Did You Hear About the Great New Features From GenealogyBank.com?

Photo from pinterest.

This painting of A. Bronson Alcott, father of Louisa May Alcott and has nothing to do with GenealogyBank.com, other than I wanted to read his obituary and the best place to go for that is GenealogyBank. I was fortunate to be informed that some major changes were coming to this program, and when two recently appeared, I wanted to write about them. Bronson Alcott is my example, since I saved three obituaries about him in the My Folder box.

If you don't know about the new feature, My Folder, it's quite easy to understand, because it's simply a folder where you save your findings. The tab shows on your home page when you sign on to GenealogyBank, if you have already saved something. If you want to see what is in there, click on it. If nothing is displayed, that shows that you haven't saved anything. To begin with GenealogyBank (provided you are a subscriber),  go ahead and write in your Ancestor's Last name and First Name, find something to save (instructions below), and it will be saved in your My Folder.

When I clicked on My Folder, I see my three saved obituaries for A. Bronson Alcott.

To look at the last obituary, click on it then it opens to the screen below. My red arrows show a new option, Email, and the recently discussed option, Saved in My Folder.

If you want to Email this obituary to somebody, click on that option, shown above, and it opens to Share This Image. I love both new features, and look forward to the other new changes, especially one that I've complained about. Keep tuned.

The Huge Ancestry News as Reported from the Six Well-Known Bloggers

Many of you have already heard the recent news about Ancestry.com stating "we’ve made the tough decision to stop selling Family Tree Maker as of December 31, 2015." (Read more at the end of this post.) This post is for those who aren't on facebook or subscribe to Ancestry's blog. I am presenting several articles and links for you, since I subscribe to a lot of blogs and have many of these people as facebook friends. I am sure some of their information will be very helpful to you.

The notice on the upper right side is actually on my blog, Life From the Roots. It is shown on the home page (bottom right side) and lists my top 10 popular posts as determined by Google. You can see, the post is about a discount from Ancestry and is number 1. Originally, it was posted in April 2013, and I've updated it quite a few times. People are still reading this and getting the discount. I have no affiliation with Ancestry and because of what has happened, I plan on taking down that post on December 31st. You are welcome to see if my information is still valid for the discount. Note: I haven't been a subscriber for about a month, but will probably rejoin in the future.

Six interesting posts from well-known and informative bloggers. If you don't already subscribe to their sites, this might be a good time to do so. They are all free, and these individuals keep us up-to-date on all genealogy matters.

Randy Seaver
http://www.geneamusings.com/2015/12/ancestrycom-announces-retirement-of.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+geneamusings%2FlEXw+%28Genea-Musings%29

Dick Eastman
http://blog.eogn.com/2015/12/08/ancestry-to-retire-family-tree-maker-software/
Update from Dick Eastman (Dec. 10, 2015)
http://blog.eogn.com/2015/12/10/more-information-on-the-decision-to-retire-family-tree-maker-desktop-software/

Judy Russell
http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2015/12/09/check-out-the-alternatives/

Lisa Louise Cooke
http://lisalouisecooke.com/2015/12/ancestry-retires-family-tree-maker-software/

Kerry Scott
http://www.cluewagon.com/2015/12/santa-claus-signs-agreement-with-ancestry-com-to-ruin-christmas/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClueWagon+%28Clue+Wagon%29

Thomas MacEntee
http://www.geneabloggers.com/blame-the-millennials-the-end-of-family-tree-maker-genealogy-software/


If you are planning on making a change soon, three of the current companies making genealogy software programs are listed below. All have offered nice discounts, but  you have to act very fast on ordering the last one, Family Tree Builder.

RootsMagic7
http://blog.rootsmagic.com/?p=2546

Legacy Family Tree
http://news.legacyfamilytree.com/legacy_news/2015/12/update-on-the-family-tree-maker-announcement.html

Family Tree Builder
https://www.myheritage.com/partner/geneabloggersjuly2015?utm_source=external&utm_campaign=partner_geneabloggersjuly2015

My message from Ancestry.com received December 8, 2015 is below.

