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As predicted two days ago at http://goo.gl/l6JnU, David Lambert did appear on the television program History Detectives. He used genealogy research to identify the owner of a powder horn from the French and Indian Wars. If you missed the program or if your local PBS station did not broadcast it, newsletter reader Humphrey offers another alternative: you can watch the program on your computer or tablet at any time at http://video.pbs.org/video/2323355629.
When I watched the program online, the video took some time to load. Be patient. It will play eventually.
David Lambert is a professional genealogist and researcher at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. He will be featured on the national television show, History Detectives, this Tuesday Jan 8, at 8pm Eastern time on PBS. Hey! That's tomorrow!
David reports, "It was a great time filming the episode - I can't say much more until after it it airs on TV. But I help uncover the mystery behind one of the objects on the show."
Check your local television listings for the time and channel in your area. It will be broadcast on most PBS stations on January 8. I'm setting my digital video recorder to capture the episode.
The genealogy world is mourning the loss of Joan Miller, respected Canadian family historian and geneablogger, and "Genealogists for Families" co-captain. Joan passed away peacefully on January 4th after a year-long battle with cancer.
The New Year Honours is a part of the British honours system, where New Year's Day, 1 January, is marked by naming new members of orders of chivalry and recipients of other official honours. This year, Pauline Litton was awarded the MBE for services to Family History and Genealogy in the New Year's Honours List for 2013.
Pauline is President of Harrogate and District Family History Society and is currently one four life Vice Presidents of the Federation of Family History Societies. She is known as the Doyenne of Yorkshire Family History and has written several books.
Elton Oubre passed away on December 12, 2012. He was a noted genealogy expert, author, and historian as well as a member of both the Lafourche and Terrebonne Genealogical Societies.
He wrote the authoritative book, Vacherie, St. James Parish, Louisiana: History And Genealogy and also authored Historical Scenes of Thibodaux, a Sesquicentennial Volume.
New research has revealed that the Duchess of Cambridge is related to one of Britain’s grandest families and can count a prime minister, earls and countesses among her kin. A previously unpublished side of the Duchess’ family tree has uncovered her link to William Petty FitzMaurice, the 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, who served as prime minister from 1782 to 1783 and is best remembered by historians for negotiating the end of the American War of Independence.
You can read more in an article by Roya Nikkhah in The Telegraph at http://goo.gl/H5Tsf.
My thanks to newsletter reader John Rees for telling me about this article.
Two days ago, I wrote about a former New York State Archivist who was sent to jail for stealing hundreds of historic documents from his (now former) employer and sold them for his own profit. He served his time and was released. He then obtained a job working in the bookstore of a state-owned museum. Apparently the resulting publicity backfired. The Saratogian news web site reports that unnamed state officials insisted the former archivist be fired. His employment was terminated yesterday.
Archivist Daniel Lorello was a $73,800-per year archivist with the New York State Archives, a well-regarded expert on the Civil War, and co-author of a book with noted historian Harold Holzer. He also stole hundreds of historic documents from his employer and sold them for his own profit. He was caught, tried, and sent to jail for grand larceny. In 2008, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced for two to six years in prison plus ordered to pay $73,000 in restitution to those who unknowingly bought stolen property from him. He was also ordered to pay a $56,000 confession of judgment to the Department of Education. You can see my previous articles from 2008 about this man if you start at http://goo.gl/2sZqC.
Lorello is now out of jail and has a new job: he runs the bookstore at the New York State Military Museum (pictured above), a state-owned facility located in Saratoga Springs that holds a vast collection of memorabilia dating from the Revolutionary War through modern times.
Rob and Kathy Brown are starting on the adventure of a lifetime. They sold their home in Orem, Utah, and on Friday they piled their five children, ages 10 years to 18 months, into a motor home hauling a 20-foot trailer and started a six-month trip throughout the United States. That's seven people, one motor home, 40 states and zero potty breaks.
Kathy Brown has been researching the family tree on Ancestry.com. The family plans to visit places around the country where their great-great-grandparents came from.
I am sure you have read about the loss of tall ship HMS Bounty in the super storm Sandy. The ship was a replica of the famous HMS Bounty seized by Fletcher Christian and other mutineers in 1789. One crew member of the modern replica, Claudene Christian, has died and the ship's captain is missing. In an ironic twist, Claudene Christian was the great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter of Fletcher Christian, the instigator of the original mutiny.
Margaret Dunning of Plymouth, Michigan is a typical American driver. She likes to drive and she takes good care of her cars. She even changes her own oil. She not only changes the oil, she says, but the spark plugs as well.
