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Copyright© 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. All rights reserved.

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- PAF Insight for Windows

Ohana Software has just released PAF Insight, a new Windows program that works in conjunction with the popular Personal Ancestral File (or PAF). PAF Insight adds capabilities not found in PAF, including database synchronization, extended merge capabilities, and multiple pedigree views, as well as database cleanup capabilities.

Why would you want any of these features? The biggest use probably is for collaboration with other researchers. If you and another person want to share data, you will always encounter some issues when merging databases or parts of databases together. Simply importing a bit of someone else’s data into your own database can create problems such as duplicate individuals or conflicting information. PAF Insight can help you find, isolate, and resolve such inconsistencies.

In addition, the program’s advertising claims that you can "streamline your database," "see the big picture" and "save time." I decided to try the program to see if it lives up to its claims.

I downloaded PAF Insight from Ohana Software’s Web site and installed it. This is a commercial program that requires payment in advance of its use. When installing, you are prompted for your name and a registration code that you received in e-mail when you purchased the program. There were no surprises in the installation process, and I was up and running PAF Insight within a minute or two.

I launched the program and found myself staring at a blank screen. I asked, "Now what?" Assuming that I had to look at genealogy data stored in Personal Ancestral File’s database, I clicked on FILE and then on OPEN, and then I loaded my PAF database. This process took a few seconds; then I was presented with a tiny menu of four choices: Sync, Merge, Show/Trim Pedigrees, and Cancel. I tried each, in turn.

The Synchronize function lists individuals from two different PAF databases with differences side by side in the Individual List. You need to load your primary database – the one you are updating – on the left, and then open a secondary database – the one with variant information – on the right. Each side shows its details about the same person by a series of tabbed windows. PAF Insight will highlight in pink the tabs on where there are differences. When you click on a pink tab, you find the differing item in that window also highlighted in pink.

Needing a second database for this function, I imported a GEDCOM file from a distant relative into a new, empty PAF database and then saved it. I used PAF Insight to compare the two databases. I found it easy to compare individuals listed in the two separate databases in a side-by-side view. Differences between the two records were clearly visible as I checked the different tabs.

The Merge function is used to find possible duplicate individuals within one database. The Individual List will display in the upper left-hand corner of PAF Insight. The matching individuals will be listed with the most probable matches first. The last column of the Individual List shows the probability of each match. The Details View window will be open when you open Merge.

PAF Insight then offers several options on each person shown:

• Switch - Swap the primary (left side) individual with the secondary (right side) individual.

• Merge - Combine the selected information from the right side individual into the left side or primary individual.

• Not a Match adds a note to each of the selected individuals that says: "NOT A MATCH: This individual is not the same as (other individual in pair) PAF ID # "

• Research adds a note to the selected individuals that states, "RESEARCH FOR MERGE: This individual might be the same as (other individual in pair) RIN #."

Despite my initial "Now what?" reaction to the opening screen, I found PAF Insight to be very easy to use. It will be especially useful for those who collaborate with others or import data from other sources. The program performs three functions and performs them well. PAF Insight’s menus and screens are a bit "barebones," but the built-in Help file explains everything in some detail.

There is one major drawback to this program, although it is a trivial issue if you know about it in advance. The drawback is that PAF Insight’s default settings have you select your primary PAF database. It then writes data to the database, hopefully to improve the database’s contents. However, bad things do happen occasionally to Windows software. Human errors, power failures, hardware difficulties, or Windows’ many unexplained lockups can all create havoc. I would hate to think what would happen if I used the Trim function and then saved the results to the only copy of my genealogy database! I am also a bit leery of having a new (to me) program writing to the genealogy database that contains the results of thousands of hours of my work.

I suggest that you first create a backup of your database and then have PAF Insight work on that backup copy. The program doesn’t care if you are using the primary database or a copy of it. Once you complete your work and are satisfied with the results, you can always copy the backup to your primary database. Besides, you should always have a backup copy someplace, right?

So, did the program live up to its advertised claims that you can "streamline your database," "see the big picture" and "save time"? I think so. It does indeed simplify the maintenance of your data.

I never did find any list of system requirements from Ohana Software. However, this is a 32-bit Windows program that does not seem to place a heavy load on the computer. I tested it on a Windows 2000 system but suspect it will work on most any Windows 95 or later system. If your computer is capable of running Personal Ancestral File for Windows, I suspect it is also capable of running PAF Insight.

PAF Insight for Windows sells for $25.00, a price that strikes me as being a bit high for an add-on utility that performs three functions. To be sure, those functions do not exist in Personal Ancestral File, and adding this utility can provide benefits to the PAF user. However, similar functionality exists in other genealogy programs, even low-cost and free programs. Legacy is famous for its database merge and trim capabilities. Many of those who have used both PAF and Legacy will tell you that Legacy is the more powerful of the two programs and yet is equally easy to use.

Legacy includes excellent database merge and trim capabilities in both of its versions: the free Standard Edition and the $19.95 Deluxe Edition. I would suggest that PAF users would be better served if they switched to Legacy. However, I also know that some die-hard PAF users will reject the notion of ever switching to another program. The new PAF Insight certainly will appeal to those who wish to remain with Personal Ancestral File.

Do you have a number of "future family heirlooms" that are on VHS tapes? You should know that video tapes will start to wear down after about 10-15 years. And that's if you never watch them! Frequent use creates even more degradation. The exact life expectancy varies, depending upon the quality of the tape. Perhaps you think you got a bargain when you purchased those blank videotapes at the discount store. However, fifteen years later you might regret your money-saving efforts when you discover that the images of your child or of a departed relative are now fuzzy and difficult to see. Higher-quality tapes do last longer.

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The University at Albany has a virtual sign hanging in cyberspace: "Help Wanted from amateur genealogists." Demographic researchers at the university are seeking assistance from genealogists to help track the lives of New York City residents from a century ago. The result is the "Mumford Genealogy Challenge," a novel call over the Internet for help with an academic sociological study.

John Logan, director of the school's Lewis Mumford Center, thought the most elusive cases could be cracked by tapping into the ingenuity of amateurs. More than 120 people have registered so far, solving 19 cases in less than two months. Logan's team is tracking the movement of certain ethnic and racial groups living in New York City from 1900 to 1920. They hope census records can illustrate how quickly Italian immigrants, black migrants, and other groups integrated into society's mainstream from neighborhood enclaves. The work fits in with the Mumford center's focus on urban research.

Mumford researchers chose 4,500 New Yorkers at random from the 1920 census with hopes of matching as many as possible with the 1900 census. Some of the research is easy, but complications often arise, especially with women who changed their last names upon marriage. Researchers often find maiden names through marriage and birth certificates.

Those who score "hits" in the genealogy challenge receive a "Mumford Challenge Mug," a coffee mug with "I won the Mumford Genealogist Challenge" printed on it.

Meanwhile, researchers have collected the names of thousands of Chicago residents from 1920 and soon will repeat the process of cross-referencing them with the 1900 census. Logan said there could be a Chicago genealogy challenge, too.

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This week I had a chance to look at a book that lists genealogy and history sites and other resources on the Internet. Virtual Roots 2.0 is subtitled, "A guide to genealogy and local history on the World Wide Web." The book certainly lives up to that claim. The version I read this week is a second edition with thousands of changes and additions from the first edition of the book that was printed in 1997.

Author Thomas Jay Kemp has created a 311-page reference manual that will be useful to many people, especially to online newcomers. The book is almost entirely a listing of Web sites. Others have compiled lists of Web sites, of course. However, Kemp's list not only lists the sites, but he also rates many of them. He lists quite a few as "Outstanding Sites;" a much smaller number are listed as "Extraordinary Sites," and thirteen sites earn his top rating of "Most Extraordinary Sites." I have to admit that I had never heard of one of the sites he listed as "Most Extraordinary." I quickly went to look at that site and must say that I agree with Tom Kemp's rating.

The listings in Web site listings in this book are divided into the following sections:

• General Subjects
• United States Sources (further divided by individual states)
• International Sources

The listings seem to be comprehensive and probably are longer lists than what one can find with the typical search engine. For instance, I noticed that even the tiny independent Principality of Liechtenstein had four Web sites listed, including one for its National Library.

Each entry in Virtual Roots 2.0 includes an e-mail and postal address and, where available, the telephone and/or fax number for reference staff of each website. This information enables researchers to immediately contact archives, libraries, or societies around the globe while still viewing the repository’s website on the computer.

Best of all, the book also contains a CD-ROM disk inside its back cover. The disk contains an exact reproduction of the printed version of Virtual Roots 2.0 with one major difference: each Web address of site listed is a "hot link." When reading the book in the CD-ROM version, the reader can "jump" to the web sites discussed simply by clicking on the blue web site address. Personally, I prefer the CD-ROM version over the printed version although I am sure that not everyone agrees with me.

The information on the CD-ROM disk is in Adobe Acrobat format, a very popular choice. The information in the book and on the CD-ROM disk states that it works on both Windows and Macintosh. Just as an experiment, I also tried it in one of my Linux systems and found that it worked there as well.

Author Thomas Jay Kemp has excellent genealogy and history credentials. He is the assistant librarian and archivist at the Godfrey Memorial Library in Middletown, Connecticut, a great repository of genealogy information. He is the chair of the American Library Association's Genealogy and Local History Discussion Group and has served on the Board of Directors of the Federation of Genealogical Societies. He has been chairman of the Council of National Library and Information Associations and president of the American Society of Indexers. He has written more than two dozen books and databases, as well as numerous articles that regularly appear in state and national library, archival, and genealogical journals.

One has to ask, "Why purchase a printed book of these resources when I can find the same thing online?" The quick answer is, if you are an experienced genealogist with extensive Web skills, you probably can find most of this information online. However, use of this book adds author Tom Kemp's expertise and experience as a supplement to your own abilities. I consider myself to be an experienced online genealogist and yet, as I mentioned earlier, within a few seconds of opening this book I found a reference to one of the "Most Extraordinary Sites" that I had never heard of before.

Genealogists and newcomers with less online experience will especially find this book's clear organization and rating system to be big aids in quickly identifying worthwhile sites. It may also save hours of sifting through less valuable sites, a definite benefit in light of the profuse listings you will get with many Web search engines.

Unlike most other directories that I have seen, Virtual Roots 2.0 lists e-mail and postal addresses for almost all the sites mentioned. It also frequently lists telephone and/or fax numbers for the reference staff of each Web site. This can be a big help when you need to contact the staff of the site listed.

This book is much more than a simple collection of Web sites and their addresses; Tom Kemp has done an excellent job of digging out the good stuff, deliberately leaving out the sites of lesser value.

I also would like to mention that Tom Kemp is donating all royalties from the book to the Godfrey Memorial Library.

Virtual Roots 2.0 is available from Scholarly Resources, Inc. The price is $29.95 (US funds) for the paperback edition. A library-quality cloth bound edition is available for a higher price.

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Grenham's Irish Surnames is a CD-ROM for Windows, released by Eneclann Ltd. about two weeks ago. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on one of the first disks available and would like to describe its contents and operation.

One fact that I learned immediately is that Ireland was one of the first European countries to adopt hereditary surnames, starting about 900 years ago. Since then, the island has seen many immigrants, including Gaels, Vikings, Normans, Scots, Welsh, English, French Huguenots, and German Palatines. All of them have added their own influences and often their surnames to the Irish. This CD-ROM provides a resource for anyone interested in his or her Irish surname. It also will satisfy a casual curiosity in coats of arms and surname origins.

The CD-ROM disk contains:

• Details of 26,756 Irish surnames and 104,058 surname variants
• 8,207 Surname Dictionary entries
• The distribution of 2,296 surnames in 1890, as recorded in birth records
• Details of the distribution of 377,902 households throughout Ireland 1847-64
• Coats of arms for 130 of the most common Irish surnames
• An extensive bibliography of Irish family history
• Ireland-wide parish maps
• Details of the records of 3,782 churches and congregations throughout Ireland, comprising 8,376 sets of records.

Installation was as simple as any other Windows program: insert the CD-ROM disk into your system, double-click on SETUP.EXE, and then follow the on-screen instructions that appear. Less than a minute later the required software was installed, and everything was ready for operation.

The opening screens provided a short full-motion video that lasted for about 15 seconds, providing a "mini-tutorial" of the disk’s operation. This was followed by a search screen, along with a bit of text explaining how to use the information. Tabs across the top of the screen offered other options that I will describe shortly.

As I am hobbled by a lack of Irish ancestry, I could not search for names in my own family tree. However, I have plenty of Irish-American friends, so I started searching for their surnames. My first experience was in searching for the name Murphy, about as Irish as any name I could think of. This produced a screen containing several distinct elements: there was a map of Ireland with icons on it, showing the counties where the name was found in the years 1847 through 1864. As you might imagine, a common name like Murphy was found in every county.

I decided to search for the less-common surname of Lafferty. This time the results were very interesting: the map display showed that the surname only appeared in a few counties, with most of the families in County Donegal.

In both cases, the right side of the screen shows a text list of the counties and an exact number of families of that name found within the county. The source of this information is the Griffith distribution survey, based on Griffith’s Valuation. The year varies from county to county, with the earliest records dated 1847 (for Dublin) and the latest 1864 (for Armagh). Clicking on a county name then displays a new screen, showing the details for that county. In the case of Lafferty families in County Donegal, the families were in 13 different parishes. Most of them were in Clondahorky and Urney parishes.

I double-clicked on the listing for Clondahorky Parish, and still another screen appeared, offering details about the records for that parish that are available. (However, the records are not on this CD-ROM disk; a collection of all the records would fill many CD-ROM disks!) The records listed include Roman Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Methodist, Congregational, Latter-day Saints, and Moravian church records. In each case, the listing gave the location where the records are presently stored and offered microfilm numbers when appropriate. This disk lets you quickly search to see where your ancestral surnames appear and then obtain details of where the records are stored.

The same CD also offers a bit of historical information about the family names searched. Information is provided for the 200 or so most common surnames in Ireland at the end of the 19th century. When you include all the variant spellings and connected names, almost 800 surnames are covered.

For instance, my search for the name Murphy found the following:

The above is a copy of the first paragraph of the Murphy information; the information on the CD is much, much longer. It provides not only history, but many spelling variations as well. With most names, the information even includes the counties where the different spelling variations are commonly found.

The CD also displays coats of arms, when available. When searching for information on Murphy, the coat of arms of David O'Morchoe is displayed. He is the current Chief of the (Murphy) Name as recognized by The Chief Herald of Ireland and is the one person authorized to display this coat of arms.

Both with the textual information and with the coat of arms, there is never any inference that this is a "history of your name" or "your family’s coat of arms" as peddled by some merchants. Instead, the information is presented in a factual manner. As the CD’s help file states, "It is unlikely that these will be of direct relevance to genealogical research, but they are included for general interest."

Grenham's Irish Surnames was compiled and edited by John Grenham, one of the best-known names in Irish genealogy. He is the author of Tracing Your Irish Ancestors (2nd ed. 1999, Dublin, Gill & Macmillan, 2000 Baltimore, GPC), the standard guide- and source-book for Irish genealogical research, as well as a number of other works, including Clans and Families of Ireland, (Dublin, Gill & Macmillan, 1993, New York, CLB, 1994), An Illustrated History of Ireland, (Dublin, Gill & Macmillan, 1997) and Pocket Reference: Irish Family Names, (London, HarperCollins, 1997 ). He was formerly a professional genealogist and project manager of the Irish Genealogical Project, and since 1996 he has developed and marketed his own genealogical software. He currently runs the Irish Ancestors website, in association with The Irish Times.

