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It is the first day of the month. It's time to back up your genealogy files. Then test your backups! Actually, you can make backups at any time. However, it is easier and safer if you have a specific schedule. The first day of the month is easy to remember, so I would suggest you back up your genealogy files at least on the first of every month, if not more often. Of course, you might want to back up more than your genealogy files. Family photographs, your checkbook register, all sorts of word processing documents, email messages, and much... Dick Eastman

Take a look at the calendar. Yes, the annual conference of the U.S. National Genealogical Society will be held in Las Vegas next week. The dates are May 8 through 11. Holding a conference in Las Vegas is always a good idea. First of all, it is obviously one of the major entertainment cities in the U.S. There is something for most everyone in Las Vegas. Of course, there are the casinos for those who like to throw their money away. The rest of us can find multiple first class shows going on almost every night. The shopping has to... Dick Eastman

Had I written this article yesterday, I would have announced that I would be unable to host a dinner on Saturday evening after the NGS conference in Las Vegas. However, the seas parted today and it now looks like there will be such a dinner. If you have never attended one of these dinners held after the close of a major genealogy conference, you can read about past dinners by starting at http://goo.gl/ryhEH. For the first time ever, I went to a convention city several weeks in advance to make dinner arrangements for a group. However, that didn't work too... Dick Eastman

Most every American is familiar with the story of the Pilgrims traveling to the New World on a ship called the Mayflower. The ship, with 102 passengers and the crew on board, sailed from Plymouth, England, on September 16, 1620. The origin of the Mayflower has often been in question. Some historians believe the boat was built in Plymouth, England and carried a crew from that city. Proof has always been scarce, however. Now a rival claim to the Mayflower by the port town of Harwich states that the ship's crew were from Essex and only set foot briefly in... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by the Digital Public Library of America : April 30, 2013 Cambridge, MA — The Digital Public Library of America is pleased to announce it is partnering with the David Rumsey Map Collection to provide online access to tens of thousands of significant historical maps and images. As part of the relationship, David Rumsey will provide metadata for over 38,000 maps and images, making the entirety of his notable online collection instantly accessible via the DPLA website and API­. A couple prominent examples of items from the Rumsey collections available through the DPLA are The... Dick Eastman

It seems like only yesterday and yet the world has changed in so many ways that we cannot even list all the changes. 20 years ago today, CERN made the technology behind the World Wide Web royalty free and accessible to all. This was because of the invention created by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. This one man has changed the world. In celebration, the first website ever has been brought back online, at its original location: http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/TheProject.html. The all-text first Web page ever created certainly looks primitive compared to what we now see every day on the Web! If you could... Dick Eastman

For as long as there has been an Alachua County, the Clerk of Court has kept its history in the ancient records archive. And for the past 14 years, Jim Powell, also known as “The Wizard of AR (ancient records),” has been the keeper of the lore. A recent article in the Gainesville (Florida) Sun describes the great work done by Jim Powell. In 1998, Powell visited the ancient records storage area in Alachua County where he stumbled across an old records book from the 1840s while researching his family tree. Finding it difficult to read the handwriting and decaying... Dick Eastman

Almost every time I write an article about some Windows program that can be downloaded and installed on your computer, I will receive at least one email message or other report from someone saying something like, "I downloaded it but my anti-virus program says it has a virus." I also often receive similar reports from someone saying that their virus program has reported a problem with a certain web site. My response usually is, "Well, maybe..." In many cases, the claim of a virus is a so-called "false positive." That is, the anti-virus program reported a virus that isn't really... Dick Eastman

The following announcement was written by the (U.S.) National Genealogical Society: Arlington, VA, 29 April 2013: The National Genealogical Society announces the release of the newest edition in its Research in the States series: Research in New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County. This publication was written by native New Yorker and nationally recognized genealogist Laura Murphy DeGrazia, cg, fgbs. Laura is a trustee and former president of BCG and co-editor of the NYG&B Record. Barbara Vines Little, cg, fngs, fvgs, is a former NGS president and is the current editor of the NGS Research in the States series... Dick Eastman

