International Black Genealogy Summit: Second Day and Closing Banquet

I started the second day of the International Black Genealogy Summit by hearing some impressive news from conference chair Algurie Wilson:  Plans are for the next IBGS to be held in the Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), in Africa.  That will be quite an accomplishment for such a relatively young American conference.  The Côte d'Ivoire ambassador to the United States, Daouda Diabité, is ready to work with the conference team to make this a reality.  I look forward to hearing details about the conference as plans progress, although I'm not sure I'll be able to attend.

I attended such informative sessions on Friday, I was optimistic it would be that way for the whole weekend.  Alas, it was not to be.  The speakers for two of my Saturday sessions did almost nothing but read directly from their slides, which were text-heavy and didn't give a lot of information about the resources which were used.  A third session, which had advertised that it was going to be about a record set I knew only a little about, ended up covering mostly beginning research techniques and only glossing over the records I was looking forward to.

There was a light at the end of the tunnel, however.  The last session I went to was on records of the Panama Canal (Record Group 185 at the National Archives).  I have never had occasion to research anyone from Panama or who worked on the canal, so this was a brand-new subject for me.  The speaker, Reginald Washington, formerly worked at NARA and definitely seemed to know a lot about the records, and there are a lot of them:  labor contracts, birth/marriage/death records, correspondence, hospital records, discrimination, a census, and more.  This was a very interesting session, and I learned a lot.

For lunch I had organized a ProGen Study Group get-together, as I did at the IAJGS conference.  Four of us — LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, Janice Lovelace (again!), Deborah Robinson, and me — had an enjoyable lunch at a Southern restaurant (they made great catfish!).  Of course, we talked about nothing but genealogy, so we really didn't leave the conference far behind.  But we did get out of the hotel!

The closing event of the conference was the dinner banquet and presentation by Regina Mason.  The dinner was delicious, made that much more enjoyable by my table companions:  LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, her husband, Paul, and Elyse Hill.  There were drawings for door prizes during the meal, and Elyse won my donation of a gift certificate for research services.  She has promised to find a particularly difficult brick wall to have me work on.  I unfortunately was unable to stay for Regina Mason, as my ride arrived early to pick me up and I had to leave abruptly.  I'm sure everyone enjoyed the presentation, as it has been well received everywhere.

I had a wonderful time at IBGS.  I learned so much and met many new friends.  I am so happy I had the opportunity to attend the conference.  Maybe, just maybe, I will be able to go to the next one.  I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

"Who Do You Think You Are?" - Chris O'Donnell

The emphasis on this episode of Who Do You Think You Are? was on family.  The message was delivered in almost as heavy-handed a fashion as the "strong women" in the Kelly Clarkson episode, though Chris O'Donnell was far more believable than Clarkson.  In the introduction O'Donnell says that he's doing research on his father's family in honor of his father, who recently passed away, and that there's a legacy of courage, patriotism, and devotion to family.

The overview of Chris O'Donnell says that he's an actor, producer, and director.  He is mainly known as one of the stars of NCIS:  Los Angeles, and he's been in this career for more than 25 years.  Some of his important roles over the years have been in Men Don't Leave, Scent of a Woman, and Batman Forever.  He had the opportunity to be part of the Hollywood scene but family was more important to him.  At the age of 26 he met the "right person"; they have been married 16 years and have five children.

O'Donnell is the youngest of seven children.  His father, William O'Donnell, was born in 1922 in St. Louis, Missouri.  His father passed away two years ago (actually 2010, I think; later in the episode we get something about the filming being done in 2012) and by researching his father's family history he can maintain a connection with him.  William O'Donnell was a self-made man who put family first.  O'Donnell gets a little choked up when he speaks about his father and is obviously very emotional.  William was a solid role model and was proud of O'Donnell and his accomplishments.  O'Donnell's mother is still alive, so he can ask her questions about her side of the family, but can't do the same for his father's side.

Even though his mother is still alive, O'Donnell doesn't meet with her to start his reearch.  Instead he sits down with his sister Libby's middle daughter, Tory Berner, who currently (for the summer) is living with O'Donnell and his family.  Berner is this family's amateur genealogist, and she has put some information together.  (I'm really starting to wonder about all these celebrities who just happen to have someone in the family who's been doing genealogy work.)  She says right up front that she's been doing all of her research online, which should raise alarm bells, but off we blithely go.

Berner starts by saying that they know William's parents were Sarah Regina McCabe and John O'Donnell.  Berner has an 1886 baptismal certificate for Sarah from St. Louis; it says Sarah's parents were Henry McCabe and Mary McEnnis.  Berner suggests they find out more about the McEnnises and tells O'Donnell to look up McEnnis in St. Louis.  In the 1850 census he finds a 1-year-old Mary McEnnis in a household with Michael and Eliza McEnnis, probably Mary's parents — but since no relationships are listed in the 1850 census, this is just a supposition.  Without saying where she has found any verification of these people's identities, we immediately leap to the conclusion that Michael McEnnis is definitely O'Donnell's great-great-grandfather.

O'Donnell says he recognizes the name McCabe but has never heard of McEnnis before, so he wants to know more that side (how convenient).  Berner says she has looked at some local history sites and suggests O'Donnell look on the Missouri History Museum Web site.  (What?!  Ancestry.com allowed another company's Web site to be shown on the program?  I wonder how high the promotional fee was.)  O'Donnell dutifully searches for McEnnis and finds a reference to a cholera epidemic in 1849 in an online guide.  Berner says there's nothing else online, but since Michael McEnnis wrote the report, O'Donnell should go to St. Louis to find out what it says.  (When I searched I actually found online images of the report; page 1 is to the left.  Admittedly, they're low resolution, because they want you to buy copies, but I was able to read them.  I will concede that the museum may have posted the images online because of the filming of the program.  But they've never heard of interlibrary loan?)

O'Donnell travels to the Missouri History Museum Library in St. Louis, where he meets archivist Dennis Northcott.  O'Donnell explains that his ancestor Michael McEnnis wrote about the cholera epidemic in St. Louis and that he would like to find out more information.  Northcott says that he must have found the reference in the online guide and that he will get the item from the stacks.  (How refreshingly realistic!  Not everything is already pulled, and the admission that some things are stored in back and have to be retrieved!)  The manuscript is an original recollection written by Michael McEnnis.  Northcott says it was probably donated by McEnnis or a family member.  (Another refreshing change -- no conservator's gloves!  Maybe whether they wear them depends on the individual repository's policies.)

O'Donnell asks about the cholera epidemic.  The 1849 cholera epidemic came to the U.S. from Europe.  St. Louis was one of the hardest hit cities.  The epidemic killed about 10% of the population.  At its height 88 people were buried each day; 4,500 people died in three months.  (This doesn't quite add up, but that's what he said.)  At the time people didn't know what caused cholera, so it spread easily and rapidly.

Michael's father John McEnnis was the superintendent of a graveyard in St. Louis (a Catholic graveyard according to the document, though they didn't state the denomination in the episode).  Michael was off fighting in the Mexican War when he received a letter from his family.  His father had died and his brother had taken charge of the cemetery, but his brother had become very sick.  No one else was available to take care of the burials, and the family needed Michael's help.

