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The following was written by the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations:
Civil registration certificates were yesterday doubled in price by the Republic's Civil Registration Service (CRS), from ten euro to 20 euro. Genealogists were stunned by this 100% increase. In the current fiscal crisis, the Republic's government is actively looking for any way it can to increase revenue and the production and supply of certificates was obviously seen as a soft target. The increase was sprung out of the blue, with absolutely no warning at all!
The following announcement was written by the organizers of the 2013 BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy:
2013 BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy “Strengthening Ties That Bind Families Together” Tuesday, July 30 through Friday, August 2, 2013
Proposals are now being accepted for the 2013 BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy which will be held Tuesday, July 30 through Friday, August 2 at the BYU Conference Center in Provo, Utah.
The Pennsylvania State Archives publishes a quarterly newsletter that is available in digital format on the Web. Editor Joshua Stahlman obviously spends a lot of time producing this high-quality publication.
One article in the latest edition that interested me was Death Certificate Digitization, a project underway now to digitize and index historically valuable documents from the Pennsylvania State Archives' collections. Other articles in the current edition include:
Nick Goldman and Ewan Birney of the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) near Cambridge, were pondering what they could do with the torrent of genomic data their research group generates, all of which has to be archived. Then they got an idea: store the data in DNA.
Here is a historical mystery: who buried bodies at the former London home of Benjamin Franklin, the founding father of American independence?
The remains of four adults and six children were discovered by workmen during the £1.9 million restoration of Franklin's home at 36 Craven Street, close to Trafalgar Square. Researchers believe that there could be more bodies buried beneath the basement kitchens.
Minnesota plans to make it easier for people researching their family histories to access old adoption information by digitizing roughly 5 million pages worth of records, including some that date to the late 19th century.
The records are stored on about 2,000 rolls of microfilm at the Department of Human Services. The agency put the job of digitizing the records out for bid last month, saying it shouldn’t cost more than $67,500.
Details are available in an article in the St. Cloud Times at http://goo.gl/fWzlk.
Dell wants to replace your desktop and laptop computers. The company has introduced
a new computer that looks like a USB memory stick (also known as a
flash drive).
Ophelia uses a Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL) to draw power to boot from an HDTV display, or it can be powered off a USB port. It has integrated Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capability for connecting to a keyboard, a mouse, and the network, and it runs the Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) operating system with all of the functionality of a tablet. It can also be used to power virtual instances of other desktop operating systems on a remote server or in the cloud.
A city councillor in Galway, Ireland, is calling for a genealogical centre to be opened for tourists visiting Galway for the "Gathering." Councillor Nuala Nolan is urging both City and County Councils to provide a research genealogical office in the City Centre.
Nolan says that visitors coming to Galway for the "Gathering" will be able to check records to find long lost relations or visit areas where their ancestors have come from.
The Gathering is a year-long celebration of all things Irish designed to bring more tourists to the country. Details may be found at http://www.thegatheringireland.com/. Councillor Nolan says the centre could entice people to return to Galway in the future.
I have written a number of times about VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) telephones. I go rid of my old-fashioned telephone several years ago and now use a computerized VoIP phone supplemented by a VoIP cell phone. (My previous articles can be found by starting at http://goo.gl/fNnHx.) Today I found that one company agrees with me that old-fashioned telephone systems are doomed and should be replaced by VoIP. The company that advocates replacing standard telephones with VoIP systems does have a bit of experience in the telephone business. The company is AT&T.
In the Spring of 1849, a coffin-ship called the Hannah, carrying 180 Irish emigrants fleeing Ireland's potato famine, hit an ice reef in the strait near Cape Ray, off the coast of Newfoundland. The captain, a 23 year-old Englishman, took flight in the only lifeboat, leaving his passengers to either drown or freeze to death. Seventeen hours later, the survivors were rescued by another famine ship, the Nicaragua.
The largest annual genealogy event in the English-speaking world, possibly in the entire world, will be held near the end of next month in London, England. Based on the hit television show, Who Do You Think You Are?, the three-day expo at the Olympia Exhibition Hall in Kensington typically attracts 12,000 to 14,000 attendees every year. Yes, that's fourteen THOUSAND.
