200704 April NEOCAG Quarterly

The NorthEast Ohio Computer-Aided Genealogy Society

QUARTERLY

A Summary of Events and Topics of Interest to Online Genealogists

Vol. 12 No. 2--April 1, 2007

compiled by Luther Olson

NorthEast Ohio Computer-Aided Genealogy [NEOCAG] serves Eastern Cuyahoga,

Lake, Geauga, Ashtabula, Portage & Summit Counties.

Regular meetings 2nd Saturday of each month

St. Bartholomew Episcopal Church

435 S.O.M. Road, Mayfield Village, OH.

Jerry Kliot--President

CONTENTS

> News and Views

> Keeping A 2nd PC As A Fallback Option

> What’s The “Best” Backup?

> Everton’s Genealogical Helper To Be Available Online as WorldVitalRecords.com

> Process Changes for WorldConnect Databases

> Excellent Answers Can Be Received On Rootsweb—The Bulletin Board Still Lives

> Red Flags Raised About Concerns Over Vista's Legal Terms And Conditions

> $2 Million Sloan Foundation Grant To Help Digitize Thousands of Books at Library of Congress

> A New Computer Revolution is Rising Around Us

> News and Views

I want to especially thank the members of the NEOCAG council who have been taking on many of the tasks required to keep our organization running smoothly. Cynthia Turk, our immediate past President, has been especially helpful in her efforts to keep me on track, focused on my duties, and in taking over the microphone at our meetings when I am at a loss for words. (Those of you that know me will agree that is a rare occurrence.)

In addition, I’m pleased to have the opportunity to add my comments to this edition of the QUARTERLY.

I would like to let everyone know that NEOCAG has purchased a new display projector for use in beaming our programs onto the large screen in the meeting hall. I got a chance to see it in action at the March meeting and it is much brighter and has better resolution than the projectors we have been using.

On a more personal note, I have retired from my position at the Cleveland Clinic as of January 31, 2007 and I was sure that after that date I would find myself much better able to handle the responsibilities of President of NEOCAG. However, I was presented with an opportunity to continue doing the kind of work that I have been doing for many years, but this time through a consulting firm. I accepted a permanent employment with First Consulting Group and have been placed into a full time administrative position with a different healthcare organization. Thus, I have even less time for non-work activities than I had before.

Don’t misunderstand--I have no intention of giving up my elected role as President of NEOCAG. In fact, I hope to better manage my time and allow myself to properly prepare for both the monthly NEOCAG council meetings and the monthly general meetings.

During my tenure I really want to focus on all of the genealogical happenings in the Greater Cleveland area. There are so many events coming up in the months ahead that I can’t possibly list them all. One of my main goals is to promote a greater synergy between the genealogical societies, ethnic heritage societies, and Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation member garden societies. To that end, I have been attending monthly meetings of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation. At the meeting this month, I had the honor to meet retired 8th District Court of Appeals Judge Diane Karpinski, who told me about the upcoming Polish Constitution Day Celebration.

There will be an Ethnic Symposium on Saturday, April 28, 2007 at the Alliance of Poles Hall, 6968 Broadway Avenue. Presenters will include Dr. John Grabowski—Polish Emigration to Cleveland; Judge Raymond Pianka—Genealogy and DNA Testing; and Mr. Clyde Simpson—Copernicus Crater. More information is available from the Polish American Congress, Ohio Division at 216.883.3131.

The East Cuyahoga County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society is presenting a special program on Saturday, May 5, 2007. The day will include four separate programs by Jana Sloan Broglin, CG. For more information, contact Stacie Murry at 216-851-7768.

On June 6, 2007 NEOCAG will be co-sponsoring an appearance by Stephen P. Morse. Mr. Morse is the creator of the 1 Step Webpages. This web site at http://stevemorse.org/ delivers on the promise to make searching for our relatives online much easier and more fruitful than it would otherwise be. Information on this program can be obtained by going to http://clevelandjgs.org/calendar.htm and looking for the June 6, 2007 entry.

The annual Ohio Genealogical Society conference is in Columbus, Ohio from April 12 – 14, 2007. Information on this wonderful program can be had at http://www.ogs.org/2007conf.php.

The Ohio District Roundtable calendar at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ohcdrt/ will identify many other exciting and worthwhile programs that you should consider.

If you belong to an ethnic heritage society and would like to expose its members to genealogy or to the workings of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation, please tell them about my interest in bring our groups together in meaningful ways. One way will be to come to your ethnic community’s cultural garden along MLK Jr. Drive on May 20, 2007. This is the day of the Rite Aid Cleveland Marathon. The runners will be coming through the Cleveland Cultural Gardens and Rockefeller Park between 8:00AM and noon on May 20th.

It would be wonderful if you and other members of your heritage society could come down to gardens and stand with other members of your ethnic community to cheer on the marathon runners as they compete. The Rite Aid Marathon committee has offered a cash donation to whichever cultural garden has the best turnout for the marathon. What better way to have your heritage society make a donation to the maintenance of their ethnic cultural garden than simply to show up for the marathon and help your garden to win the prize. I can be reached by phone at 216-453-0780 or by e-mail at Jerry@Kliot.net.

In closing, I would like for you to know how proud I am to be serving as your President and to encourage each of you to do a few things to help NEOCAG grow. One way would be to attend our monthly council meetings and become more involved in what we do and how we do it. Our meetings are listed on the NEOCAG calendar page at http://neocag.net/calendar.htm.

