What Passes for Scholarship

<rant mode on>

Tonight I went to a presentation at a local historical society.  I will not grace the speaker by publishing her name, as I was, shall we say . . . disappointed in the information presented.  If you really want to know, you can probably Google and find it.

The speaker began the talk as a theatrical presentation, having the attendees clap while she sang.  This is a common tactic used to have an audience become emotionally invested in what is about to happen.  It creates an atmosphere more conducive to believing what the speaker will say.

And then it got worse.  And I'm going to quote directly from the presenter.

The speaker said she had read the many words her subject had written and then "strung them together" for her presentations.

The subject of the speaker's "research" is documented as having told several different versions of many events in her life.  The speaker defended the way her subject changed her stories as "spin doctoring" of "her own conflicting accounts."  But the speaker has been able to determine the true facts from all these versions.

The subject told several different stories about when and where she was born.  Our erstwhile "researcher" decided that seven testimonials of people who knew her some 35 or so years later, in an entirely different state, proved one of the stories was the true one.

As the presenter began talking about her subject's life, she warned us right up front that she wouldn't "bore [us] with great details" about how she had proved a lot of her information.

The presenter talked about how the research subject was supposed to have been born in slavery in Georgia, then somehow (before the Civil War) beame indentured in Nantucket for nine years.  How did that happen?  Well, it's a "long, involved story" and she "[wouldn't] go into it now."

We were shown four lines of an 1850 census page that was supposed to prove that the subject was married to a particular man -- except that the subject wasn't one of the people on the four lines.

Now, as almost anyone who knows me will attest, I have a very low tolerance for BS.  At the end of a work day, that tolerance is even lower.  So at this point I was having trouble keeping quiet.  I decided to go out to the lobby and look at the book that the speaker had available for sale (self-published, of course).

Well, that was a mistake.

The text of the book has no references.  No footnotes.  No endnotes.  No citations.  Nothing to indicate where the information came from to document any of the assertions in the book.

The book does have a reference list.  It is constructed as a list of sources that were "consulted."  Seven of the sources were the speaker's own works.  About twenty of the sources were interviews with octogenarians.  While these types of interviews are wonderful to use as leads for real research, they are not usually accepted as stand-alone evidence by themselves.  Other sources listed were incredibly generic, such as "city directories", "census", "archival documents."

While I was looking through the book, the speaker was talking about how her subject had often said that she had worked with and learned from a very famous person.  So how did the speaker "prove" that this was true?  She interviewed the subject's granddaughter, who said it was true.  Oh, so it must be, right?

The speaker is said to have a Ph.D.  This is not the quality of research I am accustomed to seeing from someone who has earned a Ph.D.

<rant mode off>

Genealogists often have a bad reputation for shoddy or questionable research.  If you present, or even do, historical research of any kind, including genealogical research, please take the time to use established best practices in your work.  Document your facts.  Use citations.  Resolve conflicting stories with facts.  Make sure that anyone who reads your work knows where your information came from.  If you have theories or beliefs that you are not able to prove, label them as such.  And as my friend Carol said, don't forget that the devil is in the details and people will be looking for that devil.

2013 Jewish Music Festival

It seems to be a festive time of year!  The San Francisco Bay area's 28th Jewish Music Festival is on the horizon, from March 2-12, 2013.  Concerts will be in Berkeley and San Francisco and are accessible by BART.  There is a convergence of interest this year with Jewish genealogy because the festival is focusing on Jewish music from Poland, from which most American Jews have ancestors.

The opening night of the festival will be on Saturday, March 2.  The program will begin at 7:00 p.m. with a slide show and talk by Ruth Ellen Gruber, the author of Virtually Jewish:  Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe.  The concert, following at 8:00 p.m., will be from Shofar (Polish-Jewish jazz) and Polesye (joint Polish-Israeli Yiddish CD project).

One of the highlights of this year's festival will be a performance on Thursday, March 7, by Theodore Bikel (known worldwide for portraying Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof) with Yiddish singer Shura Lipovsky and Bosnian accordion player Merima Ključo.  There will also be a world premiere on Saturday, March 9, in commemoration of the 70th anniversarity of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising>.

