Saturday, March 29, 2008

Computerized Family History

PAF-LUG BLOG: Computerized Family History and Genealogy Conference: "Gordon Clarke acknowledged my post on PAF's mostly dead status and asked that I quote him as saying, 'I kind of see new life as being breathed into PAF. I don’t think PAF is dying, I think it is getting a second life.' Clarke, consider yourself quoted. I'll explain more in a later article. I think the headline will be, 'FamilySearch's Gordon Clarke announces the resurrection.' (Teasing genes run deep in my family.)"

RootsWeb

RootsWeb.com Home Page: new URL but we keep on trucking

the Internet's oldest and largest FREE genealogical community. An award winning genealogical resource with searchable databases, free Web space, ...

FamilySearch Labs Blog

FamilySearch Labs Blog: "We just posted a new version of the Family Tree. We’ve given high-level navigation a face lift, provided a way to return to you in the tree and added (drum roll please…), the ability to search. Unfortunately, the search feature is not available through the demo – just to logged in users (sorry). As usual, click the feedback link and tell us what you think."

FTM 2008

Ancestry.com Blog - » Data Entry Flow: "Family Tree Maker 2008 addresses this issue in its Family view by allowing the right-hand edit panel to be customized. For instance, if you frequently enter burial information, you can add “Burial” to the right-panel and then you won’t need to go to another screen to enter that information like you did in Family Tree Maker 16. If you have a lot of Jewish ancestry, you might frequently add Bar Mitsvah and Bat Mitsvah information, so you may want to add those facts to the right-hand panel. You certainly don’t want to add every fact you might ever use to the right-hand panel, but those that you frequently use. This makes it possible to add most of your information from one screen without the need to go to another view or open another dialog box."

uses of DNA

Add this to the “uses of DNA” collection « The Sciphu Weblog

This post follows previous posts 10 ways to use your DNA and 9 more ways to use DNA. The collection so far: 3 blog-items containing 21 uses.

20. Will coffee make you sick ? Consumer genetics will tell you if you are likely to brake down coffein slowly or rapidly (SNP CYP1A2*1F in the CYP1A2 gene). The health implications are clearly overrated, but perhaps you would still find it interesting to know just how much coffee you have to drink in order to read DNA blogs all night.

Friday, March 28, 2008

DigDag historical atlas of Denmark

DigDag - Et digitalt atlas over Danmarks administrative inddeling op gennem historien: "Et konsortium under ledelse af Statens Arkiver har gennemført et forprojekt for at afdække mulighederne for at lave et fælles digitalt atlas over Danmarks administrative inddeling op gennem historien.

Mange historiske informationer er knyttet til steder, der er del af forskellige forvaltningsenheder og administrative strukturer. En landsby hører f.eks. til under et sogn, og hvis man ikke ved, hvilket sogn det drejer sig om, er det umuligt at finde frem til de kirkebøger, der rummer oplysninger om landsbyens beboere."

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Consumer Alert:

Consumer Alert: Beware of genealogy rip-offs and scams - Phoenix news, breaking news, local news, weather radar, traffic from ABC15 News | ABC15.com: "Smith recalls one company where the representatives try to sell you a book that promises to tell your entire story.

“It has some general information but it’s a waste of money. It’s been copied over and over and over again.” Smith said, “They (the company) will have to do all the research that you need to do and nobody’s done that. You can’t mass market someone’s history.”

And that’s at the heart of what genealogy is about, doing the work yourself."

an amusing article peppered with errors, but quite good for a cub reporter who did it in half a morning

eg "
www.rootsweb.ancestry.com (will cost money)" NOT TRUE it is still a major freebie

http://www.ancestry.com/ COSTS MONEY

"The library has its own version of a program called Ancestry.com that is much bigger and better than the traditional online program." NOT TRUE

they have
http://ancestrylibrary.proquest.com/

which has less interactive functionality than the home version
but it is equal to the World deluxe subscription of
http://www.ancestry.com/

WorldVitalRecords

WorldVitalRecords Blog » Find My Past Partners With FamilyLink.com, Inc.: "PROVO, UT, March, 2008 —Find My Past, a family history and genealogy website based in London, England, containing over 550 million family history records recently announced its partnership with FamilyLink.com, Inc. to bring UK Censuses online at WorldVitalRecords.com (a service of FamilyLink.com, Inc.).