Another way would be to spread the word about our group and our meetings. Let your family, friends, and acquaintances know that they are always welcome to attend our meetings. There is something to be learned each and every month. Bring some pastry treat to our monthly meeting. We don’t ask people to sign up in advance, but if you have an opportunity to bring a cake, cookies, or other snack that can be shared during our meeting, it will help to keep bellies from rumbling during the meeting.

Offer to serve on one of our many committees—we can always use help with hospitality, programming, publicity, facilities, membership, and several others. If everyone takes on a little bit of additional responsibility, then no one person will have to shoulder the load alone. We have an exciting future as an organization, and we can all make a contribution.

Jerry Kliot, President

Dear member and friends,

The articles in this issue of the QUARTERLY contain numerous comments from readers who are responding to the author. In many cases you may well find these responses more interesting and informative than the actual article. We are finding more and more of these “blogs” following things we read and I feel it is great that we can hear many authoritative comments and questions from others who are obviously knowledgeable in both computers and genealogy.

Since this appears to be the way our material is heading, we can probably expect to see more of these comments in the future. In past issues I have inserted a few with little comment—and have had little comment in return. I would appreciate hearing of any strong feelings, pro or con, on the subject. …..LO

> Keeping A 2nd PC As A Fallback Option

After a bad experience, reader Lee Bolman is thinking about having a spare, standby PC available: "When my 8-month-old, still-in-warranty desktop crashed because of a bad power supply, I was reasonably well-protected — all the data was backed up, and most data and applications were on my laptop. But, there's stuff I don't want on the laptop in case it ever falls into the wrong hands. So I was cut off, for example, from my financial software.

"My PC vendor wanted me to ship the whole system in for a warranty repair, which meant I'd get it back in a week or two. I paid for the repair locally and got it done in 48 hours. What would it take, I wondered, to have a home fallover system that would be ready to jump into the breach if my primary machine failed?

"A little time with Google suggests that this is the issue of fallover and 'high availability.' But it's not clear that there's a reasonably straightforward way for a home-office setup to have a backup machine ready to go. Any ideas?"

Ideas? You bet! First, note that you can store sensitive data on your laptop with very little risk. Just encrypt the sensitive files and folders and you'll make them immune to just about anything short of a government-level supercomputer, if that!

In any case, no matter how you encrypt the files, if you synch the laptop data with your main PC every night, then the absolute worst-case scenario would cost you just one day's data. A much simpler method is to use just about any PC — even a cast-off older model no longer capable of full-time use will do. Leave it off most of the time. It doesn't even have to be in the same room or building as the main PC.

If the main PC dies, but its hard drive is intact and operable, you can remove the drive and install it in the spare PC. If the drive isn't operable, and if you're using some form of disk imaging or whole-disk backup on your main PC, you can restore the disk image or backup onto the hard drive of the fallback PC. (For more information on these backup techniques, see my Langa.com article on Fast, Easy Backups.)

Either way — disk swap or disk image/backup transplant — Windows will complain mightily when it boots up on the backup PC, because it will see different hardware than before. It will immediately ask for and search for the drivers it needs to support the spare PC. Windows will default to generic drivers if the correct model-specific drivers aren't available. (It will also demand re-activation within a short time.)

Moving a hard drive may not result in a perfect duplicate of the old system. But Windows, to its credit, will usually get itself up and running on a spare PC — at least enough for you to be able to access your important data while the main PC is being fixed.

Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 93 • 2007-01-25

> What’s The “Best” Backup?

In the next few pages, I’ll give you a ton of backup ideas and many specific details. Some you can use as-is, but--more likely--you’ll want to take and modify these ideas and techniques to suit your own unique purposes and setup.

Further, what’s “best” for you may not be what’s “best” for me, and vice versa. Different people, different circumstances, different operating systems, etc all need somewhat different solutions. As a result (and this is important), this article is NOT intended to provide you with a one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter solution that will work for everyone, all the time. When it comes to backups, there’s simply no such thing.

You see, “the best backup”--- in fact, the only backup worth anything at all--- is one that you’ll *use*. A backup system that doesn’t fit your style of working, or that takes too long, or is too expensive, or gives you any reason to avoid using it, is next to worthless.

For more on the rationale of why I do things the way I do, see the above-referenced links, especially <http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-12-03.htm#1>, which explains what the main types of backups are, and what I believe each is good for. But your needs--- and solutions--- may be different, and that’s fine. Any backup--- any backup at all--- is better than no backup. As long as you’re using *something* and you’re happy with it, fine: You’re already better off than most PC users!

So read the following, and then decide whether all, or some or none of it will work for you; and if the answer is “none” then do a web search to find a solution that *will* work for you. There are literally dozens--- maybe hundreds--- of backup alternatives out there: All you need to do is find *one* that works for you. The only really bad backup is one that’s never made. <g>

PREP WORK: MINIMIZE UNNECESSARY JUNK

A full backup involves moving (actually, copying) everything on your PC to another storage medium or device. Why waste time and storage processing junk files you don’t need?

For example, by default, both the Recycle Bin and Internet Explorer's Cache want to consume ridiculous amounts of your hard drive space, and these files --- almost always junk--- will get caught up in any full backup you do. So, to reduce the amount of junk in your backups, curb the appetites of these space-hogs: Right click on the Recycle Bin, select Properties, and decide how much space you want the Recycle Bin to consume either for all drives in your system or on a per-drive basis. (I adjust the slider way to the left.)

Similarly, open Internet Explorer, and select Tools/Internet Options. Under Temporary Internet Files, click the Settings button and select a reasonable size for this cache area. Generally speaking, if you have a fast connection, 5 Mbytes to 10 Mbytes is adequate; 25 Mbytes or so is usually enough with a slower dial-up connection.

