Week In Review

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

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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

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.]

Week in Review

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

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.]

Week In Review

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

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!

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

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 the application my great grandfather, Herman Max Feinstein, submitted to the Moolah Shrine Temple for admittance.

Week In Review

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

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

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 letter my grandfather, Martin Deutsch (1907-1991) wrote to my grandmother, Myrtle Van Every Deutsch (1900-1951) on September 12, 1943, while he was stationed overseas.

Week In Review

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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.

Week in Review

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

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

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

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 the Declaration of Intent for Morris Fudemberg (1883-1971).  He married Nellie Newmark, who was the sister of my great grandfather, Barney.

Week in Review

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?

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.