Google News Genealogy Style

In this video Rede shows you how to search Google News Archives & how to filter out the pay per view hits. Some of the papers are kind of spotty on the issues they have, but you can’t complain about the price ;-)

Maybe not as good as subscription sites, but on the other hand I have found information not on them.

Direct link to Advance Archive Search:
http://news.google.com/archivesearch/advanced_search?ned=us&hl=en

Just remember to change the “Price” to “No Price” for the free papers.

Download Video (let me know if you like the download link):
http://bit.ly/9imcXT

Rede has licensed this work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

Plotting Land With Google Earth

For me land records are fun & useful when researching your ancestors.

In this video Rede shows you how to use Google Earth, Earth Point, and FS Capture to find and plot land with Google Earth.

Links used in this video:

• Google Earth http://earth.google.com/
• Earth Point http://www.earthpoint.us/Townships.aspx
• Portable FS Capture http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=775

Reference links:

• Federal Land Patents http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/
• (Video) Searching Land Patents Part 1 http://genealogyscrounge.blip.tv/file/506725/
• (Video) Searching Land Patents Part 3 http://genealogyscrounge.blip.tv/file/506740/

Free Screen Capture Utility

In this video Rede shows you how to use a free portable screen capture utility & your “Prt Sc” key on your keyboard.

I have found this very useful if you need to print or save what is showing on your monitor. I have found some websites that don’t allow printing or saving, with this method I have been able to work around this. I have also used this method when I need screen shots for presentations.

The disadvantage is if you can’t read it on your monitor, you won’t be able to read it when you print or save the image.

Software can be downloaded from Portable Freeware:
http://www.portablefreeware.com/?id=775

Free Rede Videos

Rede has organized some of his videos into 2 CDs & they can be downloaded for free. They work like a website but can be run on your computer, your memory stick or burned to CDs. No internet required to play them, just an internet browser & flash 9 or higher, which is probably already installed on your computer. Just extract (unzip) the “ZIP” file, open “Index.html” and your on your way.

Free Internet Research
(free_genealogy_research.zip 522MB)
http://bit.ly/b8NJUC

• Get The Story: Examples on how to make a story from your sources.
• Online Family Trees: How to use other’s information.
• Online Book: How to use free online books
• Census: How to search HeritageQuest censuses, but the technique works on other sites.
• Newspapers: How to search free online newspapers.
• Land: How to find locations & land records, and plot them on a map.
• Internet Search: Tips on using search engines.
• Tips: Computer tips.
• Useful Links: Free links on the internet.

Repairing Old Photos With GIMP
(gimp_photo_repair.zip 362MB)
http://bit.ly/bnWaeJ

• Introduction: Introduction to GIMP
• Picture File Format: Pros & Cons of different picture formats.
• Scanning & Acquiring A Photo: Loading pictures into GIMP.
• Using The Selection, Curves & Levels Tools: Using different tools in GIMP.
• Wrinkle Repair: Repair wrinkles and other defects with GIMP.
• Fixing A Torn Picture: Fixing a picture torn in half.

Rede has licensed this work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/

So feel free to copy, share, remix just respect the license & keep it free.

Photographing Documents on Microfilm Readers

In this video Rede goes into the use of using a digital camera to photograph images from Microfilm & Microfiche Readers. The pros & cons of a digital camera with a tripod, camera mount, and holding the camera. He also goes into editing the digital images with Picasa & GIMP, free imaging software.

The advantages of these techniques are cost, time, and quality. Not as good as a real microfilm scanner, but scanners are not available everywhere.

Looks like the DCM-1 Microfilm Camera Mount that he shows in this video is still available: http://www.gscassociates.com/camera_mount.html

Software used in this video:
Picasa: http://picasa.google.com/
GIMP: http://www.gimp.org/

How to Transfer Negatives to Computer

Making Prints Of Old Photos

I cringe when I see people printing photos with their ink printer because after a few times of printing & rescanning the quality goes way down. But if this is what you want to do, look for a printer with the cheapest cartridges preferably each color has it’s own cartridge. The ink is the real cost of a printer. I prefer to take photos to a place that does digital photo processing.

I have looked at a few online services and comparing cost for the prints & shipping and I like WinkFlash. Technically I can’t drive somewhere to have it done for the same price to have it snail mailed to me. About once a month they send an email of their specials, so if you think this is spam you can unsubscribe.

WinkFlash Homepage:
http://www.winkflash.com/default.asp

Print cost:
http://www.winkflash.com/prints/

Shipping cost:
http://www.winkflash.com/content/shipping.asp

What is the optimal resolution for developing prints at winkflash?
http://www.winkflash.com/content/pro.asp#2

What type of paper is used to print my photos?
We use premium Fuji Crystal Archive paper and chemicals.
(The sun will still bleach the photo, but the paper doesn't seam to yellow)

When ordering prints it gives you a low quality warning & if cropping is necessary, but cropping is a bit limited. If you want to keep everything click "Print Option" & choose "Inset", this will shrink the picture to fit those dimensions.

GenealogyScrounge Has His Second Year Anniversary

Were has the time gone??? Rede and his genealogy channel turns two on October 20th 2009 and has authored over 50 videos. His 1st video went up on October 20, 2007 on http://genealogyscrounge.blip.tv/ , a couple of months later he started putting non genealogy videos on ShowMeDo http://showmedo.com/videos/?author=3583 , and finally started uploading to YouTube to reach the most people http://www.youtube.com/genealogyscrounge . He started out to teach & demo the tricks of free research, and along the way he was noticed by RootsTelevision, Dick Eastman, Genea-Musings, TraceYourRoots and others.

