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

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Heredity: People believe in it until their children act like fools.

The following is a "preview" of a Plus Edition-only article:

One of the interesting things about writing this newsletter is that I hear from many people. I hear stories about genealogy research, about good and bad experiences with genealogy products, about shortcomings of online Web sites, and about a lot of personal experiences. Sadly, some of these personal experiences involve the loss of data.

I have heard stories about hard drive failures, power supply failures, viruses, worms, and other unidentified computer "glitches." Of course, the most common cause of data loss is human error: an accidental click of the mouse followed by the word, "Ooops." I have suffered through all of these problems myself: hardware, software, and human errors. More than once I have gasped, "Ooops!"

When someone has suffered a data loss, the usual comeback is, "Go to your backup copy." All too often, this is followed by an awkward silence. Many people do not create backups.

There are many variables in this world, but one thing is certain: if you own a computer, you will eventually have failures. You probably will not escape with only one failure; many people will have failures once or twice a year. You need to protect your genealogy data as well as checkbook records, computerized income tax returns, digitized family photographs, and all other valuable items on your computer's hard drive.

Saving data on a floppy or CD that is in your home is insufficient. Watching television news of the recent fires in California brought this message home to millions: a television reporter was interviewing a woman as her home was engulfed in flames in the background. The tearful woman reported that her family members were all safe, but they had lost all family belongings, including photographs and the family genealogy stored on the now-destroyed computer.

Of course, fires are not the only cause of data destruction. Catastrophes can happen on a smaller scale, too. A burst water pipe, a criminal intruder, or even a child's accidental actions while playing a computer game all can destroy data, both primary and backups alike. Data processing professionals always store backup copies off site. You need to do the same.

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GEDitCOM is a customizable genealogy application for the Macintosh written by John A. Nairn. GEDitCOM allows the user to view and edit GEDCOM files. The program operates on OS 8, OS9 and OS X. A new version was released this week, and I decided to try it out.

According to the GEDitCOM Web site:

I download the free demo copy of GEDitCOM from the program's Web site. This demo version can be used to view GEDCOM files. It also serves as a demo of the full version of GEDitCOM, which can edit GEDCOM files as well. The free browser/viewer can be converted to the full-featured editor by purchasing an unlocking code (for a one-time registration fee).

I encountered a minor glitch on my first attempt at downloading and installing GEDitCOM. The program is available on the Web site in two versions: a StuffIt file and a self-extracting archive. I discovered that the self-extracting archive is not a native OS X application. I recently upgraded my iMac to OS X.3, the Panther release. In doing so, I reformatted the hard drive and installed OS X alone without a copy of OS 9 on the system. Upon my first attempt to extract GEDitCOM, I received an error message stating that my iMac could not find an OS 9 folder.

I regrouped and downloaded the StuffIt version. OS X then extracted the contents of that compressed file, and I soon found that I was in business. GEDitCOM itself works nicely under OS X alone; it is only the self-extractor used that has a compatibility problem. If you run OS X without OS 9 installed, make sure you download the StuffIt formatted version. Anyone with OS 9 or 8 installed will never see this problem.

I started first with the sample GEDCOM file included with GEDitCOM. This file contains many of the descendants of King George VI of England, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. While it was somewhat interesting to look at someone else's data, I decided to load a GEDCOM file of my own, containing data for about 3,000 of my extended relatives.

The first screen the program displays is an Index window, showing a list of all the individuals in the GEDCOM file, sorted alphabetically. The Index window may also show other information, such as birth date, death date, parents' names, or spouse's name. You can customize the Index window to contain a wide variety of data in a spreadsheet format.

Clicking on any person's name in the family record instantly displays the same information about that person. You can easily "walk" up and down a family tree in this manner, clicking on parents' names and children's' names as needed. If you control-click on a name in the index window, you will get a Context-Sensitive Popup Menu. The popup menu lists that individual, his or her parents, spouses, and children, the family record of the parents, and the family records with any spouse. You can select any menu item to open that record.

The program also will calculate the relatives of an individual by tracing that person's descendants, ancestors, and descendants of the ancestors. It will even display relationships such as second cousin, three times removed.

