Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Now This is a Book Scanner!

I have written before about book scanners. You place the book in the scanner, press a button, and then walk away for a while as the scanner turns pages automatically and creates a digital image of every page in the book. It employs a robotic mechanism to flip through the book and has cameras that take an image of each page.

With most book scanners, you don't even need to cut the bindings off the books being scanned. Now newsletter reader Jay Crossman wrote to let me know of a new beast to be available soon that will scan 250 pages per minute. That's roughly 4 pages per second!

Data for 15 More Scottish Cemeteries Added to Deceased Online

The following announcement was written by Deceased Online:

Thousands of memorial inscriptions for burial grounds from the Western Isles to the East coast

A Sneak Preview of Morpeth's Roll

Irish genealogists may never have heard of Morpeth's Roll. After all, it has not been seen in public in the past 170 years. However, it is about to become visible to all online.

The Morpeth Roll is a unique testimonial document signed by over 275,000 people across Ireland in 1841, on the departure of George Howard, Lord Morpeth, from the office of Chief Secretary for Ireland. The Morpeth Roll is scheduled to go on public display until next year. However, Christopher Ridgway, curator of Castle Howard, the UK stately home where the Roll was discovered, will display the real thing at a conference entitled The Gathering: Local History, Heritage and Diaspora, on 24 November. As well as explaining what it is, he will be talking about its potential value as a pre-famine census substitute for Irish genealogy research.

The Testimonal Roll, which is wrapped around a gigantic bobbin, is 429 meters (1,407 feet) in length and holds around 250,000 signatures gathered from across the whole of Ireland in just four weeks.

Thanksgiving in the U.S. is a Great Time to Talk to Your Relatives

Those of us who are in or from the United States will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week. We don’t usually think of this as a genealogy holiday. However, when you think about it, there is a strong “ancestral” connotation involved, even for those of us whose ancestors did not travel on the Mayflower in 1620.

Thanksgiving is a time when we pay homage to all our ancestors who traveled to a strange land to find a better life for themselves, for their children, and for succeeding generations. This is equally true for ancestors who arrived in the twentieth century as well as earlier years. We should all give thanks to our ancestors for helping to establish our American way of life and ensuring that we are a part of it.

The First Thanksgiving was Held Where?

Where was the first Thanksgiving held in North America? If you guessed Plymouth, Massachusetts, guess again. In fact, that probably was not even the second or third Thanksgiving, although we cannot be certain.

On April 30, 1598, Spanish nobleman Don Juan de Oñate and a group of settlers traveling northward from Zacatecas, Nueva España (now Mexico), reached the banks of El Rio Bravo (Rio Grande). The first recorded act of thanksgiving by colonizing Europeans on this continent occurred on that April day in 1598 in Nuevo Mexico, about 25 miles south of what is now El Paso, Texas.

After having begun their northward trek in March of that same year, the entire caravan was gathered at this point. The 400-person expedition included soldiers, families, servants, personal belongings, and livestock. Two thirds of the colonizers were from the Iberian Peninsula (Spain, Portugal, and the Canary Islands). There was even one from Greece and another from Flanders. The rest were Mexican Indians and mestizos (mixed bloods).

Eneclann and Ancestor Network Announce Online Irish Genealogy Lecture Notes

The following announcement was written by Eneclann and the Ancestor Network:

In August 2012, the NLI hosted the “20x20” lunchtime series of talks on Irish family history.

Organised by Eneclann and Ancestor Network, the assembled experts included genealogists and broadcasters, librarians and archivists, writers and publishers, academics and a medical geneticist.  The wide range of expertise on show every day was a show-case of Irish genealogy at its best.
 
Each expert held the floor for 20 minutes, and spoke about an aspect of their own work and its relevance for Irish family history.  Each talk was followed by a Q&A session, which gave the audience direct access to the speaker.

RootsMagic Version 6 Released

RootsMagic is one of the most popular genealogy programs available for Windows. The producing company has now released a new version. One thing that caught my eye is the web sites provided by the company: enter your data, specify a few options,and upload your data to the web for others to see.

The following announcement was written by RootsMagic, Inc.:

SPRINGVILLE, Utah. — November 19, 2012 — RootsMagic, Inc. today announced the official release of RootsMagic 6, the latest version of the award-winning genealogy software which makes researching, organizing, and sharing your family history easy and enjoyable. With this release comes an update to the popular “RootsMagic Essentials” free genealogy software.

(+) How to Preserve Water-Soaked Books and Papers in an Emergency

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

The recent "superstorm" Sandy in the northeastern United States taught all of us again that paper is a very fragile storage medium for old records. However, paper is also the most common storage method in use today. The news reports from Sandy told of numerous libraries, public records offices, and more that had water in their offices. In some cases, the water reached records that should be saved for centuries. Many families also lost family documents, old photos, and even examples of their children's art work. Unfortunately, water-soaked paper documents will only last for a few days unless treated immediately.

Updated Ancestry Android App Now Available

There is a new version of the Ancestry Android App available in the Google Playstore. The latest version apparently does not add any new functionality but does include bug fixes. That app does allow you to build, update, and show off your online family tree.

The updated Ancestry Android App lets you interact with your Ancestry.com family trees stored online or build a new family tree from scratch. You can add or edit family members and even upload photos. While visiting a relative, an ancestral home, or a cemetery, take a picture and add it to your tree instantly.

You can learn more at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ancestry.android.apps.ancestry.

 

Millions of Pages of Historical British Newspapers added to findmypast.co.uk

findmypast.co.uk has just published millions of pages of historical newspapers from across England, Wales and Scotland. The new collection contains local newspapers for the period 1710-1950. More than 200 titles are included and the company promises to add still more.

