| Volume III Issue 9 | December 1998 -- January 1999 | free |
Preparing for the Future . . . Looking
to the Past
Mike Dunton
| I know that this is a forum for reflecting
on topics relating to our family's history, however, as we are quickly approaching the New
Year, and the following New Millennium, I feel inclined to address you on the topic of the
Y2K. As a computer professional, I have been aware of what is now referred to as the Y2K or millennium bug for years. I am the steering committee chairman and Y2K coordinator for the company I work for. I understand the issues and feel that I have a fairly reasonable understanding of the situation. That said, I can no more predict the future than the next person. What I do believe is that there will be some disruptions in service. You have to decide how long of a duration you believe these interruptions will last and prepare accordingly. As genealogists and family historians, we often look to the past. This probably gives us a better |
understanding of historical trends.
We know what times were like and what our ancestors had to do to survive
them. Now is the time to take action and prepare for interruptions in our lives. As Internet genealogists, we have a lot of our research tied up in our computers. Archive your data off of your computers . . . onto CDs if possible. Print out as much hard copy information as you can. And organize your paper files. Do this with your personal papers too. I don't mean just genealogical ones. I mean, get your birth certificates, contracts, licenses, stocks and bonds, medical records, all organized and in a place that you can get to them. The plans you make and the preparations you take will not be wasted. They will apply to not only the Y2K events, but also helpful in preparing for job loss, natural disasters, etc. |
I know that I am getting this newsletter put together very late this month so you will have all of your holiday shopping complete. However, if you have other gift buying to do throughout the year, keep our amazon.com associated Webstore in mind.
For every purchase that you make, a small portion comes back to us in the form of a commission. Aside from myself, a couple of other people have used the service. So far, there is about $12.00 in commissions earned. They do not pay it out until it reaches $100.
As soon as income is actually earned, I will make a regular accounting available on this Website. The intent is to use the funds to register a domain name and move the site to a virtual server. I have done this for my business (and a couple of others) and know that it can be done for $328 for one year of service.
This service is not limited to family. Please spread the word to anyone that uses amazon.com. If they access amazon.com through our site, they get the same exact service and we get a commission to be used to further family genealogy and history.
"Announcements"
- Submit obituaries, marriage, military service, special events, and birth announcements
to keep us all up to date!
| No Events Submitted This
Month - Come On Cousins! |
Family-related Resources Available
For those Dunton cousins who have a common ancestry with Timothy Dunton, a pioneer of Westport, Maine, there is a new book available. "Family Records of Westport", by Bea Harriman, has been printed in softcover and comb-bound, and offered at the price of $23 plus $2 to cover book rate shipping. The check should be made out to The Westport Community Association, c/o Phyllis Siebert, 42 West Shore Road, Westport, Maine 04578. You can email Phyllis at bhchef1@gwi.net for more details.
Another Maine Dunton that you might be interested in is W. Herbert Dunton. In past issues he has been spotlighted in articles and there is even a Website dedicated to his "Life and Art". You also can order a copy of a catalog of his work, entitled "W. Herbert Dunton: A Retrospective", from the expert on the man, Michael R. Grauer. He is the curator of the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum in Canyon, Texas. The price is $10. Contact the author for details.
"Life On The Farm"
Being a brief regular accounting of the events from life on the Victor
Hugo Dunton farmstead in Oregon
| Again, the weather has proved smarter than
the meteorologists. What was supposed to be a cold Fall, was instead hot is some
parts of the country, and wet here in the Pacific Northwest. We don't have much
choice but to take what we get. Plan for the worst, and pray for the best. We finally did receive cold weather . . . record breaking at that. We have not had weather like this here for almost 10 years. As I write this, there is a fresh layer of snow on the ground. This makes life on the farm interesting. All of the animals still want water so you have to regularly go outside, break up the water on the cow trough and use that to take water to the other critters. It freezes over in a couple of minutes. |
The kids are excited about snow. It
is funny how a white Christmas seems like it should be normal and yet many parts of the
world never see that happen. I am thinking of my cousins in Australia. My
Great-aunt just got back from visiting them and it is summer there. This is hard for
me to imagine. Have a safe and wonderful Christmas and talk to you soon. Mike Dunton - 12/24/98 |
