TransylvanianDutch

Amanuensis Monday: Company Muster Roll - Ebenezer Denyer - Jan & Feb 1863

2012-01-23T12:49:00.000-06:00

Confederate
D 2 Texas
Ebinezar Denyer
Pvt, Co E, 2 Regiment Texas Infantry
Appears on
Company Muster Roll
Of the organization named above,
For Jan & Feb, 1863

Enlisted:
When: June 12, 1862
Where: Hays Co
By whom: Randall
Period: War

Last Paid:
By whom: Capt Minter
To what time Dec 1, 1862

Present or absent: Absent
Remarks: Detached service as teamster Jany 17 1862. Transferred from conscript camp Jny 10/63. Descriptive roll sworn to.

The 2d (also called the 1st, the Galveston and Van Dorn’s) Regiment Texas Infantry was organized in September or October, 1861 with ten companies. Captain Odium’s Company was transferred to the 1st Regiment Texas Heavy Artillery by S.O. No 66. Dept of Texas, dated October 26, 1861, and became Company F of that regiment. Captain Owen’s Company, which was independent command, was assigned to this regiment October 26, 1861, by the same order, and became Company K.

Signature _____
Copyist

Notes:

1) This image was downloaded from the databases at Footnote (now Fold3). The source given was the National Archives. It's a transcription from the original muster rolls, so it is not itself the original document.

2) A teamster, in this context, is one who drives a wagon of mules, oxen, or horses.

Amanuensis Monday: London Dreyfus Demonstrations - Sept 1899

2012-01-16T10:16:00.000-06:00

DREYFUS CASE IN LONDON
Jews Celebrate Atonement Day by Holding Demonstrations
CHIEF RABBI ADLER SPEAKS
Says Last Saturday’s Verdict Was a Disaster to France – The Paris Exposition Not Boycotted
Special to The New York Times

LONDON, Sept 14 – English indignation against France was strengthened to-day on account of the observance by all Jews of the Day of Atonment.

The day was celebrated here, especially in the East End, with Dreyfus demonstrations. A procession with a banner inscribed “Dreyfus, the Martyr, All the Civilized World Demands His Instant Release,” marched through Spitalfields.

The Great Synagogue in London presented a striking spectacle. It was crowded from 6 o’clock in the morning until 6 at night, and thousands were unable to enter.

Dr. Adler, the chief rabbi, delivered a sermon referring to the Dreyfus case. He said what was morally wrong could not be politically right. Right, justice, honor, and mercy belonged to the immutable law. Falsehood and injustice might prosper for a time, but certain retribution would follow those who forsook the path of right and justice. It had been so with the colossal empires of antiquity, and with Spain in our day.

Dr. Adler declared that Saturday was not, as had been said, the bitterest day in the history of modern Judaism on account of the Dreyfus verdict. It was a memorable penitential Sabbath, ever to be remembered with the keenest disappointment, in which all felt the deepest pity for the prolonged agony of Dreyfus and his wife, but it was not a day of unalloyed bitterness for Jews. To France it was a day more disasterous than Waterloo, more humiliating than Sedan. France, which first allowed to the Jews the rights of citizenship, had defiled the golden vessels of God’s temple, and branded an innocent man as an odious traitor to the country he loved so well. Even in France every one had not been hypnotized by the unholy blend of clericalism and militarism.

“Let the majesty of the law be vindicated,” he concluded, “and let them not seek a pardon, which should be rejected with scorn, for where no crime was committed, how can a pardon be granted?”

Yet this is the very course taken by the law in England, though this point was overlooked by Dr. Adler. The Dreyfus case still remains in the forefront of discussion. The opinion preponderates that the prisoner will be pardoned. On all sides one hears the question: How is it possible to pardon an innocent man? One answer to this is that he has been convicted. Another is that the custom is not confined to France. Many persons have been convicted and sentenced to penal servitude for life in England, and when one of them is discovered to be innocent the conviction is not annulled. The only reparation made to the convict being a free pardon. If such can be the case in free England, many persons say, why not in France?

Col. Jekyll, Secretary of the Royal Commission for the Paris Exposition, says that not more than a dozen firms have withdrawn their applications for space. Large numbers have been unable to obtain space, and the pending applications are far more numerous than the withdrawals. Over 2000 exhibitors will be represented. Col. Jekyll says only an extraordinary development of the boycott would justify a special meeting of the commission. This has not occurred.

Notes:

1) My great great grandparents, Samuel and Rose Newmark, arrived in London in approximately 1893 with five children. Three more were born in England. Their eldest, Sol, was married in the Great Synagogue in 1902.

2) Col. Sir Herbert Jekyll (1846-1932) is mentioned in the final paragraph. His brother, Rev. Walter Jekyll, was a friend of Robert Louis Stevenson. (source)

3) This is an excellent example of the New York Times reporters correcting what they viewed as a factual error - explaining how one can pardon an innocent person. At some point between 1899 and 2012, they seem to have forgotten how to do this. Dreyfus was pardoned five days later on September 19th. While a pardon, as the NYTimes explains, is usually all one can expect in most countries after a conviction, in 1906 Dreyfus was exonerated by a military commission. (source)

Week In Review

2012-01-15T00:05:00.010-06:00

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

The controversy over the new Martin Luther King, Jr. monument may serve as a reminder to genealogists, that just because something is inscribed in stone, doesn't make it accurate.

The January 2012 Library of Congress Digital Preservation Newsletter can be downloaded.

Megan Smolenyak² at The Huffington Post covers the celebrity genealogy offerings of NBC and PBS this spring, listing all 32 celebs participating. I believe Kyra Sedgwick, who will be on PBS's "Finding Your Roots" is a distant cousin of mine through shared Stoughton ancestry, though I have no clue whether that branch of her tree will be mentioned.

Alan Stewart at Grow Your Own Family Tree discusses Ancestry UK's launch of Parish pages.

The National Archives (NARA) is encouraging Citizen Archivists to transcribe documents, and tag images. (H/T: Upfront with the NGS)

In two separate posts, Dear Myrtle compares the ease/difficulty of finding the same record on FamilySearch and Scotland's People.

Police - using Y Surname DNA test - have discovered the probable last name of a culprit. (Of course, over almost 400 years, name changes, and illegitimacy happens.) Blaine Bettinger at The Genetic Genealogist discusses the case and ethical concerns of using DNA for this purpose.

In the world of Social Networking, the big news this week is Google's adding of Google+ posts to their search results. Levi Sumagaysay at Good Morning Silicon Valley covers the aftermath.

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday Gems at Adventures in Genealogy
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogy Round Up at MSS's Roots World
Wndy Littrell's Follow Friday at All My Branches Genealogy
Greta Koehl's Friday's Finds and Fun at Greta's Genealogy Bog
Diane Haddad's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider
Donna Pointkouski's Donna's Picks, Link Love, and More at What's Past is Prologue

Amanuensis Monday: The Marriage of Willa Van Every and Lex Roberts

2012-01-09T00:05:00.002-06:00

Galveston Daily News - January 10, 1910

ROBERTS-VAN EVERY – San Marcos, Tex., Jan 9. – Lex Roberts of Lockhart and Miss Willa Van Every of this city were quietly married this morning at the Methodist parsonage. Rev. John Anderson performing the ceremony. The bride is a daughter of M. E. Van Every and formerly lived near Maxwell, while the groom is a prominent young farmer and stockman living near Lockhart.

Notes:

1) Willa died in July of 1916, at the age of 26. Here's a letter she wrote a month before she died.
She probably wrote the poem, Mother, around 1905.

Week In Review

2012-01-08T10:37:00.157-06:00

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

Missy Corley at Bayside Blog discusses When Even Vital Records Can't Be Trusted, reminding us that if the person providing the information on the document didn't know or couldn't remember the correct information, the document will be wrong.

The Ancestry Insider reminds us that some census enumerators were lazy... and raises a disturbing question about why they are unable to find the same document at FamilySearch.

Cynthia at ChicagoGenealogy takes a closer look at the Chicago Lying-in Hospital birth records.

Michael John Neill at Genealogy Tip of the Day reminds us January 1st was not always the start of the year.

Tamura Jones at Modern Software Experience responds to a statement by the IrishCentral that twins born in different years was a 'historic first.'

Bill LeFurgy at the Library of Congress' Digital Preservation blog listed the Top Ten Digital Preservation Developments of 2011

Dean Kaner at Jewish Magazine writes on his grandparent's immigration story in Jewish Immigrants to America as Seen Through Letters

James Tanner at Genealogy's Star highlights some Genealogical Myths and Fallacies.

Some may see a connection to genealogy in Fred Clark's post at The Slacktivist on Three Kinds of Falsehoods: Innocence, Interest, and Intrigue.

The National Archives has posted several interesting historical documents this week to their Document of the Day feed.

In the News

NBC announced the celebrities who will be in the upcoming season of Who Do You Think You Are

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is returning to PBS with a 10-part series entitled Finding Your Roots.

A Polish WWII ursine war hero named Wojtek is to be commemorated. (You're probably not related.)

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has corrected the spelling of a soldier's name in their database

Scientists create monster super-soldier ants by activating ancestral genes.

Carnival

The 113th Carnival of Genealogy has been released at CreativeGene. The theme was A Dickens' Christmas. The theme for the 114th edition will be The Fifth Annual iGene Awards. For more information, read here.

New Blog Discovered

This week I discovered Michael Twitty's Afroculinaria. While his focus is the culinary traditions of Africa, he has started a series he entitles: The Cooking Gene. From his bio: "I am a Judaics teacher and Culinary Historian focusing on the foodways of Africa, enslaved African Americans, African America and the African and Jewish diasporas."

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday Gems at Adventures in Genealogy
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogy Round Up at MSS's Roots World
Apple's Weekly Rewind at Apple's Tree
Wndy Littrell's Follow Friday at All My Branches Genealogy
Greta Koehl's Friday's Finds and Fun at Greta's Genealogy Bog
Diane Haddad's Genealogy News Corral Catch-up at Genealogy Insider

(Source: Wondermark)

The Black Swan Fallacy

2012-01-03T12:05:00.011-06:00

Modification of 2009 post

The Black Swan Fallacy is taught in college logic courses.

"I've never seen a black swan," the logic goes, "so black swans don't exist."

The logic is obviously absurd. No one has the opportunity to personally examine the color of every swan on the planet. That doesn't stop us from accidentally falling into this logical trap.

We may be very familiar with American swans, for example, and think our experience is sufficient. But black swans actually exist in Australia, if not elsewhere.

[image source]

There are also people who are very adamant that no two snowflakes look alike, or that there's no such thing as an honest politician. Science tells us the truth about snowflakes. Though I fear the existence of an honest politician is an element of faith one must either have, or not have.

Genealogical Black Swans

In genealogy we run across this fallacy when we assume something didn't happen, because we haven't seen the evidence for it.

I'll use an example from my family history.

Fact 1: Melvin Van Every, his wife, and children appear in the 1900 census in Caldwell County, Texas

Fact 2: Dates of birth for the children from a Family Record (believed to be copied from a family Bible) indicate births in Caldwell County in 1884, 1886, 1888, 1890, 1898, and 1900. (With one birth in Oklahoma in 1892)

Fact 3: in 1900, in front of the Dawes Commission, Melvin Van Every testifies that his mother-in-law, Sarah (Hartley) (Denyer) Foster, was living with them in 1898 when she died.

Fact 4: The eldest child above has written notes indicating they only remained in Oklahoma briefly - between December of 1891 and Spring of 1892.

Most genealogists would look for records of the death of a Sarah Foster in Caldwell County, Texas. Due to the scarcity of death records in 1898, there would probably be little effort made looking elsewhere when they weren't found. Maybe you'd look in neighboring counties. However, if we catch ourselves stating with certainty that she died in Caldwell County, we have fallen for the Black Swan fallacy. We may have found no evidence to the contrary, but we don't have proof.

The Genealogical Proof Standard includes a "reasonably exhaustive search." Though we must remember reasonably exhaustive will still miss records. And truly exhaustive is next to impossible.

I was lucky, and a young Minnie Van Every wrote letters to The Houston Post between 1897 and 1899 (age 13-15). She signed her name with the town she was writing from, so I know in November 1897 they traveled to Ganado, Jackson County, Texas, and if the Family Record is correct, they returned to Caldwell County prior to May 1898.

I now believe that Sarah Foster lived in Jackson County, and the Van Everys spent a year living with her. (Perhaps she was ill, so when she died, they returned to Caldwell. However, this is an unproven hypothesis.) In the above map of counties in Southeastern Texas, I've colored in Caldwell and Jackson. They are near each other, but probably not near enough that I would ever consider searching in Jackson if it weren't for those letters Minnie Van Every wrote.

There were enough missing years in the example above to raise some suspicion. How about this for an example?

Entries from the St. Louis City Directory for my grandmother, Myrtle Van Every

1921 - Astor Hotel
1921 - 4528a Enright
1922 - Westgate Hotel
1922 - 4123 Westminster
1923 - 4515 Washington
1924 - 5630 Delmar
1925 - 5540 Pershing
1926 - 4506 Forest Park
1927 - 4545 Washington
1928 - 5707 McPherson apt 111
1928 - 5656 Kingsbury apt 203
1930 - Georgiana Court Apartments, 5660 Kingsbury, apt 203, St. Louis, MO (census - ED 169 - Sheet 1B)

She moved around a lot, but she remained in St. Louis. She doesn't appear in the 1929 directory, but not appearing in a particular directory isn't uncommon. I can imagine many genealogists, of varying experience levels, stating as fact that she lived in St. Louis continually from 1921 to 1930, citing the St. Louis City Directories and the 1930 census as evidence.

Unfortunately, it's not true. In April of 1927 she was married in Oakland, California. In October of 1927 they divorced, and Myrtle returned to St. Louis. She didn't miss appearing in the 1927 directory. She appeared in the 1928 directory under her maiden name, and her married name. And she did appear in the 1929 directory, but only under her married name. She returned to her maiden name by the census in 1930.

Since she worked for the US Postal Service, I was able to obtain her personnel records, which indicated her name change, but said nothing about geographical relocation. Her brief husband was born in Illinois. not too far from St. Louis. I'd have had absolutely no reason to conduct any research in California.

Once again, I was lucky, and my grandmother saved her divorce papers, which I found in a box of her effects after obtaining her personnel records.

Each document we uncover is but a snapshot in time. Adding more snapshots increases our knowledge, but we need to beware of Black Swans nesting in our genealogical assumptions and conclusions.

Amanuensis Monday: The Year of Liberation - Letter Home from WWII - Jan 1, 1944

2012-01-02T07:53:00.002-06:00

Censored by
114
Army Examiner
MJ Deutsch

To Mrs. M.V. Deutsch
417 Oakley Drive
Clayton Branch
St. Louis, Missouri

From MJ Deutsch, Major
Station 1, NAFW, ATC
APO 396, c/o Pla. N.Y.
Jan 1, 1944

Dearest, General Surand(?), according to the local people, calls this the first day of the year of liberation. Persons can be freed in different ways. While Americans are not prisoners of a military occupation by the enemy as is France, their freedom is still almost as greatly restricted for they can’t do what they want to; going home to their families for instance. So it’ll be the first day of the year of liberation for us too.

You’re probably familiar with a form of exercise we’re subject to occasionally here. We call it “baggage drill.” We take our suitcases and equipment to the airport to get on a scheduled plane and then find that weather, motor trouble, or something or other has caused a cancellation. You then have to pick up all your paraphernalia and make new arrangements for a room, transportation, and all that goes with it. The next day you start all over again. This may go on for several days. You usually get up early in the morning, miss one or two meals, pack and unpack, get in everybody’s way, get irritated and sore and swear a lot. It’s getting to be a common thing, but I don’t think anyone wants to get used to it.

After looking around and discussing things generally it looks as if my job isn’t going to be very satisfactory as it stands. Hahn thinks I should either be attached or reassigned to his office. That really is my opinion, too, and I’ve indicated that to him. I’m not sure what action he can take on it. He said he’d think it over. If I’m reassigned again, it won’t make my return home as easy.

One of Hahn’s assistants, Sally Maloy, took me to a New Year’s Eve affair given by the local Officer’s Mess. They had a band, and plenty of beer and wine. However, there were about ten men for every woman. I enjoyed the affair and we didn’t get home till three in the morning.

Planning to try my baggage drill again today and hope to be back at my HQ shortly. Most love to you, ___, and ___. Martin.

Notes:

1) APO 396 was Casablanca, Morocco (source: Numerical Listing of APOs: January 1942-November 1947. PDF)

2) As I've mentioned on other letters, my grandfather was his APO censor, so he censored his own letters. His civilian profession was Post Office Inspector. I have censored the names of his children in his closing, since it is my habit not to mention the names of living people, though neither my mother nor aunt would likely mind.

3) While my grandfather wasn't released from active duty until November of 1945, during the summer of 1944 he was re-stationed in Palm Beach, Florida, where his wife and children joined him, so 1944 was his year of liberation.

Amanuensis Monday: The Birth of Israel David Newmark - 1903

2011-12-26T00:05:00.006-06:00

Registration District: St. Marylebone
1903 BIRTH in the Sub-district of All Souls in the County of London

No. 233
1. When and where born: Third April 1903 - 56 Wells Street
2. Name: Israel David
3. Sex: Boy
4. Name and surname of father: Samuel Joseph Newmark
5. Name, surname, and maiden name of mother: Rose Newmark, formerly Sandgart
6. Occupation of father: Master Tailor
7. Signature, description and residence of informant: X The mark of Rose Newmark, mother, 56 Wells Street
8. When registered: Twentieth May 1903
9. Signature of registrar: J. Clayton, Registrar

Notes:

1) Last week I transcribed the birth record of Israel David's sister, Cecile. Between January of 1896 and 1903, seven years passed. The youngest of 8 children, Israel David might possibly be classified as a 'surprise.' The eldest child would have his first son in 1904, and Israel David would end up being known to his numerous nephews and nieces as "Uncle Buddy."

2) It's not too surprising that the family had moved to a new address after seven years. Rose's maiden name was given this time as "Sandgart." This time, she was the informant. It's possible her pronunciation of her maiden name was closer than her husband's. I think this is the first appearance of Samuel's middle name on a document.

3) "Uncle Buddy" (1903-2004) outlived many of his nephews and nieces, and served as a bridge to later generations. There's an interview of him I wish to transcribe, and excerpts may appear here.

This is my 150th Amanuensis Monday post. Here's an index of past transcriptions.

Wordless Wednesday: Some old humor for your morning

2011-12-21T00:01:00.010-06:00

Source: The News Boy, Benton Missouri (Scott County) - December 21, 1895
(Chronicling America)

Happy Khanike!

2011-12-20T21:02:00.000-06:00

Hanuka began at sundown tonight. It's an 8-day celebration starting on the 25th day of the first month of Winter on the Hebrew calendar, marking the Maccabean revolt in 166 BCE.

