Digging Up the Past Together

Sometimes I think that "older users" is defined as "anyone over the age of twenty-five." (Sigh) In any case, CNN has a very interesting story about older users being the fastest growing customer segment on both Facebook and Twitter. Well, it is interesting if you are over twenty-five. The number of internet users over 50 who use social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter have nearly doubled in the past year, according to a study released Friday. Between April 2009 and May, the percentage of internet users 50 and up who said they use social-networking sites has risen from 22... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com: PROVO, UTAH – August 27, 2010 – Ancestry.com today launched millions of records that now make up the largest searchable collection of yearbooks available online. Along with Ancestry.com’s existing collections, there are now more than 60 million yearbook records available in the site’s U.S. School Yearbook collection, which also includes class and candid photos of famous celebrities. The 10,000 yearbooks included in the new U.S. School Yearbook collection feature yearbooks from high schools, junior highs, academies, colleges, and universities—military, public, parochial, and private—from almost every state in the United States spanning 1875-1988. “The... Dick Eastman

By the time you read these words, I'll be on an airplane to Salt Lake City or perhaps will have already arrived. I'll spend two days at the Salt Lake Family History Expo being held in Sandy, Utah. You can read more about that in my earlier article at http://tinyurl.com/292gxoh After the conference is over, I'm taking a side trip to Las Vegas for a few days before returning home. During the next few days, I probably won't be writing as many newsletter articles as usual. I will have a laptop computer, a 3G wireless card, and a variety of... Dick Eastman

This newsletter and many other genealogy publications often refer to "your local genealogy society." The question is: how do you find such a society? Or, how do you find such a society in another part of the country where your ancestors lived? After all, if you live in Colorado but are looking for ancestors in Kentucky, you need to find the resources held by the Kentucky society. Then again, you may need to find a national society that specializes in specific ethnic groups, such as French-Canadian, Italian, Polish, or Quaker ancestry. Of course, your local society can always help immensely... Dick Eastman

If you can be in the greater Salt Lake City area this weekend, you might want to stop in at the South Towne Exposition Center in Sandy. If you do so, you will find the Salt Lake Family History Expo in full operation there on Friday and Saturday, August 27-28, 2010. The Family History Expos are held in a number of cities in the west, although I see they are going eastward to Atlanta, Georgia later this year. I have attended a number of past expos and have found them to be a lot of fun and also educational. I... Dick Eastman

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

We've just discovered a fascinating and useful site for helping us decipher old handwriting. Brigham Young University's website has paleography tutorials that help you read old English, German, Italian, and Spanish scripts. Tutorials for Dutch, French, and Portuguese are under development and will be added soon. Each tutorial contains a section on alphabet and handwriting, genealogical glossaries, and a description of the most common types of records. Check it out at: http://script.byu.edu

If that's not enough, how about a site that will help you learn to read the handwriting found in documents written in English between 1500 and 1800? Try "Palaeography: reading old handwriting 1500 - 1800." There are plenty of reference materials, tips and samples on this site. You can even play the "Ducking Stool Game" and see if your translations are good enough to save a life!
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/palaeography/

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

On Friday, August 27, Christina Bannon, DAR Chicago Registrar, will be at the Newberry conducting Revolutionary War ancestor lookups from the DAR's database and offering advice on the DAR application process. Christina will be available in the 2nd floor General Reading Room from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm. Appointments are not necessary, though you will need a current Newberry reader's card. For information on obtaining a reader's card, click here.

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