UpFront with NGS: Cemetery

Showing posts with label Cemetery. Show all posts

10 July 2017

Find A Grave – the same and yet different!

Find A Grave – the same and yet different!

Are you an avid fan of Find A Grave? Do you regularly add memorials to it?

If yes, check out the Beta revision of the website now available for you to review and also use.

The easiest way to get to the new site is to go to the old one and then click where it says “Changes are coming to Find A Grave. See a preview now.” Or, you can click here. When you get to the new page, a window will pop up telling you a bit about why the website is changing.

The search feature is quite different looking though seems to provide the same options. I often search on a surname within a particular county and in a way, it’s even easier as when I clicked on Cemetery Location and started typing in Wake, it then brought up Wake County, North Carolina, United States of America and I didn’t have to work my way down the old drop down menu.

As expected the look and feel of each memorial page has changed and the same information is still there, just organized and presented a bit differently.

Please do provide your feedback on the Beta version. In the bottom right-hand corner of each page is a mustard colored bubble which you can click on and provide feedback.

Do know that both the original and the Beta version are fully workable. You can use either platform to make changes to existing memorials or add new memorials.

You can easily go between the two versions of the website by using the toggles on the main page of each directing you to the other version.

What do you think? What is your favorite “new” aspect? Are there any older elements that you think don’t work quite as well in the Beta?

REMEMBER – your feedback on the Beta site is both encouraged and welcome!

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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 UpFront@ngsgenealogy.org. 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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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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02 June 2017

Digging for Genealogy Gold -- New Resources, 2017 Edition -- Part #1

Digging for Genealogy Gold -- New Resources, 2017 Edition

Part #1

I have my annual present for you ...

For the last couple of years, I have created, about once per year, multi-part series called “20 Free and (Relatively) New Genealogy and Family History Resources” which followed a series previously called Mini-Bytes.

As I trawl genealogy newsletters, blogs, and elsewhere, I keep an email folder of all the news items that aren’t “big enough” for a full post and yet sound useful for genealogists and family historians. These range from how-to type information to databases. There is so much information out there and it’s impossible to fully blog about most of it.

In order that those collected don’t go to waste, I am again creating a few posts where I present you with 20 “relatively” new resources and the associated hyperlink. That’s it; a very no frills list. If the title doesn’t convey enough info I will add a note about what content caught my eye ...

Some of these may seem familiar to you and being reminded of a great resource is never a bad thing! Hopefully many more are new to you.

DUTCH CARIBBEAN

Dutch Caribbean Digital Platform (article) (database)

FINLAND

Military Records [in Finnish, have browser translate]

IRELAND

Ireland Valuation Books Translator

4. Irish Soldiers’ Records

NORWAY

1891 Census

SARAWAK (Malaysia)

6. Launch of the Brooke Archive Online -- Records representing the first 100 years of Sarawak’s history, previously hidden away at Oxford University’s Bodleian Library

UNITED KINGDOM

Staffordshire World War One documents made public (article) (database + check out all the other databases also found on page!)
HEICS – Ships Logs and Journals of the Honorourable East India Company Service

The (British) Jewish Chronicle Archive (back to 1841)
Criminal Transportation [to Australia]

UNITED STATES

Minnesota Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church Online Catalog
Maine WPA Cemetery Plans
Lexington (KY) Early Marriage Indexes of African Americans Available Online
New York Public Library Digitizes 137 Years of New York City Directories
The American Legion Digital Archive
Westmoreland County (VA) Cohabitation Registers (article) (finding aid with link to records)
Houston Herald (MO) Archive (back to 1881)
Historic Luzerne County (PA) records available online in new deeds database (article) (database)
Queens (NY) Library Archives Go Digital (article) (database)
Swedish American Newspapers (English & Swedish)

Editor’s Note: As of today, each of the above links worked. Now, whether the links in any of the identified articles work, I cannot vouch for that. And, armed with the information provided, it should be relatively easy to get to determine where the discussed database currently resides. If you get really stuck, drop me an email and I’ll try to ferret out the recalcitrant link or cross out my entry in the above list!

