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Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

IN THIS ISSUE:

Heritage Quest’s Federal Pensioners’ Roll of 1883 on CD-ROM Genealogy Programs for the Blind Pilgrim Roots on the Web GED Browser Sierra Home Announces "Generations Grande Suite" Sierra Home Sold Palladium Interactive and GeoCities Announce Partnership Irish Lecture Tour of USA European Interactive Publishing AwardLast Few Days for "Best of the Web" Vote Last Few Days for the New Logo Contest Homepages Highlighted

November 21, 1998

- Heritage Quest’s Federal Pensioners’ Roll of 1883 on CD-ROM This week I had a chance to try out a new Windows CD-ROM produced by Heritage Quest called "Federal Pensioners’ Roll of 1883." More than a year ago I wrote about another CD-ROM disc with almost the same title but published by a different company. The one I wrote about last year had the index on a CD-ROM disc; the Heritage Quest version has both the index and scanned images of each of the original pages of the complete set of books. All of these are contained on one CD-ROM disc. The newer disc contains information about 277,702 individuals as listed in the U.S. "Federal Pensioners' Roll of 1883." The information on this disc is from a list compiled by the U.S. Government. In late 1882 the U.S. Senate ordered a list of all pensioners on the Federal Roll as of January 1, 1883. The list contains the names of all people receiving Federal pensions for military service. Obviously, in 1883 most of the pensioners were Civil War veterans. However, there are also pensions listed for service in the Mexican War, the Cherokee Removal of 1836, the War of 1812 and even a few from the Revolutionary War. It may seem incredible that Revolutionary War pensions were still being paid 100 years after the conflict. However, the list of pensioners includes widows who were eligible to receive benefits, based on their husband's service. In the early to mid-1800s, a few elderly Revolutionary War veterans apparently married younger women who then collected widows' pensions well into the 1880s. The Civil War pensions were all for service to the Union. Confederate veterans obviously fought for another government and therefore were ineligible for Federal pensions. Many of them did receive pensions from their home states, but those state pensions were not listed in the Federal Pensioners' Roll of 1883. The list of Federal Pensioners originally was compiled and printed in five volumes by the government. Reprints of the list were produced by Genealogical Publishing Company. The book was never meant to be an index; it is not alphabetized. It simply lists pensioners by locations. Trying to use the printed books to locate "lost relatives" who disappeared after the Civil War can be very tedious. Even if not listed in the 1870 or 1880 census records, most of these men or many of their widows can be found in the 1883 Federal Pensioners' Roll since most did sign up for pensions. However, without an index, it may be almost impossible to find the person you seek. The CD-ROM version of the Federal Pensioners' Roll solves this dilemma. The information is, in effect, alphabetized and fully searchable. Instead of spending many hours searching for a name, you can now find all listings for people of that name within seconds. Once you find a listing, you can click on an icon and immediately peruse an image of the original page containing that person’s listing on your screen. You also can print it on your printer; the output is an exact photocopy of a page from the original printed book. The images are displayed as white letters on a black page. In other words, it is a negative of the actual page. That was a bit difficult to read although I eventually discovered how to zoom in on any section of the page to enlarge it on my screen. This certainly improved readability. Worse yet, the printed copies of the pages are also negatives. All that black background will use a lot of toner or ink in your printer. I must say that the printed images were sharp and easy to read when printed on my old HP LaserJet IIp. This is a minor drawback, but I do wish the producers had electronically reversed the white text on black background. The data listed for each pensioner includes: The Number of the Pension Certificate Name of Pensioner Post Office Address of Pensioner Cause for Which Pensioned Monthly Rate of Pension Date of Original Allowance For example: 40,768; Foster, Jno.; Greene, Chenango Co., NY; wd. r. shoulder & back; $10.00; July. ___. Installation of the software was simple, about the same as any modern Windows program. The Federal Pensioners’ Roll of 1883 uses WordCruncher software as the "engine." This particular program isn’t quite as intuitive as some of the other CD-ROM search programs I have written about in the past, but I didn’t find any significant impediments with it. However, I did have to refer to the slim user’s manual and the online help several times. Creating the printouts was a simple process: simply display a page on your screen, select FILE and then PRINT, and you have a printed image within seconds. However, I could not find any method of copying the image to the Windows Clipboard so that I could later insert it into other graphics or word processing programs. In summary, the Heritage Quest Federal Pensioners’ Roll of 1883 