Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

A Weekly Summary of Events and
Topics of Interest to Online Genealogists

Vol. 4 No. 18 – May 1, 1999

This newsletter is sponsored by Ancestry Publishing,
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Copyright (C) 1999 by Richard W. Eastman. All rights reserved.

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IN THIS ISSUE:

- More on Texas HB 836
- Heritage Quest U.S. Census Indexes on CD-ROM
- The Death of the Free Obituary
- GENTECH's GEDCOM Testbook Project Results
- Across the Waters (A Book Review)
- Time Capsule to Orbit Earth for 50,000 Years
- Kids Say the Darndest Things
- Upcoming Events
- Home Pages Highlighted

- More on Texas HB 836

In last week’s newsletter I published a note from Mic Barnette about pending legislation in the Texas State legislature that will affect genealogists. Mic has now offered this update:

HB 836 has been scheduled for a hearing with the Senate Public Health Committee in the Senate Chamber at 7 AM Wednesday May 5.

I will post on my website a copy of the Law as Introduced, the Law as Passed by the House, and the names and contact numbers of each of the members of the Senate Human Services Committee: http://www.geocities.com/Bourbon/Delta/7552

- Heritage Quest U.S. Census Indexes on CD-ROM

Heritage Quest, formerly known as the American Genealogical Lending Library (AGLL), has been supplying genealogy data on paper and microfilm for many years. In the past year or two they have moved into digital publishing, and I have written about some of their earlier products in this newsletter. This week I had a chance to use one of their newest products: the Family Quest Archives CD-ROM version of the 1870 U.S. census. The particular disk that I used was for the state of Ohio.

Other companies have produced CD-ROM census indexes in the past, and indexes are now becoming available online as well. However, there is one major difference in Heritage Quest’s new CD-ROM disks: these are newly-created indexes.

Printed indexes to the 1790 through 1850 censuses and some 1860 censuses have been available for many years. However, these indexes are plagued by a high error rate. In some spot checks, as many as 10% of the records are missing or mislabeled or contained erroneous spellings. Until now, most of the electronic U.S. census indexes came from the same source as the printed books. Heritage Quest has actually delivered new indexes, created by trained specialists. Quoting from the company’s advertising:

Heritage Quest's precision extraction process ensures accuracy. The company implements a Total Quality Management Process throughout:

• Data Extraction Specialists, who know dated script, are hired and trained for keying records
• Senior Editing Team reviews documents and oversees quality control
• Proprietary Computer Editing process helps eliminate possible human error
• Statistical Audits ensure extracted data meets stringent quality standards

Heritage Quest claims that their audits of the new Family Quest Archives index shows a very low error rate. I didn’t have the time to validate that claim, but I suspect they are right.

Another major change in the new Heritage Quest indexes is the addition of more data. The earlier indexes created by another company typically contained only the Name, County, Locality, Series, Roll and Page Number. The new CD-ROM disks from Heritage Quest also contain all of that information but add Age, Sex, Race, and Birthplace. This makes it much easier to find an ancestor with a common name such as Smith, Jones, Johnson or Brown.

When looking for an ancestor with such a name in a populated city in previous indexes, the researcher might have found hundreds of potential "hits" and needed to look at each one individually on the original census microfilm rolls. Now the same researcher can quickly narrow the search. One example now possible would be to find all the black men named Johnson under the age of 40 who were born in North Carolina. The new census indexes from Heritage Quest will support that.

The Family Quest Archives indexes on CD-ROM require either Windows 95 or Windows 98 on a 486 CPU or faster, 16 megabytes of RAM memory, 15 megabytes of disk space and a CD-ROM drive. The company notes that they do not support Windows NT, and I had difficulty trying to make it work on my Windows NT 4.0 workstation. However, when I moved to a Windows 95 system, it installed properly. Heritage Quest also says that the CD-ROM disks will operate on a Macintosh PowerPC running emulation software, such as Virtual PC.