You also may wish to consider uninstalling software you never use, and that you’re sure you’ll never need again. And, if you have lots of old files you don’t want to discard, but also rarely use, consider compressing them into a Zip file. (Newer versions of Windows, like XP, can compress old files automatically.) If you’re using an uncompressed backup format, having old files in Zip format will save you time and space; and even if you’re using a compressed backup format, Zipping collections of old files will reduce the number of separate files your backup has to track and process.

After doing the above, and before every backup, empty the Recycle Bin, flush Internet Explorer’s cache, and use “CleanMgr” (Windows’ built-in cleanup tool: Start/Run/CleanMgr ; see also this and this ) to reduce the remaining junk files on your system. You may wish to use other tools, too, such as third-party cleanup utilities like CleanSweep or the Clean9x.bat files

(http://www.langa.com/cleanup_bat.htm ).

ORGANIZE YOUR HARD DRIVE

Imagine you went to your local library, and instead of finding all the books on the shelves, you found them in a giant pile in the middle of the main room. The book you want might well be there; it might even be properly entered into the card catalog. But finding it would involve extra work that could have been avoided if the books were organized.

Now consider: I get a lot of mail from people who say something like “I have a 60GB [or 40GB or 20GB or whatever] hard drive, and it’s full of files. How on earth can I back that up?” This is exactly the same problem as the library with all the books on the floor, just in a different guise. In that unorganized library, while it’s possible to find the books you want, it’s needlessly hard to do so. Likewise, in an unorganized hard drive with tens or dozens of megabytes of files and folders all dumped into (say) the C: drive or partition, it’s very hard to manage the files and to make reasonable backup sets. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

--Now think of your hard drive: You probably have some files and folders that are valuable, but that essentially never change. For example, if you have a collection of old legal records, or MP3 files, or old software, or photo albums and the like; these files may need only to be backed up once, and then never touched again.

--You probably have another set of files--- some system and application files, for example--- that change, but infrequently. If a file doesn’t change much, it doesn’t need to be backed up very often. In fact, it only needs to be backed up after it’s changed, and then can be left alone until it changes again.

--Another class of files changes from time to time, but irregularly: Think, for example, of something like tax files, which go into high flux at tax times, and then may otherwise lie dormant for long periods.

--Still other files--- email, daily reports, schedule information, etc--- may change every day, or multiple times a day.

All those file types have differing backup needs.

--And then there are some files that don’t need to be backed up at all: For example, you may have some files you just don’t care much about--- if you were to lose them, it wouldn’t matter much. This may be because they’re easily replaced with a fresh download or reload, or because of low intrinsic value.

If all these many different kinds of files and folders, with their varying needs for backup, are all tossed together onto (say) your C: drive, you’re like that library with all the books in a pile. Yes, you can do backups, but it will be an unpleasant and needlessly difficult task.

Windows Secrets Newsletter • Issue 93 • 2007-01-25

> Everton’s Genealogical Helper To Be Available Online as WorldVitalRecords.com

For the first time ever, all of Everton’s Genealogical Helper issues, more than 10,000 pages, went online January 31st at WorldVitalRecords.com.

“Since 1947, long before the Web, Web 2.0, and community websites, Everton’s Genealogical Helper magazine has been connecting family history researchers and printing their research results, offering an invaluable aid to millions of other researchers,” said Walter Fuller, President and Publisher, Everton Publishers.

The Genealogical Helper emphasizes content, continuing education, and research resources, for both professional genealogists and amateur family history researchers. Leland Meitzler, one of the founders of the genealogy industry, was recently named the managing editor of this magazine.

“This information, along with a wealth of highly informative articles, lists, book reviews, etc., has made the Helper the ‘bible’ of the industry for 60 years. We at Everton are extremely pleased that this data, in its entirety, will now be available through WorldVitalRecords.com,” Fuller said.

WorldVitalRecords.com is currently using optical character recognition (OCR) to index the Genealogical Helper issues from the past 60 years (1947-2007).

“The Genealogical Helper represents the modern era of genealogy research. We are pleased to include this valuable reference tool at WorldVitalRecords.com. So much of what we know today as genealogy research techniques have been introduced and defined in the Genealogical Helper, and there is a lot of great information on each page,” said David Lifferth, President, WorldVitalRecords.com.

In the past, Everton has only indexed the last ten years of the Genealogical Helper. Subscribers will soon have the opportunity to access more than 200 issues. Each issue contains up to 200 pages.

“This is a huge data set. The images are clear and readable and the OCR will be very accurate and usable to our readers. Instead of searching through thousands of pages to find a question your relative asked, you can perform a simple search and find the information you need in a matter of seconds,” said John Ivie, Senior Programmer, WorldVitalRecords.com.

The Everton Genealogical Helper collection will be housed in the Reference section at WorldVitalRecords.com.

“Over a half a century of data, inquiries, book reviews, articles on family history and genealogy, as well as personal insight to research in the field, make this data set an invaluable collection for our subscribers,” said Yvette Arts, Director, Content Acquisition, WorldVitalRecords.com.

This announcement was written by WorldVitalRecords.com: and posted by Dick Eastman on January 25, 2007

SPECIAL OFFER: Enroll today and get the Ancestral Quest 12 family tree software (a $30 value) for free with your 1 or 2 year membership. Hurry there are a limited quantity available. Also be sure to check out our other membership plans (as low as $29.95) and our other family history products.

This is an interesting looking site—and available at an affordable price.