One of Michael's reminiscences was the story of a woman who came to the cemetery with a bundle.  She asked for a poor ticket for a 12-year-old child's burial.  The bundle was the child in question, and she had already buried her husband and her other child.  She was the last of her people, and when she died they would all be gone.  (It wasn't stated in the program, but this must have been after Michael's return to St. Louis from the war.)

Northcott shows O'Donnell a photograph of Michael, who looks like a serious young man.  The 1850's are fairly early for photography, so it is uncommon to have a photograph of someone, much less have it survive.  O'Donnell wants to know where he can find more information about Michael in the Mexican War, and Northcott says he should go to Washington, D.C.  As he leaves, O'Donnell says that he has no written account of his own father's life, but now he has one for his great-great-grandfather.  So far he finds Michael's life to be amazing and wonders what else he will find.

In DC, O'Donnell goes to the Georgetown Neighborhood Library and talks with Amy S. Greenberg of Pennsylvania State University, listed as an expert on the Mexican War (though it does not appear to be the main focus of her research).  She has Michael McEnnis' compiled military service record (CMSR) from the National Archives, so the Georgetown library is yet more window dressing.  O'Donnell gives a lame cue — "Can you give me a synopsis about the Mexican-American War?  Refresh my memory from my senior year in high school." — and Greenberg explains that in May 1846 the United States extended only to the Midwest but believed in manifest destiny, so we declared war on Mexico, which controlled the continent from Texas west to California.

Michael's service record jacket showed that he was in the 1st Regiment of the Missouri Mounted Infantry.  (If Michael's records are at NARA, I would normally think he was in the regular U.S. Army, not in a state volunteer unit, as those records are generally held in state archives.  But I've researched the Mexican-American War — in fact, a Missouri mounted unit — and I recall that most units were state volunteers, and this sounds like a state unit.)  Greenberg explained that he was a 12-month volunteer.  His first muster card, for June 11–August 31, 1846, showed that he signed up less than one month after President Polk had called for volunteers.  His unit's orders were to go to New Mexico, capture the enemy, then go to California and capture the enemy there.  (This is a weird coincidence.  This is exactly what the orders were for the person I researched for this war.  I'm pretty sure Michael's unit was under General Kearny.)  This was during two months of the summer in Oklahoma and New Mexico, when the weather would have been broiling.  Michael's muster card for January–February 1847, though, shows that he was absent on furlough in St. Louis.  For some reason, O'Donnell comments that "he disappears", but later corrects it to saying he was on furlough, and wants to know why.  Greenburg has him look online on Fold3.com (owned by Ancestry.com!), where he finds a letter from Michael to the Adjutant General dated December 21, 1846, applying for a discharge.  Michael stated that on June 7 he had left St. Louis/Fort Leavenworth and then arrived in Santa Fe, where he had learned of the death of his father.  He had a large and helpless family and needed to return to them.  For some reason O'Donnell asks whether the discharge was dishonorable.  Greenberg immediately responds, "No!" and says that it was an honorable discharge.  She then mentions that the Smithsonian has an amazing collection of Mexican War artifacts and suggests that O'Donnell should check it out while he is in town.  This immediately implied that the research team had found something there about Michael McEnnis.

O'Donnell talks about how Michael had volunteered to serve his country right away but went back to St. Louis to take care of his family.  His duty to his family was his priority, more important than his military career.  O'Donnell relates to that, as his own family is his priority also.

O'Donnell heads off with Greenberg to the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.  Curator David Miller (this page says he's the Gun Room curator) meets them at a display about the Mexican War.  On a table are a cavalry saber and scabbard.  Miller hands O'Donnell a letter and says it came with the saber.  The letter is dated June 5, 1905 and was written by Michael McEnnis.  Michael said he "accidentally retained" the old saber and was now donating it at the request of a friend (perhaps someone associated with the museum).  To handle the saber, the conservator's gloves do come out.  Miller explains it is a Model 1813 horseman's saber and that it's been in storage.  (Apparently the Smithsonian has an excellent listing of its storage items!  How in the world did the show's researchers find out about this?)  O'Donnell wonders whether Michael would have thought that his great-great-grandson would be holding it 107 years later (which is how we can tell this was shot in 2012).  O'Donnell mentions that he also "accidentally" kept his sword from The Three Musketeers, so apparently it runs in the family.

Greenberg says she had done some additional research and they also found a photo of Michael.  Michael looks to be about 80 years old, so they've estimated it dates to about 1905, the time of the letter.  Michael looks rather distinguished, with a full head of gray hair; O'Donnell wonders if he'll get gray hair also.

A St. Louis Post-Dispatch article from May 14, 1911 talked about Michael as the only man still living in St. Louis of the 8,600 men from the city who were in the Mexican War.  The article said he came from fighting stock and was the ninth generation of his family in this country.  In the War of 1812 88 members of the family fought, including Michael's grandfather George McNeir, a lieutenant in the sea fencibles who participated in the bombardment of Ft. McHenry.  From the cholera epidemic manuscript, O'Donnell knows that Michael's father was John, so assumes that John's wife must have been a McNeir and George was her father.  O'Donnell makes an unusual comment:  "Looks like I'm going to find out something about George McNeir."  (Maybe he's psychic.)  To find out more about George, O'Donnell is told to look for records at the National Archives.

O'Donnell starts adding up the numbers — if Michael was the ninth generation in this country, that makes O'Donnell the thirteenth, and his children the fourteenth.  Then he starts thinking about George McNeir, his fourth great-grandfather, who was in the War of 1812, and wondering what he will learn.

Now he goes to the National Archives (that's probably why they shot the first scene with Greenberg somewhere else) and talks to historical researcher Vonnie Zullo.  (We also saw her on the Kelly Clarkson episode.)  Zullo tells O'Donnell he's "in luck" becuase George McNeir's original CMSR for the War of 1812 still exists.  The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and Great Britain.  Great Britain was at war with France, and the U.S. had been trading with France, so Great Britain started attacking U.S. ships and impressing sailors.  At the beginning the U.S. was being crushed.

McNeir was a third lieutenant in Captain John Gill's company of sea fencibles.  O'Donnell says, "I've never heard of a sea fencible."  (Neither had I; thank heavens for Wikipedia!)  They were local men who protected key U.S. ports.  O'Donnell asks what a third lieutenant did.  Zullo responds that he would have been in charge of the cannoneers, and they joke that he probably would have had bad hearing.  The first of McNeir's muster cards shown is for February 28–March 31, 1814.  At that time the war was not going well for the U.S.  The British had more ships and men and were destroying towns by burning them to the ground.  The next muster card, for April 30–June 30, 1914, showed McNeir in Ft. McHenry in Baltimore.  (No muster card was shown for June 30–August 31, during which period the British burned Washington, on August 24.)  The final muster card shown was for August 31–October 31, 1814, which did not list a location but indicated McNeir was discharged.

