Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

On the Road Again... and at Sea

This is a brief note to let you know that I will leave home later today and will be traveling for about ten days. You probably won't see as many new articles as normal in this newsletter during that time. Of course, I travel often and have written similar notes in this newsletter before. However, I will be more incommunicado than normal on this trip.

I will start with a visit to a combined meeting of both the Falmouth Genealogical Society and the Cape Cod Genealogical Society, to be held in Osterville, Massachusetts. I have the honor of addressing the two societies at an all-day seminar on Saturday.


I will then fly to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to board the ms Westerdam on a genealogy cruise to Aruba, Curacao, and to Half Moon Cay, a small island in the Bahamas. The final leg of the cruise will return to Fort Lauderdale. The cruise is hosted by Wholly Genes, Inc., the company that produces The Master Genealogist software as well as Archive CD Books USA.

No Longer Marooned in Massachusetts

After 2½ days of no electricity, no heat, no hot water, no telephone service (other than cellular), and no Internet connection (other than wireless through the cell phone towers), the electricity came on this afternoon. The house is warming up. Getting out of bed was unpleasant this morning when the bedroom was 52 degrees F. I believe it is warmer than that outdoors this afternoon!

I notice the electric company's trucks on my street that fixed the wires all had Missouri license plates. When riding around town, I have seen other power company trucks from Indiana and Kentucky. They obviously rolled trucks from a long ways away!

 

Marooned in Massachusetts

If you have heard the news of this weekend's snow storm followed by power outages in the northeastern U.S., I can confirm it is true. Our house has been without power for about 36 hours now. The power company has advised that some customers may not have power restored until Thursday.

In my case, I have no electricity, Internet service, or traditional telephone service. Luckily, the cell phone service has continued to work without interruption and the 3G wireless modem also connects to a nearby cell tower. As a result, I do have Internet service but everything is battery powered. I am limiting my usage in order to conserve the batteries, in case this does stretch into a multi-day outage.

Why Are You Missing Plus Edition Newsletters?

This is for everyone who subscribes to the Plus Edition of this newsletter:

I received an email today from a lady who was distressed that she is not receiving the Plus Edition newsletters she has paid for. It seems her email provider introduced a new spam filter system three weeks ago and she hasn't received a newsletter since then. What she had apparently forgotten is that she (and all other Plus Edition subscribers) can also read the Plus Edition newsletters online at any time, regardless of email problems.

If your email provider is blocking the newsletters or if your inbox is full or if there are other email problems, you can ALWAYS read the current and two previous editions online.

I Created a New Blog for Motor Home Adventures

I recently posted an article in this newsletter, entitled On The Road Again, This Time From a Motorhome in which I described my latest adventure. I purchased a second-hand Winnebago "Minnie Winnie" motor home a few weeks ago, and I drove it from Massachusetts to Florida.

I was very gratified by all the comments posted at the end of the article. Many newsletter readers also own motor homes or camping trailers and posted advice. Others offered various suggestions and many simply wrote "good luck" messages. Thank you all! You can read the original article and all the comments at http://goo.gl/7byqK.

In addition, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of people who wrote messages similar to "please let us know how you make out and tell us about the adventures you have." I'd love to do that, but I also realize that not every newsletter reader cares to read article after article about my non-genealogy adventures. Posting multiple articles about my  adventures in a recreational vehicle (“RV” for short) in a genealogy/computer newsletter is probably not a good idea. The solution is simple: start a new blog.

The Life of an American Nomad

As mentioned in another article, today I created a new blog for motor home adventures that will describe my travels and adventures in a motor home this winter. I also expect to write about the sights I see in America and will offer comments about American lifestyles. Today, I posted an article about those lifestyles: The Life of an American Nomad.

If you have an interest in today's nomadic, high-tech lifestyles or an interest in recreational vehicles, you might enjoy reading The Life of an American Nomad at http://rv.dickeastman.com/2011/10/the-life-of-an-american-nomad.html.

Attention AOL Subscribers: the Plus Edition Newsletters are Being Blocked Again

I send an email notice every week to every Plus Edition subscriber, telling each subscriber of the new articles that have been added in the previous week. AOL used to block those messages but, about a year ago, something changed at AOL and the AOL members started receiving them. Unfortunately, AOL now seems to have reverted back to blocking those messages again.

Starting two or three weeks ago, my in-box started filling up with messages from Plus Edition subscribers saying they had not received the latest notice. One thing was obvious: all of those messages came from email addresses ending in "@aol.com."

To all AOL members: I suggest you do one or more of three things:

On The Road Again, This Time From a Motorhome

This article comes to you from a Winnebago motor home in a campground in South Carolina, near the Georgia state line.

I travel often, as has been mentioned before in this newsletter. However, this week I am trying something new: travel in a Winnebago motor home. If it works, I expect to spend a lot more time living in the motor home. In short, I will become a genealogy researcher "on the road."

EOGN Dinner in Springfield

For years, I have hosted informal dinners for newsletter readers shortly after the close of major conferences. Last Saturday, 52 of us met high above Springfield, Illinois on the 29th floor oft he Hilton Hotel. We sat and watched the sun go down and lights appear for as far as the eye could see. All this was accompanied by steaks, chicken, salmon, salads, and a variety of pastries. It was my kind of event!

The dinners are always held after the conference closes as I don't want to compete with any of the conference activities. The plan is simple: food, drinks, door prizes, and great conversation. I think we succeeded this time.

Anne Roach's Interview with Dick Eastman

I had a fun conversation with Anne Roach, Director of Content Development for Archives.com. Anne's co-workers captured the conversation as a video and have placed it online, making it available to everyone.