Dear Family Tree Maker™ community, Ancestry is proud to have made a significant investment this year to bring valuable new content and records to the Ancestry site. In 2015, we’ve made 220 million searchable historical records from Mexico available, more than 170 million pages from the largest collection of U.S. will and probate records, among others. We’ve also introduced new features such as Ancestry Academy, and major advancements for AncestryDNA. As we strive to provide our customers with the best experience possible, we are constantly evaluating our services and product offerings. True to this focus, we’ve taken a hard look at the declining desktop software market and the impact this has on being able to continue to provide new content, product enhancements and support that our users need. With that, we’ve made the tough decision to stop selling Family Tree Maker as of December 31, 2015. We will continue to support existing Family Tree Maker owners at least through January 1, 2017. During this time, all features of the software, including TreeSync™ will continue to work. Our Member Services team will also remain available to assist with questions or issues you may have. These changes are never easy. But by focusing our efforts, we can concentrate on continuing to build great products for our loyal Ancestry community. You can find additional details about the retirement of Family Tree Maker on our blog.

Taking a Break, but not From Summer

After five and a half years of blogging, and writing 1,133 posts, plus have 69 drafts in the can, I've decided to take a break. Genealogy research will continue, but no blogging about it, perhaps I'll do some posts about Lowell. My decision was made last week, and that is the reason I haven't posting anything this past week. Even with the lovely surprise of having my recent post selected by four fellow blog writers as one of their weekly favorites, I still decided to stop for a while.

My gratitude to those four women is shown by my putting their blog links below. It is my hope you will click on them and search around their sites. For my readers, I appreciate knowing many are still reading my posts, so with my time off, you are getting time off as well...I'm not cluttering your email box. Have a great summer. The photos on this post were taken last week.

Gail Dever of Genealogy à la carte

Jo Henn of Climbing My Family Tree

Jana Last of Jana's Genealogy and Family

Linda Stufflebean of Empty Branches on the Family Tree

Updates: Thank you to Pam Carter, Market Basket, Thanks to Bill Clinton, Ipswich, MA changes

I haven't written a Bits of News post in over three years, but thought I would group a few "bits of news" today.

Pam Carter writes in her blog, My Maine Ancestry blog, and received the Blog of 2012 award. She recently awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award, which was very kind of her, since I do very little writing anymore. To show my appreciation, I am highlighting her blog (just mentioned above). Please read about Pam, a seasoned U. S. History teacher at a high school, so whatever she writes will be a thorough blog post. Carter is her maiden name, so if you have Carters in your tree, you might be related. As a matter of fact, Pam and I are distant cousins through Thomas Carter. Thank you, Pam, very much for my award and I hope some of my readers will follow your blog.

Castle Hill (Wikipedia) at Ipswich, Massachusetts

More news, the above shows the almost completed restoration of the casino area. Today was a cloudy day, so you can't see the ocean. The huge house faces the ocean.

Some of you might recognize the castle because it has been shown in several movies, such as; "The Witches of Eastwick," "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past," "Flowers in the Attic" and more recently the current movie, “The Equalizer,” with Dezel Washington.

The 1677 Whipple House and the reconstructed 1657 Alexander Knight House were recently in the news. The Whipple House lost a huge tree during a severe storm, and there was roof damage to the house. The Alexander Knight House has a new handmade fence to go with the 1657 house. (my photo)

Yesterday, I was delighted to see that the Market Basket grocery store chain again made the news. The below statement was what Bill Clinton said...glad to see he follows my local news. He has been to Lowell, at least two times, perhaps more.

Clinton name-drops Market Basket in CNBC interview

Sentinel & Enterprise UPDATED:   09/28/2014 06:32:14 AM EDT

Read more: http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/news/ci_26622370/sunday-notebook-clinton-name-drops-market-basket-cnbc#ixzz3EjhWkvUI
Part of the article reads:

"THE MARKET BASKET fight first made headlines in national outlets such as The New York Times and NBC Nightly News, among others. Last week, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology held a forum that attracted hundreds to hear about lessons that can be gleaned from employees' victory in getting the company to sell to beloved leader Arthur T. Demoulas.

A few workers who attended the forum loved that it was held just across the river from the Prudential Center in Boston, where the Market Basket board held so many of its meetings.

But no one probably expected a former U.S. president to mention the chain's name. But Bill Clinton did in a CNBC interview Sept. 23 at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Clinton was asked by reporter Becky Quick about the American economy, with the stock market soaring as many middle-class families still struggle. Clinton mentioned three reasons for the sluggish job market: a need to raise the minimum wage, a need for a better mix of jobs, and the fact that so many companies are using their wealth on dividends or buying back stock.

Clinton mentioned Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, which recently went public, as saying his investors would make more money in the long run if the company placed employees and customers first. He then turned to Market Basket, which has been putting employees and customers ahead of shareholders for years.