“I really admire what Paul is doing at WorldVitalRecords.com. We are excited to have our census records as part of the WorldVitalRecords.com’s subscription because it will make our census records more accessible to an American audience who probably wouldn’t think of using our company as the first place to look for these records,” said Elaine Collins, Commercial Director, Find My Past. “We are also excited for this partnership because WorldVitalRecords.com has a successful track record and will continue to succeed in the genealogical industry.”

The UK census records comprise WorldVitalRecords.com’s largest database in the World Collection. As part of this agreement, WorldVitalRecords has already added the 1861, 1881 and 1891 censuses to its collection. These records are the official civil registration records for England and Wales from 1837 to the present (2008). More census records will be periodically posted county by county throughout the year. These censuses include images, and also a key-word searchable index."

“We have worked with UK data archives—the academic offshoot of University of Essex—to enhance our data and to make sure it is the most accurate and searchable product that is available on the market. We are constantly improving it as well,” Collins said.

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

"the genealogical equivalent of placing an ad in the newspaper's classified section that says, 'Used car for sale. Please call for make, model, condition, and asking price.' You might get a response, but don't count on it. The idea is to encourage people to reply. They are more likely to do so if they recognize your family as related to people they have researched. Include some details about when and where your family lived. Always include: Name Place Date and put them in the subject line. If you don't know exact dates, estimate. It's a good idea to include the name of a spouse, too. As John Cartmell, former editor of the North Cheshire Family History Society's journal, puts it, 'I have found the most useful link for strangers to pick up is the marriage; two surnames coming together at a given time and place are the best indicators that this could be of interest to you. It even makes the SMITHs interesting.' For example: 1. better Subject: LEGGETT Rufus / LOUCKS Belle; Columbus, KS,USA; 1860-1940 My great-grandfather Rufus LEGGETT died in Columbus, Kansas when my mother was a little girl, sometime in the 1930's. She thinks he was in his 70's then, maybe somewhat younger. His wife's name was Belle LOUCKS. I'm looking for information on when and where he was born, as well as his parents." from http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~surnames/goodbad

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way: "In the world of hackers, the kind of answers you get to your technical questions depends as much on the way you ask the questions as on the difficulty of developing the answer. This guide will teach you how to ask questions in a way more likely to get you a satisfactory answer.

Now that use of open source has become widespread, you can often get as good answers from other, more experienced users as from hackers. This is a Good Thing; users tend to be just a little bit more tolerant of the kind of failures newbies often have. Still, treating experienced users like hackers in the ways we recommend here will generally be the most effective way to get useful answers out of them, too.

The first thing to understand is that hackers actually like hard problems and good, thought-provoking questions about them. If we didn't, we wouldn't be here. If you give us an interesting question to chew on we'll be grateful to you; good questions are a stimulus and a gift. Good questions help us develop our understanding, and often reveal problems we might not have noticed or thought about otherwise. Among hackers, “Good question!” is a strong and sincere compliment.

Despite this, hackers have a reputation for meeting simple questions with what looks like hostility or arrogance. It sometimes looks like we're reflexively rude to newbies and the ignorant."

which ideas can be adapted to questions about genealogy

MySQL now part of sun.com

MySQL: "MySQL database is the world's most popular open source database because of its fast performance, high reliability, ease of use, and dramatic cost savings."

USGenNet update

USGenNet. The First and Only Nonprofit Historical-Genealogical Web Hosting Service on the Internet! History, Historical, Family History, Genealogy, Genealogical. Family Values. History and Genealogy.: "USGenNet is the first and only nonprofit historical-genealogical web hosting service on the Internet. We are a website hosting service (ISP) for qualifying historical and historical-genealogical projects. USGenNet itself is NOT a historical or historical-genealogical project.

