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| EOGN Note: The information in this archived copy was accurate on the date of publication. Since then, Web sites have appeared and disappeared, companies have been merged and many other facts have changed. You may find references in this archived copy that are no longer accurate. EOGN: Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter A Weekly Summary of Events and Vol. 5 No. 43– October 21, 2000 This newsletter was sponsored by Ancestry.com, To learn about Ancestry.com’s Past issues of this Newsletter Copyright© 2000 by Richard W. Eastman. All rights reserved. If you do contact any of the companies or societies mentioned in this newsletter, please tell them that you read about their services in this newsletter. IN THIS ISSUE: - Genealogy in Time - Genealogy in Time The November 2000 issue of TIME DIGITAL has a great cover story about doing online genealogy research. I read this long article and kept muttering to myself, "How true, how true." Author Curtis Rist describes his somewhat naive introduction to online genealogy. He groped around a bit, probably like millions of others. However, as a staff writer for Time, he had an option that many beginners do not have: he could ask for assistance from experts. He did so. In the article he frequently quotes Elizabeth Shown Mills, editor of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly and president of the American Society of Genealogists, and David Lambert, a reference librarian with the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston. He also mentions a number of other people who helped his efforts. At the beginning of the article, Mr. Rist describes his first online search, where he uncovered all sorts of potential relatives living in upper-class communities. Rist writes, "The only problem is, of course, that all of this is a fiction. Without regard to nettlesome documents such as birth certificates and marriage records, I simply typed the family name into a few Internet search engines, did a search of records on some paid genealogy websites …. — and voilà, an instant heritage. I don’t have any proof of my connection to these far-flung Rists, but neither do most people who trace their roots online." He also quotes David Lambert: "There used to be companies that would send you postcards in the mail saying, 'We have the family tree for all your relatives in the county; just send $29.95.' And what you would end up with was essentially a glorified telephone directory," he says. "Well, essentially these glorified phone books have now migrated to the World Wide Web." Rist describes some of the Web sites and the sellers of CD-ROM disks containing millions of names that seem to promise instant genealogy by saying, "…they're giving people exactly what they want: easy-to-access information, such as marriage listings and ship-passenger registries, without worrying much about details like verification." Rist goes on to describe how to do genealogy properly. He encourages people to use these same online resources, but to use them as clues, not as facts. He tells why these mass sources are not useable in their present form and then encourages the reader to find the truth. He does advise people to use online resources but also cautions them to always double-check everything. You have to read this article. If you have a friend or neighbor or relative who is just starting to research a family tree, make sure you also tell him or her to read it. Go to: http://www.time.com/time/digital/feature/0,2955,56764,00.html - A Genetic Genealogical Reference Database Speaking of articles dealing with genealogy, last Thursday’s Salt Lake Tribune had an interesting article entitled, "Banking on Blood for Genetic History." I believe the science of genetics is going to make dramatic changes to the methods of genealogy research in the next decade or two. This article seems to confirm my beliefs. The article starts out: "A Brigham Young University scientist is dreaming of the day when a blood test can help a person with no recorded family history locate his ancestral homelands." It then goes on to describe a multimillion-dollar "molecular genealogy" project that aims to link traditional genealogy with cutting-edge DNA technology. The hope is to dig into human history in ways never before possible. The entire article is available online at: http://www.sltrib.com/10192000/thursday/34546.htm - The Story of Dundas (Ontario) on CD-ROM Quintin Publications continues to crank out CD-ROM disks of interest to genealogists, historians and others. I don’t know how many titles Bob Quintin has now released, although I suspect it must be several hundred. Quintin Publications obtains old, out–o-print books and then scans them, converting them to digital images. The images are then placed on CD-ROM disks and sold at very attractive prices. This is a great service for genealogists as well as historians and many others since these books are difficult to find anywhere else. This week I had a chance to use Quintin Publications’ CD-ROM copy of "The Story of Dundas, Being a History of Dundas From 1784 to 1904." This is an electronic copy of a book written by J. Smyth