Established in 1978
Incorporated as a non-profit educational organization in Minnesota, USA


Affiliated with the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia             Headquartered in Lincoln, NE, USA

       Affiliated with the Germans from Russia Heritage Society               Headquartered in Bismarck, ND, USA

Contact us:  dstabler@bigfoot.com (webmaster)

The Computer Corner

by Duane Stabler, destabler@bigfoot.com.

August, 2000, republication of this article requires prior approval of the author.  Note the change in email address.  The previous email address is no longer useable.

Edited to remove broken links (websites that are removed from the web) 2/25/02

The 11th in a series of articles intended to make the user aware of various web sites and what they may offer. As usual, I have included a grab bag of stuff as I come across it.

*   If you've been using a genealogy database software program for any length of time, you probably have been asked to share a copy of your database file with another genealogist.  This question has been asked of me and I questioned just how to best share what I want to share with the requester. 

You may even have received requests from Web sites on the Internet or commercial software manufacturers to submit a computerized file of your genealogy research for inclusion at their Web site or on a CD- ROM.   George G . Morgan writes about this topic as published in an on-line newsletter from Ancestry.  I urge you to take a look at George’s suggestions: http://www.ancestry.com/learn/learning/gedcoms.htm

*   The site Ancestry.com also lists several State Resource pages, see

http://www.ancestry.com/learn/reference/state.htm. The fact sheet gives information for vital, census, land, court, military, and addresses to many resources by state.  Other pages (links are found in the beige sidebar under that state) include lists of databases available at Ancestry.com for that state, bibliographic information, maps, and links to more information. The USGenWeb   http://www.usgenweb.org  and World GenWeb http://www.worldgenweb.org projects often contain this information as well.

 

*   Did you ever get a file from someone and had no clue as to what software was used to create it.  This listing pertains to databases and might come in handy sometime.

Other databases are usually created in the following programs and will have these extensions:

Microsoft Access (all years): .mdb .adp .mdw .mda .mde

Microsoft Excel: .xls

Microsoft Exchange: all

Microsoft Outlook: all

Microsoft Word (all platforms, all years): .db  .ss  .mcw

Microsoft Works: .wps  .wks  .wdb  .wcm

Lotus 1-2-3: .wk*

Lotus 1-2-3 (DOS): .wj*

Paradox: .db

DBASE (any flavor): .dbf

ODBC: all

Text files: .cvs  .tab

Word Perfect:  .wp

 

*   MINNESOTA LAND PATENT RECORDS

271,762 records; Bureau of Land Management are found at: http://userdb.rootsweb.com/landrecords/.

 

*          

Wanted:  For those of you who have been following my articles, you’ll realize that I’ve been at it for a few years.  From time to time, it would be terrific if I had someone submit their own Computer Corner for publication.  So, I welcome others to submit them to me or the newsletter editor.  A new viewpoint about computers and genealogy would be good for us all!