The DAILY genealogy technology newsletter for genealogy
consumers, packed with straight talk - hold the sugar coating - whether
the vendors like it or not!
The nation's first hospital has created an exhibition featuring medical and botanical texts from the 18th and early 19th century. The exhibit, “Flower to Pharmacy,” is housed at the Pennsylvania Hospital Historic Collections in Philadelphia. The illustrations are beautiful and the hand-written lecture notes from medical students are fun to decipher.
“For them to say something will kill you immediately, probably means it was pretty harsh,” said curator and archivist Stacey Peeples. “Given the amount of enemas and purgatives these people were taking. It had to be really bad. We like to call it “heroic medicine,” that idea that the physician will go to any means to cure you, even if meant killing you.”
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
New Collections Added for Canada, Estonia, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, and Sweden
New records were added to FamilySearch.org this week from Canada, Estonia, Jamaica, Mexico, Russia, South Korea, Sweden, and the U.S. Begin searching for your ancestors now at FamilySearch.org.
Searchable records on FamilySearch.org are made possible by thousands of volunteers from around the world who transcribe (index) the information from handwritten records to make them easily searchable by computer. More volunteers are needed—particularly those who can read foreign languages—to help accelerate this great initiative to preserve and provide free access to the world’s historic genealogical records. To learn more about the FamilySearch indexing program, visit indexing.familysearch.org.
The following Plus Edition article is written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
I love the program called Dropbox and have written about it several times. You can read my earlier articles if you start at http://goo.gl/dWzhB. Judging by the feedback that newsletter readers have posted at the end of those articles, many people agree with my opinion of the program. Dropbox appears to be very popular. However, it also has some drawbacks.
Dropbox is a multi-purpose program. It provides off-site backup of files that you select. Those files can be almost anything: text files, word processing documents, genealogy databases, pictures, .mp3 music files, or most anything else.
In addition to backups being stored on Dropbox's servers, the files also can automatically be copied (replicated) to other computers you own or to computers owned by friends or relatives. For instance, if you own both a desktop and a laptop computer, Dropbox can be used to make certain you always have the latest version of a file available on both systems. This can be great for keeping the latest version of your genealogy database on both systems.
One problem I have is capturing thoughts and "to do" items when needed. For years, I carried a pen and a small pad of paper in my pocket at all times to record my thoughts and tasks. That worked well, although I occasionally lost the paper or forgot to take it with me. Now a high-tech version of that pad of paper is available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Best of all, it stores text notes, photos, or even voice recordings.
I find SmartNotes has many applications. For genealogists, it is useful when you get that sudden inspiration to "check the Smith family of Bellview, Ohio in the 1860 census for a child named Charles" or similar thoughts. Of course, it is also good for adding to shopping lists, appointments to pick up the children after dance class, and other things that need to be recorded. I especially like the idea of adding voice notes as they allow me to safely record notes to myself while driving. There's no more "texting" on the cell phone or writing on a pad of paper while driving.
Twenty-six-year-old German immigrant August Liebelt first arrived in New Orleans in 1860. After serving during the Civil War, he migrated to Texas, settled on 80 acres and bult a cabin in 1869, and received a land grant in 1873. After leaving Travis County in 1881, he eventually lived his final years in Sherman, Texas, and died there in July 1911. His 15-foot by 17-foot, one-room, single-story loft cabin is now being relocated, thanks in part to a grant from Sears.
On November 20, contractors carefully relocated the 19th century Liebelt cabin from its original location tucked away behind oak trees far from the highway on south RR 620 to its new permanent location adjacent to Lakeway City Hall at 1102 Lohman’s Crossing.
Are you passionate about history, art or science? As a genealogist, you might be an ideal candidate as an employee at many museums.
The United States has more than 17,000 museums, according to the American Association of Museums (AAM) at http://www.aam-us.org/. Whether you live in a metropolis or in the country, chances are you can find a nearby museum for a second career or volunteer position. Check your state's museum association for a list of museums and job opportunities in your region.
