Portability Of AniMap

Playing around with AniMap http://www.goldbug.com/AniMap.html I have discovered I can run it off my USB stick. Now I don’t have to be limited to just my computer, I can run it when I’m away from home.

I have not upgraded to their newest version 2.6, I am still running 2.51. But the only thing I have to do is copy the AniMap folder onto the root directory of my USB stick & make sure the assigned drive for the stick is between C-F. I have only had problems on 1 computer, but I’m sure the problem was the hard drive had been partitioned. So between the partitions & 2 CD drives, that put my stick higher than F.

More on AniMap:
http://quartzsitegen.blogspot.com/2006/05/county-boundaries.html

Bouse Genies Upcoming Speakers

January 18th meeting:
Barbara Nehruing will be here for the January 18th meeting, speaking about "Generalities of reaching in Europe and touch on a few oddities in each of the countries"

She will cover some specific things she has found in each of the European country.

February 15th meeting:
Bonnie McDaniel will be here for the February 15th meeting. She will be talking about how to use land records in genealogy

February 29 meeting:
Dennis Chapman will be talking about fixing damaged pictures using GIMP graphics program http://www.gimp.org/

Location:
All meetings will be held in the building beside the Bouse Public Library 10:00 AM to Noon (44031 Plomosa Rd, Bouse, AZ). More info here http://bousegenies.weebly.com

ICON: International Coalition on Newspapers

Here is a site with links to digital online newspapers from around the world, many of which are free http://icon.crl.edu/digitization.htm . The pay sites are clearly marked with a dollar symbol in a circle.

I have used Colorado Historical Newspapers & Utah Digital Newspapers for a few years and found some real gems. One hint is 1st search by name & time period, but if that doesn’t work I have had good luck is searching by date only. Say you have death date, search in that paper just after the event then look in the next 3 papers. Smaller papers will have sections for local news for different towns & if it is a real small paper death & marriage will be front page news.

Land Research

Rede had done several videos on Land Research using very useful websites. I covered 2 of the sites April of 2006 http://quartzsitegen.blogspot.com/2006/04/using-blm-land-patent-search.html

Searching Land Patents Part 1
http://blip.tv/file/506725
Using the BLM website http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/ to find homestead land patents.

Searching Land Patents Part 2
http://blip.tv/file/506735
Using TSR-data website http://www.esg.montana.edu/gl/trs-data.html to find land patents on a map.

Searching Land Patents Part 3
http://blip.tv/file/506740
Plotting land descriptions on a map.

See http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/Visitors/PLSS.asp for more info on plotting land descriptions.

Plotting Land On Quad Maps
http://blip.tv/file/527860
Plotting land on free quadrant maps from http://libremap.org/

I was VERY impressed with the quality of the maps on Libre Map Project http://libremap.org/ , but the TIF files were a bit large (I averaged about 10 megs). I would recommend converting them into PDF so you can just print out what you need.

Basically to use the Libre Map Project, Click “Data” > Click the state you want > Then use the “Search” or Click “View the entire list of USGS Oklahoma Digital Raster Graphic Maps” > Then look in the “Cell Name” or “Longitude & Latitude” for the map you want.

Finding Towns In Your Genealogy

The U.S. Board on Geographic Names http://geonames.usgs.gov is wonderful site to find towns in your genealogy & also figure which maps you may need. The nice thing it will link you over to Google Map, TerraServer, MapQuest if you need county bounders, and others.

To use it for US places, click domestic > click Search GNIS > then enter your location > click on your location > then you can view the location on many online mapping services.

Rede Video:
http://blip.tv/file/485490

Genealogy Training Course

Genealogy Training Course
With Carol Brown

9:30 am - 11:30 Thursday’s (Except as noted)
December 6, 2007 - February 14, 2008
In the building beside the Bouse Public Library
44031 E. Plomosa Rd, Bouse, AZ 85325 phone 928-851-1023
Sign up - contact nrcmackey@yahoo.com
Everyone Welcome

Suggested donation is $5.00 per class per person
Each week Carol teaches a different aspect of genealogical research followed by an open discussion session. All classes are approximately 2 hours in length. You do not have to attend every session. You can choose the topics you wish to attend.

