Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

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Stop by RootsBooks, your one-stop online genealogy bookstore. RootsBooks is the genealogy store for books, computers, software and more. Rootsbooks has two divisions:

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Now featuring Family Tree Maker 2009 for Windows and Reunion 9, Genealogy and Family Tree Software for Macintosh for only $89.99 (a 10% discount).

Legacy Genealogy Cruise 2009 Announced

The 2008 genealogy cruise season has drawn to a close, but the planning is already underway for next year's cruises. The first one announced sounds like a fascinating vacation. The producers of Legacy Family Tree software are planning a 12-day cruise with stops in Barcelona, Rome, Naples, Dubrovnik, Venice, Athens, Izmir, and Istanbul. The cruise will be on board the Norwegian Cruise Line's Jade cruise ship.

Those planning on joining this cruise will travel on their own to Barcelona, Spain, in order to board the ship. The Norwegian Cruise Line’s Jade ship will leave Barcelona on 5 September 2009 and spend one day at sea before arriving in Rome. The next day the ship will be in Naples, followed by another full day at sea and then a stop at Dubrovnik (Croatia) and the next day in Venice. Another full day at sea will follow, and the remainder of the voyage will feature stops every day: Katakolon (Greece), Athens, Izmir (Turkey), with final arrival in Istanbul on 17 September 2009.

110 Years of Life Magazine Photos Now Online

I love those glossy photographs that Life Magazine is famous for. Now the magazine has placed 10 million photographs on Google's servers. The photographs range from Margaret Bourke-White's harrowing depictions of the just-liberated concentration camps to Dorothea Lange's haunting photo of a migrant mother to pictures of men walking on the Moon.

One picture that I especially like is that of a parade on Pennsylvania Avenue in 1865.

APG Announces Election Results

The following announcement was written by the   Association of Professional Genealogists:

WESTMINSTER, Colo., November 21 – The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG), the world’s leading professional organization of family history and related professionals, announced the results of its 2008 election. Ten board members were elected to two-year terms for 2009-2010. Two nominating committee members were elected to one-year terms.

Broadmoor's Archives Are Now Available to the Public

Broadmoor Hospital at Crowthorne in Berkshire, England has housed thousands of mental patients, including a Jack the Ripper suspect, the artist Richard Dadd, a would-be assassin of Queen Victoria, one of the contributors to the first Oxford English Dictionary, and thousands of every-day citizens. Now the hospital has opened its Victorian archives to the public for the first time, having spent the last two years listing and repairing the hospital's records with a £200,000 grant from the Wellcome Trust.

MyHeritage and Family Tree DNA Partner to Help People Trace Family History Using DNA

Two companies in the genealogy world have now partnered to expand their offerings: MyHeritage and Family Tree DNA. In addition, the two companies are offering a discounted price for readers of this newsletter. If you go to http://www.familytreedna.com/cj.aspx?ftdna_ref=392, you can receive a discount from  MyHeritage that will save you up to $60, depending upon the package selected.

Here is the announcement:

Update: Family Historian for Windows now Available in the U.S. at Target

On November 14, I published an announcement concerning Family Historian, a genealogy program for Windows that has been very popular in England. In fact, I reviewed the program a couple of times in past years. The article I published a few days ago was an announcement that the program will now be sold in the United States, especially at Target stores.

One item that was notably absent in the announcement was any mention of price. Several people asked about the price in comments at the end of the article. Today I did some on-site investigative journalism: I visited a local Target store.

Need a Presentation? Use an Online Video

Do you need a presentation at your next genealogy society meeting? Here's a method that you may not have thought about. I used it successfully this past weekend.

Discover Fun Facts Transcribing Historic Canadian Censuses

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

Completed Indexes Will Be Free Online

Ontario, Canada—FamilySearch International announced its plans to make the indexes to available Canadian censuses accessible online for free with the help of online volunteer indexers and an agreement with Ancestry.ca. The first censuses completed will be those from 1861, 1871, and 1916. Online volunteers are needed to help transcribe select information from digital images of the historical documents into easily searchable indexes. The completed indexes will be available for free at www.familysearch.org.

Obama May Be Unable To Use BlackBerry at The White House

Genealogists who use computers can appreciate the marriage of technology with paper-based records. Sometimes that is a rocky marriage: the two do not always work well together. Now President-Elect Barack Obama may have a quandary.

