UpFront with NGS

21 September 2016

Let's Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month! ¡Celebremos Mes de la Herencia Hispana! #‎HispanicHeritageMonth &‪ #‎HHM

Let's Celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month! ¡Celebremos Mes de la Herencia Hispana! #‎HispanicHeritageMonth &‪ #‎HHM

It’s time to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month which runs September 15-October 15, 2016.

During National Hispanic Heritage Month (September 15 to October 15) we recognize the contributions made and the important presence of Hispanic and Latino Americans to the United States and celebrate their heritage and culture.

Don’t forget that the Library of Congress has a Hispanic Reading Room with a lot of helpful resources.

A Google search on Hispanic Genealogy or Hispanic Genealogical reveals several societies that may prove useful to your research – Hispanic Genealogical Research Center of New Mexico, Hispanic Genealogical Society, Hispanic Genealogical Society of New York, Genealogical Society of Hispanic America, Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research, and more.

There is also a FamilySearch FB page for Hispanic Genealogy Research and a print publication (since 2000), Somos Primos^TM -- a publication dedicated to past and present articles, events and information concerning Hispanic heritage issues.

So, let’s ¡Celebra!

What is your favorite resource for researching Hispanic ancestry?

Editor’s Note: Check out past Upfront with NGS posts about Hispanic Heritage here.

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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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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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20 September 2016

Alaska, Colorado, Maine, and New Jersey Join the National Digital Newspaper Program (aka Chronicling America)

Alaska, Colorado, Maine, and New Jersey Join the National Digital Newspaper Program (aka Chronicling America)

More news about more digitized content coming our way!

From our friends at the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) we learn …

We are happy to announce the addition of four new partners to the National Digital Newspaper Program! NEH has made awards to digitize historic newspapers to the Alaska Division of Libraries, Archives, and Museums; the Colorado Historical Society; the Maine State Library, and Rutgers University in New Jersey. With forty-three states and one territory now participating in the program, NEH is approaching its goal of representing every state and U.S. territory in Chronicling America, the open access database of historic American newspapers maintained by the Library of Congress.

This year, NEH awards have also been issued to state partners in Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas to continue their contributions to Chronicling America. You can read more about all of the awards issued by NEH in August’s press release.

The National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) is a partnership between NEH, the Library of Congress, and state partners. NEH awards enable state partners to choose and digitize newspapers representing their historical, cultural, and geographic diversity. To date, over 11 million pages of historic newspapers are currently available on Chronicling America, with more being added all the time. State partners also contribute rich essays about each newspaper title and its historical context. NDNP recently expanded its scope to include newspapers published between 1690 and 1963.

Historically, the program focused on newspapers between 1836 and 1922. As you can see, the time period has been expanded to include earlier and later newspapers. Our research will only benefit from this!

When researching your ancestry, this collection of digitized newspapers is a great place to start.

Congratulations to the winners.

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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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19 September 2016

$21 Million Awarded to Help Museums Improve Service to Public -- of interest to genealogists is the grant to the Preservation Society of Newport County (Rhode Island)

$21 Million Awarded to Help Museums Improve Service to Public -- of interest to genealogists is the grant to the Preservation Society of Newport County (Rhode Island)

IMLS announces 206 awards made through its largest museum grant program

Washington, DC—The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) today announced grants for 206 museum projects totaling $21,149,000.

The museums were selected from a pool of 548 applications to the highly competitive Museums for America grant program. Institutions receiving the awards are matching them with $29,346,091 in non-federal funds.

“Museums play a vital role in their communities supporting learning experiences and inquiry for people of all ages, fostering civic engagement, and serving as stewards of collections that represent the nation’s cultural, historical and scientific heritage,” said IMLS Director Dr. Kathryn K. Matthew. “The federal support provided by IMLS will help museums all over the country, enabling their best efforts to provide the highest level of public service.”

The Museums for America grant program funds a variety of projects developed by museums to better serve its public. This year’s funded projects include:

· The Preservation Society of Newport County (Rhode Island) project to digitize and create finding aids for collections that document the city of Newport’s role in shaping national cultural and social movements. Manuscripts, photographs, and scrapbooks from two centuries (1770s-1980s) will be digitized and made more accessible to scholars and the public.

