| News and Notes From NGS | |
The National Genealogical Society Conference is being held this week in Portland, OR and I thought that those of you who weren't able to make it might like to learn a little about what's new in the world of genealogy. It has been an exhilarating experience so far and I sincerely hope one that you will all get to experience at some point in your life.
There are about 1500 of us genealogy addicts in attendance from as far away as Auckland, New Zealand! Vendor presence in the exhibitor hall is at an all-time high, some of the labs and lunch/dinner lectures have been sold out for weeks and there are smiles and laughter everywhere. The weather has been beautiful to boot!
Noteworthy New Genealogy Products and Services
- The BYU
Molecular Genealogy Research Group is here collecting blood samples and
4-generation pedigree charts for their ongoing genetic study. This study is
being conducted to create a large molecular genetic database (a genealogy
that is based on an individual's DNA) that will link the molecular DNA
information to known written pedigrees.
- The Family History
Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons) is
developing a new system that will combine the best features of both the
Ancestral File and the Pedigree Resource File. Other news from their booth
here at the conference includes a demonstration of the newest version of PAF
(Personal Ancestral File Version 5.1) which now supports Palm OS®
handheld computers! This version was quietly released about a month ago, but
it has received much interest here at the conference. Makes research on the
go much easier! The program is free and can be downloaded
from the FamilySearch Web site.
- The 1901 Census Project
is a much anticipated offering of the Public Record Office for England and
Wales. This database has been in the works for several years and will
finally be available when the census records are released from their privacy
restrictions on 1 January 2002. This will be an online, searchable database
which will allow payment by credit card to view images and/or transcripts.
There is a working beta test online now covering the 1891 census returns for
Norfolk. This allows all of us the opportunity to test various parts of the
service as part of the pilot and obtain a preview of how the main 1901
service is going to look. The pilot will be charged so that all aspects of
the system can be tested before the launch of the 1901 service. You can
learn more about the pilot and see a breakdown of the charges by visiting
the new census Web site (http://census.pro.gov.uk/)
and clicking on New User. Searching is free.
- Another fairly new
program being demonstrated here at the conference is Bygones.
Bygones is a freeware software program (available for Windows 95+ and
Macintosh computers) designed to enter and keep genealogical research notes
on a laptop or desktop computer. In general this program can replace
paper-only genealogical note keeping forms, such as paper research logs and
research extracts, correspondence logs, etc. with computer versions of these
forms. It promises to be an interesting alternative for people who just
can't seem to get organized!
- A new book, Oregon Burial
Sites, was unveiled at the conference. This book covers all known burial
sites across the state of Oregon according to its compiler, Stanley Clarke
of Genealogical Services, Portland, OR. The project has been in the works
since 1983 and includes information from cemetery offices as well as from
the markers themselves. The book has not yet been printed, but preorders are
being taken for $90. Contact Stanley Clarke (srclarke@ix.netcom.com)
for more information.
- GeneWeaver,
a new tool for creating and maintaining your family health history, looks to
be a nice addition to the genealogy software market. The program was created
by family historians and allows you to import from a GEDCOM or to manually
input families as you go. A GeneWizard walks you through a series of
health-related questions for each person, to assist you with preparing your
family health history.
- FamilyToolbox.net entered
the online genealogy database market by announcing its Genealogy Toolbox
DigiSources line of CD-ROMs containing digitized images of actual records.
The first of the CDs will be available for purchase on June 1, 2001 and
include War of 1812 Military Bounty Land Warrants (1815-1858) and Record
Cards of Letter Carriers Separated from the Postal Service (1863-1899).
It takes a lot of clicking from page to page, but a few of the Military
Bounty Land Warrants are also available on the DigiSources
Web site for free.
- Family Tree SuperTools is
a brand new product offered by Wholly Genes Software, best known for their
genealogy software program, The Master Genealogist (TMG). This software is
basically a subset of some of the neat new tools which will be available in
the long-anticipated arrival of TMG 5.0 (date of this release has still not
been determined). Family Tree SuperTools will be available within the next
few weeks and works in conjunction with your existing family tree software.
It has the ability to read and refresh data directly from your current
program (see Web site for supported programs and details) without GEDCOM
transfers and includes such options as multimedia slideshows, timelines,
heirloom quality wall charts and a project manager feature which helps you
in coordinating data for other researchers.
- Last but not least... [insert drum roll here] You can now purchase the entire U.S. 1880 census on 63 CD-ROMs for the wonderful price of $49.95 from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Mormons). That's less than $1 per CD!!! These CDs are transcriptions, not actual digitized images, and include a fully searchable index which allows you to not only search by surname, but also by things such as location, occupation and more. 500 sets of CDs were brought to the conference and sold out in just over 1 day. They will be available very soon on the FamilySearch Web site at http://www.familysearch.org. What a wonderful gift the Church and their legion of volunteers have given us!
I'm heading back to the conference now where we will be coming to you live today (Friday, May 18) in our chatroom at 7PM Eastern time (6PM Central, 5PM Mountain and 4PM Pacific). Be sure to stop by and see what else is going on at the conference! Members of the National Genealogical Society including John Humphrey and Cyndi Howells will also be in attendance to tell you how much fun we are all having!
Live
from the NGS Conference!!!
Friday, May 18, 2001
7PM Eastern (6PM Central, 5PM Mountain and 4PM Pacific)
http://genealogy.about.com/mpchat.htm
(Chat Room #1)
Stay tuned for further conference updates :-)
Stay in touch with what's new in Genealogy by subscribing to our newsletter, About Ancestry, joining us in chat, or posting messages and/or surname queries in the Genealogy Forum.
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Statue of Liberty - Ellis Island Foundation
Used with Permission.
