Hooray for Newspapers!

It's amazing how quickly time can get away from you.  I knew it had been a while since I had posted the new additions to the Wikipedia newspaper archives page, but I didn't realize it had been eight months.  That's obviously far too long.  My only excuse is that I've been busy trying to move to Portland, Oregon, and it's amazing how much time it takes to do all the paperwork.

Lucky for us researchers, almost all of the newspapers added have free access.  The exception is the Friedens Messenger, for which you need to be a paid member of the St. Louis Genealogical society.

• Hungary:  Although the newspaper itself has closed down, the online archive of Népszabadság is being maintained for free access.  I don't read Hungarian, however, and I can't figure out what years are covered.

• Korea (new country!):  Yes, you read that right, Korea.  Not North or South, but just plain old Korea.  The National Library of Korea (in South Korea) has an online collection of newspapers published in Korea prior to 1950.  The link I posted is to the English-language interface, but the newspapers are in Korean.

• Mexico:  El Universal is online for 1999 to the present.

• Sierra Leone:  I discovered that Early Dawn, available on FultonHistory.com and incorrectly labeled as "Earley Dawn", is also on the Internet Archive and much easier to read, although the site notes that some issues are missing.

• California:  The Monterey Public Library has digitized its historical newspaper collection and placed it online for free.  The 34 newspapers range from 1846 to the present.  They are listed on the library's site in chronological order, which is a little different.

• Florida:  The Weekly Challenger, the newspaper of the black community of St. Petersburg, has partnered with the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg, which is now hosting digitized issues of the paper for 1976, 1985–1988, and 2009–2016.  Plans are to to digitize more historic issues and add them to the online archive.

• Idaho:  The University of Idaho has digitized the historical run of Argonaut, the student newspaper, and posted it online.

• Illinois:  The Aurora Public Library has online indices for the Aurora Beacon-News for obituaries (1933–2004 with many gaps) and for a clipping collection (1925–1956 and 1963–1978).

• Illinois:  The Coal City Public Library has a searchable index for obituaries and death notices, most of which came from the Coal City Courant newspaper.  The index can be searched only by surname, and nothing on the page indicates what years the database covers.  I searched for Smith as a general test, and years ranged from 1884 to 2017.

• Kansas:  The Rossville Community Library not only has posted an obituary index online, it has gone the extra step and scanned and posted the obituaries listed in the index.

• Massachusetts:  Smith College has placed every issue of its alumnae quarterly, for 1909 to the present, online.

• Michigan:  Oakland County has an online historical archive site which houses what appears to be a substantial collection of digitized newspapers.  Unfortunately, I can't find a way to determine the names of the newspapers in the collection or what years it covers.  Seventy-four locations are listed on the browse page.

• Michigan:  The University of Michigan has an online archive of the historical run of the student newspaper, The Michigan Daily.

• Missouri:  The St. Louis Genealogical Society has posted issue of the Friedens Messenger, published by the Friedens United Church of Christ, for 1940 and earlier, although the range is not specified.  Paid members of the society may view the digitized files.

• New Jersey:  The Elizabeth Daily Journal for 1872–1915 (with more years to be digitized and posted online) is available courtesy of the Elizabeth Public Library.

• New York:  The entire run of the New Yorker, all the way back to 1925, is now available through the New York Public Library site with a library card.

• Ohio:  The Lepper Public Library has a collection of seventeen newspapers covering the Lisbon (formerly New Lisbon) area, ranging from 1810 to 2011 (with a lot of gaps).

• Ohio:  The Ohio National Guard has shifted its publication, The Buckeye Guard, from print to digital and has posted the archives of the print edition (1976–2011) on its new site.

• Ohio:  The Salem Public Library has an obituary index for 1938–2016 for the Salem News and will send you a copy of the obituary.  It also has the "Yesteryears" section of the News for 1991–2002 online.

• Ohio:  The Warren–Trumbull County Public Library has two indices for obituaries:  The Warren Tribune Chronicle for 1900–1949 and the Youngstown Vindicator for 2011–2014.

• Pennsylvania:  Elizabethtown College has digitized its students newspapers, Our College Times (1904–1934) and The Etownian (1934–2009), and uploaded them to the Internet Archive.

• Tennessee:  A near-complete archive of the original incarnation of Confederate Veteran magazine, from 1893–1932, including a searchable index, can be found on the Internet Archive.  I placed it under Tennessee because that's where it was published.

• Texas:  The Texas Obituary Project is a collection of scanned obits from LGBT publications, dating back to 1975.

• Wisconsin:  The complete historical run of the print version of the UWM Post, the student newspaper of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, has been digitized.

• Multistate:  The Catholic News Archive currently has nine newspapers (including one issue from 1832!) from five different states and the United States in general.  This is a Veridian site (yay!), and more newspapers will be added over time.

• Multistate:  FamilySearch.org now has a database of GenealogyBank obituaries from 1980–2014.  Even though GenealogyBank itself is a pay site, this collection is free.

• Worldwide:  Catholic Newspapers Online is a portal collecting links to Catholic newspapers from multiple countries, both historical and current, and has 22 pages of links so far.

• Worldwide:  "Last Seen:  Finding Family after Slavery" is a collection of ads posted in newspapers after Emancipation, where people tried to find relatives from whom they had been separated, whether by slavery, escape, or the military.  Currently the volunteer effort includes notices one Canadian and thirteen U.S. newspapers, but the project continually grows.

