Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Smartphones Provide "Electronic Tour" of Berlin Jewish Cemeteries

Visitors to Berlin, Germany's Jewish cemeteries can now use their smartphones to take an "electronic tour" that provides information about people buried there.

There is a QR code at the entrance of each cemetery which can be scanned by a smartphone and directly connects to the cemeteries' website. Each smartphone's built-in GPS capability enables visitors to plan their own "tour," choosing among about 160 of the 150,000 graves in the three Berlin cemeteries.

You can learn more in an article in Reuters news service at http://goo.gl/CwS3U.

One in Every Three American Internet Users Owns a Tablet Computer of Some Kind

I have written often about tablet computers.  I believe these small devices will revolutionize the use of personal computers. For roughly 30 years, we have thought of personal computers as devices that have a keyboard, a display screen, and (more recently) a mouse. We also assume we always use them while seated at a desk or table or perhaps while holding them in our laps. However, the design and use of computers is now changing rapidly. These changes will have long-term implications for genealogy software as well as almost every other imaginable software product.

According to a new survey by the Online Publishers Association (OPA), one third of all Internet users in the U.S. now own tablet computers. That statistic includes both complete computers as well as specialized e-book "readers." What amazes me is the growth of these portable devices: a year ago the tablet owners only accounted for 12 percent of the Internet users. That percentage has nearly tripled in 12 months. The OPA also projects that approximately 47 per cent of U.S. Internet users will own tablets by the summer of 2013.

National Genealogical Society Announces Two Research Trips to Salt Lake City, Utah

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

Arlington, VA, 14 June 2012: Join the National Genealogical Society for a weeklong guided research trip to the world renowned Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Researchers can choose to attend 21–28 October 2012 or 6–13 January 2013. NGS offers a substantial discount with early bird pricing if you register for the 21–28 October trip by 15 July and register for the 6–13 January trip by 15 October.

The hosts for the October 2012 trip are Sandra MacLean Clunies, CG^sm, and Shirley Wilcox, CG^sm, and the January 2013 hosts are Marie Varrelman Melchiori, CG^sm, CGL^sm,  and Shirley Wilcox, CG^sm. These experts, all certified genealogists, are available to the attendees all week long to help them focus their research work and to take the utmost advantage of the Family History Library resources.

FamilySearch Adds Millions of Historic Records for England, Scotland, Slovakia, and the U.S.

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

21 June 2012

Millions of Historic Records Added for England, Scotland, Slovakia, and the U.S.

More Searchable Records Online for the 1940 US Census

FamilySearch published 25 million new, free records online for Austria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, England, Hungary, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, and the United States. Keep up on the 1940 U.S. Census Community Project online, or search the 20 completed states at FamilySearch.org/1940census. Search these diverse collections and 2.8 billion other records for free at FamilySearch.org.

Legacy Family Tree Now Available in French Language

The following announcement was written by Millennia Corporation:

Surprise, Arizona, June 21, 2012 - Millennia Corporation, a leader in family history software and genealogy webinars, today announced that its software, Legacy Family Tree, is now available in the French language.

The software, used by beginners and professionals to record, plan, and share their family trees, is now the premier choice for French researchers. Legacy is also available in Afrikaans, Czech, Danish, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Swedish, and English languages.

Heredis Launches New Blue Suite of Genealogy Programs for Macintosh and for iOS

The following announcement was written by Heredis, a genealogy software producer based in France. The new software is available in both French and English. Heredis genealogy software has been available for several years but today's release describes an all-new release. Note that today's announcement also briefly mentions a new Windows version to become available on July 4th:

Heredis for Mac is changing genealogy. Using all the latest development technologies, it is based on an environment entirely re-thought from A to Z. Compatible with Mac, PC and iOS platforms, it will communicate with the Heredis Blue Suite. The Heredis Blue Suite is re-inventing genealogy and offers a whole new vision of this science, because all the Heredis programs communicate with each other. It offers a unique range of programs adapted to each genealogy, be it for Mac, for PC or for iOS.

