Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Employees Who Worked for Britain's Royal Household to be Documented Online

A brief mention on the BBC web site at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18183157 states that the Royal Archives has also undertaken an online partnership project with website Find My Past to enable the public to trace ancestors who have worked for the royal household. No other details were provided.

 

Queen Victoria's Private Diaries Now Available Online

The complete collection of Queen Victoria's private diaries is being made available to the public online for the first time. The 141 volumes, running to 43,000 pages, provide a picture of her life from the first entry at the age of 13 until 10 days before her death aged 81 in 1901.

Details may be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18183157.

 

findmypast.ie Conducts Poll to Determine World’s Greatest Leaders with Irish Roots

Irish genealogy site findmypast.ie conducted an international poll and asked who are (or were) the world’s greatest leaders with Irish roots? I have one question: Who knew that Che Guevara had Irish ancestry?

The following was written by findmypast.ie:

Obama trails JFK, Reagan but trumps Che Guevara in vote for history’s greatest “Irish” leader: poll

Obama voted world’s third greatest leader with Irish roots, behind JFK, then Reagan: international poll for findmypast.com

Barcode Everyone at Birth?

Science fiction writer Elizabeth Moon argues that everyone should be given a barcode at birth. “If I were empress of the Universe I would insist on every individual having a unique ID permanently attached - a barcode if you will; an implanted chip to provide an easy, fast inexpensive way to identify individuals. It would be imprinted on everyone at birth. Point the scanner at someone and there it is."

There are many obvious advantages to her proposal, from preventing the switching of babies at birth to identifying combatants in war. However, I suspect privacy advocates, such as myself, will object.

Massachusetts Town Reconnaissance Survey Reports Online

If you have ancestors from Massachusetts, you might be interested in the Reconnaissance Survey Town Reports, produced for the Massachusetts Historical Commission's Statewide Reconnaissance Survey between 1979 and 1987.

These reports provide the historical development of each of the Commonwealth’s municipalities. Each report contains an historic overview, a description of topography, and political boundaries. Each report evaluates the town’s existing historic properties inventory, highlights significant historic buildings and settlement patterns, and presents threats to these resources. A bibliography lists key secondary resources.

A Gigabit-per-Second Broadband Project Unveiled

We think of "broadband" as being high speed but, of course, everything is relative. A standard DSL connection to the home might be as slow as 256 kilobits per second although the more common speed is 768 kilobits. (A kilobit is usually written simply with the letter "k" such as 768k.) Cable modems typically run at faster speeds, such as 2 megabits per second up to 5 megabits. FIOS fiber optic cable connections default to 10 megabits per second but, for more money, you can obtain even higher speeds.

Now a new Ohio start-up company, called Gigabit Squared, has raised $200 million to fund a gigabit-per-second broadband project.

(+) 1960 U.S. Census Myths and Facts

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

The U.S. Census is very much in the news these days, and for good reasons. For the first time, the 1940 census was recently released in electronic format only. It reminds me of the controversy about the 1960 U.S. Census.

For years I have heard stories about the 1960 U.S. Census. The stories vary a bit on each telling but usually say something like, “The 1960 U.S. Census was stored on a computer media for which there no longer was any equipment to read it. The census data has been lost because of the change in technology.”

I always doubted that story. I was just starting my career in computers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and I remember well the tape drives of that era. I spent many hours repairing those half-inch and three-quarter inch tape drives that weighed 800 pounds each! I think I still could disassemble and reassemble a Honeywell 204B-9 half-inch tape drive while blindfolded. That device was a maze of electronics (without integrated circuits), disk brakes, a big vacuum pump, and numerous solenoids. Those are the tape drives shown in the background of the picture above, showing a Honeywell H-200 computer circa 1970. I used to repair and maintain those computers on customer sites.

Click on the image to see a bigger picture.

Since I am familiar with both the old and the new technologies involved, I decided to investigate the 1960 census story.

