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Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
| IN THIS ISSUE: |
| Hello From Montreal Free Genealogy Software They Became Americans (Book Review) NARA Announces Agreement With INS Family Tree Maker Announces 5.0 Patch More On The Rex Shirt Pocket Computer FreeSpeech98 Families Get $4 Million For Dumped AshesHome Pages Not Highlighted |
| September 14, 1998 |
This week’s newsletter again comes from the little Toshiba Libretto palmtop computer. This time the computer and I are in a hotel room in Montreal. It has been an interesting week. There’s an announcement from the U.S. National Archives; a major high-powered genealogy program is now available in some locations at no charge; new speech recognition software is available for a low price and lots of other news. The local CompuServe number here in Montreal seems to work well, so sending out the newsletter shouldn't be much more difficult than it is from back home. So let’s get to business.
I had a pleasant surprise at a local store several days ago. The CompUSA store near my home in Nashua, New Hampshire, is giving away free copies of one of the most powerful genealogy programs available today. The word "free" is perhaps a bit questionable; but nonetheless, the final cost to consumers is zero. The local CompUSA store is selling The Ultimate Family Tree for Windows for $59.99. The same store also offers an "in store instant rebate" for $14.99. Therefore the purchaser must pay $45.00 to the cashier. The store also has rebate forms printed by Palladium Interactive, producers of the Ultimate Family Tree. The buyer can fill out the form and mail it, all along with the cash register receipt and the UPC symbol from the box, to an address in Arizona. A few weeks later a check arrives in the mail for $45.00. That amount is the same amount handed to the cashier. Therefore, the final cost is zero.
Keep in mind that in New Hampshire we do not have any sales tax, so that is not a factor. In many other states you would have to pay the sales tax on either $45.00 or $59.99, depending upon how the local state calculates sales tax when in-store rebates are involved. I have never been able to define which program is the "best" genealogy program for use by everyone. Different people have varying skill levels and interests, and I don’t believe there is any one genealogy program that is perfect for everyone. However, if I were to create a list of today’s top three or four genealogy programs, the Ultimate Family Tree by Palladium Interactive certainly would be on that list. It is one of the most powerful genealogy programs available today. It truly is a bargain at $20.00 or less. In my area it is even available for the ultimate price of $0.00. For more information on the program, look at: http://www.ultimatefamilytree.com/. .
- They Became Americans (Book Review) I had a chance to sit down and read a new book this week. "They Became Americans: How to Discover Your Family or Ancestors in Naturalization Records" by Loretto Dennis Szucs is a great book for anyone researching ancestors who became naturalized US citizens. Szucs covers the topic well in a number of chapters stuffed into this 294 page volume. Many new immigrants to the United States decided to become citizens of their newly-adopted country. The application forms they filled out often include biographical information and information about relatives. They frequently give the names and locations of parents back in the old country. Most of the records involved have survived and can be examined today. However, locating the needed records can be quite a chore. This book gives lots of information about how to find the records you seek. The chapter titles accurately describe the contents:
The Naturalization Process in the United States: Historical Background How to Find Immigration and Naturalization Information Naturalization Courts and Processes Published Naturalization Records and Indexes Immigration and Naturalization Service Naturalization Records in the National Archives Finding Naturalization Information on the Internet Appendix A: Immigration Chronology Appendix B: Selected Addresses Appendix C: INS Form All of that is followed by a 24-page index. "They Became Americans: Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins" addresses the complexities of naturalization records in a straightforward manner. It also has dozens of illustrations and sample documents. I enjoyed the pictures and other graphics almost as much as I did the text. "They Became Americans: Finding Naturalization Records and Ethnic Origins" is available for purchase by the reference number ISBN 0-916489-71-x. It has a suggested retail price $19.95 although Ancestry, Inc. sells it for $18.95. For more information, look at: http://shop.myfamily.com/ancestrycatalog/.
