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The genealogy community lost a good friend a few days ago. The following was written by Craig Scott and is republished here with his permission:
"In different hours, a man represents each of several of his ancestors, as if there were seven or eight of us rolled up in each man's skin—seven or eight ancestors at least, and they constitute the variety of notes for that new piece of music which his life is."—Ralph Waldo Emerson
That was the favorite genealogical quote of our good friend, Carolyn L. Barkley, unexpectedly lost to our genealogical family on Sunday, 12 May 2013. She was 65 and had much she wanted to do in life.
She had been employed by the Virginia Beach Department of Public Libraries for over thirty years; where from 1986 until her retirement she was the Central Librarian.
For as long as there has been an Alachua County, the Clerk of Court has kept its history in the ancient records archive. And for the past 14 years, Jim Powell, also known as “The Wizard of AR (ancient records),” has been the keeper of the lore.
A recent article in the Gainesville (Florida) Sun describes the great work done by Jim Powell. In 1998, Powell visited the ancient records storage area in Alachua County where he stumbled across an old records book from the 1840s while researching his family tree. Finding it difficult to read the handwriting and decaying pages, he started typing out pages of it in his free time. J.K. “Buddy” Irby, the Alachua County Clerk of Court, was so impressed he offered Powell, then a construction worker, a job at the ancient records archive. Powell has been there ever since, transcribing old records and helping others research their family trees.
He even helped Whoopi Goldberg track down information on an ancestor who owned a homestead in the northern part of the county.
The following announcement was written by the Association of Professional Genealogists:
The Association of Professional Genealogists (APG®) has appointed Christy Fillerup of Salt Lake City, Utah, as managing editor of its quarterly publication, Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly (APGQ). APGQ has served the genealogy community since 1979 with staff-written and contributed articles covering all aspects of the profession.
A man claiming to be Al Capone's grandson claims the new ReelzChannel reality show "The Capones" is based on a fictitious family tree. The show's star, Dominic Capone, claims his great-great grandfather was Al Capone's uncle. However, another man, Chris K. Capone, claims that HE is Al Capone's grandson and further claims that Dominic Capone is not in the gangster's family. If his claim is true, the future of the entire television show is in doubt.
The following was written by the Suzanne Winsor Freeman Student Genealogy Grant Committee:
April 22, 2013 PASADENA, California – The Suzanne Winsor Freeman Student Genealogy Grant Committee is pleased to announce that Michael Savoca, a college junior from Toms River, New Jersey will receive a $500 grant from the Freeman Memorial Grant program and full registration to the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank, California from SCGS.
Allan Steel has been commended by the Otago Daily Times for his work in documenting and photographing graves and plaques of servicemen and women in Otago cemeteries to help family historians fill gaps. Steel said the more information available for genealogists the easier it was to create a family tree.
"I know what it's like when you are trying to find a headstone for someone in a town that you can't get to. If someone in Auckland wants to get a photo of a plaque of his grandfather in Andersons Bay, then I'm making it available."
If you have ever visited the Midwest Genealogy Center at the Mid-Continent Public Library, you perhaps received assistance from Janice Schultz. If you did not receive guidance from Janice, you undoubtedly did receive help from a member of her staff that she trained. After twenty-five years on the job, Janice has retired.
Twenty-five years ago, Janice Schultz took a part-time job at what was then called the Genealogy and Local History Department. That department then occupied about 3,000 square feet in the basement of the North independence Branch, sharing space with the periodicals. Never, Schultz says, did she envision that position would evolve into a full-time career involving genealogy, a subject she knew little about when she started.
Hollywood Actor Tom Cruise is visiting Ireland and Tourism Ireland gave him a present: documentation showing his straight male ancestry back several hundred years. The document appears to be well researched with extensive source citations. The research was conducted by Eneclann, a highly-respected Irish genealogy and history research company. Full details of the family history of Tom Cruise and the research performed can be found online at www.eneclann.ie/exhibitions/tomcruise.
Tom Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV but dropped the surname after becoming a Hollywood actor. The following announcement was written by Tourism Ireland:
I love stories about long-lost cousins finding each other! The Miami Herald has a story about two women shopping at CVS who discovered they were second cousins but had never met previously.
I must admit I have never thought of finding relatives at CVS! You can read the heart-warming story at http://goo.gl/mkWA9.
My thanks to newsletter reader Timothy Heck for telling me about this story.
I recently had a chance to talk with Dirk Weissleder, National Chairman of the DAGV (Deutsche Arbeitsgemeinschaft genealogischer Verbände e. V. ), the federation of genealogical societies in Germany. Dirk talked about his start in genealogy, beginning in 1982, and the work he has done since then. Our conversation took place at the RootsTech conference in Salt Lake City, Utah. Dirk talked about the cooperative agreement that had just been signed between DAGV and the (U.S.) Federation of Genealogical Societies. Our conversation was videotaped and is now available at http://youtu.be/B_Jm71UxPvg or you can click on the image below:
Menachem Bodner survived the Auschwitz death camp. He was 4 years old then and doesn’t remember his time in the notorious death camp. He knows he had a twin brother, and deep down always believed he was alive somewhere. The only definite link between them is the number tattooed on his arm - A7734. Now, thanks to help from Ayana KimRon, a genealogist, the 72-year-old has proof his brother, Jolli, survived the camp, and he's enlisting the Internet to help find him.
