Extend a Helping (Genealogical) Hand: Flemish Scots, the Apollo Theater, Buffalo Soldiers, Transcription, and More

1869 National Colored Convention
Washington, D.C.

"Colored Conventions" took place before and after the Civil War, with free and fugitive blacks gathering to discuss and create strategies for legal, labor, healthcare, and educational justice and other problems and challenges.  Minutes were taken at these conventions, but the ones that have survived are in rare, out-of-print books.  A new project is crowdsourcing transcription of the minutes so that they can be digitized and made available to researchers of all ages.  Transcribers correct machine-generated OCR text from scanned images, which is easier than typing it all in.  (This would make a great project for a society to work on together.)

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Another crowdsourced transcription project is one started by the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.  The papers of Richard Yates, Sr., an ally of Lincoln and governor of Illinois during the Civil War, have been digitized with money from a grant.  The library has set up a Web site for volunteers to transcribe the pages (currently almost 13,000 pages are available to work on).  The intention is to create a searchable database of the transcribed text.

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Apparently some researchers estimate that up to a third of the current Scottish population may have Flemish ancestry (as in the surname Fleming).  The Flemish immigrants came between the 11th and 17th centuries.  Some Scottish surnames that may have Flemish origins are Armstrong (I have Armstrong ancestors!), Baird, Balliol, Beaton, Brodie, Bruce, Cameron, Campbell, Comyn, Crawford, Douglas, Dowie, Erskine, Graham, Hamilton, Hay, Innes, Lindsay, Murray, Oliphant, Seton, and Sutherland.

Professor Roger Mason, of the Institute of Scottish Historical Research at the University of St. Andrews, is leading the Scotland and the Flemish People project to assess the impact of the Flemish on Scotland.  The project includes a DNA component.  John Irvine (a genealogist and local historian) and Dr. Alex Fleming (a retired economist) of the Abertay Historical Society are part of the project team.  Plans are to have a conference for Easter 2016, and one or possibly more publications.

The project is looking for people to share local historical and genealogical resources with information about Flemish settlements, lives, and work in Scotland.  If you can contribute or are interested in learning more, you can read about the project here and here, or contact members of the project team:  Dr. Alex Fleming, John Irvine, or Prof. Roger Mason.

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Several members of the genealogical community have already been working on the identification of a photograph apparently of ten Buffalo soldiers, but since the mystery has not yet been resolved, I figure more publicity might be a good thing.  The photograph was discovered some 40 years ago, hidden behind an illustration in an inexpensive photograph frame.  The men in the photo were identified by an appraiser in 1994 as being in the U.S. Cavalry, 9th Regiment, Company G.  The owner of the photograph was interviewed recently by a local newspaper, and some input on the photograph is on the Where Honor Is Due blog.

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A post on the Roads to the Great War blog is publicizing a family's search for the location of a World War I portrait.  The portrait of Corporal Jack Marqusee was apparently painted by an "artist of international fame" for the British government.  The family has a photograph of the portrait but is trying to determine the location of the portrait itself.

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The historic Apollo Theater in Harlem has created an archive and is trying to recover documents, memorabilia, and other artifacts that have been lost, discarded, or forgotten over the years.  Some items sought are marketing materials, costumes, band stands, microphones, and original photographs.  Antiques Roadshow featured the Apollo's search on a "Roadshow's Most Wanted" segment.  If your family had any connection to the Apollo, maybe you can help.

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The Jewish community in the town of Dunayevtsy, Ukraine, known by its Jewish residents as Dinovitz, has been allowed to reclaim a building in town that was once known to be a synagogue.  To accomplish this the community needs to provide documentation to the local authorities about the town's former synagogues.  This could be printed materials, photographs, or stories from family members.  Oral and written materials will both be considered.

There is little actual documentation on synagogues in the shtetl.  The community in Dunayevtsy has not been able to find much information in the local Russian archives and libraries.  YIVO has been contacted and also has little information of use.  If you had family that lived in Dinovitz, please look through any papers, photographs, or memorabilia that you may have and send a message to Carol Rombro Rider.

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If you have family from the town of Biecz in Poland and have collected vital records or have testimonies of family members from the 1920's–1930's, the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODŻ) would like to hear from you in connection with a project involving the Biecz Talmud Torah building, built about 1924.  Please write to Marla Raucher Osborn.