on CD-ROM contains very high-quality genealogy information: it has both an index and scanned images of original printed books. The software used isn’t always intuitive; you will need to experiment a bit and refer to the user’s manual frequently in the beginning. The printouts look good, but I am disappointed at the inability to copy images to other Windows programs. The Heritage Quest Federal Pensioners’ Roll of 1883 on CD-ROM requires Windows 3.1 or Windows 95, 98 or NT, a 386 or faster CPU, 2.4 megabytes of hard drive space and (obviously) a CD-ROM drive. It lists at $39.95 U.S. funds. For more information. Look at: http://www.heritagequest.com - Genealogy Programs for the Blind In the September 5, 1998 edition of the newsletter (available at http://www.ancestry.com/columns/eastman/eastSept07-98.htm) I wrote, "Brian Mumme in New Zealand asked a question this week that I cannot answer." In short, Brian asked for suggestions as to the best Windows genealogy program for blind users. His mother is blind and is doing genealogy research. She needs to use a genealogy program to assist her efforts. She uses a screen reader package called "JAWS". This program will read text from any Windows program and convert it to speech. I was stymied, so I asked the readers of this newsletter if they could help. I also asked that they send their comments directly to Brian. To my delight, Brian not only accepted input, he also did a rather exhaustive side-by-side comparison of several Windows genealogy programs and then offered to share his findings with the readers of this newsletter. Brian kindly gave me permission to publish his article in this newsletter. However, he does ask that you not copy this article to other online or printed publications without his permission. The following is copyright 1998 by Brian Mumme: I would like to thank all of the people that responded to my request for information on genealogy programs for the blind. I had nearly 60 replies and they fell into two categories, the first group suggested DOS based programs, the second group the Windows based programs. The screen reader program that was used by me to test the various programs was JAWS for Windows version 3.2. Due to this being a Windows based program I have had to discard the DOS based programs, for those that are interested I believe that there is a JAWS for DOS screen reader program available. How does a sighted person test genealogy programs using a screen reader? To test a program I went through them and copied the shortcut keys, I did this to speed up the learning curve. I then turned off the computer monitor and used only the screen reader. I entered my immediate family into a new database. While this testing procedure may not be very scientific it was adequate for my purposes. I have graded the programs from 1 to 5. 1 - required a mouse to navigate. 2 - required a mouse to navigate to approximately 75 percent of the program. 3 - required a mouse to navigate to approximately 50 percent of the program, JAWS required additional input from user to read all of the screen. 4 - required a mouse to navigate to approximately 25 percent of the program, JAWS works well however required minimal input from the user. 5 - minimal requirement of the mouse to navigate, JAWS reads all of the screen information without prompting. The grading above only refer to the means of navigation around the program and how well it worked with JAWS. It is not an indication how good or bad these programs are. Navigation around the program was by either the tab key or knowledge of the shortcut keys. You could also navigate using the number pad to move the mouse around the screen and the screen reader would read any dialog that it came to, this is a very time consuming way to navigate. From having to find a genealogy program that my mother is able to use it has made me aware of how much we sighted people take for granted when writing and using genealogy programs. 1) The help files contain valuable information for the blind person as they usually have information about shortcut keys which is necessary for navigation around the program. 2) Having the cursor going to all the dialog buttons / data input boxes when using the tab key would be beneficial. The programs listed below are in no particular order. Family Origins - grade 4 This program was easy to navigate around and you were able to input most of your information without too many problems, these would possibly go way once you became familiar with the program. There were however a few of the dialog boxes which I felt could have better navigation using the tab key, however you were still able to access these dialog buttons with the shortcut keys. The help files have been disabled on the demo version that can be downloaded off the Internet, due to this I was unable to find a list of all the shortcut keys.   Ancestral Quest demo version 2.1 a - grade 5 Excellent program to navigate around with all dialog buttons accessible using the tab key. The help files provided included a list of all the control key shortcuts, however it did not include a list of Alt key shortcuts. JAWS was able to read all of the data entry boxes titles and it was not necessary to revert to using the number pad to navigate.   