Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

I'm Back

This is a quick note to let you know I have been discharged from the hospital and am now back in my motor home, enjoying life once again.

My thanks to all the people who took the time to write notes of best wishes and to offer suggestions. It is heartwarming to read all the messages. I can't possibly answer each one individually but I have read each one and I certainly appreciate the kind thoughts.

The doctors have assured me that the chest pains were minor and are not an indication of heart problems. In short, I was told to not worry about it. Once the incision from Tuesday's surgery heals, I am to go on with my life the same as before.

I Might Be Offline For a While... Again

I just arrived in Florida a few days ago and have enjoyed the first few days of living in the motor home when a new problem arose. I experienced some significant chest pains and decided I had better get checked out. Two or three hours after arriving at the emergency room of a local hospital, I was in an operating room having a coronary catheterization procedure performed.

The doctors and nurses have assured me it is minor procedure, performed dozens of times every day across the country or even across the world. However, it is never minor when it is YOUR body! I must admit, however, that it was a rather easy procedure from my sedated vantage point.

Cold Case Police Trace DNA of 1991 Killer Back to 17th Century Mayflower Family

The 1991 murder of a teenage girl on her high-school campus may now finally be solved - thanks to the DNA of a 17th century family.

Seattle police investigating the death of Washington 16-year-old Sarah Yarborough say they are one step closer to catching her killer. They have matched crime-scene DNA samples to the historic family of Robert Fuller, from Massachusetts, whose ancestors settled in Salem in 1630 after coming over on the Mayflower.

Saturday EOGN Dinner at RootsTech 2012 in Salt Lake City

You are invited to the EOGN Genealogists' Dinner!

This will be held at 7:30 PM, immediately after the close of the RootsTech 2012 Conference in Salt Lake City. You can make reservations now at http://eogn-slc-2012.eventbrite.com

Join us for dinner! You are invited to join other genealogists on Saturday evening after the RootsTech 2012 conference for dinner. Rumor has it there will also be a few door prizes.

Federation of Genealogical Societies Board Appointments for 2012

The following announcement was written by the Federation of Genealogical Societies:

April 22, 2011 – Austin, TX. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) announces that Lisa Alzo and Sue Tolbert have recently been appointed to its Board of Directors.

Sue Tolbert – Sue Tolbert served on the FGS board in 2011 and, among other accomplishments, did an outstanding job designing the new FGS booth. Recently, she has been assisting with the Membership Committee including answering emails and doing much of the busy work involved in keeping the FGS membership database up-to-date. From 2001 – July 2007 Tolbert worked as a Genealogy Reference Specialist in the local History and Genealogy Department of the Muskogee Public Library assisting researchers, primarily those interested in Creek and Cherokee lineage, and continues to work there as a volunteer. Currently Tolbert is the Executive Director of the Three Rivers Museum, a local history museum and archives in Muskogee, Oklahoma./

Arphax Publishing Announces the Launch of HistoryGeo.com

I have only had a brief look at this new subscription mapping web site but it looks good. The following announcement was written by Arphax Publishing:

NORMAN, OK, January 9, 2012 - Arphax Publishing Co. announces the grand-opening of its historical maps website: HistoryGeo.com. Known for its historical land-ownership books, Arphax leaps headfirst onto the web with a digital version of its critically acclaimed map-series. And it does so with a viewing tool that rivals the speed and power of a desktop application. The HistoryGeo Viewer™ promises to catch the attention of map-researchers worldwide with its speed, ease-of-use, and annotation capabilities.

Update on the 23andMe Controversy

As mentioned in this newsletter on January 2 at http://goo.gl/aOOX1, the well-known DNA company, 23andMe, is receiving a lot of complaints from genealogists concerning the company's change in policy regarding their customers' access to the genetic-data-based information in their accounts. The controversy obviously reached senior management at the company. 23andMe co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki has now published An Update to 23andMe Customers.

Wojcicki writes, "Let me begin by acknowledging that there are many things we could have done better over the years and there are especially things we could have done better with this recent incident involving the changes to our subscription. We admit that we make mistakes. We will continue to make mistakes. I can personally promise you that we will try to listen more and do better. Dedicating resources to our ancestry product and improving our customer service are top priorities for 2012. We hear you loud and clear and we will be making changes."

GenealogyInTime™ Magazine Lists the Top 100 Most Popular Genealogy Websites

GenealogyInTime™ Magazine has put together a global list of the Top 100 Most Popular Genealogy Websites. Others have compiled lists in the past, based on whatever criteria that each organization thought was appropriate, but the latest Top 100 list is the end product of an extensive and exhaustive evaluation of thousands of genealogy websites. The list and the accompanying article provide a considerable amount of insight into the genealogy industry. It can also help you discover some interesting new genealogy websites.

Registration for the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) at Samford Opens January 17, 2012

The following announcement was written by the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research:

Registration for this summer's Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research (IGHR) will open on Tuesday, January 17, 2012.

To prevent an overload of the online registration system, the opening of course registration will be staggered with different courses being opening at different times. Please see the schedule of times below. Once open, registration for each course will remain open until the course is full. All times are Central Standard Time.

Update: On the Road Again

As mentioned in my earlier article at http://goo.gl/UIDLS, I plan to live in a motor home for the rest of the winter and much of the spring. This week, I drove to Florida and retrieved my motor home from the storage facility where I left it earlier and have now moved on board. I am presently in Jacksonville but plan to move every week or two. I'll be in Florida for about two months, then will move to Texas for a few weeks.