It's That Giving Time of Year: World War I and II, Missouri Death Certificates, Vishniac Photos, Kilts, and More

It seems there are always more genealogy projects and mysteries that volunteers can help with, doesn't it?  I'm posting some of these later than I planned to, but all still appear to need assistance or answers.

More large institutions are turning to crowdsourcing to make information available.  The Smithsonian opened its Transcription Center to public input this past July.  After having digitized many handwritten documents, volunteers are now sought to transcribe the often difficult-to-read writing.  As with most such projects, each document is transcribed by multiple volunteers to try to ensure the highest accuracy.

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The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is also following the trend.  The museum has worked with the International Center of Photography in New York to digitize and place online the work of photographer Roman Vishniac.  Many, probably most, of the existing captions did not name the individuals in the photos.  If you can give names to previously unidentified photos, your help is wanted.  Visit the Vishniac collection and see if there's someone you know.  If you recognize a person or a place, click the link below the photo to send a message.

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Now this is a project made for family historians.  To help commemorate the centennial of World War I, the New York Times is asking people to share stories of their ancestors' roles during the war, along with the efforts made to learn about those stories.  So instead of just the bare facts, you can tell about the research you did and where you went to find out what happened to your great-grandfather.  One woman's story about her grandfather, who fought on the German side, is online.

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Every January 2, under Missouri state law, the Missouri State Archives receives another year's worth of death certificates from 50 years previous.  The archives processes and scans the certificates, and then volunteers do a transcription marathon.  It takes the volunteers only about four days to transcribe and check the year's worth of certificates, around 50,000–60,000 images.  The archives usually adds the images and the transcribed entries to the death certificate database by the middle of February.

Volunteers work from the comfort of their own homes, as with the FamilySearch Indexing program.  Also similar is that each record is transcribed twice and then checked.  If they don't match, however, a third person transcribes the record.  If none of the transcriptions match at that point, a staff member reviews the certificate.  Unlike FamilySearch, this program has no software you must download, but you do need to create a free account.

Mary Stanfield is the eVolunteer Project Coordinator.  If you or your society is interested in participating this January to transcribe 1964 death certificates, or if you have any questions, contact her at archvol@sos.mo.gov.

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The Jews of Frankfort DNA Project is both a regional and a surname Y-DNA project.  Male participants are sought who are Jewish; have a surname found in Frankfort/Worms in the 16th century; and have a documented lineage back to a male ancestor in the 16th century or earlier living in Frankfurt, Worms, Mainz, Alsace, Prague, Vienna, or another major Jewish center.  If you fit the criteria, the project would like you to take a Y-DNA test at Family Tree DNA and submit the results.  More information, including the known list of surnames, is available on the project Web site.

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A Glasgow seamstress sewing a kilt intended to be part of a World War I uniform included a note tucked into the stitching.  It's possible that Helen Govan was looking for a future husband:  "I hope your kilt will fit you well, & in it you will look a swell. If married never mind. If single drop a line. Wish you bags of luck, & a speedy return back to Blighty Town."  Now that the note has been discovered, the family that owns the kilt is searching for descendants or other relatives of Govan to learn more about her and the reason she included the note.

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A man who purchased a World War I medallion, and his father, are now trying to determine to whom the medal belonged.  They have done some research and learned that six men who served on the SS River Clyde at Gallipoli earned the Victoria Cross and this medallion, which was given by the Imperial Merchant Service Guild for bravery.  You can read the story of the men's service here.  The names of five of the men are included in the article.

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An online Michigan newspaper has been searching for the 39,000 World War II veterans it estimates are still alive in Michigan at the present time.  MLive created a database to share the veterans' names, photographs, and experiences and to honor their service.  The big push was to include information by Veterans Day, but information is still being sought.  An announcement about the project is available, and the database and submission form can be found here (scroll down for the submission form).

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At the Battle of Bannockburn, the outnumbered forces of Robert the Bruce defeated the English army of King Edward.  The 700th anniversary of the battle has passed, but if you believe you are descended from one of the men who fought there, researchers would still like to talk to you and help you determine if your ancestor was there, using modern DNA techniques.  Stewarts and McDonalds particularly are encouraged to contact Graham Holton, who was the head of the family history project for the anniversary.

Indexing (Transcribing, Really), British Maps, Scots, and Australians

Will you be participating in the FamilySearch Worldwide Indexing Project?  (Even though it's actually transcribing, not indexing, as any true indexer will be happy to explain to you.)

