According to Boston 1775, each Thursday in February 2007 will offer a midday presentations of “Fashion Conscious: A History of New England Style” at the Old South Meeting-House in downtown Boston.
Check the article for more information and links to the event.
In another heart breaking announcement, GenealogyBlog announces Digital Cameras to be Banned in Document Areas of the Brown County, Wisconsin, Courthouse.
Don’t plan on avoiding copying fees in some Brown County offices by using your digital camera.
The Brown County Board will consider an ordinance banning the use of digital cameras or any recording devices in sensitive or private areas of county buildings.
The ordinance would allow department heads to decide on the extent of the ban in their offices. It’s part of a growing trend toward regulating digital cameras on cellular phones in sensitive places.
During my visit last year to Wisconsin researching our family history there, some of the staff warned me that this was coming. The threat appears to be towards camera cell phones violating privacy and copying birth records and other vital records to be used illegally.
Sad days for family history researchers.
As the writer, editor, cook, and bottle washer of several blogs, starting a family history blog was easy for me. What wasn’t easy was my family’s understanding what our family history blog would contain. If I want your family’s help on your family history blog, you have to help them understand what information goes into my blogs so they can choose to contribute or not.
There are different types of family history websites and blogs, but first, let’s clear up the difference between a family history website and a family history blog.
A family history website is a static billboard on the information highway. It is merely a process of producing static pages on a website with information on your family, family tree, and maybe a few stories about the family’s history. It has contact information and then just sits there, waiting for people to visit and read and leave. It is typically maintained by one person.
A family history blog is a chronological posting of articles, stories, news, tips, and information on the family’s history. The website is dynamic, with the front page changing with the addition of new material. It is also interactive, as comments are allowed, giving people an opportunity to comment and give feedback on the information you have to offer. A family history blog can be maintained by one person or dozens.
Blogs are exceptionally easy to create today with great blogging programs like WordPress and others. It’s free for those who aren’t sure about all this blogging stuff through free blogging services such as WordPress.com. They allow you to easily publish your family stories, news, and tips, sort the information in categories, and automatically alerts search engines to each new post so your blog gets listed in the search engine databases waiting to be found by those searching for your information. They do most of the work for you so you can concentrate on the content, not the work.
In general, today’s family history sites should be blogs as they offer powerful tools and online publishing with great simplicity and ease.
That’s the key question. Before you begin your family history blog, you have to have a plan for what is going to be published on your family history blog. If you don’t know what you’re going to do with your family history blog, how can you ask for help from your family?
As a rule, you will definitely want the core information about your family history, family tree, and some stories about your family. The use of names, dates, and places in your family’s published information provides keywords to help those searching along your family lines to find your information.
After that, then what?
It all depends upon the type of blog you want to offer, how much time you have to spend on the blog, how many people are involved helping you maintain the blog, and what is your end goal.
A key to this understanding is why you want a blog in the first place. If your purpose is to share your information with others, great. If it is to share information with others in the hopes that they will find you and add more information to your family’s story, then even better. This is where the social interaction of a blog will best meet your needs.
To be found, your blog must be “findable”. It must be written with the keywords used by those searching for your family’s information. Thus, the more of those keywords you use in the content on your site, the more “findable” you are. This dictates the content you may want to consider sharing on your family’s blog.
This means that you need to “develop content” on your blog, not just write down the bare essentials. You want to showcase information about your family and its history, as well as your discoveries and methods along the way, right?
Creating content for your blog means creating an outline of what you want to put on your blog. It means making a plan and setting some project goals like a biography of your great-great grandmother, information on the wagon trains to the West your family traveled with even though you don’t have specific information on your family’s trip, links to family history sites of family members related to yours, and similar content projects.
The goal is to expand the information on your blog and help link your research with other family history blogs and other family members.
Here are some other styles of content you might want to consider to expand the content on your family history blog.
Tell stories about your family and about your ancestors in your blog. There are so many stories that can be told about your family, not just from a hundred years ago, but of family members alive today.
