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Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
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NGS National Conference This Week |
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| May 11, 1999 |
- NGS National Conference This Week The "Conference in the States" sponsored by the U.S. National Genealogical Society and the Virginia Genealogical Society will be held this coming week in Richmond, Virginia. The conference begins on Wednesday, May 12, and goes through Saturday, May 15. This is the largest genealogy conference of the year in the United States, and this year's event looks like it will be a good one. If you don't have a chance to attend this conference in Richmond, you will want to read all about it at: http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/. I will be attending the conference this year and hope to write about it in next week's newsletter. The NGS conference traditionally is the event at which many companies introduce new products and services. I expect there will be several such introductions this year, which I hope to describe in the next newsletter. As always, when traveling it becomes a bit more difficult to produce and publish this newsletter. Next week's newsletter will probably be written on a tiny Toshiba Libretto palmtop PC and sent via the CompuServe connection in Richmond, if the hotel telephone system allows. Do not be surprised if next week's newsletter is late or missing entirely. - Victory for Canadian Newsletter Readers! Three weeks ago I wrote an article in this newsletter about Halberts, a company that claims to be in Bath, Ohio, although I couldn't find them there when I visited their claimed address last summer. Halberts produces pseudo-genealogy books that are heavily advertised by mail order. Their ads normally begin, "A remarkable new book is about to be published - and you, ...are in it!" In fact, these "books" are simply collections of telephone listings supplemented with some generic "how to get started in genealogy" material. These "books" sell for rather high prices considering how little information is within them. In the newsletter article I wrote, "When I was in Canada this week I saw such an advertisement that was included with an advertisement from Sears Canada. It seems a shame to see a respectable retailer like Sears in a partnership like this. If you have any suggestions for Sears regarding their selection of business partners, you might want to express your suggestions in a letter sent to: Paul S. Waters, Chairman & CEO, Sears Canada Inc...." Newsletter readers apparently responded, and I suspect that other people did as well. This week I received an e-mail and then a telephone call from Robert Kolbuc of Sears Canada. Mr. Kolbuc said that Mr. Waters, CEO of Sears Canada, had received many letters and e-mail messages regarding their promotion with a Canadian company that sells the Halberts "books." He reported that many of the letters enclosed printouts of the article from this newsletter. Mr. Kolbuc told me that Sears Canada originally had planned more mailings in the future. However, after reading the many letters, Mr. Kolbuc investigated the materials being offered for sale and came to the same conclusion as the people who had written. As a result, Sears Canada has canceled their agreement with Halberts and will not send out any more such advertisements. I take my hat off to Mr. Kolbuc, to Sears Canada, and to the many readers of this newsletter who wrote letters and e-mails. - 1881 British Census Available on CD-ROM The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) made a major announcement this week: 1881 British Census Available on CD ROM - Largest Ever Automated Census With Over 30 million Names Salt Lake City, UT - After 11 years and more than two-and-a- half million hours of volunteer labor, the largest census ever to be automated is now available on CD-ROM for home use. The automated 1881 British Census, which contains information for over 30 million individuals, was announced today by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The data comes from England, Wales, and Scotland. (Note: the 1881 census for Ireland does not exist.) "The story behind this project is one of tremendous individual participation and the cooperation of literally thousands dedicated to the creation of the most complete, complex, and largest census database ever created to date," said Elder D. Todd Christofferson, executive director of the Family History Department. Begun in September of 1987, the automated index is the result of a collective effort of volunteers from the Federation of Family History Societies in the United Kingdom and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. "Every effort was made to reproduce the information as it was originally recorded by the British census-takers in 1881. Even obvious errors were left to allow users to make their own evaluation of the information," Christofferson added. "Each page of the census (over one million pages) was transferred to microfilm and photocopied," said Richard E. Turley, Jr., managing director of the Family History Department. Turley explained that each letter and name of the census was painstakingly copied twice by transcribers, often from almost illegible photocopies or microfilm, then double- checked for accuracy. To protect