The next Who Do You Think You Are? LIVE! event will be held February 22 through 24, 2013. If you can be in London during that time, I bet you will enjoy this show. This year's event will feature more than 160 specialist exhibitors and celebrities from the television series to help you with your own family history search.
The following announcement was written by the Minnesota Genealogical Society:
The Minnesota Genealogical Society (MGS) announces a Call for Papers for breakout sessions of the 6th annual MGS North Star Conference, “Discovering and Telling Family History,” to be held October 4–5, 2013 in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. The deadline for submission of proposals is Friday, March 1, 2013.
The following announcement was written by the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies and the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston:
Boston—Registration is now open for the 33rd IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy to be held in historic Boston on August 4-9.
The conference is the leading genealogy event of the year for people researching their family history. Experts will give 200 lectures, hands-on workshops and programs during the conference.
Over 1000 researchers ranging from beginners to professional genealogists from all over the United States and around the world are expected to attend the conference in Boston. The early registration discount will end on April 30. For more information or to register, visit www.iajgs2013.org.
Melissa Thomas-Van Gundy, a U.S. Forest Service scientist, uses original land deeds from colonial America to determine what a West Virginia forest looked like before European settlement.
Two hundred years ago, “metes and bounds” surveys used distances from trees, posts, rock piles or natural features to describe corners where property line directions changed. Trees were used as markers for the corners of a parcel, and these descriptions were included in deeds.
Ancestry24.za is, or has been, a genealogy web site in South Africa. It seems to have two URLs, using both Ancestry24.za and Ancestry24.com. The site contained many Anglican Church marriage and baptism records. I have written about the site several times. You can see my past articles by starting at http://goo.gl/1n7z0. Now the owners of Ancestry24.za have announced they are closing the web site.
I use PayPal's payment system for accepting subscriptions to the Plus Edition of this newsletter. I have been a PayPal customer for 13 years and love the service. (PayPal is a subsidiary of eBay.) Unlike the credit card processor I used previously, PayPal has never lost a payment I made or received. It works 100% of the time and is fully insured against fraud. Now a UK government contract has expressed confidence in PayPal as well. The government has confirmed earlier reports that British citizens will have the option to use PayPal as one of the services available to to accredit themselves for public services such as the new Universal Credit benefit system.
You can read the full story in the TechWeekEurope news at http://goo.gl/lvzj4.
The following announcement was written by the Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy:
The Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy is proud to announce that Forensic Genealogy Institute II will be held April 11 - April 13, 2013 at the Wyndham Love Field in Dallas, Texas. Registration opens Monday, January 21, 2013 at 12:01 am Pacific time. Registration fee is $450 for non-CAFG members and $400 for members. Registration includes all courses and breakfast, lunch, and break snacks for all three days. The Wyndham is offering non-smoking king and double queen rooms to attendees for $109 plus applicable taxes. More information is available at http://www.forensicgenealogists.com/forensic-genealogy-institute.html.
Lucille Caron Lagasse, 90, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, died Jan. 15, 2013, at her home. She was co-founder and a very active member of the American-Canadian Genealogical Society in Manchester, New Hampshire where she had a membership number of #2. (Co-founder Roger Lawrence was #1.) For some time, the library of the Society was maintained in her home. She later helped with the fund drive that resulted in purchase of a 4,000-square foot building for the library and classrooms.
Lucille was a woman of many talents. During World War II, she worked as an aircraft mechanic. She was active in politics, serving in the state Legislature. She ran for Congress, was campaign manager for many governors, New Hampshire congressmen and senators. She chaired President Ronald Reagan's successful New Hampshire elections.
The following announcement was written by Marian Pierre-Louis:
MILLS, M.A. (January 21, 2013) – Professional genealogist and house historian, Marian Pierre-Louis has developed a new genealogy show in audio (podcast) format called On-Site Research New England. Shows will be broadcast bi-weekly through the On-site Research New England website (http://www.ResearchNewEngland.com) and will made available through iTunes.
Family historians will be able to access 21 million birth, marriage, and death records free of charge, on Thursday 24th of January.
Findmypast.ie based in Dublin, at the heart of Irish family history are hosting the inaugural “Irish History Family Day," to celebrate the launch of the records online. The family history website will publish records covering the island of Ireland from the 1800’s right up to the 1950’s.
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