Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

New: Google+ Genealogy Tech Community

A new Genealogy Tech Community has been formed on Google Plus. In fact, it is so new that it is almost empty right now but I suspect this "community" has the capability to grow and become very active. With more than 500 million people already using Google Plus, a lot of genealogists could be joining the new community. The key word here is "could." Obviously, there has to be content in the community to attract people. The content isn't there yet, however.

Google announced yesterday the formation of communities. With Google+ Communities, there’s now a gathering place for your passions, including genealogy or most any other topic that interests you. Google+ Communities provide:

Genealogy Tattoos

Are you proud of your ancestry? Some folks apparently are so proud they had their family coats of arms tattooed on their bodies.

You can see some examples of that at http://pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=genealogy+tattoos.

Pssst! Do you think we should let them know there is no such thing as family coats of arms in most countries?

Findmypast.com Releases Thousands of British Army Service Records from 1760 to 1902

The following announcement was written by Findmypast.com:

Records detail the height, weight, color of hair and eyes, and distinguishing features for soldiers

LOS ANGELES (Dec. 7, 2012) – Findmypast.com, an international leader in online family history, today added 20,000 British soldiers’ records from the Royal Hospital Kilmainham from 1771 to 1822, along with several thousand other significant military documents, to its already extensive collection of historical records.
 
The records show details of soldiers, including their height, weight, color of hair and eyes and any distinguishing features such as a tattoo or scar, as well as where they served and their regiment.

Online Searchable Death Indexes & Records

Joe Beine has created a great site for genealogists. The "Online Searchable Death Indexes & Records" contains no databases on the web site itself. Instead, it points to dozens of other web sites that do contain data.

Looking for death records in Indiana or West Virginia or Vermont? The Online Searchable Death Indexes & Records can point you to the best resources.

The website is a directory of links to other websites that contain online death indexes. The listings are arranged by state and county. Included are death records, death certificate indexes, death notices & registers, obituaries, probate indexes, and cemetery & burial records. You can also find information here about searching the Social Security Death Index online.

The Hunt for Genghis Khan’s Tomb

Genhis Khan, the 13th-century conqueror and imperial ruler, died 800 years ago. Historians, archaeologists, and grave robbers have searched for his tomb ever since he died. Germans, Japanese, Americans, Russians, and Brits all have led expeditions in search of his grave, spending millions of dollars. All have failed... until possibly now.

Legend has it that Khan’s funeral escort killed anyone who crossed their path to conceal where the conqueror was buried. Those who constructed the funeral tomb were also killed—as were the soldiers who killed them. One historical source holds that 10,000 horsemen “trampled the ground so as to make it even”; another that a forest was planted over the site, a river diverted. All of this is legend. No one knows if any of these stories are true or not.

Sumo Paint for Chrome: the Free Online Competitor to Photoshop

Do you need a photo editing program? If you don't need it now, you may need it after the holidays when you have several dozen new photos that need to be improved. Perhaps you need to remove your obnoxious brother-in-law from the family photo. Then again, perhaps you also need to improve that family portrait from the 1890s that your cousin scanned for you.

Photoshop is the leading photo editing program for both Windows and Macintosh and for very good reasons: it is powerful and has more options than what most of us could ever use. Unfortunately, it also comes with a price tag and a learning curve that reflect the load of features and options. After all, there are entire classes dedicated to just learning the program, and, once you do, you will have to run out and spend hundreds of dollars to purchase the program and install it on your own computer.

Here is a suggestion: use a powerful cloud-based program that has many of the same features, although not all. The online program does omit one thing: the price tag.  In fact, the cloud-based program runs in your web browser and is available from the Chrome Webstore for the low cost of... are you ready for this? Zero. Can you find a better deal?

National Geographic Unveils New Phase of Genographic Project

The following announcement was written by the National Geographic Society:

WASHINGTON — The National Geographic Society today announced the next phase of its Genographic Project — the multiyear global research initiative that uses DNA to map the history of human migration. Building on seven years of global data collection, Genographic continues to shine new light on humanity’s collective past, yielding tantalizing clues about humankind’s journey across the planet.

“Our first phase drew participation from more than a half-million participants from over 130 countries. It is evidence of enormous interest in deep ancestry among the global public — tracing the paths their ancestors took as they migrated around the world over the past 60,000 years,” said Project Director Dr. Spencer Wells, a population geneticist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence. “Now, the Genographic Project’s second phase creates an even greater citizen science opportunity — and the more people who participate, the more our scientific knowledge will grow.”

FamilySearch Update: New Records Added for Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, and the United States

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

FamilySearch added an additional 16.3 million new, free indexed records and images this week to its collection. Notable additions include the 1,984,100 records for the United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards from 1917-1918, the 2,056,187 added to U.S., California, Probate Estate Files from 1833-1991, and the 1,610,053 added to the new British Columbia, Canada, collections. Other new searchable collections online were added this week for Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, and the United States. See the table below for the full list of updates. Search these diverse collections and more than 3.5 billion other records for free at FamilySearch.org.

WikiTree Announces “Cousin Bait” Toolkits

The following announcement was written by WikiTree:

Dec 4, 2012: WikiTree.com has released a special set of tools for genealogists who want to lure distant cousins to help grow their family history and share photos and memories.

