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Copyright© 2003 by Richard W. Eastman. All rights reserved.

Two big names in genealogy publishing are merging. Willow Bend Books is purchasing Heritage Books. The combined company will now be the largest genealogy publisher (over 2,500 titles in print), and the largest genealogy retailer (over 12,000 titles in stock) of books, maps, and CDs dealing with history and genealogy.

I contacted Craig Scott and Laird Towle recently to ask about their future plans. Craig replied, "It should be a lot of fun integrating the largest bookstore with the largest publisher (defined as total books in print). The different cultures are also interesting." Laird said that he and his wife, Marlene, are retiring, although he also said it would be a gradual transition. Members of his family will continue to work for the new company, managing the publishing operations.

The merger of these two publishing houses should be an excellent marriage that will also benefit genealogists. Craig Scott is well-known and respected as a producer of high-quality genealogy materials. The addition of Heritage Books to Craig's existing business helps ensure that these references will be available for many more years.

Rod Sullivan sent an e-mail this week about a new genealogy program that he has written. The following is extracted from Rod's message:

After reading Rod's words, I had to see the program for myself. I took a quick trip to his Web site and downloaded the program. I then double-clicked on the new file and followed a few on-screen instructions. The installation was completed within seconds. To launch the program, I double-clicked on the new Ancestral Author icon that had just appeared on my desktop.

The file that I created about five minutes after I first saw the program looks just as good as the online sample, except that I had not added any graphics. My file also had a watermark on each page that said, "Unregistered." Once I obtained a registration number and entered it into the program, the watermark no longer appeared on the reports that I created.

Ancestral Author will create three different kinds of reports:

1. Standard Descendant Report - This is the most common type of report. It produces a register report showing the descendants of the root individual down to N generations where "N" is a number that you specify.

2. Lineal Descent Report - This report shows the descent of one individual (DESC) from another (ROOT), without reporting on collateral lines. In addition it shows N generations of descendants of DESC that you specified.

3. Greatest Ancestor Report - This report is useful if you don’t know the names of any individuals in the GEDCOM. If no name is given for the ROOT individual, Ancestral Author will find the person with the most descendants and use him/her as the root of the report. It will then generate a report showing N generations of descendants that you specified.

I found the program rather easy to use. I only found one thing that confused me, and even that was quickly solved. The program asks for the name of the earliest ancestor in GEDCOM file for whom you wish to generate a report. This individual is referred to as the "Root Person." The program specifies that the user must enter the "full name as in GEDCOM." I entered the name of my great-great-grandfather: Washington Harvey Eastman. The program accepted this without error and went on to generate a report. The only problem is that there was no data in the book! It had a title page but little else. There also was no error message.

I soon realized that the instruction of "full name as in GEDCOM" was to be followed literally. The surname in a GEDCOM file is always surrounded by slant bars. I tried again and this time I entered the name of the Root Person as:

Washington Harvey /Eastman/

Note the slant bars before and after the surname. This time everything worked perfectly. Anyone familiar with GEDCOM files will quickly understand this although it may not be so obvious to others.

I was particularly impressed with the speed of Ancestral Author. My aging 600-MHz Windows 2000 system read a 3,000+ person GEDCOM file, found the selected individual, and generated a 12-page report, all in about five seconds.

Rod Sullivan says that Ancestral Author requires Windows 98 with 64 megabytes of memory or Windows XP with 128 megabytes of memory. It also requires about 5 megabytes of free disk space. I tried the program on my Windows 2000 system and found that the installation routine popped up a warning that this was the wrong operating system. To be sure, the specs to say that Windows 98 and Windows XP are the only two supported operating systems. I ignored the warning and continued with the installation and then used the program for some time. Everything seemed to function perfectly, even though I was using Windows 2000. However, anyone who installs Ancestral Author on a non-supported version of Windows obviously cannot expect any help from the author in case of difficulties.

Ancestral Author is distributed as a shareware program. You can download it and use it for a while at no cost. The only hindrance is the "unregistered" watermark on each page. If you decide that you wish to keep the program and want the watermark removed, you can pay $19.95 (U.S. currency) via a safe and secure Web site. You will then receive a registration number by e-mail within 24 hours.

