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Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
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P.A.F. Version 4.0 for Windows – A Free Program |
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Click Here for Dick Eastman's Archive |
| June 29, 1999 |
- P.A.F. Version 4.0 for Windows – A Free Program Beginning Monday morning June 28, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is offering free downloads of Personal Ancestral File version 4.0. This is a brand new version of one of the most popular genealogy programs in the world. The new version has two major changes from previous versions: (1) for the first time it is a Windows program, and (2) it is a free program. Personal Ancestral File version 4.0 will be available to everyone online. Personal Ancestral File has always been known as a "bare bones" genealogy program that does the basics. It has also been famous for its low price. Ten years ago the low-end genealogy programs sold for $50.00 or so while more powerful ones cost $200 and more. In those days, Personal Ancestral File, usually referred to as PAF, sold for $35.00. In 1997 The LDS Church released PAF version 3.0. Software prices had tumbled, and many genealogy programs were selling for $35.00 or less. As a result, the price of PAF 3.0 was dropped to $15.00. Prices of genealogy software have continued to drop further in the past two years, and apparently the LDS Church is reacting by cutting the price still further. Personal Ancestral File has the ultimate bargain price: zero dollars. Another factor is the low-cost distribution method available today: digital downloads. While the capability of downloading digital files has been available for more than 15 years, it has become a lot more popular with the explosion of the World Wide Web. By making the new PAF version 4.0 available on the Web, the LDS Church does not have to pay for CD-ROM discs, packaging, printed manuals, warehouse space, postage, or the labor involved in receiving orders and packing the product into shipping boxes. The other significant change is the choice of Windows. In the June 5, 1999 newsletter I repeated a rumor of a new Windows version. Earlier versions of PAF were available only for MS-DOS and for Macintosh. While the Mac version has always sported a user-friendly, event-driven interface, the MS-DOS version has long looked rather archaic with its menu-driven interface. There are very few MS-DOS programs available in today’s marketplace. The switch to Windows seemed inevitable; PAF is the last of the popular genealogy programs to make that switch. Personal Ancestral File version 4.0 requires the following: Windows 95, 98 or NT Obviously, Internet access is required to obtain the program although such access is not required during the program’s operation. Personal Ancestral File 4.0 will also be available on CD-ROM for a nominal price in early 2000. The exact price hasn’t been announced, but apparently it will be just enough to cover the cost of making the CD-ROM discs, handling and postage. Users will be able to purchase the CD-ROM version from the Church's distribution centers worldwide. The Macintosh version of Personal Ancestral File has not changed for some time and it continues to sell for $35.00. This week’s announcement did not mention any changes in the Macintosh version. Version 4.0 of Personal Ancestral File for Windows should be available Monday morning at: http://www.familysearch.org. The 1999 Federation of Genealogical Societies’ annual conference will be held in St. Louis, Missouri from August 11th through the 14th, 1999. The theme of this year’s conference is "Meet Me in St. Louis". The FGS conference is one of the larger such conferences in North America. If you would like to attend a number of seminars on genealogy research techniques, look at the latest products in the vendors’ area, and meet a bunch of nice people, you might put St. Louis in your travel plans. This year’s event looks as if it will be as big or even bigger than previous FGS conferences. About 150 seminars and lectures are scheduled. The entire 16-page registration book with all the details is available on the FGS website. This year’s FGS conference is being held at the Regal Riverfront Hotel at 200 S. Fourth Street, St. Louis. You can get a look at this facility by pointing your browser to: http://www.regal-hotels.com/stlouis/index.html. As of a few days ago the hotel still had a few rooms left. Call 1-800-325-7353 for the latest information. It seems that the hotel is holding rooms for the FGS conference only. You must say you are attending the FGS Conference when you call the Regal Riverfront to get the special conference room rates. Otherwise you will be told the hotel is sold out! Another hotel, the St. Louis Marriott Pavilion Downtown, is at One Broadway and apparently also has rooms available as I write this. There are still other hotels in the area as well. Keep in mind that this area is near the baseball stadium, and the Cardinals will be hosting home games during the convention. These rooms will probably all be reserved a few days before the conference begins. Either make your reservations now, or else plan on staying a bit further out in the suburbs. For more details about the FGS conference, including the complete registration booklet, look at: http://www.fgs.org Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens has released version 1.2 of her program, Clooz. Here are some excerpts from the announcement: A universal difficulty encountered by genealogists of all capabilities, ages, and nationalities is finding a workable filing system for the mass of paper inevitably collected. Clooz version 1.2 comes to the rescue! Released in early June, this upgrade adds many new features to the backbone of thirty-five templates for entering genealogical data from myriad document types. Clooz is not a traditional genealogical database program in which linkages are made between people of different generations. Instead, Clooz is designed as an electronic filing system, assisting genealogists with systematically organizing their documents. Therefore, Clooz is a document-based program in which linkages are made between documents