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Copyright© 2004 by Richard W. Eastman. All rights reserved.

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You don't know where you are going until you know where you have been.

With Presidents' Day in the U.S. this week, this is a good time to look at the ancestry of the U.S. presidents. After all, if your ancestors have been in the U.S. for 100 years or more, there is a strong possibility that your ancestry intersects with at least one of the U.S. presidents. The same can be said for many others of Canadian, British, Scottish, or Irish ancestry, as well as a few from the European continent.

The Web is full of information about U.S. presidential ancestry, but with varying degrees of accuracy. Here is a list of some of those pages:

What Do You Think? Comments and discussion are available on this newsletter's Discussion Board at: http://www.eogn.com/discussionboard

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I wrote articles this week about Linux, a popular operating system that is gaining ground in both servers and desktop computers. Before diving into the use of a genealogy program on Linux, a bit of background information about the less familiar operating system is in order.

Linux operates on standard PCs. If your computer is capable of running Windows, it is also capable of running Linux. Other versions of Linux are available for older Macintosh hardware, as well as for Amiga, DEC, and other computers. You can even find Linux versions for handheld iPAQ and other shirt-pocket-sized computers.

Linux is favored by many advanced computer users because it is more powerful and also more stable than Windows in both desktop and server-based applications. It doesn't crash or freeze. Linux also runs faster than Windows on equivalent hardware.

Unlike Windows, there are different versions or "distributions" of Linux. Different companies package Linux in different ways and offer different included software. Popular Linux implementations include Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE, Debian, Lycoris and Lindows. Traditionally, Linux has been more difficult to install and maintain than the more popular Windows operating system. However, that is now changing.

This week I installed both Windows XP and SuSE Linux version 9.0 on a new computer in my home. I set up a "dual boot" system. When booting, a menu appears and asks if I wish to run Windows XP or Linux. I make a selection, and then the PC boots up in the operating system of my choice. Loading and using various programs under Linux is significantly faster than Windows on this computer.

Unlike my experiences of a few years ago, I found the Linux installation to be the simpler of the two operating systems. SuSE Linux asked fewer questions during installation. Unlike Windows XP, SuSE Linux automatically found and installed the appropriate drivers for the video and network cards. SuSE Linux even configured the network connection to my cable modem automatically, whereas Windows XP asked a lot of confusing questions about DHCP, gateways, firewalls, and the like. SuSE Linux also found all the systems and printers on my in-home network, including Windows and Macintosh systems. Windows XP was only able to find Windows systems.

Excellent Linux word processors, spreadsheet programs, Web browsers, e-mail programs, and other common applications are available, and most are free of charge. However, "specialty applications" frequently are either non-existent or else lacking in quality and capability. Such has been the case with genealogy software; a very few Linux genealogy programs have been available, and most of them have not been very impressive for anyone who has used modern Windows or Macintosh genealogy programs. However, GRAMPS may change that.

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GRAMPS is a personal genealogy program written by Don Allingham for use with Linux, FreeBSD UNIX, and Macintosh OS X operating systems. Best of all, GRAMPS is a free program. The program has been in beta test for two and a half years. This week the GRAMPS beta ended, and version 1.0.0 was released. The author states that "version 1.0.0 is as stable as a tombstone!" I took GRAMPS on a "test drive" and was very impressed with the program.

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Do you publish your genealogy data on the Web? Or do you wish to do so? There are many methods of creating the appropriate pages in HTML format and uploading them to your pages.

You can create the pages manually, although I would discourage you from doing so. You need to be an HTML expert, and then you will find the process to be very laborious, especially if you create information about a lot of individuals.

Many of today's genealogy programs will create Web pages for you. If your program has such a feature, I would suggest you first experiment with that option. However, your genealogy program of choice may not have that capability, or you may find the automatically-created reports are not in a format that you like. If so, you have other options. One such option is phpGedView.

phpGedView parses GEDCOM 5.5 genealogy files and displays them on the internet in a format similar to desktop programs. All modern genealogy programs are capable of creating GEDCOM 5.5 files. You export your data to a new GEDCOM file and then use phpGedView to create the necessary Web pages. You can easily customize phpGedView's creation of Web pages by using one of the provided themes or by modifying them to meet your own needs. You can experiment time and time again to find the exact "look and feel" that you desire.