This is a very nice program, one that will appeal to many people. It allows you to share genealogy information in an attractive format that cannot be easily extracted and placed into other databases. It can be used on the Web, on floppy disks, or on CD-ROM disks that you create and distribute. Rod Sullivan has a winner.

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This week a newsletter reader asked if I might comment on a series of messages posted to a mailing list server that attacked Ancestry.com. I read through the mish-mash of statements and found a number of comments painting Ancestry.com in a negative light. The various messages all claimed that you couldn't trust the information found on the company's Web site, and that you still had to verify the information elsewhere. The general theme was that this particular online site was not a good place to find genealogy information.

My favorite line was, "Searching the records at NARA is more reliable and still necessary."

Duh! Where have these people been? Of course you still have to verify information elsewhere. You always do that with every piece of genealogy information you find, whether it is from an online site or from a published book or other printed genealogy publication. That is a basic in Genealogy 101: "Always check your sources."

Anyone who thinks that this is an issue only with Ancestry.com or only with another online genealogy database is misguided. The same issue applies to Ancestry.com, RootsWeb.com, Genealogy.com, FamilySearch.org, GenCircles.com, OneGreatFamily.com, books you find at the library, messages receive in e-mail, and even this weekly newsletter. It is true of all secondary sources and even occasionally of primary sources. Whatever you read, check it out!

I consider Ancestry.com to be valuable. I consider the other online resources I mentioned to be valuable. I also consider genealogy books to be valuable. I also solicit e-mail assistance from other genealogists. But I never, ever believe anything I read until I can verify the claims.

I also hear people moaning and groaning about the quality of genealogy information to be found online. There are claims that much of the online genealogy data is worthless. These comments seem to insinuate that people shouldn't place information online until they have verified it.

You know what? I don't care. I want to see the claimed information anyway. Yes, I even want to read the inaccurate information. When I am looking for the unknown parents of one of my "end of the line" ancestors, I want to see every possible clue, accurate or not. If someone else thinks he or she knows the parents of Washington Harvey Eastman, I want to know what that person is thinking. No, I don't care if their information is accurate or not because I am going to check it out anyway. If possible, I'll contact the person who created the information and ask, "Where did you find that?" I'll find out later if the information is accurate or not when I verify it in primary records. All I want is ideas and hints of possibilities.

In fact, this is all you ever find online or in print: ideas and hints of possibilities. Remember that nothing is ever a "fact" until you personally prove it.

I will also point out that genealogy information found online today is no different from information published in books before the invention of the Web. Walk into any major genealogy library and grab a bunch of books written 50, 75 or 100 years ago. You will find some books that were carefully researched, while others were not. I can show you some old genealogy books that are true fairy tales. In short, the same is true of the data you find today on the World Wide Web. The only things different about the Web are speed and convenience: it is easier and faster to publish accurate and inaccurate information alike. However, the percentage of inaccurate information doesn't seem to have changed much in the past 100 years.

In summary, the e-mail messages attacking one particular online database missed the point. This is not an issue with Ancestry.com, nor is it an issue with RootsWeb.com, Genealogy.com, FamilySearch.org, GenCircles.com, OneGreatFamily.com, or the information found on some distant cousin's personal home page. It is an issue dealing with conducting genealogy searches.

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Sharing genealogy information on the Internet is easy to do. As discussed in the previous article, there are issues with the quality of the data published. There are other considerations as well, such as making the material complete, easy to read, and readily searchable.

Now is the time to be planning your springtime trips. One stop I strongly recommend for all genealogists in North America is the annual conference of the National Genealogical Society. The NGS conference typically is the largest genealogy conference on the continent. This year’s event will be held May 28 through 31 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is co-sponsored by the Western Pennsylvania Genealogical Society.

Pittsburgh has a flawed reputation, in my opinion. It has a history of being an industrial city, plagued with pollution. However, anyone who has visited Pittsburgh in the past decade or two can tell you that the city’s image has changed dramatically. I have been there several times and have always enjoyed my visits. Modern-day Pittsburgh is as attractive as any major city in the eastern U.S. Best of all, this year’s NGS conference will be held in the brand-new David Lawrence Convention Center that reportedly is a top-notch facility.

