Amanuensis Monday: A Postcard to Mama - 1908

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 on February 16, 2009.  Since I began, many others have joined in on the meme. I am thrilled that this meme I started has inspired so many to transcribe their family history documents. Why do we transcribe? I provide my three reasons in the linked post. You may find others.

***
This week I am sharing a postcard I have found that my Great-Uncle Samuel Van Every sent his mother in 1908.

Google Analytics: Searches that Led Here

I visited Google Analytics, and went through the search results that led people to my blog in 2012. It’s fascinating reading. Some people found what they were searching for. Others, I suspect didn't.

• “Cognatus Ergo Sum” (10 people) 

I thought I had a unique idea when I created that Latin phrase for a poem I wrote. Apparently it has been used often to describe an African emphasis on community.

• “lessons from splitting the red sea for bar mitzvah” (3 people) 

I’m pleased if the transcription of my Bar Mitzvah speech helped any kid with theirs (hopefully they took ideas, and didn't just 'borrow' the entire speech) – however, I am slightly concerned since all three searches were exactly one week prior to this year’s reading of that passage. I am hopeful they were researching a year in advance, and not a week in advance.

• "married her grandson” (2 people)

I bet they were as shocked as I was to discover this fact about Lucille Ball. But Ancestry’s OneWorldTree confirms it.

• “tree” (2 people) 

I wonder how many pages of search results they had to go through before they found my blog? 

ProTip: be a little more specific in your searches. [Maybe this was an 'image search.']

• “since no one has ever heard of my grandparents surname please tell me how the last four letters of their name is prounounced in hungarian – kats” (1 person)

Perhaps not that specific.

• "1900 Cluj Porno" (1 person)
• "Cluj 1900 Porno" (1 person)

I am unsure why a link shows up to this blog post for these two searches. The entry only contains two of those three words. I can only imagine whoever performed those searches was disappointed by my transcription.

• “Frases de Sid Wyman” (1 person)

Sid Wyman was a cousin of mine, however, it appears someone was searching for some quotes from him, in Spanish. I don't know if he knew Spanish. He was born in St. Louis, Missouri. He spent much of his adult life in Las Vegas.

• “Hot amanuensis” (1 person)

An intriguing combination of adjective and noun. I'd expect to see it either on a restaurant menu ("I"ll have a hot stack of amanuensis, covered in syrup, please?") or a single's page (SWF seeking Hot Amanuensis to transcribe her dreams and fantasies. Must know cursive.)

• “Is sir name Cruvant French” (1 person)

The surname, “Cruvant,” is Lithuanian. It comes from the town, Kruvandai.

 [I hope this was a young cousin of mine, for whom I can overlook the spelling error.]

• "What color is a black swan?" (1 person)

Black.

• “Where was my family from?” (1 person)

I wish it were that easy.

Weekly Genealogy Picks: Dec 30-Jan 5

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.

• In Are You Reading the Originals Bill Dollarhide at GenealogyBlog takes a look at US Census Records, and the different copies that were made in different census years.

• A collection of letters from WW2 Japanese Internment Camps has been discovered in Denver. (hat/tip: NGS)

• Judy G. Russell at The Legal Genealogist examines the impact of pseudonyms on copyright

• Congress has asked the Copyright Office to study the challenges of the current system for resolving small copyright claim disputes, as well as possible alternative systems. A report from the study is due in September of 2013. (hat/tip: Digitization 101)

• Maria Konnikova at Slate asks "Do You Think Like Sherlock Holmes?" and wonders if our obsession with electronic devices is preventing us from both seeing and observing.

• Randall Munroe, of XKCD entitled the below comic, "Instagram," but the metaphor is appropriate for any free online service.

Controversy

• The Daughters of the American Revolution were accused of removing "Jesus" from their ritual and missals. DAR clarified their position.

• The National Newspapers of Ireland announced a new licensing arrangement where websites would have to pay to simply link to their articles. They have since clarified that they only seek payment when the links are for commercial purposes, not personal purposes. (It's unclear how they feel about Google and other commercial search engines indexing their websites.) And at least one newspaper in the collective, The Irish Times, has stated it encourages linking to their articles

Poetry

• Saint Francis - Judith Richards Shubert - Genealogy Traces

• My Six-Month DAR Membership - Tricia Knoll - New Verse News

Other Weekly Lists

• Ruth's Recommendations - Ruth Blair - The Passionate Genealogist 
• Fab Finds - Jana Last - Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog
• From the Blogs - Michael J. Leclerc - Mocavo Genealogy Blog
• Genealogy Round Up - Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak - MSS Roots World
• Friday Finds - Julie Cahill Tarr - GenBlog

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks
Two Week Calendar

• Jan 6 - Epiphany (Christian)
• Jan 6 - Feast of the Theophany (Orthodox Christian) 
• Jan 7 - Nativity of Christ (Orthodox Christian)
• Jan 7 - The Festival of Seven Herbs (Japan)
• Jan 13 - Maghi (Sikh)
• Jan 13 - Orthodox New Year/Old New Year (Eastern Orthodox)
• Jan 14 - Ratification Day (US)
• Jan 17 - Blessings of the Animals (Hispanic Catholic)
• Jan 19 - Timkat (Ethiopian Orthodox Christian)
• Jan 20 - World Religion Day (Baha'i)

Backup Day: Don't Forget!

The first of every month is Data Backup Day

Don't forget!

(Image Source: Vincent Van Gogh, At Eternity's Gate, May 1890)

2012 Highlights

Below are highlights from the past year of posts, focusing on those posts I feel may be of the most interest to those who aren't related to me.

