Virginia Tech Launches First of Civil War Newspapers Online

The American Civil War Newspapers website is now online, coinciding with the observance of the Civil War Sesquicentennial. The new web site has started with an index to one newspaper: the Macon, Georgia, Daily Telegraph for the period July 1860 to June 1865. 

The site is available free of charge. Users may search by keyword, or browse the pages either on their own or by predefined topics. Each page provides options for downloading and viewing printable digital images of the newspaper columns in which a search finds a hit, and also to browse the pages throughout an issue.

The ultimate goal of the American Civil War Newspapers database is to select a representative group of journals to index, with digital images of the newspapers themselves, for use by students and scholars. The newspapers selected will be a representative sampling of Union and Confederate, urban and small town, Eastern and Western, pro– and anti–administration.

The online American Civil War Newspapers may be found at https://dcr.emd.vt.edu/vital/access/manager/Index

Newport Beach, California Wants a New Library, But Without Books

This might be a bit controversial: the Newport Beach, California, Public Library is considering closing one of its four branches and outfitting a planned community center with everything that the closed library offered, except the books.

At a meeting about the Balboa Peninsula's Marina Park development, city officials unveiled plans to close the Balboa Branch Library -- which houses 35,000 items, including books, DVDs and other materials -- and to dedicate a portion of the Marina Park Community Center to an "electronic library."

By eliminating books and librarians at the building, they said, they hope to adapt to modern times and save money while providing residents with services they'll actually use.

Officials analyzed how its patrons use the branches and found that most come for a quiet place to study, to plug their laptops into work spaces and to use the Internet-connected library computers. Few of them actually remove books from the shelves.

If residents still want to borrow a real book from the library, they will be able to order it online from the other branches and pick it up at Marina Park. Instead of holding books behind a desk, the library would drop them off in individual lockers.

You can read the full story at http://www.dailypilot.com/news/education/tn-dpt-0325-library-20110324,0,4121813.story

Comparisons of Genealogy Software

Wikipedia has great, although abbreviated, comparisons of nearly all the current genealogy software. The list of software is impressive. I thought I knew about all the programs available today but must admit I have not previously heard of HuMo-gen.

The reports are split in two: one for client-based (Windows, Macintosh, UNIX, and Linux) programs and a separate report for web-based programs that are installed on a web server. All programs are listed by name, prices, and also have the most recent release dates. You might note that a few of these programs haven't been updated in years but most of them do have recent release dates. The oldest one listed is Personal Ancestral File, which has not been updated for nearly nine years.

Many features are compared, including Unicode support, pedigree views, chronology views, narrative reports, fan charts, research managers, mapping, and more.

The client-based comparisons include screen shots for many of the programs. All the programs listed have links that point to further sources of information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_genealogy_software

Help Wanted: Professional Genealogists in Salt Lake City

Want to work full time as a genealogist? ProGenealogists, a division of Ancestry.com, is looking for a Genealogist Case Manager and an Assistant Genealogist in Salt Lake City.  ProGenealogists provides high quality and cost effective research service to genealogists, law firms, corporations, media outlets, and the general public.  These are 40-hour-a-week positions and are NOT work-from-home opportunities.

The positions are described at http://tbe.taleo.net/NA5/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=ANCESTRY&cws=1&rid=140 and athttp://tbe.taleo.net/NA5/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=ANCESTRY&cws=1&rid=138 r

Apple iPad-2 All-New Design

The Apple iPad includes a completely new, thinner design, a faster dual-core A5 processor, and rear and front facing cameras for recording video, taking photos, and FaceTime video chat. At just 1.3 pounds, it is slightly lighter than the previous 1.5 pound iPad. It will carry the same starting price of $499 for the entry-level 16GB Wi-Fi-only model.

The device will begin shipping in just over a week, on Friday, March 11, 2011 in the U.S., while 26 more overseas countries will get the device on March 25, 2011.