Family Treasures Viewer version 3.3 d - grade 2 Requires use of the number pad to get around this program. JAWS was unable to read the title to data input boxes automatically. Alt key and control key shortcuts available are minimal. There is no list of shortcut keys provided in the help files.   Genius Family Tree version 1.51.1 - grade 3 Was able to navigate to most of the data input boxes by just using the tab key, however the JAWS program was unable to read the title of data input boxes automatically. The use of the number pad is necessary to access some of the dialog buttons.   Legacy 2 - grade 3 This program was a difficult one to grade due to the good help files that listed a number of shortcut keys and some of the excellent navigation around some of the dialog boxes using the tab key. Was let down by half of the dialog boxes having only half of the dialog buttons being visited using the tab key and JAWS not being able to read the title of the data input boxes.   Family Matters version 3.31d - grade 2 This program had an excellent help menu with what appeared to be all of the shortcut keys included in it. Navigation around the dialog box was by using the tab key. What let this program down was that most of the data input boxes did not have any titles.   Family Archive Viewer (Family Tree Maker) version 4 - grade 4 Navigation using the tab key was good and there was a good selection of Alt key shortcuts also. JAWS was unable to read the data input boxes titles automatically, which along with the lack of a good shortcut key help file was the only disappointing thing about this program. The full version of Family Tree Maker may not have this problem.   Brothers Keeper for Windows version 5.2f - grade 3 Navigation using the tab keys was good to all the data input boxes and had a good number of shortcut keys. What let this program down was that some of the dialogue buttons i.e. sources were unlabelled apart from one small label below them. JAWS was not able to read the edit page without using the number pad.   Cumberland Family Tree version 2.32x for Windows 95 - grade 4 Excellent navigation using the tab key and shortcut keys. JAWS does not automatically read the data input boxes and one or two titles missing off the boxes. No shortcut key help files.   The Master Genealogist Not graded due to only being able to download the demo slide show. From this I get the impression that this program has a large number of shortcut keys which is a good sign.   The Ultimate Family Tree Having already installed this program I was unable to reinstall the evaluation copy to test with JAWS. I did however install it onto another computer and was able to evaluate how easy it was to navigate without the mouse. I found this program to have an excellent amount of shortcut keys and it would tab to all of the dialog boxes. Again, my thanks to Brian Mumme for this excellent report. If you would like to offer follow-up comments, you can contact Brian directly at: brimum@hotmail.com. - Pilgrim Roots on the Web As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday here in the United States, Broderbund’s Banner Blue Division has put together some Thanksgiving information at their website that will be of interest to many. First, the entire text of the book "Sons & Daughters of the Pilgrims" will be available free during the week of Thanksgiving at http://www.GenealogyLibrary.com. Next, anyone interested in learning about the Mayflower can visit http://www.genealogysitefinder.com/mayflower for a comprehensive list of links to websites devoted to the history of the Mayflower. Finally, a special collection of Mayflower-related online columns written by several genealogists is available at: http://www.familytreemaker.com/thanks.html. This special online "magazine" offers tips for searching for New England ancestors, as well as insights into what makes Thanksgiving special to genealogists. - GED Browser Last week I wrote about a program called GenBrowser. This week I had a chance to try GED Browser. In fact, I managed to confuse myself several times with these two programs with similar names. I had to triple-check this article after writing it to make sure I was using the right name. GenBrowser and GED Browser may sound alike, but they are two very different programs written for different purposes. GED Browser converts GEDCOM files to HTML. The newly-created HTML (HyperText Markup Language) files can then be uploaded to your personal homepage to publish your ancestry or to publish the database of any other genealogy project you are involved in. This way, anyone on the World Wide Web can look at the data from your personal database. A number of today’s genealogy programs still do not create HTML files for use on personal homepages. Yet all of today’s worthwhile genealogy programs will create GEDCOM files. GED Browser fills in the gap for users of programs that do not create HTML files; these people can create a GEDCOM file instead and then have GED Browser convert the GEDCOM file to HTML. Also, even some of the programs that directly create HTML files do so in a rudimentary manner. GED Browser may produce better-looking HTML files than what your genealogy program can do by itself. The only way to find out is to try both methods. GED Browser is a 32-bit Windows program. As such, it will work on Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT. It will not operate on Windows 3.1 or a Macintosh (unless the Macintosh has a Windows 