Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

A genealogy summer school will offer a complete course in the latest Irish genealogy research. All aspects of Irish genealogy are covered by a series of presentations and "hands on" workshops given by a selection of Ireland’s leading genealogical lecturers and experts. Presenters include: Eileen M. Ó Dúill, CG; Sean O’Dúill; Dr. Paul MacCotter; Fiona Fitzsimons; Brian Donovan; Lorna Moloney; Dr Sarah Anne Buckley; Dave Enright; Dr Matthew Potter; Nicola Morris; Kenneth Nicholls; and Dr David Butler. In addition to classroom instruction, a number of trips are offered to sites and locations of significance, including Fota House, the Queenstown Experience... Dick Eastman

For centuries, the British Library has kept a copy of every book, pamphlet, magazine and newspaper published in Britain. Now the Library wants to do the same for the World Wide Web. Well, perhaps not for the world, but for the "UK Wide Web." The British Library has started archiving the entire UK web, including one billion pages from 4.8 million websites, blogs, e-books, online newsletters, forums, and social media sites. The process will take five months, in a bid to preserve the nation's “digital memory.” The library says the work is urgent. Ever since people began switching from paper... Dick Eastman

You might want to save this article someplace. I have no idea why, but many of the words used in researching your family tree are difficult to spell. I constantly see spelling errors in messages posted on various genealogy web sites. When someone misspells a word, it feels like they are shouting, "I don't know what I'm doing!" Here are a few words to memorize: Genealogy - No, it is not spelled “geneology” nor is it spelled in the manner I often see: “geneaology.” That last word looks to me as if someone thought, "Just throw all the letters in... Dick Eastman

Here is a talented young man. Fred Turner from Yorkshire built a DNA testing machine in his bedroom. He built the polymerase chain reaction machine from items he found at home plus an expenditure of about £400 (roughly $613 U.S. dollars). The reason? The 17-year-old was inspired to make it so he could analyze his own DNA and that of his brother to determine why his younger brother Gus has ginger hair but Fred does not. The experiment was a success and proved why his brother has ginger hair. Fred also was able to prove they certainly are brothers. By... Dick Eastman

I have written before about the National Digital Newspaper Program but not for some time. The Program continues to grow and expand, so perhaps it is time to go back and look at it again. The National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress have partnered to enhance access to historic newspapers for many years with the National Digital Newspaper Program. This long-term effort has developed an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages. Best of all, the information on the National Digital Newspaper Program is available free of charge.... Dick Eastman

Yad Vashem hopes to have collected the names of the overwhelming majority of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust within the next three years, Yad Vashem chief archivist Dr. Haim Gertner told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. He cited a wealth of documentation that has become available since archives in former Soviet bloc nations began to grant access to Israeli researchers. The museum “has signed more than 40 agreements all over the former Soviet Union” over the past five or six years, he said, adding that it has begun intensive research efforts archives and national archives” all over... Dick Eastman

The Hardin County Historical Commission and the Hardin County Genealogical Society are preparing for the grand opening of the Museum of Hardin County in Kountze, Texas. The museum is the result of a joint effort by the Historical Commission and the Genealogical Society. The Hardin County Genealogical Society voted to purchase the property in 2009 and restoration of the building by volunteers of the organizations has been ongoing. You can read more in an article by Andrea Whitney, published in the Silsbee Bee at http://goo.gl/6dhoR. Dick Eastman

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. NOTE: This article contains no genealogy information, other than a minor reference to saving money when talking with your relatives in distant places. If you are looking for true genealogy articles, I suggest that you skip this one. However, this article does describe a high-tech method of saving money for many people and some small businesses. If you have family in another state or in another country, you can call them at relatively low rates using any of a number of methods. Low-cost VoIP providers (see... Dick Eastman

In October, 2012, Microsoft released an operating system deigned for tablet and smartphone computers, called Windows 8 RT. While it has the phrase "Windows 8" in the name, the new operating system is just that: all new. It looks and feels a lot like Windows 8 for desktop and laptop computers, but is completely different otherwise. The new tablet and smartphone operating system does not run programs written for Windows 7 or earlier versions of Windows. NOTE: A very few programs written especially for Windows 8 can be run on both Windows 8 for desktop and laptop computers as well... Dick Eastman

Sad news: the Caldwell County Historical Railroad Museum in Princeton, Kentucky, closed its doors for the final time on Sunday. The building and contents are set to go up for auction later this month. Memorabilia from the museum will be available for bid on April 13. County historian Glenn Martin said the museum closed largely because of the advancing age of the local railroad society's remaining members. The Glenn E. Martin Genealogy Library will receive the bulk of the railroad documents being held in the museum. Those documents include the personnel file records for ICRR employees in the Memphis-to-Louisville division,... Dick Eastman

