Digging Up the Past Together

ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk, with almost one million registered users and growing currently by more than 10,000 per month, is run by brightsolid in partnership with the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS). brightsolid has now won a three-year renewal of the contract to manage the online site. Brightsolid also owns findmypast.com. Last month brightsolid also completed the acquisition of Friends Reunited, including Genes Reunited, from ITV. ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk contains more than 50 million records dating back to when statutory records of births, deaths and marriages began in Scotland in 1855. It also includes parish records, dating back as far as 1533, as well... Dick Eastman

The National Library of Scotland has compiled an excellent list of online resources for anyone researching Scottish ancestry. The list includes old parish registers, Scottish parish registers, and the McKirdy Index (a microfiche resource available in the Library which alphabetically lists records from the Statutory Death Registers of Scotland). You can find the list of sites that give access to records of births, deaths, and marriages at http://www.nls.uk/family-history/births-deaths-marriages Dick Eastman

Maine State Archivist David Cheever recently announced the Fairfield Historical Society will receive a $1,890 grant to preserve and provide better access to its historical photo collections as part of the Historical Records Collections Grant Program. The grant allows the society to copy its entire photo collections and provide access to them. The photos will be available at the Fairfield History House. In addition, Elm City Photo (http://www.elmcityphoto.com/) will have the entire collection accessible online and available for purchase. Each photo will be cataloged by subject and individual as much as possible. Help is needed to identify individuals in some... Dick Eastman

I have used wide-area wireless 3G networks for Internet access for about three years now and love it. I recently wrote a Plus Edition article entitled "A Better (Cheaper) Method of Obtaining Wi-Fi Service" in which I described my experiences with 3G wireless networks. My article is still available at http://eogn.com/wp/?p=11357 Now I see that the New York Times has an article by David Pogue on the same subject and his experiences seem to parallel mine. The remainder of this article is for Plus Edition subscribers only. If you have a Plus Edition user ID and password, you can read... Dick Eastman

Here's a bit of historical trivia: the size of the books you read and even the size of your fancy new e-reader are determined by sheep in the Middle Ages. First, the easy part: e-readers are replacements for books, and most manufacturers deliberately make their e-readers resemble books. Most of the e-reader manufacturers assume that customers want to continue the same "look and feel" so they create e-readers that are the same sizes as books. Now for the more interesting part: how is the size of books determined? Carl Pyrdum provides the answers in his Got Medieval blog at http://gotmedieval.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-are-books-so-big-google-penance.html... Dick Eastman

The National Gazetteer of Gaelic Place Names is available in English and Gaelic. Currently it contains information on about 1000 Gaelic place names throughout Scotland. You can do a simple search by keyword, and advanced search (across several fields) or view all place names from A-Z. In addition to the Gaelic names database the site also has some Gaelic maps, guidelines to Gaelic place names and orthography, a link list, and a blog. You can find the new Online Database for Gaelic Place Names at http://www.ainmean-aite.org/ Dick Eastman

Howard Metcalfe sent a message saying that version 95 of his popular free genealogy program, Personal Ancestry Writer II, also known as PAWriter, is now available. The following changes have been incorporated into version 95: RTF Reports RTF files can be opened by a number of word processing and desktop publishing programs. By default, RTF files will launch Nisus Writer Pro ($79 download at http://nisus.com/store/). Nisus Writer Pro is a fully functional desktop publishing program for MacOS X. Macworld awarded Nisus Writer Pro four and a half mice (out of five) in December 2009, and William Porter said in their... Dick Eastman

The Motley Fool provides stock market and other financial advice. It is not known for the accuracy of its predictions, however. In any case, Rick Aristotle Munarriz of The Motley Fool says that Ancestry.com is a candidate to be purchased by a bigger firm. Munarriz writes: "Ancestry.com runs the Internet's leading genealogy service, with 1.3 million subscribers paying an average of $18 a month to flesh out their family trees. The site's subscriber count has climbed 32% over the past year. Given the true scalability of its model, earnings are growing faster than Ancestry.com's top-line spurts. "Ancestry.com bumped its guidance... Dick Eastman

I have written before about Archives.com at http://tinyurl.com/yygwjvb. The company's web site should not be confused with the Internet Archive at www.archive.org. Now the parent company of archives.com, called Inflection, has raised $30 million in a first round of funding. Archives.com charges users $39.95 a year to access historical records and build their own family trees on the site. Inflection says it is profitable and traffic is up nearly 50 percent year-over-year. The company also launched a second site this week, a people search engine called PeopleSmart, which mines public records as well as social networking profiles to build an... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration: Kansas City, (MO) - For the first time, more than 300,000 case files on alien residents of the United States who were born 1909 and prior are now open to the public at the National Archives at Kansas City. These files, known as “Alien Files” (commonly referred to as “A-Files”) were transferred to the National Archives from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) and are only a small part of the millions of case files that will eventually be transferred and opened to the public. “The... Dick Eastman