AQ 12 is the new version just out a few weeks. It has links to Ancestry.com, and though not a member, in a short time I have downloaded TONS of free information including parents, spouse, children, birth, marriage, death, and residence. LO

This is an excellent discussion on personal privacy! We can thank all the people who posted comments. Privacy is an important issue that unfortunately appears to be getting more and more complicated. The comment format seems to be an excellent way to get various points of view from people who are actually facing this problem—and want to do the correct thing. I know there are a number of members of our group who have faced this issue, and who have discovered that those involved may become angry and emotional. This is certainly not to our benefit, or to those who come after us. LO

> Process Changes for WorldConnect Databases

The Generations Network (formerly known as MyFamily.com and before that as Ancestry.com) has made a change in its rules for submitting data to the WorldConnect Databases. The changes were made in response to user feedback and will streamline the procedures for correcting or updating information. This is especially important when dealing with data published about living people.

In short, WorldConnect changed its database update/submission page to eliminate the "forced" cutoff date of 1930 for submissions that previously stripped away demographic and name information.

Now the submitter may choose either to use a cutoff date or to have no censorship by WorldConnect. Of course, the submitter also must state that he or she has permission from each living person mentioned to publish their data online.

RootsWeb, also owned by The Generations Network, will not censor research compiled from public domain information. Public domain information includes basic facts such as names, dates, and places. Only the submitter of the information can make such changes.

Every family tree in the WorldConnect Project shows who submitted the file. You will find this information near the top of the page in your browser, along with the number of records in the file and information on when the file was updated. If you have questions about the source of their information or are trying to work out a discrepancy between your file and theirs, you need to contact the submitter, not The Generations Network.

If the submitter cannot be reached, there is a process that allows for the removal of your name from the database.

A new FAQ ("frequently asked questions") has been posted for the WorldConnect databases. You may wish to read it at: http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/FAQ/wcresults4.html

My thanks to Tony Rockefeller for telling me about these changes.

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter, January 28, 2007

Comments

"Public domain information includes basic facts such as names, dates, and places. Only the submitter of the information can make such changes."

All names, dates, and places are NOT public domain. Thankfully, most states still protect birth and marriage certificates for living people. There are many other records and pieces of information that contain names, dates, and places that would not be public domain. Hopefully this will factor in to Rootsweb's appeal process. Individual submitters are not always available or cooperative about removing information about living people. As genealogists, let's respect the privacy of the living.

Posted by: Infinite Ancestors | January 28, 2007

I agree with Infinite Ancestors that not all descriptive information is in public domain. This is a really serious issue to me. I don't think "no date cutoff" should be an option. There are too many people who have no idea WHY they shouldn't publish information on living people.

I believe the traditional cutoff is based on the last available census that has been released, i.e., 1930. As people live longer, using roughly a 70-80 year cutoff is not adequate to protect the privacy of living people. I would rather it be 100 years, and I would really like to see these companies enforce it.

I spent over 6 months getting Ancestry.com to remove living information about my father and my aunt. Customer support claimed that they didn't "own" the GEDCOM databases, and therefore, can't alter them; that is the current position in the FAQ linked above. I contacted Ancestry.com AFTER I had contacted all of the submitters multiple times. Some never responded, some had bad email addresses, some didn't know how to make modifications, and some were uncooperative. I finally called Ancestry.com's parent company and spoke to the PR/Marketing people, saying I was going to start posting on forums about how they permitted information to be published on living people. Amazingly, the living information was then removed by Ancestry.com (not the submitters).

Ancestry tried to argue that since my father and aunt were listed in the 1930 census, their information was in the "public domain." So, what they were telling me was that once your name appears in a census, NONE of your information is private, even if you are still alive.

Good luck getting information removed. See this page:

http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/FAQ/wcresults4.html, and this one:

http://helpdesk.rootsweb.com/FAQ/wcresults4.html

World Connect is basically dumping the responsibility on the person who is trying to have information removed, and not on the person who submitted it. And, it doesn't sound like World Connect is going to help you much.

Posted by: soccermom | January 28, 2007

Marriage certificates are an open record everywhere. The certificate gives the names of the bride and groom, the marriage date, and the officiator's name. The license application is restricted in most localities. The license application gives information like parents' names, birth dates, SS#s, current address, and occupation.

Birth certificates are restricted not because they give the date of birth, but because certified copies of the certificates can be used to fake your identity. Dates of birth are published everywhere, like church bulletins and community newspapers. If you vote, your voter registration information is a public record, showing either your age or your date of birth. Your age is published in many public databases, especially if you have a credit card.

The problem with the whole privacy debate is not about whether the information is private, which it is not for the most part. The problem is that in the past, we all knew the other people who knew our personal information. Today, anyone in the world can get our personal information without us knowing it. That's what makes people anxious.

Just think back on your past. How many people ever went to one of your birthday parties and met your parent? Right there, they know the day of your birth, and can guess your birth year or just ask, and they know your father's name and your mother's married name, and your family's address.

The "right to privacy", if it really exists, is not a "right to be invisible." If you want to do something in the public eye, like getting married or buying a house or voting, you have to accept that those things require you to make some personal information public to the world.

If our banking system was more sophisticated and we didn't use our birth date, mother's maiden name, and SS# as security codes, then the public availability of that information would not cause the problems that it does today.

Posted by: Paul K. Graham | January 28, 2007 at 12:08 PM

What has always troubled me about the sharing of information of people who are living isn't that their public information can be found by one means or another, but that by looking at the summary of their information, a judgment can be made upon their character.

An example is a female relative of mine, who had a child out of wedlock, then married a man (not the father of her first child) and had another child with him. They subsequently divorced, and then she had two more children by two different companions. She later married yet another man and divorced him shortly after. By her own admission, she has told me that she had a lot of growing up to do, and she did it the hard way. It is out of respect and love for this person and her children that I have not included their personal information on my online database at WorldConnect.

