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Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
| IN THIS ISSUE: |
| Hello From Cincinnati New Products Announced GENTECH Genealogical Data Model Proposal Released NARA Space Planning Phase I Ends Men of Massachusetts Guaranteed (!) Royal Ancestry Home Pages Not Highlighted |
| August 22, 1998 |
This week’s newsletter is being written on a palmtop PC in a hotel room in Cincinnati, Ohio. I have been attending the annual conference of the Federation of Genealogy Societies this week, held in the Cincinnati Convention Center. The conference is still going on as I write this, but I can say that it has been an excellent conference. It seems to be well organized and has presentations and seminars on a wide variety of topics. The convention center is first rate, and the vendors’ hall is also well organized. The Federation of Genealogical Societies always calls this a four-day conference. However, in my mind it really is a one-day conference that is immediately followed by a three-day conference. The first day is always full of topics just for genealogy societies. It includes sessions on how to improve your society’s newsletter, how to do advertising, how to get your society onto the World Wide Web and many other society-oriented topics. The actual Opening Session and "kick-off speech" is held in the morning of the second day. After that, topics of interest to individual researchers are presented for three more days. This year’s opening session featured a two-person presentation called "Legends, Lies and Links." Sandra Hargreaves Luebking and Loretto (Lou) Szucs gave a talk that had many people talking for the rest of the convention. It was a great start to the conference. After that, there were so many sessions that I cannot list them all. You can view the entire list along with descriptions of the talks and biographies of the speakers at the FGS website: http://www.fgs.org. If you want to hear some of these talks, you can purchase audio tapes of most sessions. The recordings are made by Repeat Performances, Inc., and you can contact them directly at 219-465-1234. I spent a lot of time in the vendors’ area and must say that it seemed active most of the time. The FGS conference does not normally have a reputation as the place where new software programs or other genealogy products are introduced. However, I was very pleasantly surprised this year with a large number of announcements and demonstrations. I will describe them a bit later. All in all, I enjoyed this conference, and almost everyone I talked to seem to feel the same way. I would like to mention all the people who worked so hard to make this a successful event. However, I simply do not know all the people involved. Obviously a lot of credit goes to FGS President David Rencher and 1998 National Conference Chairperson Mary L. Bowman. Next year’s FGS Conference will be held August 11 through 14 in St. Louis. You might want to consider attending. Keep an eye on the FGS website for details. There isn’t much 1999 conference information available yet on that website, but I suspect you will find a lot of information posted there in the next few months. Again, that is at: http://www.fgs.org
Lots of new or updated products were being shown at the FGS conference in Cincinnati. The thing that really impressed me is the prices: they are dropping like a rock. Ten years ago I purchased a highly-rated genealogy program of that era for $250.00. Then I had to purchase add-on options for such simple tasks as writing text notes or importing and exporting GEDCOM files. By the time I purchased everything I was $400 poorer. In 1991 I purchased the first genealogy data CD-ROM that appeared in the marketplace; I believe that I paid $150 for it. Such prices seem ludicrous today. In fact, today one high-quality genealogy data CD-ROM has the ultimate low price: it is free! Here is a summary of the new and updated products that I saw; I suspect I didn’t see everything: Palladium Interactive is best known in the genealogy community for their Ultimate Family Tree programs. However, the company is also moving into the production of genealogy data CD-ROM disks in a big way. At the 1998 FGS conference they announced 18 new genealogy CD-ROM disks plus one more disk that is a Master Index to the other 18 disks. The list of CD-ROM disks includes many church and county records from Pennsylvania and Virginia. They also announced two CD-ROM disks of passenger lists, one covering the Port of New Orleans and another covering Baltimore, Philadelphia and Boston. I do not yet have all the details on how these disks operate nor an exact description of the data contained. I hope to write a "hands on review" within the next few weeks. However, I watched Brian Mavrogeorge, Palladium’s Senior Product Development Manager, demonstrate the CD-ROM disks; they looked easy to use as Brian demonstrated many different ways of searching these disks. One thing that Brian pointed out is that the Master Index includes the names and a bit of supplemental information about every person listed on the other disks. Unlike some competitive products, you can check in advance to see if your ancestor is listed on a particular CD-ROM disk. If he or she is listed, you may elect to purchase the disk. But you do not have to purchase a "pig in a poke" and then hope that your ancestor is listed. With Palladium’s products you normally will know before you commit the funds to purchase