Digging Up the Past Together

I recently wrote an article entitled "Email Providers Are Rejecting Millions of Legitimate Emails Daily" that has generated a lot of user comments. You might want to read those comments to see all the ideas and problems that other newsletter readers have found. One comment from "Tenn Tuxedo" got me thinking: "if you want to see the future of e-mail, go to any college campus and ask the students how many e-mails they send in a week. Virtually none, they all communicate on social networking sites like Facebook. Sending an e-mail is just an inconvenience. To them e-mail is so... Dick Eastman

Three Lewiston men were arrested in connection with the desecration last week of one of the city's oldest cemeteries. Police charged the three young men with aggravated criminal mischief and desecration and defacement of a burial site in connection with widespread vandalism at Riverside Cemetery. All three remained at the Androscoggin County Jail on Tuesday night. The suspects are alleged to have toppled more than 100 headstones sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning last week. Some of the stones were 200 years old and weighed 1,000 pounds or more. "They should be made an example of," said Marilyn Burgess,... Dick Eastman

Google has merged Gmail and Google Voice together to allow users to place phone calls from within Gmail. Both services have been available separately for some time. Now Google is merging the two together. See a telephone number in an email message? Click on the number and a free telephone call is initiated. Google also announced today that calls to the US and Canada would be free for "at least" the rest of the year, leaving the door open to possibly charging for calls beginning in 2011. Calls to other countries will always be very cheap. For instance, I used... Dick Eastman

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. In an earlier article, I mentioned that I was planning to replace my aging and somewhat deaf GPS with a new model. I solicited suggestions and did receive quite a few worthwhile comments. However, in the end, I decided to purchase a different GPS from what had been suggested. The model I purchased is new, having been released by the manufacturer only a few weeks ago. It is so new that no newsletter readers had any experience with this particular model. The device I purchased is... Dick Eastman

Arkiv Digital is an online genealogy database service that specializes in digitizing Swedish historical records by taking photo images of original documents in color. Quoting from Laila Christiansen's blog: *ArkivDigital for free this weekend 27 to 29 August* This weekend (28-29 August), this year's Genealogy Days will take place in Örebro. Arkiv Digital is the main sponsor of the event and we hope that there will be a lot of people visiting Örebro. We have some new and exciting things to show in our booth and there will certainly be shown and sold many other exciting things in Örebro. Unfortunately,... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com: World's Largest Family History Web Site Continues Sponsorship of Critically Acclaimed TV Series That Takes a Personal Look at Celebrity Family Histories PROVO, Utah, August 25, 2010 – Ancestry.com is pleased to announce it has extended its relationship with NBC for the second season of the “Who Do You Think You Are?” television series. Ancestry.com worked with NBC on the first season of “Who Do You Think You Are?” that debuted in March 2010. The company provided important family history research for the show, including tracing the roots of the seven celebrities featured,... Dick Eastman

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. When at the FGS conference in Knoxville last week, I talked with several people about their Internet access when traveling. Many people travel with laptop or netbook computers these days, almost all of which include built-in wi-fi wireless networking. However, most of the people I talked with were paying $10 or $12 per night to their hotel for wi-fi access. That's outrageous! Generally speaking, the cheaper hotels provide wi-fi at no charge while the more "upscale" hotels gouge their guests. Luckily, the guests do have options.... Dick Eastman

Reunion by Leister Productions is the leading Macintosh genealogy program in North America. A matching program has been available for some time for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch that allows Reunion users to take their genealogy database with them. Now an iPad-specific version has been released. Reunion for the iPad allows you to view, navigate, search, and edit your information on the go. Yes, that's "edit." You can make changes to your database on the iPad, then take it back to the Macintosh and perform a sync function. All the changes you made on the iPad will be copied... Dick Eastman

Have you ever found yourself at a library or a records repository and needing to make a copy of a document? It might be a will or a deed or a birth record. Whatever the document, you need a copy. The problem is, there is no photocopier to be found. The solution is simple: use the camera in your cell phone. Most any cell phone camera will do a so-so job of storing an image of a document. It might not be the best quality, but it is usually acceptable. You can store the image as a JPG or possibly... Dick Eastman

One of the biggest headaches I face is sending newsletters by email. Every day, I receive messages from readers stating, "I am not receiving the EOGN newsletter in email. Can you fix that?" Sadly, I cannot. Every time I look at the mail server's logs, I see where the email message was sent correctly. However, I estimate that 5% to 10% of the messages never get delivered. According to an article in PC Pro, Friends Reunited had as many as 27% of its emails blocked by email providers' mail servers in May. Those messages typically do not even make it... Dick Eastman

