Received at the Library

The Aug./Sept. 2019 issue of Internet Genealogy highlights "Five Go-To Sites for Research." Author George C. Morgan's faves are: Cyndi's list, the FamilySearch research wiki, David Rumsey Map Collection, Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System, and Google Books.  The journal is collecting readers' favorites for a future article -- what are your top five?  An informative article about non-conformists in England (anyone other than Church of England) explains that while marriages and deaths were required to be recorded in C of E parish registers, births and baptisms were not and may be tracked down elsewhere.  Several organizing methods and advisors are suggested in "The Joys of Clutter."  Other articles cover old-time picnics, seals (on documents, not the kind the sharks like), publishing a family history ebook, the Enslaved Project, and more.

The NGS Magazine for Jan.-March 2019 focuses on the Missouri region.  Article topics include the orphan train, Early French citizens in the upper Mississippi Valley, German settlement in Louisiana Purchase Lands, and using Homestead Files.

Your genealogy today for July/Aug. 2019 leads off with "Ghost town genealogy", which enumerates the reasons towns failed (erosion, exhaustion of mineral or natural resources, etc.) and suggests ways of tracking down records for them.  "Compiling a cemetery guide" details how a community group can leave a legacy.  Other topics ocvered: tips for heritage travel, Civil was nurses, "passive genealogy" the Kodak Brownie camera, and preserving old family letters.

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Lots of useful information can be found in Internet Genealogy for June/July 2019.  Do you regularly read genealogy blogs? Sue Lisk details six which might be of interest, and many of them provide things like topic guides or digests of others' blog posts.  Seven expert genealogists predict what will dominate the field in the coming year, and in the next 5-10 years.  All New York arrival passenger lists are freely available both at Family Search and at www.libertyellisfoundation.org for the period 1820-1957.  An up-to-date list of databases covering enslaved ancestors is offered, and another article covers mapping tools for Hispanic research.  The Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940 covers anyone who served in US World War I forces and applied for benefits.

The April/June 2019 issue of NGS magazine is all about lineage societies: their history, different types, the application process, how DNA is fitting into the picture, and relevant books, articles and online resources.  There are also articles on city directories, resolving  conflicts in direct evidence, and Civil War Confederate slave payroll records.

The Essex Genealogist for August 2019 carries transcripts of presentations on "Dissecting Documents" and one on "Demystifying Ahnentafels" (which are a German-originated numbering system for family charts).

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.

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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.

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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.

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Essex Genealogist (Aug. 2018) contains the transcript of a very chatty but informative presentation on Land Use Records, by the Register of Deeds for Middlesex North.  I learned from it that several of the counties in Massachusetts do not have their own Registry of Deeds, but rather are covered by the Secretary of State's office.  (The southeastern counties, including Barnstable, were more financially stable and have retained their own Registries.)  I also learned that Registries are based on names, not addresses -- names are what are indexed, and the deeds are just recorded in the order they come in.  And do you know what a "straw" is?  Before 1970 you couldn't transfer property to yourself and someone else, so if you wanted to add for example your new spouse to your deed, you had to go through a third party to avoid transferring the property to yourself.

Essex Genealogist for Nov. 2018 contains a very interesting presentation on "Researching Rural Slavery in Eighteenth-Century Essex County, Massachusetts."  I don't think many of us Yankees are aware of the extent of slave-holding in colonial New England.  This article explores how the author compiled information on two enslaved couples and their children.  There's also an article with extensive commentary on genealogy subscription services (Ancestry etc.)

The lead story in Your genealogy today for Jan./Feb. 2019 explores the role of children's literature in the lives of the author's mother, and her mother and grandmother, through the books they left behind.  Ir made me think about the books I inherited from my mother's cousin (old enough to function as a grandmother to me), the Little Colonel series by Annie Fellows Johnston, set in the Reconstruction-era South -- did anyone else devour those books like I did?  If you are lucky enough to find a printed family history about your ancestors, another article cautions your to carefully evaluate the content and check the sources, not accepting the research at face value just because it is in print.  In "Financing Wars" we learn that the very first Federal taxes began in 1791 with distilled liquor.  The government added other items and used the proceeds finance the War of 1812 and later on, the Civil War; records of these taxes often appear in newspapers.  Other article topics include: slang and slang dictionaries; how to cope with research paralysis; bookplates, book rhymes, and inscriptions; and how to write a successful proposal for a genealogy talk.

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The October 2018 issue of Mass-Pocha describes the annual conference of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston.  Thee were several presentations on DNA.  CeCe Moore,described what happened when she got all her relatives to do DNA tests --  she listed an incredible set of coincidences discovered by newly connected long-lost relatives -- rather mind-blowing!  Another presentation tells the tale of a discovery of a presumably unintentional switch of infants at a hospital in the Bronx in 1913.DNA testing is leading to a lot of world-shifting discoveries, use at your own risk!

