News from Other Sites

Millennia, the producer of Legacy Family Tree software for Windows, is offering the company's first live webinar on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 2:00PM EDT. The webinar, Mapping Software for Genealogists will cover essential software tools: AniMap (U.S. & Canada), Centennia (Europe & Middle East), and Map My Family Tree (entire world), and maybe even a Legacy Family Tree tip or two.

In this 30 minute webinar Geoff Rasmussen will cover the following topics:

1. AniMap software (U.S. & Canada): learn how to find the correct county for the time period, and perform radius searches (list all cemeteries/churches within 10 miles of a place). For 30 years a researcher looked in the records of Woodstock, Windham County, Connecticut for their ancestor who was born there in 1720. AniMap easily shows that in 1720, Woodstock would have been in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Now we know the correct location to find the records for that time period. Brick wall problem solved.
2. Centennia software (Europe and Middle East): Have you ever wondered about the changing country borders in Europe? Have ancestors in Germany, Poland, or Prussia? Which is it? The Centennia Historical Atlas software shows the changing country borders from the 11th century to the present in Europe and the Middle East.
3. Map My Family Tree software (entire world): plot your ancestors on a map of the world, track family migrations, plot to Google Earth, use the time scroll bar to dynamically select which time period you want displayed on your map and more.

Having online webinars is a great idea and I hope we see many more of them.

Registration is free but space is limited. If you are interested in attending this live seminar (or webinar), you should register NOW. After you register you will be sent instructions, including your private link to view the webinar online. You will need to be connected to the Internet (high speed connection recommended) and turn on your speakers. That's it!

More information about the webinar and a link to sign up may be found at http://legacynews.typepad.com/legacy_news/2010/09/join-us-for-a-webinar-on-september-15-mapping-software-for-genealogists.html

I've been watching and writing about the many e-reader products available these days. I believe these devices are revolutionizing publishing, including that of newspapers, magazines, books and many other kinds of published materials. Genealogy books are just one of the areas being affected. As these products become smaller, lighter, cheaper, and still easier than ever to read, the financial realities soon set in: publishing for e-readers is much cheaper than publishing on paper and the savings are often passed on to consumers.

The picture above shows Sony's new Reader Daily Edition, Touch Edition and Pocket Edition.
Prices of e-readers seem to be dropping almost weekly. This week's news concerns Sony's very popular Sony Readers. The new devices -- the Reader Pocket Edition, Reader Touch Edition and Reader Daily Edition -- have been redesigned to be smaller and lighter than the e-readers they are replacing. All three now share the same user interface and general physical style, although only the Daily Edition adds Wi-Fi.

The Sony Readers are also equipped with touch screens that use the new E-Ink Pearl displays -- the same ones used by the recently introduced Kindle DX and Kindle 3 e-readers. E-Ink claims a 50% greater contrast ratio, and thus better readability, for the Pearl than earlier e-reader displays. If you haven't yet seen the various e-readers, I'd suggest you visit a nearby bookstore or computer store to see the units on display. Today's technology provides easy-to-read display screens that produce no glare. The new Sony Readers claim to be even easier to read than last week's products.

The Pocket Edition ($179) is the smallest at 5.7 x 4.1 x 0.3 in. It is also the lightest of the three new models. The Pocket has the same five slim buttons on the bottom that the Touch and Daily editions use. It's available in two colors, silver and pink.

The Touch Edition ($229), comes with a 6-in. display and is slightly larger than the Pocket, at 6.6 x 4.7 x 0.4 in. The Sony Touch adds the ability to play MP3 and AAC audio files; it also expands its capacity with Memory Stick PRO Duo and SD media slots. It is available in black and red.

Neither the Pocket nor the Touch comes with any type of wireless communications. They must be connected to a computer in order to download new books, magazines, and newspapers. However, the new Daily Edition ($299) adds Wi-Fi and basic Web browsing to its AT&T 3G connection. With a 7-in. display, the Daily will be available in silver.

These are not the cheapest prices in the marketplace. Sony claims it is more interested in capabilities than in bottom line prices. Indeed, the Sony devices do have several capabilities not found in cheaper, competitive units.

All three devices include 2GB of onboard memory which is enough to hold about 1,200 books. Each comes with a stylus that lets you take freehand notes, or you can use the on-screen keyboard. Your notes can be exported to your computer via the same included USB 2.0 cable that lets you import and export books.

