For the past 34 years, every time I walk into a trial or an evidentiary hearing, I am aware of the burden of proof. Whether the case is tried to a judge or to a jury, it makes no difference. If I want to win my case, I have to prove it to the satisfaction of the trier of fact, judge or jury. At the same time I am always acutely aware that the opposing counsel will be working just a hard to prove his case and to persuade the judge or jury that his or her side is correct. Our legal system,…
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Added by James Tanner on October 5, 2009 at 6:33pm —
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I had very little contact with Wisconsin until two of my children moved there for school. As I found out, Wisconsin is in the forefront of almost everything academic and its genealogical resources are no exception. Wisconsin has one of the most extensive collections of online materials of any state.
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Added by James Tanner on October 5, 2009 at 5:28am —
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In past posts, I have been discussing some of my impressions of the New FamilySearch program. Admittedly, New FamilySearch has a limited number of users, only those members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) that have registered and can register. At the present time, the last few English speaking Temple Districts are being scheduled for access.
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Added by James Tanner on October 4, 2009 at 7:00am —
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Through the efforts of FamilySearch and Brigham Young University, both the Family History Archives and Record Search continue to increase their collections and online holdings at a steady pace. These records, which can be viewed for free online, include many items not available anywhere else except the participating libraries. Record Search continues to make available records from around the world that have been entirely unavailable previously without ordering the microfilms from the Salt Lake…
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Added by James Tanner on October 4, 2009 at 6:10am —
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In the last posts, I began a discussion of some of the issues associated with the introduction of New FamilySearch. The interface for the program is deceptively simple. It is only through clicking on links at the bottom of the screens to show combined individuals, that you can begin to appreciate the complexity of the data being represented. For each name shown on the screen at any given time, there may be many hundreds of combined files of the same individual lurking beneath the simple looking…
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Added by James Tanner on October 3, 2009 at 8:45pm —
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A new version of the Google Toolbar makes advanced in-page translation available at the click of a mouse. To quote Google, "The Translate feature automatically detects if the language of a webpage you're on is different from your default language setting
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Added by James Tanner on October 2, 2009 at 5:44am —
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When and attorney is getting ready to go to trial, one of the many things that has to be explained to a client is the standard or level of proof necessary to prove the case. In the U.S. there are basically three levels; a preponderance of the evidence, clear and convincing and beyond a reasonable doubt. For a simplified discussion see Burden of proof in Wikipedia. If a legal case is tried to a jury, the jury is specifically instructed by the Judge as to the standard of proof through written…
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Added by James Tanner on October 2, 2009 at 5:11am —
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Arizona is not exactly perceived to be in the forefront of places where people do genealogical research but the collections listed below are mind boggling extensive. Arizona is perceived as a place where people from the Midwest go to live and to retire. To the contrary, our heritage (I live in Arizona) actually dates back hundreds of years to Native American and Spanish roots. Historically, the population has been sparse, but recently, with the boom in sun belt living, the state capital,…
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Added by James Tanner on September 30, 2009 at 6:03pm —
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Donald Lines Jacobus, FASG (1887-1970) is generally recognized as the founder of the modern school of genealogy in the United States. See NGS Genealogy Hall of Fame Members. He is credited with "elevating genealogy to the high degree of scholarship it now occupies." There were, of course, other researchers who were influential in setting a more professional standard for family history, such as Gilbert Cope in Pennsylvania, Colonel Lemuel Chester and Henry F. Waters from New England. Read more:…
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Added by James Tanner on September 30, 2009 at 4:46am —
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According to the official Website, as of September 28, 2009, all of the Stakes in the Provo, Utah Temple District had access to New FamilySearch. Some of the Stakes in the Ogden, Utah Temple District also had access on that date, the remaining Stakes in the Ogden, Utah Temple District will gain access on October 5, 2009.
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Added by James Tanner on September 29, 2009 at 7:14pm —
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Sometimes when I am doing genealogical research online, I can't see the forest for the trees. Let me give an example. I enter a surname into a Google search, something common, like "morgan." In the first go around, I get over 15 million results. Now, who can actually use 15 million surnames? In the nature of search engines, the most popular results come up at the top of the list, so I get things like the Morgan Motor Company and Morgan Stanley financial services. Following my own advice, I try…
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Added by James Tanner on September 29, 2009 at 3:02pm —
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Almost two years ago, we were introduced to the New FamilySearch program. Since that time, I have spent a considerable time working with and teaching about, this interesting program. Although, it is still not available to those who do not belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), and not even to all the members yet, the program has had a huge impact on the LDS community.
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Added by James Tanner on September 27, 2009 at 7:00am —
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One of the questions I often get is how do I keep up with all of the different Websites. There is a huge amount of information out there on the Internet and it can be daunting to try to follow even one limited topic like online genealogy. However, there are a number of Web tools that make following blogs and other Websites manageable.
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Added by James Tanner on September 27, 2009 at 6:00am —
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One measure of the effectiveness of a genealogy Website is the number of visitors. Although still not a major player in the online world of genealogy, the FamilySearch Wiki is steadily growing in its resources and usability. As of September 25, 2009, the homepage had been accessed 371,941 times. Since this is the number of times some pages are accessed in one day, the number itself is not impressive. What is impressive is to view the list of new pages added by logged-in users. There were nearly…
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Added by James Tanner on September 25, 2009 at 8:33am —
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By September 28, 2009, the Provo Temple District, which includes all of the Student Wards and Stakes at Brigham Young University, will have full access to New FamilySearch. In addition, the Ogden Temple District is scheduled for its first Stake access on September 28th also. With these two Stakes going online, that leaves only the Mount Timpanogos Temple District in Utah Valley and the remaining Temple Districts in the Salt Lake Valley itself to get access.…
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Added by James Tanner on September 23, 2009 at 5:20pm —
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More records have been added to the FamilySearch Record Search Website. These include the following: (All descriptions from the Website with the spelling corrected).
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Added by James Tanner on September 23, 2009 at 8:57am —
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Like Wyoming, Alaska is large with a small population. It is the least densely populated state of the U.S. See Wikipedia. I have only known a few people over the years who actually were born and raised in Alaska. As shown below, some of the online resources are actually in other state repositories.
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Added by James Tanner on September 23, 2009 at 8:52am —
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Sweden is not known for having free online records. You may have heard of Genline, a commercial Swedish Website with 17,453,462 online images comprising approximately 34,600,000 pages of images. This is a subscription site charging up to $285 US for a year subscription. However, you can also pay by the day, $11 US, or 20 days, a month, a quarter or three years. It is a fabulous Website for Swedish research. But they have the same records that were microfilmed by The Church of Jesus Christ of…
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Added by James Tanner on September 20, 2009 at 10:02pm —
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Although Wyoming is the least populous state in the U.S., it is the tenth largest by size. Its online resources are not as extensive as other more populous states but still significant. A Google search for Wyoming digital resources will show a lot of links from other state collections which include historical material from Wyoming. One example is the Western States Marriages Record Index which includes some marriages from Wyoming.…
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Added by James Tanner on September 20, 2009 at 5:19pm —
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In a comment to my September 13, 2009 post about collecting names vs. family history, one of the comments named me a "pretentious genealogist" apparently because I "vehemently abhor 'name collectors'." I guess I was also surprised to find out that I was a "self-proclaimed expert" so I went back and re-read my own article. After a review, I did find a few more things to say about name collectors, even the variety claimed by the commentator.…
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Added by James Tanner on September 19, 2009 at 5:58pm —
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