There is no user’s manual, other than the online help files, and I didn’t see any need for such a manual. I wrote user’s manuals a few years ago and have noted a big switch in the software world: a few years ago, a thick user’s manual was considered to be mandatory with any software product. Nowadays, software is expected to be intuitive and user-friendly and not even require a user’s manual. The Heritage Quest Census Index help files were a bit simplistic and are not context-sensitive. Yet I was always able to find the answers to the questions that I did have.

The program interface is very simple. The main screen displays three basic windows: Field List, Search Criteria and Search Results. The Field List shows all ten extracted fields in these 1870 census indexes. All fields can be searched; for instance, you could search for all the men with a first name of Harry who were born in North Carolina. With any field you choose, you have the option to search for an Exact Match, Contains (a wildcard search option) or Exclude (allowing you to omit search criteria).

The simple searches were very quick. A search for all persons named EASTMAN required only a second or two to execute on my rather old 120 megahertz Pentium Windows 95 system. More complex searches took a bit longer. The search for all the men with a first name of Harry who were born in North Carolina required about two minutes to complete. That’s still a lot faster than searching through microfilms!

The "Contains" search option allows you to enter a partial name with wildcards. You can insert an asterisk to represent a string of characters or a question mark to represent a single character. For instance, the surname STEPHENSON could have several variant spellings. To account for these spellings, you could enter: "STE*NS?N." All variant spellings will then be found: STEVENSON, STEVENSEN, STEAVENSON, STEPHENSON and STEPHENSEN.

Other options include:

• Age Ranges - When searching the age field using Contains, you are presented with a dialog box that allows you to enter two ages to form an age range. The range option lets you narrow the field of possibilities. Let's say you’re unsure of an actual age, but you know your ancestor was between 40 and 50 years of age. You can use the Contains option to find all entries for that age range.

• Sorting. Once you've produced a list of search results, you can sort by any of the criteria in ascending or descending order. Sort on age, for example, and compare birthplaces and other data for individuals with the same name.

• Copying. You can easily "cut and paste" a record into your favorite genealogy program, word processor or whatever other Windows program you choose.

• You can also save files as ASCII text for placement in a word processor or spreadsheet document. However, you are limited to saving only 20 records at a time. That can be a significant drawback if you are trying to save all the JOHNSONs in Cleveland!

I used the Ohio 1870 census disk for this report, but Heritage Quest also has completed the 1870 census indexes for Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. They expect to complete all of the other states in the 1870 censuses by the end of 1999.

The Family Quest Archives 1870 U.S. Census Indexes on CD-ROM sell for either $29.95 or $39.95 each, depending upon the amount of data available. The company also has released the 1790 U.S. federal Census Index ($29.95), the Idaho 1910 Census Index ($19.95), U.S. Marriage Index, 1691-1850 ($39.95) and the U.S. Land Index, 1790-1907 ($39.95). All prices mentioned are in U.S. dollars and do not include shipping charges.

For more information, or to order one of these CD-ROM disks, go to http://www.heritagequest.com

 - The Death of the Free Obituary

The April 1999 edition of the American Journalism Review carries a sobering article that describes the loss of a source of information for future genealogists. Columnist Judith Sheppard writes about Nathaniel Blumberg, publisher of the Treasure State Review in Montana. Blumberg mourns the fact that big-chain publishing firms have taken over most daily newspapers and that they now charge for publishing obituaries. Blumberg calls these companies ghouls - "evil spirits that feed on the dead".

Author Sheppard then goes on to quote a number of other journalists with similar opinions. Apparently the costs of publishing have encouraged papers to seek new sources of revenue. Obituaries were often a newspaper's doff of the hat to a departed subscriber. Now, says Sheppard, they are more like a classified ad.

While they genealogical impact is not mentioned in the article, the idea of charging for an obituary will probably discourage many lower-income people from publishing this information of value to future genealogists.

The full article is available at: http://ajr.newslink.org/ajrobitapr99.html. My thanks to Jerry Reed for telling me about this article.

