PAPERS PAST

If you’ve got Kiwi ancestors / relatives, you’ll love Papers Past:

"Papers Past contains more than one million pages of digitised New Zealand newspapers and periodicals. The collection covers the years 1839 to 1932 and includes 52 publications from all regions of New Zealand."

LINK

THIS DECLARATION MADE SOMEONE HAPPY

Several times a year somebody comes to my library with a “real” Declaration of Independence. Each time so far, it has actually been one of the uncountable reprintings of the Declaration that is artificially aged to make it look older than it really is (brushing tea onto a certain kind of paper is one way to do it). But that doesn’t mean that there are no more “real” Declarations out there: one was found recently in the National Archives-- the archives in Kew, England, that is:

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PREVENTING ID THEFT

The best ways to protect against ID theft (according to Dick Eastman) are to pay your bills online and to shred any mail you get that contains sensitive information like Social Security or account numbers:

LINK

NPRC GETS THE GREEN LIGHT

The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) has locked in funding that should allow construction to begin on its new Dunn Road (north St. Louis County) facility by August 15th:

LINK

NOTE: NPRC holds 20th century American military records, and many federal civilian personnel records.

TWO NEW BLOGS

Two new blogs will prove of interest to many Missouri genealogists:

The State Library of Massachusetts now has a blog (available here) where you will discover information about library collections, acquisitions news, plus images of materials from their shelves. Recent posts include ones on historic maps of Chatham; preservation work being done on a printed pedigree chart and seals from the Vassall family; and one on essential New England books.

The Rhode Island Historical Society’s blog started earlier this year. It provides information about the society’s physical locations and hours, plus information about their collections. Recent posts include a poem by James Franklin, brother of Benjamin and the first printer in Rhode Island; a 1754 pamphlet concerning the elimination of debtor’s prisons; and the first Jewish calendar printed in America.

PSST! GOOGLE NEWS YOU NEED TO HEAR…

You know that persistent rumor that Google has been working on an operating system? Ladies and gentlemen, it’s NOT a rumor:

LINK

NOTE: Like most Google projects, this OS is to be open source...

AN ID THEFT STORY WITH A (SOMEWHAT) HAPPY ENDING

A woman asked her cousin in the Library of Congress Human Resources Department to furnish her with some employee names, employment info, addresses, and Social Security numbers. He did-- in exchange for cocaine. She went on a spending spree with her new forged identities-- until the law caught up with her and she finally had to face the music:

LINK

NOTE: The cousin in Human Resources only got probation. Is it obvious to everybody except our lawmakers and judges that drunk drivers and ID thieves need to face stiff penalties if we are ever going to make these crimes “go away”?

MARINES AND NAVY ARE EXCEEDING RETENTION GOALS

Apparently the prospect of service in a war zone isn’t hurting the Marines or the Navy. Enough current Marines and sailors are re-upping that those services have been able to eliminate re-enlistment bonuses in many specialties:

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HISTORIC AERIALS

Historic (beginning in the 1930s for most places) and contemporary aerial photos of most U.S. locations. You can view a reasonably good image online, with option to purchase a higher-quality image if desired:

LINK

ROBOTS AND THE RULES OF WAR

Can robots be taught to behave ethically in combat situations? One researcher certainly thinks that they can:

LINK

ST. CLAIR COUNTY (IL) GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY NEWS

Upcoming speakers for the Society:

August 6, 2009-- Sharing Your Story by Mark Bauer. Various methods of publishing your lifetime of research will be presented.

September 3, 2009-- Deciphering Handwriting in American Documents with Linda Osterdock. Genealogists will become familiar with writing styles, lettering, spelling differences, and weights and measures often found in American documents.

Meetings are held the first Thursday of each month. Time: 7:30 p.m. Location: St. Luke Parish Hall, North Church and East "C" Sts., Belleville, Illinois (guests always welcome). Programs of genealogical interest are featured and summarized in the SCCGS Newsletter.

Inclement weather and lecture information: Karen LaCroix, 1st Vice-President & Program Chair, phone 618.286.4392.

