UpFront with NGS

19 July 2011

Genealogy without Documentation is Mythology

Tamura Jones has written a thought provoking piece exhorting and reminding genealogists about the importance of documentation as a means to separate genealogy from mythology!

Mythology

“genealogy without documentation is mythology”

A popular aphorism of traditional genealogists is that "genealogy without documentation is mythology". It is sometimes expressed slightly differently, as "genealogy without sources is mythology".

This aphorism instructs the traditional genealogists to cite their sources. It sounds disparaging, because it is meant to sound disparaging. Mythology simply isn't good enough...

Read the full piece.

Editor’s Note: This page will NOT open via Internet Explore (it uses .xhtml). I was able to access it via Firefox and suspect that other browsers are also an option.

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18 July 2011

Get Creative With Name Spellings -- Kimberly Powell, About.com

This article was originally published 7 July 2011 by Kimberly Powell, About.com Guide. We are sharing an excerpt here of her article with a link to the full article since names and their spelling is so important to anyone’s genealogy research!

“Our ancestors did it. The census takers did it. The transcribers did it. So we have to as well. It's a rare thing to find an ancestor whose name appears in historical records year after year spelled exactly the same way each time. Even a seemingly simple name such as Owens, will often appear as Owen, Owins, Owings or even Owns.

There are many creative ways to find alternate surname variations, but I also wanted to share an online tool that I find handy for this purpose. British Origins, one of the sites I use in my English research, employs a name search technology known as NameX. Created by Image Partners, NameX is based on a Last name thesaurus containing 75 million entries for 1.5 million distinct last names and a First name thesaurus containing over 3 million entries for 260,000 distinct first names. This generally results in fewer, more accurate name variants than Soundex…”

Read the complete article.

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Great Missouri Treasure Hunt

The Great Missouri Treasure Hunt is a statewide contest open until August 31, 2011. During the contest, the Missouri State Archives is encouraging Missourians to explore the collections of historic records held by state and local institutions. Participants can win exciting prizes, and the best discoveries will earn their place in history as part of the next Official Manual of the State of Missouri.

Full details can be found here.

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15 July 2011

National Genealogical Society Releases Two New Videos

Arlington, VA, 15 July 2011: The National Genealogical Society has released two new videos. Both videos are available for viewing by the public.

The National Genealogical Society online interview series presents Learning in a Supportive Community with Laura DeGrazia, CG, past president of the Board for Certification of Genealogists and co-editor of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Record. Laura reflects on how the National Genealogical Society and the generosity of other genealogists have contributed to her development in the field. The video is available for viewing on the videos page of the National Genealogical Society website at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/videos_online.

The NGSGenealogy channel on YouTube presents Stories from My Research with Helen F.M. Leary, CG (Emeritus), FASG, FNGS. Helen shares important lessons for genealogists as she tells intriguing stories from her research. The NGSGenealogy channel is located at http://www.youtube.com/user/NGSGenealogy. This video is also available on Vimeo.

Comments on our videos? We would love to hear from you. Please email the executive producer, Arlene V. Jennings, CG at arlenevj@earthlink.net.

Founded in 1903, the National Genealogical Society is dedicated to genealogy education, high research standards, and the preservation of genealogical records. The Arlington, VA-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.

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14 July 2011

Who’s on the Family Tree? Now It’s Complicated (NY Times Article)

Creating accurate family trees has gotten more complex as “family” composition has changed and our relationships to others are now sometimes defined differently than was ever thought possible. With all these new relationships, one has to consider does a tree reflect just “genetics” and/or connections through unions (marriage, partnerships, etc)? How do you handle adoptions and other “legal” relationships?

Read this thought-provoking article by Laura M Holson, published in the NY Times, 4 July 2011.

Laura Ashmore and Jennifer Williams are sisters. After that, their relationship becomes more complex.

When Ms. Ashmore and her husband, Lee, learned a few years ago that they could not conceive a child, Ms. Williams stepped in and offered to become pregnant with a donor’s sperm on behalf of the couple, and give birth to the child. The baby, Mallory, was born in September 2007 and adopted by Ms. Ashmore and her husband.

Then the sisters began to ponder: where would the little girl sit on the family tree?

“For medical purposes I am her mother,” Ms. Williams said. “But I am also her aunt.”

Many families are grappling with similar questions as a family tree today is beginning to look more like a tangled forest. Genealogists have long defined familial relations along bloodlines or marriage. But as the composition of families changes, so too has the notion of who gets a branch on the family tree…

Read the full article.

Editor’s Note: Do know that NY Times articles, and those of other newspapers, do not always remain “live” for an extended period of time. And, it’s also not unusual that other newspapers pick up the same article, though it might be titled differently, and so be available in this manner.

