Another newspaper closes doors

Fishers Chamber of Commerce officials have been told that the Fishers Weekly newspaper is shutting down. Owned by Schurz Communications of South Bend, Ind., the publication, which began in 2005, printed its last issue on Saturday, October 6. Though the closure has not been confirmed by Schurz, it has been confirmed that correspondence concerning the fate of the publication has been received.

The Indianapolis Star reports:

Chamber President Christi Wolf said, “The only thing that we know is that we got an e-mail.”

Wolf said the chamber had provided the weekly newspaper with information for its pages and that the publication’s representatives had recently sent the chamber an e-mail she described as a courtesy announcement of its closing.

Call for Papers: 2008 BYU Computerized Genealogy Conference

The following is found at Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter and written by the organizers of the 2008 BYU Computerized Genealogy Conference:

Lecture proposals are now being accepted for the 2008 Brigham Young University Computerized Genealogy Conference, which will be held Friday, 14 March, and Saturday, 15 March 2008, at the Conference Center, BYU campus, Provo, Utah. Each lecture period will be 60 minutes, including questions and answers. All presenters are expected to use PowerPoint slide presentations and/or live Internet presentations. Conferences and Workshops will provide LCD projectors, screens, and PC laptop computers with wireless Internet connection. Speakers should plan to bring their PowerPoint slide show on a flash drive, CD-ROM, or DVD-ROM. Please be sure to also bring a backup of your presentation.

The deadline for lecture proposals is 1 November 2007. We welcome proposals that address the role of computers and technology as applied to genealogical topics, such as:

• Subscription Web sites and databases
• Research collaboration
• Genealogical methodology
• Digital sources (Web sites, CDs, DVDs, etc.)
• Web-based tools or services
• Research in ethnic, religious, or racial groups, or other topics
• Research in specific record types, such as census or vital records
• Research in U.S. or international regions
• Reference tools and finding aids
• Publishing (books, Internet, CD-ROMs, etc.)
• Hardware or electronic tools
• Software (including comparisons of features between several programs)
• Geographic hardware, software, and other tools
• Genetics or family medical history
• And similar topics

For additional information on conference topics and guidelines, visit Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter to view the complete announcement.

More historical documents to be released online

In the near future, we will see one of the largest historical document collections released on the internet. In August of this year, the Allen County Public Library, located in Fort Wayne, Ind., partnered with Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library and Salt Lake City’s Family History Library to digitize family history records, city and county information, and historic directories.

When complete, the results will be the most comprehensive collection of city and county histories on the Web and can be accessed free online at www.familyhistoryarchive.byu.edu. The digitized collections will have “every word” search capability that allows users to search the collection by name, location, date or other field. The search results are linked to high-quality digital images of the original publication.

Related Links:

We the People: More historical records available on Internet

Celebrate Arab-American Heritage Month with the National Archives

The National Archives, located in Washington, D.C., will celebrate Arab-American Heritage Month this November. Beginning on November 7, special book talks, film screenings and additional events will be held to commemorate moments in Arab-American history. All events are free and open to the public.

For more information and details on special events, please visit the full press release:
National Archives Celebrates Arab-American Heritage Month