 |
 |
Member Login | My Account | Guest Registry |
 |
 |
| Getting Started | Learning Center | Reference | Publications | Articles & Columns |
| Learn > Articles & Columns > Daily News > Current Article | |
Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
| IN THIS ISSUE: |
|
Who Is The "Best of the Web"? |
| November 9, 1998 |
- Who Is The "Best of the Web"? 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 website 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: 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:
For instance, any of the following would be proper message subjects:
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:
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: OK, which site is "the best genealogy site on the Web?"
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.
- More About the Vital Records Index – North America on CD-ROM In last week’s newsletter I described one of the new CD-ROM disc sets produced by the Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If you would like to read the article, it is available at: http://www.ancestry.com/columns/eastman/eastOct31-98.htm. Since publishing that article I have received e-mails from a couple of the Family History Department’s employees. The e-mails gave a bit more information that what I had last week. I wrote, "I am confused by the statement that the records for Maine include 36 counties with birth/christening records and 45 counties with marriage records. That’s a neat trick for a state that only has 16 counties!" I am now told that there is an easy explanation: The word "counties" was a typo error when the CD-ROM was created. It was supposed to say "collections." The disc contains data from 45 different COLLECTIONS of genealogy data from Maine, not 45 different counties. The collections may be church records or other record types that contained the vital record information. Next, you do not need to start with the first CD. Any of the data CDs will be accepted. This allows you to directly search the letter ranges where your ancestors might be located, as well as the record type you want to search. The only time you need to start with the first CD is when you first install the title. Once the U.S. Vital Records Index is installed, you may start with any of the CD-ROM discs. There is an index on each CD, but only for the letter ranges that are on that specific CD. When using the CD-ROM discs, you can always tell what CD you are looking at, as well as the letter breakdown it contains, by looking at the lower right-hand portion of the application on the on-screen status bar. One final comment: The required software to view the data on the CD-ROM discs is included on the first disc. The installation routine copies the required software to your hard disc. The Family History Department plans on using the same software for future discs as well. The future discs will include the latest version of the software, which will be backwards compatible. The result is that any time you purchase a new CD-ROM data disc, you are also receiving the latest version of the viewer software. If you should later obtain an older disc, the software checks version numbers and will not allow an older version to replace a newer version. You are assured that you will always have the latest version needed to view any of the discs that you have. This is a good product and I suspect the Family History Department will release many more such CD-ROM discs.
- Massachusetts 1850 Census Microfilm Records on CD-ROM This week I spent some time with Broderbund’s "Census Microfilm Records: Massachusetts 1850 - Family Archive CD 307." This set of six CD-ROM discs includes not only an index to the 1850 Massachusetts census but also scanned images of the actual records. Remember that the 1850 census is the first one that listed the names of everyone in the household. Earlier U.S. census records only listed the head of household by name. Also, the 1850 census employed improved techniques for collecting information. For the first time, enumerators (the people who interviewed residents and recorded the census information) received printed instructions that explained their responsibilities, census procedures, and the intent behind census questions. These instructions accounted for a greater degree of accuracy in the 1850 census records than in previous years. The Massachusetts 1850 Census Microfilm Records use the same search software as most all the other Broderbund CD-ROM discs: Family Tree Maker for Windows version 3.02 or higher, Family Tree Maker for Macintosh version 3.02 or higher, Family Archive Viewer version 4.01 or higher for Windows 3.1, or Family Archive Viewer version 4.0 or higher for Windows 95. The instructions do note that "Customers using Family Tree Maker 4.4 with a Windows 3.1 operating system will need to install a special application (included on this CD) in order to successfully view this Family Archive." If you do not have any of the above, you can obtain Family Archive Viewer for Windows at no cost from Broderbund or from some of their dealers. The others are all commercial programs and can be purchased from many places. There is no free viewer for Macintosh users. I inserted the first of the six CD-ROM discs into my Windows NT system, launched Family Tree Maker 5.0, clicked on VIEW and then selected FamilyFinder. Within seconds I was looking at the index of 385,000 Massachusetts heads of household. Keep in mind that the index only lists the heads of household while the actual images, also on these same CD-ROM discs, contain all the residents of the same households. Quoting from the introductory text:
The index is completely text, not scanned images. The index contains: The head of household’s first and last name The county and location where they lived at the time of the census The microfilm page number on which their information appears In some cases, you may be able to determine an individual's age, gender, birthplace, and position in household The actual census records are scanned images and are included in the same CD-ROM set. The census records include all of the above information plus:
I decided to first search for specific names. I clicked on the INDEX tab and then entered my own surname into the space provided. Within 2 or 3 seconds the first of several hundred Eastman entries was displayed on my screen. I decided to narrow the search a bit more by specifying a first name. I typed, "Eastman, Ebenezer." One listing appeared; I then clicked on "Find out additional information about Ebenezer Eastman." A pop-up window appeared that said:
Just a couple of years ago I would have considered that listing alone to be an excellent source of genealogy information. However, the real fun started on this set of discs when I clicked on "Turn to Ebenezer Eastman in Essex County, Section 1 (Disc 2), Census Page 217." I was instructed to remove disc #1 and insert disc #2. I did so, and a few seconds later the image of the original census record created in 1850 appeared on my screen. The first image that I saw included about half of the page. The handwritten text was too small to read. However, there are two icons in the lower right corner that look like magnifying glasses. One is labeled "Zoom In" while the other is "Zoom Out." By clicking on these I could control the magnification as much as I pleased. I zoomed in a bit, and the handwriting quickly became readable. In fact, the image was very clear. I experimented a bit and even zoomed in so much that I could examine every pen stroke made by the enumerator. In fact, I felt it was easier to zoom in and read small handwriting on my computer screen than it is when using microfilm! Many times in the past I have sat in front of a microfilm viewer with a magnifying glass in hand. The results have varied. Sometimes I can decode the handwriting, sometimes not. Zooming in and out on my computer screen seems to display larger and possibly clearer images than what I have been able to produce from microfilm when using a magnifying glass. I can even copy the scanned image to another graphics program and use computer enhancement techniques to further "clean up" the handwriting. Obviously, the quality of the scanned image is going to vary, depending upon the quality of the original microfilm from which the image was made. If the original microfilm was faded or blurred, then the computer reproduction of that image will have the same quality. I looked at probably 30 or 40 images on this CD-ROM disc, and they all seemed very clear. But that doesn’t mean that all the pages look as good. You can print images directly from the CD-ROM. However, it isn’t a "one-click" process like you would find in a word processor or in many genealogy programs. When a page is displayed on the screen, you select EDIT and then SELECT IMAGE. You can then continue to use the CD-ROM disc and can select more images as you go along. At some point you select FILE from the pull-down menus and then select PRINT SELECTED IMAGES. The images you previously selected will then be printed to your Windows-compatible printer. I have a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet IIp that I purchased about 8 or 9 years ago; the printed images produced on this old printer look better than the photocopies I used to make directly from microfilm. Best of all, each printed page is self-documenting. When I made an image of the page containing the record of Ebenezer Eastman, the bottom of the printed page contained the following: "Printed from Family Tree Maker, CD307 Census Microfilm Records: MA, 1850, Disc 2, Essex County, Section 1, Census Microfilm Roll 311, (copyright) Broderbund Software, Inc., Banner Blue Division;" this was followed by today’s date. I wish that all genealogy CD-ROM discs would create references like this on every printed page! Not only can you create printouts, but you can also copy the image to the Windows or Macintosh Clipboard. This way, you can then insert the image into most modern word processors or graphics programs. You can use these images of the original document in almost any manner that you wish. While you could also upload the image to the World Wide Web, I would caution you to check with a copyright expert before doing so. The original census records are obviously public domain, but Broderbund has contributed a considerable "enhancement" which falls under the copyright laws of most countries. Likewise, going online and offering to do lookups of data for others on any company’s CD-ROM disc might get you in trouble for copyright violations. Broderbund offers the following advice:
While the above information is from Broderbund, almost all genealogy CD-ROM discs have similar warnings, including those produced by other vendors. To create this set of CD-ROM discs, Broderbund first obtained microfilms of the original documents National Archives and Records Administration. Then they obtained the index of heads of household from AISI, Inc. This is the same index data that many genealogists have been using for years, usually found in the printed census indexes. Broderbund cautions:
