All Posts (3186)

Sort by

A gold mine in Special Collections

After our adventure in finding Kerlin's Well, I took advantage of thefact that we were already in Northern Arizona to go to the NorthernArizona University, Cline Library, Special Collections and ArchivesDepartment. The book with the faded picture of Kerlin's Well was writtenby my Great-uncle, George Shepherd Tanner. See Tanner, George S. HenryMartin Tanner; Joseph City, Arizona Pioneer, Born June 11, 1852, SanBernardino, California, Died March 21, 1935, Gilbert, Arizona.1964. NAU's Special Colle
Read more…
Views: 31
Comments: 1

Last two posts are on Kerlin's Well

In the last post, I told about our trip to Kerlin's Well where myGreat-grandfather carved his name in the rock back in 1877. In the firstpicture above you can see the rock and the names. The volcanic rock hasa dark weathered coating over the lighter rock making a perfect surfacefor writing names. There are quite few names on the rocks andsurprisingly few modern ones. If you were walking on the plateau abovethe canyon, you would not be able to see any portion until you wereright on top of the cli
Read more…
Views: 26
Comments: 0

Pro Gen Study Group and APG

The Pro Gen Study group will meet at Jamboree. There will also be a Southern California APG meeting at Jamboree. Jamboree is only one week away. I can hardly wait! I will be meeting up with some of my friends from the San Diego Genealogical Society who plan to take the train. We took the train two years ago and it was a relaxing ride and the hotel for Jamboree was across the street. We could not all fit on the shuttle so some of us walked to the hotel. They were doing construction at the hotel b
Read more…
Views: 44
Comments: 0

Ancestors Connect Us to History

I have a passion for America unmeasureable to anything else in life. I'm scared that our current politicians have forgotten the definition of words that make life truly worth living, such as freedom and democracy. My passion and love for my country came in elementary school when I was taught to have pride in my country. In private school, I was not taught a party line. I was taught about the rich history of this great nation, the good and the bad. My passion only grew when my maternal grandmothe

Read more…

Casino in Gettysburg

For those who don't know,someone is trying to build a casino near Gettysburg.

Such an historic place as Gettysburg should not be turned into a dirty,trashy town because someone thinks they can make money from the people who visit such hallowed ground.

The battle of Gettysburg was something we should charish and share with generations to come,but not with a casino.

This link http://nocasinogettysburg.org/ is an online petition you can sign to help stop this from happening.

Please sign it and post the

Read more…
Views: 38
Comments: 0
Choosing an image file format for storing original photographs and scansraises a number of major fundamental issues including most importantly,the survivability of the format in the long term. The most recent issueof the Family Treemagazine has an article on Endangered Sources by Lisa A. Alzo. The article identifies various categories ofpublic and private records that could be lost over time. One obvioussolution, and a solution becoming overwhelmingly popular, is to digitizethe paper records. Bu
Read more…
Views: 24
Comments: 0
Two items:

First, please notice the links in the sidebar to the individual articlesin each series. I will work at keeping them up to date.

Second:

Ian Tester from findmypast.com leftthe following comment:
Just FYI, brightsolid online publishing have also recently acquired the FriendsReunited group, including genesreunited.co.uk whichis the number 2 player in the UK market (behind ancestry.co.uk).brightsolid is 100% owned by DC Thomson, the family-owned media group,and most famous for being owner of
Read more…
Views: 53
Comments: 0

With today's technology, not much really surprises me anymore. However, as I am writing this, I am nearly stunned at what I am looking at.

I have a brittle, old photograph of my 3rd great-grandfather, David Brown (there I go again talking about my Browns...). Time has faded and cracked the photo. Many years ago I scanned/digitized the photo to preserve its current state. I really did not think there was much hope in ever restoring the photo to my satisfaction.

When Miles Abernathy (of 399Retouch.c

Read more…

New England Town Meetings

Often I am asked about town meetings and other terms pertaining to New England town government by people researching their roots from outside of New England. They see the annual reports in the archives, and have questions about the terminology, and the form of government. If you have ever seen Norman Rockwell’s paintings of the “Four Freedoms,” I think the painting of the young farmer standing up to speak at the town meeting (the “Freedom of Speech” painting) epitomizes this form of government.