USGenNet is dedicated to providing free-access online websites for educational purposes, for public research and for the study of our national historical heritage.

USGenNet is a Nonprofit Idaho Corporation (C 124878) and was incorporated July 17, 1998. We obtained US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Tax Exempt Status 501(c)(3) on January 18, 2000.

USGenNet is advertisement free and is entirely supported by tax-deductible contributions. Without the support of the general public, (visitors like you), we could not continue to provide free online access. Please Join USGenNet by making a tax-deductible donation and help keep us running!"

USGenNet Year 2008 Financial Records, Accounts, United States Genealogy Network Inc. 2008 Operating Budget: "Projected Expenditures US dollars:

Hosting Services (2@$389 mo.) 9,336.00
Software and Maintenance 800.00
DNS Hosting Fees 150.00

Miscellaneous Expenses
Domain Registration Fees 100.00
Postage, Misc. Office Exp. 100.00

Total Projected Expenses 10,486.00


Budget Notes:

1. Hosting Service costs are based on minimum anticipated costs. USGenNet must add server space and bandwidth in 2008 to avoid degrading services to our current account holders."

Franklin Co., TN Sub7 - Nicknames: "This TNGenWeb Project website is hosted by USGenNet, a nonprofit web-hosting service solely supported by tax-deductible donations. If this website has provided you with useful information, please consider making a donation to USGenNet to help keep websites like this online."

which came from links given in the aol chat room session Mugs and Hugs
also seen:-
www.workhouses.org.uk - The Workhouse Web Site: "The Workhouse often conjures up the grim world of Oliver Twist, but its story is a fascinating mix of social history, politics, economics and architecture.

This site, www.workhouses.org.uk, is dedicated to the workhouse — its buildings, inmates, staff and administrators, even its poets..."
their new url with a bookshop link

on US GenWeb

Franklin Co., TN Sub7 - Nicknames: "A knowledge of the various nicknames can help us better identify our ancestors. I have NOT included some of the more OBVIOUS ones in this list. Remember, there can be an Eliza and an Elizabeth in the same family. Also, it is not uncommon to find two children with the same name. Sometimes a child dies and another child is given their name. There may also be a child with the same name by the different wives. Some nicknames may be clues to a name by which the person was not commonly known. Some of the names might have been given at birth and are not nicknames. PLEASE DO NOT SEND 'pet names'. I do not create nicknames for anyone.(See Naming Traditions at the bottom of this list)."

and

Naming Patterns and Customs - Genealogy Tip of the Day - About Genealogy: "People of all countries tend to name children after other family members, often using an unwritten, but traditional formula. In Ireland, as in many other countries, the first-born son was generally named after the paternal grandfather, and the first daughter after the maternal grandmother. This was an especially common practice during the 19th century and earlier. Surnames in some Scandinavian countries are indicative of a child's parentage - the Swedish surname Johannson, for example, indicates the 'son of Johann.' Surname endings can even indicate the country of origin. The -son ending mentioned above is typically Swedish, while -sen (Jensen) is more likely to be Danish or Norwegian."



Raglan Village

Monday, March 24, 2008

England & Wales Civil Registrtaion

England & Wales Registration Certificate Tutorials: "This Web site aims to help people tracing their family history by explaining the usage of the different entries on birth, marriage, and death certificates throughout the history of birth registration in England and Wales. The entries on the certificate and their interpretation has to have changed over the past 150 years, and the interpretation of certificates without knowledge of the legal requirements and practices of the period when the registration was made can sometimes be difficult. The birth registrations of Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Southern Ireland are different from those of England and Wales and are not covered here."

FreeBMD Home Page:
The recording of births, marriages and deaths was started i july 1837 and is one of the most significant resources for genealogical research. The transcribing of the records is carried out by teams of dedicated volunteers and contains index information for the period 1837-1983. PLEASE NOTE: WE HAVE NOT YET TRANSCRIBED THE WHOLE INDEX. A breakdown by event and year can be viewed here

The FreeBMD Database was last updated on Tue 4 Mar 2008 and currently contains 146,506,668 distinct records (188,400,433 total records)."

