Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Dead Money on Irish Television

A new television show on RTÉ1, an Irish television network, will interest genealogists. In the program, genealogy researchers Steven and Kit Smyrl (shown in the picture to the right) spend their days finding relatives of people who died without a will, making sure any remaining relatives get the estate rather than the Irish Exchequer.

I haven't seen the show but published reports indicate the opening show was heavy on the history of Ireland, told through the living and dead relatives of Maura Byrne who died in 1999 without leaving a will. The program displayed a familiar story of poverty, emigration, industrial schools and elderly people who spent the vast majority of their lives separated from their blood.

In the end, descendants unexpectedly shared €100,000 that Maura left behind.

The End of Windows?

Writing in the Windows Secrets Newsletter at http://goo.gl/gRNeI, well-known PC expert Woody Leonhard describes the new "consumer preview" version of Windows 8. Woody is a dyed-in-the-wool Microsoft fan, so I was surprised when he wrote, "If you download and install Windows 8 Consumer Preview, released late last week, I can almost guarantee that you won’t like it." He goes on to say that Microsoft is slowly abandoning the individual Windows users and is focusing on corporate sales. As he writes, "Microsoft is not building Windows 8 for the garden-variety Windows expert. You and I aren’t being ignored, exactly, but we’re not at the top of the Win8 food chain. As perplexing as it might sound, aiming Windows 8 at a different demographic is probably a good decision. But it still might lead to Windows’ demise."

I haven't seen the Windows 8 preview version yet. However, I have Windows 7 and Macintosh OS X systems sitting on my desk, side-by-side, installed on two different laptop computers of similar specifications. From what I have seen, I think Woody is correct. Microsoft appears to be focusing less and less on the individual, in-home user and more and more on their corporate customers.

Pictures of Ellis Island Before it Became a Tourist Attraction

Ellis Island was closed in 1954 and remained abandoned for years before being resurrected as a tourist attraction and memorial to America's immigrants. The Mail Online has published an eerie series of photographs showing what Ellis Island looked like during those years of neglect.

The photos make it obvious that arrival at the immigration gateway was not a joyous occasion for every immigrant. Illness was common. Some immigrants were sent back to the "old country," including young children who were returned without being accompanied by an adult. Then there is the morgue and the mortuary building where autopsies were performed.

FamilySearch: California Collections Win This Week with 24 Million New Records

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

8 March 2012

California Collections Win This Week with 24 Million New Records

Records for 14 countries added

FamilySearch added 31 million new, free records online this past week for Argentina, Canada, Colombia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Hungary, Italy, Micronesia, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, Portugal, Russia, and the U.S. What a bonus for those with California roots—over 24 million California birth records were added from 1905 to 1995. Search these and 2.5 billion other records now for free at FamilySearch.org.

Searchable historic records on FamilySearch.org are made possible by thousands of volunteers from around the world who transcribe (index) the information from digital copies of handwritten records to make them easily searchable online. More volunteers are needed (particularly those who can read foreign languages) to keep pace with the amount of digital images being published online at FamilySearch.org. Learn more about how to personally help provide free access to the world’s historic genealogical records as a volunteer indexer at FamilySearch.org.

Publishers Warned On Ebook Prices

I have published several recent articles about ebooks. I am a big fan of carrying dozens of books in one small ereader, especially when traveling. However, not everyone likes the new format. Now, just to make things more complicated. the Department of Justice says Simon and Schuster, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and HarperCollins conspired to artficially raise the prices of ebooks.

You can read the story in the Wall Street Journal at http://goo.gl/uZ7JP and in the BBC web site at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17300074.

NGS 2012 Early Bird Registration Discount Ends Soon

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

NATIONAL GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
2012 FAMILY HISTORY CONFERENCE
CINCINNATI, OHIO, 9–12 MAY 2012
The Ohio River: Gateway to the Western Frontier

(Arlington, VA)—EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION DISCOUNT ENDS SOON! The NGS 2012 Family History Conference will be held 9–12 May 2012 at the Duke Energy Convention Center, Cincinnati, Ohio. Register for the conference today! The early-bird registration discount ends on Tuesday, 20 March 2012. In addition to enjoying a $35 discount, only early birds have the opportunity to order a printed syllabus. (Everyone will receive a syllabus on flash drive.) NGS members get even deeper discounts, so this is a great time to join.

Cumberland Family Tree is Back

Cumberland Family Tree was a Windows genealogy program that gathered many fans although it never became one of the major programs. The program eventually seemed to die out as developer Ira Lund stopped supporting it. However, Ira has now sent an email message to his customers saying, "I have decided to restart Cumberland Family Software. I have posted a new website at www.cft-win.com."

Westminster Archives to Go Online at findmypast.co.uk

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

• Project announced to increase access to 10 million baptism, marriage, burial and parish chest records dating back to 1538
• First time that images of the original parish records from Westminster will appear online

Leading UK family history website findmypast.co.uk has today announced that it has been awarded a digitisation contract by the City of Westminster Council and the Westminster Archives Centre. This significant new project will lead to the publication online for the very first time of 10 million historic records from the Archives. The records are expected to launch later this year and will become fully searchable, only at findmypast.co.uk.

Apple's New iPad

Apple has now unveiled its long-rumored new iPad. Strangely, Apple is not calling it the iPad3. Instead, it is simply “the new iPad.” The new device contains a lot of improvements over the previous iPad2 but I see little in the list that will provide direct benefit to genealogy uses. The new iPad should handle all the existing iPad genealogy applications in exactly the same manner as the older iPad2.

To be sure, there are some nice improvements that will benefit all of the people who purchase the new iPad. The display has been improved to a 2048 x 1536 pixel Retina display with more than 3.1 million pixels. The older iPad has a very nice screen but the new iPad's specifications promise significant improvements.