"This Market Basket case in Massachusetts and New Hampshire was a big issue because the family that owned it wanted to get rid of the guy who was running it," Clinton said, showing an accurate familiarity with the saga. "They thought he gave too much of the wealth of the company to the employees. The customers loved it. So the employees and the customers left when they got rid of him. They had to bring him back."

Read more: http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/news/ci_26622370/sunday-notebook-clinton-name-drops-market-basket-cnbc#ixzz3EkA81Nun

A Little Cheer in the New Year.

Every time I see this photo, it cheers me up, especially in winter and each time I turn on my iPad. The above photo was taken in a nursery in the middle of winter last January. I had just gotten the toy and decided to take practice photos. It soon became my cover photo and I see it every time I go online. Since that day, I took very few flower photos because I wasn't happy with the outcome. The reason for writing all this is to say, I have taken over 4,000 shots this past year, and deleted about 1,000. Many others have to do with genealogy in some way, such as: cemetery stones, war memorials, and a lot of tourist spots in New England.

If you have seen any of my posts for this past year, each photo was taken with this iPad, the majority are clear and sharp. It's works beautifully for cemetery stones and pages from books, really anything but flower close-ups.

One of my "projects" for this year is to go through all photos and get them posted to my blog. It might seem unusual to see bare ground (no snow), green trees and lovely foliage in a cemetery during these early 2014 months, but that is what I intend to do.

I Have to Share...You Might Just Benefit

Those of us who do genealogy often just stick to the regular methods of doing research, whether it be same library, same database, and other methods that are familiar to us. However, the other day I moved away from my comfort zone and tried Fold3. I used to subscribe to Footnote.com (and didn't like it) that was before it was renamed Fold3. What I want to share with you is, I didn't have to pay for Fold3. Why? I knew it was part of my membership with the Connecticut Society of Genealogists (CSG). Okay, you might not have Connecticut ancestors, but you will benefit from their benefits, one being a subscription to using Fold3 through their website, plus receive two publications throughout the year.

You can save money by joining. How is that possible? The membership into the CSG has several levels, see HERE. Membership for Fold3 is $47.95 (on sale now). The first two membership classes for CSG are much lower than subscribing directly to Fold3!

You may not be interested in Fold3, I sure wasn't until the other day when I decided to see if there was any mention of my ancestor + pallbearers. I struck it rich when up came a newspaper article from March 1894 listing all 14 names of the honorary pallbearers for my ancestor! Now, I am hooked with Fold3.

There are probably other databases or great benefits with your membership in a genealogy society. Why not check out what they have. The Connecticut Society of Genealogists was the second society I joined, I would guess it was in 1993.

I contacted the CSG this morning to get their approval to post this. They had no problem with my posting this.

Heredis 2014 Genealogy Software Offers a Special Deal

I have been notified by the Heredis company of their "Special offer valid for Windows users 12% off from November 27, 2013 until January 5, 2013 inclusive."

Having trouble reading this? View it in your browser. Don't forget to add newsletter@heredis-genealogie.com to your contacts. New version Heredis 2014 for Windows 12% OFF Dear genealogist,   When the extended family comes together for the Thanksgiving holidays or Christmas and new Year holidays, it's the perfect opportunity to go further with your research and share your genealogy with your family. That's why we would now like to give you the chance today to acquire the Heredis 2014 software at a bargain price of US $34,99 instead of US $39.99. The Search Wizard feature allows you to take a look at where you are in your research and highlights known or missing items from your genealogy. It suggests different ways forward and proposed various online research tools targeted to websites such as Heredis Online, Ancestry, My Heritage... From your software, you launch your research on www.heredis-online.com: more than two hundred twenty million data are available! You also publish a website dedicated to your genealogy. With a few clicks, you will have a site dedicated to your ancestors, searchable by your family and friends, and which is totally free. Heredis 2014 at 12% OFF is the complete solution for your genealogy: Heredis will do it ALL. Sincerely. The Heredis Team Details of the offer Heredis 2014 for Windows – by download. Order Heredis 2014 for Windows on the site of our agent DR MyCommerce, Inc. d/b/a SWREG, Inc :www.swreg.org. When you confirm your order, upon confirmation of your payment, you will receive via email: The link to download the Heredis 2014 for Windows installation file Your private and confidential license number (or key code) Order Heredis 2014 for Windows at US $34,99 instead of US $39,99. Special offer valid for Windows users 12% off from November 27, 2013 until January 5, 2013 inclusive. Installation When you confirm your order, you will receive an email with a download link and your private and confidential license number. Click the download link. When the InstallENHeredis2014.exe download is complete, double-click the downloaded file. Once the installation is complete, double-click on the blue leaf on your desktop to launch the software. Enter your license number. Windows System Requirements Windows XP SP3 or VISTA or 7 or 8 250 Mo disk space required Screen 1024×700 minimum Internet connection for research, publishing & integrated maps   Having trouble reading this? View it in your browser. This offer is available only from the BSD Concept company. In accordance with our Privacy Policy, you have the right to access, modify, rectify and delete data concerning youself. If you no longer wish to receive the Heredis Letter, with offers on our products and services, unsubscribe here. This message is sent to you automatically, please do not reply. © 2013 Heredis - All rights reserved