• December 6 - Class 1 - Beginning Genealogy, Record Organization and Source Citation
• December 14 (Friday at 1:00) - Class 2 - Computers and Genealogy on the Internet
• December 20 - Class 3 - Census and Social Security Records
• January 3 - Class 4 - Researching in Libraries and Court Houses
• January 10 - Class 5 - Immigration and Migration Patterns
• January 17 - Class 6 - Genealogical Societies and Magazines
• January 24 - Class 7 - Over Coming Dead Ends
• January 31 - Class 8 - Preponderance of Evidence
• February 7 - Class 9 - Researching in Military Records
• February 14 - Class 10 - Sharing Your Family History

Communication

I can’t stress the importance getting out on there and contacting other researcher, via message boards, people that have posted their genealogy to the Internet, etc… But to avoid spammer you may want to get another email address because the spam bots are out there reading email address that have been posted to the web.

There are many free places out there to get emails but it can be rather tiring always checking them just to find nothing. The way I handle this is using the instant messaging programs that are also offered with them. Myself I use a free program called Pidgin http://pidgin.im/ , it capable of connecting with AIM, MSN, Yahoo!, XMPP, ICQ, IRC, SILC, SIP/SIMPLE, Novell GroupWise, Lotus Sametime, Bonjour, Zephyr, MySpaceIM, Gadu-Gadu, and QQ all at once. It will notify me when an email comes in & will give me the sender’s name & subject of the message. The disadvantage to this program is no voice or video chatting. But what I like the best is it doesn’t change or add things to my browser, you can choose to have it load at boot up or manually load it, and I can several identities on one mail server.

Now you may want to scan and organize your pictures and documents because they are great things to trade with, and people will go more out of their way getting you information if you give them something they don’t have.

When first starting out Surname message boards are good, but I have more success with county & religious message boards. County histories & Church records are wonderful in your research.

A good thing to remember what goes around comes around. So find out what local resources are available to you and volunteer to help other via message boards and lookup services like www.raogk.org and www.usgenweb.org county sites.

Making A PDF Document

People ask, why would you make a PDF file when all you can do is print or view this document? The main reason is different computers and even different word processor programs will not open a document the same. So when layout is important, like when a document with an index or newsletters or limit how people can use your document you will want to do it as a PDF file.

One I use a lot is PrimoPDF http://www.primopdf.com/ , it work like a printer driver so if you can print it, you can make a PDF file and best of all it’s free. I see the last version the horizontal printing problem has been fixed. To a horizontal print click “custom” when PrimoPDF’s screen comes up.

There are many different free PDF creators out there so look around & see what you like. They all work about the same, you click File > Print > select the PDF creator > click OK > tell it where to save the file > click OK. The only differences are how you change the settings.

Rede’s demo with PrimoPDF:
http://blip.tv/file/476452

Converting PDF into RTF

PDF is a very popular way exchanging documents because the layout stays the same no matter what computer you are on, BUT there is no way to edit them or put them in your notes in your genealogy program. There are two ways I do it. Copy/Paste from Acrobat Reader or OCR it.

With Copy/Paste you need to paste it into word processor using the text selection tool. But you have to find the beginnings of your paragraphs & take out the end of lines within that paragraph. I will “Justify” all the text and do an indent, that way I can see my paragraphs.

The other is OCR but rather than print, scan, and convert to text, you just use the snapshot tool in Acrobat to copy and paste it into your OCR program. I found a free program that does an ok job of this called TopOCR http://www.topocr.com/ . It doesn’t work well with bold, italics, or pictures, but for free it does speed things up. I just found out if you change your setting to scanner mode "Settings->Image-> Source->Scanner" it will do a better job even with this copy/paste method in TopOCR.

Rede’s method:
Share Convert a PDF into a RTF Part 1 (Copy/Paste)
http://blip.tv/file/449914

Share Convert a PDF into a RTF Part 2 (OCR)
http://blip.tv/file/449936

Interlibrary Loan

If you are luck enough to find someone that has listed a book as a source in their genealogy, a good way of getting that book is through the interlibrary loan at your local library. A good place to start is WorldCat http://www.worldcat.org/ to see if it is available. Your local library has their own network they work with. So if it shows up on WorldCat doesn’t mean they can get it but if your search pulls up a close library it increases your chances.