 - GENTECH's GEDCOM Testbook Project Results

Initial details on GENTECH's GEDCOM Testbook Project have been posted at the GENTECH website. The GEDCOM Test Book Project is an activity of the Technology Committee of GENTECH. The purpose of the Test Book Project is to communicate specific information to users and developers of genealogical software about data exchange through use of the GEDCOM data format.

In order to test the exchange, there was some collaboration between the GENTECH Technology Committee and the Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to devise a source document of a fictitious family that included the following characteristics:

• Three generations
• Source information
• Surety information
• At least one name change
• At least one adoption
• At least one second marriage
• At least one nickname
• Distribution of sources
• Distribution of a register report

The stories were given to one couple who entered all the data into seven different genealogy programs. Each program then generated a GEDCOM file of the data. The second part of the test consisted of importing each GEDCOM file into each program. That is, each program would import seven different GEDCOM files. In fact, each program had to import the file it created as well as the other six files.

The results are interesting. A lot of data was dropped. The various programs dropped dates, events and all sorts of textual notes. In fact, several programs even lost data when importing GEDCOM files created by the same program. It’s tough when a program cannot even accurately read its own GEDCOM files!

If you are thinking of switching to a more powerful genealogy program, you might want to first find out how much of your data will be carried over to the new program. The full article can be found at: http://www.gentech.org

- Across the Waters (A Book Review)

This week I read "Across the Waters – Ontario Immigrants’ Experiences, 1820 – 1850" by Frances Hoffman and Ryan Taylor. This is not so much a genealogy book as it is a history book, describing the events and misfortunes of everyday people. It has many fascinating stories.

Quoting from the book’s announcement:

One of the reasons for doing genealogy is to see how our ancestors lived. The most dramatic experience was emigrating across the ocean, but how much do we know about what it was like? It would be terrific to hear an actual emigrant describe the trip.

Across the Waters: Ontario Immigrants' Experiences, 1820-1850, by Frances Hoffman and Ryan Taylor gathers together selections from firsthand accounts so that today's readers can discover what it meant to be a pioneer in Ontario. From the day they decided to strike off across the Atlantic to the first harvest in their own clearing, the settlers will tell you about the seasickness, the quarantine station, the mosquitoes--the fish you could scoop out of streams with your bare hands, the pride of owning your own land and the joys of helping one another build a house.

The book is full of first-hand descriptions of life’s everyday events written by the people who lived through them. Many of the stories came from diaries, letters and newspaper accounts of the time. For instance, in 1832 Alexander David wrote about the cholera epidemic:

… Many of the merchants’ offices had only one person in them. For weeks I was the only clerk in our establishment; one of the partners was ill with the disease, and seventy or eighty people were buried daily. My friends, the raftsmen, brought their rafts into the various coves and hurried back as fast as possible to the woods of Upper Canada. Large sugar kettles burned day and night with tar at the corners of the street, and a coffin maker started a shop close to our office. Many a time I walked home to our pleasant place, but following a coffin, as a new cemetery was just made on the roadside leading home…

If your ancestors were in Ontario any time between 1820 and 1850, I suspect you will find this to be a very interesting book. In fact, the book covers more than just Ontario as many of the immigrants traveled through other provinces and recorded their experiences.

"Across the Waters: Ontario Immigrants' Experiences, 1820-1850" is published by Global Heritage Press in Milton, Ontario. It sells for $29.95 Canadian funds for the soft-cover edition. I believe that is the equivalent of about $20.00 in U.S. funds. The hardcover version is available for $44.95 Canadian, about $30.00 U.S. Anyone outside of Canada can easily order the book online and charge it to a credit card. The credit card companies will handle the currency exchange and complete the charge in your local currency.

For more information, look at: http://www.globalgenealogy.com and especially http://www.globalgenealogy.com/101008.htm

- Time Capsule to Orbit Earth for 50,000 Years

A new time capsule is being created. It will blast into space in the year 2001 in an orbit that will assure its return to earth 50,000 years later. The most intriguing part is that you can have your message on the time capsule at no charge.

