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The following announcement was written by FamilySearch: FamilySearch has added 2.1 million indexed records and images this week from BillionGraves, Canada, Czech Republic, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, and the United States. Notable collection updates include the 815,732 index record and images from the BillionGraves Index collection, and the 753,021 images from the U.S., Washington, County Records, 1856-2009, 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 of volunteers from... Dick Eastman

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I have written several times about the handheld Magic Wand scanner made by VuPoint. (Past articles may be found by starting at http://goo.gl/GB9Co.) The articles I have written have described the original scanner that stores data on a microSD memory card. After making the scans, you can copy the images to your computer by either connecting a USB cable from the scanner to the computer or by removing the memory card and inserting it into your Windows, Macintosh, Linux, or Chromebook computer (a microSD adapter may be required if your computer does not already have a microSD socket). You can... Dick Eastman

I wrote in an earlier article at http://goo.gl/Zkx20 that VuPoint has released a new version of their popular Magic Wand handheld scanner that now includes wireless wi-fi connectivity. However, owners of the Flip-Pal handheld scanner shouldn't feel left out; the Flip-Pal has always been able to use wi-fi networking if the owner purchases a suitable memory card. SanDisk has made a series of Eye-Fi memory cards for years. These are SD cards that are intended to be installed in a digital camera. The Eye-Fi card allows you to wirelessly transfer photos and videos from your camera to a computer, tablet,... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by the Federation of Genealogical Societies: April 8, 2013 – Genealogy bloggers, societies, writers and editors are invited to participate in the Federation of Genealogical Societies 2013 Conference by becoming FGS 2013 Ambassadors. Ambassadors help to spread information about the FGS 2013 Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana, August 21-24, through social media to their friends, colleagues, and everyone interested in genealogy. FGS 2013 Ambassadors will be: Participating in monthly blogging prompts. Writing about the conference on their blog. Using the hashtag #FGS2013 on Twitter. Mentioning FGS 2013 on Facebook, Google Plus, and other social networks.... Dick Eastman

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. Experienced genealogists are always aware that they must verify information by looking at original documents or a microfilm or digital image of an original document. We should know better than to believe a statement on a web site, in a genealogy book, or a verbal statement from Aunt Tilley about the "facts" of our family trees. However, what is the definition of an "original document?" Let's take one well-known claim of an original document that isn't really accurate: the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Almost all American... Dick Eastman

A report at http://goo.gl/ukcHB from the Radicati Group, a market research firm, found that in 2011, there were 3.1 billion active e-mail accounts in the world. Consumer email accounts represent 75% of worldwide mailboxes, while corporate email accounts represent 25% of worldwide mailboxes. The same report states that the average email user receives 72 email messages per day (corporate users tend to receive more, consumers typically receive less). That daily number averages 14 spam messages so that means the average email user receives 58 legitimate email messages per day. A research report at http://goo.gl/aiBU4, issued about a year ago by... Dick Eastman

Bob Vornlocker sent an article two years ago describing problems and a potential solution when searching for surnames in the various online databases. Bob kindly gave me permission to re-publish the article in this newsletter at http://goo.gl/JTzEr. Bob has now followed that with an update and again has offered his new article to newsletter readers here. Bob writes that if you "Couple wildcards with Boolean searches, particularly the proximity or NEAR operand and I am a very happy Fachenlueger." (Translation of that last word is left to the reader.) To read all of Bob's excellent words about the use of... Dick Eastman

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