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Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter
| IN THIS ISSUE: |
| Acquisitions, Mergers and Partnerships Havas Interactive (SierraHome) Acquires Heritage Quest Ancestry.Com and Lycos Introduce Co-Branded Genealogy Website Early Virginia Religious Petitions Online Rare Slave Records Found in Natchez The 1903 Project: Ship Passenger List Index Project is Looking for Volunteers The Search for (Canadian) Roots How to Find More Ancestors Through Online Networking David Rencher Named to New Position Genealogy Studies Aid Genetic Research Descendants of Battle of Quebec Generals Meet on the Battlefield Home Pages Highlighted |
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| September 21, 1999 |
- Acquisitions, Mergers and Partnerships Companies in the computer business are involved in acquisitions, mergers and partnerships at a record pace. The companies producing genealogy software and services are no exception. I have written about numerous new business alliances in the past year or so. This week there are two new ones to report. Some how, I doubt if these are the last ones of this year. I expect more such announcements as companies fight for market share. - Havas Interactive (SierraHome) Acquires Heritage Quest The first announcement of this past week came from Havas Interactive. This is the parent company of SierraHome, producers of the popular Generations software. The company purchased Heritage Quest, which is billed as the world's largest genealogy data company. Heritage Quest itself was the product of an earlier merger of two publishing firms: one was the magazine and book publisher of the same name, and the other was American Genealogical Lending Library. Here is this week’s announcement: Havas Interactive, a leading publisher of productivity, educational and entertainment software, along with its productivity division, SierraHome, today announced the acquisition of Heritage Quest, the world's largest genealogy data company. This acquisition will position the company for growth in the vast Internet genealogy market as well as help to strengthen SierraHome's role as a leader in the genealogy software category. The genealogy products and services market is a $150 million per year industry and tens of millions of people worldwide, including approximately 19 million Americans, actively trace their lineage. Genealogy is the second most popular hobby on the Web. "We're pleased that the longstanding relationship between SierraHome and Heritage Quest has evolved to this level. Now we will be even better equipped to provide our customers with what they're seeking: the most expansive genealogical data, plus powerful Internet and home software resources for bringing families closer," said Hubert Joly, chief executive officer of Havas Interactive. "We at Heritage Quest are excited to take our business to the next level with Havas Interactive," said Brad Steuart, president of Heritage Quest. "We're impressed by the commitment they've shown to the genealogy community through the development of SierraHome's Generations software line, and recognize the great potential in merging our companies." Founded in 1983 by Bradley and Raeone Steuart, Heritage Quest is a leading purveyor of genealogical data, products, supplies and equipment to consumers and institutions. Heritage Quest's products include: America's largest private collection of family history data on microfilm including more than 250,000 titles SierraHome's award-winning Generations software series includes Generations Grande Suite, Generations Deluxe and Generations Easy Family Tree. Each of these titles is available for purchase at software retailers nationwide, online at http://www.sierrahome.com and by phone at 800-757-7707. Generations Heritage Edition is available for purchase as a download only at http://www.sierrahome.com. Visit SierraHome on the Web at www.sierrahome.com for free clip art, recipes, gardening tips, family history information and events, contests, message boards and other revolving content. Havas Interactive is a global leader in interactive content. It is one of the world's largest publishers of education, entertainment and home productivity software. Its various divisions - Blizzard, Coktel, Knowledge Adventure, Sierra - are famous for releasing critically acclaimed and award winning titles. It has operations in the US and in Europe. It is a subsidiary of the French publishing house Havas, itself part of Vivendi Communications. Financial terms of the merger were not disclosed. - Ancestry.Com and Lycos Introduce Co-Branded Genealogy Website Ancestry.com and the popular Internet portal, Lycos, have announced the launch of a co-branded genealogy destination to help Lycos visitors discover and research their family history. The site, located at http://www.ancestry.lycos.com, will allow people using Lycos to investigate family history by using deep search capabilities, a help center, and the Ancestry World Tree, as well as by accessing the genealogical databases online through Ancestry.com. The announcement from the two companies states: Within People/Society and the Home/Family Web Guides at Lycos.com, users can trace their roots by quickly accessing more than 1.5 billion names in 1,750 databases. The help center gives beginner's tips for how to use the interactive tools and genealogy lessons that offer tips for tracing family heritage. One of the most popular databases at Ancestry.com, the Ancestry World