The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman. Last week I described the easiest method to start a new blog (web log): sign up for a service that hosts blogs on their own servers. Indeed, that process is usually simple and inexpensive. However, for business reasons or for personal preferences, many people will want their blogs hosted on their own servers so that the URL displayed in the top of the web browser shows a desired domain name, not that of a blog hosting service. Another reason for installing blog software is because you... Dick Eastman

DNA is great for proving ancestry. In fact, it is probably the most reliable proof available today. However, DNA tests occasionally produce surprises. Just ask the man known as Paul Fronczak. Newly-born Paul Fronczak was abducted by a woman posing as a nurse in 1964. The abduction occurred in a maternity ward at Chicago’s Michael Reese Hospital where he was born. The police launched a nationwide manhunt; FBI Agents examined 10,000 babies and interviewed 30,000 witnesses. More than a year later, a 1 year-old boy was found abandoned outside a store in Newark, New Jersey. Child welfare officers placed him... Dick Eastman

On Monday, April 22nd, a Century Chest buried in 1913 was opened at at the First Lutheran Church of Oklahoma City. Those who buried the chest asked that it not be opened until April 22, 2013. One item will interest genealogists: many people were able to put packages inside to be opened by their descendants in 2013. More info can be found on the Oklahoma Historical Society's web site at http://www.okhistory.org/centurychest/. The web site also includes a lengthy video of this week's opening. My thanks to newsletter reader Vicki Prough for telling me about the event. Dick Eastman

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GENDEX was a genealogy search engine that indexed thousands of online databases of genealogical information. Sadly, the site went offline years ago. (See my earlier article at http://goo.gl/0AMSl.) However, there is good news: GENDEX is being re-launched by a new owner and the sightly different name of GenDexNetwork. The following was written by GenDexNetwork: GenDex Network is a completely free genealogical index (GenDex) which indexes family trees on the internet. The first GenDex was operated by Gene W. Stark from 1994 until 2004. It was begun when computer indexing for genealogical information was in its infancy. Since its inception on... Dick Eastman

The following was written by the U.S. offices of FindMyPast: We’ve just added Massachusetts vital records to 1850 on findmypast.com! Since its settlement in 1620, many areas of Massachusetts have carefully recorded births, marriages, and deaths in their respective towns. This collection, compiled by the New England Historic Genealogical Society, offers more than 2 million records of births, deaths, and marriages from the 1600s to 1850. Originally printed in books for each town, these events were compiled from primary source records, cemetery inscriptions, church records, and other private records over the course of many years. Images from the collection offer... Dick Eastman

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The following announcement was written by the Association of Professional Genealogists: The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG®) has appointed Christy Fillerup of Salt Lake City, Utah, as managing editor of its quarterly publication, Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly (APGQ). APGQ has served the genealogy community since 1979 with staff-written and contributed articles covering all aspects of the profession. Christy Fillerup serves as director of the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. She is a member of the board of directors for the Utah Genealogical Association, and is a past editor of its Crossroads magazine. In 2007 she founded the Transitional Genealogists... Dick Eastman

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Handheld computing power keeps getting cheaper and cheaper. Now Hewlett-Packard has introduced what may be the cheapest full-featured handheld device on the market: the HP Slate 7 Tablet. It will sell for $169.99. That is the manufacturer's suggested retail price, not a closeout special and not a discount. Best of all, it runs the Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) operating system. It should be capable of running all of today's Android programs, including genealogy programs. (Click on the picture to see a larger image.) The Slate 7 Tablet will play videos for 5 hours and should last even longer when running... Dick Eastman

The following review was written by Bobbi King: The Quack’s Daughter by Greta Nettleton Published by the author at www.gretanettleton.com. 2012. 328 pages. Nonfiction is the homely kid sister to fiction’s senior prom queen. Regarded as intelligent but dreary, nonfiction books have had an uphill road to notice and acclaim over the more audacious and best selling fictional genres. And then there’s self-publishing. Vanity books, as they were called in the old days, were ordered in quantity by the author, at great expense, the books hopefully sold at the family reunion, and finally may have ended up being stored in... Dick Eastman