Book Review: Endogamy: One Family, One People
The following book review was written by Bobbi King:
Endogamy: One Family, One People
by Israel Pickholtz. Colonial Roots, Millsboro, DE. 2015. 201 pages.
Endogamy is “marriage within a specific group as required by custom or law” as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary.
Mr. Pickholtz writes that European Jews, for generations, married within their own tribes leaving behind a limited genetic pool among the descendants. Members of a tribe today are all related to one another multiple times, creating endogamy, and a situation of research difficulty for the Jewish genealogist.
Endogamy is the account of Mr. Pickholtz’s DNA research of his family. He is of Jewish roots, and notes that he hasn’t seen anything written about the genetic genealogy of Jews. So he wrote this book as his “How I Did It” chronology and hopes to guide along others with similar “closed family” relationships.
Menus of the 1850s and 1860s
The Hilton College of the University of Houston’s Hospitality Industry Archives includes a wonderful selection of menus from the 1850s and 1860s. It is interesting to see that our ancestors’ food choices were quite different from what we might choose today. My favorite is shown below. (Click on the image to view a larger version.)
Was the First Thanksgiving Held in Florida?
Did the first Thanksgiving held in the New World happen in Saint Augustine, Florida on September 8, 1565? One person with significant credentials in history claims Thanksgiving started decades before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
“The first Thanksgiving that involved a feast and lots of local food and inviting the local people, the Timacuan Indians here in St. Augustine to be part of it, and that’s our Thanksgiving,” says Kathleen Deagan, Ph.D., the distinguished research curator emerita at the Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida. “Most of us associate our early history and our founders of the English colonies of Jamestown and of Plymouth, and really the first settlement was here in St. Augustine in 1565.”
Dr. Deagan continues, “It never ceases to astonish people the first thanksgiving meal was smoked meat and fish. Ham. Garbanzo beans. Red Wine. Olives and Olive oil. There wasn’t any corn as far as we know, no turkeys, no mashed potatoes, no pecan pie for sure!”
Call for Presentations for the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference 2017
The following announcement was written by the folks at the Ontario Genealogical Society:
The annual Ontario Genealogical Society Conference 2017 will be held in Ottawa on June 16-18, 2017 at Algonquin College. The theme of the conference is Our Canada – Your Family: Building a Nation. As 2017 will be the 150th anniversary of the birth of Canada, Ottawa Branch OGS will host the annual OGS conference and give the Conference a national flair, bringing together genealogists and family historians from all over Canada. We are looking for speakers and talks of interest to genealogists from all provinces.
Recent Updates to the Calendar of Genealogy Events
The following pages have recently been updated in the Calendar of Genealogy Events:
Ireland, California, Illinois, Maine, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas
Some of the above changes may have been deletions of past events.
All information in the Calendar of Events is contributed by YOU and by other genealogists. You can directly add information to the Calendar about your local genealogy event.
(+) Does It Still Make Sense to Buy Genealogy CDs?
The following is a Plus Edition article written by and copyright by Dick Eastman.
Several articles have appeared online in the past few years describing the slowly dying music CD business. In short, sales of CD disks are being replaced by directly downloading music online to iPods, computers, and other music playback devices. Remember the record and CD stores that used to be available at your local mall? Where have they all gone?
You can find dozens of articles about the declining sales of music CDs if you start at http://goo.gl/zVLs6. Those articles got me thinking: if sales of music CDs are plummeting, can data CDs be far behind?
A Windows 10 Laptop for $150
I have often written, “the price of hardware keeps dropping,” and that has never been more true than today. Lenovo, a well-respected manufacturer of laptop and other computers, has just announced a Windows laptop with a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $199. Of course, retailers are always able to discount retail prices, and BestBuy has done just that. The Lenovo IdeaPad 100S is available from BestBuy for only $149.99. The BestBuy web site lists that laptop as “on sale” but does not list a sale ending date.
This is not a Chromebook or some stripped-down tablet computer. It is not a refurbished computer. Instead, it is a full-sized Windows 10 laptop, capable of running any Windows genealogy program available today and probably most other Windows program as well. It is available today from BestBuy.
Deceased Online Adds Records for North East Lincolnshire
The following announcement was written by Deceased Online:
Grimsby’s Scartho Road cemetery, Scartho Road crematorium, and Cleethorpes cemetery are the three sites managed by North East Lincolnshire Council with their records now on www.deceasedonline.com.
There are nearly 400,000 records and over 170,000 named burials and cremations for the area, which date back to 1877 and feature records that represent the history and economy of the region. The records available comprise digital scans of original burial and cremation registers, grave details for each burial and cemetery maps indicating the section for each burial.
Cleethorpes Cemetery Register Page
Possible Method to Validate “Family Legends” and Other Questionable Claims
Most families have “legends,” claims of ancestry that have been handed down from generation to generation. Examples include claims of an ancestor who was a Cherokee princess, three brothers who immigrated together then later split up to go to three different locations, and claims that the family name was changed at Ellis Island.
NOTE: Almost all these claims turn out to be bogus.
Dave Jack of Timaru, New Zealand, is devising a framework for assessing claims of family links, including how DNA samples could be used to verify them.
Ancestry.co.uk adds Freemasonry Membership Registers for England and Ireland
Ancestry.co.uk has added two new collections to hep find the the Freemasons in your family. The announcement came from Ancestry.co.uk but the same records seem to be available on Ancestry.com. These records include a lot more than English and Irish records. They also include some entries for lodges located in Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Some of the records in this collection include: Brecon and Carmarthen (Wales), Montreal, Halifax and Portland (Canada), Christiana, Port Elizabeth, Barkley West, Cape Town and Machadodorp (South Africa), Invercargill (New Zealand), also South Australia.