Your Web server must be able to handle PHP. Most servers can do this, but you need to verify that your pages are hosted on a php-enabled server. phpGedView is a program that you upload to the Web server, and it runs there – not on your PC. As a result, phpGedView is suitable for everyone, including users of Windows, Macintosh, and Linux.

phpGedView creates Web pages that are dynamically generated. These are not pre-created, static pages created on someone's PC and then uploaded to a server. Instead, each page is created immediately at the time someone looks at it.

Once both the program and the GEDCOM file have been uploaded, simple online editing is available to authenticated users; that is, people who have been given editing privileges by the site administrator can change the data. You could have only one person with update privileges. However, group projects that have multiple people entering data require multi-user capabilities. All these people need to make simple changes is Internet connectivity and a Web browser on any Windows, Macintosh, or Linux system.

This simple editing capability may be sufficient for many, but those who wish for more advanced features will want to use a full-fledged client that makes it easier to update your data. A program called GEDCOM DataBase Interface (GDBI) will do just that. GDBI is a Java interface for accessing GEDCOM databases. It will even work with GEDCOM files stored on a Web server, such as those used by phpGedView.

Describing the formatting of graphic Web pages is difficult to accomplish in this text newsletter. I would suggest you look at some Web pages created by phpGedView:

You will notice that those pages vary widely in content, formatting, colors, and chart layouts. The creative user could create literally millions of combinations.

phpGedView has many features and options, including:

• Descendancy Chart Navigation (view descendency charts and move up and down the chart or switch branches with simple mouse clicks)
• Multiple Generation Pedigree Chart
• Relationship Chart
• Timeline Chart
• Anniversary Calendar
• Zoom Chart Boxes
• General Keyword and Soundex Searches
• Individual and Family Lists
• GEDCOM Clippings Cart - The clippings cart gives visitors to your site the ability to take Family Tree Clippings from your family tree, download them as a GEDCOM file, and import them into their favorite family history program.
• MyGedView Portal - When users login to your site, they will have the option of using their MyGedView Portal. This portal allows them to keep a list of their favorite people, track messages, see a list of upcoming events, view today's events, and get a random picture. They can also see who else is logged on.
• View Private Data - When users login, they will be given greater access to the private data in the GEDCOM, based on the privacy settings chosen by the administrator. If you use relationship privacy, they will only be able to see the data of living people they are related to within a certain distance.
• And a lot more…

Unlike some other Web-based genealogy display programs, phpGedView does not require a MySQL or other database to be hosted on your site. Just upload the PHP files and your GEDCOM file, and then watch it work.

phpGedView is Open Source software and is licensed under the GNU Public License. If you don't like something about it, you can change it, or submit a bug or feature request, and let the developers change it. PhpGedView is also FREE. There is no cost whatsoever to use the program, but you can make a donation to help support the development of the project.

phpGedView is available in a number of languages: Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. (Whew!) Best of all, those who look at your Web pages can switch from one language to another, even if you are not fluent in all of the above. Obviously, the data you enter will remain in the original words that you created. If you enter a place name of "New York City," those words will not be translated to Chinese when someone clicks on the Chinese flag. However, all the menus and help screens will switch to Chinese, with your data still displayed in its original language.

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Last week I wrote about the remaining fragments of the 1890 U.S. census that was (mostly) destroyed in a fire. Writing on this newsletter's Discussion Board, Paul Burchfield wrote:

Thanks, Paul!

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In the course of a week, I get to see a lot of genealogy data. Some of what I see is abysmal. Many otherwise highly-skilled genealogists do not seem to know that their keyboards have a SHIFT key! Instead, they simply turn on CAPS LOCK and then ignore upper and lower case after that.

Of course, the use of UPPER CASE text has a long history in the computer business. The mainframes of the 1960s and 70s only used upper case text. Data typically was entered on 80-column punch cards. The IBM 026 keypunch machine, the most popular keypunch machine ever built, indeed did not have a shift key and was incapable of entering lower case text.

By the late 1970s, all of this had changed, and data was being entered from computer terminals in normal upper and lower case. However, not everyone got the word. It seems that a number of people do not realize that the keyboards of the twenty-first century have improved since those "stone age" computers of 30 or 40 years ago.

Here are two short examples produced by a popular genealogy program. Which one do you find easier to read?

Example 1:

Example 2:

I certainly prefer to read the second example. The first one is much more difficult to read – so difficult that I may miss important information.