95 emulator program). The program can be obtained online; it is a rather small download at 33,432 bytes. I downloaded the program, installed and took it for a "test drive" on my Windows NT system. The program is very simple to use, I scarcely looked at the online help files. I converted a 3,000+ person GEDCOM file to HTML in less than one minute on a 300-MHz Pentium II system with 128 megabytes of memory. The resulting file was in standard HTML format. I could view it with Netscape, Internet Explorer or CompuServe’s version 4.0 (which is really Internet Explorer 4.0 in disguise). The output was very nice looking. One thing that I especially liked was the lines on the pedigree charts: instead of being thin solid lines like other programs I have used, GED Browser draws gray backgrounds and then puts the names inside as black text. It is difficult to describe but very pleasing to look at. The information that accompanies the program gives the following details: GEDCOM File - Use any Genealogy program to export your data into a GEDCOM format. GEDCOM Version 5.5 and lower are supported within GED Browser. Descendants - You may display one generation of Descendants. You may also choose what information you want to display for all descendants (Birth, Marriage, etc.). The descendants that show up in bold designate the path to take you back to the Primary Ancestor. The descendants that have a "<" symbol next to their name have more information. Either their line continues, or they are married. Multimedia - GED Browser is multimedia enabled. You can include photographs, video, and audio in your pedigree charts. Simply include the HTML link in the "notes" section of the individual. For example: <A HREF="/photos/george.jpg">Wedding picture of George</A>. Generations - You may choose how many generations are displayed on each pedigree chart. You may choose what information you want to display about them, such as Birth, Marriage, Death, and Notes. The more generations and information you display, the bigger the files will be. Footnotes - You may designate a text or HTML footnote that will be placed on the bottom of each pedigree chart that is generated. Buttons - You may designate any text or HTML to become a hyper linked text button that will appear at the bottom of every page that is generated. HTML Location - Choose the location where you want your HTML to be placed. Pedigree charts per page - You can put multiple pedigree charts into one HTML file. This will increase processing time and result in fewer HTML files. Name Index - This option will generate a table of every name that exists in your GEDCOM file. Surname Index - This option will generate a table of every Surname that exists in your GEDCOM file. Site Map – This option will create an HTML page that contains an overall "map" of what your genealogy tree looks like. Each name is represented in the map, and it is linked to their individual pedigree charts. You can choose to represent each individual with their name. Or you can choose to display each individual as a bar to show a graphical shape of your tree. Hide Living Data - For privacy reasons when putting your genealogy on the Internet. This option will hide Birth, Marriage, Death, and Notes of individuals that that are still living (individuals who do not have a death date). Index Page Size - This option lets you decide how big you want your index pages to be. If you set this value to 100, then all of your index HTML pages will contain 100 lines of either individuals or ranges of individuals or surnames. Starting RIN Number - Enter the RIN number of the individual that you would like to be the Primary Ancestor on the Site Map. (Editor’s Note: A RIN Number is a record identification number used within a GEDCOM file.) To be sure, there are several other programs around that convert GEDCOM files to HTML. In the past I have written articles about a number of them. However, GED Browser is a new program worth looking at and evaluating. Unlike most of its competitors, GED Browser displays both descendants and ancestors in one chart, giving virtually all the information found on a family group sheet. It is simple to use, a small download, and it generates nice looking Web pages. I like simple programs that do one thing and do it well. GED Browser is such a program. Best of all, it is free. (Donations are accepted but are not required.) GED Browser was written by Matthew A. Misbach. To find more information about the program, to look at sample output, or to download the program, point your web browser to: http://www.misbach.org - Sierra Home Announces "Generations Grande Suite" Sierra Home this week announced the release of Generations Grande Suite. This "Suite" reportedly provides three complete programs to help users discover and preserve their family heritage. I haven’t seen two of the programs yet, so I can only quote some information from the company’s press release. The three programs are: Generations 5.2 -- unleashes the power to search through more than 200 million names and resources and create beautiful family trees and charts SnapShot Special Edition -- enables users to preserve and repair valuable family photos and documents, and create family photo albums and scrapbooks MasterCook Heritage Edition -- helps conjure up the flavor and aroma of favorite family recipes and holds the power to