The search began when Ayana KimRon spotted a post from Bodner's partner's cousin on a genealogical message board, and found a Nazi record showing a pair of twins who were "identified as having been liberated at Auschwitz." Clues lead to possible adoption by a Christian family, then to the USA. Whatever name and location, his tattooed number is A7734.
The late Harry Stamps has perhaps the best obituary I ever read. (See my earlier article at http://goo.gl/Mi4Rh for details.) Now M.K. Quinlan has written a small follow-up article in the Garden & Gun Blog that includes a picture of Mr. Stamps. You can find the article at http://goo.gl/UbwIo.
I have to believe that Harry Stamps wrote his own obituary before his death, leaving the date of death blank for someone else to fill in later. Here is one excerpt:
"Harry Weathersby Stamps, ladies' man, foodie, natty dresser, and accomplished traveler, died on Saturday, March 9, 2013.
Harry was locally sourcing his food years before chefs in California starting using cilantro and arugula (both of which he hated). For his signature bacon and tomato sandwich, he procured 100% all white Bunny Bread from Georgia, Blue Plate mayonnaise from New Orleans, Sauer's black pepper from Virginia, home grown tomatoes from outside Oxford, and Tennessee's Benton bacon from his bacon-of-the-month subscription. As a point of pride, he purported to remember every meal he had eaten in his 80 years of life.
"The women in his life were numerous. He particularly fancied smart women."
It seems that shock jock Howard Stern is a bit of a genealogist. Daniel Klein recently wrote about Stern's on-the-air description of his efforts at finding more information about his ancestry. He described his oral history interview of his parents, Ben and Rae.
I don't know if Howard Stern is an experienced genealogist or not, but he certainly is an expert interviewer. I am not a fan but I would love to listen to Howard Stern's description of how he conducted the interview. However, if it has been recorded, I am unaware of where it can be found.
The Levine Museum of the New South is an unusually important artifact: a photo album containing photos and tintypes of 34 men and women (and a couple of teens) who appear to be part of the upper-class black society that emerged in Charlotte after the Civil War and before the rise of Jim Crow segregation laws. The photo album probably was made around 1900, a period when Charlotte saw its “first blossoming” of an African-American mainstream culture that included black churches, schools, stores, a newspaper and theaters.
Evidence suggests most of the 34 people are locals, starting with the fact that some photos are credited to Henry Baumgarten, a 19th century Charlotte photographer and leader in the local Jewish community. Baumgarten died in 1918.
A headstone marker for Dr. Samuel A. Elbert, Indiana’s first African-American physician, was initiated by Rick France, Genealogical Society of Marion County Indiana vice president. The grave marker, put on a previously unmarked grave, was installed on Jan. 29 at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis, IN.
Dr. Elbert was denied membership in 1871 in the Marion County Medical Society because of his race but was a member of the Aesculapian Medical Society which advances health and wellness for blacks and physicians. In the ceremony to install the marker were the Indianapolis Medical Society and the Aesculapian Society.
Lucille Caron Lagasse, 90, of Goffstown, New Hampshire, died Jan. 15, 2013, at her home. She was co-founder and a very active member of the American-Canadian Genealogical Society in Manchester, New Hampshire where she had a membership number of #2. (Co-founder Roger Lawrence was #1.) For some time, the library of the Society was maintained in her home. She later helped with the fund drive that resulted in purchase of a 4,000-square foot building for the library and classrooms.
Lucille was a woman of many talents. During World War II, she worked as an aircraft mechanic. She was active in politics, serving in the state Legislature. She ran for Congress, was campaign manager for many governors, New Hampshire congressmen and senators. She chaired President Ronald Reagan's successful New Hampshire elections.
It gives me great pleasure to announce an addition to the staff of this newsletter. Roberta "Bobbi" King has agreed to become EOGN’s Book Review Editor. As such, she will be writing reviews of genealogy books to be published in this newsletter.
Bobbi King has authored numerous articles for local, regional, and national genealogical society publications, including the National Genealogical Society's Quarterly. She has served as editor and contributor for various society newsletters and quarterlies and most recently served as revision editor for the Bylaws Workbook for the Federation of Genealogical Societies. She is currently the Chair of the Bylaws Review Committee for the Federation of Genealogical Societies.
Bobbi received the Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly's Award of Excellence in 2008 and has published several personal compilations of her family history.
George Ely Russell Jr. passed away January 9, 2013 at his home in Ijamsville, Maryland. He was an elected fellow of the American Society of Genealogists and devoted much of his time to genealogical activities. George founded the Prince Georges County Genealogical Society in 1969 and served as the editor of the National Genealogical Quarterly from 1971 to 1986. As a Certified Genealogist since 1967, George was the author of more than 140 genealogical writings, articles and books. He was a contributing editor of The American Genealogist, The Russell Register, Western Maryland Genealogy and The Society of the Ark and the Dove.
"In different hours, a man represents each of several of his ancestors, as if there were seven or eight of us rolled up in each man's skin—seven or eight ancestors at least, and they constitute the variety of notes for that new piece of music which his life is."—Ralph Waldo Emerson
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