Sharing Family History

Sharing family history: 16 Family Activities for sharing family history can be found here:

An interesting look at the last of the civil war veterans

For 90 years after the last shot of the American Civil War was fired, the men who had fought for the Union and the Confederacy, respectively, continued to meet, and in doing so wielded considerable political power in the nation that had divided them.

For one, the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) brought together Union soldiers, referred to as "veterans of the late unpleasantness." Starting in 1866, only one year after the war's close, and ending with the death of 109-year-old Albert Woolson in 1956, the G.A.R. boasted 490,000 members at its peak in 1890.

A hugely influential body, the G.A.R. was instrumental in electing a number of U.S. presidents in the late 1800s, from the 18th (Ulysses S. Grant) to the 25th (William McKinley). Orators for the G.A.R. were caricatured as "waving the bloody shirt."

For the South, the United Confederate Veterans (U.C.V.) was inaugurated in 1889. Local Confederate veteran associations proliferated after the war. At the movement's peak, more than 1,500 such groups were amalgamated in the U.C.V. The U.C.V.'s stated purpose was to promote "social, literary, historical and benevolent" aims.

During the 1890s, around 30,000 veterans and 50,000 further guests were present at the annual U.C.V. reunion. But in 1950, at the final reunion, a lone U.C.V. member was present: 98-year-old James Moore of Alabama.

About 617,000 Americans were killed during the Civil War. The number is equal to the entire number of Americans who had died in all wars up to that point, including both the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.

http://mashable.com/2015/04/10/civil-war-oldest-veterans/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link

Be a citizen archivist

Join AOTUS (Archivist of the United States) David Ferriero in transcribing some of the most important documents in America's history. This week — March 15-21 — is Sunshine Week for government: the annual nationwide celebration of access to public information. It’s “a national initiative to promote a dialogue about the importance of open government and freedom of information.”1

And, Ferriero thought, how better to promote access to public information than to help transcribe some of the most interesting — and, by the way, genealogically useful — documents of our nation’s history?

So this week NARA’s AOTUS has a Transcription Challenge going on. Citizen-archivists are challenged — okay, invited — to join in the challenge to transcribe any one (or more!) of millions of pages of handwritten or typed documents held by NARA and available through its online catalog.2 By tagging and transcribing the documents, our work will make the information accessible through the catalog system. So the end result will be both text and, in effect, an every-name index to the transcribed documents.

From: The Legal Genealogist Blog http://www.legalgenealogist.com/

Seeking Michigan - Indexes

The Archives of Michigan recently posted the card index to the Detroit News at Seeking Michigan: http://seekingmichigan.org/about/indexes.

Originally compiled by the staff of the Detroit News, this subject index of the Detroit News newspaper totals more than 1 million index cards. The tables of searchable PDF files are arranged alphabetically by subject and date approximately from the late 1800’s to the late 1990’s.

An index card indicates that a clipping file exists for those articles. Researchers may then request to look in the clippings file at the Archives of Michigan for the actual articles cited or visit a research institution that has the newspaper on microfilm.

Among this index, you will find other indexes that can help find Michigan family history from the Archives of Michigan.

Take a look and enjoy!

19 Strange Professions of Your Ancestors that no longer exist

These Weird Careers Are Now Ancient History

http://crestleaf.com/blog/19-strange-professions-ancestors-dont-exist-today/

Houston Chronicle Obituaries Online

Here is a brief summary of my morning presentation on Houston Chronicle obituaries online:

Full-Text Obituaries --- 10/29/2001 to present

• visit www.chron.com
• hover the mouse pointer over "Local" (do not click)
• click "Obituaries"
• click "Advanced Search" (located in the box labeled "Search Obituaries & Guest Books")
• change "Past 30 Days" to "All Time" (this will search obits from 10/29/2001 to present)
• enter first and last name of deceased and click "Search")
• if match is found, click "Read Obituary"

Lists of Names of Deceased taken from Houston Chronicle Obituaries --- 10/29/1985 to present***

• visit www.houstonlibrary.org
• click Research --->  Resources By Category --->  Newspapers
• click "Houston Chronicle (Article Search)"
• enter "obituaries" as an 'all text' keyword
• enter the surname you are searching as an 'all text' keyword
• click "Search"
• search results are sorted by year on the left side of the screen

*** Note: For some strange reason, these obituary lists of names seem to almost disappear after Feb 2009, although they are occasionally spotted in later months/years under different heading ("deaths" and "life tributes", for example).

