Digging Up the Past Together

The high point of my week at many major genealogy conferences actually occurs after the conference closes. This past week in Knoxville, Tennessee was no different. Thirty-four newsletter readers joined me for dinner at Calhouns, a restaurant on Knoxville's waterfront that is well known for its barbeque. Actually, we also proved that the restaurant had many other delicious items on its menu. Adult beverages were also consumed. We were a noisy group, although I doubt if any other customers noticed. Calhoun's is a rather noisy place on a Saturday evening. My congratulations to Lila Davis for winning the free meal... Dick Eastman

Three years ago, one of the older genealogy societies in North America "downsized" itself. Formed in 1869, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society owned a beautiful building and one of the better genealogy libraries in the country. Blaming competition from the Internet, the Board of Directors decided to sell the building and to give away the library's 75,000 books, 20,000 microforms and 30,000 maps and manuscripts. When members objected, the Board of Directors pushed through a resolution that stripped members of their right to vote on important business and approve the naming of trustees. Left with no oversight, the... Dick Eastman

The Primary Valuation was the first full-scale valuation of property in Ireland. It was overseen by Richard Griffith and published between 1847 and 1864. It is one of the most important surviving 19th century Irish genealogical sources. AskAboutIreland and the Cultural Heritage Project is an initiative of public libraries together with local museums and archives in the digitisation and online publication of the original, the unusual and the unique material from their local studies' collections to create a national Internet resource for culture. The participating organisations have selected material of particular public interest from their holdings within a variety of... Dick Eastman

The annual conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies drew to a close late Saturday afternoon in Knoxville, Tennessee. I was at the conference for four days and enjoyed myself. From what I could see and hear around me, all the other attendees enjoyed it also. This year's event was co-sponsored by the East Tennessee Historical Society and by the Kentucky Historical Society. Together, these organizations produced a first-class event in a very nice, modern facility. I wandered around for four days, attending presentations, attending luncheons, snapping pictures, and talking with lots of people. I also hosted about 35 people... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors: The International Society of Family History Writers and Editors is sponsoring its annual "Excellence in Writing" competition to recognize excellence in genealogical columns and articles. For the first time this contest is open to members and non- members of ISFHWE, both published and unpublished authors. Members of ISFHWE will receive an entry fee discount. (Entrants may join ISFHWE at the time they submit their competition entries.) The contest is judged by professionals in the fields of genealogy and journalism. The contest has five categories: Category... Dick Eastman

More news from the annual conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies being held this week in Knoxville, TN: Association of Professional Genealogists Awards Five Members for Contributions to the Field of Genealogy KNOXVILLE, Tenn., and WESTMINSTER, Colo., August 20, 2010 −Today at the 2010 Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) Conference in Knoxville, Tenn., the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG®) honored five of its members for their outstanding achievements in the field of genealogy. APG President Laura Prescott presented the awards at today’s luncheon, which featured Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FNGS, FASG, FUGA, who presented, “Writing Genealogy: Are You... Dick Eastman

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. In 1854 self-educated English mathematician George Boole published a paper that eventually resulted in 21st century genealogists finding more information about their ancestors. Boole published The Laws of Thought that illustrated new ways of looking at mathematical data. Boolean algebra emerged in the 1860s and went on to become a standard method of analyzing all sorts of data. In the last half of the twentieth century, computer scientists and programmers found many applications for Boolean logic. Now Google and many other search engines and quite a... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by the New England Historic Genealogical Society: AmericanAncestors.org reflects organization's expanding national collection and resources Boston, MA - August 19, 2010 - D. Brenton Simons, President and CEO of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), today announced the launch of AmericanAncestors.org, the organization's new website that will serve as the home of its growing regional and national genealogical resources. AmericanAncestors.org will contain all of the Society's New England and New York content, features, articles, and resources, as well as weekly updates and databases in a variety of regional and ethnic specialties, such as sources... Dick Eastman

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. The rampant spread of disease was common in the days before penicillin and other "wonder drugs" of the twentieth century. Our ancestors lived in fear of epidemics, and many of them died as the result of simple diseases that could be cured today with an injection or a prescription. If you ever wondered why a large number of your ancestors disappeared during a certain period in history, you may want to investigate the possibility of an epidemic. Many cases of people disappearing from records can be... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by findmypast.co.uk: Leading family history website findmypast.co.uk has added 22,000 baptism, marriage and burial records to its Dorset parish record collection as follows: 12,325 baptism records covering the years 1549 – 1812 8,368 marriage records covering the years 1560 – 1839 1,307 burial records covering the years 1651 – 1795 These records, which have been provided by the Dorset Family History Society, bring the total number of Dorset parish records available at findmypast.co.uk up to almost 450,000. Now that the records are available online, findmypast.co.uk has been able to unearth some unusual names in the... Dick Eastman

