New books at the Library

Two updated Mayflower "silver books" have cone out this year, and were hand-delivered by Brenda Hayes straight from the General Society of Mayflower Descendants in Plymouth (thank you, Brenda!)  They are:

• The Descendants of Elder William Brewster through his son Jonathan, Generations 5 & 6 (v. 24, pt.2)
• The Descendants of Thomas Rogers through his grandchildren Thomas Rogers and Elizabeth Rogers, Generation 6 (v.19, pt.2)

With the 200th anniversary of the Mayflower's voyage coming next year, we are keeping this collection updated.

At the recent NERGC meeting I purchased another "hot off the press" item, the second edition of Genealogy standards issued by the Board for Certification of Genealogists, based in Washington DC. This is the organization responsible for certifying individuals as Certified Genealogist (CG) or Certified Genealogical Lecturer (CGL).  Since the first edition of this standard was issued in 2013, developments in DNA have required a number of new standards.  Sections of the book are:

1. The Genealogical Proof standard
2. Standards for Documenting
3. Standards for Researching
4. Standards for Writing
5. Standards for Genealogical Educators
6. Standards for Continuing Education

Appendices include a Code of Ethics, glossary, and resources list, plus information about the Board's certification and other activities.

Received at the Library

If you have Scottish ancestry, check out the lead article in Internet genealogy (Apr.-May 2019), which lists resources that can flesh out your understanding of Scottish life.  In a list of new internet resources I find 1771 Massachusetts tax inventory (check it out, free!)  There are reviews of Heredis 2019, and Photopea, a free and versatile image editing tool.  War of 1812 pensions are discussed, in process and free on Fold3.  Other articles cover tips for searching for ancestors who have vanished, theft from archives and recovery efforts, Canadian World War II records, and "ferry tales"(records regarding ferries, which historically provided critical transportation in many locales).

Your genealogy today (May-June 2019) has several articles revolving around themes of summer travel and family memories.  The lead article looks at roadside attractions, the artifacts from travels such as snapshots, postcards and ticket stubs, and the websites that can help with identification and further information about places your ancestors may have visited.  Other articles cover tips for "turning on the memory tap," using "mind maps," crafting family stories, and finding inspiration in stamp collecting. Case studies cover researching family origins with changing spelling of the surname, and one man's tale of getting his documents organized. Two sisters take a genealogy trip to the Czech village of their ancestors.

CCGS Genealogy Room granted FamilySearch Affiliate Library status

Our librarian, Carol Magenau, announced at a recent board meeting that her application to FamilySearch requesting affiliate status for the Cape Cod Genealogical Library has been granted. This new status gives us the privilege of being able to share additional record collections through the FamilySearch site.

As a FamilySearch Affiliate Library, we are able to grant access to digital records that are not available outside of family history centers or other affiliate libraries. These records include both images and names indexes... currently, that amounts to 400 million original records, according to the FamilySearch website.    

So, how does this work?  Up until now, when doing a search on the FamilySearch site, in the right hand column of your search results, there is an icon, which describes the availability of that particular record. The following explanation from the FamilySearch blog describes the icons and their meanings. 

 The FamilySearch catalog uses icons to quickly tell the patron the accessibility of the records they are seeking.

A document icon means that the resource is only an indexed record or transcription of the document.                                                                                                                                                                            

  A camera icon means you can view the image of the original document from any web-enabled portable device.

A camera with a key icon indicates that access to an image is restricted, such as an image that can be seen only at an affiliate library or a family history center. 

Now when using one of the two computers in the CCGS Room, at the Dennis Public Library, you will no longer see the camera with a key icon. Instead, you should  be able to directly access that record immediately.

It is important to note here that all access to records is dependent on FamilySearch receiving permission to publish the record from the original record custodian (usually, but not always, a government agency). For this reason, there are some specific records that may only be accessed at a Family History Center and are not available elsewhere.

Our CCGS Library, located in the Dennis Public Library, on Hall Ave, Dennisport,  is open on Tuesdays, 1 PM - 4PM; Thursdays, 10 AM - 4 PM; and Saturdays, 10 AM - 12 noon.
     

Received at the Library

Essex Genealogist for Feb. 2019 contains the transcript of a talk by Marian Pierre-Louis entitled "Breaking down brick walls with collateral research."  She is an entertaining speaker, and her case study of identifying the parents with a common surname using naming patterns and thorough research into siblings and in-laws reveals a wealth of knowledge about New England genealogy.

In the lead article in Your genealogy today (Mar.-Apr.2019) we are cautioned to look at family stories with a healthy dose of skepticism.  A column provides tips on hiring a professional genealogist.  Another on the power of DNA to solve mysteries flatly states, "if you haven't found illegitimacy in your family tree, you haven't tried hard enough." Fans of Mark Twain will enjoy an article about his boyhood friend Laura Hawkins Frazer, the model for Tom Sawyer's Becky Thatcher.  Gardeners may find inspiration in a piece encouraging the creation of a memory garden to commemorate departed relatives.  A very thorough article covers the many strategies for avoiding "surname stumbles," such as deciphering old scripts, identifying similar sounds, transcription errors and more.  There are tales of genealogy tourism on Virginia's Eastern shore, and the stirring recovery of an abducted child from Stalin's Russia.

Mass-Pocha (Feb. 2019) contains articles on researching in Ukraine, as well as Poland and Czechia.