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The village of Zoar in Tuscarawas County, Ohio, was founded in 1817 by German religious dissenters as a communal society and represents an exceptional historic way of life. The village hasn't changed much in nearly two hundred years. Zoar is well known for it distinctive architectural and historic features. Now the U.S. Corps of Engineers wants to destroy Zoar.
The problem is a nearby levee on the Tuscarawas River, completed in 1937 to hold back the Tuscarawas River. The levee has been leaking for years, causing flooding in the village in 2005 and 2008. Repairs to the levee are estimated to cost in excess of $100 million. Options discussed by the Corps of Engineers include repairing the levee, replacing it, or removing it entirely, which would necessitate relocating more than three-fourths of the village. A final decision has not been made.
There has been quite a bit of controversy recently about the Social Security System's Death Index, often called the SSDI. Politicians and bureaucrats are trying to eliminate some of the information in the SSDI for questionable reasons. (See http://goo.gl/wjbdk.) One man in San Diego also would like to remove some information from the SSDI: his name, Social Security Number, birth date, ZIP code, and last-known residence.
Then there is one more item he would like to remove: his death date. You see, Mark Pinney is very much alive but the SSDI claims he is dead.
Warning: this article contains both facts and personal opinions.
Here is another change in lifestyles that is happening around us. Paper checks for paying bills are fast disappearing. As genealogists/micro-historians, should we be recording this change in our lives? Our descendants will probably be fascinated that we used paper "I.O.U.s" in the good ol' days that promised payment if given to a bank.
In an article on the Wired web site at http://goo.gl/5uzq8, Marcus Wohlsen asks, "In the 21st century, what could be more ridiculous than checks? Little pieces of paper upon which incredibly sensitive information is printed in a font from the punch-card era of computing: sign your name and, voilà, the paper becomes money!"
A Marietta City (Ohio) Councilman hopes a project to accurately catalog and map the city's graveyards leads to increased interest and, down the road, funding to make improvements in those cemeteries. Funding would primarily be generated by increased genealogy tourism.
As if libraries didn't have enough problems already. The Washington Square Branch of the Kalamazoo, Michigan, Public Library was closed after bedbugs were found in a number of book bindings.
The infestation appears to be minor. The few infected books had been returned in a drop box. A worker put the few books in plastic bags and destroyed them. However, officials have closed the entire library and plan a full treatment. Officials expect to raise the temperature inside the library to 120 degrees, killing any eggs. This process will take a few days to prepare for the treatment, then some more time to restore books to the shelves and become operational again. The library will remain closed until after the treatment and after dogs trained to detect bedbugs are brought in to give the library a clean bill of health.
For eight days after the Islamists set fire to one of the world's most precious collections of ancient manuscripts, the alarm inside the building blared. It was an eerie, repetitive beeping, a cry from the innards of the injured library that echoed around the world. The al-Qaida-linked extremists who ransacked the institute wanted to deal a final blow to Mali, so, as they left, they torched the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research, aiming to destroy a heritage of 30,000 manuscripts that date back to the 13th century. However, they had already been foiled.
Burglars broke into Tim Shier's home more than a year ago and stole a safe containing his most prized possession — a 300-year-old family Bible. The Lutheran Bible is written in German Gothic script and contains the handwritten dates of births, deaths and marriages for seven generations of Shier's family.
Thanks to a bit of luck, a sharp-eyed family member, local deputies and Goodwill — which had ended up with the Bible and then sold it online — the heirloom is back in Shier's hands.
It seems someone else has been stealing historic documents, antiques, and other valuable items. This time, the 800 or more antiques, rare books, historical documents and paintings allegedly pilfered over two decades were put on display in a suburban Halifax, Nova Scotia home. Homeowner John Mark Tillmann is charged with possession of stolen property.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are still cataloging the items but believe the total will be more than 800 historical artifacts, all of them apparently stolen, including a letter that British general James Wolfe wrote in 1758 and now belongs to Dalhousie University. The letter was written 10 days before the British fleet sailed from Halifax to Louisbourg.
The following was written by the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations:
Civil registration certificates were yesterday doubled in price by the Republic's Civil Registration Service (CRS), from ten euro to 20 euro. Genealogists were stunned by this 100% increase. In the current fiscal crisis, the Republic's government is actively looking for any way it can to increase revenue and the production and supply of certificates was obviously seen as a soft target. The increase was sprung out of the blue, with absolutely no warning at all!
A city councillor in Galway, Ireland, is calling for a genealogical centre to be opened for tourists visiting Galway for the "Gathering." Councillor Nuala Nolan is urging both City and County Councils to provide a research genealogical office in the City Centre.
Nolan says that visitors coming to Galway for the "Gathering" will be able to check records to find long lost relations or visit areas where their ancestors have come from.
The Gathering is a year-long celebration of all things Irish designed to bring more tourists to the country. Details may be found at http://www.thegatheringireland.com/. Councillor Nolan says the centre could entice people to return to Galway in the future.
Burnt courthouses are more than a problem of years past, they still burn today. Webster County and the village of Walthall lost some records this week. Damage is minimal to records kept in vaults. There is some heat and water damage. Steps will be taken to dry them out. Officials say all the computer-related information is secure.
