Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Book Review: A Guide to Massachusetts Cemeteries

This week I had a chance to look at a book written by David Allen Lambert: A Guide to Massachusetts Cemeteries, Second Edition. As the title implies, this is the "everything you wanted to know but didn't know who to ask" reference book about burying grounds in the state.

Lambert's guidebook is organized alphabetically by town, then by graveyard name.  He often mentions key sources that refer to the cemetery. He also lists the date the town or city was established and what town it broke away from, if applicable.

Each burying ground in the state is listed by the year of consecration or oldest stone or burial, and its location. The book also includes the address and telephone number of the cemetery, usually the town hall although a few cemeteries may have different addresses. If a cemetery has been transcribed and the names published, Lambert also gives the name, volume, date, and publisher of the transcription.

Kirtas Offers Digitized Books

I have written about the Kirtas Technologies book scanner, which can scan up to 2400 pages per hour. Yes, that device scans one page every one and a third seconds. Place a book into the device, press a button or two, and then walk away. You can return a few minutes later to find the entire book has been scanned and the data stored on the attached Windows PC. You don't even need to cut the bindings of the book as the device turns the pages and makes images as needed. You can see my pictures of this $120,000 book scanner in operation at http://blog.eogn.com/photos/ala2007/kirtasbookscanner1.html and at http://blog.eogn.com/photos/ala2007/kirtasbookscanner2.html. 

Kirtas (pronounced KEER-tass) Technologies apparently isn't content to just make the scanners; the company also makes many out-of-print and out-of-copyright books available to customers, including a number of genealogy books. You can download a book to your computer's hard drive and read it there or even print pages from the book on your local printer. Another option is to have the entire book printed "on demand" and have it shipped to you.

Burke's Peerage to Include Illegitimate Children

Burke's Peerage and Gentry is finally succumbing to the demands of the 21st century.

The guide, which lists the genealogy of every royal and aristocratic family in the Europe and the U.S., is to include illegitimate children for the first time. As part of a major shake-up, the book will also list offspring in order of when they are born, rather than males first, which has been tradition.

Find Genealogy Books For Sale on Biblio.com

Biblio is a book search engine which indexes more than 50 million books from over 5,500 independent bookstores. You can find everything from rare first editions to books which are less rare but still definitely out of print. You can search for used, rare, and out of print books as well as textbooks. I used Biblio today to search for out of print genealogy books. I really looked at the site out of curiosity but I guess it was more effective than I had expected: I bought a book.

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand Online

The Cyclopedia of New Zealand was published in six volumes between 1897 and 1908 by the Cyclopedia Company Ltd. These books can provide a wealth of information to anyone researching New Zealand ancestry. They provide a lot of information about individuals and also are full of information about the areas in which your ancestors lived and provide much information about the lifestyles of everyday citizens.

Each volume deals with a region of New Zealand and includes information on local towns and districts, government departments, individuals, businesses, clubs and societies. Biographical entries frequently include the subject's date and place of birth, the name of the ship by which immigrants arrived, spouse's name, and the number and gender of children born to a couple. Volume One, which covers the Wellington Provincial District, also includes a history of colonial government in New Zealand, with portraits of Governors, politicians and state officials.

Google Plans to Enter the E-book Business

Google announced today that the company plans to give publishers a way to sell online digital versions of their books through a partner program. The new online bookstore is expected to be online with an inventory of thousands of books by the end of this year.

History of Billerica, Massachusetts Online

I lived in Billerica for many years and have an original copy of the definitive history of the town, written in 1883 by Henry Allen Hazen. The complete name of the book is the History of Billerica, Massachusetts, with a Genealogical Register. Indeed, the back of the book lists almost every resident of the town from its incorporation in 1655 up to the date of the book's printing: 1883.

The entire book is now available online on Archive.org. You may look at it or even download it and save it on your hard drive. You can print a few pages or even the entire book, if you wish. It is available in ASCII text, PDF, and several other formats.

The same book is also available on Google Books, although in fewer formats. It is also available on eBooksRead.com.

How to Trace Your Irish Roots and Other Books

Would it surprise you to learn that 36 million Americans claim Irish ancestry? That’s almost nine times the population of Ireland itself. And more and more, they’re travelling over there to untangle their family roots.

Cahir O'Doherty of IrishCentral.com has written an article that lists books that will probably interest anyone with Irish ancestry.

Book Review: Social Networking for Genealogists

I had a chance this week to read a new book written by Drew Smith: Social Networking for Genealogists. Social networking is a new term; I cannot imagine such a book being written three or four years ago for anyone, let alone for genealogists.

Wikipedia.org describes social networking as:

A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

Social networking has encouraged new ways to communicate and share information. Social networking websites are being used regularly by millions of people.

While it could be said that email and websites have most of the essential elements of social network services, the idea of proprietary encapsulated services has gained popular uptake recently.

Converting My Personal Library to Digital

I keep my computers and genealogy material in a small room at our house. I am sure the folks who built the house intended this room to be a child's bedroom, but there are no children in the house, so I have converted it into something I call "my office." I bet many people reading this article have done the same with a spare room in their homes.