Editor’s Note: Know of a neat resource that you think might be a hidden gem? Drop an email to UpFront@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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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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27 February 2017

Historian Gives Names to Forgotten of Sault Ste. Marie Potter's Field

Historian Gives Names to Forgotten of Sault Ste. Marie Potter's Field

A few years ago, I visited the U.P. (Upper Peninsula of Michigan for those not in the know), including Sault Ste. Marie. A memorable trip as I almost got a speeding ticket while visiting the area. Fortunately, a kindly cop just warned me to watch for moose as on dark narrow roads they could be found and that typically a speeding car will lose if there is a run in with a moose.

Remembering that trip, my radar often notices news from the area. The most recent bit of news is actually of interest to genealogists! Forgotten mass grave in the U.P. finally gets recognition tells how one person, Caroline Grabowski, researched a long-abandoned potter’s field.

“Nobody in town knows the potter’s field is here,” said Caroline Grabowski, a Soo resident, author and historian who discovered the grave site a few years ago and made it her mission to bring it to the public’s attention. “Nobody knows who’s buried there.”

But she does. She pored over documents at the county courthouse, old newspapers at the library and burial records at the cemetery, trying to piece together the lives of these unknown dead, who were buried here between 1890 and 1935. She was compelled to find out who they were.

“They were the very destitute, the poorest of the poor,” she said. “These truly were the forgotten. There was nobody for them.”

The article provides stories for many of those buried in this particular potter’s field.

Who do you know who has put names to those long unidentified in a cemetery?

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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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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

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Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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08 February 2017

Newspaper + Cemetery = Partnership to Benefit Genealogists

Newspaper + Cemetery = Partnership to Benefit Genealogists

I recently read about how a newspaper (The Petoskey (MI) News-Review) partnering with a cemetery to make archival material more accessible, News-Review, cemetery team up for online archiving project.

A project involving the News-Review and Petoskey’s Greenwood Cemetery aims to boost public access to past news items that help form a local historical record.

The News-Review recently turned over about 10 carloads of its archival material — such as bound volumes and microfilmed copies of newspapers, photos and clip files — to the cemetery, which will use them to expand on its online offerings of local historical materials.

Greenwood superintendent Karl Crawford said the digital archive stems from the cemetery’s efforts over the past three decades to build a comprehensive collection of local obituaries — intended to ensure that all who were interred there are accounted for. Along with online postings of obituaries, Greenwood in recent years began scanning complete local newspaper issues from the past…

In my experience, it’s rare for a cemetery to spearhead an effort such as this. More typically, large subscription entities (e.g. GenealogyBank, Newspapers.com) have been building their newspaper archives, and sometimes, a local library or genealogy society creates a newspaper database such as what this article discusses. And, less frequently, you find an individual effort (e.g. Fulton Postcards) to make digitized newspapers available for free. Even with all those efforts, many newspapers are still not digitized!

So, it’s kind of neat to see that there are other relevant entities taking the initiative to preserve not just obituaries and local newspapers. Do visit the Greenwood Cemetery website, and notice on the left-hand menu that you can select Genealogical Research, Newspaper Research, History Research and more. You can even access a history file on an individual that was created in support of the cemetery’s history tours! How cool is that ?!?! Essentially, mini genealogies are available on the website of the cemetery where they are buried!

What cemetery do you know of which has gone above and beyond in terms of documenting its inhabitants?

What local project has preserved invaluable records or made more accessible valuable information?

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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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Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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08 March 2016

20 Free and (Relatively) New Genealogy and Family History Resources, 2016 Version, Part 2

My present continues ... 20 more FREE (or mostly FREE) resources ...

CANADA

1. Soldiers of the First Word War: 1914-1918

2. Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital Cemetery Installation

3. Home Children, 1869-1932

CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA + MEXICO

4. Biblioteca Digital del Patrimonio Iberoamericano (English, Spanish & Portuguese interfaces)

FLANDERS

5. FRANDRICA.BE -- Flanders Heritage Library bundles the forces in the field of digitisation in Flemish heritage libraries, particularly of the six partners of Flanders Heritage Library, in a virtual Flemish heritage library.