• The Sunken Gardens: From 1904 to Today 

A look at a 1904 World's Fair exhibit, and what survives 

• Finding My Past Part I: England and Wales Marriage Records
• Finding My Past Part II: Census Records
• Finding My Past Part III: Hampshire Baptisms

A 3-part exploration of the databases and records at FindMyPast

• Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names
• Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names: Part II

A 2-part exploration of Yad Vashem's database of Holocaust victims 

• Ancestry's New DNA Test: A Jewish Perspective

My experience with Ancestry's new DNA test, and some perceived drawbacks for those of Eastern European Jewish Descent

• Inaccuracies in Ancestry's SSDI Database

An examination of some issues with the way Ancestry.com handles the city and county of last residence in their SSDI database

• Show Me the Newspapers

A comparison of the holdings at four different online archives of digitized newspapers - with a focus on Missouri newspapers.

• Black Swan Fallacy

A look at how a common logical fallacy can trip the genealogy researcher.  (I originally posted this entry back in 2009, but I reposted it with some modifications.)

I married the woman of my dreams in April, and we went on a honeymoon in June.
Several posts related to these events might be of interest to others.

• Wedding Traditions: Silver Sixpences

 Research on the origins of the phrase: "Something Old, Something New..."

• Honeymoon: Etymology

Research on the etymology of the word, 'Honeymoon.'

• Terezin: Not Your Usual Honeymoon Destination

My wife and I visited Prague on our honeymoon, and decided to make a trip to the nearby former concentration camp.

New Year's Resolutions

Below are my New Year's Resolutions from December of 1975.  

As is my habit, I have protected the names of the living, in this case both of my siblings, to whom apparently I must have believed I wasn't being good enough. (The spelling errors are embarrassing, but I was only one month shy of 7.)

I suspect I was also trying to cure myself of calling my mother, 'Mommy,' as I can't think of anything else I would have called her at that age.

In first grade I was participating in an annual reading challenge at my school. I happened to know the neighbor across the street held the all-time record, and I apparently initially resolved to break that record. I was either told it was an inappropriate resolution, or decided it was on my own. (I did break the record. The school closed five years later with my record unbroken. 1509.)

My kind and loving wife tells me there is still one of these I need work on. I will let everyone guess. She tells me also that my handwriting was better back then.

I'm still working on my 2013 Resolutions

Fifteen Poems from the Archives

I am an aficionado of poetry. I enjoy reading, writing, and performing  the art. In the past six years I have devoted several blog posts to poetry. Below are fifteen of these. Click on the 'Poetry' label at the bottom of the post to find more.

Poems Written by Me

1. Genealogy Research
2. Where I'm From
3. A Toast to the First and the Fourth of July
4. E Pluribus Unum; Cognatus, Ergo Sum
5. Divergent, Yet Intersecting
6. Ode to a Microspatula
7. Genealogy Limericks 

Poems Written by Kin

1. Mother - by Willa Van Every
2. Mother - by Ida Green 

Poems Written by Others

1. Our Mother Was the Pussy-Cat - by Edward Lear (an unfinished sequel to The Owl and the Pussy-Cat)
2. On Going Home For Christmas - by Edgar Guest
3. To a Lady - by Victor Hugo (Translation by Thomas Hardy)
4. On the Burial of his Brother - by Caius Valerius Catullus (Translation by Aubrey Vincent Beardsley)
5. The Mounds of Cahokia - by Micah P. Flint
6. The Jewish Cemetery at Newport - by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Weekly Genealogy Picks: Dec 16-19

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.

Note: I am posting this several days early. Our Weekly Picks will be taking a holiday, and will return Sunday, January 6th.

• Evidentia, a new genealogical software program was released this week. This one isn't like the others, as its focus is on evidence, not people. For the past several weeks there has been a group of beta-testers, and some of them are providing reviews. Similarly, since the application is now released to the public, some non-beta-testers are providing reviews, as well.
  
  Reviews I've seen:
• Jenny Lanctot at Are My Roots Showing?
• Shannon Bennett at Trials and Tribulations of a Self-Taught Family Historian
• Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings

I did participate in the beta-testing period, but unfortunately, haven't had a great amount of time to test it out, and I don't have the time to write up a full review. However, I liked what I have seen. I feel it would be a great secondary software program for me to focus on gathering and visualizing the evidence for selected brick walls. It would also be useful for creating a database for my family records, and transcriptions. Currently it doesn't allow for attaching files or transcriptions, but I have been told by the creator that that is planned for a future update.

It will not work as a primary genealogy database for me, and I don't believe it is the intent of the creator that it should. Some (perhaps many) will find its inability to import or export into the standard GEDCOM format a deal-breaker. However, GEDCOM doesn't include a standardized method for handling citations. Evidentia is built around evidence and citations. Oil and Water don't mix. Since those with large databases will not want to manually copy information to a new database, those who use Evidentia will likely use it for select individuals. 

There are both PC and Mac verstions, however, if you are a Mac user you need to have the 10.7 OS (Lion) or above. There are screenshots, tutorials, and sample reports on the software site.

• RootsMagic released an iOS app for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Randy Seaver at GeneaMusings has taken a first look at the app, as well as a second. Tamura Jones at Modern Software Experience also has given it a review. I'm unable to test it out, as while I have both an iPhone, and an iPod, it's a secondary app that is meant to accompany their full software package. It can't stand alone, and their full software is PC only.

• Instagram released new Terms of Service this week that seemed to permit the company to sell user photos to advertisers without paying the user anything. [Source: Good Morning Silicon Valley] Instagram has responded, and said the terms were misunderstood. They have assured their users they will clarify their terms.
  
  However, as GMSV pointed out, in an era of 'free software' you get what you pay for. It is always better to be the purchaser of a commodity, than the commodity that is being purchased. Judy G. Russell at The Legal Genealogist provides a good summary of the events.

• Good Morning Silicon Valley also predicts the next Social Networking outrage: Auto-Playing video advertisments on Facebook. Rumored to be coming by April 2013 on both desktop and mobile versions of Facebook.