• Worldwide:  The Mennonite Library and Archives in Kansas has placed online a large collection of German-language newspapers and other publications from German Mennonites.  The countries include Canada and Paraguay!

The Latest in Genealogy Journals

I realized I have been remiss lately in letting everyone know what interesting articles are being published in the journals for which I am the editor.  And now that I've added a new (to me) journal to the list, there's a wider range of stories!

The most recent issue of ZichronNote came out at the end of November.  Australian Dani Haski wrote about the status of Jewish record books in Egypt, a subject of interest to her because her ancestors came from Egypt.  Susan MacLaughlin discussed her roots trip to Lithuania, which she originally thought was going to be to France.  Vivian Kahn updated our membership on the latest additions to the Hungarian Special Interest Group database on JewishGen.org.  Debra Katz tried to entice people sitting on the fence to jump in the DNA research pool and see what they can learn.  Fred Hoffman wrote about some pitfalls of machine translation, including "swanky oxen" and "fetus farms."  And SFBAJGS President Jeremy Frankel and several other members shared their perspectives on the 2016 IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy, which took place in Seattle, Washington in August.

The Fall 2016 issue of The Baobab Tree was e-mailed to members in December (yes, when it was still fall, thank you).  We've had a glitch with the printer, so the print copy has not yet gone out, but it should soon.  The big story in this issue was the celebration of the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California's 20th anniversary, which was held at the September meeting.  Dera Williams wrote about the highlights of the day, and Jackie Chauhan contributed a list of some of the topics the society's speakers have addressed over the course of 20 years.  There's also a lovely photo gallery showing many of the attendees and honorees, including our beloved Electra Kimble Price and the ever-busy Ron Higgins.  Lavinia Schwarz wrapped up her three-part story about the research she did on her 2x-great-grandmother, a free woman of color in New Orleans.  A few AAGSNC members attended the 3rd International Black Genealogy Summit in Arlington, Virginia and had the opportunity to meet the Côte d'Ivoire ambassador to the United States.  And AAGSNC President Howard Edwards presented a plaque of appreciation to the Oakland FamilySearch Library in thanks for all of its support over the years.

My new baby is The California Nugget, the twice-yearly journal published by the California Genealogical Society.  This is my first issue, so there's been a learning curve, finding out about all the people and procedures involved.  It should be published this month.  Two things that will be new with this issue are a message from the president, currently Linda Harms Okazaki, in place of the previous message from the editor (because we all know I hate to write), and a regular column on genealogical methods by Rondina Muncy, CG.  In addition to those, Stella and Linda Allison wrote about their great-grandfather's sister, a Mexican immigrant to San Francisco who moved up economically from her beginnings in Mazatlán.  Scott McKinzie used DNA and old-fashioned paper research to determine who his grandfather was.  Joe Reilly and Tim Cox have stories about relatives who served and died in World War II.  Kathleen Javdani dove into research on her great-grandmother, trying to find if the information in a family narrative matched reality.  And Carolyn Ervin wrote about memories of her own great-grandmother, whom she was fortunate enough to meet shortly before she passed away.

There's a caveat, though.  (Isn't there always?)  To receive these fine journals, you need to be a member of the respective societies.  If you would like to read these articles, visit the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society (for ZichronNote), the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California (for The Baobab Tree), and the California Genealogical Society (for The California Nugget) to join and you can be reading them soon.

There is a way around that membership requirement, at least on a per-issue basis.  If you have a story published in an issue, you receive a copy!

Have you had a breakthrough in your research, solved a family mystery, discovered a different way to use resource materials, or walked where your ancestors walked?  Do you have an interesting story about your family?  We would love to read about it in one of the journals.  Submission guidelines for The Baobab Tree (including deadlines) and The California Nugget (which will probably be updated soon) are available online, or you can send me a message regarding any of the journals, and we can talk about it! 

Newspapers, Newspapers, Newspapers!

I have been meaning to post another update of what has been added to the Wikipedia newspaper archives page for a while now, but I've been distracted by a lot of other projects.  I didn't realize it had been seven months since I last posted!  I'm trying to catch up, though, so here are some of the most recent additions.  One new country, Lithuania, and new state, Kansas, have been added to the list.  Several of the new archives are being created by one of two companies, Advantage Preservation (which does them with free access) or Newspapers.com (which makes them available for a subscription fee).

• Australia:  Honi Soit, the student newspaper of the University of Sydney (New South Wales), has been digitized for 1929–1990.

• British Columbia, Canada:  The Prince George Public Library has eight newspapers, including the student newspaper for the College of New Caledonia, on its site, ranging from 1909–1965.

• British Columbia, Canada:  Simon Fraser University has a collection of digitized newspapers online, including the student newspaper The Peak and one group called simply "More Newspapers."

• British Columbia, Canada:  The Thompson-Nicola Regional District library is digitizing newspapers from the Kamloops area and has a selection available covering 1882–2014.

• Cuba:  Diario de la Marina is available through the University of Florida's newspaper collection. Years covered range between 1844 and 1961, but coverage is not continuous.

• England:  The Church Times, an Anglican newspaper, has an online archive dating back to its first issue in 1863 and including more than 8,000 issues.

• France:  Two collections of images from Excelsior, a weekly publication that published 20+ photographs in every issue during World War I, are available.

• Italy:  Nine months of the 1885 issues of Il Secolo, published in Milan, are on the Florida State University digital archives site.  The press release I read suggested that more issues will be coming at some point in the future.