Zullo again says that O'Donnell is very lucky, because she was able to find a few more documents.  She emphasized this was uncommon.  One is a letter from McNeir dated October 22, 1814.  He wrote to the Secretary of War asking to resign his position as third lieutenant, citing a situation with his family that required his presence.  The similarity with O'Donnell's second great-grandfather Michael McEnnis is rather striking.  O'Donnell asks whether the resignation was accepted.  (I couldn't believe that O'Donnell didn't comment on the fact that he was holding a piece of paper with his fourth great-grandfather's original signature on it.  I would have been doing the genealogy happy dance!)

Zullo pulls out one more document.  It states that George McNeir accepted his appointment on March 22, 1814 and that his resignation was effective November 24, 1814.  His resignation was accepted.  Zullo says that this type of request was not necessarily normal.  She stresses again that O'Donnell is lucky because most often documents such as these have not survived.

Then O'Donnell wonders what the situation was with McNeir's family that caused him to submit his resignation.  Zullo says that since McNeir was from Baltimore, the Maryland State Archives in Annapolis would be the place to look for more information, as it would have records about people from Baltimore.  O'Donnell says he has to find out more.  His ancestors chose family, as he and his own father did.  He wonders if maybe someone in the family was sick or had died, or maybe if McNeir was just sick of hearing cannons.

At the Maryland State Archives O'Donnell is met by genealogist Michael Hait (I know him!).  O'Donnell tells Hait that he has muster rolls for his fourth great-grandfather George McNeir, who had to leave the army due to family reasons.  Hait says he has "done a little bit of research already" and has to finish up, but in the meantime suggests that O'Donnell look at the 1810 census to get an idea of the McNeir houshold composition and dynamics.  He leaves O'Donnell with an iPad and says he'll be back in a few minutes.  (Another time the researcher goes away to retrieve records — definitely different for this show.)

Now, O'Donnell is a decent actor, and he made most of the scenes in this episode believable.  But I have trouble believing that he could look at the 1810 census and make immediate sense of it.  I routinely have to explain how to read the early U.S. censuses to people who have already been doing some level of genealogical research.  How likely is it that someone with no experience could just up and understand it?  Well, I guess it isn't impossible, but I'm a little suspicious.

Inexperience notwithstanding, O'Donnell finds the relevant census page (even though it's indexed on Ancestry.com and appears on the page as McNier) and goes to George's name.  He sees that the household has two parents and four children.

Hait returns and shows O'Donnell a page from the 1812 Baltimore city directory, which he says will give more details.  McNeir is listed as a tailor.  O'Donnell extrapolates that if the British win the war, McNeir's business will be destroyed.  He asks Hait if the address is near the water.  Hait points out that Baltimore is a port city and that everything is near the water and would be affected by the war.

Hait then shows O'Donnell some "poor papers."  O'Donnell is stunned that these are originals and that he can touch them (but weren't the muster cards originals also?).  Hait tells him to go to #72.  There he finds George McNeir listed with house rent of $21.10.  On April 21, 1813 McNeir's goods and chattels (which O'Donnell asks Hait to define; chattels are personal property) were seized and taken in payment for his house rent.  Eighty-eight great coats worth $704 (according to Hait, about $11,000 today) were taken, which probably would have been his complete inventory.  As for why this would have happened, trade with Europe had been hampered because of the war, and most of McNeir's customers would probably have been upper-class people in Europe.  So the war destroyed his business.

McNeir's inventory was gone, but he had a wife and four children, so he needed a job.  That would be a good incentive to sign up for the military.  O'Donnell asks how much a sea fencible would have earned, and Hait says about $23/month, equal to about $300–$400 today.  So now we know why McNeir enlisted, but why would he have resigned?  Hait points out that McNeir was serving at Ft. McHenry during September 1914, when a significant military event took place.  He says that might give more information but doesn't actually say where O'Donnell should go (or at least if he did it didn't survive the editing process).  Something I noticed during the scene with Hait was that O'Donnell was the person leading most of the dialogue, unlike the scenes with the other researchers.

O'Donnell says that McNeir had lots of problems but that his first priority was to provide for his family.  He doesn't know why McNeir resigned but thinks that visiting Ft. McHenry might help him learn.

At Ft. McHenry O'Donnell meets Vince Vaise, a historian and park ranger with the Ft. McHenry National Monument.  Vaise is a hoot.  He is so enthusiastic about history, it's contagious.  It's worth watching this episode again just to see him.

Vaise tells O'Donnell that in late 1814 Washington had been burned, and Baltimore was next on the list for the British.  On September 12 the British navy was seen on the horizon, so the men at Ft. McHenry prepared for battle.  The next morning, September 13, it was pouring rain.  The ships were out of range for the Americans because the British had a "secret weapon", a 194-pound shell that had a 2-mile range.  The Americans were ordered to cease fire because they couldn't reach the ships and there was no reason to waste ammunition, so they were just sitting there.  One captain later reported that they "felt like pigeons."  The British bombarded the fort for 25 hours, and the battle could be heard in the city of Baltimore.  On the morning of September 14, the British ceased fire.  They had the advantage, but apparently they had used all their ammunition.  Their secret weapon hadn't taken down the fort, and if they moved in closer, they would be within range of the American guns.  So at 9:00 a.m. they sailed away.

The original "Star-Spangled Banner"

When everything became quiet people in Baltimore wondered who had won the battle.  After the British left, the morning cannons fired and the small flag that had been flying was taken down.  In its place a 42' by 30' flag was raised over the fort.  This flag was seen by Francis Scott Key, who was a lawyer in town to negotiate the release of a prisoner.  He was so inspired by the sight of the flag that he composed the poem that was later renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner" and became the U.S. national anthem when set to the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven."

The Battle of Baltimore became the turning point of the war for the U.S.  It also had an impact on the treaty that ended the war.

After educating O'Donnell about the importance of Ft. McHenry, Vaise asks if he would like to help change the flag, to which he of course agrees.  He looks very proud as he helps raise the flag over the fort.

In his wrap-up (the third one without the family member from the beginning), O'Donnell talks about how his ancestors felt the call to service but had more important things like their families that took precedence.  His ancestors helped with the cholera epidemic and the battle that inspired "The Star-Spangled Banner."  His father would have been inspired and proud at the amazing stories he's learned about.  These past generations helped instill the love of family that he has.

This episode had some fantastic stories.  It is an amazing coincidence that both George McNeir and his grandson Michael McEnnis joined the military and then very shortly afterward resigned to return to and help their families.  It's incredible that the Smithsonian has McEnnis' saber and the letter he sent when he donated it.  (And I'm still amazed they know their storage inventory that well.)  Like the Zooey Deschanel episode, the producers must have been thrilled to be able to connect their celebrity so closely to such a major historical event.  But the one thing they never actually demonstrated in the episode was why McNeir resigned his position as a third lieutenant.

The inference in the episode was that McNeir might have resigned because of his incredibly stressful experience at Ft. McHenry.  But if the reason McNeir enlisted was to support his family because of the problems with his business, the fact that the battle at Ft. McHenry went in favor of the Americans wasn't enough to solve those problems.  They probably didn't know at the time that the battle was the turning point in the war.  The war itself didn't officially end until 1815 — but it was mostly over by the end of 1814.  I think it's more likely that McNeir resigned because the war was ending and he thought it was time he could start to rebuild his business.  But that doesn't sound as dramatic, does it?

"Who Do You Think You Are?" - Kelly Clarkson

It was kind of weird watching Who Do You Think You Are? again.  It's been off the air for a while now, and I guess I got out of the habit (also evidenced by my lack of reporting on the last episodes of season 3).  The first episode of the new season on TLC was available as a download early, but I wanted to wait to see it on television so I could enjoy the whole experience, complete with Ancestry.com commercials.

The first thing that struck me was that when I looked for the show in the online TV guide, it showed as only a half-hour program.  That turned out to be incorrect, but I was initially wondering if cutting the length of the show had been part of a compromise to bring it back on the air.

When the episode began, the intro showed the eight celebrities to be profiled this season.  I noticed that it's a very different kind of group than we had seen on NBC.  During the last season on NBC, Thomas Macentee had been reporting that ratings were dropping with each episode, and I'm sure that was an extremely important factor in NBC's decision to drop the program.  But the new list of celebrities also makes me wonder whether they were starting to see a lack of compelling stories, and/or whether the celebrities with stories no longer fit NBC's demographic as well, which skews a little older.  Six of this season's celebrities are decidedly younger than what we've seen previously, and the oldest is only 48:  Christina Applegate (41), Kelly Clarkson (31), Cindy Crawford (47), Zooey Deschanel (33), Chelsea Handler (38), Chris O'Donnell (43), Jim Parsons (40), Trisha Yearwood (48).  So this is a pretty big shift.  I also noticed there is no black celebrity this season, which surprised me, and the only Jewish representative is Handler, who is half Jewish and half Mormon (now there's an interesting combination).

But on to Kelly Clarkson, our first celebrity for this year.  She was the winner of the first season of American Idol in 2002 and has carved out a successful singing career.  She has won three Grammys, has had multiple songs go platinum, and sang at President Barack Obama's second inauguration.  In her description of herself, she said that she was very strong and that she stood up for what she wanted, which she had to get from someone in the family, which set the theme for the rest of the show.  She repeated it so many times during the episode I wondered if it was the only line she had memorized.  Admittedly, she is a singer, not an actress, but I found her to be very "fakey" throughout the episode.  Most of her lines seemed very strained.

Clarkson is engaged and decided it would be nice to learn about her past.  For the past two years her mother has been working on the family's genealogy, so she wanted to talk to her about what she has found already.  Her mother, Jeanne Ann Taylor, lives in North Carolina, but came to visit Clarkson in Nashville.  Clarkson asked Taylor why she had become interested in genealogy; Taylor said it was because she had had no connection to her family roots and wanted to know what kind of people her ancestors had been.  She told Clarkson she had found some things online and (of course) said to look on Ancestry.com.  She pointed Clarkson to the Rose family tree she has created.  The oldest ancestor on the tree was Isaiah Rose (1842–1916), Clarkson's third-great-grandfather.  Taylor told Clarkson that's where she should start.

Even though Taylor had already created the tree, and one would hope she had done some research to come up with her information (okay, maybe hope in vain), the first thing Clarkson did was look for Rose in the 1870 census.  Of course she found him:  He was 28 years old, living in Coal Run, Washington County, Ohio, working as a "coal diger" [sic].  Also in the household were Malissa (20 years old) and Leslie (1 year old).  Amazingly enough, she immediately commented that he would have been about the right age to be in the Civil War and noted that being from Ohio he probably would have been a Yankee.  At first she didn't sound happy about that, but her tone changed a little later and she said it was a relief that he would have been fighting for the Union and freedom.  When she looked for Rose in military records, she found him listed with two units, the 18th Ohio and the 63rd Ohio, both times as a private.  (She ignored the Isaiah Rose from Tennessee who fought for the Confederacy.)  She wondered why he was listed with two different units.  She and her mother decided the best place for her to start her research was in Ohio.

In Columbus, Ohio, Clarkson went to the Ohio Historical Society and met with Vonnie Zullo, a researcher who specializes in military records at the National Archives and Library of Congress — in other words, in Washington, D.C.  The compiled military service record (CMSR) of Isaiah Rose that Zullo showed Clarkson is stored at Archives I in DC.  As often happens, the location shoot was nothing but window dressing.

Zullo showed Clarkson the first card in the file, which indicated Rose had enlisted in October 1861.  Even though this was six months after the first shots of the Civil War had been fired, somehow Clarkson decided it was "right after" the war started.  She also said she just "had to know" why he would have "enrolled" (her word, not mine).  Zullo explained that there was a lot of patriotic feeling in Ohio because it had a long history of abolitionism and was an important part of the Underground Railroad.  She said it was one of the top three states for volunteers.  When Clarkson asked why Rose was in two different regiments, Zullo said that after he was mustered out of his first unit there was still a need for soldiers, so he could have re-enlisted to continue supporting the cause.  Then Zullo showed Clarkson a card (with the name spelled as Isaih Rose) that stated Rose had been taken prisoner after the Battle of Decatur.  Clarkson of course wanted to know what had happened, so Zullo told her she should go to Decatur and find out.  It's amazing how Ancestry.com says that all you need to do is look on their Web site for all the information you need for your genealogy, but then they send people all over the world to find information that just doesn't happen to be on the site.

But Clarkson dutifully traveled to Decatur (just outside Atlanta), apparently by car, a trip of about eight and a half hours and almost 600 miles.  Maybe Clarkson doesn't like to fly?  At the DeKalb History Center she met with Timothy Orr of Old Dominion University.  Clarkson "caught him up" with what she knew about Rose (as if he didn't already know), and he explained how the Battle of Decatur was part of Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, which led to his March to the Sea.  He showed her a battlefield map indicating positions of Union and Confederate forces, to which Clarkson commented that the battle was "kind of" an important supply one.  Yeah (sigh).  So the Confederate cavalry came up behind the Unions lines and took several men prisoner.  The report of the battle indicated 31 men were missing, including Isaiah Rose.

Oh, but now relevent records were available on Ancestry again, so when Clarkson wanted to know what camp Rose was taken to as a prisoner, Orr said she should look online.  Clarkson went to Ancestry and said, "Let's see what comes up" (good heavens, who scripts this stuff?).  She found Rose listed in the Andersonville Prisoners of War database and that he was exchanged in Atlanta on September 19, 1864.  (Coincidentally, this same information is available for free on the National Park Service Web site, in the Civil War Soldiers and Sailors database.  Unlike the entry on Ancestry, the CWSS site includes that Rose survived Andersonville.)  Orr told her that Andersonville had held 45,000 prisoners, to which her response was, "Wow!" (Sigh again.)  Orr said, "I'll ... see what I can find" in the way of original documents and sent Clarkson to Andersonville to get a feeling for what her ancestor's experience would have been like.