• Michael Hait, at Planting the Seeds, defines for the genealogist, The most important thing you can ever prove.  I agree with him on the importance, and difficulty at times, proving this.

• Philip Moeller at US News and World Report discusses how Digital Stories Preserve and Share Memories. His article includes a review of the StoryPress website and apps.

• In Before You Were Born: We Were Digitizing Texts, Leslie Johnston at The Signal provides an historical look at digitized text. (However, the earliest date provided was two years after I was born.)

• Stuart Rockoff at MyJewishLearning shares some historical resources for small communities in the Southern US.

• In Why We Don't Write, and How We Can, Harold Henderson at Archives challenges us to become better buffalo hunters.

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next three weeks

Three Week Calendar

• Dec 20 - International Human Solidarity Day
• Dec 21 - Pancha Ganapti - Dec 21-25 (Hindu)
• Dec 21 - Forefathers' Day (Plymouth, MA)
• Dec 21 - Yule - Northern Hemisphere / Litha - Southern Hemisphere (Pagan)
• Dec 24 - Christmas Eve (Christian)
• Dec 25 - Christmas (Christian)
• Dec 26 - Kwanzaa - Dec 26-Jan 1
• Dec 26 - Boxing Day
• Dec 26 - Zarathosht Diso (Zoroastrian)
• Dec 28 - Holy Innocents (Christian)
• Dec 30 - Freedom Day (Church of Scientology)
• Dec 30 - Feast of the Holy Family (Christian)
• Dec 31 - New Year's Eve
• Jan 1 - New Year's Day
• Jan 1 - Gantan-sai (Shinto) 
• Jan 1 - Global Family Day
• Jan 1 - Public Domain Day
• Jan 5 - Twelfth Night (Christian)
• Jan 5 - Guru Gobindh Singh birthday (Sikh)
• Jan 6 - Epiphany (Christian)
• Jan 6 - Feast of the Theophany (Orthodox Christian) 
• Jan 7 - Nativity of Christ (Orthodox Christian)
• Jan 7 - The Festival of Seven Herbs (Japan)
• Jan 13 - Maghi (Sikh)

Amanuensis Monday: A Deed for a Church (1680)

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 on February 16, 2009.  Since I began, many others have joined in on the meme. I am thrilled that this meme I started has inspired so many to transcribe their family history documents. Why do we transcribe? I provide my three reasons in the linked post. You may find others.

***

This week I am sharing a passage from The Annals of Albany, by Joel Munsell. It includes a transcription of the deed for a Lutheran church in Albany from the 17th century, and mentions my 8th great grandfather, Myndert Frederickse (son of Frederick Van Iveren), as well as Myndert's brother, Carsten. The children of Myndert and Carsten would, by and large, return to the Van Iveren surname, which later changed to Van Every.

The deed was originally in Dutch, though the author provides a translation. I include both below.

Weekly Genealogy Picks: Dec 9 to Dec 15

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.

• Bill LeFurgy at The Signal promotes Raising Digital Preservation Awareness to Combat Placency and Fear

• In The Bloggers' Best Selections Diane Boumenot at One Rhode Island Family solicited submissions of 'favorite' posts from other genealogy bloggers.

• The controversial Martin Luther King Jr. memorial transcription, which misquoted the Civil Rights leader, will be removed instead of corrected. (Source: CNN)

• Tamura Jones at The Modern Software Experience takes a look at the Genealogy Communities that have been created on the Google+ network in the past week since Google introduced the Community feature.

• In a recent patent filing, "Apple outlined a system that analyzes the characteristics of an image's subject and uses the data to create a 'faceprint,' which can then be matched with other photos to determine a person's identity." [Source: Apple Insider]

• In Why can't the media get the facts straight in Connecticut, Charles Apple,  at The Visual Side of Journalism discusses the issues with 'breaking news reporting' and how reporters handle constantly changing facts. I thought I noticed some parallels in his description of news research to that of genealogy research. We too can make a mistake when we try to reach a conclusion before our research is complete.

Other Weekly Lists

• Beth's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider 
• Ruth Blair's Ruth's Recommendations at The Passionate Genealogist 
• Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog 
• Dan Curtis's Monday's Link Roundup at Professional Personal Historian 
• Jana Last's Fab Finds at Jana's Genealogy and Family History 
• Lynn Palermo's Monday Morning Mentions at The Armchair Genealogist 
• Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings 

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• Dec 16 - Las Posadas/Posadas Navidenas - Dec 16 (evening) to Dec 24 (evening) (Christian - Spanish)
• Dec 17 - Saturnalia (Roman)
• Dec 17 - Wright Brothers Day (US)
• Dec 18 - International Migrants Day
• Dec 20 - International Human Solidarity Day
• Dec 21 - Pancha Ganapti - Dec 21-25 (Hindu)
• Dec 21 - Forefathers' Day (Plymouth, MA)
• Dec 21 - Yule - Northern Hemisphere / Litha - Southern Hemisphere (Pagan)
• Dec 24 - Christmas Eve (Christian)
• Dec 25 - Christmas (Christian)
• Dec 26 - Kwanzaa - Dec 26-Jan 1
• Dec 26 - Boxing Day
• Dec 26 - Zarathosht Diso (Zoroastrian)
• Dec 28 - Holy Innocents (Christian)
• Dec 30 - Freedom Day (Church of Scientology)
• Dec 30 - Feast of the Holy Family (Christian)
• Dec 31 - New Years Eve

Amanuensis Monday: Obituary for Louis Pleas Gober

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 on February 16, 2009.  Since I began, many others have joined in on the meme. I am thrilled that this meme I started has inspired so many to transcribe their family history documents. Why do we transcribe? I provide my three reasons in the linked post. You may find others.

***

This week I am sharing the obituary for my wife's 2nd great grandfather, Louis Pleas Gober. It appeared in the November 4, 1948 Sikeston Herald, and I retrieved the image from Ancestry.com.

