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Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
| IN THIS ISSUE: |
| Corrections To Last Week’s Newsletter Correction/Update To The April 25, 1998 Newsletter Rhyming Relations The Master Genealogist Adds Direct Data Import 1870 Census Index for TN, NC and SC NARA Seeks Space Planning Input at FGS Conference Ancestry.com Adds 12 Million Records Free E-Mail Accounts For Genealogists Africans In America TV Series 2000 Census To Count Computer Users? Upcoming Events Home Pages Not Highlighted |
| August 3, 1998 |
- Corrections To Last Week’s Newsletter Two statements in last week’s issue were incorrect. In the article about GenealogyLibrary.com, I described the books as "…obviously all created by OCR (optical character recognition) scanning of printed books." Claire LaBeaux at Broderbund tells me "We do not use OCR. We have the same misgivings about it that you do; we've conducted extensive tests of OCR and it simply isn't accurate enough for us to use at this point. Instead, we are double entering all the information. Two different people enter the data, the entries are compared for accuracy, and any discrepancies are re-checked and re-entered. This yields much higher accuracy than can currently be gained through OCR." I’m impressed. Double entering data by keyboard is much more expensive than OCR scanning, although much more accurate. In the article about "Prima’s Official Companion to Family Tree Maker Version 5" I said, "Broderbund is including the book with every copy of the program." That is not true. The book is available as a separately priced item from Broderbund as well as from Prima Publishing.
- Correction/Update To The April 27, 1998 Newsletter In the newsletter posted on Ancestry’s website on April 27, I wrote a rather long article about the newly-released Version 3.5 of The Master Genealogist for Windows. In that article I wrote, "Source Citations are automatically constructed using the Elizabeth Shown Mills rules of citation or the Richard Lackey rules of citation or user-definable rules." That sentence has resulted in a number of e-mails and FAX messages back and forth amongst Elizabeth Shown Mills, Bob Velke (President of Wholly Genes Software, producers of The Master Genealogist) and myself. I believe that Elizabeth and Bob have now clarified the conformance or lack of conformance to the rules detailed in Elizabeth’s book. To offer readers the best possible clarification, I invited both Elizabeth Shown Mills and Bob Velke to each write a description of their views. First, from Elizabeth Shown Mills:
Next, from Bob Velke:
I wish to offer my thanks to both Elizabeth Shown Mills and Bob Velke for their help in clarifying this.
OK folks, bear with me on this one. I have written a number of book reviews before, but never for a book of poetry. This may be tough. However, I will tell you up front that I chuckled a lot when reading this book of verse. "Rhyming Relations: Genealogy in Verse" has just been published in England and it is a hoot. (Do they say "hoot" in England?) Author Roy Stockdill describes his book as "An anthology of poems, serious and light-hearted, on the subject of ancestry and family history." Roy offers serious insights into the motivations involved with looking for ancestors. He also offers humorous tales of ancestors’ sex lives that resulted in us appearing in the world many generations later. He talks about research techniques, computers, and, in one poem, wonders how future genealogists will conduct their research in a world where human cloning and test tube babies are the norm. I found this book to contain a delightful mix of topics. I chuckled over one of the limericks Roy penned:
But my favorite poem is the very first one in the book. Roy introduces this pensive offering as "A poem in the style of Thomas Gray’s ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.’ Hopefully, it evokes feelings shared by many genealogists of rooting amongst old gravestones searching for ancestors."