SCCGS Website: http://www.stclair-ilgs.org/stchome.htm

CLARK COUNTY (MO) VOTER LISTS

Received from Mary Jo Sisson March:

“I made a very interesting historical discovery. I located and purchased, in the state of Washington, the original voter registration lists for the townships of Clark County, dated 1866. They are in very good condition. They were found in a trunk in an abandoned store. The trunk had belonged to Dr. Carothers of Clark County, who was a very important person in this county during the Civil War period. He is buried at Fairmont, here in Clark County.

We have the 1860 census, and the 1870 census, but nothing in between, so that is why I think these are so important. What I also found interesting, in each township, besides listing the qualified voters, they also listed the rejected voters. In this county following the civil war, a voter was required to sign an Oath stating that he was loyal to the federal government. Of course, there were many men here who had been southern sympathizers and ex-confederate soldiers who refused to sign the Oath. They were probably the ones listed as rejected voters.

I thought about donating the documents to the Missouri Historical Society, but then I thought they should stay in their original county.

So I decided to donate them to the local Sever Library (Kahoka, Missouri). I worked for a long time and very diligently to sort out and index their genealogical material. It was not in very good order. Now they have a complete room for it, and an Index which I put on a disk for them to use. So I am very proud of their genealogy room.

It was so amazing that I found these records on the internet, and I thought you would enjoy hearing about it.”

H.E. Sever Memorial Library: http://nemolibrary.lib.mo.us/sever/

HELP WITH ADOPTION SEARCHES

Ancestry.com’s Learning Center offers helpful advice for adoptees seeking birthparents and vice-versa, including lists of states with open records / closed records / records with some restrictions:

LINK

SHOPFAMILYTREE.COM HOLIDAY SALE

Yes, they’re also having a big holiday weekend sale:

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Learn more about your ancestry and SAVE!

Visit ShopFamilyTree.com now and take 25% OFF your order of $35 or more! Just enter offer code FTFOURTH at checkout to receive your savings.

Hurry! This special holiday offer ends June 8th!

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GENEALOGICAL.COM HOLIDAY SALE

Received from this long-time genie publisher:

Dear Patron:

We are running a great holiday sale for our customers this Independence Day weekend!

From today through 11:59 PM EDT, Monday, July 6, 2009, you can order any product available at www.genealogical.com at a discount of 30% off the current selling price of the book(s) or CD(s) of your choice.

To take advantage of this special holiday discount, simply add the code 070409 in the Discount Code box on the "Calculate Shipping and Discounts" page during the check-out process.

You can use your special 070409 discount code as many times as you like, so long as you place your final order by 11:59 PM EDT, Monday, July 6, 2009.

ALBERT CASHIER

Albert Cashier fought in the Civil War, and lived in a small Illinois town for forty years afterwards. He chewed tobacco, voted in elections, and received a pension for his Civil War service just like any other veteran. It was only discovered that Albert was actually a woman when “he” was hit by a car and hospitalized in 1910:

LINK

There’s an effort underway to restore the small house that Albert lived in for forty years:

LINK

BOOKSONSTLOUIS.COM

BooksOnStLouis.com features books on St. Louis topics or authored by St. Louisans. We offer the top St. Louis books including titles on St. Louis Sports books, St. Louis History books, St. Louis Lore books, St. Louis Architecture & Scenery books (including coffee table books), St. Louis Food & Cooking books, and guides to Leisure Activities in St. Louis.

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UNITED STATES DIGITAL MAPS LIBRARY

US GenWeb collection of digitized maps:

LINK

CHRONICLING AMERICA TOPIC GUIDES

Chronicling America is the Library of Congress’s digital newspapers collection. They have created guides to some widely covered topics in the newspapers they’ve been digitizing. For example:

§ Annexation of Hawaii
§ Baseball's Modern World Series, 1903-1910
§ Battleships
§ Clara Barton
§ Comic Strips
§ Early Cinema
§ Ellis Island
§ From Territory to Statehood - Alaska and Hawaii
§ From Territory to Statehood - The Northern West
§ From Territory to Statehood - The West
§ Patent Medicines
§ Pullman Porters
§ Russo-Japanese War
§ Stanford White (so-called trial of the century)

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THE EVOLUTION OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES

From Prologue Magazine:

LINK

NPRC CIVILIAN RECORDS OPENED TO THE PUBLIC

From their website:

“The National Archives’ National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) opened more than 6 million individual personnel files of former Federal civilian employees from the mid-1800s through 1951. These records will be of special interest to genealogists, family members, researchers, sociologists, and historians.”