If you are entering genealogy data, please take pity on the future readers of your text. Please use upper and lower case characters, the same as you learned in grade school. Your fourth-grade teacher probably would have flunked you if you used all upper case in her class. Guess what? I'll also give you a grade of "F" if I see your genealogy data in all upper case!

Yes, there is a shift key on your computer. In fact, you can probably find two of them. Please use them only when appropriate. And just say "No" to that Caps Lock key.

In a future newsletter article, I may write about spelling, punctuation, and grammar. In the meantime, I can suggest some good reading for you:

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Martin Davis wrote this week and asked a question that stumped me. I am hoping that a newsletter reader can help.

Martin wrote:

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The U.S. National Genealogical Society has announced the following audiotapes are now available for the lectures presented at NGS GENTECH 2004: Preserving The Past - Exploring The Future. All titles were recorded January 23-34, 2004 at St. Louis, Missouri.

1. Are Genealogists Ready for OCR & Voice Recognition Software by Jim Slade, $8.50, #GEN04F202

2. Basics of Image Capture for Genealogists by Jim Slade, $8.50, #GEN04F222

3. Beyond Google by John W. Konvalinka, CGRS, CGL, $8.50, #GEN04S306

4. Beyond Y and mtDNA: Reconstructing Genetic Ancestry by Robert C. Anderson, FASG, $8.50, #GEN04S310

5. Building Database-Driven Web Applications by Mathew L. Helm, $8.50, #GEN04F224

6. Clicks and Tricks of Online Census Research by Patricia Walls Stamm, CGRS, $8.50, #GEN04S316

7. Cyber Roads Less Traveled by John W. Konvalinka, CGRS,CGL, $11.00, #GEN04S330

8. Digitization of Irish Records: The Current State of Play by Brian Donovan, $8.50, #GEN04S304

9. Discovering USGEN Web by D. Joshua Taylor, $8.50, #GEN04F221

10. Effective Electronic Queries by Drew Smith, $8.50, #GEN04F216

11. Evaluating Web Resources by Sandra MacLean Clunies, CG, $8.50, #GEN04S301

12. Evaluating Web Sites by Cyndi Howells, $8.50, #GEN04S309

13. Freeware and Shareware: Taking a Useful Approach by J. Mark Lowe, CG, $8.50, #GEN04S325

14. Get Going with Graphics by Sandra MacLean Clunies, CG, $8.50, #GEN04F225

15. Global Positioning Systems by Dick Eastman, $8.50, #GEN04F217

16. Googling for Grandma by Cyndi Howells, $8.50, #GEN04F211

17. How do Web Sites Work by Reed Powell, $8.50, #GEN04F201

18. If You Surf the Web by Mathew L. Helm, $8.50, #GEN04F218

19. Indexes! Indexes! Indexes! How to find people who Don't seem to be There by Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FNGS, FASG, Fuga, $8.50, #GEN04S307

20. Mapping Software Tracks Missouri Migration by Jim Slade, $8.50, #GEN04S320

21. Organizing PC Files by Cyndi Howells, $8.50, #GEN04F203

22. Personalizing Your PC by D. Joshua Taylor, $8.50, #GEN04F213

23. Plenary Session: A Freewheeling Discussion of What We Can Expect from Genealogy Software Vendors Over the Next Few Years by Dick Eastman, $8.50, #GEN04F200

24. Power of Power Point by Ruth Ann Hager, CGRS, CGL, $8.50, #GEN04S318

25. Publish! Bringing it All on a Mac by Laura G. Prescott, $8.50, #GEN04S317

26. Real World DNA Testing by Megan Smolenyak, $8.50, #GEN04S305

27. Self-Publishing Using MS World by Ted Steele, $8.50, #GEN04S322

28. Spreadsheet Tricks for Genealogists by Pamela Boyer Porter, CGRS, CG, $8.50, #GEN04S323

29. Straw in the Haystack: Finding Ancestors Amongst Missing by Jake Gehring, $8.50, #GEN04F214

30. The Changing Face of Family History Information in the Home by David Rencher, $8.50, #GEN04S326

31. The Record Preservation and Access Web Site by David Rencher, $8.50, #GEN04S324

32. Using Federal Records Without Visiting the Castle by J. Mark Lowe, CG, $8.50, #GEN04S329

33. Using Palm OS PDA's for Genealogy by Drew Smith, $8.50, #NGS04F212

34. What's a Database? Some Genealogical Examples by Ted Steele, $8.50, #GEN04S308

35. Why Use Desktop Publishing Software by Pamela Boyer Porter, CGRS, CGL, $8.50, #GEN04S303

36. Your Immigrant Ancestors by John W. Konvalinka, $8.50, #GEN04S321

37. Your Stripped-Bare Guide to Citing Sources by Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FNGS, FASG, FUGA, $8.50, #GEN04S327