and the people contained within them. The online manual explains in depth the organizing principles recommended by creator Elizabeth Kelley Kerstens, CGRS. This manual is also available for download from the Internet at ftp://209.204.240.93/pub/manual.exe Clooz contains templates for all U.S. Federal censuses, 1790–1920; all U.K. censuses, 1841–91; all major Canadian censuses, 1852–1901; the two available Irish censuses, 1901 and 1911; two generic censuses; photos; directories; miscellaneous documents (i.e., vital records, land, wills, etc.); correspondence; Irish valuation; sources and people. There are provisions in the program for importing a list of people from most genealogical programs, including Family Tree Maker, Ultimate Family Tree, Personal Ancestral File, Ancestral Quest, Legacy, Brother’s Keeper, The Master Genealogist, and Family Origins. The upgrade contains more typical Windows features, including the ability to add a database using the Windows File Open dialog box, use of the Escape key to back out of unintended places, the ability to edit drop-down lists, and better print control through use of the Windows Print dialog box. With the addition of a more comprehensive report for an individual, Clooz becomes valuable as a research tool. After entering data, a person’s report can be previewed and the user will see at a glance all census, directory, document, and photo entries for that person. Additionally, because of the way the data is listed, the report can be used to see trends or research gaps and can become a tool for planning further research. An example of this report can be viewed at http://www.ancestordetective.com/clooz/jpresley.jpg. The suggested retail price for Clooz version 1.2 is $39.95 U.S. funds. There is a lot more information available on the Clooz website at: http://www.ancestordetective.com Michael Allen has written a new program that is described as both a GEDCOM file viewer and a Web page generator. RootsView lets you view your genealogy data or share your research with others. You can send your RootsView presentation to other family members or post your family tree on the Internet. RootsView reads standard GEDCOM files that have been created by almost any modern genealogy program. It then uses any of a number of HTML styles, selectable by the user, to present family tree data on the Web. For people without Web access, you can send the RootsView viewer along with your GEDCOM file and graphics on floppy diskette. The recipient will also need a Windows PC in order to view the data. Either on floppies or on the World Wide Web, RootsView transforms your genealogy data into a hyperlinked document with graphics and optional personal photos. RootsView is a $29.00 shareware program. Since it is shareware, you can "try it before you buy it." For more information, look at: http://home.earthlink.net/~naturalsoft/ Those of us with French-Canadian ancestry who now live in predominantly English-speaking areas know a lot about name changes. For instance, the name Hebert often became Abar or something similar. (The two words are pronounced the same even though English speakers might not know the French pronunciation of Hebert.) Leblanc often became White and Beaudoin may have been changed to Bodine. Such name changes can drive you crazy when researching old records! About ten years ago Robert E. Chenard created a compilation of the better known name changes. Now an online version of his work is available at the Project GenWeb du Quebec. You can quickly find an Anglicized name in the list, along with its probable French origins. I found several surnames from my family tree on this site. To view the list of Anglicized French Surnames, look at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~canqc/angloabc.htm My thanks to Suzanne B. Sommerville for letting me know about the list. - Catawba County, North Carolina Cemeteries Online In what may be the most comprehensive listing of county cemeteries within the USGenWeb Project, Catawba County, North Carolina now has a nearly complete listing of all individuals in marked graves in the county. The only ones missing are the few small private cemeteries that cannot be accessed and interments made since the cemeteries were first inventoried. The project includes nearly 65,000 individual names and over 4,100 surnames. References are made to the volume and page of the 9-volume set of "Catawba County Cemeteries" published by the Catawba County Genealogical Society since 1986, as well as a notation of the particular cemetery. The listing of Catawba County, North Carolina cemetery interments can be found at the NCGenWeb Catawba County page at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~nccatawb/ My thanks to Derick S. Hartshorn for the information about this valuable website. - Help Wanted: Executive Director The following announcement is from the Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania: The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, a statewide genealogical organization based in Philadelphia which exists to preserve Pennsylvania-related genealogical information and which brings together persons worldwide interested in genealogy in the Commonwealth, seeks a self-motivated individual of vision to lead the Society as executive director. The successful candidate will have nonprofit leadership experience, strong administrative and communications skills as well as experience in fundraising and grant writing, expertise in supervising and coordinating a small paid staff, inspiring volunteers and interacting with a volunteer board of directors. Experience in Pennsylvania genealogical research and basic computer skills are required; knowledge of Internet and website marketing a plus. Connections to or knowledge of the Pennsylvania genealogical and historical communities preferred. Send resume and salary requirements to: President, The Genealogical Society of Pennsylvania, 1305 Locust Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19107-3405. - More Online Place Names Databases Last week I wrote an article called "Latitudes and Longitudes" in which I described the usefulness of recording exact latitude and longitude of cemeteries, ancestors’ property and even courthouses and other