As always, you want to look at the original images. Even if your ancestor does not appear in the index, you still should look at the images. If he or she lived in a small town, you can go through the images of that town page by page to find data missed by the indexers. Earlier I described how to search for a specific person by first looking in the index, then going directly to the referenced page. However, I found it was almost as easy to search pages one town at a time. I decided to look at the records of Billerica, which is a small town in Middlesex County. I clicked on CONTENTS and then on MIDDLESEX COUNTY, SECTION 1 (DISC 3). An on-screen message advised me to remove Disc #2 and insert Disc #3. A few seconds later I was looking at the first page of the original 1850 Billerica census. I simply clicked on NEXT and PREVIOUS to turn the pages back and forth. Searching through a small town’s records will require an hour or two. I don’t think I would want to search all of Boston, however! Not even Boston of 1850. Broderbund includes a tiny 22-page user’s manual inside the CD-ROM jewel case. I suspect that most people won’t read it, as the software is rather simple to use. Besides, you will find a larger online user’s manual within the help files on the CD-ROM. Here’s the bottom line: the Massachusetts 1850 Census Microfilm Records set of six CD-ROM discs contains the highest-quality genealogy information: both exact reproductions of original census records plus a modern index, all packaged together in an easy-to-use format. The scanned images are clear and easy to read. They can be printed or exported to other programs. The complete Massachusetts 1850 Census Microfilm Records on six CD-ROM discs has a retail price of $49.99, far less than the price of the printed index plus many reels of microfilm. Broderbund has a winner. You can order the Massachusetts 1850 Census Microfilm Records on CD-ROM directly from Broderbund or from most of their dealers. Dealers often offer discount prices below retail. When asking, you might specify that you are looking for Family Archive CD 307. For more information, look at: http://www.familytreemaker.com/307facd.html
- Congress Passes Bill Detrimental to Genealogists The U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate have been working for a while on a bill designed to extend the term of copyright protection by 20 years. H.R. 2589, the House version of copyright term extension and now named, "The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act," was adopted by the full House or Representatives on March 25, 1998. The bill was sent to the Senate, where it languished for some time. In September the Senate passed a slightly different bill. The two bodies then worked out a compromise document. The House and the Senate passed S. 505 on October 7, 1998. President Clinton signed the bill on October 27, 1998. Per our Constitution, our government, "to promote the science and useful arts" ... secures "for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." This balances the right of a person to make a profit, with the right of the people to the work (so they can freely make derivative works). Until 1979, the copyright term was 56 years: one 28 year term, extendible for an additional 28 years. Hence, in 1978 all works created in or before 1922 were in the public domain. In 1979, Congress RETROACTIVELY extended copyright terms 19 years, so that the material from 1923 has never entered the public domain. Now, 19 years later, at the urging of the Walt Disney Company, the Gershwin heirs, and many others concerned with their rights to keep exclusive ownership of intellectual property, Congress has RETROACTIVELY extended copyright terms another 20 years, to 95 years. This means that materials written in 1923, which would have entered the public domain on Jan. 1, 1999, will now enter the public domain on Jan 1, 2019. Materials written in 1924 will now enter the public domain on Jan. 1, 2020. And that, sir, is only if Congress does not retroactively extend the term a third time. What impact does this have on genealogists? We all want information. In this day and age, information usually is found online or on CD-ROM discs. Yet the people who produce those online databases and CD-ROM discs are now prohibited from reproducing materials printed after 1922. Newspapers after 1922 (obituaries, especially) will now be in copyright for another 20 years. You'll need to wait 20 more years before they can be transcribed and put online for free. Old genealogies, which might be useful if reprinted, cannot be freely reprinted or placed online for an additional 20 years. Historical materials cannot be reprinted or placed online for an additional 20 years. Likewise, obscure works whose copyright status is uncertain or where the heirs cannot be tracked down, cannot be placed online for an additional 20 years. For a much more detailed description of the impact, look at: http://www.public.asu.edu/~dkarjala/ My thanks to Richard J. Yanco for his update on the issue. He was quite helpful in describing the legal language of the bill to me. If you would like to contact Richard, he is at: rjyanco@unix.amherst.edu
- Genealogy Library Helps Indians Discover Their Heritage The Hellen Payne Odom Genealogical Library in Moultrie, Georgia, has been working with descendants of American Indians in an effort to help discover their ancestry and heritage. Beth Gay, editor of Family Tree, a monthly genealogical journal of the library, was recently mentioned prominently in a newspaper article describing her work and the many holdings of the library. To see the complete look at: http://www.augustachronicle.com/stories/110298/met_LG0408-1.001.shtml
- 1904 Louisiana Exposition in St. Louis Is Now Online
The introduction to this website says, "I collect dirt from the graves of noteworthy people... . This is a source for where such people are buried...". I doubt if any of my ancestors qualify as "noteworthy," but I still found this to be an interesting place to visit. The website contains an online database made up of the gravesites of hundreds of people. Anyone can search by name, location or claim to fame. You can also look at pictures and at posthumous reunions.
