Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Ancestry.com's "Behind the Scenes with Santa Claus"

Ancestry.com teamed up with Santa Claus to help bring a little holiday cheer to the company's fans. This is a little sneak peak behind the scenes of Ancestry.com's interview with Santa. Santa even discusses his family tree.

Careful, he's checking the Naughty List for the second time.

Warning: make sure your tongue is firmly planted in your cheek when watching this YouTube video at http://youtu.be/2VvNPah0BUI or click on the image below:

The Useful Cemetery

I guess it is reassuring to know that a cemetery is useful. I'd shudder to think that a cemetery might not be useful. As proof of its usefulness, here's a picture of the entrance to the Useful Cemetery:



Hint: the cemetery is located in Useful, Missouri.

What is an Indirect Descendant?

Over and over, I hear or read the phrase, "He is a direct descendant of..." OK, if someone is described as a "direct descendant," doesn't that indicate that there is also an "indirect descendant?" If so, what is an "indirect descendant?" I don't think there is any such thing.

Actually, it seems to me that the phrase "direct descendant" is redundant.

Genealogy with the Lockhorns

The Lockhorns' web site has a cute cartoon involving genealogy. Copyright laws prevent me from posting the cartoon here but I can legally post a link to it: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/comics/index.html?feature_id=Lockhorns&feature_date=2010-08-14

Tracing Your Genealogy According to the Onion

Here are a few quotes from TheOnion.com:

Building your family tree can be a fun and rewarding activity. Here are some tips to help you get started:

• There are many web sites and software packages out there that can help you trace your family history without having to deal with Grandma.
• If you are of European descent, don't be surprised to find that your ancestors were a bunch of bored, repressed, self-loathing people with blockish physiques.
• Keep in mind that entire branches of your family tree can be taken out with a simple Magic Marker.

Genealogy Research in the Year 2060

Let’s fast-forward fifty years and look in our crystal ball. You know the one: the crystal ball that has 1024-by-768 pixels. It is a winter evening in 2060 A.D. at the Rencher Memorial Genealogy Center in Salt Lake City. Alan Mann III is working the evening shift, answering calls from people interested in their ancestry.

Sitting in his cubicle, Alan hears the VoIP phone ring. He swivels in his office chair and touches a button on the micro-headset in his ear. Through the room’s integrated sound system we can only hear one side of the conversation:

I Don't Want to Say the Water Was High, But...

You may have read about the flooding in the past couple of weeks in the northeastern United States. The waters have now receded in most places but the situation was serious for many.

A homeowner not far from where I live has had a 30 or 35-foot boat parked beside his house for months. The house and the boat are on the side of a normally small stream that flooded far beyond its banks in recent weeks. A sign on the front lawn has said, "Boat For Sale." The homeowner recently replaced that sign with the following:

Newspapers Must Be Kept Alive as Print Editions

Printed newspapers are dying left and right, being replaced by online news and broadcast news. Yet there are reasons to keep print media alive. You may be happy getting your news online, but for some citizens the loss of the printed page will have a profoundly life-altering impact.

The Onion News Network presents its best argument for keeping print media breathing. Listen as a panelist describes life without thousands of old newspapers … at http://www.theonion.com/content/video/how_will_the_end_of_print?utm_source=videoembed or click on the image below.

Signs You've Had Too Much of the 21st Century

The following is floating around the Internet. Author unknown:

1. You try to enter your password on the microwave.
2. You haven't played solitaire with real cards in years.
3. You have a list of 15 phone numbers to reach your family of 4.
4. You e-mail your colleague at the desk next to you to ask if they're ready to go to lunch.
5. You chat on-line regularly with a stranger from the U.S., but you haven't spoken to your next-door-neighbor yet this year.
6. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends is that they do not have an e-mail address.
7. Your idea of being organized is multiple colored post-it notes.
8. You hear most of your jokes via e-mail rather than in person.
9. When you go home after a long day at work you still answer the phone in a business manner.
10. When you make phone calls from home you accidentally dial "9" to get an outside line.
11. You now think of three espressos as "getting wasted."
12. You call your son's beeper to let him know it's time to eat. He emails you back from his bedroom, "What's for dinner?"
13. Your daughter sells Girl Scout Cookies via her web site.
14. You didn't give your valentine a card this year, but you posted one for your e-mail buddies via a web page.