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The following is an announcement from Burke's Peerage and Gentry

That price in US currency is roughly $539, reverting to $623 after October. These three large volumes may not find their way to every genealogist’s bookshelf, but they are often found in libraries, societies, and other circles of interest in UK antiquity.

There are 19 million war veterans living in the United States today, but every day we lose 1,500 of them. Now is the time to collect their stories and experiences, while they are still among us. The Veterans History Project aims to do just that.

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress plans to collect and preserve audio- and video-taped oral histories, along with documentary materials such as letters, diaries, maps, photographs, and home movies, of America's war veterans and those who served in support of them. The Veterans History Project covers World War I, World War II, and the Korean, Vietnam, and Persian Gulf wars. It includes all participants in those wars -- men and women, civilian and military. It documents the contributions of civilian volunteers, support staff, and war industry workers, as well as the experiences of military personnel from all ranks and all branches of service -- the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy, as well as the U.S. Coast Guard and Merchant Marine.

All Americans are encouraged to participate. By interviewing a veteran or war worker as part of the Veterans History Project, you honor those who served our nation. You also are participating in a national project initiated by Congress to promote public learning and to encourage discussion across the generations about our nation's wartime activities. Interviewers might be veterans comparing their experiences with fellow veterans who fought in previous wars. They may be students talking with veterans and home front supporters within their local communities as part of school projects. Or they may be grandsons and granddaughters coaxing grandparents to share their memories of America at war.

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As a result of the state budget crisis, historic sites around the state of Wisconsin will have funding reduced. The cuts will also hit hard at the Wisconsin Historical Library and the Historical Museum.

The Wisconsin Historical Society asks all interested citizens to attend the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee public hearings in your area. Testifying at a committee meeting, in person or in writing, is an effective way to let the members know your position. Several sessions have already been held, but two more hearings are scheduled:

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Who owns a tombstone or other markers at a grave? Who retains ownership rights to these memorials centuries after the family paid for them? Do later museum directors, art collectors, and outright thieves have the right to remove these objects for their own use?

These and other questions are highlighted in a recent article in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Staff writer Michael Currie Schaffer describes the quest of Shirley Donan, a Grove City, Pennsylvania genealogist. Donan went to England to visit St. Lawrence Church in the tiny English village of Brundish, about 100 miles northeast of London. She went there to research several members of the Colby family, direct ancestors of her husband, who were buried in the church under intricate brass carvings, according to a nineteenth-century genealogy book. When arriving at the tomb of Francis Colby, whose brother was a direct ancestor of Donan's husband, she found a 20th-century replica in the place of the 1570 original brass carving.

Donan investigated and found that the ornate brass plate had been stolen from the unlocked church many years ago by persons unknown. Eventually, it surfaced in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, not far from Donan's home.

The article describes in some detail Shirley Donan's efforts to have the brass plate returned to its rightful place on Francis Colby's grave. After all, the Colby family paid for the marker and expected it to remain in place for eternity.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art has refused to return the object to the Colby family. Perhaps even more disturbing is the museum director's quote of a policy of many major museums: "Objects acquired in earlier times must be viewed in the light of different sensitivities and values, reflective of that earlier era." In other words, if enough years pass after the theft, the museum claims that the recipient of these stolen goods does not have to return the item in question.

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In the article about PAF Insight earlier in this newsletter, I mentioned backups. Let me ask you a question: Do you have a backup of your genealogy database? If so, where is it stored?

The reason I ask is that this morning I walked into my "computer room" at home and discovered that my primary computer was locked up with a message on the screen saying, "Hard drive failure, unable to boot." Trust me: this is a heart-stopping message!

I quoted a few magic incantations, rubbed a lucky rabbit’s foot, and powered off the PC. I waited a few seconds, turned the power on and everything has worked normally in the few hours since then. There is no obvious problem at this moment although I suspect I may see some difficulties in the future. I know that computer problems almost never go away; they just hide for a while.

