haven't read this book yet but the description sounds great. In Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death, writer Lisa Takeuchi Cullen writes of her travels around the country to discover how Americans are reinventing the rites of dying. It seems that the funeral industry is changing rapidly, much of it to the dismay of funeral directors. Cullen reportedly finds the humor and the irony in many of today's funerals.
For traditional funerals, the normal industry players are being shoved aside by newcomers. For instance, Costco now sells caskets made in China at very low prices compared to the prices charged at funeral homes. Many people are bypassing caskets and visiting hours entirely in favor of cremation and perhaps a memorial service held at a local rented hall or even at a local bar.
All genealogists need a good citation manager to to keep track of all the papers they have read and accumulated. For years, the most popular citation manger has been Zotero. In fact, I recently recorded a podcast with Connie Reik in which she describe some of Zotero's awesome capabilities. (You can listen to our conversation at http://goo.gl/bgO7l.)
One of the primary drawbacks to Zotero is that it has always required the Firefox web browser. Some users see that as an advantage, others would say it is a disadvantage. In our conversation, Connie mentioned the Zotero would be releasing a free-standing version soon. Her prediction has now come true.
I haven't read this book yet but the description sounds great. In Remember Me: A Lively Tour of the New American Way of Death, writer Lisa Takeuchi Cullen writes of her travels around the country to discover how Americans are reinventing the rites of dying. It seems that the funeral industry is changing rapidly, much of it to the dismay of funeral directors. Cullen reportedly finds the humor and the irony in many of today's funerals.
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