A brochure about the festival is available online. General and ticket information are at the Jewish Music Festival site.  The festival offers discounts to seniors, students, and groups of ten or more.  For more information about the group discount contact Outreach Coordinator Lauren Weiss at (510) 848-0237 x118.

Wordless Wednesday

Latest Updates to Wikipedia Newspaper Page

These latest additions to the Wikipedia portal page for online newspaper archives have been posted:

• India: portal to newspapers and journals (mostly free) relevant to Indian research
• Israel: two new newspapers on the National Library of Israel site
• Russia: Tikva, an Odessa Jewish newspaper; the Starosti archive, an interesting collection of transcribed articles from 1901–1913 from multiple papers; and Old Gazette, another site with transcribed articles, from at least 1926–2010
• Massachusetts: The Jewish Advocate archive now goes to 1905
• Missouri: The American Jewess, published 1895–1899
• USA Multistate: Newspapers.com, the new site from Ancestry.com, including a link to the list of newspapers on the site (which is unfortunately alphabetized by name of newspaper and not sortable any other way, and each entry has a huge graphic, making the page far too long)

What interesting articles have you found in your newspaper research?

2013 Days of Remembrance

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum leads the Days of Remembrance, the annual U.S. national commemoration of the Holocaust.  The theme for this year's week of observance, which will be April 7-14, is "Never Again:  Heeding the Warning Signs."  This theme focuses on the events of 1938 and the response, or lack of response, to them.  Many countries and individuals did not react to the warning signs of what became the Holocaust, yet a few chose to act.

In 2013 the museum is also celebrating the 20th anniversary of its opening.  In honor of the anniversary, the museum invites everyone to join in remembering Holocaust victims by organizing or participating in a Days of Remembrance event.  The museum has a national map on its Web site showing events that are planned.  You can search for an event or add one to the map.

If you want to organize a remembrance event, you can request a free CD/DVD Planning Guide and Resources for Annual Holocaust Commemorations from the museum.   Fill out the request form as soon as possible, because the museum has a limited number of the guides.

While Jews were the primary focus of the Nazis, other groups, including homosexuals, Gypsies, Catholics, and political dissidents, were also targeted.  It is important to remember the events of the Holocaust so that they will never happen to any group again.

Dr. Andy Anderson to Speak at California Genealogical Society

The California Genealogical Society is celebrating its 115th anniversary this year with a special luncheon event.  Dr. Andy Anderson, an executive vice president and the chief historian for Wells Fargo Bank, will make a presentation on "The Healing Power of Genealogy."  He heads a division at Wells Fargo that researches family history for some of their clients, as described in a 2007 Wall Street Journal article.  He also wrote "How to Find Your Family History & Cultural Roots: An Online Guide", a nice little reference that is available online for free as a PDF.  I have met Dr. Anderson, but I have never heard him speak before, and this certainly sounds like an interesting topic.  I used my research skills to close a rift between my father and his youngest sister, so I know from personal experience that genealogy can heal.

The anniversary event will take place on Saturday, February 9, 2013, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  It will be held in Oakland's Preservation Park, a lovely area of the city not far from my home.  A ticket includes free parking, a social hour, used book sale, luncheon buffet, and Dr. Anderson's talk.  More details and registration information are available here.  Tell me if you're coming also!

Research on the Migration of Lithuanian Jews

Nathan Shapiro, a student at Hofstra University in New York, is writing an honors thesis about the migration of Lithuanian Jews during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  As part of his research, he wants to interview the descendants of Jews who emigrated from Lithuania during this time.  Ideally, he is looking to interview people who are one generation removed from the emigrant.  If you fit these criteria, or if you know someone who does, please contact Nathan at nathan.shapiro@me.com.  His research is not focused on any specific destination, so he is looking for interviewees from anywhere in the world!

Wordless Wednesday

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.

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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.