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James Tanner's Blog (321)

Family History Expo Contest



As a Blogger of Honor at the Mesa Family History Expo, I am told that two of my readers can receive free tickets to the event. To present these two tickets, I was told to run a contest. First of all it should be known that I do not play board games, much less enter contests. If I were an innovative design type person, I would probably be rich from ghost writing a mommy blog, but since I am an old and somewhat stodgy trial attorney, I have had a… Continue

Added by James Tanner on January 10, 2010 at 5:04pm — No Comments

Data miners and vampires

One of the most common complaints I hear from researchers goes something like the following:



I spent years compiling my ancestry. One of my (friends, cousins, someone -- insert the name or description) asked for a copy of my file. I sent them a copy and later found the file on their Website (Blog etc.) without any acknowledgment and claiming that it was their file.



I call these people who steal others' information and present it as their own, data vampires. Personally, I… Continue

Added by James Tanner on January 9, 2010 at 7:54pm — 1 Comment

Additions to Eastern European Records on Record Search

FamilySearch Record Search has just re-published the Slovakia Pre-Ajov Region Church Books (Slovakian and Hungarian Place Names) from 1592 to 1952. To quote the site, the collection contains "images of baptisms/births, marriages, and burials that occured in the Roman Catholic, Evangelical Lutheran, and Reformed Church parishes, as well Jewish congregations within the area of Northeastern Slovakia. The original records, created by local priests of each parish and by Jewish rabbis are located in… Continue

Added by James Tanner on January 8, 2010 at 9:30pm — No Comments

Really old and really neat stuff

Cuneiform Tablets: From the Reign of Gudea of Lagash to Shalmanassar III



The Library of Congress is an inexhaustible source of really old and neat stuff. They also have a healthy dose of family history related items. The particular tablet above is in the Global Gateway in the Digital Collections. The collections include Collaborative Digital Libraries. As I teach classes on Internet resources, I am continually surprised at the general lack… Continue

Added by James Tanner on January 7, 2010 at 8:42am — No Comments

Legacy Family Tree announces version 7.4 with New FamilySearch connection

In an announcement dated January 5, 2009, Millenia's Legacy Family Tree version 7.4 received official certification from FamilySearch, and is now listed as an official Certified Product at http://www.familysearch.org/eng/affiliates/index.html. Legacy is certified in the following categories: Access, Ordinance Status, Print.
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Added by James Tanner on January 5, 2010 at 8:46pm — No Comments

World Digital Library

The digital collections of the Library of Congress have expanded into the World Digital Library. The Library of Congress describes this international resource as follows:



The World Digital Library is a cooperative project of the Library of Congress, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and partner libraries, archives, and educational and cultural institutions from the United States and around the world. The project brings together on a single… Continue

Added by James Tanner on January 5, 2010 at 8:40am — No Comments

More thoughts on privacy and genealogy files

A news report today about changes in the "privacy settings" on Facebook got me thinking about genealogy files again. Facebook is the antipode of privacy. Just this morning, in looking at my Facebook News Feed, I see notes about people going back to work, a wedding announcement (yes, a real wedding announcement with a request to RSVP) report of a trip to Hawaii, new clothes for baby, and a whole lot of posts about how people are feeling today. I won't even go into the content on my Twitter… Continue

Added by James Tanner on January 4, 2010 at 9:05am — No Comments

Copy large genealogy documents at very high resolution





OK folks, this gets pretty technical, but by using this method, you can digitize large documents with very high resolution. The Diploma above has some very small printed detail and is 16 x 21 inches. If you click on either image you can get an idea of the quality of the image, although you cannot see all of the detail available without zooming in. The first image is edited in Adobe Photoshop to correct the color. The second image is the… Continue

Added by James Tanner on January 3, 2010 at 3:36pm — No Comments

Parade of States -- online digital genealogy resources -- Colorado

From Colorado State University Libraries 1930 Three female students with chickens


Colorado has developed some respectable online resources including extensive online records in the Colorado State Archives. I have seen almost no links to these resources previously.
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Added by James Tanner on January 1, 2010 at 3:26pm — No Comments

Finding out almost anything and everything

When I last checked most of the genealogists I know were also people who had to live and do other things besides genealogy once and a while. But it is still interesting how many things I do every day relate to genealogy in some way or another. One of the notable events of this past year has been the phenomenal increase in my ability to find out things. It started with maps. Google Maps revolutionized the way I find places, not just for genealogy, but going to stores or other locations. Part of… Continue

Added by James Tanner on December 31, 2009 at 9:29am — No Comments

Technology in genealogical research has its place

If I am scanning old photographs, newer technology is better. It is faster with higher resolution than just a few years ago. If I am searching census records, the new technology that allows me to view images of the census pages online from my home computer is nearly a miracle compared to searching through miles of microfilm. But technology has its place. Unfortunately, not all researchers realize the limitations of the current technology. For example, I now find people who have searched for… Continue

Added by James Tanner on December 30, 2009 at 10:52pm — No Comments

Privacy, Identity Theft and Genealogy -- How real is this concern?

