Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Magherafelt (Northern Ireland) District Council Launches New Genealogy Web Site

The Magherafelt (Northern Ireland) District Council has launched a new state-of-the-art website www.magherafelt.gov.uk.

Michael Browne explained, “Since the council opened its Tourist Information Office 15 years ago, it receives almost daily enquiries relating to genealogy from people all over the world. The idea is to have uploaded photos and maps of local gravestones and graveyards to give people a starting point in their quests.”

Her car is 82. She’s 102.

Margaret Dunning of Plymouth, Michigan is a typical American driver. She likes to drive and she takes good care of her cars. She even changes her own oil. She not only changes the oil, she says, but the spark plugs as well.

One thing that might be unusual is that Margaret Dunning owns several cars but her favorite is her 1930 Packard 740 Roadster. Margaret exhibited the Packard recently at the 18th annual Glenmoor Gathering of Significant Automobiles at Glenmoor Country Club. Oh yes, there's one other unusual thing: Margaret claims to be the only automobile owner at the antique car club who is older than her automobile. It seems that Margaret is 102 years old. She has had a driver's license for for 90 years.

Using WorldCat to Find Genealogy Books

WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. It is an online library catalog that lets you look up items in libraries around the world. The items available include books, electronic documents, journals, microform, and audio and video recordings.

Best of all, WorldCat is available to everyone free of charge. WorldCat libraries provide access to their catalogs on the Web, where most people start their search for information. By using the WorldCat.org catalog, you can search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world.

Fold3 Adds WWII Draft Registration Cards from North Carolina

Fold3 has started adding a huge online resource. At this time, it appears that only North Carolina records are available. The following announcement was written by Fold3:

On Wednesday, October 16, 1940, 25-year-old Beuford Astor Bost stood in line at his local draft board in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, to register for the first peace-time draft in U.S. history. He was one of over 16 million men throughout the country to do so that day. Bost was 5’ 8” tall, 152 pounds, with blue eyes, brown hair, and a light complexion. He worked at a soda shop located at 831 North Tyron Street in Charlotte. His mother, Ethel Lee Bost, lived in Concord, NC.

Origins.net adds Lancashire Wills Index (1457-1748 & 1793-1812) and Surrey PCC Will Abstracts (1736-1794)

The following announcement was written by Origins.net:

New to the National Wills Index - Lancashire Wills Index (1457-1748 & 1793-1812) and Surrey PCC Will Abstracts (1736-1794)

Lancashire Wills Index (1457-1748 & 1793-1812)

Over 32,600 testators are now available for searching online within the Lancashire Wills Index. The Archdeaconry of Richmond comprised that part of Lancashire north of the River Ribble, and parts of Cumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire. It was further subdivided into deaneries. Wills from the western deaneries from following Lancashire & Cheshire Record Society volumes are included in this collection:

(+) Crowdsourcing: the Most Valuable Genealogy Tool of the 21st Century? (So Far)

The following article was written by and is copyright by Dick Eastman.

Wikipedia (which is itself a crowd-sourced collection of information) defines crowdsourcing as "a process that involves outsourcing tasks to a distributed group of people. This process can occur both online and offline. The difference between crowdsourcing and ordinary outsourcing is that a task or problem is outsourced to an undefined public rather than a specific body, such as paid employees."

Wikipedia then adds a bit more detail: "Crowdsourcing is a distributed problem-solving and production model. In the classic use of the term, problems are broadcast to an unknown group of solvers in the form of an open call for solutions. Users—also known as the crowd—submit solutions. Solutions are then owned by the entity that broadcast the problem in the first place—the crowdsourcer. The contributor of the solution is, in some cases, compensated either monetarily, with prizes, or with recognition. In other cases, the only rewards may be kudos or intellectual satisfaction. Crowdsourcing may produce solutions from amateurs or volunteers working in their spare time, or from experts or small businesses which were unknown to the initiating organization."

Announcing GenerousGenealogists.com

Several new websites have been launched recently that hoped to replace the popular RAOGK (Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness) site that went off line last year, following the death of its founder, Bridgett Schneider. So far, none of these new sites have managed to attract a large crowd of enthusiastic volunteers. Still another site has recently been launched and this one possibly could become the replacement for RAOGK.