There are only two ways to properly spell the name of the holiday: חנוכה or חנכה (The one on the left being more common today according to Wikipedia)

If you use any other alphabet, it is entirely phonetic, resulting in many options, none of them being more 'correct' than the other. However, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research did decide that 'Khanike' most closely approximates the pronunciation. Their spelling is one of the least used in America, though, even if it has the most academia behind it.

There are more videos in my post from 2009 at this time.

Amanuensis Monday: The Birth of Cecile Newmark - 1896

2011-12-19T00:05:00.031-06:00

Registration District: St. Giles
1896 BIRTH in the Sub-district of St. Giles North in the County of London

No. 442
1. When and where born: Sixteenth August 1896 55 New Compton Street
2. Name: Cecile
3. Sex: Girl
4. Name and surname of father: Samuel Newmark
5. Name, surname, and maiden name of mother: Rosa Newmark, formerly Sonka
6. Occupation of father: Master Tailor
7. Signature, description and residence of informant: X The mark of Samuel Newmark, father, 55 New Compton Street
8. When registered: Twenty third September 1896
9. Signature of registrar: WB Peach, Registrar

Notes:

1) A few weeks ago I transcribed the birth record of Cissie's older sister, Kate. Between January of 1895 and September of 1896, Samuel Newmark went from Journeyman to Master Tailor. The rest of the information is pretty much the same. They were living at the same address. Rosa's maiden name was given this time as "Sonka" instead of "Sankad." The registrar is even the same.

2) I'm unsure if my great great aunt was ever referred to as 'Cecile' by anyone.

Amanuensis Monday: Baby Pines for Lost DaDa - 1907

2011-12-12T00:05:00.052-06:00

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 transcribe a news story that appeared in the 1907 St. Louis Post Dispatch. Goldie Cruvant, who I mentioned last week, had just returned to East St. Louis from Chicago, with husband, Benjamin, and their two children. And Ben's parents weren't happy about the relationship.

St. Louis Post Dispatch; June 21, 1907; page 3
ProQuest Historical Newspapers St. Louis Post Dispatch (1874-1922)

BABY PINES FOR HER LOST DADA
Shoemaker’s Wife Asks Police to Help Find Her Husband Who Disappeared

The love of a blue-eyed baby girl is awaiting the return of Benjamin Cruvant, who left his home in East St. Louis two months ago. His 2-year-old daughter is worried over his absence and in her baby prattle she daily calls for her “dada,” whose absence she cannot understand.

Cruvant is 24 years old and formerly had a shoe shop at 512 North Sixteenth street, East St. Louis, now run by his wife. After visiting his parents, who were opposed to his marriage, he packed up his tools and left home April 19, last. He did not tell his wife he intended to leave and she has not heard of him since.

Mrs. Cruvant is not a Jewess, but is of English parentage, and to this she ascribes the objections of her husband’s parents, Morris Cruvant, father of Benjmain, who lives at 435 Collinsville avenue, East St. Louis.

Mrs. Cruvant says she cannot account for her husband’s long absence from the baby, whom he loved dearly. The little one pines for her father’s love and often hugs and kisses his photograph which her mother keeps within her reach on a dresser.

Mrs. Cruvant has appealed to the police to assist in locating her husband.

Notes:

1) Despite its flair for the dramatic, it is interesting that the article doesn't mention that Ben and Goldie had two children. In addition to a two-year old daughter, there should have been a three-year-old son. Is it possible the elder child had been left in Chicago with some relatives of Goldie, hoping the grandparents might be more willing to accept one grandchild?

2) The details are unknown, but it's clear Ben made the decision to break it off with Goldie. Goldie and their children returned to Chicago, and Ben remained in St. Louis, and ultimately married again, and had two more children.

3) Ben and his father, Morris, both traveled to Chicago in 1903-1904 - apparently looking for work. Morris returned the following year, but appears with Ben in the 1904 Chicago Directories. Ben and Goldie's first child was born in July of 1904. Ben and Goldie were married in May of 1904. The odds are strong Morris knew about his son's marriage between 1904 and 1907. It's not clear if the rest of the family had been told, though.

Week In Review

2011-12-11T10:38:00.000-06:00

Below are some highlights from 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 Resources

The MoSGA Messenger this week has linked to or discussed several sources for digitized newspapers, including: Irish Newspaper Archive, International Coalition on Newspapers, Chronicling America, the University of Pennsylvania's list of Historical Newspapers Online, Wikipedia's list of Online Newspaper Archives, and Google News Archives.

James Tanner at Genealogy's Star describes The National Reporter System and why it is a good genealogical resource. He follows up with a clarification on what is meant by Courts of Record.

Technology and Digitization

The Library of Congress has created a new blog, Copyright Matters. Their goal is to make the Pre-1978 Copyright Office Records more Accessible. "Through this blog we hope to receive your thoughts and ideas so that we can present the records online in a way that will best suit your needs."

Jill Hurst-Wahl at Digitization 101 asks, is every librarian a digital librarian?

Dick Eastman at Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter asks, Is the Personal Computer Dead?

Hot Topic

Leland Meitzler at GenealogyBlog reported that book vendors were not being invited to sell their wares this year at the annual RootsTech conference. DearMyrtle, Genealogy's Star, Anglo-Celtic Connections, Smoky Mountain Family Historian, and others have commented.

In the News

Menorahs are becoming popular in Ireland, even though the Jewish population is small.

Carnivals

The 112th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been released. The topic for the next issue is A Charles Dickens Christmas. Instructions can be read at CreativeGene.

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday Gems at Adventures in Genealogy
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogy Round Up at MSS's Roots World

Vacation

I will be taking a vacation from Week in Review through the end of the month. I have scheduled several Amanuensis Monday posts. Otherwise, any blogging will be light.

Amanuensis Monday: Goldie Cruvant - in Denver Colorado - 1914

2011-12-05T00:05:00.003-06:00

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 transcribe a short excerpt from an issue of The Typographical Journal, which appears to mention Goldie (White) Cruvant, the first wife to Benjamin Cruvant, the brother of my great grandmother, Bertha (Cruvant) Newmark. (Found on Google Books)

The Typographical Journal
J.W. Hays, Editor and Publisher, Indianapolis, Indiana
Entered at the Post Office, Indianapolis, Indiana, as Second Class Matter
Issued on the Fifth of Each Month

Volume XLV November 1914 Number Five

APPLICATIONS FOR MEMBERSHIP (from Page 714)

[Objections to the admission of any of the following applicants should be made to the union to which application is made within thirty days.]

...

49. DENVER, Colo -- Mrs. G. L. Cruvant, age 30 years; learned trade in Chicago; has also worked at Milwaukee, Wis., and Peoria, Ill; never a member.

Notes:

1) I've mentioned Goldie Lillian Cruvant before. She was the first wife to Benjamin Cruvant, my great grandmother's brother. They met and married in Chicago, and had two children. When the family returned to East St. Louis, Benjamin's parents weren't happy with the interfaith marriage, and were likely the reason behind Goldie returning to Chicago with their two children. The presence or absence of a divorce is unknown, but Benjamin remarried and had a second family. It's a mystery what happened to Goldie and their two children.

2) While only the initials are provided, this is almost definitely Goldie Lilian. Cruvant is an unusual surname. If it's not Goldie, the surname is more likely a typographical error. She is listed in the 1910 Chicago census as a bookbinder in a printing shop, so it's not a surprise seeing her apply for union membership.

3) Fold3 (formerly Footnote) has the Denver Colorado City Directories through 1923, but so far I haven't found a reference to Goldie in them. I don't know whether she didn't stay in Denver long - or perhaps she applied to the Denver Local, but lived near, but outside of Denver, explaining her absence from the directories.

4) The International Typographical Union was dissolved in 1986. I believe some of the Denver Local union records might be stored at the University of Colorado, Boulder. If I had the ability to travel there and do some research, I would, but I don't. So this mystery will sit for now until I come up with another avenue to pursue.

Week In Review

2011-12-04T00:01:00.001-06:00

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

Meg Biallas at Capital Comment provides tips on How to Master the National Archives for the amateur researcher.

Bruce Smith of the Associated Press writes that The Charleston Library Society (the oldest library in the South) "announced Friday a multi-year effort to catalog and restore thousands of rare books."

Professional historian, Lisa Jardine, discusses how her opinions regarding genealogy and family history have changed. (BBC)

Who won the War of 1812? At least one historian says Canada won.

Jim Edwards at Business Insider writes that The Death of Television May Be Just Five Years Away

Richard Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers suggests Settings Every Blogger Should Know

Dee at Ancestrally Challenged provides us with 100 Signs You're Addicted to Genealogy

Courtesy of Ancestry.com's YouTube Channel: Behind the Scenes with Santa Claus

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday Gems at Adventures in Genealogy
Donna Pointkouski's Donna's Picks, Link Love, and More at What's Past is Prologue
Dianne Haddad's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogy Round Up at MSS's Roots World
Liz Haigney Lynch's Quick Links at Ancestral Archaeologist

Julie Andrews and Gene Kelly sing about their family trees

2011-12-02T00:01:00.027-06:00

I shared this back in 2007, but there are probably one or two current readers who missed it, and others might enjoy listening to this again. This is probably from The Julie Andrews Show (1965).

Part I

Part II

On a personal note, back in 2007, I recall wondering whether I was going to end up like Gene's "Uncle Jim." Happily, that isn't the case; my fiancée last weekend was #1 on my list of things to be thankful for. For the second year running.

Amanuensis Monday: The Birth of Kate Newmark - 1894

2011-11-28T00:05:00.001-06:00

CERTIFIED COPY OF AN ENTRY OF BIRTH
GIVEN AT THE GENERAL REGISTER OFFICE
Application Number, COL472418

Registration District: St. Giles
1895 BIRTH in the Sub-district of St. Giles North in the County of London

No. 83
1. When and where born: Twenty Seventh November 1894 55 New Compton Street
2. Name: Kate
3. Sex: Girl
4. Name and surname of father: Samuel Newmark
5. Name, surname, and maiden name of mother: Rosa Newmark, formerly Sankad
6. Occupation of father: Journeyman Tailor
7. Signature, description and residence of informant: X The mark of Samuel Newmark, father, 55 New Compton Street
8. When registered: Twenty third January 1895
9. Signature of registrar: WB Peach, Registrar

CERTIFIED to be a true copy of an entry in the certified copy of a Register of Births in the District above mentioned.

Given at the GENERAL REGISTER OFFICE under the Seal of the said Office, the 12th day of October 2007

Notes:

1) This is the earliest documented record of my Newmark ancestors in England. Kate's older brother, Max, was supposedly born in August of 1892, most likely in or near Warka, Poland. So at some point inbetween their births, they made the trip to England, but the exact date is unknown.

2) I like how the various birth certificates from London reveal the progression of my great great grandfather's occupation. In January of 1895 he was a Journeyman Tailor.

3) It appears Samuel was unable to sign his name. This doesn't mean he was illiterate - just that he was illiterate in English. He may have known how to sign his name in Yiddish, but since it uses a different alphabet, may have been told not to use it.

4) The spelling of Rosa's maiden name is entirely dependent upon what the clerk thought he heard Samuel say. The spelling is different on each birth certificate I have retrieved. I'm currently using the spelling, 'Cantkert,' in my database. (The initial 'C' is pronounced 'Ts' in Polish)

Genealogy Research - a poem

2011-11-27T19:05:00.000-06:00

Genealogy Research

I was kneeling in front of the gravestone
Wearing a faded pair of jeans
I had forgotten to bring my digital camera
But had remembered the charcoal and paper
I rubbed the grave, and read the results
November 11 1819
November 13 1820
The child would have been
One year, two days old when he died
The stone had to be wrong
This was the grave of my ancestor
I looked at the death certificate
I had found on the state website
And brought with me to the cemetery
1820 should be 1870
I stood up
And walked over
To my computer desk
Which was incomprehensibly situated
Between two nearby stones
I entered the data
Into my family tree
And then entered
My ancestor’s name
Into a database
The name of which I don’t recall
But I knew I had never seen it before
There was one result
And following the link
I was reading the diary
Of my fourth great grandma
Where she mentioned the name
Of the ship on which the family traversed
The Pacific ocean
I had thought they came from Europe
But apparently
They came by a more
Circuitous route
I entered the name of the ship
Into Google
And learned the passengers
Were ex-convicts
Exiled to Australia
Who commandeered a boat
And sailed to America
By way of Argentina
I returned to the diary
Of my fourth great grandmother
Only to discover
Someone had deleted it
From the database
And I hadn’t yet downloaded it
To my desktop

I woke up, clichéd sweat
Covered my forehead
I grabbed pen and paper
And wrote down everything I’d learned
Fully aware my dream
Was as reliable a source
As most of what I find
On the Internet
My only concern
I didn’t know the proper
Citation format

© John Newmark, 2011

Some prior attempts at poetry

Week In Review

2011-11-27T00:01:00.004-06:00

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

James Tanner at Genealogy's Star discusses Why you have to pay for free government documents

Dear Myrtle asks us, regarding the sources we cite in our research: Did You View it Personally?

Dick Eastman at Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter shares a rather unique gift idea: Creative Coffins

Bill West at West in New England releases The Third Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge

The US Holocaust Memorial Museum and Ancestry.com announced earlier this month that information on 30,000 victims of the Holocaust and Nazi persecution is now available online at Ancestry.com and can be searched at no cost. (hat/tip: Upfront with NGS)

Press Releases

Humor

From The Onion: Area Man Has Far Greater Knowledge of Marvel Universe Than Own Family Tree

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog

The Internet Wayback Machine - and Blogspot

2011-11-26T10:50:00.000-06:00

There are occasionally discussions regarding whether or not a blogger should host their blog for free at Blogspot, Wordpress, etc - or buy their own domain name.

One factor I haven't heard mentioned in these discussions is: How Often Will the Internet Wayback Machine at Archive.org 'crawl' your site?

Archive.org has been preserving webpages for over a decade. This can be very useful. Bloggers may wonder what will happen to their blog posts if their blog disappears -- but if it's being archived somewhere else, survival isn't completely dependent upon the blogger's backup regimen.

I recently discovered that:

1) This blog, which currently has over 200 subscribers according to Google Reader, has been 'crawled' by the archival spiders at the IWM a grand total of 2 times, both in 2008, and a total of 67 pages have been preserved.

2) A blog I have maintained since 2002 on my personal domain, and which currently has 6 subscribers according to Google Reader, has been 'crawled' 52 times since 2006, and a total of 5359 pages have been preserved. (Note: This is a Wordpress blog, and has separate 'pages' for comments, trackbacks, and rss feeds, so the number is probably closer to an equivalent of 1000 pages.)

3) I decided to look at the results for some other blogs. I've decided not to name them. Those who are curious about their own blogs, can follow the links above, and replace the URLs for my own blogs with any other site they wish to test.

I looked at three other popular genealogy blogs maintained on Blogspot, all with more subscribers than I have through Google Reader. Two blogging since 2008, and one blogging since 2006. The former two have been crawled twice each, with 15 and 23 pages preserved. The one blogging since 2006 has been crawled 7 times, and has 346 pages preserved.

Then I looked at two popular geneabloggers, both blogging since 2006, who switched to a personal domain back in 2008. Their Blogspot blogs were crawled 2 and 7 times, with 60 and 783 pages preserved respectively. Their personal domains have been crawled 37 and 40 times since 2008, with 427 and 2118 pages preserved respectively. While the numbers are different, moving to a personal domain clearly benefited both on this measurement.

4) The last page preserved for each Blogger-blog has the exact same filename, and may be part of the reason why so few pages are preserved: robots.txt.

Following some links on the archived pages results in this error:

From what I have found researching so far, Google added the robots.txt files to Blogger blogs in 2007. (Explaining perhaps why those blogging since 2006 were crawled a little more) This file, which cannot be changed, is preventing search 'robots' from following certain links on the blog. I'm not entirely certain which links are blocked, and which ones aren't. It's certainly not stopping Google from indexing their blogs. Google has owned Blogger and Blogspot since 2003, and certainly wouldn't do that. But it appears to have an impact on how other robots crawl the site.

Some references to the Blogspot Robots.txt suggest its primary purpose is to prevent the 'duplicate' pages that otherwise might result, as exemplified by the 5000 pages the Internet Wayback Machine has preserved for my Wordpress blog. But it appears to be having a larger impact than that.

The Robots.txt file is on the Custom Domains as well, so it's not the entire explanation. The Internet Wayback Machine might treat Blogspot, in general, differently.

Why did I originally set my genealogy blog up on Blogspot?

I didn't at first. For the first few months all my genealogy-related posts were a subset of the personal blog referenced in (2) above. But as I grew more obsessed with genealogy, I knew I needed a separate space devoted to the one topic. So many other geneabloggers were using Blogspot, and it was easy to use, so that's the direction I went.

It wasn't a mistake, per se. Blogspot has been a fine home. But I've considered moving the blog back 'home' before, and this was just the proverbial straw for me.

All of this explains why as of this post, this blog is no longer located at http://transylvaniandutch.blogspot.com - but is now at http://blog.transylvaniandutch.com

All links to the former Blogspot version should forward automatically to the new page.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T12:55:00.000-06:00

Thanksgiving Poetry

2011-11-23T00:05:00.006-06:00

Below are several poems I have posted here on past Thanksgivings, all gathered together in one post.
I am posting them a day early in case someone is inspired to include any of them in their festivities tomorrow.

GRATITUDE - by Edgar A. Guest (©1917)

Be grateful for the kindly friends that walk along your way;
Be grateful for the skies of blue that smile from day to day;
Be grateful for the health you own, the work you find to do,
For round about you there are men less fortunate than you.

Be grateful for the growing trees, the roses soon to bloom,
The tenderness of kindly hearts that shared your days of gloom;
Be grateful for the morning dew, the grass beneath your feet,
The soft caresses of your babes and all their laughter sweet.

Acquire the grateful habit, learn to see how blest you are,
How much there is to gladden life, how little life to mar!
And what if rain shall fall to-day and you with grief are sad;
Be grateful that you can recall the joys that you have had.

Thanksgiving - by Edgar A. Guest (©1917)

Gettin' together to smile an' rejoice,
An' eatin' an' laughin' with folks of your choice;
An' kissin' the girls an' declarin' that they
Are growin' more beautiful day after day;
Chattin' an' braggin' a bit with the men,
Buildin' the old family circle again;
Livin' the wholesome an' old-fashioned cheer,
Just for awhile at the end of the year.

Greetings fly fast as we crowd through the door
And under the old roof we gather once more
Just as we did when the youngsters were small;
Mother's a little bit grayer, that's all.
Father's a little bit older, but still
Ready to romp an' to laugh with a will.
Here we are back at the table again
Tellin' our stories as women an' men.

