Guide to Wolfram/Alpha for Genealogy and Family History Research by Thomas Macentee

Guide to Wolfram/Alpha

for

Genealogy and Family History

Research

by

Thomas Macentee

This is an ebook that I picked up at some point in time for free.  When we flew to Phoenix mid December I realized that only books I had from Amazon that I had downloaded on my kindle app would open on the plane.  So the book I had checked out from the library and downloaded on my kindle app would not.  Because of this, before I flew back to Ohio yesterday, I downloaded a few of the books I had in my kindle library that I had always meant to read but had not. One of these books was Thomas Macentee's Guide to Wolfram/Alpha for Genealogy and Family History Research.   It is a short and to the point book that is full of good ideas for use with the Wolfram/Alpha site.   The Wolfram/Alpha site is a free tech site that a lot of mathematicians use.  There is a more advanced membership that costs money and an app that has a charge too.  Still, much can be done at no cost.  The site is also a tool that can help people researching their family history.  For example if you are trying to figure out a word you can't read on a document,  type in the letters you can read with spaces in between and the Wolfram/Alpha search engine will give you a list of possibilities.  Or if you run across one of the tombstones that has the death date and age of the ancestor you can type in the death date and the minus sign and then  the age and get the birth date for your result.   Or perhaps an obituary has a date of the publication and says the person died last Wednesday.  Wolfram/Alpha is a fast way to figure out that death date.  Also one thing I find very cool is that if you are writing an article, for example, about the day a third great grandmother got married, you can type in the date and get the weather report for that day.  Specific information like that makes an article pop to life.  I enjoyed the book and found the information contained in it useful.  It is my understanding the book is still available for free.  Click on the link above at the book title for the link to that download information.  And click on the author's name above to learn more about him.   Below is a video of the author.  The second product he discusses at about one minute ten seconds is the Wolfram/Alpha site. 

  

Enemy Of The People by Terrence Petty

Enemy Of The People

by

Terrance Petty

This non fiction book was a free loan from Amazon Prime.  It is not a long book.  It is about the journalists in Bavaria that were part of a newspaper called the Munich Post which stood up and told the truth about what was happening in regards to Hitler.  People didn't listen and soon Hitler had so much power that the men and their families were in danger.  It is a good book and a quick read.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video that follows about the resistance to Hitler.  

My Top Ten Reads Of 2018

One of the things I like to do each January is to look back over the books I have read the year prior and try to select my ten favorite reads for the year.  It is always a hard choice as I generally have between fifteen and twenty favorites.  I read 37 books this year.  Many of them were excellent.  But below are the ten I settled on.  Click on the book titles to follow the links to where I reviewed the books. But know if you browse through my blog posts you will find the other books I have read  and many of them are excellent.  

10. The Giver Quartet by Lois Lowry

             The Giver

             Gathering Blue

             Messenger

             Son

9.  11-22-63 by Stephen King

8.  Second Glance by Jodi Picoult

7. Amity and Prosperity by Eliza Griswold 

6. Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian

5. The Great Influenza by John M Barry

4. Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

3. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset 

2. Fascism: A Warning by Madeleine Albright

1. Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

And The Mountains Echoed

by

Khaled Hosseini

     The January book selection for my local library book group is And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini.  This is the second book I have read by this author.  Several years ago I read his book A Thousand Splendid Suns.  Dr Hosseini writes about culture and life in Afghanistan.  Both of the books I have no read by him have helped me to understand what life is like there.  Both books made me realize, once again, how lucky I am to have been born in the United States in the time frame in which I am living.  And The Mountains Echoed is the story of a family who trades their youngest child to a rich childless couple so that the family can survive the upcoming harsh winter months.  It is an agreement that is for the benefit of all the parties involved but it results in great heart break with long lasting effects all around.  The book follows the lives of all those involved along with all those that the exchange touches.  It is a sad book and not a book I can say I liked the story line.  But I feel like it is an important book.  And it is a book that can foster understanding.  Khaled Hosseini has a charity that one can donate to.  Click HERE to learn more.  Also click on the author's name and book title above to find more information.  Enjoy the video that follows in which the author talks about his novel.   This best selling novel is one that I recommend people read in addition to this author's other books.  They are well written and clarify a culture that it behooves us to understand better in todays world.