The DAILY genealogy technology newsletter for genealogy
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Wales, East London, Sheffield/Yorkshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Plymouth & West Devon collections dating back to 1568
Links with Sheffield & District FHS, Cleveland FHS, North West Kent FHS, Montgomeryshire GS, Lincolnshire FHS, Plymouth & West Devon Record Office, Ryedale Family History Society & Welsh Archives provide massive benefits to genealogists
Leading family history website findmypast.co.uk has added over 2.2 million records within the last month alone from across the UK at their fastest ever rate. Members can now search additional parish baptism, marriage and burial records from Wales, East London, Sheffield & Yorkshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Plymouth & West Devon from 1568 right the way up to 1999 to really add detail to their family story.
Do you suffer from Paraskevidekatriaphobia? That's the morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th. According to some sources it's the most widespread superstition in the United States today. In fact, many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor.
The number 13 is considered to be unlucky in many countries. For instance:
The Turks so dislike the number 13 that it almost doesn't exist in their vocabulary. The number 13 is never spoken in polite conversation in the country.
On streets in Florence, Italy, the house between number 12 and 14 is addressed as 12 and a half.
I wrote recently (at http://eogn.com/wp/?p=21422) about the life expectancy of CD, DVD, and Blu-Ray disks. At best, all of today's factory-produced disks only last a few years. Even worse, the disks that you "burn" in your home computer may only last a year or two. To be sure, these aren't average numbers. They are "worst case" scenarios. While the averages are higher, how do you identify in advance the disks that will be on the low side of average?
One proposed solution is to write your data to the so-called "thousand year disks" offered by Millenniata. I wrote about those several years ago at http://goo.gl/Vfj0w. Now a new product has been announced that will last even longer: a million-year disk. That should be long enough for most of us.
Sometimes I long for "the good old days." This isn't one of those times.
Shisa Labs today is launching their Retro Brick Bluetooth handset. This thing looks like the ultimate ’80s status symbol, the Motorola DynaTAC. However, its a fake. Oh, it works, but not in the way you think it might.
Have you ever wondered where your ancestors came from thousands of years ago? Do you have a burning genealogical question? Are you wondering if you may have inherited a specific medical condition?
Emmy award winning Production Company is looking for people to participate in a National Geographic Special. Please send a short description of yourself, what your question(s) are and a photograph. Include your age, race, and what you know already about your ancestry. If you have a genetic health issue you’d like to know more about, please include a line about that.
The following was written by Library and Archives Canada:
A new gateway for finding out about Canada’s heritage will soon be opening up online: Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is developing a modernized website that will make it easier for you and Canadians everywhere to access its holdings. The new site includes a suite of helpful features and content, including drop-down menus, introductory and educational videos, a blog pilot project as well as quick links to LAC's social media platforms.
I am often amazed at what one person can accomplish. For instance, Glenn Wallace of Montgomery Village, Maryland, is documenting every headstone in a cemetery and is making that information available to others online. He spends six to eight hours per day — in addition to his day job as a graphic illustrator — working to archive the roughly 5,500 burials in Beallsville’s Monocacy Cemetery.
Through his research, Wallace has compiled a sort of history of Poolesville. He’s learned the stories of some of the town’s founding families as well as others.
This is a great online tool! Mollie Lynch of Clarkston, Michigan, is a retired librarian who decided to assist people wishing to find genealogy books. She knew that thousands of American biographies, genealogies and history books have been digitized and made available on the Internet, usually free of charge. However, there was no single resource of "what is available and where." Mollie decided to create that resource.
Mollie's web site, GenealogyBookLinks.com, provides links to freely available digital books, focusing on American biographies, genealogies, and history books. The site now contains more than 30,000 links from more than 35 sources (only the top sources are listed on the site). New books are being added to the list daily. The current focus is on surnames, directories, vital records, and identifying smaller sites with local area-specific books.
NOTE: This article has absolutely nothing to do with genealogy. However, I think some readers may find it useful.
I exchanged e-mail messages this week with a newsletter reader. We discussed the idea of making PDF copies of every receipt we receive for various purchases. My correspondent wrote, "If the developers of cash registers would program to include printing 2-3 codes of info on each receipt, Total $, Date, and perhaps a store ID."
I agree. Scanning of information on printed receipts could be a great time-saver, especially if that information was to be entered into a checkbook program, an income tax program, or similar applications. In fact, I do copy-and-paste my receipts into an income tax program every year.
HOWEVER, I think there is an even better solution, and it is available today. Best of all, it is quick, easy, and no scanner is required.
Arlington National Cemetery has received a lot of bad publicity in the past year or two. (See my earlier articles at http://goo.gl/1zY67.) However, nearly 400 adults, accompanied by 48 of their children, took a day off on Monday from landscaping companies in 29 states to help beautify the grounds at the famous cemetery. Adults pruned and braced trees, aerated soil and put down lime, while the children planted perennials. A local horticulturalist also was on hand to teach the children about the caterpillars and other insects they found.
