The Genealogy Guys Podcast #210 - 2010 October 18

This week's news includes: Ancestry.com has announced that it will acquire iArchives and therefore acquire Footnote.com. Ancestry.com has added the 1852 California State Census to its U.S. collection. Ancestry.co.uk has added "England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1861-1941" to its collection. Genealogy Gems has announced that the second installment of the Google Earth for Genealogy video series has been released at www.GoogleForGenealogy.com. The Ontario (Canada) Genealogical Society has issued a call for papers for its 2012 Conference, to be held in Kingston, Ontario, on June 1-3, 2012. Email [email protected] for a copy of the Call for Papers document. Leland Meitzler has announced that Thomas MacEntee will join the 2010 Salt Lake Christmas Tour. More information is available at www.SaltLakeChristmasTour.com. The Federation of Genealogical Societies has announced that it is accepting applications for the position of Editor of its electronic quarterly magazine, the FGS FORUM. Interested parties may request a copy of the position description and submissions details by emailing [email protected]. Applications are being accepted through November 1, 2010. The Association of Professional Genealogists has announced that it is accepting applications for the position of Webmaster. Interested parties may request more information from Kathleen Hinckley, Executive Director, by emailing [email protected]. Applications are being accepted through November 1, 2010. Listener email includes: Marilyn advises us that TelGen Limited has released "Families," an app for the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad that works with Legacy Family Tree. It is available at www.telgen.co.uk/families for $14.95. Marina asks for advice about cleaning up her family history data file. Patty is seeking a place online where she can upload her family history file, documents, photos, and more. Karyl is looking for suggestions about handling situations like "Great Grandma was adopted" or "discoveries that two of the ten kids of Uncle Bud were actually his granddaughters but there are no clue as to who the mother(s) might have been." Tom asks whether, when faced with literally hundreds of names going back that far in a printed [family history] volume, does a family historian or genealogist actually obtain all the original documentation? Birth, marriage and death records? The Guys discuss a product from CodeWeavers called CrossOver Mac for Macintosh OS X ($39.95) that "allows you to install many popular Windows applications and games on your Intel Mac. Once installed, your application integrates seamlessly in OS X. Just click and run your application directly from the OS X Finder. Clicking a Windows file or document — including email attachments — will launch the appropriate Windows program, allowing you to work on the files. Best of all, you do it all easily and affordably, without needing a Microsoft operating system license." The Guys are now running RootsMagic on their Macs instead of using VMWare Fusion or Parallels software and without buying an expensive Windows operating system license. More listener email includes: Colleen asks about the annual Ancestry.com survey and their statement that they add "millions" of historical records each week. The Guys respond that, with nine national collections of data, they believe that the averages probably work out to millions of new and updated records each week. Mitch asks for suggestions for how to gain better access to a legible copy of the 1852 California Census. (See notes for Episode #209 and listen to the podcasts for more details.) JoEllen asks for more information about organizing and storing her vast collection of materials. George suggests two sources for archival safe storage materials: Light Impressions and Gaylord. (He drew a blank remembering Gaylord.) Eric has questions about military records for his grandfather who served before World War I in the infantry of the State of Florida. Jim shares two digital newspaper archive collections with everyone: the California Digital Newspaper Collection and Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Pat shares the results of a very successful on-site research trip. Drew discusses his blog, Rootsmithing at http://rootsmithing.com.