The project is called KEO, a name derived from the three phonemes common to the most widely spoken languages today: K, E and O. Quoting from the project’s Web site:

Award-winning French artist, Jean-Marc Philippe, is the creator of KEO.

Over the last few years, he has becoming increasingly concerned that our highly gifted species is now endowed with forces, which rival those of nature. Now that we have the means of exerting an influence over our own destiny, are we actually taking the necessary time to reflect on what kind of destiny we want to forge together?

Confronted with this dilemma, J-M Philippe wished to inspire and invite everyone to participate in an individual and collective reflection on our common future. As an artist, he looked for a globally appealing metaphor that would help ignite this universal reflection. KEO was the result of his search.

J-M Philippe has worked closely over the years to much acclaim with the space and hi-tech industries to develop new technological tools to expand his means of artistic expression. In the case of KEO, he has mobilized France's top scientists and engineers who are working voluntarily to make this project a reality.

In 2001, if all goes according to plan, messages now being collected at KEO’s Web site will be launched into orbit, stored on special, glass-tempered CD-ROMs designed to protect them from the ravages of time and space. The satellite's wings, made of so-called shape memory alloys, are designed to beat as the sun's rays and Earth's shadow cause temperature changes. It will be visible in the sky with a simple optic telescope.

When the satellite returns to Earth, its specially designed thermal shield will react with the atmosphere, signaling the orbiter's landing with a Northern Lights-like phenomenon.

The orbiter will also carry a contemporary "Library of Alexandria," named for the legendary library of ancient times, with content selected by a "multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary and multi-denominational 'think tank,'" the Web site says. Also aboard will be an image of present-day Earth; a diamond containing samples of seawater, air, soil and a drop of human blood; and pictures of men, women and children.

Since we must assume that today’s technology will be obsolete by then, the satellite will have information to help those who discover it 50,000 years from now: a "user manual" on how to read the messages on the CD-ROMs. The time capsule also will contain an "astronomical clock" showing the current position and rotational speed of radio pulsars, which will enable the orbiter's discoverers to determine its age.

KEO is a non-profit organization that charges no fees for its service. Anyone may enter up to 6,000 characters in the time capsule and may use any language.

For more information, or to enter your own words to your distant descendants 50,000 years from now, go to: http://www.keo.org

- Kids Say the Darndest Things

Found on a grammar school test paper: "A census taker is man who goes from house to house increasing the population."

- Upcoming Events

The Upcoming Events section of the newsletter is published once per month. Each event will be listed very briefly: title, date(s), location, and sponsoring organization, all followed by either an e-mail address or a Web page that you can use to find more information. Since detailed information is available via e-mail or the Web, I will not list the details in this newsletter. If you do contact any of these organizations, please tell them where you heard about the event.

Here are the listings, arranged by date. An asterisk indicates a new listing that has been added since the last time this list was published:

Heritage Hunters of Saratoga County, New York will present a seminar by Henry Z. Jones, Jr. on Friday, May 7 and Saturday, May 8, 1999 in Saratoga Springs, NY. Several seminars are planned. For more information contact Alice Zetterstrom at zetter@juno.com

National Genealogical Society’s Annual Conference in Richmond, VA May12-15, 1999. Information is available from: Macdonald@ngsgenealogy.org

Southern Virginia College is sponsoring a genealogy conference on May 21st and 22nd. Speakers will include: David Rencher and Dean Hunter from the LDS Family History Center. Barbara Vinnes Little plus others will do Saturday workshops. The college is located in Buena Vista, Virginia, which is in the upper end of the Shenandoah Valley. Interested vendors or participants can send e-mail to: gmills@southernvirginia.edu.