LINK

HOW MANY MEDALS DID HE GET?

Marine Corps pilot Ken Reusser (who passed away recently) received 59 medals during his long career, including two Navy Crosses and four Purple Hearts:

LINK

Note: Ken certainly had more than his fair share of close calls: he was shot down at least once during WWII, Korea, and Vietnam!

OGS FALL CONFERENCE 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Sally McAlear (417) 887-1699
June 30, 2009

Ozarks Genealogical Society’s Sept. 25-26 conference topics announced

SPRINGFIELD — The Ozarks Genealogical Society will hold its 29th Annual Conference September 25-26 at University Plaza Hotel in Springfield, Mo.

Thomas W. Jones, noted genealogical researcher, author, editor, and educator is the featured speaker. His lectures will focus on Internet research, deducing ancestors’ identities, tracing common surnames, and solving problems with original sources. Jones’ research has encompassed records of every state east of the Mississippi, as well as Iowa, Missouri, Texas, France, Germany, Italy, and Ireland. His lectures are known to benefit genealogists at all levels of expertise.

The conference begins Friday evening, September 25 and continues throughout the day on Saturday, September 26. The following mini-sessions will be presented on Saturday morning: “Start with What You Know,” “Family Search Online,” “Dressed for the Photographer,” and “Searching with GenSmarts.” A vendor showcase will also be available.

The Ozarks Genealogical Society, Inc. (OGS) was formally organized in September 1969 by a group of individuals brought together by a common interest in researching family history. It was chartered in 1979 as a not-for-profit organization by the State of Missouri. The goals of the society are to encourage the research and preservation of family history, foster solid genealogical research practices, and preserve records of historical and genealogical interest.

The conference is open to the public. Registration information and additional conference details are available on the OGS website. Those needing a registration form may call (417) 885-9009.

SCHOOL YEARBOOKS AND ALUMNI DIRECTORIES

Note: While the column refers specifically to items in their collection, it's a good reminder that all genealogists should be aware of school yearbooks and alumni directories!

From GENEALOGY GEMS: NEWS FROM THE FORT WAYNE LIBRARY
No. 64, June 30, 2009

SCHOOL YEARBOOKS AND ALUMNI DIRECTORIES
by Dawne Slater-Putt, CG

October 28, 1897, freshman Charles Krinn had a new haircut, according to the Marion High School “Juggernaut” (977.202 M33j 1897). Yearbooks can be a rich source of information for adding color to the names, dates and places on a pedigree chart.

For each class, the “Juggernaut” included a group photograph, names, history, officers, colors, motto and yell. The annual detailed clubs, football teams and excursions; listed the alma maters and degrees of teachers; and included poetry, essays and jokes. A calendar featured a fact about an individual student for each day. Many of these appeared to be tongue-in-cheek, including the note about Charles Krinn’s haircut. The Alumni Record listed each graduate in the school’s history and his or her status in 1897: occupation, residence and women’s married names. Some were noted as deceased.

The Genealogy Center collection includes yearbook titles from nearly 1500 schools and more than 500 colleges, as well as more than 200 alumni directories that each supply brief biographical details on the graduates of a single institution. The Center actively seeks yearbooks and new titles continue to be cataloged. To determine whether the collection includes a specific yearbook, researchers should search the online catalog for the subject “school yearbooks” or “college yearbooks” and the desired city or state. Also, a name index for the yearbooks of three of the larger high schools in Allen County, Indiana is available at:

<http://www.GenealogyCenter.Info/search_acyearbooks.php>

Information typically found in yearbooks includes names and photographs of students, teachers, clubs and athletic teams. Other information varies by time period and individual school. Earlier books may include class colors, yells, mottos, verses, essays, and sections on alumni. Recent books typically include candid photographs, individual student pictures and sometimes an index. Annuals of all time periods may have advertisements for local businesses.