Unlike the Kindle, the e-readers in the Sony Reader line are compatible with a variety of e-book formats, including ePub (which is as close to a standard as is possible in today's e-reader market), Microsoft Word and PDF. That strikes me as a big advantage for anyone who wishes to copy downloaded (free) books to an e-reader.

Both the Sony Pocket Edition and Touch Edition are available now. The Daily Edition will be available in November.

The next time you take a vacation, which would you prefer to take with you? 2,000 books or a Sony e-reader that weighs about a half pound? Both contain the same amount of reading material.

Sir Peter Gwynn-Jones, former Garter Principal King of Arms in the United Kingdom, was well known in the genealogy world. He passed away on August 21 at age 70. He retired only a few months ago, previously serving as Garter Principal King of Arms, the senior English officer of arms, from 1995 to 2010. He was in charge of the College of Arms, which issues new coats of arms and verifies existing heraldry.

The office of Garter King of Arms, of which Gwynn-Jones was the 36th holder, was created by Henry V in 1417, initially concerned with the ceremonies of the Order of the Garter. While still performing these, Garter is also in charge of Royal heraldry and the arms of peers, as well as exercising a supervisory role over the English heralds.

Gwynn-Jones was a familiar face in the House of Lords, where he was responsible for introducing new peers to their seats.
In 1967, after writing to the College of Arms offering his skills in history and genealogy, he was employed as assistant to Colin Cole, then Windsor Herald. He became Bluemantle Pursuivant in 1973, and was promoted to Lancaster Herald in 1982. He was appointed by The Queen to the position of Garter in 1995 following the retirement of Sir Conrad Swan.

Gwynn-Jones was was Secretary of the Harleian Society from 1981 until 1994, Inspector of Regimental Colours from 2 October 1995, and Inspector of Royal Air Force Badges from 1996.  He was also appointed in 1995 Genealogist to the Order of the Bath, Genealogist of the Order of St Michael and St George, and Genealogist of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem. He was non-executive Vice-President of The Heraldry Society from 1996.

Gwynn-Jones was appointed Lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in 1994, promoted Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1998, and appointed Knight of Justice of the Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem in 1995. In anticipation of his retirement HM The Queen promoted Gwynn-Jones Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in the 2010 New Year Honours.

You can read more in the Telegraph Obituaries at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/7975958/Sir-Peter-Gwynn-Jones.html

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.ca:
Free content includes millions of records from countries worldwide in nearly 300 collections
 
TORONTO, ON (September 2, 2010) Ancestry.ca, Canada’s leading family history website, will open its complete database of international immigration records for free from the 2nd to the 6th of September 2010.
 
Ancestry’s international immigration collection covers more than 193 million records in 273 collections from around the world.
 
Included are the Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935, which covers a period of 70 years and contains more than 7.2 million names, including 5.6 million of those who travelled from around the world to start a new life in Canada.
 The Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935, the originals of which are held by the Library and Archives Canada (LAC), are the official records of the arrival of the majority of people accepted as immigrants in Canada during this key immigration period.
 
An estimated 11.6 million Canadians or 37 per cent of the current population have ancestors included in this Canadian collection, which also includes records for many vacationers and travelers, business people, crew members and historical figures such as foreign leaders, scientists and celebrities.
 
The collection includes passenger lists from all the major ports of arrival including Halifax, Saint John, North Sydney, Quebec City, Montreal, Vancouver, Victoria and even east coast ports in the U.S. where many arrived before proceeding directly to Canada overland.
 
Ancestry.ca Managing Director Karen Peterson comments: “Immigration records provide key pieces of information for those looking into their family’s past. They literally show you where you came from - arguably the most important piece of information you can learn about your ancestors.
 
“We’re so excited to be able to allow free access to these records and we hope it inspires more people to become interested in learning about who they are and where they came from.”
 
To learn where your ancestors came from, visit www.ancestry.ca.

ABOUT ANCESTRY.CA
Officially Canada’s leading website for family history resources, Ancestry.ca has 128 million Canadian records in such collections as the complete Historical Canadian Censuses from 1851 to 1916, Ontario and British Columbia vital records from as early as 1813, Quebec vital Records (The Drouin Collection), Canadian Passenger Lists and U.S. / Canada Border Crossings.
 