a new disk. Now for the fun part: Palladium plans to make the same information available on their website for a modest fee. The website pricing will be cheaper than the CD-ROM disk prices as Palladium’s costs are lower for Web publication than they are for CD-ROM production. You will probably find it more cost-effective to search online. However, many people will opt for the convenience of searching directly from the CD-ROM disks, even if that does cost a bit more. Searching CD-ROM disks will be faster than searches on the "World Wide Wait." Also, many people do not have convenient access to online services, especially in libraries or on laptops. I suspect that Palladium will sell a lot of CD-ROM disks even if it is more expensive than online access. The data apparently is all derived from record extraction projects done by experienced genealogists. The data is double-checked before being added to the master database. In the past I have moaned and groaned a bit about the quality of the data contained on some genealogy CD-ROM disks. I am pleased to see that Palladium and most of their competitors are now bringing out genealogy data CD-ROM disks containing high-quality data extracted in a manner to insure low error rates. Again, I hope to write about these disks in a future newsletter. In the meantime, you can find some information at http://www.familyinfo.com. Keep in mind that this is a brand new product just being released right now, so you may not find full information on the website today. If not, just keep checking back every few days. You will probably find new information is being posted all the time. Millisecond Publishing Company is just now delivering a new "Family Forest" CD-ROM disk. Unlike their previous CD-ROM information, the new CD-ROM has licensed the Progeny Family Explorer search software from Progeny Systems. This CD-ROM was actually being demonstrated at the Progeny booth at the conference. The disk contains a large database on U.S. Presidents. Again, I only watched a demonstration of the disk; I hope to write a "hands on" review soon. Now pay attention to the next part: The price of this new Presidential Family Forest CD-ROM disk is… (insert drum roll here)… zero! That’s right, this is a free CD-ROM disk containing a database of 27,000 records about U. S. Presidents. Each record is linked to other records, and each record is documented with source citations. The information contained includes the known ancestry of each president. Some of the presidents have documented ancestry going back as much as 1500 years, while other presidents may only have 2 or 3 generations documented. Not only are ancestors listed, but many other relatives are included, too. In fact, many of the presidents are related to each other, and each connection is also documented along with footnotes containing source references. For instance, running a Kinship report on George Bush produces a list of approximately 4,000 relatives, along with references to supporting documentation on every connection. Again, the CD-ROM disk is free although you do have to pay a few dollars for shipping. How does Millisecond Publishing expect to make money when they give the CD-ROM disk to anyone for free? Simple. There are three more databases on the same CD-ROM disk, but they are encrypted so that you cannot read them when you receive the free disk. Millisecond Publishing believes that many people will like the free database and the search software so much that they will then call a toll-free number and order one or more of the other databases. All that is required is a credit card number. The operator then supplies a "key" which is a code of letters and numbers. You type this key into the software, and it unlocks the database(s) you purchase. The entire process should take five minutes or so. The encrypted databases are (1.) U.S. Founders and Patriots (77,000 records), Pittsburgh records (2,200 entries) and Delaware (4,700 entries). I don’t know the details of those other databases right now, but I should have details in a future review after I use the product for a bit. Progeny Software also has another project underway. They aren’t announcing it just yet, but stay tuned for something new before long…. Personal Ancestral File Companion version 2.0 has been released by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons). This is a Windows program that adds many excellent reporting capabilities to Personal Ancestral File version 3.0. I wrote about the first release of Personal Ancestral File Companion some time ago. I liked it. Version 2.0 adds several new reports. The price remains at the bargain-basement level: $10.00. I watched Dennis Meldrum and Ray Madsen demonstrate the new version. Again, I hope to get some "hands on time" soon and write about it in detail. Dennis and Ray made another announcement about low prices: The Source Guide CD-ROM is now only $10.00, a 50% price reduction. This is an excellent genealogy reference guide. I think it should be a required tool for every genealogy newcomer. If this were published on paper, I suspect it would cost between $25.00 and $50.00 or perhaps even more since printing large amounts of reference information on paper is expensive. At $10.00 it is tough to think of a reason for not purchasing the CD-ROM. Ray Madsen also announced some new Family History Resource File CD-ROM disks will be released within the next few months. The first set of disks will contain 4.5 million British Isles