Other sources for yearbooks include city, county and state libraries where the school is located and the collections of local and state genealogical and historical societies. In some cases, digital images of yearbooks may be available online. The U.S. School Yearbooks database at Ancestry.com contains an estimated 6,151,452 personal names. This collection includes digitized annuals from schools, colleges and universities. It is searchable by name, with limiters of state, city, school name and yearbook year. Researchers also may browse the database by state, city, school and year.

Virtually all yearbooks found in library collections or online will be second-hand, rather than pristine copies. This is a boon for genealogists since researchers may find the signature of a relative who was a classmate of the original yearbook owner. A high school annual also may be the only inspiration for a mental picture of
Grandma as a teenager, chanting her class yell: “Hobble, Zick, Rah! Boom-a-lack, Bah! ’99, right in line, Zig-sag, Ah!”

Publishing Note:

This electronic newsletter is published by the Allen County Public Library's Genealogy Center. We welcome the wide distribution of this newsletter and encourage readers to forward it to their friends and societies. All precautions have been made to avoid errors. However, the publisher does not assume any liability to any party for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, no matter the cause.

To subscribe to “Genealogy Gems,” simply use your browser to go to the website: www.GenealogyCenter.Info. Scroll down toward the bottom of the first screen where it says, "Enter Your Email Address to Subscribe to "Genealogy Gems." Enter your email address in the yellow box and click on "Subscribe." You will be notified with a confirmation email.

Steve Myers & Curt Witcher, co-editors

FGS CONFERENCE 2009

Note: I attended the NGS Conference in Kansas City in 2008, and I can confirm for you that these national genealogical conferences really can be a genealogist’s bonanza!

The 2009 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference 2-5 September 2009, Little Rock, Arkansas

A genealogist's bonanza in one great location. Four days to learn more about the
Internet, databases, records in courthouses, archives, and libraries that are not online, how to locate missing records and relatives, write your family history, and break through tough problems. The presenters are from all over the U.S. and from Canada and represent many of the top experts in the field. Wish you could be a child again and attend summer camp? This is your chance, but the conference hotels are much nicer than tents and cabins.

Almost 200 lectures, workshops, special events, and meals offered during this four day event that are by and of interest to genealogists, writers, editors, professional genealogists, lecturers, librarians, archivists, historians, columnists, booksellers, bloggers, and others.

A huge Exhibit Hall filled with booth after booth of vendors and exhibitors of genealogical software, books (new, old, rare), charts, maps, databases, CDs, DVDs, gadgets, services, memberships, research assistance, and more. A special Society Corner will feature details on FGS Member societies. Some booths are still available.

Wednesday offers many sessions designed to help genealogy society volunteers with different aspects of running a genealogical society, seminars, publications, websites, and board meetings. A special luncheon includes an open forum for discussing society issues.

Luncheons and breakfasts sponsored by well-known genealogical and historical
organizations. These feature speakers that will educate and entertain you.

A gala banquet that features a special speaker and showcases some of the best volunteers and organizations in the area of genealogy.

Other social events include a free Ice Cream Social, Night at the Ballpark, Networking Luncheon, door prizes, and the Peabody Ducks. Need more? Lots of free wireless Internet access, two pre-conference extended sessions on Tuesday, great places for research, a Presidential Library, riverfront views, neat restaurants, historic sites, and being surrounded by others who speak the same language of genealogy.

A special hint: If you register by July 1st, 2009 (postmark date or online) you can save $50.00 ($175.00 fee vs. $225.00 after that date). That pays for four full days of lectures and some special events.

The Federation of Genealogical Societies and this year's local host, the Arkansas Genealogical Society, invite you to the "Passages through Time" conference that takes place this 2-5 September 2009 in vibrant Little Rock, Arkansas. For the full and varied program and registration details check the Conference website or the frequently updated Conference Blog that will tell you about the Ducks, Exhibit Hall, Parking, Travel, Hotels, last minute details, and dozens of other things.

The Conference Committee hopes you are able to join us for this great learning experience.