I was quite impressed with the speed of GEDitCOM. On my 400-megahertz iMac with 256 megabytes of RAM memory, the change from one person to another was accomplished in a blink of an eye. Entire screens full of data seemed to repaint instantly.

GEDitCOM has powerful features for searching all genealogical records in the current file. It will search all records and display a list in the search window of the number of matches found and a link to each match. From this list you can click on any match to view that record. You can return to the search window from any other record to look at more matches by reselecting the Search command in the Edit menu.

When you search for multiple strings, the strings can be connected by various types of Boolean logic expressions. The connecting logic is selected by pop-up menus in front of strings two through four. The three options are Or, And, and And Not. For example, if the first two search strings are "Smith" and "England" you can do the following searches, depending on the selected logic in front of "England:"

1. Or: find all records containing "Smith" or containing "England"

2. And: find all records containing both "Smith" and "England"

3. And Not: find all records containing "Smith" but not containing "England"

The lists created from such searches can then be exported as new lists.

Other search options include the following:

• Find Marked - Click this button to get an alphabetical list of all currently marked records. The program includes a number of options for marking records and performing other operations on them.

• Check Errors... - Click this button to scan a file for various types of errors. You select the types of errors to search for in a dialog box that appears after clicking the button.

• Changed... - Click this button to find all records that have been changes after some date and/or before some date.

• Relatives of an Individual - You can compile a List of Relatives for any individual and have that list displayed in the search window by using the Relatives... command in the View menu when an Individual record is in the front window.

GEDitCOM also will compile a family tree showing all the descendants of an individual. This is accomplished by selecting the Descendant Tree command in the Tree menu when that person's Individual Record is in the front window. A descendant tree will be compiled showing all descendants in the current GEDCOM file, and it will be displayed in a separate window.

Viewing data quickly and in a convenient format is useful, but the real power appears when you register the program and then can use the editing features. Registered users can do any of the following:

• Create a New Individual - add new person to your file
• Create a New Family - add a new family group to your file
• Create Other New Record - add another type of GEDCOM record
• Attach Data to Records - create linkages between GEDCOM records (such as spouses, parents, and children)
• Detach Data From Records - undo linkages that are wrong
• Sort Data in Records - sort children or spouses
• Internet Links in Genealogical Records - you can link your research to the Internet.
• Date Conversions and Calculations - you can convert dates in date fields between various calendars and do some calculations
• Delete Records - removes a GEDCOM record
• Create a Web Site - turns any GEDCOM file into a web site.

This last item, turning any GEDCOM file into a web site, will appeal to many. If your present Macintosh genealogy program does not create Web sites, or if it does so in some manner that you do not like, take a look at GEDitCOM. Because all features of the exporting option can be customized, the web site you get will depend on the Export Style used to create the web site.

GEDitCOM requires a Power Macintosh (or the newer G3, iMac, G4, etc. Macintoshes) with a color monitor and System 8.1 or newer (System 8.6 or newer recommended). Running in MacOS 8 or 9 requires the CarbonLib extension 1.0.4 or newer (1.2.5 or newer recommended). The CarbonLib extension is not required for OS X.

GEDitCOM costs $49.99 (U.S. funds). You can try it first by downloading the free demo version and using it as long as you like. Should you decide to upgrade and thereby enable all the available features, you can return to the same Web site and pay by credit card, using a safe and secure server. Soon after you register GEDitCOM, you will receive an e-mail that contains an unlocking code, which allows you to permanently unlock your copy of GEDitCOM, adding full functionality.

Time Tales is an online collection of found photographs. Created by photographer Astrid Van Loo and Web designer Dick Dijkman, this project to salvage lost pictures is in its early stages, but it addresses a question many of us have faced: is there a family member who might treasure these lost mementos?

Genealogists tend to notice old picture albums and the like at flea markets, thrift shops, and other miscellaneous places. They sometimes stumble on old pictures when searching through old houses, furniture, and books. I’ve often thought it a shame that such irreplaceable items could meet such a lowly end. Now TimeTales.com proposes to become a new home for lost photos, a resting place for the nameless and the lost.

