Monday, June 27, 2011

Amanuensis Monday: Dawes Commission - Robert Hartley

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, newspaper articles, 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.

I began this project back in February of 2009, and since then, many others have joined in on the meme.  Why do we transcribe?  I provide my three reasons in the linked post.  You may find others.  If you participate, feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments.

***

This week, I continue with the application my maternal grandmother's aunts, uncles, and cousins made in 1900 to the Dawes Commission to be accepted as Mississippi Choctaws. Previously I have transcribed the testimony given by
  1. MCR 1050 - Samuel T Hartley – Nov 21, 1900 (Brother of my great great grandmother, Sarah Hartley Denyer Foster)
  2. MCR 1053 - Sophronia Hartley Cagle - Nov 21, 1900 (Daughter of Samuel T Hartley) 
  3. MCR 1054 - Melvin Elijah Van Every – Nov 21, 1900 (My great grandfather)
  4. MCR 1055 - Samuel W Denyer - Nov 21, 1900 (Brother of my great grandmother, Margaret Denyer Van Every)
  5. MCR 1069 - Eliza Caroline Foster Reeves – Nov 26, 1900 (Half-sister of my great grandmother)
  6. MCR 5842 - Georgia Hartley Phillips – June 17, 1902 (Daughter of Samuel T Hartley)
  7. MCR 5842 - Samuel T Hartley – June 17, 1902 
and the ultimate decision - July 11, 1902  (A rejection.)

Below is the testimony given by Robert Hartley, a son of Samuel T Hartley, and a first cousin to my great grandmother, Margaret (Denyer) Van Every

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Week in Review

It's been eight months, and I am unsure whether or not I will be returning to doing this regularly.  But below are some noteworthy news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

Genealogy Research
  • James Tanner at Genealogy's Star begins to address the topic of Evidence and Proof from the perspective of a lawyer, and continues by discussing the difference between probative and non-probative facts in Digging into Evidence.  The connections to genealogy research are clear.
Poetry
    Digital Archives 
      • Meredith D. at NARAtions announced the addition of Tagging for he National Archives "Online Public Access Prototype" 
      Recent uploads to the National Archives Flickr set
        • Executive Order 9981 in which President Harry S. Truman bans the segregation of the Armed Forces., 07/26/1948, Page 1/2, Page 2/2
        Technoloy/Internet
        •  ICANN announced that they will begin accepting applications for unlimited new Top Level Domains in January of next year. Currently TLDs include .com, .net, .org, etc  If there is interest from more than one source for a TLD it will be auctioned.  (Do you think Ancestry.com or FamilySearch will bid highest for .genealogy ?  Will anyone bid for the misspelled .geneology ?)  One of the interesting features of this announcement I've noticed, is that they will allow different language sets.  So there could be a TLD using Hebrew or Chinese characters.
        •  Dick Eastman reviews  the ABBYY TextGrabber app for iPod/iPad2/iPhones. While the application looks useful, and I may test it out myself, the review is also a great illustration of the weaknesses of Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

          Monday, June 20, 2011

          Amanuensis Monday: Dawes Commission - Sophronia Cagle

          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, newspaper articles, 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.

          I began this project back in February of 2009, and since then, many others have joined in on the meme.  Why do we transcribe?  I provide my three reasons in the linked post.  You may find others.  If you participate, feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments.

          ***

          This week, I continue with the application my maternal grandmother's aunts, uncles, and cousins made in 1900 to the Dawes Commission to be accepted as Mississippi Choctaws. Previously I have transcribed the testimony given by
          1. Samuel T Hartley – Nov 21, 1900 (Brother of my great great grandmother, Sarah Hartley Denyer Foster)
          2. Melvin Elijah Van Every – Nov 21, 1900 (My great grandfather)
          3. Samuel W Denyer - Nov 21, 1900 (Brother of my great grandmother, Margaret Denyer Van Every)
          4. Eliza Caroline Foster Reeves – Nov 26, 1900 (Half-sister of my great grandmother)
          5. Georgia Hartley Phillips – June 17, 1902 (Daughter of Samuel T Hartley)
          6. Samuel T Hartley – June 17, 1902 
          and the ultimate decision - July 11, 1902  (A rejection.)

          Below is the testimony given by Sophronia Hartley Cagle, another daughter of Samuel T Hartley.

          Monday, June 13, 2011

          Amanuensis Monday: Dawes Commission - Samuel W Denyer

          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, newspaper articles, 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.

          I began this project back in February of 2009, and since then, many others have joined in on the meme.  Why do we transcribe?  I provide my three reasons in the linked post.  You may find others.  If you participate, feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments.

          ***

          This week, I return to the application my maternal grandmother's aunts, uncles, and cousins made in 1900 to the Dawes Commission to be accepted as Mississippi Choctaws. Previously I have transcribed the testimony given by
          1. Samuel T Hartley – Nov 21, 1900 (Brother of my great great grandmother, Sarah Hartley Denyer Foster)
          2. Melvin Elijah Van Every – Nov 21, 1900 (my great grandfather)
          3. Eliza Caroline Foster Reeves – Nov 26, 1900 (Half-sister of my great grandmother, Margaret Denyer Van Every)
          4. Georgia Hartley Phillips – June 17, 1902 (Daughter of Samuel Hartley)
          5. Samuel T Hartley – June 17, 1902 
          and the ultimate decision - July 11, 1902  (A rejection.)

          Below is the testimony given by Samuel William Denyer, brother to my great grandmother, Margaret Denyer Van Every.

          Monday, June 6, 2011

          Amanuensis Monday: Draft Registration for Herman Feinstein

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

          I continue my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, 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.

          I began this project back in February of 2009, and since then, many others have joined in on the meme.  Why do we transcribe?  I provide my three reasons in the linked post.  You may find others.  If you participate, feel free to leave a link to your post in the comments.

          ***

          This week, in honor of the anniversary of D-Day, I continue to look through various wartime documents.  While this week's anniversary pertains to a different war, I decided to transcribe another World War I draft registration - this time that of my great grandfather, Herman Feinstein.  

          Wednesday, June 1, 2011

          Wordless Wednesday - Van Every Estate - Mimico, Toronto, Ontario

          Caption: Photo of the Van Every settlers house on Lake Shore (between Dwight and Royal York) in Mimico (1920) (source)