July 24, 2008

GenWeekly, Vol. V, No. 30 July 24, 2008

GenWeekly, Vol. V, No. 30 It’s Genealogy. It’s Weekly. It’s GenWeekly. July 24, 2008

Family Tree Digest ONLINE Edition Elisabeth Lindsay, Editor

------This Week’s Articles

The original article(s) in this section are available only to subscribers. You can learn about our $9.95 annual subscription at http://www.genweekly.com/subscribe.html

Students in the Graveyard by Larry Naukam

College classes may have done research on your ancestors and put it online as well as presented it in academic settings.

http://gentod.com/genweekly.mv?cd=1567

Irish Case Study: Putting the Pieces Together by Kevin Cassidy

Although the process can be tedious, putting the pieces together from a variety of disparate sources to solve a single research question is very much like working a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, it can be done. Sometimes the end result is not a tidy and clean as we would have it and you have settle for a little fuzzy logic.

http://gentod.com/genweekly.mv?cd=1543

Editor Note: For additional reading, you may wish to review these past articles from the GenWeekly Archive

Diggin’ Up Bones http://gentod.com/genweekly.mv?cd=582

Big City Research on the Mid-Atlantic Coast http://gentod.com/genweekly.mv?cd=666

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Searching for Catholic Marriages in New York City, Part One http://gentod.com/genweekly.mv?cd=1404

Historical Resume: Organizing Your Research http://gentod.com/genweekly.mv?cd=1049

A Lesson in Early American Geography http://gentod.com/genweekly.mv?cd=556 Recent News

Midwest Genealogy Center - A New Kid on the Block - Now adding to its attraction, Independence, Missouri, boasts the all new, Midwest Genealogy Center, which opened June 21. Billed as one the nation’s largest libraries specifically for people tracing their ancestry, the 52,000-square-foot building replaces a facility one-quarter its size that was previously housed in the Mid- Continent Public Library’s north Independence branch, as announced recently in the Lawrence Journal - World & News.

“There aren’t too many places where you can research the entire United States in just one spot,” said Steve Potter, assistant director of the Mid-Continent system, which serves Jackson, Platte and Clay counties.

Among genealogists, the Mormon Church’s Family History Library in Salt Lake City is considered the mother lode of information, with millions of documents available online or through local branches. The next tier is occupied by public libraries in Dallas, Houston, New York, Los Angeles, Fort Wayne, Ind., and Independence — a one-time frontier town known as the jumping off spot for westward expansion. - The $8 million center features ample classrooms, videoconference space and computer work stations. Security and fire safety have improved, and researchers can now digitally convert the documents they find, rather than relying on librarians. With more space, the genealogy center expects to boost its public programs and attract regional and national speakers, as well as pursue its own collections.

http://www.genweekly.com/2008/07/new-midwest-genealogy-center.html

Denver Public Library digitizing important frontier documents - Although my ancestors did not arrive in Colorado until the late 1930s, I am very interested in the digitization efforts of the Denver Public Library, and particularly interested in how the neighborhoods developed. A recent article in the Denver Post, “Library to preserve documents of 19th-century Denver,” reports more than 100 volumes of documents housed in the Denver Public Library can tell when great- great-grandma married great-great-granddad and where they lived and how their frontier neighborhood developed.

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Now these fragile books, dating from 1859 to 1900, are being digitized for “an excellent resource for our genealogy and house history customers,” said Jim Kroll, the manager of the library’s Western History/Genealogy Department.

The digital “repository of private and public records” will detail the stories of each Denver community, he said. The digitized records will be accessible through the library’s web site. The records I need between 1939 to the present have been harder than hen’s teeth to acquire through the county, so I have looked to the marvelous Denver Public Library and have great interest in their continued efforts.

http://www.genweekly.com/2008/07/denver-public-library-digitizing.html

Family tree mapping software integrates with Google Earth - According to a recent press release, a new software package entitled “Map My Ancestors” aims to link the world of Genealogy with the powerful mapping capabilities of Google Earth. Published in the UK by Integrated Earth, “Map My Ancestors” enables users who have exported their family tree from their favorite editing program in the industry standard GEDCOM format, to automatically read and identify places from their tree. A unique feature allows the user to view ratings for the locations which will help them to identify and correct any errors in the automatically assigned locations. Locations that have been corrected are remembered in an internal database so that the user doesn’t need to repeat the process next time a revised GEDCOM file is imported.

