UpFront with NGS: May 2012

31 May 2012

Library and Archives Canada Launches Its Immigration Heritage Online Kits

If you do research in Canada, especially into that of immigrants, I have some good news for you!

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has released immigration heritage kits online. Ultimately 24 kits will be released. The first three released relate to Chinese, Japanese and East Indian communities. Each kit includes lists of digital resources for a specific ethno-cultural group, allowing users to access photographs, works of art, texts, music and all other material available for that respective group.

Find out more by browsing the different immigration heritage kits on LAC’s website.

Editor’s Note: the linked webpage also provides access to relevant databases on the LAC site.

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30 May 2012

Big Thanks to All The 2012 NGS Conference Volunteers!

Local Host Committee (from left to right) - Jean Woll (Publicity), Kenny Burck (Local Host Chair), Sandy St. Martin (Registration), Deb Cyprych (Blog), Liz Stratton (Hospitality), Jean Nathan (Volunteers), Patricia Van Skaik (Night at the Library), Barbara Gargiulo (Vendor)

Photo Courtesy of Scott Stewart, official conference photographer

I would like to thank all the volunteers who helped with the NGS 2012 Family History Conference in Cincinnati. The volunteers spent countless hours working at attendee check-in, exhibitor check-in, hospitality booth, as exhibit hall badge checkers, room monitors, Demo Area coordinators, scanning assistants, and "Ask Me" helpers. Without their generosity of spirit and time, the conference would not have been a success.

Special thanks to the Local Host Society Committee. They have been working with me for over two years planning the Cincinnati conference.

                        Local Host Chair:                                  Kenny Burck
                        Hospitality Chair:                                  Liz Stratton
                        Volunteer Chair:                                    Jean Nathan
                        Registration Chair:                                Sandy St. Martin
                        Vendor Chair:                                       Barbara Gargiulo
                        Publicity Chair:                                     Jean Woll
                        Blog Chair:                                           Deb Cyprych
                        Night at Library Chair:                           Patricia Moseley Van Skaik

Julie Miller, CG
Conference Chair

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29 May 2012

Death Records: A Check List of Ten Documents Every Genealogist Should Acquire

Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh, NC

Bill Dollarhide has a great article on the GenealogyBlog [Leland & Patty Meitzler] which talks about the ten places to look for a death record. As stated “All ten sources should be obtained for every ancestor on your pedigree chart, and every member of a family on your family group sheet.”

As you read the article, do pay attention to the “rules” ... not only did they give great advice, they were quite fun to read! For example

Dollarhide’s rule No. 2: When visiting a funeral home, wear old clothes, no make-up, and look like you have about a week to live – the funeral director will give you anything you ask for if he thinks you may be a customer soon.

Are there other places where you look for death records? If so, please share!

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28 May 2012

Center for Jewish History and Routes to Roots Foundation Expand Online Access to Family History Research

For those researching Jewish ancestry, check out this announcement ...

The Center for Jewish History, one of the world's foremost Jewish research and cultural institutions, has announced a cooperative agreement between the Center and The Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots Foundation (RTRF).

The new collaboration brings together some of the world's most comprehensive databases for researching Jewish genealogy. The Center will incorporate RTRF's Eastern European Archival Database and Image Database into its online catalog, vastly expanding access to a wealth of genealogical resources relating to Jewish and civil records from Belarus, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland and Ukraine. Select archive data has also been added to the database from Russia and Romania. Coupled with the vast trove of the Center's partner collections, researchers will soon be able to gain enhanced free access to some of the most comprehensive family history research tools anywhere in the world.

Read the full article.

What other resources are great for those researching Jewish Ancestry? Please let us know your favorites!

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25 May 2012

St. Louis Genealogical Society Completes Indexing 1.6 Million Burials

Do you know what these people have in common? Engineer, James Eads; Blues hockey player, Barclay Plager; Negro Leagues baseball player, James "Cool Papa" Bell; sports broadcaster, Jack Buck; slave, Dred Scott; poet, Sara Teas-dale; educator, Susan Blow; and humanitarian, Tom Dooley?

They are just a handful of the 1.6 million people buried in St. Louis City or St. Louis County, Missouri, who have been indexed by the St. Louis Genealogical Society. This unique project was completed entirely by dedicated volunteers who donated thousands of hours to finalize this massive task. With the publication of its fourth and final cemetery CD, the society has now indexed every known cemetery with only one exception in St. Louis City and County.

St. Louis Genealogical Society is now proud to announce the Index to St. Louis Burials, volume 4, containing more than 270,000 names of people buried in nineteen cemeteries in St. Louis City and County. Volumes 3 and 4 of the Index to St. Louis Burials are available for sale from the St. Louis Genealogical Society, #4 Sunnen Drive, St. Louis, Missouri, 63143 or in the online store at www.stlgs.org. The burial data from volumes 1 and 2 are available free of charge to members on the StLGS website.

