The Genealogical Dark Ages - Yeah, right.

I sense a meme...

• Write as you have never written before at DearMYRTLE's Genealogy Blog
• The Ancestral Golden Arches of Genealogy at Genea-Musings
• Are We Entering the Genealogical Dark Ages? at Elyse's Genealogy Blog
• The Coming Genealogical Dark Ages Parts 1 2 and 3 at West in New England
• Why there will not be a genealogical Dark Ages at Genealogy's Star
• I'm Changing the Purpose of My Blog at Grace and Glory
• Genealogy Dark Ages Coming? at Genealogy Geek
• Will We Have to Go Dumpster Diving for Our Records at The Ties that Bind (warning: music automatically plays at link)

Are all a response to an article which appeared in The Mormon Times by Michael deGroot called The coming genealogical dark ages.  He was reporting on comments made by Curt B. Witcher, manager of The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Ind.  Witcher's comments were made at Brigham Young University's Conference on Family History and Genealogy.

What do I have to add to the conversation?

There are basically two parts to the article.

1) Disappearing vital records

"I believe we have a crisis in our midst," Witcher said. "We have left the care of our written records largely in the hands of disinterested strangers." He said these records include everything from birth records to tombstones — and more and more they are disappearing.

Libraries are limiting hours and public access to materials. Courthouses are engaging in "radical sampling," where they take a few samples of large collections of old records and destroy the rest. "This is going on now," Witcher said.

In my belief, libraries limiting hours and public access is a factor of the economy.  When the local governments have more money to spend, they will keep the libraries open longer.  The concept of 'radical sampling' I hadn't heard about, and it is disturbing if it is happening.  What I have heard about is courthouses digitizing all their records, and then destroying the originals.  Which may be OK, if the digital counterparts are all backed up, and re-backed up regularly, and are moved to new storage mediums as new storage mediums are invented.  Maintaining digital records takes less space, but is more work than maintaining paper records.

Digital records will be lost.  Most people have probably suffered hard drive crashes where we've lost important documents.  This will happen to some digital records preserved by the government.  Just as some paper documents have been lost to fire.  Every means of storing information has an achilles heal.  We, as a society, need to learn the weaknesses of these new storage systems, and what we need to do to avoid them.

Looking at Ancestry.com, FamilySearch.org, and other genealogy websites, I can't look at the phrase "Genealogy Dark Ages" without laughing.  Some records will be lost.  But overall, the technology of computers and the internet is preserving records, and making them more accessible, not destroying them or making them less accessible.

2) The Decline of Letter Writing

Records are also disappearing on a personal level. "Who is writing letters anymore?" Witcher asked. "When was the last time you received a letter?"

But even if letters are a thing of the past, Witcher worries about e-mail. "Do you organize your e-mail well? All those Christmas greetings? All those family stories that have been exchanged through e-mail? How are you doing with that file management? It's a part of living history."

This isn't a new complaint.  I've written twice on this topic.

Decline of Letter Writing (Apr 29, 2008)
Decline of Letter Writing (Feb 27, 2009)
and now it's July 31, 2010

Let me sum up my major points in those two entries:

1) It is not email's fault.  People like to blame email for the decline of letter writing, but the things that I usually get in my email box from friends and family aren't the things I see in letters my ancestors and their kin sent.  Silly jokes, and are you interested in breakfast/lunch/dinner/happy hour?

About the only thing that gets sent via email that got sent via letter, is the enclosed photograph.  (And of course, the technology of the internet is making this easier, so more photographs are being sent -- and likely being preserved -- via email than via post office in the past.)

If laying blame is important, it is most likely the fault of the telephone and free long distance.  Why write a letter to the relative who lives a few states away, or further, when you can pick up the phone and talk to them directly?  

2) Instead of being the cause, email is the cure.  Those letters are now easier to send. As long as the emails are preserved, but that's the way things were with the letters too.  Many letters weren't saved.  Many emails are being deleted.  Those who care about preserving their family history need to learn not to delete those emails, how to print them to pdf documents (and/or print them to their printer),  how to make backup copies.  These are new storage techniques that must be learned, but it's not like it can't be done.

While I may not agree with the "dark age crisis" mentality, I do agree with the suggestions.

To counteract the trend, Witcher encouraged people to write. "Write as you never have written before." This writing can be about memories, describing a family photograph or center on themes such as a family's rituals.