preserve, organize and share recipes Additionally, Generations Grande Suite includes a free professional search with access to databases totaling one billion names and a free copy of Cyndi Howells' book, "Netting Your Ancestors," a guide to exploring your family history on the Internet. The full press release is very long and detailed. Rather than my repeating it here, I suggest you look at: http://www.sierra.com/sierrahome/familytree/titles/gengs/ - Sierra Home Sold It has been quite a week for the employees of Sierra Home. Early in the week the company issued a press release about their new "Generations Grande Suite." Then, on Friday, the owners of Sierra announced they were selling the company to a French firm. Sierra is a division of the Cendant Corporation. Cendant is a large corporation with many divisions; it is best known for their various franchising businesses (Avis Rent a Car, Ramada, Days Inn, Howard Johnson motels, Coldwell Banker and Century 21 real estate brokers). Cendant Corporation was formed last year as the result of a merger of two companies: CUC International and HFS Inc. The two joined forces as part of an $11 billion deal to form Cendant. The company has had a rough year since then, primarily because of the steep drop in Cendant's stock this year after the company disclosed it had uncovered several years of widespread "accounting irregularities" at CUC. In recent months, Cendant has moved aggressively to restore investor confidence in its businesses. On Friday the company announced that it is seeking to focus on its franchising businesses by selling its video game and consumer software business to French media company Havas. The deal may fetch as much as $1 billion. Cendant said that Havas would pay $800 million in cash "plus future cash contingent payments" that could total $200 million. The company, which is based in Parsippany, New Jersey, also said that the sale to Paris-based Havas, which is a unit of Vivendi SA, will result in an after-tax gain of $450 million and add to its per-share earnings after it closes early next year. Cendant's consumer software business consists of four previously independent makers of computer entertainment and educational software: Sierra OnLine, Knowledge Adventure, Blizzard Entertainment, and Davidson and Associates. All of these businesses had previously been acquired by CUC International before the merger with HFS, Inc.. "We will continue to execute our program of selling non-core businesses while maximizing the growth of Cendant's core business units," Chairman Henry R. Silverman said in a statement. He added, "... for the foreseeable future we are no longer a buyer of companies financed through the issuance of debt and stock, but rather a seller of companies, utilizing the proceeds of those sales to retire debt and equity." After the Friday announcement Cendant stock gained 69 cents to $15.125 in heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange, where it was the most actively traded issue. The stock had traded as high as $41.69 before plunging this year to a low of $6.50 after the company revealed its accounting problems. What do the new French owners have in mind for Generations and the new "Generations Grande Suite"? I am sure it is much too early to say. But the program is a good one, and the new owners would be wise to continue supporting it and growing it. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a new French edition appear early next spring! - Palladium Interactive and GeoCities Announce Partnership According to a joint announcement this week, Palladium Interactive, developer and publisher of Ultimate Family Tree, and GeoCities, the world's largest community of personal websites on the Internet, are partnering to provide GeoCities visitors with the most comprehensive genealogy information on the Web. Palladium will provide GeoCities' heavily trafficked genealogy topic area with genealogy information, including tutorials, advice for beginning genealogists, and tips on where to search for family records. "GeoCities' members represent one of the largest assemblies of genealogy enthusiasts in the world. There are more than 30,000 member sites on the subject. This number grows every day," said Ed Bernstein, president and CEO of Palladium Interactive. "Ultimate Family Tree's 18-year tradition of helping people discover their past will surely benefit countless GeoCities homesteaders." "We are in the business of providing consumers with the tools, functionality and resources to pursue their personal interests on the Internet," said Thomas R. Evans, president and CEO of GeoCities. "Family history and genealogy is a huge passion of our membership. Palladium has done an outstanding job in providing our members and visitors with a wealth of resources to assist in their research. Palladium's sponsorship role provides GeoCities members and visitors with the most valuable and relevant genealogy information available on the Internet." The Palladium information should start appearing soon on the GeoCities website at: http://www.geocities.com/Avenues/Family_and_Kids/Genealogy/ - Irish Lecture Tour Of USA Shane McAteer sent an e-mail this week that I thought would be of interest to a number of people: Dr. Brian Trainor and I are undertaking the Ulster Historical Foundation's next lecture tour of USA in April-May 1999. Dates