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Humanity is the keystone that holds nations and men together. When that collapses, the whole structure crumbles. This is as true of baseball teams as any other pursuit in life. - Connie Mack

I am not fortunate enough to have discovered Irish ancestry, but every March 17, I "adopt" Ireland as my motherland for the day. Or perhaps Ireland adopts me and a few million others for the day. In any case, Saint Patrick's Day is a great time to stop and think what Ireland has given us: poets, writers, singers, prizefighters, soldiers, and millions of every-day folks who help make North America what it is today. For several million Americans and Canadians, Ireland provided their ancestry and heritage.

If you are new to researching Irish ancestry, the Web can provide a lot of resources for your use:

Every March 17, millions of people pause to reflect on their Irish heritage. Conceived as a Saint's Day in the Catholic Church, Saint Patrick's Day is now a time of celebration for millions. However, many of us have little knowledge of the man whose name we celebrate.

First of all, Saint Patrick wasn't Irish. He was a Roman, although born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton in Scotland, in the year 387. His original name is recorded as Maewyn Succat. His father, Calphurnius, belonged to a Roman family of high rank and held the office of decurio in Gaul or Britain. At the age of sixteen years old, Patrick was carried off into captivity by Irish marauders and was sold as a slave to a chieftain named Milchu in Dalriada, a territory of the present county of Antrim in Ireland. He was soon sold to another chieftain in the area. The future saint spent six years tending his master's flocks near the modern town of Ballymena. During this time he learned to speak fluent Celtic.

After six years of bondage, Patrick escaped, apparently by simply walking away at a convenient opportunity. He wandered for some time, eventually finding his way to Westport. There he found a ship ready to set sail and was allowed on board. In a few days he was in Britain, safe under Roman rule. He then traveled extensively to other lands and studied religion. Patrick spent time in St. Martin's monastery at Tours and at the island sanctuary of Lérins. He met Saint Germain and became a student of the great bishop. When Germain was commissioned by the Holy See to proceed to Britain to combat the erroneous teachings of Pelagius, he chose Patrick to be one of his missionary companions.

Pope St. Celestine the First had taken note of the young man's abilities and commissioned Patrick with the mission of gathering the Irish race into the Catholic Church; he also gave him the name "Patercius" or "Patritius." It was probably in the summer months of the year 433 that Patrick and his companions landed at the mouth of the Vantry River in Ireland, close by Wicklow Head. The Druids were against his missionary work and wanted to kill him, so Patrick searched for friendly territory in which to enter on his mission. Near Slemish, the missionary was struck with horror on seeing at a distance the fort of his old master, Milchu, enveloped in flames. It seems the fame of Patrick's marvelous power of miracles had preceded him. In anticipation of Patrick’s arrival, Milchu had gathered his treasures into his mansion and set it on fire, casting himself into the flames in a fit of frenzy. An ancient record adds, "His pride could not endure the thought of being vanquished by his former slave."

Saint Patrick traveled all over Ireland, preaching wherever people gathered. His sermons were not always well received, and many attempted to murder him. Saint Patrick wrote in his "Confessio" that twelve times he and his companions were seized and carried off as captives. On one occasion in particular, he was loaded with chains, and his death was decreed. However, Saint Patrick always managed to escape death. He converted thousands to Christianity and built many churches. It is recorded that he consecrated no fewer than 350 bishops. Legends attribute many miracles to Saint Patrick.

Saint Patrick died on 17 March 493, and that date is now dedicated to his memory. It is not known for sure where his remains were laid although Downpatrick in County Down in the North of Ireland is thought to be his final resting place.

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One of the often-repeated tales about Saint Patrick is the one about driving the snakes from Ireland. One story tells of his standing upon a hill, using a wooden staff to drive the serpents into the sea, banishing them forever from the shores of Ireland. Another legend says that one old serpent resisted, but the saint overcame it by cunning. He is said to have made a box and invited the reptile to enter. The snake insisted the box was too small, and the discussion became very heated. Finally the snake entered the box to prove he was right, whereupon St Patrick slammed the lid and cast the box into the sea.

Of course, it is true that there are no snakes in Ireland. There are no serpents there today, and it looks as if there never were. While many fossilized remains of animals, insects, birds, and fish have been found in Ireland, no one has ever found any fossilized evidence of any serpents on the island in millions of years.

If one accepts the tales that Saint Patrick is the reason for their absence, one must also marvel that he was able to also drive out the snakes' ancestors retroactively!

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You may be surprised to learn that many Americans of Irish descent may legally claim Irish citizenship and obtain Irish passports. You don’t even have to give up your American citizenship since the U.S. Government recognizes dual citizenship. (Newsletter readers in other countries are advised to check local citizenship laws before obtaining Irish passports.) All of this is quite legal although the paperwork involved can be a bit complicated.

