GENEALOGY ‘Technology for the Genealogist’ seminar

Dick Eastman, author of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter, will speak at the Georgia Genealogical Society’s fall seminar, 9 a.m. Sept. 29 at the National Archives in Morrow.

The theme will be “Technology for the Genealogist,” with four topics: using the cloud to simplify genealogy, Mocavo vs. Google as the best genealogy search engine, the latest preservation technology to keep information available for centuries, and tombstone photography.

Cost is $25 for members, $35 for nonmembers, if postmarked by Sept. 20. Online, the PayPal deadline is Sept. 24. Mail to GGS, P.O. Box 550247, Atlanta, GA 30355-2747 or go to www.gagensociety.org. For information, call Karen Molohon at 404-4067159. Eastman’s newsletter is free and worth getting; find it via Google and sign up.

Genealogy workshop

A free genealogy workshop will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 29 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 3355 Sugarloaf Parkway, Lawrenceville.

Four 45-minute sessions will be held, with three topics each session. The event is sponsored by the William Day Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution and the Atlanta Chapter, Sons of the American Revolution.

The topics include using a family history center, navigating Familysearch.org and other Internet sites, as well as help in joining the DAR or the SAR. Speakers also will address Georgia research libraries, the top 10 research books, and organizing your records. For information on handouts and classes with advance registration, contact temanning@aol.com or 770-564-8822.

Finding genealogy books online

If no longer in copyright, many genealogy books can be found digitized in full online, but if they’re still in copyright, only a snippet might be found and you have to track down the book.

Familysearch.org has many books available, but also check the books online at Brigham Young University’s site, www.lib.byu.edu/digital. Ancestry.com includes 35,000 books, and a large number are at Heritage Quest Online.

The New England Historic Genealogical Society (www.americanance stors.org) has complete books online, with more available to members. The World Vital Records site, despite its name, contains books.

Many books can be found via the Google Books section, which is my favorite. On WorldCat, the international library catalog, you can find the closest library where a book can be found or obtained via interlibrary loan to your local library. And the Hathi Trust Digital Library site (www.hathitrust.org) contains an extensive library.