Email in the Good Old Days

The above image is used here with permission of the copyright holder.

Man Attends Own Funeral

CNN has a story that every genealogist can identify with: verifying the accuracy of death information is critical. Two weeks ago, on a day celebrated in many countries as the "Day of the Dead," Ademir Jorge Goncalves, a Brazilian bricklayer walked into his own funeral.

The sight of Goncalves alive shocked relatives, some of whom tried to jump out of the windows of the funeral home in southern Brazil.

An Interesting NASCAR Tombstone

The "My Good Life" blog is written by Mark Aubrey. He has posted some pictures from the Greenwood Cemetery in Greenwood, Johnson County, Indiana and one of them caught my eye. I collect pictures of unusual tombstones so I had to save this one. Perhaps you will also.

This tombstone shows a picture of a Mr. and Mrs. Davis with what probably was a major item in their lives: a stock car. Having the race car also pictured on the tombstone is a nice touch, in my opinion. However, if it was my tombstone, I think I would have left off the logo of one of the commercial sponsors.

Genealogy: Similar to Cocaine, Amphetamines, and Other Drugs of Stimulation

Slate, the online magazine, has a story about how searching the Internet and keeping up with events through instant communication can fulfill biochemical needs within our brains. Research has shown that anticipation and simply "wanting" can stimulate dopamine production in the brain, and an Internet full of answers plays right into that.

The story describes the searching for information, and I suspect that includes searching for genealogy information, both online and off. While not specifically stated in the article, my guess is that seeking and finding genealogy information also stimulates dopamine production. Don't you feel a "high" when you find genealogy information that has eluded you for some time?

Genealogy of the the King in the Wizard of Id

The Wizard of Id comic strip created by Johnny Hart and Brant Parker is one of my favorites. This week, the comic strip shows the King (or the Midget Monarch as he is sometimes known) commenting about genealogy. It is humorous. Due to copyright issues, I won't publish the comic strip here but you can view it by going to http://comics.com/wizard_of_id/2009-02-20.

No Census, No Feeling

Census enumerators (census takers) have a difficult job at best. Can you imagine The Three Stooges interviewing local residents?

In a 1940 Three Stooges movie, Larry, Curly, and Moe obtained jobs as census enumerators and were to be paid four cents per name recorded. I watched the movie today, and now I understand some of census records I have looked at in the past! I think this is the same group that visited my great-great-grandfather's house.

Tombstone Parking Meter

These pictures are making the rounds. No comment necessary:

Click on the image to see a larger version. Then click on "Continue reading" to see the next picture.

Computer Frustration

The above comic strip is used here with the permission of the copyright holder: blaugh.com.

Make Your Own Church Sign

Perhaps you've seen them while driving down the road - those backlit, block-letter signs in front of a church announcing the upcoming sermon or maybe just providing a thought for the day.

But why should religion get all the roadside fun? Now you can, too, with the online Church Sign Generator. Choose from five different designs, enter your text, and presto! A photo of your custom sign appears. You can save the photo to your computer at no charge, or, for a few dollars, order magnets, stickers, and coffee mugs printed with your message.

Medieval Help Desk

Struggles with technology are not new. We sometimes think of wrestling with word processors, spreadsheets, cell phones, ATM machines and other such devices as a new challenge, something that our ancestors did not have to deal with. Not so! In fact, technology has been both a help and a hindrance for centuries.

Beau Sharbrough, Senior Director of Content Strategy and Acquisition at Footnote.com, gave a hilarious and yet serious keynote speech at the recent New England Regional Genealogical Council conference in Hartford, Connecticut. He talked about many topics, including today's technology versus the future and the past. His speech was not recorded, but one example that he used is available online. Click on the icon above to see it

I Am My Own Grandpa

Can your genealogy program properly display these relationships? I published the lyrics to this song some time ago at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2005/01/i_am_my_own_gra.html. However, you can now watch the video. Click on the icon below: