Digging Up the Past Together

58-year-old Laura Smith of Richmond, Indiana died Thursday, Aug. 12, 2010, at Reid Hospital. She was born in Richmond, April 29, 1952, to Elmer Eugene and Marilyn Baldwin Pohlenz. Laura was very active in the Wayne County Genealogical Society. You can read Laura Smith's online obituary at http://www.pal-item.com/article/20100815/NEWS04/8150307 Dick Eastman

The Paik Inje Memorial Library of Inje University has introduced Inje's Digital Genealogy Library, after three years of dedicated preparation. The genealogical materials have been collected by the library since 2007 in an effort to preserve Korea’s ethnic history. In association with the Utah-based organization Family Search, the library has digitalized hundreds of records and created the Digital Genealogy Library to allow users to search for their genealogical records. Currently about 500 genealogy e-books are available online, with page-turning and zoom features that allow users to freely explore these records. They include Gimhae Kim and Gimhae Heo clans, which are... Dick Eastman

Yes, I do remember Grandma's lye soap. It was heavy-duty, although it didn't suds and it didn't foam. Back in 1952, Johnny Standley even had a hit record about it, called "It's in the Book!" Side A was "Little Bo Peep" (a parody of the popular Bible meetings of the day) and Side B was "Grandma's Lye Soap." This #1 hit was the first million selling comedy record. The music was corny then and seems even more so today. Nonetheless, this is what your parents (and a few of us older folks) listened to for amusement. You can listen to... Dick Eastman

I tend to travel often but have been at home for the past two months. All that is about to change. This week I am leaving for the annual conference of the Federation of Genealogical Societies in Knoxville, Tennessee. That is but the first of several trips that should keep me on the road most of the time for the next two months. I'll be traveling with an assortment of laptop computers, an iPad, various wi-fi and 3G wireless devices, and more. I should remain connected and be able to post new articles to this newsletter. However, time may be... Dick Eastman

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. How many times has this happened to you? You enter a courthouse, library, or other repository of genealogy information with the intent of finding information about your ancestors. You don't really know what is available in that library or archive. After all, that is the purpose of your trip, right? You want to find out. Next thing you know, your head is spinning amidst a profusion of information and a confusion of objectives. You may be wondering how this happens. While at the library/archive/repository, you start... Dick Eastman

Last year I wrote about geotagging photographs. Geotagging can be a major addition to digital photographs. In short, geotagging is the process of adding geographical identification to digital photographs, video, websites, or even RSS feeds. The information added typically consists of latitude and longitude coordinates, but it can also include altitude, bearing, accuracy data, and place names. However, the New York Times reports that security experts and privacy advocates have begun warning consumers about the potential dangers of geotags, which are embedded in photos and videos taken with GPS-equipped smartphones and digital cameras. By looking at geotags of uploaded photos,... Dick Eastman

Franklin County, Pennsylvania's officials, including the county's archivist Stu Veinotte, say the county is better off without all the old papers that constitute more than 200 years of local history. Paper copies of old estate records, marriage licenses, tax and court records and book after book of deed records, some of which date to the late 1700s, will be gone, existing only in digital files and in some cases on microfilm. Veinotte is managing a team that is digitizing the old records, many of which are stored in two rooms in the basement of the courthouse annex, converting them to... Dick Eastman

The computer world is full of nasties these days: viruses, Trojan horse programs, keyloggers, and all sorts of other programs designed to steal your personal information and to do harm to your computer. Ninety-nine percent of the problems affect Windows computers, but even Macintosh and Linux systems are not completely immune. You can install anti-malware programs on your computer in an attempt to keep your data safe from malware (malevolent software), but that still does not entirely secure your data. The people who write anti-virus software are always behind their counterparts who write viruses. Yesterday's anti-virus software does not protect... Dick Eastman

The Lockhorns' web site has a cute cartoon involving genealogy. Copyright laws prevent me from posting the cartoon here but I can legally post a link to it: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/comics/index.html?feature_id=Lockhorns&feature_date=2010-08-14 My thanks to Eric Gomes for telling me about the cartoon. Dick Eastman

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. Here's another non-genealogy article about free telephone service. I wrote about one such service just a few days ago at http://eogn.com/wp/?p=11136. Now magicJack, the Internet phone gadget that is advertised all over late night television, is planning to offer FREE phone calls from computers, smart phones and iPads. That means that anyone will be able to call landline and cell phones in the U.S. and Canada, with no time limits on the calls. There will be no hardware gadget to purchase and no charge for the... Dick Eastman

NOTE: This is an update to an article I wrote many years ago. It has had some new information added and several new links to new web pages have also been added. Many genealogy records are indexed by a high-tech algorithm called the Soundex Code. Well, it was “high tech” in 1918 when Robert Russell invented it. In a nutshell, Soundex Codes provide a means of identifying words – especially names -- by the way they sound. They were used extensively by the U.S. Work Projects Administration (WPA) crews working in the 1930s to organize Federal Census data from 1880... Dick Eastman

I am amazed. Several days ago I announced that there would again be a dinner for EOGN readers following the close of the FGS Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee. The restaurant is limiting us to 35 seats. In order to give everyone a chance to obtain a reservation, I announced six days in advance that reservations could be made beginning at 12 noon Eastern time on Saturday, August 14. The reservation system went live at 12 noon today. The dinner was sold out in six minutes! A "waitlist" is now available at the same address: http://eognknoxville.eventbrite.com Event Registration Online for EOGN... Dick Eastman

Last week I wrote about Families, a brand-new program from TelGen Limited for the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad that imports its data from Legacy Family Tree for Windows. Yesterday, I reported the program had been temporarily withdrawn from Apple's App Store. Today, Geoff Rasmussen reports, "This morning they announced that version 1.1 is now available from Apple's App Store." Thanks Geoff! Families is available at the Apple App store for $14.99. For more information, look at www.telgen.co.uk/families or read my original article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2010/08/families-an-iphone-application-that-works-with-legacy-family-tree-for-windows.html Dick Eastman

Several newsletter readers have recently stated, "I wish someone would write a genealogy application for the Android operating system." Well, someone did last year. In fact, I wrote about it on October 19, 2009 newsletter at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/10/familybee-a-genealogy-viewer-for-the-google-android-phone.html. FamilyBee was originally a genealogy program for the Google Android Phone. However, the program has since been improved and now runs on all Android-based phones, such as the Droid, Evo, and Backflip. According to the program's web site: Family Bee is a full-featured robust family tree browser. It allows you to view information about families and individuals stored in GEDCOM genealogy files. Whether... Dick Eastman

A major announcement was made today of a brand-new genealogy technology conference to be held next February 10 through 12. It is expected to attract genealogy software developers, technology providers, technology writers, technology users, and many others, probably from all over the world. The RootsTech Conference will be hosted by FamilySearch in Salt Lake City and also will be sponsored by Ancestry.com, New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), Brigham Young University, and other leaders in the genealogy community. The following announcement was written by FamilySearch: New RootsTech Conference to Bring Technologists Face-to-face with Genealogists SALT LAKE CITY —Technologists and genealogists... Dick Eastman

The Alex Haley House Museum and Interpretive Center was dedicated today in the tiny town of Henning, Tennessee, 45 minutes north of Memphis. Visitors can now research their own roots at the Interpretative Center. Originally known as the Palmer House, this ten-room, bungalow style home was constructed in 1918 and 1919 by Will E. Palmer, Alex Haley's maternal grandfather. From 1921 to 1929, and during some subsequent summers, Alex Haley lived here with his grandparents, Will and Cynthia Palmer. The front porch was often the place where young Alex heard the oral accounts of family history, including stories of Kunta... Dick Eastman

Here's another sad commentary of our society. The KAKE web site has a story about recent vandalism at the Beulah Cemetery in Colby. One hundred sixty-eight headstones were toppled. Some of the headstones suffered damage while others only needed to be reset. Damages are estimated at $25,000 but could climb as high as $100,000. Those with family buried at the Beulah Cemetery is being asked to contact their insurance company. Anyone with information about the crime is being asked to call the Colby Police Department at (785) 460-4460. Dick Eastman

Last week I wrote about Families, a brand-new program from TelGen Limited for the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad that imports its data from Legacy Family Tree for Windows. The program has now been temporarily withdrawn from Apple's App Store. As stated on the TelGen Limited web site at http://www.telgen.co.uk/families/: Please note that as a result of a serious usage error reported by a number of users but not discovered during beta testing, TelGen has temporarily withdrawn Families from sale on the App Store. We will resume sales as soon as this problem is rectified. Dick Eastman

Ancestry.co.uk has recently added England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations),1861-1941 to its online collection of records. This is a major resource for genealogists. This collection contains summaries (not the actual documents) of the vast majority of probate cases in England and Wales between 1861 and 1941. It effectively forms an index to wills and probate records for this period. The records were created by the Probate Registry, which took control of proving wills and administrations in 1858. Before this, four different types of ecclesiastical (church) courts dealt with these cases. A Principal Probate Registry was... Dick Eastman

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. This article has nothing to do with genealogy. However, it describes a bargain that I found a few weeks ago and have been enjoying ever since. I thought I would share this with others. If you are looking only for hard-core genealogy or history news, you might want to skip this article.Would you like to obtain free telephone service? Most people will quickly answer, "Yes." I should quickly explain two things: INCOMING calls are free. The monthly service is free, and you can receive hundreds or... Dick Eastman