The following announcement was written by the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland:
The Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland Celebrated its 25th Anniversary in Belfast’s Historic Titanic Quarter
On Wednesday 7th December 2011 the Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland (APGI) held its Annual General Meeting at the iconic new building occupied by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) in Belfast’s historic Titanic Quarter. Yesterday’s meeting marked the culmination of the Association’s 25th anniversary, celebrating that APGI was founded in Belfast twenty-five years previously, in 1986.
The AGM was followed by a reception to which over 100 representatives of various archival and record repositories in Belfast were invited, along with those engaged in genealogical services in Northern Ireland, retired members of APGI and representatives of the North of Ireland Family History Society. The Belfast-based record repositories included PRONI, the General Register Office of Northern Ireland, the Linen Hall Library, the Presbyterian Historical Society and the Wesleyan Historical Society.
I have often written about protecting and storing digital information for decades. In fact, saving digital data is probably safer than storing paper, if handled properly. Preservation of paper documents typically means storing the paper in temperature and humidity controlled conditions and physically handling the paper as rarely as possible. Preserving digital data is exactly the opposite: the data must be stored in multiple locations, then copied to new, state-of-the-art media formats frequently. Now a new device from SanDisk seems to blur the distinction become paper preservation and the preservation of digital data.
In the picture to the right, Charlie A. Newcomer, V.P. General, Southern Atlantic District, SAR, (on the left) congratulates Lt. Cmdr. Michael N. Henderson, USN, Ret., President, Button Gwinnett Chapter SAR. You can double-click on the small image to view a larger picture.
I wrote last June (at http://goo.gl/71e76) about the first African American in Georgia to be inducted into National Society Sons of the American Revolution. Now that person has been named President of his local chapter.
The following announcement was written by the Georgia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution:
When visiting a city or even when walking around in your home city, wouldn't it be nice if your cell phone could tell you about historical events of the location where you are standing? That is now possible, thanks to It Happened Here by Mobile Surroundings. The program uses your cell phone's uses GPS to map and list historical events, pop culture happenings, and famous movie scenes that have occurred right under your nose. It will list historical events from hundreds of years ago or as recent as last year.
The program's description states:
Are you eating at the same Philly restaurant that Bruce Willis’ anniversary scene was filmed in for The Sixth Sense? Is the liquor store you just passed the former headquarters of Boston’s leading organized crime outfit? Was the apartment building you just walked past formerly home to one of the 13 victims of the Boston Strangler? If you’ve ever been to Boston or Philadelphia and asked yourself “I wonder what happened here,” there’s now an app that will tell you all about it: It Happened Here for the iPhone and Android.
Inbreeding is when cousins and other close relatives have children together. Most cultures have strong taboos against it, primarily because of the increased risk of birth defects. Genetics experts, however, claim that the risk isn't all it's cracked up to be. Of course, there can be some very serious consequences to inbreeding, particularly when it's sustained over multiple generations.
One example is the sad story of Charles II, the last King of Spain from the House of Habsburg, who lived from 1661 to 1700 and reigned from 1665 onwards. From 1550 onward, not a single outsider married into the Spanish royal line. Cousins married cousins, uncles married nieces, and second cousins married second cousins. All of Charles II's ancestors after 1550 were, in one way or another, descendants of Joanna the Mad and Philip I of Castile.
The result of all this was Charles II, quite possibly the most inbred person in history.
Ancestry.co.uk has finished adding the second part of the 1911 Census transcriptions. Records covering London, Lancashire, Yorkshire and 17 other counties are now fully searchable.
Unlike any previous censuses, this one provides you with the actual forms your ancestors filled in, complete with their handwriting and signatures.