It would simply be disrespectful to her, her children, and her former spouses and companions to offer that information to the world. Yes, someone could obtain her marriage records, and fortunately, the birth state of her children have privacy laws in place regarding birth records. It's not that she has something to hide, or even to be ashamed of, but my relationship with her is much more important than placing her information online in the name of "truth" or "public information."

Another example is of a close relative of mine that was given up for open adoption. I would never jeopardize the wonderful relationship her adoptive family has with us, the biological family, by disclosing her personal information to the world.

Remember the three questions about repeating something you've heard? They can also be applied to information about our living family members' personal information: Is it true? Is it necessary? Is it kind? I can also add, would placing this information online jeopardize the relationship I have with this person? And if it's someone I don't know, what business do I have putting their information online? Would I want someone else to do the same to me or my close family members?

Posted by: Miriam Robbins Midkiff | January 28, 2007 at 12:42 PM

---> I agree with Infinite Ancestors that not all descriptive information is in public domain.

I think we are mixing and matching two separate things here. "Public domain" is a legal term and hasn't changed in a century or so. Ask any first-year law student. "Commonly accepted practice" seems to be changing constantly.

Date of birth, place of birth, parents' names, date and place of marriage, spouse's name, property transfer documents, tax valuations and other "personal data" has always been public domain and remains so today. What has changed is the willingness of public bodies to publish that information. Whether they publish the information or not, it still remains in the public domain.

Publishing or not publishing birth information or other personal information does little to protect identity theft. I was sharply reminded of this a couple of years ago when my daughter needed to obtain a replacement birth certificate. Her original had been lost. Since we were on vacation back in the small town where she was born, she and I together stopped at the local town clerk's office and asked for a certified copy of her birth record.

The clerk asked for her name and date of birth, then checked the local record book. The clerk then turned to a typewriter, inserted a blank form, and filled it out with all the details, stamped it, and then handed it to my daughter after the fee was paid.

This was for a CERTIFIED birth certificate. At no time was my daughter ever asked for identification. She could have been any young woman of approximately the same age. Any young lady could have obtained the CERTIFIED birth certificate and then used it to apply for a drivers license, a passport, or a credit card.

In fact, while privacy advocates may decry that such a practice leads to identity theft, the fact is that the above was very legal and proper. A certified birth certificate simply states that a birth occurred on a certain date and that the listed man and woman are the parents. It makes no claim that the person holding the certificate today is the same person who was born on that date and time.

In other words, the certified birth certificate is public domain information, available to anyone who asks for it and pays the fee. It is proof only of a past event, not of anything that is relevant today. Anyone can and should be able to obtain that.

If any government agency or credit agency accepts a birth certificate as "proof of identity," that agency or company has made a grievous error. Let's fix the real problem, not the fictitious problems of public domain data. Require real proof of identity, not a fact from public records.

Next, I used to refuse to do business with any bank that is stupid enough to use a mother's maiden name as "security info." There's no security there at all, as any apprentice security expert can tell you. Any bank or credit card company that uses such ridiculous "security methods" needs to receive a wake-up message now!

A few years ago I refused to complete a credit card application when I was asked for my mother's maiden name. I suggest you do the same or else use a bit of subterfuge that I enjoy:

Some months later I filled out an application for a checking account and again was asked for my mother's maiden name. I replied "Fudpucker." The clerk raised an eyebrow but never questioned my answer. She wrote "Fudpucker" in the form.

The banks and credit card agencies do not care if you give them the correct maiden name or not, they only want something that you can remember when they ask. Trust me, I can remember Fudpucker.

Never, ever use public domain information "for security purposes." That's stupid and is a clear sign that the bank or credit card company has no clue about security.

Posted by: Dick Eastman | January 28, 2007

In my county (and this is comparable to what I've found in many counties), you must be 18 to get a copy of your own birth certificate, or your parents can get a copy assuming they are the parents listed on the certificate. Otherwise, the county will only issue "genealogical" copies if they occurred over 75 years ago. I have not yet been able to get a copy of my mother's birth certificate from another county, even though she is deceased, until 75 years have passed. But I respect that protection. Death records can be obtained if you are a relative or a person who can prove a financial interest. Again, if records are over 75 years old, they are openly available. Marriage certificates are public, but the applications are protected. That's not to say that some of the information on these documents can't be found elsewhere, but should it really be made too easy to find out everything about you? About your young children? I've been trying for years to get one genealogist to remove information about my minor children from his web site.

Procedures may be lax in some locales, but that is not an excuse to discount the value of the protective laws in place.

The Internet makes it too easy to find information about living people. Our laws and "commonly accepted practice" have not kept up with the technology. There used to be some measure of privacy afforded by obscurity. Identity theft and fraud are only two of many reasons to respect the privacy of living individuals. As others pointed out, it is the increasing pervasiveness, commercialization, and lack of control of our personal information that many find objectionable. And this information is increasingly being used by others to make decisions about us that can affect employment, credit, reputation, insurability, etc. An excellent resource on these issues is the book, The Digital Person, by Daniel J. Solve:

http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/dsolove/Solove-Digital-Person.htm

In the days of our ancestors, unless you were a prominent public figure, you would personally know most of the people who knew your intimate details.

I've never understood why some genealogists insist on publishing information on living people, without their knowledge and consent, particularly when there is little or no connection between the two people. I'm an avid genealogist and technologist myself, but we must remember that for most of us genealogy is a hobby, the rest of it is real life.