Tree, is comprised of the largest collection of pedigree files on the Internet, submitted by Ancestry.com visitors and made available for free. "As the Lycos community expands, we continue to look for opportunities to offer our users the fastest and easiest access to unique content that meets their interests," said Elizabeth Scully, Web guide producer at Lycos. "Genealogy is one of the fastest growing hobbies, and Ancestry.com is the premier Internet property enabling people to trace their roots." Under the terms of the agreement, Ancestry.com and Lycos will share revenues generated by the co-branded site. The companies will also add new features to the site in the next few months. These will include a "what's new" feature that identifies new content on Ancestry.com, columns from expert genealogists, a genealogy learning center, and content from the landmark publication, "The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy," edited by Loretto D. Szucs and Sandra H. Luebking. "Our alliance with Lycos is important because it gives us access to the 30 million unique users that visit Lycos every month," said Curt Allen, president and CEO, Ancestry.com. "In addition to expanding the audience for our content, this deal supports our mission to provide everyone online with access to the best genealogy information available." From what I can see, the new center at Lycos will contain content that has already been available at http://www.Ancestry.com. However, many millions more people will discover this content, due to Lycos’ greater marketing muscle. To see the new genealogy Website, look at: http://ancestry.lycos.com/ - Early Virginia Religious Petitions Online Betty Clay sent an e-mail this week that said, "Dick, this is a neat site!!! I found a four-page petition here written by one of Richard's ancestors, Rev. Charles Clay, Rector of St. Ann's Parish during, before, and after the Revolutionary War. It was in his own handwriting, signed, and I was able to print it from the Website, or to save it for printing at my leisure. They offer two qualities of image, too." I’ve known Betty long enough to realize that the use of three exclamation marks means that she rates the site highly. I looked for myself and found that, indeed, this is a great site. "Early Virginia Religious Petitions" is a Collaborative Project by The Library of Congress and The Library of Virginia. Quoting from the site: Early Virginia Religious Petitions presents images of 423 petitions submitted to the Virginia legislature between 1774 and 1802 from more than eighty counties and cities. Drawn from the Library of Virginia's Legislative Petitions collection, the petitions concern such topics as the historic debate over the separation of church and state championed by James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, the rights of dissenters such as Quakers and Baptists, the sale and division of property in the established church, and the dissolution of unpopular vestries. The collection provides searchable access to the petitions' places of origin and a brief summary of each petition's contents, as well as summaries of an additional seventy-four petitions that are no longer extant. The collection complements the Library of Congress exhibition Religion and the Founding of the American Republic and is a collaborative venture between the Library of Congress and the Library of Virginia. The mission of the Library of Congress is to make its resources available and useful to Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. The goal of the Library's National Digital Library Program is to offer broad public access to a wide range of historical and cultural documents as a contribution to education and lifelong learning. Digital collections from other institutions complement and enhance the Library's own resources. The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The Library of Congress and the Library of Virginia do not endorse the views expressed in these collections, which may contain materials offensive to some readers. Most of the documents are from the period between the beginnings of the Revolutionary War until shortly before 1800. During this period Virginia was struggling with the issue of religious freedom and toleration. To look at the Early Virginia Religious Petitions Online, go to http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/repehtml/repehome.html Thanks, Betty. - Rare Slave Records Found in Natchez The Sun Herald newspaper recently ran a story describing a book containing rare slavery records recently found in the basement of the Adams County Courthouse in Natchez. The book contains invaluable information concerning the transportation of slaves from Kentucky to Mississippi before the Civil War. Written in precise script on yellowing pages, the book contains the vital statistics of slaves brought from Kentucky to Mississippi just before the Civil War. For instance, here are a few typical entries: Lewis Figg, of black coller, age about 27 years, weighs 160 lbs. The complete story is available at: http://www.sunherald.com/region/docs/slave083099.htm - The 1903 Project: Ship Passenger List Index Project is Looking for Volunteers The following is a message from Dennis Baer: I seek 108 volunteers who will rent one microfilm from the National Archives Series T715. Films 316 to 423. This covers every ship that has arrived in New York City in 1903. I now have 48 volunteers and seek 60 more volunteers. Each volunteer will transcribe only the names of