The following is a quote from the TimeTales.com Web site:

My thanks to Phil DeSilva for telling me about this interesting Web site.

Midge Frazel has written an excellent "Expert Guide for Palm OS Handheld users for Genealogy." This guide describes four genealogy programs for the Palm operating systems as well as six utilities for the genealogist. All include screen shots of the programs in operation.

Midge's guide also describes e-books, Web resources, and online discussion forums devoted to genealogy uses of the Palm handhelds. In describing the new guide, Midge wrote:

Writing on the newsletter's Discussion Board, Ken Watson states, "I've had several email queries about the specifics of how I go about copying old photos using a digital camera. To help answer those questions, I've updated my digital camera and genealogy website with a page that details my personal "workflow". Just click on the link from the main page, or from the Making Digital Copies of Old Photographs page."

Indeed, this is an exhaustive analysis of digital photography and old photograph restoration. The topics covered include storing digital photographs, copying and improving old family photographs, photographing old documents, labeling digital photographs, capturing photographs, CD-ROM storage and archiving a cemetery with digital photographs. My person favorite is Ken's section entitled "The Myth of DPI."

I have no knowledge of quilting but was impressed recently when I had a chance to look at one of Genealogy Picture Quilts' creations. You can display your family tree, with pictures, on a handmade quilt.

To create the pictures on a quilt, you must send your photographs to Genealogy Picture Quilts. The photos are scanned using state-of-the-art processes and then stored on a CD-ROM disk. Your photographs are then immediately returned to you.

A photo program is then used to enlarge or reduce the photographs as appropriate. Images of picture frames are added, as are the names of the individuals. The resultant pictures are then printed directly onto 100% cotton material. The printed pictures are washed and prepared for sewing directly to the fabric. This is not a photo transfer project; the photographs are actually printed onto the cloth. The pictures are then stitched into the final product in a manner that shows family trees attached to the photographs. The result is a quilt, throw, or wall hanging that is completely washable.

In the August 11 edition of this newsletter, I wrote the following:

Megan wrote recently to say that the effort has been a success. Here is her report:

Congratulations on the success of this rescue mission to Megan and all those who made it possible!

GENTECH is coming! GENTECH is coming!

This conference will be held in St. Louis in about two months. This is the premier "technology in genealogy" event in the world. If you are interested in attending, the time to register is now. The "early bird" registration deadline is 1 December. Any delay beyond that will increase your expense.

I certainly will attend this event and hope to meet newsletter readers there. I suspect you will enjoy the presentations and the vendors' hall as well. Here is some information written by Ted Steele, GENTECH 2004 Conference Chair:

• Beyond Your Library: Online Sources That Support the Interlibrary Loan Process by Ruth Ann (Abels) Hager, CGRS, CGL
• Helping Genealogists Use the Internet at the Library by Cyndi Howells
• Creating an Online Digital Records Archive by Matthew L. Helm
• Something for Everyone: Collection Development Strategies for Creating a "Best Collection" in Any Library by Curt B. Witcher, MLS, FUGA

• Planting Your Family Tree Online: Building a Genealogy Website by Cyndi Howells
• Mapping Workshop for Genealogists by Pamela Boyer Porter, CGRS, CGL
• Federal Web Sites by Sandra MacLean Clunies, CG
• Digital Photos & Scanning by Jake Gehring

• Internet: Ahh… the Internet. You will hear lectures to let you know how Web sites work, and how to use search engines and place queries effectively. And you'll get an in-depth look at the USGenWeb project.
• Gadgets: Including Optical Character Recognition (OCR), voice recognition, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and hand-held devices, Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and digital cameras and scanners.
• Working Environment: How to organize your files, personalize your computer, and protect yourself from viruses. Are you a Mac user? We've got you covered here, too!
• Electronic Methodology: In these lectures we will explore traditional vs. electronic research, how to find your ancestors when they're (perhaps) not in the index, and how to build a database-driven Web application. We'll have a special session for those of you searching for your Irish ancestors electronically.
• Imaging: Here we'll explore identifying photos, finding heirlooms, capturing video and putting it on a DVD, creating a CD-ROM of family photos, and some creative sources and uses of graphic images for genealogists.