At the Andersonville National Historic Site Clarkson was met at the gates by Park Ranger Chris Barr.  He told her that the camp structures were mostly gone and that the gates themselves had been reconstructed, so practically nothing was actually left of the prison Rose had been held in.  The original Andersonville was a fenced-in stockade with no housing; prisoners made their own tents for shelter.  The prison was constructed to hold 10,000 men, but became home to 45,000.  (This number, given by both Orr and Barr, is actually misleading.  Over the course of its use Andersonville housed a total of 45,000 men, but not all at once.  According to one site, the maximum number of men there at one time was about 33,000, which is horrific enough that the presenters did not need to misrepresent the total.)

A former Andersonville prisoner named Robert H. Kellogg wrote a description of his experience at the camp from May 1864.  Clarkson read aloud a page of his book.  (Kellogg's book, Life and Death in Rebel Prisons, is available as a free download at Google Books.)  Orr showed Clarkson a photograph of an Andersonville prisoner who was barely skin and bones.  He told her that a swamp was within the camp confines and that many prisoners caught diseases while there.  Almost 13,000 prisoners died at Andersonville, making it the deadliest place of the Civil War.  Clarkson wanted to know how the prisoners left at the end of the war.  Barr showed her a record with a list of prisoners who escaped, which included Isaiah Rose.  He explained Rose probably ran away while he was in transit to a different prison.  Clarkson asked what happened then, but Barr said he didn't know.  Clarkson drove away from Andersonville, talking about how her discoveries had made her feel.  I was stunned to see that she drove past Andersonville National Cemetery and didn't say a single word about it; there wasn't even a caption on screen to identify it.

From Andersonville Clarkson headed back to the Atlanta area.  She met again with Timothy Orr, this time at the National Archives at Atlanta (actually in Morrow).  He had found Isaiah Rose's invalid pension file.  During his escape from Andersonville he had been wounded by friendly fire.  Someone in the 33rd Indiana had mistaken him for a Rebel and shot him in the left leg.  He had a 3" scar and a permanent disability.  Clarkson gave a tearful soliloquy about how Rose's legacy was four million people freed and the union kept together.  She had performed at Obama's inauguration, but he wouldn't been president if not for the Union winning the war.  This was another time she said she had to have come from a long line of people who were willing to stand up for what they believed.  They were great sentiments, but she just didn't deliver them believably.

Now Clarkson wanted to know what Rose had done after the war, so she went to Marietta, Ohio (the Washington County seat), where she met with Josh Taylor (who seems to have put on a little weight; I guess all of his success is going straight to his hips) at the Washington County Public Library.  Clarkson wondered if Rose's disability had affected his life.  Taylor had a folder about Rose.  An article from August 31, 1886 showed he had been elected to the position of county sheriff.  An article from the Marietta Daily Leader of November 8, 1905 congratulated Rose on being elected a state senator as a Republican (which Taylor explained was Lincoln's party) and included a photograph.  Clarkson's reaction?  "Oh my gosh."  And then she went on (again) about "how far back that strength came from" in her family.  Taylor suggested Clarkson go to the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus to learn more about Rose's political career.

At the Ohio Statehouse Tom Pegram, a professor of history at Loyola University in Maryland, was waiting to meet Clarkson.  She explained he had "been doing research for me" (finally an honest comment!), but then asked if there was "any way to find out" more information.  (If there weren't, why would you be here?)  Anyway, Pegram said that newspapers had a lot of political commentary about Rose and his opinions on temperance.  (One of Pegrams's research focuses is the American temperance movement.)  Rose was firmly in favor of temperance and more regulation of saloons.  Clarkson called this a "hiccup in the ancestor department", her best comment during the episode.  When Pegram explained that the temperance movement also involved women's rights, because of the number of men who would come home drunk and beat their wives, Clarkson decided, "I'm glad he [Rose] was for women."  Rose backed a bill that would allow counties to regulate saloons more; the bill passed on February 27, 1908 and was signed by the governor.  Clarkson asked whether Rose, as a freshman senator (how in the world did she know that term?), had made enemies with his support of the temperance movement.  Pegram showed her an article from the Marion Weekly Star of November 11, 1908 which said that Rose had become a target of the liquor industry and had missed being re-elected by 32 votes.  To add insult to injury, the county bill was rescinded.

Lastly, Pegram showed Clarkson the book Washington County, Ohio to 1980, which had a section on the Isaiah Rose family.  It included a photo of the family and mentioned that Rose had died on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1916 and was buried in Round Bottom Cemetery.  Clarkson wanted to see where he was buried and said (again) this is "why I stand up for things, it's in my blood."  (Do her songs repeat a refrain this many times?)

At Round Bottom Cemetery, which is near Coal Run, Clarkson found the Rose family plot fairly easily.  She seemed genuinely excited to see all the names, including Isaiah's.  She talked to his stone and told him, "I'm your three times great-granddaughter."  (Now that's something I can empathize with.  When I visit cemeteries I always talk to the people I visit.  I remember going to the Jesuit cemetery in Santa Clara, California and having a nice half-hour discussion with Father John.)  As Clarkson left the cemetery she said, "I think everyone should do this.  Now it's back to Nashville to tell Mom what I've learned."

In Nashville there was a short wrap-up with Clarkson and her mother.  They talked about Rose being a pillar of strength and how they hadn't been connected with their families but now had learned about them.  And as a final chorus, Clarkson said, "It's in our blood."

I found this an underwhelming episode because of Clarkson's on-screen persona (even all of her hugs seemed scripted), but the research held together very well, which was great to see.  I was happy that Ancestry.com did not air its horrible "you don't need to know what you're looking for" commercial, but the new "simply type in the name" isn't that much of an improvement.

Genealogy Research in San Francisco -- via BART!

Tank photo from the
"Mexican Expedition"

This is a slightly different take on research in San Francisco.  I'm going to approach it from the perspective of getting there.  I live in Oakland, which is on the other side of San Francisco Bay, so any research trip has to take into account getting across the water and into and out of San Francisco.  I love to drive, but I don't like driving in San Francisco.  The streets are narrow, parking is expensive and hard to find (especially near the research locations), and you have to pay a toll to cross the bridge just to get into the city.  So my preferred way to go to San Francisco is by BART!  And conveniently, BART can take you to some of the most important research locations in San Francisco.

The first stop on our BART research tour is Civic Center station.  If you exit the station by following the signs to 8th Street and then to Civic Center, you come out right across the street from the San Francisco Public Library and a mere two to three blocks from the Department of Public Health, City Hall, and Superior Court.

The San Francisco Public Library has two excellent research resources:  the San Francisco History Center and the Magazines and Newspapers Center.  The History Center, on the sixth floor of the library, is the official archive for San Francisco and has a wealth of information available.  There are Sanborn insurance maps for several years, a magnificant photograph collection, annual municipal reports dating back to the 1850's, vertical files with clippings on people and events, and a staff that really knows the holdings.  While you need to visit in person to see much of the material, more and more of it is being placed online, which not only makes it easier for researchers but also helps preserve the originals.  Online resources include a growing collection of the photographs, San Francisco city directories, the Sanborn maps, and a request service for obituaries.  At absolutely no charge, library staff will search San Francisco newspapers for obituaries for you, to a maximum of five requests per month.  If you want to search for yourself, or if you have more than five to look for, the Magazines and Newspapers Center on the fifth floor has microform for many San Francisco newspapers, indices for several newspapers, San Francisco and Oakland city directories and telephone books, and criss-cross directories with listings by street addresses.  Another benefit to going in person to the library is that any California resident can get a library card, which then allows you to use HeritageQuest, the historical San Francisco Chronicle, and the historical New York Times from the comfort of your home.