Ancestry.ca was launched in January 2006 and belongs to the global network of Ancestry websites (wholly owned by Ancestry.com Operations Inc.), which contains five billion records. To date more than 18 million family trees have been created and 1.8 billion names and 40 million photographs and stories uploaded. (Figures current as of 30 June 2010)
 
The Ancestry global network of family history websites - www.ancestry.ca in Canada, www.ancestry.com in the US, www.ancestry.co.uk in the UK, www.ancestry.com.au in Australia, www.ancestry.de in Germany, www.ancestry.it in Italy, www.ancestry.fr in France,  www.ancestry.se in Sweden and www.jiapu.com in China.

The next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, the world’s most definitive work on the language, will never be printed because of the impact of the Internet on book sales. Sales have fallen due to the increasing popularity of online alternatives, according to its publisher.
The dictionary’s owner, Oxford University Press (OUP), said the impact of the internet means OED3 will probably appear only in electronic form. However, OUP said it would continue to print the more familiar Oxford Dictionary of English, the single-volume version sold in bookshops.

You can read the full story at http://tinyurl.com/2akm2eg

The Mormon church has changed its genealogical database to better prevent the names of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps from being submitted for posthumous baptism by proxy.

In a joint statement issued earlier today, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors said a new computer system and policy changes related to the practice should resolve a years-long disagreement over the baptisms.
Under new church policies, church members will be required to certify names submitted to the database for baptism. Further safeguards include monitoring those names for submissions that don't meet policy standards and the removal of records found to be in violation of the new procedures.

You can read the full story at http://tinyurl.com/23jqetp

The following announcement was written by Ann S Eldredge:
In January 2010, a small band of genealogy seekers embarked on a project to make anyone who has roots in the Pittsburgh area jump for joy.  43 volunteers have been indexing marriages, deaths, and divorces from early Allegheny County newspapers and putting it all online at no cost.  Over 52,000 death entries and over 11,000 marriages have been indexed and put online through August.  The dates of the newspapers range from 1806-1987.
Project co-ordinator Ann S Eldredge says the idea of an index came to her as she regularly keeps in touch with other Pittsburgh researchers on the popular mailing list of Allegheny County sponsored by RootsWeb.com.  An avid genealogy researcher, Eldredge remarked, "I saw on the list that Google had put images of several old newspapers online and Pittsburgh was on it. After spending many hours of looking for my family and investing in Visine for the eye strain, I realized I couldn't be the only one who had uncovered a few golden nuggets of information. It seemed so simple.  If anyone was looking at any of the dates, they could write down all the names of that day.  After all, how many of your ancestors do you not know when they married or died?"

With that simple question posed to the group, an index was born.  Eldredge volunteered to capture the names the volunteers put on the list. List member Norm Minert quickly set up a page for the newspapers submitted so there would be no duplication of efforts.  USGenWeb Allegheny County Archives File Manager Ellis Michaels volunteered to get the the submitted indices online.

The daily newspaper lists began to pour in.  "It didn't take long for the sheer volume of names being submitted to become overwhelming," said Eldredge.  "I quickly realized I needed help.  I put a call out for volunteers to assist on my end, and they came. The enthusiasm and dedication of the volunteers are inspiring.  The work they are doing for family researchers and genealogy buffs is just fantastic.  What a gift to give."

"It's been an amazing journey over the last eight months as the volunteers have graciously given their time to read the old newspapers.  We have so many death and marriage entries from 1889 and 1890.  Since the census was lost for 1890, this almost serves as a substitute. I've found my relatives through this project.  Some of the death entries have even led to connections with living cousins.  It's been worth it."

"Stop on by and see what our volunteers have done," Eldredge said as a smile came across her face. "After all, the good folks of Pittsburgh are just dying to get in."

To view the death, marriage and divorce indices, go to http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/allegheny/death-index.htm

Background information:

The family of Ann S Eldredge can be placed in Allegheny County from 1774. Her Dormont raised father was the last of her direct line to live in PIttsburgh, but there are many family members still in the area. Eldredge was featured in local Pittsburgh newspapers and on the televised news in an August 2005 dedication of new headstones for two of her 4g-grandfathers, John Henry and James Glenn, at the Old St Clair Cemetery in Mt Lebanon, and has been instrumental in assisting the Historical Society of Mt Lebanon in this ongoing project. She is a member of the Western PA Genealogical Society and an active member of the James Waldrop Chapter DAR in Fayetteville, GA. Her genealogy blog, GeniTales, (http://genitalesga.blogspot.com/) focuses on her family history as she traces her family through history from Sweden and Ireland to Wall Street, the White House and across the nation. She resides in Peachtree City, GA, with her husband and two daughters.