the integrity of the data during this transfer of historic information, every entry was carefully evaluated a third or fourth time by trained individuals prior to entering it on computer. Project Factoids: 11 years to complete 1,211,695 pages of the original census 1,400,000+ hours to transcribe 1,200,000+ hours to enter transcribed data on computer 10,000+ volunteers and transcribers 369 computers 11,266 floppy diskettes were submitted, containing all of the census entries Among the 30 million entries, users will find the following interesting entries along with a host of others: Charles L. Dodgson (a.k.a. Lewis Carroll)- a "M.A. Student & Lecturer" at Oxford University. Joseph R (Rudyard) Kipling - a 15 year old attending school in Devon. Master Winston Churchill - Six year old son of Lord Randolph Churchill, Member of Parliament. The census will be published on 25 compact discs, including an eight-disk national index and viewer that allow users to quickly search across the entire database of 30+ million names. To make the census indexes more manageable and easier to use, the data has been divided into eight regions: East Anglia, Greater London, Midlands, North Central, Northern Borders and Miscellany, Southwestern, Wales and Monmouth, and Scotland. "Users will be delighted to find that the census includes enumerations for the Royal Navy in 1881. That means it lists all people living, working, or traveling on a boat or ship at the time the census was taken," said David Rencher, president of the Federation of Genealogical Societies. "The Miscellany Region even includes people who lived in 'poor-houses,' mental institutions, workhouses, schools, hospitals, and other non- traditional residences when the census was counted." It includes the FamilySearch(r) Resource File Viewer 2.0, which allows powerful and flexible search capabilities. Users can tag and make notes for records and download the data into RTF (Rich Text Format). The census is available for purchase in its entirety or by region through the distribution outlets of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The cost for the entire census (25 CDs) is only $33 U.S. To order, call 1-800-537-5971 in the U.S. or order on-line at http://www.familysearch.org. System Requirements Pentium(r) processor (or equivalent) Windows 95, 98, or NT 4.0+ 8 MB RAM minimum (16 MB recommended) CD-ROM drive (8x recommended) SVGA monitor with 256-color-capable video card * 25 MB hard disk space For more information, contact Family History Support via e- mail at fhdfhsup@ldschurch.org or telephone at 1-801-240-2584 or 1-800-346-6044. The Family History Department of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is committed to producing high-quality products for the family historian. It maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources. To promote local and family history (genealogical) research, the Church also maintains the Family History Library in Salt Lake City and over 3,400 Family History Centers in 64 countries. - Heritage Quest Archives' Digital Microfilm CD-ROMs Last week I wrote about the new Heritage Quest U.S. Census Indexes on CD-ROM. This week I had a chance to use another Heritage Quest product, called Digital Microfilm. Both products are new, both deal with census records, and both are on CD-ROM. It is easy to confuse the two, yet they are very different from each other. The Census Indexes I wrote about last week are newly-created indexes. The product I used this week displays images of original U.S. census records. Most genealogists have spent time looking at census records on microfilm. Now you can view the same images on your computer screen, using Digital Microfilm. You can also print the images on an inkjet or laser printer for long-term storage. In most cases, the printed images will look much better than photocopies made from microfilm. The Digital Microfilm software installed quickly and easily. Heritage Quest says that the software will operate on Windows 95, Windows 98 or Windows NT with Service Pak 3. There is no Macintosh software available at this time for the CD-ROM disks. The software requires a 486 processor or something faster along with at least 16 megabytes of memory, 8 megabytes of disk space, a 4-speed or faster CD-ROM drive, and a video card that can display 16-bit color or higher (65535 colors). I tested the software on Windows NT 4. There is no printed user's manual, but a complete manual is included on disk. I must admit that I never looked at the user's manual; the software was so easy and intuitive that there was no need. The Family Quest Archives Digital Microfilm Census Image products are organized exactly as they are on the original roll of microfilm from which they were scanned. Pages are usually numbered with both a handwritten number provided by the original census taker and a printed number provided by the National Archives prior to microfilming. The pages that are in the index to the Family Quest Archives Digital Microfilm Census Image CDs are the printed numbers found in the upper right corner of the image. The Digital Microfilm CD-ROM disks do not contain surname indexes, a significant handicap. Some of the indexes are available in a different product from Heritage Quest for an additional charge or can be found in printed books in most genealogy libraries. If you are searching a small town, this probably is