During this year’s holidays, I was able to spend an extended amount of time with my husband’s family. I asked them all kinds of memory questions such as favorite Christmas memories, favorite holiday presents, what’s the favorite gift they gave, and so on. These are precious moments in a person’s life and make for great stories for sharing.
These stories not only help to define a life lived, but they help tell the story of your family, the relationships, lifestyle, and preserves those precious memories for generations in the future.
I was very lucky to have two great uncles who were very prolific, writing extensive stories about their childhood growing up in the wilds of northern Wisconsin and coming to Washington State during the early years in the state’s history to help develop the area in which I was raised. These Knapp brothers left a great wealth of stories I’m slowly editing and sharing with family members and others about where they lived, how they lived, and who lived around them.
You can share family stories on your blog in many ways. You can write them from your memories, ask the storyteller to write their stories to share, record the stories and make digital records for playback, or even use digital videos to show them telling the stories. All can be posted on your blog for easy viewing by visitors.
There are a lot of facts you will find about your family as you research your family history. Facts are more than stories, they are the truth about how your family born, lived, and died.
Many turn these facts into biographies of their ancestors, helping to flesh out the names, dates, and places into real people with vibrant lives.
Some of the facts you may want to share are not directly related to the family intimately, but associated with where they lived, why they lived where they lived, their religious affiliation, and history.
For example, many people lived in a specific community because of their religious or cultural affiliation with the community. Many Norwegians, Germans, Dutch, and other groups tended to stick together, often continuing to speak their native language for two or three generations after their arrival. Their community centers and churches would keep alive their homeland traditions, bringing their old country into the new.
Some people migrated due to political or economic pressures, forced to find work and a life free of persecution away from their native lands.
Once your ancestors arrived in, say, the new United States, maybe they were attracted by the “Go West, Young Man” or rush for gold “in them thar lands”. Information about such migrations are also facts you can add to the published information about your family and why they may have done what they did.
There are also facts and information about the areas they lived in which are great articles to add to the wealth of information. I’m currently doing research on the logging camps of Marinette County, Wisconsin, where my Knapp family lived for many years. The stories of these logging camps tell of the live my family may have lived and worked in the area, and how when the logging industry died off, they were forced to leave the desolate area and make their way across the country to a new strange forest land in the Pacific Northwest, brining their logging skills with them.
There are many family facts you can share to help expand the information about your family’s history on your blog.
A new child in the family? A death? Marriage? Divorce? Illness? What about a family reunion, party, or other family news worth sharing?
There is a lot of news about your family you can share via your blog. It can be major announcements like the ones above, or simple ones like baseball schedules for grandchildren, school events, or other activities your family may want to know about.
And what about honors and achievements your family makes? If a member graduates from high school or college, or is honored with a best of show in a school talent contest, isn’t that information you’d be proud to publish?
Share news of a new job, lost weight, recovery from illness, moving, or even an announcement in the newspaper about a family member.
These announcements can include photographs or video, adding more fun to the story of the accomplishment.
Your blog can be about those living today providing information to family members around the world on how things are going, so you can all celebrate together.
As you researched your family tree, I’m sure you’ve learned a thing or three along the way, haven’t you? I sure have. The amount of information I’m learning is often hard to keep up with.
By sharing the lessons learned in researching your family, you are helping other family members as well as others learn from your mistakes or wisdom. I’ve learned plenty from reading about how others decided to change the path they were on to look under a new rock to discover new information on a family member. I’ve learned from great tips other genealogy bloggers offer on how they do this or that, use a particular software, or researching a new online resource.
The wealth of information out there is growing and there is no excuse for you not to share your experiences and knowledge with others. Consider it a way of giving back to the genealogy community, too.
Like sharing tips and techniques on genealogy research, you might want to consider sharing the news you learn about the family history research industry on your blog.
This is a challenge as there are so many blogs specializing in blogging about the genealogy industry, but sometimes I run across news that relates to my family research. I want to remember it for the future, and help others researching my family tree, so I will often post a link and a quote from the article on my blog.