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The Best Genealogy Apps [really Software]

PC Magazine recently published a piece on the “Best Genealogy Apps.” Though the title is a bit misleading as the article really covered genealogy software and not “Apps” as we have come to think of in this age of iphones and android-based phones!

That said ... what is your favorite genealogy software program?

And, speaking of Apps, Tamura Jones has published a list of Free Android Genealogy Apps and Paid Android Genealogy Apps. Are there similar lists for apple products?

Editor’s Note: As with other articles mentioned posted online, always check to see if some comments have been posted. Often, posted comments are as informative, if not more so than the original article.

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24 May 2012

Home is Where The History Is

My house [Wake County Real Estate Data] -- probably taken c. 1994 the year we purchased it -- based on cars and absence of trees in front yard and neighbors house not even built!

Tina Traster in the New York Post recently wrote ...

“For seven years on and off, I’ve been doing a genealogy project — but instead of investigating my family’s roots, I’m entangled in another family’s ancestry and the history of my house. When exactly was my circa 1870s home built? Who built it? And who lived in it all those years until my family and five cats moved in?

I began by finding out more about the Garrabrants, an old Dutch family who settled in the Hudson Valley in the late 1700s. I knew that part of the family had ended up living on my road and farming on the mountain, which in the mid-1800s was called Garrabrant Mountain...

Read the full article.

As I surfed the internet after reading this story I also came across the site My House History.

Have you done a house history? What is the most fascinating thing you learned about those who lived in the house before your family?

What resources will help others who want to research the history of their house?

Editor's Note: The history of my current house is easy as we are the original owners and throughout my research I have done bits and pieces of house research for either places I have lived or those where my ancestors have lived.

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NYC portrayed online in 870,000 newly released images

Image as appeared with original article

The two men were discovered dead at the bottom of an elevator shaft in a 12-story Manhattan building, as if dumped there, one man sprawled on top of the other.

The rare crime scene photograph from Nov. 24, 1915, is one of 870,000 images of New York City and its municipal operations now available to the public on the Internet for the first time.

The city Department of Records officially announced the debut of the photo database Tuesday. A previously unpublicized link to the images has been live for about two weeks...

Read the full USA Today article.

Checkout the full photo gallery.

Remember that many of our emigrant ancestors either passed through New York, ultimately stayed in the "city," or spent some time there before arriving at their ultimate destination! This means that many of us have some "connection" to the city.

Editor’s Note: While visiting the NYC Department of Records website, learn more out these other great resources for genealogists!

The Triangle Factory Fire, 3/25/1911 On March 25, 1911, 150 employees of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, mostly young women, died in the deadliest industrial disaster in New York City’s history. Learn more
*Tax Photographs* Between 1939 and 1941, and again in the mid-1980s, the city photographed every house and building in the five Boroughs. Copies of these unique images are now available for purchase. Order tax photo
*Vital Records* The Municipal Archives has records of births reported in the five Boroughs of New York City prior to 1910; deaths reported prior to 1949, and marriages reported prior to 1930. Vital record search.
*Collections Archives* With records dating back to the earliest days of European colonial settlement, the Municipal Archives houses 150,000 cubic feet of historical government records. View samples.

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23 May 2012

Black undercount found in 1940 census records

Image that accompanied original article

By CRISTIAN SALAZAR, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — It was on the streets of her Harlem neighborhood in the 1940s that teenager Althea Gibson began working on the tennis skills that would take her all the way to winning Wimbledon.

But according to the 1940 census, the trailblazing athlete didn't even exist.

There's no record of Gibson and her family in the decennial census, the records of which were released online to the public April 2 by the U.S. National Archives after a 72-year confidentiality period lapsed.

She and her family aren't the only ones — more than a million black people weren't accounted for in 1940, an undercount that had ramifications at the time on everything from the political map to the distribution of resources.

Read the full article.

Editors Note: Has this issue of undercounting impacted your research? Tell us how and what you did to get around this issue.

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Upcoming Events Listed on NGS Events Calendar

With summer, we often have “time” or more interest in our genealogy research and in attending genealogy events ...

Below are a few of the upcoming events listed in the online NGS Events Calendar.

Do you have a genealogical event to publicize? Organizations with a valid subscription to NGS can list their event for free. To learn more about Organizational Subscriptions, go to http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/organizational_subscriptions or click here to submit your event listing today!