The overall conference program is designed to focus attention on successful research, teaching genealogy methodology and how to overcome adversity -- an experience that will save you time and effort. You will find the tools to speed your research, both in the sessions and in the commercial exhibitors’ Exhibit Hall. The conference will feature numerous labs and workshops, as well as a Learning Center that will let you experience many of the tools personally.

The following "Conference Highlights" information was provided by the National Genealogical Society:

The attendance fee for NGS Members is $200.00, but an "Early Bird" registration submitted before 17 March 2003 costs $170.00. Nonmembers will need to pay $225.00, but the "Early Bird" fee for nonmembers who register before 17 March 2003 is $200.00. Given the price difference, I’d suggest that you might as well become a member before registering!

Single day attendance is available for members and nonmembers alike for $75.00 per day.

The official conference hotel is the Westin Convention Center Pittsburgh. It is connected by skywalk to the new David L. Lawrence Convention Center, so anyone who stays at the Westin never has to go outside in the elements. (The weather in Pittsburgh in late May is usually excellent although rain showers can occur at any time.) The hotel also is connected to one of Pittsburgh's best restaurants, The Original Fish Market. The Westin provides complimentary transportation within the central business district and to local attractions such as the Heinz History Center, Andy Warhol Museum, PNC Park, and Mellon Arena.

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A recent survey prepared for the National Archives of Canada says that one-quarter of Canadians are willing to order and pay for services and products that can be used for genealogical research. These services could include on-line databases, family trees, conventions, and books on genealogy. The report is part of a move by the National Archives to create a Canadian Genealogy Centre, a virtual centre that will offer services, advice, and research tools for genealogists and the Canadian public.

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Otherdays.com has now announced a major price reduction. Here is the announcement written by the company:

• Your ancestral surname with our 'must have' range of exclusive Irish Surname Reports.
• The ingenious global search tool brings all Otherdays.com resources to you in one simple search.
• Track Irish History with our fully searchable 300 year Irish Timeline, 1601 - 1900.
• Search the new Otherdays.com archive for a range of cultural and historical articles, documents, special reports, newsletters and genealogy workshops.
• Great Gift Ideas is a groundbreaking tool that helps you choose that special gift for that special person, for any occasion. To summarise Great Gift Ideas, unique and personal.

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I get to see a lot of genealogy Web sites, and the quality and material available on the sites varies widely. Every once in a while I find one that is an eye-opener. I found one of those this week and thought I would share it with newsletter readers.

Claire Mares of Fremont, Nebraska, helped establish the Eastern Nebraska Genealogical Society in 1972. She is now in the process of putting the wealth of information she has collected through the years on the Internet. Her basement is filled with information about people who lived in Dodge, Cuming, Colfax, Saunders, and Washington counties. Claire scans the cards she has made of newspaper clippings of births, marriages, and obituaries. Renee Bunck, webmaster for the society, then places the cards on the Web site.

Among the many resources at the Dodge County site of the US GenWeb project, there are census records, obituaries, tombstone information, a list of local Civil War veterans, naturalization records, land records, city directories, and even a graduation commencement program from Fremont High School’s class of 1881. One also can find maps of all 35 cemeteries in Dodge County, as well as an index of everyone buried in each one.

This is an excellent local, nonprofit Web site. If you have Dodge County ancestry, you have to see this site. Anyone who is involved in any project to place local genealogy data online might also want to see what someone else is doing. Claire Mares and Renee Bunck have created a great online resource.

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The Quincy, Illinois, Public Library has received a $150,000 grant from Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White to digitize microfilm versions of the newspapers published between 1835 and 1890 in Quincy. The project will start with the Illinois Bounty Land Register, which later became the Quincy Herald. In 1926, it merged with the Quincy Whig to form the Quincy Herald-Whig.

Susan Beach, the library’s director, said that, when done, the work will be one of the first in the nation to allow detailed electronic text searches of newspapers, using the specialized software. Most searches are done with keywords, but the new software will provide more detailed search results because it will allow refined searches instead of merely searching for a proper name or keyword. The software also will display the article as it originally appeared in the newspaper.