Bowed are our heads for a moment in prayer;
Oh, but we're grateful an' glad to be there.
Home from the east land an' home from the west,
Home with the folks that are dearest an' best.
Out of the sham of the cities afar
We've come for a time to be just what we are.
Here we can talk of ourselves an' be frank,
Forgettin' position an' station an' rank.

Give me the end of the year an' its fun
When most of the plannin' an' toilin' is done;
Bring all the wanderers home to the nest,
Let me sit down with the ones I love best,
Hear the old voices still ringin' with song,
See the old faces unblemished by wrong,
See the old table with all of its chairs
An' I'll put soul in my Thanksgivin' prayers.

Looking Back - by Edgar Guest (©1921)

I might have been rich if I'd wanted the gold instead of the friendships I've made.
I might have had fame if I'd sought for renown in the hours when I purposely played.
Now I'm standing to-day on the far edge of life, and I'm just looking backward to see
What I've done with the years and the days that were mine, and all that has happened to me.

I haven't built much of a fortune to leave to those who shall carry my name,
And nothing I've done shall entitle me now to a place on the tablets of fame.
But I've loved the great sky and its spaces of blue; I've lived with the birds and the trees;
I've turned from the splendor of silver and gold to share in such pleasures as these.

I've given my time to the children who came; together we've romped and we've played,
And I wouldn't exchange the glad hours spent with them for the money that I might have made.
I chose to be known and be loved by the few, and was deaf to the plaudits of men;
And I'd make the same choice should the chance come to me to live my life over again.

I've lived with my friends and I've shared in their joys, known sorrow with all of its tears;
I have harvested much from my acres of life, though some say I've squandered my years.
For much that is fine has been mine to enjoy, and I think I have lived to my best,
And I have no regret, as I'm nearing the end, for the gold that I might have possessed.

A Song of Thanks - by Edward Smyth Jones (©1922)

FOR the sun that shone at the dawn of spring,
For the flowers which bloom and the birds that sing,
For the verdant robe of the gray old earth,
For her coffers filled with their countless worth,
For the flocks which feed on a thousand hills,
For the rippling streams which turn the mills,
For the lowing herds in the lovely vale,
For the songs of gladness on the gale,—
From the Gulf and the Lakes to the Oceans’ banks,—
Lord God of Hosts, we give Thee thanks!

For the farmer reaping his whitened fields,
For the bounty which the rich soil yields,
For the cooling dews and refreshing rains,
For the sun which ripens the golden grains,
For the bearded wheat and the fattened swine,
For the stalled ox and the fruitful vine,
For the tubers large and cotton white,
For the kid and the lambkin frisk and blithe,
For the swan which floats near the river-banks,—
Lord God of Hosts, we give Thee thanks

For the pumpkin sweet and the yellow yam,
For the corn and beans and the sugared ham,
For the plum and the peach and the apple red,
For the dear old press where the wine is tread,
For the cock which crows at the breaking dawn,
And the proud old “turk” of the farmer’s barn,
For the fish which swim in the babbling brooks,
For the game which hide in the shady nooks,—
From the Gulf and the Lakes to the Oceans’ banks—
Lord God of Hosts, we give Thee thanks!

For the sturdy oaks and the stately pines,
For the lead and the coal from the deep,
dark mines, For the silver ores of a thousand fold,
For the diamond bright and the yellow gold,
For the river boat and the flying train,
For the fleecy sail of the rolling main,
For the velvet sponge and the glossy pearl,
For the flag of peace which we now unfurl,—
From the Gulf and the Lakes to the Oceans’ banks,—
Lord God of Hosts, we give Thee thanks!

For the lowly cot and the mansion fair,
For the peace and plenty together share,
For the Hand which guides us from above,
For Thy tender mercies, abiding love,
For the blessed home with its children gay,
For returnings of Thanksgiving Day,
For the bearing toils and the sharing cares,
We lift up our hearts in our songs and our prayers,—
From the Gulf and the Lakes to the Oceans’ banks,—
Lord God of Hosts, we give Thee thanks!

Conflicting Emotions

2011-11-22T00:05:00.003-06:00

Reposted from 2008

I want to talk about a holiday filled with conflicting emotions.

This is a holiday that remembers our ancestors’ religious persecution.

This is a holiday that commemorates freedom and hope.

Celebration of this holiday involves food, prayer, games, and family gathered.

This holiday requires us to close our eyes, temporarily, to the facts.

This holiday requires us to forget, for the moment, what happened afterward, in the following generations.

We focus on the freedom, the hope, the opportunity, with the albatross of that same opportunity squandered hanging over our heads, but not welcome at the holiday table filled with food, family, and festivities.

I probably should wait to talk about this holiday, since it doesn’t begin for another 3.5 weeks.

Hanuka begins on the evening of December 20 this year.

However, in the year 164 BCE, when Mattathias, his sons, and their followers fought back against religious persecution, the month on the Roman calendar was November. Kislev 25 fell on November 21st, to be exact.

As Rabbi Joseph Telushkin in Jewish Literacy, writes, “One of the sadder ironies of Jewish history is that the Maccabees led a successful revolt against King Antiochus’ anti-semitic oppressors only to turn into oppressors of the Jews themselves. (p. 112)”

On Hanuka we will focus on the freedom, the hope, and the opportunity, just as we as Americans do on Thanksgiving. We need to teach our children what happened next, so they aren’t blind to the forces of history, but that can be done on a different day. It doesn’t need to weigh us down on a holiday meant for celebration.

Related newspaper column: Chanukah's History: Challenging but Full of Meaning

Amanuensis Monday: How to Pack Bees - 1910

2011-11-21T00:05:00.020-06:00

Gleanings in Bee Culture
Volume XXXVIII (38) Number 21
November 1, 1910
Publisher: A.I. Root Co., Medina, OH
p.702 [source]

How to Pack Bees in a Car for Moving a Long Distance

I have to move 609 colonies of bees by rail, and by the route we take they will be in the cars three days. We will screen the top, and have an empty super on for the bees to cluster in. The brood-nest is full of honey, 40 or 50 lbs. Shall we leave the bottoms on and screen them, or just screen the entrance? Tell us all about shipping bees by the car-load, watering them, loading them in the car, and how you brace them to keep them from moving about. You will know what information we want. The bees are all in Root dovetailed hives complete.

Maxwell, Texas, Oct. 3. M.E. Van Every

[The answer the editors gave can be read to the left.]

Notes:

1. This volume of Gleanings in Bee Culture was digitized back in March of 2011. I have previously discovered my great grandfather mentioned in volumes from 1908 and 1909.

From these earlier appearances, I knew my great grandfather's apiary business had increased to 300 colonies by 1907. Apparently he had doubled that by 1910. Another newspaper clipping I've found tells me that by 1914 he had over 1000 colonies. A single colony of bees contains 1 queen, several hundred drones, and 30,000-80,000 worker bees.

2) Unfortunately, he doesn't indicate where he was transporting the bees to. They remained farming in the vicinity of Maxwell until 1917.

Week In Review

2011-11-20T00:05:00.035-06:00

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak at MSS Roots World has learned that the Social Security Administration has extended the FOIA restriction to 100 years.

Chris Staats at Staat's Place compares microfilm images Scanned vs Printed

Deb Ruth at Adventures in Genealogy shares how she has Connected on Find a Grave

New York Magazine asks What Can the DNA of Ashkenazi Jews Tell Us About Living Longer?

Rabbi Rachel Barenblat, The Velveteen Rabbi, recently wrote a Spiritual Will which may resonate with some family historians.

Wired.com has begun to release their photographs under a Creative Commons license

What happens to our research when we're gone? This question is addressed by:

James Tanner at Genealogy's Star in Can I Conserve My Own Pile of Documents?s?

Lorine McGinnis Schulze at the Olive Tree Genealogy Blog in What Will You Do With Your Genealogy Research?

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings in Dear Randy: What are you going to do with your Genealogy-Stuff?

Two related press releases regarding the 1940 Census

National Archives to Release 1940 Census Free Online on April 2, 2012 (National Archives Press Releases)

Archives.com is Partnering with the National Archives to Unveil the 1940 Census. (GeneaPress)

Humor

Mental Floss offers 11 Sounds That Your Kids Have Probably Never Heard

Digital Preservation Europe has released a series of humorous videos (hat/tip: UpFront with the NGS)

And a comic with which I identified.

I saw the above XKCD comic, and thought about changing the text to: "Never have I felt so close to another soul and yet so helplessly alone as when I Google an ancestor and there's one result: a thread by someone with the same brick wall and no answer. Last posted to in 2003. Who where you, GeneaResearcher9? What have you learned?!"

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday Gems at Adventures in Genealogy
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogy Round Up at MSS's RootsWorld

Amanuensis Monday: Marriage License for Melvin Newmark and Belle Feinstein - May 1936

2011-11-14T00:05:00.005-06:00

No. 25040
Marriage License
ADULT
Mr. Melvin L. Newmark
with
Miss Belle Feinstein
Issued May 9, 1936

FILED May 12, 1936
(signature) County Clerk
Registered May 12, 1936
Marriage Register 27
Page 61
State Board of Health Register 8
Page 150
Illinois State Board of Health
Return of a Marriage to County Clerk
1. Full Name of GROOM Melvin Newmark
2. Place of Residence St. Louis Mo
3. Occupation Student
4. Age next Birthday 24 yrs, Color W, Race W
5. Place of Birth St. Louis Mo
6. Father’s Name Barney Newmark
7. Mother’s Maiden Name Bertha Cruvant
8. Number of Groom’s Marriage 1st
9. Full Name of BRIDE Belle Feinstein
10. Place of Residence St. Louis, Mo
11. Age next Birthday 22 yrs, Color W, Race W
12. Place of Birth St. Louis, Mo
13. Father’s Name Herman Feinstein
14. Mother’s Maiden Name Anna Blatt
15. Number of Bride’s Marriage 1st
16. Married at Waterloo in the County of Monroe and State of Illinois, the 10 day of May 1936
17. Witness to Marriage Leora Reitz

N.B. At Nos. 8 and 15 state whether 1st, 2nd, 3rd, Etc., marriage of each. At 17 give names of subscribing witnesses to the Marriage Certificate. If no subscribing witness, give names of two person who witnessed the ceremony.

May 10th 1936
We hereby certify that the information above given is correct, to the best of our knowledge and belief
Melvin L Newmark (Groom)
Belle Feinstein (Bride)

I hereby certify that the above is a correct return of a Marriage solemnized by me
Fred M. Reitz
Justice of the Peace
Dated at Waterloo this 10 day of May 1936

Notes:

1) The story goes they sneaked across the river at night, and woke up the Justice of the Peace, They were already engaged to be married in January, but they were unable to wait eight months. (Belle's older brother, Benny, was married in November of 1936, which might explain why the parents were expecting them to wait until January.) They told no one that they had done this, and went through with the second wedding in January.

May 9th, 1936 - when the application was signed, was a Saturday. May 10th, when the certificate was signed, was Sunday. This seems to support the story.

2) It's nice to have the names of all four parents on the marriage license application. That's missing on many I've seen.

Week In Review

2011-11-13T09:36:00.000-06:00

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

The National Genealogical Society announces the release of a new video: Becoming a Genealogist: My Father's Journey (an interview with Janet A. Alpert, CG)

Thomas MacEntee at Destination: Austin Family recommends the revival of an old meme: Names, Places, and Most Wanted Faces.

Michael John Neill at RootDig, reshares an article he wrote 11 years ago: The Third Grader's 1850 Census. His attempt to distract his daughter so he could get some work done failed miserably in its primary goal, but his daughter learned a lot in the process.

Elyse Doerflinger at Elyse's Genealogy Blog describes her experiences discussing family with a pre-school class.

Next American City discusses What Remains at the site of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing project in St. Louis.

Craig Manson at GeneaBlogie suggests we Don't Cry About the SSDI even though as of November 1, 2011, SSA will no longer include state records in the Death Master File.

Michael Hait at Planting the Seeds asks Does a "reasonably exhaustive search" include Online Family Trees?

James Tanner at Genealogy's Star attempts to answer the question, Can I Use a Smartphone or a Camera to digitize photos?

Eviatar Zerubavel at Salon asks Why Do We Care About Our Ancestors?

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday Gems at Adventures in Genealogy
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog
Liz Haigney Lynch's Links at The Ancestral Archaeologis
Diane Haddad's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Inside
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogy Round Up at MSS's RootsWorld

Veterans Day, 2011

2011-11-11T08:52:00.005-06:00

Caption for photo to left: Human Statue of Liberty. 18,000 Officers and Men at Camp Dodge, Des Moines, Iowa. Colonel William Newman, Commanding. Colonel Rush S. Wells, Directing. Mole & Thomas, 09/1918. (source)

In honor of Veterans Day and Remembrance Day, below are the names of ancestors, and their siblings, who I know served their nation's military, either in a time of war, or in a time of peace.

I am including my Loyalist ancestors; their nation was Great Britain. I am including my Confederate ancestors too, despite their desire to form a separate nation.

Fifth Great Grandfathers
McGregory Van Every (1723-1786) Loyalist/Butler's Rangers
Michael Showers (1733-1796) Loyalist/Butler's Rangers

Fourth Great Grandfather
David Van Every (1757-1820) Loyalist/Butler's Rangers (served briefly as a Patriot in the NY militia)

Fifth Great Uncle
Benjamin Van Every (1759-1795) Loyalist/Butler's Rangers(served briefly as a Patriot in the NY militia)
William Van Every (1765-1832) Loyalist/Butler's Rangers
Peter Van Every (1771-bef 1816) Loyalist/Fifth Lincoln and Second York regiments (War of 1812)

Fourth Great Uncles
David Van Every Jr. (1782-1847) Loyalist/Second York regiment (War of 1812)
Michael Van Every (1790-?) Loyalist/Fifth Lincoln and Second York regiments (War of 1812)

Second Great Grandfather
Ebenezer Denyer (1828-1872) (Confederate Army)

Third Great Uncles
Samuel Jennings Denyer (1822-1861) (Gonzales County Minute Men - Republic of Texas -1841)
Samuel T Hartley (1830-1920) (Confederate Army)

Great Grandfather
Samuel Deutsch (1861-1938) (Franz Josef's Austro-Hungarian Army)

Grandfathers
Melvin L Newmark (1912-1992), WWII
Martin J Deutsch (1907-1991), WWII

Great Uncles
Jerry Deutsch (1909-1950), WWII
Allen Deutsch (1914-1988), WWII
Harold Newmark (1915-2003), WWII
Mandell Newmark (1923-1945), WWII (Killed in Action)
Bernard Feinstin (1913-1968), WWII
Seymour Feinstein (1917-1999), WWII

Uncle
Stevan J Newmark (1942-1997) Army Reserves

Photographs of those who served in World War II

My grandfathers Melvin Newmark (1912-1992) and Martin Deutsch (1907-1991)

Allen Deutsch (1914-1988) and Maurice "Jerry" Deutsch (1909-1950).

Harold Newmark (1915-2003) and Mandell Newmark (1923-1945).

Bernard "Benny" Feinstein (1913-1968) and Seymour "Babe" Feinstein (1917-1999)

November 9th - The International Day Against Fascism - A Day of Fate

2011-11-09T09:46:00.000-06:00

November 9th is sometimes referred to as "The European 9/11" since most European countries write their dates with the number for the month second. Schicksalstag, German for "Day of Fate," is also used for the day.

Schicksalstag was first used for November 9th by some German historians after WWII, but it picked up in popularity after 1989. There are several major events in German history that occurred on this date, with conflicting emotional baggage. However, when you look at a list of events for November 9, you realize this Day of Fate doesn’t stop at Germany’s borders.

Here’s a partial list:

694 – Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims, sentencing all Jews to slavery.
1494 - Medicis assume rule of Florence, Italy
1799 - Napoleon overthrew the French government in the coup d’etat of 18 Brumaire
1918 - Kaiser Wilhelm steps down, and Germany’s Republic begins
1923 - Hitler’s failed Beer Hall Putsch
1938 - Kristallnacht/Pogromnacht - German pogrom viewed as the symbolic start of the Holocaust
1953 - Cambodia declares its independence
1989 - Berlin wall comes down

The International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism is a European campaign, but it has a worldwide message.

Third Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge

2011-11-08T00:05:00.004-06:00

Bill West at West in New England is hosting his Third Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge
Find a poem by a local poet, famous or obscure, from the region one of your ancestors lived in. It can be about an historical event, a legend, a person, or even about some place (like a river)or a local animal. It can even be a poem you or one of your ancestors have written! Or if you prefer, post the lyrics of a song or a link to a video of someone performing the song.
The deadline for submission is November 20th. The rest of the details can be read on his blog.

***

I have participated in the first two editions of this contest, but between last year and now I have come to the conclusion my Feinstein/Dudelsack ancestors arrived from Volhynia, Russia. So I decided to find a Volhynian poet. It wasn't difficult, and I was pleasantly surprised, as he turned out to already be one of my favorite poets.

In 1873, Chaim Nachman Bialik was born in Radi, Volhynia. Bialik's father died in 1880, when Bialik was 7 years old. In his poems, Bialik romanticized the misery of his childhood, describing seven orphans left behind—though modern biographers believe there were fewer children, including grown step-siblings who did not need to be supported. Be that as it may, from the age 7 onwards Bialik was raised in Zhitomir by his grandfather. (source).

Bialik is considered by many to be the "father of Modern Hebrew poetry," and it is great to see he was raised in the same town (Zhitomir) my great great grandfather's brother, Julius, put down as his town of origin on his immigration papers. Selig and Julius Dudelsack left Russia in the 1890s, a decade before Bialik began publishing poetry - but did the Dudelsack family know Bialik's grandfather?

Bialik's poetry (in Hebrew) can be found here.

I share an excerpt below of an English translation. with a link to another site where the entire poem can be read. (While the original Hebrew was written in 1904, the translation is still under copyright.) The poem below was read in 2003 at the Memorial for the fallen Columbia astronauts.

***
After My Death

Say this when you mourn for me:

There was a man – and look, he is no more.
He died before his time.
The music of his life suddenly stopped.
A pity! There was another song in him.
Now it is lost
forever.

(Read the rest of the poem)

***

Bialik is also known for his gathering and editing of the Sefer Ha-gaddah (Legends from Talmud and Midrash)

***
Note for the curious - actress Mayim Bialik has indicated she is descended from a sibling of Bialik's.

Amanuensis Monday: Marriage License for Herman Feinstein and Annie Blatt

2011-11-07T00:05:00.001-06:00

Marriage License
Office of Recorder of Deeds

State of Missouri }
City of St. Louis } ss

This License authorizes any Judge of a Court of Record, Justice of the Peace or Licensed or Ordained Preacher of the Gospel, who is a citizen of the United States, or who is a resident of and a Pastor of any Church in this State, to solemnize marriage between

Mr. Herman M. Feinstein
Of St. Louis State of Mo. Who is over the age of twenty-one years; and

Miss Annie Blatt
Of St. Louis State of Mo. Who is over the age of eighteen years.

