Tuesday, July 28, 2009

House Republicans Harpoon $8.7-Million Intended to Connect Whalers to Their Ancestors

Normally I wouldn't post something political here on this genealogy blog, but this one I can't pass up. Hey, it is a bit of Genealogy in the News you might find interesting.The House Democrats wanted to spend $8.7 million for a "cultural exchange program" to connect whalers in Massachusetts with their whaling ancestors in Alaska and Hawaii.

The spending proposal has apparently been eliminated from the appropriations bill for the Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Departments.And just when I was starting to see "Franklins" and a new job as a working genealogist. I wonder how many of these types of government programs are available for the genealogist to apply for?

More details at http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=51572.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Preventing Identity Theft with the SSDI

Identity theft and genealogy is a subject that I have discussed before in my genealogy classes and on the road in lectures.

An article on preventing identity theft on Dick Eastman's blog is well worth the read, especially for these all knowing politicians who think they have all the answers, read the paragraph below.

"Identity theft is a major concern these days, as it should be. Many legislators seem to think that the problem can be solved by locking up all the birth, marriage, and death records, which, of course, has an impact on genealogists. The legislators apparently have never checked with the security experts who deal with identity theft every day, however. The security experts report that public domain records of birth, marriage, and death are rarely used by identity thieves. Instead, the thieves have easier methods."

You can read the rest of the article at
http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/07/preventing-identity-theft-with-the-ssdi.html