(+) Facing Up to the Long-term Future of Your Genealogy Society

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

NOTE: This article contains several personal opinions.

I travel a lot and I spend a lot of time with officers and members of many genealogy societies. Most everywhere I go, I hear stories of societies that are shrinking in size and even a few stories of societies that are struggling to maintain their existence. Even amongst all this "doom and gloom," I do hear a few rare stories of genealogy societies that are thriving and growing larger. Not only are they attracting more members, but these few societies are also offering more and more services to their members with each passing year.

Why do the majority of societies flounder while a handful succeed?

RootsTech Recorded Sessions Are Now Available Online

If you were unable to attend RootsTech a few weeks ago, or if you were there but were unable to attend all the sessions you wished, you can now watch and listen to recordings of many of the sessions.

NOTE: Not all the sessions were recorded, depending upon the wishes of the presenters and of the availability of hardware and video crews. However, many of the sessions were recorded.

You can find the recorded RootsTech sessions at: http://rootstech.org/#video-player

New Boer War Records Available For Ancestry And Military Genealogy Searches

The following announcement was written by Forces War Records:

Forces War Records has an additional 250,000 searchable military records from the Boer War.

250,000 new Boer War records have been added to the Forces War Records database and are now available for military genealogy searches online. These records contain data about members of the British and Commonwealth Forces who were issued campaign or gallantry medals during the second Anglo Boer War 1899-1902.

New York City’s Department of Records and Information Services May Become Downgraded

An article by Nick Pavlik in the New York History blog warns that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the New York City Council have proposed legislation that could impact genealogists' access to public records. A full position statement on the proposed legislation is available on the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York’s website at http://nycarchivists.org/.

Pavlik requests genealogists to add their names to a sign-on letter to oppose the proposed legislation.

Have We Been Conned by Claims About eBooks?

I must say that I love ebooks. Of the past dozen or so books I have purchased, all of them have been ebooks. I am trying to avoid paper for a number of reasons. However, a new story by Julie Bosman and Matt Richtel published in the New York Times says that I may be in the minority. In fact, the authors claim that ebooks are becoming less and less popular. I am not sure I agree, but it certainly is an interesting point of view.

The authors of the new article focus on how easily an ebook reader is interrupted. "People who read e-books on tablets like the iPad are realizing that while a book in print or on a black-and-white Kindle is straightforward and immersive, a tablet offers a menu of distractions that can fragment the reading experience, or stop it in its tracks.

Handwritten Journals from Lizzie Borden's Lawyer to be Published

The story, and especially the trial, of Lizzie Borden has fascinated many for years. Now some new evidence may soon be available, 120 years after the murder.

Lizzie Borden was tried for killing her father and stepmother with a hatchet on August 4, 1892, in Fall River, Massachusetts. The murders and subsequent trial was sensationalized by the media worldwide. Although Lizzie Borden was acquitted, no one else was ever arrested or tried and she has remained a notorious figure in American folklore. Dispute over the identity of the killer or killers continues to this day. The question remains: did Lizzie commit the murders?

(A picture of Lizzie Borden, taken before the murders in 1889, is shown to the left. You can click on the picture to view a larger image.)

Thanks for a Great Time in Melbourne, Florida

I'd like to thank the Brevard Genealogical Society, the Genealogical Society of North Brevard, and the Genealogical Society of South Brevard for hosting me at an all-day event yesterday in Melbourne. The three societies combined efforts to hold a day-long seminar and they invited me to be the primary speaker. I enjoyed it and I hope the 100+ attendees who listened to my four presentations were able to benefit as well.

The venue was perfect with good acoustics. The audience even laughed at my jokes at the appropriate times. A good lunch was served and I really enjoyed sitting outdoors behind the church while eating lunch. I'd like to thank the person who arranged the fine weather!

Search More Than 40,000 Digitized Genealogy and Family History Books

You can search through more than 40,000 digitized genealogy and family history books from the archives of seven important family history libraries in the United States. Best of all, it is available right now and all of it is free of charge. Every word in every book is searchable. No, this isn't on Google Books. It is FamilySearch.org, the same web site that hosts the huge databases online at the same site: FamilySearch.org.

You can perform a search at http://books.familysearch.org or click on the links to the individual libraries themselves. They are Allen County (Indiana) Public Library, Brigham Young University Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University Hawaii Joseph F. Smith Library, Church History Library, Family History Library, Houston Public Library’s Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research, and the Mid-Continent Public Library’s Midwest Genealogy Center.

Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Website Makes Historical Research Easier

A new website for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library makes it easier to locate historical and genealogical information in the Library's 12 million item collection.

The website obviously contains a great deal of information about the 16th President but it also contains other items that will interest genealogists and historians. Such items include a list of newspapers available on microfilm by city from the early 1800s to the present day, ethnic and military service bibliographies, a searchable last name obituary finder, as well as tutorials on how to preserve and conserve your own historical documents and artifacts.

Obtain Lots of Free Windows Software with OpenDisc

In my opinion, OpenDisc is one of the best bargains available for Windows users. It is a collection of high quality, free, open source software on a disc for Microsoft Windows users.

The aims of the OpenDisc project include "to provide a free alternative to costly software, with equal or often better quality equivalents to proprietary, shareware or freeware software for Microsoft Windows."

USS Monitor Crewmembers' Faces Reconstructed

When the turret of the USS Monitor was raised from the ocean bottom, two skeletons and the tattered remnants of their uniforms were discovered in the rusted hulk of the Union Civil War ironclad, mute and nameless witnesses to the cost of war. Now, thanks to forensic reconstruction, the two have faces.

In a longshot bid that combines science and educated guesswork, researchers hope those reconstructed faces will help someone identify the unknown Union sailors who went down with the Monitor 150 years ago.