not much of a handicap. However, searching a large city without an index can be time consuming! Upon opening a Digital Microfilm Census Image product, you will see the "Image Tree" (Index) and the first census record image on the CD. The "Image Tree" is shown on the left side of the screen. The "Image Tree" (Index) is an index of pages, not an index of surnames. It shows the National Archives microfilm series, roll number, part number (as applicable), and page numbers of the images on the CD. The page numbers are the printed numbers (usually with part A or B) assigned by the National Archives prior to filming. For example: In the number "T623-116/46A", T623 refers to the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, 116 is the roll number, and 46A is the page number. To access a page, you simply scroll to the page number of interest and click on that page number. The image of the page will then be displayed. I must admit that I was surprised at the clarity of the images. I have spent many hours looking at microfilmed images of census records. I think I damaged my vision by looking at blurry images on microfilm; yet, I couldn't find a blurred image on this CD-ROM disk! The Digital Microfilm CD-ROM that I used this week was the 1870 Ohio census, and the quality of the images was excellent. I cannot verify that all the CD-ROM disks are this good, but I certainly was pleased with this one. When I first opened a page, the image was too small to read. However, I clicked on the icon that looked like a magnifying glass and then clicked on any portion of the page. The screen cleared, and a second or two later I was looking at a magnified portion of that page section. If I clicked on the page a second time, a new image appeared that was magnified still further. The contrast was excellent; the writing all appeared as clear black images against a snow white background. I found this to be much easier to read than the microfilms I have used in the past. I clicked on the PRINT icon, and a few seconds later an exact image appeared on my 10-year-old laser printer. This printed image was easier to read than the old copies made from microfilm that I have stored in my filing cabinets. The top of every printed page contained a reference for the source of the image. For instance, one page I printed read, "Heritage Quest Digital Microfilm M593\1169\579A." The numbers refer to the microfilm number and page number that was the source of the printed image. I suspect that the Heritage Quest Archives' Digital Microfilm CD- ROM disks will quietly revolutionize genealogy research. They are easier to use than microfilm, do not require a $600 microfilm viewer, and produce better-printed copies than the microfilms do. Good stuff. Heritage Quest expects to release 12,555 CD-ROM disks of digital microfilm by September 1999. That is an amazing number! When the disks of the Maine census records become available, I certainly will be placing an order. To be sure, Heritage Quest is not the first company to offer images of census records on CD-ROM disk. But they are the first company to announce plans to produce ALL of the U.S. census records on disk. They also have the clearest images that I have seen to date. Heritage Quest advises that it is impossible to fit an entire state on one CD. The Digital Microfilm will be done roll-by-roll using NARA numbering (one roll equivalent to one CD). Since CDs are created on a roll-by-roll basis, geographic coverage of a CD will primarily depend on census information and population, just as it does with roll microfilm. On average, this means about four counties per CD-ROM. The retail price of the Heritage Quest Archives' Digital Microfilm CD-ROMs is $19.95 U.S. funds each. Heritage Quest also offers a "club arrangement" where club members receive discounts. If you join the club, prices may be as low as $12.95 each. There will be a discounted price for organizations or individuals who wish to purchase an entire census year. For example, the entire 1790 census (12 CDs) is selling for $214.95 and the entire 1900 census (1,854 CDs) is bundled for $29,995. You can order Digital Microfilm for 1790 and 1900 today. Orders for other years may be placed now for future delivery. The 1870 Ohio census disk that I used this week was stamped, "Sample," so I am not sure if it is a prototype or if it is really shipping now. It certainly looked like a finished product to me. For more information about the Heritage Quest Archives' Digital Microfilm CD-ROMs, look at: http://www.heritagequest.com ANIMAP is a great program that provides over 2,300 maps in color, showing the changing county boundaries for each of the 48 adjacent United States for every year since colonial times. This can be a great resource when trying to find an old town that has long since disappeared from the map. It also is useful when you cannot find county records in the place you expected; for example, a town may have been in a different county many years ago! If so, the town records are probably at another county, but which county was it? ANIMAP includes all years, not just the census years. Maps may be viewed separately, or the program can set them in motion so you can automatically view the boundary changes. Also packaged with the product are maps of the full U.S. that show the changes in state and territorial boundaries from 1776 to the present. Each map includes