I like the advance search, but on the homepage your can enter a title, subject or person in the main search. When you find the book you want it will list whether it is a book, microfilm, computer file, etc… Click on the book you want, and where it list the libraries type in your zip code and click go. This will sort the libraries by how close they are to you. Take down the information like title, author and anything else you think your library will need & ask you librarian about it.

Two things to remember, not all libraries are in WorldCat and just because it is in WorldCat doesn’t mean your library can get it. This is just a way to increase your chances to find it.

Note: I have had family actually get microfilm from state historical societies via interlibrary loan, so that is another good source.

Using Notepad For Your Genealogy

Click for video

Using Notepad to transcribe images & copy text for your genealogy. Read my way of doing it click here.

Making Multi Page PDF Images With IrfanView

One nice thing about Multi Page PDF files are for things like Wills and other documents that take several pages, you can make a single file out of them for archiving & emailing.

I have talked about making multi page documents with IrfanView back in April of 2007. With the new update they fixed the compression problems I was getting with making multi page PDF documents with IrfanView. You can now choose how much compression you want to put into the images, thus making smaller files.

You will need to download & install the program & plugins from http://www.irfanview.net/ . It is DonationWare which means anything you want to donate is appreciated.

I think you can actually scan with IrfanView and save as a multi page PDF. But for this article I will just take a few pictures & combine them.

Steps for make a multi page TIF that some people prefer for archiving:

• Open IrfanView.
• Click “View”> put mouse over “Multiple Page Images”> and click “Create Multiple Page TIF”.
• Click “Add Images” find the images you want> sort if needed> click “Compression” choose what you want> click “Browse” to put it where you want it on your computer> give it a “name”> click “Create TIF Image” and your done.

Steps for make a multi page PDF with IrfanView:

• Open your TIF file in IrfanView.
• Click “Save As”> choose "Save as type: PDF - Portable Document Format".
• In the PDF Settings Tab "layout" Page Format=Like Image. Page Rotation=none. Page Border=unchecked. Compression Tab=Activate Compression is checked & "True Color Images" and "Grayscale Images" are set to "JPG (medium quality)".
• Give it a name and click “Save”.

7 color images totaling 8 megs became a 76 meg TIF, on the medium compression setting I ended up with a single 1.64 meg multi page PDF file.

Ancestor Cards for Children

This was such a great idea I had to share. Please read the rest of the story it is just wonderful http://tinyurl.com/2vurh6

"Ancestor Cards for Children Recently I've been mulling over how to present the genealogy I've done on our family so that it would grab my 9 year old grandson's attention. My good friend Illya of Genealogy Today suggested I use a baseball or hockey card format with one ancestor per card.

I loved the idea and created cards 6 cm x 9 cm. Each card features one ancestor's picture or a picture representing that ancestor. The back of each card has ancestor stats - their relationship to my grandchildren, date and place of birth, date and place of death, spouse's name, parents' names and a tiny blurb about that person (hopefully something unique or of interest to an 9 year old!)"

More info: Olive Tree Genealogy Blog: Ancestor Cards for Children

Genealogy In Bouse

The Bouse Genies are meeting again, with a new website & classes.

Just to let you know The Bouse Genies have moved their website to http://bousegenies.weebly.com & meeting every other week in the building next to the Bouse Public Library 10:00 AM to Noon (44031 Plomosa Rd, Bouse, AZ) except October 5 which will be in the Bouse Community Center 1/2 block from the library. More info on the meeting here http://bousegenies.weebly.com/bouse-genies-meetings.html

Carol Brown will be having her genealogy classes at the same location. More information on the classes here http://bousegenies.weebly.com/genealogy-classes.html

Microfilm Camera Mount

Tired of bad copies on the microfilm copy machines or having to make several tries to get the machine set just right? The GSC Associates Microfilm Camera Mount could help. Any camera with a standard 1/4-20 mounting hole will fit on it, and with digital cameras you will be able view the image before you move on. Most cameras now a days have auto focus & exposure so all you need to do is turn off the flash. More information is here http://www.gscassociates.com/camera_mount.html

TIP: To get better pictures out of your camera use the timer or remote to take the picture. Even though it is on a tripod or mount, just pushing the button can still shake the camera.

News from Bouse

The FULL Ancestry.com is available at the Bouse Library. It is hard to believe that we at that little library figured out a way to get it when none of the bigger libraries on this side of the state got it. Maybe because we are little, those who yell the loudest and work the hardest can get what they want.