The Department of Public Health holds birth and death records for San Francisco County for the past three years.  In California anyone can purchase an informational copy of a birth or death certificate; these are marked clearly "not valid for identification" across the faces of the certificates.  And the information is all we need for research, right?

San Francisco City Hall has several offices that can be useful in your research.  The most commonly used are the County Clerk, which holds San Francisco County birth and death records older than three years, and the Assessor-Recorder, which has San Francisco County marriage licenses/certificates and property records.  For the County Clerk you need to know the name and date when you request your record; they don't have an index available.  The Assessor-Recorder has indices for both marriages and property records, so you can do your search on site if necessary.  I have also gone to the Tax Collector and the Small Business Center in search of records.

The Civil Division of San Francisco Superior Court handles probate, divorces, and lawsuits.  The records viewing room is where you head for research.  If you're looking for older records, you'll need to plan on two visits -- one to find a reference for your file, and the second to come back after it has been retrieved from storage (for which you pay a fee, by the way).  If you want to avoid a third visit, remember to bring a self-addressed stamped envelope with you the second time, because you can't get copies on the spot; you have to return the file and request your copies, and they'll be done within the next ten business days.  If you forget the envelope, you're coming back a third time to pick up the copies.

If by chance your research leads you to the seedier side of San Francisco history, the Civic Center station is also the closest one to the Criminal Division of the Superior Court.  This is a little bit more of a walk from BART, maybe fifteen minutes, and from the opposite end of the station.  Room 101 is where you go to look up records and request copies.  Listings for more recent cases are in the main room.  If you want to research older cases, you need to have permission to go into the office area, and you can plow through the old, musty, dusty ledgers.  As with the Civil Division, older files must be retrieved from storage, which can take up to a month, but there's no fee.  So plan on two visits.  I haven't done any research on recent cases, so I don't know if copies of those records can be obtained on your first visit.  I also haven't found any files that I needed copies of, so I don't know if they'll make the copies while you're there.

Our next BART stop for research is the Montgomery Street station.  Here you should follow the signs toward New Montgomery Street.  You'll exit just off New Montgomery.  Head down New Montgomery, turn right on Mission Street, and soon you will arrive at the California Historical Society.  Its library, which is focused solely on California, is open to researchers at no charge.  The collection includes directories, books, photographs, manuscripts, and ephemera such as letters, diaries, and business letterhead.  Of particularly interest are photographs of many San Francisco locations after the 1906 earthquake and fire.  If you are researching people who lived in San Francisco, I highly recommend looking here to see what they might have.

You can't quite get to Sutro Library using only BART.  You can either go to Embarcadero station and take Muni light rail (M line) to San Francisco State University at 19th Avenue and Holloway Avenue, or to Daly City station and take a #28 Muni bus to the same corner.  From the Muni stop it's a short walk onto the campus and to the library.

Sutro Library is the genealogical branch of the California State Library system and has the largest genealogy collection west of Salt Lake City.  It holds city directories, local and American history books, and many genealogy and family history books, along with a special collection of Adolph Sutro's rare books and manuscripts.  Among the items in the special collection are two psalters that belonged to King James I of England, a book of drawings from one of James Cook's voyages on the Endeavour, maps galore, Torah scrolls, photo books (including one from a "Mexican expedition" in 1916, which included the tank at the top of this post), Japanese paintings, and Mexican government publications detailings events in the 18th and 19th centuries.  Unlike the California Historical Society, it is not just about California!  And now that Sutro has a permanent location, the staff would love for people to come and use the facility.

One of the best research facilities we have available in this area is the local branch of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).  While it isn't actually in San Francisco (it's in San Bruno), its official name is the National Archives at San Francisco, so I'm including it here.  And it is reachable by BART!  Go to the San Bruno station and exit toward Tanforan mall.  Walk around the mall and cross El Camino Real at Commodore Drive, then continue down Commodore until you reach the Archives.  It's about a 20-minute walk.

This branch of the National Archives holds records from northern and central California; Nevada (except Clark County [Las Vegas]); Hawaii; American Samoa; Guam; the Marshall, Caroline, and Northern Mariana Islands; and U.S. Navy bases on foreign territory in the Pacific and Far East.  Along with censuses, ship manifests, ship log books, and naturalizations, there are records from the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (Freedmen's Bureau), Bureau of Indian Affairs, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Federal Aviation Administration, among many others.  There are also genealogy workshops offered.  The Archives has a so much information, and a staff that wants to help you discover information.  This is your tax dollars at work -- use it!

U.S. National Archives Regional Residency Fellowship Program

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration has announced its Request for Proposals for the 2013 Regional Residency Fellowship Program.  The program has generous support from the Foundation for the National Archives.

The 2013 Regional Residency Fellowship Program gives researchers the opportunity to conduct original research using records held at National Archives regional locations in Boston, Massachusetts; Denver, Colorado; Fort Worth, Texas; Riverside, California; San Francisco, California; and St. Louis, Missouri.  The program offers researchers an opportunity to explore often overlooked records held by the National Archives and to learn what many other researchers have discovered -- you do not need to go to Washington, D.C. to do research at the National Archives.

For 2013, one fellow will be assigned to each of the participating National Archives facilities, for a total of six fellowships.  Each fellow will receive a $3,000.00 stipend, funded by the Foundation, to assist with travel and research expenses.

Fellowship recipients are expected to complete a research project that results in a publishable work product.  In addition, within one year of receiving the fellowship, each recipient will be asked to prepare a short report for publication by the National Archives that describes the research experience:  the discovery, methods, and use of the records at the chosen facility.

The use of social media to share information about the experience is encouraged.  Fellows also will be asked to conduct a staff briefing at the end of their research visit to share information regarding what was found during the research process.

Academic and independent historians, public and local historians, and writers are encouraged to apply.  Current National Archives employees and contractors and their immediate family members are not eligible.

Proposals may be submitted by e-mail or postal mail and must be received by March 15, 2013. Awards will be announced May 1, 2013.

For application instructions and more information about the program, visit:
http://blogs.archives.gov/prologue/?p=11587

Researcher Forum at National Archives at San Francisco, January 28, 2013

This sounds like such a great opportunity, but I can't go!  (Let's see, at 4:00 p.m. I should be arriving at the West Oakland BART station as I operate the train on my return trip to Dublin.  I think someone would notice if I weren't there.)  I would love to hear from anyone who does attend on how it goes.

The National Archives at San Francisco (which is really in San Bruno) will hold a public researcher forum with National Archives Research Services Executive Bill Mayer on Monday, January 28, from 4:00-5:30 p.m.  Mayer hopes to meet researchers and constituents of our local National Archives branch and to gather feedback.  He oversees fifteen facilities of the National Archives nationwide, but this is his first visit to the facility in San Bruno.  This is an opportunity to meet our representative on the National Archives management team and to share customer experiences (positive, negative, and to-be-improved-upon).  Read more about Mayer at http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2012/nr12-117.html.