You can read more in an article by Susan Parker in the WTVA-TV web site at http://goo.gl/epGLd.
Where did the time go? It seems like only yesterday that we welcomed the New Year. Now we are at the end of the year and looking back. Indeed, it seems like a whirlwind but 2012 was generally a good year for genealogists. More and more records became available online, some new software appeared (especially for handheld devices), the use of DNA in genealogy research continued to expand, and the resources available at our fingertips continues to mushroom. I will also point out there were several companies were acquired by or merged with other companies. These acquisitions and mergers can be seen as either good news or bad news but I suspect that, in most cases, the result will be stronger companies that are better positioned to serve the genealogy community.
All in all, I think it was a good year. Here are some of the highlights, along with one or two lowlights, of the past twelve months:
Minnesota Public Radio recently described the destruction of another family cemetery in that state. The Boerner family cemetery located east of Herman, in Grant County, was last used as a burial ground in 1892. Recently, a farmer who owns the surrounding land bulldozed the cemetery, destroying all the tombstones. He then plowed the land to be used as part of his farm.
The county attorney said it could be several weeks before he decides on charges in the case. Damaging a cemetery can be a felony under Minnesota law even if it's abandoned. Even though the farmer owns the land, the cemetery is protected.
I have written often about cloud-based applications and I am a big fan of those products. Cloud-based applications, such as Gmail, are very reliable but are never perfect. That was proven earlier today when Gmail had an outage lasting 15 or 20 minutes. This was the first outage in some time. It proves that Gmail is much more reliable than my previous email provider, but still isn't perfect. We have seen and will continue to see occasional, short-lived outages from other cloud providers as well.
This is a unique service and one that we need to employ more often after major disasters. It isn't life saving but it certainly serves a human need. The following was written by Couragent, Inc., the company that sells the very popular Flip-Pal portable scanners:
Thanks to the Flip-Pal Cares response team, Hurricane Sandy survivors in Union Beach, N.J. may soon be reunited with family photos that are washing up on local beaches.
Members of the public are invited to volunteer for the Union Beach Photo Scanning Drive this Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 1-2. This Saturday’s volunteers will need to check Facebook for the time and location of the scanning drive. On Sunday, the scanning drive will be from 11 a.m.–5 p.m. at the Home Depot located at 3700 Highway 35 in Hazlet, N.J.
The following announcement was written by the Federation of Genealogical Societies:
November 27, 2012 – Austin, TX. The Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) is pleased to announce that the War of 1812 “Preserve the Pensions” Digitization Fund received a generous donation this week of $250,000 from FamilySearch, a nonprofit organization and world leader in the genealogy community. The donation helps move the Fund closer to its goal of $3.7 million in donations to digitally preserve and index the War of 1812 pension and bounty land records.
The War of 1812, often called the “Second Revolution,” was a pivotal moment in our Nation’s history. Individual states struggled to become one nation after a long-fought Revolution, and the “American Experiment” was still at a precarious stage. The strength and courage of the patriots who fought in the War of 1812 ensured that our American Revolution did not end up as a mere footnote to British history and conquest. Instead, valiant farmers, merchants, seamen, fathers, and sons became soldiers to fight for what they and their fathers had believed in: their American home.
Those of us who are in or from the United States will be celebrating Thanksgiving this week. We don’t usually think of this as a genealogy holiday. However, when you think about it, there is a strong “ancestral” connotation involved, even for those of us whose ancestors did not travel on the Mayflower in 1620.
Thanksgiving is a time when we pay homage to all our ancestors who traveled to a strange land to find a better life for themselves, for their children, and for succeeding generations. This is equally true for ancestors who arrived in the twentieth century as well as earlier years. We should all give thanks to our ancestors for helping to establish our American way of life and ensuring that we are a part of it.
The following announcement was written by the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations:
Progress on the early release of the Irish 1926 census has slowed down in recent months. However, there is no substance to recent rumours that the delay has been caused by the issue of redaction of sensitive data relating to people (alive or not) who have as yet not reached their 100th birthday.
During the visit of Uachtarán na hÉireann (President of Ireland) Michael D. Higgins to the National Archives of Ireland on Thursday, 1st November, representatives of the Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO) spoke with Minister for Arts, Culture and Gaeltacht, Jimmy Deenihan TD. Minister Deenihan confirmed that redaction is not an obstacle to the release of the 1926 census and that he would still like to see the project on course for release in 2016.
This project is working towards the day that users will be able to search any topic – be it the Civil War or the New Deal – and immediately pull up information including pictures, videos, oral histories, manuscripts and more from collections across the country.
OK, I don't understand this. I've accidentally left a few things behind in my life, but someone's ashes?
An unknown patron of the OB Suds carwash left behind a heavy metal box labeled “Henry Lefebvre: April 30, 1995” from Secure Crematorium in one of the carwash’s bays. The carwash owner turned the box over to the Ocean Beach MainStreet Association (OBMA) to help solve the mystery. A group of genealogists offered to help track down Lefebvre’s relatives.
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