Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter

Archives.com 1940 Census Information from California

Archives.com and other community project partners recently announced the release of the California 1940 census index. The company wanted to showcase California in 1940, and demonstrate all of the interesting facts that can be found, by putting together this neat infographic:

The History of Friday the 13th

Do you suffer from Paraskevidekatriaphobia? That's the morbid, irrational fear of Friday the 13th. According to some sources it's the most widespread superstition in the United States today. In fact, many cities do not have a 13th Street or a 13th Avenue. Many buildings don't have a 13th floor.

The number 13 is considered to be unlucky in many countries. For instance:

The Turks so dislike the number 13 that it almost doesn't exist in their vocabulary. The number 13 is never spoken in polite conversation in the country.

On streets in Florence, Italy, the house between number 12 and 14 is addressed as 12 and a half.

War of 1812 Online

The picture to the right shows Sandra Sadowski standing between British and American forces reenactors at Fort George, Niagara-on-the-Lake. You can click on the image to see a larger picture.

The following was written by Peter Konieczny and Sandra Sadowski:

Peter Konieczny and Sandra Sadowski, future-minded historians whose websites have attracted audiences from 170 countries and a social media following of more than 50,000, have launched www.thewarof1812.net to spread the word about a conflict many Canadians know virtually nothing about.

Google Puts Twentieth Century Italian History Online

The search engine giant has signed a deal with the Italian government to post 30,000 newsreels and documentaries from the twentieth century on YouTube. Many of the films concern Benito Mussolini's rise to power and then the events of World War II.

Many of the newsreels were supplied by Italy's Istituto Luce-Cinecittà, which was founded in 1924 and which became a propaganda tool for Mussolini, regaling cinema audiences with tales of Italian industrial prowess and the oratorical powers of Il Duce. Other films now available on YouTube include newsreels shot by Settimana Incom from 1946 to 1964 which document Italy's economic miracle and paparazzi chasing starlets indulging in Rome's Dolce Vita.

The new Istituto Luce Cinecittà channel on YouTube is available at http://www.youtube.com/cinecittaluce.

The Changing Cause of Death in America over the Last 100 Years

You can see some history here, especially regarding the deadly worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918 and 1919. A study by the New England Journal of Medicine looked at human factors like population growth, changing social mores and sexual behavior, migration, war and intravenous drug use in the past century. Changes in environmental conditions and ecological changes also contributed to the most common causes of death.

Is This the First American Flag with Stars and Stripes?

Barnabas Webb was a Revolutionary War soldier. Like most other soldiers of the time, he carried a powder horn filled with gunpowder. Also like many of his mates, he carved images on the powder horn that meant something to him. Historians are now interested in what Barnabas Webb engraved on his powder horn: an image of a flag with stars and stripes. Is it the earliest known flag with Stars and Stripes? The historians disagree.

The image on Barnabas Webb's powder horn is tiny: fingernail sized. If those are indeed stars, Web made tiny representations of them that look more like dots. Click on the image above to see a larger picture. Note that the flag is shown on the extreme left of the powder horn and is reversed from the manner in which we would display it today: the stripes are to the left and the stars (if any) are to the right. However, the flagpole is also to the right so it is correctly displayed for a wind that is blowing from right to left.

Geni's Independence Day infographic

The folks at Geni.com have created an infographic for Independence Day that displays a lot of fun facts to help mark the holiday. For instance, do you know which state has the most patriotic place names? This infographic will tell you. It can be found at http://www.geni.com/blog/independence-day-by-the-numbers-375769.html.

On This Day in History: The United States Declares Independence

On 2 July 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted in favor of independence from Great Britain. Two days later, the body got around to approving a public announcement of its decision. Since that Declaration had the current date in large letters at the top of the document, the fourth of July has always been celebrated in the press and eventually became a national holiday. However, the date of the vote declaring independence was July 2, not July 4.

How to Find a Revolutionary War Patriot

The Revolutionary War started with the battle between British troops and local Massachusetts militia at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, on 19 April 1775. It ended eight years later with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783. If you have been able to trace your ancestry in America back to those years, you have an excellent chance of finding at least one ancestor who had some type of service related to the Revolutionary War effort.

In fact, your ancestor may have been a Patriot or a Loyalist. We don't celebrate the efforts of Loyalists very much in the United States, but go north to Canada and you will find that Loyalists are well documented and honored as heroes. They are especially honored for their contribution to the development of Canada. Perhaps one Canadian in ten has a Loyalist ancestor, and many people with English blood who live elsewhere – in the United States, in commonwealth countries such as Australia and New Zealand, or in nearly any other country round the world – are also of Loyalist descent. Visit the United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada web site at http://www.uelac.org/ for more information.

