GENViewer
Do you have "islands" in your genealogy database? That is, a person
or groups of persons that are not connected by blood or marriage to other
people in the same database? If so, does your present genealogy program
allow you to quickly find the individuals who are marooned on these "islands?"
Perhaps someone has sent you GEDCOM files. Or you have downloaded lots
of GEDCOM files from the Internet. How do you quickly and easily find
the individuals of interest in those files? Loading each and every GEDCOM
file individually into your favorite genealogy program may be time-consuming.
And then how do you quickly find "all the males named Smith who were born
in England between 1800 and 1900?" The powerful genealogy programs can
do this easily, but the simpler ones do not.
This week I used a new Windows program written by Luc Comeau that will
do all this and a lot more. GENViewer for Windows is in beta test right
now and is being offered as a free program during the beta. Best of all,
GENViewer not only reads GEDCOM files, but it also will read files directly
from Personal Ancestral File versions 3 and 4.
Installation was a snap. I first used GENViewer to open a GEDCOM file
of more than 3,000 individuals. I was amazed at the speed; I opened the
file, and pedigree charts, descendant charts and more were available instantly.
The program’s user’s manual says that it can import about 10,000 to 30,000
individuals a second from a GEDCOM file. PAF database files are even faster.
Apparently my 3,000-person file was read in about one-third of a second.
This program reads data very quickly!
I used GENViewer for a while and found that it is great for finding
"islands" and for selecting all individuals that meet certain criteria.
It also can perform the following functions:
- GENViewer gives an almost instant list of individuals contained within
a GEDCOM file or PAF database. You can quickly
see "who’s here." This feature is great for examining new GEDCOM files
of questionable origin and accuracy downloaded from the Internet. I also
used it to look at some GEDCOM files stored on my hard drive for a long
time where I had forgotten why I had kept them.
- GENViewer will find information errors in your database; for example,
a mother giving birth at age 4. GENViewer allows you to visually highlight
these individuals in seconds.
- GENViewer allows you to highlight individuals that are still missing
information. For example, you can highlight all ancestors that are missing
a birth date.
- You can highlight all the individuals in a file who are related to
a particular person. I used this to find those individuals who were direct
relatives of mine.
- LDS members will appreciate GENViewer’s capability to highlight individuals
that are missing LDS ordinates as well as who is temple-ready. Remember
that GENViewer can also do this while directly reading PAF 3 or PAF 4
files.
I found the program easy to use. However, a full user’s manual is included
in the download. The user’s manual is in HTML format; you read it with
Netscape Communicator or Internet Explorer or whatever Web browser you prefer.
GENViewer is an "add on" utility application to existing genealogy
applications. Since this is a "viewer," it is "read only." In contrast
to genealogy creation programs, it doesn't have any editing abilities
and cannot write any data to your GEDCOM or PAF files.
GENViewer runs on Windows 95, 98, NT, and 2000 as well as on Windows
Me. It requires little disk space. When reading a GEDCOM file it does
require an additional 10 percent disk space. For instance, when reading a 10-megabyte
GEDCOM file it will also need an additional one megabyte for temporary
files. GENViewer will read GEDCOM, PAF 3 and PAF 4 files up to 2 gigabytes
in size. This translates to about 10 million individuals in a GEDCOM file.
GENViewer for Windows beta version is available as a free program.
There is no hint in the online user’s manual whether or not the final
version will remain free. You can obtain a free copy of GENViewer for
Windows beta software at the Web site.
Freedmen's Bureau Records Preservation
Act of 2000
On September 12, Representative Juanita Millender-McDonald introduced
the following bill in the U.S. House of Representatives:
Freedmen's Bureau Records Preservation Act of 2000 (Introduced in the
House)
HR 5157 IH
106th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 5157
To amend title 44, United States Code, to ensure preservation of the
records of the Freedmen's Bureau.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 12, 2000
Ms. MILLENDER-MCDONALD (for herself and Mr. WATTS of Oklahoma) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Government
Reform
A BILL
To amend title 44, United States Code, to ensure preservation of the
records of the Freedmen's Bureau.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United
States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the `Freedmen's Bureau Records Preservation
Act of 2000'.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress finds the following:
(1) From 1619 to 1800 more than 660,000 African men, women, and children
were torn from their homelands in west Africa and herded onto ships for
transport to North America as slaves.
(2) Between 10 and 15 percent of these Africans died during the journey
across the Atlantic Ocean.
(3) The institution of slavery robbed Africans of their natural rights
and divided this Nation over the meaning of freedom, the principle upon
which this Nation was founded.
(4) Paraphrasing President Abraham Lincoln, the Government could not
endure permanently half slave and half free.