Working in association with Canterbury Cathedral Archives, findmypast recently added 128,000 images of Church of England parish baptisms, marriages, banns and burials for churches in the historic Archdeaconry of Canterbury. These images cover the vast period 1538-2005.
You can browse the images by parish, event and year range. When you select a parish from the drop-down list on the search page, you’ll see the type of event (baptism, marriage, bann or burial) for each parish, as well as the dates that the records cover.
Dr. Brian Sykes is a Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford and his research for his book, The Seven Daughters of Eve, has made it possible to trace our maternal ancestry back to seven specific prehistoric women. However, his book, Adam's Curse: A Future Without Men, raises some alarming questions for the entire human race.
Sykes recently quoted work by several scientists that claim that the males of our race are in the process of becoming extinct. Scientists say there's no question about it.
The following was written by the staff at Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine:
The UK’s Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine featuring articles about tracing British and Irish family history, has launched on the Apple newsstand and is offering its March 2012 issue for just 99¢ for a limited period. The March issue was a British Army special edition but also has, amongst others, articles on tracing Lancashire ancestors, the bicycle industry and Thames Watermen. You can also download the current August issue for $6.99 including a huge free database of memorial inscriptions from Worcestershire plus tips on researching occupation records, how to track down land tax records and lots more. So, if you have an iPad and want to try out this title, visit the Apple newsstand.
Family Tree is the replacement for New.FamilySearch.org. Writing in his Genealogy's Star blog, James Tanner has described several new changes in some detail.
Unlike the earlier New.FamilySearch.org which has always been restricted to use by LDS members and a few other invited guests, the newer FamilySearch Family Tree is available to everyone who wants to register (or who has already registered). Access is available to all free of charge.
Debra Osborne Spindle has written about a a great online resource for anyone researching pre-statehood Oklahoma ancestry. First, she quotes the web site's description:
The Incorporation Records for the Oklahoma and Indian Territories have been digitized in a joint project with the Oklahoma Historical Society and the Oklahoma Secretary of State’s Office. The ledger books were generated by the Territorial secretary as new businesses and municipalities began conducting business. There are 27 volumes of Oklahoma Territory Incorporation Records and 15 volumes for Indian Territory. Some examples of the entries found in the ledgers include: Agreement & Incorporation, Incorporation Amendment, Appointment of Agent, Dissolution, as well as lease and mortgage transactions. The entries begin in 1890 and continue until statehood is established in 1907.
Dropbox is a company mentioned often in this newsletter. (See http://goo.gl/dzJIr for a list of past articles.) Today, the company announced that it is doubling the amount of storage in two of its plans aimed at consumers, and introducing a third category that allows for up to 500 gigabytes of storage. That is enough storage to hold about 75,000 songs, the contents of a bookshelf 5,000 yards long or about 45 hours of high-definition video from the latest smartphones.
NOTE: This change only affects Dropbox Pro users: those who pay for more than the two gigabytes of free storage space. The storage available for free users remains unchanged at two gigabytes.
Starting today, Dropbox Pro users have twice the amount of storage space they had previously, all at no extra charge. If you previously had 50 gigabytes available, you now have 100 gigabytes. You also can send others a 100 gigabyte 3-month trial for the online sharing and syncing service.
The picture to the right shows Sandra Sadowski standing between British and American forces reenactors at Fort George, Niagara-on-the-Lake. You can click on the image to see a larger picture.
The following was written by Peter Konieczny and Sandra Sadowski:
Peter Konieczny and Sandra Sadowski, future-minded historians whose websites have attracted audiences from 170 countries and a social media following of more than 50,000, have launched www.thewarof1812.net to spread the word about a conflict many Canadians know virtually nothing about.
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
76 million much-anticipated state census, naturalization, immigration, and vital records were added this week for 22 states, including Ohio, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Since partnering with the National Archives of Italy to digitally preserve and index its civil registration, more than 24 million images have been published and 4 million names have been made searchable on FamilySearch.org. Millions more free records were published this week for Armenia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, and Switzerland. Search these diverse collections and 2.8 billion other records for free at FamilySearch.org.
Patricia Van Skaik, department manager of the genealogy and local history department at the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County and a well-known genealogy lecturer, received the Griffin Yeatman Award from Hamilton County Recorder Wayne Coates. The award recognizes those who volunteer time and services to historic preservation of buildings, sites, structures, memorabilia, research and documents concerning the history of Hamilton County.
Through the efforts of Van Skaik, she coordinated entry of local history into Newsdex (local newspaper index), created a library achieves by video recording 350 World War II and Korean War veterans submitting them to the Library of Congress, mounted an Exhibit to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the 1937 flood and created enumeration district map overlays of the 1940 Hamilton County map.
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