14–16 June	Annual Conference, Palatines to America	Indianapolis,Indiana	Title-German Research: Methodology and Technology Speakers; Warren Bittner and Michael John Neill Tour of the Athenaeum, formerly Das Deutsche Haus At Marriott East and adjoining LaQuinta Inn.
22–23 June	Annual Meeting	Buffalo, New York	On June 22 and June 23, 2012 at the Doubletree Club by Hilton, Buffalo Downtown, 125 High Street, Buffalo, New York. The program consists of a Board of Director’s meeting on Friday, June 22 and the annual membership meeting on Saturday, June 23. The annual meeting agenda will include presentations on Gottscheer history and a Genealogy Workshop. The region of Gottschee was a Germanic linguistic island in Slovenia that was first settled in the 1300's and was dissolved in 1941. Gottscheers have emigrated to the United States and Canada since in the 1880's.
14 July	SCCGS Summer Seminar	Belleville,Illinois	American Family History AND German Genealogy: Research for Both Sides of the Atlantic. Our Lady of the Snows Conference Center. Ann Carter Fleming and Carol Whitton present lectures for beginning through advanced family researchers to hone research and writing skills.
20–21 July	Midwestern Roots 2012: Family History and Genealogy Conference	Indianapolis,Indiana	"Where Do You Think You Find It? I N D I A N A P O L I S !" on July 20 and 21, 2012 Pre-conference activities July 19 Speakers include Dick Eastman, Shamele Jordon, J. Mark Lowe, Dan Poffenberger, Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, D. Joshua Taylor, Patricia Van Skaik, Curt Witcher and more. The pre-conference activities include a workshop for librarians and volunteers who work with genealogy sources, computer labs, writing workshops, bus tours and other research opportunities. The day concludes with the program, Adventures Behind the Scenes.
11 August	Discovering Your Civil War Ancestors	Akron, Ohio	Join us for the free program "Discovering Your Civil War Ancestors" Saturday, August 11 from 9:30-4:30 in the Akron-Summit County Public Library Auditorium at 60 South High Street, Akron, Ohio. Presenters will be local researcher and reenactor John P. Gurnish and Certified Genealogist Amy Johnson Crow. Presentation topics: Summit County in the Civil War, Researching Ohio Civil War Ancestors, For Benefit of the Soldier: Civil War Fraternal Organizations, Researching Your Civil War Ancestors Online, and State and Local Records for Civil War Research. Free parking in the High-Market deck. To sign-up or for more information, visit the event website.

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22 May 2012

You Know DNA Testing Has Gone Mainstream When It's Offered on TIPPR

Wow – A national deal today on TIPPR is for a DNA Self-Discovery Kit from ConnectMyDNA.

The fine print includes

“Their state-of-the-art lab extracts your DNA and converts it into a cool Gene Ring graphic representing your one-of-a-kind genes. Log into the members area to see your results, along with a list of markers that were tested for and which population groups are best represented by your DNA. This is nothing like an ancestry test, but it's still so much fun to discover new commonality with others around the globe. You can also download a custom e-Poster that includes a Country Connection map, your name, and your Gene Ring!”

I wonder how many will think that “this” will provide the “answer” to their ancestry versus a more classic DNA testing process?

Regardless, who would have ever thought that DNA testing would be so readily available on a daily discount site?!?!

What’s your reaction to this? Please post a comment!

Editors Note: Neither NGS nor I are promoting this service or particular offer and it is presented here as an FYI and as a basis for discussion.

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Civil War Photos Donated to Library of Congress

The Library of Congress’ valuable collection of photographs has been enhanced by the Liljenquist family’s donation of many Civil War photos. Tom Liljenquist of McLean, Va., and his three sons began collecting photographs of Civil War soldiers 15 years ago and recently donated them — about 1,000 tintypes and ambrotypes of both Confederate and Union soldiers — to the Library of Congress.

Only a few photos have been identified, but an interesting website provides details on how clues in some photos can lead to a discovery of names to associate with those images.

Read the full article.

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21 May 2012

Researchers say they have new clue to Lost Colony

As reported in the News and Observer a couple of weeks ago, a new look at a 425-year-old map has yielded a tantalizing clue about the fate of the Lost Colony, the settlers who disappeared from North Carolina's Roanoke Island in the late 16th century.

Experts from the First Colony Foundation and the British Museum in London discussed their findings recently. Their focus: the "Virginea Pars" map of Virginia and North Carolina created by explorer John White in the 1580s and owned by the British Museum since 1866.

"We believe that this evidence provides conclusive proof that they moved westward up the Albemarle Sound to the confluence of the Chowan and Roanoke rivers," said James Horn, vice president of research and historical interpretation at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and author of a 2010 book about the Lost Colony.

Read the full article.

Check out this blog for images of the discussed map elements as well as some dialogue on people’s reactions.

Editors Note: It was very interesting to read about this. Obviously, the map in question has existed for over 400 years and only with a recent re-examination have “new” conclusions been reached. Though, it does not appear that all are in agreement!

You may remember that a recent Upfront with NGS post talked about “Everyone Makes Mistakes: Why You Should Review Your Research Notes.” Basically, it never hurts to revisit source documents and it may actually help!

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