birth, christening and marriage records. It should be released by October of this year (two months from now). Another set of disks containing 4.5 million U.S. birth, christening and marriage records will follow within a few weeks after the British Isles release. Not long after those disks are released the LDS Church will release the first of the 1881 British census records with 30 million entries. Next, the first of the 1880 U.S. census will be released. Keep in mind that the census CD-ROM disks will not be a simultaneous release of all the disks; the first disk in the series will be released on those dates, and then additional disks in each set will be released on a frequent schedule. The data on these disks comes from a major records extraction effort that the Church has been conducting for years. Prices on these disks have not yet been announced, but I suspect they will be at very low prices. After all this, Dave Madsen announced that "early next year we will have some new products that will blow your socks off." And he smiled. I tried to get more information from Dave, but he wouldn’t divulge any more. Once again, stay tuned. DeedMapper for Windows was being demonstrated by Steve Broyles of Direct Line Software. DeedMapper has been a very popular MS-DOS program for use in calculating plots of land from old deed descriptions. The Windows version is in an alpha test stage right now. Steve said he expects to be shipping the final version within 2 or 3 months. Legacy 2.0 had some new software capabilities added a couple of months ago. However, the FGS conference apparently was the first time that new features were shown to a large audience. The neatest feature is called IntelliShare (I hope I got that name right as I was scribbling furiously). It is a manner by which many people can work together on a research project and yet easily keep their databases in sync. Let’s say that you and your brother are working together on a genealogy project and you both use Legacy 2.0. You create a database with all your work. Then you give a copy of the database to your brother. Each person in that database has a unique ID number assigned that is more or less invisible to you. (I think you can see the ID number, but there really isn’t much need to look at it.) Your brother goes home and copies your database to his system, he then spends quite a few hours adding information or perhaps correcting your info. He then makes a copy of his database and sends it back to you. You start a process that merges his version and yours together. Now, remember that each person has a unique ID number. As the merge process starts, the unique ID of every person in your brother’s database is compared to the unique IDs in your database. If an exact match is found and there is no new or changed information for that person, the merge process for that person is skipped; no new record is created. The person is already in your database with exactly the same information. If a new person is found, or if an existing person is found to contain new or altered information, the merge process halts with the data from both databases displayed on your screen. You then make a decision whether to keep your original data, to accept your brother’s data, or to merge the two together in some manner. (There are lots of options as to how to handle that, but I won’t go into the details here.) You can then make more changes and give your database back to your brother. The process goes on and on with the two of you keeping your data in sync easily. In the above example I only mentioned two people working together. But you could also do the same with ten genealogy researchers or even 100 members of a family organization working together. The process is the same: everyone can keep their databases synched together easily with almost no risk of the software ever creating duplicate records. People can still create duplicates, of course, but the software will not. Another new feature is the ability to display two different databases simultaneously on the screen, then "drag and drop" records from one database to another. If a newly-discovered cousin sends you a GEDCOM file, you can display his data beside your own and then decide which records, if any, you wish to accept. You can do this by clicking on an individual in one database and dragging him or her to the other database. Relationships are automatically calculated. You can also elect to copy only the person in question, the person plus all of his or her ancestors, or even the person and all of his or her relatives. For more information, go to the Legacy website and click on "What’s New." In other news, the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System data extraction project now has 80% of the data extracted. The remainder of the data is expected to be extracted before the end of this year, and the data will then become available on the Web some time next year. This ambitious project will list almost all participants in the U.S. Civil War with 5.1 million entries. Barbara Renick and Richard S. Wilson have released the fourth edition of their book, "The Internet for Genealogists: A Beginners’ Guide." The book has many new additions, especially for non-U.S. sources and websites. There are other differences, too, which I hope to describe in detail in a future review. Did I miss any other new products? Probably. There was a lot going on and I am not sure that I got to everything. As the saying goes, "You had to be there."