All of the searchable databases for the genealogy records available on FamilySearch.org are thanks to volunteers who transcribe information from digitized microfilm.  In 2012, FamilySearch had a 24-hour marathon session where 49,025 volunteers participated by transcribing or verifying records.  This year, on July 20 and 21, FamilySearch is trying to beat the record number of volunteers that was set in 2012.  They hope to have 50,000 people participate this time, which actually shouldn't be that difficult, since they were so close last time.

How about getting a bunch of people together and making a party of it?  That's what we're doing here in Oakland!  Several staff members from the Oakland FamilySearch Library are having an indexing party on Monday.  We're getting together for brunch and transcribing.  And we'll probably have lots of chocolate to munch on while we're working.

It's really easy to get started.  Everything you need to know is right here.  To be counted in the official total, all you need to do is submit one batch of records.  Of course, if you want to do more, no one's going to complain ....

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Similar to the New York Public Library appeal to crowdsourcing to identify details in 19th-century atlases that have been digitized and placed online, the British Library has uploaded more than 3,000 maps from 17th-, 18th-, and 19th-century references to Flickr and is now asking volunteers to help identify locations on the maps.

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The Gordon Highlanders' Museum has photographs of unidentified Gordon Highlanders from World War I.  As an experiment, the museum has teamed up with ScotlandsPeople to see if they can find anyone who can identify the men in a small number of photos.

They have created a Web page that showcases six photographs of the 7th Battalion (the Deeside Battalion) of the Gordon Highlanders.  The photos depict the 7th Battalion in the UK:  in Scotland, leaving for Bedford in August 1914, or training there until May 1915.  None of them depicts the 7th Gordons in France.

If you think you can identify anyone in the photos, please send a message to the e-mail address listed on the Web page.

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A research project at the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne is focused on Alfred Bergel (1902–1944), an artist and art teacher from Vienna.  He was one of the important figures in the cultural life of Terezín.  He was used by the Nazis to forge famous works of art.  He also worked as a painter and taught children and young people drawing, art history, and art appreciation.  He died in Auschwitz.  Today, his name and works are mostly forgotten.  If you have any information to contribute to this project, or want more information about it, please contact Mareike Montgomery at mareike.montgomery@gmail.com.

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The Destination:  Australia Web site, a project of the Australian National Archives, wants to draw on the stories of the people and family members featured in the photographs showcased on the site to create an in-depth history of Australia’s postwar immigration.  They are looking for people to share immigration stories related to the more than 21,000 photographs from a promotional series taken by the Department of Immigration since 1945.  You can tag people you know, tag where they came from and went to, add descriptions and comments, and comment on others’ contributions.

Central Park, Philadelphia, Stolpersteine, Abandoned Photographs, and More

Seneca Village Map

In an early example of government exercising eminent domain, the 19th-century community of Seneca Village was destroyed and became part of Manhattan's Central Park.  Now, historians and researchers are searching for verifiable descendants of former residents of Seneca Village.  The 1855 New York State census showed 264 people living in the village, most of African descent but also including Irish and Germans.  Is it possible that absolutely no descendants of those 264 people are alive today?  An NPR article has more information about the community and contact information for the researchers who are looking for descendants.

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The Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia is looking for authors for its next series of articles.  Topics available include key historical events, holiday traditions, civil rights, literary works, and transportation, among others.  The scope of the project includes the city of Philadelphia and the surrounding region of southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey, and northern Delaware.  The Encyclopedia has support from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Prospective authors must have expertise in their chosen subjects, as demonstrated by previous publicitions and/or advanced training in historical research.  Authors can choose to volunteer or receive modest stipends.  All submissions will be peer-reviewed.  Deadlines will be set in consultation with authors; it is expected that most will range from the end of the summer to the end of 2014.  To express interest, send an e-mail describing your qualifications and specifying your topics of interest to Charlene Mires, the editor-in-chief; no attachments.  Graduate students should include the name and e-mail address of an academic reference.  The list of available topics is available online, as are writer guidelines.