These are only small samples of what you will find in "Rhyming Relations: Genealogy in Verse." If you like poetry, you will welcome this as an addition to your bookshelf. And if you don’t know if you like poetry or not, I bet this book will win you over. I know that I will be reciting a few of these poems at my family’s reunion in September. I probably will recite "Family Reunions That Weren’t." "Rhyming Relations: Genealogy in Verse" is an 80-page paperback and is only available from the author. For residents of the UK, send 3.95 Sterling plus another pound for postage. Anyone in other parts of the world can order the book by sending a check for ten dollars U.S. funds. That includes postage and handling. Roy says that he can accept checks in American money even though his bank imposes a rather hefty fee for converting dollars to pounds. I would consider these prices to be a bargain. All orders need to be sent to Roy Stockdill, 6 First Avenue, Garston, Watford, Hertfordshire WD2 6PZ, United Kingdom. Roy can also be reached via e-mail at: roystock@compuserve.com
- The Master Genealogist Adds Direct Data Import I have written a number of times about the various difficulties encountered when moving data from one genealogy program to another via GEDCOM files. The GEDCOM standard, as implemented in most of today’s genealogy programs, often does not match the data requirements of modern genealogy databases. Almost every time I transfer data from one genealogy program to another via GEDCOM, I lose some data or the data ends up in the wrong place. Admittedly, the "lost data" usually shows up in error log files, but that’s not where I want it! Generally speaking, the more sophisticated the two genealogy programs involved, the bigger the problem. Wholly Genes, producers of The Master Genealogist, has been working on methods of data transfer that do not involve GEDCOM. The company has had success in directly importing data from several other genealogy programs. This week they added another program to their repertoire. Here is the full announcement:
- 1870 Census Index for TN, NC and SC Heritage Quest has released a new CD-ROM disk that will interest many people with southern U.S. ancestry: the Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina 1870 Census Index. I had a chance to use it this week and can report that it works well. The three-state census index is extracted from the original U.S. census schedules. It lists heads of households for all counties and all cities in the three states for a total of 841,500 listings. That includes 347,600 listings in Tennessee, 295,000 in North Carolina and 198,900 in South Carolina. Information on each listing includes name, age, sex, race, birthplace, locality and county along with the census film number and page reference. While the index says that it is for heads of households only, it also includes all males 50 years of age and over along with all females 70 years of age and older. The CD-ROM will operate on Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT. There is no Macintosh capability, however. I tested the CD-ROM on a Windows NT 4.0 Workstation with 128 megabytes of memory. Installation was simple: click on SETUP.EXE and follow the instructions. In less than a minute the required software was installed on my hard drive. You might note that it adds about 2.4 megabytes to the hard drive. One of the advantages of the Heritage Quest CD-ROM disks is that all required software is included on the CD-ROM disk. There is no need for any other programs or "viewers." I particularly like that when the hard drive is getting close to full. I can always uninstall the viewer program from my disk to reclaim the space. If I later decide to look at the CD-ROM again, it only takes a few seconds to install the required software. Also, the software is always on the CD-ROM disk, unlike some other products that bundle the viewing software separately. All of the Heritage Quest CD-ROM disks I have seen use Wordcruncher software as the "search engine." This seems to work well and I found it easy to navigate and to do simple searches without referring to the user’s manual. This manual is a tiny 23-page booklet that slides inside the jewel case for the CD-ROM disk. I started the program and first read the introductory material displayed on the screen. If printed, it would be several pages long. There are explanations of how to use the software, the various codes and icons used, a list of standard abbreviations, a list of birthplace code, a description of the database structure and more. While I mentioned the tiny printed user’s manual, in reality, the full user’s manual is on the CD-ROM disk, not on paper. Another feature that I liked was all the background information given as to the history of the states and the mechanics of how the census rolls were created. Each state’s data begins with a Foreword written by Bill Dollarhide. I decided to start searching for my own surname. I found that you can search any one of the states at a time, but you cannot search all three at once. I selected Tennessee, then selected "Easy Search" and entered my own surname. Nine listings appeared within a second or two. Each listing appears as one line containing the last name, first name or initials, age, sex, race, birthplace, county, locale, census roll number and page number. More advanced searches are easy to do although you will probably read the help file for a bit to learn the syntax used. You can search for spelling variations, such as "Smythe" as well as "Smith." One example might be to specify a search of "Brown Joseph + Brown Josiah". That would find anyone named Joseph Brown as well as anyone named Josiah Brown. Some of the other search functions available include EXACT PHRASE, PARTIAL PHRASE, IN SAME RECORD and WITHIN 25 WORDS. While I could easily locate information, I was unable to copy data to the Windows Clipboard. I wanted to highlight a few names along with the accompanying details and then copy the information both to this newsletter and to a genealogy program. In almost all Windows programs you can do that by first highlighting the desired text, then selecting EDIT from the pull-down menus and then selecting COPY. That places the text onto the Windows clipboard. You then can use a similar process to paste the text into another Windows program, such as Microsoft Word, which I use to create this newsletter. Heritage Quest’s implementation of Wordcruncher did not have those commands available. Naturally, I checked the online user’s instructions for information on how to accomplish that. I found the following instructions:
