Whoever buried Elizabeth B. Fraser in 1895 (aged 36 years, nine months) picked a secluded and lovely spot in farmland north of Gatineau, overlooking a steep ravine and little creek. Her grave keeps company with some 30 others, Barbers and Langfords and Davidsons who settled and farmed here from the early 1800s on. But this family cemetery is abandoned. Gatineau has grown up around it, so that Highway 50 zooms past on one side and new homes surround it on the other: House, house, cemetery, house, house, all along the rue de l’Épée. Source & Full Story

An announcement by the Ellis Island Foundation: "There is an urgent need to support Ellis Island Online, and I hope you can be one of the supporters of The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation who acts now to make a real difference. You see, the recent recession has been tough on non-profits. Many charitable organizations cut back on services or shut down altogether. But for ten years now, The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation has made Ellis Island Online available to you and millions of other Americans for free, and we hope to continue that excellent public service."

Good news family historians! We're offering one of our interactive online seminars for free to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the Civil War. Learn what life was really like during the war between the states for the soldiers who fought and died in the conflict, as well as the civilians they left behind at home. Take a virtual trip back to the 1860s with Michael O. Varhola, the author of the new book Life in Civil War America, to discover what your ancestors wore, said, ate, earned, did for fun and more. Registration for the live session includes: * ...

Listen to internet radio with Geneabloggers on Blog Talk Radio Join us for another episode of GeneaBloggers Radio on Friday, March 25, 2011 starting at 10pm EDT, 9pm CDT, 8pm MDT, and 7pm PDT! This week we’ll be holding discussing both the current trend of “genealogy and television” as well as finding your black sheep ancestors! Genealogy, Television and Black Sheep – Oh My! This week’s episode of Who Do You Think You Are? will feature actor Chris Buscemi as he embarks on a journey to discover the rogues and villains of his ancestry. And with that ...

An announcement by Truscape Solutions, Inc: "We regret to announce that support for Traces of the Past has been discontinued. Understandably, this will come as a disappointment to many of our users. Many factors contributed to this decision, but first and foremost was our concern about being able to adequately support the App at a time when the service we access for records is undergoing significant and ongoing changes. The current version of Traces will continue to work as long as the service it uses remains available. Unfortunately, that service will soon be discontinued as the ...

Bandit passed away yesterday. He was a siamese cat that adopted us when he was just a tiny kitten. In early September of 1994, Patty and I were out at by the mailbox at our getaway place near Custer, South Dakota. Bandit was crying and hidden under a sign by the highway. He was almost all white, with a few markings that gave away his siamese heritage. He looked to be about 6 weeks old. He immediately became part of the family, traveling in the motor coach for 6 years, and then settling down with us in Bountiful, Utah. When he was young, he would spring up onto the passenger-side windshield ...

Hopes of expanding the already voluminous Google Books collection (7 million books and counting) were shelved by a New York federal district court Tuesday, the ruling citing anti-trust concerns. Google previously reached a settlement with authors and publishers to digitize and display excerpts of out-of-print books, even if the materials are not in the public domain or explicitly authorized by publishers to appear in Google Books. This agreement was challenged by the Authors Guild and subsequently struck down because it gave Google a virtual monopoly on digitized books. The ...

Archivists from the Library of Virginia will visit Virginia Beach and Norfolk next month to scan privately held Civil War family documents into the state’s digital collection. Residents who have original photos, letters diaries, hand-drawn maps, military papers and other documents from the war can register with each city to have the items scanned, according to a Virginia Beach city news release. The items must be owned by the person who presents them for scanning. No photocopies will be accepted. Source & Full Story

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.

Scanning an entire book usually is a difficult task, at best. Turning the pages manually and holding the book on a typical desktop scanner is a tedious process for a typical volume of 200 pages or more. The other problem is "curl." That is, the binding is such that most books will not lie flat on the scanner and the resultant image looks poor. Trying to convert those images to text using OCR (optical text recognition) is probably impossible.

NOTE: You can find a ...

The following announcement was written by David S. Ferriero, Archivist of the United States:

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Mike Wash as NARA's Open Government Executive/Chief Information Officer (CIO) effective March 27, 2011. In Charter for Change and Charting the Course,  I spoke of creating a visionary IT organization - one in which traditional technology planning and policy functions are brought together with the business of social media, open government, and digitization programs to anticipate staff and customer needs. Such an IT organization is key ...

The small Greek island of Kastellorizo was estimated in 2004 to have produced some 30,000 Australians – a figure which in 2011 is considerably larger. A Perth genealogist, Allan Cresswell, whose mother came from Kastellorizo, started work several years ago on mapping out the genealogy of the island and has stored all the data on a website. “I started off by mapping my own family and then with encouragement extended it to research the Kastellorizian Diaspora. There are now 19,300 persons and 6,600 families listed on the site, together with over 1,700 media items. ...

Today is Wednesday, March 23, 2011 and here is what’s available in terms of Daily Blogging Prompts, blog carnivals and other related events in the genealogy blogosphere: Items of Note Today is Liberty Day (US), National Puppy Day (US). Fearless Females Once again, in honor of National Women’s History Month , Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog presents Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month. March 23 — Create a timeline for a female ancestor using your favorite software program or an online timeline generator such as ...

Subtitle: How to Tether a Cell Phone

I have owned a Mi-Fi card for several years and love it. This is a small device that connects to cell towers and provides wireless data connections for laptop computers and other devices when traveling. The Mi-Fi card connection speed is about the same as that of a DSL broadband connection. Unlike wi-fi wireless, it has a range of about five miles. As long as I am within range of a cell phone tower, I have always had a high-speed Internet connection. The Mi-Fi device is about the size of four or five credit cards stacked on ...

Drew gives George one more week off by making this another all-interview episode (the remaining 3 interviews that Drew conducted while attending RootsTech 2011 in Salt Lake City in February). The interviews were with:

Tami Glatz, President of the Second Life chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG) and genealogical lecturer; Paul Nauta, Manager of Public Affairs for FamilySearch; Audrey Collins, Family History Specialist at The National Archives, UK.

Yesterday I pointed out that as our research extends further into the past, we must rely on multiple records to create a “complete picture” of an ancestor. By complete picture, I mean we must gather together enough information about an ancestor to reach correct conclusions about the ancestor’s identity and family relationships.

A principal skill required of all genealogists is the ability to examine two records and determine if there is enough evidence to conclude that both are the subject of the same person. Just as putting together two overlapping photographs ...