The cover story in Internet genealogy for Oct./Nov. 2018 reminds us that the Digital Public Library of America is a great place to start for historical background and context for our ancestors' stories.  In addition to texts, there are images, video and sound files, in this union catalog of online resources.  Tools for family history writers are reviewed: Grammarly, GrammarCheck, Cliche Buster, and Passive Voice Detector.  Are you on board with the bullet journal craze?  Using Evernote you can go digital with this method of planning, organizing, and tracking your genealogy research. David Norris explores Naval Muster Rolls, newly available records for researching your naval ancestor.  Sue Lisk explores websites that help identify occupations from the past, in various languages -- cool!  (Do you know what an "iron puddler" is??)  Another article suggests ways to get a picture of your ancestor's financial circumstances, and yet another collects websites with information on indentured servants.

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Do you need inspiration for finding the elusive grave of an ancestor?  "Researching abandoned cemeteries" is featured in the Nov./Dec. 2018 issue of Your genealogy today.  It chronicles the methods and adventures of a pair of friends who comb the Midwest finding abandoned grave sites in farmers' fields and other remote locales.  Another article provides a step-by-step guide to connecting with a recent relatives classmates.  Advice is offered on the tricky situation of illegitimate birth, which can block the way to the past in your family tree.   Other topics include military pensions at the state level, the Louisiana State Archives, and a succinct explanation of the significance of cM or centimorgan in DNA research.

The July-Sept. 2018 issue of NGS magazine has an overall theme of family secrets, and provides case studies of some of the most disturbing things you can find when doing ancestral research: desertion and court martial, divorce, mental illness, prostitution, and criminal activity.  This issue also has an article about data security, from the point of view of a genealogist's responsibility to safeguard data that could injure others.  German Interest Group members might also be interested in "Researching Eighteenth-Century German Immigrants."

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Family tree magazine (July-Aug. 2018) emphasizes how genealogy is like detective work, and in fact is being used in real cases such as identifying the Golden State Killer.  The local genealogy society in Orange County CA is partnering with the coroner's office to research relatives of people who die alone.  A professional genealogist has tracked down his sperm-donor father ("Finding connections") through DNA.  If you're a detective fiction fan, check out British author Steve Robinson's genealogy sleuth series.  A useful primer on Eastern European genealogy research gives six common obstacles and how to overcome them.  State guides for Maine and New Mexico provide a handy summary of record availability and addresses.  "Top secrets" are 12 tips for staying organized and making the most of your research efforts.  "Off the grid" reminds us that only perhaps a third of the records that are relevant to our ancestors' lives are digitized, and suggests where to look for the rest.
PS A reminder that Lisa Louise Cooke hosts Family Tree podcasts available free on ITunes.

Internet genealogy (June/July 2018) also emphasizes sleuthing.  "Inklings, hunches, and sneaking suspicions" suggests ways to harness our intuition in service of our research.  "Crowdsourcing" explains how important this tool has become for getting records indexed.  Scottish tax rolls can be an important substitute for census records.  A fire in 1922 destroyed hundreds of years of records in Dublin, but "Beyond 2022" seeks to recreate much of the missing information online in time for the 100th anniversary of the fire.  Reviews are offered of Scrivener 3 for Mac, TSOLife, and Genlighten.

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The cover of the May/June 2018 issue of Your genealogy today portrays a young woman with shocked expression reading a newspaper over the caption "Family SCANDAL in the headlines." Has this happened to you??  The author of the article ironically discovered a tale of murder, adultery and military desertion after he published a family history and had heard nary a hint of the incident from the many relatives interviewed, including the perpetrator.  "The house that once was" tells a tale of researching a stately family home in Toronto and thereby shedding light on the author's great-grandfather's life.  "Follow the money" has interesting tips for research in lesser-utilized records such as work applications, patent applications, and social worker reports, and "Bank checks and genealogy" continues the money theme.  Other articles cover North Carolina records, the Irish in Victorian England, and how you might determine the religion of your forebears.

The Essex Genealogist for May 2018 carries the transcript of an extensive presentation by Mary Ellen Grogan on "Online resources for Irish Genealogy."  Although now two years old, the information looks useful and details how many more Irish records are available than in the past.

The history of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Greater Boston is reviewed in the April 2018 issue of Mass-Pocha.  Evolving from a small study group formed in 1982, the Society now boasts over 600 members, publishes a lively journal, utilizes social media, and hosts frequent programs.

