This week's news includes:

• The Governor of Maine has signed a bill limiting access to Maine's vital records until the passage of 100 years.
• Family Forest is expanding its collection of eBooks.
• RootsMagic has released a minor update to RootsMagic 4.
• The Digital Library of Georgia has released new historic Atlanta newspapers at http://dlg.galileo.usg.edu/atlnewspapers.
• The 13th Annual Conference on Computerized Genealogy and Family History, traditionally held at Brigham Young University in Provo in March, will take place at the Salt Palace on April 26 and 27, immediately followed by the four-day Annual Conference (April 28-May 1) of the National Genealogical Society, also at the Salt Palace.
• Godfrey Memorial Library Board of Trustees member Ed Laput has completed photographing his 100th cemetery and has submitted his work to the library.
• The Guys provide an update on the Library of Michigan crisis.
• George conducted a webinar for the Southern California Genealogical Society titled "Getting the Most from a Genealogy Conference," and it can be viewed online at http://www.scgsgenealogy.com/RootsTV.htm.
• Gale has published a new collection of 300 years of U.K. newspapers, the 17th and 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers and 19th Century British Library Newspapers.
• Leonardtown, MD. is sponsoring the Maryland to Kentucky Reunion 2010 in July 16 -18th. Check at http://mdtokyreunion.club.officelive.com for more information and registration.
• Rodney has set up a self-updating page of links that The Guys have cited in the podcasts. Check it out at http://vc.id.au/gg/gglinks.html.

Phil Wright is looking for feedback on a potential new online genealogy service. You can respond to him at phil.wright@familytreeonline.com.

This week's listener email includes:

• Mike is upset by another genealogist who took and published his family tree data at Ancestry.com.
• Kay wrote to indicate that there are more states in Ancestry.com's 1860 enhanced census images that have problems.
• Rich asked for suggestions about locating information about his 4th great-grandfather and pauper graves.
• Jamie asks about the safety and security of having the society participate in social networking sites such as Facebook.
• Michael is interested in researching his estranged father's family before making contact with him and his paternal grandmother. Drew suggests using Veromi.net to begin some public records searches.
• Kathy asks about the permissions to sail/emigrate from England.

 

In response to Beverly's inquiry about options for genealogy home study courses, George compiled the following list:

 

National Genealogical Society: Home Study Course

http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/homestudy_course_cd

 

Family Tree University

http://www.familytreeuniversity.com

 

National Institute for Genealogical Studies

http://www.genealogicalstudies.com

 

Boston University – Certificate in Genealogical Research

http://professional.bu.edu/cpe/Genealogy.asp

 

Brigham Young University – Independent Study (Free Courses)

http://ce.byu.edu/is/site/courses/free.cfm

 

New England Historic Genealogical Society Online Seminars

http://www.newenglandancestors.org/events/online_seminars.asp

Drew issues his first research challenge: Find Drew's paternal grandparents (William Henry Smith, his wife Elizabeth, and their sons William, Charles, and George) in the 1920 census for northern New Jersey.