Here is a question for you: what do you get when you take the basic idea of Google Books and then wed it to the US public library system? Answer: the Digital Public Library of America. The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) is a project to make the holdings of America’s research libraries, archives, and museums available to all Americans, and eventually to everyone in the world, online and free of charge. Quoting from Robert Darnton’s article for The New York Review for Books, The National Digital Public Library Is Launched at http://goo.gl/G1Ir6, “Thanks to the Internet and a... Dick Eastman

The following book review was written by Bobbi King: Military Bounty Land 1776-1855 by Christine Rose. Published by CR Publications, San Jose CA. 2011. 156 pages. Asking me to review this book is like asking my cat to review catnip. We both love it. She the catnip, me the book. Christine Rose is well known for her extensive familiarity with courthouse records. Ms. Rose and her husband Seymour, as likeable and affable as Christine is lovable and affable, have RVed the byways of America introducing themselves to the courthouse clerks, deciphering their courthouse records, then interpreting and explaining them to... Dick Eastman

If you have ever visited the Midwest Genealogy Center at the Mid-Continent Public Library, you perhaps received assistance from Janice Schultz. If you did not receive guidance from Janice, you undoubtedly did receive help from a member of her staff that she trained. After twenty-five years on the job, Janice has retired. Twenty-five years ago, Janice Schultz took a part-time job at what was then called the Genealogy and Local History Department. That department then occupied about 3,000 square feet in the basement of the North independence Branch, sharing space with the periodicals. Never, Schultz says, did she envision that... Dick Eastman

Hollywood Actor Tom Cruise is visiting Ireland and Tourism Ireland gave him a present: documentation showing his straight male ancestry back several hundred years. The document appears to be well researched with extensive source citations. The research was conducted by Eneclann, a highly-respected Irish genealogy and history research company. Full details of the family history of Tom Cruise and the research performed can be found online at www.eneclann.ie/exhibitions/tomcruise. Tom Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV but dropped the surname after becoming a Hollywood actor. The following announcement was written by Tourism Ireland: Hollywood actor and producer Tom Cruise today... Dick Eastman

Are you thinking of switching from your Windows-based PC to a Mac? Lots of people are doing just that. Learn everything you need to know in order to make that transition painless in the FREE Switched: The Convert’s Guide to the Mac and OS X by Tim Brookes. The guide explains how to use a Mac from the perspective of a long-time Windows user. The reasons for deciding to buy a Mac over a PC are entirely personal, and your own pro-Mac arguments might not agree with someone else’s reasons. I made the switch several years ago and have no... Dick Eastman

The Flip-Pal team demonstrated the new Flip-Pal Software 2 at the RootsTech Conference in Salt Lake City a few days ago. The new gives the Toolbox screen a whole new look, and the Flip-Pal Software 2 has a more intuitive interface. The software also makes your images easily sharable and you can get larger views of your images (both the scans and the stitched images). The Flip-Pal software comes pre-installed on the Flip-Pal SecureDigital card. However, version 2 has only been available a few days. It includes important changes to the software and to the documentation. It also will make... Dick Eastman

Oregon House Bill 2093 contains wording that, if passed, will restrict family members and genealogists from accessing records that have been previously available to them. In Section 33 of the proposal, ORS 432.121 will be amended to allow the issuance of records only "when 125 years have elapsed after the date of live birth, 75 years have elapsed after the date of death or fetal death or 100 years have elapsed after the date of marriage, domestic partnership, dissolution of marriage or dissolution of domestic partnership." The deadline for input is April 8th (next week!). NOTE: This proposal will change... Dick Eastman

The New England Regional Genealogical Conference (NERGC) will be held April 17 through 21, 2013, in Manchester, New Hampshire. This is usually one of the largest regional conferences in the U.S. The conference organizers are publishing a series of e-zines to provide details of the conference. The following is a extract from the announcement of the latest edition of the e-zine: Woven in History – The Fabric of New England The 2013 New England Regional Genealogical Conference E-zine #8 is now available online at http://www.nergc.org/E-zine_8_2013.pdf for download or online viewing. Between now and the conference, we’ll be providing updates on... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch: FamilySearch Adds 19,206,333 Images to New United Kingdom, World War I Service Records, 1914-1920, Collection FamilySearch has added 23.9 million indexed records and images this week with new browsable image collections from Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, England, Italy, Mexico, and the United States. Notable collection updates include the 19,206,333 images from the new United Kingdom, World War I Service Records, 1914-1920, collection, the 2,005,113 index records from the United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918, collection, and the 930,622 index records from the U.S., New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists,... Dick Eastman

The Missouri State Archives is working with FamilySearch on a project that could allow people to look up old marriage records online. Secretary of State Jason Kander says the online database will include more than 3 million Missouri marriage records from the territorial period through 1969. Those records already are available at county courthouses and on microfilm at the State Archives in Jefferson City. But Kander says this will mark the first time they can be searched through a free state website. Details may be found in an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch at http://goo.gl/Wtfy4. UPDATE: The above link... Dick Eastman