Witness my hand as Recorder with the seal of office hereto affixed at my office in the City of St. Louis, this 3rd day of May 1912

Chas F. Joy Recorder
(illegible) Marriage License Clerk

State of Missouri }
City of St. Louis } ss

This is to certify that the undersigned, a Jewish Rabbi did at St. Louis in the State of Missouri, on the 26th day of May, 1912, unite in marriage the above named persons.

The person performing the marriage ceremony will please insert after his signature the place of his office, church, or residence. This license must be returned to the office of Recorder of Deeds by the person solemnizing the marriage within ninety days from the issuing thereof.

Rabbi of Cong. Sheerith Sphard
Zachariah Rosenfeld
1508 Wash Street

Notes:

1. Zachariah Rosenfeld was Rabbi at Sheerith Sphard from 1897-1915 (source), and the location of the synagogue was 1500 Wash Street (source).
He was also Chief Orthodox Rabbi of St. Louis. A photo of him is on the left.

2. I find it interesting that the license allows for an "Ordained Preacher of The Gospel...who is a resident of and a Pastor of any Church in this State." -- and apparently a rabbi falls under this category, even though he most likely did not preach the Gospel. [Perhaps the capitalized word could be used in the generic sense.]

3. I also find it interesting that the groom was supposed to be over 21, but the bride was only supposed to be over 18. (I believe those under the ages could marry with parental consent. I have seen the consent signatures for underage brides.)

4. Herman and Annie's first child was born nine months later, in February of 1913.

Week In Review

2011-11-06T10:55:00.000-06:00

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

Jasia releases The 111th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy at CreativeGene. This edition's theme was Autumn Weddings

Greta Koehl at Greta's Genealogy Bog explains why she Wants to Remain an Amateur

Michael John Neill at RootDig republishes a piece he wrote back in 2000, which was definitely worth resharing. Have You...I Wonder.

Philip Trauring at Blood and Frogs discusses Perceptions of Relationship and how much DNA (on average) we share with particular relations.

Ginger Smith at Genealogy by Ginger illustrates How to Use Google Images to Find Your Ancestors.

The World Vital Records blog writes about The Dark Side of Family History Research, and its Uses

Those with Dutch ancestry, and familiar with the Dutch language, may be interested in two new websites released by Municipal Archive Amsterdam and discussed by Tamura Jones at Modern Software Experience in Dutch Militia Registers and Many Hands.

Michael Hait at Planting the Seeds shares some tips on Managing your Blog

For the 125th Birthday of the Statue of Liberty, NextBook Press has published an Interactive New Colossus. The New Colossus is the poem, by Emma Lazarus, which adorns the base of the statue; this interactive version contains several multimedia annotations. (hat/tip: Jewish Publication Society)

Google announces that they have altered their search formula to increase the importance of recency.

Ancestry Press Release: Ancestry.com and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Release First Searchable Online Records Collections From World Memory Project. (GenealogyBlog)

UK Daily Mail: An engaged couple in South Africa discovered they were siblings just before the wedding.

Holiday Related

In Halloween is More Funny than Scary in St. Louis - NPR reports on the unique St. Louis Halloween tradition of forcing kids to come up with riddles and jokes. (Personally, I think other cities should adopt this tradition. But I was born and grew up in St. Louis.)

Heather Wilkinson Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy wrote on Witches, Halloween, and Genealogy providing suggestions for those with Essex County (Salem) ancestry.

For All Saints Day, the multiple authors behind The Catholic Gene each discuss their favorite saint in - For All The Saints.

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday Gems at Adventures in Genealogy
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog

Yankel and the Holding Cell

2011-11-03T21:46:00.000-05:00

Found this in a drafts folder. I wrote this a couple years ago to post, but I never did. Nothing's changed.

We’ve placed a relative in a holding cell. We didn’t know where else to put him. But somewhat similar to Schrödinger’s infamous cat, who is half-alive and half-dead, he’s in two different holding cells simultaneously, depending upon whether you ask me, or my cousin.

Yankel, son of Meier, was born in an Eastern European shtetl about 1839. This we know from census records. A Meier was born in 1795. I consider him the ‘father’ of the line, though we do know the name of a brother. Meier would have been 44 in 1839. Not too old to be a father.

My cousin, who’s been researching the family for twenty years, has created a Meier son of Meier to be the father of Yankel, because he fits better in the next generation. When I remind her that this goes against European Jewish tradition, she reminds me that most Jews had multiple Jewish names, and the birth records only have one written down. One could have been Meier Zev, and the other Meier Leyb. Or for that matter, one could have been Zev Meier and the other Leyb Meier. Still, I feel uncomfortable creating the appearance of a ‘junior’ unless there is proof that a ‘junior’ existed.

The superstition was that the Angel of Death could get confused and take the infant instead of the father/grandfather. Superstitions like that only fade away when infant mortality begins to drop, and parents stop asking G-d, ‘why did you take our child?’ In the 20^th century it’s just a tradition, one that gets broken on occasion, but in the 19^th century I suspect the superstition still held.

Still, for both of us, it’s a holding cell. A guess. We are almost certain he is a member of the family and fits in somewhere, along with all of his descendants. (Which could be tested with a DNA surname study.) I’m more comfortable with my holding cell; she is more comfortable with hers. The important thing is that we make notes that it is a holding cell. She has been extremely careful to cite all sources and explain all logic to the point that I occasionally think she’s gone a little overboard in her notes. But it’s a good practice I need to learn.

Hopefully, someday, Yankel will be free.

Reading a Passenger Manifest: Is it a Match?

2011-11-01T18:45:00.000-05:00

Above is a clipping from the October 28, 1891 passenger manifest for the TSS New Amsterdam, taken from Ancestry.com

The question I asked myself back in 2007 when I first discovered it was: Is this my great great grandmother, Anna (Perlik) Feinstein, her mother-in-law, and her several children.

In the below table I show the information I had for each family member from Family Records(FR): name, approximate birth year - and the matching information from the Passenger Manifest (PM). In no cases do I have birth records from their ancestral Russian village.

(For the passenger manifest, I'm using the spelling of names as indexed, even where I'm pretty certain it's wrong.)

FR: Name	FR: Birth Year	PM: Name	PM: Birth Year
Anna	1868	Mechame	1866
Gitel	1840	Gitel	1856
Harry	1884	Hersch	1885
Herman	1886	Chaim	1887
Ben	1888	Berl	1890
Pearl	1890	Pirl	1891
???????	???????	Jette	1873

1) Anna: Anna's Hebrew name was Nechama. It means, 'comfort,' and was often Americanized to Channa or Anna.

I didn't know her Hebrew name when I first found the Passenger Manifest, as I hadn't yet visited her tombstone. But I asked someone familiar with possible Hebrew names, and they suggested Nechama, which turned out to be correct.

2) Gitel: The name matches, the birth year is a complete mismatch. But do I discard the record because of that? I don't think so. Could she have lied about her age? Could a 51 year old woman pass for 35? There are stories of families getting the necessary immigration papers through less than direct methods where the information on the records might not always match exactly.

3) Harry's Hebrew name was Zvi, which means 'Deer.' The Yiddish variant is, 'Hirsch.' 'Harry' was a common Americanization of Zvi/Hirsch.

4) 'Herman' is a common Americanization of the Hebrew name, Chaim, meaning, 'life.' There are no documents with my great grandfather's Hebrew name on it, however, he does appear in the 1900 census as "Hyman" which shows the progression from Chaim to Herman as a name.

5) The Hebrew name 'Berel/Beryl', meaning either a gemstone, or 'bear,' was often Americanized to 'Ben.' I have no documents, however, with Ben's Hebrew name.

6) Perl is also a Hebrew name, and means 'Fruit.' 'Pearl' would have been an obvious choice for an American name.

***
Anna's husband, Selig, made the journey alone in 1890. It makes sense his wife, mother, and children would make the trip not long after. And 1891 is recorded as their year of immigration on the 1910 census. (The 1900, 1920 and 1930 census say 1890 for everyone.)

The coincidence of names, and close approximations of most of the birth years, makes this a very likely match. However, there is certainly the possibility that there was another family out there with similar names and birth years. I think the number of matches lowers the odds. I wish the passenger manifest said they were headed to St. Louis. Unfortunately, it says New York. However, the destination on Selig's Passenger Manifest was also New York, and I haven't found evidence the Feinstein family was in St. Louis until 1892. It's possible they weren't.

There is also the issue of Jette (or, more likely, Yetta) Feinstein. I have no record of any relative who would have been traveling with them with that name. I've tried to research the name, and haven't been able to find out what happened to this person.

Feinstein was not my ancestors' original surname. Selig immigrated under his original name of Selig Dudelsack. He changed his surname to Feinstein soon after arrival in the US. The reasons aren't clear, and the family had been told the traditional story of his name being changed at Ellis Island (or in Selig's case, Castle Garden.) It's actually possible that it was Selig's wife and mother who adopted the Feinstein surname in their immigration process. It's conceivable they may have been 'traveling with' Yetta Feinstein, but weren't actually related to her.

Amanuensis Monday: Application for Marriage - Herman Feinstein and Annie Blatt - 1912

2011-10-31T00:05:00.006-05:00

Application No. 172234 For License to Marry.
State of Missouri
City of St. Louis

We, Herman M. Feinstein at 1941a Burd Avenue of St. Louis State of Mo and Miss Annie Blatt of 2804 Gamble Street of St. Louis State of Mo desiring to purchase a license to marry each other, do hereby solemnly swear that we are of the age of 25 years, and 22 years, respectively; that we are both single and unmarried, and may lawfully contract and be joined in marriage.

(Signature of Male) Herman M. Feinstein
(Signature of Female) Annie Blatt
(Witness to Signatures) [blank]

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 3rd day of May 1912.

Signature Chas. F Joy, Recorder
Signature [?] Marriage License Clerk

Notes:

1) Often marriage licences will only indicate that both participants were over a certain age, so it is nice to see the specific ages given for both. The Date of Birth other records indicate for Herman Feinstein was July 29, 1886. If that is accurate, he would have been 25 on May 3, 1912.

Annie Blatt Feinstein's death certificate says she was born on November 21, 1890. If that were true, she would have only been 21 on May 3, 1912.

Assuming a November birthday, the 1910 and 1930 census seem to correspond with an 1889 year of birth, which would support the marriage application.

However, the 1900 census indicates she was born in November of 1888, and the 1920 census corresponds. So her year of birth is a bit uncertain.

2) The address for Herman matches that of the Feinstein family in 1910.

In the 1910 census, Annie Blatt is a lodger with a Winterman family, on Wash Street. It is believed the Winterman family were relatives, though the exact relationship is so far uncertain. Sometime between 1910 and 1912, Annie moved to Gamble street. I'm unsure whether she was lodging with another family member, alone, or possibly briefly moved back in with her father and step-mother.

3) I notice the absence of witnesses. I don't think this was an issue, as I also have the document certifying the marriage three weeks later.

Week In Review

2011-10-30T00:05:00.008-05:00

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

Around the Blogs

Michael Hait of Planting the Seeds has been conducting online research on a particular case for over a year. This week he wrapped up that research, discussing The limits of online genealogy research.

James Tanner At Genealogy's Star argues for A Systems Approach to Genealogical Research

Michael John Neill at RootDig illustrates how Ancestry.com Still Confuses Last Benefit with Death Place on the SSDI. The last place someone received a Social Security benefit check is often not the place where they died.

Some YouTube videos inspire Lee Drew at Family History with the Lineage Keeper to suggest a method for Recording Family History With A Flair

Bill West at West in New England shares a poem, The Citation, or a Genealogy Horror Poem

Those using both Google+ and Blogger may be interested in knowing that Google is now allowing you to use your Google+ Profile as your Blogger Profile.

Some genealogists may wish to consider ways to celebrate Dia de los Muertos. This Mexican holiday, "Day of the Dead," occurs on November 1st and 2nd, traditionally in conjunction with All Saints Day and All Souls Day. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died.

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Diane Haddad's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday Gems at Adventures in Genealogy
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist

Amanuensis Monday: Everett Van Every - April 2, 1924

2011-10-24T11:38:00.000-05:00

San Antonio Express - April 2, 1924

AUSTIN’S FIRST SWIMMING TRAGEDY OF 1924 OCCURS

The Express Austin Bureau

AUSTIN, Tex., April 1. – Everett Van Every, 17, member of … school senior class picnic … drowned in Barton Creek … Tuesday afternoon while swimming.

Notes:

1) Everett's death certificate indicates most of the pertinent facts in this news article. A first cousin of Everett's indicated in 2009 that she recalled he drowned in Deep Eddy Pool at a High School graduation party. I was somewhat doubtful about a graduation party in April, though the newspaper article indicates the picnic was school-related. Deep Eddy Pool is near Barton Creek. In the image below you can see Deep Eddy Pool in the middle of Deep Eddy Park, and in the lower right you can see where Barton Creek merges with Lady Bird Lake. It's easy to see the two may have been confused in the mind of an aging cousin.

2) The headline of the news article does suggest this may not have been an unusual occurrence. Instead of "A Swimming Tragedy in Austin" it's "Austin's First Swimming Tragedy of 1924." There seems to be an expectation of more to come.

3) I have little information since 2009 on the identity of Everett's father. Back then I had the dueling testimony of two first cousins. A deceased first-cousin had recorded Everett as a son of Samuel Van Every and Esther Dahlin in a genealogy. A living first cousin of Everett's on the Dahlin side thought the father was actually a "Van Landingham."

However, a second cousin to Everett recalls being introduced to Everett's mother in the 1930s, which means the Van Every family remained close to her for over a decade after Everett's death. It's clear to me everyone on the Van Every side believed Everett was Samuel's son, and considered Esther as a part of the family, even though her relationship with Samuel was brief.

Week In Review

2011-10-23T00:05:00.092-05:00

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

Around the Blogs

Elyse Doerflinger at Elyse's Genealogy Blog explains Why You Should Consider Your Source.

Kathryn Doyle at CaliforniaAncestors shares a video on Dead People, Greed, and Real Estate in San Francisco

James Tanner at Genealogy's Star discusses Using Your Smart Phone to Take Pictures, and whether or not camera phones have advanced enough to compete with the best cameras.

Crista Cowan on the Ancestry.com blog talked about the recent additions of several birth, marriage and death databases at Ancestry. These additions are great, but it's worth noting that several include data from local indexes around the web, such as the St. Louis Post Dispatch Obituary Index at the St. Louis Public Library.

Ancestry called its version of the database: Web: St. Louis Post Dispatch Obituary Index: 1880-2009. I like that they are clearly labeling these differently from their other databases, however, this is slightly misleading. Ancestry has a habit, I've noticed, of listing the date of the earliest record, and the most recent record, and implying the database is complete. The St. Louis Public Library is more honest with the contents of the database. The database currently covers: 1880-1930, 1942-1945, 1960-1969, and 1992-2010.

Michael John Neill at RootDig offers some good advice When Searching Digital Newspapers.

Jessie at The National Archives announced that they have released some digitization tools on the social coding platform, GitHub. "Over the last year and a half, our Digitization Services Branch has developed a number of software applications to facilitate digitization workflows. These applications have significantly increased our productivity and improved the accuracy and completeness of our digitization work...We have made two digitization applications, “File Analyzer and Metadata Harvester” and “Video Frame Analyzer” available on GitHub, and they are now available for use by other institutions and the public."

Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers discusses Genealogy's Need for Curators

Tamura Jones at Modern Software Experience welcomes us to a Brave New World as he discusses genetic testing.

Newspaper and Magazine articles

Mashable: Can There Every Really Be Privacy in the Cloud
The Boston Globe: Are Genealogies Just Social Constructs
Huffington Post: 10 Things You Didn't Know about Josh Groban's Family Tree

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog
Diane Haddad's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday Gems at Adventures in Genealogy
Liz Haigney Lynch's Links at The Ancestral Archaeologist
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist

Ancestry Can Be Quick to Fix an Error

2011-10-19T20:52:00.001-05:00

Michael John Neill at RootDig wrote a post entitled, Ancestry.com - There is More To Illinois than Cook County

Ancestry's Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index (1916-1947) provided the following source information:

Ancestry.com. Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.Original data: "Illinois Deaths and Stillbirths, 1916–1947." Index. FamilySearch, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2010. Illinois Department of Health records. "Certificates of Death." Division of Vital Records, Springfield, Illinois.

But the description indicated that the records were extracted from the Cook County records. This wasn't accurate as there were records in the database from all over Illinois. I use the past tense, as while his post was this morning, and he has a screen print of a record, someone from Ancestry must have read his post, because they have already corrected the error.

Below is an image of my Great Great Uncle, Max Newmark's record copied a few minutes ago:

No longer does the description indicate that it is only Cook County Records. Which is a good thing, as my great great uncle died in East St. Louis, Illinois - a fair distance from Chicago/Cook County.

Something else I'll note -- this is another good example of the issues with record transcriptions without accompanying images. While the transcription comes originally from FamilySearch, they too don't have the image. Though with the microfilm number, I can obtain a copy if I wish.

Max's wife's name should be Dora, not Iona.
The cemetery's name is B'nai Amoona, not Bnar Amoona.
I'm sure the informant said he was born in England, even though I'm pretty certain that isn't the case. The Newmark family moved to England shortly after his birth.

I transcribed the newspaper account of his death back in February of 2010.

Week In Review

2011-10-17T06:50:00.001-05:00

Set this to post on Sunday morning and somehow Blogger failed me.

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

Ruth Blair at The Passionate Genealogist suggests National Novel Writing Month (November) as a possible impetus to write family history stories. I've participated a few times in NaNoWriMo over the past five years, but not with family history.

Cyndi Howells at Cyndi's List discusses The Age of Fraternal Organizations

Bill West at West in New England announces The Third Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge

October is Polish American Heritage Month, and Donna Pointkouski at What's Past is Prologue provides a Top Ten Ways to Celebrate (for anyone, whether Polish or not, genealogist or not), as well as Ten More Ways for a Genealogist to Celebrate. Let me add an 11th method to the latter, and suggest visiting JewishGen's Polish Databases.

Tom Kemp at GenealogyBank's Offical Blog suggests newspapers as a source for finding out about your ancestor's legal name changes.

Randy Seaver at Graveyard Rabbit Online Journal explains the embalming process.

Lee Drew at Family History with the Lineagekeeper discovered he could read some family tombstones via Google Street View.

The National Archives has released a special issue of their quarterly magazine, Prologue, dedicated to their new location in St. Louis, Missouri. (PDF)

Google Translate - Conversation Mode for Android phones has expanded to 14 languages. This app allows someone to speak into a phone in one language, and the phone responds in another. Acting as a personal interpreter between two people. The current languages: English, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish.