• Lithuania:  A new country!  Someone has digitized the Vilna Provincial Gazette and posted it on the Internet Archive.  The years covered are 1838–1917, with a few years missing.  This was published while Lithuania was under the control of the Russian Empire.

• Mexico, Arizona, California, and Texas (under Worldwide category):  The Historic Mexican & Mexican American Press collection includes newspapers from Tucson, Arizona; Los Angeles and San Francisco, California; El Paso, Texas; and Sonora, Mexico.  The archive goes from the mid-1800's to the 1970's.

• New Zealand:  The Southern Regional News Index covers the Dunedin and Otago area for 1851 to the present.

• United Kingdom:  The Gazette has created an instructional video on how to search and use the online Gazette archives.

• California:  The GLBT Historical Society of Northern California has an online searchable database of obituaries (not just an index) for the Bay Area Reporter, a weekly newspaper covering the GLBT community primarily in the San Francisco Bay area, for the years 1972 to the present.  The Bay Area Reporter itself has an online archive that begins with 2005 and is working on digitizing its issues going back to 1971.

• California:  The St. Helena Public Library has the St. Helena Star from 1874–2014 available for free.

• California:  The now defunct San Fernando Valley Genealogical Society posted a collection of vital records abstracts on RootsWeb for Valley newspapers covering 1911–1945.

• Connecticut:  The Shelton Library has two collections of newspaper clippings.  The "Library Scrapbook" has clippings from multiple newspapers from 1923–1930 relating to the Plumb Memorial Library.  The "Servicemen's Scrapbook of Shelton Men & Women Serving in World War" has clippings from the Evening Sentinel from 1943–1945, so apparently those servicemen were serving in World War II.

• District of Columbia:  The Capital is online for 1871–1880 and is said to be a great source for research in the Reconstruction period.

• District of Columbia:  Quicksilver Times (1973–1985) and Unicorn Times (1969–1972) are available from the Washington, DC Public Library.

• Georgia:  The Macon Daily Telegraph for 1860–1865 is in the American Civil War Newspapers database at Virginia Tech.

• Illinois:  The Lake Forester for 1899–1940 is on the Lake Forest Library site.

• Indiana:  The AIM Media Indiana archive, which has eleven newspapers, is a pay site created via a Newspapers.com partnership.

• Iowa:  Central College in Pella has ten collections of student newspapers and yearbooks covering 1876–2006, but there are some gaps in coverage.

• Iowa:  West Branch newspapers the Local Record and Times, from 1866–1934, are on the West Branch Public Library.

• Kansas:  A new state!  There is an obituary index for Rush County at the Barnard Library site.  It covers 1878–1951.  Copies of the obituaries can be ordered from the library.

• Kentucky:  The Lawrence County Public Library has an online obituary index for the Big Sandy News that covers 1885 to the present.

• Louisiana: The New Orleans Christian Advocate, a Methodist newspaper, is only for 1850–1946.

• Louisiana:  Scanned ads from former slaves looking for family members and friends lost during slavery which were published in the New Orleans Southwestern Christian Advocate (1879–1885) — which does not appear to be related to the previously mentioned paper — are available for free online.

• Maine:  Digital Maine has the Old Orchard Mirror, a newspaper published only during the summer, for the years 1900, 1901, 1903, 1904, and 1914.

• Maryland:  The Annapolis Capital has been digitized and placed online by NewspaperArchive.com on a pay site.  The collection nominally goes from 1887–2016, but it goes straight from 1887 to 1918–1919 and then to 1929.  It looked continuous from then on.

• Massachusetts:  The Memorial Hall Library in Andover has three newspapers covering 1853–1925.

• Massachusetts:  The Newburyport Public Library has ten digitized newspapers available for free on its site, courtesy of Advantage Preservation.

• Massachusetts:  The Portuguese-American Digital Newspaper Collections, housed at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, includes Portuguese-language newspapers from California, Hawaii, and Massachusetts.

• Massachusetts:  The (Mattapoisett) Wanderer, which also serves Marion and Rochester in southeastern Massachusetts, has an online archive for its entire publication history, 1992–2016, housed at the Internet Archive.

• Minnesota:  Two union newspapers, the Minneapolis Labor Review (1907–current) and St. Paul Union Advocate (unsure of years covered), are now online.

• Missouri:  The Houston Herald has been digitized and placed online courtesy of Newspapers.com for 1881–present and is a pay site.

• Missouri:  There are online indices for death notices appearing in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat and the Post-Dispatch, along with instructions on how to order copies.

• Montana:  The Montana Newspapers project has some dupblication with the Montana Memory Project but includes many more newspapers.  The years range from 1885 to 2015.

• New Jersey:  The Belmar Historical Society has the Coast Echo and Coast Advertiser for 1881–1974 in PDF and searchable.

• New Jersey:  The New Jersey Hills Media Group has partnered with Newspapers.com to present three newspapers on a pay site.

• New Jersey:  The Woodbridge Public Library has digitized eleven local newspapers ranging from 1876–1970.

• New Mexico:  The White Sands Missile Range published its own newspapers, which cover 1950–1990.  There is a list of the issues that are missing, so if you have an old issue, maybe you can help!

• New York:  A new collection of four Staten Island newspapers has been made available, with plans for more to come.

• North Carolina:  The Nubian Message (1992–2005), the black student newspaper of North Carolina State University, has been digitized and placed online.

• Ohio:  The Stark County District Library has digitized eight newspapers in partnership with Advantage Preservation.