Posted by: Patricia Moore | January 28, 2007

"Marriage certificates are public, but the applications are protected. That's not to say that some of the information on these documents can't be found elsewhere"

Very true. Until the big privacy push bought on by the problem of computerized database security in the last 25 years, millions of documents were released into the public domain without the slightest thought to redacting things like SSNs. For all the efforts made today to protect that information, it's already out there for millions of people in several different formats and it's too late for that information to be recalled and "sanitized" for privacy reasons.

Posted by: Infinite Ancestors | January 28, 2007

The definitive statements of what is common practice, and what is legal imperative seem to relate to US law and US practice. The stated legal position of what is in the public domain in the US, does not reflect the Australian reality. The time periods expressed for release of birth, death and marriage information to the public domain is longer in Australia

Posted by: Jason Presley | January 28, 2007

> Excellent Answers Can Be Received On Rootsweb—The Bulletin Board Still Lives

When I read the following comments I was immediately made aware once again of the fact that the best replies frequently were applicable to research in most any country, and could be of help to many of us, regardless of our background. Though most of my ancestors are from Norway, I have seldom had to do much searching to find the info I needed.

I believe it would be correct to say that the answers that are the hardest to find, are often from the simplest of questions, and after reading the responses below, I’m sure you will agree. We can imagine the young man, new to genealogy, was bowled over by the many excellent responses he received—enough to keep him busy for months to come. LO

From: "Alexandre Gravem" <gravem@gmail.com>

Subject: Gravem Norwegian Family

To: gen-nordic@rootsweb.com

Hello all, I am new to this list and this is my first post. My name is Alexandre Gravem and AFAIK my family is originally from Norway.

I live in Brazil and there was no immigration from Norway to here. And none of my oldest alive relatives remember nothing about our immigrant ancestor. I want to know if anyone in the list know something about my family or about norwegians migrating to Brazil in the 1800's.

Thanks in advance,

Alexandre Gravem

------------------------------

From: Hugh Watkins <hugh.watkins@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: Gravem Norwegian Family

To: gen-nordic@rootsweb.com

sailors meet a local girl and leave their ship, and I know of some Danes who went to San Paulo after 1945 because of the war. start by using Brazilian records tracking you family backwards until you find naturalization papers for example and ship's manifest of arrivals.

"German immigration to Brazil started in 1824 -- just after Brazil won independence from Portugal"

Hamburger Passagierlisten, 1850-1934 << this could be an indirect route

Auswanderungsregister durchsuchen

<http://www.ancestry.de/search/rectype/default.aspx?rt=40>

<http://content.ancestry.com/iexec/?htx=List&dbid=1068> only the years 1890-1913 have been indexed so far.

so not much help but that is the approach

Hugh W

From: kumodoke <kumodoke@planet.nl>

Subject: Re: Gravem Norwegian Family

To: gen-nordic@rootsweb.com

Are you looking for a Norwegian family with the name Gravem? In which year? And what are the names of the persons you are looking for?

When emigrating people took often the name of the place as a surname, where they lived before emigrating. They might not have used this as a surname name in Norway, esp. not around 1800 is was usual to use patronyms (=the Christian name of the father) as a kind of surname.

Look for how you could do investigations in Norway at this site: <http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~norway/>

Gravem is a farm/place in Norway in the 1801 census in the county Buskerud in the place Sandsvær and in the county More og Romsdal at the place Sundal. In the 1865 census there is only one farm/[lace gravem in Sunddal, More og Romsdal. In the 1900 census only one farm gravem in Sundalen, More og Romsdal

So it might have been the case that they came somehow from there before moving

<http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/cgi-win/WebFront.exe?slag=vis&tekst=meldingar&spraak=e>

Regards

Reina

From: Dave Hinz <DaveHinz@gmail.com>

Subject: Re: Gravem Norwegian Family

To: gen-nordic@rootsweb.com

On 16 Mar 2007 11:32:38 -0700, Alexandre Gravem <gravem@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello all, I am new to this list and this is my first post. My name is Alexandre Gravem and AFAIK my family is originally from Norway.

Hi - I do see Gravem as a Norwegian name when I look at familysearch.org. searching for that as a last name. Take a look there if you haven't already, looks like some good info. Most likely, it is a farm name. I don't know what you know already so pardon me if this is old to you but, typically Norwegian naming up to the mid/late 1800s used this form: First name Patronym Placename--literally, what's your name, who is your daddy, and where are you from.

Let's look for Gravem then as a location: Using an online version of Oluf Rygh's "Norwegian farm names", at:

<http://www.dokpro.uio.no/rygh_ng/rygh_form.html> ...it lists exactly one farm with Gravem in the name. (enter gravem in

the "farm name" and hit search to see the hit).

Next, if it were me, I'd go to the 1801 and 1865 census and find Gravem in the parish of Romfo, in the municipality of Sundalen, in the fylke (roughly, "county" or "state") of Romsdal. Start here: <http://digitalarkivet.uib.no/index-eng.htm>. Click on "1801" and "search"

Enter "gravem" into the "fast search" box and here's a bunch of folks

living on that farm in 1801. Repeat for 1865, with luck you'll see names which are familiar to you. If you can give more info, I can spend

more time on this.

Dave Hinz

PS Once we know who came over, we can look in the emigration lists if they exist to see when and where they left from and for.

From: Stein R <steinjr@nospam.com>

Subject: Re: Gravem Norwegian Family

To: gen-nordic@rootsweb.com

Umm - the two statements ("my family is originally from Norway" and "there was no immigration from Norway to here") would seem to be in conflict with each other :-)

No, there was no _mass_ emigration from Norway to South America. But individual Norwegians winded up in a lot of unexpected places, possibly due to the fact that in the 1800s shipping became a major industry in Norway.

