All Posts (3182)

Sort by

Casino in Gettysburg

For those who don't know,someone is trying to build a casino near Gettysburg.

Such an historic place as Gettysburg should not be turned into a dirty,trashy town because someone thinks they can make money from the people who visit such hallowed ground.

The battle of Gettysburg was something we should charish and share with generations to come,but not with a casino.

This link http://nocasinogettysburg.org/ is an online petition you can sign to help stop this from happening.

Please sign it and post the

Read more…
Views: 38
Comments: 0
Choosing an image file format for storing original photographs and scansraises a number of major fundamental issues including most importantly,the survivability of the format in the long term. The most recent issueof the Family Treemagazine has an article on Endangered Sources by Lisa A. Alzo. The article identifies various categories ofpublic and private records that could be lost over time. One obvioussolution, and a solution becoming overwhelmingly popular, is to digitizethe paper records. Bu
Read more…
Views: 24
Comments: 0
Two items:

First, please notice the links in the sidebar to the individual articlesin each series. I will work at keeping them up to date.

Second:

Ian Tester from findmypast.com leftthe following comment:
Just FYI, brightsolid online publishing have also recently acquired the FriendsReunited group, including genesreunited.co.uk whichis the number 2 player in the UK market (behind ancestry.co.uk).brightsolid is 100% owned by DC Thomson, the family-owned media group,and most famous for being owner of
Read more…
Views: 53
Comments: 0

With today's technology, not much really surprises me anymore. However, as I am writing this, I am nearly stunned at what I am looking at.

I have a brittle, old photograph of my 3rd great-grandfather, David Brown (there I go again talking about my Browns...). Time has faded and cracked the photo. Many years ago I scanned/digitized the photo to preserve its current state. I really did not think there was much hope in ever restoring the photo to my satisfaction.

When Miles Abernathy (of 399Retouch.c

Read more…

New England Town Meetings

Often I am asked about town meetings and other terms pertaining to New England town government by people researching their roots from outside of New England. They see the annual reports in the archives, and have questions about the terminology, and the form of government. If you have ever seen Norman Rockwell’s paintings of the “Four Freedoms,” I think the painting of the young farmer standing up to speak at the town meeting (the “Freedom of Speech” painting) epitomizes this form of government.

Read more…

A writer's Journey to the Land of Oz

Do you want to come along? I am on my way to impress the great OZ with a brilliantly written query letter (version # 53, to be exact). I’ve been here before. In fact, it was just last week that I marched to the emerald city only to discover the doors strong-armed by guards holding WEAPONS OF MASS REJECTION.

I must better prepare this time. I am fearful, but I double back, lick my wounds, and attempt to gain as much feedback as possible before entering the mind-numbing forest again. I search for a

Read more…
Hi all,

GenealogyBuff.com has added several new obituary collections. The list is below. You can also browse all of the other collections by state from the Library of Files page at http://www.genealogybuff.com/library.htm and clicking on the state you are interested in. You can also choose CANADA and MISCELLANEOUS to see other large data files.

These obituary collections are searchable using the watermarked searchbox that will have the name of the county written on the SEARCH button.

Here's the lis
Read more…
Views: 177
Comments: 0
Continuing the discussion about image file formats, you may have noticedthat I put the term "original" in quotes. The reason for that issimple, what is an "original"? In pre-computer, pre-copy machine days,the concept of an original was very much an issue. For example, in courtproceedings, we would often get into discussions about whether or notthe original document was being presented in court and whether a copycould be substituted for the original. Those categories of discussionsare long gone
Read more…
Views: 35
Comments: 0
In my previouspost on this subject, I covered some of my experiences with gettinginto digital cameras. The point of that discussion was that the fileformat used to store digital images depends on the availability of thoseformats both from the hardware (the camera or scanner) and thesoftware. Before I can discuss this further, I need a few definitions.First of all are the terms lossless or lossy. A lossless image file issaved with a compression algorithm that does not discard informationobtained
Read more…
Views: 25
Comments: 0

Working at “The Shoe”

United Shoe Machinery Corporation was a major employer in Beverly, Massachusetts. The locals called it “The Shoe,” and when it began manufacturing in 1902 it was the largest factory in the world at that time. By World War I it employed over 5,000 workers. Founded in 1899, they produced machines for the shoe industry, and it was one of the first international companies. There were branches in England, Germany, Canada, South America and Asia by 1905. It quickly became a monopoly, receiving royalti