Death by Cholera

The Hartlepool (England) Mail has a grim reminder of the realities our ancestors faced in their daily lives. Reporter Chris Cordner did a bit of research and found that cholera was a common cause of death of some of his ancestors. Indeed, the same is probably true for all of us as cholera was common well into the early twentieth century.

Cholera was a terrible disease. It was an infection of the small intestine. Sufferers would develop symptoms such as abdominal cramps, a dry mouth, dry skin, excessive thirst, glassy or sunken eyes. But the most profuse signs were vomiting and diarrhea. It was caused by the contamination of food and water, usually through poor sanitation.

1940 U.S. Census Community Project Nearly Halfway Complete

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

22 May 2012

The halfway point for indexing the 1940 U.S. census is fast approaching.
 
Congratulations and thank you to all of the volunteers participating in this unprecedented genealogical community effort. Currently more than 20 states are at or above 85 percent complete. Six states—Delaware, Colorado, Kansas, Oregon, Virginia, and New Hampshire—are now indexed and searchable by name, location, and family relations. And thanks to the efforts of more than 100,000 volunteers, more states will be added in the coming weeks. Follow the day-to-day indexing status at the1940census.com dashboard and search completed states at familysearch.org/1940census.

NEHGS Wins Two Top Awards for Lowell Genealogy

The following announcement was written by the New England Historic Genealogical Society:

Scott Steward and Christopher Child Share Top Prizes from NGS and CSG
 
Boston, MA – May 22, 2012 – The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) announced today that one of its latest Newbury Street Press titles, The Descendants of Judge John Lowell of Newburyport, Massachusetts, by Scott C. Steward and Christopher C. Child, has won top honors from both the National Genealogical Society and the Connecticut Society of Genealogists. The awards were handed out at recent ceremonies hosted by each organization.

Joan Ferris Curran, R.I.P.

Friends of Joan Ferris Curran will be saddened to learn that she passed away at home on Saturday, May 19, 2012.

Jo made her home in Kansas City, Missouri since 1952. She became a Certified Genealogist who specialized in the writing and editing of family histories.

With her deep roots in both new and old England, Jo had served periodically since 1979 as a trustee and officer of the New England Historic Genealogical Society and, more recently, the Board of Certification of Genealogists and the International Society for British Genealogy and Family History. She was a member of the Mayflower Society in Kansas, Flagon and Trencher, and the most rigorous of all societies, the Descendants of Illegitimate Sons and Daughters of Kings of Britain (affectionately known as the Royal Bastards). Her various publications attest to far broader ethnic interests, however - ranging from Descendants of Augustin LeClercq (a French émigré in 1790 Ohio) to Jewish family life in Jonas and Betty (Kohn) Wollman and their Descendants. She published 10 genealogy books and pamphlets.

Census Bureau says 2010 Count was Mainly Accurate with a Possible Error of 0.01%

The U.S. Census Bureau says it probably overcounted the total U.S. population in the 2010 census by 0.01% or about 36,000 people, an improvement from the 2000 census, which had an overcount of 0.5%. In contrast, the 1940 census is estimated to have undercounted the total population was as much as 5.4%.

The 2010 census had the same problems it usually has in dealing with minorities, renters and young males. The 2010 count was short by about 1.5 million people, including about 2.1% of African Americans and 1.5% of Latinos.

You can read more in an article by Michael Muskal in the Los Angeles Times at http://goo.gl/T7uye.

(+) Converting Google Books to Text Files that can be Saved or Searched

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

A newsletter reader wrote and asked, "How can I download books from Google Books and convert them to text that I can search or save on my hard drive?"

The quick answer is, "You cannot do that easily." However, the longer answer is, "It is possible to do that if you have time, money, and computing power." Today I thought I'd describe the steps required.

On the Road Again and Headed Home

For several years, every time I went traveling to a genealogy event, I posted an article here entitled "On the Road Again" to warn readers that I would be a bit busy and not posting as many articles as usual. However, I have done that less recently as I have been traveling continuously for five months. Instead of a title of "On the Road Again," I could have written "I Am Still on the Road." On January 2, I moved into my motor home and drove to Florida. Since then, I have stayed at a number of RV (recreational vehicle) resorts around the state.

