Genealogy is like a jigsaw puzzle, but you don't have the box top, so you don't know what the picture is supposed to look like. As you start putting the puzzle together, you realize some pieces are missing, and eventually you figure out that some of the pieces you started with don't actually belong to this puzzle. I'll help you discover the right pieces for your puzzle and assemble them into a picture of your family.
Showing posts with label Indiana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Indiana. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
Sunday, August 1, 2021
Some Things Never Change
As I have been writing my "family events" posts for the blog, I sometimes pause to do some quick research to see if I can quickly find a full birth location, wedding date, or something similar for which I currently have incomplete information. And sometimes the records I find yield the desired information plus a little extra.
If you're having trouble reading the handwriting, it says:
Do Not Publish
Pregnancy Quite Noticeable
only on gal of course
This marriage took place in October 1939 in Indiana.
The marriage license application did provide the information I was seeking, along with this tidbit. I don't know if I have a record of the child, because no one fits the timeframe of the pregnancy, as the family is constructed so far. It's possible the child didn't survive, or was given a future-dated birthdate for public consumption.
Saturday, August 25, 2018
Days 1 and 2 of the FGS Conference
Thursday morning started with the exhibitor hall opening at 10:00 a.m., ahead of the first presentations. I merrily zoomed around and collected free journals, books, and chocolate from vendors. In fact, I gathered so many goodies that I had to go back to the car to drop everything off, so I wouldn't strain my back with all that weight!
As for the educational aspect, session topics included an overview of Indiana genealogy (types of records available, when they began, where to find them), letters and claims from emancipated slaves and how helpful they can be when searching for family information, updates from the Records Preservation and Access Committee (have you signed up for the announcement lists yet?), and a workshop on reuniting Jewish Holocaust survivors and the availability of Jewish resources on the Internet (offered in part to help publicize the new Northeast Indiana Jewish Genealogical Society). The most informative talk I attended was on researching U.S. and Canadian World War I veterans, given by David Allen Lambert of NEHGS. He discussed several record types that were new to me and gave me new ideas on ways to research the World War I vets in my family.
I think I learned from more of the sessions I went to on Friday. I began the day with civil registration in Poland. Although I've definitely attended other talks dealing with the subject, Daniel Jones' explanation of the timelines, jurisdictions, and changes were a little clearer to me. Legal Genealogist Judy Russell spoke on early Indiana laws and included some general points I don't recall having heard before: session laws versus compilations/codes, public versus private laws, and additional broad categories to search (legislative records, petitions, committee reports, minutes, debate transcripts, judicial records, circuit/supreme/appelate court records, and territorial/statehood executive/gubernatorial records). Plus she told us how to find the advanced search page for Google Books, which they apparently have tried hard to bury (and she suggested we all bookmark it)!
Next up was Tony Burroughs' discussion of black employment after the Civil War. This is a subject I've not seen enough coverage of, so it was all welcome information. He talked quite a bit about farmers, tenant farmers, and sharecroppers (and the differences between them), which is what most of my family research involves. And as is usual with his talks, he included a great list of references for further study. The last session of my day was by Ari Wilkins, on the subject of Quakers (the Society of Friends) and black Americans, particularly before and leading up to the Civil War. This is a fascinating history, and it was easy to see how some of the Friends' work in freeing slaves (purchasing them and then transferring them to free states, where they were manumitted) laid the groundwork for what became the Underground Railroad, with which the Friends were also involved.
Friday ended with a great event sponsored by MyHeritage. They booked some time at Crazy Pinz, a local bowling alley/entertainment center, for their employees and some MyHeritage Friends who responded to an invitation. We were treated to a "luau buffet" (pulled pork sandwiches, fried rice, macaroni salad, etc.) and four bowling lanes in a private area. Several of us hadn't bowled in many, many years (um, at least 40 for me), but it was a really fun time. We all got custom-enbroidered bowling shirts, plus we learned that Daniel Horowitz is a pretty good bowler. I even managed to bowl one strike in my second game!