Nancy Dolan, who is in charge of the library’s reference department, said the pages will be accessed via a link on the library’s Web site. She noted, "This should be a great help for people doing historical and genealogy research.".

Dolan said the project should be completed late this spring or early this summer.

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The Martin County Genealogical Society of Stuart, Florida, is expanding its resources after receiving a $1,000 grant from ExxonMobil's Volunteer Involvement Program. The corporation provides financing to nonprofit organizations that are actively supported by its employees and retirees.

In this case, the grant was bestowed on behalf of company retiree and society volunteer Cal Rimmer of Jensen Beach. Several hours a week, Rimmer staffs the Blake Library's Genealogy Room to assist patrons with research and materials for their family trees. He and his wife, Lil, are long-time Society volunteers.

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Wayne Dailey sent a note this week to say that the Illinois State Archives has stopped accepting e-mail requests for death certificates as of November 15, 2002. Apparently they were overwhelmed with requests. They were doing this free of charge. Wayne notes that his request of June 2002 arrived this week, six months later.

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In 1999, the giant U.S. pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and their partners, Icos, quietly trademarked the name"Cialis" to be used to name a new drug. The drug is already available in Europe and will soon be released worldwide. The new drug is a competitor to Viagra.

Unfortunately, Cialis is also the family name of a number of people in France, Australia, and elsewhere. Some members of the Cialis family are upset about the selection of their name to be used for an impotency drug. After all, would you want to be known as Mr. Viagra or Ms. Viagra? The effect will be the same for anyone named Cialis.

Eli Lilly apparently does not need to ask permission. There appears to be no legal requirement to ask permission of each person that has the name of a proposed new drug name. It is uncertain whether anyone at Eli Lilly or Icos gave thought to what it will be like to share their name with an impotence product.

Members of the Cialis family are asking the managers of Eli Lilly to reconsider their position. They are hoping that a company like Eli Lilly, with a strong commitment to corporate ethical behavior, would not want to be a cause of harm and distress to the Cialis family.

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I am delighted to announce that the January edition of "Genealogy News and Technology with Dick Eastman" is now available on Family History Radio. In this new broadcast, I describe a recent update to a popular Windows genealogy program and a bargain price for another well-known program. I also describe the upcoming National Genealogical Society's conference, the same conference that I wrote about earlier in this newsletter.

When you visit Family History Radio, you will also want to listen to Karen Clifford's program. In her latest program, Karen interviews Paul Burchfield, Senior Technical Support Representative of Genealogy.com. Paul discusses the company's Web site as well as use of their flagship product, Family Tree Maker.

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In the last two newsletters, I looked back twelve months to see what had changed in the genealogy world. Apparently this triggered some thoughts from Anne Brown. She spent some time looking at older newsletters of mine and then wrote about the results. I enjoyed reading her comments and suspect that you will, too. Anne has kindly given me permission to republish her words here.

1. Spends much of their waking life with a strange and obsessive interest in dead people;
2. Has a disturbing habit of sticking a tape recorder into the faces of elderly relatives and badgering them for hours with silly questions;
3. Will go to a funeral and announce that they aren’t remotely interested in the deceased’s money or the family silver but would kill for a cardboard box full of boring old photographs;
4. Will spend hours in a cramped office sandwiched between two people, one with BO and the other with a hacking cough, writing laborious notes about someone who died long ago;
5. Frets and worries inconsolably because they can’t discover where their great-grandfather was born;
6. Spends hours on end hunched over a computer endlessly inputting all this bizarre information and talking to people on the other side of the Atlantic with a similar obsession;
7. Is willing to travel hundreds of miles to haunt derelict graveyards and write down inscriptions from crumbling old stones. (Credit to Roy Stockdill, Hertfordshire, UK)

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The PR Budget for this newsletter is $0.00. I rely upon "word of mouse" advertising in which you recommend this newsletter to your friends. This newsletter is a private project of mine, and I have a zero budget for a publicity campaign to get more readers.

Thanks.

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