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The NGS magazine for Jan.-Mar. 2018 explores the Great Lakes region (where the National Genealogical Society's conference was just held), in particular, resources for Dutch genealogy because of the many Dutch immigrants who settled that area.  In addition, you will find great tips in articles on searching courthouse indexes,  "wizardry for effective newspaper searches," note-taking software, and effective communication with DNA matches.

Family tree magazine for May/June 2018 features a photographic tour of Ellis Island, to walk you through the experience of the many immigrants who arrived in America at this port.  A helpful guide walks you through the process of passing on heirlooms to the next generation, or disposing of them appropriately.  Arkansas and Michigan are featured in state guides.  "DNA direction" suggests how to use  your results effectively.  "Holes in history" suggests ways around major record losses caused by fires (1890 census, Ellis Island, etc.) Journalist Jennifer Mendelssohn is featured in an article about the relevance of genealogy to today's political rhetoric about immigration.

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In honor of tax time Internet genealogy for April/May 2018 has a couple of articles designed to help your budget. In "Save money on your genealogy!" the author has great suggestions for looking for discounts and taking advantage of free services, such as educational websites and social media sites like Thomas MacEntee's genealogy bargains (https://www.genealogybargains.com/).  [For signing up for MacEntee's newsletter today, I scored a free e-book called DNA buying guide!]  Another article visits the Internet Archive, an enormous free site with 15 million searchable books and texts.  In addition to printed material it contains audio, video, images, software and more.  Although US based it contains a good deal of international material in many languages.  A project is underway to provide links from Worldcat (the most comprehensive library catalog in existence) to books in the Internet Archive.  This site also includes snapshots of old websites (over 310 billion, yes billion, of them) in the Wayback Machine feature.  An extensive article gives a tutorial on interfacing Roots Magic software with Ancestry and other sites.  A review explains Writely, an app designed to get you moving on your resolve to write your family history with daily reminders and more. A new photo service called MemoryWeb is also reviewed.  Other articles cover the rewards of oral history interviews, pharmacy records, and using shoes as an example of a theme to unite family history stories.

The spring 2018 edition of American Ancestors is a special issue entitled "Your guide to the Mayflower 400th Anniversary."  Activities that NEHGS (publisher of American Ancestors) will undertake to celebrate this milestone include "events, tours, books, articles, exhibitions, educational opportunities, ceremonies, commemorations, and more" according to the society's president.  An estimated 35 million people are descended from the Mayflower pilgrims.  A new feature of this anniversary is acknowledgment of the role of the Wampanoag in the Pilgrims' story, celebrated in a traveling exhibit.  Partner organizations have also formed in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands to help highlight the Pilgrims' origins in the Old World.  Mayflower-related articles include essays on a couple of my own forebears, Stephen Hopkins (his baptismal church) and Priscilla Alden (her female descendants).  If you are gearing up to try to connect yourself to these pioneers, see the article "A Guide to Proving Mayflower Ancestry."

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While we probably are all experienced in using Ancestry.com, the cover story in Internet genealogy (Feb./March 2018) shares ways to find hidden treasures.  To cite just one example, were you aware that Ancestry contains lots of databases that don't include personal names (think the Sears Roebuck catalogs, or postcards)?  Ten interesting examples of databases that aren't traditional genealogy data are listed.  In "At your service: the generous genealogist" Sue Lisk recommends ways to help others that will expand your skills and horizons, such as mentoring other family historians, transcribing or indexing records, documenting family stories or grave sites.  "Do you have lost Irish ancestors?" centers around researching emigration from Cobh, the deepwater port for Cork City, from which about half of Ireland's emigrants departed.  George Morgan (co-founder of the Genealogy Guys Podcast) is interviewed about his work with the Florida History and Genealogy Library to digitize items from their collections.  "Digital Library on American Slavery" focuses on but goes beyond North Carolina, and includes the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database.  Check out the National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair, an online conference featuring NARA records since 1913, just one of the internet resources mentioned in "Net Notes" in this issue.

In Your genealogy today (March/April 2018) "Hints from Houdini" offers 5 techniques to improve your research that take inspiration from the famous magician: be imaginative, confident, skeptical, resilient, and focus on the women!  Joe Grandinetti makes some great finds in Ireland tracing his mother's lineage in "Return to your sources."  In "Electricity and family history" we are reminded that something we take so much for granted today was a common feature of our ancestors' lives only with the 20th century.  Using North Carolina as a case study, Diane Richards discusses the intricacies and eccentricities of state records, and how history affects them. Another article covers researching Scots-Irish ancestors in 18th-century Virginia..