Weekly Genealogy Picks: December 2-8

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.

• Michael J Leclerc at Mocavo Blog asks if it is Curtains for Cursive, as many schools across the county are ceasing instruction in script.

• Michele Simmons Lewis at Ancestoring discusses graphology, or the analysis of handwriting to uncover personality traits. 

• Barry Wheeler at Digital Preservation looks at the process of scanning documents, and addresses the question: What Resolution Should I Use?

• Jen Hodnett at the Ancestry Blog explains how to merge duplicate records in their online family trees.

• Daniel Hubbard at Personal Past Mediations describes what he calls, Pyrrhic Research, and why it is important to avoid it, whether you are researching Homer's Iliad, or your family's oral history.

Other Weekly Lists

• Beth's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider
• Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog 
• Dan Curtis's Monday's Link Roundup at Professional Personal Historian 
• Jana Last's Fab Finds at Jana's Genealogy and Family History 
• Michael J. LeClerc's From the Blogs at Mocavo Blog
• Lynn Palermo's Monday Morning Mentions at The Armchair Genealogist 
• Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings 

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• Dec 9 - International Anti-Corruption Day
• Dec 10 - Human Rights Day
• Dec 10 - Alfred Nobel Day
• Dec 15 - Bill of Rights Day (US)
• Dec 15 - Esperanto Day
• Dec 16 - Las Posadas/Posadas Navidenas - Dec 16 (evening) to Dec 24 (evening) (Christian - Spanish)
• Dec 17 - Saturnalia (Roman)
• Dec 17 - Wright Brothers Day (US)
• Dec 18 - International Migrants Day
• Dec 20 - International Human Solidarity Day
• Dec 21 - Pancha Ganapti - Dec 21-25 (Hindu)
• Dec 21 - Forefathers' Day (Plymouth, MA)
• Dec 21 - Yule - Northern Hemisphere / Litha - Southern Hemisphere (Pagan)

Amanuensis Monday: A second obituary for Willa Van Every

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 on February 16, 2009.  Since I began, many others have joined in on the meme. I am thrilled that this meme I started has inspired so many to transcribe their family history documents. Why do we transcribe? I provide my three reasons in the linked post. You may find others.

***

Back in October I shared an obituary I found in the Lockhart Post Register for my maternal grandmother's sister, Willa (Van Every) Roberts. It had been written by another sister of my maternal grandmother, Minnie (Van Every) Benold, and had appeared on July 20, 1916, 11 days after the death.

Since then I discovered another obituary mixed in with some other newspaper clippings my grandmother preserved.  I don't know what newspaper it appeared in, but I believe it was written by someone else, as there are differences in style. It also fills in a few additional details. The obituary I shared back in October is shown below on the right, though I do not re-transcribe it.

Weekly Genealogy Picks: Nov 25-Dec 1

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 topic around the genealogical water-cooler at the end of this week was Ancestry.com's announcement of the creation of a new website: Newspapers.com (GeneaPress)

• Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings took a First Look at Newspapers.com
• As did Pat Richley-Erickson at Dear Myrtle also took A First Look.
• Judy G. Russell at The Legal Genealogist compared the legal terms of service for the various newspaper archival sites.

On other topics:

• Michael John Neill at RootDig illustrates the occasional importance of color records.

• Julie Cahill Tarr at GenBlog takes a risk by suggesting Some People Just Aren't Cut Out for Genealogy Research.

• Leslie Johnston at Digital Preservation shares a story of When Data Loss is Personal.

• James Tanner at Genealogy's Star explains that sometimes Focusing on a Problem, is the Problem.

• Daniel Hubbard at Personal Past Meditations in Up Close and Personal outlines why he prefers to think about the proximity of a  record instead of the traditional terms of primary, secondary, original and derivative.

• Jill Hurst-Wahl at Digitization 101 considers The Importance of Physical Space, and how the layout of a library is important.

• Denise Grollmas at TabletMag writes about a Jewish Revival in Poland, where the grandchildren of those who hid their religion, are rediscovering, and embracing, their roots.

Other Weekly Lists

• Beth's Genealogy News Corral at Genealogy Insider
• Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog 
• Jana Last's Fab Finds at Jana's Genealogy and Family History 
• Michael J. LeClerc's From the Blogs at Mocavo Blog
• Lynn Palermo's Monday Morning Mentions at The Armchair Genealogist 
• Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings 

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• Dec 2 - International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
• Dec 2 - Advent - First Sunday (Christian)
• Dec 3 - International Day of Persons with Disabilities
• Dec 6 - St. Nicholas Day (Christian)
• Dec 7 - Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (US)
• Dec 8 - Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Christian)
• Dec 8 - Rohatsu/Bodhi Day (Buddhist) 
• Dec 8 - Hanuka - Dec 8 (sunset) to Dec 16 (sunset) (Jewish) 
• Dec 9 - International Anti-Corruption Day
• Dec 10 - Human Rights Day
• Dec 10 - Alfred Nobel Day
• Dec 15 - Bill of Rights Day (US)
• Dec 15 - Esperanto Day
• Dec 16 - Las Posadas/Posadas Navidenas - Dec 16 (evening) to Dec 24 (evening) (Christian - Spanish)

Show Me the Newspapers

Ancestry announced on Thursday a new website: Newspapers.com. Subscription rates are $80/year or $40/year for those who are already subscribing to Ancestry or Fold3. [Note: I rounded up 5 cents from the advertised prices.]

This inspired me to compare the newspaper selections at five major newspaper archival sites. I decided to focus on one state, fully realizing that the comparison was likely to differ somewhat depending upon which state I chose. However, I do not have the time to do this for every state. I chose the state I, personally, was most interested in. Missouri. My ancestors first moved to this state in the 1880s, and my wife's ancestors moved here a bit earlier.