archives. I mentioned several good online gazetteers (sources of geographic information): The U.S. Geographic Names Information System at: The Canadian Geographical Names Database (CGNDB) at: The (international) Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names at: A few days later David Billinghurst wrote to offer information about three more online gazetteers: UK online maps at: Australia: New Zealand: - Civil War Unknown Soldiers Identified A 21-shot tribute was fired and soil from Ireland was sprinkled Friday at an unveiling ceremony of new tombstones for three Union soldiers identified nearly 135 years after their deaths in the U.S. Civil War. David Evans wrote a book called "Sherman's Horsemen," recounting Union cavalry raids around Atlanta in 1864. In the course of researching the book, Evans followed a trail of military documents to discover the identities of these soldiers. This week Evans said, "Three restless souls can be at peace now. These three men who were so hopelessly lost for so long, now have been found. I think maybe this is God's gentle reminder that no matter how hopeless things may seem, there's always hope." The remains of Privates James Harris, 24, of Missouri, William Britt, 38, of Tennessee, and David Sage, 20, of Nebraska were found at the Marietta National Cemetery in Georgia. The three members of the 5th Iowa Cavalry were shot on July 18, 1864, in a battle with young Confederate conscripts and University of Alabama cadets at Beasley's Tank, Alabama. The three men were behind enemy lines to tear up railroad tracks and were among thousands of soldiers exhumed after the war from their shallow graves and moved to Marietta, where they were buried under numbered, six-inch-high marble "unknown" markers. On Friday, Col. Robert King of the Iowa Army National Guard performed the service for Harris and Sage, both Protestants, while the Rev. Stephen Lyness, an Irish Catholic priest, sprinkled holy water over the grave of Britt, an Irish immigrant. Evans added soil flown here from Britt's family grave site in Ireland. While researching his book, Evans found battlefield reports, army documents and cemetery register notes that enabled him to make the case for the unknown soldiers' identities. Only two Union soldiers had died at the Beasley's Tank battle, records showed, and only one died in the hospital. Because both Sage and Harris died the same day and at the same place, cemetery officials aren't sure which is which. So their three-foot-high marble tombstones identify them not by name, but as members of the 5th Iowa Cavalry. Britt was wounded and later died in a Confederate hospital. Evans located Harris' great-grandson, Floyd Findlay, through the Internet. Findlay and his wife came from Poplar Bluff, Mo. for the ceremony, which was included in weekend events commemorating the 1864 battle at nearby Kennesaw Mountain, where Confederate troops blocked Union Gen. William T. Sherman's forces in their effort to break through to Atlanta. Findlay's wife, an avid genealogist, had put together the story of Harris' service and death years earlier, and they had even made a trip in 1989 to Alabama to search for his grave there. "This is amazing--very gratifying," said Findlay. "We thought that was a lost cause." Evans has not been able to locate any descendants of Sage. Britt apparently did not have any children. - Safety of Online Credit Card Transactions I have often written about genealogy products, and I usually end each article with information about how to order the particular product online. I have been writing such articles for years and also have been making purchases online myself for even longer. I have purchased almost all of my airline tickets online for more than 15 years now, always paying by credit card. I have also made many online purchases of software, genealogy books, Christmas gifts, magazine subscriptions and lots of other things. I probably use my credit cards online more than I do offline. I was a bit surprised this week when a reader sent an e-mail asking if I could supply a telephone number or mailing address for a product reviewed in a recent newsletter. The lady wrote that she was afraid to use her credit card online. I must admit that this statement surprised me. I thought that the "old wives’ tales" about credit cards on the Internet had died out long ago. Perhaps not, so I’ll write a few words about credit card safety on the net. While this isn’t strictly a genealogy-related topic, it does directly impact many of the products mentioned in these newsletters. In the early days of the World Wide Web, "security" was an unknown word. In short, there was little to no security. However, that changed quickly as merchants and programmers saw economic opportunities arise. Today, thousands of merchants sell literally billions of dollars worth of products and services over the World Wide Web each year. Web browsers and servers now have the capability to send and receive sensitive financial and personal information in an encrypted form that is essentially impossible to intercept. Only the buyer and the merchant will ever have access to the information. No one else can decode your credit card numbers. The buzzword for all this is "Secure Sockets." I’ll skip over the technical details but will point out that your credit card information is encrypted right at your PC, before it ever reaches the Internet. When Secure Socket connections are used, your data is never transmitted "in the clear." The encryption techniques employed are extremely robust and secure. In theory, these encryption methods can be broken. However, the only way to do that is to use a multi-million dollar mainframe. Even with expensive hardware, decoding one credit card transaction might require several months. Credit card thieves typically do not have access to that much time on a powerful mainframe computer. Most thieves can find easier ways to steal money. There has never been a single documented case of such information being intercepted in transit and used for criminal purposes. I cannot think of any other credit card transaction methodology that can match the safety of Internet electronic commerce transactions. Normal connections, those not using Secure Sockets, theoretically