Jane Wakefield, for BBC News, considers how we will bequeath digital assets.

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Elizabeth O'Neal's Best Bytes at Little Bytes of Life
Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog
Diane Haddad's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday Gems at Adventures in Genealogy

Amanuensis Monday: Judson Van Every - Manchester Journal - 1915-1917

2011-10-17T00:05:00.007-05:00

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 share more transcriptions from The Manchester Journal (Manchester, OK). Judson Van Every, the brother of my great grandfather, Melvin Van Every, appeared often in the pages. These transcriptions were originally written down by Wayne York, a grandson of Judson Van Every. I found the transcriptions attached to an entry on an Ancestry Public Member Tree belonging to plnjmw. They are shared with her permission.

Last week, we saw Jud and his family left the Manchester area in April of 1910 for Idaho. But his travels didn't end there.

Dec 3, 1915

Last Thursday, November 25th, Jud Van Every of Heyburn, Idaho, dropped off the train here to visit with friends and relatives, before continuing his journey to San Marcos, Texas, to visit his brother and other relatives whom he has not seen since he left there some thirty years ago. Mr. Van Every lived northwest of Manchester for several years and then sold out and moved to Idaho, where he seems to be mighty well satisfied. He brought a dozen or more apples of his own raising consisting of three varieties, one of which for size, flavor, and general appearance was notable. This variety is known as Stark Delicious, and is very fine. He said that these were the first apples he ever raised, although he had planted several orchards and these were the first crop on his new orchard. A failure of crops of the varieties suited to the climate is never known. He had photos of his home which show that he is comfortably situated. He has gone extensively into hog raising and fattens them on barley, wheat, etc. The nights are too cool generally for corn to do well, so they substitute other grains which are ground and cooked with cull potatoes. This, he says, makes a good ration better than corn for growth on fattening hogs. He said that cholera broke out but the government sent experts that have stamped it out, so there is no risk to run from that source.

Dec 10, 1915

Jud Van Every left Thursday morning for San Marcos, Texas, where he will visit friends and relatives. When coming back here he only expected to stay three or four days, but he found it impossible to tear himself away and was compelled to stay two weeks in order to visit with only a part of his friends.

Dec 8, 1916
Letter from Idaho.

Rupert, Idaho
November 27, 1916

E.A. Wood
Manchester, Oklahoma

Friend Pete:
It has been some time since I wrote you. When I got home from Texas last spring it was time to go to work, and believe me, I have not had time to catch my breath until it froze up this fall. This has been a freak year here. We had a cold late spring and on May 10th when the alfalfa was about a foot high it froze off to the ground. All the tree fruit was killed, and nearly all the berry crop. Everybody thought we were not going to make much, but later on it turned warm and everything got a move on itself. We made about as much as usual.

I cut my alfalfa three times and got six tons per acre. Prices of nearly all farm crops are about double those of last year. Present prices are: $12.50 per ton for hay in the stack, wheat $2.50 cwt., spuds 2.00 cwt., barley 2.00 cwt., oats 2.00 cwt.

One of my neighbors has just sold the hay from 50 acres for $2,950, but as usual the farmers did not get the high prices that are being paid now. Most of the spuds were bought for 1.50 cwt., and the biggest part of the hay was sold for 8.00. I sold part of my spuds for 1.40, part for 1.90, and some for 2.00 cwt. I have 200 bushels in the cellar.

On November 12th the ground froze up solid. Caught lots of sugar beets in the ground, also a few spuds. We have been having nice weather for the last two weeks; it freezes every night but the days are pleasant.
I had a nice visit in southern Texas last winter. It had been 36 years since I last saw my folks there. With the exception of the few northers they have there, the climate is fine in the winter. The changes are so sudden that a person nearly freezes to death when it does turn cold. An old Texan, in telling me about the sudden changes in the weather, said he had a Mexican plowing for him with a yoke of oxen. It was so hot that one of the oxen died with the heat, and while he was skinning it, a norther came up and froze the other ox to death.

I am alone on the farm now. One of my boys has a farm of his own, one got married, and one has gone to California. I am going to start for Arizona on the 29th. My daughter, Lella, is at Somerton. I will stop there for a short time, then I will go to the Rio Grande project in Mexico to give that project the “once over” with the view of locating there if it suits me. From there I will go to southern Texas and probably stay all winter. This is the best farming country I ever lived in, but since I have begun to get old I do not like so much cold weather.

I enclose $1.00 on subscription for the JOURNAL, if you will send me a statement of my account to Somerton, Arizona, I will remit the balance due if any. I have no idea how we stand. Wish you change the address on the JOURNAL to Rupert, Idaho, as my mail route has been changed.

Hoping you are well and enjoy life, I remain as ever,

Your friend,
Jud Van Every

Oct 19, 1917

Jud Van Every and family of Rupert, Idaho, were in town Monday. They made the trip of over 2700 miles in a Buick six with a trailer to carry their camp equipage. They have sold their Idaho holdings and are on their way to southern Texas where he has a brother. Jud used to live a couple of miles northwest of town, where he farmed and worked at carpentry in the winter. They have many friends here who were glad to see him.

Oct 26, 1917

Jud Van Every called at the office last Saturday before starting on their trip south and renewed his subscription for another year. Their first stop will be at Lawton, where Mrs. Van Every has a sister with whom they will visit for a few days before going on to El Paso, Texas, where Jud has a brother engaged in farming on an irrigated project. We asked Jud why he was leaving Idaho and he replied, “To get away from cold weather.” We suppose a dislike of cold weather grows with us as we get older, but then perpetual summer has many things that are not pleasant, especially the persistent production of all kinds of insects to prey on man, beast, and crops. The bugs and extremely heavy dews, and sometimes the “northers” are severe in southern and central Texas, even if the mercury does not reach the freezing point. We believe the best climate and country on earth lies south of the Arkansas and north of the Cimmaron Rivers, with less personal discomforts than any place we have known. We hope Jud will find the Arcadia he is seeking.

Notes:

1) The brother in San Marcos, and the brother in El Paso, were the same - my great grandfather, Melvin Van Every. I don't know if there was cause for the 36 year separation, beyond Jud's wanderlust. Several generations of Van Everys had an urge to travel. Samuel, father of Jud and Melvin, brought the family from Canada, to Michigan, to San Marcos, Texas. Melvin moved across the state to El Paso, which is a good 600 miles. Melvin's daughter, Myrtle, my grandmother, moved to St. Louis at age 20. Myrtle's brother, Samuel, lived at various times in Texas, California, Florida, and Missouri.

2) El Paso wasn't Jud's final stop. He left El Paso in 1922 for Mesick, Michigan, where he died in 1923...just about 100 miles North of where he grew up in Middleville, Michigan.

SNGF: Ancestor's GeneaMeme

2011-10-15T21:37:00.003-05:00

For tonight's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings suggested:

1) Participate in the Ancestors GeneaMeme created by Jill Ball on the Geniaus blog.

2) Write your own blog post, or add your response as a comment to this blog post, in a Facebook Status post or note, or in a Google+ Stream item.

The Rules:

The list should be annotated in the following manner:

Things you have already done or found: bold face type
Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)
Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type
You are encouraged to add extra comments in brackets after each item

[I've added some notes in brackets]

The Meme:

Which of these apply to you?

1. Can name my 16 great-great-grandparents

2. Can name over 50 direct ancestors

3. Have photographs or portraits of my 8 great-grandparents [I have photographs of 6 of my 16 gg-grandparents]
4. Have an ancestor who was married more than three times [several]
5. Have an ancestor who was a bigamist. [I am unsure the correct term was chosen here. Bigamy is always a crime, by definition. Someone who has a polygamist ancestor doesn't have a bigamist ancestor, as long as it was legal.]
6. Met all four of my grandparents [3/4]
7. Met one or more of my great-grandparents [1]

8. Named a child after an ancestor. [No children yet. Getting married next year...]

9. Bear an ancestor's given name/s [My Hebrew name 'Baruch' is after my great-grandfather Barney]
10. Have an ancestor from Great Britain or Ireland
11. Have an ancestor from Asia [No identified ancestor]
12. Have an ancestor from Continental Europe
13. Have an ancestor from Africa [No identified ancestor, though I'm sure if I were able to trace my ancestry back far enough...]
14. Have an ancestor who was an agricultural labourer [Both of my maternal grandparents grew up on a farm. I have to go a few generations further back on my father's side.]
15. Have an ancestor who had large land holdings
16. Have an ancestor who was a holy man - minister, priest, rabbi [Methodist and Mennonite]
17. Have an ancestor who was a midwife [A great grandmother practiced midwifery in Chicago after emigrating from Transylvania]
18. Have an ancestor who was an author [Ancestry's OneFamilyTree states Chaucer as my 18th great grandfather, but I have disproven that relationship. I do have a close ancestor who published a book on legal matters.]
19. Have an ancestor with the surname Smith, Murphy or Jones
20. Have an ancestor with the surname Wong, Kim, Suzuki or Ng
21. Have an ancestor with a surname beginning with X
22. Have an ancestor with a forename beginning with Z
23. Have an ancestor born on 25th December
24. Have an ancestor born on New Year's Day
25. Have blue blood in your family lines [I used to believe all my blood was blue, before it was oxygenated. However, this scientific myth is allegedly inaccurate. OneFamilyTree would tell you I have royal ancestry, but I haven't verified my lines.]
26. Have a parent who was born in a country different from my country of birth
27. Have a grandparent who was born in a country different from my country of birth [1/4]
28. Can trace a direct family line back to the eighteenth century
29. Can trace a direct family line back to the seventeenth century or earlier
30. Have seen copies of the signatures of some of my great-grandparents [All 8 I believe.]
31. Have ancestors who signed their marriage certificate with an X (not that I know of)
32. Have a grandparent or earlier ancestor who went to university [Both of my grandfathers. One of my grandmothers took college courses, though she didn't get a degree. My other grandmother enrolled at a university, but changed her mind, and didn't attend.]
33. Have an ancestor who was convicted of a criminal offence
34. Have an ancestor who was a victim of crime. [No serious crime I can think of offhand. Not counting petty theft.]
35. Have shared an ancestor's story online or in a magazine [I'm a genealogy blogger. That's what I do.]

36. Have published a family history online or in print

37. Have visited an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries [Have plans to do so next year.]
38. Still have an ancestor's home from the 19th or earlier centuries in the family.

39. Have a family bible from the 19th Century

40. Have a pre-19th century family bible

Amanuensis Monday: Judson Van Every - Manchester Journal - 1902-1910

2011-10-10T00:01:00.055-05:00

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 share transcriptions from The Manchester Journal (Manchester, OK). Judson Van Every, the brother of my great grandfather, Melvin Van Every, appeared often in the pages. These transcriptions were originally written down by Wayne York, a grandson of Judson Van Every. I found the transcriptions attached to an entry on an Ancestry Public Member Tree belonging to plnjmw. They are shared with her permission.

A glimpse of the life and times of some Kansas and Oklahoma pioneers, as reported in the Manchester Journal for the years 1893—1917. (Taken verbatim from the back-files of Wayne York, son of Claude York and Mamie Van Every.)

Aug 22, 1902
Jud Van Every, who lives on the Misak farm northwest of town, called Wednesday on business and left his name with us for the JOURNAL.

Sept 30, 1904
Jud Van Every, a well-to-do farmer living northwest of town, showed us a sample of what is called the Zimmerman soft wheat which he had just received from the Experiment Station at Manhattan, Kansas. He got two bushels of this seed and will sow it on suitable ground with the view to raising seed enough next year to sow quite a field the fall of 1905.

Dec 16, 1904
About three years ago J.F. Berger of Anthony loaned Jud Van Every a bird dog and never called for him until a short time ago, when he took the dog to Anthony and from there shipped him to his brother living in Enid. After being gone for about a week the dog returned to Mr. Van Every’s place three miles northwest of town, where from all indications he would like to be left unmolested.

Feb 24, 1905
I have about 200 bushels of Texas red oats, rust proof, for sale at 40c per bushel. Call at my farm 21/2 miles northwest of Manchester. Jud Van Every.

Mar. 3, 1905
Jud Van Every placed a local in last week’s JOURNAL saying he had some Texas red seed oats to sell, and when he came to town on Saturday almost every other farmer he met struck him for some of the seed. He sold out in a very short time, and turned buyers to his neighbor, Mr. Dombaugh, to clean up about all he had to spare. A little advertisement in the JOURNAL is worth more than a whole page ad in some papers that we know of.

Feb 2, 1906
Jud Van Every informs us that he took second prize at the Anthony poultry show on his Brown Leghorns.

Feb 9, 1906
Several farmers northwest of town were here Monday holding a little meeting looking to the building of a rural telephone line northwest from Manchester, to reach the farmhouses of C.T. Brown, Jud Van Every, Uriah Dombaugh, J.C. Burchfiel, and others. The line is pretty sure to be built, and that soon.

September 20, 1907
Jud Van Every had time for a little lay-off last week and took advantage of it. He visited a brother living near Chandler, Oklahoma, and from there to a trip to Henry County, Missouri. He says he did not see much corn as good as we have here on the whole trip, and that much of it is poor compared to the crop here.

Nov. 15, 1907
Jud Van Every was in town Wednesday and tells us he is thinking of putting a bunch of mixed cattle in the feed lot and fattening them for the market next spring.

Dec 18, 1908
Miss Lella Van Every, daughter of Jud Van Every, was bitten by a mad dog at their home 2 miles northwest of Manchester Tuesday noon of this week. They took her to Blackwell Wednesday, where a madstone was applied.

Mar. 26, 1909
Jud Van Every, two miles northwest of town in Harper County, Kansas, told us Monday morning that he had about 15 acres of wheat that was “done up” by a dark colored worm very much resembling the old army worm. He said the work of destruction was about complete, and that he would put the ground to corn.

Sept 10, 1909
Jud Van Every, who left for the San Luis Valley, Colorado, about a week ago, returned home Thursday noon. He reports a fine time on his trip. He visited Ben McMullin while there, and tells us that Ben has raised ten thousand bushels of potatoes off 455 acres of land, and that he liked the country fine there. Mr. Van Every left one of the fine potatoes at this office.

Mar. 4, 1910
Jud Van Every is at work this week on the Frank Simmons residence, which is going up on the lots south of the Christian Church. The house is to be neatly arranged, with four rooms and a porch.

Mar. 11, 1910
Jud Van Every sold his 320 acre farm northwest of town the other day to Sol Frazier for 9,000, the whole purchase price being paid in cash. Except that the land is somewhat broken, it is good soil and is certainly a bargain for Mr. Frazier, who will handle it with the help of his sons, and we suppose the family will make their home there.

Mr. Van Every has gone to Twin Falls, Idaho, in search of a location, and intends to be back in about two weeks. As soon as he finds a place to suit him he will then have a public sale of all his personal property, notice of which will appear in these columns.

THE JOURNAL regrets to see Mr. Van Every and family leave. They are good citizens and good people, and we hope someday to see them come back. The land he sold is the old Misak place, which was bought about ten years ago almost for a song, and Mr. Van Every has been successful in farming and stock raising during this time also, so that all the way around he has made considerable money.

April 1, 1910
Jud Van Every’s public sale on Wednesday was largely attended, and everything sold at a good price. Gilts with five or six pigs by their side sold at $40 and above. Buyers and bidders were nicely treated, and the sale was a success in every way. We have not learned just when Mr. Van Every will leave with his family for Idaho, but no doubt they will start in a very few days. Their many friends will join the JOURNAL in expressing regrets at their leaving this part of the country.

April 22, 1910
Jud Van Every and family left on Thursday evening of last week for their new home at Rupert, Idaho, where he bought land some time ago. All regretted to see this family leave, and will join the JOURNAL in wishing them happiness and prosperity in their new home. Mr. Van Every is a typical frontiersman, and before coming to this locality had spent a number of years on the frontier. Farming, stock raising, and the increase in the value of the land which he bought here several years ago enabled him to leave Manchester with plenty of money to secure land, make improvements, and stock up with cattle in good shape out in the far west, and we are pretty sure that he will be pleased out there and stay with it.

Notes:

1) According to Merriam-Webster: A 'madstone' is a stony concretion (as a hair ball taken from the stomach of a deer) supposed formerly in folklore and by some physicians to counteract the poisonous effects of the bite of an animal (as one affected with rabies). It's sometimes referred to as a bezoar.

2) I believe Jud was visiting his brother, George, in Chandler, Oklahoma in 1907. At least George was in that area in the 1900 census. My great grandfather and his family had been briefly in Chandler as well, in the 1890s. My grandmother's sister, Evelyn, was born there. However, they had returned to Texas by 1900.

3) I'm unsure the reason Jud visited Henry County, Missouri. His brother George would move to Douglas County, Missouri, by 1910. Douglas and Henry are a good 150 miles apart.

4) Jud didn't disappear from the Manchester Journal pages. I will share a few entries between 1913 and 1917 next week.

Week In Review

2011-10-09T00:01:00.002-05:00

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

The Ancestry Insider reports that the number of images at FamilySearch has surpassed Ancestry. FamilySearch has a lot of images that aren't indexed. James Tanner at Genealogy's Star notes that Ancestry has a lot of indexes without images. And without the images, there's no way to verify that the record has been transcribed correctly.

Audrey Collins at The Family Recorder reminds us: "There are many popular records that you can find on more than one genealogy site, and if you don't find what you want one one site, it's a good idea to try another one." - Same BMD Databases, Different Sites

Back on September 28th the Statistical Abstract of the United States was released. (hat/tip: Dublin Library)

Diane Richard at Upfront with NGS discusses The National Archives five Tumblr accounts.

The 110th edition of the Carnival of Genealogy has been released at CreativeGene. The theme: Which type of tree best represents your family history? The theme for the 111th edition is Autumn Weddings, with a deadline of November 1st. More details.

Kerry Scott at Clue Wagon reports that Scientists Discover Virus Responsible for Genea-Skankery

The following individuals participated this past Monday in the weekly meme I began back in February of 2009: Amanuensis Monday. I apologize if I missed anyone, as I had to rely on Google to find many of the posts. It is my understanding Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers will be back in town and tracking participation in the daily blogging prompts tomorrow.

Cheryl Cayemberg at Have You Seen my Roots?
Claire at MahoganyBox
Joan at Roots'n'Leaves
John Newmark at TransylvanianDutch
Karen at Genealogy Frame of Mind
Leslie Ann at Ancestors Live Here
RAH at Blundering Blindly Backwards
Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings
Yvette Porter Moore at Digging Roots: My Family History

Other Weekly Link Lists
Many of those who usually appear below post on Friday. However, Randy usually does an excellent job of listing other lists.