I looked at the newspaper collections at Newspapers (N), Ancestry (A), NewspaperArchive (NA), GenealogyBank (GB), and ChroniclingAmerica (CA).  Of these five, Chronicling America is the only free offering, since it is a product of the Library of Congress. I have free access to NewspaperArchive through my library card. I also can access Ancestry's newspapers at my local library, but I can't access them from home without maintaining my subscription.

Utilizing the abbreviations above, I have noted where a title has shared coverage at a different site. If only a portion of the years are duplicated, I have indicated which years the other site has.  I've separated the titles each site has exclusively.

Note: There are some titles that look similar, but if a site listed them as separate, I assumed they were.

Newspapers.com (22 titles, 9 exclusive, 9 also at NewspaperArchive, 9 also at Ancestry, 5 at all three)

Exclusive

• Mexico Ledger (Mexico, Missouri)
• 1947 – 1977 (52,521 pages )
• Moberly Democrat (Moberly, Missouri)
• 1899 – 1922 (2,883 pages)
• Moberly Evening Democrat (Moberly, Missouri)
• 1899 – 1923 (13,901 pages)
• Moberly Morning Monitor (Moberly, Missouri)
• 1910 – 1916 (2,235 pages)
• Moberly Weekly Democrat (Moberly, Missouri)
• 1906 – 1909 (2,182 pages)
• Neosho News (Neosho, Missouri)
• 1953 – 1976 (7,194 pages)
• The Neosho Daily News (Neosho, Missouri)
• 1913 – 1976 (49,781 pages)
• The Neosho Times (Neosho, Missouri)
• 1913 – 1938 (10,553 pages)

Shared

• The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune (Chillicothe, Missouri) [A 1920-1988]
• 1901 – 1988 (141,823 pages)
• Cole County Democrat (Jefferson City, Missouri) [NA]
• 1904 – 1905 (8 pages)
• The Daily Capital News (Jefferson City, Missouri) [A] [NA]
• 1937 – 1977 (52,108 pages)
• Daily Capital News and Jefferson City Post-Tribune (Jefferson City, Missouri) [NA]
• 1931 – 1933 (276 pages)
• Jefferson City Post-Tribune (Jefferson City, Missouri) [A] [NA]
• 1932 – 1967 (8,715 pages)
• Jefferson City Tribune-Post (Jefferson City, Missouri) [NA]
• 1927 – 1927 (333 pages)
• Joplin Globe (Joplin, Missouri) [NA] 
• 1921 – 1929 (27,082 pages)
• Magic City Free Press (Moberly, Missouri) [A] [NA]
• 1970 – 1974 (1,618 pages)
• Moberly Monitor-Index (Moberly, Missouri) [A]
• 1922 – 1964 (38,057 pages)
• Moberly Weekly Monitor (Moberly, Missouri) [A]
• 1929 – 1929 (552 pages)
• The News and Tribune (Jefferson City, Missouri) [A] [NA]
• 1933 – 1976 (6,729 pages)
• Sedalia Daily Democrat (Sedalia, Missouri) [A] [NA]
• 1871 – 1925 (4,698 pages)
• The Sedalia Democrat (Sedalia, Missouri) [A]
• 1949 – 1950 (6,455 pages )
• The Sikeston Herald (Sikeston, Missouri) [A]
• 1936 – 1960 (12,270 pages)

Ancestry.com (17 titles, 5 exclusive, 9 also at Newspapers, 6 also at NewspaperArchive, 5 at all three)

Exclusive

• Chillicothe Morning Constitution (Chillicothe, Missouri)
• 1889-1985
• The Chillicothe Constitution (Chillicothe, Missouri)
• 1901-1928
• The Constitution Tribune (Chillicothe, Missouri)
• 1985-1988
• Stars and Stripes Newspaper, WWI Edition, 1918-1919
• 1918-1919
• U.S., "Happy Days" Newspaper of the Civilian Conservation Corps, 1933-1940
• 1933-1940

[Note: I believe Ancestry lists these last two for every state.]

Shared

• Daily Capital News (Jefferson City, Missouri) [N] [NA]
• 1937-1977
• Sedalia Daily Democrat (Sedalia, Missouri) [N]
• 1871-1925
• Sedalia Democrat, The (Sedalia, Missouri) [N] [NA]
• 1949-1950
• Jefferson City Post-Tribune (Jefferson City, Missouri) [N 1932-1967] [NA]
• 1929-1974
• Joplin Globe (Joplin, Missouri) [NA]
• 1944-1958
• Magic City Free Press (Moberly, Missouri) [N] [NA]
• 1970-1974
• Moberly Monitor-Index (Moberly, Missouri) [N 1922-1964]
• 1922-1977
• Moberly Weekly Monitor (Moberly, Missouri) [N 1929]
• 1929-1932
• News and Tribune (Jefferson City, Missouri) [N 1933-1976] [NA]
• 1933-1977
• The Chillicothe Constitution Tribune (Chillicothe, Missouri) [N]
• 1920-1988
• The Maryville Daily Forum (Maryville, Missouri) [NA]
• 1940-1955
• The Sikeston Herald (Sikeston, Missouri) [N]
• 1936-1960

NewspaperArchive (31 titles, 21 exclusive, 9 also at Newspapers, 6 also at Ancestry, 6 at all three)