The Sonoma County Genealogical Society is planning an all day seminar on May 22, 1999 in Santa Rosa, California, featuring Dr. John Philip Colletta in a day-long program. For details see: http://www.rootsweb.com/~cascgs/colletta.html

The Oregon Genealogical Society is sponsoring a seminar in Eugene, Oregon on May 22, 1999. The theme is "Midwest and Heartland Ancestor Search" focusing on Midwestern U.S. research. Invited speakers include Joanne Skelton, Anne Leptich, and Jim Kimsey. For more information, send an e-mail to: mporter@oregon.uoregon.edu

The Halton-Peel Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society will present the OGS Seminar '99 from May 28th to May 30th 1999 in Toronto, Canada. The theme is "Our Ontario Families." Details are available at: http://www.hhpl.on.ca/sigs/ogshp/seminar.htm

The Wayne County (PA) Historical Society will sponsor an Everton "Discovering Your Heritage" Workshop on Saturday, May 29. For information, send e-mail to: wchspa@ptd.net.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society is offering its annual Research Program to Salt Lake City from May 30 to June 6, 1999. The program offers lectures on various genealogical topics, guided research in the Family History Library, and personal research consultations with NEHGS staff. For further information, look at: http://www.nehgs.org

*A family reunion for the Henry SEVILLA and Mina GOSPODNETICH families will be held Sunday May 30, 1999 in Lakewood, CA. For details, contact: MaryS1256@aol.com

The Stebbins Ancestral Society will hold a family reunion in Northampton, Massachusetts June 3 to 6. If interested, please contact: aligner01@yahoo.com.

*The Palatines to America 1999 National Conference will be held June 3-5, 1999 in Columbus, Ohio. The program includes a number of speakers, computer exhibits and a book vendors’ area. Full details are available at: http://palam.org/99natlconf.htm

The DuVAL Family Association will hold its first meeting in over half a century on June 4-6, 1999 in Richmond, Virginia. Details are available at: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/7508

The GAFFIELD Family Reunion will be held in Howard City, Michigan on June 5, 1999. For information, contact: r.reid@sympatico.ca.

*The Willamette Valley Genealogical Society, Inc., is sponsoring a conference on "Scottish Genealogical Research", by Robert I. Edgar, FSA Scot. The conference will be held Saturday, June 5, 1999, in Keizer, Oregon. For details, contact: jwillhit@orednet.org

*The Genealogical Society of Stanislaus County, California will present an All-Day Genealogical Seminar on June 5, 1999. Featured speaker will be Mr. Russel Baker, a certified archivist from Arkansas who will speak about researching records in the south. Details are at: http://www.compuology.com/cagenweb/gssc.html

The descendants of John Morgan MINTER (1792-1856) and Dorothy Brooks MATHIS (1792-1852) will celebrate their memory with a reunion at Hopkins County, Texas, June 11, 12, 13, 1999. For information, send an e-mail to: djr@swbell.net

The Midwest Historical and Genealogical Society, Wichita, KS will host the 24th Annual Conference of the Kansas Council of Genealogical Societies on June 11 and 12, 1999 in Wichita. Featured speaker will be James L. Hansen, Reference Librarian of the Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. For additional information see: http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/mhgs/conference.htm

*The Godfrey Memorial Library, Middletown, CT will hold their Second Annual Conference "Seminar for Historians and Genealogists: Migration Patterns" at Wesleyan University on Saturday, June 12, 1999. Four speakers will talk about the migration of the Quakers, French Canada and New England Connection, immigrants from Sweden and the French Huguenots. For more information, send an e-mail to: seminarinfo@godfrey.org

*A Computers, Genealogy And The Internet Expo will be held in Brisbane Qld, Australia on June 12, 1999. The same expo will also be held in Toowoomba on June 14 and at the Hervey Bay RSL Club on Sept. 25th 1999. For details, go to: http://www.angelfire.com/or/janetreakesgenealogy/index.html

The 21st annual reunion of the LILLARD Family Association will be June 12 and 13, 1999, at Benton, Tennessee. For details, contact rlill55941@wingnet.net

The Descendants of Baron Christopher de Graffenried will hold their 1999 Reunion in Oklahoma City, OK June 18-21, 1999. For information, contact: Jdegraf203@aol.com

The LAY Family Genealogical Association (including Lay, Leigh, Lea, Leh, Ley, Loy etc surnames) will hold a meeting in Branson, MO June 25 through 27, 1999. Details are at: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Acres/8896