• Ohio:  The WestLife Observer (2013–2015) and the Westlake Bay Village Observer (2006–2015) are online at Westlake Library site.

• Oklahoma:  The Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College student newspaper, The Norse Wind, is online for 1948–2007.

• Virginia:  The Library of Virginia has the Charlottesville Daily Progress available for 1893–1964.

• Virginia:  The Prince William County Library System has a local newspaper index for 1993–present for three newspapers that have no other index available.

• Virginia:  The Pulaski County Library newspaper archive has five newspapers that range from 1893 to 2015.

• Virginia:  The Handley Regional Library System has an obituary index for the Winchester Star for 1896–1914.  This is a work in progress, and more information is being added to it.

• Wisconsin:  The Lake Geneva Public Library has searchable indices for obituaries, birth announcements, and local people in the news.  The site does not state which newspapers or years are covered, but an announcement from NEHGS said the obituaries were taken from the Lake Geneva Regional News and Lake Geneva Herald.  The local people in the news database iincludes the code LGNT, which I believe stands for Lake Geneva News Tribune.

• Multistate:  The Swedish American Newspapers collection, hosted at the Minnesota Historical Society, includes 28 newspapers from California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington.  Total years covered in the database are 1859–2007.

Earlier this year, the National Endowment for the Humanities, one of the funders for the Chronicling America digitization project, announced that the years which can be funded are expanding from 1836–1922 to 1690–1963.  This means that eventually we should see a much broader range of historical newspapers on the Chronicling America site.  You can read the press release here.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Jean La Forêt's Diary, section cinq

Jean La Forêt's diary holds yet more treasures to explore.  When last we left Jean, he had arrived in Valparaiso, Chile while serving with the U.S. Marines.

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

Febr. 11 – 02 – Callao again

Feb. 26 – 02 – Acapulco

Mrch 5 – 02 – Pichili[n]gue Bay and La Paz –

Mrch 12 – 02 – Madalena Bay

Mrch 26 – 02 – San Diego

April 5 – 02 – San Francisco

April 7 – 02 – Mare Island à l'hopital.

Juillet 8, 02 – Quitte l'hopital

Novembre 15 – 02, A Yerba Buena ——

Nove Oct. 20, 1903  Quartermaster Sgt.

February 1 – 1905  Left Yerba Buena for Philipine Islands –

Manila – March 2 – 1905

Cavite — same day —

Olongapo — March 6 – 05

Leave Olongapo May 19 – 1906

Arrive at Cavite May 19 – 1906

Quitte Cavite Oct. 7 – 1906 – 4 ½ P.M.

Quitte Manila Oct. 9, 1906 – 2 P.M.

Quitte Mariveles Oct. 10 – 1906, 4 P.M.

Arrive à Nagasaki, Japan, lundi, Oct. 15 3. P.M.

Quitte Nagasaki, Japan Oct. 17 – 6 AM.

Arrive à Honolulu, Hawaii on Monday Oct. 30 – 9 AM.

Quitte Honolulu Samedi Nov. 3 – 5 P.M.

Arrive à San Francisco dimanche Nov. 11 –

Arrive à Mare Island Nov. 12 –

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

February 11, 1902 – Callao [Peru] again

February 26, 1902 – Acapulco

March 5, 1902 – Pichilingue Bay and La Paz

March 12, 1902 – Magdalena Bay

March 26, 1902 – San Diego

April 5, 1902 – San Francisco

April 7, 1902 – Mare Island in the hospital.

Juillet 8, 1902 – Left the hospital

November 15, 1902 – At Yerba Buena

Nove October 20, 1903  Quartermaster Sergeant

February 1, 1905 – Left Yerba Buena for Philippine Islands

March 2, 1905 – Manila

same day – Cavite

March 6, 1905 – Olongapo

May 19, 1906  Leave Olongapo

May 19, 1906  Arrive at Cavite

October 7, 1906  Leave Cavite 4:30 p.m.

October 9, 1906  Leave Manila 2:00 p.m.

October 10, 1906  Leave Mariveles 4:00 p.m.

October 15  Arrive in Nagasaki, Japan, Monday, 3:00 p.m.

October 17  Leave Nagasaki, Japan 6:00 p.m.

October 30  Arrive in Honolulu, Hawaii, Monday, 9:00 a.m.

November 3  Leave Honolulu Saturday 5:00 p.m.

November 11  Arrive in San Francisco Sunday

November 12  Arrive at Mare Island

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

Nothing in these pages was difficult to translate, not only because a lot was written in English.  These entries are almost entirely a list of locations and when Jean arrived and left.  He appears to have become fluent in "franglais", that mish-mash of French and English.  He goes back and forth between the two languages and sometimes uses both in the same entry.  I took a small amount of liberty with the translations by making the format consistent for each entry:  date, then location, then day and/or time if included.

In this part of Jean's travelogue, I think the item that caught my attention the most was his three-month stay in the hospital at Mare Island, from April 7–July 8, 1902.  After all of his travels up and down the Pacific coast, he comes back to California and goes into the hospital.  Maybe it was a bug he picked up on the trip.  Obviously, another item that I hope shows up in his service file.

I'm guessing that the entry for October 20, 1903 — "Quartermaster Sgt" — means he was working in that position.  He tends to write little about his accomplishments.  I am pretty sure that Yerba Buena refers to the island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, which currently is a U.S. Coast Guard installation.  The Wikipedia page about Yerba Buena does mention that a U.S. Navy training station was established there before the turn of the 20th century.