The volunteers on this death and marriage index project come from across the nation. It is estimated there could be over a million names on the newspapers.

For more information, please contact Ann Eldredge at 1anniesquest4me@bellsouth.net

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com:

More than 1,700 first-hand audio recordings now available for free online

PROVO, Utah, Sept. 1 -- Ancestry.com announced today it has launched a collection of more than 1,700 recorded oral histories from immigrants who arrived in the United States through Ellis Island. This is the first time this collection of poignant recordings has been available online. To celebrate the new addition, Ancestry.com is making its entire U.S. Immigration Collection free through Labor Day.
"As immigrants created new lives in the U.S., the stories of their homelands and their remarkable journeys to America were often lost," said Christopher Tracy, senior vice president of global content for Ancestry.com.  "We are thrilled to offer people the opportunity to hear the voices of their ancestors sharing stories of their lives."

Ellis Island was the gateway for millions of immigrants between 1892 and 1954. The oral histories were captured by the National Park Service starting in the 1970s, and contain uniquely inspiring first-hand accounts recalling the lives these immigrants left behind, their reasons for leaving and their incredible and often-trying journeys to America.  These recordings are housed at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and until now could be heard only by visitors to the Island itself. In addition to oral histories from immigrants, the collection also includes recordings from military personnel who were stationed on Ellis Island and former Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty workers.

"To our family it is important that we in the U.S. know the origin of the people who came to this country, settled here and made it what it is today. It makes us very proud to know that our mother was part of this," said Yvonne Rumac, daughter of oral history participant Estelle Belford, who immigrated to the United States from Romania via Ellis Island in 1905.

Other Records Added to the Ancestry.com U.S. Immigration Collection: The Ellis Island Oral Histories are the latest addition to Ancestry.com, which boasts the world's largest online collection of U.S. immigration records. Comprised of more than 170 million records, the Ancestry.com U.S. Immigration Collection includes lists of passengers who immigrated by ship to America between 1820 and 1960, including those who came through Ellis Island; more than 7 million citizenship and naturalization records; border crossings, passport applications and more to help reconstruct our ancestors' journeys and early lives in America.

Ancestry.com has also added nearly 2 million new U.S. naturalization record indexes, thanks to the many individuals who are part of the Ancestry.com World Archives Project –a community effort aimed at transcribing historical records. The indexes span 11 states (AK, CA, CT, HI, LA, ME, MT, NY, PA, TN, WA) and will provide Americans greater opportunity to learn more about their ancestors' citizenship experience.

In addition, Ancestry.com has added nearly 2 million records documenting crew members on ships who arrived in the port of Boston. The records were added to an existing collection of over 3.8 million records from Boston Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1943.

To honor our nation's immigrant heritage, Ancestry.com has opened up its entire U.S. Immigration Collection so that it can be searched free through Labor Day. The Ellis Island Oral History Collection will remain permanently free on Ancestry.com.

To begin exploring your family's journey to America, visit www.ancestry.com/immigration.

About Ancestry.com Inc.

Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with more than one million paying subscribers. More than 5 billion records have been added to the site in the past 13 years. Ancestry users have created more than 18 million family trees containing over 1.8 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, including its flagship Web site at http://www.ancestry.com.

The Upcoming Events section of this newsletter is published as a newsletter article once per month, usually in the first week of the month. You can also view the latest list of events at any time by clicking on "Upcoming Events" in the Navigation menu near the upper right corner of the page at http://www.eogn.com.

Each event is listed with the name, location and dates. Click on the name to see the details, including a link to the event's web page or to an e-mail address of someone who will provide still more information. The EOGN list of Upcoming Events is also available as an RSS newsfeed at http://www.trumba.com/calendars/eogns_calendar.rss and as a normal web page at http://www.trumba.com/calendars/eogns_calendar

Items with an asterisk (*) next to the title are newly-added since the last update.