But there was one problem: Those instructions didn’t work! I could copy the above data from the Help file to the Windows Clipboard, but when I looked at census data, the TextOut feature did not appear on the pull-down menus. When I could not make the software work in accordance with its own Help files, I looked at Heritage Quest’s website. There I found the following explanation: "This functionality has been taken out of the Heritage Quest software for protection of our data. Printing is the only type of output this software is capable of performing." I had planned to paste some data into this newsletter to show some typical examples of the information found on the CD-ROM. As it is, you will have to take my word that the last name, first name or initials, age, sex, race, birthplace, county, locale, census roll number and page number all appear. Printing to paper was easy and operated just about as I expected. I was able to highlight the listings I wanted to print, select FILE from the pull-down menus, then select PRINT. Another screen appeared with several printing options to choose from; I quickly learned to print in landscape mode. The highlighted text was then printed. All in all, the Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina 1870 Census Index CD-ROM is an excellent example of high-quality genealogy information available in any easy-to-use computer form. These are indexes of original census records. As in all census indexes, you can expect a few errors. The indexers often were working with old, faded documents, some of which had poor handwriting. Also, remember that these are only indexes, not full listings. Finally, these indexes do not contain information on all the household residents. As always, after you find a listing on this CD-ROM index, you will want to look at a microfilm copy of the original document to obtain the rest of the information. The Tennessee, North Carolina and South Carolina 1870 Census Index CD-ROM disk can be obtained directly from Heritage Quest as well as from their dealers. To contact the company directly, go to: http://www.heritagequest.com
- NARA Seeks Space Planning Input at FGS Conference I have written in the past about the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration’s new initiative on space planning. I believe the need for space planning is real and something the agency must do. However, I am leery of the process being used. In the past I have questioned some of the statements of John W. Carlin, Archivist of the United States. This week he wrote an announcement about the next phase of the information-gathering process that addresses some of my concerns. Since this seems to be the week for "guest authors" in this newsletter, I will quote Mr. Carlin’s message in its entirety:
by John W. Carlin, Archivist of the United States The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is holding two information-gathering open forums on space planning at the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Cincinnati, and I urge all interested FGS members to attend. Richard Claypoole, Assistant Archivist for Regional Records Services, and Adrienne Thomas, Assistant Archivist for Administrative Services, are co-leaders of NARA's Space Planning Team. They will host the meetings with Kent Carter, Regional Administrator of the Southwest Region on Thursday, August 20, at 10:30 a.m. in Convention Center room 206, and on Friday, August 21, at 9:30 a.m. in room 235. They also will meet with the Joint Records Access and Preservation Committee. As many of you already know, NARA has a critical need for more space and better space. One of the goals of NARA's Strategic Plan is for all records to be preserved in appropriate space for use as long as needed. That's quite a commitment. What do we mean by "appropriate space?" We mean four things, as spelled out in the plan: space sufficient in quantity for current and future records holdings; space that provides appropriate environmental storage conditions for all of NARA's current and future archival holdings; space that facilitates researcher access to records; and space that is cost-efficient. Some of you have visited NARA's superb state-of-the-art archival facility in College Park, Maryland, which provides exemplary conditions for records preservation and researcher use. But many of our other facilities do not. Most are full or nearly full right now. At some sites we are accessioning archival records into non-archival space. None of the archival records in those facilities are in space that has all of the appropriate environmental controls. And space in many of these facilities is not good for researchers or for staff. Facilities in which we have space problems include the original National Archives Building in Washington D.C., our National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, our Washington National Records Center, and the regional archives and federal records centers we maintain from Boston to San Bruno and from Atlanta to Anchorage. Also, we need to consider where as well as how we can best serve our customers nationwide. Our current spread of facilities was developed to fit the regional system of records center locations we inherited from the General Services Administration, not to meet archival and research needs. Because we are or soon will be out of space throughout the regional archives and records centers; because we need to plan for the long-term archival storage of military service records currently housed in St. Louis; and because we are moving to a reimbursable records center program, which will fund the records centers through the agencies that use them rather than with NARA's appropriated budget; because we need better space for archival records in the regions; we have a new opportunity to review what kind of facilities we need and where they should be to best serve users nationwide. Accordingly, in March I established NARA's Space Planning Team to examine our current space use and make recommendations for improvements. The team will look at our regional facilities, the Washington National Records Center, and the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. We have no