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Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
| IN THIS ISSUE: |
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1998 In Review |
| December 28, 1998 |
As this is the last newsletter of 1998, I thought I would look back and summarize a few of the events of the past 12 months. This has been an interesting year for genealogists, especially the technology-related news. The "name of the game" in 1998 seems to have been corporate mergers, acquisitions and partnerships. I have already written quite a bit about all that in recent weeks. Several new online databases appeared in 1998, including: Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Books on Ancestry.com New CD-ROM databases that first appeared in 1998 include: Many new genealogy data disks from Palladium Interactive (soon to become part of Mattel) Several new programs appeared in 1998, including: Millennia Corporation’s Legacy 2.0 I wonder what is in store for all of us in 1999? . . Quintin Publications has released another CD-ROM disk that will be of interest to many people researching ancestry in England or Wales or in certain sections of Scotland. This disk contains scanned images of every page of an atlas originally published in 1794. The complete title of the book is "Cary’s New Map of England and Wales, with Part of Scotland, On which are carefully laid down All the Direct and Principal Cross Roads, the Course of Rivers and Navigable Canals, Cities, Market and Borough Towns, Parishes, and most considerable Hamlets, Parks, Forests, etc. etc. Delineated from Actual Surveys and materially Assisted From Authentic Documents Liberally supplied by the Right Honourable the Post Master’s General." Rather than repeating that complete title every time, most people refer to it as "Cary’s 1794 Atlas." John Cary, one of the 18th Century’s foremost cartographers, is well known for his beautifully illustrated and geographically accurate atlases and maps. This particular atlas is perhaps his most famous work. The CD-ROM version contains 71 full color maps, along with an 85-page index that listing more than 21,000 geographical features along with it's their appropriate county designation and map number. If you find a reference to a certain location in old records, chances are you can find that location in Cary’s 1794 Atlas. Even tiny hamlets of only a few houses are listed on this CD-ROM disk. The CD-ROM software used is Adobe Acrobat Reader. Both 16-bit and 32-bit Windows Acrobat "reader software" is included on the CD-ROM disk. The same CD-ROM should work on Macintosh systems although the user will have to obtain the Macintosh version of Adobe Acrobat elsewhere. Luckily, that software is free and also is easy to find. I tested the Cary’s 1794 Atlas CD-ROM on a Windows NT 4.0 Workstation system. I found this CD-ROM to be a bit difficult to use. In fact, it has almost no "bells or whistles." The book was scanned, and then the images were then placed on the CD-ROM. The index from the original book is also on the disk, but there is no computer-generated index. I did not find any "hot links" where the user can find something in the index and then click on an icon to quickly jump to the desired page. Instead, the user must electronically "page through the book" on this CD-ROM in much the same manner as looking in a printed book. Often I had to look again and again to find a particular village. Admittedly, I am not an expert on British geography. Anyone who is more familiar with the geography of England and Wales probably could navigate this CD-ROM a bit more easily than I can. The maps displayed on the screen are crystal clear. I don’t know what kind of scanner hardware was used to create the map images, but obviously it wasn’t one of the $99.00 scanners. The Adobe Acrobat software allows the user to zoom in and out on the images;, even at the highest level of magnification the image was always crystal clear. Very small hamlets can bare easily identifiable. The maps in Cary’s 1794 Atlas have some amount of color, typical of maps printed in the late 1700s. I found that I could print the maps, with all colors showing, on my Canon color inkjet printer. The printouts were very clear although very cluttered. Of course, the original maps are equally cluttered. Printing on a black-and-white laser printer resulted in maps that only show different shades of gray. The laser-printed maps usually were readable, but the same page always looked much better when printed on the cheaper color inkjet. All in all, this CD-ROM disk can be a valuable resource to many genealogists. Cary’s 1794 Atlas on CD-ROM sells for $29.95 in U.S. funds, roughly 20 Pounds Sterling. It is available directly from Quintin Publications. For more information, look at: http://www.quintinpublications.com/Catalog/cd.html . . - New York State Cemetery Inventory Heritage Book has just released a new volume that will interest many people: the "Association of Municipal Historians of New York State Cemeteries Name/Location Inventory, 1995-1997." This new publication lists cemeteries for the state of New York. The new compilation fills 1,225 pages bound into three volumes. These books provide the name, location, date of first and last burial, religious or family affiliation, size, status (either active, inactive, or deserted) and contact information for each cemetery in the state's 57 counties and the 5 boroughs of New York City, totaling 8,000 cemeteries. The compilation also has a large index. The "Association of Municipal Historians of New York State Cemeteries Name/Location Inventory, 1995-1997" will retail for $83.50 although an introductory price of $66.50 is in effect until February 26, 1999. I looked on Heritage Books’ website but did not see this new publication listed there yet. I suspect it will appear on the site within the next few days. Keep an eye on http://www.heritagebooks.com. You can also call Heritage Books at: 1-800-398-7709. The "Association of Municipal Historians of New York State Cemeteries Name/Location Inventory, 1995-1997" Iist catalog number A534. . - New Census Bureau Contract Awarded The Census Bureau will be counting on EDS for its Year 2000 report. EDS is one of the nation’s larger services and consulting firms. This week the company was awarded a two-year, $100 million contract to help the