Exclusive

• Capital Daily News (1970)
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Chillicothe Weekly Constitution (1902 - 1920)
• Chillicothe, Missouri
• Daily Capital News and Post Tribune (1931 - 1933)
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Daily Democrat Tribune (1910 - 1924)
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Daily Saint Charles Cosmos Monitor (1921 - 1953)
• Saint Charles, Missouri
• Democrat Tribune (1920 - 1922)
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Jefferson City Daily Capital News (1918 - 1972)
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Jefferson City Daily Tribune (1909)
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Jefferson City Democrat Tribune (1915 - 1920)
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Jefferson City Tribune (1909 - 1927)
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Jefferson City Weekly Tribune (1909)
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Joplin Daily Globe (1898 - 2012)
• Joplin, Missouri
• Joplin News Herald (1921 - 1970)
• Joplin, Missouri
• Joplin Sunday Globe (2010 - 2012)
• Joplin, Missouri
• Mexico School News Roundup (1954)
• Mexico, Missouri
• Missouri Gazette Public Advertiser (1822)
• St Louis, Missouri
• Missouri Republican (1823 - 1824)
• St Louis, Missouri
• St Louis Star Times (1945)
• St Louis, Missouri
• St Louis Weekly Globe Democrat (1896 - 1901)
• St Louis, Missouri
• St Louis World Fair (1904)
• St Louis, Missouri
• Weekly Democrat Tribune (1911 - 1914)
• Jefferson City, Missouri

Shared

• Cole County Democrat (1904 - 1909) [N]
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Daily Capital News (1920 - 1977) [A 1930-1977] [N 1930-1977]
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Daily Capital News and Jefferson City Post Tribune (1931 - 1933) [N]
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Daily Democrat (1871 - 1999) [N 1871-1925] [A 1871-1925]
• Sedalia, Missouri
• Jefferson City News and Tribune (1933 - 1978) [N 1933-1976] [A 1933-1977]
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Jefferson City Post Tribune (1927 - 1978) [A 1929-1974] [N 1932-1967]
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Jefferson City Tribune Post (1927) [N]
• Jefferson City, Missouri
• Joplin Globe (1915 - 2012) [A 1944-1958] [N 1921-1929]
• Joplin, Missouri
• Magic City Free Press (1970 - 1974) [A] [N]
• Moberly, Missouri
• Maryville Daily Forum (1940 - 1955) [A]
• Maryville, Missouri

GenealogyBank (15 titles, 15 exclusive)

• Hannibal - Missouri Courier
• 1/18/1849 – 12/28/1854
• Kansas City - Kansas City Star
• 9/18/1880 – 12/31/1941
• Kansas City - Kansas City Times
• 5/1/1884 – 1/31/1896
• Kansas City - Rising Son
• 1/16/1903 – 12/28/1907
• Kansas City - Cosmopolitan
• 8/22/1914 – 11/15/1919
• Sedalia - Sedalia Times
• 8/31/1901 – 12/19/1903
• St. Louis - St. Louis Republic
• 5/1/1888 – 10/31/1900
• St. Louis - Daily Missouri Republican
• 3/1/1841 – 4/1/1888
• St. Louis - St. Louis Palladium
• 1/10/1903 – 10/5/1907
• St. Louis - Daily Commercial Bulletin
• 5/18/1835 – 12/31/1838
• St. Louis - Weekly St. Louis Pilot
• 1/6/1855 – 11/15/1856
• St. Louis - Missouri Gazette and Public Advertiser
• 3/23/1808 – 9/18/1818
• St. Louis - St. Louis Enquirer
• 3/17/1819 – 12/18/1824
• St. Louis - St. Louis Clarion
• 12/18/1920 – 4/2/1921
• Washington - Die Washingtoner Post
• 11/17/1870 – 11/14/1878

Chronicling America (57 titles, 57 exclusive)

• The Professional world.
• Columbia, Mo., 1901-1903
• The Cape weekly tribune.
• Cape Girardeau, Mo., 1914-1914
• Fair play.
• Ste. Genevieve [Mo.], 1872-1921
• The Jasper news.
• Jasper, Mo., 1901-1922
• The Holt County sentinel.
• Oregon, Mo., 1865-1880
• The Hayti herald.
• Hayti, Mo., 1909-1922
• The state republican.
• Jefferson City, Mo., 1890-1896
• The Missouri herald.
• Hayti, Mo., 1922
• The Cape County herald.
• Cape Girardeau, Mo., 1911-1914
• The Montgomery tribune.
• Montgomery City, Mo., 1900-1910
• The St. Joseph observer.
• St. Joseph, Mo., 1915-1922
• The Lincoln County herald.
• Troy, Lincoln County, Mo., 1866-1873
• The state journal.
• Jefferson City, Mo., 1872-1878
• The Kansas City sun.
• Kansas City, Mo., 1914-1920
• Boon's Lick times.
• Fayette, Mo., 1840-1848
• The Cape Girardeau Democrat.
• Cape Girardeau, Mo., 1891-1901
• Hannibal journal.
• Hannibal, Mo., 1853-1853
• The County paper.
• Oregon, Mo., 1881-1883
• The Holt County sentinel.
• Oregon, Mo., 1883-1921
• Osage Valley banner.
• Tuscumbia, Miller County, Mo., 1879-1881
• The Weekly tribune and the Cape County herald.
• Cape Girardeau, Mo., 1914-1918
• Monroe City Democrat.
• Monroe City, Mo., 1898-1919
• Kansas City journal.
• Kansas City, Mo., 1890-1899
• Glasgow weekly times.
• Glasgow, Mo., 1848-1861
• Western union.
• City of Hannibal, Mo., 1850-1851
• Hannibal journal.
• Hannibal, Mo., 1852-1853
• University Missourian.
• Columbia, Mo., 1908-1916
• The Saline republican.
• Marshall, Mo., 1898-1899
• Morgan County democrat.
• Versailles, Mo., 1903-1906
• Morgan County republican.
• Versailles, Mo., 1906-1914
• The Rich Hill tribune.
• Rich Hill, Mo., 1903-1910
• The tribune.
• Rich Hill, Mo., 1901-1902
• Mexico Missouri message.
• Mexico, Audrain County, Mo., 1899-1918
• The Jackson herald.
• Jackson, Mo., 1901-1910
• Glasgow weekly times.
• Glasgow, Howard County, Mo., 1866-1869
• The Howard union.
• Glasgow, Mo., 1865-1865
• The news boy.
• Benton, Scott County, Mo., 1894-1897
• Scott County kicker.
• Benton, Mo., 1901-1917
• The daily Missourian.
• Columbia, Mo., 1916-1917
• The Evening Missourian.
• Columbia, Mo., 1917-1920
• The Columbia evening Missourian.
• Columbia, Mo., 1920-1922
• Saturday morning visitor.
• City of Warsaw, Mo., 1848-1849
• The Sedalia weekly bazoo.
• Sedalia, Mo., 1877-1893
• Weekly graphic.
• Kirksville, Adair Co., Mo., 1880-896
• The Troy herald.
• Troy, Mo., 1873-1878
• Salt River journal.
• Bowling Green, Mo., 1839-1841
• The radical.
• Bowling Green [Mo., 1841-1845
• The St. Louis Republic.
• St. Louis, Mo., 1900-1906
• Kansas City daily journal.
• Kansas City, Mo., 1895-1897
• Sedalia weekly conservator.
• Sedalia, Mo., 1903-1908
• Democratic banner.
• Bowling Green, Pike County, Mo., 1845-1851
• Hannibal journal and western union.
• Hannibal, Mo., 1851-1852
• Richmond democrat.
• Richmond, Ray County, Mo., 1879-1888
• The Rising son.
• Kansas City, Mo., 1903-1907
• The Andrew County Republican.
• Savannah, Mo., 1871-1876
• The weekly tribune.
• Cape Girardeau, Mo., 1918-1919
• The Marshall republican.
• Marshall, Saline County, Mo., 1899-1914