Online Images from The Canadian National Archives

Today is Canada's 145th birthday. What better way to spend the day than to look at some of the Canadian National Archives' collection of historic photos? The images have been added to Flickr so that you can comment, tag and share them easily.

The CO 1069 series is a diverse collection of images with a rich variety of content. In many instances, The National Archives personnel know little about the people or contents of the photographs and this is one of the reasons why the images have been published online. The National Archives is asking people to comment and share their knowledge.

The images are available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalarchives/collections/72157630315300544/.

Happy Canada Day

On this Day in History: It Rained Frogs

White frogs fell on Mosley, a suburb of Birmingham, England, during a severe thunderstorm on the morning of June 30, 1892. The reason for this "rainstorm" is still unexplained, although 1892 was not the only time in history that frogs or fish fell from the skies.

Mugshots of the Worst Criminals of the 1870s

I bet they didn't teach you about this in high school history classes. Those classes focused on the noble gentry, the generals, the politicians, and other upstanding individuals. However, one has to wonder what life was like for our ancestors. You know... the everyday folks.

The CBS News web site gives an insight to some of the less-than-noble people of the time. All the photos are of juveniles convicted of crimes in Newcastle, England from 1871 to 1873. Hardened criminals or not, these pictures probably are typical for children of the time, including your ancestors and mine.

The picture above is of 11-year-old Ellen Woodman who was ordered to do 7 days hard labor after being convicted of stealing iron

Rare 1880s Manchester Locomotive Discovered in Florida

A backhoe at a mining operation struck something solid while digging. The backhoe couldn't unearth it. Finally, a crew started digging with shovels and soon found something none of them had expected: a large steam locomotive.

The crew had stumbled upon a relic from Polk County's past. Dating to the 1880s, the rusty Manchester steam locomotive had been buried in dirt and mud for nearly a century, local historians said.

Canadians will Celebrate the War of 1812 more than the Americans

Writing in USA Today, Rick Hampson states:

Canadians, whose forebears helped repulse several U.S. invasions in 1812, regard the war that began 200 years ago Monday as a crucible of national identity. For them, its bicentennial is a big deal.

Americans, on the other hand, are familiar with the 1959 hit song The Battle of New Orleans and have a vague image of Dolley Madison fleeing the White House ahead of torch-brandishing Royal Marines with a portrait of George Washington under her arm.

Original Recipe for Jack Daniel's has been Found

Businessman Mark Evans was researching his family history when he discovered the recipe for what later became Jack Daniel's in a book of herbal remedies. It was written in 1853 by his great-great grandmother who was called Daniels and was a local herbalist in Llanelli, South Wales.

Her brother-in-law left the Welsh town at about the same time to move to Lynchburg, Tennessee where the Jack Daniel's distillery was opened three years later.

FAA Moratorium on Living History Flight Exemptions

File this under history. Are you interested in old military aircraft? Have you flown in a restored military airplane or would you like to do so in the future? The Federal Aviation Administration has proposed to ban such flights in the future. For many historians, aviation enthusiasts, veterans, and descendants of veterans, such an action will be a disaster.

The following is extracted from an email message sent by the Collings Foundation:

Estonia to Create an Online Database of Folk Costumes

If your ancestors came from Estonia, you will soon be able to see how they dressed back in the old country. A project to collect detailed information on the traditional regalia of Estonia's 108 historical parishes and make it available in an online database has been approved for funding by the Ministry of Culture.

Although the database was set up by the non-profit Rahvarõivas (Folk Costume) and the Estonian Folk Art and Craft Union as far back as 2008, the website currently provides information on only a small number of traditional clothing items. The Estonian Folk Costumes project, slated to receive 32,900 euros in ministry support this year, aims to finish the job by 2016, providing in-depth detail on traditional costumes, accessories and footwear worn by women, men and children.

Yad Vashem's "Surviving the Holocaust" on YouTube

Yad Vashem has recorded and made available more than 540 online videos. Yad Vashem is the world’s largest stock of holocaust material and Israel’s official memorial to the Jewish victims of the genocide. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yad_Vashem for more information about Yad Vashem.

The Yad Vashem YouTube channel has a large number of eyewitness accounts of survivors who escaped the concentration camps. It also contains many disturbing photographs. It is a great resource for studying, teaching, and commemorating the Holocaust.

You can access the many Holocaust videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/YadVashem.

Massachusetts Auto Accidents in the 1920s and 1930s

Massachusetts drivers haven't changed much over the years. I know, as I drive on Massachusetts roads most every day. What I see these days is quite similar to what Leslie Jones saw, and photographed, many years ago.

Jones was staff photographer at the Boston-Herald Traveler newspaper from 1917 to 1956. He captured everything that happened in and around Boston for five decades and when he died in 1967, his family donated a vast collection of 34,000 prints to the Boston Public Library. The MailOnline web site has published a few samples of automobile accidents from that collection.