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The following was written by Sean Murphy of the Centre for Irish Genealogical and Historical Studies:
Much has been made – some will say too much – of US President Barack Obama’s Irish ancestry. After all, he is completely African on his father’s side and mostly English on his mother’s side. Yet in there among his maternal ancestors is that little bit of Irish, the Kearneys of Moneygall, Co Offaly, which entitles him to be called one of our own. The Queen is different, as there will be more reserve both on our part and on hers, and her visit is perceived primarily as a dutiful contribution towards normalising relationships between two nations with an unfortunate history of mutual hostility and sense of grievance.
I published this article three years ago. However, the same issues have raised their ugly heads again several times in recent weeks so I am going to republish the article. I have changed the wording slightly on a few sentences to reflect my latest thoughts, but it is close to the original article.
One thing has changed in the past three years: Ancestry.com is now a sponsor of this newsletter. However, this article reflected my views before the company became a sponsor and my views haven't changed since.
Warning: This article contains personal opinions.
I have a complaint that may upset some people, including some who read this newsletter. I will probably lose some readers because of this article, but I don't care. Like many of my readers, I feel so strongly about this issue that I just have to speak out – hold the sugar coating.
Some people are so shortsighted that they manage to ignore certain facts that are blatantly obvious to others.
The following announcement was written by Michael John Neill:
We are announcing a new how-to genealogy newsletter for the beginning genealogist starting June of 2011.
Reader and survey feedback indicated an interest in a newsletter aimed toward the genealogist who needed some guidance in starting their search for their ancestors and who needed more than just a summary of what records contained. Casefile Clues for Beginners will help orient genealogists to the basic records genealogists use and how to make the best use of their research time and money.
I saw this demonstrated today and it looks good. I like the way Ancestry.com implemented it. The following announcement was written by Ancestry.com (click on any image to see a larger picture):
Last October we launched Ancestry Labs to test a few new ideas, and we’d like to thank all those members who contributed a lot of great feedback and discussion around these. Today we’re excited to announce the introduction of one of the ideas, Web Search, into the main Ancestry.com search.
Why are we launching Web Search?
We’ve heard from many members that although Ancestry.com has the broadest collections of historical records available, it certainly isn’t completely comprehensive. Every day, digital records are being published on sites across the web, many of which are free to access.
These sites can be a great resource in helping break through brick walls, however, it can be hard to know where to find sites that are relevant to your ancestors, and it also takes time to work out the best way to search them once you do manage to track them down.
I will be attending the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in New York City on May 24 through 26. It is billed as the "Social Media Business Summit for Bloggers." I am wondering if there are any other genealogy bloggers who are planning to attend. If so, I'd love to meet you there and perhaps we can compare notes on how the information presented in the sessions applies to genealogy blogs.
Thomas MacEntee's latest list at http://www.geneabloggers.com/genealogy-blogs/ shows more than 1,800 genealogy blogs online so I suspect there is a good chance two or more of us will be at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo.
A monumental change for our ancestors occurred nearly 400 years ago. Following this day in 1637, our ancestors started using dinner knives for the first time.
Prior to Richelieu’s invention, diners typically used hunting daggers to spear their morsels, which were then conveyed to the mouth by hand or with the help of a spoon. Richelieu’s knives soon became the rage among the French court, and soon everyone who was anyone in France had a set. Table manners improved greatly as a result.
The following announcement was written by Deceased Online:
11 cemeteries across Wiltshire, Dorset and Devon now on www.deceasedonline.
Over 36,000 burial records from seven cemeteries in the County of Wiltshire head a range of new data for Southwest England now available on Deceased Online. The cemeteries are: Bradford-on-Avon, Hilperton (near Trowbridge), Holt (near Bradford-on-Avon), Melksham, Trowbridge*, Warminster and Westbury, with records back to 1856 and all including burial register scans as well as grave details.
The following announcement was written by the Guild of One-Name Studies:
Kirsty Gray, Chairman of the Guild of One-Name Studies, has been appointed the new Director of English Studies at the Canadian National Institute of Genealogical Studies. In her new position, Kirsty will be reviewing and updating the record courses from Census and Civil Registration to the much more advanced records such as Land, Property, Education and Court Records. The Institute have already commented on Kirsty’s appointment and consider that her excellent reputation in genealogical circles and her youthful energy will make Kirsty an excellent addition to the National Institute of Genealogical Studies’ team.
The following announcement was written by the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors:
The International Society of Family History Writers and Editors announced the 2010 winners of the Annual Excellence in Writing Competition at the Banquet held on Wednesday, May 11, in Charleston, SC, in conjunction with the National Genealogical Society Conference.
The judges for this year were Amy Arner, Diane Garvin, Heather Henderson, and Bill West; contest coordinator was Yolanda Campbell Lifter. Leland K. Meitzler was the banquet speaker with a presentation on Genealogy Writers Do More than Write Books. Awards were presented by ISFHWE Second Vice President Gary M. Smith and Treasurer Diana Crisman Smith.
The 2010 Contest winners and their winning pieces are:
The 2011 annual conference of the (U.S.) National Genealogical Society continued today in Charleston, South Carolina. With the exception of the opening ceremonies, today was much like yesterday: lots of presentations offered by the leading genealogy lecturers of today, sponsored luncheons, and a lot of things to see in the exhibits hall.
This evening at the NGS conference in Charleston, South Carolina, Ancestry.com offered a sneak preview of the company's products and services to be released within the next nine months or so. I had a chance to attend and was furiously taking notes as Josh Hanna and Eric Shoupe made announcement after announcement. I don't believe any other company in the genealogy business has ever been able to make this many announcements at once!
Disclaimer: Ancestry.com is the exclusive advertiser in this newsletter so perhaps I m biased. However, I honestly think I would have written this article even if they were not a sponsor.