I have several computers, two printers, and a 22-inch wide monitor in this room, along with two telephones, a fiber optic modem, a wi-fi router, oversized hi-fi speakers connected to the computers, and a few other pieces of hardware. Luckily, those are all rather small, and advancing technology results in smaller and smaller devices appearing every year. I occasionally replace aging hardware, and the newer devices are almost always smaller than the old ones. However, I have a huge space problem: books and magazines.

1880 History of Parke County, Indiana is Available Once Again

Those interested in the history and genealogy of Parke County, Indiana, now have an opportunity to purchase a previously out-of-print book. The Parke County Historical Society has again reprinted John Hanson Beadle’s 1880 History of Parke County. This book was originally part of Hiram W. Beckwith’s History of Vigo and Parke Counties, together with historic notes on the Wabash Valley, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, published in 1880 by H. H. Hill and N. Iddings.

Update: 3-Minute Book Printing at Your Local Retail Store

Almost a year ago I wrote an article (http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/06/3-minute-book-p.html) that predicted a new service would soon appear. It took a year but a trial of the service will start this week.

As I wrote last year:

Tens of thousands of genealogy and local history books have been printed over the years. Wouldn't you like to walk into a local bookstore and purchase the book(s) of your choice within minutes? That may not be as crazy as it sounds.

This week the Blackwell bookseller chain will launch a three-month trial of the machine in its Charing Cross Road branch in London as a “print on demand” service for shoppers in an effort "to consign to history the idea that you can walk into a bookshop and not find the book you want." The Blackwell store will be able to print any of some 400,000 titles. The company's overall goal is to extend this to a million titles by the summer, and to spread out more machines to the rest of its sixty stores once it works out pricing.

Tallahassee Genealogical Society Seeks Local Stories For New Book

Anyone who’s ever lived in Tallahassee has a story to tell about their experiences — and the Tallahassee Genealogical Society wants you to share those stories. The organization is assembling the Leon County Heritage Book and is seeking short stories and photos from the public.

Southern California Genealogical Society Announces New Publications

The Southern California Genealogical Society has announced two new sets of publications. Here is the first announcement:

Southern California Genealogical Society Publications Announcement Immigration and Naturalization Series Declarations of Intent - Los Angeles

The Southern California Genealogical Society is proud to announce the publication of four new volumes in its Immigration and Naturalization Series.  The following publications are now available for purchase in softbound and CD versions at http://tinyurl.com/c7544u

Atlas of the Cumberland Pioneer Settlements - 1779 - 1804

I received a message from newsletter reader Paula Snyder that caught ny interest:

I attended an MTGS meeting yesterday where Jack Masters, Doug Drake and Bill Puryear presented information on their book to be published this summer. It is a fantastic piece of work and includes 1500 North Carolina land grants in 11 middle Tennessee counties. They have just begun taking pre-publication orders.

The website describing their work is www.cumberlandpioneers.com.

Terrence M. Punch Profiled

Terrence M. Punch is a prolific genealogy writer and lecturer, specializing primarily in Eastern Canada research. I have a couple of his books on my bookshelves and have used them often. Now I see that Lorna Inness has written a nice article about Terrence in the ChronicleHerald.ca web site:

"Being a successful genealogist requires a tireless dedication to the subject, an enthusiasm for following many leads only to have them turn into dead ends, and an ability to carry masses of details, not only in files but readily to mind. Such a person is Terrence M. Punch, a retired Halifax schoolteacher who has become a noted authority on the genealogy of 18th and 19th century Irish settlers in Atlantic Canada.

Ancestors of American Presidents, 2009 Edition

Gary Boyd Roberts is well-known for his tracing of family trees of politicians, movie stars and other notables. Now he has updated his previous work, Ancestors of American Presidents. The following is from the announcement:

"Google Your Family Tree" to be Featured on Television Show

Dan Lynch has written an excellent book called "Google Your Family Tree." I wrote about it a few weeks ago at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/12/google-your-fam.html. Now the book is to be featured on a local television program in Connecticut.

New Blog Supports "Basics of Genealogy Reference"

Jack Simpson is well known in genealogy circles. He is the Curator of Local and Family History at the Newberry Library in Chicago and is a recognized genealogy expert. He also teaches Genealogy 101, an online course, through the American Library Association. He also recently released a book, Basics of Genealogy Reference. Now Jack has created a blog that will supplement the book with new material as it becomes available.

New Imprint to Publish Canadian Genealogy Books

Dundurn Press and the Ontario Genealogical Society have announced the creation of a joint imprint to publish books on Canadian genealogy.  The imprint, to be called OGS Dundurn, will be governed by representatives from both organizations.  OGS will be responsible for finding authors, receiving manuscripts, and initial screening.  Dundurn will be responsible for editing, design, and production.  Both organizations will be responsible for marketing: OGS within the genealogical community, Dundurn to bookstores.