Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Handheld computing power keeps getting cheaper and cheaper. Now Hewlett-Packard has introduced what may be the cheapest full-featured handheld device on the market: the HP Slate 7 Tablet. It will sell for $169.99. That is the manufacturer's suggested retail price, not a closeout special and not a discount. Best of all, it runs the Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) operating system. It should be capable of running all of today's Android programs, including genealogy programs. (Click on the picture to see a larger image.) The Slate 7 Tablet will play videos for 5 hours and should last even longer when running... Dick Eastman

The following review was written by Bobbi King: The Quack’s Daughter by Greta Nettleton Published by the author at www.gretanettleton.com. 2012. 328 pages. Nonfiction is the homely kid sister to fiction’s senior prom queen. Regarded as intelligent but dreary, nonfiction books have had an uphill road to notice and acclaim over the more audacious and best selling fictional genres. And then there’s self-publishing. Vanity books, as they were called in the old days, were ordered in quantity by the author, at great expense, the books hopefully sold at the family reunion, and finally may have ended up being stored in... Dick Eastman

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. Internet search engines such as Google and Yahoo and Bing are great inventions for genealogists. We can go to a search engine and enter a name of an ancestor or other relative. The search engine will then provide us with a “hit” list—a list of web pages that contain that name. If the name is an uncommon one, we often can find the information we seek within seconds. The more common names may be a bit more difficult as the search engines return too many "hits"... Dick Eastman

Set your VCR or video disk recorder! The new "Family Tree" television show will appear on HBO with the first episode to be aired on May 12th. Seven more episodes will follow. Here is a trailer about the show: Family Tree - Trailer Here is the press release: NEW HBO COMEDY SERIES “FAMILY TREE,” CREATED BY CHRISTOPHER GUEST & JIM PIDDOCK, STARRING CHRIS O’DOWD, DEBUTS MAY 12 Down on his luck in love and life, having recently lost his job and girlfriend, 30-year-old Tom Chadwick has an unsure sense of his own identity. But when he inherits a mysterious box,... Dick Eastman

A man claiming to be Al Capone's grandson claims the new ReelzChannel reality show "The Capones" is based on a fictitious family tree. The show's star, Dominic Capone, claims his great-great grandfather was Al Capone's uncle. However, another man, Chris K. Capone, claims that HE is Al Capone's grandson and further claims that Dominic Capone is not in the gangster's family. If his claim is true, the future of the entire television show is in doubt. You can read more at http://goo.gl/qw6Na. I think it is time for a DNA test. Dick Eastman

A number of comments posted to the end of recent articles in this newsletter have mentioned the recent redesign of FamilySearch.org. While many things have been improved, several of the commonly-used functions are now harder to find. Writing in the FamilySearch Blog, Steve Anderson notes that the web designers at FamilySearch apparently have been listening and reading. As a result, the FamilySearch Wiki is now easier to find with very few keystrokes. Details may be found in Steve's article in the FamilySearch Blog at https://familysearch.org/blog/en/finding-wiki-easier/. Dick Eastman

The following was written by the Suzanne Winsor Freeman Student Genealogy Grant Committee: April 22, 2013 PASADENA, California – The Suzanne Winsor Freeman Student Genealogy Grant Committee is pleased to announce that Michael Savoca, a college junior from Toms River, New Jersey will receive a $500 grant from the Freeman Memorial Grant program and full registration to the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank, California from SCGS. Michael Savoca will attend the SCGS Jamboree June 7-9, 2013 and use the grant funds toward genealogy research and education. This is the third year that the Freeman Student Genealogy Grant Program... Dick Eastman

I have found the growth of Geni.com to be fascinating to watch. The service started several years ago as a user-friendly method of allowing distant relatives to find each other online. Over the years, the service has matured into a genealogy powerhouse that offers many features. Today, Geni.com announced another step forward: the addition of Record Matching and Smart Matching. You will find it is now easier than ever to find both ancestors and distant cousins on Geni.com, thanks to the ability to suggest matching records and family connections, based on the many records available in the MyHeritage.com database. I... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch: April 23, 2013 FamilySearch has added more than half a million images this week from Australia, England, Italy, Philippines, Spain, and the United States. Notable collection updates include the 92,436 images from the new U.S., Ohio, Southern District Naturalization Index, 1852-1991, collection, and the 73,580 images from the new Australia, Tasmania, Civil Registration, 1803-1933, collection. See the table below for the full list of updates. Search these diverse collections and more than 3.5 billion other records for free at FamilySearch.org. Searchable historic records are made available on FamilySearch.org through the help of thousands... Dick Eastman

The following book review was written by Bobbi King: From Schoolboy to Soldier. by Quincy S. Abbot. Published by Quincy S. Abbot, West Hartford, CT. 2013. 256 pages. Quincy S. Abbot has compiled the letters and journal of his grand-uncle Edward Stanley Abbot, and he’s aptly named the book, the complete title which is From Schoolboy to Soldier, the Correspondence and Journals of Edward Stanley Abbot, 1853-1863. This volume follows Stanley Abbot’s thoughtful and introspective passage from family son to Harvard university student to Civil War Union soldier. Along the way, Abbot penned a journal and maintained a prodigious correspondence... Dick Eastman

