I ran across the article titled "Bill Dollarhide's Laws of Genealogy" the other day, and wanted to post a link to it for everybody to enjoy. The latest version is at http://www.genealogical.com/newsletters/genealogy_pointers_2-20-07.pdf.
I think my favorites are these:
"14. Always interview brothers and sisters together in the same room. Since they can't agree on anything about the family tree, it makes for great fun to see who throws the first punch."
"27. Research in one county that leads you to information in another county will only be revealed on the last day of your vacation. "
"39. Genealogy is the examination of the maximum amount of data in the maximum amount of time for a minimum result. "
Read them all - they all have a purpose and are words of wisdom from an expert genealogist.
Saturday, May 19, 2007
80 Billion Records to go online
80 Billion is a very large number - that's the number of records that the LDS Church hopes to add to http://www.familysearch.org/ in the coming years.
An excellent article in The Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City, Utah) by Carrie A. Moore, titled "80 Billion Family Files to go online," describes the process that will enable these records to go online. The lead paragraphs say:
" In what officials say will be a quantum leap forward in providing family history information online, the LDS Church has announced a plan designed to eventually help provide access to as many as 80 billion family records on the Web, in addition to the tens of billions of records it is currently indexing out of its own Granite Vault microfilm archives.
"The new Records Access program is being announced this week at the annual meeting of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) in Richmond, Va. The announcement details specifics of how the church is creating partnerships with various archives and other records depositories in a move to become the world's premier international "clearinghouse" for family history."
Some additional meaningful quotes from the article:
"Once the church has signed an agreement to work with a specific organization, personnel there "typically want to recruit their own patrons to help them index. But with imaging the documents — taking digital photos of them — we do that for them in almost all cases. ... They want preservation-quality digital images, and we do that better than anybody. We've been doing it for decades," to produce the 2.4 million rolls of microfilm that now reside in the church's Granite Mountain near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, Anderson said."
"As a result of the "affiliate arrangement," Anderson said FamilySearch.org will "have all the indexes for everything. You can think of it more or less like a Google — you go there to find the source of information you're looking for. Sometimes we're the source, and sometimes a third party is the source."
Read the whole article to get the full gist of this LDS Records Access program.
I think that it is extremely well thought out and will continue for a very long time. I especially like that they will work with small and large companies and organizations to digitize and index holdings. I can see genealogy and historical societies having the following digitized:
1) Pedigree charts or family group sheets
2) "Vertical files" submitted for safe-keeping by members or estates - these can hold absolutely unique records like family Bible pages, journals, letters, etc.
3) Newsletters or periodicals. Many societies publish local records in paper format, which end up in personal libraries or library shelves (or locked local history rooms).
There may be copyright issues with some of these records. That will have to be worked out between the record holders and the society.
And the absolute best part of all of this activity by the LDS church is that access to the indexes and the digital images will be FREE.
An excellent article in The Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City, Utah) by Carrie A. Moore, titled "80 Billion Family Files to go online," describes the process that will enable these records to go online. The lead paragraphs say:
" In what officials say will be a quantum leap forward in providing family history information online, the LDS Church has announced a plan designed to eventually help provide access to as many as 80 billion family records on the Web, in addition to the tens of billions of records it is currently indexing out of its own Granite Vault microfilm archives.
"The new Records Access program is being announced this week at the annual meeting of the National Genealogical Society (NGS) in Richmond, Va. The announcement details specifics of how the church is creating partnerships with various archives and other records depositories in a move to become the world's premier international "clearinghouse" for family history."
Some additional meaningful quotes from the article:
"Once the church has signed an agreement to work with a specific organization, personnel there "typically want to recruit their own patrons to help them index. But with imaging the documents — taking digital photos of them — we do that for them in almost all cases. ... They want preservation-quality digital images, and we do that better than anybody. We've been doing it for decades," to produce the 2.4 million rolls of microfilm that now reside in the church's Granite Mountain near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon, Anderson said."
"As a result of the "affiliate arrangement," Anderson said FamilySearch.org will "have all the indexes for everything. You can think of it more or less like a Google — you go there to find the source of information you're looking for. Sometimes we're the source, and sometimes a third party is the source."
Read the whole article to get the full gist of this LDS Records Access program.
I think that it is extremely well thought out and will continue for a very long time. I especially like that they will work with small and large companies and organizations to digitize and index holdings. I can see genealogy and historical societies having the following digitized:
1) Pedigree charts or family group sheets
2) "Vertical files" submitted for safe-keeping by members or estates - these can hold absolutely unique records like family Bible pages, journals, letters, etc.