* * * * * * *

National Archives at San Francisco
Researcher Forum with Bill Mayer
Monday, January 28, 2013
4:00-5:30 p.m.
Leo J. Ryan Memorial Federal Building
1000 Commodore Drive, San Bruno, CA 94066
(within walking distance of the San Bruno BART station)

Researcher forums are designed to gather feedback from researchers who visit National Archives facilities on a regular basis.  Mayer will answer questions and discuss issues related to the National Archives as a whole as well as the San Francisco archive specifically.

While the forum is open to the public, the National Archives staff need to know if you plan to attend this free event.  Please RSVP by e-mailing sanbruno.archives@nara.gov if you're going and type "Researcher Forum" in the subject line of the message.

Photo identification is required to enter the building.

Using Archives for Your Research

Do you use archives for your research?  Archives generally are established for permanent storage of records that are unique and often unpublished.  They may contain manuscripts, diaries, original records, letters, and other items that are considered to have lasting value.  One example is the U.S. National Archives, which keeps and maintains original records dating back to before the establishment of this country.  When I visited National Archives I in August 2011, I had the opportunity to hold a piece of paper signed by my third-great-grandfather.  That's the kind of experience you usually have only at an archive (unless you are lucky enough to have family heirlooms like that!).

To help researchers use archives more effectively, the Society of American Archivists has published a free guide.  Using Archives:  A Guide to Effective Research describes the function of archives, how to locate archives that have materials relevant to your research, how to use tools such as finding aids and databases, and how to plan a visit to an archive.  You can use the guide online or download a PDF version.

I hope this inspires you to look for material about your family in archives.  If you find something, tell us about it!

Tom Lantos Research Center Named; Alien Files Now Available

Tom Lantos

Tuesday a group of about 100 people gathered at the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) regional branch in San Bruno, California, to celebrate the release to the public of A- (Alien) Files.  In addition, the research area of the building was dedicated to and named for the late U.S. Representative Tom Lantos, the only Holocaust survivor to have served in the U.S. Congress.

The ceremony was held in the outdoor seating area of the San Bruno facility on a beautiful day.  Several people spoke, including Tom Mills, Chief Operating Officer of NARA; Dominick Gentile, chief of the Records Division of USCIS; U.S. Representative Jackie Speier; representatives of Save Our National Archives, the National Japanese American Historical Society, and the San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society; and Representative Lantos' grandson Keaton Swett.  All speakers touched on the themes of family history and the great treasures and information to be found in the A-Files.

A-Files were created by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) for immigrants to the United States who arrived in 1944 and later, or who arrived earlier but who had immigration paperwork processed after 1943.  The files were not originally scheduled to be kept permanently.  A grass-roots San Francisco Bay area group, Save Our National Archives (SONA), lobbied to have the files saved permanently and made available to researchers.  Representative Lantos agreed and helped press the issue.  After his death in 2008, Representative Speier continued support for the project.  In 2009 NARA and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS; the government agency which took the place of the INS) signed an agreement to keep the files as permanent records.

A-Files from offices in San Francisco, Honolulu, Reno, and Guam will be maintained at the NARA branch in San Bruno.  (A-Files from other locations are available through the NARA branch in Kansas City, Missouri.)  Currently more than 40,000 files for individuals born in 1911 and earlier are available in San Bruno.  In 2015 files for people born in 1912-1914 will be transferred from USCIS to NARA.  Every five years after that another five years of records will be transferred.  In addition, USCIS created a name index for the records, which is available to the archivists in San Bruno.

I hope many people take advantage of the opportunity now available to them and make use of these records.  Detailed information about the records available in San Bruno is on the NARA Web site.  You can search the online index to the collection to see if the person you are seeking has a file (this index searches the records held at Kansas City only).  You can also search the general ARC index using the terms "alien case file" and the name of the person you are looking for.  If you find a file exists, you can then schedule a visit and hold the original documents in your hands.

Additional comments on today's ceremony, including images of sample documents from A-Files, can be read at the blog of the California State Genealogical Alliance.

Restoration of Some Burned Military Records

One of the more frustrating record losses affecting 20th-century U.S. research is the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis that burned 80% of enlisted Army personnel records from 1957 back through World War I and earlier.  There has been no real substitute for the records, though a soldier's career can be pieced together somewhat with morning reports, as long as you know the unit he was in.  The loss of records affected not only research, but the ability of veterans to prove their service and obtain benefits.

An article from January 1, 2012 discusses restoration work being done on these records at the NPRC.  Of the approximately 6.5 million records that were damanged in the fire, so far about 15,000-20,000 records have been fully treated, which is admittedly only a small fraction.  Even the archivists in St. Louis concede that the restoration work will not be finished in their lifetimes.  But every piece of paper restored recovers more information and makes it available to researchers and veterans.

My thanks to Jan Meisels Allen for posting about this article.

Ancestry Day San Francisco

Ancestry Day San Francisco went well today.  The numbers I heard for registration varied between 900 and 1,000, but counting all the volunteers it had to be least 1,000 attendees total.  Everything seemed to run very smoothly, and the California Genealogical Society had plenty of people around if you needed help.

I did several consultations with attendees who had questions on next steps in their research, I taught one class, and still managed to go to two talks myself, so it was a busy day.  Most of my consultations were on Jewish genealogy, and along with making suggestions for additional research I shared a list of resources for Jewish research in the San Francisco Bay area.  I also tackled questions about German research and a deadbeat husband in Oklahoma.  I think I was able to give everyone good advice on what to do next.

My class went incredibly well.  The ballroom was pretty packed with about 140 people, probably the largest group I've had for my online newspaper talk.  And it was the first time I've used a microphone for the class!  I'm still pretty sure everyone would have been able to hear me (many years of vocal training have taught me how to project my voice very well), but the AV guy convinced me he didn't want to catch any flak, so I gave in.  Several attendees came up at the end to tell me they really enjoyed the talk, including the senior reference librarian from the Oakland Public Library.  That was a particularly special compliment for me, as I respect her opinion very much.

The first class I attended was about Fold3.com, the new, modified verison of Footnote.com since that company was purchased by Ancestry.com.  I picked up quite a bit of useful information.  The most promising was that the acquisitions division is aware of the U.S. Army morning reports in Kansas City and is trying to work out an arrangement with the National Archives to digitize them.  These morning reports aren't exactly a substitute but can help with research where the records are missing due to the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri.  These records have not been microfilmed, so currently you must travel to Kansas City to view them.

The speaker told us that the majority of the indexing on Fold3 is done manually, not by OCR scanning, which I think is a good thing.  He also mentioned that the indexing is done overseas, however, but didn't say if any quality control or checking was conducted.  The other interesting tidbit was that I learned what happened to SmallTownPapers on the site.  Apparently the original license was extremely favorable to SmallTownPapers, and they were not willing to renegotiate the terms, so the decision was made to drop the license.  That's a shame, as it was convenient to have that bundled with the Footnote/Fold3 subscription, but it was a logical business decision.  On the other hand, SmallTownPapers is now a free site, but I haven't been able to determine if they're offering the same content they did previously.  If they are offering the same content, and it's free now, then what was the point in Footnote licensing it before?  And if it isn't the same content, what happened to the rest of it?