For example, because I’m researching so much about northern Wisconsin, I found information on Links to the Past Blog for Milwaukee, Waukesha, and Manitowoc County Wisconsin Genealogy and History, Wisconsin Family History Detectives Flock to Marinette County, and an announcement for an online book called “History of Door County, Wisconsin - The County Beautiful”, all great resources that will help me learn more about the area and what genealogical information is there.
A few news stories also trigged ideas for things I want to do on my family history blog such as Watching Climate Change Through Family Photo Albums makes me want to publish comparative pictures of postcards from my family’s collection from 50-100 years ago alongside photographs of the same area today to see the change in the location.
A news story on bringing 200 year old seeds to life inspired me to write Bringing the Past Alive in Historical Gardens, highlighting many of the historical gardens I’ve explored around the world as well as other places I might want to explore, learning more about the plants and agriculture of my ancestors’ past.
You never know where an idea will come from, and you never know what bit of news might help you uncover more about your family’s past. By publishing topical news bits, you give yourself reminders on your blog, and possibly help open a new door for others to trace their family through yours.
I have a lot of research information about genealogy and family history in my Genealogy Research Resources. Check out the many online resources also available from Cindi’s List.
If you really want to dig into a wide range of content resources for your family history blog, check out my huge list of 100s of Resources for Finding Content for Your Blog. There isn’t much genealogy related, but you never know where a great blog idea or family discovery may be found.
Researching your family history online can be a challenge. But when you find a wonderful gem in your research, it makes all the struggle worthwhile.
Such was the discovery of the mention of my West family members in the Diary of Hannah Pierce (1835-1873) from among the resources on the Lenawee, Michigan, genealogy and historical site.
8th Mo. 1843.
Had a visit from E. Spafford and G. Warner. Spent the day at Wm Hoags. Ira Smith and Elizabeth West were married today…9th Mo. 1847 on the 12th
Mercy West has been buried to day, the work of death is still going on, its ravinges are deeply felt in many familys as well as our own. Seymor West lost his child about 3 weeks since and now his wife. How fleeting are the things of earth, how uncertain is life, but a few short weeks ago many who were them taking an active part on the stage of life, are now slumbering in Death’s long dreamless sleep.
Much of the diary documents the visits and meals shared with various people in the community outside of Adrian, Michigan, in the community of Raisin, Lenawee County. Weddings, christenings, illness and death is mentioned as a log of the community events.
Flu and other epidemics came through and were faithfully and painfully reported by Hannah Pierce. Disease took its tool on this poor farming community. It’s a lovely and simple look into the lives of the community and their families in the early 1800s.
The following West family members are mentioned, though not all are related to the same West family.
If you have family in the Lenawee County of Michigan, they may have passed through and gotten a mention by Hannah Pierce. What a treasure this find was, and much thanks to her descendants and the volunteers from the Lenawee History Society for adding this to the web.
Associated Press reports on “Skull Suggests Human-Neanderthal Link”:
A skull found in a cave in Romania includes features of both modern humans and Neanderthals, possibly suggesting that the two may have interbred thousands of years ago.
…The skull bearing both older and modern characteristics…was found in Pestera cu Oase - the Cave with Bones - in southwestern Romania, along with other human remains. Radiocarbon dating indicates it is at least 35,000 years old and may be more than 40,000 years old.
We may be getting even closer to learning the truth behind our oldest ancestors. 
“Footnote Millions of Historical Documents Online” by Solution Watch recommends Footnote, an historical documents online service developed in partnership with the US National Archives:
Footnote is an impressive resource which launched last week that allows users to access and annotate millions of historical documents online for the first time. Interested in the Civil War or perhaps the Bureau of Investigation? Just look it up on Footnote and within seconds view digitized copies of the original documents including photographs, signed documents, letters, case studies and more. Footnote has also established a partnership with the National Archives providing access to millions of historical documents for viewing online. Around 4.5 million documents have already been added to the site and apparently millions more to come. I’ll admit, I wasn’t one to raise my hand during history class, but it’s pretty neat being able to view transcripts that George Washington wrote back in 1775 for the Continental Congress and the signature of John Hancock. I’d imagine Footnote to be a prime attraction for genealogists, historians, public libraries, school systems and history buffs in general.