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One Web site bills itself as "a web site about U.S. political history and cemeteries. It is the Internet's most comprehensive source for American political biography, listing 120,948 politicians, living and dead." Nearly 121,000 politicians? That must be a huge site. I decided to visit it to find out for myself.

To my amazement, this is a huge site. I didn't take the time to count all the entries for myself, but I do believe the claim of "120,948 politicians, living and dead." Here is a small sample of the information available:

• By name or family:
  • Politician list in alphabetical order (120,948).
  • Soundex index to politician surnames.
  • Politicians who were named for other politicians (441) or named for other famous people (96).
  • Politicians who are/were widely known by sobriquets (474).
  • Politicians who belonged to political families (2,149).
• By date or age:
  • Politician list by date born or died (20,617); by year born or died (27,191).
  • Politicians who died youngest (122); politicians who lived longest (243).
• By office or election:
  • Politician list by state and offices held or sought (120,948).
  • Politicians who lost the most elections (128).
  • Politicians who died in office (2,366).
• By geographic location:
  • Politician list by state and county of birth or death (22,906).
• By special recognition or distinction:
  • Politicians who received the Nobel Peace Prize (10); the Medal of Honor (38); the Medal of Freedom (88); the Pulitzer Prize (8); the Spingarn Medal (13); or any Olympic medal (6).
  • Politicians who were (or took part in a) first (154).
  • Politicians who are in the (original) Hall of Fame (30).
  • Politicians who have been portrayed on U.S. coins or currency (44).
  • Politicians who were Rhodes Scholars (29), members of Phi Beta Kappa (231), or served in the Peace Corps (18).
  • Politicians involved in entertainment (56), professional sports (66), or who are/were otherwise famous outside politics (29).
  • Politicians who were California Forty-Niners (33).
  • Politicians who were born in slavery (17).
  • Politicians with physical disabilities (71).
  • Politicians who have been in space (6).
  • Politicians who survived assassination attempts (14).
  • Politicians who participated in dueling (46).
  • Politicians who were ever in trouble or disgrace (393) -- very incomplete!
  • Politicians who were pardoned (18) -- very incomplete!
• By demography or religion:
  • Politicians who are/were female (13,108), black (725), Asian/Pacific (46), American Indian/Native American (28), Hispanic (117), or foreign born (1,005).
  • Politicians who are/were gay or lesbian (38).
  • Politicians according to ancestry group (very incomplete): Irish (93), German (69), Italian (54), English (53), Polish (33), Scottish (31), French (25), Scotch-Irish (22), Dutch (20), Norwegian (10), Greek (10), Swedish (9), Welsh (9), Swiss (6), Serbian (6), Croatian (5), Finnish (2), Czech (2), Russian (1), Hungarian (1), Ukrainian (1), Lithuanian (1), Danish (1), Slovene (1), Portuguese (1), Syrian (1), Lebanese (1), Dalmatian (1),
  • Politicians who are/were Methodist (1,220), Catholic (1,137), Episcopalian or Anglican (977), Presbyterian (922), Baptist (655), Jewish (437), Congregationalist (374), Lutheran (198), Protestant (174), Unitarian-Universalist (125), Christian (97), Mormon (84), Disciples of Christ (69), Quaker (69), Christian Reformed (52), Church of Christ (22), Eastern Orthodox (22), Christian Scientist (16), Swedenborgian (4), Pentecostal (4), Seventh-Day Adventist (3), Buddhist (1), or Spiritualist (1).

The above list is abbreviated; the site actually has many more categories than what is listed above. Not only does this site give information about people, but it also lists most places of death, includes most burial locations, and even has links to maps of each location listed.