Read more…

A writer's Journey to the Land of Oz

Do you want to come along? I am on my way to impress the great OZ with a brilliantly written query letter (version # 53, to be exact). I’ve been here before. In fact, it was just last week that I marched to the emerald city only to discover the doors strong-armed by guards holding WEAPONS OF MASS REJECTION.

I must better prepare this time. I am fearful, but I double back, lick my wounds, and attempt to gain as much feedback as possible before entering the mind-numbing forest again. I search for a

Read more…
Hi all,

GenealogyBuff.com has added several new obituary collections. The list is below. You can also browse all of the other collections by state from the Library of Files page at http://www.genealogybuff.com/library.htm and clicking on the state you are interested in. You can also choose CANADA and MISCELLANEOUS to see other large data files.

These obituary collections are searchable using the watermarked searchbox that will have the name of the county written on the SEARCH button.

Here's the lis
Read more…
Views: 176
Comments: 0
Continuing the discussion about image file formats, you may have noticedthat I put the term "original" in quotes. The reason for that issimple, what is an "original"? In pre-computer, pre-copy machine days,the concept of an original was very much an issue. For example, in courtproceedings, we would often get into discussions about whether or notthe original document was being presented in court and whether a copycould be substituted for the original. Those categories of discussionsare long gone
Read more…
Views: 35
Comments: 0
In my previouspost on this subject, I covered some of my experiences with gettinginto digital cameras. The point of that discussion was that the fileformat used to store digital images depends on the availability of thoseformats both from the hardware (the camera or scanner) and thesoftware. Before I can discuss this further, I need a few definitions.First of all are the terms lossless or lossy. A lossless image file issaved with a compression algorithm that does not discard informationobtained
Read more…
Views: 25
Comments: 0

Working at “The Shoe”

United Shoe Machinery Corporation was a major employer in Beverly, Massachusetts. The locals called it “The Shoe,” and when it began manufacturing in 1902 it was the largest factory in the world at that time. By World War I it employed over 5,000 workers. Founded in 1899, they produced machines for the shoe industry, and it was one of the first international companies. There were branches in England, Germany, Canada, South America and Asia by 1905. It quickly became a monopoly, receiving royalti

Read more…
In the pastinstallments of this series, I have been examining the ownership ofthe larger genealogy oriented companies. In this post I examine GenealogyBank.com. Corporateoffices of the GenealogyBank are in Naples, Florida and their"Operations and Production Facility" is located in Chester, Vermont.They characterize there business as follows:
GenealogyBank has the most comprehensive newspaper archive filled with family history information. Many of our historicalnewspapers are exclusive to Genealog
Read more…
Views: 81
Comments: 0
A recent Blog post by Dick Eastman, "NeverSave Original Photos in JPEG Format!"got me thinking again about the format for storing digital images. Oneof the first issues that came to mind was the limitations imposed by thecamera you select. Many of the consumer level cameras do not give youan option for the file format of the images produced. Over my lifetime Ihave steadily evolved the cameras I use. My original camera was acheap, off the shelf fixed lens 35mm view finder camera, which, by theway
Read more…
Views: 31
Comments: 0

West Coast Genealogy Tour I


Daniel lecturing at NGS

I have finally found time to write about my recent trip, which featured two intensive genealogy-focused weeks. I returned to a huge backlog of emails and other tasks and then had to firm up the details of my next trip.


First, I want to thank all the wonderful people who hosted me during this trip.

It kicked off in Grand Junction, Colorado, where Dale Seibert, of the local LDS Family History Center, invited me to the Family History Fair. This small town is simply beautiful, everyone is friendly and

Read more…
The International Federation of LibraryAssociations and Institutions or IFLA characterizes itself as the"global voice of the library and information profession." TheGenealogical and Local History Section of the IFLA has as its scope:
Our mission is to be a voice for genealogy and local history librarians in the international information community, to facilitatenetworking among subject specialists and libraries, archives, museums,and related societies and institutions, and to encourage thedevelopm
Read more…
Views: 22
Comments: 0

In Wake of a Following

Mona Lisa Smile

I rode in the backseat of our 1979 Pontiac Bonneville. The scarlet plush interior cushioned my cheek while the top of my head rested against the rigid window pane. There was a faint smell of peppermint from the hard candy my dad tucked in the pocket of his cheek – melting slowly as he drove the rural highway. On occasion, he’d slip me a piece of peppermint, especially if I remained quiet and didn’t ask, "How much longer?”

On this particular day, we had been on the road for nearly fifteen minutes,

Read more…