History, Digitized (and Abridged) - New York Times

History, Digitized (and Abridged) - New York Times: "'There's an illusion being created that all the world's knowledge is on the Web, but we haven't begun to glimpse what is out there in local archives and libraries,' said Edward L. Ayers, a historian and dean of the college and graduate school of arts and sciences at the University of Virginia. 'Material that is not digitized risks being neglected as it would not have been in the past, virtually lost to the great majority of potential users.'"
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"At the Library of Congress, for example, despite continuing and ambitious digitization efforts, perhaps only 10 percent of the 132 million objects held will be digitized in the foreseeable future."
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"Similarly, at the National Archives, the repository for some nine billion documents, only a small fraction are likely to be digitized and put online. And at thousands of smaller, local collections around the country, the bulk of the material is languishing on yesterday's media: paper, LPs, magnetic tape and film."
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Strapped for money, archivists around the country are looking to private partners for help. Google has donated $3 million to help start an effort led by the Library of Congress that will digitize and share materials around the globe, and has also provided technical resources for digitizing various printed materials at the library.

...genealogy experts affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are fanning out, digital cameras in hand, making copies of genealogically relevant records in 200 cities around the world, including New Orleans. Over the next five years, the church expects to have hundreds of millions of digital images available.
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In its quest to scan every one of the tens of millions of books ever published, Google has already digitized one million volumes. Google refuses to say how much it has spent on the venture so far, but outside experts estimate the figure at at least $5 million.

Genealogists' Lament: Yesteryear Is Gone - New York Times

Genealogists' Lament: Yesteryear Is Gone - New York Times: "In most cities, birth certificates become accessible to the public after 75 years. But in New York, the last certificates turned over to the Municipal Archives by the Department of Health are now 97 years old, and that transfer took place more than a decade ago."

1 in 25 men raising children not their own

HealthCentral: "Calling it a Pandora's Box with broad health implications, British researchers say genetic testing is informing about 4 percent of fathers that a child they are raising is not their own."
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The report appears in the August issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

The authors said they based their findings on international published scientific research and conference abstracts released between 1950 and 2004.

The study found that rates of "paternal discrepancy" range on average from less than 1 percent to as high as 30 percent, depending on the group of people looked at.

...in the United States, rates more than doubled to 310,490 between 1991 and 2001, they noted.

In Great Britain, about one-third of pregnancies are unplanned, and about one in five women in long-term relationships has had an extramarital affair, the researchers reported

CastleGarden vs. Ancestry.com - New York Passenger Lists, 1851-1891

Ancestry.com - New York Passenger Lists, 1851-1891: "New York Passenger Lists, 1851-1891"

Apparently, the passenger lists at Ancestry.com do not include the CastleGarden records found at www. castlegarden.com. Tried searching for 3 people on Ancestry who I found at CastleGarden and could not find them at Ancestry. Too bad since Ancestry has the digital images of their records and CastleGarden does not.

Start with the 1920 Census

Ancestry.com - 1920 Census: "Since nearly everyone has some knowledge or access to knowledge of family names, relationships and the family’s state of residence in 1920, most genealogical instructors recommend the 1920 census as the best starting point for research in federal records."