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Having Fun with Green Screen in Zoom

In a former life, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I operated an audio-visual production company, As a result of that experience, I have been fascinated by the possibilities of using “green screen” technology (sometimes referred to as chroma key compositing) to achieve a composite video or photo. This technology makes it possible to

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Countdown until German Seminar at WRHS

We have one month to go until the Western Reserve Historical Society hosts an all-day German Genealogy Seminar at the Cleveland History Center in University Circle. James M. Beidler will present four presentations under the umbrella title of “Jumping into German Genealogy” there on November 16. The History Center is located at 10825 East Boulevard,

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A Finn Was Pitcher for Chicago White Sox

From time to time my cousin Matti in Finland sends emails with links to articles and other text material of interest to me and my brother Walfrid. This morning, he sent an item article about a Finnish national who came to America in the early 1900’s to pitch for the Chicago White Sox. It was

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My Parents Were Wed in a “Gretna Green Marriage”

During his presentation on “Until Death Do Us Part: An Examination of Marriage and Divorce Records” at the Cuyahoga Valley Genealogical Society meeting on May 6, Tom Neel, Ohio Genealogical Society library director, mentioned “Gretna Green marriages.” He cited marriages that occurred in locations other than where you might expect, often involving young couples. Specifically,

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My Family’s Connection to Cheese-making

I like cheese of all types. The other day I started researching cheesemaking and any connection there might be with that industry and my ancestors and relatives. Here are some facts I learned: My grandkids live on Cheese Factory Rd in Honeoye Falls, New York. (More about this in another post later.) My Great-Unclde Nelson

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More About My Revolutionary War Ancestor: Matthias Flaugh

Earilier, I posted about my ancestor Matthias Flaugh, who served in the German Regiment under General George Washington in the American Revolutionary War. In that posting, I included some information gleaned from a German newspaper article. Here is the link to that earlier post: http://www.collectingancestors.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=296&action=edit Today, I will post a transcription of the entire article

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Evaluate Those Hints from Ancestry.com

Yesterday, I received via Ancestry.com’s messaging service an email from a cousin. Here’s what she said: Hi Wally, I started my family tree on Ancestry.com, but am not sure of the best way to balance info vs. privacy. Also what is the protocol for entering female’s names…maiden vs. married. Also, from hints I am finding

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Some Links to Read about President Niinistö of Finland

As a followup to my attendance at FinnFest 2017 in Minneapolis last week (Sep 21 – 24), I have done some Google research to find links to news coverage of President Niinistö’s visit. Here is a brief selection: Dropping the Puck at NHL hockey pre-season game https://www.nhl.com/wild/news/finland-president-visits-092117/c-291247206 The President’s Personal Webpage: http://www.tpk.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=365353&culture=en-US’ U of M

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Conversion to LastPass

Well, here I am again. Finally. I have been very busy daily for more than a week with transitioning from Roboform as my password manager to LastPass. I have completed that process and checked out each of 195 different log-in/sign-in items. They all work after I updated some obsolete URLs and passwords in my Roboform database.

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In Finland Cemeteries, Graves May Be Recycled after 25 Years

When I visited Finland a few years ago, I made sure that I toured the cemeteries of Vesanto and Rautalampi, the villages my grandparents emigrated from. I found several cemetery stones with Huuskonen and Hytönen (Grandma’s maiden name) engraved on them–but none were for ancestors I knew about at the time. There is a good

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