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Stolpersteine are memorial stones placed for individual victims of the Nazis.  Sixty-five residents of Thomasiusstrasse in Moabit, Berlin, are working together to organize and pay for the cost of Stolpersteine to be laid for 102 identified victims who formerly lived on the street.  Family names from this street are Asch, Badasch, Bader, Bimbaum, Brenner, Caminer, Cohn, Ehrlich, Falkenstein, Giballe, Glass, Goldschmidt, Goldberg, Goldstein, Grunwald, Herrnberg, Herzog, Hirsch, Hoffmann, Holländer, Isaacsohn, Israelski, Jarotschinski, Karger, Kahn, Kaufmann, Klein, Koppel, Kroner, Levy, Leyde, Löw, Manasse, Marcus, Markus, Mendelsohn, Nordon, Neumann, Nussbaum, Rittler, Rosenthal, Rosenwasser, Rothkugel, Schragenheim, Schwabe, Seckelson, Silbermann, Sonnenwirth, Strauss, Voss, Weisstein, Wiener, and Zoegall.

Ceremonies to lay the Stolpersteine will take place on August 8, 2014, in October 2014, and in March 2015.  Judith Elam of Kihei, Hawaii, is working with the Thomasiusstrasse residents to find living relatives of the victims.  Many relatives contacted so far plan to attend the ceremony for the laying of their relative's Stolperstein.  Contact Judith at elamj@hawaii.rr.com if your family name is on the list to learn if your relative lived on the street, or if you know your relative lived on the street and the family name does not appear above.

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The Polish Origins forum has begun a project to create a searchable database of the many names that appear in records that have been translated by the group.  Volunteers are needed to help with transcribing names for the database.  The project also accepts indices of other translated records.  For more information, including how to sign up as a volunteer, visit the forum page about the project.

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David Rafky of Miami, Florida, has found hundreds of family photos recovered from Sidney L. Binder's house after his death.  He believes they may have been taken during Binder's first marriage and knows that Binder had a daughter named Naome.  He is sure Binder's family would want the photos and is looking for contact information.  You can e-mail David at dave15851585@yahoo.com.

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Barry Mill

Historic Barry Mill in Angus, Scotland, is looking for information on a former employee who scrawled his name on a wood beam in the mill.  The note says, “Stewart Kidd left August 1914, returned March 1918.”  And that's pretty much all they know.  The master miller was trying to find information about Mr. Kidd in time for the mill's 200th anniversary celebration, which has already passed, but better late than never!  An article in The Courier has more details and a contact e-mail address if you believe you can help.

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A petition on MoveOn.org requests that the U.S. President enact an Executive Order to allow all adult adoptees access to their original birth records.  I realize this subject can be polarizing, and the mere act of my posting the link suggests which side of the debate I am on.

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Though it isn't directly related to genealogy, I'm helping publicize a good cause.  A new distributed computing project allows you to donate your computer power to help research Alzheimer's.  And Alzheimer's does have a genetic component, after all.

"Cocktail Party Conversation"

Last year I volunteered at an Ancestry Day event in San Francisco and earned a free AncestryDNA kit.  It took several months for me to receive my kit because of some unexplained glitches on the Ancestry site that prevented me from ordering (I personally think it's because I was using an American Express card).  Eventually, one of the nice people at Ancestry who kept suggesting other ways I could try to enter my information figured out it would be a lot faster and easier if she just input the information, and voilà!  My kit was ordered.

Of course, when I received the kit, I meant to send it back right away . . . yeah, that didn't happen.  I think it took me about a month or so before I finally had time to read the instructions, register the kit, come up with enough saliva to fill to the line, and send it off.  I can't say I was waiting with bated breath to see my results, but I was curious as to what Ancestry would come up with.

A week ago, I got a message in my inbox:  "Your AncestryDNA results are in!"  So I dutifully clicked the link and went to Ancestry.com to learn what discoveries would be revealed.

Well, at least some of it is realistic.  Ancestry says I'm 48% European Jewish — check.  My mother was Jewish and solidly Eastern European as far as I know.  Not as much actual documentation as I'd like (with three family lines in Grodno gubernia, that's pretty much impossible), but very reliable otherwise.

I have much better documentation on my father's side of the family, going back several generations.  He is primarily English Quaker and other English on his mother's side, and German Lutheran on his father's.  Some of the English goes back to Belgium, and some of the German to Switzerland.  The paper trail is very strong, with no evidence of nonpaternity events or undocumented adoptions.  So what does Ancestry say the rest of my background is?