Anne and I gave our reactions to the conference, talked about this newsletter as well as about the Encyclopedia of Genealogy, and discussed several other items as well. This sholud be especially helpful if you weren't able to attend the FGS conference this year.

Announcing the EOGN Dinner on Saturday Evening in Springfield, Illinois

Food! Beverages! Watch the sunset from 29 stories above Springfield! Time with friends! What better way to spend Saturday evening after the close of the FGS Conference in Springfield?

For years, I have hosted dinners shortly after the closing of many of the larger genealogy conferences. I always invite the readers of this newsletter and their guests. I am delighted to announce that there will be another such dinner this Saturday, September 10, 2011, immediately after the end of the Federation of Genealogical Societies' conference in Springfield, Illinois.

YOU are invited!

We will meet on the 29th floor of the Hilton Hotel, across the street from the conference center. The view is outstanding from 29 stories above Springfield. We will be seated at dinner and will be able to watch the city change from dusk to darkness as we all converse with friends.

Online Again After Hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene was an "interesting" experience. Damage in my neighborhood was minor, although my next-door neighbor had a tree come down in his yard, narrowly missing my fence. However, there was no significant damage.

We had heavy rain for a while and winds of perhaps 30 to 40 miles per hour, far less than hurricane force. The weather was worse to the south and west of us.

The biggest problem was the loss of power for about 28 hours. I lost Internet connectivity, the old-fashioned telephone service, and the VoIP phone service for the entire 28 hours. However, cell phone service remained available all during the hurricane so I was never without communications.

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cancun

I had planned to start a vacation today. I found a great bargain for an off-season hotel on the beach in Cancun, Mexico, along with an airfare on JetBlue that was too good to ignore. I packed my bag last night and was ready to go to the airport this morning. Then a lady named Irene interfered.

Actually, this was no lady. It was a hurricane.

On the Road Again (for a Long Time)

I have always traveled frequently, but the next few weeks may turn out to be a new record for me. In short, I expect to be on the road a lot for the next three months. Some of the trips will be to attend genealogy conferences and seminars. I am speaking at several seminars and will be an observer at two or three others. My schedule is posted at http://www.eogn.com; look in the column to the right and scroll down a ways until you find Meet Dick Eastman in Person. I will also take several "mini vacations" along the way. Since I am already on the road, I find it easy to take a few days off and go sightseeing in many areas. However, the vacations are not listed in my public schedule on http://www.eogn.com.

I suspect there will be minimal impact to this newsletter. After all, I will be traveling with a 2½-pound laptop, a wi-fi connection, and a wide-area Sprint 4G wireless modem.

Share These Articles!

Please feel free to forward the articles in the Standard Edition newsletter to your friends and genealogy acquaintances. You can post them on Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere. You can even republish them in your own blog or in your society's printed or online newsletter. You don't have to ask permission.

Someone asked the question today so I'll repeat an article I wrote last year:

Unlike many other web sites, I invite you to copy the articles from Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter Standard Edition and to publish them elsewhere. You can publish them in your own web site, in newsgroups, in your society's (printed) newsletter, or most anyplace else, as long as it is for non-commercial purposes. I do ask that you attribute the source of the article(s) you publish.

Update: A Report on the New Method of Sending the Plus Edition Newsletters

About two months ago, I changed the method of sending the Plus Edition newsletter. Instead of publishing the entire weekly edition inside a long, long email message, I am now sending a much shorter message that gives only the headlines and a link to click to read the entire newsletter on the web.

I also switched email providers. I now use Amazon SES (Simple Email Service), a cloud-based product from Amazon designed for sending many thousands of email messages quickly and at very low prices.

For the first time in seven years, I have now spent two months without receiving a single message of “I didn’t receive the Plus Edition newsletter this week.” I used to receive 10 or 20 such reports per week and I suspect many others had the same problem, but never reported it.

In other words, the changes worked.

This Newsletter on Google+

You can now follow this newsletter's articles on Google+ at http://gplus.to/eogn.

This new feed is in addition to existing feeds on Twitter at http://twitter.com/#dickeastman and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/dickeastman.

New Method of Listening to Articles in This Newsletter

Would you like to listen to articles in this newsletter instead of reading them?

Actually, the option to listen to articles has been available on this newsletter's web site for some time. However, a recent update to the site resulted in the audio application generating false error messages. I won't call it a bug. Instead, it was more of a compatibility issue: I could use either the audio application without updating the web site or vice-versa. I simply couldn't do both at the same time. The two conflicted with each other.

I found a new solution: a different application. It seems to work well.

A Comment to Plus Edition Subscribers

Last week I changed the method of sending the Plus Edition newsletter. Instead of publishing the entire weekly edition in a long, long email message, I sent a much shorter message that gave the headlines and a link to click to read the entire newsletter on the web at http://www.eogn.com/wp/thisweek.htm.

For the first time in seven years, I have now spent seven continuous days without receiving a single message of "I didn't receive the Plus Edition newsletter this week." In other words, it worked.

On the Road Again

It's time to pack up the laptop computer, the Google Chromebook computer, the wireless modem, my USB jump drives, a digital camera, and a host of other gadgets and hit the road. Oh yes, if there's room left over in the suitcase, I may throw in a change of clothes! This time, it is not one trip, but two trips back-to-back.

By the time you read these words, I will be en route to the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree in Burbank. You can read my earlier description of that event at http://goo.gl/TofO3.

I will return home about midnight on Monday night, June 13. The following morning, I will leave again for a few days rest and relaxation on the coast of Maine. There's a rumor that I may even squeeze in a bit of time researching my own ancestry in Maine while I am there.