(+) Embedding EXIF Data in Photographs
Congratulations if you have scanned your old family photos and documents or invested in a digital camera to preserve today’s pictures for future family historians. Before resting on your laurels, take a moment to recall all the old photos you’ve come across that you wish had labels describing the people, places, or events pictured. Your digital images have a built-in capability to create such labels – descriptions that won’t get separated from their subjects – with ease that would amaze our forebears. With today’s image files, what you see is only part of what you get! Let’s take a look...

Book Review: The Jews of Sing Sing
And you thought Jews didn't commit crimes. Think again. There were thousands. - Quote from the book "The Jews of Sing Sing by Ron Arons. Ron Arons has written a book that will interest not only some genealogists, but also historians, social scientists, criminal justice students and professionals, and anyone else interested in the seamier side of life of the first half of the twentieth century. The full title of the book is The Jews of Sing Sing : Gotham Gangsters and Gonuvim. From this book, I learned that “gonuvim” is a Yiddish word for “thieves.” The book is a...

Video Interview of Ron Arons, Author of "The Jews of Sing Sing"
I recently had a chance to talk with Ron Arons, the author of a new book entitled, "The Jews of Sing Sing." This turned out to be a fascinating interview for me as Ron described the research involved in writing this book.

Early Australian Archives Go Online
Hard-to-find documents detailing the history of Australia’s immigration are becoming more readily available since the National Archives in Canberra commenced digitising its massive collection. The National Archives maintains such a large number of government records that immigration documents alone fill 22 kilometres of shelf space. Senator John Faulkner launched the "Making Australia Home" project earlier this month -– a plan that will progressively make Australia’s immigration records available on the Internet.

Footnote.com Provides Free Access to FBI Case Files from Early 1900s
Footnote.com is providing FREE access to one of the most overlooked collections of genealogical-valuable records that the U.S. government possesses. The Bureau of Investigation records have never before been available online. In fact, many experienced genealogists have never heard of these records. Millions of residents were investigated by the government from 1908 to 1922 and extensive dossiers were written. The reports often included full name; place and date of birth; names of parents, spouses, children, and siblings; occupation; date of immigration (if applicable); political and religious affiliations; and more. If you haven't looked at the Bureau of Investigation case files,...

World's Oldest Bible Going Online
File this under "history." The British Museum has scanned and is placing online images of world's oldest Bible. The Codex Sinaiticus is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, written between 330–350 A.D. It was discovered in the 19th century. Very few people have seen this Bible due to its fragile condition. The British Museum keeps it under lock and key and and in the dark in a sealed container. It was removed from its storage case, carefully scanned and then replaced. The purpose of the scanning is to allow millions of people to view the important work without requiring any...

Personal Historians Conference
The following announcement was written by the Association of Personal Historians: Personal Historians Set to Convene in Salt Lake City Want some expert help in preparing a personal history? Looking to organize piles of family records, stories or photographs? Not sure how to video an interview? Ask for the assistance of a professional personal historian! Members of the Association of Personal Historians (APH) have the skills to capture the stories of a lifetime in print and/or video. To sharpen those skills, personal and family historians will convene this fall for the fourteenth annual international conference. Registration is now open, and...

Plastic Bins Can Help Save Precious Documents
Writing in the Tampa Bay Online web site and the Tampa Tribune newspaper, Sharon Tate Moody offers some sound advice about disaster planning for genealogists. She writes: I have a zillion paper files and notebooks full of old correspondence (from pre-e-mail days) and copies of so many deeds and wills that I'll be 90 before I find time to scan all of them.

Ancestry.ca Launches 1891 Canadian National Census Online
The following announcement was written by Ancestry.ca, part of The Generations Network: World first: 1891 Canadian national census launches online – Ancestry.ca 4.5 million names fully searchable in both English and French + original document images (Toronto, ON – 22nd of July 2008) Canadian family history website Ancestry.ca today launched online for the first time the 1891 Census of Canada, which contains 4.5 million searchable names and 90,000 images of original census pages. Included is information from all then-existing Canadian provinces and territories.

New Book: Vital Records of Stoughton, Mass., to 1850
David Lambert has written a new book: "Vital Records of Stoughton, Mass., to 1850." Actually, this is both an old and a new book. The earliest records of the town were published over 100 years ago and are included in the new book. The town hall suffered two fires before 1880, and a few vital records were lost. The missing records from 1834 to 1850 have been partially filled in with family records for births that the town clerk collected and from the state records starting in 1841. Those previously-unpublished records are also included in the new book.