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 transcription from a Confederate Company Muster Roll for my second great grandfather, Ebenezer Denyer (1828-1872)
Monday, January 23, 2012
Monday, January 16, 2012
Amanuensis Monday: London Dreyfus Demonstrations - Sept 1899
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 New York Times article from September 15, 1899 concerning demonstrations in London. My Newmark ancestors were in London at the time, but I don't know if they were present at the demonstrations.
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 New York Times article from September 15, 1899 concerning demonstrations in London. My Newmark ancestors were in London at the time, but I don't know if they were present at the demonstrations.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
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.
Other Weekly Link Lists
- 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
Monday, January 9, 2012
Amanuensis Monday: The Marriage of Willa Van Every and Lex Roberts
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 clipping from the Galveston Daily News announcing the marriage of my maternal grandmother's sister, Willa Van Every
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 clipping from the Galveston Daily News announcing the marriage of my maternal grandmother's sister, Willa Van Every
Sunday, January 8, 2012
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.
Other Weekly Link Lists
(Source: Wondermark)
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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)
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
The Black Swan Fallacy
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
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.
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."
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 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)
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.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Amanuensis Monday: The Year of Liberation - Letter Home from WWII - Jan 1, 1944
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 wrote home from World War II, January 1, 1944.
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 wrote home from World War II, January 1, 1944.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Amanuensis Monday: The Birth of Israel David Newmark - 1903
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 London birth record of my great grandfather's brother, Israel David Newmark (1903-2004)
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 London birth record of my great grandfather's brother, Israel David Newmark (1903-2004)
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Happy Khanike!
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: ×—× ×•×›×” or ×—× ×›×” (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.
There are only two ways to properly spell the name of the holiday: ×—× ×•×›×” or ×—× ×›×” (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.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Amanuensis Monday: The Birth of Cecile Newmark - 1896
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 London birth record of my great grandfather's sister, Cecile (Cissie) Newmark (1896-1973)
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 London birth record of my great grandfather's sister, Cecile (Cissie) Newmark (1896-1973)
Monday, December 12, 2011
Amanuensis Monday: Baby Pines for Lost DaDa - 1907
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.
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.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
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.
Genealogy Resources
Other Weekly Link Lists
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.
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.
- 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?
- 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.
- Menorahs are becoming popular in Ireland, even though the Jewish population is small.
- 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
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.
Monday, December 5, 2011
Amanuensis Monday: Goldie Cruvant - in Denver Colorado - 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 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)
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)
Sunday, December 4, 2011
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.
Other Weekly Link Lists
- 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
Friday, December 2, 2011
Julie Andrews and Gene Kelly sing about their family trees
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.
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.
Monday, November 28, 2011
Amanuensis Monday: The Birth of Kate Newmark - 1894
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 London birth record of my great grandfather's sister, Kate Newmark
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 London birth record of my great grandfather's sister, Kate Newmark
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Genealogy Research - a poem
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
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
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.
Other Weekly Link Lists
- 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)
- MyHeritage Acquired FamilyLink.com and WorldVitalRecords.com (GeneaPress)
- Archives.Com Partners with FamilyTreeDNA to offer DNA testing (GeneaPress)
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
Saturday, November 26, 2011
The Internet Wayback Machine - and Blogspot
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.
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.
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.
Following some links on the archived pages results in this error:
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.
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