New Quartzsite Genealogy Project

I have started a new project, from different sources I am collecting names & events of people that lived here in Quartzsite and will be putting them online. If you would like to view, help transcribe or research click here

Finding Hard To Find Locations

Genealogy Videos In The Quartzsite Library

Rede put together a twin pack video CD series, Newspaper Research & Internet Book Search, for the Quarzsite Library that runs on your computer. This will be ideal for people on dialup Internet & can’t view his videos online.

Newspaper Research
Resent Newspapers:

• American Newspapers/NewsBank (may require a non resident library card)
• Local Newspapers Websites
• Legacy.com for obituaries 30 days old or less

Older Newspapers

• ICON: Many free & pay websites, they are clearly marked.
• Utah Digital Newspapers
• Olive Software Newspapers
• Newspaper Archive

Internet Book Search

• Google Books
• Google Scholar
• Heritage Quest (may require a non resident library card)
• Internet Archives
• Family History Archives

Should you wish any other topics, please leave a comment.

Family History Archives

Keeping Up With Data Rot

Watch CBS Videos Online

Special Speaker In Bouse AZ.

Special Speaker - Barbara Nuehring
Timelines: Understanding Your Ancestors World
Public Welcome - Free

Bouse Genies meeting for March 27, 2009 -10:00 AM
44031 Plomosa Rd, Bouse, AZ
La Paz Bouse Community Building (the building next to the Bouse Public Library)

Google Scholar

Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com is a very good site for doing your research. More & better sources for the people you are looking for, without all the hits that won't do you any good.

Rede says "This was a very tough video to make because I just kept getting too much good information and suddenly I was in research mode" ;-)

Rede on RootsTelevision.com: Round 2

Another one of Rede’s videos has made it to RootsTelevision. This video is Site Search Genealogy Style http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_howto.php?bctid=9119681001

Rede on RootsTelevision.com

One of Rede’s videos has made it to RootsTelevision. This video is Google Picasa Web Albums Genealogy Style http://www.rootstelevision.com/players/player_preserving-the-past.php?bctid=5986762001

Palo Verde Valley Genealogy Society Meeting

The society's first meeting of 2009 will be held on Monday, January 12, at 7:00 p.m. (California time), PVC Spring St. campus at 145 N. Spring St. in Blythe CA. The program will be given by Susie Forrest and myself. It's entitled, "I got a computer for Christmas. Now what?"

They will be giving an overview of this very large topic, but they would like everyone that uses a computer to consider sharing their favorite web site, tip, or program. Please send ideas to them by email. Just a note will suffice. They will put together some handouts for the meeting.

Members, please remember to bring your 2009 dues of $12.00. Don't forget to tell your friends that attendance is free and guests are always welcome.

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~capvvgs/Site/index.html

Bouse Genies 2009 Meeting Schedule

We will be meeting every Friday during January, February and March 2009 as follows:

• January 2 - 10 AM to 12 - AniMap Training CD
• January 9 - 10 AM to 12 - Legacy Training CD #2
• January 16 - 7 PM to 9 - Census Records
• January 23 - 10 AM to 12 - Legacy Training CD #3
• January 30 - 10 AM to 12 - Open Meeting
• February 6 - 10 AM to 12 - Legacy Training CD #4
• February 13 - 7 PM to 9 - Military Records
• February 20 - 10 AM to 12 - Legacy Training CD #5
• February 27 - 10 AM to 12 - Open Meeting
• March 6 - 10 AM to 12 - Legacy Training CD #6
• March 13 - 10 AM to 12 - Open Meeting
• March 20 - 10 AM to 12 - Legacy Training CD #7
• March 27 - 10 AM to 12 - Barbara Nuehring speaker

Meetings in the building to the East of the Bouse Public Library (44031 Plomosa Rd, Bouse, AZ).

Photographing Oversized Pictures

Occasionally it is impossible or impractical to use your scanner on old photos and documents. A camera & tripod or copy stand is a good alternative.

These two websites may help:
How to build a (Cheap) copy stand.
http://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?ARCHIVE=true&TOPIC_ID=19857

Getting Started: Copy Stand Shooting (uses a tripod & music stand and also teaches good technique)
http://www.videomaker.com/article/6807/

One problem when using a camera on old photos and documents is you can get a barrel effect & it is hard to get a perfect angle. In GIMP http://gimp.org/ (a free open source program) has a filter called “Lens Distortion” in Filters>Distortion where you can manually correct it (use the “Main” slider bar in the “Lens Distortion”). Then you can take care of any angle problems with the “Perceptive button” or Tools>Transform Tools>Perceptive. I just click & drag the ruler guides from the ruler across the 4 sides, then I use the “Perceptive Tool” to click & drag the corners of the frame or edges of the picture to the corners of the guide.

In Episode 038 of Meet The GIMP http://meetthegimp.org/episode-038-a-phython-in-a-barrel/ Rolf Steinort has written a plugin for GIMP that makes taking care of the Barrel Effect created by your camera easy. Some of my pictures it over corrected but it got me in the ballpark, others it did a wonderful job. I recommend watching his video & downloading the “Python source code” and adding it to your GIMP plugins. For Windows users unzip the file & paste the 3 files into “C drive>Documents and Settings>[[User name]]>.gimp-2.6>plug-ins” it will then appear as “Barrel distortion removal CA65” in “Filters>Distort”.

Rede made a video specifically dealing with the Barrel Effect & Perceptive Tool and how it applies with old photos & documents: http://blip.tv/file/1554370