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The following was written by Robert C Davison, Chairman of the North Down & Ards branch of the North of Ireland Family History Society:
The Irish family history ‘community’ throughout Ireland and beyond, is mourning the loss of Randal Gill, who died in the Ulster Hospital on Sunday afternoon, following a severe stroke on Thursday last. Ironically, Randal was in the grounds of the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum when he collapsed. It was here that he had spent the last 35 years as a Museum Guide and he retired from that position in 2011.
Randal was born on 14th January 1946 and after schooling, worked for Robinson & Cleaver in their Bangor store. His interest in family history began in 1967 when a cousin from Australia came to Northern Ireland, and together, they began to research Randal’s Mother’s family. This led to visits to Limerick for local research and then the old General Register Office in the Custom House, Dublin. However, he was not only interested in Family History but was also involved with the Scouts and the Philatelic Society. He was on the committee of the Ulster Folklife Society and was assistant secretary for many years.
37-year-old Dale Earnhardt Jr. had never thought about his family history much further back than his grandfather, Ralph Earnhardt. Earnhardt Jr. said he "never really cared" about his great-grandfather and beyond, even when friends suggested he learn more about his family tree. But about six months ago, Earnhardt Jr. started working on his family's history with the help of a genealogist – and he's glad he did.
Thanks to the efforts of a genealogist, a Civil War veteran will be laid to rest with full military honors today, 88 years after he died. The cremated remains of Peter Knapp and his wife, Georgianna, sat in storage at a crematorium in Portland, Oregon, until a distant relative tracked them down. Alice Knapp didn't start out looking for the remains. Instead, she was trying to track down a diary Peter Knapp kept during the war.
Roy Stockdill is a retired national newspaper journalist in England. He edited the Journal of One-Name Studies (for the Guild of One-Name Studies) for 10 years, is on the Board of Trustees of the Society of Genealogists and is commissioning editor of the ‘My Ancestors…’ series of books. He also writes regularly for Family Tree magazine in England. He is also a kind host to visiting American genealogy tourists, such as myself. I have known Roy for years and I love his sense of humor. I have mentioned Roy's many talents a number of times in this newsletter. You can read my past articles about him if you start at http://goo.gl/Osi01.
Now Roy Stockdill has applied his talents to documenting the families of well-known personalities, both living and dead.
The (Lake Region & Pike County, Pennsylvania) News Eagle has a genealogy-related story that at first seems unremarkable. Richard Krebs of Hawley, Pennsylvania decided to research his family tree. He knew his Krebs ancestors came from Germany so he focused on Ellis Island records. He soon found that his grandfather Theodore Krebs arrived in the United States from Germany in 1893, emigrating from a town called Aschaffenberg.
Krebs found his grandfather's brother remained in Germany and raised a family and they had children also. Soon, Richard Krebs found living relatives in Germany, even one who shares his name: Richard Krebs of Weibersbrunn, a town only a few kilometers from Aschaffenberg.
I have had the pleasure of knowing both of these gentlemen for several years and will say this is a great addition to the staff of MyHeritage. Russ and Roger formerly were the two top managers at Footnote.com, which was later acquired by Ancestry.com and renamed to Fold3. Now they are taking senior management positions at MyHeritage.
The following announcement was written by MyHeritage (you can click on the image to see a larger picture):
MyHeritage appoints industry heavyweights to spearhead global content growth
Appointment of senior executives boosts MyHeritage’s US presence, drives growth of historical content and kick-starts preparations for worldwide crowdsourcing project
PROVO, Utah & LONDON & TEL AVIV, Israel – March 30, 2012 – MyHeritage, the most popular family network on the web, announced today the appointment of industry veterans Russ Wilding and Roger Bell to Chief Content Officer and VP Product, respectively. The former founders and lead executives of Footnote.com, acquired by Ancestry.com in 2010 for $27 million, will boost MyHeritage’s US operations in Utah by establishing a new department for adding historical content and rolling-out an extensive global crowdsourcing project.