One of the highlights of the conference will be Friday night's banquet. We'll begin with some snappy entertainment by the St. Louis Ragtimers as we meet for cocktails and chat with friends about the day's events. After dinner, we'll all enjoy the presentation by Jay Verkler, Associate Managing Director, Family and Church History Department, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jay is responsible for the church's family history functions including worldwide image and information collection, product and tools delivery, support services, and the Church's Family History Library. He will be speaking about the Transforming Potential of Coming Technologies in an Ages-Old Discipline.

 

Saturday, January 24:

Saturday is even more packed with lectures! The GENTECH conference will present these topics throughout the day:

• Internet: More Internet? Sure…. Today you'll learn how to evaluate what you find there, searching "beyond Google," how to extract your family from those on-line census sources, how to find your immigrant ancestor, and how much electronic information will soon be available in your own home.
• Electronic Publishing: One of the new frontiers in genealogical technology, learn how to use Adobe PDF files, how to find people in indexes, how to self-publish on Mac or using MS-Word on any computer, and how to cite those sources when you do publish.
• Applications: These lectures will provide in-depth examinations of popular application software for genealogists, including: desktop publishing, databases, presentation graphics, and spreadsheets.
• Electronic Sources: Attend these lectures to discover new sources for Irish records, to learn best practices in using the Internet, how to find your ancestors at the Ellis Island Web site, how you can help protect electronic record sources, and how to use Federal records on-line.
• Special Topics: These topics include DNA testing and genetic ancestry, mapping software, freeware and shareware, and some of the less used electronic sources for genealogists.

You (the users) and I (the media) are the primary reasons the online U.K. 1901 census Web site had problems last year. Yes, that's right: we are to blame for the Web site's problems. At least, that's the claim of to a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) which found that the Public Record Office (PRO) had only planned a "low key" launch of the site. Unfortunately, "press coverage" led to "overwhelming" demand, which swamped the site.

The report states:

I guess the National Audit Office didn't think that poor planning, horribly inaccurate data, or questionable management practices had any effect on the Web site. No, those issues were unimportant. Instead, the culprits were the customers (too many of them) and the people who publicized the Web site (which, in turn, created too many customers).

Incredible.

The following is an announcement from Kevin Owen, author of FamilySearcher:

They cannot leave him alone. Even in death, William H. Bonney (a.k.a. Henry McCarty, Billy the Kid, Kid Antrim) is being disturbed. All this is in an attempt to gain more tourism dollars.

Several small New Mexico towns claim to possess the "true" grave of Billy the Kid. Two sheriffs in Capitan, New Mexico, have proposed that this mystery be solved using modern DNA testing. The proposal was made in June to exhume the remains of Catherine Antrim, Bonney's mother, and the two reported graves of Bonney. That way, DNA comparisons can be made of the remains in the two gravesites with those of Bonney's mother.

Perhaps someone should point out that there are some problems with that plan. First of all, nobody is sure that Catherine Antrim really did give birth to the outlaw. There are no primary records of his birth, only secondary stories published in later years. Next, El Paso historian Leon Metz, who wrote a biography of Sheriff Pat Garrett, says, "The only thing that worries me is that I have been to Catherine’s grave, and she has a nice marker on her grave, and I assume that’s her grave — but is it?"

It seems that over the decades, remains in the cemetery have been moved, and gravestones have been shuffled to such an extent that it is no longer crystal-clear that Antrim is buried precisely where her markers now stands. Metz said the same goes for Billy the Kid: "We know where the stone is, but we don’t know if he’s under it."

This has spurred a hot legal debate raising an interesting question: which is more important, tourist dollars or the truth? A grass-roots group called the Billy the Kid Historic Preservation Society is helping to organize opposition to the exhumations.

If the words Fiegele, Pfeffernuesse Brot, Fleischkuchle, or Kaeseknoepfla mean anything to you, I suspect you will enjoy the Prairie Public Television Web site and video. "Schmeckfest" is the name for "Food Traditions of Germans from Russia."