An ad on Monster.com shows that genealogy database provider OneGreatFamily is looking for an Online Marketing Director. The company seeks an experienced marketing manager "who can hit the ground running in managing our Internet advertising programs (all except the Affiliate program) in order to grow revenue profitably.​ The successful candidate will aggressively grow monthly new subscription revenue by being customer-centric and working to ensure that our internet advertising effectively reaches and converts new subscribers.​" You can read more at http://jobview.monster.com/GetJob.aspx?JobID=90213599 Dick Eastman

According to a statement issued by the city of Utica, New York, the city’s Vital Records office has assumed responsibility for the Mohawk Valley Psychiatric death and birth records. The decision to consolidate the two offices was made by the state, according to the statement. Any inquiries regarding birth or death, certified or genealogy, should now be directed to the city’s Vital Records office at (315) 738-0218 or visit the city’s Web site at http://www.cityofutica.com Dick Eastman

Boston.com has an article about Carol Clingan of Dedham, Massachusetts. Clingan and others of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston have complied databases that are about to go public to help Jews all over the world track their Massachusetts roots. In the lists, every synagogue in the state is inventoried, as well as all Jewish cemeteries and newspapers, rendering the search for family a little more manageable for those starting out. The 568-item database Clingan compiled contains a listing of every congregation in the state, past and present. It says when and by whom it was founded, the various... Dick Eastman

Back in February, 2009, the volunteers of the Pickaway County Historical and Genealogical Library decided to undertake a huge project for Pickaway County’s Bicentennial. They would rebuild the 1890 census. Plans were made to list all persons known to be living in Pickaway County in 1890. A source of each bit of information would also be attached, so that researchers could verify all research. The full names of individuals, his or her birthdate and place, marital status in 1890, when the marriage occurred, the parents' names (including maiden name of mother), occupations, and residence are be included in this recreated... Dick Eastman

Marsha Allen Gold, a Utah native, raised and living in the Phoenix Valley of the Sun, will be the September 13, 2010 Meeting speaker. Knowing the history of an area is invaluable to genealogical research. Her topic will be "Using Printed County Histories". Marsha's interest in genealogy began when she visited her grandparents and cousins, heard their life's stories and spent time going through old photograph albums. Later in life, she spent one day a week writing family stories that her mother related. Marsha has spoken to several genealogical societies in the area and has taught beginning classes to the... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by the East Tennessee History Center: Come celebrate “First Friday” at the Museum of East Tennessee History on Friday, September 3, from 5:00-8:00 pm. The Museum of East Tennessee History will feature the infrared photographs of local photographer and businessman, Daniel Brent Golden, manager of Hart Graphics, Inc. In his artwork, Golden combines his two favorite avocations, photography and fly fishing, to create large panoramic images of North America's fly-fishing waters. Golden has recently taken an interest in the invisible light of infrared (IR) photography, using this technology to capture waterways throughout East Tennessee. For... Dick Eastman

Betty Clark Rodgers was instrumental in the founding of the first county archives of its kind in the state of Mississippi, serving from 1993 until 2005. Now she will be honored and recognized for her life achievement by the Jackson County Historical and Genealogical Society (JCHGS). A founding member of the Jackson County Genealogical Society, she also served for many years as an active member of the Jackson County Historical Society and was one of the first serious researchers and archivists of the Colonial period on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. You can read more in an article in the GulfLive... Dick Eastman

DNA is proving all sorts of things about various individuals throughout history. DNA tests have now revealed that Adolf Hitler may have been related to both the Jews and black people that he earmarked for extermination. Brussels news magazine Knack has claimed that DNA obtained from the Nazi leader’s relatives led to the discovery. A farmer in the Waldviertel region of Austria is known to be a cousin of the German dictator. (To protect his privacy, the name of the cousin is never made public.) The cousin gave researchers a sample of his saliva. Since this cousin shares the same... Dick Eastman

Here is one of the dumbest ideas I have ever heard from our bureaucrats and elected officials, and that's saying something. There is a lot of competition for the title of "dumbest idea." If you live in Philadelphia and if you write a blog, the city says you need to obtain a $300 business license plus pay taxes on any profits made. The taxes seem reasonable but a $300 business license?!? All this is in spite of the fact that most blogs make less than $50 a year, there is no outward sign of a business at the blogger's residence,... Dick Eastman

I arrived home about midnight last night from the FGS conference in Knoxville, Tennessee. After a good night's sleep, I am creating and sending the weekly Plus Edition newsletter about eighteen hours later than usual. It normally gets sent on Sunday evening but yesterday I was on an airplane at that time. Therefore, this week's Plus Edition newsletter is being sent on Monday afternoon. Here's a bit of a "heads-up" notice: next week's Plus Edition newsletter mailing may or may not be the same. I am staying home just long enough to do my laundry, then am heading out on... Dick Eastman