a listing of the changes from the previous map, making it simple to keep track of parent counties. ANIMAP has been available on diskettes for several years. A new version is now available that ships on CD-ROM and includes many new data sets. One of these database sets is SiteFinder, which contains listings for more than 200,000 places in the United States plus more than 35,000 variant names. Each listing gives the name of the place, the county where it is (or was) located, and includes latitude-longitude coordinates for 97% of them. You can extract items from SiteFinder and plot them on the maps in ANIMAP Plus. Included in the listings are: Cities & Towns, Railroad Stations, Trading Posts, Farms & Ranches, Plantations, Ruins, Country Schools, Stagecoach Stops, Mining Camps, Ghost Towns and more. You can find more information about the latest version of ANIMAP at http://www.goldbug.com/AniMap.html or you can send e-mail to: goldbug@compuserve.com. - Genelines Now Compatible with Family Tree Maker 5 & 6 and GEDCOM One new product expected to be unveiled at the National Genealogical Conference next week is Genelines 1.2. In fact, two versions are being introduced with slightly different details. If you are not familiar with Genelines, you might first want to read my reviews of the earlier versions of the programs. The review of version 1.0 is available at: http://www.ancestry.com/columns/eastman/eastOct26-98.htm and a shorter description of the differences in version 1.1 is at: http://www.ancestry.com/columns/eastman/eastmar09-99.htm Earlier versions of Genelines could only read data from Personal Ancestral File version 3.0 or from Family Tree Maker version 4 or 5. The new Genelines version 1.2 is compatible with Family Tree Maker versions 4, 5 and 6 and adds support for importing GEDCOM files. The two versions of Genelines 1.2 are as follows: Genelines version 1.2TLC is a downloadable version, available at the Family Tree Maker website for a price of $19.99 US funds. The downloadable version does not import PAF files, nor does it include a user's manual. The manual is available separately for an additional $10.00. Version 1.2TLC makes a menu item built into Family Tree Maker, making it available directly from that program. Genelines can also be accessed separately. Genelines version 1.2P is sold in the traditional manner with diskettes in a box and a full user's manual. It fully supports PAF 3.0 files as well as Family Tree Maker and GEDCOM files. It will not have a menu item built into Family Tree Maker. If all of that sounds confounding (it certainly confuses me), you might find it easier to read this comparison chart: File Format Genelines Versions Users of earlier versions of Genelines can obtain upgrades to the latest version for $19.95 U.S. funds, including shipping. Upgrades will only be available directly from Progeny. - Grave Markers Being Sold on eBay eBay is an online auction service that has mushroomed in popularity. It's a great service; I recently bought a couple of genealogy books through the service. Anyone can list almost anything for sale there, although the online service does have some guidelines about legalities and also what is proper. This past week several items appeared for sale that I find disturbing. The items were military grave markers from several different wars. One item was listed as #95765135, a GAR (Grand Army of the Republic, a Civil War veterans' organization) grave marker, marked "County Commissioners, West Chester, PA." The seller referred to its having been "used." My interpretation of "used" is roughly the same as "stolen" or "desecrated." The name of the seller was listed as "1sterling" and the item was listed as being located in New Jersey. The seller's e-mail address is: sterlingcenter@world.att.net. Item #95765620 was also a GAR grave marker, in a different style, marked with the number "15" in the design of the front, with the back marked only "AMERICA," which may refer to the foundry. Again, the seller referred to "signs of use." It had the same location, same seller and same address. Item #96301772 was listed as a Korean War veteran's grave marker. This was from a different seller: hbuild36@aol.com in Tennessee. Item #98328212 was a "World War Veterans Marker." The seller was listed as capcornr@klondyke.net in Michigan. Finally, item #96742252 was listed as a World War II Veterans grave marker. It was described as an "eagle grave marker presented by the County Commissioners." Back marked "Philadelphia, PA," but that may again refer to a foundry. The seller was listed as tmaw@netcarrier.com in Penndel, PA. I am no lawyer, but I have to believe there are laws about removing markers from cemeteries. The persons offering the items for sale probably are guilty of peddling stolen goods. If there is no law against this, then I still believe it is in incredibly bad taste. In fact, if these people succeed in selling such items, it only encourages them to go out and obtain more such markers by whatever means available to them. I went back a few days later and checked on those items. They had all disappeared. I don't know why they disappeared so abruptly, but I suspect there were complaints filed with eBay. In any case, I would suggest that genealogists should be vigilant. If you see any such items offered for sale anywhere, make sure that the operators of the auction service know about