As a couple of people have pointed out: the farm name Gravem existed in at least two places - Sandsvær (near the inland city of Kongsberg, WNW of Oslo) in Buskerud province and in Sundal (South valley, spelled alternatively Sundal, Sunddal and Sundalen) in Møre and Romsdal province on the NW coast of southern Norway.

Gravem still exists as a surname in Norway. According to statistics Norway's name web page (http://www.ssb.no/navn) there is 237 persons with Gravem as last name as of now.

(The fields and buttons are: top radio buttons are "female" and "male", fields are "First name" and "Family name/surname", the grey button is "search". Result says how many has that name).

Phonebook online (http://www.telefonkatalogen.no) lists 262 hits on Gravem, 136 of which are on the west coast, of which 115 is in Møre and Romsdal province, of which the majority (79) are in Sunndal municipality - for some reason I haven't bothered going through them all :-) Result set at http://www.gulesider.no/tk/search.c?q=Gravem

A map search on Gravem at the yellow pages lists several farm in Sundal parish, south of the city of Sunndaløra, where route 70 makes a 90 degree turn from going south to going east. Map search: <http://kart.gulesider.no/kart/map.c> Enter name (Gravem) in white field on top, click on "Sok" (Search)

Results set looks like this:

Adresse og/eller stedsnavn

Gravem (Grend), Sunndal kommune

Larsstu Gravem (Bruk (gard) (hovedbygn.)), Sunndal kommune

Negard Gravem (Bruk (gard) (hovedbygn.)), Sunndal kommune

Oppigard Gravem (Bruk (gard) (hovedbygn.)), Sunndal kommune

Utistu Gravem (Bruk (gard) (hovedbygn.)), Sunndal kommune

("grend" means "village"/"cluster of houses", "bruk" or "gard" means "farm", "hovedbygn." means "living house (of farm)")

"Negard Gravem" means "lower Gravem farm"

"Oppigard Gravem" means "upper Gravem farm"

"Larsstu Gravem" means "Tenant farmer Lars' rented part of Gravem"

"Utistu Gravem" means "Tenant farmer's rented part on the outskirts of Gravem"

So yes - it seems likely that the farm name Gravem comes from that little cluster of farms around that curve on route 70, south of Sunndaløra on the NW coast of southern Norway.

A google search (http://www.google.com) on Gravem finds some odds and ends too. Among them some posts by you in various other newsgroups, one of the artists in the Norwegian band "Kåre and the Cave Men" is a Gravem, there is a skater named Øyvind Gravem, an artist name Rhoda Achieng Gravem, a Gravem comp sci student studying at the university of Oslo, a couple of American Gravems (possibly descendants of the same family), a couple of university lecturers and so on and so forth.

> And none of my oldest alive relatives remember nothing about our immigrant ancestor. I want to know if anyone in the list know

> something about my family or about norwegians migrating to Brazil in the 1800's.

Always start on the end where people live now and work backwards from there. Make a note of all names your oldest living relatives do know. Check achieves and/or registers in Brazil to try to find the name of your Norwegian ancestor in Brazil. When you have the name (and when he arrived in Brazil), you can jump to Norway and see if you can find him (and his ancestors) there.

It is likely that if your ancestor ended up in Brazil early in the 1800s, he probably came there as ships crew (possibly just jumping ship

in port :-), and might be hard to find in the official immigrant records--assuming that there are official immigrant records from the 1800s

preserved and available over there.

I checked the emigrant registers online here in Norway (Norwegian records online at <http://www.digitalarkivet.no>. Quite a few Gravems who emigrated post 1880 through the port of Kristiansund (which would have been the natural choice when coming from Sundal valley). But they all list their destination as the USA.

Anyways - good luck on your search. Start in Brazil, work your way back, and maybe you can establish a link.

Smile,

Stein in Norway

GEN-NORDIC Digest, Vol 2, Issue 47

> Red Flags Raised About Concerns Over Vista's Legal Terms And Conditions

Vista, the latest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, recently made its long awaited consumer debut. The first major upgrade in five years, Vista incorporates a new, sleek look and features a wide array of new functionality, such as better search tools and stronger security. The early reviews have tended to damn the upgrade with faint praise, however, characterizing it as the best, most secure version of Windows, yet one that contains few, if any, revolutionary features.

While those reviews have focused chiefly on Vista's new functionality, for the past few months the legal and technical communities have dug into Vista's "fine print." Those communities have raised red flags about Vista's legal terms and conditions as well as the technical limitations that have been incorporated into the software at the insistence of the motion picture industry.

The net effect of these concerns may constitute the real Vista revolution as they point to an unprecedented loss of consumer control over their own personal computers. In the name of shielding consumers from computer viruses and protecting copyright owners from potential infringement, Vista seemingly wrestles control of the "user experience" from the user.

Vista's legal fine print includes extensive provisions granting Microsoft the right to regularly check the legitimacy of the software and holds the prospect of deleting certain programs without the user's knowledge. During the installation process, users "activate" Vista by associating it with a particular computer or device and transmitting certain hardware information directly to Microsoft. Even after installation, the legal agreement grants Microsoft the right to revalidate the software or to require users to reactivate it should they make changes to their computer components. In addition, it sets significant limits on the ability to copy or transfer the software, prohibiting anything more than a single backup copy and setting strict limits on transferring the software to different devices or users.