The National KITTERMAN Family Reunion will be held June 25-27th at Fort Dodge, Iowa. For information, contact: rwhipple@quis.net

"Melungeon Roots: A Family Heritage Workshop" will be held on the Berea College campus in Kentucky on Saturday, June 26. An extensive program is planned. Details are available from: nmorri3924@aol.com

The 6th Annual Genealogical Institute of Mid America will be held in Springfield, Illinois, in July of 1999. Details are available at: http://www.misslink.net/neill/gima.html

The EARL and BOWEN Family Reunion will be held in Elma, Washington on July 3, 1999. Details are available from: r.reid@sympatico.ca.

The Germans From Russia Heritage Society (GRHS) 1999 Convention will be held in Aberdeen, South Dakota on July 8 through11, 1999. Details are available at: http://www.grhs.com/

Dr. George K. Schweitzer will speak on German Genealogy on July 10, 1999 for a workshop sponsored jointly by the German Interest Group and the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Area Research Center in Whitewater, Wisconsin. Details are at: http://www.angelfire.com/biz/origins1/gig.html

LABERGE-LaBARGE Reunion will be held in Keeseville NY on July 16 and 17, 1999. If you are one of the descendants of Robert de la Berge, the original Laberge in North America (and virtually all Laberges, LaBarges, Lebarges, etc. in North America are), you are cordially invited. For more information, see: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/LaBarge_C/laberge.htm

*The HIVELY/HIVELEY/HEIVLY/HAIBLE Family Reunion will be held in York County, Pennsylvania on Saturday, July 24, 1999. The reunion will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the arrival in America from Germany of two Haible brothers. For information, contact dphively@aol.com.

The descendants of Abraham and Mary VANDAL of West Virginia will hold their 1999 National Bi-Annual Reunion July 25-27 in Nashville, Indiana. Details may be found at: http://www.startext.net/homes/chield/vandalreunion.htm

The 43rd Annual Meeting of the Livesay Historical Society will be held in Duffield, Virginia, from July 29th through 31st, 1999. Additional details are available at: http://hometown.aol.com/lhsociety/livesay.html

The New Brunswick Genealogical Society will present its 20th Anniversary Conference "New Brunswick Ancestors - Arrivals and Departures" July 30th to August 2nd, 1999 in Moncton, New Brunswick. Details are available at: http://www.bitheads.ca/nbgs/conf.html

*The COGSWELL Family Association’s 10th Anniversary Reunion will be held July 31, 1999 through August 1, 1999 in Salem/Essex, Massachusetts. For information, contact: president@cogswell.org

*The first annual gathering of the English HATCHER family(ies) will take place on Sat 31st July 1999 at Bruton Somerset with trips to the various West-country (of England) villages associated with the name over the next three days. Information is available via reunion@bob.hatcher.clara.net or at: http://home.clara.net/bob.hatcher/Reunion.htm

Brigham Young University’s 1999 Genealogy and Family History Conference will be held August 3–6, 1999. Information is available at: http://coned.byu.edu/cw/cwgeneal/

BROWN/MCNATT/RICHARDS Reunion, Aug 7, 1999 in Clayton, Delaware. Details are available from: mbluehen@sensible-net.com

The 75th annual PARKMAN Association Meeting will be held August 8, 1999 in Skowhegan, Maine. This association is for all descendants of Gideon and Mary (Vining) Parkman of Abington, Massachusetts and Skowhegan, Maine. Details are available by sending an e-mail to: klary-jr@hannaford.com.