Starting in 1784 in the southern Germanic provinces, many families moved overland and by water into Eastern Europe and on to the steppes of Russia. Even though they lived in Russia, most continued to speak German. Many families lived there peacefully for a century or so, until political upheaval forced many of them to leave. Many decided to try the New World. Most took train routes to German ports, then crossed the Atlantic to the United States.

The Germans from Russia settled in several states, especially in North and South Dakota. They brought their language, their traditions, and their recipes. The documentary "Schmeckfest: Food Traditions of the Germans from Russia" is a co-production of Prairie Public Television and the North Dakota State University Libraries. Additional funding for Schmeckfest was provided by North Dakota Humanities Council.

The "Schmeckfest: Food Traditions of the Germans from Russia" Web site shows examples of many foods, including Fiegele (Little Birds bread treat), Pfeffernuesse Brot (Pepper Spiced Bread), Fleischkuchle (Black Sea-style Meat Turnovers), Fleischkuchla (Volga-style Meat Turnovers), Grebbel (Fried pastry) and Knoepfla Supp (Dumpling Soup).

WARNING: Do not view this site on an empty stomach!

Upon your death, would you like to be able to leave behind messages of hope and love for the people you love? That's difficult to do, especially in light of the fact that so many deaths are caused by accidents. You never know when you may depart. You may not be given the chance to say goodbye, thank you, or I love you. However, MyLastEmail.com can give you a chance to prepare your farewells in advance. The letters you prepare here are personal, private "last email messages" that will be sent to your family and friends one day – but only after you die.

The company makes sure that you really are deceased before sending the messages you created earlier. As part of the Mylastemail registration process, subscribers are asked to print off a LifeTouch Guarantees document and to keep this in a secure place where it can be found when a subscriber passes away. The document contains instructions for the person who will be handling your affairs once you've passed away. They are requested to return the LifeTouch document, together with a certified copy of the deceased's Death Certificate, to LifeTouch.

When this document is received, further checks are carried out to make sure the documents match a subscriber’s details. Only at this stage will emails be released from the system, and a LifeTouch email is sent to the recipients, informing them that there is a Mylastemail for them to pick up from a secure server when they are ready. The email is held on LifeTouch's secure server for 12 months.

Of course, there is no requirement that messages be limited only to loved ones. You can also send somewhat less endearing messages to your boss, a former lover, your bookie, or your least-favorite brother-in-law. I suspect you can think of still other uses.

If you have been reading the Plus Edition of this newsletter for a while, you know that I have been on a campaign to find high-quality word processors, spreadsheets, presentation programs, and similar programs for reasonable prices. After all, Microsoft Word and the other programs in Microsoft's Office suite are horribly overpriced and bloated with useless features that 99.9% of the users never use.

In my opinion, the last worthwhile release from Microsoft was Office 97. Every new release since then has added new features that were useless to me and to most other people. However, if you have upgraded to each new release since the days of Office 97, you have now paid close to $1,000 (retail) for the "privilege" of having the latest version of useless features. Besides that, the later versions all run slower than Office 97 on equivalent hardware.

This is progress?

In past editions of this newsletter, I have written reviews of several word processors, some of them included within full office suites that have almost all the functionality of Microsoft Word. Some of them are available free of charge, while others sell for prices far below that of Microsoft's pricing for equivalent programs. All of the ones I have written about are good, reliable programs. I have been using one of the free programs more than I use Microsoft Word. Yes, I have a legal, registered version of Microsoft Office XP, but I find one of the free programs does a better job for me. It doesn't lock up as often, and I also find the free program has been easier to use after a small readjustment period.

This week I had a chance to use still another competitor. Again, this new program contains a high-powered word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation program. It carries a modest price tag, much lower than Microsoft's offering.

The preceding is a "preview" of a Plus Edition-only article. The full article is available only to Plus Edition subscribers. If you subscribe now, you will receive a copy of this article. Click on Plus Edition for more information.

- (+) Microsoft Word for $43.00

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Thanks.

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