YouTube - Videos from this email

Disclosure: I am not affiliated with this company, but have been receiving notifications from the company from time to time. They have given me a free download; however, I have not put it on my computer. 

Newspapers

I am just learning about the wealth of genealogical information newspapers can provide. An ancestry subscription will often have articles with your ancestor's name, and I've always known about the Library of Congress (LOC.gov). However, recently there are two more sites to fill my newspaper hunger. They are:

1.  NewspaperArchive at  http://newspaperarchive.com/  Just yesterday I subscribed to the 3 month special for $19.95.

2. Google newspapers at  http://news.google.com/newspapers#V was written about today by Brenda Silvey on facebook. She posted the information on the facebook site, Technology for Genealogists, started by Susan Petersen. There are a combination of both free and fee papers. The nice thing with this site is, you can put in the surname, and most likely, you'll get a lot of hits. Since I'm currently working on the SCRAMLIN line, the first hit was about the man I'm currently working on, and I found out he froze to death. After finding that, I went through about 50 other articles.

Below, keeping with the Scramlin surname, here are two articles about distant relatives who did some murdering during their lifetime.

William Scramlin killed his wife, Helen Annette Teach on Aug. 2, 1967.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VMAiAAAAIBAJ&sjid=VLYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1527,2640093&dq=scramlin&hl=en   

and

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=t0tSAAAAIBAJ&sjid=yHsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5728,6747810&dq=scramlin&hl=en

James Earl Scramlin beat Albert Willard to death in 1977
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vURYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cz4NAAAAIBAJ&pg=4310,576481&dq=scramlin&hl=en

ADDITIONAL NEWSPAPER SOURCES FROM READERS

Albert Riezebos shared the sites below:Yesterday 9:03 PM

Early Manitoba newspapers.
http://manitobia.ca/content/en/newspapers

Henderson Directories and newspapers mostly for Manitoba,Sask. and Alberta.
http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/henderson.html

From csccat, she shared:
Old Fulton NY Postcards, aka: Old Fulton Newspapers or Fulton History

Have you heard about Heredis, the Genealogy Software Program?

NOTE: PLEASE READ THE BOTTOM, NEW INFORMATION AS OF 7/3/13

When I received an email from a Heredis representative on November 21, 2012 telling me about their genealogy software program that has, "been widely appreciated in Europe for almost 20 years and has now been launched world-wide," I was a bit skeptical because I hadn't heard of it, nor had I heard any buzz about it on facebook or from any of the 300+ blogs I read.

The letter went on with, "I notice that you keep a genealogical blog and as an expert in genealogy, we would very much like to have your opinion on our software. We want to know if Heredis will be able to meet your expectations as a genealogist." She couldn't be talking about me, I'm no expert. Then, "We would therefore be very pleased to offer you a copy of the Heredis program. To do this, simply reply to my email and tell me if you want the version for Windows or the Mac version. I can also send you both if necessary. We also have a version for iOS (iPhone / iPad / iPod touch) which is available free on the App store."

After four days, I wrote back because I had just received the current issue of, "Internet Genealogy" in which there was a review. Still nobody posted anything on facebook. I was pleased to receive both a copy of Heredis for my PC and the Mac. The company was very accommodating and wrote, "We've just asked you to have a look on our software: don't worry about time. We would very much like to have your opinion on our software. We want to know if Heredis will be able to meet your expectations as a genealogist. If you want to share your experience or the video with your followers it's better for us but not necessary."

I am anxious to try their product, and told them that I currently use RootsMagic4, FamilyTree Maker 11 and 12, and just ordered Legacy a few weeks ago (but haven't used it much). None of them seem to meet my needs.

This is in not a review. I can say, all 43,000 of my names were quickly put on Heredis, and that I love the looks of it. If you want a review, check out the current issue of "Internet Genealogy."