(5) The United States waged the Civil War to free the Nation's slaves,
preserve the Nation, and embrace all people as citizens regardless of
race in a system of inclusive freedom for all.
(6) On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation
Proclamation, which declared that individuals held as slaves within the
rebellious States `are, and henceforward shall be free'.
(7) On April 9, 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered the Confederate
Army to General Ulysses S. Grant, thereby ending the Civil War.
(8) In 1865, the Congress established in the War Department the Bureau
of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly referred to as the
`Freedmen's Bureau', to supervise and manage all matters relating to refugees
and freedmen, and to supervise abandoned and confiscated property.
(9) The records of the Freedmen's Bureau are a vital source of
information for historians and genealogists.
(10) These records contain a wide range of data about the African-American
experience during slavery and freedom, including in marriage records,
labor contracts, Government rations and back pay records, and indentured
contracts for minors.
(11) These records are maintained in Alabama, Arkansas, the District
of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Delaware,
Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
and Virginia.
(12) All of these records are originals and, because they are deteriorating,
require immediate attention.
(13) These records are an important link for African-Americans to their
slave and African ancestors.
(14) Preserving the records of the Freedmen's Bureau is a high priority
for millions of Americans interested in Civil War and post-Civil War era
history.
SEC. 3. PRESERVATION OF FREEDMEN'S BUREAU RECORDS.
(a) IN GENERAL—Chapter 29 of title 44, United States Code, is amended
by adding at the end the following:
`Sec. 2910. Preservation of Freedmen's Bureau Records
`The Archivist shall preserve the records of the Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, commonly referred to as the `Freedmen's
Bureau', by using—
`(1) available technology for restoration of the documents comprising
these records so that they can be maintained for future generations; and
`(2) innovative imaging and indexing technologies to make these records
easily accessible to the public, including historians, genealogists, novice
genealogy enthusiasts, and students.'.
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT—The table of sections at the beginning of chapter
29 of title 44, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the
following new item:
`2910. Preservation of freedmen's bureau records.'.
The bill has been referred to the House Committee on Government Reform.
If you would like to see this bill pass, I would strongly suggest that
you write your Representative. I wrote to mine today, asking him to support
HR 5157.
You can find the name of your representative and even send him or her
an e-mail by going to this Web site.
NARA Publishes New Reproduction
Fee Schedule
The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration released proposed
new fees some time ago that soon became controversial. Some of the fees
seemed rather high. Now the agency has finalized the new fees by publishing
its "final rule," NARA Reproduction Fee Schedule, in the October 13, 2000,
Federal Register at page 60862. The revised fees go into effect on November
13.
The new fees are not cheap:
- A copy of Passenger Arrival lists (NATF Form 81): $17.25
- Federal Census requests (NATF Form 82): $17.50
- Military service files more than 75 years old (NATF Form 86)
But the real zinger is the cost of a copy of complete pension file
that is more than 75 years old (NATF Form 85): $37!
For more information, please go to the NARA Web site.
FamilySearch.org Updated
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) has unveiled
a "new look" at its FamilySearch.org Web site. The updated site has had
a complete makeover that should improve ease of use.
As part of the new Web site, the Church has also announced that new
databases are about to go online, including the Vital Records Indexes
for North America, the United Kingdom, and for Western Europe. They also
have announced the release of a new Resource File Viewer 3.0 to read the
CD-ROM version of these databases. This viewer allows users to view immigration
records in addition to vital records and census records. An advanced word
search is available for census records and for the journal accounts of
immigration records.
Visit the FamilySearch site for more information.
Coal Mining History Resource Centre
Do you have an ancestor who worked in the coalmines of Great Britain?
If so, you want to look at Ian Winstanley's Coal Mining History Resource
Centre. This Web site includes comprehensive sources for mining deaths—some 65,000 names of people who died or suffered injury in the mines
of Great Britain from 1850 to 1909. It also presents a great deal of material
about the lives of the men and boys who worked in the mines.
Subjects on this Web site include:
- Books on Mining History
- Mining Texts
- Mining Prints
- A Database of Mining Deaths in Great Britain
- Mining Disasters in Great Britain
- A Glossary of Mining Terms
- Catalogue of Abandoned Mines—1928
- Miners Lamps
- Poetry Corner
- Children in the Mines—Transcripts of the Royal Commission Reports
on the working conditions of children and young persons in the coalfields
of Great Britain, 1842
This great online resource may be found at this site.
My thanks to Brian B Comley for letting me know about the Coal Mining
History Resource Centre.