every passenger list on one microfilm onto paper and then into text files on their computer and eventually e-mail them to me after each text file gets finished. If you have 10 ships, you can send 10 text files one at a time after each gets done. The text file name will have the film number, the month and day in 1903 and the name of the ship. The file itself will have group of names of passengers who arrived on that ship. I set no time limit when this will get done. Enjoy your volunteer work, seeing that you will help others and yourself. I'm currently assigning microfilms to those who wish to volunteer. I plan to place the text files on a CD. I will either do the lookups myself or make copies of the CD for free if someone sends me a CD. GALL at 800 658 7755 ( http://www.heritagequest.com ) rents or sells such films as well as The National Archives or the Family History Centers. Your public library can join AGLL for free. Then you can rent a film for $3.25 plus shipping for a month and you can extend the rental by having your library calling AGLL and extend it month by month for another $3.25 and then you pay the library who will send the money to AGLL. If you find that you need the film for 5 months, and that appears fine with me, you might want to buy the film for $17.95. You'll give the $17.95 to the librarian and you would tell the librarian you want to have them buy the film for $17.95 for you and you will make sure that you get the film as its owner. For example, the list will look like this in your text editor: T715 Roll 316 with the ship name SS Livonia arriving on January 2,1903 would have the filename: 3160102SS Livonia.txt and passenger names in the file. John Smith For more information, you can contact Dennis Baer directly at: dbaer@netmonger.net - The Search for (Canadian) Roots Maclean’s Online carried a great article in the September 20, 1999 edition about a Vancouver man who is researching his family origins. Although the story has a decidedly Canadian viewpoint, I think that almost all of us can identify with his search and the results he has found so far. The article is a "good read." You can find it at: http://www.macleans.ca/pub-doc/1999/09/20/Cover/22915.shtml - How to Find More Ancestors Through Online Networking "How to Find More Ancestors Through Online Networking" is the name of a new book written by Nancy Hendrickson. The thing that caught my eye is the distribution mechanism: the book is only available in electronic format. You can purchase the book directly from the author. Once payment is received, the book arrives on your computer in the form of an attachment to an e-mail message. The book is in Adobe’s .PDF format and can be read with Adobe Acrobat Reader. You probably have this software already installed on your PC or Macintosh. If not, you can obtain Adobe Acrobat Reader at no charge from Adobe’s Website. I had a chance to read "How to Find More Ancestors Through Online Networking" this week. The book gives a quick view of many topics; it generally does not go into deep, detailed descriptions. It does, however, cover most every topic I can think of that deals with online genealogy research. The chapters include: Networking, the Best of the Internet Why networking is the quickest way to obtain family records. Don't be left out in the cold! Why queries can bring explosive search results. Where the real genealogical treasures of the Internet can be found. Why mailing lists are critical in your research. The two best commercial sites for networkers. Electronic logs will speed up your research, help you keep track of online contacts and data. No matter what Internet Service Provider (ISP) you use, you'll never miss replies to your queries again. - David Rencher Named to New Position The LDS Church has announced the promotion of David Rencher. He is now the Director of the Libraries Division of the Family History Department. David is now in charge of the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the Family Search Center in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, all of the Family History Centers worldwide, and the Public Outreach Department for the LDS Church. David will move into his new office at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City on Monday, September 20th. His telephone and e-mail will stay the same as they are now. David Rencher is an avid genealogist and is well known and respected in genealogy circles. He has been mentioned in this newsletter a number of times in recent years. He also is president of the Federation of Genealogical Societies. I would like to join David’s many friends to offer him hearty congratulations on his new position. - Genealogy Studies Aid Genetic Research Two companies are working together to use genealogy techniques to develop genetic research. Myriad Genetics, Inc. of Salt Lake City and Galileo Genomics, a privately held Canadian biotechnology company, have announced a strategic collaboration. The collaboration provides Myriad with access to DNA samples from patients in the French-Canadian population of Quebec. The 18-month collaboration will initially focus on the collection and analysis of DNA samples from patients with heart disease, obesity and depression. Myriad has also reserved a right of first refusal on DNA samples associated with other important diseases of potential interest to the company. Myriad will receive exclusive worldwide diagnostic and therapeutic rights for all genes discovered during the collaboration, returning a royalty