could be intercepted, although there are far easier ways for criminals to steal credit card numbers than by trying to catch them on the Internet. Even so, it is a good idea to make sure that you are in the midst of a Secure Socket connection before entering your credit card data. Look for an icon depicting a lock or a key in your browser’s window for assurance that your order processing session is protected by a Secure Socket connection. Once your credit card information is received at the online merchant’s server, it normally remains within a secured database in the order processing system. That database may even be the same one that the merchant uses for telephone orders and mail orders. Your information is kept inside secure databases, accessible only to trusted employees of the merchant. This is in stark contrast to using your credit card at dozens of local shops, restaurants and gas stations. When your credit card is used to make a paper imprint, your credit card number is in the hands of hundreds of people whom you don’t know very well or may wind up on slips of paper in dumpsters accessible to all sorts of people. Do you use your credit card at a restaurant? If so, what is the first thing the waiter does? He takes your card and then disappears from view out into "the back room." How many people there can obtain copies of your information? This can happen even without the knowledge of the restaurant owners. Stealing credit card information in person is easy, but stealing the same credit card information off the Internet is much more difficult. To obtain and unlock your encrypted Internet order form, a thief would need the following: Access to secure, restricted network or telephone facilities Understanding of network routers and network protocols Network Administrator privileges or an expensive network "sniffer" and the know-how to use it Ability to know when your order form is being sent Ability to know by what route your order form is traveling over the thousands of possible network segments between your computer and the order processor Ability to sift through millions of packets to identify packets containing parts of your order form Ability to reassemble those packets into the original encrypted order form. At this point, the criminal has gone through a tremendous effort just to intercept your order form, but he can't get anything out of it because it's encrypted. Now the real trouble starts because the thief also has to have: Specialized software capable of analyzing the encrypted information and breaking the code used for encryption Undetected and unrestricted access to computer hardware capable of operating the code breaking software A lot of time By contrast, there are many more reliable and efficient ways to steal credit card numbers, and none of them involve overcoming Internet operations or robust security measures. Among them: Work in a gas station or restaurant for a few days to get discarded credit card imprint carbons. Sift through trashcans and dumpsters to pick out bank records and credit card billing statements. Drive around suburbs with an inexpensive scanner and listen for people placing phone orders on cordless phones or cellular telephones. Pay off "friends" who work in retail stores to steal numbers from customers. Stand next to or behind patrons at the sales counter of any department store and read their number off the card as they present it to the clerk. Wander through airports or bus stations where people routinely forget to pick up their receipts when they are worried about catching their flight or getting on their bus. Online credit card transactions via Secure Socket connections are much safer than handing your card to a clerk in a store or restaurant. A largely uninformed media has given in to hearsay, rumor and urban legend rather than taking the time to investigate the facts. These rumors circulate far and wide without regard for truth. Even sending your credit card data in the clear without a Secure Socket connection probably is safe. While it is theoretically possible that it could be intercepted, the odds of that happening are lower than using your card at the gas station. Even so, I want to be 100% safe. I always look for a lock or a key symbol in my browser’s window before I enter credit card data. That way I know I am using a Secure Socket connection to the merchant’s ordering system and that my personal information is safe. Are your wedding pictures a bit less than perfect? Perhaps the bride had her eyes closed when the photographer snapped the shutter. Or your new brother-in-law looked scruffy as he was growing a beard at the time of the wedding. Maybe the background lighting wasn’t just right. Do what the Royals do; alter the picture! The recent royal marriage of England's Prince Edward to Sophie Rhys-Jones was "improved" thanks to computer imaging. Prince Edward noticed that his nephew, Prince William, was not smiling in some of the official photographs. Photographer Geoffrey Sharkley reported, "Prince Edward said he didn't think Prince William looked absolutely his best, so digitally we were able to put in another picture of Prince William from one of the other shots where he is smiling and laughing." Now the historical record will show that the young prince was very happy at the ceremony. Sometimes a picture says more than a thousand words. Some times it gives fictional speeches. 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: Isacke Family from England to St. Helena to America, presented by the Isacke Family Association: Bostick OnLine Newsletter Archives, a free newsletter is sent via e-mail monthly to anyone researching Bostic, Bostick, Bostwick or Bostock families: Wilson County, North Carolina genealogy research - dedicated to providing genealogy assistance and free access to research material through interaction and sharing: Dawson family genealogy research page: The Hurt Family Genealogical Site - the best location on the web for researchers of the Hurt surname: The Giant McConkey Genealogy Message Board - an interactive site where searchers can post messages as well as search for ancestors: 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.
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