Family Tree Magazine (in the U.K.) Announces a Combined Print and Digital Subscription

The following announcement was written by Family Tree Magazine in England (http://family-tree.co.uk/), not to be confused with a magazine of the same name that is published in the United States (http://www.familytreemagazine.com/):

Family Tree is proud to announce a family history first – a combined print and digital subscription! Now readers can access their favourite genealogy magazine as soon as it comes out, at any time, anywhere in the world.

When taking out a combined print and digital subscription, not only do you make great savings on your print magazine, you also receive a heavily discounted digital copy of Family Tree, priced at just 39p per issue.

Microsoft Announces Skype & 3rd party VoIP Integration for Windows Phone 8

Microsoft has announced the expansion of voice over Internet protocol telephony (VoIP) for Windows Phone 8, enabling the integration of Skype into the phone's operating system in addition to any other 3rd party VoIP applications.

NOTE #1: This is ONLY for the upcoming release of Windows Phone 8 for cell phones, not to be confused with the future release of Windows 8 for desktop, laptop, and tablet computers.

NOTE #2: Skype is now a wholly-owned division of Microsoft. See http://goo.gl/owJtR for details.

Skype and other VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) applications will be able to manage calls across both wi-fi and cellular data connections. In addition, Bluetooth connectivity will also "just work" with Skype and other VoIP apps.

The Internet Archive

Is this the world's largest library?

The Internet Archive, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, is building a digital library of books, papers, recordings, movies, Internet sites, and much more. Like many other libraries, this digital library provides free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public. This is a great resource for genealogists and many, many others.

The Internet Archive is attempting to store more than just the Internet. In fact, the organization hopes to store either an original or a copy of every book ever published, every movie, every video, every newspaper, every sound recording (and it has some great recordings of Grateful Dead concerts that were never released previously), old time radio shows, and even a broad range of software-related materials including shareware, freeware, video news releases about software titles, speed runs of actual software game play, previews and promos for software games, high-score and skill replays of various game genres, and the art of filmmaking with real-time computer game engines. Whew!

Susan Old, R.I.P.

Susan Old passed away quietly at home in Wadebridge, Cornwall, England on June 17 at the age of 67. She was she was a well-known genealogy researcher who shared immensely with others, both expert and novice.  She also was a respected member of the Cornwall Family History Society as well as The Old Cornwall Society and others.

Susan's obituary may be found at http://www.rjbray.co.uk/obituaries.html.

My thanks to Scott Phillips for telling me the sad news.

Ginger Goodell is Recipient of the Walter Lee Sheppard Jr. Prize

The following announcement was written by the Samford University's Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research:

Ginger Goodell of San Luis Obispo, California, has been named the 2012 recipient of the Walter Lee Sheppard Jr. Prize, bestowed annually upon genealogists who demonstrate sound practices and exceptional potential. Candidates for the award are drawn from the Advanced Research Methodology and Evidence Analysis track at Samford University's Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research. The stipend awarded to each recipient covers the preliminary and final application fees for pursuing certification by the Board for Certification of Genealogists.

Will Your Next PC be Built by Microsoft?

In announcing the Surface tablet computers on Monday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer surprised many people by quietly announcing that Microsoft will start building its own computers.

Ballmer cited Apple's advantage (without mentioning Apple) of integrated software and hardware. "Things work better when hardware and software are considered together," he said. "We control it all, we design it all, and we manufacture it all ourselves."

Participatory Archives

Writing in the Library of Congress' Digital Preservation blog, Emily Reynolds described a recent talk by Kate Theimer of the popular blog ArchivesNext. Theimer is a prominent voice in the archival community, frequently writing and speaking about archival advocacy issues as well as the challenges and opportunities that technology and the Internet offer for cultural heritage institutions.

Theimer spoke on the subject of participatory archives, highlighting the ways that archives can use crowdsourcing projects to increase user engagement and understanding, while also enhancing the information and resources that they provide. The majority of well-known participatory archive projects allow users to add metadata to digital objects (in the form of tagging or transcription), and many successful examples of these projects have been undertaken by a wide range of institutions in recent years.