Review:



In this series of posts, I have been exploring common concerns among genealogists about both the privacy of the information they gather and the risk of being a victim to identity theft. Although there are real concerns in both areas, the media has hyped these topics to the point of gross exaggeration. What we do in our homes and with our family, are for the most part "private" in the classical sense. But anything we do in the public, buying, selling, traveling, working, etc.… Continue

Added by James Tanner on December 28, 2009 at 8:28am — No Comments

Privacy, Identity Theft and Genealogy -- More on Identity Theft

Review:



In the past few posts I have been commenting on the fact that privacy and identity theft are both real concerns, albeit not nearly so important as the media would have you believe. Given the reality of the criminal activities included in the umbrella term "identity theft," it turns out that the danger of having your identity stolen, posed by sharing genealogical information, even online, is vanishingly small despite the reportedly large number of instances. Also, in the… Continue

Added by James Tanner on December 27, 2009 at 8:47pm — No Comments

Newest updates on FamilySearch's Record Search

In the December 24, 2009 update, Record Search added a number of new collections; Washington State County Marriages from 1858 to 1950, England Cheshire Parish records from 1538 to 2000, Cheshire Bishops' Transcripts fro 1598 to 1900 and Germany, Baden, Boondorf Church Book Duplicates from 1810 to 1869. The following collections were also updated; Brazil, Catholic Church Records, Florida State Census for 1935 and 1945, England, Cheshire Non-conformist records from 1671 to 1900 and the 1920… Continue

Added by James Tanner on December 27, 2009 at 6:22pm — No Comments

Privacy, Identity Theft and Genealogy -- Privacy worries

Review:



In the last two posts I have discussed identity theft and privacy, two concerns of genealogists working with today's interconnected technology. Privacy is a difficult topic because there are so many aspects to the issue, from personal privacy in daily life, to whether or not banks and other financial institutions can see your personal financial records. Genealogists research families and therefore often encounter personal, private, sensitive topics and information. The main… Continue

Added by James Tanner on December 24, 2009 at 9:00am — No Comments

Privacy, Identity Theft and Genealogy -- Privacy, an issue?

Review:



The purpose of this series is to highlight the real privacy and identity theft concerns associated with genealogy. In my first post in this series, I explained that the danger from identity theft has been dramatically overblown in the media. For example, it is twice as likely that you will have your wallet stolen, than to have a problem with identity theft via the Internet. This post continues with a discussion of privacy.



Privacy... What is really private and what… Continue

Added by James Tanner on December 23, 2009 at 5:42pm — No Comments

Privacy, Identity Theft and Genealogy -- First in a series

Almost every time I teach a class, especially of older people, and mention purchasing something online or downloading a file from the Internet, I get several individuals who say that they will never buy anything from the Internet because of possible identity theft and privacy concerns. From my perspective as both an attorney and a heavy user of online services, I have come to the conclusion that although there are some real concerns, most of the fear is irrational and based on ignorance. Now,… Continue

Added by James Tanner on December 22, 2009 at 9:28am — No Comments

Parade of States -- online digital genealogy resources -- Virginia

Time to get back to the Parade of States, this post is on Virginia's online resources. It is interesting to see the variety of resources that some states have already put online and the paucity of resources from other states. The differences in availability do not seem to be governed by economics or the size of the population, but generally, larger states have more resources, with some notable exceptions.



Virginia has some collections of online records, and what is available is… Continue

Added by James Tanner on December 21, 2009 at 8:54am — No Comments

Furthering the discussion on certification

Craig Manson has written a very entertaining and provocative post entitled "The Discussion about Standards, Certification, Maturity, etc.: Useful or Divisive? Elitist Envy or Intellectual Inevitability?" I really enjoyed to the mock court room examination of the proposed expert witness on the subject of genealogy. The hypothetical testimony points out several serious questions; Can a genealogist (or anyone) become an "expert" merely by doing what many genealogists do all the time? Is there a… Continue

Added by James Tanner on December 19, 2009 at 6:36pm — No Comments

FamilySearch Community Trees -- a truly amazing innovation

Very recently FamilySearch on its FamilySearch Labs Website introduced an new concept to genealogical research and online databases, truly amazing Community Trees. This collection contains more than mere lists of individuals, it is the genealogy of entire communities. It is also far more than a lineage linked database. It is also free and available to anyone, whether or not they are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.



As explained on the Community Trees… Continue

Added by James Tanner on December 18, 2009 at 7:44pm — No Comments

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