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
Elizabeth O'Neal's Best Bytes at Little Bytes of Life
Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog
Liz Haigney Lynch's Links at The Ancestral Archaeologist
Diane Haddad's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogy Round-Up at MSS's Roots World

Amanuensis Monday: Missouri Sheriff Has a Mule Problem

2011-10-03T00:05:00.005-05:00

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 transcribe another document relating to the ancestry of my fiancée. This is a newspaper article from The St. Louis Post Dispatch concerning her second great grandfather, Louis P. Gober (1867-1948). [The article was found at ProQuest Historical Newspapers.]

St. Louis Post-Dispatch; Jan 1, 1911 – Page B7
ProQuest Historical Newspapers: St. Louis Post Dispatch (1874-1922)
NEW AND STRANGE THINGS IN AND AROUND ST. LOUIS:
Missouri Sheriff Has a Mule Problem

SHERIFF GOBER of Scott County, Mo., recently acquired some experience. He “seized” 47 mules belonging to a construction company against which the Cape Girardeau & Thebes Terminal Railway had started proceedings. The construction company had been building a levee across the railroad tracks for the United States Government. The sheriff’s troubles began when night time came. Every one of the 47 mules had to be fed, and such a contingency was new to the sheriff. He learned more about the appetites of mules as to regularity and capacity, in a few days than he had previously discovered in his whole life. They were the star boarders among all his prisoners. The Terminal Company finally came to his rescue by asking the court to make an order to have the mules sold at once, but at last reports the sheriff’s still had his four-legged charges on hand.

Notes:

1) I cannot attest to the accuracy of the drawing that accompanies the article. I suspect it does neither the sheriff nor the mules justice.

2) It appears the newspaper might be making fun of Sheriff Gober.

Week in Review

2011-09-29T11:20:00.003-05:00

This is being posted early this week, since I will be at a non-Genealogy Convention Friday morning through Sunday.

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

Barbara J Mathews at The Demanding Genealogist explains Conflicting Evidence - What is it?

George Geder at Geder Genealogy considers the news story of Larrie Butler in South Carolina. South Carolina isn't accepting the man's appearance in the1930 census as proof of his date of birth, because the census taker spelled his name wrong. (Mr. Butler has provided the state with his college records, high school records, medical records, and military records. They demanded his elementary school records, and those no longer exist. Hence his attempt to use the census.)

Amy Coffin at We Tree Genealogy responds to Reasons not to Attend RootsTech 2012. As a technogeeky genealogist, RootsTech does sound made for me. However, 2012 is going to be a busy year for me, as I am getting married, and already have some extensive travel planned for the summer. Maybe a future year.

Tamura Jones at Modern Software Experience discusses the development of Ancestry's App for Android, explaining how users of devices with Android operating systems can get on a list for the Beta version. I have an iPod Touch, and have been playing with the Apple OS version for awhile. I definitely like it.

Levi Sumagaysay at Good Morning Silicon Valley covers the new-Amazon Kindle Fire, as well as the controversy over Facebook's cookies tracking your browsing.

Lynn Palermo at The Armchair Genealogist wonders what the New Kindles might mean for genealogists.

Google announces that they have helped bring The Dead Sea Scrolls online (with English translation)

Roy Tennant at Digital Libraries discovers some serious errors at Google Maps for his own neighborhood - it seems they may be using satellite photographs as sources to adjust maps, and assuming what may be just tree cover is actually the end of the road.

If Virtual Monkeys have finally written a poem by Shakespeare, maybe I should start getting them to work on my ahnentafel. (Or, perhaps that explains the errors on Ancestry's One World Tree)

This image has been making the rounds on the internet

The Planetary Society weighs the implications of whether there is anybody who isn't 15-years-gone who could have been used in place of the guy on the left. (I knew who he was, but mostly because the background helped. I've heard of her, but have never watched her show, or seen her picture anywhere else. I declare myself not-to-blame.)

Thomas MacEntee at Geneabloggers is taking a rare vacation, so I will attempt to put together a list of those who participate in the Amanuensis Monday project. I'll include it in next weekend's "Week in Review" like I did before Geneabloggers started tracking the daily blogging prompts.

Happy New Year! (The year 5772 began last night at sundown on the Hebrew calendar.)

Other Weekly Link Lists
Many of those who usually appear below post on Friday. However, Randy usually does an excellent job of listing other lists.

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at GeneaMusings
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist

Amanuensis Monday: Verba Fulkerson's 83rd Birthday

2011-09-26T00:01:00.022-05:00

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, in a first, I transcribe a document relating to the ancestry of my fiancée. This is a newspaper article from The Sikeston Herald noting the 83rd birthday of her 2nd great grandmother, Verba Blackman Fulkerson (1857-1947). [The article was found at NewspaperArchive.]

Sikeston Herald – December 12, 1940 – Page 4

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION HELD FOR MRS. FULKERSON

Mrs. Verba Fulkerson, who resides with her daughter, Mrs. Robert Gober, and family, near Vanduser, observed her 83d birth anniversary on Sunday, Dec. 8.

Sixty-two children and grandchildren were present to enjoy the sumptuous dinner served and the the delightful social afternoon which followed.

Mrs. Fulkerson assisted in preparing the dinner. For one of her years she is most active and requires no personal attention. Among the many pretty and useful gifts received was a box of face powder and a jar of cleansing cream which Mrs. Fulkerson uses daily to keep “her school girl complexion.”

Notes:

1) I like the phrase, 'birth anniversary.' It should be used more often.

2) Most of my great great grandparents didn't have that many offspring. I may try to see how many of Verba's descendants we can identify when the 1940 census is released next year.

3) The photograph of Verba to the left was found in a Public Member Tree at Ancestry.com, and comes from the collection of Alix Reichert, who blogs at Hard Act to Follow. It is shared with Alix's permission.

Week In Review

2011-09-25T00:01:00.004-05:00

Below are some highlights from news stories and blog posts I have read in the past week that deal with my overlapping interests in Genealogy, History, Heritage, and Technology.

Deborah Large Fox at Help! The Faerie Folk Hid My Ancestors discusses Ireland's new Certificate of Irish Heritage. This certificate is meant for anyone not born in Ireland who can document their ancestry back to Ireland. More details on eligibility and application procedures can be found at Irish Central. I doubt they will accept the bio my great grandfather Barney wrote as proof, but there are several members of my mishpochah with a better argument. (Since the certificate doesn't come with any entitlements, they might not really care how reliable the 'proof' is.)

Jeff Baker, in a guest post at Geneabloggers, discusses Is Ancestry.com a Scan? 6 Common Misperceptions

MIchael Hait at Planting the Seeds shared his First Encounter with Indirect Evidence

Michael John Neill at RootDig discusses The Anonymous Census Entry

The Ancestry Insider discusses the differences between census enumerations in Darned Second Enumerations

Passive Guy at The Passive Voice discusses the adventures of Dorothy Parker's Ashes, as well as offers some legal insight (not advice) into estates.

Letters of Note shared a 1990 exchange of letters between Marge Simpson and Barbara Bush.

Technology and Social Networks

Todd Wasserman at Mashable discusses Amazon's announcement that Kindle E-books are now available at 11,000 Libraries.

Melissa Mannon at ArchivesInfo discusses The Value and Pitfall of Tagging Tweets. Her discussion of the confusion that can be generated due to lack of uniformity in hashtags reminded me of a local controversy when several St. Louisan Twitter users got upset because some Twitter users in Lebanon were using #stl to refer to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. Today, both uses co-exist, and there is international tolerance.

Google moved Google+ from "Field Trial" stage to "Beta," and access to the social network is no longer 'by invite only."

Facebook announced some major updates at their annual Developer's Conference

Other Weekly Link Lists

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogy Round Up at MSS's Roots World
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday Gems at Adventures in Genealogy
Elizabeth O'Neal's Best Bytes at Little Bytes of Life
Randy Seaver's Thursday and Friday "Good" Genea-Reads at GeneaMusings
Diane Haddad's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist

TLAPD and Genealogy

2011-09-19T11:12:00.001-05:00

Repost of a 2007 post with some additions

1) Were any of my ancestors pirates?
2) Did any of my ancestors own parrots?
3) Did any of my ancestors like to drink rum?
4) Do I have any distant cousins who have played baseball in Pittsburgh?

Realizing I am unable to say 'yes' in certainty to any of these questions, I am a little glum on Talk Like a Pirate Day.

I know I have lime-burners, mule drivers, and tailors represented. If OneWorldTree is correct, I also have a 1930s bootlegger/massmurderer nicknamed "The Alligator Man" as a distant cousin. He may come the closest. OWT also claims that John Ledyard, who sailed with Captain Cook, is a cousin. Though, while they sailed off the Barbary Coast, and Cook rhymes with Hook, like so many in my family tree, they fought for the 'other side.'

***
Here it is 2011, and I can say yes to one of the four questions at the top of this post, sort of. #4.

Jonathan Van Every is almost definitely a cousin. I haven't traced his ancestry back with certainty to make the necessary connection. His Major League appearances have been with the Red Sox organization, but he has spent time as a Pirate. (Though not in Pittsburgh.) He now plays for the St. Paul Saints which is a professional team in the American Association, which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. He has been named Defensive Player of the Year, so maybe he has a chance to return to the majors.

Jewish Pirates: Ahoy Vey!

2011-09-19T07:27:00.001-05:00

Repost from 2009 with slight changes

Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. The Jewish New Year is also approaching at the end of the month.

What would be an appropriate topic, albeit perhaps a little afield from the subject of genealogy, for a blog post combining the two?

How about Jean Lafitte, the possibly Jewish Pirate?

[image - late 19th century artist's conception. [source]

The facts of his origins, and those of his demise as well, depend upon whether you believe the "Journal of Jean Lafitte" is a forgery or not. Discovered in the possession of a claimed descendant.

"My grandmother was a Spanish-Israelite. ... Grandmother told me repeatedly of the trials and tribulations her ancestors had endured at the time of the Spanish Inquisition. ... Grandmother's teachings ... inspired in me a hatred of the Spanish Crown and all the persecutions for which it was responsible -- not only against Jews." [source]

According to one account, Jean Lafitte was killed upon the General Santander, an armed private vessel in the service of Columbia, on Feb. 5, 1823, at the age of 41. In the Gulf of Honduras, the General Santander encountered two Spanish privateers or warships, and was mortally wounded in a brief battle with the vessels and buried at sea ...

According to Lafitte's Journal ( which many believe to be a hoax, claimed to have been found by a great grand son of Lafitte) written by Lafitte himself in 1851, he took the name John Lafflin and died in St. Louis in his 70s. [source]

As a St. Louisan, this last definitely interests me. Though I have been unable to determine where John Lafflin (whether or not in reality Jean Lafitte) is supposed to be buried. Mysteries tend to surround pirates, don't they?

However, while the origins of Jean Lafitte are controversial, in Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean, author Edward Kritzler makes the claim for several others. Some of the earlier ones are said to have gone into the piracy business as revenge against the inquisition.

One such pirate was Moses Cohen Henriques, who helped plan one of history's largest heists against Spain. In 1628, Henriques set sail with Dutch West India Co. Admiral Piet Hein, whose own hatred of Spain was fueled by four years spent as a galley slave aboard a Spanish ship. Henriques and Hein boarded Spanish ships off Cuba and seized shipments of New World gold and silver worth in today's dollars about the same as Disney's total box office for "Dead Man's Chest." [source]

Of course, pirates tend to break a few commandments in their daily routine. Ends rarely justify the means, and revenge isn't generally considered a morally appropriate explanation for deeds. One wonders if the above Jewish pirates recited the Al Chet (confession of sins) yearly on Yom Kippur.

You can read more about Jewish pirates in Jamaica and elsewhere in the Caribbean at Tracing the Tribe.

Amanuensis Monday: Application for the Moolah Shrine Temple - 1927

2011-09-19T00:01:00.003-05:00

Elected Dec 12 1927
Created Dec 12 1927
Moolah Temple
Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine
Oasis of St. Louis

To the Illustrious Potentate, Officers and Members of Moolah Temple:

I, the undersigned, hereby declare that I am a Thirty-Second Degree Scottish Rite Mason in good standing in Missouri #1 Consistory, located at St. Louis, MO.

Furthermore, I do not now, and I never will hold membership in, or allegiance to, any body claiming to be Masonic that has been declared clandestine by the Supreme Council 33° for the Northern or the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States of America; that I have resided within the jurisdiction of your Temple, or in unoccupied territory, not less than six months, as required by the Constitution of the Imperial Council, and that I am not under suspension or expulsion in either of the bodies prerequisite to this Order, and respectfully pray that I may be made a Noble of the Mystic Shrine, and become a member of your Temple.

I furthermore represent that I have never previously applied for said Order, nor have I, to my knowledge, been rejected by any other Temple. If I be found worthy and my request be granted, I promise to conform to all the Ceremonies, Engagements, Constitutions, Regulations, and Edicts of the Imperial Council, together with those of your Temple.

I hereby declare that I am a member, in good standing, of
Benjamin Franklin Lodge No. 642 Located at St. Louis MO
Birthplace Alexanderia Russia
Date of Birth July 29 – 1886
Profession or Occupation Mgr. Justin T Flint Laundry
Residence 6422 San Bonita
Business Address 4228 Finney Ave
Mail Address 6422 San Bonita
Date Dec 3, 1927
Signature (full name) Herman Max Feinstein

Recommended and vouched for on the honor of: Nobles [2 illegible signatures]

Fee One Hundred Dollars herewith
Committee Report (initialed)

Notes:

1) One never knows where one will find important information. Last month I wrote of my rediscovery of this document I retrieved from the local Shrine Temple office. It's the only place I've found where my great grandfather wrote down a city for his place of birth. (Usually he just wrote down 'Russia.'). He left Russia at age 4 or 5.

2) His residence, and his occupation, is the same in 1927 as it would be nine years later in 1936 when he applied for Social Security. However, it seems the address for the laundry where he worked moved a couple doors from 4228 to 4234 Finney.

3) $100 seems higher than I'd have expected for 1927.

Week In Review

2011-09-18T00:01:00.170-05:00

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.

Ancestry Insider discusses Ancestry Content Publisher. While The Insider jokingly describes it as a secret program, some may recall that GeneaMusings discussed it last week, and Modern Software Experience a few days prior.

Ruth Blair at The Passionate Genealogist shares a list of Historical Audio and Video Collections

Beth VanVliet at ProGenealogists discusses Family Legends: Fact or Fiction? - and how the research that reveals the family legend to be fiction, may also uncover the truths that led to the legend.

Lisa Morguess at Life As I Know It shares a report her 9 year old son gave on their Family History.

GenealogyBlog discusses September 11, 1857 and the Utah Mountain Meadows Massacre. "For many Church members, the Mountain Meadows Massacre is especially poignant since some of its participants, along with so many of the early Utah Mormons, had suffered similar pains and loss at the hands of mobs and militia not very many years before." If anyone wonders what those 'similar pains' were - I suspect it's at least a partial reference to the Missouri-Morman War of the 1830s which you can read more about at Missouri Digital Heritage.

Heather Stecklein at Museum Minute discusses the preservation of digital scrapbooks.

GenealogyBank announced that they added 134 million newspaper articles this month, and its newspaper collection now contains over 1 billion records. (And this doesn't include their great collection of obituaries.)

Back issues of Ancestry Magazine (1994-2010) can be found on Google Books. (hat/tip: GenBlog) [Note: Prior to 1994, the magazine was called Ancestry Newsletter, and these issues don't appear available.]

Copyright and the Law

James Tanner, an attorney and a genealogist, at Genealogy's Star has a series this week on Copyright, Fair Use, and the Genealogist. (Part One | Part Two | Part Three)

Levi Sumagaysay at Good Morning Silicon Valley discusses the current status of the ongoing legal fight over Google Books.

In the News

John Campbell, an 18th Century Scottish Banker, has begun to tweet.

Ancestry.com changed their subscription rates recently, and their stock took a tumble. The Motley Fool discusses whether the tumble is justified.

College professor mapping Iowa cemeteries using GPS

Social Networking

Facebook has recently made some changes, obviously in response to the new competition from Google+. Marian Pierre-Louis at Marian's Roots and Rambles asks: How Do You Feel About Followers on Facebook?

Gadgetry

I am personally drooling over the SanDisk Memory Vault discussed at PetaPixel. That is, if the claim is true that the backup drive really does have a 'proven ability' to "preserve data uncorrupted" for 100 years. Of course, knowing how difficult it is to find a computer today with a 5.25 floppy drive, preserving the data isn't everything.

Matt Ryan at Mobile Lifestyle asks What Will Phones Look Like in Five Years

Humor

Dinosaur Comics discusses Degrees of Information

Webcam 101 for Seniors (hat/tip: Geneabloggers)

Other Weekly Link Lists

Susan Petersen's Around the Blogosphere at Long Lost Relatives
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogy Round Up at MSS's Roots World
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday Gems at Adventures in Genealogy
Elizabeth O'Neal's Best Bytes at Little Bytes of Life

Meme: The Tech-Savvy Genealogist

2011-09-16T17:23:00.003-05:00

Geniaus created The Tech-Savvy Genealogist Meme.

She came up with 50 items. I expanded the list to 80, and also reworded two of her entries. (I added "Google Video Chat" to #4 and made #40 more generic) My additions were intermingled so the numbering has changed, though I have put an (*) by each of my additions.

The list should be annotated in the following manner:
Things you have already done or found: bold face type

Things you would like to do or find: italicize (colour optional)

Things you haven’t done or found and don’t care to: plain type

Feel free to add extra comments in brackets after each item

Which of these apply to you?

