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I received the following note from Steven C. Smyrl FIGRS, MAPGI, the Executive Liaison Officer for the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations:
The Irish government has announced that indexes to birth, death & marriage records which date from 1845 are soon to be made available through its genealogy portal www.irishgenealogy.ie. This is terrific news, announced in CIGO’s 21st year, the year in which it ‘comes of age’.
The Tucker Family Cemetery in Hampton, Virginia, is a wooded plot surrounded by low-slung brick homes built in the 1950s. Accessible by narrow strip of grass along Sharon Court, the property is widely believed to be the site where the first black baby born in English North America in 1619 is now interred. Even though William Tucker's grave is not marked, visitors to the cemetery are greeted with a granite marker that reads "Tucker's Cemetery, First Black Family, 1619."
Well, so much for history! A 2300-year old Mayan temple in the Nohmul complex in northern Belize was essentially destroyed by a construction crew in order to provide gravel for a nearby road construction. The head of the Belize Institute of Archaeology says the destruction was detected late last week, and only a small portion of the center of the pyramid mound was left standing.
(Click on the image to the right to view a larger picture.)
The National Historical Publications and Records Commission’s (NHPRC’s) ability to carry out its legal mandate is in danger. Congress has proposed severe budget cuts. If passed, this will seriously impede the capacity of repositories nationwide to care for our nation’s heritage and make it available for use by our citizens.
The Society of American Archivists has issued a call for Americans to contact the members of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services as well as other elected officials to tell them of our opinions of the budget cuts.
An article by Jill Krasny, published on Mashable.com, states:
"People curious about family history spent a whopping $2.3 billion on genealogy products and services last year, according to a study by market research firm Global Industry Analysts. They took most of their work to sites like Ancestry.com, which charge between $22.95 and $34.59 per month for access to billions of pertinent records. One-on-one consultations set them back $2,000 to $5,000 per session, depending on the length and complexity of the project, a spokesperson told Mashable.
Despite those sites' popularity, 'it’s perfectly possible to do everything without spending a dime,' says Terry Koch-Bostic, a Mineola, N.Y.-based director of the National Genealogy Society, a non-profit education, training and records-preservation group."
You probably have heard the news of the explosions in Boston today. I can only add my condolences to those of many others who are thinking of the families of the two people killed, including one 8-year-old child. Likewise, I also am thinking of the more than 100 others who were injured, some seriously.
I didn't mention it earlier in the newsletter but this afternoon I flew from Orlando to Boston. I remember looking at my watch when I got on the shuttle bus to go from the Boston airport out to the western suburbs. It was 2:38 PM. That means around 2:45 or 2:50 PM, I was riding on the bus as it traveled the Massachusetts Turnpike and passed through the Prudential Tunnel, underneath the route of the Boston Marathon, just a few feet from the finish line at Copley Square. The Boston Police have reported that today's explosions occurred at 2:50 PM.
I don't know if this qualifies as genealogy or not, but it certainly is a part of my family heritage. As a child, I grew up eating lots of whoopie pies. I know whenever my mother made them, I would shout "Whoopie!" In fact, I think whoopie pies made me the man I am today: a diabetic.
For those who do not know what a whoopie pie is, Wikipedia describes it as a "baked good that may be considered either a cookie, pie, or cake. It is made of two round mound-shaped pieces of chocolate cake, or sometimes pumpkin or gingerbread cake, with a sweet, creamy filling or frosting sandwiched between them." I describe them as the perfect thing to satisfy your sweet tooth. Whoopie pies are popular in both New England and also amongst the Pennsylvania Amish.
Leverich Cemetery in Queens, New York City, is an abandoned cemetery with no visible headstones left. The cemetery is in disarray, with trash strewn everywhere. Unfortunately, no one seems to know who owns the overgrown burial ground.
City Councilman Daniel Dromm said he plans to organize a community cleanup of the Leverich Cemetery this spring. “We have to take matters into our own hands and just clean this area up,” Dromm said, noting that a washing machine, half a motorcycle and feral cats now inhabit the land. “It’s become a dumping ground and nobody wants to take responsibility for it.”
Every spring during the Qingming Festival, people in China honor their ancestors by cleaning and repairing their tombstones. Offerings are also made to the dead, typically consisting of food and drink, but because Chinese culture dictates that deceased relatives will need money and other material goods in the after life, many will also burn fake money or paper replicas of homes and cars as offerings.
During this year’s Qingming Festival, fake Apple products made out of paper and cardboard were one of the biggest hits. One man, who makes cardboard replicas of luxury products like cars and houses, added Apple goods to his repertoire this year and said they were a hot ticket item. For just $7, you can offer your ancestors a Mac, an iPhone and an iPad, but if you want an iPhone 5, you have to pay an extra 50 cents.