Western Europe 34%
Ireland 12%
Scandinavia 2%
English less than 1%
Caucasus less than 1%
Middle East less than 1%
Italy/Greece less than 1%
Africa, American Indian, Asia, Pacific Islander 0%

The 34% Western European makes sense in context of my father's strong German background, plus the Belgian and Swiss connections.  Some Scandinavian is plausible given our English ancestry, since it is well known that Viking raiders made it to Great Britain.  Anything below 1% can safely be ignored, but even the Caucasus and Middle East could be legitimate with my mother being Jewish.

But less than 1% English?  And 12% Irish??!  Trust me, I've always wanted to be Irish, but it just ain't there.  My mother — remember I said she was Eastern European Jewish? — claimed we were part Irish on her side of the family.  Even though there are Irish Jews, that was wishful thinking on her part.  I have everything on the island of Great Britain from my father's side — English, Scottish (though probably border reivers, otherwise known as horse thieves), Welsh, and even Cornish — but absolutely no Irish.  And Ancestry says I'm 12%?  Just where are they thinking it came from?

I'm actually amused by this, however, not concerned in any way, because I keep in mind what Judy Russell, the Legal Genealogist, says over and over:  These results are nothing but cocktail party conversation, because the algorithms are built on extrapolation of data that are insufficient to give reliable information.  The companies may never have adequate data to give accurate information.  It's all smoke and mirrors, guys.

But maybe I'll raise a glass to myself next year on St. Patrick's Day anyway.

More Newspapers Listed on the Wikipedia Newspaper Archives Page

Maybe because of the holiday season, I didn't find many new links for newspaper databases over the past couple of months.  On the other hand, all of the new additions are free!  You can find all of these links added to the Wikipedia newspaper archives page.

• British Columbia:  The Herald (under various names over time) for 1900–2013 has been made available through the Terrace Public Library.
• Philippines:  The Manila Standard from 1984–2003 is online.
• Scotland:  The South Ayrshire Libraries now have an online index of births, marriages, and deaths that appeared in the Ayr Advertiser from 1801–1835.
• Connecticut:  The Wilton Public Library has searchable indices for obituaries (1937–2005) and articles (1997–2005) published in the Wilton Bulletin.
• Montana:  The Big Timber Pioneer (1893–1949) and Saco Independent (1912–1922) have been added to the Montana Memory Project.
• Ohio:  The Warren County Genealogical Society has lists of names of obituaries published in county newspapers, covering 1810–2010.  New names are added regularly.
• Ohio:  The Williams County Public Library has a searchable obituary index that covers 1862–2013, with gaps in coverage for years and newspapers.  The library will also send copies of the obituaries.
• Washington:  The Ellensburg Daily Record from 1885–2005 is online.
• Washington:  The North Olympic Library System has an obituary index that covers 1916–present.  It isn't clear from the site whether the obituaries are only for Port Angeles.
• Multistate:  The Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University has a map plotting the growth of newspapers across the U.S., created using data from the Library of Congress Chronicling America database.  The map also works as an alternative way to search for newspapers from the Chronicling America collection.
• Multistate:  The Library of Congress has a page with links to directories from 1869–1920 listing American newspapers that were being published.
• Worldwide:  The Handwritten Newspapers Project is really interesting.  It lists items from around the world, with dates ranging from 59 B.C. to A.D. 2011.  One handwritten Indian newspaper has been published in Urdu since 1927.

Have you found anything interesting in a historical newspaper recently?

New Links on Online Newspaper Archives Page

I am a huge fan of newspapers for family history research.  Newspapers can give you information on births, marriages, divorces, deaths, jobs, military service, court cases, and more.  I have been teaching classes on using online newspapers for a few years now, and one of my favorite resources to tell people about is the Wikipedia page for online newspaper archives.  This page is a portal with links to other sites with digitized newspapers, abstracts, and indices.  The links are sorted by country (and in some cases are broken down further by state or province), and there are also links to multicountry and informational sites.  And most of the sites are free!  This is one of the first places you should look when you are checking to see if newspapers in a given area are available online.

Because the page is on Wikipedia, everyone can contribute links to new resources when you find them.  I add information on a regular basis.  The latest links I added are:
• Australia: Police Gazette of Western Australia from 1876-1900
• Cyprus: American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee archive of newspapers published between 1947-1949 by Holocaust survivors detained on Cyprus
• Scotland: Word on the Street, broadsides from 1650-1910
• Worldwide: Newspaper Abstracts, abstracts and extracts from eight countries

Check for the area you're researching and see what's available online!