If you would like to have your event added to this list, please go to http://eogn.com/support and click on "Open New Ticket." That creates a customer ticket in this web site's Subscriber Support Center. Those "tickets" never get blocked by spam filters. We will publish the name of the event, the city and state/province/country where it is to be held, a very brief description and a web page URL or e-mail address to be used to obtain full details.

NOTE: We compile the list once a month. If you wait until the last minute to send the notice of your event, it might not make it into this month's listings.

EOGN's List of Upcoming Events at http://www.trumba.com/calendars/eogns_calendar

The following announcement was written by the Ontario Genealogical Society:
The Board of the Ontario Genealogical Society is pleased to announce the appointment of Elizabeth Lapointe as editor of the Society’s journal Families.  A graduate of Acadia University, Elizabeth is an author, journalist, and blogger.  She has been editor of the OGS newsletter NewsLeaf since 2006 and is the founding editor of its electronic sister publication e-NewsLeaf.  She is a Past President of the Ottawa Chapter of the Professional Writers Association of Canada, and a Director of the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors.  She is the author of several books on genealogy and of hundreds of newspaper and online articles on genealogy and local history.  She is the guest editor for the August issue of Families and will assume full editorship with the November issue.

The following refers to an article published in this newsletter last week entitled, Hitler was Related to Jewish and Black Families. The article referred to a report by Brussels news magazine Knack that claimed DNA obtained from the Nazi leader’s relatives living in America led to the discovery. The report claimed that the Hitlers possessed Haplopgroup E1b1b (Y-DNA) which is rare in Germany and indeed western Europe. However, it is commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, in Algeria, Libya and Tunisia as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. The report offered conjecture that Adolf Hitler was related to these groups.

Family Tree DNA, experts in DNA applications for genealogy, says that the report is "highly questionable." The company also offers a clarification from the author of the original article. The following was written by Family Tree DNA: Houston, TX - September 1, 2010 - Family Tree DNA, the largest Y-chromosome testing organization for genealogy and ancestry purposes, announced today that the interpretation given by certain media outlets that Adolf Hitler's ancestry included possible Jewish relatives is highly questionable.  These reports were based on information released by Jean-Paul Mulders and historian Marc Vermeeren.  With a Y-chromosome database containing close to 200,000 samples from different populations, Family Tree DNA's Chief Y-DNA Scientist, Professor Michael Hammer said that "scientific studies as well as records from our own database make it clear that one cannot reach the kind of conclusion featured in the published articles.
 
Based on Family Tree DNA records, no more than 9% of the populations of Germany and Austria belong to the haplogroup E1b1b, and among those, the vast majority - about 80% -are not associated with Jewish ancestry.  "This data clearly show that just because one person belongs to the branch of the Y-chromosome referred to as haplogroup E1b1b, that does not mean the person is likely to be of Jewish ancestry," said Professor Hammer.
 
Mulders confirmed the misinterpretation of his account with the following statement to Family Tree DNA:  "I never wrote that Hitler was a Jew, or that he had a Jewish grandfather.  I only wrote that Hitler's haplogroup is E1b1b, being more common among Berbers, Somalian people and Jews than among overall Germans.  This, in order to convey that he was not exactly what during the Third Reich would have been called 'Aryan.'  All the rest are speculations of journalists who didn't even take the trouble to read my article, although I had it translated into English especially for this purpose."
 
Founded in April 2000, Family Tree DNA was the first company to develop the commercial application of DNA testing for genealogical purposes that had previously been available only for academic and scientific research. Today - with over 300,000 individual records in its Y-DNA and mtDNA databases - and a state-of-the-art Genomics Research Center in Houston, Texas, Family Tree is the prime source for anyone researching recent and distant family ties.

The following announcement was written by the National Genealogical Society:

The National Genealogical Society (NGS) announces the appointment of Patricia Walls Stamm, CG, CGL, of St. Louis, Missouri, as Education Manager. In her new position, Stamm will oversee the development of online education courses and will be responsible for keeping the current education courses updated as related to content and technology.

Stamm has an extensive background as an instructor at the St. Louis Community College, the St. Louis Genealogical Society, and the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research in Birmingham, Alabama. She has served as conference program coordinator and education director for the St. Louis Genealogical Society. Stamm is a life member of the State Historical Society of Missouri and the St. Louis Genealogical Society. She received the St. Louis Genealogical Society President’s Award in May 2009 for work that led to an expanded educational program for the society.