Yad Vashem hopes to have collected the names of the overwhelming majority of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust within the next three years, Yad Vashem chief archivist Dr. Haim Gertner told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
He cited a wealth of documentation that has become available since archives in former Soviet bloc nations began to grant access to Israeli researchers. The museum “has signed more than 40 agreements all over the former Soviet Union” over the past five or six years, he said, adding that it has begun intensive research efforts archives and national archives” all over Eastern and Central Europe.
Sad news: the Caldwell County Historical Railroad Museum in Princeton, Kentucky, closed its doors for the final time on Sunday. The building and contents are set to go up for auction later this month. Memorabilia from the museum will be available for bid on April 13.
County historian Glenn Martin said the museum closed largely because of the advancing age of the local railroad society's remaining members.
The Ellis Island Foundation is appealing for donations, more than what they normally ask for. In the appeal, there are some interesting facts about keeping information safe and available for all. A recent email appeal from ellisisland.org states:
As you may know, Liberty and Ellis Islands were severely impacted by the destruction caused by the hurricane. Portions of both islands were flooded, causing power loss, damaged property and most importantly—closing the islands to visitors.
Bruce Feiler has written an interesting article that is published in the New York Times that should provide interesting reading for genealogists and non-genealogists alike. Entitled, "The Stories That Bind Us," Feiler describes the pressures that sometimes divide modern families and what we can do about it. He suggests, "The single most important thing you can do for your family may be the simplest of all: develop a strong family narrative.
Sporting a green shirt and bowtie, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield went Irish to celebrate St. Patrick's Day Sunday. "Maidin mhaith from the International Space Station! Happy Saint Patrick's Day to the Irish all around the globe. Good morning!" he tweeted from the International Space Station.
Aside from sharing a photo of him "wearing the green," Hadfield also tweeted aerial shots of Donegal, Derry and Tralee.
There's no word on whether or not he celebrated with green beer.
I have written a number of times about the need to reduce paper consumption. I see little reason to print email messages or web pages, especially when it is easier, cheaper, and more convenient to store the same things electronically where they can be searched, located, and displayed quickly. However, newsletter reader Dorothy Heinle sent along a link to a video that suggests that not all paper can be replaced by electronics.
Libraries and Archives Canada has been hit very hard with budget cuts, making information harder and harder for genealogists and others to obtain. Now Federal librarians and archivists who set foot in classrooms, attend conferences, or speak up at public meetings on their own time are engaging in “high risk” activities, according to the new code of conduct at Library and Archives Canada.
That's right: Libraries and Archives Canada employees who attend a genealogy conference on their own time must obtain permission from their managers in advance. The stated reason to ensure there are no conflicts or “other risks to LAC.” The code, which stresses federal employees’ “duty of loyalty” to the “duly elected government,” also spells out how offenders can be reported.
Jason Carr died in a 2009 car crash and his wife Shannon spent nearly
$10,000 on a custom headstone in the shape of a couch featuring the
NASCAR logo, the logo of the Indianapolis Colts and a deer and a dog.
However, the couple's church said it didn't meet the specifications of
its cemetery and therefore wouldn't be allowed as his grave marker.
However, the church reportedly never produced any regulations for the
plot until after rejecting the wife's request. She has since sued.
Founders & Survivors is a partnership between historians, genealogists, demographers and population health researchers. It seeks to record and study the founding population of 73,000 men women and children who were transported to Tasmania. Many survived their convict experience and went on to help build a new society. By examining birth, death and marriage records and other historical sources, the project will produce the means of analyzing the health and welfare of Australians over the past 200 years.
By linking information about transported convicts to birth, death and marriage records for 19th century Tasmania, the project can create one of the richest pre-20th century sources of information for a population that can be followed from cradle to grave.
Sad news from the National Archives and Records Administration:
March 11, 2013
Reduction of Public Hours at National Archives Facilities in the Washington, DC Area
Washington, DC - Effective Friday, March 15, 2013, the National Archives will reduce public hours at two locations in the Washington, DC, area as part of actions it is taking due to sequestration. These reductions will affect exhibit spaces and research rooms at the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, and research rooms at the National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
The Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library, located next the Alamo in San Antonio, recently closed for inventory. The facility has been closed since January 14 for an inventory to determine which items belong to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT), and which ones belong to the state of Texas. The re-opening date is not yet known as it depends upon the speed of the inventory process. If you are planning a visit, you might want to call first.
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