need to address Archives II at this time since it was built only five years ago to meet archival storage and preservation needs in the Washington area. We also have no need to include the original National Archives Building in this study because we completed a requirements study for that building in 1985 and updated it in 1997. That study, along with an ongoing study for re-encasing the Charters of Freedom, provides the basis for our plan to renovate the National Archives Building, and we already are proceeding to seek support for this renovation project. For our regional facilities, we are building upon a regional space study that was completed in 1993, but I have charged the Space Planning Team to look beyond the limited scope of that study. I have given them four main goals: to increase the quantity of space so we can continue to add records to our holdings, which means more space, not less; to improve the quality of space, particularly for records that need to be preserved for generations to come: put simply--archival records in archival space; to provide more access to the records for more people; and, to do all this in a cost-effective manner. The Space Planning Team and I recognized at the outset that to plan effectively we had to consult current and potential users of NARA records holdings, and the team now is in the information-gathering phase of its task. We are listening to and learning from researchers like you about the kinds of facilities we should have, where they would best be located, and what services and amenities users need. To date we have held public meetings at most of our regional locations with the remainder to be completed in August. I personally solicited views on our space planning from members of the National Genealogical Society at its annual conference in Denver, and from participants of the National Institute on Genealogical Research in Washington D. C. The Space Planning Team and I will continue meeting with the leadership of the FGS as well as with the Joint Records Access and Preservation Committee as we search for how best to bring more access to more people. Unsurprisingly, many of the initial reactions and comments on space planning we have received have been from individuals who fear we will close their regional facility. For example, Chinese-Americans in northern California are anxious to keep in the Bay Area certain records now in our San Bruno facility that pertain to their immigration, which I can well understand. And also understandably, some genealogists who live near locations where we now have facilities do not want to lose them. Unquestionably, the records most used by genealogists at our regional facilities are on microfilm, and we have pledged to keep these records available for use in every location where we now have microfilm services. Nonetheless, some genealogists, among others, also want to retain proximity to original records in NARA regional facilities near them. We are listening to and considering these needs, just as we are listening to and considering the needs of users who are not near our current facilities. How can you help? Meeting the needs of all present and potential users of archives, while also finding adequate space both for storing and preserving records, will not be easy, and we hope that genealogists will contribute generously to the exchange of ideas that we are seeking before we make these important decisions. In Cincinnati you will have the opportunity to do just that. But the bottom line that everybody must recognize is what our Strategic Plan recognizes: The current situation has to be fixed. Nobody is going to be able to use records that never come to NARA because we lack the space to store and preserve them. Future generations will not be able to use the same records our researchers now use if the records are not stored in the kind of space that insures them long-term preservation. Our space planning is a major and essential step forward. Additional space will cost money, which government agencies like to refer to as "support." Over the past year I have spent hours at the White House explaining the need to support what NARA is trying to achieve. I have spent more hours in the Congress, explaining the value of strong record-keeping and archival programs. I do not have to explain any of that to you, because genealogists understand the importance of records. I believe I also can report that we are making some progress and that given we develop a sound plan, it is realistic to gain support for its implementation. I encourage you to contribute to the dialogue that will help NEAR make important strategic decisions. You can send your comments and suggestions to the Space Planning Team by using our special space planning e-mail address: space.plan@arch2.nara.gov. Those of you who do not have access to electronic mail, may write: Space Planning Team, Room 4100 (NPOL), National Archives and Records Administration, 8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD 20740. Again, I invite you to contribute your ideas at the Cincinnati meetings and through your FGS leadership. I encourage you to follow the progress of the Space Planning Team on our website at http://www.nara.gov/nara/spceplan.html as we pursue our ultimate goal to make more records accessible to more people. As a follow-up note, I would like to ask every reader of this newsletter who is going to the FGS convention in Cincinnati to attend one or both of these sessions. They are being held Thursday, August 20, at 10:30 A.M. in Convention Center room 206, and on Friday, August 21, at 9:30 A.M. in room 235. Listen carefully. And please feel free to offer your thoughts and insights. Future access to important genealogy records may be in jeopardy if genealogists do not add our input now.
- Ancestry.com Adds 12 Million Records Ancestry.com offers a huge online genealogy library with more than 590 books, maps and databases available. The company has now announced a major addition, here’s the full text of that announcement:
- Free E-Mail Accounts For Genealogists Ancestry.com issued another announcement this week that caught my eye. The company is now offering free e-mail accounts for genealogists on its website. Here’s the full announcement:
I’ll be interested to see how many new e-mail subscriptions to this newsletter are entered in future weeks for e-mail addresses ending in "@ancestry.com".
