Technology is GREAT

Most of us have embraced the ability to search on-line, not all have found the hidden internet-services available for free.

During my evening class in geneology I got a Skype-call from a friend in Oregon, Andrea Patersson. I enjoyed her and her daughter's company last summer when I showed them around her husbands ancestral area. I also was happy to be able to help them out with information on possible living relatives in south Sweden. Andrea confirmed at this call that they had made contact and she was thrilled! Possibly this would not have been such a success if it wasn't for the new technologies.

The same comments could be made on a conversation I had today with Barry Erickson in New Zealand. His ancestors made the long trip to NZ in the 1870's and with some swedish family members and geneology friends we managed to arrange a family reunion during Barry's and his wife's  visit to Sweden .

As Barry said, thanks to e-mail correspondance and Skype he has collected a lot of information not only from Sweden but also from Australia and other places the ancestors spread to.

The GF - Genealogical Society - in Stockholm - have had two very interesting lectures on DNA-geneology. The talks were also launched on Internet at:

            http://www.genealogi.net/filmade-foredrag-om-dna/     

I guess you need to understand swedish to get the full picture.

For me both lectures gave a very good insight to the new DNA-technology. Especially their use in genealogy.

I immediately ordered a test-kit from http://www.familytreedna.com/
And now eagerly waiting for the kit to start for me a new chapter in my research.

Wermlandsbilder.se

We continue to scan and publish photos from the large collection by CE Nygren.

One example - photo by photographer Anna Ollson (One of the "accepted" professions for women before 1900 was photographer). It show Mrs. Sara Nygren born 1817 - died 1900.

In addition we also try to scan, convert to pdf and publish different publications.
The latest addition is the Telephone Directory for Karlstad 1911-1912.

You will find it at:
http://www.nyed.se/Arkiv01/album/karlstads_kommunarkiv/Karlstad_Telekatalog_1911_small.pdf

The method used when scanning books is described in an earlier blogpost. And we must again tell you how impressed we are of the freeware "Scantailor" which helps us to produce a nice result.

"Scan Tailor is an interactive tool for post-processing of scanned pages. It gives the ability to cut or crop pages, compensate for skew angle, and add / delete content fields and margins, among others. You begin with raw scans, and end up with tiff's that are ready for printing or assembly in PDF or DjVu file."

User guide at: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/scantailor/index.php?title=User_Guide

A video made by Joseph Artsimovich at: http://vimeo.com/12524529

Demo av inscanning av foto, större än "scannerfönster"

Detta är ett exempel på hur man delscannar ett större fotografi och sedan med hjälp av programfunktion stickar/stitch delbilderna till en - utan synliga skarvar.

De fyra delinscanningarna är i original 2400x3600 pixel 24 bit 600 dpi JPEG ca 2,3 MB. Visserligen med FlipPal. men går lika bra med annan scanner.

Här de fyra inscanningarna - nerskalade till 800 pixel höga:

 

Och här den resulterande bilden - efter "stitch"*, bildbehandling och konvertering till s/v.

Även här är originalbilden nerskalad.

Funktionen finns i både Photoshop och Photoshop Elements och kallas "Photomerge". 

Old portrait photos - with name!

Scannar in bilder från Karlstads Kommunarkiv, CE Nygrens samling. Underbart med porträttfoto som har information om den fotograferade personen.
Detta exempel är på "Demoiselle" Amalia Hultman, född 1843 i St Petersburg. Död 1867 i Karlstad. Dotter till Skräddarmästare Simon Hultman och dennes hustru Sofia Amalia Serrander. Amalia dör ogift vid 24 års ålder av "Tuberculosis Pulm." Kortet är taget 1864 av fotograf F. Renard, Carlstad.

I continue scanning the enormous collection of portrait photos collected by CE Nygren late 1800/beginning 1900.

An example is a picture of "Demoiselle" Amalia Hultgren born 1843 in St Petersburg. Parents: master tailor Simon Hultgren and his wife Sofia Amalia Serrander. Amalia dies unmarried 1867 in Karlstad at the age of 24 years from "Tuberculosis Pulm." The picture was taken in 1864 by photographer F. Renard, Carlstad.

Leaving DjVu

Byte av påsiktsformat DjVu 

2013-12-05

Riksarkivet påbörjade 2003 en storskalig digitalisering av arkivhandlingar. Högupplösta bilder skapas för långtidsbevarande i filformatet TIFF och bildlagret uppgår i dag till ca 150 miljoner bilder, varav ca 70 miljoner bilder tillhandahålls på nätet.

För att göra det praktiskt möjligt att ta del av dessa bilder på nätet måste ett annat mindre bandbreddkrävande filformat användas. Riksarkivet valde att konvertera TIFF-bilderna till påsiktsformatet DjVu som utvecklades på AT&T Laboratories 1996. För att kunna ta del av bilderna måste användaren installera en gratis DjVu plug-in (insticksprogramvara) till sin webbläsare.

Den senaste tiden har det varit problem för Mac användare att få tillgång till DjVu-bilderna. Problemet beror på att företaget som utvecklar DjVu inte prioriterar nya versioner av plug-in programvaran i samma takt som Apple lanserar nya versioner av operativsystem och webbläsare. DjVu formatet har också begränsningar när det gäller att få tillgång till Riksarkivets digitala bilder från olika mobila enheter som t.ex. läsplattor.

Riksarkivet har därför påbörjat ett arbete som syftar till att byta ut påsiktsformatet DJVu. Det kommer att innebära en omfattande arbetsinsats och har därför delats in i en förstudie och ett genomförandeprojekt som är prioriterade under 2014.

GOOGLE TRANSLATE

National Archives began in 2003 a large-scale digitization of records. High resolution images are created for long-term preservation in the TIFF file format and image stock amounts to about 150 million images , of which about 70 million images are available online.

To make it practical to take some of these pictures on the net another less bandwidth-intensive file format have been used. National Archives chose to convert TIFF images to file format DjVu , developed at AT & T Laboratories in 1996. In order to take advantage of the images , the user must install a free DjVu plug-in (plug-in software) into their browser .

Recently, there has been a problem for Mac users to access DjVu images. The problem is because the company that develops DjVu does not prioritize new versions of the plug-in software at the same rate as Apple launches new versions of operating systems and browsers . DjVu format also has limitations when it comes to getting access to the National Archives' digital images from a variety of mobile devices such as e-readers.

The National Archives has begun work aimed at replacing DjVu . It will involve a large amount of work and has therefore been divided into a feasibility study and an implementation of projects that are a priority in 2014.