The new group is led by Mark Rabideau who did the organizing and programming. GenerousGenealogists.com is brand-new and only has a handful of volunteers so far. However, the new site is inviting others to look at the site and, if interested, to join in. As you would expect, GenerousGenealogists.com provides services completely free of charge. Voluntary donations are appreciated, however. Donations may be made by PayPal.

King Richard III's Grave Possibly Discovered In The UK

Archaeologists searching for the grave of King Richard III say they have found bones that are consistent with the 15th century monarch's physical abnormality and of a man who died in battle. (See my earlier article at http://goo.gl/uT41Z that describes the search.)

Richard Buckley, co-director of the University of Leicester's Archaeological Services, said the bones are a "prime candidate" to be Richard's. The remains are now being examined and the team hopes that DNA can be recovered to aid identification.

Researchers are not yet saying that it is King Richard III pending further tests. However, preliminary examination does look hopeful. William Shakespeare, writing more than a century after Richard's death, described the king as "deform'd, unfinished." Researchers said the skeleton displayed spinal abnormalities consistent with contemporary accounts of Richard's appearance.

The Truth About George Clooney's Irish Roots

A television documentary earlier this year focused on George Clooney's Irish ancestry, involving a journey of 3000 miles from Kilkenny to Kentucky. There is but one problem: a highly-respected Irish genealogy research company now says the documentary featured the wrong people.

Clooney's ancestors did, in fact, originate in Knockeen, Windgap in South Kilkenny. New research has shown that most of the story displayed on television has no factual basis. Despite claims in the television documentary, researchers from Eneclann, the country’s most respected genealogist specialists, now say the Clooney family were not evicted during the Famine, but remained on their land until the mid 1850s when it was sold as a bankrupt’s estate.

Grave Dowsing for Genealogists

I have written before about grave dowsing (see http://goo.gl/gqCiZ for my past articles). Many people dispute the effectiveness of searching for graves this way but public demonstrations often demonstrate that it works. Writing this week in the Sand Mountain Reporter, Lionel Green describes one recent public demonstration given to the Boaz Chapter of the NorthEast Alabama Genealogical Society (NEAGS).

The online article includes a picture of Rodentown resident Wayne Gregg in the midst of a demonstration on the art of grave dowsing. Gregg used the rods to effectively identify the gender, positioning and even the height of bodies buried in the cemetery as he showed how grave dowsing is a useful tool in the study of genealogy.

Purchase a Bit of your Irish Ancestral Homeland

Whether you are from Ireland or even if your family emigrated from the island several generations ago, you can now own a wee bit of Irish soil. You don't even have to go to Ireland to see it. You can keep it on the mantlepiece or anyplace else you wish.

Yes, this is a bit of a joke. It isn't worth... well, dirt. However, for anyone with a sense of humor, Auld Sod Gifts is selling a canister of real Irish soil from County Tipperary.

IPM LifeKeep Ltd Launches Secure Life Management and Social Network Application

I have not had a chance to use this new iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch program but the announcement looks interesting. While it is not a true genealogy application, it does have some uses that will interest genealogists, especially the ability to store all your photos, personal archives, documents and more. Everything can securely be saved on LifeKeep’s proprietary servers in Switzerland and retrieved from your iPhone or iPad at any time.

The following announcement was written by IPM LifeKeep Ltd:

Manage and Share your day-to-day life securely

Palo Alto, September 17th, 2012 — Palo Alto-based IPM LifeKeep Ltd. announces the launch of LifeKeep, a free iPhone and iPad application and of its web based service, LifeKeep.com.

“We took full advantage of the 4G revolution, the desire for mobility and the need for personal digital archiving and we created a truly comprehensive Life Management tool that will free people from a lot of constraints” says Jacques Mechelany, Founder and CEO of IPM LifeKeep Ltd.

Volunteer Rescues Pennsylvania Cemetery

Scott Hunsinger, his two brothers, Paul and Bob; his three children, Hailey, Matthew and Frankie; his wife, Stephanie; and his nephew, P.J.; have worked together to transform Shady Lane Cemetery in South Abington Township (near Scranton, Pennsylvania) into pristine condition. The place had been plagued by fallen trees, collapsed headstones, trash and uncut grass.

Scott now spends roughly 30 hours a week at the cemetery and he even bought a tractor and chain saw to help keep the overgrowth under control. That's impressive for an unpaid volunteer!

An Online Petition to Halt the Closure of the Georgia State Archives

As mentioned in yesterday's newsletter at http://goo.gl/4IDLq, the Georgia State Archives in Morrow, GA will be closed to the public starting November 1, 2012. Georgia will then be the only state not to have archives open to the public.