England and Wales BMD Index: 1837-1983
pay to view images not yet transcribed

Complete BMD Indexes 1984-2005
This collection is transcribed meaning you’ll find the individual entry for the person you are searching for here.*
Births - Marriages - Deaths

Sunday, March 23, 2008

under development

Archive CD Books

Archive CD Books: "The Archive CD Books Project exists to make reproductions of old books, documents and maps available on CD to genealogists and historians, and to co-operate with libraries, museums and record offices in providing money to renovate old books in their collection, and to donate books to their collections, where they will be preserved for future generations.

The project began in March 2000, and has now developed world-wide, with each country scanning and producing its own books on CD.

Each of the various Archive CD Books sites throughout the world can supply most of the internationally made CDs, so that you can order locally from within your own country, and each country's web site has more specific information about the old books, records and documents that it produces."

Genealogy, Family Trees and Family History Records online - Ancestry.co.uk
from their newsletter:-

We're really excited about a recent agreement that means in the coming months we'll be adding 1,000 different record collections from Archive CD Books to Ancestry.co.uk. These records will be available on site to members and Pay-Per-Viewers.

With the retirement of its founder, Rod Neep, Archive CD Books - a digital collection of city directories, rare books, military records, parish records and much more - will have a new home on Ancestry.co.uk. We're incredibly privileged to be able to carry on Rod's work.

Archive CD Books Australia, and Archive CD Books Canada are subcontractors supplying data to WorldVitalRecords Blog » One Billion Names Now Online at WorldVitalRecords.com

media workshop

ACM Training - the home of cost effective media training and communication workshops: "Our most popular product is our combined television, radio and print media training workshop. We run it in cities across the UK all year round. From just £119 per person including the venue, lunch and refreshments it's remarkably good value. We welcome mixed groups so the workshop is ideal for individuals or organisations with only a few people to train. To check availability on this or any other workshop select from the menu above or follow the workshop links on the left."

By the end of the workshop we will have covered these key objectives during radio & television interviews and feedback sessions with all participants:

The consequences of being “unavailable” or making “no comment” to the media
The value of a corporate face when dealing with the media
The pros and cons of passing the buck
The importance of reacting quickly
Straight and sincere – say what you mean and mean what you say

Know your job
What to say when you don’t have the answer
What to say when you do have the answer but rather wouldn’t disclose it
When to speak off-the-cuff and when to use a prepared statement
The long and the short of it – the differences between extended interviews, quick quotes and sound bites

How to avoid being taken out of context
Red light spells danger - the advantages and disadvantages of live and pre-recorded interviews
How to deal with awkward interviewers
Camera, lights action – familiarity with the equipment
Microphone technique

Two’s company, three’s a crowd– being interviewed alone or with others
In the picture – understanding the strengths and weaknesses of television to get your message across
Phone interviews, remote studios and face-to-face recordings
The art of phone-ins
The strengths and weaknesses of television, radio, print media to get your message across

Understanding journalists and newspapers
Who’re you going to call – avoiding the scattergun approach, targeting the right publication and making contact
Writing successful press releases – hook, line and sinker
When the worst happens – what to do when things go wrong
Can I quote you on that? – checking the reporter’s record of events

Demeanour – how not to look shifty, stupid or both
Dress – what to wear, what to avoid and why
Voice and tone – getting the best possible sound
Usage and abusage – using the spoken and written word to maximise your message
Self appraisal and improvement – how to get better

You’re in their hands – forging relationships with journalists

FOR DATES, LOCATIONS & VENUES
...of all of our workshops, please visit http://www.acmtraining.co.uk/rtaDatesvenues.asp?orderByField=town.

food for thought - also when using usenet and forums, or creating web sites

Internet Archive

Internet Archive: "The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public."

Internet Archive Wayback Machine