I conducted a search for the area where I live and found listings for the graves of several signers of the American Declaration of Independence, poet Ogden Nash and teacher-astronaut Christa McAuliffe. Most of the entries also have pictures of the tombstone and a map showing the location of the cemetery. This is an interesting site. To search the database, go to: http://www.findagrave.com/
- DNA Testing Determines Jefferson’s Relationship With Hemings I was tempted to use a title of "Presidential Sex" for this article. I thought that would be in keeping with all the thousands of pages of newspaper and magazine articles printed recently about the latest escapades in the White House. And that is not even considering the thousands of hours of radio and TV broadcast time. Sometimes we forget that the stories about President Clinton are only the latest small additions to the many such stories and rumors about our Presidents. In fact, if you look at all the world leaders, such stories are almost commonplace. Here in the U.S., Presidents Jefferson, Cleveland, Wilson, Harding, F. D. Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Kennedy all had well-documented extramarital affairs before, during, or after their terms in the Oval Office. Several of them were much more "active" than the reports about President Clinton. And there are unsubstantiated rumors about still other Presidents. Details about the extramarital sex lives of many former Presidents can be found at: http://who2.com/hailtothesheets.html and at: http://www.mercurycenter.com/nation/media/krt/president/html/a.htm
In the 196 years since the rumor was first published, no firm evidence was ever found. In 1998, thanks to modern technology, biologists can now show a high probability that the relationship did exist and that Jefferson indeed was the father of some of Hemings’ children. A report appearing in the current issue of the journal "Nature" says that retired University of Virginia pathologist Dr. Eugene Foster has proven that Jefferson was the likely biological father of Eston Hemings. Dr. Foster and a team of molecular geneticists in Europe compared Y-chromosomal DNA haplotypes from male-line descendants of Field Jefferson, a paternal uncle of Thomas Jefferson, with those of male-line descendants of Thomas Woodson, Sally Hemings' putative first son, and of Eston Hemings Jefferson, her last son. The results fail to support the belief that Thomas Jefferson was Thomas Woodson's father, but do provide strong evidence that Jefferson was the biological father of Eston Hemings Jefferson. Quoting from the article:
To read the full article, go to http://toc.edoc.com/ and follow the menus for "Jefferson's genes" Now, where do I go to get some DNA tests conducted? I would like to determine the paternity and maternity of a number of my ancestors!
Computer prices continue to drop like a rock. MicroCenter has announced their latest PC is available for $399. That price does not include a monitor but does include all the other features you normally find in today’s personal computers. For $399, MicroCenter is offering the PowerSpec 2021 PC with a 233-MHz MediaGX processor from Cyrix, a 2.1 gigabyte hard disk drive, 32 megabytes of memory, a CD-ROM drive, sound card, powered loudspeakers, keyboard, mouse and even a modem. It also includes Windows 98, Microsoft Works, Microsoft Money and Microsoft Entertainment Pack. The addition of a monitor will increase the price by $200 or more. MicroCenter is a large mail-order retailer, and they also have 12 large retail stores in various cities around the U.S. They are also well known as the manufacturer of the WinBook series of laptop PCs. Micro Center's PowerSpec 2021 is not on the leading edge of technology. Yet a 233-MHz system with 32 megabytes of memory and a 2.1 gigabyte hard drive will satisfy the needs of most families and many business people, too. It certainly will handle any Windows or MS-DOS genealogy program available today. While MicroCenter is the first national brand to announce a $399 computer, I suspect that others will do the same shortly. For more information, look at: http://www.microcenter.com/
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.
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:
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.
To submit your new genealogy-related 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:
Thank you for your cooperation.
Subscription information: To subscribe to this free newsletter, send an e-mail message to the following address: 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. For instance, if your name is Jane Doe, you would write a message of: subscribe rootscomputing Jane Doe That is the entire message; nothing else should be in the message text. To cancel an existing subscription, send an e-mail to: The message title is unimportant. The text of the message must be exactly: signoff rootscomputing Please note that the address of listserv@peach.ease.lsoft.com is an "e-mail robot" and messages sent to that address are only read by a computer. If you send any more text in the message, it will be ignored. If you want to see the current issue as well as back issues of the newsletter, look on the World Wide Web at: Please feel free to copy this subscription information and pass it on to anyone else who you think might be interested in obtaining a free subscription.
|
Terms and Conditions | Privacy Statement |
No, a "posthumous reunion" is not as gruesome as it sounds! It is a listing of the gravesites of all the people who participated in a particular event.
One of the most intriguing rumors is also one of the oldest: Thomas Jefferson reportedly fathered children by his slave, Sally Hemings. Until now, the rumors were completely unsubstantiated. The rumors were first published in 1802. Jefferson was a widower, and Hemings was the illicit daughter of a female slave and Jefferson's own father-in-law. From the publishing of the first rumors in 1802 until his death in 1826, Thomas Jefferson never once admitted or denied the rumors. He simply refused to talk about the subject. Of course, his silence only fueled the rumors.