Many Internet-savvy genealogists already recommend using WikiTree as a way to fish for new information. Blogger Valerie Craft wrote in her recent post Using WikiTree: The How and The Why: "[T]he biggest reason why you should use WikiTree: cousin bait. ... In my years doing genealogy, I've had the most success thanks to WikiTree."

WikiTree’s new toolkits are for those who want to bait the hooks.

Arkansas Death Certificates May Now Be Ordered Online

The Arkansas Department of Health rolled out a new service on Monday that allows users to search and order state death certificates on the Web. Previously, the records were available only through in-person requests or paper-form submissions.

The new online database currently offers only records of deaths that occurred from 1935 to 1961 on the website, but the department said that workers will be adding records in the coming months. Users may search by last name, death date, county of death and state of birth.

Library of Congress Releases 1,600 Photos of America’s World War II-era Past

The photos, capturing life in the then-48 states, show women working at plane plants, farmers surveying property and fairgoers having rousing fun. These are not war photos. The are images of the American lifestyle at home prior to and during World War II. Several of the images, which were gathered by the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information, provide a glimpse of the quaint Vermont State Fair, which was held in Rutland in 1941.

New Genealogy Group Forms in Wayne County, New York

Through the support of the Wayne County Historical organizations, a county-wide genealogical society was formed on October 23. The Wayne County New York Genealogical Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating its members and the community about proper genealogical research methods and source documentation; seeks to further the genealogical historical knowledge of its members and the community; and endeavors to preserving records of genealogical value and making them available to others.

Details may be found in the WAYNEpost.com web site at http://goo.gl/XIIjL.

 

(+) How to Reduce the Errors in Your Genealogy Database

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

This article describes a method of killing two birds with one stone.

The first question concerns corruption within your genealogy database. Is your data still good? Or have read errors or write errors managed to corrupt the database? When you make a backup, are you backing up a good database or are you simply making a (corrupted) copy of a corrupted database? Read my earlier article “Always Test Your Backups!” at http://goo.gl/FQ98b for description of the problem. Pay close attention to comments from newsletter readers that were posted at the end of the article. The problem is real and has happened to quite a few genealogists.

The second question concerns the integrity of your database. Are you confident of the accuracy of your genealogy data? You might be amazed at how many databases I see that include mothers giving birth at the age of eight, marriages at age twelve, or deaths at the age of 135. Sometimes you even find a person with a birth date prior to those of his parents. Download almost any GEDCOM file from the Internet and I suspect you can find similar problems.

British Columbia Releases About 700,000 Birth, Death, and Marriage Documents Online

Full digital images of the original records of births, deaths and marriages in British Columbia are now available for FREE OF CHARGE through the Royal B.C. Museum and B.C. Archives websites. The move is a result of a partnership involving the British Columbia Archives, the Vital Statistics Agency, and FamilySearch International.

Indexes previously accessible could provide only the brides' and grooms' names, along with the dates and places of marriage. The new release offers full images of the original  documents that can provide extra information. For example, the original record of a marriage reveals names of the bride and groom, their ages and occupations, and parents' names. Even the witnesses are listed.

Flip-Pal Photo Rescue Team Deploys to Union Beach, NJ to Rescue Family Photographs Washed Up on Beaches by Hurricane Sandy

This is a unique service and one that we need to employ more often after major disasters. It isn't life saving but it certainly serves a human need. The following was written by Couragent, Inc., the company that sells the very popular Flip-Pal portable scanners:

Thanks to the Flip-Pal Cares response team, Hurricane Sandy survivors in Union Beach, N.J. may soon be reunited with family photos that are washing up on local beaches.

Members of the public are invited to volunteer for the Union Beach Photo Scanning Drive this Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 1-2. This Saturday’s volunteers will need to check Facebook for the time and location of the scanning drive. On Sunday, the scanning drive will be from 11 a.m.–5 p.m. at the Home Depot located at 3700 Highway 35 in Hazlet, N.J.

Geni.com CEO Explains Changes Being Made After Acquisition by MyHeritage

Three days ago I published an article at http://goo.gl/YVEes entitled MyHeritage Acquires Geni.com and Raises $25m in New Funding Round which contained the announcement of the new acquisition. Now Noah Tutak, the CEO of Geni, has sent an email message to all customers that offers many more details about what Geni's customers can expect after the merger. His message states (in part):

"Allt för Sverige" (All for Sweden): 10 Americans Travel to Sweden to Search for Ancestors

Newsletter reader Sue Wilson wrote to tell of a television program on Swedish television called "Allt för Sverige" (All for Sweden). The program features ten Americans who traveled to Sweden to search for their ancestors. It´s a competition, so the winner gets to meet his/her Swedish relatives.

Along the way, the Americans travel to different parts of Sweden and experience different things in Sweden and learn about their ancestors. The programs are mostly in English with a little Swedish introduction (sometimes also a bit of Swedish explanations during the show).

Code Used by Roger Williams is Finally Cracked

This has nothing to do with genealogy but it does strike me as an interesting footnote to American history. A mysterious shorthand used by 17th century religious dissident Roger Williams has finally been decoded after more than 100 years of effort. A team of Brown University students has finally cracked the code.

Historians call the now-readable writings the most significant addition to Williams scholarship in a generation or more. Williams is Rhode Island's founder and best known as the first figure to argue for the principle of the separation of church and state that would later be enshrined in the Bill of Rights.