State Library of North Carolina and the State Archives of North Carolina Win National Digital Stewardship Alliance Innovation Award

The following is from the Government and Heritage Library Blog of the State Library of North Carolina at http://statelibrarync.org/news/:

We’re so pleased to announce that the State Library of North Carolina and the State Archives of North Carolina have together won won a National Digital Stewardship Alliance Innovation Award for our digital preservation outreach efforts.

The National Digital Stewardship Alliance, or NDSA, with members from all types of institutions around the country, works to “establish, maintain, and advance the capacity to preserve our nation’s digital resources for the benefit of present and future generations.” The Innovation Awards “highlight and commend creative individuals, projects, organizations, and future stewards demonstrating originality and excellence in their contributions to the field of digital preservation.” We won the institution category!

Help Wanted for a Spanish Clooz Version

Clooz is (or was) a great program for cataloging all the scraps of information found when researching one's family tree. Late last year, the program was acquired by Joe Bissett of Somerset, Texas. Bissett has plans to re-release Clooz at some point in the future, with updates to templates, reports and other customer requests. The new version reportedly is looking good.

Writing in the Clooz Newsletter #4 at http://goo.gl/YIB9e, Joe has expressed an interest in creating a Spanish version of Clooz and has asked for suggestions and discussion. He writes:

(+) How to Encrypt All Your Data Being Stored on Dropbox

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

Note: This is an updated version of an article I published last year. Several details have changed since then so I have updated the article.

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.

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.

Controversy about Michelle Obama's Ancestry

A bit of controversy is swirling about concerning the ancestry of First Lady Michelle Obama. Megan Smolenyak, author of Hey, America, Your Roots Are Showing, first reported Michelle Obama's family tree in several web articles, including the New York Times at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/10/08/us/politics/20091008-obama-family-tree.html. Now one of the reporters for the original New York Times article, Rachel L. Swarns, has published a rather different version in her new book, American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White, and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama.  In fact, some of the claims made in the new book are offered without citations or any other form of independent proof.

The Immigrant with Charlie Chaplin

Let's hope that your ancestors didn't suffer ALL the indignities that Charlie Chaplin encountered in this old-time silent movie. However, I'd bet at least some of the scenes are based on true events. The images of Ellis Island certainly were exactly what your ancestors saw upon arrival, if they arrived at New York City during the years that the immigration portal was in use.

This is twenty minutes of Charlie Chaplin at his best. Only the first few minutes of the movie show the crossing on the rolling steamship, however, followed by a very brief look at Ellis Island. We can assume that many of our ancestors laughed at these movies although they certainly are not very sophisticated by today's standards.

FamilySearch has a Growing Need for International Indexers

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

18 June 2012

Growing Need for International Indexers

More than 120 projects are currently available from countries outside the U.S., representing 16 languages. Since the first of the year, new projects have been launched from Bolivia, Paraguay, Switzerland, and the Philippines. Later this year, FamilySearch indexing plans to release projects for Armenia, Costa Rica, Denmark, Ecuador, Micronesia, Panama, Slovakia, and Sri Lanka. More indexers with non-English language expertise are needed to help make these records searchable online.

Join this exciting community effort to make records searchable online and ensure our ancestors are remembered by visiting indexing.familysearch.org.

Read this Newsletter on your iPhone or Android Device

I added a new feature to this newsletter today: you can now read it on your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, or any Android smartphone or tablet. To do so, go to http://wbxapp.com/eogn or click on any of the links available in the newsletter. You can find a link in the header of every page as well as in the menus down the right side of most newsletter pages.

You can also use an address of http://eogn.com/mobile. Either URL will take you to the same place.

This site has long had a link to a special version for users of mobile phones but I have now found a service I like better at WidgetBox. If you run a web site, you might want to check out WidgetBox at http://www.widgetbox.com/. However, it is not a free service.