After my last post about PDFs I received an email from Mike, the creator of http://carputers.net, and his blog at
http://newsandtips.carputers.net. I visiting his site and following some of his links, I was inspiration to make an additional post in regard to managing Portable Document Format (PDF) files.

In in the last post I mentioned a PDF maker named CutePDF Writer. Another PDF producer, doPDF, is much like CutePDF, and its also freeware. Unlike the latter, doPDF is a self-contained program, doesn’t require 3rd party software to create PDF files as CutePDFs requires an installation of Ghostwriter. Here is the link to doPDF: http://www.dopdf.com/

Do you need to convert PDF to Word DOC? Then check out this link: How to convert PDF to Word DOC for free: a comparative test
http://www.freewaregenius.com/2008/03/28/how-to-convert-pdf-to-word-doc-for-free-a-comparative-test

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware, and operating system, (http://www.wikipedia.org). There are a several freeware programs to view PDFs, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader http://www.adobe.com, and Foxit Reader at http://www.foxitsoftware.com, to name a couple. Although most of our genealogy programs allow you to "print" to a PDF file, for most Windows programs you need an external program to create one of those files that can cost hundreds of dollars. There are a few programs available for free to print PDFs. Although you will find most are embed with an ad or watermark, or a popup Web ad, these programs will not be included in this article.

For a free way of making PDFs, I recommend CutePDF Writer (Freeware). Create professional quality PDF files from almost any printable document. FREE for personal, commercial, gov or edu use! No watermarks! No popup Web ads! Now supports 64-bit Windows. Requires PS2PDF converter such as Ghostscript (recommended). You can get the free GPL Ghostscript 8.15 here: http://www.cutepdf.com/download/converter.exe, and download CutePDF Writer here: http://www.cutepdf.com/download/CuteWriter.exe

Another program you may need is "Gios PDF Splitter And Merger ". Like CutePDF Writer the program is freeware. As its name implies, Gios PDF Splitter and Merger is a great tool that will help you merge and split PDF documents easily. Gios PDF Splitter and Merger is a PDF free tool developed for quicker and more efficient access to information needed from your PDF files, reorganizing them in a way that makes them easier to manage and handle. Like CutePDF Writer additional software is required for operation, in this case you need Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.1. Links to "Gios PDF Splitter And Merger", and "Microsoft .NET Framework" are available on following site: http://www.paologios.com/products/psm.aspx

Link: http://rhodesfamily.org/rhodes_bible_revere_mass.htm

Thanks to Susan Bremner, for the records from her grandmother Mabel Ella Rhodes' Bible , of Revere, Massachusetts. Check it out here: http://rhodesfamily.org/rhodes_bible_revere_mass.htm

Transcript is a program It makes transcribing from images so much
easier. A great thing about it is you can use it for free! Here is the link:
http://www.jacobboerema.nl/en/Freeware.htm

Transcript 2.3 sreenshot

Cinthia Ann Callaway/Wheeldon was my third great-grandmother. I took the photo about 15 years ago. It was an extremely difficult cemetary and grave to find. It was located 1/4 mile back in a farmer's field on a wooded hill, off a rural road, but it was worth the day it took to find it. This is most information I have seen on a single tombstone. It lists all of her children, with either their birthdate if they where living, and if they had died before her, it gave their death date. Definitely a genealogists dream to find so much information.

Do you want a program like PhotoShop, but you can’t afford it? I have a solution for you, its called GIMP. Don’t expect all the bells & whistles of PhotoShop, but if you are looking for a great basic image manipulation program, check out GIMP. GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc. GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted. Best of all it’s free to use! However, if you like it, I suggest making a donation to keep the project going. It’s available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X operating systems. Here is the link http://www.gimp.org/

FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON — The archaeologists were delighted to at last find the remains of George Washington’s boyhood home but got stumped when they looked for evidence of the cherry tree and rusty hatchet.

‘‘This was the setting for many important events in Washington’s life,’’ David Muraca, director of archaeology for The George Washington Foundation, announced Wednesday.

Most biographies offer little detail of the first president’s youth, so the discovery may provide insight into Washington’s childhood, he said. The site is located at Ferry Farm, just across the Rappahannock River from Fredericksburg, Va., about 50 miles south of Washington.

Philip Levy, associate professor of history at the University of South Florida, found evidence that the house was a one-and-a-half-story residence perched on a bluff overlooking the river. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080702-gw-house.html ‘‘If George Washington did indeed chop down a cherry tree, as generations of Americans have believed, this is where it happened,’’ said Levy. The researchers said the artifacts they have recovered did not include a hatchet.

Check it out here: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080702-gw-house.html

Link: http://phpgedview.rhodesfamily.org/index.php?ctype=gedcom&ged=egidius_rhodes.ged

The database of Ancestors of Dennis Rhodes, has Dennis Rhodes born 1922 Staffordshire, England, ancestry traced back to Egidius Rhodes, born 1615 Wolstanton, England. This database contains 493 individuals, 102 surnames 114 families, with the earliest birth as Francis Burgess, born in 1610 Audley, England. Here is the address: http://phpgedview.rhodesfamily.org/index.php?ctype=gedcom&ged=egidius_rhodes.ged

Thanks to Wayne Rhodes of the Jones Memorial Library in Lynchburg, Virginia for bringing us the following data. Check out their website at www.jmlibrary.org.
This genealogy starts with James Clinton Rhodes of Stillwater, Minnesota, born at Bridgewater, New York, b. June 24, 1824. It ends with Zachariah Rhodes of Providence, Rhode Island, born 1603, died 1665, who held various important offices in the colony; married about March 7, 1646, Joanna Arnold.

Here is its address: http://rhodesfamily.org/james_clinton_rhodes.html

From the Yahoo News website: "Researchers at the New England Historic Genealogical Society found some remarkable family connections for the three presidential candidates — Democratic rivals Obama and Clinton, and Republican John McCain.

Clinton, who is of French-Canadian descent on her mother's side, is also a distant cousin of singers Madonna, Celine Dion and Alanis Morissette. Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya, can call six U.S. presidents, including George W. Bush, his cousins. McCain is a sixth cousin of first lady Laura Bush."

Read on: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080325/ap_on_el_pr/candidates_genealogy