After something is written, Witcher said to share it with others. Otherwise, he said "many of those precious pieces of living history go into landfills."

As I said above, it's always been this way.  If our family history wasn't written about, it got lost.  If it wasn't shared, it got lost.  This isn't a new trend.  What did Joe the Caveman think, feel?  We don't know.  It wasn't written down.  I have boxes of letters my maternal grandparents preserved.  Very few from or to my paternal grandparents.  I doubt they didn't receive the same amount of letters.  They just didn't preserve them as well.

What's new is it's actually now easier to write and share.  So, yes.  Let's do it.

Have you heard about my Amanuensis Monday project?  Combined with the popular "Sentimental Sunday" and "Memory Monday" memes, there is a lot of weekly preservation going on in the geneablogger community.

Family History Interviews

I have listened to and transcribed two sets of family history interviews.  There is the recording my maternal grandfather, Martin Deutsch, his brother, Ted Deutsch, and sister, Berta Deutsch Freed put together in 1977.  My grandfather took on the role of interviewer, though he actively participated in the discussion.  There is also the interviews of my paternal grandmother and grandfather conducted by a professional personal historian in 1987.

I think I've noticed things I like about each, and problems with each, and perhaps my reflection on these tapes might help someone considering interviewing their own family members make a decision.

1) My maternal grandfather, and his siblings, each had their own recollections of the events.  As they talked, they helped each other bring up old memories.  Sometimes their memories were opposed to one another.  I was happy to see my great uncle, Ted, remained firm in his recollections, when my grandfather questioned them.  Ted was the older, and more likely to remember things correctly.  And the documents that have been found have supported Ted's memories.

However, this could have gone awry.  My grandfather's faulty recollections could have persuaded his older brother to question his.  This is one reason personal historians use to explain to potential clients that hiring someone is actually better than doing it yourself.  In his book, Annie's Ghosts, reporter Steve Luxenberg uses the legal phrase, 'leading the witness.'

2) The personal historian who interviewed both of my paternal grandparents, grew up in St. Louis as well, in the same general area.  While a few years younger, her shared experiences helped her ask the right questions to spur their memories.  She knew which parks they were likely to have picnicked in.  She knew street names and streetcar lines. 

I've seen advertisements online where you can hire someone to interview a relative by phone.  If there is no one in your community to hire, I think I might recommend doing it yourself, as long as you are capable of remaining neutral enough to avoid prejudicing the answers.  Someone who doesn't know the community, no matter how much experience they have, aren't going to do as good of a job. 

Similarly...if you grew up half way across the country from your grandparents, and only occasionally visited, you might not be as good an interviewer as someone in their hometown, even if you have some experience.

3) During the interview process, don't interrupt a story with a question.  Write your question down, and ask the interviewee when they are finished.  I cringed several times when my grandfather interrupted a story his brother was telling, and sidetracked the conversation.

4) Take notes during the interview.  Listening to the tapes, it's clear the personal historian took excellent notes while interviewing my grandparents.  She was able to keep family relationships straight, so when my grandparents mentioned a name later on, she knew who they were.

5) Go chronological.  It provides order to the interview, and helps both interviewer and interviewee keep straight what happened when.

6) Unless you plan on doing a series of interviews, cover the interviewees life up to that point.  Don't decide just to interview them on their childhood.  I am certainly not ungrateful for the information contained on the tapes my maternal grandfather and  his siblings made.  I love what I learned.  But their focus on their childhood in Transylvania, and the first few years in Chicago was somewhat frustrating, as they were battling their dissipating memories.  All three of them could have spoken at great length on their young adulthoods with greater certainty.

They probably thought their childhood in a foreign country was the 'most interesting' part of their lives to pass on to posterity, and perhaps, to a non-family member it might be.  But 'most' isn't equivalent to 'only.'

Click on Amanuensis Monday Index at the top of the page to find links to the transcriptions of all three interviews.

Wolfram|Alpha Widgets - Calendar Converter

Note: the widget below will not be visible via RSS feed, or on Facebook.  Follow this link.

Wolfram|Alpha - the computational engine/database which provides quick answers to mathematical problems and relationships as well as pulls information from its databases of facts - has released a Widget Developer.