Vista also incorporates Windows Defender, an anti-virus program that actively scans computers for "spyware, adware, and other potentially unwanted software." The agreement does not define any of these terms, leaving it to Microsoft to determine what constitutes unwanted software. Once operational, the agreement warns that Windows Defender will, by default, automatically remove software rated "high" or "severe," even though that may result in other software ceasing to work or mistakenly result in the removal of software that is not unwanted.

For greater certainty, the terms and conditions remove any doubt about who is in control by providing that "this agreement only gives you some rights to use the software. Microsoft reserves all other rights." For those users frustrated by the software's limitations, Microsoft cautions that "you may not work around any technical limitations in the software." Those technical limitations have proven to be even more controversial than the legal ones.

Last December, Peter Guttman, a computer scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand released a paper called "A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection." The paper pieced together the technical fine print behind Vista, unraveling numerous limitations in the new software seemingly installed at the direct request of Hollywood interests. Guttman focused primarily on the restrictions associated with the ability to play back high-definition content from the next-generation DVDs such as Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (referred to as "premium content"). He noted that Vista intentionally degrades the picture quality of premium content when played on most computer monitors.

Guttman's research suggests that consumers will pay more for less with poorer picture quality yet higher costs since Microsoft needed to obtain licenses from third parties in order to access the technology that protects premium content (those license fees were presumably incorporated into Vista's price). Moreover, he calculated that the technological controls would require considerable consumption of computing power with the system conducting 30 checks each second to ensure that there are no attacks on the security of the premium content.

Microsoft responded to Guttman's paper earlier this month, maintaining that content owners demanded the premium content restrictions. According to Microsoft, "if the policies [associated with the premium content] required protections that Windows Vista couldn't support, then the content would not be able to play at all on Windows Vista PCs." While that may be true, left unsaid is Microsoft's ability to demand a better deal on behalf of its enormous user base or the prospect that users could opt-out of the technical controls.

When Microsoft introduced Windows 95 more than a decade ago, it adopted the Rolling Stones "Start Me Up" as its theme song. As millions of consumers contemplate the company's latest upgrade, the legal and technological restrictions may leave them singing "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

Toronto Star, Jan 29, 2007, article by Michael Geist

Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law. He can reached at mgeist@uottawa.ca or online at www.michaelgeist.ca.

> $2 Million Sloan Foundation Grant To Help Digitize Thousands of Books at Library of Congress

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington today announced that the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has awarded the Library of Congress a $2 million grant for a program to digitize thousands of public-domain works, with a major focus on at-risk "brittle books" and U.S. history volumes.

The project, "Digitizing American Imprints at the Library of Congress," will include not only the scanning of volumes, but also the development of suitable page-turner display technology, capability to scan and display foldouts, and a pilot program to capture high-level metadata, such as table of contents, chapters/sections and index. Past digitization projects have shied away from brittle books because of the condition of the materials, but "Digitizing American Imprints" intends to serve as a demonstration project of best practices for the handling and scanning of such vulnerable works.

"‘Digitizing American Imprints’ will make a major contribution to the collective body of knowledge that is accessible worldwide, further democratizing the information that is a key to functional societies and economies," Dr. Billington said. "It is inspiring to think that one of these books, many of which are in physical jeopardy, might spark the creativity of a future scholar or ordinary citizen who otherwise might not have had access to this wealth of human understanding."

Deanna Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, and coordinator of the project, said: "The Library has been a leader in digitization of special collection materials, and this grant from the Sloan Foundation allows us to digitize, preserve and make available additional brittle materials from our general collections."

"We are delighted to partner with the Library of Congress, the world’s largest library, in this historic digitization effort," said Doron Weber, program director at the Sloan Foundation. "A significant number of books from the Library’s great collection will now be available to anyone in the world in an open, non-exclusive and non-profit setting, thus bringing the ideal of a universal digital library closer to reality."

The Library of Congress’ proposal includes digitization of works in the following categories included in the "Brittle books" from across the Library’s General Collection.

U.S. genealogy and regimental histories. The former includes many useful county, state and regional histories, while the latter includes histories, memoirs, diaries and other collections from the Civil War period.

Six collections of Rare Books including the Benjamin Franklin Collection, selections from the Katherine Golden Bitting and the Elizabeth Robins Pennell Collections of Gastronomy, a selection of first editions from the Library’s Rare Book and Special Collections Division, selections from the Confederate States of America Collection, the Henry Harrisse Collection of Columbiana, and selections from the Jean Hersholt Collection of Hans Christian Andersen.

Works of photography focusing on the technical aspects of photography and the artistic publications and biographies of photographers.

Digitizing American Imprints will utilize the "Scribe" scanning technology of the Open Content Alliance. Scanning is expected to begin within a few months after an initial startup period to establish logistics, staffing and resources.

"Partnerships are crucial to help the Library of Congress realize our mission of acquiring and making accessible a universal repository of information in order to further human understanding and achievement," Dr. Billington said. "We’re grateful to the Sloan Foundation and all of our partners across a broad spectrum who share these goals and values."

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934, makes grants in science, technology and the quality of American life. Sloan’s program in Universal Access to Recorded Knowledge, directed by Doron Weber, aims to increase access to recorded human knowledge by encouraging digitization of material in the public domain, assuring public archiving, preservation and open access of this material and fostering its availability to people everywhere. The program has also supported the Internet Archive, the Open Content Alliance – which includes over 50 of the nation’s biggest libraries and research institutions – the New Orleans Public Library and On Demand Books.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world, with more than 134 million items in various languages, disciplines and formats. As the world’s largest repository of knowledge and creativity, the Library is a symbol of democracy and the principles on which America was founded. The Library serves the U.S. Congress and the nation, both on-site in its 21 reading rooms on Capitol Hill and through its award-winning Web site at www.loc.gov.