Monday, March 28, 2011

Amanuensis Monday: March 28

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

If you have an Amanuensis Monday post on your blog, please feel free to add a link below.  An explanation of this weekly blog theme follows.



  • Is there a letter, journal entry, speech, other document, or audio recording, written or delivered by or about an ancestor you wish to transcribe for future generations?
  • Are you engaged in a transcription project of an historical document?
This is what Amanuensis Monday was created for. Amanuensis is an obscure word, but it derives from the Latin, ‘Manu’ meaning ‘hand’. 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.

Amanuensis Monday: Filling up the Mediterranean, Axis to Grind, and Greta Garbo

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.

This week I transcribe a letter my grandfather, Martin Deutsch, received during the war from his brother, Ted. My grandfather was stationed in Africa. Ted worked for a Chicago newspaper, and used what was handy on which to type his letter.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

March 22, 2011

On Tuesday, March 22, 2011 I asked the woman of my dreams to marry me.

She said yes.

A date has not been set, but there is a distinct possibility that this blog may in the future discuss several new surnames, as well as Scottish, Irish, Norwegian, and/or German genealogy research in greater depth than it has.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Amanuensis Monday: The Divorce of Alfred H and Myrtle Connevey

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.

This week I transcribe the divorce decree issued for my maternal grandmother and, I believe, her second husband. I discovered a newspaper record of this divorce a month ago, and have since retrieved the below document from the El Paso District Court.

Amanuensis Monday: March 21

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

If you have an Amanuensis Monday post on your blog, please feel free to add a link below.  An explanation of this weekly blog theme follows.



  • Is there a letter, journal entry, speech, other document, or audio recording, written or delivered by or about an ancestor you wish to transcribe for future generations?
  • Are you engaged in a transcription project of an historical document?
This is what Amanuensis Monday was created for. Amanuensis is an obscure word, but it derives from the Latin, ‘Manu’ meaning ‘hand’. 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.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I am not aware of any Irish ancestry in my tree, however, my great grandfather, Barney Newmark, often would claim to have been born in Ireland. He also celebrated March 17th as his birthday. Though a few other dates appear on some documents. He almost certainly arrived on the scene in Warka, Poland, though any record of his birth has so far escaped detection.  A few other possible elements of 'blarney' appear in a bio he wrote for himself for Who's Who in North St. Louis (1925) - including an education 'at Oxford.' (In London they did live nearby an 'Oxford Street' and it is conceivable there was some school named after the street that he attended as a youth.  The bio doesn't state 'University,' though it is clearly implied.)

I know that his sister Cissie (or Cecile) celebrated her birthday on July 4th.   However her British birth certificate is easy to obtain, and she was really born on August 16th.  The Newmark family settled in an Irish area of St. Louis on their arrival in America, and I wonder if some of the children adopted local celebrations near their birthday as their own.

In a way, I owe my obsession with genealogy to my great grandfather's fib. It made for a fun story to tell my friends on the holiday, and one of those friends was also obsessed with genealogy, so he conducted a search, and sent me a link to the 1920 HeritageQuest census for my great grandfather. Once I realized what was available online, there was no turning back.

(click on image to enlarge)
Documents
1) A bio my great grandfather, Barney Newmark, wrote for Who's Who in North St. Louis, 1925
2) World War I registration form
3) Declaration of Intent
4) Gravestone

Related Blog Posts:
March 17, 2010 Barney's Birthday and Birthplace
March 17, 2009 On St. Patrick's Day Everyone is Irish
March 17, 2008 My 'Irish' Great Grandfather
March 15, 2007 Corned Beef and Cabbage on Rye

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

April is National Poetry Month

I know it isn't April yet, but every year I start to think about what I will do to celebrate National Poetry Month a few weeks early. I've been writing poetry for over 25 years, since I was a teen, and I have been performing poetry at area open mics for over 15 years.

In 2007 and 2008 I posted a poem-a-day on my personal blog. (poems by others, not my own poetry.)

In 2009 I attempted to write and post a poem-a-day of my own poetry, and only managed 20.

Last year I successfully wrote and posted a poem-a-day.

This year, I've decided to debut an ezine

Generations of Poetry - The eZine for Genealogists


The mission of the zine will be to share: poetry on the genealogy obsession (the research, the rewards, the pitfalls), as well as biographical poems about ancestors and kin. We will include poetry by famous authors (such as Robert Frost, who inspired the title of the zine with his poem, Generations of Men). We will also be open for submissions from poets interested in genealogy, and genealogists with a hankering for poetry.

In its opening month, I hope to post a new poem each day. The frequency of poetry after that will be completely dependent upon submissions. The less I have to write in April, the happier I will be. Ideally, none of these poems will have been written by me. Ideally, all of them will be selected from submissions. Interested poets should read the guidelines for submission.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Amanuensis Monday: Melvin Van Every - on preaching, baptizing, and marriage - 1926

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.

This week I transcribe two letters from my great grandfather, Melvin E Van Every, to his daughter, and my grandmother, Myrtle. They wrote to each other weekly, and I have many of his letters from 1926 and 1927, but none of the letters she wrote. Of course, he refers often to what she wrote, so there are glimpses.

Amanuensis Monday: March 14th

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

If you have an Amanuensis Monday post on your blog, please feel free to add a link below.  An explanation of this weekly blog theme follows.



  • Is there a letter, journal entry, speech, other document, or audio recording, written or delivered by or about an ancestor you wish to transcribe for future generations?
  • Are you engaged in a transcription project of an historical document?
This is what Amanuensis Monday was created for. Amanuensis is an obscure word, but it derives from the Latin, ‘Manu’ meaning ‘hand’. 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.