The Bouse library was given a lot of artists books. One of the members of our Desert Brushes group died this year and her entire library, which was quite large, was donated to the library. We also have wifi. We are set up for people to bring in their laptops and get online wirelessly.

When I get back to Bouse I will be working with the librarian to set the dates for both the genealogy classes and the computer classes. I will teach 10 classes in each group once through. I will probably start the first of the year to catch most of the winter visitors. Once things are set up I will send you the full schedule.

More info on the Bouse Genies here: http://quartzsite.gen.googlepages.com/bousegenies

Using Online Photo Galleries To Identify Pictures

I have been using Picasa http://picasa.google.com & Picasaweb http://picasaweb.google.com to identify old photos that were in my grandmother’s trunk, and it has been a great success.

Any online photo gallery will work here. All I did was upload my photos to a public gallery & email a link to the site to relatives. Then ask them to try to identify the pictures, also ask them to let any of their relatives know about what I’m doing.

The only problem with Picasaweb was there was no way to edit comments, just delete them.

Census Maps

I have run into times when researching someone’s birth I find out the state didn’t excite on that date. It turns out it was a territory or owned by Spain, Britain or Mexico. These maps would have really saved me some time http://www.us-census.org/states/map.htm

Photographing Headstones

This is a good project for you, a church, scouts, community or any group.

Things you may need:

• Camera, digital is best.
• Tripod for a sharper picture.
• Large sheets of paper and charcoal for weathered headstones.
• A brush & water for cleaning.
• Something to clear grass or weeds away from the face of the stones.
• A graphics editing program.

First visit the cemetery and find out which direction the stones are oriented. It is best to shoot the stone just as sunlight barely crosses the face and the inscription is still shaded. Might even be a good time to clean and clear anything that may of grown over the stone. There has been too many time I could of kicked myself for not sweeping off the stone or I have a weed going across the picture.

When the light is best have your camera on a tripod and use a timer or remote for best results. There is less of a chance of you shaking the camera when you take the shot. Most newer stones you won’t have to worry about light, but nothing is worse than getting home and you have an unusable picture. Zoom into the picture to make sure you have a good clear shot, and then move onto the next stone. After good light has past move to the stones that light isn’t an issue or the weathered stones. For the weathered stones use the paper & charcoal to make a rubbing of the inscription & photograph the headstone and rubbing.

http://www.sampubco.com/gpp/crop.htm is a good site for showing how to crop the picture to put it online, but first I like to make a good quality file for 4x6 digital prints. Picasa is my favorite http://picasa.google.com/ and it’s free and doesn’t effect your original. For prints I like original size with a quality 70, online 600 pixel width a quality of 40-50 or what ever the website requires.

Where to put the images would be the county website on www.usgenweb.org, www.findagrave.com, and if a state is available http://gpp.jlconsulting.com/. They all have limits on size of file or pixel size of the picture. This is why I recommend making a good quality 4x6 file, there are a lot of websites that have free space for your digital pictures. Make a public web album and people can download or order prints for themselves.

It is a wonderful feeling when someone thanks you for making a picture available.

Ancestry.com at the Bouse Library

Early this week the Bouse Library received an e-mail from Ancestry.com offering to sell the full Library subscription to them for $995. Almost 1/2 price. The offer expires on June 30, 2007 so they have to do it right away.

Since we had collected $674 between the winter Genealogy Classes, the money for shipping the books and the winter Computer Classes, the Friends of the Bouse Library Board offered to pay the difference and get the full library subscription this month. We will repay the Friends of the Bouse Library in the fall and winter to cover the difference of $321. Hopefully we will collect that via the genealogy classes, computer classes and donations next season.

The great thing about this is that more than 2 people can use it at a time. Also we are the only Public Library west of Phoenix that will have it available, which should (we hope) bring in more people. I would like to suggest they we see if we can get a donation box just for Ancestry.com placed in the Library to help cover the cost and maybe pay for it next year also.

As we had discussed earlier, access will only be available at the library. It will be open to anyone visiting the library, not just the Bouse Genies.

Also, this subscription price will set the cost we will have to pay in the future. We will not have to go back to the full $1700 price when we renew.

We will advertise the fact that it is available at the library and hopefully it will bring in more members or visitors.

Carol Brown

Note: The money has just been OK, will post later when it is up and running.