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12 July 2011

American Civil War Newspapers

The goal of the American Civil War Newspapers database (launched by Virginia Tech) is to select a representative group of journals to index, with digital images of the newspapers themselves, for use by students and scholars. The newspapers selected will be a representative sampling of Union and Confederate, urban and small town, Eastern and Western, pro– and anti–administration.

The first newspaper available in the collection is the Macon Daily Telegraph (Georgia).

“One of the great features of the Telegraph is that through most of the war it actually managed to live up to its title as a “daily” paper. Like all Confederate newspapers, it reflected the hardships of war. The pages got smaller in size and number. Its type became worn and dull, and sometimes illegible. As hard times and scarce cash reduced the number of advertisers, some advertisements ran almost indefinitely just to fill column inches, while a scarcity of news, labor shortages, and limited type, also often led to the same articles appearing in several consecutive issues. On two or three occasions in 1864 and 1865 when Union cavalry raiders came close to Macon, the paper did not publish at all, though it always resumed operations when the threat passed.

Best of all, however, the Telegraph represented views and opinions, and news coverage, beyond the often parochial dominant influence of the Richmond, Virginia press. Its interests extended from Atlantic to Mississippi, and it reprinted substantial material from other Deep South Confederate journals, some of whose issues are no longer extant. And by being at a remove from the national capital, its pages often reflected the divisions within Confederate society more eloquently”

Do keep checking back to see what other newspapers will be added.

Related resources re the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies and the American Civil War Manuscript Guides (Virginia Tech).

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11 July 2011

National Genealogical Society Announces New Staff Appointments

(Arlington, VA, 7 July 2011) – The National Genealogical Society (NGS) announces two staff appointments: Erin Wood as Conference Manager and Gayathri Kher as IT System Manager.

In her new position as Conference Manager, Erin Wood will be responsible for many aspects of planning for NGS’s annual conference. She will research and visit potential venues for future conferences as well as work with local societies. Erin will be the point person for conference exhibitors and will be responsible for room set-up, signage, audio-visual requirements, security, speaker support, volunteer coordination, advertising, sponsorships, and will work closely with the current NGS Conference Chair, Julie Miller. Erin and Julie have already been busy making plans. Erin has nearly five years of experience in the events industry and holds a bachelor degree in tourism and events management from George Mason University. Erin shares that she is “ecstatic to use my knowledge toward making the 2012 NGS Family History Conference in Cincinnati a huge success!”

Gayathri has been with NGS for six years and has served as Conference Manager for the past two years. Gayathri will now focus on her role as IT System Manager. She will continue to be the NGS webmaster and will work with Jordan Jones, chairman of the NGS Technology Committee, on several projects the Society has planned. Gayathri holds a master’s degree in telecommunications from the University of Maryland, College Park, and has over seven years of information technology experience in the non-profit association industry.

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140 Free Online Genealogy Research Courses

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—Ever found yourself researching your family tree and discovering a new branch that extended to another country—and you are not familiar with that country’s records or language? Or perhaps you are a fan of the popular reality show Who Do You Think You Are? and wonder, “How do the producers know what public records to search to find all of those cool stories about that celebrity’s ancestors?” Maybe you’d like to learn more about how to do your family history research but don’t think you can afford to take a class. Thousands of individuals are now satisfying many of those needs through FamilySearch’s growing collection of free online genealogy courses.

In just one year, the number of free FamilySearch courses has grown to over 140—and new courses are added monthly. Besides FamilySearch sponsored courses, you will also find courses sponsored by the Midwest Genealogy Center, Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society, Library of Congress, select esteemed genealogists, and many other entities and individuals.

FamilySearch uses viewing software that splits the viewing screen (sort of like the picture-in-picture features on some televisions) so the user can watch the video of the presenter while also seeing the PowerPoint presentation. Most courses are 30 minutes in length. You can also fast forward through the presentation or presentation slides or stop and pick up later where you left off—a luxury you don’t get in the live presentation.

“Maybe you enjoy the thrill of deciphering or reading old records in other languages. FamilySearch also has free courses to help genealogy students understand key words and terms of older foreign alphabets and handwriting, including Gothic,” added Turpin. The intent behind all of these courses is to give people the keys they need to successfully find their elusive ancestors in historic records. “Sometimes they just need a new sleuthing skill or resource. These genealogy courses are perfect for those personal development needs,” concluded Turpin.

Whatever your motivation or objective, bookmark and make regular visits to the growing catalog of free courses at FamilySearch.org.

And if you or someone you know currently teaches a class that would be of value to the genealogy community and wants to share it, find out how online at FamilySearch’s genealogy classes online.

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