Conclusions

1) Newspapers.com is definitely not merely a duplicate of the selection at Ancestry. Nor is it a duplicate of the selection at NewspaperArchive. There is overlap, but all three have unique coverage.

2) GenealogyBank and Ancestry are essentially tied with 15 titles in Missouri, not counting the two national titles at Ancestry. However, GenealogyBank's titles are all exclusive. And they have coverage in St. Louis and Kansas City the other sites don't have. I don't know if it holds up in other states, but in Missouri GenealogyBank seems to have an urban focus, while the other sites focus rurally.

3) If a researcher isn't utilizing ChroniclingAmerica - they are missing out on an excellent free resource.

4) Personally, I don't see a strong need to subscribe to Newspapers.com.  However, this choice is going to depend entirely on the newspapers of interest for each individual researcher.

Inaccuracies in the Ancestry SSDI Database

Michael John Neill at RootDig has been discussing some issues he has with various Ancestry Databases. He’s had some success with Ancestry resolving some of the issues.

He asks if anyone else has issues with some of the databases. Why, yes, I have an issue with the Social Security Death Index, and in particular, Ancestry’s data for “Last Residence.” In a large number of instances, it’s simply wrong. Not ‘sort of right’ or ‘incomplete’ – wrong.  I blogged about this back in 2008, but it hasn't been fixed.

The problem arises because the original data provided to the various websites (Ancestry, GenealogyBank, etc) contains a couple different fields for “Last Residence.” One is the zip code. That piece of data Ancestry handles perfectly. However, the City and County information it mangles. One zip code often covers multiple cities, and I assume the original data source provided to all the companies lists all of them. Ancestry only provides in its records the first city in the list. This gives the incorrect appearance of a definitive answer, as opposed to multiple options. And the odds of Ancestry being correct go down as the number of cities the zip code covers goes up.

Additionally, possibly due to a unique event in St. Louis history in 1877, the first option the data provides in the list of cities for zip codes in much of St. Louis County is "St. Louis," which implies the City of St. Louis, which is wrong. The City of St. Louis isn’t part of the zip code. While this is a data-error for which Ancestry isn’t responsible, if they listed all the options, it would be clear to the researcher they had to conduct some further research to figure out which one is accurate. As is, it’s likely many researchers write down the wrong bit of information, thinking it is correct. And it’s not.

Let’s take a look at an some examples, and some maps, comparing Ancestry’s record, to the parallel record at GenealogyBank, and using Google Maps to visually see what I am talking about.

Here are the records for my grandmother, Belle (Feinstein) Newmark. Her last residence was in Creve Coeur, Missouri. The record on the left is from GenealogyBank. The record on the right is from Ancestry.

As you can see, Ancestry claims her last residence was in Saint Louis, Saint Louis. This actually is a non-existent location. In 1877 St. Louis City 'divorced' itself from St. Louis County, and they are separate entities. However, I'm not concerned about a database not being designed to facilitate a rare exception. GenealogyBank is able to display in its record that the city might either be St. Louis, or it might be Creve Coeur. Ancestry states that the city is St. Louis.  Ancestry is wrong.



Here's a record for my grandmother's uncle, Henry Blatt. I'm actually unsure which of the three cities for the zip code is the correct one, as I don't have his death certificate, and don't know his last known address. A small part of the 63105 zip code is in the city of St. Louis, though I suspect he resided in either Clayton or University City.  Once again, GenealogyBank lists all the possibilities. Ancestry picks the first one, whether accurate or not.


Here's a map of a portion of St. Louis County, courtesy of Google Maps.  The red polygon is the 63141 zip code. As you can see, it is a fair distance from the city of St. Louis, which is on the far right of the map. Several towns lie in between.  One border of the city is marked by where "Forest Park" meets Clayton.

Back in 2008 I theorized that the reason St. Louis City is listed as an option in the data was that part of 63141 is unincorporated.  However, I'm fairly certain now that that isn't the reason. Last Residences in most zip codes of St. Louis County seem to include St. Louis City as the first option. And thus, Ancestry lists it as the only option.  By conducting a search at Ancestry on just the year of death and a zipcode, I've also checked Kirkwood (63122), Brentwood (63144), Sunset Hills (63127), and Maryland Heights (63043). [Sunset Hills and Maryland Heights are off the above map. Sunset Hills is where 270 and 44 meet; You can almost see the label for Maryland Heights on the Northwestern part of the map.]  Of those four, St. Louis is absent from the options in only 63043.  One possibility is that St. Louis City is provided as an option for all zip codes beginning with the digits '631.'