One thing that might be unusual is that Margaret Dunning owns several cars but her favorite is her 1930 Packard 740 Roadster. Margaret exhibited the Packard recently at the 18th annual Glenmoor Gathering of Significant Automobiles at Glenmoor Country Club. Oh yes, there's one other unusual thing: Margaret claims to be the only automobile owner at the antique car club who is older than her automobile. It seems that Margaret is 102 years old. She has had a driver's license for for 90 years.
A television documentary earlier this year focused on George Clooney's Irish ancestry, involving a journey of 3000 miles from Kilkenny to Kentucky. There is but one problem: a highly-respected Irish genealogy research company now says the documentary featured the wrong people.
Clooney's ancestors did, in fact, originate in Knockeen, Windgap in South Kilkenny. New research has shown that most of the story displayed on television has no factual basis. Despite claims in the television documentary, researchers from Eneclann, the country’s most respected genealogist specialists, now say the Clooney family were not evicted during the Famine, but remained on their land until the mid 1850s when it was sold as a bankrupt’s estate.
Now perhaps you can see where Great-Aunt Mildred got her name. The Social Security Administration has released a list of the ten most popular names for girls born in 1901 and another list for the boys. You can see them at http://goo.gl/n6mTx.
The following announcement was written by the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS):
Boston, MA – Sept. 5, 2012 – Brenton Simons, President and CEO of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), announced today that staff member Ryan Woods, has been promoted to NEHGS Assistant Vice President for the Website and Library. Woods, a five-year veteran of the NEHGS staff, will oversee www.AmericanAncestors.org and the Boston-based library, bringing those two areas into greater alignment with each other and advancing the organization’s national mission. He will report to Thomas R. Wilcox, Jr., NEHGS Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and will succeed Marie Daly, who has served as the Director of the Library for ten years. Daly will be staying on with NEHGS in a new role she helped to craft as senior genealogist, with particular emphasis on Irish research. A new day-to-day manager of the library has also been appointed.
Suggs, 51, whose real name is Graham McPherson, is the frontman for the band Madness. He was three years old when his father abandoned the family. Suggs was brought up by his mother Edith Gower, a jazz singer and barmaid. In recent years Suggs decided he wanted to know exactly what became of his father. Like many people, he looked online and found the information he was seeking, although in an unlikely web site: Wikipedia.
Suggs entered his own name on Wikipedia and found a page created by his fans that gave a lot of information about his own life, including the names of both parents. "I looked myself up and there it all was. It said my father had died in 1975, aged just 40. The thing is, this website knew more about my life than me and my whole family combined.
John Thomas Humphrey, age 64, passed away suddenly of a stroke on August 12, 2012 in Washington, D.C. He was the son of the late David and Edythe Humphrey of Pen Argyl, PA. John was graduated from Pen Argyl High School in 1966, and was graduated from American University with a BA in government and public administration in 1970. He is survived by his sister, Joan E. Mack (nee Humphrey), nephew Jonathan Mack, niece Jennifer Mack, and John Doney, his partner of twelve years.
I received a brief message today that was relayed from the Samford Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research mailing list.:
It is with great sorrow that we report the passing of our friend and colleague John T. Humphrey, CG, on August 12, 2012, in Washington, D.C. Further information will be released on the IGHR [Samford Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research] website on Wednesday.
What do you get when you add genealogy books, old photos and a stack of grave records? One of the most dedicated high schoolers in the entire county. Soon-to-be senior Hunter Gentry has been been collecting photographs, records, family trees and any other history-related article he could get his hands on since the fourth grade. Now, he has managed to start a family history society at his own high school in White Plains, Alabama.
You can learn more in the video produced by Anniston (Alabama) Star at http://youtu.be/o6gNW5Ksic0 or click on the image below to view the video.
There is sad news to report today. British genealogy expert Dr. Christopher Watts has passed away. Chris was a former chair of the Society of Genealogists, former employee of The National Archives and later was a volunteer with The National Archives' Friends organization.
I was fortunate enough to meet Chris in London several times. I found he was not only an expert genealogist, but also a fine gentleman and an excellent conversationalist. In June, he spoke at the Ontario Genealogical Conference in Kingston, Ontario. He supplied his bio that was published in the conference syllabus. Sadly, it also now serves as his obituary:
Harry Potter star Robbie Coltrane turned down the chance to research his genealogy on TV because he was convinced he would learn nothing new. The actor was asked to trace his lineage on the U.K. family history series Who Do You Think You Are? but he is so passionate about his Scottish roots, he said he has already done his own family tree investigation.
"They asked me to do that Who Do You Think You Are? the other day and I said I know exactly who I am. I said, 'I can't learn anything I don't know already.'"
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