· The Children’s Museum of the Upstate (Greenville, South Carolina) project to upgrade its media lab exhibit, which explores issues relating to media literacy in the 21st century. In addition to the interactive exhibit, the project will develop distance learning STEM programs and customized curriculum units.

· The Creative Discovery Museum (Chattanooga, Tennessee) project to create a culture of evaluation among its staff. Through staff development, the use of assessment tools, and cross-departmental meetings, the project will help staff create more meaningful and lasting experiences for museum visitors.

· The Pratt Museum’s project to explore the cultural values of seven diverse communities of South Central Alaska, through a series of community conversations, directed interviews, and musical performance events. With participant input, the project will produce a cookbook and music album to share traditions, songs and stories among the communities’ many generations.

Click here to see all the Museums for America grants for this year.

IMLS will be accepting applications for the FY 2017 Museums for America program through December 1, 2016. For more information see the Museums for America webpage and the blog post highlighting changes in the FY 2017 museum grant programs.

Though we've highlighted the Preservation Society of Newport County (Rhode Island) you will want to check out the complete list of grants issued, via the link above, as there are several other grants to heritage museums (versus art, science, and other themed museums).

Congratulations to the winners.

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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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16 September 2016

County Historians -- Are You "Taking Advantage" of them?

County Historians -- Are You “Taking Advantage" of them?

Normally, when we talk of “taking advantage” of someone, we don’t usually mean that as a good thing!

On the other hand, if we don’t make use of the resources available to us, are we doing our ancestors and their history a disservice?

County historians aren’t the most visible resource for North Carolina researchers. Historically there seems to have been a dynamic organization called the "North Carolina Society of County and Local Historians.”

That said, I was re-introduced to county historians when I came across County historians play vital roll in preserving past which talks about Indiana and its county historians. Here is another article about Indiana’s great program -- County historians work to preserve, share the past.

Indiana isn’t the only state with a county historians program. I came across one for NY State and TN. Based on the number of website mentions across these two states, these programs seem to be pretty active.

So, if you are not “taking advantage” of the local county historian, you might be missing out on some invaluable insight into the community.

Are county historians popular in your state? Does your county have one (or somebody similar)? Does your city/town/community have one?

What was the greatest assistance you received from a county historian?

What single nugget of information from a county historian helped crumble your brick wall?

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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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15 September 2016

Cotton Feed Bags as Fashion and Embroidered Flour Sacks as a Form of Thanks

Cotton Feed Bags as Fashion and Embroidered Flour Sacks as a Form of Thanks

I often write about adding “color” to the lives we research. If you are like me, that became a necessity when records were hard to find. I had to switch my focus to filling in details on their lives in order to feel like each person wouldn’t just be “a” sheet of paper with a few dates and places listed. Because of that, I delved into where they worked, what church they attended, what social organizations they belonged to, what local events (parades, picnics, celebrations, etc), they may have attended, and much more. Almost no heirlooms were passed down in my family, hence the focus on activities versus things.

I am always curious when I come across an article about how materials were re-used when times were tough. Two articles that caught my eye, one recently -- NC seamstresses create fashion with raw materials – and one a while ago -- Cool Things - Embroidered Flour Sacks.

In the first case, the focus was on how the thrifty housewife could use cotton feed bags to create stylish clothes.

The style show aptly demonstrated the evolution of the feed bag. First it was a burlap bag that could be used for rugged farm duty. Then it was a coarse cotton bag that could be used for dish towels, and some thrifty housewives even made the sturdy cloth into everyday underclothing. Then came the idea of cotton prints, fashionable, good-looking ones, that women could make into dresses cheaply. With a yard and seven inches of good cotton fabric in the average 100 pound cotton bag of feed, it took generally three or four bags to design the winning frocks. The majority of those in the parade cost less than one dollar, the only expense being that of buttons, thread, and patterns.