3) Newsletters or periodicals. Many societies publish local records in paper format, which end up in personal libraries or library shelves (or locked local history rooms).
There may be copyright issues with some of these records. That will have to be worked out between the record holders and the society.
And the absolute best part of all of this activity by the LDS church is that access to the indexes and the digital images will be FREE.
Friday, May 18, 2007
24th Carnival of Genealogy is Posted
Jasia has posted the 24th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy (this completes one year I think!) at http://creativegene.blogspot.com/2007/05/carnival-of-genealogy-24th-edition.html. The topic for this edition was Mothers - Moms, and the 18 submissions are chock full of interesting and sentimental musings and stories about mothers.
Check out the Carnival, and read all of the posts. You may find some interesting and different genealogy blogs in the process.
The next Carnival deadline is June 1. The topic for the next edition of the COG will be: "Who inherited the Creative Gene in your family?" We're all aware of someone on the family tree who was/is "the creative one" or "the talented one"... the painter, musician, poet, wood carver, interior designer, writer, knitter, singer, calligrapher, or such. Tell us about their creative pursuits. Let's hear it for the creatives! Please submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form.
Check out the Carnival, and read all of the posts. You may find some interesting and different genealogy blogs in the process.
The next Carnival deadline is June 1. The topic for the next edition of the COG will be: "Who inherited the Creative Gene in your family?" We're all aware of someone on the family tree who was/is "the creative one" or "the talented one"... the painter, musician, poet, wood carver, interior designer, writer, knitter, singer, calligrapher, or such. Tell us about their creative pursuits. Let's hear it for the creatives! Please submit your blog article to the next edition of Carnival of Genealogy using our carnival submission form.
CVGS Program on Monday, 5/21
San Diego area genealogists may be interested in the next Chula Vista Genealogical Society program on Monday, May 21, at 10 AM in the Chula Vista Civic Center Library Auditorium. Note that this is the 3rd Monday, not the last Monday - Memorial Day is the last Monday of May and the library is closed.
After our normal society business meeting, the program will be about "Naming Customs," presented by Bernice Heiter, a member of CVGS. The summary of the program is:
"The presentation will discuss naming patterns followed by most families during the 17th and 18th Centuries, customs which many of us in genealogy find baffling and frustrating today. Tips will be given on ways to overcome this dilemma. Naming customs in various cultures will be discussed, including some family names, or surnames, such as the French-Canadian 'dit' names, some name endings used in certain nationalities, and finding the correct family name in Spanish and Portuguese family names."
Please join us for this meeting. Visitors and guests are always welcome to all of our meetings.
After our normal society business meeting, the program will be about "Naming Customs," presented by Bernice Heiter, a member of CVGS. The summary of the program is:
"The presentation will discuss naming patterns followed by most families during the 17th and 18th Centuries, customs which many of us in genealogy find baffling and frustrating today. Tips will be given on ways to overcome this dilemma. Naming customs in various cultures will be discussed, including some family names, or surnames, such as the French-Canadian 'dit' names, some name endings used in certain nationalities, and finding the correct family name in Spanish and Portuguese family names."
Please join us for this meeting. Visitors and guests are always welcome to all of our meetings.
Speaking at Questing Heirs on Sunday
This intrepid genea-muser is going on a genealogy road trip this weekend to speak to the Questing Heirs Genealogical Society in Long Beach CA on Sunday. We had QHGS President Liz Stookesberry Myers speak to CVGS in March, and I agreed to make a presentation at her society meeting.
The society meets in the parish hall of the Resurrection Lutheran Church at 1900 East Carson Street in Long Beach CA (approximately 1 mile north of Interstate 405, one block west of Cherry Avenue).
At 1:15 PM, there will be a "Let's Get Acquainted" session where John McCoy will interview me, asking hard questions like "what is a blog" and "what advice do you have..." After a break, I will present "Finding Your Elusive Ancestors in the Census Haystack" starting around 2:30 PM.
The summary of this talk is:
"Have you found ALL of the census entries for your ancestors? If not, why not? Probably because they were not enumerated or indexed correctly - and they are lost in the haystack of millions of census entries. The chances of finding your elusive ancestors in the census have improved since the days of printed name indexes, Soundex card searches, and microfilm cranking at the Archives or the FHC.
