Sunday, February 28, 2010

Eastman blog on Dumpster Diving

I was looking at Dick Eastman's blog this morning and saw this post about dumpster diving and identity theft. It's a good post with some very good comments.

If you are not shredding your documents you're playing with matches at the gas pump. If you ever have your identity stolen it can cost you tons of money and is a lot of work to fix.

Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter on Dumpster Diving for identity theft.

Saturday, February 27, 2010

This week at the library

Monday 1 March: SDGS Writers Group 10 a.m. - noon.
Wednesday 3 March: Wednesday at the Library class: Record keeping/Organizing 10 a.m. - noon.
Thursday 4 March: Library open to the public 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Saturday 6 March: Family Tree Maker Users Group 10 a.m. - noon.

Friday, February 26, 2010

"Who Do You Think You Are"

This Friday, 5 March 2010, at 8 p.m. NBC will premier their version of the British series Who Do You Think You Are. The series is seven episodes featuring the genealogy and genealogical research of seven well known celebrities. There are five actors, a director and a retired professional football player. The series is produced by Lisa Kudrow.

NBC and Ancestry.com have collaborated in the production and research of the genealogies. Both entities have interesting web pages about the series and brief biographies about the families they researched.

Below are some links to the main pages promoting the series and a link to a 3:41 minute preview done by Lisa Kudrow.

The first link is to the main NBC site about the series, "Who Do You Think You Are"

One of the pages at that site has the Lisa Kudrow video but I will give you the direct link because I liked it. Lisa Kudrow preview

Ancestry.com's link is aimed at getting people like me to plug the series but, once again, I found it interesting. Spread the Word

I plan on watching.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Faces of America with Louis Henry Gates, Jr. on PBS

Just a reminder that the third of four episode of Faces of America is on tonight at 8:00 p.m. In San Diego it is on KPBS Cox channel 11. The over the air channel is 15.

I mention this because their will be a 2 minute locally produced segment on genealogy. KPBS sent a crew to the SDGS library in February and did an interview with our librarian, Pam Journey.

That segment will air at 7:57 p.m. so don't be late.

Monday, February 1, 2010

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Genealogy Program

This information might be a little bit dated, but as long as the govt. is providing a useful service it might as well be publicized.

In August of 2008 the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, formerly INS, established a Genealogy Program. Genealogists can request records of genealogical interest to be searched for and copied. The service is dedicated to genealogists, historians and other researchers seeking records that generally do not require FOIA expertise. This is a fee for service program. A genealogy index search is $20, copy of a file on microfilm is $20 and a copy of a textual file is $35.

The USCIS Genealogy Program offers two services:

Index Search: Using biographical information provided by the researcher, USCIS searches its historical immigration and naturalization record indices for citations related to a specific immigrant. Search results (record citations) are returned to the researcher, along with instructions on how to request the file(s) from USCIS or the National Archives. Fee: $20.00.

Record Copy Request: Researchers with valid record citations (USCIS file numbers), gained through a USCIS Genealogy Program index search or through independent research, may request copies of historical immigration and naturalization records. Fee: $20.00/$35.00 (depending on the record type).

Records available through the USCIS Genealogy Program:

Naturalization Certificate Files (C-files) from September 27, 1906 to April 1, 1956
Alien Registration Forms from August 1, 1940 to March 31, 1944
Visa files from July 1, 1924 to March 31, 1944
Registry Files from March 2, 1929 to March 31, 1944
Alien Files (A-files) numbered below 8 million (A8000000) and documents therein dated prior to May 1, 1951

When their website was last updated on 30 Oct 2009 they were answering requests from early Oct 2009. With the current events in Haiti there might be a greater delay.

If you are interested in seeing what they have available the main website is at www.uscis.gov. On their Home page the link for Genealogy is at the bottom of the left hand column. If you are not interested in seeing what else USCIS has to offer use this link to go directly to Genealogy.