on any product sales based on these genes to Galileo. Myriad scientists believe that there are three preeminent population resources in the world for gene discovery by comparative genetic analysis: the Utah pioneers, the French-Canadians in Quebec, and the Icelanders. Each group is highly valuable to geneticists due to its large size, its relative isolation during the expansion of the population, a disease profile that is representative of the world's major drug markets, and the close proximity of its members for data and specimen collection purposes. Myriad now has accessed two of these resources, each with distinct features and advantages. The Utah and Quebec populations are perhaps the largest of their types, each with millions of descendents living today. The Utah population was founded by roughly 5,000 original settlers. This provides a sufficient number of originators so that common disease genes are likely to be represented among their descendents. The Utah founding population had the additional characteristics, highly valued by geneticists, of multiple marriages and very large families. In addition, ancestry has been carefully and systematically recorded from the outset in Utah, allowing a very thorough and computerized genealogy. Similarly, a large founding Myriad/Galileo population of approximately 10,000 individuals moved from France to Canada in the 17th and 18th centuries, forming a thriving community. The anonymous French-Canadian genetic information will be used in conjunction with the vast assemblage of family resources available to Myriad through its Utah genealogy. The companies hope that the new information will provide an additional data set capable of accelerating Myriad's gene discovery programs. In addition to the discovery of important genes involved in breast cancer, brain cancer, melanoma and heart disease, Myriad has located two genes linked to human obesity, two genes associated with depression and five genes involved in heart disease. The precise location of these genes has been narrowed to small chromosomal regions; the company expects the ensuing gene discovery process to greatly benefit from the new availability of DNA samples from the French-Canadian population. - Descendants of Battle of Quebec Generals Meet on the Battlefield The descendants of two generals whose historic clash in the Battle of Quebec led to Britain taking Canada out of French hands met last Sunday, nearly 2-1/2 centuries later. But this time, the battlefield was drenched with sunshine, not with blood. The descendants of James Wolfe and the Marquis de Montcalm, who led the British and French armies into one of the most famous battles on Canadian soil, participated in a reenactment on the Plains of Abraham to commemorate the 240th anniversary of Canada's conquest. Representing the famous army commanders who both died in action in 1759 on Quebec City's Plains of Abraham, French Baron Georges Savarin de Marestan and Andrew Wolfe Burroughs made peace Sunday, one wearing a red cape, the other cloaked in blue. The two men are in fact good friends. But for their ancestors, it was a different story. In the early hours of September 13, 1759, Wolfe showed up with 60,000 men on the shores of the St. Lawrence River and crushed the 10,000 troops of the Marquis de Montcalm. The Battle of Quebec was one of the most violent episodes of Europe's Seven-Year War between France, Spain, Austria, Russia, Saxony and Sweden on one side and Britain, Prussia and Hanover on the other. Canada, then a French colony, fell to Britain after an attack on Quebec City that took the lives of more than 12,000 British soldiers and 5,000 Frenchmen, historians have said. The famous battle of the Plains of Abraham, or the Heights of Abraham, as it is known in England, has since shaped Canada's history. Historians have said that it indirectly led to the birth of the United States because Britain was too tied up with Canada to deal decisively with the unrest to the south. On Sunday, hundreds of Quebec City residents volunteered as soldiers for a day and toured the historic park under bright blue skies with the modern versions of Wolfe and Montcalm. They reenacted the battlefield maneuvers in costume. Wolfe Burroughs, 41, is a blues guitarist and a BBC television correspondent. Baron Savarin de Marestan, 51, is an arbitrator in international disputes as well as a champion horseman. "Curiously, we have exactly the same age difference as had the two generals at the time of the Plains of Abraham battle. It is a glimpse of history," the Baron said in an interview. "For me, I did not think the battle of Quebec had such an importance. I discovered it when I first came here in 1993," he said. 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. The Highlands County Genealogy Society of Florida's web page: Muster Rolls of companies of the 36th Regiment of Alabama Volunteers and Home Guard companies from Monroe/Conecuh County Alabama: Ohnmeiss Family Genealogy research. Variations of name include: OHNMEIS, OHMNIES, OHMNEIS, OHNMIES, OHMNEISS: The traditional story regarding Johan Christian Sackrider, immigrant to Philadelphia, on the Brittania in 1731: Pioneer, Patriots, Puritans & Scalawags, an on-line the genealogy from a 100 page book on the Descendants of Julius Christy & Agatha Barnet by Ruth Turner Ziegel: Templin Family lineage: Jasper Crane 1st as well and 850 of his descendants: 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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