U.S. Census Bureau handle the huge volume of telephone traffic expected in 2000. Under the contract, which is the second awarded to EDS by the Census Bureau, the company will build a telephone network to handle inquiries in six languages. As prime vendor, EDS and its partners will build and operate 30 toll-free call centers nationwide used to collect census information. During a five-month period in 2000, EDS expects to handle at least 11 million incoming calls and make another 4.5 million outgoing calls to correct and gather missing information from census forms. The EDS system will operate in English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, and Korean. The centers will employ 6,000 agents. Besides helping today’s genealogists find lost relatives, the year 2000 census will assist future genealogists in search of our generation. We can only wonder how much more easily their search will be, compared with our adventures through old census records today. I wonder what the results will look like. Will future genealogists be able to use the information obtained? . This week I had a chance to use an online service that claims to be "the most comprehensive source of public records on the Web." The website also says, "KnowX.com ™ provides comprehensive public records information at a consistently low price. KnowX.com™ public records databases contain millions of records, each compiled from official sources and updated regularly." KnowX.com’s databases contain the following information: Aircraft Ownership Records obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration. KnowX is a commercial service that normally charges fees for accessing their data. In fact, their fee structure is a bit complex. Some of the more common databases, such as telephone directories, are entirely free. Other databases require payments of as little as 50 cents, up to a maximum of $45.00 to for a look in the DBA records of all 50 states. A few databases, such as death records or aircraft ownership, are charged during business hours but are free during the evenings and weekends. The user is always informed of the charges before a query is processed and then is prompted, "Do you wish to continue?" The website assures the user that there is never a hidden charge. Even if you want to limit yourself to free searches, you must first register for a User ID and password. You also must give a credit card number for use in case you do change your mind and decide to do a search of the billable databases. I first looked in some of the free databases to see if I was listed. I moved about a year and a half ago and was curious to see if my new address in New Hampshire would be listed. I searched through several of the free databases but did not find a listing for myself. I then searched for my brother in Maine as he has lived at the same location for more than 20 years. I found him easily in a couple of the free databases. I then decided to splurge and spend fifty cents to looking in the Massachusetts Home Value and Ownership Database. I was listed there in the record of the house I sold last year. For an additional $6.95 I could obtain a detailed report on the transaction. I declined that option. All in all, KnowX can be a useful service for some people. It can be very helpful for finding long-lost friends or relatives. It isn’t perfect, but no database is. The fees charged by KnowX are quite modest, probably much cheaper than driving to the courthouse to access the same information in person. Of course, you can easily access the data online, even if the appropriate courthouse is 3,000 miles away! KnowX works equally well on Windows and on Macintosh systems. It does require either Netscape Navigator 2.02 or later or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.02 or later. To access the KnowX databases or to learn more about the services available, look at: http://www.knowx.com/ . . Are you creating a genealogy Web page? Or any other Web page? Do you need to create a banner or some buttons but you don’t know how to do that? CoolText just might be the solution. Bryan Livingson’s CoolText.com is a website that helps graphically-impaired people, like myself, design nice-looking banners and buttons for their websites. CoolText is a free service that walks you through the process of creating a logo, banner or button. You can keep a consistent look and feel throughout all the images you create. CoolText displays fonts and backgrounds you can use, along with color and graphics schemes. You merely choose and click the font, point size, texture and glow color. CoolText does the rest. You can then download the resultant graphics images and store them directly on your hard drive. I went to the CoolText site and was creating nice-looking graphics within five minutes. I don’t think I will win any design awards with these images, but they certainly look nicer than anything I could create freehand. This is a nice service being provided at no cost. CoolText is available at: http://www.cooltext.com . . The following is a list of some of the genealogy-related World Wide Web home pages that have been listed recently on http://www.rootscomputing.com. Some of these sites may charge a fee for their services: Scircle family genealogy pages, including the spellings of Scircle, Circle and Zirkle: http://www.geocities.com/~gscircle Kenney family of Virginia and Kentucky: http://www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Villa/1442 The Genealogy Exchange & Surname Registry: http://www.genexchange.com Pridgen/Pridgeon family home page: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/6297 Cousins family from Wexford, Ireland: http://cftp.cjb.net/ Rollenhagen family of Germany, Sweden, and the United States: http://www.rollenhagen.de/ Noah's American Indian Genealogy Resources: http://members.aol.com/tallige/gene1.htm Belbin/Belben surname home page: http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/belbinmania Acker family genealogy research: http://members.aol.com/jaacker/index.htm To submit your home page to this newsletter, enter the necessary information at: http://www.rootscomputing.com/register.htm. Due to the volume of new Web pages submitted, I am not able to list all of them in the newsletter. . . 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. 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