POLAND

6. Nekropole – in Polish (use Google translate or similar)

UNITED KINGDOM

7. Poignant stories of first world war's conscientious objectors go online

8. Essex Record Office Parish Registers ($) -- registers from over 400 parishes, covering the present county of Essex, including Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock, and also those parts of north-east London that used to be in Essex. Most parishes have registers from the 17th or 18th century onwards, but a few go back to 1538

9. The Medical Consultation Letters of Dr William Cullen – (1710-1790) at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh

10. First World War Hospital Diaries Now Online

UNITED STATES

11. Smithsonian Libraries Digital Library

12. The Upper St. John River Valley (ME and New Brunswick

Canada

)

13. Dinwiddie County (VA) Archives and Historical Documents -- names from files and cases located in the Dinwiddie Circuit Court that date from 1830 to 2000

14. 19^th Century Russian Immigrants to USA

15. Free People of Color in Louisiana

16. Missouri State Penitentiary: 1836-1891

17. Green-wood cemetery (NY) – Civil War Biographies Archive

18. Chronicling America’s Historic German Newspapers and the Growth of the American Ethnic Press

19. Kentucky County Court Records Now Online (via ExploreUK)

20. Free for All: NYPL Enhances Public Domain Collections For Sharing and Reuse

Editor’s Note: Know of a neat resource that you think might be a hidden gem? Drop an email to UpFront@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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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30 December 2015

Cemetery + Art Installation = a neat idea!

Earlier this year we discussed, Cemeteries -- Should they be Quiet Places of Respect or Vibrant Places Used by the Living or What?!??!

I recently came across a mention of the “art” in cemeteries in the form of the tombstones and buildings found. Something which I have long appreciated in the same way that I love to visit historic buildings to check out the architecture.

I then learned that cemeteries have hosted art installations.

I love this positive attention that cemeteries are receiving as places of “art” where the living can appreciate art already permanent to the cemetery or art that has been placed temporarily in a cemetery. What a great way to honor ancestors by visiting the places where they are memorialized as one appreciates art.

Some of where I recently visited virtually to learn more about this idea of art and cemeteries are:

+ Cemetery Art Education — Sleepy Hollow Cemetery

+ “Cryptophonic” Sound Art Event at Atlanta's Oakland Cemetery

+ Outdoor art installations at historic cemetery, Historical Society

+ Contemporary Art at Forest Hills Cemetery - Spark Art

+ Public art project illuminates cemetery

+ Art installation brings new life to Victorian cemetery

+ Brandywine Cemetery Haunted Attraction

Has a cemetery near you hosted or plan to host some form of public art installation (visual, auditory, etc)?

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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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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02 December 2015

Hidden Graves Uncovered

It is always great to hear about a “reveal” that involves a cemetery and tombstones!

We often hear about long-neglected cemeteries and this is the first time that I’ve read about a newly discovered large-scale cemetery (okay a bit of an exaggeration as I gather that local genealogists were aware that it existed though the headstones had long been buried). Hidden Eloise graves uncovered in Westland tells the story ...

Locals have long heard about the hidden graveyard from that time. Now, those graves have been found and those who found them have a new mission: getting Wayne County to recognize the site as a cemetery.

The history of Eloise in Wayne County is more like Michigan folklore. It originally housed the mentally ill and is nearly as old as the state, dating back to 1839. It closed in 1984.

What appears to be a lonely field alongside Henry Ruff Road in Westland is a graveyard that three months ago was unmarked. It sits several hundred yards from the old Eloise mental hospital.

The article is an interesting read and again reminds us of what just a few people can accomplish.

To learn more about Eloise, check out the Friends of Eloise FB page. There appears to be an active gofundme effort to fund the creation of an Eloise Museum.

Also recently reported was the discovery of coffins in NYC, Old Coffins From 1800s Discovered Underground.

This reminds us that cemeteries are being “unearthed” all the time and that just because you don’t find burials listed on Find A Grave, BillionGraves, Interment.net, or other cemetery records websites, it doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.

Editor’s Note: Posts on related topics

+ Cemeteries -- Should they be Quiet Places of Respect or Vibrant Places Used by the Living or What?!??! (2015)

+ FREE Cemetery Record Access from NEHGS (30 Oct - 7 Nov 2015)

+ National Cemeteries, State Veteran Cemeteries and Confederate Cemeteries all honor those who served (2014)

+ Using Radar To Do Cemetery Mapping and Find Unmarked Graves -- Fascinating! (2013)

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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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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Follow NGS via Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Twitter