Obama has long used a Blackberry device for communications. Like millions of other Blackberry addicts, he depends on it to conduct day-to-day business in an efficient manner. During the campaign, he told associates to never send him paper memos or reports. Instead, he wanted all reports sent to his Blackberry device. One can assume that he would like to continue that practice as President.

Washington State Names New Digital Archivist

How many states have digital archivists to make sure that today's records are available to future generations? Washington State obviously does, as evidenced by this announcement:

Kerry Barbour is taking the reins of the state's Digital Archives office in Cheney, bringing with her nearly 20 years of information technology experience.

"I am excited that Kerry Barbour has agreed to join our Digital Archives team," said Washington State Archivist Jerry Handfield. "Kerry has managed many successful technology projects in state government. She will take us to the next level in our mission to preserve Washington's legal and historical records and make our documents of democracy accessible to our citizens."

(+) Is it Protected Under Copyright Laws?

Genealogists often republish materials from old books as well as from archives, courthouses Web sites, and other sources. Sadly, many modern day genealogists simply ignore copyright laws. Doing so can result in an unpleasant notice from a law firm appearing in your mailbox. The laws that limit someone’s right to copy a work have changed in recent years. Your awareness of the current laws can protect you from land mines of liability as you prepare your research for publication.

Video Interview: Cyndi Howells

Perhaps the best-known genealogy site is Cyndi's List, run by Cyndi Howells. I caught up with Cyndi on the 4th annual Wholly Genes cruise and had a chance to talk with her about the categorized, cross-referenced list of more than 265,000 genealogy sites on the Internet. Cyndi offered her insights into genealogy and into the operation of her popular web site.

Genealogy Meets Social Networking at Genoom.com

The following announcement was written by Genoom.com:

Social media takes on the family network with family history / genealogy-based social network, www.Genoom.com. Genoom recently added Chinese language support - the network is now fully accessible in 17 different languages, letting users connect with, and stay in touch with, family across the globe.

Barcelona, Spain - November 17, 2008 -- Family networking site, www.Genoom.com, makes social networking a truly global affair with support for 17 languages, including the latest addition of traditional and simplified Chinese. The social network caters to families interested in staying in touch with relatives near and far, sharing family trees and genealogical research, and more in a private and secure online environment.

Video Interview: Buzzy Jackson

I recently had a chance to talk with Buzzy Jackson, a historian, author and genealogist. She wrote author of "A Bad Woman Feeling Good" on her research for her next book, which is about the world of genealogy. "The Jackson 5,000" is expected to be published in 2010. She described the process of writing books and her discoveries in genealogy.

Online Genealogy Dictionaries and Lists

I have been collecting URLs (Web addresses) of various online dictionaries and lists that are useful to genealogists. These are useful when trying to decode foreign or obsolete words often found in genealogy work. Here are a few of my favorites:

Plus Edition Subscribers: Please Read. I Give Up!

NOTE: This is a repeat of an article I published about a year and a half ago. It seems that spam filters are even more of a problem today than they were last year. I frequently receive messages from Plus Edition subscribers stating that they have not received the newsletters. However, it seems that the newsletters were always sent, only to be deleted by spam filters at the receiving mail server.

For the past couple of years, I have spent eight to ten hours per week writing e-mail messages about problems with spam filters. I suspect that some of you are tired of reading my messages and articles about this problem.

In short, after spending thousands of dollars on bulk mail servers and after consulting with various industry experts, I must conclude that there is no way to guarantee e-mail delivery to 100% of the Plus Edition subscribers. Therefore, I provide the Plus Edition newsletter online at http://plus.eogn.com. You can always read the online version, regardless of what your e-mail provider does to your in-box.

I also guarantee that I will SEND the Plus Edition newsletter to every subscriber's e-mail address every week. Notice that I wrote that I guarantee that I will SEND it. That is not a guarantee that you will RECEIVE it as that is beyond my control.

Hotel Rooms for 2009 NGS Conference in Raleigh, NC

[Updated 18-Nov-2008]

A few months ago I wrote an article complaining about outrageous charges for hotel rooms at or near the various national genealogy conferences. I have now vowed that I will never pay those rip-off prices again. Today I made my reservation for a hotel room at the 2009 conference of the National Genealogical Society's annual conference to be held in Raleigh, North Carolina, on 13 through 16 May 2009.

There will be a shortage of hotel rooms in the city during the 2009 NGS conference. Three major universities in the city reportedly will all hold their graduations the same weekend. As a result, hotel rooms are expected to be fully booked months in advance. If you are planning to attend this conference, I'd suggest you make a reservation NOW in some hotel.

(+) Poor Handwriting by George G. Morgan

Your elementary school teachers tried their best to teach you how to write legibly. At that age, however, none of us had any inkling that poor handwriting would ever be a concern to us. Boy, were we wrong!

I’ve just spent several hours poring over a number of old documents, trying to decipher the handwriting. The frustration, not to mention the eyestrain, was really getting to me. I found myself asking aloud, “Was that an f, a p, or an s in that name in that 1920 U.S. census record?” That was a quite recent document, too. This one, however, was one of those important pieces of evidence that was crucial in helping me demolish a brick wall. Any help would have been welcome, and so I began using some of my favorite methods to analyze handwriting. Let me share these with you.

Google Earth Recreates Ancient Rome

Slashdot reports that Google Earth now includes ancient Rome circa 320 AD, thanks to Google, the University of Virginia, and Past Perfect Productions working together to bring the historical city to life. Clicking on Ancient Rome in 3D, users can revisit Rome from a bygone era and view highly detailed reconstructions of 250 buildings, as well as 5,000 other lesser detailed buildings.

Second Site Version 2.2

Second Site is a great program that automatically creates some of the best-looking genealogy web pages I have ever seen. It is a genealogy web site builder for use with The Master Genealogist, a leading genealogy program for Windows. Second Site creates HTML (the most popular format of pages on the World Wide Web) in any of an almost infinite number of styles and formats, as specified by the user. It generates either narrative or grid style person pages, a master index, a surname index, and source pages. Best of all, the user doesn’t need to know anything about HTML programming and the creation of Web pages. Second Site takes care of all. Minimal technical expertise is required.

John Cardinal, author of Second Site, now has issued a new version of the program. Here is John's announcement:

Announcing Second Site Version 2.2!

The latest release of Second Site includes two big new features: interactive maps and interactive calendars. Both features use events in your TMG project combined with hand-crafted content to enrich your site. The Map feature includes support for custom maps using one of four mapping services: Google Maps, MapQuest, Virtual Earth, and Yahoo! Maps.

(+) The Civil War in and around Athens, Georgia, as Revealed in the Press by Lloyd Bockstruck

As the nation prepares for the sesquicentenary of the Civil War in 2011, interest will continue to surge. Millions of Americans have forbears who participated in that struggle, and many of them will undertake to find their own connections to the Blue and Gray. The veterans of that conflict were the most literate generation in our history. They corresponded from the front with family and friends back home. They maintained journals, and they wrote their reminiscences after the war. Government had perfected its record keeping bureaucracy. The result is an extensive paper trail to be explored for both official and unofficial documentary evidence.

Family Historian for Windows now Available in the U.S. at Target

Family Historian is a very popular genealogy program in England. I have written about it several times in the past, including at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/12/family_historia.html and other articles at http://www.google.com/cse?cx=003715150024579880844%3Aulyzue1ivzu&ie=UTF-8&q=%22Family+Historian%22&sa=Search. I also record an audio interview, or podcast, with the program's developer, Simon Orde. You can listen to that at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/05/podcast_an_inte.html.

Family Historian is now being sold in the U.S. In fact, you can run out and purchase a copy at Target, the nationwide chain of department stores. Here is the announcement:

November 14, 2008 - West Hartford, Connecticut - Family Historian 3, the highest rated family tree software in the U.K. is now available in the United States and Canada. This top rated software is initially being distributed in the nearly 1,500 Target stores nation-wide.

On the Road Again, This Time in Mesa, Arizona

If you read this newsletter regularly, you already know that I travel quite a bit. Right now I am in Mesa, Arizona (a suburb of Phoenix) for tomorrow morning's opening of the 1st Annual Mesa Arizona Family History Expo. The Expo is being held at the Mesa Convention Center at 263 N. Center Street, Mesa. I can't believe they start at 8 AM! (yawn)

For details about this Family History Expo, you can read my earlier article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2008/11/mesa-arizona-fa.html as well as look at the Expo's web page at http://www.fhexpos.com/events/upcoming.php?event_id=43.

Library and Archives Canada announces "Immigrants to Canada," an Online Database

The following announcement was written by Library and Archives Canada:

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce the launch of an online database, Immigrants to Canada.

The database contains Canadian immigration records held at LAC, many of which relate to immigrants from the British Isles arriving in Quebec and Ontario; also included are references to settlers in other provinces. Through this new database, researchers can access references to lists of immigrants and other types of records created before 1865, such as declarations of aliens and names of some Irish orphans.