Help Wanted in Boston
The New England Historic Genealogical Society has hung out a "Help
Wanted" sign. They are recruiting a Manager of Membership, a Development
Assistant, and a part-time Sales Assistant. All three positions are at
NEHGS headquarters in Boston. If you have an interest in any of these
positions, visit the Web site.
More Than 75 Children?
In last week’s newsletter I wrote about Screamin’ Jay Hawkins,
a rock singer who fathered about 75 children. Quite a few people wrote
e-mails and messages on CompuServe’s Genealogy Techniques Forum with follow-up
questions or comments. While 75 seems like a large number, it certainly
is not a record. History books are full of examples of men who fathered
hundreds of children.
One example that I found interesting was that of French painter Paul
Gaugin. While in Tahiti last week, I toured the Gaugin Museum and learned
quite a bit about his life. Paul Gaugin was born in 1848 to a liberal
middle-class family. In his early years he became a successful Parisian
stockbroker and dabbled at painting. In 1883 he abandoned his financial
career to devote himself to his painting. Soon after, he also abandoned
his wife and five children. Gaugin lived for a while in Brittany, and
then moved to Tahiti, where he had artistic success painting Tahitian
models and landscapes. Financial success still eluded him, however, as
he lived on a small stipend from a Parisian art dealer.
During his life on Tahiti, Gaugin lived a life mixed with art, alcohol
and women. The life style of the native Tahitians was liberal by European
standards, and Gaugin soon found himself well supplied with available
women. In fact, a museum tour guide told me that the Polynesian men realized
that their families needed "new blood" and would actually send their wives
to Gaugin—essentially, to expand the local gene pool. Nobody knows
how many children the artist had, but the number apparently is greater
than 75.
Gaugin later moved to Atuana, a small island in the Marquesas where
he died on May 9, 1903, having spent a total of ten years in French Polynesia.
He was only 54 years old when he died.
Home Pages Highlighted
The following is a list of some of the genealogy-related World
Wide Web home pages that have been listed recently on RootsComputing.com:
Massachusetts Society of Genealogists—dedicated to helping all those
researching the state of Massachusetts with chapters in Middlesex, Worcester,
Hampden, and Bristol Counties. Get details.
Essex County (Massachusetts) USGenWeb with access to county resources,
23 online town pages, and an online research guide to Essex County.
Get details.
Garvey Surname Study—The site has maps showing the distribution of
the names Garvey, McGarvey and Garvan in Ireland in the mid-1800s as listed
in the Griffith Valuation. The site also has a transcription of all Garveys
and McGarveys in the 1850 U.S. census. Get details.
Home of the Knibbs/Nibb/Nibs/Nibbs One-name Study. Get details.
The Boys from the Old Swan—a Web site that tells the family history
of the Brown brothers of North Wales, 770 left their family pub to fight
in the Great War. Get details.
Galway, Ireland ancestors, focusing on the surnames Keane and Canny.
Get details.
Palmer and Grosze Family Genealogy as well as other connecting lines
with nearly 15,000 persons. Get details.
Welsh Genealogy Photography Requests, a photography service based in
Llanharan that will cover the Glamorgan area. This site offers to take
digital photographs of ancestral houses, villages and the churches that
the family once attended. Costs are based upon the time required and traveling
expenses incurred. Get details.
A comprehensive Australian gateway site for tracing your family history.
This links site focuses on quality Australian sites and lists over 760
genealogy links with descriptions. Get details.
Web site of the South Fredericksburgh Heritage Committee, Lennox and
Addington County, Ontario. Included are voters’ lists, the 1851 Census,
cemetery records, UEL lists, etc., as well as birth, baptism and marriage
records. Also included is a list of township publications available for
sale. Get details.
UK Genealogy News is a monthly online newsletter covering all aspects
of genealogy in the UK. The main page has links to the current and past
editions. Get details.
Dwight and Phebe Harding Family Reunion—a gigantic family reunion
in 2001 for the descendents of Dwight Harding and Phebe Holbrook, early
settlers of Willard, Utah. Get details.
Van Dyke Genealogy DYKBEWONER II—a site to help everyone with a Van
Dyke heritage with info, photos and stories. Get details.
Family Page of Angelique Sekeris-Streur in the Netherlands (this Web
site is oin Dutch). Get details.
Willever-Woolever Family Roots of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Get details.
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.
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: The contents of this newsletter are copyright by Richard
W. Eastman. You are hereby granted rights, unless otherwise specified,
to re-distribute articles from this newsletter to other parties provided
you do so strictly for non-commercial purposes. Please limit your re-distribution
to one or two articles per newsletter; do not re-distribute the newsletter
in its entirety. Also, please include the following words with any articles
you re-distribute:
The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter
and is copyright 2000 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with
the permission of the author.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Dick Eastman Online
