30 January 2015

Internet Archive -- a FREE gem that just keeps getting better!

If you select the Beta Option, this is the interface you will see

The Internet Archive is a fabulous place to hang out.

I was surprised to see that I haven’t written about it as much as I thought!

My two favorite uses of it are:

1. The wayback machine.  You know how websites have a tendency to disappear or their URLs change, etc?  Well, via the wayback machine, you might find that there is a “saved” copy of the webpage you seek.

2. The textual archive. So many out-of-copyright (and mostly out-of-print) books are part of this archive.  Some of my favorites are old directories, compiled legal & legislative information, county histories, church histories & records, and many many more neat resources.

This all came to mind when I read the article Never trust a corporation to do a library’s job.  Though the focus of the article is how Google has abandoned some of it plans for archiving, it also talks glowingly how the Internet Archive has been (since 1996) and increasingly is expanding what it archives and makes FREELY available to us!

Read the article and play around with Internet Archive.  I warn you though, don’t start in unless you have a few hours to spend so you can get lost in not just the genealogically relevant bits and also in the video, film, audio and live music collections!

Did you come across anything that helped jump start your family history research project?  Or, just something incredibly fun?







Editor’s Note: Related posts ...






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29 January 2015

WWII Army Enlistment Records -- FREE via NARA


NARA has made available (for FREE), World War II Army Enlistment Records (Record Group 64). I searched on the word enlistment in the Access to Archival Databases (AAD).  There are over 7.5 million records in this collection!

You can search on a name in the AAD search box or if you click on “view records” all of them are listed ... a little bit too much to scroll through.

Each record has army serial number, name, residence state & county, place & date of enlistment, and year of birth.  The image above is for the 1st entry that I came across.

You can use the search box to reduce how many “hits” you receive.

You can search on just one person or search on who enlistment from your county.






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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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28 January 2015

Inmates + Indexing = a Win-Win for genealogists and inmates!


Indexes help us gain access to previously hidden records.

Indexing can be time-consuming and challenging.

Indexing gives one a sense of accomplishment.

Indexing is a win-win!

All of these are why I took note when I read ... Inmates volunteer for family history work, indexing

Inside county jails across Utah, Arizona and Idaho, nearly 2,300 inmates voluntarily meet as family history indexing teams to help organize genealogical records around the world...

The inmates in each of the county jails and two statewide facilities logged more than 7 million names in 2014...

Are you aware of similar efforts where incarcerated individuals are performing family history indexing or assisting with some other genealogy-related crowdsourcing project?





Editor’s Note: Related articles ...






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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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26 January 2015

NGS Awards Deadline Approaching: January 31



Arlington, VA, 26 JANUARY 2015: Each year, the National Genealogical Society recognizes excellence within the genealogy field through a number of awards. The deadline for several of these awards—January 31—is quickly approaching. NGS encourages its members, member societies, and other organizations to review the requirements and make submissions. Winners will be recognized at the NGS Family History Conference, to be held May 13-16, 2015 in St. Charles, Missouri.

The following NGS awards have a deadline of January 31:

·       Award of Honor: NGS recognizes an individual or organization for service in support of an NGS Family History Conference.

·       Award of Merit: NGS recognizes individuals or nonprofit organizations that have made significant contributions to the genealogy field over a period of five or more years.

·       Certificate of Appreciation: NGS recognizes an individual or organization for service during an NGS Family History Conference.

·       Distinguished Service Award: NGS recognizes an individual who has made exceptional contributions to the Society’s work.

·       National Genealogical Society Hall of Fame: NGS honors an individual of the past who has made significant contributions to genealogy and helped set the high standards by which genealogists work today. Nominations must be made by a genealogical society or other organization.

·       Fellow of the National Genealogical Society (FNGS): NGS recognizes an individual for service to the Society and outstanding work in the genealogy, history, biography, or heraldry fields.

·       Filby Award for Genealogical Librarianship: NGS recognizes a librarian whose primary focus is genealogy and local history. Sponsored by ProQuest, the recipient will receive a $1,000 prize.

More specific details about each award can be found at www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/awards. Information about NGS Hall of Fame nominations can be found at www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/hall_of_fame. Individuals and societies making nominations will receive an acknowledgement that their entry has been received. Questions about all awards and competitions may be directed t[email protected].


++++++



Founded in 1903, the National Genealogical Society is dedicated to genealogy education, high research standards, and the preservation of genealogical records. The Arlington, Virginia-based nonprofit is the premier national society for everyone, from the beginner to the most advanced family historian seeking excellence in publications, educational offerings, research guidance, and opportunities to interact with other genealogists.