You can read more in the findmypast.co.uk blog at http://goo.gl/upSOR.

Call for Papers Open for International Conference on Jewish Genealogy

The following announcement was written by the International Conference on Jewish Genealogy:

Boston - The 33rd IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, the leading conference on Jewish genealogy, has announced the Call for Papers.

There will be 200 programs featured during the conference. Proposals for presentations including lectures, workshops, and panel discussions are welcomed. The planners encourage proposals on all relevant topics, but they are especially interested in talks on practical research methodologies, worldwide research sources, guidance for beginners, and resources and Jewish history in the New England area.

(+) Windows is No Longer the Most Popular Operating System

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

Windows has outsold Macintosh by eight to one to perhaps ten to one in the past few years, according to most reports. Therefore, most computer owners believe that Windows is the most popular operating system in the world. Until a few months ago, they would have been right. In recent months, however, a new "dark horse" candidate has revolutionized the computer marketplace. Now Windows is the second-most popular operating system in the world and is in danger of slipping into third place.

Announcing the Mocavo $25,000 Community Digitization Grant

If you are involved in a genealogy or historical society and if that organization has a lot of materials available, you will be interested in this generous offer. The following announcement was written by Mocavo:

At Mocavo we are working with our online community to bring all of the world’s genealogical information online for free putting everyone’s family history within reach. Through ReadyMicro, Mocavo’s digitization group, we are pleased to make available a $25,000 grant to enable other stewards of genealogical content to share that information with the world.

Mocavo seeks proposals from organizations that care for genealogical content, archives, or historical records that they wish to make freely available online.  Materials proposed for digitization and/or indexing should be unique and provide clear value to a broad number of genealogists. ReadyMicro will digitize these materials and, in collaboration with the grant recipient, extract associated metadata.  Mocavo will create an online database from the collection which will be freely available at Mocavo.com as well as the grant recipient’s website.

New York's World War II Soldier Data Now Available Online

When 28,969 New York National Guard soldiers mobilized in the fall of 1940 as the United States prepared for war, clerks filled out six-by-four inch cards on each individual. Now, thanks to a team of 15 volunteers, those records — listing names, serial number, home and unit, and later annotated with hand-written notes on whether or not the soldier was killed or wounded — are available online from the New York State Military Museum. Volunteers spent a year keying the information on the cards into Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Information available includes date, city, state and country of birth; ID number; hometown, unit; rank; as well as enlistment and separation dates.

Deceased Online Adds Cemetery Records for Heaton

The following announcement was written by Deceased Online:

With over 95,000 burial records, Heaton is the second cemetery managed by Bolton Council to be added to Deceased Online

Following the launch last week of Tonge Cemetery, the inclusion of all data for Heaton brings the size of the database for the area to 211,000 burials

The data for Heaton Cemetery commences with the first burials in 1879 through to 2012 and comprises:

New eBook: Bring Your Ancestors to Life Using Newspapers

EasyFamilyHistory.com has announced a new e-book by Paul Larsen called Bring Your Ancestors to Life Using Newspapers. The announcement for the new book states, "Archived newspapers allow you to tap into a reliable source of hundreds of years of history, and give you the remarkable ability to see it through eyewitness accounts. You can easily explore your family tree and bring your family history to life for free using historical newspapers... if you know where to look."

Update: Military Museum Friends Group Fires Employee with Prior Theft Conviction

Two days ago, I wrote about a former New York State Archivist who was sent to jail for stealing hundreds of historic documents from his (now former) employer and sold them for his own profit. He served his time and was released. He then obtained a job working in the bookstore of a state-owned museum. Apparently the resulting publicity backfired. The Saratogian news web site reports that unnamed state officials insisted the former archivist be fired. His employment was terminated yesterday.

Mocavo Announces Free Scanning Service

I would expect this to become a VERY popular service. Let the experts do all the work, using high-quality industrial-grade scanners. You also cannot beat the price: FREE.

The following announcement was written by Mocavo:

It always seems like there aren't enough hours in the day or enough days in the week, doesn't it? Take a look around you. Do you have piles of research laying around? Old books gathering dust? Historical documents sitting in boxes?

From now until the end of the year we will scan your documents, send you a digital copy, and put them online at Mocavo -- for FREE! We work with our community to bring all of the world’s genealogical information online for free putting everyone’s family history within reach. We are bringing lots and lots of historical information and databases to Mocavo; but, don’t let us have all the fun. Join in!

NEHGS Wins Award for Hannah Mather Crocker Book

This marks the second national and regional award for the Hannah Mather Crocker book. The following was written by the New England Historic Genealogical Society:

November 14, 2012, Boston, MA – The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) announced today that its book, Reminiscences and Traditions of Boston by Hannah Mather Crocker edited by Eileen Hunt Botting and Sarah L. Houser, received the 2012 Society for the Study of American Women Writers (SSAWW) “Edition Award.” This award is given every three years in recognition of excellence in the recovery of American women writers. SSAWW praised the book for its interdisciplinary and collaborative nature, and the way it brings American women's voices to a larger audience.

Earth Point for Genealogists

Earth Point is a web site that offers a variety of mapping services, all of which will display map coordinates on Google Earth. Genealogists will be interested in the ability to display townships and ranges on Google Earth.

The BLM Township, Range, and Section service displays townships, sections, and even quarter-quarter sections if you zoom in close enough (most, but not all areas have quarter-quarter sections mapped).  It also calculates area, centroid, and corner points.  You must zoom into the central or western United States to see the data.