Ancestry Toolbar

The Generations Network has announced the availability of an Ancestry Toolbar. The Toolbar is a new feature that you can add to your Windows browser (Internet Explorer or Firefox) and use to save photos and stories you find on the Web to a person in your Ancestry Member Tree. With the toolbar, you can:

Southeastern Indiana Genealogy Society Launches First Families Program

The following announcement was written by the Southeastern Indiana Genealogy Society:

The Jefferson County (Indiana) Genealogical Society introduces a First Families Program to honor the founding families of the county.

Madison - Nov. 1, 2008 - The Jefferson County Genealogical Society is sponsoring a lineage program specifically aimed at discovering and honoring the founding families of Jefferson County.

Sharlot Hall Museum Library and Archives is Temporarily Closed

The Sharlot Hall Museum Library and Archives in Prescott, Arizona will be closed Tuesday and possibly Wednesday this week. Archivists and volunteers are working to dry out archived items that were soaked by a leak during Sunday's rain storm. The items include a portion of the museum's map collection.

Ancestry.ca and Familysearch Announce Agreement To Digitize and Index Existing Canadian Censuses

These partnership announcements just keep coming and coming. Of course, the end result is lots of new sources for online records, a boon for genealogists. The following announcement was written by FamilySearch and by The Generations Network, parent company of Ancestry.ca:

Joint initiative provides online access to a comprehensive collection of Canadian censuses

(Toronto, ON – November 11, 2008)  Ancestry.ca, Canada’s leading online family history website, is pleased to announce a joint initiative with FamilySearch International, a nonprofit organization that maintains one of the world's largest repositories of genealogical resources. The joint initiative will allow the organizations to improve online access to a comprehensive collection of Canadian censuses.

Video Interview: Elizabeth Shown Mills

I recently had a chance to spend a week on the 4th Annual Genealogy Conference and Cruise, hosted by Wholly Genes, Inc. I was delighted to learn that Elizabeth Shown Mills was also on the same cruise. Even better, I had a chance to sit and talk with Elizabeth for a while as the Roots Television camera crew recorded our conversation.

Elizabeth Shown Mills is a leading genealogy author and speaker. She is the former editor of the NGS Quarterly, one of the leading scholarly publications. She is an expert in many genealogy-related topics but is especially well known for her expertise and lectures on genealogy methodology and the importance of citing and evaluating sources.

We all can learn from Elizabeth's instructions. You can see and listen to Elizabeth Shown Mills on Roots Television at http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_conferences.php?bctid=1913290847.

Video Interview: John Grenham

John Grenham is an Irish genealogy expert and a prolific author and lecturer. He is also a delightful person to talk with. I know as I had a chance to talk with him at some length a few days ago as the Roots Television camera crew recorded our conversation.

John talked about the growing interest in Irish genealogy and many of the tools available, including his work at www.irishtimes.com/ancestor. You can watch and listen to our conversation at Roots Television at http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_conferences.php?bctid=1913290852.

New CD-ROM: World War I Irish Soldiers, Their Final Testament

The following announcement was written by Eneclann:

Eneclann, Ireland’s leading e-publisher of historical and heritage titles, has launched a new CD-ROM.  This new title provides access to a little known primary source at The National Archives of Ireland and will be of immense value to the growing number of people in Ireland and abroad interested in Irish genealogy and Irish history.

FamilySearch Indexing Update: Seven (7) New Projects Added

The following update was written by FamilySearch:

Seven new indexing projects were released during the past two weeks:

• Argentina 1869 Census – Buenos Aires (Part 2)
• Argentina 1869 Census – Cordoba y San Luis
• Massachusetts Death Records
• Massachusetts Marriage Records
• New Hampshire Birth Records
• UK – Cheshire – Church Records
• UK– Cheshire – Land Tax

Mesa, Arizona Family History Expo to be Held This Weekend

Are you in or near the greater Phoenix, Arizona, area? If so, I'd suggest you plan to spend Friday and/or Saturday at the Mesa Convention Center on North Center Street. If you are a genealogist, I suspect you will enjoy this event.

This will be the first annual (hopefully) Mesa Arizona Family History Expo, sponsored by Family History Expos.com, formerly known as My Ancestors Found.com. I suspect this title will hold true: I bet it will become an annual event.

Thank you, San Antonio

I spent most all day Saturday with a bunch of nice folks at the San Antonio (Texas) Genealogical and Historical Society. I had the honor of making several presentations at the Society's annual fall seminar.