- GENTECH Genealogical Data Model Proposal Released GENTECH has released their long-awaited Genealogical Data Model. Bob Anderson gave a quick description of the new model at a luncheon talk on Friday. He passed out a single page that contained a very complex drawing that looked like a flowchart. Bob said that it is not a flowchart but rather an entity relationship diagram. It also can be called a "static picture of a dynamic process." In short, it is a diagram of a process with symbols used by anyone familiar with data modeling. The one page diagram is backed up with a 102-page text description that goes into great detail. The 102 pages can be downloaded from the GENTECH website. So what is a data model and why is it important to genealogists? I am not familiar with data modeling techniques so I am not about to attempt an explanation. However, those involved in creating this model caution that it is not a drawing of how computer software works. Instead it is a drawing of how genealogy researchers have been evaluating and recording eveidence for years. Then the computer model describes these well-established research techniques in terms that can be used to define software. There is a 102-page document available for free on the Web that explains every bit of this in detail. I strongly invite you to look at the full document available at http://www.gentech.org. The full document is expected to be available at any moment, if you do not see it on your first visit come back again in a day or so and check again. I believe that the GENTECH Genealogical Data Model is important to you and to every other genealogist. The Data Model was created in response to a rather simple problem: today’s genealogy programs are not good at transferring genealogy data from one program to another. Data is frequently dropped and must be re-entered manually after the original import process finishes. That is not a very efficient use of computers in this day and age. The basic problem arises because different programs, different programmers and different genealogists use different terminology for the same thing or even different research techniques to accomplish the same goal. In fact, we should encourage people to seek new methods of accomplishing tasks; we all benefit. But when terminology differs and standards are not established, all sorts of issues arise. At first the GENTECH project was defined as a project to create a lexicon or standard list of terms. As the participants became more involved, they realized that the real problem was bigger than they first envisioned. Before they could describe terminology, they needed to define the processes. The resulting effort required several years and hundreds (thousands?) of man-hours. Lexicon I is the result. It is a proposal for new standards. If all genealogy software is written to conform to these standards, data translation issues will become almost trivial. The programs will still vary widely in features and methodology. The genealogists can use these programs in different ways. Creativity should still be encouraged. But an agreed-upon set of standards allows the programmers to concentrate on features and capabilities, not wasting time figuring out how to import data. Keep in mind that the GENTECH proposal is not the only one out. The Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints also released a proposal last May. The two proposals are quite different although there are some similar elements. The LDS proposal can be found at http://www.gedcom.org Both of these documents are proposals, not finished standards. Both groups invite discussion and suggestions. The GENTECH proposal might dominate or the LDS proposal might become the standard. I suspect the final result will be a blend of the two. The GENTECH proposal is the new one, and I suggest that all interested parties should read it and the LDS proposal as well. I will say that you cannot expect to read either document in 15 or 20 minutes and then be conversant with the topic. The GENTECH proposal contains 102 pages of technical jargon. Unless you are already a data modeling expert, you should plan on spending several hours digesting this document. Having sat through several sessions that describe both the proposed GENTECH model and the proposed LDS model, I believe that these two efforts will help define future genealogy software. If you are a software developer, my advice is that you should immediately read both documents and then become involved. Within 2 or 3 years your customers will be asking if your product is fully compliant with the data model that exists at that time.
- NARA Space Planning Phase I Ends Late last year the Archivist of the United States announced that he was asking his staff to prepare a plan to reduce operating expenses and to simultaneously provide better access to records for all Americans. This announcement also talked about consolidation of facilities. In other words, close down inefficient and expensive facilities and find lower-cost facilities that can operate in an efficient manner. One obvious way to reduce costs and to increase efficiencies is to have fewer facilities. A few, large facilities should be able to benefit from all sorts of economies of scale. In May, 1998 the senior staff of the National Archives and Records Administration held their first meeting with the public at the National Genealogical Society’s annual conference in Denver. The goal was to seek input from genealogists as to how this plan should be defined and to hear the questions and concerns of the genealogy community. Two sessions were held in Denver, then more sessions were held at the regional libraries around the country. The final public input sessions were held this week at the FGS conference in Cincinnati. I attended four of these sessions, including the first one in Denver and the last two this week. The NARA staff is listening. Many of their answers this week were different from earlier sessions; obviously they have listened and they have learned. The final plan, whatever it is, will be partially based upon input from the genealogy community. Rich Claypoole, Assistant Administrator of the National Archives and Records Administration, led the Thursday session in Cincinnati. Adrian Thomas, Assistant Archivist for Administrative Services, led the Friday session. The discussions at both sessions were quite similar. There will be no effort to consolidate all records in any one location. The National Archives and Records Administration will create a plan based upon local space available, the quality of that space, the ease of transportation to the facilities in question, the ethnic and cultural makeup of the area, as well as many other factors. Here is a list of many "hard and fast statements" made: No original records will be destroyed. While a major part of the plan is to microfilm many records and to make digital images of some, these efforts will only supplement the physical original records. The new copies will not replace originals. All of the originals will be retained. There are rumors that all records will be moved to one facility in Kansas. That rumor is totally false. The College Park facility (Washington, D.C. suburbs) will not be a part of this plan. It will remain in place. The NARA building in downtown Washington will not be a part of this plan. It will remain in place. The Presidential Libraries are not a part of this plan. They will remain in place. The NARA Regional Library in Alaska is not a part of this plan. It will remain in place. No present microfilm reading room will be closed down. Depending upon local space available, a few reading rooms may relocate to other facilities within the same general area. But none of them will be closed. In fact, at least some of them will be expanded. Digitizing all documents is not cost-effective. It costs approximately $8.00 to digitize one page to acceptable standards. Overhead, cataloging and other expenses add $10.00 to $15.00 per page to the total cost. Multiply that by 4 billion pages and you quickly see why that is not practical. The National Archives and Records Administration presently runs 33 facilities. Many of them are old and in need of major expenditures. In some cases, the expenditures required are not cost-effective. Atlanta is high on the list of inefficient and expensive facilities. While it is not cost effective to digitize every document, the NARA website is ever expanding. The present NAIL (National Archives Information Locator) system works well and has a lot of information available. However, it is not user-friendly. A new replacement for NAIL has been developed and is in late prototype stage now. By January 1, 2000 this new system is expected to contain a catalog of holdings, an online index and digitized images from 120,000 projects. That effort is presently 80% complete and NARA personnel are confident they will be finished within the next 16 months. The above is a listing of facts as I scribbled them in a hurry. Now I would like to offer a few personal comments and opinions: The NARA personnel obviously are well on their way to formulating a plan. Last May they insisted that there was no plan and that they were seeking input in order to start formulating a plan. They would not offer any significant details. In August they are identifying Atlanta as a specific location that needs major changes. They insist that certain Asian immigrant records presently held in the San Francisco facility will not be relocated. They are now confidently discussing details of what will be in the plan and what will not be there. I see this as a major change. The NARA must reduce expenses. I believe that is a requirement. Any plan that is formulated will be controversial and will not be acceptable to some people. Likewise, standing still and doing nothing will be equally controversial and also unacceptable to some people. There is no way to satisfy everyone. While the public gave input, the detailed plan is being formulated only by NARA personnel. There is no on-going representation of the genealogy community or the other communities that NARA serves. The NARA personnel assured me that the Archivist of the United States will hold meetings with national groups, such as the National Genealogical Society. But when I presseed for details, they admitted that this is an informal arrangement. There is not formal method in place to guarantee ongoing input from the genealogy community throughout the 10 to 15 years required to implement the new plans. That bothers me. Yes, they listened to us in 1998. But will they remember what we said in 1999 or 2001? I don’t know. I worry about that. The public meetings were sparsely attended. The highest attendance was in New York City with 175 people present. Other meetings were as low as 25 attendees. The last two in Cincinnati had so few genealogists in attendance that I was embarrassed. This may be one of the most important issues we face regarding access to critical records that all genealogists need. Yet at the final session there were more NARA employees in attendance than there were genealogists. (I think there were 5 or 6 genealogists in the room in the middle of a major genealogy conference with hundreds of genealogists in the building at the time.) We did not show up in large numbers. Perhaps we deserve what we get. To keep an eye on developments in future months, you should periodically go to http://www.nara.gov and click on "What’s New."
Richard Souther is a serious and respected genealogist who now lives in Massachusetts. He has a new project underway that sounds interesting. Here is an extract from an e-mail that he sent: I just wanted to give you a little chance to look through some of the names on a new page I am almost finished compiling. 7 letters of the alphabet haven't been finished yet. Upon completion, this page will contain an alphabetical list of some 1,544 men who worked in Massachusetts in the year 1903. This list will also include their date of birth and place of birth. If you contact me, I will give you their Title, Occupation, Place of Employment and any other information I have available. In some instances I may be able to provide you with a photograph as well. The information is taken from: Men of Massachusetts, a collection of Portraits of representative men in business and professional life in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, (Boston Press Club), 1903 http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/9785/MenOfMA-1903.html Let me know if you find anything....... Richard
- Guaranteed (!) Royal Ancestry A lot of people received a "spam" e-mail message this week with a claim that I think should raise a few eyebrows. The return address appeared to be from AOL although I am not sure whether that is a correct address or a forged one. Here is a short extract from the unsolicited e-mail: If you have ever thought about finding your ancestors I can help you. I have well over twenty five years experience in family tree research. I work from one of the best family tree research libraries in the entire world, and I go to the best family tree research library in the world, in Salt Lake City, Utah at least once a year. I will be going back to Salt Lake City for the second time this year in September. These are a few of my prices. (The more research I do for you the less your overall cost is.) I can and will guarantee most people Royal Ancestry for as little as $155.00…….. He will "guarantee most people Royal Ancestry"???? This I want to see! But I am not willing to spend $155 from my pocket on this one. Anyone else want to volunteer? My advice: Hang on to your wallet real tight. Ask questions first before shelling out money for claims like this. Ask for a reference list of satisfied customers and then contact some people on that list. Ask about the quality of the supporting documentation.
It is rather difficult for me to obtain and verify the new listings of genealogy-related home pages when I am traveling. I have already written a rather long newsletter on this tiny palmtop computer. Right now it is 3:45 AM and I am sitting in a hotel room in Cincinnati writing this. I have to be at the convention center at 9:00 AM. I’m skipping the list of new home pages this week; look for a double listing next week. G’night. (yawn)
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