Several of the locations Jean mentions I had not heard of previously.  I now know, however, that Pichilingue Bay (with some spelling variation) is in Baja California, as is Magdalena Bay. I guessed correctly that Cavite, Olongapo, and Mariveles are in the Philippines because of their apparent proximity to Manila based on Jean's notes.

There are additional significant gaps in time in these pages.  Between November 1902 and February 1905, Jean made only one entry, the one that says "Quartermaster Sgt."  And it seems that Jean had nothing to write about during his stay in Olongapo.  He arrived on March 6, 1905, and the next entry records his departure on May 19, 1906.  I wonder if that means he had a quiet tour there.

From May 19, 1906 through the last page shown here, the entries were written first in pencil and later copied over in ink.  I wonder if Jean was the person who wrote over the entries to make them darker, or if that was the work of Emma.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Jean La Forêt's Diary, fourth section

This Thursday we continue on with Jean La Forêt's diary.  Since only a small portion of the next page was needed to finish the last entry translated, I'm counting this week's first page (above) as a complete one.  Remember, as of last week's episode, Jean is no longer in the U.S. Army but has joined the Marines.

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

Janvier 15 – 92

Changeons de quartier – Caserne nouvelle bâtie trés confortablement.

Avril 5 – 1897

Pars de Sitka et d'Alaska avec "Topeka" – Arrive a Victoria Avril 11 – 97  Seattle – Avril 11 – 12 – 13/97  Retourne a Victoria 13/97  Arrive à San Francisco Avril 18 – 97 – a Vallejo même jour

A Mare Island Avril 20 – 97 – 3h. P. M.

A l'"Independence" Mai 24 – 1897 ——

May 25 – 99 – Quitte Independence and report for duty at Mare Island.

Juillet 1 – 99 – Prend charge de l'office de Quartier Maître.

Août 31 – Prend in[s]cription pour Gunner – Passe examen Sept. 1 – 99;

Sept. 1st 1900 – Décharge

Oct. 3 – " – Prend saloon à San Francisco.

Nov. 19 – " – revends

Nov. 30 – " – Rentre dans Marine Corps.  Congé 6 semains.

Jan. 15 – 01  Report for duty at Mare Island, Cal.

Febr. 4 – 01  U.S.S. "Wisconsin" put in commission – Reported aboard as 1st sergt of Marine Guard — In commission at 2 P.M.

March 9 – 01  Left at noon for Magdalena Bay (Mexico)

March 15 – 01  Passed "Philadelphia" off Guadaloupe Island

March 17 – 01  Arrived in Magdalena Bay

March 28 – 01  Arrival of "Mohican"

April 11 – 01  Left about 4 P.M. for San Francisco

April 15 – 01  Arrived in San Francisco Bay 1 P.M.

May 28 – 01  Left San Francisco Bay for Puget Sound, Wash.

June 1 – 01 – Bremerton at 5 AM.

June 12 – 1901 – San Francisco.

June 29 – Port Angeles, Wash.

July 2 – 01 – New – Whatcom –

July 23 – 01 – Bremerton

Oct. 23 – 01 – Honolulu

Nov. 1 – 01 – Passe l'équateur.

Nov. 5 – 01 – Tutuila Island

Nov. 20 – 01 – Pago-Pago – Apia – Samoa

Dec. 1 – 01 – Honolulu

Dec. 25 – 01 – Noel – Acapulco Mexico —

Jan. 3 – 02 – Passed under Equator again

Jan – 7 – 02 – Callao, Peru

Jan. 9 – 02 – A Lima

Jan. 20 – 02 – Valparaiso Chile

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

January 15, 1892

We change quarters – new barracks built very comfortably.

April 5, 1897

Leave Sitka and Alaska with the Topeka – Arrive in Victoria April 11, 1897  Seattle April 11-12-13, 1897  Return to Victoria [April] 13, 1897  Arrive in San Francisco April 18, 1897 – in Vallejo the same day

In Mare Island April 20, 1897  3:00 p.m.

On the Independence May 24, 1897 ——

May 25, 1899 – Leave the Independence and report for duty at Mare Island.

July 1, 1899 – Take charge of the Quartermaster's office.

August 31 – Apply for Gunner – Pass exam September 1, 1899;

September 1, 1900 – Discharged

October 3 " – Buy a saloon in San Francisco.

November 19 " – Resell it

November 30 " – Return to the Marine Corp.  Six weeks leave.

January 15, 1901  Report for duty at Mare Island.

February 4, 1901  U.S.S. Wisconsin put in commission – Reported aboard as 1st Sergeant of Marine Guard – in commission at 2:00 p.m.

March 9, 1901  Left at noon for Magdalena Bay (Mexico)

March 15, 1901  Passed Philadelphia off Guadaloupe Island

March 17, 1901  Arrived in Magdalena Bay

March 28, 1901  Arrival of Mohican

April 11, 1901  Left about 4:00 p.m. for San Francisco

April 15, 1901  Arrived in San Francisco Bay 1:00 p.m.

May 28, 1901  Left San Francisco Bay for Puget Sound, Washington

June 1, 1901 – Bremerton at 5:00 a.m.

June 12, 1901 – San Francisco.

June 29 – Port Angeles, Washington

July 2, 1901 – New Whatcom –

July 23, 1901 – Bremerton

October 23, 1901 – Honolulu

November 1, 1901 – Pass the Equator.