Carter of Rowena, Ontario and published by the St. Lawrence News Publishing House in 1905. This 463-page book is typical of the many county histories produced in those years: it starts off with a rather good history of the county, followed by descriptions of the towns, schools, political events, religious life and newspapers. It goes on to list many of the first families to settle the county and then lists many of the leading citizens of 1904. The "Early Settlers" section had many pictures of the individuals listed. If your family was in Dundas in its formative years, you may find a tiny picture of your ancestor in this book. The "Biographical Sketches" also contains many pictures. This section is the "puff piece" of the book. While I don’t know the 1905 sales plan for this particular book, I do know that most of these county histories were financed by advance sales. If you were a successful (or not-so-successful) person in the county, you could pay a rather hefty fee for a "special edition" copy of the book. Since you paid a higher price, the author and publisher would make sure that you were listed in the "Biographical Sketches" section. In fact, it was not unusual for the buyer to write his own sketch! Every person is listed as a stanch pillar of the community; no outlaws or rogues ever seem to be listed. I never found any of my ancestors listed in the Biographical Sketches of any of these county books! However, if you are lucky enough to find one of your ancestors listed, you will probably find out a lot more about his life than you ever will by searching through birth, marriage and death records. The data on "The Story of Dundas" CD-ROM is in Adobe Acrobat format, a good choice in my opinion. It can be viewed on any Windows or Macintosh system, as well as on many UNIX systems. The book was scanned and the information placed on CD-ROM with no enhancements. I found it easy to read on a decent computer screen. Pages can be printed on a local laser or inkjet printer and will look better than photocopies made from an original book. On the downside, I could not find any method to cut-and-paste information from this CD-ROM into another Windows or Macintosh program. There is no computer-generated index or search capability. The original table of contents and the back-of-book index are preserved, of course. However, the page numbers do not line up. I looked in the index and found a topic of interest listed as being on page 325. I told Adobe Acrobat to go to page 325 but found that I was looking at page 373 of the printed book. Even with these minor drawbacks, this book is valuable to anyone having ancestors in Dundas County between 1784 and1904. Quintin Publications sells the CD-ROM version for $19.95 (U.S. funds) plus shipping. You can also buy a printed version for $40.00. For more information, look at: http://www.quintinpublications.com - More on Freedmen's Bureau Records Preservation Act Last week I wrote about a bill filed in the U.S. House of Representatives called the "Freedmen's Bureau Records Preservation Act." If passed, the bill will mandate that:
The bill passed the House Thursday night, October 19, with an increased appropriation of $3 million total. It will go to the Senate on Monday. Tony Burroughs, Adjunct Professor of Genealogy at Chicago State University and author of "Black Roots: A Beginners Guide to Tracing the African American Family Tree," also reports, "In addition to microfilming 1,100 cubic feet of records, Howard University has agreed to assist in indexing names in the records to be placed on the Internet. We are expecting other volunteers to step forward to assist after the filming."Transcripts from the hearings can be read at: http://www.house.gov/reform/gmit/hearings/hindex.htm Tony Burroughs also testified in support of this bill before the Committee on Government Reform’s Subcommittee on Government Management, Information, and Technology. The transcript of Tony’s testimony can be found at: http://www.house.gov/reform/gmit/hearings/2000hearings/001018.Freedman/001018tb.htm. His testimony makes for some interesting reading, especially where he said, "I've been at the National Archives on many occasions when researchers located their ancestors in the records. The joy and exultation they exhibit is sometimes overwhelming. It is very exciting for me to share in their excitement."- More on the Threat to the Leiden, Holland, Pilgrim Sites Two weeks ago I wrote about the City of Leiden's intention to demolition the remains of the Vrouwekerk, the medieval church that was used by the Walloons (Huguenots) after the Reformation. Several Huguenot families, including Philip Delano, Francis Cooke and his wife Hester Mayhew, Edward Bumpas and others, later became Pilgrims. As such, this site is important in both Dutch and American history. According to Dr. Jeremy D. Bangs of the Leiden American Pilgrim Foundation in Leiden, a victory for genealogists and historians can now be proclaimed. Dr. Bangs writes, "Regarding the Aalmarkt site, we've won! - to the extent that AHOLD has just sent me letters announcing their refusal to participate in the project if Pilgrim sites are threatened! Great news! Of course, the town itself has yet to change its attitude, but this may heavily influence them. The many letters and the UCC petition have been very important in this, which is half the fight here. I'm sending you copies of the two letters I got this evening. "This development does not mean that we can relax about the Vrouwekerk; and how the town reacts to the Aalmarkt situation must be watched carefully. An alderman told me that they would just try to find other investors if AHOLD pulls out, and that means pressure still needs to be exerted on FORTIS and ABN/AMRO. But it is certainly an important shift in the scenery." One of the letters he mentions is from Hans Gobes, Senior Vice President of AHOLD, a company that wanted to build a new store in the area. Mr. Gobes wrote, "As you have been informed AHOLD made clear to the Leiden city government on July 7 that it does not want a new store location in the center of Leiden if this would mean that Pilgrim monuments would have to be demolished. We believe it should be possible to do the center project while leaving the monuments intact. Today I repeated our position in a telephone conversation with a Leiden city official. As it seems there is growing interest and as I want to avoid misunderstandings we plan to contact next week the local Leiden newspaper for an article on AHOLD's position." As Dr. Bangs points out, this is not the end of the battle. It simply means that one of the would-be developers has pulled out. There are others. Your letters and e-mails are still important. Those wishing to contact Fortis can write or send e-mail to: Fortis Investors Inc. P.O. Box 64284 St. Paul, MN 55164 Financial@us.fortis.com For ABN/AMRO, write to: ABN AMRO Incorporated 208 South LaSalle Street Chicago, IL 60604 For Leiden City Council: Mailbox@leidenpromotie.nl - Help Wanted: MultiMate Advantage This week I received an e-mail from Edward H. Gaulin asking how to extract data from an old word processor, Ashton-Tate’s MultiMate Advantage. I don’t know the answer but I suspect that someone reading this newsletter does. Here are some excerpts from Edward’s message:
Can you help with this worthwhile endeavor? Do you have a method of reading original MultiMate Advantage files (with linked footnotes) and converting them to something more modern? Or even printing them on paper so that Edward Gaulin can see which footnote belongs to which reference? If so, please respond directly to Edward Gaulin, not to me. His e-mail address is: ehgaulin@worldnet.att.net Now let me ask some questions: What format is your genealogy data stored in? Will anyone be able to read it 10 or 15 years after you are gone? Think about it… - LizardTech Want to know "what’s going to be hot in the computer industry" in the next year or two? Here’s a suggestion: keep an eye on LizardTech. This privately held company has a hot new product that has lots of genealogy uses as well as other applications. LizardTech produces imaging software that significantly reduces large high-resolution scanned image and document files to a fraction of their original file size, while maintaining the quality and integrity of the original. File compression is a hot field these days; we have all seen ZIP files, and many of us are aware that file compression is also used in GIF, MPG, PDF, MP3 and other file formats. LizardTech certainly is not the only company in the arena of file compression. Other companies may offer file compression, but LizardTech seems to make smaller files than most. LizardTech actually has two different compression products: MrSID (Multiresolution Seamless Image Database) for pictures and DjVu for documents. The company reports that file sizes often are less than 1% of the original. Just to show off their capabilities, LizardTech offers their 110-page annual report on their Web site. The report is available in two different formats: Adobe Acrobat PDF format and in LizardTech’s DJVU format. Acrobat files offer significant compression. Even so, the file containing the 110-page annual report is 147 megabytes. The same report in LizardTech’s DJVU format is only 2.8 megabytes! When expanded and displayed on the screen, both files look the same. Similarly, JPG seems to be the reigning standard today for compressed graphics files; however, LizardTech’s MrSID format typically produces files that are 40% to 80% smaller than JPG. To be sure, LizardTech did not invent these compression schemes. The company licensed Generation I of its MrSID technology from Los Alamos National Laboratory and acquired its DjVu technology from AT&T Labs. However, both products had previously been used only as lab experiments; LizardTech is improving and commercializing the technologies. I first heard about LizardTech when using Ancestry.com’s new online images of original U.S. Census records. Ancestry.com makes the files available on their Web site, using LizardTech’s compression methods. LizardTech’s compression makes for smaller files, which results in shorter download times for the users. Of course, it also means that Ancestry.com doesn’t have to buy as much disk space to store these images. Because I had already downloaded and installed LizardTech’s viewer when I was using Ancestry.com a few weeks