Last week, Dick Eastman of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (EOGN) posted an article about the special deal Heredis is offering through January 6, 2013. You may read it HERE.

In part, it says, "From now through Sunday, January 6, 2013 inclusive, there is 20% discount on ALL Heredis genealogy software: Heredis for PC at $ 29.90 instead of $ 39.90 and Heredis for Mac at $ 42.99 instead of $ 59.90." Why not treat yourself to a New Year's gift. Better yet, post this article or my link to your blog, so your readers will be informed.

On December 8th, Valerie Craft wrote her blog post, Exploring Heredis for Mac. Please visit her site to read her nice review of this product.

Disclosure: I received two copies of the software, however, this is not a review. I'm passing information on to some of my readers who might be interested. Soon, I will try out the features, but I probably won't do a review, instead, I'll give my feedback to the company.
----------------------

I recently received notification from a rep. from HEREDIS, a genealogy software program you might have heard about. There is a super deal on to buy it for $10, until Sunday. Here is the message: We would like to inform you that we have launched promotions for all versions of the Heredis genealogy software and some of the offers may interest your readers.
MEGA DEAL: Heredis software for $10!

For 4 DAYS ONLY, from Wednesday, July 3, 2013 to Sunday, July 7, 2013 inclusive, Heredis for PC at $10 instead of $ 39.90 available in http://www.heredis.com/en/heredis-pc/ and Heredis for Mac at $10.99 instead of $ 59.99 available in http://www.heredis.com/en/heredis-mac/or in the App Store: http://appstore.com/mac/heredis/.
Last update: improvement of the Gedcom import/export. If genealogists have created a file with another genealogy program, it is easy to transfer in the Heredis program. The file will be converted automatically in the Heredis version. All data will be open.

We thank you in advance for your feedback. Do not hesitate to come back to me for any further information.

Heredis PC | Heredis
www.heredis.com
Tout sur la généalogie avec Heredis, le logiciel de généalogie pour Mac, pour Windows, et pour iPhone/iPad.

Heredis PC | Heredis

www.heredis.com

Tout sur la généalogie avec Heredis, le logiciel de généalogie pour Mac, pour Windows, et pour iPhone/iPad.

Reviewing a Book for Jennifer Holik

A book review is something I’ve never done, but when I won a book, Branching Out: Kids Genealogy for High School Students Lessons 1-15 by Jennifer Holik of http://blog.generationsbiz.com/ I wrote and told her I’d be happy to write a review. In addition, I’d prefer her PDF version and not the hard copy. When I subscribed to her blog, I hadn’t known there was a contest to win this book, so I was quite surprised to learn I was the winner.

How do I write a review? Is it the same as a critique? I’m not sure, but critiques always seem so negative, so I’ll give my thoughts.

The things that came to mind after I finished reading the 65 pages were, there is a lot of information. And, it isn't just for high school students; in my opinion, this is a perfect book for those who home-school their older children or even somebody teaching a small group of scouts or young adults who are interested in their family history.

There are a lot of reading assignments as well as hands-on projects. It might be noted, however, the students have to have access to four other books, and a computer, in addition to Jennifer’s book.

It is apparent that Jennifer put in a huge amount of time and effort into her book. In addition, she has other books in this vein, covering other grades, and a new one for adults. Please see her blog at http://blog.generationsbiz.com/ for further information. Thanks Jennifer, I enjoyed receiving and reading your book.

Remember Roots Tech 2012? Now you can View the Lectures for FREE

What a surprise, after over a month, Roots Tech 2012 has finally decided to make available the individual lectures many of us saw in early February. At that time, we were glued to our computers watching the outstanding lectures. Even the minute they were over, I wanted to watch again, but we were told they would be available soon. I've thought about them, but hesitated to ask anybody for fear of appearing stupid for not knowing the answer. It paid off, I just saw the announcement on Google+ by Dave Barney. He wrote, "Individual session videos are now live on RootsTech!

Home | RootsTech.org"


Or go to: FamilySearch https://www.familysearch.org/techtips/2012/03/rootstech-2012-videos

There are 12 that were streamed live, and five new ones. In addition, "Jay Verkler's keynote "Inventing the Future, As a Community" and Ron Tanner's presentation "Future of FamilySearch Family Tree" will be posted at a later date."

So friends, go to the site, and pick a lecture to watch for the first time or the second. I, for one, am very glad to have these available.

Bites of News -- Social, Social

As I was about to toss my issue of Smart Computing, (February 2011) issue out, the new issue of Internet Genealogy arrived (April/May 2011). As a long time subscriber, actually a charter subscriber to Smart Computing, I've mentioned the magazine before. I thought some readers might be interested in seeing what the topic of the day is.