"This presentation will briefly survey the available census records, discuss the census taking process, examine the change from microfilm to online access to the census records, and describe methods to effectively search for your elusive ancestors using online census indexes and images."
Linda and I will be away from Friday morning until Sunday night, so blogging may be light. The hotel is supposed to have free high-speed Internet access, but "free" access is not always wonderful.
If you attend the QHGS meeting and are a reader of Genea-Musings, please let me know when I am there. I enjoy talking to my faithful readers.
The society meets in the parish hall of the Resurrection Lutheran Church at 1900 East Carson Street in Long Beach CA (approximately 1 mile north of Interstate 405, one block west of Cherry Avenue).
At 1:15 PM, there will be a "Let's Get Acquainted" session where John McCoy will interview me, asking hard questions like "what is a blog" and "what advice do you have..." After a break, I will present "Finding Your Elusive Ancestors in the Census Haystack" starting around 2:30 PM.
The summary of this talk is:
"Have you found ALL of the census entries for your ancestors? If not, why not? Probably because they were not enumerated or indexed correctly - and they are lost in the haystack of millions of census entries. The chances of finding your elusive ancestors in the census have improved since the days of printed name indexes, Soundex card searches, and microfilm cranking at the Archives or the FHC.
"This presentation will briefly survey the available census records, discuss the census taking process, examine the change from microfilm to online access to the census records, and describe methods to effectively search for your elusive ancestors using online census indexes and images."
Linda and I will be away from Friday morning until Sunday night, so blogging may be light. The hotel is supposed to have free high-speed Internet access, but "free" access is not always wonderful.
If you attend the QHGS meeting and are a reader of Genea-Musings, please let me know when I am there. I enjoy talking to my faithful readers.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
24 Hours of Genealogy
I posted "My 24 Hours of Genealogy" on the Geneaholic blog today - go see what one of my geneaholic days is like!
Do you think Roots Television would be interested in any of this?
Do you think Roots Television would be interested in any of this?
TAG Table of Contents - Jan 2002 to April 2005
The Tables of Contents for The American Genealogist quarterly periodical for January 2002 to April 2005 are online at http://www.americangenealogist.com/BackIssue.html.
I have "captured" these tables of content into a word processing file for my personal use.
I have "captured" these tables of content into a word processing file for my personal use.
TAG Table of Contents - July 2006 issue
The latest published issue of The American Genealogist journal is dated July 2006 (Whole Number 323, Volume 81, No. 3) - published in January 2007.
The Table of Contents includes:
TAG is the periodical that I find adds the most "new material" to my own ancestral lines, since the articles are mainly about southern New England fmailies, especially Rhode Island and Plymouth Colony families. It is a are issue that goes by without something of value to my research.
The Table of Contents includes:
- William1 Varney of Ipswich and Gloucester, Massachusetts - Kathleen Canney Barber and Janet Ireland Delorey - page 161
- Of Gravestones and Ashpits - page 171
- The London Origins of Richard1 Waters of Salem, Massachusetts: Revisited - William Wyman Fiske - page 172
- The Devil and Betty Jackson - page 182
- The Daniel3 and Mary (Cloyse) Waters Family of Topsfield, Massachusetts and Killingly, Connecticut - John Bradley Arthaud - page 183
- A Tale of Two Regicides: Daniel Axtell and Cornelius Holland (and Their Son and Daughter, Who Helped Save the Carolinas) (continued) - Paul C. Reed - page 192
- Slante! (Or the Medical virtues of Hog's Dung) - page 198
- Hannah Parsons and Her Four Husbands: Early Mormon History and Apostasy - Alvy Ray Smith and Marsha Hoffman Rising - page 199
- Hester (Ijams) Nicholson of Anne Arundel County, Maryland - Donna Valley Russell - page 220
- The Maternal Ancestry of Phebe1 Bisby, Wife of New England Colonists Thomas1 Bracy of Ipswich and New Haven and Samuel1 Martin of New Haven - Leslie Mahler - page 224
- The Agony of (Denominational) Divorce (Congregational vs. Unitarian) - page 237
- John2 Cole and Family of Plymouth and Swansea, Massachusetts, and Portsmouth, Rhode Island: With Additional Corrections to Cole Literature (concluded) - Eugene Cole Zabriskie - page 238
- Astrological Deniability - page 245
- The English Burial and Estate Administration of Gilbert1 Winslow of Plymouth Colony - Neil D. Thompson - page 246
- Editorial Notes and Observations - page 247
TAG is the periodical that I find adds the most "new material" to my own ancestral lines, since the articles are mainly about southern New England fmailies, especially Rhode Island and Plymouth Colony families. It is a are issue that goes by without something of value to my research.