This allowed me to create this calendar widget:



The input boxes can be modified from their default values.  I was unable to figure out how to populate a pull-down menu, but possible calendars include:

Gregorian Calendar
Julian Calendar
Jewish Calendar
Islamic Calendar
Chinese Lunar Calendar

If you wished to convert from January 1, 2010 - Julian to Gregorian, in the first input box you would enter:

January 1, 2010 Julian Calendar

and in the second input box you would enter

Gregorian Calendar

Otherwise, it assumes "January 1, 2010" is Gregorian.
The other calendars have different names for the months, so it knows what you mean.

If you follow the link to the widget above, you can access the code to embed it on any page you want.  Or follow instructions on how to customize the widget, or build an entirely new one.

Amanuensis Monday; Interview with Melvin Lester Newmark - Part 7

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them. If you choose to join me in Amanuensis Monday and post your transcriptions, feel free to add a link to your post in the comments.

This week I continue transcribing an interview of my paternal grandfather, Melvin Lester Newmark, conducted in 1987 by a personal historian. My grandfather is discussing dating my grandmother, even though they lived on separate sides of town, and he often didn't have much money beyond what he needed for the car fare to get back and forth.

Weekly Genealogy Picks

Weekly Genealogy Picks --July 18 to July 24
from genealogy blogs, newspaper articles and elsewhere

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings looks at the maps and other information provided by FamilySearch's England Jurisdictions 1851.  As he points out, the URL is a generic: maps.familysearch.org.  So while currently the title of the subdomain is "England Jurisdictions 1851," that could become more generic in the future, if FamilySearch has, or develops plans for more maps.

Randy also reminds us about the New Genealogy Message Searcher Chris Dunham at The Genealogue created in 2007.  It still works, and is still useful.  Though, arguably, it is no longer "new."

Linda Hall-Little at Passages to the Past illustrates how the American Genealogical Biographical Index can be useful, and lead you places Google Books and The Internet Archive won't lead you to on their own.

Digital Content Quarterly issue #3 has been released, with articles on The Internet Archive, Wikipedia, and more.  (hat/tip: Digitization 101)

Katherine at NARAtions discusses the records kept by the Department of State on the Overseas Deaths of US Citizens. The records from 1963-1974 are available at Ancestry.com, and prior to 1963 can be ordered from the National Archives.  (Unless the deceased was active military personnel, in which case the death was reported to the Department of Defense)

Dick Eastman at Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter discusses Google's entry into the E-book market with Google Editions.

After World War II, Jewish emigres in France were encouraged by the state to Frenchify their surname.  Many descendants now want to change them back. (hat/tip: JewishGen Blog)

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, at The Huffington Post writes Don't Protect Us From Our Own Genetic Information - arguing against expansion of FDA regulation of Direct-to-Consumer DNA tests.

I like how Tom Kemp at the official GenealogyBank Blog responds regularly to user mail.  This week he helped a reader find a newspaper article, illustrating that searches on surname only are the way to go, if the surname is unique enough.

Justin at The Footnote Blog announces their Interactive Slave Records Collection formed through a partnership between Footnote and Lowcountry Africana.

LineageKeeper at FamHist reminds us that faulty memories can impact the information on death certificates.

Schelly Talalay Dardashti at Tracing the Tribe writes of her trip to the 7th Sephardic Bnai Anousim Conference.  (Bnai Anousim are the descendants of Jews who were forced to convert to Catholicism due to the Spanish inquisition)

A Scottish author is seeking the descendants of the 6,500 Lost Boys.

Other Weekly Lists
The genealogy bloggers below provide their selections for the week - many different from my own.

• Best of the Genea-Blogs - from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings

• Follow Friday - from Greta Koehl at Greta's Genealogy Bog

• Genealogy Round Up - from Megan Smolenyak² at Megan's Roots World

• Monday's Link Roundup - from Dan Curtis - Professional Personal Historian

• New Genealogy Blogs and Upcoming Genealogy Blogging Events - from Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers

Amanuensis Monday: July 19th participants
[Amanuensis Monday is a weekly blogging theme I began in February of 2009, where participants transcribe letters, audio, and other documents.]

