Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Are Digital Libraries Going to Replace Traditional Books?

Is it time to stop the presses?

It seems that every week I report in this newsletter about more and more genealogy books that are being converted to electronic format. Sure, old books have been digitized for several years now. However, even new books are now appearing as electronic publications. The Kindle, Nook, and other e-book readers are hot items these days. Now the world's first completely paperless public library is scheduled to open this summer in San Antonio, Texas.

The so-called BiblioTech is a low-cost project with big ambitions. It will have 100 e-readers on loan, and dozens of screens where the public will be able to browse, study, and learn digital skills. However it's likely most users will access BiblioTech's initial holding of 10,000 digital titles from the comfort of their homes, way out in the Texas hinterland.

Slave Records of Edgefield County, South Carolina

Black families with ancestors in Edgefield County, South Carolina, can now follow the lives of ancestors throughout the 19th century, thanks to a comprehensive collection of records from the Edgefield County Archives pertaining to the purchasing and selling of slaves. The award-winning work, Slave Records of Edgefield County, is Gloria Lucas’ legacy, according to close friends and associates. Lucas died at age 84 last month.

The book, published by the Edgefield Historical Society, contains extractions from ledgers of estates, wills, inventories, appraisals, deed transfers, sheriff sales and other files that contain about 29,000 listings and more than 58,000 slave names. Many of the records provide gender, age, physical description, occupation and family relationships.

You can read the details in an article by Wesley Brown in The Augusta Chronicle at http://goo.gl/HXW7u. You may be able to find Slave Records of Edgefield County in a library near you by searching at http://goo.gl/VYJaZ.

Book Review: The Unofficial Family Archivist

The following book review was written by Bobbi King:

The Unofficial Family Archivist
A Guide to Creating and Maintaining Family Papers, Photographs, and Memorabilia.
by Melissa Mannon. 247 pages.

The problem with being the unofficial family archivist is that eventually you become the official family archivist.

When I started doing genealogy, Dear Myrtle on AOL Genealogy Forum was my beacon for organizing my papers. To this day, I follow her instructions for organizing all my notes. At least I got that much right.

Now we have Family Archivist to start us out doing things right. It’s the beginner who will benefit most from this book, but if you’re a senior historian, there’s something for you, too.

Book Review: Genealogical.com's “At a Glance” Series of Genealogy Research Guides

The following review was written by Bobbi King:

“At a Glance”guides.
Four-page laminated 8 ½ x 11 publications. Published by Genealogical.com.

“Irish Genealogy Research” by Brian Mitchell
“Scottish Genealogy Research” by David Dobson
“German Genealogy Research” by Ernest Thode
“African American Genealogy Research” by Michael Hait
“Ellis Island Research” by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
“Revolutionary War Genealogy Research” by Craig R. Scott
“Michigan Genealogy Research” by Carol McGinnis
“Immigration Research” by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
“English Genealogy Research” by Paul Milner
“Italian Genealogy Research” by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
“French Genealogy Research” by Claire Bettag
“Virginia Genealogy Research” by Carol McGinnis
“American Cemetery Research” Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
“U.S. Federal Census Records” by Kory L. Meyerink
“Cherokee Genealogy Research” by Myra Vanderpool Gormley
“Pennsylvania Genealogy Research” by John T. Humphrey
“Finding Female Ancestors” by Sharon DeBartolo Carmack
“Polish Genealogy Research” by Rosemary A. Dembinski Chorzempa
“Family History Library Research” by Carolyn L. Barkley

Sometimes you don’t want the full reference. Sometimes you just need a quick but authoritative guide to get you going or remind you where you need to go next.

Digging Your Canadian Roots Has Been Ripped Off

Scammers are amongst us in the genealogy community as well as elsewhere. Kathryn Lake Hogan, has issued the following announcement on her web site at http://www.looking4ancestors.com/:

I have been ripped off. A website called downloadprovider.me has illegally scammed my book Digging Your Canadian Roots and is offering it on their website. All you have to do is become a member, pay their fee, and you can download it. However, the problem is no one from the this website has contacted me requesting permission about selling my book on their website. What they are doing is ILLEGAL. My copyright is being VIOLATED!

Book Review: Claiming Your History

The following book review was written by Bobbi King:

Claiming Your History
How to Incorporate Your Past Into Your Present
by Tracy Whittington. 2012. Approx. 256 pages.

"By the way we speak, we can show the value of the history of our own lives. By recording and remembering, collecting and researching, we can bring that history into our own stories. We, too, can make a certain claim on the past, instead of letting it slip out of recorded memory and away from us forever."