A group of concerned Georgia genealogists, historians, and others have started an online petition asking for reconsideration of this drastic plan. The goal is to gather 10,000 signatures. At this time, nearly half that number has already been collected but more signatures are needed. You can sign the petition at http://www.change.org/petitions/the-governor-of-ga-leave-our-state-archives-open-to-the-public

Most Popular Baby Names from 1901

Now perhaps you can see where Great-Aunt Mildred got her name. The Social Security Administration has released a list of the ten most popular names for girls born in 1901 and another list for the boys. You can see them at http://goo.gl/n6mTx.

National Archives in New York City to Move to Custom House

The National Archives and Records Administration is to move its New York facility to a new site in late October: the Alexander Hamilton United States Custom House at 1 Bowling Green in Lower Manhattan. The move will provide greater visibility for the institution and make its holdings more accessible to the public, archive officials said.

You can read the full story in an article by Felicia R. Lee in the New York Times at http://goo.gl/O7jV6.

Meet Your Ancestors in Your Living Room Holodeck?

Microsoft's Xbox gaming system is very much part of today's popular culture, and the Xbox 360 is expected to be superseded by a successor in 2013. However, Microsoft is looking even further forward than that, with a recently revealed patent application suggesting the company wants to turn living rooms into something similar to the holodecks featured in the television series and movie, Star Trek.

NOTE:  A holodeck is “A room that provides holographic simulations for recreation, training, etc.,” according to dictionary.com.

Microsoft patent application number 20120223885, as filed in 2011, relates to an "immersive display experience." It describes a system for bringing console gaming out from the television screen and into the real world. The humble television set would still show the game's main visuals, but a "peripheral image" would be displayed onto all four walls of the room being used. The game's environment would then surround the player with a depth-sensing camera system (Kinect is already capable of this) tracking the player's position so that they can, for example, "turn around and observe an enemy sneaking up from behind."

In Star Trek, the holodecks are enclosed rooms in which environments, objects, and people are displayed as though they were real. Microsoft appears to be planning something similar. Obviously, this will allow for creation of some great computer games. However, I have to believe there will be many other applications as well. Science classes will be able to "fly through" a compound's molecular structure. Surgeons can use micro-miniature television cameras to peer inside a person's body (this is already being done today in non-hologram applications) and to "fly through" the body looking for medical problems.

Georgia State Archives to be Closed to the Public!

Threats have been made before (see http://goo.gl/ohxGr) but now the orders have been given. Effective November 1, 2012, the Georgia State Archives located in Morrow, GA will be closed to the public. The public will only be allowed to access the building by a limited number of  appointments. However, if enough opposition is generated, there is a chance this order could be overturned.

The following statement was issued by Jared S. Thomas, Press Secretary for Brian P. Kemp, Secretary of State for Georgia:

The [Georgia] Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget has instructed the Office of the Secretary of State to further reduce its budget for AFY13 and FY14 by 3% ($732,626).  As it has been for the past two years, these cuts do not eliminate excess in the agency, but require the agency to further reduce services to the citizens of Georgia.  As an agency that returns over three times what is appropriated back to the general fund, budget cuts present very challenging decisions.  We have tried to protect the services that the agency provides in support of putting people to work, starting small businesses, and providing public safety.

Deceased Online adds Royal Greenwich Burial Records

• The following was written by Deceased Online:

Two cemeteries' data in historic London borough available now, three more to follow soon

• Burial records for the five cemeteries managed by the Royal Borough of Greenwich in South East London are being added to www.deceasedonline.com
• All records for Eltham Cemetery and over half for Greenwich Cemetery can now be accessed with the rest to follow within the next week

Get a Pogoplug Family Cloud-Storage Bundle for $29

I love bargains. Especially computer bargains. Rick Broida writes a column on C|Net called "The Cheapskate" that I always read as he writes about hardware and software bargains. Today's article caught my eye: the Pogoplug Family backup with Pogoplug Mobile for $29 per year. Shipping adds $9.95.

This is cheap!

Pogoplug Family is the new Pogoplug cloud-storage service that gives you 100 gigabytes of online backup space for up to three users. Normally it costs $29 per year all by itself. This bundle gives you the Pogoplug Mobile (normally $49.95) as well, allowing you to add a local component to your backup solution.