ago, this week I was able to immediately open LizardTech’s annual report on their Web site. File compression is a hot topic with obvious uses in storing and retrieving scanned images of old documents containing information of interest to genealogists. I suspect this technology will soon be used by other genealogy Web sites in addition to Ancestry.com. You can even download LizardTech’s MrSID Photo Edition and DjVu Shop from the company’s Web site. These Windows programs allow you to use the technology for personal, non-commercial use. The same Web site also has free Web browser plug-ins and other viewers as well. Look at http://www.lizardtech.com for the details. LizardTech is a Seattle-based company. Besides Ancestry.com, their list of clients includes the Library of Congress, Autodesk, Adobe Systems, Graphic Arts Center (GAC), Getty Images (art.com), ESRI, netLibrary and others. Keep an eye on this company. It may prove to be interesting. - Teens Create Website for Preserving Family History A "how-to" website on preserving family history via the web was one of the finalists in this year's ThinkQuest 2000 Internet Challenge. The program, which matches teens with peers from around the world to design educational Web sites, recognizes the winning students, coaches, and schools with scholarships and cash awards totaling almost $1 million. "The UnWritten: Saving Your Photo Stories for the Future" is a guide for preserving family history written by three teenage cousins who found each other. The trio learned about their shared history and documented detailed genealogy, which they presented through their ThinkQuest entry. "The ThinkQuest Internet Challenge unites students from around the globe regardless of computer expertise -- whether from inner-cities, suburban communities, or rural villages -- in their dedicated initiative to create these wonderful educational tools that are used by millions," says Dr. Terry Rogers, president and CEO of Advanced Network & Services, the non-profit corporation that founded ThinkQuest. "With over 50,000 students having completed the ThinkQuest journey to date, we are working to include 1 million participants, worldwide, over the next five years." Selected from a pool of more than 6,800 students, only 70 students were chosen as finalists in this year's ThinkQuest Internet Challenge. Most teammates, who have never met in-person, use the Internet to complete their entries by coordinating their workloads to accommodate the members' diverse schedules, language differences, and radically divergent time zones. President Clinton cited ThinkQuest as a good example of a non-profit program helping to bridge the digital divide. Even now, the final 70 entrants have never been brought together. "We are very proud of our finalists and will recognize the winners, but we also feel that it is inappropriate to convene at this time of worldwide unrest," added Dr. Terry Rogers. "It is our hope that ThinkQuest students with their global and positive attitudes will one day become the peacemakers and bridge-builders of tomorrow." Students participating in ThinkQuest programs learn invaluable skills, whether they are in grade school, college-bound, or heading for a vocational career. Acquiring technical expertise and skills such as time and project management, some ThinkQuest participants start their own businesses while still in high school. Many contest winners use awards to pay for college tuition. "The UnWritten: Saving Your Photo Stories for the Future" can be seen at: http://library.thinkquest.org/C001313 - Tombstone Error The following has been around for years. However, it seems appropriate to publish it now as we approach Halloween:
- Recent Announcements The Recent Announcements section of the newsletter is published once per month, usually in the third newsletter of each month. Each announcement is a brief mention of a new product or service, followed by either an e-mail address or a Web page that you can use to find more information. Items mentioned may include software, Web sites, CD-ROM disks, books, or almost any other genealogy-related products and services. I have not had a chance to look at these products and services myself, so the information is presented "as is." Since detailed information is available via e-mail or the Web, I will not list those details in this newsletter. If you do contact any of these companies or organizations, please tell them where you heard about the announcement. ---------- Win a $10,000 Trip to Your Ancestral Homeland from Generations & Heritage Quest Generations(r) and Heritage Quest(r) have teamed up with Flipside.com to offer one lucky person a trip anywhere in the world to visit their ancestral homeland or other locale of research interest. Family history enthusiasts, genealogists and anyone else with the travel bug will jump at the chance to visit their ancestral homeland and discover their roots firsthand in this Generations(r) Ancestral Homeland sweepstakes worth up to $10,000. Complete sweepstakes information is available online, or on boxes of the award-winning Generations Grande Suite 8.0, Generations Beginner's Edition, and Generations Liberty Edition family tree software from SierraHome this fall. Participants can enter the sweepstakes at http://www.flipside.com/homeland until January 31, 2001. ---------- Generations UK v8 Announcing the new UK editions of Generations version 8.0. At last, the genealogy software packs British family historians have been waiting for. A combination of the best overall genealogical program, special customisation by Sierra for British use, and lots of UK data CDs. TWR Computing have started taking orders for:
TWR Computing are offering a 5.00 pounds discount off the above prices for any customer old or new upgrading from previous versions of Generations. Both packs contain the new UK customised v8.0 versions of EasyTree and EasyChart. In addition, the multimedia tutorial has been re-recorded to include both British content and a British voice! Sierra programmers in Ireland have been busy customising the program code making EasyTree and EasyChart even more suitable for UK use. For instance, numeric UK style dates will now be recognised. The date format now defaults to European format. Information may be found at: http://www.twrcomputing.co.uk ---------- The following is a corrected version of an entry in the last edition of "Announcements": Kate Tossey in Tacoma, Washington recently announced a new service. She offers one free lookup of the 1920 Census of Washington State. Her fees for additional services are nominal, just $10.00/hour, plus copying and postage charges. Look her up at: http://www.evergreengenealogy.com. ---------- C.F. Jewett's 1878 "History of Essex County, Massachusetts" is about to be released on CD-ROM. In addition to the town histories on each title, all these CDs include the Essex Name Lookup database and Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 (for Mac & Windows), and the introductory section with a history of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Essex County. The CD-ROM disks are being offered at a special introductory price of 25% off the normal retail cost:
For more information, and to order, please see http://www.history-ebooks.com ---------- History File Maker(TM) from Progeny Progeny Software Inc. has just released their newest software and it's FREE! The History File Maker is the ideal companion for Progeny's Genelines(TM) users. History File Maker makes it even easier to create your 'history files' (.hst). Add, delete or edit the historical events in your existing files all using this nifty utility - you can even print Timeline Reports. Create interesting new files and add them to our Genelines File Exchange for your family and friends. It's As Easy As 1-2-3. History File Maker is available only by downloading at http://www.progenysoftware.com ---------- Leicestershire & Rutland County Burial Index Volume 1 On CD-ROM The Leicestershire & Rutland Family History Society has released a CD-ROM disk containing Leicestershire & Rutland Burials - 1813-1856 - covering 89 parishes and containing over 65000 burials. The data includes burial place, surname, Christian names, age, burial date and comments. The price is £19.99 plus postage. Full details can be found at http://www.lrfhs.co.uk/cd1.htm ---------- Kindred Konnections(r), Inc. announces the introduction of MyTrees.com in Spanish. MyTrees.com is the fastest growing genealogy web site on the Internet. The site allows Spanish-speaking users the option to search over 1 billion names using a Spanish interface instead of English. Visitors can also enter and display a family pedigree over the Internet using MyTrees Online, a free Internet-based genealogy program located at the MyTrees.com web site. Visitors can also add pictures and biographical text to their pedigrees created by MyTrees Online. These pedigrees can then be made available for viewing by family members from the Family Reunion interface, another free service of MyTrees.com. MyTrees.com features a pedigree-linked database of over 57 million names, called the Ancestral Archive. This database consists of pedigrees submitted by thousands of patrons from around the world, and the automatic indexing of other Internet genealogy sites, making MyTrees.com the first true genealogy search engine on the Internet. A pop-up keyboard is provided to enter accented characters such as ñ and é when searching. The pop-up keyboard is available for both the English and the Spanish interface. To access the site in Spanish, go to http://www.mytrees.com and select Español in the language drop-down menu, or simply go to http://www.mytrees.com/indexspn.html. ----------