The new Freemasonry Membership Registers for England and Ireland typically include name, profession, initiation date and other personal information.
The collections are individually titled as follows:
New Records Available To Search at Findmypast
The following announcement was written by Findmypast:
This week’s Findmypast Friday marks the release of two fascinating UK collections, updates to our collection of historic British newspapers and the ability to browse Findmypast’s largest single collection.
Almost 10,000 volumes of England & Wales electoral registers are now available to browse, making it is now easier than ever before to uncover the history of your home and local area. Records available to search this weekend include social & institutional records covering daily life in 18th and 19th century Devon, a list of British WW1 volunteers from Argentina and millions of brand new British newspapers articles.
England & Wales, electoral registers 1832-1932 Browse
National Genealogical Society Announces Program for the 2016 Family History Conference
The following announcement was written by the U.S. National Genealogical Society:
ARLINGTON, VA, 20 NOVEMBER 2015—The National Genealogical Society is pleased to announce the release of its 2016 Family History Conference program. The program, which includes more than 170 lectures, is now available online at http://conference.ngsgenealogy.org/program/ and as a sixteen-page registration brochure, which can be downloaded at http://goo.gl/w40zSO.
Nationally known speakers and subject matter experts will address a broad array of topics, including records for Florida and its neighboring states; migration into and out of the region; military records; state and federal records. Other topics will discuss genealogical research on African Americans and women; methodology; analysis and problem solving; and the use of technology, including genetics, mobile devices, and apps useful in genealogical research.
The Origins of the Melungeons
“Melungeon” is a term applied to many people of the Southeastern United States, mainly in the Cumberland Gap area of central Appalachia: East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia, and East Kentucky. The most common adjective used to describe the Melungeons is “mysterious;” no one seems to know where the Melungeons originated. The Melungeons often did not fit into any of the racial categories that define an individual or group within American society; their neighbors considered them neither white, black, nor Indian.
The Melungeons appear to be of mixed ancestry, and contradictory claims about the origins of these people have existed for centuries. Most modern-day descendants of Melungeon families are generally Caucasian in appearance, often, although not always, with dark hair and eyes, and a swarthy or olive complexion. Descriptions of Melungeons vary widely from observer to observer, from “Middle Eastern” to “Native American” to “light-skinned African American.”
Hotel Reservations Open for the FGS 2016 Conference in Springfield, Illinois
The following announcement was written by the folks at the Federation of Genealogical Societies:
November 19, 2015 – Austin, TX – Two Springfield, Illinois hotels are now taking reservations for The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) 2016 Conference, “Time Travel: Centuries of Memories,” which will be held August 31 – September 3, 2016 at the Prairie Capital Convention Center.
The Wyndham Springfield City Centre (formerly the Hilton Springfield) and The President Abraham Lincoln Springfield (a DoubleTree hotel by Hilton) will offer reduced rates to attendees of the FGS 2016 Conference. Each hotel is conveniently located near the Prairie Capital Convention Center and each hotel will offer a courtesy bus from the Abraham Lincoln Capital Airport and Amtrak station.
LXLE: A full-featured Operating System for an Aging PC
If you have an aging Windows computer that just can’t keep up with today’s Windows programs, you have three choices:
- Live with the problem
- Spend lots of money to purchase a new PC
- Replace your old Windows operating system with a new one, designed to run on older, lower-powered computers.
If you select option #3, you probably will soon be looking at a number of solutions based on Linux or Chromebook operating systems. One version of the Linux operating system you should consider is LXLE. It is an easy-to-use operating system, designed for computer novices as well as experienced Windows users who don’t want to spend money for a more powerful system.
Ancestry.com Files a Trademark Case Against DNA Diagnostics Center for the Marketing of “AncestryByDNA”
DNA expert CeCe Moore has written about a trademark infringement law suit involving DNA testing that has been filed in the Ohio Southern District Court in Cincinnati. The article may be found in CeCe’s Your Genetic Genealogist blog at http://goo.gl/0MzelE.
Help Wanted: Brand Manager at Eneclann in Dublin
Want to live in or near Dublin, Ireland? Are you an experienced team manager? Do you have experience in customer service, especially in the heritage/education sector? Do you have at least 2 years’ experience in content or website management? If so, you will be interested in the help wanted ad at http://goo.gl/i2BIMh.
Amazon’s $49.99 7-inch Fire Tablet Computer to be Available for $34.99
A few weeks ago, I wrote a Plus Edition article about my experiences with Amazon’s new $49.99 7-inch Fire Tablet Computer that runs a modified version of the Android operating system. That article is still available at http://eogn.com/wp/?p=37757. A Plus Edition user name and password is needed to read the article.
Now that same tablet will soon be available at an even lower price: $34.99.
Amazon will be offering a number of “Black Friday” specials, including one on the Fire Tablet. However, Amazon’s version of “Black Friday” will not be continuous. Sale prices will appear and disappear at various times for several days. Details may be found in an article by Sarah Mitroff in the C|Net web site at http://www.cnet.com/news/amazon-black-friday-deals-2015.
New FamilySearch Collections Update: November 9, 2015
The following announcement was written by the folks at FamilySearch:
Nearly half a million more free records were added to the Billions Graves Index this week. Russia Tatarstan Church Books 1721-1939, Minnesota Duluth and Wisconsin Superior Crew Lists 1922-1958, Poland Evangelical Church Books 1700-2005, and the US Freedmen’s Bureau Hospital and Marriage Records also have significant additions. For these and more, follow the links below.
Dick Eastman, author
Dick Eastman has been involved in genealogy for more than 30 years. He has worked in the computer industry for more than 40 years in hardware, software, and managerial positions. By the early 1970s, Dick was already using a mainframe computer to enter his family data on punch cards. He built his first home computer in 1980.
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