Why would you want to obtain Irish citizenship and an Irish passport? Honoring your Irish ancestors could be one reason; be proud of your heritage. However, somewhat more practical reasons encourage most applicants.

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In last week's newsletter I wrote about my experiences with the latest version of Lindows. If you are not familiar with new operating system, I can report that it is an effort to combine the power and reliability of Linux with the ease of use of Windows. In most cases, it succeeds. In fact, most of the time, Lindows is easier to use than Microsoft Windows.

Lindows will even run a handful of Windows programs without modification. However, most programs used with Lindows are either written for Linux or specifically written for Lindows. This week I thought I would write about my experiences with genealogy software operating on Lindows.

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I have written a number of times about the use of the Global Positioning System (GPS), a number of satellites in orbit around the earth. These satellites broadcast very precise time information that can be received on inexpensive handheld receivers. The receiver decodes the time signals and displays the receiver's exact location. The accuracy is incredible; these receivers typically will display their locations plus or minus thirty-five feet. In some cases, the accuracy will be even more precise than that. Depending on the features available, a receiver may also display maps and routing information and may even guide you from one point to another.

I have written before about using a $79.95 GPS receiver for these tasks. I must admit, however, that I prefer to use GPS receivers that cost a bit more and also have more features than the "barebones" units. In the $200 to $300 price range, built-in maps and other features simplify the navigational tasks.

In the past few weeks, I have been using a far more expensive GPS solution.

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A new bill before the U.S. Congress proposes to overturn one of the most fundamental concepts of the present copyright laws. If passed, facts would become copyrighted for the first time in U.S. history.

The Database and Collections of Information Misappropriation Act (HR3261) would make it a crime for anyone to copy and redistribute a substantial portion of data collected by commercial database companies and list publishers. At first, that sounds like a good idea. However, a bit more thought shows that nobody would be able to republish stock quotes, historical health data, sports scores, or voter lists. In fact, a lot of genealogy information could not be republished.

If passed, Google and all the other search engines would be crippled, probably driven out of business. These are online databases that collect information, or facts, from other online sites so that the user can quickly find the information they seek. If Google and the others are not allowed to collect facts that are now copyrighted, how will they be able to index the Web for you?

Art Brodsky, spokesman for public advocacy group Public Knowledge, says the bill would let anyone drop a fact into a database or a collection of materials and claim monopoly rights to it. This would contradict the core principle of the Copyright Act, which states that mere information and ideas cannot be protected works.

Let's say that a commercial genealogy service such as Ancestry.com or OneGreatFamily.com publishes the fact that your great-great-grandparents had a child named John. Once that "fact" has been published by any commercial service, that original publisher would hold the copyright on the fact, and no one else would be allowed to publish it again. The Family History Library, the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Genealogical Publishing Company, and others would be prohibited from publishing that information again in any of their online or printed works. In fact, private individuals would similarly be barred from publishing the information in their own derivative works. If a commercial site publishes a fact about your ancestors, you would not be able to place that fact on your own Web site or in any book or report that you give to others.

The language in this proposed legislation contradicts the core principle of the present copyright acts, which state that mere information and ideas cannot be protected works.

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Are you aware that you can order Federal Military Pension Application Files on the Web? The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration has a safe and secure Web server for that purpose. You can also order various reference services that are useful for beginner genealogists.

If you are a veteran or next-of-kin of a deceased veteran, you can also use eVetRecs to obtain military service records for World War I or subsequent service.

My thanks to Megan Smolenyak for telling me about this service.

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Here is an interesting announcement I received this week:

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The following is an announcement from Family Tree Books:

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All deeds from 1827 to modern times from another New Hampshire county have been placed online. More than 100,000 original documents from Sullivan County were scanned and then placed in an online database.

The application runs in a Java applet. I went to the Web site and selected one of the listed counties, then clicked on "Search County Records." After clicking on the "Accept Agreement" link, I was a bit disappointed when nothing happened. I thought it was a dead link. However, about 30 seconds later, a large pop-up window appeared that turned out to be exactly what I expected to find. The delay was required while the Java application downloaded. I was on a broadband connection; I expect the display will take longer on a dial-up modem.

Once the search form appeared, everything was very intuitive. You must begin by deciding whether you want to search grantor or grantee records in either the old index or the new one. Almost all other information is optional: surname, given name, town, first year to search, and last year to search. In addition, there are other fields that are useful if you already know the deed book number, page number or map info. However, I suspect that most genealogists will use the fields I mentioned.