"anonymous" at Family History Writing
Sherry Stocking Kline at Family Tree Writer 
"anonymous" at filioagnostic
Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings
 Leah at The Internet Genealogist 
"anonymous" at Nolichucky Roots 
Heather Wilkinson Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy
Lisa Wallen Logsdon at Old Stones Undeciphered
Martin Hollick at The Slovak Yankee 
"anonymous" at So That's Where I Get it From
John Newmark at Transylvanian Dutch
Bill West at West in New England
 Kevin Walker at Who We Were, Are & Will Be Our Family

If you participated, but don't appear on this list, please, let me know.

Tu b'Av - A Day of Love

Tu b'Av is a relatively obscure Jewish holiday that falls on the fifteenth day of the month of Av (sundown Sunday, July 25 to sundown Monday, July 26 this year).

The fifteenth day of each month on the Hebrew calendar falls on a full moon, and the holiday was observed as a sort of fertility festival during the period of the Second Temple.  After the destruction of the Second Temple, it was forgotten for the most part in the Diaspora, only to be revived in modern times as a Jewish alternative to Valentine's Day.

To A Lady
by Victor Hugo,
From Les Feuilles D'Automne


Child, were I king, I'd yield my royal rule,
     My chariot, sceptre, vassal-service due,
My crown, my porphyry-basined waters cool,
My fleets, whereto the sea is but a pool,
     For a glance from you!

Love, were I God, the earth and its heaving airs,
     Angels, the demons abject under me,
Vast chaos with its teeming womby lairs,
Time, space, all would I give--aye, upper spheres,
     For a kiss from thee!


translation by Thomas Hardy
photogravure by Goupil et Cie, from a drawing by Deveria, appears in a collection of Hugo's poetry published by Estes and Lauriat in the late 1800s.

Xmas in July

As Wikipedia says: "Christmas in July celebrations may be held in July to provide a second joyful celebration in the year."  Many of those in the Southern Hemisphere celebrate the arrival of winter weather commonly associated with Christmas, and many of those in the Northern Hemisphere start to miss that winter weather, as they are sweltering in the summer heat.

While the comic below originally appeared in December of last year, I find it a perfect fit for this post. 



Click on the image to go to the comic, and read the "mouseover" text.

I should note, the comic doesn't fit 'me' very well.  I do observe the gift giving aspects of December's Christmas, and I'm not a physicist, but I still find it humorous.

For those interested in understanding the physics behind the comic:

• The Observer Effect
• Schrödinger's Cat

"Schrödinger's Cat" shouldn't be confused with "Schrödinger the Cat" -- who, when I last observed him, was sitting on a chair a few feet away from me.  Yep, still there.

Last year's Xmas in July posts

Don't use shorthand, abbr., or otherwise leave out

Inspiration for blog posts can come from anywhere, including the daily comics:


In the above Dilbert comic, the humor is predicated on the assumption Dilbert makes (and most readers will make, too) -- that the pointy-haired boss implies an "if I were you" at the end of his initial statement.  He reveals in he final panel that he doesn't.  And it completely changes the meaning of his statement.

It's good advice not to leave out information in your genealogy record keeping.  You may know what you mean, but someone else looking at your work later on might not.  And few genealogists are writing down the information for themselves only.  Here are a few examples:

1) If you are labeling a photograph, don't forget to identify yourself, as well as the person standing next to you.  Use last names.  You know who "Jack" is, but your grandchildren might not.

2) Names of people can be similar.  Sometimes exactly the same.  Nicknames, vital dates, and phrases such as "son/daughter of ___" can help to clarify who you mean.

My second great grandfather, Selig Feinstein, had several grandsons named after him.  Three had the name "Seymour Feinstein".  All three of them were the youngest of siblings, and two ended up with the nickname "Babe."  I distinguish them by the identity of their fathers, Harry, Herman, and Morris.

3) For geographical entries, include city, county, state, and country.  If all four exist.  (Don't make something up if it doesn't.)

For example, I write a lot about "St. Louis."  There is a St. Louis in Missouri, Saskatchewan, Michigan, and Mauritius.  Not to mention a St. Louis Park, in Minnesota. Using abbreviations for some of these could lead to confusion. (You may also note that indicating the country is helpful, but doesn't solve all the issues.)

Furthermore, in Missouri, the City of St. Louis is independent  The complete description is "St. Louis City, Missouri, USA."  St. Louis City is its own county, so inserting "St. Louis" into the description as the county, actually makes it incorrect.  It has been this way since 1876.   Tamura Jones' Place Name Standardisation Basics is a good primer on how to record place names.