On top of viewing original documents online, Footnote encourages users to share their knowledge by uploading images, annotating documents and maintaining member pages. Users can also download any image on the site and add it to their account gallery.
Adobe Flash Player is required for viewing the images. The annual membership for looking around at the documents is free. Some images on the site can be viewed and downloaded for free, but member subscriptions are required for other areas and access ranging from USD $1.99 per image download to $99.99 a year.
According to Discovery News, “Antarctic Explorer’s Letters Revealed”, the last letters from Captain Robert Falcon Scott, the second explorer in the race to be “first to the South Pole”, have been revealed and donated to the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge.
The letters tell of his determination to get there, and of his faith that he would make it, then finding he’d lost the race and then facing the reality of his impending death as he and the remainder of his crew struggled to get back.
Knowing he was days from death on a tragic trek back from the South Pole in 1912, Capt. Robert Falcon Scott wrote to his wife that “we are in a very tight corner and I have doubts of pulling through.”
However, he assured Kathleen Scott, he faced his end without regret. “How much better it has been than lounging in comfort at home,” Scott wrote in the letter, recovered the year after he and his companions died of cold and starvation.
Scott’s courage in facing his doom — following the bitter disappointment of losing the race to the South Pole — burnished his stature as a national hero, and was an inspiration to generations of British youth.
…Scott’s private correspondence was recently donated to the institute by Philippa Scott, widow of the explorer’s only child, Sir Peter Scott, who died in 1989….
The letter was found along with the explorer’s body and his effects several months after his death, 11 miles from his supply camp. Kathleen Scott was on her way to New Zealand to await his return when she received confirmation of his death.
Captain Scott was a hero during the end of the 1800s and start of the next century as the last bits of the planet were being explored. Not just explored but those findings being written about in the news and budding media, not just letters home.
His first book, “The Voyage of Discovery”, was about his first journey into the great unknown ice world of Antarctica from 1902-04. The best selling novel, combined with the news reports, inspired imaginations and generations of explorer-wannabes, mountain climbers, and travelers.
I remember some older family members recalling how exciting it was to hear their parent’s debate about the race between Norwegian Roald Amundsen and Captain Scott to be first to the South Pole, and arguing over who would win. Amundsen arrived nearly a month before Scott, both both had a rough trip getting there. Only Amundsen returned alive. Still, the challenge and adventure was so exciting, even for the bystander.
Scott’s journal published in 1913, “Scott’s Last Expedition” doesn’t share these whole letters, but does describe the Antarctic as “This is an awful place, and terrible enough for us to have labored to it without the reward of priority.”
Having lost his team, his last letter shares his final moments:
“Dearest … cherish no sentimental rubbish about remarriage — when the right man comes to help you in life you ought to be your happy self again. I hope I shall be a good memory; certainly the end is nothing for you to be ashamed of and I like to think that the boy will have a good start in parentage of which he may be proud.
“Dear it is not easy to write because of the cold — 70 degrees below zero and nothing but the shelter of our tent — you know I have loved you, you know my thoughts must have constantly dwelt on you and oh dear me you must know that quite the worst aspect of this situation is the thought that I shall not see you again.”
“The inevitable must be faced.”
You can read more and see the images of Scott’s team and the letters from Yahoo News about Scott’s final letters.
I’m still struggling to learn about how The Master Genealogist (TMG) genealogy research and family history software program works. It’s not for the casual family history researcher. It is for the very serious genealogist, determined to dig into all the details of their family’s history and report on it accurately and comprehensively.
