Remote Control
Genealogical and historical society members will no longer be able to stay at home and log on to ProQuest (http://www.proquest.com) genealogical databases—including HeritageQuest Online—through their societies’
Web sites, according to a ProQuest announcement.
About 40 societies are losing remote access as their contracts expire, said Chris Cowan, vice president of publishing and marketing. That means members will have to visit the society’s library (if the society continues to subscribe) or log on through
a public library Web site to search HeritageQuest’s census, Revolutionary War and Freedman’s Bank Records, as well as the Periodical Source Index.
The decision is the outcome of a business review ProQuest started in December 2005. “We went through all the accounts and looked at usage patterns,” said senior vice president of publishing Rod Gauvin. “Genealogical societies were among
the heaviest users, with usage well beyond the original assumptions we used to develop pricing for those services. We were absorbing a significant financial loss in offering them remote access.”
Public libraries also complained they were paying more for the databases than societies were. “We have models that work for us with public libraries. We know what the size of a community is, so we can set prices accordingly,” Gauvin says. “With
societies, the amount of usage is completely unpredictable.”
He added the decision isn’t related to ProQuest’s recently discovered accounting irregularities, first reported in February, that caused the company to overstate its earnings by $80 million in less than five years.
Gauvin and Cowan have already heard from societies concerned they’ll lose members who joined to get the remote access. Those groups may need to update their business models, suggests Gauvin. “We don’t know what they were doing before these
databases
were available in 2003 and 2004. Some societies are providing massive amounts of content for obscenely low price points.”
If you’re a society member who stands to lose remote access to HeritageQuest databases, ask your library if it’s one of the 4,400 across the country that let residents of their communities access HeritageQuest from home.
It's in the Cards
Last month Ancestry.com (http://ancestry.com) posted its collection of 13 states' (plus Puerto Rico's) WWII draft cards for the Fourth Registration—the only registration available for research by the public—conducted
on April 27, 1942. It's often called the Old Man's Draft because it registered civilian men between 45 and 64 years old.
Search results link to digitized record images showing the registrant's address, birthplace and date, employer and physical description; and a contact person the registrant designated. The original cards are at the National Archives and Records Administration
regional facility covering the state where the registration was made.
Newsworthy Images
The Library of Congress has posted more than 40,000 digital images from the George Grantham Bain Collection of photographs from Bain's news picture agency—one of America's earliest. They document sporting events, crimes, strikes, disasters, political
activities including the woman suffrage campaign, conventions and public celebrations. Most photos are from New York City and date from the first three decades of the 20th century.
See http://memory.loc.gov/pp/ggbainhtml/ggbainabt.html to search the collection. I typed in parade and got more than 400 images, including New York City's 1918 Fourth of July celebration,
a 1910 Grand Army of the Republic parade, suffrage marches and several mid-1910s peace parades.
Missing Links
I recently received an e-mail from a frustrated reader who couldn't find a Web site mentioned in a previous AncestorNews column. As you know, Web site addresses (called URLs) can change at a moment's notice. There's nothing worse than missing out
on some tantalizing ancestral morsel because a link's not working.
Learn some tricks for getting around those pesky broken links to http://www.familytreemagazine.com/ancestornews/
missinglinks.html.
AncestorNews columnist Nancy Hendrickson is the author of Finding Your Roots Online, on sale now at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/store/display.asp?id=70583.
Browse
past AncestorNews columns at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/ancestornews/previous.html.
Check out these features on our Web site:
Civil Duty
Q. All I know is that my great-grandfather Joseph A. Harbison fought for the Union in the Civil War. He enlisted from Pennsylvania. How do I get information about him?
A. For the answer, see http://www.familytreemagazine.com/nowwhatonline/current.html.
Read more Q&A with the experts at
http://www.familytreemagazine.com/nowwhatonline/previous.html.
Hunting for Hints
"I am full of hope that you can help me figure out anything about this mystery man," wrote Marjorie Osterhout. No one knows his identity, but she wonders if this is a picture of a Civil War ancestor or an unknown family frontiersman.
Examine the possibilities with expert photo historian Maureen A. Taylor at
http://www.familytreemagazine.
com/photos/current.htm.
If you have a family photo mystery for Taylor to solve, check out our Submission Guidelines at http://www.familytreemagazine.com/photos/photohelp.htm.
Chicago, Ill.
June 7-10
National Genealogical Society Conference
Paula Stuart-Warren
Topics:
- Old and New: Combining the Best of Internet and Traditional Research
- Railroad Records & Railroad History: Methods of Tracking
- The WPA Era: What it Created for Genealogists
- Family History Gems in Century and Bicentennial Farms Programs
Paul Milner
Topics:
- Irish Emigrants to North America: Before, During, and After the Famine
- Finding Your Scottish Ancestors: The Big Five
- The WPA Era: What it Created for Genealogists
- Family History Gems in Century and Bicentennial Farms Programs
Rhonda R. McClure
Topics:
- Developing Good Research Habits
- Using Scanners
- Scanners: Not Just for Photographs
- Taking it With You: Using a PDA in Your Genealogical Research
Maureen A. Taylor
Topic:
- On the Newstand: Writing for Magazines
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