Note: Non-commercial usage of the comics at Dilbert.com is permitted, provided you use the embedding code they provide.

Amanuensis Monday: The Severance Papers of Myrtle Van Every

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. Not only do the documents contain genealogical information, the words breathe life into kin - some I never met - others I see a time in their life before I knew them. If you choose to join me in Amanuensis Monday and post your transcriptions, feel free to add a link to your post in the comments.

This week I return briefly to the documents preserved by my maternal grandmother, Myrtle Van Every Deutsch. I have long been amazed at how much she (and my maternal grandfather) kept. I know I inherited some of my "pack rat" nature from them. Many people save mementos of celebratory points in their lives - weddings, births, etc. How many people save severance papers?

The below documentation adds details to a crucial turning point in my grandmother's life - when she left El Paso, Texas for St. Louis, Missouri at the age of 20.  90 years ago.  If the events that led to this move hadn't happened, I wouldn't be here today.

Weekly Genealogy Picks

Weekly Genealogy Picks --July 11 to July 17
from genealogy blogs, newspaper articles and elsewhere

The Eastern Washington Genealogical Society Blog posted an article detailing the differences between Ancestry.com and Ancestry Library Edition.  The article is three years old, but illustrates that not everything on the website is available on the edition that may be available at your library.

Tamura Jones at Modern Software Experience looks at the past and future of genealogy.

The Missouri State Genealogical Association is seeking complimentary copies of "recently published books on family histories, genealogies, local histories, and any other books relevant to genealogists. Every book will be reviewed in the MoSGA Journal, and a copy of the review will be sent to the author."

Britain appears to have decided to stop their decennial national census, and are seeking cheaper ways to count their population. (hat/tip: EOGN)

Schelly Talalay Dardashti at MyHeritage's GenealogyBlog announces a partnership between MyHeritage and JewishGen.

Deborah Gurtler at ProGenealogists reminds us that not all compiled genealogies and online family trees are gospel.

Relatively Curious at Relatively Curious about Genealogy learns that it is possible to order Family History Library microfilm from your home, if you live in Australia, New Zealand, or the United Kingdom.  It will be introduced in the US "in the near future" (whatever that means.)

For those who enjoy political satire, the Land of the Pigs gives us: Link Discovered Between George W Bush and Killer of Jesus. 

Other Weekly Lists
The genealogy bloggers below provide their selections for the week - many different from my own.

• Best of the Genea-Blogs - from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings

• Follow Friday - from Greta Koehl at Greta's Genealogy Bog

•  Links - from Liz Haigney Lynch at The Ancestral Archaeologist  

• Genealogy News Corral - from Diane Haddad at Genealogy Insider

• Genealogy Round Up - from Megan Smolenyak² at Megan's Roots World

• Monday's Link Roundup - from Dan Curtis - Professional Personal Historian

• New Genealogy Blogs and Upcoming Genealogy Blogging Events - from Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers

Amanuensis Monday: July 12th participants
[Amanuensis Monday is a weekly blogging theme I began in February of 2009, where participants transcribe letters, audio, and other documents.]

Apple at Apple's Tree
Terri Buster at SouthwestArkie
"anonymous" at filioagnostic
Martin Hollick at The Slovak Yankee
Lisa Wallen Logsdon at Old Stones Undeciphered
J.M. at Tracing My Roots
Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings
Judith Richards Shubert at Genealogy Traces
"anonymous" at So That's Where I Get it From

If you participated, but don't appear on this list, please, let me know.

Favorite Genealogy Websites

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings suggested participating in the same poll the NEHGS is giving its members.
Namely, to rank 8 websites in their importance to our research.  Here are the 8 in my order of use.

1. Ancestry
2. FamilySearch
3. Google
4. Rootsweb
5. Footnote 
6. New England Ancestors (The New England Historic Genealogical Society) 
7. USGenWeb 
8. World Vital Records

I wonder when these polls will stop listing Ancestry and Rootsweb separately. Perhaps they need to be to separate subscription from free services.  But it is still basically the same website.

I should note that I don't use New England Ancestors, but when it comes time for me to put some additional effort into researching my New England roots, I'm likely to subscribe.

Also...FamilySearch is on its way to making a battle for #1.