It is no surprise that Internet Genealogy has articles about social media, every issue seems to cover something along that line. However, Smart Computing is a different matter. Their article, Get Connected, How Social Networking Can Benefit Your Business runs from pages 56 to 71, no small article for sure. Chapters includes the following:

•  Put Your Business On Facebook
• Get Linkedin
• Put Social Networking To Work
• Beyond the Big Names

Bits of News -- Webinars, Past and Future

I originally posted this blog on January 2, 2011, since then, the Webinar lectures have been given, and many are archived for you to now listen to and watch for FREE. Now, another organization is also offering various genealogy webinars, so I decided to revise this post and bring you up-to-date.


Webinar:  "Web conferencing is used to conduct live meetings, training, or presentations via the Internet. In a web conference, each participant sits at his or her own computer and is connected to other participants via the internet. This can be either a downloaded application on each of the attendees' computers or a web-based application where the attendees access the meeting by clicking on a link distributed by e-mail (meeting invitation) to enter the conference." From Wikipedia.  Each session can hold about 1,000 attendees.


The links to all sites are below:


RootsMagic Inc.  The genealogy software company offers seven great sessions, and I have attended all because I am currently learning this program. Past lectures are archived.

Ancestry.com: Has two new seminars scheduled.  In addition they have archived sessions that go back to 2007.

Legacy Family Tree: Has quite a few lectures, various topics, being offered. In addition, there are many archived webinars for you to listen to and/or watch.

NEW: From the Southern California Genealogical Society (SCGS) and Family Research Library, the Jamboree Extension Series.  There are about 12 new lectures as of February 23rd, with more to be announced.  Please visit SCGS to register.


A new blog site: GeneaWebinars will be posting new webinars with all information as soon as they are announced. Very nice to have a blog just for webinars. Thank you DearMYRTLE for setting this up.

Bits of News -- Boston Family History Day with NEHGS and Ancestry.com

The other day while at the New England Historic and Genealogical Society's Library, I checked my email.  And, I'm glad I did, as there was an email from NEHGS informing me of an upcoming Family History Day sponsored by NEHGS and Ancestry.com!


This message was giving advance notice of two days to those who might be interested in the Boston Family History Day 2010. (The  notice was for those who had registered for the winter Family History Day, which was an enormous success.)


As luck would have it, there were several members of the staff near me and I asked about it.  One said, "they are planning for 2,000 people" and the other said, "it's going to be huge." Hum, that is pretty impressive.  That is as many people who attend the major conferences, such as the recent National Genealogical Society Conference in Salt Lake City, and I hope the upcoming Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Knoxville, Tennessee.


General registration opens on Thursday, July 29, 2010 to everybody, and I'm giving you a little advance notice.  I am assuming information about the conference will be in the NEHGS eNews (weekly newsletter).  The newsletter is free, and you can subscribe by going to NEHGS eNews.


The last time there was a large genealogy conference in Boston was in the fall of 2006, so it has been some time.  We deserve it.

Bits of News

The May issue of Smart Computing has at least three articles that might be of interest to genealogists. I have mentioned this magazine several times in the past.  Nobody knows more than me, how expensive they can be, and I subscribe to quite a number including a fair share of genealogy publications. I have always thought that if you want to read it, and don't want to subscribe, just check out your library.

This issue has "To Tweet Or Not to Tweet?" a three page article, "Gmail Goodies," and "Roll Your Own Blog with Tumblr."

You would think that with all the magazines I subscribe to, I would be smarter in the technology aspect of computers.  I even had my first computer class at the Pentagon, no less, many years ago. So far back, that we had a tour of their computer center and the computers were five feet tall or higher! But, it was genealogy that interested me, and now the two have messed! Amazing how that turned out.

Bits of News, Magazines

Genealogy and Google just seem to go together, then throw in any information about computers.  Now you have three topics that make for an educated person, even if you don't know what the heck they are writing about. You are educated in the sense you read it, but do you understand it?  Sometimes magazines speak our language a bit simpler, so once again, I'm discussing some recent magazines I received.

PC World has a number of articles pertaining to computer security. Family Circle has a nice article called "Backup Plan" covering software, online backups and external drives.  Smart Computing has several that I enjoyed and understood. Included are, "Google, More than a Search Engine," "Cruising In the Cloud" and "Share Your World on the Web" Head-to-Head: Blog Services, a three full page review of five blog hosting services.