- NARA Announces Agreement With INS The following announcement was posted on the National Archives and Records Administration website at: http://www.nara.gov/nara/pressrelease/nr98-141.html. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information about "What's Happening with NARA?" visit: http://www.ancestry.com/nara.htm
- Family Tree Maker Announces 5.0 Patch An update to Family Tree Maker 5.0 for Windows is now available. Broderbund says that a couple of glitches in the new 5.0 version of Family Tree Maker have been identified, and solutions have been implemented. Information is available at: http://familytreemaker.com/50aindex.html
- More On The Rex Shirt Pocket Computer In last week's newsletter I mentioned that I had accidentally destroyed the Rex shirt pocket computer that I used constantly. My credit card sized Rex card was in the pocket of a shirt that Franklin dropped the price when they also announced a brand-new, more powerful Rex card that has many more features. The new Rex Pro has a keyboard and will be priced at $230.
This newsletter may appear very similar to previous editions. However, from my viewpoint, this week's edition is very different. The thing that is different is that much of this week's newsletter was not typed on a keyboard. It was dictated to my computer. I have been evaluating a new piece of software called the FreeSpeech98. So far, I'm very pleased with it. FreeSpeech98 by Philips is a program that allows you to create, edit or format almost any documents by speaking directly into your computer's microphone that is attached to its sound card. FreeSpeech98 lets you create brand new documents or even to add to or format existing documents. It works with the most Windows programs, including your word processor, spreadsheet, e-mail program and even online chat sessions. I have used it in the past few days to write a number of memos at the office, to write much of this newsletter, and even to participate in online chat sessions on CompuServe recently. When everyone else was typing on their keyboard in the online chat room, I was simply talking into the microphone. My words were converted to text and then sent out for everyone else to read on their screens. I am not a touch typist and have long suffered with slow keyboard speed. FreeSpeech98 has allowed me to enter data much more quickly than I was ever able to in the past. I simply talk in a normal voice, and FreeSpeech98 does the rest of the work. I do not have to pause between words; I speak in normal sentences. The technology is not perfect, and frequently FreeSpeech98 does not interpret my words correctly. Sometimes when I say "ancestors" it decodes it as "and sisters." When this happens, I have to back up and make manual corrections. While the FreeSpeech98 instructions say that I can make these corrections by talking into the microphone, I am not yet comfortable with that process. Therefore, I normally edit the errors by typing on the keyboard. When I first read about this program, I thought it would be very easy to do the editing. I assumed that my word processor’s spell checker would identify all the errors and then automatic correction would make the necessary changes. In fact, it does not work that way. When FreeSpeech98 has difficulty interpreting my words, it will substitute whatever it thinks I said. However, it always inserts a properly spelled word. The word it inserts may not be the one that I wanted, but it is always a properly spelled word. As a result, the spell checker in my word processor never detects any errors when I’m using FreeSpeech98. I have to go back and manually correct everything myself. The more that I use FreeSpeech98, the better it becomes at listening to my New England accent and decoding my words. The program can be "trained" to better understand the user’s words. When I tell the program to enter training mode, it displays a text file on my screen. I read the displayed words and dictate them back to the computer. The more time I spend training the computer, the better the accuracy. My copy of FreeSpeech98 is now well trained to recognize my words. If someone else uses my computer and starts dictating into the microphone, the results will not be as good. The training is very specific to each person's voice. The program does have the capability of maintaining different "profiles" for each user of a computer. As a result, it is possible for more than one person to use the program to dictate speech to the computer. However, each person has to go through a training process for the program. There are other programs available that do the same thing as FreeSpeech98. A couple of the more popular ones include Dragon Naturally Speaking and IBM’s ViaVoice. FreeSpeech98 by Philips is a late entry to the market place, and the company obviously has priced the program very aggressively in an attempt to capture market share. You can download a free evaluation copy of FreeSpeech98 that runs for seven days. After the 7-day trial the program ceases to function. You may then register the program or purchase a new copy on CD-ROM disks; in either case, the price is $39.95. This is much cheaper than the other two major competitors of FreeSpeech98. Dragon Naturally Speaking is available in two different versions: the Standard Edition that retails for about $90.00 and a Preferred Edition that sells for about $170.00. IBM’s ViaVoice also is available in two versions: the Office Edition is $85.00 while the Executive Edition sells for about $130.00. I did not test either of those two programs and cannot tell you which one of them is the best. Obviously FreeSpeech98 is much cheaper. The cost of the software may not be the most significant factor. All these programs are very demanding