Other websites that would be on my list

3.1 St. Louis County Library (which gives me home access to NewspaperArchive, Missouri and Illinois Sanborn Maps, the St. Louis Post Dispatch 1874-1922. and a lot more.)
3.2 GenealogyBank (for their collection of obituaries)
3.3 Missouri Digital Heritage (Missouri vital record databases, naturalizations, and more)
3.4 FindAGrave
3.5 JewishGen

And adding these five, pushes NEHGS, USGenWeb and WorldVitalRecords off of my top ten list.

Amanuensis Monday: On Vacation

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I am in the midst of family reunion festivities.  I am taking a vacation from my project to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts.  I know I said this last week, and a few hours later posted a transcription.  I don't expect this to happen this week.

Weekly Genealogy Picks

Weekly Genealogy Picks --July 4 to July 10
from genealogy blogs, newspaper articles and elsewhere

Note: It appears I'm not very good at this 'taking a vacation' thing.  I am attending a family reunion - this is being composed Thursday morning in Mendocino, CA., a day before the reunion begins.  I have a few picks below from the first part of this week.

Family Tree Magazine releases its list of the 101 best genealogy websites of 2010. (hat/tip: Genea-Musings.)

Mike Reardon of Open Mike wonders if the concept of an American Wake has been rendered unnecessary by Facebook.  (One might argue it isn't Facebook that did this, but the internet in general.)

Dear Myrtle reminds us A marriage license doesn't mean they got married.

Arlene Eakle has noticed a major shift in content in the quarterlies and journals published by genealogy societies.

At the request of Schelly Talalay Dardashti of Tracing the Tribe - Footnote.com is opening their Holocaust archives for free access July 9th through 19th.

Carnivals

The 95th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy (The Swimsuit Edition) 

The 17th Edition of the Graveyard Rabbit Carnival (A Scavenger Hunt)

Other Weekly Lists
The genealogy bloggers below provide their selections for the week - many different from my own.

• Best of the Genea-Blogs - from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings

• Follow Friday - from Greta Koehl at Greta's Genealogy Bog

•  Links - from Liz Haigney Lynch at The Ancestral Archaeologist    

• Monday's Link Roundup - from Dan Curtis - Professional Personal Historian

• New Genealogy Blogs and Upcoming Genealogy Blogging Events - from Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers

Amanuensis Monday: July 5th participants
[Amanuensis Monday is a weekly blogging theme I began in February of 2009, where participants transcribe letters, audio, and other documents.]

Apple at Apple's Tree
Martin Hollick at The Slovak Yankee
Lisa Wallen Logsdon at Old Stones Undeciphered
J.M. at Tracing My Roots
John Newmark (w/guest amanuensis) at TransylvanianDutch
Heather Wilkinson Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy
Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings
Ginger Smith at Genealogy by Ginger
Kevin Walker at Who We Were, Are & Will Be our Family

If you participated, but don't appear on this list, please, let me know.

SNGF: Clerihew

Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun challenge is to write a clerihew.  I am in the midst of a family reunion weekend, but I had a few minutes to compose a poem or two.  Especially a clerihew -- since that ties so well in with family.

Randy's definition "a four-line irregular poem or verse that follows an AABB rhyme scheme" departs slightly from the traditional clerihew. 

In addition to the requirements he mentions

• It is biographical and usually whimsical
• The first line consists solely (or almost solely) of the subject's name.

(It's also usually about notable individuals, but notability is subjective.  Many genealogists consider all of our ancestors notable.)

Here's my first one.  

Goldfinch, Barnard
or so I have heard
was a maker of sails, in Portsea
and left his children each a thousand pound annuity

I hear the sound of relatives, so I will return later.

Later

Moshe Leyb Cruvant --
our ancestral immigrant
why St. Louis he chose
over Lithuania, no one knows.

Amanuensis Monday: The Will of Barnard Goldfinch (w/guest Amanuensis)

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

I know I said I was taking a vacation, but I received an amazing email this morning from geneablogger, Martin Hollick of The Slovak Yankee.  Apparently he has experience with 16th century English script, so 18th century was easy for him to read.  So when he saw my post this morning concerning the will of Barnard Goldfinch, it didn't take him long to transcribe it.  I plan to use his transcription to try to familiarize myself with this style so I am able to do the same in the future.