In the second case, I learned about the Belgians and their suffering during WWI and how flour was sent over in sacks and then the sacks were re-used in many ways, including embroidered to give “thanks” for the relief provided.

The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library has a large collection of these flour sacks and tells us some of the history …

The Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) was established in October 1914 under the direction of Herbert Hoover to provide food relief to Belgium. The CRB fed millions of people in Belgium and occupied France between 1914 and 1918 by raising money, obtaining food, shipping the food past the British naval blockade and German submarines, and overseeing the distribution of the food by the Comité National de Secours et d'Alimentation.

The CRB shipped 5.7 million tons of food to Belgium. The flour was packaged in cotton bags by American mills. The movement of these bags in Belgium was monitored by the CRB since cotton could be used in the manufacture of German ammunition. The empty flour sacks were distributed to professional schools, sewing workrooms, convents, and artists.

Professional schools trained women to sew, embroider textiles, and make the famous Belgian lace. Large sewing workrooms were established in Belgian cities to provide work for thousands of unemployed. The flour sacks were made into clothing, accessories, pillows, bags, and other functional items.

Materials that are re-used are rich with stories – based on both their original use and then their subsequent repurposed use.

What fun or necessary re-use of materials did your ancestors engage in?

Editor’s Note: Related article on repurposing -- Repurposed Military Installations -- Sometimes not just the only and a GREAT option for preserving historical structures!

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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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14 September 2016

Ghost Towns -- Ancestors DID live in them

Ghost Towns -- Ancestors DID live in them

Before doing genealogy research, when I used to think of Ghost Towns I always thought of movies made out west, which always seemed to be littered with dusty abandoned towns and tumbleweeds rolling by. I’ve also visited such when traveling.

Many may also know of “The Lost Colony” or “The Roanoke Colony” of NC. A whole colony that disappeared.

You may also be familiar with gold (and other mining) towns which seemed to pop up and then just as quickly disappear as gold rushes waxed and waned not just out west and in GA, NC, and elsewhere.

Sometimes a dam was installed on a river and/or a lake created – many communities ended up under water as a result of that, such as Judson (NC). It is one of several ghost towns found in NC.

Though these towns may no longer exist, there is an excellent chance that records survive documenting those who lived (and paid taxes) in those communities.

Just because you cannot locate some place on a current map, it doesn’t mean that you cannot still document who were the inhabitants. Check the archives of the relevant authorities.

Additionally, the relocation of cemeteries was one element documented when communities were displaced. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), has a Relocated Cemeteries database while the US Army Corps of Engineers also maintains lists of cemetery relocations such as these related to the Kinzua Dam.

Ghost towns left a rich legacy and one that we can help perpetuate by documenting those who lived in them and sharing their stories …

If your family lived in what is now considered a ghost town, tell us where they lived and a bit about their life there.

Editor’s Note: Here is a gateway page to lists of ghost towns in the United States. Here is another list of ghost towns in North Carolina.

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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!

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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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13 September 2016

It's not just OK and it's essential that you correct known errors in your genealogy tree

It's not just OK and it's essential that you correct known errors in your genealogy tree

We’ve all been there … you create your family tree and post it somewhere online (or in many places), and then weeks, months or years later you realize that there’s a mistake!

What to do? Basically, correct it. Yes, it will take a bit of time and you may have to dig out (or reset) a password you haven’t used in ages, AND, you really don’t want to perpetuate the mistake more than might have already happened. Plus, we really do want to ensure that our trees are as accurate as possible. We are human; we will make mistakes.

We know that people love to borrow whatever information they find, often without verifying it. If we keep our trees as accurate as possible, hopefully more accurate information will be found online.

I was reminded of this when I re-read Randy Seaver’s Genea-Musings post Nobody's Perfect! Correcting My Own Tree Error.

The comments to the post also raised how one might keep track of the “wrong” information that was originally included to give both context to what was previously included and why the correction was made. This is really excellent thinking. When we are dealing with like-named individuals living geographically close at the same time, others might run into the same issue as what we resolved. Providing the correct lineage and noting the incorrect lineage may benefit many other researchers.

How have you handled correcting errors in your genealogy tree?

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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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