them. Next, you should let the sellers know about their exposure to the law. Quoting from eBay's guidelines: If you list or buy an (copyright) infringing or illegal item, you are breaking the law. You may be held liable and possibly face criminal charges by local, state, and federal entities and/or the owner of rights to such items. In addition, there may be some items that potentially create liability for eBay. Although these items may be legal to sell in your town, state, or country, eBay cannot have them listed on our site. Most other online services, auction services and swappers magazines have similar statements. Used tombstones and grave markers are not items that can be bought and sold at will. Beware of unscrupulous traders. - Canadian Post-1901 Census Project A major squabble is developing in Canada over access to the census records of this century. The Global Gazette seems to be leading the fight. Quoting from their website: It is obvious to many concerned Canadians, that the legislation, which enforces permanent concealment of post 1901 census from the public eye, must be changed. If new legislation is not passed by Canada's parliament to change the laws that conceal our post-1901 census, those records may never be available for future generations or us. Worse yet, they may be destroyed. The bureaucrats at Statistics Canada, the holders of post-1901 census data, are firmly on the side of withholding census data. In fact, the census data would already be destroyed if it were not that the records couldn't be destroyed without the approval of the National Archivist. The former National Archivist was determined to see these records preserved. Unfortunately, at the moment, we do not even have a National Archivist! Nor have we had a National Archivist for more than a year. I hope this means that post-1901 census records, though unavailable to the public, are still safe from destruction! Of course, once a new National Archivist is appointed we will have to see if they have a different opinion of the need to preserve these records and if they are up to the fight with the privacy commissioner and Statistics Canada! There is a lot more information available at: http://globalgenealogy.com/census/ Rick Roberts of The Global Gazette has decided to try to do something about it with some good, old-fashioned political pressure in support of legislation to make each census available after ninety-two years. Rick has set up a website listing all members of parliament, along with their currently expressed position on this issue and contact information for them, so that their constituents can contact them and express their desire to see this legislation reversed. His efforts are explained at: http://globalgenealogy.com/gazed26.htm The year 2000 may sound like it is a long ways into the future, but my calendar assures me that it is only 7 months away. If you would like to spend a few days in the sun in late January plus join in some genealogy activities, consider attending the GENTECH2000 conference in San Diego. Barbara Renick, National Advertising chair for GENTECH2000 conference, released the following announcement this week: GENTECH, a non-profit volunteer organization (http://www.gentech.org) and the San Diego Genealogical Society (http://genealogy.org/~sdgs) will host GENTECH2000 "Bridging the Centuries: Bringing Genealogy and Technology Together" in San Diego, California on 28-29 January 2000 (http://www.gentech.org/~gentech/2000home.htm). Classes will be presented for all levels of computer users and genealogists. Exhibit/vendors hall will be open to the public at no charge. For more information contact Barbara Renick (barb@zroots.com). The 1999 GENTECH conference in Salt Lake City was the biggest ever GENTECH conference, and next year's looks like it will be even bigger. San Diego is also a great place to spend time in January. I hope to stay a few extra days in the city while attending the GENTECH conference. San Diego is well known for its zoo, for the bay and for many other things. One of their newest attractions includes a scale model of the Golden Gate Bridge and a "pink-knuckle" roller- coaster ride: Legoland California. This family theme park has been called "a country just for kids" with a unique mix of education and entertainment. You can check out the San Diego Destination Guide for information on planning your trip, including Fodor's recommendations for sights and attractions, hotels, and restaurants, plus maps, weather, photos, videos and more at: http://previewtravel.m0.net/m/s.asp?H104244174X108129 - Fairfield County, Connecticut Vital Records on the Internet Nancy Ring Kendrick sent the following announcement this week: As the list owner of CTFAIRFI and CTFAIRFIVOL through Rootsweb, together with being the co-coordinator of the CTFAIRFIVOL Transcription Project, I am proud and "pleased as punch" to announce the premier of the CTFAIRFIVOL's first 50 pages of transcribed records. The records contained within these pages were all transcribed and financed by the CTFAIRFI volunteers. The CTFAIRFIVOL's are dedicated to making vital records for Fairfield County, CT available to the Internet genealogical community at no charge. Here, you will not have to sign up for a membership, send for a CD-ROM, or jump through hoops to access vital records for your Fairfield County, CT genealogical research. Over the next several months