1. Own an Android or Windows tablet or an iPad [waiting for the Kindle Android-based Tablet to be released soon...]

2. Use a tablet or iPad for genealogy related purposes

*3. Use a Kindle, Nook, or other e-reader for genealogy related purposes
4. Have used Skype or Google Video Chat to for genealogy purposes
5. Have used a camera to capture images in a library/archives/ancestor's home
6. Use a genealogy software program on your computer to manage your family tree
*7. Use multiple genealogy software programs because they each have different functionalities.
8. Have a Twitter account
9. Tweet daily
10. Have a genealogy blog
11. Have more than one genealogy blog
12. Have lectured/presented to a genealogy group on a technology topic
13. Currently an active member of Genealogy Wise (Still have an account. Stopped using the site when it got taken over by spam. Should I return?)
14. Have a Facebook Account
15. Have connected with genealogists via Facebook
16. Maintain a genealogy related Facebook Page
17. Maintain a blog or website for a genealogy society
18. Have submitted text corrections online to Ancestry, Trove or a similar site
*19. Have added content to a Person Page on Fold3 (formerly Footnote)
20. Have registered a domain name
21. Post regularly to Google+

*22. Have participated in a genealogy-related Google+ hangout

23. Have a blog listed on Geneabloggers
*24. Have a blog listed on Cyndi's List

25. Have transcribed/indexed records for FamilySearch or a similar project

*26. Have converted a family audiotape to digital
*27. Have converted a family videotape to digital
*28. Have converted family movies pre-dating videotape to digital.
29. Own a Flip-Pal or hand-held scanner
30. Can code a webpage in .html
*31. Can code a webpage in .html using Notepad (or any other text-only software)
*32. Can write scripts for your webpage in at least one programming language
*33. Can write scripts for your webpage in multiple programming languages
34. Own a smartphone
35. Have a personal subscription to one or more paid genealogy databases
*36. Have a local library card that offers you home access to online databases, and you use that access.
37. Use a digital voice recorder to record genealogy lectures
38. Have contributed to a genealogy blog carnival

*39. Have hosted a genealogy blog carnival

40. Use an Internet Browser that didn’t come installed on your computer
41. Have participated in a genealogy webinar
42. Have taken a DNA test for genealogy purposes
43. Have a personal genealogy website
44. Have found mention of an ancestor in an online newspaper archive
45. Have tweeted during a genealogy lecture
*46. Have tweeted during a family reunion
47. Have scanned your hardcopy genealogy files
48. Use an RSS Reader to follow genealogy news and blogs
49. Have uploaded a gedcom file to a site like Geni, MyHeritage or Ancestry
50. Own a netbook
51. Use a computer/tablet/smartphone to take genealogy lecture notes
52. Have a profile on LinkedIn that mentions your genealogy habit
53. Have developed a genealogy software program, app or widget
54. Have listened to a genealogy podcast online
55. Have downloaded genealogy podcasts for later listening
56. Backup your files to a portable hard drive
57. Have a copy of your genealogy files stored offsite
58. Know about RootsTech
59. Have listened to a BlogTalk radio session about genealogy
60. Use Dropbox, SugarSync or other service to save documents in the cloud
61. Schedule regular email backups
62. Have contributed to the FamilySearch Wiki
63. Have scanned and tagged your genealogy photographs

64. Have published a genealogy book in an online/digital format

*65. Brought a USB device to a microfilm repository so you could download instead of print.
*66. Have a wearable USB device containing important files. (Watch, keychain necklace, etc)
*67. Created a map on Google Maps plotting ancestral homes or businesses.

*68. Recorded the GPS coordinates for a tombstone, or ancestral home

*69. Edited the Wikipedia entry for an ancestor, or their kin

*70. Created an entry at FindAGrave for a person
*71. Created an entry at FindAGrave for a cemetery
*72. Uploaded the MediaWiki software (or TikiWiki, or PhpWiki) to your family website.
*73. Have downloaded a video (for genealogical purposes) from YouTube or other streaming video site using KeepVid.com, or in some other fashion
*74. Have transferred a video from a DVR to your computer for genealogical purposes
*75. Have participated in a ScanFest
*76. Have started a Genealogy-related meme at least one other geneablogger participated in.
*77. Have started a Genealogy-related weekly blogging theme other geneabloggers participated in.

*78. Have used Photoshop (or other editing software) to ‘clean up’ an old family photo

*79. Done digital scrapbooking
*80. Printed out a satellite photo from Google Maps of a cemetery, and marked where a tombstone was located on it.

Amanuensis Monday: Reassignment, The Italian Navy, and The World Series

2011-09-12T00:01:00.001-05:00

Sunday, Sept 12, 1943
APO 606

Dear Sweetheart:

I’m trying to think up some inspiration in order to write. In thinking so hard, you’ll note that I forgot to insert the salutation, which once before I had forgotten and heard about it right promptly. However, it’s in (the salutation) and so I’m safe. The weather is cloudy and rather humid. It isn’t too warm, and there is a good breeze blowing. But I feel rather disinclined to do anything, even though I can’t blame it on the weather.
There still is nothing definite about my reassignment, or at least nothing concerning a change of station. We do know for certain that my Hq is folding up in the middle of next week and from then on I’m part of USAFIME, but will stay here indefinitely until further orders. With the reorganization we’ll have a lot of work before things will function smoothly. I’m afraid that it’ll take mails much longer in transit, and it isn’t so very good right now to begin with. The last letter from you was Aug 31st, which is at least 12 days from time of writing. It used to be not more than 6 or 7 days from date of postmark. 10 or 12 is more normal now, and even that is irregular.

Last night we played bridge from 7pm to 2 a.m. Maybe that has something to do with my lack of vigor. I was way ahead in the early part of the game, but had very poor luck towards the end and barely broke even. Tonight I think I’ll go to a movie. A couple of nights ago, the British put on a musical show for us. There were three men and three women in the cast. They come around occasionally in troupes something like the ones our Special Services arranges for us. Unless there happens to be an unusually good star with them, like when we had Jack Benny and Martha Raye, they aren’t so good. Still they attract crowds if only there is one white woman among them. I think the girls with the show deserve a lot of credit for they have to do with a lot of roughing. There aren’t many modern conveniences for their accommodation, and, during performances, the audience doesn’t hesitate to try to boo them off the stage if the act doesn’t go over. I talked to one of the girls in the show and she said she likes her job. She has a chance to see the world and, regardless of how they feel about the act, there are thousands of men to every girl who would be glad to see that they had a good time.

The war news is certainly encouraging. The radio says this morning that 22 warships of the Italian Navy has pulled into Malta. Just think how much difference it’ll make to add 22 warships to our side and take the same number away from the enemy at the same time. That makes a swing of 44 warships really in our favor, that we can now use against the Japs. I don’t imagine that the Italians have any objection to fighting the Japs, where they might hesitate to fight against their former German allies. Christie has a bet that the war in Europe will be over by the end of this year. He’s lucky as hell even though he bets on anything. I hope he’s wins this bet if he never wins another.

I just see in todays news report that the World Series starts at New York on Oct. 5th. The first three games will be played there and the rest of them, regardless of the number, will be played in St. Louis. No doubt you’ll see some of them, but you needn’t take pictures of the tickets. Someone gave me a copy of some excerpts from letters regarding service men’s alottments, which I’m enclosing for you. Love to you and the children.

M.

Notes:

1) During the war, soldiers were often not allowed to include their location in letters home -- they were only allowed to indicate their Army Post Office. The identification of those post offices has since been released. APO 606 was Accra, Gold Coast. [Source: Numerical Listing of APOs January 1942-November 1947 - I originally found this pdf at the 7th Armored Division website]

2) USAFIME stood for "United States Army Forces in the Middle East"

3) Unfortunately, Christie didn't win his bet, and the war in Europe lasted a couple more years.

4) The Yankees won the 1943 World Series, 4 games to 1, so there would have been two games in St. Louis.

Week In Review

2011-09-11T00:01:00.010-05:00

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.

Discussing the Genealogical Proof Standard, James Tanner at Genealogy's Star asks What is Reasonable? Where do I search? Earlier this week, he also shared his alleged cousinship to William Shakespeare. Though he appears to have some doubts.

Barbara J Mathews at The Demanding Genealogist shares an experience where Wikipedia was Misled by an Online Ahnentafel

Randy Seaver at GeneaMusings feels Genealogical Societies Should Consider Ancestry Content Publisher

The Illinois State Genealogical Society announces the debut of The Insider's Guide to Illinois Genealogy.

Irish Newspaper Archives, one of the largest digital collections of Irish newspapers, is offering free access through December of 2011. (hat/tip: JewishGen)

Lee Drew at Family History with the LineageKeeper shares an extensive list of archaic job titles and what they mean.

Taco Goulooze, from It All Makes Census shares a newspaper article from 1890 headlined, The Census Killed Him. He also shares an article concerning the 1940 census. Apparently, for the first time in that year, they surveyed mobile homes.

Michael Stern Hart, inventor of electronic books, and the founder of Project Gutenberg, passed away on Sept 6.

A New York Times article discusses a recent son's discovery that he had 149 half-siblings through his sperm donor father.

Ten Years Later

Tears don't flow the same in space. International Space Station astronaut, Frank Culbertson, shares his 9/11 story.

(9/11/01 - taken from International Space Station - photograph source: NASA)

Other Weekly Link Lists
Several individuals who usually have posts listed below took a vacation this week. It might have something to do with the Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference in Springfield, IL.

Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
Elizabeth O'Neal's Best Bytes at Little Bytes of Life
Lynn Palermo's Monday Morning Mentions at The Armchair Genealogist
Susan Petersen's Around the Blogosphere at Long Lost Relatives

Civilian Occupation Codes II - NARA Discovered their Error in 2005

2011-09-06T21:14:00.000-05:00

Last week I discovered that NARA and Ancestry had changed the Civilian Occupations on all of their World War II Army Enlistment Records. These records are transcriptions derived from microfilmed punch cards - so they were prone to human error from the start. However, it was apparent that the list of occupation codes that was originally used to interpret the cards was wrong. I found a copy of the original list, and the current list.

What I didn't know was when the discovery was made.

The below release from NARA is dated in December of 2005.
The records I retrieved from Ancestry.com with the wrong occupations - I retrieved from May to October, 2007.
I still don't know when Ancestry's records were updated.

The following comes from the "Reference Copy of Technical Documentation for Accessioned Electronic Records." (PDF available from NARA.gov)

Supplemental User Note 5

Army Serial Number Electronic File, ca. 1938 -1946: Merged Processed File NN3-064-03-008

Civilian Occupation Codes

Following numerous user complaints that the Civilian Occupation Code interpretations did not match what was known from other sources, an investigation was conducted into the sources of the code books and keypunch operator manuals used when punching the Enlistment card's Civilian Occupation Code field.

There were several code books and operator's manuals in use during Wodd War II for coding civilian occupations, depending upon which War Department form or IBM punch card was being punched. Two codebooks were discovered in the records of the Textual Records Division, Modem Military Records (NWCTM) and Modem Civilian Records (NWCTC): Civilian Occupational Classification of Enlisted Personnel (TM 12-426) (War Department 1 July 1944) and Army Regulations No. 615-26 (AR 615-26) (War Department September 15, 1942). These employed two civilian occupation coding systems, the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and the US Army's Specification Serial Number. The latter was considered by Army to be a better way to match soldiers' civilian occupations with their military occupation specialties (MOS). Both were used when keypunching W.D., A.G.O. Form No. 20, the Soldier's Qualification Card. Both coding systems were mistakenly used together when assigning interpretations to the Civilian Occupation Codes found in the Army Serial Number Electronic File, ca. 1938 -1946: Merged Processed File. When used together, the two coding systems frequently assigned two different interpretations to the same code, resulting in user confusion.

Civilian occupation information was furnished by the enlistee or inductee during their interview at the Recruit Reception Center. Based upon the individual's statements, the interviewer wrote down an Occupation Code that was looked up in was looked up in Code No. 30, Civilian Occupation, in Technical Manual 12-310 (15 January 1944). Code 30 was supplemented by Code 30A, Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT). This code written in a box on the individual's Enlistment Record (W.D.A.G.O. Form 22) or the Report of Physical Examination and Induction (Armed Forces' Original D.S.S. Form 221). Though no complete version of Code 30A was found during our investigation of the coding errors, three pages were found in a draft version of Technical Manual (TM) 12-310 that was circulated on July 7, 1942. Later (1945) WD AGO Form 372 keypunch operators were instructed by the Machine Records Operation Technical Manual (TM 12-305), 1 November 1945, that ''the first three digits ofthe codes in the Dictionary of Occupational Titles will be used."

Upon discovery that Civilian Occupational Classification of Enlisted Personnel (TM 12-426) (War Department 1 July 1944) and Army Regulations No. 615-26 (AR 615-26) (War Department September 15, 1942) were intended for use with the Soldier's Qualification Card, these folders were removed from the documentation. They were replaced by copies of portions the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, Part I of III, Definitions of Titles, Prepared by the Job Analysis and Information Section Division of Standards and Research (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1939, 1943 and 1945).

Accession No: NN3-064-03-008
Prepared by Lee A. Gladwin, Archivist
Date: December 28, 2005

Amanuensis Takes a Holiday

2011-09-05T00:06:00.002-05:00

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

As I did in 2009 and 2010, in honor of Labor Day, I am taking a holiday from my project to transcribe family letters, journals, newspaper articles, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts.

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.

Week In Review

2011-09-04T00:05:00.141-05:00

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.

ESPN has a story on how two NFL football players discovered they were half-brothers.

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak at Huffington Post shares the story of an Orphan Heirloom Rescue of an 1870 Irish Immigrant's diary.

Tamura Jones at Modern Software Experience discusses Ancestry's attempt to get genealogy societies to upload their collections in Ancestry Content Publisher Programme and Some Ancestry Content Publisher Considerations.

Religion and Genealogy

Jasia at CreativeGene announces the creation of a new blog, by a team of already established geneabloggers. The Catholic Gene will focus on topics of interest to the Catholic genealogist, or the genealogist researching Catholic ancestors.

Stephen Danko at Steve's Genealogy Blog discusses the History of the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw, Poland.

Philip Trauring at Blood and Frogs notes that JewishGen has changed the name of two of their site features, replacing the word Shtetl. But, more important than the name change, is the reminder that these features exist. The ShtetlSeeker/Gazeteer and the ShtetlLinks/KehlilaLinks.

Tablet Magazine reports a new synagogue is opening in an area of Lower Manhattan that hasn't had a synagogue since before the Civil War.

Humor

Amy Coffin at The WeTree Genealogy considers what it might be like if Genealogists were in the Tabloids

Elizabeth O'Neal at Little Bytes of Life shares All I Really Need to Know about Genealogy I Learned in Kindergarten

A Protest Song

Piers Cawley at OSCON 2011 (OReilly Open Source Convention) shares a protest song: Child of the Library (hat/tip Disruptive Library Technology Jester)

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Liz Haigney Lynch's Links at The Ancestral Archaeologis
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogy Round Up at MSS Roots World
Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog
Susan Clark's Follow Friday at Nolichucky Roots

Happy Labo(u)r Day Weekend

2011-09-03T18:01:00.005-05:00

In Canada and the U.S., Labo(u)r Day is Monday, Sept 5th. For all celebrating:

Happy Labo(u)r Day!

Evan Greer - Never Walk Across a Picket Line

Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie - Union Maid

Pete Seeger - Solidarity Forever

Billy Bragg - There is Power in a Union

Dropkick Murphys - Worker's Song

Civil Occupation Codes: What's Going On Here?

2011-08-31T17:33:00.000-05:00

If you copied the transcriptions of WWII enlistment records from Ancestry.com in the past, it might be prudent to do a search and see if the "Civil Occupation" has been changed.

Depending upon when you made the copy, there is a very good chance that it has. I don't know yet the date the records were updated/corrected.

As I mentioned in my post earlier today, I noticed that Ancestry's WW2 Enlistment record for my Great Uncle, Mandell Newmark, had changed since I copied it in 2007. The Civil Occupation had been changed from "Bandsman, Oboe or Parts Clerk, Automobile" to "Salespersons."

It was my belief that the original transcriber of the record had misread the Occupation Code. That is no longer my belief. The Civil Occupations on other Enlistment Records I screen-grabbed back in 2007 are now different too.

Mandell Newmark
Formerly "Bandsman, Oboe or Parts Clerk, Automobile"
Now "Salesperson"

Seymour Feinstein
Was: Railway Signal Operator
Now: Salesmen and sales agents, except to consumers

Sidney Feinstein
Was: Foreman, Laundry or Foreman, Auto Repair Shop
Now: Foremen, services amusements

Cruvant Altman
Was: Barber or Lawyer (Attorney or counselor at law)
Now: Lawyers and Judges

It seems that the Occupation Code List has changed as well.

The original list can be seen on the Kansas GenWeb site

Their citation: Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 [Electronic Records]; Data Table: ENLISTMENT RECORDS; Record Group 64: Records of the National Archives and Records Administration; Series: World War II Army Enlistment Records, 6/1/2002 - 9/30/2002. (Online version on July 16, 2005 at http://www.archives.gov/aad/index.html.)

The current list can be found at archives.gov (as/of today: Aug 31, 2011)

Their citation: File unit: Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938 - 1946 (Enlistment Records)
in the Series: World War II Army Enlistment Records, created 6/1/2002 - 9/30/2002, documenting the period ca. 1938 - 1946. - Record Group 64

The two lists are significantly different.

Comparing the old and new descriptions to the old and new Occupation Code lists reveals that in none of the cases above did the occupation code change. The transcription error was not in reading the code. The transcription error was apparently using the wrong list. Meaning this wasn't an error in one or two records. The error would have been in ALL of them.

Did Ancestry.com or the National Archives ever make an announcement that they had erred, and that those who had looked up records before should look again? It's very possible they did and I missed it. Maybe others did too.

Workday Wednesday: The Occupation of Mandell Newmark

2011-08-31T00:05:00.017-05:00

Denise Spurlock of Denise's Life in the Past Lane began the meme: Workday Wednesday. She writes:

Sometimes it seems like all my ancestors were farmers, but the records tell me differently. Some of the occupations I've found: shoemaker, milliner, wheelwright, mine worker, preacher, and sawmill owner. My dad was a sheet metal worker; I have several photos of him at work. I will be using the "Workday Wednesday" theme for sharing photos, stories, and records related to my ancestors' work lives. If you like, join me in posting on your own blog, or as a comment here, how your ancestors spent "Workday Wednesday!"

I've decided to participate in this meme, as the occupations of my ancestors are of interest to me. This week I am looking at the high school occupation of my paternal great uncle, Mandell Newmark (1923-1945). He was killed in action during WW2.

Back in April of 2007, I found on Ancestry.com a transcription of his enlistment record. This is what it looked like.

The civil occupation confused the heck out of my family. We knew his occupation before the war, as a high school student, was a sales clerk at a department store. No one remembered him playing the oboe, or working as an Automobile parts clerk.

I found a listing of Civil Occupation Codes used on the enlistment records, and realized that "Bandsman, Oboe or Parts Clerk, Automobile" was code 175 and "Engineering Aide (Designated Field) or Sales Clerk" was code 170. I figured that whoever transcribed the record misread a handwritten 170 as a 175. That's the problem with transcribed records - you don't see what the transcriber saw, so you can't judge its accuracy.

Curiously - At some point in the past 4 years, Ancestry's record was changed. This is how it reads now.

Not only did someone figure out the code had been misread - they somehow knew Mandell was a salesperson, and not an Engineering Aide. Without seeing the actual document, I don't know how.

I'm glad the record has been updated. However, I would have liked to have been notified that the record had changed. I did attach the record to my great uncle's entry in my online family tree, so Ancestry had a way to know that I was interested in the record.

Of course, technically, the current transcription is no more reliable than the first. I happen to have reason to believe it is currently correct -- in the Civil Occupation field, as well as several others. However, seeing a transcribed record is never the same as seeing an image of the original.