Read more…
In the pastinstallments of this series, I have been examining the ownership ofthe larger genealogy oriented companies. In this post I examine GenealogyBank.com. Corporateoffices of the GenealogyBank are in Naples, Florida and their"Operations and Production Facility" is located in Chester, Vermont.They characterize there business as follows:
GenealogyBank has the most comprehensive newspaper archive filled with family history information. Many of our historicalnewspapers are exclusive to Genealog
Read more…
Views: 81
Comments: 0
A recent Blog post by Dick Eastman, "NeverSave Original Photos in JPEG Format!"got me thinking again about the format for storing digital images. Oneof the first issues that came to mind was the limitations imposed by thecamera you select. Many of the consumer level cameras do not give youan option for the file format of the images produced. Over my lifetime Ihave steadily evolved the cameras I use. My original camera was acheap, off the shelf fixed lens 35mm view finder camera, which, by theway
Read more…
Views: 31
Comments: 0

West Coast Genealogy Tour I


Daniel lecturing at NGS

I have finally found time to write about my recent trip, which featured two intensive genealogy-focused weeks. I returned to a huge backlog of emails and other tasks and then had to firm up the details of my next trip.


First, I want to thank all the wonderful people who hosted me during this trip.

It kicked off in Grand Junction, Colorado, where Dale Seibert, of the local LDS Family History Center, invited me to the Family History Fair. This small town is simply beautiful, everyone is friendly and

Read more…
The International Federation of LibraryAssociations and Institutions or IFLA characterizes itself as the"global voice of the library and information profession." TheGenealogical and Local History Section of the IFLA has as its scope:
Our mission is to be a voice for genealogy and local history librarians in the international information community, to facilitatenetworking among subject specialists and libraries, archives, museums,and related societies and institutions, and to encourage thedevelopm
Read more…
Views: 22
Comments: 0

In Wake of a Following

Mona Lisa Smile

I rode in the backseat of our 1979 Pontiac Bonneville. The scarlet plush interior cushioned my cheek while the top of my head rested against the rigid window pane. There was a faint smell of peppermint from the hard candy my dad tucked in the pocket of his cheek – melting slowly as he drove the rural highway. On occasion, he’d slip me a piece of peppermint, especially if I remained quiet and didn’t ask, "How much longer?”

On this particular day, we had been on the road for nearly fifteen minutes,

Read more…
250px-EFBeale.jpg
One of the most interesting things about the Internet is the connectivity of people around the world. A couple ofdays ago, I was checking voice mail and found a message from Jack BealeSmith. Mr. Smith is the author of a book on Kerlin's Well. In past postsI have talked about searching for this obscure location on the ColoradoPlateau where my Great-grandfather carved his name into the rock. Inthis post, I told about our trip to look for the location in thevast desert of northern Arizona south of
Read more…
Views: 30
Comments: 0

CHOATE FAMILY

My Brick wall is my Great Grandfather William Choate - he was born in Germany in 1850 and died in Michigan 9/04/1909. He married Ceprino Hutchinson in 08/04/1887 in Carol Michigan.

I know he lived in Gagtown Village Tuscola Michigan in the 1900s and is buried at Hillside Cemetery in Elmwood Tuscola Michigan

I beleive in came to michigan through Canada - but am not sure.

Read more…
Views: 37
Comments: 0

This article should only be read by those who have a computer....

I believe there are only two types of computer users in the world - 1) One whose computer has crashed and 2) One whose computer will crash.

In November 2008 I joined the first group when upon my return from a nice Sunday car ride I found my computer smoking. I lost everything. Thankfully, just one month earlier I had signed up for an online backup service from which I recovered all of my data.

Click here for the entire article.

Read more…
Looking at the larger genealogy companies is an interesting challenge.Publicly owned corporations (even if only part of the stock is owned bythe public) have a whole stack of legal rules to follow concerningfinancial reporting and ownership. For example, Ancestry.com's reportsare on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) website. SeeAncestry.com. None of the following companies apparently have SEClistings:

http://www.worldvitalrecords.com/
http://www.footnote.com/
http://www.genealogyba
Read more…
Views: 52
Comments: 0