November 5, 1901 – Tutuila Island

November 20, 1901 – Pago-Pago – Apia – Samoa

December 1, 1901 – Honolulu

December 25, 1901 – Christmas – Acapulco Mexico —

January 3, 1902 – Passed under Equator again

January 7, 1902 – Callao, Peru

January 9, 1902 – To Lima

January 20, 1902 – Valparaiso, Chile

-- >< -- >< -- >< -- >< --

This man surprised me again.  He enlisted in the Marines on August 26, 1890.  He was discharged on September 1, 1900, one year after he passed the Gunnery Sergeant exam and with a little more than ten years service.  He didn't stay out even three months before he re-upped (but at least he had six weeks leave before reporting again).  I'm sorry, but I just don't understand.  He had the saloon in San Francisco for only a month and a half before selling it.  Maybe he just had a love-hate relationship with the military and couldn't stay out.

He seemed to be pretty successful in the Marines.  He was in charge of the Quartermaster's office; he passed the Gunnery Sergeant exam.

Jean apparently became more comfortable with English during this period, because about half the entries are in that language.  He still goes back and forth, though.

He definitely saw a lot of the world while he was in the Marines.  Up and down the Pacific coast, around the Pacific Ocean — that's a nice travelogue.

I was very disappointed to see the gaps in dates in these pages.  Whatever the reason, Jean did not write between November 1890 (from last week's installment) and January 1892, January 1892 and April 1897, and May 1897 and May 1899.  That's eight years we don't know what he was doing, the bulk of this tour in the Marines.  Who knows where else he went during that time?  Maybe he was on classified missions and couldn't write.  I hope those periods are documented in his service file.

Thinking again about Emma La Forêt's 1917 emergency passport application, where she said that Jean had lived uninterruptedly in San Francisco from 1884 to 1909, we now have more data.  Based on these diary entries, Jean appears to have been in Sitka from 1890–1897.  He wasn't in San Francisco an entire day before he went to Vallejo.  The longest he might have been in San Francisco was while he owned the saloon, not even a month and a half.  Emma was certainly stretching things when she filled out that application.  Or maybe she really meant "the San Francisco Bay area."

Commemoration of General Pershing's Most Tragic Loss

John J. Pershing, 1903

General John J. "Black Jack" Pershing is remembered today primarily for his military successes, but his greatest loss came not on a battlefield but at home.  In 1913 Pershing took command of the 8th Brigade at the Presidio in San Francisco.  He and his family — his wife, Frances, and their children — moved there.  Early in 1914, however, Pershing was deployed to Fort Bliss, Texas due to border problems between the United States and Mexico.

Pershing family, c. 1911

After almost a year in Texas, Pershing decided to bring his family out there.  Arrangements had not yet been completed when a fire struck the Pershing home on the Presidio, on August 27, 1915.  Frances Pershing and the three Pershing daughters, Helen, 9, Anne, 7, and Mary, 3, died in the fire.  Only Pershing's son, Warren, 6, survived.

Thursday, August 27, 2015, was the 100th anniversary of the fire and the Pershing deaths.  A memorial event was held at Pershing Square at the Presidio in honor of General Pershing's loss.  About 60 people attended the ceremony.

Captain David A. Poe of the Pershing Rifles spoke at the memorial ceremony and discussed how much Pershing inspired the men he commanded.  He was a hard taskmaster, but those who learned from him respected him deeply.  Diane Rooney of the World War One Historical Association then read the poem "Remember" (1862), by Christina Rossetti:

Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;
When you can no more hold me by the hand,
Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.
Remember me when no more, day by day,
You tell me of our future that you plann’d:
Only remember me; you understand
It will be late to counsel then or pray.
Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:
For if the darkness and corruption leave
A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,
Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad.

After the laying of wreaths at the site and a moment of silence, additional presentations took place in the Presidio Officers' Club.  The most significant in context of the memorial was that of Major General Alfred Valenzuela, U.S. Army (retired), who spoke about how important families are to members of the military.  Support from family members helps service members make it through the often difficult work they do to protect and serve our country.

A timely discovery at the memorial ceremony was that the ongoing Presidio archaeological project recently found what is believed to be part of the foundation of the Pershing home.

The event was organized by the World War One Historical Association working with the World War One Centennial Commission, the Pershing Rifles, WorldWar1.com, the Presidio Trust, and the National Park Service.  Additional support came from the American Battle Monuments Commission, the office of the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, U.S. House of Representatives, and the ROTC Santa Clara Color Guard.

Down the Curiosity Rabbit Hole

Sometimes you run across something particularly fascinating, and even though it doesn't have anything to do with your research, it piques your curiosity enough that you have to follow up on it.  That's what happened to me at an exhibit at the California Historical Society.

The exhibit, which recently ended, was about Juana Briones, a resident of California who lived under the control of Spain, Mexico, and the United States.  In an era when women had few rights, she procured a separation from her abusive husband, ran a successful business, was a well known and respected healer and midwife, and defended her property against multiple attempts to take it, all while remaining illiterate.

While I found the story of Briones very interesting and learned quite a bit, the item in the exhibit that truly captured my attention was a reproduction of a painting of sixteen couples, each with a child.  Each group was identified with the race of the father, the mother, and the child.  It was a well defined list of racial classifications that reminded me of New Orleans, with its mulattoes, quadroons, octoroons, and more.  But this list was of successive combinations of different "races" and was amazingly detailed.  It was called a pintura de castas ("casta painting").