you will see our completed records grow. The CTFAIRFIVOL's will be transcribing Fairfield County, CT; death, birth and marriage records from 1850 to 1900. Upon completion, those transcriptions will be uploaded to the Rootsweb server on a regular basis. The towns of Wilton, Greenwich, and Bridgeport are coming soon. Please check back regularly as we have pages 572-601 of Bethel yet to upload, and numerous Wilton pages completed and waiting in the wings for webpage design and graphics! The CTFAIRFIVOL's hope that the records we transcribe from microfilm during our free time will help each of you add branch after branch to your own family tree. Good luck! And now to what you all have been waiting for. . .the very first of our efforts . . . .The CTFAIRFIVOL's are PROUD to premier the CTFAIRFIVOL Transcription Project through Rootsweb: http://www.rootsweb.com/~ctfairfi/ctfairfivol/ctfairfivolcover.html I was going to write a tongue-in-cheek article about a new website that Robert Stauffer pointed out to me. The Unclaimed Persons Online service sounded humorous at first, but as I read about it, I realized that it has a very serious intent. The information provided could be valuable to anyone seeking a long-lost loved one. Quoting from the Unclaimed Persons website: The purpose of this website is to provide information to the public regarding a deceased loved one for whom next of kin has never been located. Coroner's Departments, Medical Examiner's offices and Sheriff's departments throughout the United States oftentimes conduct an investigation for which a deceased person's identity is known, however due to various reasons, family member(s) could not be located. The respective investigative agency may utilize resources such as a local newspaper to attempt to locate family. When all effort to find family is exhausted, the deceased loved one is generally buried or cremated at the expense of the respective governmental agency. It is our sincere hope that this website will assist family and friends in locating a lost loved one, providing information and closure. The function of this website is quite simple. You may search by the person's last name and first name, by county, or you may view all names in the database. If you locate the name of a person for whom you would like additional information, simply click on the person's underlined name and another screen will appear with full information including the responsible governmental agency. Simply call the phone number on that screen and refer to their case number. This website is maintained by the San Bernardino County Coroner's Department is provided free as a public service to all Coroner's Departments, Medical Examiners Offices and Sheriff's Departments responsible for such related duties. The Unclaimed Persons Online site is operating on a temporary server but will soon be moved. However, you can find it now or in the future if you look at: http://www.unclaimedpersons.com - Guess Who Is Coming to Dinner at the Jefferson's? The dinner in question will be at the Thomas Jefferson family reunion on May 15. For the first time, descendants of Jefferson's slave, Sally Hemings, will attend the annual gathering, held at Monticello for the past 86 years. But a battle looms over whether the Hemingses will be fully accepted as Jefferson's kin. The reunion will be the first one held since DNA test results last fall found that the author of the Declaration of Independence may have fathered at least one of Hemings' children. (See the November 9, 1998 newsletter at http://www.ancestry.com/columns/eastman/eastNov9-98.htm for details.) Because of those findings, a white, sixth-generation descendant of Jefferson plans to challenge his cousins to formally admit the Hemings descendants into their family organization, the Monticello Association, during their private meeting May 16. "I don't see what the big deal is unless the big deal is racism," said Lucian K. Truscott IV, a best-selling author and member of the Monticello Association. "They take my word that I'm a descendant and they don't take their word, despite the oral histories and DNA tests that back their claim. That's racist on its face." "Yes, it looks racist, but it's a genealogical question," Monticello Association President Robert Gillespie countered. "We've got historical records. We need to go over some gaps in their genealogy." The genetic tests do not prove that Jefferson was the father. The tests do prove, however, that a member of the Jefferson male line fathered a Hemings son. The father may have been Thomas Jefferson or his brother Randolph or one of Randolph's six sons. Historians are using records of the whereabouts of the Jeffersons at the time of Hemings' pregnancies to determine paternity. "We're not ready to say yes, but we're definitely not saying no," said Gillespie, a lawyer from Richmond. Last week, the Monticello Association sent the descendants invitations to the reunion dinner, which will be held at a nearby historic tavern May 15, and a tour of Monticello, Jefferson's home. 34 members of the Hemings family have responded saying that they will attend this year's reunion. About 150 members of the Monticello Association are expected at the reunion. Since this is a rather long newsletter, new listings of genealogy home pages will be postponed until a future issue.
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