Wednesday, August 22, 2018
FGS Conference: Librarians' Day and Society Day
The highlights of Librarians' Day were a presentation by Matthew LaFlash about Omeka, an open-source content management system that is being used to put all sorts of great information online (Newberry Library's Transcribing Modern Mauscripts, the Bracero History Archive, and Ohio Civil War 150, for example), and a rollicking but informative panel discussion titled "Hit Me with Your Best Shot", where speakers including Allen County Public Library's Curt Witcher and FamilySearch's David Rencher (newly named as director of the Family History Library) took any and all questions from attendees. (Rencher reminded us several times that everything on FamilySearch is still free.) Some of the topics covered:
• The importance of labeling photos and what to do if they aren't. Even if photos aren't labeled, you can still look at the context, such as signs, geography (mountains, lakes), dateable items such as cars, etc. to garner information about them. Recording the provenance is very important, as that might provide context also.
• The best method for scanning photos (this was actually answered by a professional in the photography business who was in attendance): Scan at the highest resolution that is practical (300 minimum, 600 better, and 1200 if you have the storage space) and save in TIF format. As a corollary, saving files in at least three locations was also brought up (because Lots Of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe [LOCKSS]).
• The confusion surrounding which files on FamilySearch.org are available in which locations. An icon identifies whether images must be viewed at a Family History Center or affiliate library, but nothing differentiates between which of those can be seen *only* at a Family History Center and not at the affiliates. The good news is that almost everything that is restricted can be viewed at both, but no solution right now to let you know quickly which can't.
• Limited hours at several Family History Centers. Family History Centers are governed locally, and not all of them are able to provide enough volunteers to be open more regular hours. Because of this, FamilySearch has been expanding the affiliate library program (currently at more than 400 libraries), so that restricted digitized images can be more widely available.
• Which microfilms from the Family History Library are digitized first. Part of what helps decide the priority of films to be digitized is based on the rights negotiations that FamilySearch holds with the original records holders. Digitizing films more quickly can make further negotiations go more smoothly, both for more digitization and more records. (That doesn't explain all of it, of course, but it was nice to hear some reasoning.)
• What to do when newspapers no longer sell microfilm for archival purposes but refer libraries to online subscription options. This one had no good answer. Because microfilm has become so expensive, it isn't a viable option for many companies anymore. Unfortunately, online subscriptions leave the libraries (and everyone else!) owning nothing, so when you drop the subscription, you have nothing to show (like Microsoft and its online Office 365 software). You are essentially only "renting" your access. We were told that the Sacramento Public Library paid more than $1 million to have the Sacramento Bee digitized from microfilm that it provided (but were not told which aggregator stuck it to them). This situation is only going to become worse, and the large information aggregators (ProQuest, NewsBank) will be holding libraries hostage.
• Where to share copies of family histories, research, photographs, etc. Share them everywhere that they could be considered relevant: Allen County Public Library, FamilySearch, local genealogical and historical societies, Internet Archive, ethnic societies, and anywhere else you can think of. Always check with the repository first to make sure it will accept a copy (whether physical or digital), but the more places the information is available, the better the chances that someone who is interested will find it.
And a couple of comments from Curt Witcher: We should all be trying to pursue, preserve, and present stories. And facilities always appreciate feedback from visitors. Think about the latter the next time you go to an archive or library — offer feedback before you leave!
Librarians' Day ended with a behind-the-scenes tour of some parts of the Allen County Public Library (ACPL): the Genealogy Materials Handling Unit (intake and assessment of donations), FamilySearch Book Scanning (a partnership with ACPL), Internet Archive (another partnership with ACPL), and the Lincoln Collection Library and Fine Book Room. It was so interesting to get insight into how donations are processed, see ongoing scanning of public-domain books, and view many original Abraham-Lincoln-era photographs, letters, and newspapers.
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| Internet Archive scanning in progress |
Wednesday was Society Day, with sessions geared to those of us in leadership and volunteer positions in genealogical societies. I attended a session on how to apply business management principles to society procedures and processes, and one on leadership and conflict resolution. Both had a lot of useful information I will be taking back to the societies with which I am involved.
In between those two sessions I went to the annual FGS meeting, attending as the delegate of the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society. I had received notices about the meeting and had been wondering why no agenda was distributed beforehand. That question was soon answered. The entire annual meeting took three minutes. The agenda was shown on a screen and was approved by voice vote. The treasurer said that the society had been audited and was in good financial standing, with no details. No announcements were made, and the meeting was adjourned. I'm not sure why delegates are even encouraged to attend.