On August 18, 1775, British general Thomas Gage declares martial law in Massachusetts. The British offer a pardon to all colonists who lay down their arms. There would be only two exceptions to the amnesty: Samuel Adams and John Hancock, if captured, were to be hanged. Dick Eastman

News from the FGS conference: The Federation of Genealogical Societies, a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation headquartered in Austin, Texas, announces the re-launch today of the popular Society Hall at its website at www.fgs.org. Society Hall is an informational database accessible on the Internet that can be used to locate FGS member organizations in the U.S. and abroad. This includes genealogical societies, historical societies, family associations, libraries, archives, and genealogical vendors serving the genealogical community. Thousands of people searching for information about these organizations visit Society Hall each month. Every FGS Member society has a Society Hall listing at www.fgs.org/societyhall that it... Dick Eastman

Print this article out and save it someplace. I have no idea why, but many of the words used in researching your family tree are difficult to spell. I constantly see spelling errors in messages posted on various genealogy web sites. When someone misspells a word, it feels like they are shouting, "I don't know what I'm doing!" Here are a few words to memorize: Genealogy - No, it is not spelled “geneology” nor is it spelled in the manner I often see: “geneaology.” That last word looks to me as if someone thought, "Just throw all the letters in... Dick Eastman

Are you ready for a radical change in your lifestyle? Some people are advocating just that and are doing it themselves. They are selling or giving away nearly all of their physical possessions and changing to an almost all digital life. These are minimalists: people who prefer to live with an absolute minimum of personal possessions. I suspect we will see more and more minimalists within the next few years. As genealogists, we need to record the lifestyle changes of our relatives and perhaps of ourselves. Chris Yurista is a Washington, DC, resident who lives out of a backpack while... Dick Eastman

The Footnote Blog mentions a CNN article about what some folks have called, “one of the most significant Civil War discoveries in decades.” Some students from Georgia Southern have found what may be “the exact location of a stockade and dozens of personal artifacts belonging to” Union Prisoners at Camp Lawton, a Confederate prison that housed about 10,000 men. Camp Lawton was built to replace the notorious Andersonville Prison, but it wasn’t much of an improvement. The article also mentions Pvt. Robert Knox Sneden, a Union map maker who painted some watercolors of the prison and kept a journal of... Dick Eastman

At 8 p.m. Eastern time, an encore telecast of "Who Do You Think You Are" averaged a 0.9/4 in 18-49, 3.7 million viewers overall. "Who Do You Think You Are" is currently reporting NBC's biggest overall audience in the time period in 10 weeks (since June 4). In the time period, "Who Do You Think You Are" is tied for #1 among the major networks in men 25-54 (pending updates). Dick Eastman

A newsletter reader recently contacted me about an email message a relative received. She wrote: I wanted to ask you about this Probate email my sister in law received, she is not into genealogy at all so questioned me about it. They gave my step father's name and totally different or wrong parents for him, but knew his date of birth, death and that my mother remarried and had the correct name of that husband. It worried her that they knew some of the correct material (no secrets anymore on the internet these days) they wanted her to contact them... Dick Eastman

Researching African American ancestry prior to 1870 is always difficult. However, ProQuest has added new online tools to the genealogist's toolbox. The following announcement was written by ProQuest: ProQuest Expands Content in Ground-Breaking African American Genealogy Resource African American Heritage takes genealogists back beyond 1870 with marriage records, slave registers and more August 16, 2010 (ANN ARBOR, Mich.) -- New content in a ground-breaking ProQuest genealogy product enables African Americans to more easily trace their ancestry and break through a boundary that has hindered research in the past. ProQuest African American Heritage has added marriage, cohabitation, and registers of slaves... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch: The Tennessee page on the FamilySearch Research Wiki has recently been updated and now includes a wealth of new information and resources to help people find their ancestors in the Volunteer State. The link for this revised page is: http://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Tennessee Background The FamilySearch Research Wiki is a free resource created by the genealogy community. The core content for the Tennessee page was contributed by the expert researchers at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. The page also includes tips and research advice from local experts. The Wiki staff is currently... Dick Eastman

Chinese historians are trying to piece together the story of the Liaoyuan POW camp, near Changchun, China. I once spent two weeks in Changchun and became very aware of the importance of the city although unaware of the former POW camp. Changchun is in northeastern China in the area formerly known as Manchuria. It is north of North Korea and just south of Russian Siberia. During World War II the entire area was occupied by the Japanese Army and Changchun served as the capital of the Japanese-controlled puppet state in Manchuria. China's last emperor Pu Yi was installed as the... Dick Eastman