You will note that my notes are not always in the form of proper sentences. I took these in a hurry and want to get them published as soon as possible. The notes have not been edited and are offered "as is:"
Wholly Genes, Inc. has announced the company's 7th Annual Genealogy Conference and Cruise. If you have ever thought of going on a cruise or have thought of attending a genealogy conference, this is your chance to do both at the same time! The Wholly Genes cruise is traditionally the largest family history conference on the seas.
This year's voyage will leave Fort Lauderdale on November 13, 2011 and go to the Southern Caribbean and back again, arriving back in Fort Lauderdale on November 20. Ports to be visited include Aruba, Curaçao, and a small island in the Bahamas called Half Moon Cay.
The 2011 annual conference of the (U.S.) National Genealogical Society opened this morning in Charleston, South Carolina. You can read more in my earlier article at http://goo.gl/u63Ul or read more on the NGS web site at http://goo.gl/0VZWl. I was in the audience during this morning's opening ceremonies and also later wandered the exhibits hall and attended a couple of presentations at today's conference.
I took notes but cannot guarantee the spelling of all the names. I learned (again) that I'm not much of a touch typist and that some of these names came at me fast and furious.
I think the program chair for this year's NGS conference decided to "load up" on the first sessions of the conference. I looked in the schedule to see which presentation I wanted to attend first and found that Elizabeth Shown Mills, Craig Roberts, David Rencher, John Humphrey, and Josh Taylor were all scheduled to speak at the same time. These are some of the "heavy hitters" amongst today's genealogy presenters and they were all scheduled to speak at the same time? Which one could I choose?
Actually, I decided to go with none of the above. Jordan Jones is not as well known a speaker on the genealogy lecture circuit, but he was presenting on a topic that is near and dear to my heart: Cloud Computing and Genealogical Collaboration: How Technology Can Help Us work Together.
In addition, this was part of the GenTech track and was the Birdie Monk Holsclaw Memorial Lecture as well. I selected Jordan Jones' presentation and I am now glad that I did.
A life-size bust of Barack Obama sits in a bar in the village of Moneygall. There are American flags on the wall alongside the President’s campaign posters and copies of his autobiography in a glass-fronted cabinet. Round the corner is a house emblazoned in the Stars and Stripes. Across the road is a shop selling commemorative mugs, keyrings and Barack to the Future t-shirts. The village of some 300 or so residents is preparing for a visit from the American president.
In 1850, Falmouth Kearney, the 19-year-old son of a shoemaker left Moneygall to begin a new life in America, went on to marry a woman from Ohio called Charlotte Holloway, and ended up becoming great great great grandfather to a future president.
Google announced a new generation of Chrome OS–based laptops at the company’s I/O developer conference today. Called the ChromeBook, the new device and its interface are based entirely on Google’s Chrome operating system. In other words, most everything you do with a present laptop or desktop computer will be available on and through the web with the new ChromeBook systems. The 3-pound laptop compuers do not run Windows or Macintosh or Linux operating systems. Instead, they run Chrome, the new operating system from Google.
If tomorrow is Day #1 of the conference, that means today must be Day Zero, right? In any case, I'll use the term.
The 2011 annual conference of the (U.S.) National Genealogical Society opens tomorrow in Charleston, South Carolina. You can read more in my earlier article at http://goo.gl/u63Ul or read more on the NGS web site at http://goo.gl/0VZWl
Even though the conference starts tomorrow, today saw a number of "Pre-Conference Events." The Board for the Certification of Genealogists held an Education Fund Workshop, ProQuest sponsored a day-long Librarians' Workshop, the South Carolina Genealogical Society arranged a tour of the South Carolina Department of Archives and History, and several sightseeing tours of the local area were held today as well. In addition, several companies and non-profit organizations held various meetings, seminars, and dinners.
Several announcements were made today and you can read them in separate articles in this newsletter.
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
May 11, 2011
SALT LAKE CITY—As the United States marks the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, people who had ancestors involved in the conflict can access millions of historical records recently published on the familysearch.org website. And millions more records are coming, as Civil War volunteers enlist in an epoch online campaign over the next five years to provide access to the highly desirable historic documents.
FamilySearch announced the release today of hundreds of millions of online records at the National Genealogical Society conference in Charleston, South Carolina. The collections include service records for both the Confederate and Union armies, pension records, and more. Some of these records have been available for some time but are now being added to familysearch.org/civilwar as part of this project. Here is just a sampling of what is available:
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
May 11, 2011
SALT LAKE CITY—FamilySearch, a nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization in charge of the world’s largest genealogy repository, announced today rich new online resources that will certainly be of interest to South Carolina residents, Civil War buffs, and family historians with Southern roots. FamilySearch’s free resources consist of new historic records and image collections and an in-depth online help center (wiki) for South Carolina genealogy resources. The information can be found at FamilySearch.org. The announcement coincides with the National Genealogical Society’s 33rd annual family history conference in Charleston this week.
FamilySearch’s newest South Carolina collections are South Carolina Probate Records, Files and Loose Papers, 1732-1964, and South Carolina Probate Records, Bound Volumes, 1671-1977. Probate and estate records typically include wills, bonds, property inventory, and court petitions.
Much has been made – some will say too much – of US President Barack Obama’s Irish ancestry. After all, he is completely African on his father’s side and mostly English on his mother’s side. Yet in there among his maternal ancestors is that little bit of Irish, the Kearneys of Moneygall, Co Offaly, which entitles him to be called one of our own. The Queen is different, as there will be more reserve both on our part and on hers, and her visit is perceived primarily as a dutiful contribution towards normalising relationships between two nations with an unfortunate history of mutual hostility and sense of grievance.
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