- Africans In America TV Series Public Broadcasting will soon air a new series, "AFRICANS IN AMERICA: America's Journey Through Slavery." This is described as "the first comprehensive television history of the international events leading to the growth of racial slavery in the United States." Expected to draw more than 20 million viewers nationwide, the AFRICANS IN AMERICA series will air Monday, Oct. 19 through Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 at 8:00 p.m. (EST) on PBS. The Fannie Mae Foundation sponsors the series as part of its education outreach efforts designed to reach African Americans. "The AFRICANS IN AMERICA series will be a unique educational opportunity for all Americans to learn more and understand this nation's complex history," said James A. Johnson, chairman of the Fannie Mae Foundation.
AFRICANS IN AMERICA is produced for PBS by WGBH Boston, and was filmed on location across twelve states and three continents. The series includes new scholarship by noted experts from around the United States and the world. Episode One, Terrible Transformation (1607-1750), details the circumstances under which the first Africans arrived in America. Episode Two, Revolution (1750-1805), highlights the increasing tension between the Colonists and England, with the Colonists pressing for freedom from the crown and their domestic policies. Episode Three, Brotherly Love (1781-1834), follows the struggles of both freedmen and fugitive slaves, aided by the growing number of abolitionist societies as they challenged the new nation to live up to the ideals of the revolution. Episode Four, Judgment Day (1831-1861), examines the denouement of the antebellum South and the final years before the Civil War. Further details are available at: http://www.pbs.org/africansinamerica
- 2000 Census To Count Computer Users? There is a possibility that the year 2000 U.S. Census may ask about your usage of computers and the Internet. Representatives Rick White (R-Washington) and Dan Miller (R-Florida) have introduced legislation to add new questions to the 2000 census about computers and online access. Miller chairs the Census subcommittee. "Right now the census gives us information that's more relevant to planning the 1930s New Deal than preparing for the Information Age," White said in a statement. "We can't expect to find the right policies for the 21st century if we don't know how Americans really use computers and the Internet." The bill would add two questions to the long form of the census: "Does your household have a personal computer?" and "Is your household currently connected to the Internet through a personal computer or other device?"
The Upcoming Events section of the newsletter is published once per month. Each event will be listed very briefly: title, date(s), location, and sponsoring organization, all followed by either an e-mail address or a Web page that you can use to find more information. Since detailed information is available via e-mail or the Web, I will not list the details in this newsletter. If you do contact any of these organizations, please tell them where you heard about the event. Here are the listings, arranged by date:
If you would like to see your event listed, send an e-mail to: meetings@rootscomputing.com. You must include either a Web page that gives details or an e-mail address for the organization or for someone within the organization who is willing to supply the meeting details upon request. Please limit your listings to events where you expect 100 or more people to attend.
This is already one of the longest newsletters in months and I haven’t even gotten to the new websites yet. I’ll skip the listing of new websites this week but will supply a double listing next week.
If you would like to submit news, information or press releases for possible inclusion in future newsletters, send them to roots@compuserve.com. The author does reserve the right to accept or reject any articles submitted.
DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is being written and sent via e-mail at no charge. I expect to write one new issue on a more or less weekly basis. However, life sometimes interferes, and the need to earn a living may create an occasional delay.
COPYRIGHTS: While the contents of this newsletter are copyright by Richard W. Eastman and by Ancestry Publishing and by others so designated, you are hereby granted rights, unless otherwise specified, to re-distribute articles from this newsletter to other parties provided you do so strictly for non-commercial purposes. Please limit your re-distribution to one or two articles per newsletter; do not re-distribute thenewsletter in its entirety. Also, please include the following words with any articles you re-distribute:
Thank you for your cooperation.
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The ability to import data directly from Family Tree Maker(tm) is the only feature of its kind in the industry, allowing users to seamlessly and reliably transfer all custom ‘facts,’ name variations, addresses, medical information, alternate relationship types, reference numbers, free-form notes, sources, and other data types. It even transfers the contents of the multimedia scrapbook (externally-linked files only) and some data files that are otherwise described as "damaged" and inaccessible from Family Tree Maker(tm). And it does it all without GEDCOM.
AFRICANS IN AMERICA will be presented in four 90-minute episodes. The series will take viewers on a journey from this country's earliest days as an English settlement, through its war for independence, to its rise as an international economic power before the Civil War. The series will show the dramatic impact of the struggle over slavery and freedom in shaping our country.