The final event I attended on Society Day was the presentation by Judy Russell, the Legal Genealogist. Titled "Preserving the Past, Protecting the Future", Judy's talk focused on the attacks that have been made over the past several years on records access and facilities budgets. Citing circumstances such as the loss of the most recent three years of the Social Security Death Index, New York City's decision to severely restrict birth records (older than 125 years) and death records (older than 75 records), and the encroachment of the Right to Be Forgotten into far too many areas (including a proposed Indiana law that would allow the total destruction of someone's criminal records, leaving no trace that the crime ever occurred), she declared that it is the calling of genealogists to serve as guardians of history.
And how do we do that? We need to stay informed, join together, and reach out. You can stay informed by signing up for notifications from the IAJGS Public Records Access Alerts List, which sends out announcements related to access to public records. You can also stay informed about the activities of the Records Preservation & Access Committee, a joint venture between several genealogical groups, which monitors records access issues.
Joining together has been effective in several instances of keeping repositories open and reopening facilities that have been closed. And efforts to reach out should include a broad range of individuals, such as archivists, librarians historians, the news media, and medical researchers.
In Judy's words, we all need to pitch in, speak up, and meet up. I took my first step tonight. I've written to RPAC, asking how I can help. What will you do?
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Online Newspaper Archive Round-up
I've been seeing many posts lately about college yearbooks being digitized, but that really is a different kind of publication. What do you think, should there be a Wikipedia page collecting listings of online archives of college yearbooks?
• Saskatchewan, Canada: The Saskatchewan Historic Newspapers Online collection has newspapers from many cities and towns, but I can't find a list of titles or dates that are covered.
• Canada (multiprovince): The Drouin Institute has links to an English-language page with transcribed obituaries, which is free. The Institute also has a paid subscription site which has newspaper images and many more records.
• England: The Middle East magazine, a well regarded journal about the Middle East, has an online archive covering 1974–2014, available only as an institutional subscription.
• Sierra Leone: The Earley Dawn, published in Bonthe from 1885–1892, has been digitized and is available on the FultonHistory.com site. Heaven knows where Tom Tryniski found this microfilm!
• United Kingdom: The Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps for 1903–present, plus index volumes for 1903–1965, is online. It seems to be free, but I'm not completely sure.
• California: The Hemet–San Jacinto Genealogical Society has an obituary index for the Hemet News, Press Enterprise, and Valley Chronicle, but no indication of the years covered.
• California: The J, the weekly Jewish newspaper for the San Francisco Bay Area, has an archive going back to 1995. The paper includes many wedding announcements, obituaries, and other life events.
• Georgia: The Callaway Beacon was a weekly magazine published for the employees and families of the Callaway Mills Company in LaGrange, Georgia. Issues from 1955 and 1957 are now online.
• Illinois: The Polish Genealogical Society of America has posted indices of death notices appearing in the Chicago Polish-language newspaper Dziennik Chicagoski, for 1890–1971. If you find an obituary you want, you can order a copy from the society,
• Indiana: The Hamilton East Public Library has a newspaper index for Hamilton County, with no list of years or titles covered. On the other hand, if you find a relevant article, they will send you a scan by e-mail for no charge.
• Michigan: The Michigan Digital Newspaper Portal has links to individual newspaper sites and also allows you to search the entire collection in one place.
• New York: The famous Yiddish newspaper The Forward/Forverts and two more Jewish newspapers published in New York have been added to the growing collection of Jewish newspapers on the National Library of Israel site. I do not read Yiddish, so I am not sure, but I think the paper is searchable in Yiddish.
• New York: A database of New York Evening Post death notices from 1801–1890 is in the collections at NEHGS.
• New York: The Ram, the Fordham University student paper, is online from about 1914–2008. It's hard to tell exactly what years are covered, as the dates are not displayed in order, even when I request the database to do so. I have found articles about one of my cousins who attended the dental school at Fordham in the paper.
• New York: The Troy Genealogical Society has added several more indices from newspapers: a marriage index from the Burden Iron Company, and death notices from Troy newspapers for 1797–1860. From the latter, notices for Revolutionary War soldiers and soldiers from other wars have separate lists online.