Tim Tebow has produced a lot of interest in the U.S.lately as the football player has been traded to the Jets, who practice and play in New Jersey. Tebow may or may not be aware of it, but he is apparently returning to his ancestral homeland. His great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather apparently lived in Hackensack.
You can read more in an article by John Branch and Jack Begg, published in the New York Times, at http://goo.gl/tUIKX.
Anyone researching Black American genealogy can tell you how difficult the research can be. Records of Black Americans before 1865 are very difficult to find. A few people have managed to research those records back to 1800. Records back to 1700 are almost unheard of. Professional genealogists hired by the new television show, “Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr.,” were astonished when they found documentation of one line of comedian and actress Wanda Sykes' ancestry back to 1683 in York County, Virginia.
Thirty-nine lashes “well laid” on her bare back and an extension of her indentured servitude was Elizabeth Banks’s punishment for “fornication & Bastardy with a negroe slave,” according to a stark June 20, 1683, court document. Elizabeth Banks was a free, although indentured, white woman. The researchers had previously documented Sykes' ancestry back to Banks, her paternal ninth great-grandmother.
Jim Douthat of Signal Mountain, Tennessee has been recognized for his many achievements by the Chattanooga Area Historical Association. He has been named the first recipient of the James W. Livingood Historian of the Year award.
The Chattanooga Area Historical Association, founded in 1948, is dedicated to preserving the history of the Southeast Tennessee Region with special interest in sites within a fifty mile radius of Chattanooga. In their award selection process, the organization sought the participation of all historical and genealogical groups within this area.
It might be the first time a separated couple got back together thanks to their great-great-great granddaughter. The attractive young couple is Benjamin and Maria Gratz, or more accurately their portraits, which were painted in 1831 by noted English-born Philadelphia artist Thomas Sully but somehow the portraits parted ways an unknown number of years ago.
Benjamin has been hanging for decades at the Rosenbach Museum & Library along with other members of the Gratz family, who were prominent in early Philadelphia's business and philanthropic worlds. The whereabouts of Maria's portrait had been unknown for years.
Every March 17, millions of people pause to reflect on their Irish heritage. Conceived as a Saint's Day in the Catholic Church, Saint Patrick's Day is now a time of celebration for millions. However, many of us have little knowledge of the man whose name we celebrate.
First of all, Saint Patrick wasn't Irish. He was a Roman, although born at Kilpatrick, near Dumbarton in Scotland, in the year 387. His original name is recorded as Maewyn Succat. His father, Calphurnius, belonged to a Roman family of high rank and held the office of decurio in Gaul or Britain. At the age of sixteen years old, Patrick was carried off into captivity by Irish marauders and was sold as a slave to a chieftain named Milchu in Dalriada, a territory of the present county of Antrim in Ireland. He was soon sold to another chieftain in the area. The future saint spent six years tending his master's flocks near the modern town of Ballymena. During this time he learned to speak fluent Celtic.
How often does this happen to you? Genealogist Wayne MacDonald from Edmonton, Alberta was visiting Winnipeg when he ducked into an antique shop to escape a snow storm. While waiting for the snow to abate, he idly thumbed through some old family photographs that were being offered for sale. His heart jumped when he recognized one of the photographs as his great-great-grandfather James MacDonald. A further search revealed over a dozen such photos of his long-dead relatives taken between 1878 and 1915.
"What are the odds of this happening? It's serendipity," said MacDonald.
Congratulations to Julie Dresser from Sycamore, Illinois for her winning essay in the 2012 “I Found it in the Archives” contest held by Special Collections in SUNY Plattsburgh's Feinberg Library.
Her essay was also entered into the national I Found it in the Archives contest, sponsored by the Society of American Archivists (SAA). The winner of the national contest will be hosted by the SAA at its annual awards ceremony in San Diego in August 2012.
Even Great Britain's MI5 spy agency cannot find any record of Charlie Chaplin's birth. Although the entertainer is celebrated as one of London's most famous sons, newly declassified files reveal that Britain's MI5 domestic intelligence service found no records to back up Chaplin's claim that he was born in the city on April 16, 1889.