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The featured article in Internet genealogy (Oct./Nov.2017) "Always an apprentice!" gives tips for improving your family history research: use maps, historical apps like WhatWasThere and HistoryPin, and find local histories and other books that give the flavor of your ancestors' lives.  Two articles elucidate slave records in Britain (including British Caribbean colonies) and in the American South ("Slave Insurance Records").  "Reaching the end of the roll" reviews the end of the LDS microfilm project, and covers workarounds while we await the completion of digitization in 2020.  YMCA WW1 Service Cards are an interesting new resource added to FamilySearch, giving information on over 27,000 civilian volunteers who aided the war effort.  FindMyPast has added a collection of Catholic parish records ultimately expected to contain 100 million records.  The 2017 release of genealogy software package Heredis is reviewed.

The Dec./Jan 2018 issue of Internet genealogy explores several less traveled avenues for your research.  The lead article treats lesser known manuscript and archival holdings in "Online finding aids reveal genealogical gems."  The author suggests that ledgers are particularly useful, but names a host of other records that can reveal genealogy facts, such as petitions, bank records, benevolent society records, and more, and she suggests ways to find them.  (A friend of mine works on transcribing records in Provincetown, and found the Pharmacy ledger particularly fascinating.) Another article treats military periodicals, which are scattered across the internet -- search using the unit's name/number, and don't forget state newspaper archives.  If you like to think about the big picture of our genealogy enterprise, you'll enjoy "The global village in 21st century genealogy," which looks at the theories of Marshall McLuhan in light of the internet.  As always, there are software and website reviews: the PRONI historical map viewer covers Northern Ireland; ProStamm is a new genealogy software; Jambios is a new platform for telling stories online in book format.

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Family tree magazine always has interesting articles.  The Dec. 2017 issue treats DNA and adoption, the subject of our January meeting.  The featured article is the 75 best "state champions," the best state sites for genealogy (ours is www.digitalcommonwealth.org, well worth a look).  A collection of Sanborn fire insurance maps that will eventually reach half a million maps from all 50 states is being digitized by the Library of Congress and is available free on their website www.loc.gov/collections/sanborn-maps.  A fascinating article on the history of mirrors reveals that King Henry VIII was an avid collector at a time when a small mirror was worth as much as an entire country estate!

The cover story for Your Genealogy Today (Jan./Feb. 2018) is about making sense -- or not -- of family stories.  "Small town genealogy" looks at how towns are preserving their history, an effort that probably many of our members are engaged in, whether here on the Cape or elsewhere.  "Constables and town watchmen" explains the history of these positions perhaps filled by our 17th-19th century relatives before the establishment of professional police forces.  A useful tool for organizing your research is timelines, or chronological spreadsheets, which can help you identify puzzles and gaps for further research as well as keep track of your research.  Another useful tool is the Genealogical Proof Standard, which can help you "Avoid common mistakes."  Diane Southard, somewhat tongue in cheek, compares contacting your DNA matches to a first date situation.

Researcher's guide to American genealogy

A new resource has been added to the research guides section of the book collection at the CCGS Library.  The fourth edition of The Researcher's Guide to American Genealogy was released in 2017 by author Val D. Greenwood.  A substantial book of close to 800 pages, it is divided in two parts:

1. Background to research
2. Records and their use

The author takes the research process quite seriously, stating that "...the notion that when we are copying someone else's work we are doing family history research/genealogy is a misconception." (p.5)  His best advice to improve your research?  Document entire families, not just your direct line ancestors (p.10).

Part I is full of practical tips on a wide range of subjects.  For instance, the chapter on language covers handwriting, abbreviations, spelling, useful Latin terms, nicknames, numbers and more.  A chapter on correspondence covers filing of documents acquired, analyzing correspondence results, writing your letter, its appearance, choosing the recipients, and a checklist of good writing practices. Other chapter topics in Part 1 are: understanding genealogical research, planning, evidence, libraries and the National Archives, reference works, organizing your findings, computer technology, the internet, and family history.

In Part 2 there is a wealth of information concerning specific types of records that are encountered in family research.  The chapter on wills, for example, covers the different types of wills, probating, contested wills (a process usually providing great genealogical information!), the value of wills, problems specific to wills, and finding and using them.  Suffice it to say, no matter what kind of record you are investigating, this handbook will provide you with a thorough and thought-provoking overview.

I am very impressed with this book, and 75% of reviewers on Amazon gave it 5 stars, so I'm not alone.  If you are embarking on a new area of research, having trouble with something, or just wanting to tighten up your research practices, I think you would find valuable information and inspiration in this comprehensive guide.  Come by the CCGS Library and spend some time with it, why don't you?