The California Historical Society has created an online exhibition with most of the information from the Briones exhibit.  After searching through several sections of the site, I found the pintura de castas and was able to look at it close-up.  These are the combinations it shows:

Español con India = Mestizo
Mestizo con Española = Castizo
Castizo con Española = Español
Español con Mora = Mulato
Mulato con Española = Morisco
Morisco con Española = Chino
Chino con India = Salta atras
Salta atras con Mulata = Lobo
Lobo con China = Gibaro
Gibaro con Mulata = Albarazado
Albarazado con Negra = Canbujo
Canbujo con India = Sanbaigo
Sanbaigo con Loba = Calpamulato
Calpamulato con Canbuja = Tente en el Aire
Tente en el Aire con Mulata = Noteentiendo (No te entiendo)
Noteentiendo con India = Tornaatraz (Torna atras)

When I translated the Spanish, some of it didn't exactly make sense.  How do you get a Moor from a mulatto and a Spaniard?  How do a Moor and a Spaniard produce a Chinese child?  And if the intention was merely to describe the child's complexion, what does it mean to have a Chinese and an Indian "jump back?"  And how do a "jump back" and a mulatto have a wolf?

So then I decided to Google some of the terms from the combinations.  I discovered that Wikipedia has a page explaining castas, which were an attempt by the colonizing Spanish to classify mixed-race people in the Americas.  (The page even shows the same painting from the exhibit.)  It mentions that some of the terms used were a little "fanciful."  It also explains that chino was not Chinese but came from the word cochino, "pig."  (Of course, that now means that a Moor and a Spaniard produce a pig for a child, but remember the word "fanciful.")

So I ended up learning quite a bit by attending the exhibit and then following the trail of that painting.  And a fascinating journey it was.

What a Day for Genealogy in Stockton!

Saturday's free genealogy seminar, presented by the San Joaquin Genealogical Society (SJGS) and cosponsored by the California State Genealogical Alliance (CSGA) and University of the Pacific's Jacoby Center for Public Service and Civic Leadership, was a roaring success.  Well before the event, SJGS president and event organizer Sheri Fenley proudly announced that the seminar was completely filled — all 180 registration slots had been taken.

On a gorgeous February morning, everyone gathered in the Biological Sciences Building on the University of the Pacific campus.  The lecture hall was totally filled with excited genealogists.  We actually started early (!) and managed to stay on time throughout the day.

Linda Serna, vice president of the Orange County Genealogical Society, talked about how to create family stories by starting with the facts you have and adding background historical information for context.  She particularly emphasized that Google is your friend and can help you find lots of great details to add to your stories.

Letty Rodella, president of the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research, gave a lot of practical advice on how to research Mexican ancestry.  She discussed several online resources, including FamilySearch.org, Ancestry.com, and a free guide to transcribing Spanish-language records (I've already downloaded it to my computer!).

Tim Cox, program and events chairman for the California Genealogical Society, shared a lot of tools that can help genealogists do their research smarter, more easily, and sometimes just better.  He covered databases, software, gadgets, computer equipement, and even the Internet.  And he was even generous enough to send everyone registered for the seminar a PDF listing all of the resources he talked about in his presentation!

I was the last speaker of the day.  I used some research I had done as a case study and showed how even when you start with only a few pieces of information, if you work methodically and use a large variety of resources it is possible to learn a lot of information about a family and build a tree of several generations.

Throughout the day attendees asked a lot of great questions and were very engaged.  All the talks were well received.  And there were freebies!  The National Institute of Genealogical Studies (NIGS) had sent certificates for every attendee to register for one complimentary online class.  Then we had prize drawings after Tim's talk.  NIGS had also donated two special gift certificates, and Tim had prizes from Clooz and Snagit.  So seven people were especially lucky and went home with a little something extra.

Many thanks to Sheri Fenley, SJGS, UoP, and CSGA for a fun day spent learning about genealogy!

Free Genealogy Seminar February 22, 2014

University of the Pacific

The San Joaquin Genealogical Society is presenting a free seminar on Saturday, February 22, 2014 at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.  Cosponsored by the California State Genealogical Alliance and University of the Pacific's Jacoby Center for Public Service and Civic Leadership, this is a great opportunity to attend four interesting talks at no cost, hang out with other genealogists, and learn more about the Alliance.

The presentations and speakers will be:

• "Family Stories:  Genealogy beyond Just the Dates", by Linda Serna

• "Fun Tools to Help Genealogists Work Smarter", by Tim Cox

• "Researching Your Mexican Ancestors", by Letty Rodella

• "Reconstructing Family Information When You Start with Almost Nothing:  A Case Study", by yours truly

I'm looking forward to the event and hearing the other speakers.  They're all covering topics I haven't heard before.

Even though the event is free, registration is required to receive the packet of speaker handouts, and seating is limited to 180 attendees.  More information and the registration form are available online.

If you have any questions or cannot register online, contact Sheri Fenley at (209) 373-6847 or sherifenley@gmail.com.

"The Mexican Suitcase"

One of the boxes of negatives

I recently saw the documentary The Mexican Suitcase (2011), about the discovery of 4,500 photo negatives from the Spanish Civil War.  I particularly wanted to see the movie because a cousin of mine fought with the Lincoln Brigade, and I was hoping there might be something about the brigade in the movie.