Uncertainty about Chaplin's origins linger to this day — a mystery Chaplin himself may have helped to nurture. The previously secret file, released Friday by Britain's National Archives, shows that MI5 investigated the silent film star in the 1950s at the request of U.S. authorities, who had long suspected him of communist sympathies. To the spies' surprise, there was no record of the performer's birth.
On Monday, Charlesina Mace was united with her birth family for the very first time. And the amazing part is that she is 56 years old.
Charlesina was born in 1955 in Corpus Christi, Texas to a 15-year-old mother who immediately placed her up for adoption. Charlesina grew up having no idea she was adopted. On her death bed, Charlesina's birth mother made her sister promise to find the daughter she had put up for adoption. Another nine years passed but eventually the family identified, located, and met their long-lost sister.
brightsolid made two announcements in one this morning. First, it has hired one of the better-known genealogists to play a key role in the company's expansion into the U.S. marketplace. The second announcement is a bit more subtle: the company is moving into the U.S. marketplace. British-owned brightsolid has long been a major player providing online genealogy information to U.K. genealogists and now is expanding into the U.S. The company appears to be well-funded and should be capable of becoming a major competitor to the U.S. providers of genealogy data.
The following announcement was written by brightsolid:
He’s helped stars find their roots on TV’s “Who Do You Think You Are?” Now, he’s helping brightsolid’s US launch as business development manager and media spokesperson
Taylor is one of several new appointments to the new US operation of UK’s major online genealogy business
January 30, 2012. SANTA MONICA, CA: brightsolid online publishing, a leading online provider of historical and genealogical content, today announces that top genealogist D. Joshua Taylor has joined its new US operation with immediate effect, as business development manager and media spokesperson.
One of the genealogical greats, Steve Siegel, past president and founding member of the Jewish Genealogical Society, lost his valiant battle with cancer early this morning.
Siegel was library director and archivist at the 92nd Street YM-YWHA in Manhattan for 31 years until his retirement last year. He initiated and organized the annual Family History Fair (1990-2005) during New York Archives Week. He is a past president of the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York and served as president of the Jewish Historical Society of New York. He was a genealogist for more than 40 years, with a focus on Jewish genealogy, Jewish archival sources, and New York City local history. Steve was co-founder and co-editor of Toledot: The Journal of Jewish Genealogy (1977-1982) and compiled the Archival Resources volume of Jewish Immigrants of the Nazi Period in the USA (1978).
Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a history professor, a DNA expert, and a genealogist. Now he is asking for assistance to identify his great-great-grandfather.
Through genealogical records, the Gates family history can be traced back to Jane Gates, a slave who lived on Greene Street. Jane, who was born in 1819, had five children and took the name and identity of their father with her to the grave, according to Gates.
I was delighted to read the announcement today of the newest addition to Mocavo.com's staff: Michael Leclerc. This looks like a great match.
Quoting from the announcement:
Michael has officially joined Mocavo as Chief Genealogist and will be working with us to help bring you the richest experience that the genealogical world has to offer. We’re ecstatic to be working with such an industry guru, and our entire team is very excited with what Mocavo will bring to the field of genealogy in 2012.
Mocavo CEO Cliff Shaw said, “I couldn’t be happier to have Michael joining our team. As Mocavo continues to grow and innovate in the space, Michael’s incredible expertise will help us build an ever-improving experience for our users.”
Susan Gregory Henry, was named 2011 Genealogist of the Year at the annual banquet of the Clinton County Genealogical Society. A citation for Susan Henry was read on behalf of the committee composed of Shirley Lakatos, Beth Mitchell and Joyce Peters in recognition and appreciation for her outstanding service to the Clinton County Genealogical Society. She was presented a certificate and a plaque.
You can read more in an article in the Wilmington News Journal at http://goo.gl/7LP1L
The Irish family history ‘community’ throughout Ireland and beyond, is mourning the loss of Randal Gill, who died in the Ulster Hospital on Sunday afternoon, following a severe stroke on Thursday last. Ironically, Randal was in the grounds of the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum when he collapsed. It was here that he had spent the last 35 years as a Museum Guide and he retired from that position in 2011.
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