Here Tracy Whittington explains why she wrote her book. She affirms our wish to bring the past into our present, to spirit our ancestors out of their graves to stand beside us in conversation, and most especially I suspect, to seek their approvals that their resurrections in our genealogical work is meritorious, noteworthy, and good.

National Genealogical Society Announces Release of New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County Research Guide

The following announcement was written by the (U.S.) National Genealogical Society:

Arlington, VA, 29 April 2013: The National Genealogical Society announces the release of the newest edition in its Research in the States series: Research in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County. This publication was written by native New Yorker and nationally recognized genealogist Laura Murphy DeGrazia, cg, fgbs. Laura is a trustee and former president of BCG and co-editor of the NYG&B Record. Barbara Vines Little, cg, fngs, fvgs, is a former NGS president and is the current editor of the NGS Research in the States series and the Magazine of Virginia Genealogy.

Book Review: The Quack’s Daughter

The following review was written by Bobbi King:

The Quack’s Daughter
by Greta Nettleton
Published by the author at www.gretanettleton.com. 2012. 328 pages.

Nonfiction is the homely kid sister to fiction’s senior prom queen. Regarded as intelligent but dreary, nonfiction books have had an uphill road to notice and acclaim over the more audacious and best selling fictional genres.

And then there’s self-publishing. Vanity books, as they were called in the old days, were ordered in quantity by the author, at great expense, the books hopefully sold at the family reunion, and finally may have ended up being stored in the garage.

That was then, this is now.

Book Review: From Schoolboy to Soldier

The following book review was written by Bobbi King:

From Schoolboy to Soldier.
by Quincy S. Abbot.
Published by Quincy S. Abbot, West Hartford, CT. 2013. 256 pages.

Quincy S. Abbot has compiled the letters and journal of his grand-uncle Edward Stanley Abbot, and he’s aptly named the book, the complete title which is From Schoolboy to Soldier, the Correspondence and Journals of Edward Stanley Abbot, 1853-1863.

This volume follows Stanley Abbot’s thoughtful and introspective passage from family son  to Harvard university student to Civil War Union soldier. Along the way, Abbot penned a journal and maintained a prodigious correspondence with family and friends describing his thoughts and activities from the school years of his youth to just days before the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania.

Book Review: Family Trees

The following book review was written by Bobbi King:

Family Trees
By François Weil.
Published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA. 2013. 304 pages.

The book is subtitled “A History of Genealogy in America” and accurately reflects its content, a thorough study of the subject by a scholar who describes himself as a French historian of the United States.

François Weil is Chancellor of the Universities of Paris, a professor of history, and former president of the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales.

M. Weil has prepared a well-researched and scholarly study of the evolution of genealogy in America from the colonial times to the present day. His documentation is thorough in Notes and rich with other sources to follow for the student of historical genealogy.

Book Review: Cherokee Citizenship Commission Dockets, Vol. II, 1880-1884 and 1887-1889

The following book review was written by Bobbi King:

Cherokee Citizenship Commission Dockets
Vol. II
1880-1884 and 1887-1889
by Jeff Bowen
Printed for Clearfield Co. by Genealogical Publishing Co., Baltimore. 2010.

This is an edition of a previously published book of transcribed dockets of cases brought before the Cherokee Citizenship Commission from 1880-1889.  This edition has been reformatted, contains a shorter introduction, and has a new index. The index contains over 2500 names. There are over 540 docket cases transcribed, but not all in this volume. This volume includes docket #287 through docket #718.

The author states the transcriptions appear exactly as transcribed on the microfilmed copies of the original handwritten court records involving citizenship during the time period. The dockets were referenced and transcribed from the microfilm series 7RA25-0001 (American Genealogical Lending Library), Cherokee Citizenship Commission Docket Books, 1880-1884 and 1887-1889.

The Digital Public Library of America will Launch on April 18 and 19

Here is a question for you: what do you get when you take the basic idea of Google Books and then wed it to the US public library system? Answer: the Digital Public Library of America.

The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is a project to make the holdings of America’s research libraries, archives, and museums available to all Americans, and eventually to everyone in the world, online and free of charge. Quoting from Robert Darnton’s article for The New York Review for Books, The National Digital Public Library Is Launched at http://goo.gl/G1Ir6, “Thanks to the Internet and a pervasive if imperfect system of education, we now can realize the dream of Jefferson and Franklin. We have the technological and economic resources to make all the collections of all our libraries accessible to all our fellow citizens—and to everyone everywhere with access to the World Wide Web. That is the mission of the DPLA.”

Book Review: Military Bounty Land 1776-1855

The following book review was written by Bobbi King:

Military Bounty Land 1776-1855
by Christine Rose.
Published by CR Publications, San Jose CA. 2011. 156 pages.