Ritchie Hansen sent along a great list of resources for anyone researching Danish ancestry: The Danish State Archives: http://www.sa.dk/content/us/ The Danish State Archives: http://www.sa.dk/content/us/genealogy/online_services The Danish Demographic Database: http://www.ddd.dda.dk/ddd_en.htm The Danish Demographic Database: http://www.ddd.dda.dk/kiplink_en.htm The Danish State Archives Filming Centre parish registers and population censuses: http://www.sa.dk/ao/English/default.aspx The Danish Emigration Archives: http://www.emiarch.dk/home.php3 Volunteers interested in helping can contact: Phone: +45 66 11 30 10 Fax: +45 66 11 30 60 E-mail: mailbox@dda.sa.dk or Dansk Data Arkiv / Danish Data Archive Islandsgade 10 DK-5000 Odense C Danmark / Denmark Tlf.: (+45) 66 11 30 10 Fax: (+45) 66 11 30 60 E-mail:... Dick Eastman

Footnote.com has expanded the capabilities of one of its popular features. Quoting from the Footnote blog: We like to focus on discovery at Footnote.com. If you are like us, when you find something important you can’t wait to share it. We created Spotlights to be a way you could quickly highlight and share your discoveries. Spotlights don’t have to be of famous people or well-known events. They just have to be something that’s important to you – a document about an ancestor, historical newspaper article, or just something that made you laugh. Recently, we started thinking about how to improve... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by Preserve Pro, Inc.: Archivist Nooma Rhue educates public on how to preserve digital artifacts CHARLOTTE N.C. (September 1, 2010) Preserve Pro, Inc will host Digital Preservation For Your Family seminar, a half-day experience teaching families, community organizations, and religious organizations the latest techniques in preserving digital artifacts. Participants will learn about the latest practices for preserving digital photos, computer files and audiovisuals, and how to use modern technology to protect invaluable memories. Nooma Monika Rhue, trained Archivist and Library Director will host the workshop and share the latest research and tips for preserving digital... Dick Eastman

Millennia, the producer of Legacy Family Tree software for Windows, is offering the company's first live webinar on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 2:00PM EDT. The webinar, Mapping Software for Genealogists will cover essential software tools: AniMap (U.S. & Canada), Centennia (Europe & Middle East), and Map My Family Tree (entire world), and maybe even a Legacy Family Tree tip or two. In this 30 minute webinar Geoff Rasmussen will cover the following topics: AniMap software (U.S. & Canada): learn how to find the correct county for the time period, and perform radius searches (list all cemeteries/churches within 10 miles... Dick Eastman

I've been watching and writing about the many e-reader products available these days. I believe these devices are revolutionizing publishing, including that of newspapers, magazines, books and many other kinds of published materials. Genealogy books are just one of the areas being affected. As these products become smaller, lighter, cheaper, and still easier than ever to read, the financial realities soon set in: publishing for e-readers is much cheaper than publishing on paper and the savings are often passed on to consumers. The picture above shows Sony's new Reader Daily Edition, Touch Edition and Pocket Edition. Prices of e-readers seem... Dick Eastman

Sir Peter Gwynn-Jones, former Garter Principal King of Arms in the United Kingdom (excluding Scotland), was well known in the genealogy world. He passed away on August 21 at age 70. He retired only a few months ago, previously serving as Garter Principal King of Arms, the senior English officer of arms, from 1995 to 2010. He was in charge of the College of Arms, which issues new coats of arms and verifies existing heraldry. The office of Garter King of Arms, of which Gwynn-Jones was the 36th holder, was created by Henry V in 1417, initially concerned with the... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.ca: Free content includes millions of records from countries worldwide in nearly 300 collections TORONTO, ON (September 2, 2010) Ancestry.ca, Canada’s leading family history website, will open its complete database of international immigration records for free from the 2nd to the 6th of September 2010. Ancestry’s international immigration collection covers more than 193 million records in 273 collections from around the world. Included are the Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935, which covers a period of 70 years and contains more than 7.2 million names, including 5.6 million of those who travelled from around the world... Dick Eastman

The next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, the world’s most definitive work on the language, will never be printed because of the impact of the Internet on book sales. Sales have fallen due to the increasing popularity of online alternatives, according to its publisher. The dictionary’s owner, Oxford University Press (OUP), said the impact of the internet means OED3 will probably appear only in electronic form. However, OUP said it would continue to print the more familiar Oxford Dictionary of English, the single-volume version sold in bookshops. You can read the full story at http://tinyurl.com/2akm2eg Dick Eastman

The Mormon church has changed its genealogical database to better prevent the names of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps from being submitted for posthumous baptism by proxy. In a joint statement issued earlier today, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors said a new computer system and policy changes related to the practice should resolve a years-long disagreement over the baptisms. Under new church policies, church members will be required to certify names submitted to the database for baptism. Further safeguards include monitoring those names for submissions that don't meet policy... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by Ann S Eldredge: In January 2010, a small band of genealogy seekers embarked on a project to make anyone who has roots in the Pittsburgh area jump for joy. 43 volunteers have been indexing marriages, deaths, and divorces from early Allegheny County newspapers and putting it all online at no cost. Over 52,000 death entries and over 11,000 marriages have been indexed and put online through August. The dates of the newspapers range from 1806-1987. Project co-ordinator Ann S Eldredge says the idea of an index came to her as she regularly keeps in... Dick Eastman