“Map My Ancestors” can also save the resulting geographic data in KMZ or KML format, ready to be emailed or published on a web site – enabling other relations or friends to view the data in Google Earth without any other Family Tree software. Since Map My Ancestors uses the online Yahoo Geocoding technology to locate places it has been possible to keep download sizes small enabling a trial version to be made available. Visit familytreeassistant.com for more information to see a tutorial video, and to download and a free trial copy of “Map My Ancestors.” http://www.genweekly.com/2008/07/family-tree-mapping-software- integrates.html Family Tree Connection

This subscription database includes information indexed from a variety of sources such as Masonic rosters, school yearbooks, vintage telephone books, insurance claims, club member lists, church records and more. The following are some of the items recently added to the Family Tree Connection database:

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Peabody South Church 1885 Members - The Articles of Faith and Covenant of The South Church, Peabody, With a List of the Members. The First Congregational Church in Peabody, Massachusetts. http://www.gentod.com/click.mv?FTC=4263

Battle Creek First Baptist Church 1917 Directory - Annual Membership Directory of the First Baptist Church, Battle Creek, Michigan, March 1st, 1917.

http://www.gentod.com/click.mv?FTC=4262

Crombie Street Church 1846 Members - The Confession and Covenant of the Crombie Street Church, in Salem, With a List of the Members.

http://www.gentod.com/click.mv?FTC=4261

407th Telegraph Battalion 1919 Roster - Welcome to the 407th Telegraph Battalion on Their Return from France, Under the Auspices of The Telephone Society, New York, Friday, May Second, Nineteen Hundred and Nineteen. Originally consisted of telephone men from the Manhattan-Bronx-Westchester and Long Island Divisions. The battalion was sent to Camp Alfred Vail, Little Silver, New Jersey, for its training, in June, 1917.

http://www.gentod.com/click.mv?FTC=4260

Middlefield 3rd District 1862 Electors - Corrected List of Electors in Middlefield, Third District, 1862, Prepared for the State Election, to be held on the first Monday in April, 1862. Middlefield, Connecticut.

http://www.gentod.com/click.mv?FTC=4259

Union Theological Seminary N.Y.C. 1852 Catalogue - Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the New York Union Theological Seminary, January, 1852.

http://www.gentod.com/click.mv?FTC=4257

Union Theological Seminary N.Y.C. 1850 Catalogue - Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the New York Union Theological Seminary, January, 1850.

http://www.gentod.com/click.mv?FTC=4255

Maine State Prison 1883 Report - Annual Reports of the Inspector of Prison and Jails of Maine, and of the Warden and Subordinate Officers of the State Prison, 1883. Includes a table showing Convicts in Custody, November 30, 1883.

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http://www.gentod.com/click.mv?FTC=4200

This project is all about capturing details about the lives of your ancestors— from their early years in school, through college and then in their careers and spare time (i.e. hobbies and group activities). You may try this database risk- free by searching for your ancestors.

http://www.familytreeconnection.com/

*An annual $29.95 subscription is required for full access, but you may search the name indexes for free. The Genealogy Guide

In the interest of helping readers gain better insight into genealogical terms, Genealogy Today has created a Genealogy Guide. Each week, GenWeekly will feature a new term from the continually expanding Genealogy Guide.

Tombstone

A tombstone is a somewhat archaic term for headstone, grave stone, or grave marker, which are often used synonymously. Use of the word tombstone is often associated with the rugged days of the American West. A tomb stone in the original sense may refer to a massive stone placed in front of an open tomb or a stone covering the top of a tomb, in ancient and modern times. An actual tomb stone may weigh several tons and may or may not bear inscription.

Tombstones, headstones, and grave markers are of keen interest in genealogy, as they can help to identify or confirm that an ancestor is buried in a particular place, and may provide significant genealogical information beyond the date of death. Many organizations and interested individuals have initiated Tombstone Projects which may involve photographing of tombstones and transcribing of inscriptions, and then publishing them on the Internet. Contributions are typically made by volunteers and family members. The goal of such projects is to provide a record and preserve inscriptions, which are subject to decay, and to make the information more widely available through publication.

Source: Genealogy Information Network – Glossary http://news.genealogytoday.com/topics/glossary/

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