• Ohio: The Toledo–Lucas County Public Library has posted an obituary index for the Toledo Blade for 1837–present.
• Pennsylvania: Someone at the Adams Memorial Library has a sense of humor. The Latrobe Bulletin obituary index for 1902–present has been dubbed the "dead-a-base."
• South Dakota: South Dakota only recently was added to the Chronicling America collection, with five newspapers. Now 13 newspapers covering 1875–1919 are online.
• Multistate: Aviation Week & Space Technology has published an online archive of all of its issues, dating back to 1916.
• Multistate: The Garon family newspaper articles is a collection relating to that particular family and its related lines. The articles cover 1855–2013 and are mostly from Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, but there are a lot of them with a wide range of subjects.
• Multistate: The Media History Digital Library is a growing collection of periodicals relating to the histories of the movie, broadcasting, and sound industries. One of the subcategories is even "Government and Law."
• Multistate and World: Newspapers in Microform is a Library of Congress catalog of newspapers published in the U.S. and around the world from 1948–1983, downloadable as three PDF files.
Other Newspaper News
The Chicago Tribune has a beta site for its new archive search engine, which is currently free to use. After the beta has finished, the site will become a paid subscription one. Coverage appears to be complete from 1857–1991, with some issues going back to 1849. There is also a FAQ page.
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has created a contest for people to use the Chronicling America database. It wants people to create Web-based projects based on information from the newspapers in the database. Prizes are $5,000 for first, $3,00 for second, and $2,000 for third place, with separate prizes possible for K–12 contestants. The contest closes June 15, 2016.
NEH is also currently accepting proposals from institutions that would like to apply for grants to have their newspapers digitized and become part of the National Digital Newspaper Program. The deadline for receipt of proposals is January 14, 2016.
Tuesday, July 14, 2015
Newspapers, Newspapers, Newspapers . . . .
Belgium: The Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique (Royal Library of Belgium) has uploaded free digital images of newspapers dating from 1831–1918. The site is in French, Dutch, and English, and some of the newspapers are in German. Newspapers from 1919–1950 are indexed and appear in search results, but due to copyright issues, those images are not free.
Canada: I found a trove of Mennonite links. There are links to indices for death notices and obituaries in five Mennonite newspapers, and an author/subject index for one of the newspapers (which was published in in the United States for a time and so also shows up in the Multistate list).
China: The Shanghai Echo, a periodical for Jewish refugees who had fled Europe, is online for 1946 to 1948.
England: The Foxearth and District Local History Society has posted transcribed selections from newspapers in the East Anglia area.
England: Spare Rib, a feminist publication, has been digitized and uploaded in its entirety.
England: A book was published with a detailed index of The (London) Times of 1863, and that book is available online as a downloadable PDF.
Ireland: Ancestry.com has created a new newspaper site, IrishNewspapers.com. I wonder if this means it's trying to go back to the pricing model it used to have, where you could pay for different databases separately.
Poland: There is an index to death notices published in Nasz Przegląd ("Our Review"), a Polish-language Zionist newspaper that was published daily in Warszawa from March 1923 until August 1939.
Russia: This is another Mennonite resource. Someone created an index of Mennonite-relevant stories in the German-language Odessaer Zeitung ("Odessa Newspaper").
California: The Genealogical Society of Santa Cruz County has an index to early local newspapers, available as PDF files. I don't see that the index tells you which paper an entry is from, but maybe I'm just overlooking it.
Georgia: The Uncle Remus Regional Library System, which covers six counties (but not the ones I'm researching, of course), has several newspapers available online, courtesy of Advantage Preservation.
Indiana: The New Albany–Floyd County Public Library has an index to local newspapers for 1847 to the present.
Indiana: The obituary index for the Plymouth Pilot Daily is downloadable as several PDF files.
Iowa: Ten newspapers from Dickinson County have been digitized by Advantage Preservation.
Massachusetts: The first 30 years of the Boston Jewish Times are available courtesy of the American Jewish Historical Society.
Michigan: More than one million subject index cards from the Detroit News are available on the Seeking Michigan site.
Michigan: The Milford Public Library not only hosts an obituary index for the Milford Times for 1929–1949, but they will provide you a free copy of the obituary when you find one you want.