I will add the above info to the Digital Newspapers Finding Aid at the Reference Desk as well.

Happy Hunting!

Steven 

Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States

Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States online!

From Dick Eastman's online genealogical newsletter:

Charles O. Paullin published his Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States in 1932.  It contains nearly 700 maps covering seemingly every facet of the country's social, econominc and politalc life, including maps, then novel, showing county by county results for presidental elections going back to the beginning of the Republic.

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2013/12/online-animated-version-of-the-atlas-of-the-historical-geography-of-the-united-states.html

Sue

Family History Archive

As mentioned, the Family History Archive, the digital book project we partner which FamilySearch in has been moved to the new website.

http://www.books.familysearch.org/

All the books from the BYU Family History Archives servers have been moved to this site.  I am not sure when the link to "books" at the FamilySearch website will be updated to link to the new site.

The new platform the project sits at has increased functionality

Maps @ Genealogyinc.com

This is a website that I've found useful when looking for historical maps, atlases and county formations.  http://www.genealogyinc.com/maps/

When you go onto the site... just scroll down to the state section and pick a state.
Thanks,
Cary

FOLD3 New interface

Fold3 has new search features and results features.  Read about them here:
http://www.geneamusings.com/2012/07/fold3com-has-new-look.html
The home page used in the example is a personal subscription home page, however the results and some of the functionality are the same in the personal and institutional subscriptions.


Sue

Ancestry Library Edition Flash Viewer Printing Problem Work Around

Message: 12

Date: Wed, 6 Jun 2012 12:19:50 -0400 (EDT)

From: harrisonkim@q.com

Subject: Re: [Genealib] Ancestry printing to 11X17 Hayes

To: Librarians Serving Genealogists

Cc: cris.cooper@ancestry.com, Kim Harrison

Good morning:

Ancestry does watch the list and enjoy seeing everyone's great suggestions for improvements to Ancestry.  The library community also can reach out directly to Ancestry as well.  Cris Cooper (cris.cooper@ancestry.com) is our dedicated IT person to help with all Ancestry Library Edition concerns and comments as well as myself (kharrison@ancestry.com).  I also would like to remind the list that PQ customer service team is also available.  I also would like to share again with you all the PQ site of http://prq.st/GenTools for the place for webinars, how to documents and general information about Ancestry Library Edition can be found.  Having said all of that here is the work around solution Cris has found.

To work around the issue you're having with the Flash viewer printing, you should be able to follow the steps below (for Internet Explorer):

1. Pull up an image you'd like to print while using the new advanced viewer.

2. Click the Print option on the toolbar.

3. Choose either Image Only or Image and Source print.

4. A new tab/window should appear for your browser and load the image by itself.

5. The printer dialog box should automatically appear but close it.

6. The new tab/window should still be there with the image by itself showing.

7. From here, click the Tools menu (Alt + X).

8. In the Print section, go to the Print Preview... option.

9. First you'll want to click the Page Setup button (Alt + U) to change to the correct paper size.

10. The print preview screen will easily allow you to change the orientation of the image from portrait to landscape or vice versa. More recent census records will require the latter option.

11. You can also adjust the zoom level here. The magic number that I found for census records is about 150% but often times the "Shrink to Fit" options works as intended if the image is larger than paper size you're using.

12. Make sure the page indicator in the upper-right says Page 1 of 1 (unless you're printing the source as well) before printing and it should print correctly.

(Note: Don't worry if the image doesn't load completely in the print preview. You should at least get the outline of it so you can gauge where it will appear on the final printout.)

Again, if you have any questions, please reach out to us here at Ancestry!  We always enjoy hearing from our librarians!  :)

Kim

Kim S. Harrison

Senior Institutional Account Executive

Ancestry.com

kharrison@ancestry.com

Phone 801-705-7892


Sue 6 JUNE 2012