Update: I have just discovered a list of Occupation Codes on the National Archives site which varies significantly from the list linked to above. It doesn't have the weird combinations of occupations being assigned to the same code. I'm unsure of the difference between the two lists.

Amanuensis Monday: A Historical Look at United Hebrew Synagogue - 1915

2011-08-29T00:05:00.002-05:00

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 look at an article that appeared in the March 19, 1915 edition of the St. Louis Jewish Voice. It is a reprint of an article that appeared the prior week in The St. Louis Republic. The article provides both an history of the congregation up to that point, and a description of the then-current synagogue. My grandmother, Belle (Feinstein) Newmark was born in 1914, and grew up in the congregation. She remembered moving in the 1920s to the location on Skinker Blvd which now houses the Missouri History Museum Library and Research Center. That's the location I grew up in, and I remember the move in the 1980s to the current location.

BETTY BOYD’S INTERESTING HISTORIC SKETCH OF THE U.H. CONGREGATION IN ST. LOUIS

In the “Republic” of last Monday, Betty Boyd, well known special newspaper writer, had the following interesting bit of local Jewish History which thinking some of our readers might have overlooked it, we here reproduce; not feeling inclined, however, to endorse its historic authenticity in all its parts.

***

United Hebrew Temple, at Kingshighway and Von Versen avenue, houses the oldest Jewish congregation in St. Louis, or, for that matter, in the entire Mississippi Valley. Upon the cornerstone of the temple is the date, 1837, when its organization was effected at the home of H.M. Marx, who lived on Locust street between Third and Fourth. A. Wiegel was elected first president of the congregation at that meeting.

First Services Held in Old Frenchtown

Although the congregation was organized in the district then known as “uptown,” the first services were held down in Frenchtown, in a house on Carondelet avenue. For ten years the congregation occupied the Carondelet avenue quarters; in 1814(*) it removed to a brick residence on Fifth street, between Washington avenue and Green street, just south of the present Union market. The first permanent home owned by the society was built on Sixth between Locust and St. Charles. The lot on which the synagogue was built was acquired from Judge W. Beirne for $6240. The building was consecrated in June of 1859 by Rev. D. Raphael of New York. For twenty years the United Hebrew worshiped there, till 1880, when the property was sold most advantageously and a new temple erected on the corner of Twenty-first and Olive streets. Another score of years passed, during which the congregation occupied the Olive street building, which is still standing. Then, conditions changing, it became imperative that a new location be secured. The corner of Von Versen avenue and Kingshighway was selected and there was erected the present temple, which I visited yesterday.

United Hebrew Synagogue is a quaint, low, rambling structure of cut stone. It comprises an auditorium and an institutional building adjoining, with entrances on Von Versen avenue. Were it not for the tabernacle one might very easily fancy himself in an entertainment hall, rather than a house of worship, when one enters the auditorium. The floor inclines noticeably towards the front and the seats are not of the universally accepted pew design, but comfortable opera chairs, all complete with folding seats and wire hat rack beneath. There is little of ornamentation in the temple. To the right of the main entrance is placed a tablet to Samuel Bienestock, who departed this life May 5, 1887, and to the other side is a marble memorial to Rabbi Henry J. Messing, who served the temple faithfully and zealously for thirty-three years from 1878 to 1911. Only one window bears an inscription. It is the large east window at the front of the building, which is dedicated to the memory of Isaac and Hannah Russack.

The only decorations are the handsome prismatic chandeliers, whose thousands of crystalline pendants had doubtless hung of old in the Temple on Olive street. The Sabbath morning services were most interesting. It was the anniversary of the natal day of Rabbi Henry Messing; Mrs. Benjamin Roman and Mrs. Lawrence May of Havana had remembered the anniversary and sent flowers in profusion in commemoration of their old and beloved pastor. The children of the congregation figured most conspicuously in the services. The front pews of the temple were filled with bright boys and girls coming from Sabbath school to attend the morning services of their elders.

Betty Boyd.

(*) This date was likely a typo, either on Betty Boyd’s part, or on the part of The Jewish Voice in reprinting the article. 1847 may have been intended, since that would have been ten years after the 1837 date given prior. 1841 is another possibility, as that is the year given by the congregation today for adopting their first constitution.

Notes:

1) I found this article while I was searching for the obituary for my second great grandfather, Selig Feinstein. Selig was Orthodox, and United Hebrew by that time had joined the Reform movement. My great grandparents Herman Feinstein and Annie Blatt were married by the local Chief Orthodox Rabbi. I'm not sure whether Herman and Annie joined United Hebrew after their marriage, or whether Annie was a member prior.

2) I have previously transcribed a newspaper article on the cornerstone ceremony for the synagogue built in 1880.

Week in Review

2011-08-28T00:05:00.004-05:00

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.

Michael Hait at Planting the Seeds shares Ten Lessons Learned from the Other Side of the Microphone - from his experience as an audio-visual technician.

The article is a few months old, but The Economist discusses how many countries are moving to censuses based on government databases instead of going door-to-door. (hat/tip: JewishGen Blog)

The Ancestry Insider discusses Those Darned Non-English Indexers. Ancestry.com apparently utilizes indexers in China, who sometimes make some humorous mistakes.

A new UK television show, Guess the Relative, is seeking people from around the world who believe they have British roots.

Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak writes about the recent changes at Footnote and the Google News Archive for The Huffington Post.

Lee Drew at Family History with the Lineagekeeper discusses Password Security in Genealogy and Your Life.

Tim Forsythe at AncestorsNow discusses "large interlinked genealogy tree websites" in The Really Big Tree Co.

Judy Wilkenfield, at Provenance, begins a powerful post, Evidence, with the words: For 68 years, my father was seeking the answer to the question, what happened to his mother, sister and brother during The Shoah? What was their final destination?

On the Lighter Side

Michael John Neill at RootDig posts a humorous computer-error parody: These Ancestors cannot be displayed.

Beloit College has released their annual Mindset List. This is a list of 75 facts about the incoming class of college freshman. For example: The Communist Party has never been the official political party in Russia.

Other Weekly Link Lists
- Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
- Deb Ruth's Follow Friday at Adventures in Genealogy
- Liz Haigney Lynch's Links at The Ancestral Archaeologist
- Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist
- Elizabeth O'Neal's Best Bytes at Little Bytes of Life
- Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogy Round Up at MSS Roots World
- Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog

Pocket Computers - 1851

2011-08-26T12:21:00.001-05:00

No. 6. Pocket Computer, 4 inches in diameter, with Time, Calendar, and Compass cards.

(Source: Fuller's complete and perpetual calendar: comprising a complete and comprehensive set of calendar pages for every year from 1724, o.s., to 1900, n.s - Lee and Shepard, 1871)

Fuller's Pocket Computer actually dates back to 1851, and can be found in the Official descriptive and illustrated Catalogue of the great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations: 1851, Volume 5

Workday Wednesday: Occupations of Melvin Van Every

2011-08-24T00:05:00.005-05:00

Recently Denise Spurlock of Denise's Life in the Past Lane began a new meme: Workday Wednesday. She writes:

Sometimes it seems like all my ancestors were farmers, but the records tell me differently. Some of the occupations I've found: shoemaker, milliner, wheelwright, mine worker, preacher, and sawmill owner. My dad was a sheet metal worker; I have several photos of him at work. I will be using the "Workday Wednesday" theme for sharing photos, stories, and records related to my ancestors' work lives. If you like, join me in posting on your own blog, or as a comment here, how your ancestors spent "Workday Wednesday!"

I've decided to participate in this meme, as the occupations of my ancestors are of interest to me. This week I am looking at the occupations of my maternal great grandfather, Melvin Van Every.

At some point in the late 1950s, I think, my Great Aunt Minnie (Minnie Van Every Benold) gave my mother a Family Register. I believe most of the research had been done by Minnie's eldest daughter, but there are some additional notes handwritten by Minnie. Here's the paragraph on Melvin Van Every, who was Minnie's father, so I have reason to trust it as far as one can expect a child to have a good recollection of her father's life.

Melvin Van Every, son of Samuel was born August 30, 1863 in Michigan and died in Texas, May 26, 1929. He is buried in El Paso, Texas. He was of a more or less pioneering nature and was self-supporting from the age of 14, having come to Texas with his father at the age of 10. In his early life he was a sheep raiser, then went into cotton gin work and raised much cotton himself. Then he purchased and improved and resold farms, reinvesting his profits. Still later he went into the bee business and dairying, operating sometimes 500 colonies of bees. In 1917 he moved to west Texas and purchased several farms, which he began to improve. At the time of his death he was living on one of three farms near Garfield, New Mexico. He was a very religious man, a Methodist and a member of the Masonic order. He first married Mary Jane Denyer, Aug 29 1883. She was born Sept 1, 1868 and died May 2, 1923. He married second Josie Thedford.

I have managed to verify some of this with newspaper articles. Below we see a letter from the 1908 volume of Gleanings in Bee Culture.

This indicates starting in 1903, by 1907 he was up to 300 colonies. A November 1914 issue of the Galveston Daily News confirms he was into dairying.

The bio at the top misses a few professions. I also know that in 1918 and 1919 at least, he was a County Apiary Inspector in Fabens, Texas, near El Paso. (The list of inspectors can be found in the below clipping near the bottom of the left hand column.)

And a May 1913 news clipping suggests he got himself involved with building contracting.

I still haven't found confirmation of his early activities raising sheep or cotton, but I have no reason to doubt it.

Amanuensis Monday: Declaration of Intent for Morris Fudemberg - 1914

2011-08-22T00:05:00.001-05:00

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
NATURALIZATION OFFICE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

DECLARATION OF INTENTION
(Invalid for all purposes seven years after the date hereof)

United States of America
Eastern District of Missouri
In the District Court of the United States for the Eastern Division Eastern Judicial District of Missouri

I, Morris Fudemberg, aged 27 years, occupation tailor, do declare on oath that my personal description is: Color white, complexion Dark, height 5 feet 9 inches, weight 155 pounds, color of hair Black, color of eyes dark brown other visible distinctive marks none; I was born in Sukove, Russia, on the 5th day of November, anno Domini 1886; I now reside at 3751 South Jefferson Ave St. Louis, Mo. I emigrated to the United States of America from Southampton, England on the vessel Philadelphia; my last foreign residence was London, England. It is my bona fide intention to renounce forever all allegiance to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, and particularly to Nicholas II Emperor of all the Russias, of whom I am now a subject; I arrived at the port of New York, in the State of New York on or about the 2nd day of July, anno Domini 1909; I am not an anarchist; I am not a polygamist nor a believer in the practice of polygamy; and it is my intention in good faith to become a citizen of the United States of America and to permanently reside therein: SO HELP ME GOD.

Signature (Morris Fudemberg)

Subscribed and sworn to before me on this 5th day of August, anno Domini, 1914.

Signature
Clerk of the said Court.

Notes:

1) Morris arrived in America in July of 1909, only four months after his future wife, Nellie, arrived. I learned from the Fudemberg family that Morris was a successful tailor, with then-Prince George as a client. (Which, if true, meant he likely worked for Davies and Son.) But he left that behind and started a career in America, because he had to follow love.

2) Morris's European town of origin, Sukolov Russia, matches that of his brother-in-law, Charles Cohen. The Newmark-Fudemberg and Newmark-Cohen weddings both occurred on January 30, 1910. This leads me to wonder if Morris and Charles knew each other in Sukolov, though I haven't yet answered that question. Sukolov likely refers to Sokołów Podlaski, Poland, which is 80 km east of Warsaw. It's also only 125 km Northeast of Warka, Poland, where Nellie and Bella were born.

Week in Review

2011-08-21T00:05:00.152-05:00

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.

Michael Hait at Planting the Seeds discusses the 5 Most Misused Words in genealogy.

Michael Zhang at PetaPixel discusses The Impermanence of Digital Photographs

Genea-Announcements
There have been several announcements this week from Genealogy-Database vendors

The 1940 census will be freely available at Ancestry.com to search and browse when it is released to the public mid April 2012

The reaction to this has all been positive.

Footnote.com has changed its name to Fold3.com and is focusing on their military documents, though they promise the non-military documents will remain. (Though one wonders about the unfinished indexing projects for the non-military records.)

There has been a lot of reaction to this change, much of it negative.

Kate T. at ArchivesNext
Tamura Jones at Modern Software Experience
An unscientific poll Tamura conducted on Google+ seems weighted against
James Tanner at Genealogy's Star
However, Cyndi Howells at Cyndi's List reminds us Change is Good

Back when Ancestry acquired Footnote (11 months ago) - I drew the comparison to Coke acquiring Pepsi. In the comments, I said "There might be some renaming of products, but the products could remain the same." The renaming has begun. I may be wearing a tinfoil hat, but I don't think the closeness to 1 year is a coincidence. They assure us the non-military documents will all remain on Footnote. But I won't be surprised if a year from now a migration of non-military records from Footnote to Ancestry begins. And perhaps a migration of military records from Ancestry to Footnote. (Even though, today, they are saying that isn't happening.) They have a business reason to encourage people to continue to purchase both subscriptions.

Geni made several changes to their website, requiring a subscription to do a lot that was previously free.

Randy Seaver at Geneamusings has gathered a compendium of the reactions to Geni's changes

Some have hypothesized that a jump in usage at WikiTree may be related.

Geni made a few tweaks, hoping to appease the concerns.

Kimberly Powell at About.com discusses changes Google has made to their News Archives

At the Movies
(Movies currently showing, or being released this week, with some connection to Genealogy or History. The plot provided is taken from IMDB, so should contain minimal spoilers.)

The Help -- Jackson, Mississippi, 1962: aspiring writer Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan returns home after college, where unexpected friendships with African-American maids Aibeleen Clark and Minny Jackson result in a book that gives a previously unheard voice to a community's suffering. [Note: I have seen the movie, and highly recommend it. I haven't read the book.]

Other Weekly Link Lists

Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings
Deb Ruth's Follow Friday at Adventures in Genealogy
Liz Haigney Lynch's Links at The Ancestral Archaeologist
Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogis
Elizabeth O'Neal's Best Bytes at Little Bytes of Life
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak's Genealogy Round Up at MSS Roots World

Does the I Ching have the answers I seek?

2011-08-20T19:55:00.000-05:00

For his weekly Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Randy at GeneaMusings suggested we seek help from the Online IChing.

Go to IChingOnline.net and ask a question relating to your genealogy research. You can "throw the coins virtually" or "throw the coins by hand." You have to click the "throw" button six times, then click on "Read."

I threw the coins virtually.

Report the question you asked and the answer you received, in the form of the Cast Hexagram (which explains the situation you are now in, or what has gone before), to your readers.

I decided to ask a specific question:

Where will I find the record of my great grandmother Bertha's birth?

The answer I received:

45 - Forty-Five

Ts'ui / Gathering
The Lake rises by welcoming and receiving Earth's waters:
The King approaches his temple.
It is wise to seek audience with him there.

Success follows this course.
Making an offering will seal your good fortune.
A goal will be realized now.
SITUATION ANALYSIS:
This is an important Convergence, and you must be part of it.
Look for the Center of this convergence.
Like waters running to the sea, like an astronomical convergence of planets revolving around the sun, you should let the gravity of this Center draw you near.
Others are also drawn to this Center, and among them you will find shared bonds and kindred spirits.
This tribal convergence will give you a clarity of purpose.
You will no longer be alone.

Does the answer make any sense to you? How do you interpret the answer?

This makes some semblance of sense. Bertha (Cruvant) Newmark referred to her father as Moshe Leyb the King. It was a joke likely based at least in part on his initials (M-L-K) spelling the Hebrew word for King. Is the I Ching telling me I need to figure out the synagogue my great great grandfather attended, and if it still exists, perhaps they might have some records?

What kind of offering do I need to make?

The Center of Convergence I should seek might refer to the local genealogical society. Others are certainly drawn there. I've been a member previously, but I have let my membership lapse.

Re-viewing Documents

2011-08-18T18:08:00.002-05:00

The word, "reviewing" literally means "seeing again."

A while back I contacted the local Moolah Shrine Temple for any information they had on my Great Grandfather, Herman Feinstein's membership. (The Moolah Temple is a masonic organization) They sent me the application he filled out in 1927.

One piece of information on the document stood out: his birthplace. This was the first document I found which narrowed down the origin of this branch of the family to anything smaller than "Russia." Neither Herman's Social Security Application, nor his father's naturalization document, had been more specific than that.

However, a search for shtetls with names close to Alexandria in the Russian Empire at JewishGen yielded nine. And I had some cause to be suspicious, since my limited understanding of Masonic organizations suggest they incorporate Egyptian symbolism, so my great grandfather could have creatively selected a town in Russia with an Egyptian counterpart.

The document was sent to me via email, and I downloaded it to a documents folder when I received it; I even emailed a cousin interested in the origin of Herman's mother's family about the contents, but I forgot completely about it.

**

I was on Ancestry this week searching on the name of Herman's father - Selig Dudelsack. (Selig changed the family surname to Feinstein.) And I viewed again the Hamburg Passenger Manifest. There, in the column "Bisheriger Wohnort" (Former Residence) it said "Wolinsky, Russland."

How did I miss that? The document is in German, and I suspect I focused mainly on the information I could readily read, like the names, and date. I had the English arrival manifest from Castle Garden. So I went into my email to contact my cousin with this information, and searched for the last email I sent him. And I rediscovered the document above. One of the 9 Alexandrias is in the Volhynia district, aka Wolyn, aka Wolinskie.

I then re-viewed the Hamburg manifest of Selig's brother, Judal (Julius). It said Scitomir (Zhytomyr), which I quickly learned is a major city in Volhynia, about 250 km west of what is currently known as Oleksandriia. Near the eastern boundary of Volhynia, it's actually close to Kiev. (The balloon on the map below is Oleksandriia.)

This is of note, since one relative recalls being told Herman was born in Kiev. The family immigrated when Herman was age 4-5. It's possible the family lived in both towns during those years. Herman could have also still been creative with his choice of birthplaces on the Moolah Shrine Temple petition. However, research at JewishGen shows there was a family of Dudelzaks in the Aleksandriiya Yizkor book. (The Yizkor Books are memorial books for those who were murdered in the Holocaust.)

I don't know if they're related, but some of the names match names in my tree, which raises the odds. (Though some names are common enough, perhaps not by much.) "Shmuel" (Samuel) matches the name of Selig's father. And on the passenger manifest, the name for Herman's brother who was known as "Ben" in America, looks a lot like "Berl." I thought it was sloppy handwriting, but 'Berel/Beryl' as a Hebrew name isn't completely unheard of.

Also, according to Familysearch, I may also have a lead on some potential cousins who made it to America:

Srul (age 17) and Schmarje (age 45) Dudelzak arrived at Ellis Island in March of 1906, and their last residence was Alexandrie. (However, it doesn't state specifically Alexandrie, Volhynia. It could be one of the other 8 towns.)