NEHGR Contents - April 2007 - in PDF Form!
I am going to try to post the tables of contents of the periodicals and journals that I subscribe to and read. It is very difficult to find articles on my bookcase without browsing each issue. This way I can put them under the "periodical indexes" label and I can (and you can too!) browse them by clicking on one link. I know PERSI eventually indexes them, but it is updated only occasionally.
The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 161, No. 2, April 2007, Whole Number 642, contents include:
The New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Volume 161, No. 2, April 2007, Whole Number 642, contents include:
- Editorial -- pg 83
- Ancestry of Bennet Eliot of Nazeing, Essex, Father of Seven Great Migration Immigrants to Massachusetts William Wyman Fiske - pg. 85
- Abraham Toppan Was Not a Yorkshire Man Brandon Fradd - pg. 92
- The English Origins of Jeffrey Staple of Weymouth, Massachusetts Gail Staples - pg. 95
- The English Ancestry of Thomas Burton of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Signer of the Remonstrance 1646 Peter Ray - pg. 101
- Abiah Coye (ca. 1720-ca. 1783) of Preston, Connecticut, and Hallowell, Maine Judith Waite Freeman - pg. 113
- A Small Window of Opportunity: The Norris Family Returns to Tamlaghtmore, Co. Tyrone, Ireland Sharon DeBartolo Carmack - pg. 119
- Abigail (Lothrop) Huntington's Second Husand, Samuel Baker Don Blauvelt - pg. 123
- Genealogy of Samuel Peirce, First Settler of Zoar, Massachusetts Jon Wardlow - pg. 127
- The Nathaniel and Anna (Balch) (Rich) Wallis Family of Beverly, Massachusetts Michael Boyer O’Leary and John Bradley Arthaud - pg. 138
- Genealogist John Farmer Discovers His Ancestry: The Warwickshire Family of Edward1 Farmer, Isabel1 (Farmer) (Wyman) (Blood) Green, and Thomas1 Pollard Nathaniel Lane Taylor (continued from 161:72) - pg. 146
- Reviews of Books and CD-ROMs - pg. 156
On another note, the issues for January 2007 and April 2007 are available to members in PDF form on the Publications tab. The page notes:
"In response to member requests, NEHGS is pleased to present a print-formatted, downloadable version of the Register. Members may now access and print selected pages or entire issues of the Register directly from our website!"
The issues can be downloaded and printed using Adobe Reader. When I find an article that I want to put into my files, I can now print it out at home rather than take the periodical to the copy machine at the library or copy shop and pay 15 cents a copy. The print quality is much better too!
This is probably one way that genealogy societies - from the small local to the big national - can reduce their costs and serve their members better. CVGS has done this - about 50% of our members download and print the monthly newsletter from the web site (we password protect it and distribute the password to the members via email).
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Google Books has a link to WorldCat
Were you aware that Google Books had a link to the WorldCat database of library holdings?
When you search for a book on Google Books using key words (just like you would search on the web or in images), you get a list of books that contain your search words in the title or in the book text. If you select one of the items in the book list, then you see the digital image of a page from the book that you clicked on.
On the right hand side of this web page, there is a link for "Find this book in a library" Click on that link and you will receive a list of libraries, in order of distance from your location, that has the book available. This information is from the WorldCat database.
If you are going to be researching in a different locale, then you can change the "Location Information" at the top of the page.
For some library entries, you can click on the "Book" link and see the library catalog entry. There is also a link for "Library Information" to find the address, phone number and open hours for that library.
I somehow missed the announcement of this capability - it is really a neat way to find books in digital format and also in print!
When you search for a book on Google Books using key words (just like you would search on the web or in images), you get a list of books that contain your search words in the title or in the book text. If you select one of the items in the book list, then you see the digital image of a page from the book that you clicked on.
On the right hand side of this web page, there is a link for "Find this book in a library" Click on that link and you will receive a list of libraries, in order of distance from your location, that has the book available. This information is from the WorldCat database.
If you are going to be researching in a different locale, then you can change the "Location Information" at the top of the page.
For some library entries, you can click on the "Book" link and see the library catalog entry. There is also a link for "Library Information" to find the address, phone number and open hours for that library.
I somehow missed the announcement of this capability - it is really a neat way to find books in digital format and also in print!
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