London Lives - Barnard Goldfinch

I've extended one branch a generation further back this week.  I was inputting some surnames into London Lives, a new website recently mentioned by the Genealogy Insider.

I discovered the abstract of a will for a Barnard Goldfinch.

Forename	Barnard
Surname	Goldfinch
Occupation	Sailmaker
Parish, County	Portsea , Hampshire
Parish Name	Portsea
County, or Country	Hampshire
Date Proven	27 June 1789

My fourth great grandfather, William Denyer, married a Jane Goldfinch in 1791.  I knew from the marriage record I had found online that Jane was from Portsea, and William was from Farlington.

Denyer, William, of Farlington, lime-burner, 21, b., & Jane Goldfinch, of Portsea, 21, sp., at P., 22 Oct., 1791.  (from Hampshire allegations for marriage licences granted by the Bishop of Winchester: 1689 to 1837 - Vol 35, p. 217.) [The b. and sp. mean bachelor and spinster, and the 'at P.' most likely means 'at Portsea'.] 

I figured this Barnard Goldfinch was a likely candidate for a relative.  Not necessarily an ancestor, but possibly that too.  So before heading to the UK Archives to obtain a copy of the will, I did a google search on "Barnard Goldfinch."

There were a total of 8 results, including an index to baptisms in Farlington Parish from 1766-1812.  Apparently, a Barnard Goldfinch Denyer was born to a William (and Ann) Denyer on August 17, 1800.  Ann?  That's close to Jane.  Clerical or transcription error perhaps?

The parish index listed a total of 8 Denyers born to a William from 1793-1807, and the other seven had a mother named Jane.  My third great grandfather appears to be among them.  So it seems a likely clerical error.  Sure, there could be a child with a different mother -- but to name him after the other woman's father would be slightly unorthodox.  And at this point, I was suspecting that's what he was.  Still, I was less interested in the parentage of Barnard, than in the parentage of Jane.  I was certain I wanted to obtain that will.

The UK National Archives charges a fee per record.  (3.50 pounds)  However, you can immediately download the record.  Instant gratification.

Sort of.  I'd like to go back in time and invent the typewriter a few centuries early please!

[Image of will removed due to copyright/permission issues with the UK National Archives.]

It's going to take some work to transcribe (decipher) this, but my initial perusal finds no mentions of a wife, and mention of only one child, a spinster daughter named Jane.  Since my fourth great grandmother wasn't married yet to William Denyer, this is a very likely fifth great grandfather.

Whether or not he is descended from the Barnard Goldfinch who was born in 1643 in Winchester at the Goldfinch Cottage - is an unknown.
Correction: I have received some help in transcribing this, and there appears to have also been a son named Joseph, which could be helpful.

Amanuensis Monday: On Vacation

Amanuensis: A person employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.

Due to focusing on last minute preparations for a family reunion, I am taking a vacation from my project to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts.  

Weekly Genealogy Picks

Weekly Genealogy Picks --June 27 to July 3
from genealogy blogs, newspaper articles and elsewhere

Note: I am attending a family reunion, and will be mostly away from keyboard from Wednesday July 7 to Wednesday July 14.  Which means there will be no Weekly Genealogy Picks next Sunday.

Miriam Robbins Midkiff of Ancestories was asked by Google to record a video showing how to use Google Books for researching one's ancestry.

Leland Meitzler of Genealogy Blog discusses countries that have restrictions on allowable baby names.

Joseph F. Martin at Upfront with NGS discusses the case of his missing grandfather.

The list of the French who collaborated with the Nazis during WWII will be published online, but not until 2015.  (hat/tip JewishGen blog.)

Jenna at Desperately Seeking Surnames reminds us not to forget to use the simple tools.

Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers shows bloggers how to install the JISC TechDis Toolbar - which allows users to increase the text size, have the page converted to audio, and a few other features making a blog more accessible to the diabled.

Google has added Optical Character Recognition to their Google Docs features.  You can upload scanned (typed) text to Google Docs - and have it convert it to text for you using the same software Google Books uses.  (However, the maximum file size is 2 mb...which is easy to exceed when you are scanning a page of text.)

For humor - The Onion offers us Wikipedia Celebrates 750 Years of American Independence. You'll be surprised to learn a lot of 'new information' in this column.