The movie focuses primarily on the story of the negatives and the three photographers who took the photos.  Robert Capa, Gerda Taro, and David "Shim" Seymour — born Endre Ernő Friedmann, Gerta Pohorylle, and Dawid Szymin, Jews from Hungary, Germany, and Poland, respectively — were said to be the first photographers to work in live war zones.  Prior to this, we were told, photos were taken before battles and afterward.  These photographers changed the way people saw wars by their work.  All three died while taking photos in war zones — Taro in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War; Capa in 1954, during the First Indochina War; and Shim in 1956, while covering the armistice of the Suez War.

The negatives had been kept in Paris by Imre "Cziki" Weisz, the darkroom assistant used by the three photographers to develop their film.  He was also Jewish.  Sometime around 1940 he became concerned about his survival in Europe.  He managed to deliver the negatives, which he had carefully catalogued and stored in handmade boxes (the "suitcase" of the movie title), to Francisco Aguilar González, a representative of Mexico to the Vichy government in France.  Aguilar apparently took the negatives with him when he returned to Mexico, because in 2004 his daughter gave them to filmmaker Ben Tarver in Mexico.  Eventually this led to an exhibit at the International Center of Photography in New York City and to the documentary by Trish Zeff.

Interspersed with interviews with several people about the photographers, the negatives, and the story of the negatives' survival were interviews with Spanish survivors of the Civil War and their descendants.  These interviews focused on feelings of loss, being uprooted, and having to make new lives.  The movie said that some 200,000 people fled Spain during the war.  Most of the interviewees were in Mexico; a few were in Spain.

I found some parallels between what happened to the Spaniards who supported the Republic and to Jews during World War II, though obviously not on the same scale.  For a time there was a concentration camp in Argelès in France that housed about 100,000 people who had fled Spain.  Most countries would not accept the Spaniards as refugees; this was because they recognized Franco's regime as legitimate, but Mexico and the Soviet Union (incorrectly called Russia in the film) did accept the refugees.  There are mass graves in different parts of Spain filled with bodies of those who "disappeared" during the war and later.  And most of the survivors were unwilling to talk about their experiences for decades.

One of the descendants who was interviewed was participating in an archaelogical dig at one of the mass graves in Spain.  She said she was trying to find out what happened to her grandfather, one of the many people who "disappeared."  Her story was presented in pieces throughout the movie.  It was not clear how many different skeletons they showed, but it certainly didn't appear to be more than two, making the identification of the site as a mass grave confusing.  Then, near the end of the movie, the young woman said that she was disappointed she hadn't found her grandfather at the site but that she would keep looking.  Nothing was said about how she was able to determine that none of the skeletons there was her grandfather, and since all they had shown in the movie was a few bones at the site, I don't know how any identification could have been made at all.

One of the most touching moments in the film was a short scene at the exhibit of the negatives at the International Center of Photography.  A woman found three photos of her grandmother sitting at a desk, writing a letter.  The family had been told about the photographs having been taken, but the woman had never seen them before.

As for the Lincoln Brigade, it was mentioned only obliquely in the movie.  One of the nurses who helped take care of Gerda Taro the day she died was interviewed for the movie; her on-screen credit said she was a nurse with the Lincoln Brigade.  And a dedication at the end of the movie included a man in the Lincoln Brigade (not my cousin).

Even though I didn't find a family connection, overall this movie was interesting, but in trying to present the two stories concurrently the narratives sometimes were difficult to follow.  You saw a snippet of one interview, then another, then another, not necessarily all talking about the same thing.  This choppy style did not lend itself well to a coherent storyline.  The photographs tell a story of their own, but most of them were not identified.  The movie is worth seeing, but you will probably want to supplement what you learn from the movie with additional research of your own to give a more complete picture of what happened.

Interesting Movies, Online and Offline

Old movies can make a little window into the times of our ancestors.  Even if your ancestors themselves aren't in the movie, it can let you see what they saw and give a perspective from that time.

Have you ever taken a little day trip to Tijuana?  Someone in the mid-1930's made a 16 mm home movie of sorts of a trip to Tijuana and Agua Caliente.  That movie somehow ended up at the University of Washington at Seattle, which in 1975 gave the movie to the California Historical Society (CHS).  Now CHS has had the movie digitized and made it available online for free.  The people in the movie appear to have had some money, because they're all fashionably dressed.  I have to wonder if part of the reason for the trip was a divorce, because the person holding the camera kept going back to that sign.  Because I have two birds of my own, I really liked the street huckster with two macaws and a cockatoo (starting at about the 2:00 mark).

The digitization was done by the California Audiovisual Preservation Project (CAVPP).  Examples of some other films that have been digitized through this project include footage of the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition; the 1933 Long Beach, California earthquake; and events at the Ontario, California Motor Speedway (my father watched a race there but didn't participate). 

But as I tell people in my newspaper classes, not everything is online.  The Tablet recently had an interesting article about Soviet Holocaust films.  Some films were made before the nonaggression agreement between Germany and the Soviet Union signed in 1939, while others were made after World War II.  They were suppressed and largely forgotten, however, due to the official Soviet policy of not acknowledging the Holocaust as targeting Jews.  Now they are being revived thanks to Professor Olga Gershenson of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.  Some of them are now being shown at film festivals (hence the comment about offline). Short clips from two movies, Professor Mamlock (1938) and The Unvanquished (1945), are posted online with the article.  The Soviet films are particularly interesting because they show a different perspective on the Holocaust.  The early films are also some of the first that made clear the Nazi persecution of Jews.