fixed are Elizabethtown and Stroudsberg PA, 30 April and 1 May, and Angelina College, Lufkin TX, 7 and 8 May. Full details of our itinerary will be posted to the UHF website (http://www.uhf.org.uk ) as it develops. If any societies or individuals in the states of PA, NY, NJ, TX, OK, WV or VA are interested in hosting an evening or full day of lectures and workshops on Irish genealogy and history then we shall be happy to hear from them. Please contact me direct at shane@uhf.org.uk Shane McAteer Executive Director/Secretary Ulster Historical Foundation Balmoral Buildings 12 College Square East Belfast BT1 6DD, N. Ireland Tel: (01232) 332288 Fax: (01232) 239885 E-mail: shane@uhf.org.uk Website/URL: http://www.uhf.org.uk - European Interactive Publishing Award An active genealogy section has helped an Irish website receive a nomination for one of Europe’s most prestigious publishing awards. A strategic summit for new media publishers, "Interactive Publishing," together with Ringier and the Web publication Europemedia.com, has established a new and prestigious award for European interactive publishing. Nominations for the first award were presented during the 5th Interactive Publishing conference (November 11-13 in Zurich, Switzerland) in the presence of the key players in the European interactive publishing industry. One of the nominees is noted for their genealogy publishing. Sponsored by publisher Ringier, IP Top highlights the best interactive publishing ventures from all European countries, in all languages and formats. The new award reflects the need for a European voice in digital publishing. The entries were judged by an international professional jury with consideration to content, interactivity, community features and innovation. Awards categories were "Best Content," "Best Community" and "Special Surprise." The entire list of nominees in all categories is rather lengthy. However, I noticed that the "Best Content" category included a nomination for The Irish Times at http://www.irish-times.com. I wrote a lengthy article about that site in the May 16, 1998 edition of this newsletter, which is available at: http://www.ancestry.com/columns/eastman/eastMay18-98.htm The Interactive Publishing nomination praised The Irish Times for their special content, such as the James Joyce section and their genealogy section. The nomination also noted that The Irish Times has more online readers than their print edition. - Last Few Days for "Best of the Web" Vote The voting for "The Best Genealogy Site on the World Wide Web" will end next Tuesday, November 24. This is your chance to make your opinion heard. Voting has been brisk, well ahead of the voting in last year’s contest. To make sure that you have the information needed, I will republish the entire article from two weeks ago: Which site is the "best genealogy site on the World Wide Web?" Do you have an opinion? If so, you can make your opinion heard. Once again you have the opportunity to honor a genealogy website with a "Readers’ Choice Award" to be issued by this newsletter. The readers of this newsletter will pick the site to be named "Best Genealogy Site on the World Wide Web." This will be the second year that the readers of this newsletter have conferred such an award. I won’t mention who won the award last year, as I don’t want to influence this year’s nominations. However, if you really want to know, you can read last year’s contest results in the past issues of this newsletter. They are stored on Ancestry’s website. What guidelines are used to define the "best genealogy site on the World Wide Web?" That is strictly up to you. You can nominate a site because it is interesting or because it has nice graphics or because it has excellent maps or because it is full of valuable genealogy reference materials. I would suggest that you should nominate a site because it is the one genealogy webssite that you go back and visit time and time again. However, even that guideline is optional. The choice is yours to make. When you cast your vote, you might write a couple of sentences about why you think this site is best, although that description is not absolutely required. I have set up an "electronic voting machine" that you can use to cast a vote for this "best of the Web" award. The voting machine will tabulate the results, and I will announce them in the November 28 newsletter. The winning World Wide website will then be allowed to mention the award on that site. That website also will be entitled to all the fame and notoriety that is included with this Online Genealogy Newsletter’s Readers’ Choice Award. Enough said! To cast your vote, you must follow the following instructions EXACTLY. A computer is tabulating the results, not a human being. Therefore, you must enter your vote in exactly the proper format. To cast a vote for "Best Genealogy Site on the World Wide Web," send an e-mail to: bestsite@rootscomputing.com The subject of the message must contain the full website address and nothing else. The message subject (some e-mail programs will say "Message Title") MUST start with: http:// For instance, any of the following would be proper message subjects: http://www.ancestry.com http://www.rootscomputing.com http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/roots/ http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~dsucha/schuetz.html