The Imperial St. Landry Genealogical and Historical Society will explore South Louisiana's rich Acadian heritage at a meeting onSaturday.  The 10 a.m. meeting at Opelousas General Health System's South Campus, the former Doctors' Hospital, is free and open to the public.

The forum's guest speaker will be Brenda Comeaux Trahan, curator-director of the Acadian Memorial and Museum in St. Martinville. Trahan will cover a number of topics, including the March 19-20 Acadian Memorial Festival, which will be held that Friday and Saturday in St. Martinville.

The festival, a ...

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

If your local genealogy society or library is looking for a new project, I have a suggestion: convert some of your microfilm and microfiche holdings to digital images so that they can be easily shared and preserved. 

If you have only one copy of the microfilm or microfiche, you probably already know how fragile it is. Microfilm and microfiche are easily scratched. Have you ever used a roll of microfilm that has already been used many times? If so, you already know what I ...

The next episode features former NFL football player Emmitt Smith who discovers his slavery roots this Friday, March 12, at 8/7c on NBC. Lisa Kudrow said his episode is the most compelling of the seven.

You can check out the teaser to the episode featuring Emmitt at http://www.nbc....ny/1205986/.

On February 27, 1995, Newsweek published an article about the future of the Internet. In that article, Clifford Stoll wrote:

Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic. Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can ...

I recently had a chance to watch a good movie, a murder mystery. Best of all, genealogy played an important part in the solution to the crime. Then, to make it even more interesting, the movie's producers are holding an online scavenger hunt where YOU could win prizes. Details are available at the end of this article.

Since the movie involves genealogy, I was offered a chance to the see the movie in advance of its release date. The obvious hope was that I might write about it in this newsletter. After having watched this film, I cannot imagine ...

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

I have written many times about the need for backups. Many people make backups to CD disks, to plug-in USB hard disks, to jump drives, or to other devices, and then store them in their homes or offices. They think they are fully protected. After all, "I made a backup." However, just ask anyone who survived Hurricane Katrina or a California forest fire about their backups! They lost their backup data at the same time that they lost their computers and all their other belongings.

Of ...

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

Events to include free performance by David McCullough and Mormon Tabernacle Choir

SALT LAKE CITY — Family history will take center stage in Salt Lake City during the week of April 26, 2010, with four genealogy conferences taking place simultaneously. Over 200 genealogy workshops are scheduled through May 1, giving everyone from novices to advanced researchers access to unprecedented learning opportunities.

Conference organizers decided to offer attendees the rare chance to attend more than one of the ...

The following is an announcement from The National Archives (in Great Britain, not the United States):

The National Archives currently produces a family history magazine, ‘Ancestors’, in partnership with Wharncliffe Publishing Ltd.

The current contract with Wharncliffe Publishing Ltd comes to an end on 31 March. We decided to take this opportunity to look at the magazine and make sure that it is offering best value for money, both for its readers and for The National Archives.

As a result of this review, ‘Ancestors’ will be discontinued and the ...

Great news! The following was written by Megan Smolenyak:

Dear RootsTelevision.com Viewer,

OK, you convinced me! After getting inundated with emails, tweets, and Facebook postings and messages about the closing of RootsTelevision.com (RTV), I've decided to keep it going. I honestly had no clue how valued it was by the genealogical community, and I agree with the many of you who pointed out that it serves a somewhat different purpose than the prime time programming that's on TV at present (much as I've been enjoying that!). At the same time, I think many had not realized that ...

Tony Burroughs is a well-known professional genealogist, college professor, writer, lecturer, television personality, and all-around nice guy. He is best known as an expert in Black genealogy but that statement ignores his many other talents. Now Tony is giving a free genealogy seminar for Ancestry.com on the web (webinar).

The webinar (or seminar, if you prefer) is entitled, Avoid Traps in African American Genealogy. The webinar's announcement states:

Even the most seasoned genealogist can make mistakes, especially when it comes to the complexities of African ...

Prime Minister John Key says any moves to merge government departments are driven by efficiency, not ideology. Mr Key says proposals to merge a number of government agencies will be considered by the Cabinet business committee on Monday night, before going to the full Cabinet next week.

The proposals are understood to include merging the National Library and National Archives into the Department of Internal Affairs as well as several other agencies.

You can read more on the Radio New Zealand News web site at http://www.radi...1247f7b8fbbd and ...

If this proves to be true, it could again end the use of mitochondrial DNA for genealogy:

The mitochondrial genome–long thought to be nearly identical in every cell in the human body–actually varies to a surprising degree, according to new research by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) scientists. The research shows that different forms of the mitochondrial genome can be present in different organs from the same individual, and that these forms probably arise during embryonic development.

You can read more in Health News Digest at ...

The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:

FamilySearch Indexing Update: Civil and church record projects added for Argentina, Canada, France, Peru, and the UK

8 March 2010

FamilySearch Indexers have a wide variety of records to choose from this week. Civil and church records are available from Argentina, Canada, France, Peru, and the United Kingdom. Six different groups of U.S. census records are also ready to be indexed.

New Projects

The following announcement was written by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration:

WASHINGTON, March 8 -- On Wednesday, April 14, at 7 p.m., the National Archives will host Megan Smolenyak, author of Who do You Think You Are?, a comprehensive guide for conducting genealogical research and the official tie-in to the NBC show of the same name that traces the genealogy of a famous person. Smolenyak, chief family historian and spokesperson for Ancestry.com, will be joined by Andrew Carroll, editor of the New York Times bestsellers War Letters and ...