Monday, March 7, 2011

Amanuensis Monday - March 7th

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

If you have an Amanuensis Monday post on your blog, please feel free to add a link below.  An explanation of this weekly blog theme follows.



  • Is there a letter, journal entry, speech, other document, or audio recording, written or delivered by or about an ancestor you wish to transcribe for future generations?
  • Are you engaged in a transcription project of an historical document?
This is what Amanuensis Monday was created for. Amanuensis is an obscure word, but it derives from the Latin, ‘Manu’ meaning ‘hand’. 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.

Amanuensis Monday:Notice of Hearing to Appropriate Public Water - 1918

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.

This week I transcribe a newspaper article from the El Paso Herald, which I found at ChroniclingAmerica. The article mentions my great grandfather, Melvin E. Van Every.

Friday, March 4, 2011

St. Louis City Public Library - Genealogy and Local History Branch

St. Louis City's Central Library (with most of their genealogy collection) closed in the middle of 2010 for construction.  They won't open again until some time in 2012.

I learned in May that St. Louis County's library system was creating a Genealogy Center in Chesterfield.  I noted that the distance from home to the new library would be three times as far as it is currently, for me (13 miles, as opposed to 4 miles. I wasn't too concerned about the distance.)

[Note: St. Louis City and St. Louis County have been separate entities since 1876.]

What I didn't see coming is a Genealogy-Specific site for the City library system.  1 Block from where I work.

As the History & Genealogy Department of the St. Louis Public Library reports
We will be opening our new genealogy and local history branch on Monday, 14 March 2011.

Compton Library
1624 Locust Street
St. Louis, MO 63103

Hours of operation: M-F: 9 am-5 pm; First Saturday of each month, 9 am-5 pm.
Parking: Free on-site parking for users of Compton Library.

[...]

Compton Library’s focus is on researchers and their needs. Compton visitors may bring their laptops if they so desire- there are outlets available. It is not intended to be a full-service branch, so only persons who need access to its specialized materials and staff subject specialists can be accommodated. Because seating is limited, please call ahead before visiting so that we can make sure we have the types of material you are seeking (and that you will have a place to sit and examine them once you get here!)

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Everything is New Again - backing up Gmail

In January of 2008 Charter Communications accidentally deleted thousands of email accounts.  In December of 2006 Google accidentally had deleted 60 gmail accounts.  Here's a January 2008 post of mine explaining how to backup gmail with Pop3.

Recently a Google glitch disabled 150,000 gmail accounts.  Mashable posted a backup method using some software called Gmail Backup.

However, it is important to note...Google didn't lose the email permanently.  As they have explained
To protect your information from these unusual bugs, we also back it up to tape. Since the tapes are offline, they’re protected from such software bugs. But restoring data from them also takes longer than transferring your requests to another data center, which is why it’s taken us hours to get the email back instead of milliseconds.
 Google's offline tape backup is very reassuring to this customer.  I am not one of the .02% of Gmail customers who woke up a couple days ago to empty accounts.  You would have heard from me if I had been.  While it may be possible to imagine a natural disaster that might impact both the backup servers and the tape backup simultaneously, I am comforted that they are not relying completely on digital storage.

Wikipedia - Using Wikipedia for Research (repost)

This is an edited and updated version of an entry posted in December of 2007

Wikipedia is attacked often as a resource for inaccuracies. There have been studies done, however, that show it compares well to other encyclopedias. Of course, I recall being taught as a high school student that encyclopedias in general aren’t great reference citations. That’s because they’re secondary. Someone wrote the entry in the encyclopedia based on other sources. Go to those sources. That doesn’t mean an encyclopedia isn’t a good place to start research. And Wikipedia is no different in that regard. However, Wikipedia is a little different from the normal encyclopedia, in that it is constantly being edited, and it isn’t at first immediately clear at what stage of the editorial process a particular article is in. But there are ways to evaluate individual articles.

Whenever I am looking at a Wikipedia article for research purposes I:

1) Check to see if for the particular information I write down there is a source citation. I write that citation down so I can look that up later. Citations are heavily encouraged at Wikipedia, and an article that doesn't have them usually has a warning message on it at the top stating that the article lacks citations. Particular facts within the article may also be labeled as needing a citation.

2) I look at the "History" of the article to see how old it is, and what the more recent changes have been. If it is a relatively new article, that decreases its reliability in my mind. The more people who have read it, and made changes to it, the more accurate it is likely to be. If it is a very new article, I may click on the names of the editors to look at their user profiles and see if they claim any expertise.

Wikipedia at one time considered requiring people to submit proof of academic credentials to back up what they say on their user profiles. These proposals were ultimately rejected out of fear that it would lead to a less democratic system. Though while not required, more editors who do have professional experience will now provide some support of those statements on their profiles. While professionals are known to err at times, the knowledge that a professional worked on an entry does increase the odds that it is reliable

I also check the most recent edits to see if any of them impact the information I am interested in.  If this is new information, I'll see if I can verify it elsewhere.

3) Finally, I look at the "Discussion" page to see if there have been any disputes over the content of the page.

Yes, this is more work. But these added steps do help one judge whether a particular article is reliable, and it is still quicker than going to the library. And if there is a source citation, I can take that to the library, and save a lot of time I would have spent there trying to find the information. (I will first check to see if the book has been scanned in Google Books, and if not, I will check WorldCat to find the nearest library that has a copy of the book.  I'm lucky to live nearby several good university libraries as well as a strong public library system.)

What people have to realize is that the editorial process that goes on at print encyclopedias goes on at Wikipedia too - it just happens live. There's no way to know at what point in the process the article is unless you check the history and the discussion page. Like many tools - Wikipedia is neither inherently bad nor good – it depends upon how you use it