Even before restarting the computer, I began to think about backups. Yes, I have several. My computer automatically backs up everything to another computer on my in-home local area network, starting at 2:00 AM every morning. In addition, I have a second backup copy of my genealogy database on my laptop, which is also at home. Finally, every 2 or 3 months, I copy the genealogy database and other important files to a CD-ROM disk, take it to the office, and store it in a desk drawer there. This "off site storage" gives me some protection in case of a catastrophic event at home that destroys all my computers and backups in the house.

Are you protected? What happens if tomorrow morning your computer displays a message proclaiming, "Hard drive failure, unable to boot?" Do you have multiple backups, including one that is stored off-site? If not, how many hours would it take for you to recover all that information?

Think about it…

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Scam artists have probably been active for thousands of years. The Internet simply gives them a new arena in which to dupe innocent people. Some of the earliest scams went after America Online users. Scammers would send instant messages to online AOL customers, purporting to be AOL employees asking for their passwords or personal information. Scammers then would try to steal credit card information.

Thousands of online users last week received convincingly official-looking e-mail purporting to come from Discover Financial Services. The letters told users their accounts had been frozen by mistake and asked for account numbers and mother's maiden name to reactivate them. Investigators soon found that replies to those e-mails went to a computer with an Internet address in Russia.

The Discover scam is just the latest in a string. AOL, Earthlink, PayPal, eBay, and others have seen similar scams in the past. But the Discover scam is, by far, the most sophisticated looking scam so far.

When contacted, Discover Financial said it would never ask for personal information by e-mail. Discover Card and other firms will never ask for your credit card number, bank account number or any passwords in e-mail. Any message that asks for private information obviously came from an imposter.

Never respond to an e-mail request that asks for personal information. If you're unsure whether such a request is genuine, call the company.

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Hoaxes are common on the Internet. There are thousands of messages floating around warning about non-existent viruses, sending a card to a dying boy, or offering to collect millions of dollars by helping someone in an African nation deposit money into your bank account.

Here is a bit of historical Internet hoax trivia: in 1984, back in the Stone Age of the Internet, there was no such thing as the World Wide Web. E-mail was primitive as well. However, Usenet was popular. It was sort of like today's e-mail lists; a message entered by someone was then rebroadcast to many people and delivered to their e-mail addresses. Many of the Usenet gateways ran on DEC VAX computers. Many had network names that included the letters "vax" such as mitvax for the "VAX at M.I.T."

Two weeks later its true author, a European man named Piet Beertema, revealed that it was a hoax that he created as an April Fool’s joke. This is believed to be the first hoax on the Internet.

However, the final laugh occurred years later when the political climate changed radically, and Moscow really did link up to the Internet in 1990. The first Russia-to-the-Western-world link went through a new gateway that was named "kremvax" in honor of the earlier hoax.

In an even more ironic historical footnote, kremvax soon became an electronic center for the anti-communist resistance during the bungled hard-line coup of August 1991. During those three days the Soviet UUCP network centered on kremvax became the only trustworthy news source for many places within the USSR. Though the sysops were concentrating on internal communications, cross-border postings included immediate transliterations of Boris Yeltsin's decrees condemning the coup and eyewitness reports of the demonstrations in Moscow's streets. The original kremvax joke became a reality as the gateway became the primary "means of having an open discussion forum with the American and European people." It seems that Piet Beertema was more of a visionary than a jokester.

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The Upcoming Events section of this newsletter is published once per month, usually in the first newsletter of each month. Each event will be listed very briefly: date(s), location and brief details, followed by either an e-mail address or a Web page that you can use to find more information. Since detailed information is available via e-mail or the Web, I will not list the details in this newsletter. If you do contact any of these organizations, please tell them where you heard about the event.

Here are the listings, arranged by date. An asterisk indicates a new listing that has been added since the last time this list was published:

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The PR Budget for this newsletter is $0.00. I rely upon "word of mouse" advertising in which you recommend this newsletter to your friends. This newsletter is a private project of mine, and I have a zero budget for a publicity campaign to get more readers.

Thanks.

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