A couple months or so ago I bought a Chromebook . For those who not familiar, it is a small computer, very light, highly secure, and it starts up very quickly. Here are the specifications of my model .
My ChromeBook model has both WiFi and a small data plan from Verizon. I use it mainly as a WiFi but the Verizon connection is nice because there are a few occasions when you need to connect but just can’t find WiFi. Since the many of the functions do not work if you lose your WiFi connection, the data plan is very helpful. My understanding is that it is a prepaid plan (and you paid for it with your chromebook) and it is renewed every 30 days by either Google or Samsung. So if you use all your data for the month you have the option of buying more data from Verizon or just waiting until the next 30 cycle.
So after that lengthy introduction, I can get down to why I was writing to begin with. I am spending a few days in New York City and decided I would use the time to look up some genealogy stuff. I have my family tree on Ancestry and thought the Chromebook would be a great way to have my genealogy with me in case I needed to look something up.
Of course you could just do things the old fashioned way and write down what you need, But if you are in a place with lots of information, you could decide to look up someone or something which was not anticipated. In my experience that happens alot when you are in places with lots of information.
For example now I am sitting in the library of the New York Historical Society. I had requested a few items (books and manuscripts) this morning before I came. (This part of the post was writen while I was waiting for my requests.) And depending on the results, I can access the online catalog and request more with my Chromebook (since they have WiFi here). This is particularly nice if you find something unexpected and wish to follow-up. I can also take notes with my Chromebook.
I visited the New York City main library (5th Ave and 42nd St) and made good use of their WiFi. The National Archives in New York (Houston and Varick Streets) does not have WiFi but they do have public access computers. I did use the verizon connection with the Chromebook to briefly check some information I had on the Google Drive but should have thought to write down.
It was a very nice genealogical visit to New York City and I made good use of the Chromebook. I’ll havee to write a bit more about this visit and the Chromebook. I have uploaded this to my blog from Google drive with my Chromebook.
The best old news
We are relaly lucky to be living in a digital age. Why? You now have millions of pages of historical newspapers available to you (many at no charge) whereas in the past, you would have had to visit certain libraries and spend a lot of quality time viewing the archives and microfiche readers.Here are some great places to begin your search of newspapers from the last century and beyond.
Newspaper searches
Chronicling America: Historic American newspapers This free site allows you to search by date and keywords, as well as view newspaper pages from 1860-1922. It’s free because Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress as part of the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP).
NewspaperArchive.com They say they’re thea0world’s largest online newspaper archive, this site offers millions of newspaper articles from 1759 to the present. Paid membership is required to access records, but you can search for free to see if any helpful info is available.
Newspaper Abstracts
This website is comprised of newspaper abstracts and extracts, contributed by people to help others with the same interests expand their research.
Google News Archive
Google has quietly assembled a great search tool for historical archives linking you to both free and paid results. As a bonus, their search can automatically create timelines to show selected results from relevant eras.
Thanks for the comment. As submitted it was a bit hard to read, so I took the liberty of adding a few line breaks to improve readability.
So other than light weight is Chromebook a good choice for someone that has a Windows based PC?
I have WiFi so I can do the same on-line searching as someone with a Chromebook.
I also can run my genealogical program (Rootsmagic) with or without WiFi.
It would seem to me that in exchange for a few pounds I have to switch to some on-line sharing program like Gini and give up the quality source management I get with RootsMagic.
I like it because it is small and relatively inexpensive. And we use it around the house as a second computer when either my wife or I are using our main computer and the other wants to go online.
As a bonus, I can do my genealogy online when I travel since most places seem to have WiFi. Dick Eastman has written about using a Chromebook for genealogy several times.
But it sounds like you might like a laptop, notebook, or ultrabook better since you could run RootsMagic and not be so dependent on WiFi. Thanks for stopping by and commenting.