“CG”, “Certified Genealogist”, “CGL”, and “Certified Genealogist Lecturer” are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists, and are used under license by authorized associates following periodic, peerreviewed competency evaluations. The board name is registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office.







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23 January 2015

The Seeming Indication of Their Death is Premature -- Tombstones may not just list the deceased!

Source for blank image: http://aremid.deviantart.com/art/The-Blank-Tombstone-119712435
Edited by DLR 


I am happy to report that my father and his wife are alive!

You may wonder why I feel the need to do this.  Well – they are both listed in Find-a-Grave!

Find-a-Grave, BillionGraves, CemeteryCensus, Interment.net are wonderful resources for our research.  We can learn a lot about the burial, death and maybe family members of the deceased.

Now, sometimes – a person is listed in Find-a-Grave for a particular cemetery and yet they are actually not buried there.  A surviving spouse may have remarried and is now buried with the first spouse (or vice versa). A person may have died elsewhere and is now buried with other family members in a completely different location. Maybe the person died and is buried in the cemetery and no-one ever updated the tombstone. 

There are also other reasons why we have to be careful in how we interpret the information we found on these websites – information based on a death certificate or an obituary (which might be in error on where the burial took place), people get reburied elsewhere, graves get moved, etc.  All of these factors can impact the accuracy of the information provided.

In the case of my father and his wife, it just so happens that in preparing for what is eventual for all of us, they went ahead and purchased a cemetery plot, had a tombstone  engraved with their names and birth dates and have arrangements in place for when they die for the stone to be updated. 

Their current listing has their death date as “unknown.”  This is true.  It’s just not unknown in the sense that we don’t know when they died, it’s unknown in the sense that they are not yet deceased!

Just a reminder to always keep looking for records and information even when we think we might have an answer – we might not have the full story.

Did I also mention that the cemetery is not in the community where they have lived for over 20 years?  It’s located where they met and grew up ... and, that’s a story for another day.








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22 January 2015

National Genealogical Society - December 2014 Quarterly Now Online



Volume 102, Number 4 of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly is now available online in the Members Only section of the website.

Feature Articles
+ Identifying Stephen Lockwood of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Easton, New York, Husband of Abigail Marshall, by Frederick C. Hart Jr., CG, FASG
+ John Walton, English Immigrant, New Hampshire Native, or Phantom?, by James Walton
+ Genealogical Research in Iowa, by Marieta A. Grissom


and other regular features ...



Editor’s Note: Please note that online access to the NGS Quarterly (NGSQ) and NGS Magazine are available only as long as your membership is active. You can access the NGSQ archive – the index is available for FREE and as a member you can access archives encompassing 1970, 1972–74, 1976, 1978–current.


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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.
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Republication of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission to [email protected]. All republished articles may not be edited or reworded and must contain the copyright statement found at the bottom of each UpFront article.
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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to [email protected]
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21 January 2015

Genealogy References in Unexpected Places

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Duhamel 

If you are reading this post you are familiar with genealogy and family history research.

You probably also have a passing awareness of the tv shows which have helped popularize our particular passion (see PBS’ "Genealogy Roadshow" Season Two Premieres 13 January 2015 and WDYTYA Returns! Are you set to watch or record?).

The other day, my daughter mentioned to me that she found that Josh Duhamel’s Wikipedia page includes a link to a rootsweb page for the Duhamel family.

For all the Wikipedia pages I have read, I have to admit that this was a first and kind of neat – a Wikipedia page with an explicit genealogy link, beyond the Wikipedia pages for those who have had episodes on WDYTA, Genealogy Roadshow, Finding Your Roots, etc., which link back to their episodes.

Have you also stumbled across a genealogical reference some place unexpected?













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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Republication of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission to [email protected]. All republished articles may not be edited or reworded and must contain the copyright statement found at the bottom of each UpFront article.
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20 January 2015

Rescued Film Archive



Archives – we love archives of all types!


Photographer Levi Bettweiser ... recently came across one of his biggest finds so far: 31 undeveloped rolls of film shot by a single soldier during World War II. Bettweiser tells us he found the film rolls in late 2014 at an auction in Ohio.

The article shares many images and there is also a video [5th image down] where he talks about the film and developing it (you can also access this video on the main page of The Rescued Film Archive).  The video runs about 10 minutes and I think you’ll find it worth your time. Besides discussing the actual developing of the film, he talks about using modern digitizing technology to see things that he couldn’t see on the negative with his naked eye. He poignantly states that rescued film is important as it represents “The photographers mark in history and these moments in time were important to me.”