I have also frequently locked the doors of the motor home, jumped in the Mini Cooper, and driven to a nearby airport. While supposedly residing in a motor home in Florida, in the past five months I have taken "side trips" to England, Texas, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, New York, and Alberta. Two and a half weeks ago, I left Florida, driving the motor home and towing the Mini Cooper behind, to visit Ohio. I have attended the National Genealogical Society's annual conference held this year in Cincinnati and, a week later, the national ham radio conference, called the Hamvention, held in Dayton.

After five months of continuous travel, I am now headed home. Once again, for the next few days the number of articles posted here may be a bit less than normal.

Colorado Genealogical Society's Computer Interest Group at the Annual Spring Seminar Next Weekend in Denver

If you live in or near Denver, Colorado, you are invited to spend next Saturday with the Colorado Genealogical Society's Computer Interest Group at their Annual Spring Seminar. The seminar is being held on Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. I will be there also and will be giving several presentations on a variety of topics.

The Chart Chick's Quick Insider's Guide to Salt Lake City

Are you planning a trip to Salt Lake City? Do you know the best restaurants in the city? How do you find the best hamburger in Salt Lake City? How about the best Mexican food?  You can find all that and more in the free 22-page booklet entitled, The Chart Chick's Quick Insider's Guide to Salt Lake City.

For those of you who are not familiar with the "Chart Chick," that is a pseudonym used by Janet Hovorka. She and her husband Kim run Family ChartMasters, the company that produces the beautiful wall charts for genealogists. If you are not familiar with Family ChartMasters, you need to look at https://familychartmasters.com. Even though the web site shows numerous examples, you cannot appreciate these charts until you see them in person. The small image on your computer's screen doesn't do justice to these large charts.

Ohio Genealogical Society Annual Conference Call for Papers - April 25-27, 2013

The following was written by the Ohio Genealogical Society:

The Ohio Genealogical Society is accepting proposals for their 2013 Annual Conference at the Millennium Hotel in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. Deadline for submissions is 30 June 2012. Lectures will be one hour long, including a ten-minute question and answer period. Submissions for workshops, especially for Thursday afternoon, will be considered.

We are specifically looking for speakers with proposals showing how technology can benefit your research. In addition, proposals are being sought in a variety of areas including beginning genealogy, Ohio-specific topics, ethnic groups (German, African American etc.), Genetics and DNA, methodology, writing / publishing, emigration / immigration, military resources, transportation (canals, rivers, railroads), online newspapers, and proof standards. Previous speakers are encouraged to submit new or new to the Ohio conference proposals.

findmypast Adds 3.5 Million Plymouth and Devon, England, Records Online

The findmypast blog describes a huge new set of records added to the company's offerings:

Search new Plymouth and Devon parish records covering 3.5 million people and five centuries on findmypast.co.uk

These records include baptisms, marriages and burials from 1538 to 1911, making it easier than ever before to trace your Devonshire ancestors before the first census and the start of birth, marriage and death records in the 19th century.

Bay Area Immigration Records, Once Destined for Destruction, will be Released Tuesday

Tens of thousands of old West Coast immigration records the government once sought to throw away will instead become publicly available on Tuesday at a Bay Area archive.

Photographs, letters, health records, interview transcripts and other historical documents were destined for a recycling bin or a remote Midwestern storage facility. Archivists credit the advocacy of the late U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, and his successor, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, for helping to save the collection. The documents will be housed in San Bruno, at the National Archives at San Francisco, and open to the public beginning Tuesday. The records are not digitized at this time.

NGS 2013 Family History Conference Plans Announced

It is never too early to start planning! The annual conference of the National Genealogical Society was held only last week in Cincinnati but plans for next year's event have already been posted to the society's web site.

The NGS 2013 Family History Conference will be held at The LVH-Las Vegas Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mark your calendars for 8–11 May 2013.