NBC TV series "Who Do You Think You Are?" Rescheduled for Fall of 2009

According to the latest information, NBC's genealogy-reality TV series Who Do You Think You Are?, which was scheduled to premier on April 20th, will now begin airing sometime this fall. The exact date is not known. If you want to know more about the show, copy and paste the following URL into your browser:

<http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/>

Split and/or Merge PDF documents

When doing genealogy research on the Internet, records and information are frequently available for downloading as PDF files. These PDF files often consist of multiple pages – some of which are of little or no interest. In other cases, records and information to be downloaded are in groups of PDF files for which there may be a desire to end up with only a single PDF file.

For Windows users the solution is only a download away. The basic version of “PDF Split and Merge” allows the splitting of large PDF files into smaller parts and the merging of multiple PDF files into a single file. The basic version is free. Although there is an almost-free enhanced version that has more features, the basic version should cover most needs.

“PDF Split and Merge” is available for downloading at the following URL:

<http://www.pdfsam.org/?page_id=32>

Select “Win32 Installer” located under “Download, Basic, pdfsam basic 1.1.2." Click on "Save" at the bottom of the subsequent screen. The software will be downloaded automatically to your computer (to wherever your downloads are saved). Next you will need install the software.

A tutorial on how to use the software is included as part of the download.

Note: It may be necessary to uncheck the box “Compress output file/files” to successfully perform both separation and merge operations.

Ancestry Revises Criteria Used for Searching

Responding to customer input, Ancestry.com has revised the criteria that it uses with respect to searching based upon user specified birth and/or death years. The changes, implemented April 29, 2009, are intended to help reduce the listing of irrelevant search results.

If the user specifies both a birth and death year for an ancestor, Ancestry’s search will cover a range of 5 years before the specified birth year through 2 years after the specified death year. For example, if the specified birth year is 1850 and the death year is 1875, the search range will cover from 1845 through 1877.

If only the birth year is specified by the user, Ancestry’s search will cover a range of 5 years before the specified birth year through 102 years after the specified birth year. For example, if the specified birth year is 1850 and there is no death year specified, the search range will cover from 1845 through 1952.

If only the death year is specified by the user, Ancestry’s search will cover a range of 105 years before the specified death year through 2 years after the specified death year. For example, if the specified death year is 1875 and there is no birth year specified, the search range will cover from 1770 through 1877.

Obviously, better results should be achieved when both birth and death years are specified by the user.