You can view a video of the new iPad 2 at http://www.apple.com/ipad/#video

Family Search Computer Problems

I am very frustrated, and think someone might be in a position to help, at least understand the problem.

The Church [of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints] has digitized and indexed millions of records which is a wonderful thing.

What is not so wonderful is that these names are being bulk merged by computer to existing family lines and more often than not, fouling them up.  I am suddenly finding names attached to my family lines that are in a completely different geographical area than where my family lived, and with dates and other information that is clearly not theirs.

My concern is that information cannot and should not be merged by computer.  I have worked hard and carefully, paying attention to sources etc. and now to have my data corrupted by computer merges is very unsettling.

I wonder if those who okayed this merging are aware of the problems it is causing.

America's Top Ten Genealogical Repositories

   Library of Congress (LC), Local History and Genealogy Reading Room. This part of the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, includes 50,000 genealogies, 100,000 local histories, manuscripts, microfilms, maps, newspapers, photographs, and books. It is strong in North American, British Isles, and German sources. See the website at http://www.loc.gov/rr/genealogy/ and the FamilySearch Wiki article at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Library_of_Congress.

   National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). The NARA, located in Washington, DC, has census records, pre-WW1 military service and pensions, passenger lists, naturalizations, passports, federal bounty land, homesteads, bankruptcy, ethnic sources, and prison records. See the Wiki article at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/National_Archives_and_Records_Administr.... The NARA also has about a dozen regional centers. For locations, see http://www.archives.gov/locations/archival-research.html.

       Family History Library (FHL). The Family History Library in Salt Lake City has 450 computers, 3.1 million microforms, 4,500 periodicals, 310,000 books, and a collection of microfilmed records such as civil, church, immigration, ethnic, military, and Mormon records. See the Wiki article at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Family_History_Library. The library has over 4500 branches called family history centers located worldwide. Search for a center at http://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/FHC/frameset_fhc.asp

  Allen County Public Library (ACPL). The Allen County Public Library in Ft. Wayne, Indiana has a premier periodical collection, genealogies, local histories, databases, military, censuses, directories, passenger lists, ethnic collections, Canadian, British, and German collections. It is the home of the Periodical Source Index (PERSI). See the Wiki articles at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Allen_County_Public_Library and https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Periodical_Source_Index_(PERSI)

   New York Public Library (NYPL). The Genealogy Division of the library has an outstanding collection of American history, international genealogy and heraldry, the Dorot Jewish collection, photos, and New York censuses, directories, and vital records. See the Wiki article at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/New_York_Public_Library

  New England History Genealogical Society (NEHGS). The society, located in Boston but national in scope, includes a 100 million name database, vital records, genealogies, journals, over 200,000 books, 100,000 microfilms, and over 20 million manuscripts, with emphasis on New England and New York since the 1600s. See the Wiki article at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/New_England_Historic_Genealogical_Society.

       Mid-Continent Public Library, Midwest Genealogy Center. This library in Independence, Missouri, contains national censuses and indexes, 80,000 family histories, 100,000 local histories, 565,000 microfilms, 7,000 maps, and newspapers. See the Wiki article at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Mid-Continent_Public_Library_Midwest_Ge...

   Dallas Public Central Library. This library has 111,700 volumes, 64,500 microfilms, 89,000 microfiche, and over 700 maps. It includes state and county marriage, probate, deed, and tax abstracts in book form and microfilm of originals for some states, and online databases. See the Wiki article at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Dallas_Public_Central_Library

              Newberry Library. The Newberry Library, located in Chicago, has genealogies, local histories, censuses, military, land, indexes, vital records, court, and tax records mostly from the Mississippi Valley, eastern seaboard, Canada, and British Isles. See the website at http://www.newberry.org/genealogy/overview.html

          Sutro Library. This library, located in San Francisco, has 150,000 books, 65,000 microforms, 40,000 state, county, or town histories, 10,000 genealogies, rare books and manuscripts, indexes, guides, and databases on genealogy and California history. See the website at http://www.library.ca.gov/collections/#sutro