Today I spent a pleasant afternoon at the Genealogical Roundtable Workshop in Acton, Massachusetts. One conversation left me smiling. As I often do, I was talking about the need to make multiple backups and to store them in multiple locations. One person lamented that a web site he was involved with lost all the web pages. Everything was gone. Zero. Nothing. The reason was not known although he had a few guesses. This conversation arose because he had no backups of the web site. Actually, he THOUGHT he had no backups. I opened a web browser and went to the... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch: 22 April 2013 Thanks A Billion Thank you for contributing to the billion! We did it! We reached a major milestone of one billion records indexed and arbitrated since the launch of FamilySearch indexing in September of 2006. We are grateful for the many volunteers who dedicate their time and efforts to make these records freely available for online research. Kenneth B. (California, United States), Brittney S. (Idaho, United States), and April R. (Alberta, Canada) were the lucky ones to index and arbitrate the billionth record! They will receive a FamilySearch backpack stuffed... Dick Eastman

It's nice to see WikiTree, a free online collection of user-contributed family trees, growing and attracting more customers. Unlike some online genealogy databases, WikiTree is a wiki that invites customers to correct and supplement data already on stored in the database. This "crowd sourcing" effort will eventually result in more accurate information for all of us. The following was written by the folks at WikiTree: Important Milestone for Feature-Rich, Free Family Tree Website April 22, 2013: WikiTree, a community of genealogists and family historians committed to growing a 100% free worldwide family tree, announces its latest achievement: Five million profiles... Dick Eastman

Mocavo solicited proposals in November from organizations that care for genealogical content, archives, or historical records that they wish to make freely available online. Details may be found at http://goo.gl/KJuF8. Now Mocavo has announced the winner of that grant: In November of last year we announced the first ever Mocavo Community Digitization Grant. We committed to provide up to $25,000 in digitization services to preserve historical records and make them available for free access. Today we are delighted to announce the recipient of the Mocavo Community Digitization Grant is the Bethany Children’s Home. Bethany Children’s home is a regional ministry... Dick Eastman

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. Perhaps two of the hottest new words on the World Wide Web these days are "blogs" and "RSS." OK, so RSS is not really a word–it's an acronym. It stands for "Really Simple Syndication." Whatever it is, RSS is becoming more and more popular every day in the same manner as blogs. Millions of blogs are already online, and thousands more are added every day. It seems as if almost everyone from teens to grandparents writes a blog. Many people write personal blogs to share their... Dick Eastman

Want to attend a genealogy conference and seminar at sea? One such opportunity is the Wholly Genes cruise. The 9th Annual Wholly Genes Genealogy Conference and Cruise will depart Baltimore on Thursday, October 17, 2013. The ship will then visit Portland, Maine; Bar Harbor, Maine (one of my favorite places); Saint John, New Brunswick; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and will return to Baltimore on October 25. The cruise will be on the Grandeur of the Seas, owned and operated by Royal Caribbean. This modern ship holds 2446 guests and 760 crew members. The planned presentations include approximately 17 hours of genealogy... Dick Eastman

The FamilySearch Blog has announced some great tools that illustrate how to use the new services recently added: FamilySearch is rolling out new product videos in conjunction with the launch of the new FamilySearch website. These videos are less than 3 minutes long and show how a new user can have success using each of the new features of the site. The videos are available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Look for these videos on the Learning Center of familysearch.org. FamilySearch.org Video Tutorials and Guides https://familysearch.org/ask/productSupport Getting Started Videos https://familysearch.org/gettingstarted Dick Eastman

My Genealogy Hound was described in an earlier newsletter article at http://goo.gl/2ITDb. Now the company is announcing an expansion of the records offered: More than 1000 family biographies from 1883 Jasper County, Missouri have now been added to the My Genealogy Hound website. Jasper County experienced a historic boom in population during the late 1800's due to the discovery of large deposits of lead, zinc, and other minerals and this attracted settlers and fortune seekers from all across the United States. Larger settlements in Jasper County include Joplin, Carthage, Sarcoxie, Webb City, Carl Junction and Jasper. The addition of Jasper... Dick Eastman

The following was received from Bennett Greenspan, President of Family Tree DNA: We are pleased to announce our 2013 DNA DAY Promotion. While the special pricing features all the major tests, we’re placing particular emphasis on the Full Mitochondrial Sequence and Family Finder. We’ll offer Y-DNA upgrades during a Father’s Day sale and will give you those details at that time. By carefully choosing the sale options and limiting the length of the sale, we will be better able to focus our resources on processing the tests efficiently and avoiding delays in delivering results. We are proud to announce we... Dick Eastman

Heads up! From Thursday, April 18 to Sunday, April 28, 2013 inclusive, there is 37% discount on Heredis for Windows at $ 24.99 instead of $ 39.90 available in http://www.heredis.com/en/heredis-pc/ and 33% discount on Heredis for Macintosh at $ 39.99 instead of $ 59.99 available in http://www.heredis.com/en/heredis-mac/ or in the App Store: http://appstore.com/mac/heredis/. Heredis is is a very popular genealogy program in Europe and has quite a few fans in North America as well. It has an excellent user interface that is very easy to learn. It also has great graphics, both on the screen and on printed reports. Heredis... Dick Eastman