I threw my back out Thursday morning and couldn't even stand up straight for a while. At the Saturday seminar, I delivered most of my presentations while seated in a comfortable office chair that my hosts graciously provided. That may not be proper etiquette for a speaker, but I really wasn't prepared to stand on my feet all day with a back that wouldn't cooperate.

Jewish Group Claims That Mormons Still Perform Proxy Baptisms Despite an Earlier Agreement

The Associated Press has a new story about a long-standing disagreement. Holocaust survivors said Monday they are through trying to negotiate with the Mormon church over posthumous baptisms of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps, saying the church has repeatedly violated a 13-year-old agreement barring the practice.

Library And Archives Canada Partners With Ancestry.ca

The following announcement was written by Library And Archives Canada:

Partnership allows unprecedented online access to Canadian historical records

Ottawa, November 10, 2008 – Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce a collaborative partnership with Canada’s leading online family history website, Ancestry.ca, which will allow the two organizations to provide unprecedented online access to the most comprehensive collection of Canadian historical records available.

(+) Take an Online Armchair Tour by George G. Morgan

This is an amazing time to be a genealogist! There are so many wonderful records that are being digitized and being placed online by so many companies, libraries, archives, government offices, groups, and individuals that it’s now becoming difficult to keep up with what all is available.

There are other technologies available these days that facilitate our genealogy research, too. Software programs and new applications are being introduced all the time. Some of these can help us travel through virtual space and time to help us get a sense of place and context. Indeed, you can take a virtual tour of physical locations from the comfort of your armchair. Let’s explore a few of these ways you can take some free virtual tours.

(+) Must-see Sources for African-American Genealogy by Lloyd Bockstruck

Following the Presidential election of Barack Obama, Public Broadcasting featured an interview with an African-American woman whose father was born a slave. For someone alive in the 21st century and so close to slavery in the United States, her pedigree spanned but two generations before special research techniques and methodology need to be implemented for her genealogy. For younger African-Americans, their slave forebears may well be their great-great-great-grandparents.

Familyrelatives.com Releases a New Online Military Collection

The following announcement was written by Familyrelatives.com:

New military collection released online commemorates the 90th Anniversary of First World War I

In commemoration of the 90th anniversary since the end of the First World War Familyrelatives.com is proud to announce the release of a new military collection online today.

The Artists Rifles Roll of Honour, the Anzac Roll of Honour and the New Zealand Roll of Honour as well as the Waterloo Roll call, Commissioned Sea Officers of the Royal Navy 1660-1815 and the British Naval Biographical Dictionary 1849, all form part of the new collection.

Paul McGrath, R.I.P.

I was saddened to learn of the death of Paul McGrath. Paul was the staff genealogist for the Canadian family history television show “Ancestors in the Attic” (now in its third season) on History Television. Paul suffered a heart attack in Scotland working on an episode of the program. He passed away on Wednesday, October 22, 2008. He was 49 years old.

Who Owns the Copyrights on Obituaries?

According to the Times-Tribune, a newspaper in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the newspaper owns the copyrights on all obituaries that they write. I'm no lawyer, but I think that newspaper has a strong case.

It seems that the Times-Tribune sued the Wilkes-Barre Publishing Co. and The Times Leader on Wednesday, claiming the Wilkes-Barre paper plagiarized more than 50 obituaries written and published in The Times-Tribune starting in late October. The suit, filed in Lackawanna County Court, lists seven claims, including misappropriation, unfair competition, fraud, breach of contract and unjust enrichment.

Manchester, England Records Will Be Going Online

Tens of thousands of Jewish genealogical records will be made public under initiatives by the Manchester Council of Synagogues and the city's Jewish genealogical society. People will be able to access the records over the internet through a pay-as-you-view facility.

Marshfield, Wisconsin Public Library Wins an Award for its Genealogy Database

By examining newspapers of the 1800s era through the present, volunteers and Marshfield, Wisconsin Public Library staff have created an award-winning archive that contains more than 234,000 records of people who live and have lived in the community.

"Old newspapers are full of information, but there isn't an index for them," said Don Schnitzler, an archive volunteer and member of the Marshfield Genealogy Group that first proposed the project to the library in 1982. "Usually, you need to look at a lot of newspapers to find a piece of information you need," he said. "But this online index of births, marriages and deaths makes family research a lot simpler."