Stamm holds a tested concentration of genealogical instruction from the Board for Certification of Genealogists and has lectured both locally and nationally. She is a published author with articles appearing in the NGS NewsMagazine, APG Quarterly, and Genealogical Computing. A member of the Association of Professional Genealogists and NGS, she currently chairs the NGS’ Rubincam Youth Award Committee.

Founded in 1903, the National Genealogical Society is dedicated to genealogy education, high research standards, and the preservation of genealogical records. The Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit is the premier national society for everyone, from the beginner to the most advanced family historian, seeking excellence in publications, educational offerings, research guidance, and opportunities to interact with other genealogists. Please visit the NGS Pressroom for further information.

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
I have written several times about the method of creating and preserving digital images. I have also written about scanning old photographs as well as scanning various printed or hand-written documents. Today I thought I would discuss the various file formats available and briefly describe the advantages and disadvantages of several of the more popular formats.

Today's technology allows for a selection of image file formats, including JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PSD, RAW, PNG, EPS, PDF, and others in a seemingly endless alphabet soup of abbreviations and acronyms.

You can find several good reasons and bad reasons for selecting any of these file formats. However, from a genealogist's point of view, there are two significant issues to deal with: image size and image compression.
Image size has been an issue since the first scanned images were stored on a computer, back in the vacuum tube days. In this case, the physical size of the picture is not the issue, but the size of the file you create is very important. That is, the problem revolves around the number of bytes required to store a faithful reproduction of the original image.

Not many years ago, disk drives were expensive. Luckily, that problem is disappearing as the price per byte of storage has plummeted in the past two decades. Prices for one-terabyte disk drives have now dropped to the $80 to $120 range, a price undreamed of only a few years ago. It is now cost-effective to store hundreds of thousands of very large digital image files. Prices for disk storage are still dropping nearly every week.

However, file size remains an issue when transferring those files to another computer or when inserting images into a web page. Not everyone uses high-speed, multi-megabyte-per-second Internet connections. Even those who do use such high-speed connections find that including very large digital images in a web page results in slow performance. Finally, sending a hundred or so old family photographs to a cousin can be a painstaking effort if the files are very large.
The remainder of this article is for Plus Edition subscribers only.

If you have a Plus Edition user ID and password, you can read the full article right now at no additional charge in this web site's Plus Edition at http://eogn.com/wp/?p=11437. This article will remain online for several weeks.

If you do not remember your Plus Edition user ID or password, you can retrieve them at http://www.eogn.com/wp/ and click on "Forgot password?"

If you decide to subscribe to the Plus Edition right now, you will be able to immediately read this article online. What sort of articles can you read in the Plus Edition? Click here to find out.

For more information about subscribing to the Plus Edition of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, visit http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/plusedition.html.

The U.S. Census Bureau counts the number of Americans every ten years. The same government agency also asks a lot of questions of those people, such as how many bathrooms are in their house and whether or not the family owns a computer. The Census Bureau even counts how many people have the same first or last names.

The twenty most common surnames in America in the 1990 census were:

1. Smith       
2. Johnson 
3. Williams 
4. Jones
5. Brown
6. Davis
7. Miller
8. Wilson
9. Moore
10. Taylor
11. Anderson
12. Thomas
13. Jackson
14. White
15. Harris
16. Martin
17. Thompson
18. Garcia
19. Martinez
20. Robinson

I wonder what it would be like researching the Aalderink family. That name is the last one on the Census Department's list as the 88,799th most popular surname in the country. I am sure there are some other names that are so rare as to not even make the list at all. I doubt if you will find many people named Aalderink in the various records but, if you do find one, that person probably is related to all the rest of them!

I found that my last name is the 1,661st most common family name in the United States. You can see how popular your family name is at: http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names with the full list available at http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last. The same site also shows the popularity of given names.

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com:
No. 1 Selling Family Tree Software Offers Simplicity and Depth for Recording Family Histories
 
PROVO, Utah, August 31, 2010 – Ancestry.com today announced the release of Ancestry.com Family Tree Maker® 2011, an improved version of the world’s No. 1 selling family history software.
For the last 20 years, Family Tree Maker has provided tools that make it easy to build family trees, record memories and organize family photos. Family Tree Maker also enables users to capture stories, and attach videos and audio clips in a way that will help them easily capture and share the story of their ancestors both on-and offline.
 