Carnivals

• The 30th edition of the Carnival of Central and Eastern European Genealogy
• The 20th edition of the Carnival of Irish Heritage and Culture

Other Weekly/Monthly Lists 

• July 2010 Calendar of Events - from Miriam Robbins Midkiff at Ancestories

• Best of the Genea-Blogs - from Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings

• Follow Friday - from Greta Koehl at Greta's Genealogy Bog

•  Links - from Liz Haigney Lynch at The Ancestral Archaeologist    

•  Genealogy News Corral - from Diane Haddad at Genealogy Insider

•  Genealogy Round-up - from Megan Smolenyak² at Megan's Roots World

• Monday's Link Roundup - from Dan Curtis - Professional Personal Historian

• New Genealogy Blogs and Upcoming Genealogy Blogging Events - from Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers

Amanuensis Monday: June 28th participants
[Amanuensis Monday is a weekly blogging theme I began in February of 2009, where participants transcribe letters, audio, and other documents.]

Apple at Apple's Tree
Valerie C. at Begin with Craft
Martin Hollick at The Slovak Yankee
Leah at The Internet Genealogist
Lisa Wallen Logsdon at Old Stones Undeciphered
J.M. at Tracing My Roots
John Newmark at TransylvanianDutch
"anonymous" at Nolichucky Roots
Heather Wilkinson Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy
Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings


If you participated, but don't appear on this list, please, let me know.

A Toast to the First and the Fourth of July

The poem below was written and posted last year at this time


A Toast to the First and the Fourth of July
for David Van Every (1757-1820)
©July 2009 - John Newmark

For two years my fourth great fought
for the creation of our nation
then in seventeen seventy seven
he deemed his disloyalty a disservice
and joined the other side.
Finally, he and his family fled to Canada.

His motivations are unrecorded.
Beyond his appearance on muster rolls,
a few brief mentions elsewhere,
we have nothing. No inkling
of the wherefores behind his decision
either in seventy five, or seventy seven.

In July’s opening barrage
of national celebrations
I honor both of his decisions -
whatever the reasons, and his willingness
to fight for what he believed
even when those beliefs changed.

---

This poem was based on information I'd found on the web, citing The Records of the Van Every Family, by Mary Blackadar Piersol, 1947.

After writing this poem, I discovered the muster rolls for David Van Every on Footnote.com that put the information somewhat in doubt.

The link above is to the records on Footnote.  Their Revolutionary War records are FREE access through July 7th.

The muster rolls suggest he enlisted on July 4, 1775, and deserted on Sept 12 (or Sept / 2) 1775.  And re-enlisted on May 23, 1777, and redeserted in June of 1777.  So in total it would have been for three months, not two years.

Also, since writing the poem, I obtained a copy of The Records of the Van Every Family, by Mary Blackadar Piersol.  She only mentions David joining and deserting in 1777.  So she didn't know about the 1775 muster roll.  Somebody else must have found documentation that he joined in 1775, and an incorrect interpretation was made that he remained in service between 1775 and 1777.

It's impossible to assign motivation to the enlistments and desertions.  David was 18 and 20 years old in 1775 and 1777.  He may have just been a very confused young man.  The first line of the poem might not be accurate, but the gist of the poem still is.

Follow Friday: Usenet/Google Groups

Usenet began in the 1980s as a collection of discussion groups, mostly for college students and staff on any topic the users decided they wanted to talk about. Anything without limitations. Whenever a quorum decided a new topic was needed, it was added.

A company called DejaNews began organizing the Usenet archives in the late 1990s, and Google bought them in 2001 and formed Google Groups. Google Groups serves as both an archive going back to 1981 and a continuation of all the discussion groups. (This has frightened many former college students who began to ask, "Everything I posted there is now available for potential employers - or my kids! - to read? Forever?" Google used to provide a method of claiming old posts and deleting them, but that help page is no longer there, and they only explain how to delete more recent posts to Google Groups.)

A few of the groups that might be of of obvious interest to genealogists and family historians: Alt.Obituaries, and two dozen groups or so under the heading Soc.Genealogy.

Of course you can search all groups at once on the main page, including newer ones created under the auspices of Google Groups. Just be forewarned. In the search results, before clicking on something, take a look at what the title of the discussion-group is. This will likely give you a clue as to what posts you are likely to find in that group. This could change your mind on whether or not to read the post.

This post was adapted from a post back in August of 2007.