Historical Records Of 600,000 Canadian WWI Heroes Now Online

The following announcement was written by The Generations Network, the parent company of Ancestry.ca:

600,000 records of our World War One heroes, including famous Canadians - John McCrae, Tommy Douglas and Frederick Banting

(Toronto, ON – November 5, 2008)  Between 1914-1918, more than 600,000 Canadian men, most untrained civilians, braved foreign soil to join the Allied Forces in an effort to restore peace and freedom to the world, with more than 60,000 making the ultimate sacrifice.

(+) Convert PDF Files Back to the Original Documents

NOTE: This is an update to an article I wrote eight months ago. I have added new information about several new methods of converting PDF documents to text in Windows plus two methods that will work for everyone, including Macintosh and Linux users. I have now switched from the program I was using eight months ago to a new one that I feel is better.

Converting a document to PDF format is a simple and free process, as described in my earlier “Convert Documents to PDF” article. However, converting in the opposite direction used to be more difficult.  Luckily, several software tools are now available that will convert PDF files back to the original formats, be it Word’s DOC files, Excel’s XLS files, PowerPoint’s PPT files, Notepad’s TXT files, or others. You can maintain fonts, keep colors, and even preserve tables.

Extracting original data out of a PDF file would have almost impossible a few years ago. However, a number of products available today can do the job.

Changes at WorldVitalRecords.com

WorldVitalRecords.com has made a number of changes to the web site in an effort to make information easier to find. The following was written by WorldVitalRecords.com:

WorldVitalRecords.com Undergoes Facelift to Make Finding Ancestors Easier

Improved Search and Browsing Functionality, Expanded Collections, and Increased Value

Finding an ancestor within a collection that includes 1.2 billion names across more than 11,000 databases can at times feel like finding a needle in a haystack. That’s not the experience WorldVitalRecords.com wants for its guests and customers. You are invited to visit WorldVitalRecords.com to see how focusing on the needs of genealogists has led us to create a better experience for finding your ancestors online.

Tillinghast Genealogy Wins the Jacobus Award

The following announcement was written by the American Society of Genealogists:

At their meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, on 1 November 2008, the American Society of Genealogists voted to give their annual Donald Lines Jacobus Award to Wayne G. Tillinghast for his book, The Tillinghasts in America, The First Four Generations.

Published in 2006 by the Rhode Island Genealogical Society (www.RIGenSoc.org), this work is a classic genealogy, tracing the descendants, both male and female, of Elder Pardon Tillinghast (ca. 1622–1718), who settled at Providence in or before 1645. Despite the subtitle of the book, many descendants in the fifth and sixth generations are treated, Intermarriages with other Rhode Island families make this genealogy almost a Who’s Who of colonial Providence. Thoroughly documented, extensive biographical detail includes much Rhode Island history and corrects previous errors. As noted in a review in The New England Historical and Genealogical Register (161 [2007]:73), “The discussion of difficult problems is impressive.”

In Quarantine: Life and Death on Grosse Ile, 1832-1937

The following announcement was written by Library and Archives Canada:

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce the launch of In Quarantine: Life and Death on Grosse Île, 1832-1937, a project funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage through its Canadian Culture Online Program.

Featuring a variety of documents preserved and digitized by LAC, such as lists of births and deaths at sea, hospital registers, journals, letters, photographs and maps, this virtual exhibition tells the story not only of the quarantine station, but also of the individuals who experienced life on the island.

Immigrants at Grosse Île, a database containing thousands of digitized documents related to individuals who lived on Grosse Île, is now available through this website.

(+) How Well Do You Know Your Library’s Collection? by George G. Morgan

Every genealogist’s work today should include a combination of original documents, printed materials, Internet resources, materials from online databases, and the exchange of information with other genealogists. Only by working all these sources in tandem can we begin to hope to work effectively.

Unfortunately, there are many people who believe that “the best stuff is on the Internet.” Yes, there has been an explosion of information placed online in the last ten years, especially with the digitization of images at many libraries’, archives’, and online subscription databases’ websites. However, that does not mean that you should only conduct research on the Internet.

Change the Font Size

This article is a repeat of one I wrote on June 12 of this year. This week, I had requests to publish it again for several people who missed the earlier version.

I occasionally receive questions about this newsletter similar to one in my in-box this week:  "Please tell me how to enlarge this article ... I cannot read this small print." I thought I'd answer here so that everyone will see the answer.

You can change the print size on ANY web page at any time. That is, you can change the print size not only on this newsletter's site, but also on almost every other web pa