“Family Tree Maker 2011 delivers significant improvements on many fronts.  By incorporating changes recommended by a diverse base of novice and experienced family researchers, we have arrived at what we believe to be our best release yet,” said Eric Shoup, Senior Vice President of Product at Ancestry.com. “With the recent surge in interest in family history, Ancestry.com and Family Tree Maker have an important role to play in creating new family historians.”
 
Without leaving Family Tree Maker, users can search the robust collection of family history records on Ancestry.com and simply incorporate matching results directly into their tree. Family Tree Maker 2011 automatically searches Ancestry.com for historical documents about the individuals in the user’s family tree when connected to the Internet. Family Tree Maker 2011 comes with either a free trial or subscription to Ancestry.com.
 
Ancestry.com Family Tree Maker makes it easier than ever to discover your family story, preserve your legacy and share your unique heritage. Of the more than one hundred enhancements added to the software, the following are some of the new and improved features found in Family Tree Maker 2011:

• Smart Stories™ – Ready to start on an ancestor’s story? The Smart Story editor makes it easy to drag and drop text and photos from your tree into story pages that will update automatically when you make changes to your tree.
• More Complete and Relevant Timelines – Find and add more events to your ancestors' lives. Add, edit and delete your own historical events and apply historical events by time and geography.
• New and Improved Charts – Enjoy four new fan chart styles. Enhance charts with backgrounds, borders and embellishments. And use fonts you can change based on fact type.
• Improved Integration with Ancestry.com – Ancestry.com has millions of members all over the world. Now you can find out if any of them are searching for your ancestors by viewing Member Connect activity on your home page, plus links to related message boards and new messages in your inbox. You'll also enjoy faster uploading and downloading of your tree.
• New Media Management Tools - Drag and drop, cut and paste, and even categorize multiple items at the same time. You'll also find a new tool that will help you locate missing media files.
• Enhanced Reports – Enhanced ancestor and descendant reports, added a surname report and allowed you to sort custom reports, plus you can now save and reuse report settings.

 Family Tree Maker 2011 will include either a printed or electronic Companion Guide to help users quickly master the simple and even advanced tasks. The Companion Guide will come with easy-to-understand screenshots of the software.
 
Family Tree Maker 2011 is now available to purchase online at http://www.familytreemaker.com starting at $39.95. The program is also set to be released in select retail stores.
 
Internet access required for all Web integration.
 
About Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world's largest online family history resource, with more than one million paying subscribers. The company has digitized and put online more than 5 billion records over the past 13 years. Ancestry users have created over 18 million family trees containing nearly 1.8 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.

The third annual Angus and Dundee Roots Festival will provide practical help for everyone who wants to find out more about their family history in Angus and Dundee.

A special party to mark the milestone will be held at Restenneth Priory on Monday, September 27. For the occasion, staff will be selecting 21 of their favorite items from the archives.
This is expected to include books written by monks who were resident in Arbroath Abbey before the Reformation.

The Angus and Dundee Roots Festival runs from September 23 to 27. For more information, visit www.tayroots.com

The U.S. Census Bureau originally planned to use custom-built handheld computers and wireless data to take the 2010 census. See my 2006 article that described those plans at http://tinyurl.com/3xmasvo. After spending $600 million on the plan, the Census Bureau abandoned the idea and went back to paper forms. See http://tinyurl.com/3xdssex for details.

Now the government of Brazil plans to conduct a census using handheld computers and wireless data but there will be two major differences: (1.) Brazil plans to use off-the-shelf consumer-grade cell phones to collect the information and (2.) Brazil also plans to spend a lot less money.
Brazil purchased 150,000 LG smartphones and has embarked on the world's first fully digital national census. The Brazilians say that the digital census has several advantages over paper and pen methods. Data collection will be faster and cheaper than traditional methods. Information will be available within weeks, not months.

The LG smartphones also have built-in GPS which will result in more accurate information as GPS data will pinpoint the exact location of each household. The GPS data is cross-referenced with satellite images to ensure that responses are correctly geo-tagged.

