Footnote.com has expanded the capabilities of one of its popular features. Quoting from the Footnote blog: We like to focus on discovery at Footnote.com. If you are like us, when you find something important you can’t wait to share it. We created Spotlights to be a way you could quickly highlight and share your discoveries. Spotlights don’t have to be of famous people or well-known events. They just have to be something that’s important to you – a document about an ancestor, historical newspaper article, or just something that made you laugh. Recently, we started ...

The following announcement was written by Preserve Pro, Inc.: Archivist Nooma Rhue educates public on how to preserve digital artifacts   CHARLOTTE N.C. (September 1, 2010) Preserve Pro, Inc will host Digital Preservation For Your Family seminar, a half-day experience teaching families, community organizations, and religious organizations the latest techniques in preserving digital artifacts. Participants will learn about the latest practices for preserving digital photos, computer files and audiovisuals, and how to use modern technology to protect invaluable memories. ...

Millennia, the producer of Legacy Family Tree software for Windows, is offering the company's first live webinar on Wednesday, September 15, 2010 at 2:00PM EDT. The webinar, Mapping Software for Genealogists will cover essential software tools: AniMap (U.S. & Canada), Centennia (Europe & Middle East), and Map My Family Tree (entire world), and maybe even a Legacy Family Tree tip or two. In this 30 minute webinar Geoff Rasmussen will cover the following topics: AniMap software (U.S. & Canada): learn how to find the correct county for the time period, and ...

I've been watching and writing about the many e-reader products available these days. I believe these devices are revolutionizing publishing, including that of newspapers, magazines, books and many other kinds of published materials. Genealogy books are just one of the areas being affected. As these products become smaller, lighter, cheaper, and still easier than ever to read, the financial realities soon set in: publishing for e-readers is much cheaper than publishing on paper and the savings are often passed on to consumers. The picture above shows Sony's new Reader Daily Edition, ...

Sir Peter Gwynn-Jones, former Garter Principal King of Arms in the United Kingdom, was well known in the genealogy world. He passed away on August 21 at age 70. He retired only a few months ago, previously serving as Garter Principal King of Arms, the senior English officer of arms, from 1995 to 2010. He was in charge of the College of Arms, which issues new coats of arms and verifies existing heraldry. The office of Garter King of Arms, of which Gwynn-Jones was the 36th holder, was created by Henry V in 1417, initially concerned with the ceremonies of the Order of the Garter. While ...

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.ca: Free content includes millions of records from countries worldwide in nearly 300 collections   TORONTO, ON (September 2, 2010) Ancestry.ca, Canada’s leading family history website, will open its complete database of international immigration records for free from the 2nd to the 6th of September 2010.   Ancestry’s international immigration collection covers more than 193 million records in 273 collections from around the world.   Included are the Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935, which covers a period of 70 ...

The next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, the world’s most definitive work on the language, will never be printed because of the impact of the Internet on book sales. Sales have fallen due to the increasing popularity of online alternatives, according to its publisher. The dictionary’s owner, Oxford University Press (OUP), said the impact of the internet means OED3 will probably appear only in electronic form. However, OUP said it would continue to print the more familiar Oxford Dictionary of English, the single-volume version sold in bookshops. You can read the ...

The Mormon church has changed its genealogical database to better prevent the names of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps from being submitted for posthumous baptism by proxy. In a joint statement issued earlier today, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors said a new computer system and policy changes related to the practice should resolve a years-long disagreement over the baptisms. Under new church policies, church members will be required to certify names submitted to the database for baptism. Further safeguards include ...

The following announcement was written by Ann S Eldredge: In January 2010, a small band of genealogy seekers embarked on a project to make anyone who has roots in the Pittsburgh area jump for joy.  43 volunteers have been indexing marriages, deaths, and divorces from early Allegheny County newspapers and putting it all online at no cost.  Over 52,000 death entries and over 11,000 marriages have been indexed and put online through August.  The dates of the newspapers range from 1806-1987. Project co-ordinator Ann S Eldredge says the idea of an index came to her as she ...

The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com: More than 1,700 first-hand audio recordings now available for free online PROVO, Utah, Sept. 1 -- Ancestry.com announced today it has launched a collection of more than 1,700 recorded oral histories from immigrants who arrived in the United States through Ellis Island. This is the first time this collection of poignant recordings has been available online. To celebrate the new addition, Ancestry.com is making its entire U.S. Immigration Collection free through Labor Day. "As immigrants created new lives in the U.S., the stories of ...

The Upcoming Events section of this newsletter is published as a newsletter article once per month, usually in the first week of the month. You can also view the latest list of events at any time by clicking on "Upcoming Events" in the Navigation menu near the upper right corner of the page at http://www.eogn.com.

Each event is listed with the name, location and dates. Click on the name to see the details, including a link to the event's web page or to an e-mail address of someone who will provide still more information. The EOGN list of Upcoming Events is also available as an ...

The following announcement was written by the Ontario Genealogical Society: The Board of the Ontario Genealogical Society is pleased to announce the appointment of Elizabeth Lapointe as editor of the Society’s journal Families.  A graduate of Acadia University, Elizabeth is an author, journalist, and blogger.  She has been editor of the OGS newsletter NewsLeaf since 2006 and is the founding editor of its electronic sister publication e-NewsLeaf.  She is a Past President of the Ottawa Chapter of the Professional Writers Association of ...

The following refers to an article published in this newsletter last week entitled, Hitler was Related to Jewish and Black Families. The article referred to a report by Brussels news magazine Knack that claimed DNA obtained from the Nazi leader’s relatives living in America led to the discovery. The report claimed that the Hitlers possessed Haplopgroup E1b1b (Y-DNA) which is rare in Germany and indeed western Europe. However, it is commonly found in the Berbers of Morocco, in Algeria, Libya and Tunisia as well as among Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. The report ...

The following announcement was written by the National Genealogical Society:

The National Genealogical Society (NGS) announces the appointment of Patricia Walls Stamm, CG, CGL, of St. Louis, Missouri, as Education Manager. In her new position, Stamm will oversee the development of online education courses and will be responsible for keeping the current education courses updated as related to content and technology.

Stamm has an extensive background as an instructor at the St. Louis Community College, the St. Louis Genealogical Society, and the Institute of Genealogy and ...

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. I have written several times about the method of creating and preserving digital images. I have also written about scanning old photographs as well as scanning various printed or hand-written documents. Today I thought I would discuss the various file formats available and briefly describe the advantages and disadvantages of several of the more popular formats. Today's technology allows for a selection of image file formats, including JPG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PSD, RAW, PNG, EPS, PDF, and others in a ...