*The ninth annual Walter PALMER Society reunion will be held on August 8th 1999 in Stonington, CT. For details, look at: http://www.walterpalmer.com/news.htm

"New York.... Gateway to America," the 19th Annual Conference on Jewish Genealogy, hosted by the Jewish Genealogical Society, Inc., will be held August 8-13, 1999. For information, look at: http://members.aol.com/nyc99conf

The New England Historic Genealogical Society’s annual "Come Home to New England" program will be held August 8-15, 1999 at the Society’s headquarters in Boston, MA. Participants enjoy one-on-one research consultations with NEHGS staff, daily lectures on New England research and methodology, and private research time and exclusive early library hours. For information, look at: http://www.nehgs.org

The St. Louis County Library is sponsoring a workshop for Genealogical Librarians on August 10, 1999. Note that this is the day before the FGS national conference in St. Louis. Speakers will be Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck of the Dallas Public Library, Eric Grundset, librarian the DAR library, Paul Conner of the Library of Congress, Brent Griffeths of the LDS Family History Library, Martha Henderson of the Mid-Continent Public Library, and Constance Potter of the National Archives. Details are available at: http://www.slcl.lib.mo.us/slcl/sc/sc-pcon.htm

The Federation of Genealogical Societies and the St. Louis Genealogical Society invite you to "A Conference for the Nation's Genealogists" in St. Louis, MO August 11 through 14, 1999. This is one of the major conferences of the year. The full Conference Registration Booklet is now on-line at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~mostlogs/STINDEX.HTM

The descendants of Catharine MAHONY and John McCARTHY of Prescott, Ontario will hold their second reunion August 13-15, 1999 in Ottawa, Ontario. For information, contact: grandpre@global2000.net

The 1999 National HANKS Family Reunion will be held on August 20, 21, 22, 1999 in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The reunion is to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the New England Branch of the Hanks family to America. More information can be found at: http://www.enol.com/~hanksdc/hanksplace/reunion.html

The Searching For That Elusive Irish Ancestor 1999 Family History & Heritage Conference will be held in Belfast and in Dublin, Ireland September 7 through 14, 1999. The conference will concentrate on making practical use of the genealogical research sources available to the family historian in both cities. Delegates will have ample opportunity for guided research at the main archives and repositories in addition to lectures, tours and entertainment all at no extra charge. Details are available at: http://www.uhf.org.uk

*The Willamette Valley Genealogical Society, Inc. is sponsoring a conference on genealogical research featuring Mr. George K. Schweitzer, Ph.D., one of America's Foremost Genealogical Speakers. Sessions will focus on "American Land Grants", "Obscure Genealogical Sources", and "Researching in Burned Out Counties". The conference will be held in Salem, Oregon Saturday, September 11, 1999. For details contact jwillhit@orednet.org

*The Gloucester County Historical Society of Woodbury, NJ is sponsoring a Heritage Quest Genealogy Road Show on September 11, 1999. For more information, look at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~njglouce/gchs/gchs@citnet.com

The Eli and Mae GARMAN Family Reunion will be held on September 12, 1999 in Independence, Kansas. Details are available from: cgarman@horizon.hit.net

*The Colorado Genealogical Society/Computer Interest Group will present their 8th Biennial Symposium, "Helping Genealogists Use Computers" on September 17th and 18th, 1999 in Denver, Colorado. For additional information, contact:: schetter@worldnet.att.net

The 25^th SEABOLT Family Reunion will be held in Vogel State Park, Georgia on September 18 and 19,1999. For information, contact harsea@aol.com

The Slippery Rock Heritage Association will hold their Annual Heritage Festival on September 24 through 26, 1999. It will be held in conjunction with the Slippery Rock University Homecoming Weekend Celebration. Details are available at: http:// www.geniespeak.com/event.html

*The annual ESKRIDGE Family Association reunion will be held Friday and Saturday, October 1-2, 1999 in Richmond, VA. Activities include a business meeting, a program on "Using Technology in Genealogy" and other technology workshops as well. For details, contact: GenSeeker1@compuserve.com

The McAllen Genealogical Society will hold its annual all-day seminar Saturday, February 5, 2000 in McAllen, Texas. Henry Z (Hank) Jones, the featured speaker, will present four informative and fun lectures. For details, contact: ecmacey@ibm.net

The Colorado Council of Genealogical Societies will host its Annual Rocky Mountain Regional Conference, 22-23 September 2000, Lakewood CO. Featured speakers will be Cyndi Howells, Henry "Hank" Jones, and Christina Schaefer. For details, contact: pakemper@aol.com.

