Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Four Things!

Well, I certainly haven't posted in a while!  My last post was January 15 for my blogiversary, and before that it was December 1.  I have nothing but my health to blame, but I've decided I need to start writing again anyway, and what better day to start than on my birthday?  I turned 60 today, and coincidentally Randy Seaver provided a theme for Saturday Night Genealogy Fun that works nicely with a birthday — writing about myself.  So let's get back in the blogging habit!

Your mission, should you decide to accept it (cue the Mission:  Impossible! music here), is:

1.  Let's have some genealogy fun tonight and answer some family-history-related questions with four responses (Four Things!).

2.  Share your answers with us in your own blog, in a Facebook or Instagram post, or in the comments on this blog post.  Please leave a link to anything you post elsewhere in a comment.

Okay, here are my answers.

Four Names I Go By
1.  Janice
2.  Jan-Jan (but only for my maternal grandmother)
3.  Bubbie
4.  Amanda Rycroft (Faire character)

Four Places I've Lived (Resided)
1.  Maroubra Junction, New South Wales, Australia
2.  Niceville, Florida
3.  Oakland, California
4.  Gresham, Oregon

Four Ancestral Places I Have Been
1.  Mount Holly, New Jersey
2.  Manhattan, New York
3.  Miami, Florida
4.  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Four Interesting Places I Have Been
1.  Athens, Greece
2.  San Sebastian, Spain
3.  Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
4.  Tallinn, Estonia

Four Favorite Ancestors
1.  Ann (Ridgway) Gaunt, 1710–1794
2.  Gershon Itzhak Novitsky, ~1858–1948
3.  Minnie Zelda (Nowicki) Meckler, ~1880–1936
4.  Moses Mulliner, 1741–1821

Four Favorite Genealogy Record Collections
1.  Historical newspapers
2.  Religious records (all, not just BMD!)
3.  Probate files
4.  Military pensions and service records

Wordless Wedneseay

Wordless Wednesday

Family History in Sacramento

Saturday I attended the Sacramento FamilySearch Library's annual seminar, with the theme of "Get a Clue."  I think they've held them for a few years, but this is the first time I've gone.  It was a well organized day with a good selection of talks.  There were five class periods and seven classes during each period.

I was invited to give two presentations (which is the reason I went), on online newspapers and women's maiden names.  Both of my sessions were well attended, and everyone was really enthusiastic about learning new methods to find answers to their research questions.  I love seeing people get excited about family history research!

I attended talks on military records, researching collateral lines, and adoption research.  By far the standout was the session on adoption, which I thought was appropriate, since November is National Adoption Month.  The speaker, Don Mencarini, has worked in the Adoptions Support Unit of the California Department of Social Services (DSS) for more than 27 years.  He gave lots of detailed information on how the Adoptions Support Unit can help with research and also about the limitations of what they can reveal.  The unit has records going back to 1928 and handles all of them under California's closed adoption laws, even though California didn't actually seal adoption records until 1935.  Mencarini was very surprised to learn, however, that before adoption records were sealed they were indexed with other civil cases in county superior courts.  (Yeah, I'm the one who told him that.)  He also told us that DSS has a record of all adoptions in California.  I am very happy I learned about this useful resource.

New Online Database of Arkansas Deaths

The Arkansas History Commission has added a database of Arkansas deaths covering 1819–1920.  The database was designed to supplement the official state vital records, which began recording deaths in 1914.  The results from a search give the source of the information and the date recorded there.  Sources include cemetery records, mortality censuses, newspaper obituaries, church publications, and records from the Arkansas History Commission’s holdings.  Only the name is given for the source; if it isn't something you recognize, I would guess you can e-mail the Commission staff and ask about it.  The database is being created by Commission staff and volunteers, who continue to add new records every month.

I tried some sample searches.    It appears that the search does not support wildcards.  The search is by exact spelling, but it looks for names that match or begin with your search term.  For example, I searched for "robins" and got results for Robins and Robinson.  When I searched for "seller", however, I got all the Sellers results twice.

In addition to the new database, the Arkansas History Commission (which is the state archives) also has search pages for newspapers, military records, photographs, land records, and more.  This is a great resource for Arkansas research.

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.

Genealogical Kindness and Military Medals

I received an unusual phone call today.  A woman called me from Cincinnati, Ohio, to ask if I had any relatives in the area.  She had been at an estate sale earlier in the day, and a Purple Heart awarded to a Sellers was one of the items that had been for sale.  I don't know where she found my name, but she thought perhaps it might be a relative of mine.  I told her I did have relatives who had moved to Ohio, though I didn't know of any in Hamilton County, and I was at least interested in knowing to whom the Purple Heart had been awarded.  She went back to the estate sale and discovered that several buyers had objected to the Purple Heart being sold and that it had been pulled from the sale and returned to the woman who owned the property -- who then turned right around and sold it on the side to an individual.  The woman who called me was very upset that the Purple Heart had been treated so cavalierly.

I did a little research online to try to find out what should have been done with the medal.  I found a reference stating that lost medals and other military items should be returned to the Secretary of Defense, but nothing about the proper protocol when family members don't want to keep medals.  Apparently the woman who sold it was the rightful owner, and she had no interest in keeping it.

I appreciate the kindness of the woman who called me, who was hoping that if the medal were to be sold, at least it should go to someone who was related to the person who had earned it.  I hope the person who purchased it gives it the respect it is due.