To recap:

There is something funky going on with the data that the Social Security Administration provides for St. Louis County. Neither Ancestry nor GenealogyBank can do anything about that.

However, Ancestry only providing one option for the city of Last Residence creates a lot of inaccurate records. And this will happen whenever a zip code covers more than one city, which I suspect is often.

Surname Ngrams

Google has an interesting feature: The Google Ngram Viewer. An  n-gram references the frequency a phoneme, word, or phrase occurs across a span of text or speech. The Google Ngram Viewer allows you to search through Google Books across a span of years for a series of terms, and it will graph the rate of appearance for those terms.

 

I thought it might be interesting to graph the frequency for several of my surnames. I chose the eight surnames of my great great grandparents. However, after the inital attempt, I removed 'Deutsch' from the list since it dwarfed the rest of the surnames. Terms that are relatively similar in frequency work best in these graphs.

 

Below is the chart for Cruvant, Blatt, Feinstein, Newmark, Vanevery, Denyer and Lichtman. The span of years I chose was 1900-2000. I selected English language texts. Below the graph are links to the actual Google Books search results for each term graphed for particular decades.

 

(Click to enlarge)

If you enlarge the graph, and look carefully, you'll notice that the blue line for Cruvant appears briefly in the 1950s. This is due single-handedly to my cousin, Bernard Cruvant, who got some press for his psychiatrical work.  The surname Feinstein definitely grew in use in the last half of the century, going from least frequent to most. I was at first a little surprised "Denyer" wasn't more common, but I have to go back a couple centuries for that particular spelling of the English word, for someone who denies, to be prevalent.  And I hadn't noticed the search was 'case-sensitive.' When I plotted 'Denyer' vs 'denyer' it was clear that in the 1700s the religious term made several appearances. If I hadn't limited the seach to English texts, the Blatt surname would likely have increased in frequency significantly.

Some reviews I found online raised questions about the accuracy of the results.
1) The amount of texts from particular time periods are likely uneven, does Google weigh this into the equation?

I believe the answer must be, "yes." The Y-axis is a percentage, not number of occurrences. They claim each point on the graph is the frequency for a given year.

Of course, the type of material that has been scanned will make a difference. (Fiction, scholastic journals, reference works, etc) I suspect the diversity of digitized material decreases the further back one goes.

2) Optical character recognition can easily get confused. One example is that in older texts the letter 's' looks a lot like the modern 'f''. 

3) If a particular term has had multiple spellings over time that will also, naturally, impact the graph, as I pointed out with the surname, Denyer.

Wordless Wednesday: Critical Thinking Test

The questions and answers on this "Critical Thinking Test" are circa 1960s.

(Answers below the fold)

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Amanuensis Monday: Myrtle Van Every Requests Documentation On Her Grandfather's War Service

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 on February 16, 2009.  Since I began, many others have joined in on the meme. I am thrilled that this meme I started has inspired so many to transcribe their family history documents. Why do we transcribe? I provide my three reasons in the linked post. You may find others.

***
This week I share documentation of my maternal grandmother participating in some genealogical research of her own. She submitted a letter requesting official documentation of her maternal grandfather's war service. She received two responses - one from the War Department, and one from the Texas Library and Historical Commission State Library. (If she submitted a separate request to the Texas State Library, she didn't save a copy.)

Weekly Genealogy Picks: Nov 18-24

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.

• Michael John Neill at RootDig reminds us that Indexes Point, But You Have to Look at the actual record.

• Leigh Anne Ellison at Digital Preservation discusses Preserving Digital Archaeological Data

• Inspired by the new Ken Burns documentary on The Dust Bowl, Judy G. Russell at The Legal Genealogist shares some resources for Dust Bowl images we can use. (That is, those that are free from copyright restrictions.)

• Amy Coffin at We Tree Genealogy takes issue with the term, Drive-by Genealogist.

• Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings describes the process of Pruning his Ancestry Member Tree Hints.

• Bill West at West in New England presents the submissions for the Fourth Annual Great Genealogy Poetry Challenge

Other Weekly Lists

• Julie Cahill Tarr's Friday Finds at GenBlog 
• Dan Curtis's Monday's Link Roundup at Personal Professional Historian 
• Jana Last's Fab Finds at Jana's Genealogy and Family History 
• Lynn Palermo's Monday Morning Mentions at The Armchair Genealogist 
• Randy Seaver's Best of the Genea-Blogs at Genea-Musings 

Upcoming holidays - religious and secular, national and international - for the next two weeks

Two Week Calendar

• Nov 25 - Feast of Christ the King (Christian)
• Nov 26 - Day of the Covenant (Baha'i)
• Nov 28 - Ascension of Abdu'l-Bahá (Baha'i)
• Nov 28 - Birthday of Guru Nanak Dev Sahib (Sikh)
• Nov 30 - St. Andrew's Day (Christian)
• Dec 1 - Great Union Day (Romania)
• Dec 1 - National Transit Tribute to Rosa Parks Day
• Dec 2 - International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
• Dec 2 - Advent - First Sunday (Christian)
• Dec 3 - International Day of Persons with Disabilities
• Dec 6 - St. Nicholas Day (Christian)
• Dec 7 - Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (US)
• Dec 8 - Feast of the Immaculate Conception (Christian)
• Dec 8 - Rohatsu/Bodhi Day (Buddhist) 
• Dec 9 - International Anti-Corruption Day
• Dec 8 - Hanuka - Dec 8 (sunset) to Dec 16 (sunset) (Jewish)