I started first with a search for all deeds where the grantee was someone with my surname. A number of records appeared, and I selected one at random. I then clicked on VIEW DOCUMENT, and a few seconds later I was looking at the scanned image of the original deed. The image is as sharp and clear and easy to read as the original document. Older documents that were handwritten and then may have faded obviously will be a bit more challenging to decode. Although viewing the Sullivan County records is free, printing them from the computer is not. It costs $1 a page and requires users to set up an account with the deeds office.

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I love success stories!

Last week I wrote about Kathryn Guildea Bogiages’ quest to solve a 35-year-old mystery in Laos. She wants to know what happened to her husband, Christos Bogiages. She is asking genealogists for assistance to help prove or disprove one theory. Bone fragments have been recovered from a fighter aircraft crash site. They may be the bones of her husband, but a mitochondrial DNA analysis has to match a known female ancestor of the missing pilot. The only way to do that is to find a living matrilineal descendant of the same common ancestor and compare her DNA with that of the bone fragments.

As I wrote last week:

A few days later I received an e-mail from newsletter reader Christopher T. Smithson with the following:

It is too early to claim a victory here, but the new information does look helpful. Christopher sent the info to the American History Company as they are the ones who are trying to track down Bogiages' ancestors.

Thanks Christopher!

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The Associated Press has an interesting article this week about the use of DNA databases. It talks about finding criminals as well as clearing the innocent. There is no genealogy information here, but it is fascinating reading.

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I have written several times about the difficulties of sending this newsletter by e-mail. I do not know the percentages, but obviously a lot of the newsletters do not reach their intended destinations. This isn't unique to Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter; a lot of other e-newsletters are having the same problems.

There is an excellent article describing the problem in this week's e-Week Magazine. The article refers to a recent study which found that nearly 19 percent of online newsletters and announcements never reached the inboxes of intended recipients.

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In last week's newsletter, I wrote: "… the headquarters could be in Washington, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, or East Podunk." The name of Podunk generally refers to a small town that is regarded as unimportant. While I have referred to Podunk many times, I suddenly realized that I had no idea where it is or even if there is such a place. Is Podunk a mythical location, like Atlantis? I decided to find out.

Thanks to the Internet, it doesn't take long to find Podunk. I found references to not just one Podunk, but several. It seems that the name has been applied to villages in Massachusetts (only a few miles from my home), New York, Vermont, and Nebraska. To further complicate matters, there are two places in Michigan called Podunk and two more in Connecticut!

Here are the ones that I found:

• Podunk, Connecticut, is in New Haven County; location is 41°19'20"N 72°39'8"W.

• Podunk is the historical name of another village north of Hartford, Connecticut, that is mentioned in documents of the seventeenth century. It has since disappeared, and its precise location is unknown.

• Podunk, Michigan, is in Barry County; location is 42°36'32"N 85°21'30"W.

• Podunk, Vermont, is in Windham County; location is 43°0'31"N 72°51'33"W

• Podunk, New York, is in Tompkins County; location is 42°31'27"N 76°39'47"W. It is a neighborhood in Ulysses, New York, in the Finger Lakes Region of central New York. Quoting the town government's Web site:

In addition, there are a number of streams, rivers, and lakes named "Podunk" in even more states.

This may be more than you ever wanted to know about Podunk. However, the next time you hear a reference to the place, you will have an idea of where it is!

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I must admit that I was intrigued by one of the areas named Podunk as listed in the last article. The location of Podunk, East Brookfield, Massachusetts is only a few miles from where I live, and yet I had never heard of the place until this week. With a new sports car sitting in the garage, I had an excellent excuse to go on an "expedition" to find Podunk.

The trip was anticlimactic. Using a GPS receiver, finding the exact location as given on the U.S. government's database turned out to be very easy. Indeed, I quickly found Podunk Cemetery on Podunk Road, only a few yards from the Podunk Pike. No, I am not making up those names. They are real places.

The village of Podunk does seem to have disappeared. Instead, the entire area now is a rural residential area. There are many houses in the area although no collection of houses in any one area that I would refer to as "a village." The location of the original Podunk is a mile or two from the center of the town of East Brookfield, Massachusetts.

The only signs I could find that referred to Podunk were the two street signs: Podunk Road, which goes in front of the cemetery and the Podunk Pike, which intersects Podunk Road only a short distance away. In fact, there is no sign at the cemetery to indicate its name. I only know that it is called Podunk Cemetery because of its listing in the U.S. government's online database of place names.

There was one sign adjacent to the cemetery that caught my eye. It says "Birthplace of Connie Mack." Yes, it seems that Cornelius Alexander McGillicuddy was born to Irish immigrants in 1862 in or near Podunk. He later gained fame as a baseball player and still later as the manager and owner of the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team, now relocated and renamed the Oakland A's. He reportedly shortened his name to Connie Mack because he was tired of struggling to fit his given name on the Athletics scoreboard.

So yes, there is a Podunk. I've been there.

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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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