Michigan: This one's a little unusual. A cemetery has the local newspaper, the Petoskey News Review for 1874–2001, on its site.
Montana: The student newspaper for Bozeman High School for 1939–2015 is available online, courtesy of Advantage Preservation.
Montana: Montana State University is in the process of placing digital copies of its student newspaper, the Exponent, online. Not everything is there yet.
Nebraska: Advantage Preservation worked with the North Bend Public Library to digitize three local newspapers there.
New Jersey: Ten early Plainfield newspapers running from 1837–1918 are on the Plainfield Library's Web site.
New Jersey: The Rockaway Township Free Public Library has the Iron Era and Rockaway Record available online.
New York: Allegany Public Library and Advantage Preservation teamed up to put four Allegany newspapers online.
New York: The Troy Irish Genealogy Society has added a marriage notices index to complement its Lansingburgh newspapers death notices index.
North Carolina: The Duke Chronicle, the student newspaper for Duke University, is online but only for the 1960's and 1980's.
Ohio: A collection of newspapers printed by the Wright Brothers has been digitized and is available on two sites, Dayton Metro Library and Wright State University.
Tennessee: An obituary index for the Nashville Tennessean for 1964 to the present is on the Nashville Public Library's site.
Multistate: The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia hosts an index for about 200,000 obituaries. There is no indication on the site what years this covers.
Multistate: MennObits has transcribed obituaries from Mennonite newspapers from 1864 to the present.
I hope you find some great information in at least one of these newspapers!
Monday, November 25, 2013
Recent Updates to the Wikipedia Newspaper Archive List
• The first addition to talk about isn't actually an archive link, it's a search engine. Elephind (which I added under "Worldwide", since it searches sites from Australia, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United States) is a free mega search for newspaper archive sites. It never hurts to have another finding aid.
• Ireland: The Church of Ireland Gazette has a current online archive for 2005–2011 and has posted the complete run of the newspaper for 1913 (free)
• United Kingdom: Many issues of Colburn's United Service Magazine are available on HathiTrust; issues often listed births, deaths, etc. (free)
• United Kingdom: Historical Newspapers has an index to the New York Times and two indices to the London Times (pay)
• Alabama: The Alabama Citizen, a (mostly) weekly Birmingham newspaper, apparently complete from November 10, 1913 through August 10, 1918 (free)
• Alabama: The Huntsville–Madison County Public Library online index to obituaries in its newspaper collection, currently covering 1819–2006 (free)
• Alabama: The Tuscaloosa News, scattered issues from 1910–2000 (free)
• Colorado: Scanned obituaries from the Fort Collins Coloradoan from 1988–2002, courtesy of the Larimer County Genealogical Society (free)
• Indiana: Elkhart Public Library index to obituaries in the Elkhart Truth from 1921–present (free)
• Massachusetts: Lincoln Public Library obituary index from 1959 to "recent" (free)
• Michigan: Name index to Dziennik Polski (Polish-language Detroit newspaper), 1904–1941; the search page uses Steve Morse's One-Step tools (free)
• Pennsylvania: Altoona Area Public Library birth (1931–2011) and obituary (1929–present) indices (free)
• Pennsylvania: Kutztown University database of the Kutztown Patriot, the local newspaper, with articles from 1889–1940 (free)
Don't forget, since this is Wikipedia, you also can add links to online newspaper archives that are not listed. If you don't want to, send links to me and I will be happy to add them to the page.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
RIP Ruth Ellis Dunn, 1937-2012
I finally got to meet her in 2004, when I traveled to Indianapolis for a convention. She and her husband Harold were loving and welcoming. They invited me to stay with them when I was in town. I was able to visit them again in 2005 and 2006. They shared lots of family photos I had never seen before. In 2006 I was fortunate to be able to see Harold before he passed away. I was back in 2007 and 2008, and my then boyfriend and I introduced Ruth to Indian food. Then a lot of things changed in my life and I wasn't able to travel very much, so I didn't get to see her again, but we still talked by phone and e-mail. She shared my happiness when I became a grandmother.
Ruth had a caring and loving spirit. She affected the lives of so many people in such a positive way. She was a wonderful person, and I feel very privileged to have been able to know her. Ruth died last week, on July 14. I will miss her so much.
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