As someone who “back in the day” did film developing with my dad – we too had a kitchen/bathroom film developing darkroom arrangement – it was fun to watch and be reminded of some of the fun times my dad and I shared doing this.  Though I do not develop nor print film anymore, I am still an avid photographer.  I have no pretensions of being particularly skilled at it and I just love the capturing of unique moments in time – moment which will not be repeated ever again exactly the same way (see Ramblings from a train ... using travel as an opportunity to “see” the world as it is now and as it was! which includes photos I took from said train ride)

Any photograph taken through time has the potential to show us a community, an event, people, and much more that are relevant to the story of our family.

This is what makes The Rescued Film Project so invaluable.

The Rescued Film Project is an online archive gallery of images that were captured on film between the 1930's and late 1990's.  Each image in our archive was rescued from found film from locations all over the world, and came to us in the form of undeveloped rolls of film.  We have the capability to process film from all era's.  Even film that has been degraded by heat, moisture, and age.  Or is no longer manufactured.

This project doesn’t actively seek out undeveloped film, it develops found film.


These are all great projects in that they make available to us what was once, in some ways, lost. 

Back in the days of camera film, I know that on more than one occasion I would come across a purchases disposable camera or a retired camera and realize that there was a partially used roll of film with photos taken at some time of some place.  Fortunately, I never disposed of any cameras without making sure they are empty and that is sometimes beyond the photographers control especially if they died soon after, a catastrophe struck, a camera was lost, or stolen (as my daughter's was in Spain several years ago), etc.

This also has relevance today with digital cameras and cell phones and tablets and iPads, etc., that serve as cameras.  If you don’t regularly download your photos from these devices, the images on them can become the equivalent of undeveloped rolls of film left in a camera – they could become lost forever.

Let’s all do our part to make sure that taken images will be available to future generations.





Editor’s Note: Some related posts ...












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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.
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19 January 2015

Martin Luther King Jr + Genealogy = the "Root" of the Man He Became

Source: http://friendsnas.org/education/S4_civilRights/Roots_of_MLK.pdf

Today we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.  The impact he made on our society is monumental.  Many online and published works can tell you about the man and all that he did. Just Google his name, grab a cup of coffee, and be prepared to spend some time learning about him.

Since this is a genealogy blog, it seems fitting to share resources about his genealogy.  Here is a collection of found posts about the genealogy of Martin Luther King Jr.

+ The Genealogy of Martin Luther King Jr. (The Legal Genealogist, 2012)
+ Ancestry of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (About.com, Kimberly Powell)
+ Dr. Martin Luther King Jr: Brief Genealogy & Family Tree Download (GenealogyBank, 2014 – includes newspaper articles about Dr. King and his family)
+ The Genealogy of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Upfront with NGS, 2014 – gives reference to a document produced by the National Archives From the Roots of a Tree: The Genealogy of Martin Luther King, Jr. which is now available through a different link on the Friends of the National Archives-Southeast Region page – this presentation includes excerpts from found documents)

So, as many enjoy today as a Federal Holiday, let’s not forget the man in whose name we celebrate this holiday and his ancestry, the "root" of the man he became.










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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
Republication of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission to [email protected]. All republished articles may not be edited or reworded and must contain the copyright statement found at the bottom of each UpFront article.
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16 January 2015

Hart Island -- NYC’s Public Burial Ground -- Over 1 Million Burials -- Trying to Reveal Their Stories



Last year, in Upfront with NGS Mini Bytes, we had a brief blurb about Hart Island ...

Hart Island is NYC’s Public Burial Ground and the Department of Correction has created a database of Hart Island Burial Records. You can search on name, age, date of death, place of death (e.g., which hospital), etc.

I was reminded of this cemetery when a new online interactive project was announced last month, New York's forgotten finally remembered: Forbidden island where over one million 'unknown' people are buried in a mass grave reveals its secrets in online database.  This article is full of images from the facility and there is a video on the page (here’s a link to it) you will want to watch which talks a bit about the island and its history, the lack of access to the island, and The Hart Island Project with its The Traveling Cloud Museum telling the stories of some who are buried there.

Giving voices to those who can no longer (or ever could) is a large part of what we do as family historians.  We also desire the ability to show our respect for our deceased family members by visiting where they are buried – hopefully, someday, that might be true for those who have family buried on Hart Island.

Do you know of other public burial locations where visitors are not allowed?






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copyright © National Genealogical Society, 3108 Columbia Pike, Suite 300, Arlington, Virginia 22204-4370. http://www.ngsgenealogy.org.
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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.
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Republication of UpFront articles is permitted and encouraged for non-commercial purposes without express permission from NGS. Please drop us a note telling us where and when you are using the article. Express written permission is required if you wish to republish UpFront articles for commercial purposes. You may send a request for express written permission to [email protected]. All republished articles may not be edited or reworded and must contain the copyright statement found at the bottom of each UpFront article.
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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to [email protected]
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