The second class I took was a mixed bag.  Some of the information I was familiar with, some was new and helpful, but some I knew to be inaccurate.  It's always frustrating when a speaker gives bad information, but it can be more of a problem for beginners, because they tend to have less experience to critically assess that information.  Ah, well, such is life.  I did learn something new, so overall that makes it positive, right?

International Jewish Genealogy Month

Tonight at sundown International Jewish Genealogy Month (IJGM) began.  It is celebrated during the Hebrew month of Cheshvan, which in 2011 runs from October 29 to November 26.  The purpose of IJGM is to promote the hobby of genealogy and to make people aware that there is a local Jewish genealogical society that can help them get started on their research.  We also honor our ancestors through our family history research.

The San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society is holding three events to celebrate IJGM.  The first one is a Jewish family history open house at the Oakland Regional Family History Center (4766 Lincoln Avenue, Oakland, CA 94602) on Sunday, November 13, from 1:00-5:00 p.m.  Knowledgeable researchers will be on hand to help beginners and those with more experience.  Author and researcher Ron Arons will present "Putting the Flesh on the Bones:  Researching Why Our Ancestors Did What They Did" twice during the afternoon.  A representative from the U.S. Bureau of the census will have informational and promotional materials, and we are also hoping to have someone from the U.S. National Archives regional branch in San Bruno.

On Monday, November 14, SFBAJGS treasurer Jeff Lewy will discuss how to create and publish a family history story without having to become a professional author.  In "Book 'em, Danno!  Publishing Your Family's Story", he will explain how he wrote down family stories, filled in some gaps with his own research, added photos, and used an online publisher/printer to make an inexpensive book his relatives are buying and telling others about.  Jeff's talk will take place at Congregation Beth Am, 26790 Arastradero Road Room 5/6, Los Altos Hills, CA 94022.  Doors open at 7:00 p.m.; the program begins 7:30 p.m.

Finally, on Sunday, November 20, Dr. Lara Michels will present "Family History at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life" at Congregation Beth Israel Judea (625 Brotherhood Way, San Francisco, CA 94132).  In 2010 the Magnes Museum became a division of UC Berkeley's Bancroft Library.  Dr. Michels has been inventorying and cataloguing the museum's collections during the past year.  The collection has never before been fully catalogued.  She will provide an update on the Magnes Collection, paying particular attention to the ways in which it can serve the needs and research interests of genealogists and family historians.  Doors open at 12:30 p.m.; the program begins at 1:00 p.m.

All the events are free, and everyone who is interested is welcome to attend.  If you have been thinking about researching your family history, this would be a great time to start, and these talks will help get you going.

LincolnArchives Digital Project: Call for Volunteers

The LincolnArchives Digital Project seeks volunteers in the Washington, D.C. metro area to help digitize the Civil War military service records located at the National Archives facility in Washington.  The records, along with the pension files, have been selected to be moved to the St. Louis facility within the next five years.  Volunteers will receive free subscriptions to the LincolnArchives Digital Project site.

Two scanners are available at the Archives I facility.  Approximately four service records can be scanned per hour.  Records are being scanned at 600 dpi, 24-bit color.  Each military service record will be burned to a DVD.  One copy will be given to NARA to use as they see fit.  Those who have laptops with DVD burners and scanners that can do 600 dpi color scans are welcome to bring their own equipment.  The goal is to digitize at least 300 service records per week, starting with the state of Illinois.

Contact Karen Needles, LincolnArchives Digital Project Director, at (240) 462-9802.

The Archives building is open 9-5 Monday and Tuesday, 9-9 Wednesday-Friday, and 9-5 on Saturday.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Archives

Rob Richards, Director of Archival Operations at the National Archives at Atlanta, Georgia, will be the featured speaker at a seminar running from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 10, 2011.  The seminar will be at the LDS Meeting House, 875 Quince Avenue, Santa Clara, California.  Some of the topics to be covered:

• What is an archivist?
• What is an archive?
• What is the National Archives?
• Preserving family documents
• Different ways to value documents
• NARA records at Atlanta (many of which are also available at San Bruno)

I hope he will also discuss how information in archives can be helpful in family history research and effective ways to research in an archive.

The seminar is free and open to the public.  No reservations are needed, and there is plenty of free parking.  Some light refreshments will be served, but you should plan to bring a lunch or buy something in the area.

The seminar is sponsored by the Silicon Valley Computer Genealogy Group.  If you have any questions, send a message to siliconvalleygroup@earthlink.net.

Goodies at the National Archives

I had a great day at the National Archives, though the research on my great-great-grandfather became a comedy of errors.  I had neglected to bring my copy of his compiled service record, so I did not have the names of the hospitals he had been treated at.  Before I went to the Archives I tried to find the information by looking on Footnote (now officially Fold3), but discovered that the Civil War service records for New Jersey are not available there.  I had learned, however, that the carded medical records for soldiers were arranged by unit and then soldier's name, and I had that information.  But when I had those records pulled, my great-great-grandfather had no cards.  So I figured I would look at his compiled service record on microfilm (which is faster than hard-copy records) and get the information that way, then request the hospital records.  Unfortunately, New Jersey is not microfilmed, which is why it isn't on Footnote, because Footnote digitized the microfilmed records.  So I had to request the hard copy of the service record, and by the time I got that, I didn't have enough time to request the hospital records.

What I did find was still enlightening and interesting.  Apparently some of the medical cards have now been added to service record files, because two medical cards which I did not receive copies of previously were included in the packet I looked at today.  My great-great-grandfather had been claiming that he had epilepsy and had had fainting spells, etc.  While he was in the hospital, however, he didn't exhibit any of the symptoms he had been claiming, which led to the "shamming" assessment, and he was returned to duty.  The really exciting item in the file, though, was a document signed by my third-great-grandfather, who had to give permission for his underage son to enlist.  I was holding a piece of paper signed by my great-great-great-grandfather.  It was an incredible feeling.

I had better success with finding documents for another person I was researching.  He enlisted in the regular U.S. Army infantry in 1890 and deserted in 1891.  I now have copies of his original enlistment paperwork (signed by him), his medical exam results, morning reports for his units for the entire time he stayed in the Army, and reports from a cavalry unit he was assigned to for a month (including everywhere they patrolled).  I learned that he was already in trouble before he deserted because he owed the Army money, and after he deserted there are notes suggesting that the Army tried to track him down to collect.  I was not able to get a copy of his official separation papers from the Army, because those records are currently being digitized.  I have so much new material to analyze and more records to request later.  I wanted to do the genealogy happy dance in the room, but there were too many grumpy people around, and I didn't think they would appreciate it.

Ah, well, time to pack my bags and get ready to leave tomorrow morning to head back to California.  I am scheduled to be back in the DC area in November, and I'm already making plans for more research.