You can read more at http://pbahra.com/2010/08/29/brazils-smartphone-census/

A slide show is available at http://pbahra.com/work/brazils-2010-digital-census/

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 - (+) A Better (Cheaper) Method of Obtaining Wi-Fi Service
 - (+) My New GPS and Camera and Mobile Internet Device and Secret Weapon
 - EOGN Dinner in Knoxville and a Change in Plans for Future Dinners
 - Salt Lake Family History Expo – Day #1
 - Salt Lake Family History Expo – Day #2
 - Flip-Pal
 - Reunion for iPad
 - Scan2PDF Mobile
 - Finding a Genealogy Society
 - Griffith’s Valuation now on Askaboutireland.ie
 - New Disney Channel Series “My Family Tree”
 - Ancestry.Com Adds 58 Million New Yearbook Records
 - Ancestry.com and NBC Team Up for a Second Season of “Who Do You Think You Are?”
 - Arkiv Digital Will Be Free this Weekend
 - Email Providers Are Rejecting Millions of Legitimate Emails Daily
 - Email Alternatives
 - Gmail Users: Add Free Telephone Calls
 - City of Utica Takes Over Birth and Death Records from Psychiatric Center
 - New Databases Ease Tracking of Jewish Roots in Massachusetts
 - 1890 Pickaway County, Ohio Census to be Recreated
 - NYG&B’s Financial Realities
 - West Valley (Arizona) Genealogical Society Meeting – September 13, 2010
 - “First Friday” at the East Tennessee History Center
 - Historian and Archivist Betty Clark Rodgers to be Honored
 - Still More Cemetery Vandalism: Lewiston, Maine
 - Springville, Utah: Help Wanted at OneGreatFamily.​com
 - Older Users Flocking to Facebook, Twitter
 - Your Public Officials at Work: Philadelphia is Requiring Bloggers to Pay $300 for a Business License
 - Hitler was Related to Jewish and Black Families
 - Never Miss a Plus Edition Newsletter

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Genealogy and geography are set to come together in a new Disney Channel series to premiere in November. “My Family Tree” will showcase kids from around the country engagingly reporting on their interesting ancestors and roots.

A quote from Disney spokesperson Patti McTeague stated that the children featured in the series all “have self-esteem and a gift of storytelling.”
Look for the series to air on the Disney Channel sometime in November.

You can read more in the the Marblehead Patch at: http://marblehead.patch.com/articles/disney-channel-combines-hollywood-and-history

The second and final day of the Salt Lake Family History Expo was held on Saturday, August 28. In short, it was a continuation of Day #1, as expected: many seminars and presentations were held and vendors presented their products and services in the exhibits hall. The weather was excellent and it looked to me like everyone had a good time.

I did snap a lot of new pictures and am showing them below. Click on any image below to see a larger picture.

Ideal weather conditions. You can see the towering thunderheads but we only received a few sprinkles.

Bruce Buzbee demonstrates RootsMagic genealogy software to a group of conference attendees.

Hey Bruce: I like that "Madonna-style" microphone!

The Ancestry.com booth seemed to generate a lot of interest.

Following migration patters with DNA.

Ken McGinnis demonstrates Legacy Family Tree.

The BYU book printing business was represented at the conference.

"Family History Made Easy" is perhaps the slickest "how to get started" book I have seen.

The "Ask the Pros" desk was busy much of the time, offering advice on how to break through research "brick walls."

Have you seen the Memory Medallions? These attach to a tombstone and provide a method of cemetery visitors equipped with a cell phone and web browser to learn more about the person buried there. I'll be writing more about Memory Medallions in the near future.

 
This was the "fun booth" at the conference: dress up like an ancestor (or anyone else) and have your picture taken. Yes, I had my picture taken also but I'm not uploading it here!

Generation Maps always has some of the most impressive charts and pictures seen anywhere. Kim Hovorka is justifiably proud of these products.

Have an old family photograph?

I will be writing about a number of new products that I saw at the conference over the next few weeks.

I left the conference shortly before it ended yesterday and grabbed a plane to Las Vegas where I am now enjoying (?) the heat. The local weather forecasters have pointed out that the weather in Las Vegas has cooled off and today's high will "only" be 90 degrees. Later this week, the weather will return to normal with highs of 100 to 103.

I should be back home before the hottest weather hits.