A problem I had at first was connecting a person’s life with the data TMG needed from me. A lifesaver came from Terry’s TMG Tips article, “TMG Basic Concepts - A Metaphor to Help Understand the Basics”.
…I hope to offer some basic concepts to aid users in visualizing how TMG manages their data, so that they can more quickly become comfortable in using the features of the program. This is not intended to be an accurate portrayal of the technical details of the program, but rather is intended to create a mental model to help the user to grasp what he or she needs to do to use the program effectively. In order to do that, I am using a ring binder metaphor to illustrate some of the program’s basic operations.
…In TMG, a person is only an ID number, nothing more (sorry - 1984 has come and gone ). So, using our metaphor, when we add a person, we are taking a blank piece of paper, writing an ID number in the upper left corner, and placing it in the ring binder. That’s all a “person” is in TMG.
…Everything you enter about a person is done by adding Tags. Everything! His or her name, birth and death information, parents, children, everything!
Once I understood that everyone is a number and everything about the person is a tag, it started to make sense. Starting with that information, I could begin to build information about the person’s life by adding “tags” with events and descriptions of their life.
Terry goes on to explain that once you have basic information about the person’s life entered in tags, it’s time to document their relationships. After all, no one is totally alone. Everyone comes with parents, and they come with parents, and you may have a spouse, and might even have children. You may even have brothers and sisters, and even if you don’t, your parents probably did. All of these people are connected, and the way to connect these relationships is through, you guessed it, more tags! Start to see the pattern?
I did. If you are struggling with the basic concepts of how The Master Genealogist program works, take time to study Terry’s TMG Tips for indepth information, tools, and tutorials to help you get started and learn more about how the program works.
The US Library of Congress American Memory Collection is a fascinating online museum and resource for United States history and Americana.
There is a Today in History page which offers a daily glimpse into the past and events that happened on this date in American history.
A recently highlighted online collection features music of America including Song of America and African-American Sheet Music.
You can browse through the various categories of topics to research and learn more about their role in American history such as Advertising, African American History, Cities, Towns, Immigration, American Expansion, Native American History, Religion, War, Military, and Women’s History.
Within their vast online collections you will find the papers of Alexander Graham Bell, Civil War Maps and Civil War Images, American Quilts and Quiltmaking, audio interviews with slaves, and military newspapers from World War I.
There are many collections and online exhibits worth exploring to help you learn more about your American ancestors, so check it out.
Going through my father’s papers, I found many of his resumes, going back decades. The most recent ones written in the past 25 years were resumes I helped him put together. Before that, my mother did them for him. He was rather useless in that area.
At first I stuffed them in a file folder, thinking they were probably worth going through later with the idea that I’d probably throw away the oldest ones. A few weeks later I opened the folder to realize I was holding my father’s professional life and history in my hands.
A resume is a factual representation of a person’s professional life and career. It is also an exaggerated and boastful representation of skills they may, or may not, have had, as well as some fidgeting of dates and titles to make themselves look better than they really were. My father’s resumes are both.
A resume is customizable. My father, for example, worked in the shipyards for many years, but he also worked other odd jobs when the shipyard layoffs hit. He worked in house construction, real estate, and janitorial services. He poked around at a wide variety of things, trying to make ends meet. He had different resumes for the different industries he worked in, so each one was different. He even had a very different resume I helped him put together years ago to convince a local college to accept him into their program, highlighting professional skills he really didn’t have.
A resume tells the story of a person’s working life, but it also helps to define them in other ways. I’m still learning about who my father was, even though I knew him in many ways better than most people. His resumes offer new insights. I just wish I’d found them before he died so I could get my new questions about his life answered.
Look through your family papers to see if you can find any resumes of your family members. If you don’t have one, find one, or if they are living, ask them for copies to add to your files. Someday, these resumes may be treasures, revealing more about an ancestor than just names and dates.
Do you know these people? Do you recognize them? These are some lost family and friends we are trying to identify, so check out our Do You Know These People lost and found section to help us identify these people.