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An Acadian genealogy project at the Universite Sainte-Anne College de l'Acadie has expanded to include 85,000 entries of 27 families. The University started the project in January 2001 to record the lineage of the first Acadian families who settled in southwestern Nova Scotia in the 17th century and whose descendants still live there. The information includes parish records, census data, and publications related to Acadian genealogy.

Four full-time staff and one part-time employee have traced eight generations of descendants to enter into a database. Fifty-two (52) Acadian family genealogies (over 100 000 entries) are presently online. The families chosen in this project are those whose descendants are now residing mainly in the counties of Digby and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

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Genealogy studies again are benefiting medical research. Writing in the Bogalusa (Louisiana) Daily News, Bob Ann Breland describes the Bogalusa Heart Study. The project is a genealogy-based family tree study with research into the family background of participants. It is part of a longevity study conducted by a Tulane University research program. In this study, all participants have been tracked since they were children. The information gathered shows the effects of aging on their bodies.

As a significant part of the study, participants have been asked to fill out a family tree survey, with information on three to four generations of the family. Only one person in each family is asked to fill out the genealogy information, designed to gather material about the health of each individual, particularly as related to the heart. Information gathered is expected to aid in identifying inherited causes of life-shortening conditions.

Project Director Dr. Gerald Berenson noted that everyone, even those outside the heart study, should start keeping a record of their family illnesses, especially the causes of deaths, as it can be very helpful later on for others in the family circle.

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In the January 12, 2004, edition of this newsletter, I wrote about the publicity surrounding the Queen of England's claim to the throne. There are those who believe that she is not the rightful heir of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent, and therefore, not eligible to inherit the throne. This speculation has been widely publicized since the recent appearance of a book, entitled The Victorians by A.N. Wilson. Now DNA evidence has indicated the reverse: the present Queen of England probably is a direct lineal descendant of Prince Edward. The connection is still not proven since the Queen has not submitted a DNA sample for analysis. However, other evidence is mounting.

Professor John Röhl has described the "purple secret" of the royal family. The story is the subject of Röhl's new book, published by Corgi. The professor's research has proved that for hundreds of years the royal houses of Europe have had a toxic time-bomb running through their veins. Generations of symptoms, from lameness to blistered skin to mental derangement, can all be traced back to one disease, an inherited disorder called porphyria. Recent generations have had the disease, including close relatives of the present Queen. The medical condition can be traced back to Prince Edward and earlier generations, seemingly proving that the Queen indeed is the rightful heir of Prince Edward as well as the proper heir to the throne.

Others who probably suffered with porphyria include Queen Victoria's grandchild, Charlotte, the sister of Kaiser Wilhelm. Similar symptoms have been documented in the correspondence of her mother, Vicky – Queen Victoria's daughter – and of her daughter, Feodora.

There is no indication that Queen Elizabeth or any of her descendants have inherited the disease. Nonetheless, the fact that her well-documented distant cousins inherited porphyria indicates that the Queen's ancestry is in agreement with all the history books, contrary to the recent speculative claim.

You indeed do inherit many of your medical conditions from your ancestors.

My thanks to Jeffrey D. McEachin for telling me about this fascinating article.

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How many of our ancestors saw the famous men who fought battles in the opening of the western United States? Probably quite a few.

In 1871, William F. Cody, an Army scout and buffalo hunter, was offered $500 a week to play himself in the play "Buffalo Bill, King of the Border Scouts." He declined the honor and went back to Kansas to shoot more buffalo. Within a few years, he'd changed his mind and was eagerly cashing in, touring the world in his famous Wild West revue, a show he advertised as "The Most Colossal & the Strangest Entertainment Ever Organized or Dreamed of…".

Cody also convinced many of the great Indian chiefs, including Sitting Bull, to cash in by playing themselves in his show.

Geronimo, the great Apache warrior, found his own way to profit from his fame. After fighting fiercely for decades to avoid becoming part of the American way of life, Geronimo reluctantly surrendered in 1886 and soon demonstrated a great natural talent for cashing in. He dictated a celebrity autobiography and traveled to fairs and exhibitions, where he sold photographs of himself.

Geronimo also devised an ingenious way to pick up extra money en route to the exhibitions. "When the train stopped at stations," wrote his biographer, Angie Debo, "he cut buttons from his shirt and sold them at 25 cents each to the eager spectators, and for $5, he would sell his hat. Between stations, he diligently sewed more buttons on his coat and equipped himself with a new hat from a supply he had thoughtfully provided."

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