http://ynot.netgrp.net/~tursky/ Please list the exact address in the message subject, but do not add any other words. Do not say, "My vote is..." or anything like that in the subject; simply list the actual URL beginning with the letters "http://". None of the following three examples will work. None of them begin with "http://" and therefore the computer program that tabulates the vote will ignore them: www.rootscomputing.com My vote is for ancestry.com My favorite website If you do not send your vote to the right e-mail address or if you do not use the proper message subject, your e-mail will disappear into the Internet dark hole and will not be counted. If you do send it properly, you will receive a reply acknowledging the receipt of your nomination. You do have the option of writing descriptive text in the body of the e-mail. The automatic vote tally software will ignore the body text. However, once the votes are tallied, a human will read all the messages that nominated the winning site and will look for any comments about that site. Some of those comments may be published in the November 28 newsletter. By writing text in the message body, you are giving permission to reprint your comments in this newsletter. If you do not want your words or name published, please do not write anything in the message body. Only one vote per person is allowed. All votes must be received on or before November 24, 1998. Again, do not send your vote to my e-mail address or to the address that sends this newsletter. You must send your vote to: bestsite@rootscomputing.com OK, which site is "the best genealogy site on the Web?" - Last Few Days for the New Logo Contest A second contest is being held simultaneously with the one mentioned above. It too will end next Tuesday, November 24, 1998. Again, here is the complete text of the original announcement: In conjunction with the award just described, I need to have some sort of a logo that the winning site can use. I would design such a logo myself, but my graphics skills haven’t improved much since I last used Crayola colors in the third grade. I may be a genealogist and a "techie," but I certainly am no artist! If you have a bit of artistic talent, you might like to design the logo. It should be a small graphics file that says "Best Genealogy Site On The Web" and also says "Awarded by the Readers of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter". That’s a lot of words for a small graphic; if you have a better idea for the wording, please feel free to experiment. The file shouldn’t be too large, perhaps 150-by-150 pixels or less. Send your graphics files to: logo@rootscomputing.com. The file should be in GIF, JPEG or BMP format. On November 24 I will pick the one that I feel is best and will then deliver it to the website that wins the award. The artist who creates the winning logo will be honored in a future newsletter and also will receive a check for $100.00. One thing that perhaps I should add is that entries will be judged primarily on originality and a pleasing visual appearance. - Homepages Highlighted The following is a list of some of the genealogy-related World Wide Web homepages that have been listed recently on http://www.rootscomputing.com. Some of these sites may charge a fee for their services: Addison County, Vermont Genwebsite: http://www.rootsweb.com/~vtrutlan Waite Genealogy Research Forum - the surname WAITE regardless of spelling or geographic location: http://www.waitegenealogy.org/ Linscott surname site: http://www.pivot.net/~jlinscott/home.htm Jones Archive – a homepage for anyone doing JONES surname research: http://mvn.net/genealogy/Jones.htm Gaston Archive – a homepage for anyone doing GASTON surname research: http://mvn.net/genealogy/Gaston.htm Jacob Hatch, His Roots and Branches - a web page concentrating on the ancestors of Jacob Hatch, Utah pioneer of 1849: http://www.enol.com/~kae/ Homepage and genealogy site of the Portuguese-Dutch East-Indies family of da Graça: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/9944/ Rubey family homepage: http://www.geocities.com/heartland/estates/7631 Descendants of Jacob Wunsch, first identified in 1647 in Lomersheim, Germany. His descendant Johann Bernardt Wuensch emigrated to Lehigh County, PA in 1750. Later generations usually spell their surname as Winch: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Fields/1703 To submit your homepage 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 redistribute articles from this news letter to other parties provided you do so strictly for noncommercial purposes. Please limit your redistribution to one or two articles per newsletter; do not redistribute the news letter in its entirety. Also, please include the following words with any articles you redistribute: The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 1997 by Richard W. Eastman and Ancestry, Incorporated. It is republished here with the permission of the author. Thank you for your cooperation. Subscription information: To subscribe to this free newsletter, send an e-mail message to the following address: listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com The message title is unimportant. The first line of text in the message must have the words SUBSCRIBE ROOTSCOMPUTING followed by your first and last names. 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