You Can Help the U.S. Government Create the Historical Record of the Environment

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a challenge that should appeal to all genealogists: take pictures of your surrounding environment to become part of historical record. By creating pictures of the environment today and adding them to the historical record, you can help document changes. The result should help your descendants and all future generations.

New Videos From Archipel About Digital Preservation

Writing in the Library of Congress' Digital Preservation Blog at http://goo.gl/TeY4b, Susan Manus describes several new videos from the Belgian project “Archipel.” The Archipel project is a recent collaboration by organizations in Belgium, to study digitization and digital preservation of cultural heritage materials.

Not only are the videos entertaining, they also make the point about the importance of digital preservation. The Archipel project team has produced five videos (listed near the top of the page), each focused on issues relating to the creation and management of digital materials, starting with an “overview” video of the project.  The other videos focus on specific areas such as legal research (within the context of Belgian law, but also noting creative commons options),  technical research (the construction of an archive for future sustainability, noting among other things, use of the PREMIS OWL standard) and social impact (the need for more online presence for Flemish performing arts, for example).

You can read more in the Library of Congress' Digital Preservation Blog at http://goo.gl/TeY4b

Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain Adds Records from the Rock of Gibraltar

The following announcement was written by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Great Britain:

Gibraltar’s Jewish Genealogy Rocks On

Jewish ancestral records from the Rock of Gibraltar are going online following an historic agreement between the Gibraltar Jewish Community and the JGSGB (Jewish Genealogy Society of Great Britain). The records are to be maintained on the JCR-UK (Jewish Communities and Records) web pages hosted by JewishGen at www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/gibraltar.htm.

Call for Papers – 2012 BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy

The following announcement was written by the BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy:

Call for Papers – 2012 BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy – “Strengthening Ties That Bind Families Together” – Tuesday through Friday, July 31 – August 3

Proposals are now being accepted for the 2012 BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy, which will be held Tuesday through Friday, July 31-August 3 at the BYU Conference Center in Provo, Utah.

Ancestry.com 2011 Subscribers Rise to 1.7 Million

In its newly-released financial results, Ancestry.com Inc. reported a 22 percent jump in subscribers in 2011 and a marginal fall in fourth-quarter churn. The company ended the year with 1.7 million paying subscribers, compared with 1.4 million subscribers a year ago. Average monthly churn, a measure of customer attrition, for the fourth quarter fell to 3.8 percent from 3.9 percent last year.

Ancestry.com also said it expects 2012 revenue growth in the mid-to-high teens.

NOTE: Ancestry.com is a sponsor of this newsletter.

Are You Paying for AOL Email?

Writing on Google Plus, Alex Lee mentions a story of a woman in Arizona who has been paying for "email" for almost a decade -- even though it's been available free for years and free for all AOL users since 2006.  It seems that this woman is not alone: according to a year-old “New Yorker” article by Ken Auletta, more than 75% of the dial-up users of AOL’s 3.5 million subscribers are paying for something that is available to everyone free of charge.

Of course, AOL isn't about to tell them as there's millions of dollars to be made from these unnecessary "subscriptions." AOL’s more than 3.5 million dial-up subscribers generated $191 million in revenue last quarter, money that didn't need to be paid.

National Archives Places Videos of Popular Records Workshops Online for First Time

The following announcement was written by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration:

National Archives Puts Popular Records Workshops Online for First Time!
“Know Your Records” videos now available on National Archives YouTube Channel
 
Washington, DC… For the first time, the National Archives has launched online videos of its most popular genealogy “how to” workshops.  These videos cover “hot topics” in genealogical research such as census, immigration and military records.  Now, these popular workshops led by National Archives experts are available on the National Archives YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/usnationalarchives.

"Finding Your Roots," a 10-part Series on PBS

Another genealogy series is about to be launched on television in the U.S. "Finding Your Roots" with historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. will launch on March 25. That will be the first episode of a 10-part series on PBS stations.

The new series will feature two people in each one-hour episode, including husband-and-wife actors Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, who jokes she's afraid they might turn out to be cousins. "They are indeed distant cousins," revealed Gates. "Talk about six degrees of separation, right?"

Check your local listings for the exact time and channel in your area.

Call for Nominations for NGS Board of Directors

The following announcement was written by the U.S. National Genealogical Society:

The election of NGS officers and board members will be held at the annual meeting at the NGS Conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Saturday, May 12, 2012.

The following positions are open for election this term:

On the Road Again, This Time for a Long Time

Yes, I am traveling again. I've been home for four weeks, which is a long time for me. However, I'm now leaving on an extended trip of four or five months. I don't expect to be back home until April or May. There may be some impact on this newsletter although I hope to minimize any possible changes.

In short, I am moving into my Winnebago motor home and plan to live there all winter and much of the spring. The motor home is presently parked in Jacksonville, Florida, although I don't plan to leave it there very long. I'll leave home tomorrow morning and will drive to Jacksonville. That cross-country drive will require several days, depending on the weather. I'll then spend two or three additional days preparing the motor home, and I also need to purchase a tow bar (trailer) to haul my car behind the motor home. About a week or so from now, I'll leave Jacksonville and commence my adventures. In late winter I'll be driving to Texas and then later to Ohio before returning home in the spring.