Asking me to review this book is like asking my cat to review catnip. We both love it. She the catnip, me the book.
 
Christine Rose is well known for her extensive familiarity with courthouse records. Ms. Rose and her husband Seymour, as likeable and affable as Christine is lovable and affable, have RVed the byways of America introducing themselves to the courthouse clerks, deciphering their courthouse records, then interpreting and explaining them to us in her straightforward guide Courthouse Research for Family Historians: Your Guide to Genealogical Treasures.

Guide To Switching to a Macintosh

Are you thinking of switching from your Windows-based PC to a Mac? Lots of people are doing just that. Learn everything you need to know in order to make that transition painless in the FREE Switched: The Convert’s Guide to the Mac and OS X by Tim Brookes. The guide explains how to use a Mac from the perspective of a long-time Windows user.

The reasons for deciding to buy a Mac over a PC are entirely personal, and your own pro-Mac arguments might not agree with someone else’s reasons. I made the switch several years ago and have no interest in going back. However, I will be the first to tell you that the choice of operating system is strictly personal, often for reasons we cannot explain easily. Just as some people like Fords while others prefer Chevrolets and still more want a Toyota, the choice of operating system is done for different reasons. Some people will want Windows, others prefer Macintosh, and a few will select Linux. Of course, there are also those tablet and smartphone operating systems: Android and Apple's iOS. I see no difference in the desktop and laptop systems of choice.

Free “Perspectives on Personal Digital Archiving” Publication

The Library of Congress recently released an e-publication, Perspectives on Personal Digital Archiving. The e-book contains a compilation of selected blog posts published in The Signal, the blog of the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP). All of these posts are written by the NDIIPP staff members or by guest bloggers from inside and outside the Library of Congress. This free publication can serve as a primer for the digital archive novice, as well as a refresher for those with more experience.

Book Review: Finding the Civil War in Your Family Album

The following book review was written by Bobbi King:

Finding the Civil War in Your Family Album.
by Maureen A. Taylor.
Published by Picture Perfect Press. 2011. 192 pages

Maureen Taylor began thinking about and imagining clothing styles worn decades ago when she was still just a teenager. She was invited to portray Mary Todd Lincoln in the school play for which she researched and re-created the look of Mrs. Lincoln. This could be called the prelude to a successful calling in photo identification. Examining photographs. exposing their details, and offering us the time periods in which they were created has become an important assistance to us genealogists. 

Book Review: Better Than Sliced Bread: Genealogy and Technology

The following book review was written by Bobbi King:

Better Than Sliced Bread: Genealogy and Technology.
Published by the Silicon Valley Computer Genealogy Group, Santa Clara, CA. 2009. 184 pages.

This is a paperback edition of selected-as-best articles from the Silicon Valley Computer Technology Group’s newsletter, the “PastFinder.” Some readers may recognize this group in their earlier incarnation as the Silicon Valley PAF Users Group, originated as an early PAF Users Group. Their previous newsletter was circulated as the “PAFinder.” 

Book Review: Mastering Online Genealogy

The following book review was written by Bobbi King:

Mastering Online Genealogy.
by W. Daniel Quillen. Published by Cold Spring Press, Cold Spring Harbor, NY. 2011. 143 pages.

This is one in a series of Mr. Quillen’s Essentials of Genealogy books.

Mastering is a general guide to getting started in computerized genealogy. Mr. Quillen begins by describing computers in general and moves on to using search engines, finding online vital records, looking into the familiar online genealogy services, and comparing the free versus the subscription online genealogy websites.

The latter half of the book has a chapter on government records, explaining how to find the federal census, state census records, immigration, and related records.

Announcing the Zap the Grandma Gap Power Up Workbook

The following announcement was written by Family ChartMasters:

Most parents and grandparents would do anything and everything to raise the youth in their family to be successful adults.  There are play groups and preschool lessons, music and dance, sports, tutoring and youth groups, the right schools, the right nutrition, etc.etc.  However, many people miss one of the most basic and foundational things that can set a child up for success in life—teaching their child about their family’s history.

Free Offer: Receive an eBook of King Robert I of Scotland

Millisecond Publishing Company, Inc. is offering a free electronic copy of King Robert I of Scotland. Also called Robert the Bruce, Robert I, King of Scotland, was one of the most famous kings of Scotland, and one of the main characters in the movie “Braveheart.” This book contains some of his 27th-generation or more descendants.

The book describes 16,722 different people, contains 2,100 pages (including the index), and also contains 28,754 source citations, including at least one for each fact mentioned in the book. The ebook can be printed, although I suspect most people will wish to print only a few pages, not the entire 2,100 pages. Luckily, the book is in PDF format so it is easy to print a single page, a few pages, or everything, as the reader wishes.