Cumberland Family Tree for Windows Version 3 has been released. Cumberland Family Tree is a powerful second-generation genealogy program - many features, multi-lingual, easy-to-use! It automatically links names as they are added to the database. Cumberland Family Tree includes 250 events per person, multiple marriages, scanned photos and documents, sources, stories and more. The major concept of CFT-Win centers around creating your very own Family History Book (although the program still maintains the capability of printing individual reports). The body of your book will likely consist of the unique "Story" reports, which have the capability of taking your dry data - such as dates and places - and structuring them into a delightful readable form. By allowing you to add up to 250 events in a person’s life and attaching notes to those events, you can easily create a full and complete biography on each individual in the database. In addition, you can easily document your data with source notes, which can be end-noted when printing the story reports. The Indexed Book will keep track of all individuals as you create the book and at the end show an index of every individual in the book - plus you can print the source notes, which will have been footnoted throughout the book. You also can add photographs and scanned documents. A wide variety of Photo reports can also be generated: pedigree charts with photos, descendant charts with photos, family groups charts and even a photo album. Full details are available at: http://www.cf-software.com/cftwin.htm ---------- Curt Gronner has compiled the "Family of Ronald W. Reagan" which comprises 12 families with kinship reports of each family (leading to the head of that family), 850 indexed people, and their relationship to Reagan. This 259–page, spiral-bound book costs $25.00 plus $4.00 shipping and handling. A version without the kinship reports of 205 pages but containing all the other material is $20.00 plus $3.00 shipping and handling. The books are available from the Morrison Historical Society, Box 1, Morrison, IL 61270. The Society has the publication rights and will benefit from all profits. For more information, write to: cgronner@essex1.com ---------- The very long-running moonrakers List has moved from moonrakers@ultra.net.au to moonrakers@egroups.com. moonrakers is the original List for those people carrying out research into their family history, for the County of Wiltshire, England. ---------- Clockmakers Of Montgomery County 1740-1850 The Montgomery County Historical Society has just published Bruce R. Forman's hardcover 310-page study of the clockmakers of that Pennsylvania county. This follows thirteen years of intensive research by Mr. Forman. To quote from its inside dust cover: "A detailed biographical sketch of every watch and clockmaker who worked in that county before 1850 is presented, and this information is well documented using many of the original source documents held by the Historical Society of Montgomery County and other public and private collections. Family genealogy, apprenticeships, and other interesting local stories make this section fascinating reading." There are photos of some of the makers, their homes, their tools, their watchpapers and their newspaper advertisements. Other chapters deal with the physical descriptions of the tall case and shelf clock cases, dials, and movements. There is even a description with photos of the David Rittenhouse 1771 cabinet orrery at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition there are a list of clockmakers by township, an index of clocks, and a general index. Also maps. The photographs in each section are outstanding. Further information can be obtained from the publisher: The Historical Society of Montgomery County, 1654 DeKalb Street, Norristown, PA 19401-5415 ---------- Retrospect Publishing is proud to announce the completion of their first eastern county and 6th CD-ROM in the Pennsylvania Retrospective Series. LUZERNE COUNTY - The 19th Century and Before CD-ROM consists of four valuable reference books. Search for your ancestors within seconds. All of our CDs contain a full text search capability along with the original pages. For more information and other PA counties visit: http://www.retrospectpublishing.com ---------- If you would like to see your announcement listed in a future newsletter, please send an e-mail to: announce@rootsforum.com. Are you interested in the articles in this newsletter? Would you like to learn more or ask questions or make comments about these articles? Join this newsletter’s online discussion group on CompuServe’s Genealogy Techniques Forum. The CompuServe forums are free and are available to anyone using Netscape, Internet Explorer or CompuServe’s own software Go to: http://www.rootsforum.com. If you would like to submit news, information or press releases for possible inclusion in future newsletters, send them to richard@eastman.net. The author does reserve the right to accept or reject any articles submitted. DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is being written and sent via e-mail at no charge. I expect to write one new issue on a more or less weekly basis. However, life sometimes interferes, and the need to earn a living may create an occasional delay. COPYRIGHTS: The contents of this newsletter are copyright by Richard W. Eastman with the following exception:
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Please feel free to copy this subscription information and pass it on to anyone else who you think might be interested in obtaining a free subscription. About the author: Dick Eastman is the forum manager of the three Genealogy Forums on CompuServe. He also is the author of "YOUR ROOTS: Total Genealogy Planning On Your Computer" published by Ziff-Davis Press. He can be reached at: richard@eastman.net | |||||||||||||||||||||