of processor speed and memory. None of them will operate properly on 486 or a slow speed Pentium system. Also, they all require a lot of memory. FreeSpeech98 to says that it requires a minimum of a 233-megahertz Pentium processor with MMX extensions; it also requires a minimum of 64 megabytes of memory. If you are running Windows NT, the program requires a minimum of 96 megabytes of memory. Apparently, these requirements are somewhat similar to the requirements of its major competitors. I tested FreeSpeech98 on a 300 megahertz Pentium II system with 128 megabytes of memory running Windows NT 4.0. Assuredly these requirements for memory and processor speed will restrict the program's appeal. Many people simply do not have that kind of power available on their desktops. However, the history of computers has consistently shown that software that is considered to be "demanding" when released will be considered to have modest requirements within 3 to 5 years as prices drop. In many places 64 megabytes of memory can be purchased today for less than $100. Most new computers built today have central processors that equal or exceed the requirements of FreeSpeech98. While 64 megabytes of memory seems like a lot today, I am sure that it will become very popular within the next year or two. I also suspect that FreeSpeech98 and other speech recognition programs will become very popular within the next five years. If you would like trying FreeSpeech98 yourself on your computer, go to http://www.freespeech98.com. You can download the program directly from that site. However, it is a 30-megabyte file, and not everyone will want to take the time required to download a file of that size. If you prefer, you may order a CD-ROM copy of the evaluation program for only a few dollars. After using the evaluation copy for up to seven days, you may go back to the website to order it or call a toll-free telephone number and give a credit card number. The unlock key will be sent to you by e-mail. You can then use the program forever. FreeSpeech98 for American English is available now. A UK-English version of the product will be available the last quarter of 1998. This article was dictated to FreeSpeech98. After writing this article, I purchased the "key" to the program for $39.99. I suspect that I will be using FreeSpeech98 daily for a long time to come.
- Families Get $4 Million For Dumped Ashes Many people who died had their cremated ashes scattered over California’s mountains or seacoast. It seems the number of people whose remains were disposed of this way is not as big as once thought. More than 5,000 families recently discovered that the pilot who was supposed to dump the remains from an airplane had dumped their relatives’ remains in public storage lockers instead. This week lawyers for relatives of the dead and the mortuaries that contracted with the pilot to perform the ash scattering service reached a preliminary settlement, a $4 million deal to close the book on the case. The case came to light in June 1997, when investigators found some 5,000 boxes of cremated remains in public storage lockers in Discovery Bay, about 45 miles east of San Francisco, and at a nearby hangar where pilot Allan Vieira kept his plane. Most of the boxes had names and dates attached, identifying the deceased and when they were cremated. One box was dated in the 1950s, and others had been opened. Vieira, who ran a flying company specializing in ash scattering services, could not be found at the time of the discovery. A few weeks later his badly decomposed body was found near San Andreas, about 100 miles east of San Francisco, apparently dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Boxes of cremated human remains were found in his nearby car along with a note saying, "Sorry for the pain I've caused!" Under the settlement deal announced this week, the mortuaries agreed to scatter the remaining ashes free of charge and to investigate future pilots more carefully.
When I am at home I do a simple cut-and-paste to copy information about new websites listed at http://www.rootscomputing.com. When I am on the road the process is much more difficult. Since I am in Montreal this week, I will skip the listing of new genealogy Web pages. Look for a double listing next week. To submit your new genealogy-related 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 redistribute articles from this newsletter 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:
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I asked a clerk at the local store how long the special would be in effect; I also asked if the other CompUSA stores were running similar specials. She did not know the answers to either of those questions, so I cannot tell you if your local store offers the $14.99 instant rebate or not. However, the $45.00 rebate is available directly from Palladium Interactive regardless of where you purchase the software. Most discount stores sell the Ultimate Family Tree for $55 or $60. You can apply the rebate for software you purchase between September 5 and October 6,1998, regardless of where you purchase it. The resulting cost will be about $15 or $20, still a bargain.
was sent through the laundry. Electronic devices do not operate well after being washed and dried. I plan to purchase a replacement and was very pleased to read this week that Franklin Electronic Publishers has announced a major price drop. The unit, which cost me $179, will soon be available for retail price of $99. I suspect that discount stores will shave a few more dollars off that price. If you have been thinking of purchasing a Rex card, you might want to wait until the price drops in your local store. That should happen within the next few days.