Here’s a full list of the areas that are now searchable:
This may create some new software applications. The RootsTech organizers have issued a challenge to software developers:
Have you recently been doing something family or genealogy-related and thought, "There should be an app for that!"? Now is your chance. Solving that problem and entering the RootsTech 2012 Developer Challenge could earn you $5,000.
Tens of millions of people around the world are interested in some facet of family history. These people need software solutions—whether on the desktop, online, or through mobile delivery—that help them engage and succeed in their efforts to discover, preserve, and share their family history. RootsTech will reward developers who introduce the most innovative new concepts to family history with $10,000 in cash rewards and increased visibility.
A few weeks ago, I published an article about Pennsylvania Senate Bill 361, which would make state-issued birth and death certificates open after a predetermined amount of years. That article is still available at http://goo.gl/PwUfs. The bill has now been sent to Governor Tom Corbett who already has indicated he will sign it.
You can read more in Blake Stough's "Preserving York" blog at http://goo.gl/6APRA.
Let's hope that other states will learn from Pennsylvania's experience.
The following announcement was written by Ancestry.co.uk:
Ancestry.co.uk, the UK’s favourite family history website1, announces its promotional partnership with DreamWorks Pictures’ War Horse, the much-anticipated film adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s novel, which is scheduled for its UK theatrical release on 13th January 2012.
Produced by DreamWorks Pictures and distributed by Walt Disney Motion Pictures, UK through the Touchstone Pictures banner, it is directed by Stephen Spielberg.
Here is a sad note for today, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor. It may be "a day that will live in infamy" but thieves in Maine added even more shameful and outrageous acts. Nearly 100 veteran emblems have been stolen from three Vassalboro, Maine cemeteries.
The emblems, which are made of bronze or plastic, are typically affixed to aluminum rods and staked in the ground to mark veterans' graves. The American Legion adds flags to the markers each Memorial Day.
I have written frequently about the various personal cloud services. Of course, so have many other writers. Cloud computing seems to be the hot new thing in computers these days and lots of people are either using cloud services or are contemplating their use.
Do you think you are not interested in cloud services? if so, do you use Gmail or Hotmail or Yahoo Mail or Dropbox or Evernote or Pandora? If so, you are already using cloud services.
If you are in or near the greater Boston area, I'd like to invite you to attend my presentation this Saturday (December 10) at the Middlesex Chapter of Massachusetts Society of Genealogists. I will be speaking on "The Family History World in 10 Years Time." This will be a bit of a look into the crystal ball. While I will talk about computers, online access, DNA, and other technologies, I will also talk about the changing demographics of genealogists. In short, the world is changing around us.
The meeting starts at 1:30 PM at the Goodnow Library, 21 Concord Road, Sudbury, MA. Best of all, the event is free and open to the public. I hope to see you there!
This sad story has nothing to do with genealogy, except that the victim probably had friends and acquaintances who read this newsletter. Those friends and acquaintances will be distressed to read of the death of Nancy Dailey during a robbery at her home in Royal Oak, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan.
Two ex-convicts out on parole have been arrested for the murder. The story of what happened is shocking, to say the least. The parolees were known to be in the neighborhood and were committing many criminal acts. The police knew it, the parole officer knew it, and surveillance video tapes of other robberies had been analyzed and the parolees had already been identified. Their locations were known. Yet they had not yet been arrested for the multiple crimes when the two of them entered the home of 80-year-old Nancy Dailey and slit her throat.
A 220-year-old court-order book, taken by a New York captain during the Civil War, has been returned to Stafford for a brief visit. It will be preserved for posterity by the Library of Virginia.
The newly discovered pre-Revolutionary records is being displayed in Stafford County so the public, historians and local officials could glimpse this rare treasure. The court ledger book was among the items that vanished from the county courthouse 148 years ago, when the Union army--140,000 soldiers strong--occupied eastern Stafford. So did the bulk of the county's other court records, creating a huge headache for landowners, lawyers and historians that lingers to this day.
Recent Comments