If you would like to see your event listed, send an e-mail to: meetings@rootscomputing.com. You must include either a Web page that gives details or an e-mail address for the organization or for someone within the organization who is willing to supply the meeting details upon request. Please limit your listings to events where you expect 100 or more people to attend.

- Home Pages Highlighted

The following is a list of some of the genealogy-related World Wide Web home pages that have been listed recently on http://www.rootscomputing.com. Some of these sites may charge a fee for their services:

Publisher of writings by the late John R. Mayer. His "Extraneus" series of books concentrates on the following surnames: STRANGE, EXTRANEUS, LE STRANGE, L'ESTRANGE, DE LESTRANGE, ALLOWAY STRANGE, SRANG, STRONG, STRONGE, and D'ESTRENG: http://www.tir.com/~bjway

Fales genealogy plus Park County, Wyoming cemetery listings: http://www.wtp.net/~evern

Norwegian genealogy with maps and historical timeline. An online surname database covers the following areas of Norway: Sogn og Fjordane, Nannestad, Gjerdrum, Vinger, Namdalseid, Rømskog, Lier: http://home.eunet.no/~jeri/,

Schwartz Family Record - contains the family history of Schwartz, Styer, Bridgeman, Milikin/Milliken, and Parkinson families who emigrated to Illinois and/or Wisconsin: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~schwartz/

Rolin, Strickland and Wingate ancestors from the state of Georgia: http://www.users.nac.net/nawrocki

Gibney One-Name Study, featuring searchable databases on Gibneys, Gibboneys, Giboneys, and McGibneys, etc.: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Cottage/1358

Hubbards of VA, NC, SC, GA, TN, TX, IL, MO, KY, MS and other areas: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~mhubbard/index.html

Genealogy of James Beams Green, born 1813 and wife Rebecca Wooley, born 1817. Also includes information about family reunions and family news: http://members.aol.com/faygram/Green.html

The Lambert, LeVeque, Robinson, Plankey family. It is primarily French-Canadian and Native American: http://www.familytreemaker.com/users/k/i/e/Bettyk-L-Kienitz/

Lake Havasu Genealogical Society: http://www.rootsweb.com/~azlhgs/genlib.html

Thayer Families Association: http://thayer.genealogist.net

O'Carroll family history of the descendents of Col. Thomas O'Carroll, who died at the Battle of the Boyne. The site includes correspondence from Carrolls in Cincinnati, written between 1878 and 1893: http://dsocarroll.future.easyspace.com

To submit your home page to this newsletter, enter the necessary information at: http://www.rootscomputing.com/register.htm. Due to the volume of new Web pages submitted, I am not able to list all of them in the newsletter.

Are you interested in the articles in this newsletter? Would you like to learn more or ask questions or make comments about these articles? Join this newsletter’s online discussion group on CompuServe’s Genealogy Techniques Forum. CompuServe members using Netscape, Internet Explorer or CompuServe 2000 can go to http://go.compuserve.com/GenealogyForum. If you are using Classic CompuServe, you can GO ROOTS.

If you would like to submit news, information or press releases for possible inclusion in future newsletters, send them to richard@eastman.net. The author does reserve the right to accept or reject any articles submitted.

DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is being written and sent via e-mail at no charge. I expect to write one new issue on a more or less weekly basis. However, life sometimes interferes, and the need to earn a living may create an occasional delay.

COPYRIGHTS: The contents of this newsletter are copyright by Richard W. Eastman and by Ancestry Publishing and by others so designated. You are hereby granted rights, unless otherwise specified, to re-distribute articles from this newsletter to other parties provided you do so strictly for non-commercial purposes. Please limit your re-distribution to one or two articles per newsletter; do not re-distribute the newsletter in its entirety. Also, please include the following words with any articles you re-distribute:

The following article is from Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and is copyright 1999 by Richard W. Eastman. It is re-published here with the permission of the author.

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