01 September 2019

Your Genealogy Today: Sept-Oct 2019

Cemetery Secrets and Grave Matters
In the lead article of the issue, Robbie Gorr looks at strategies to help maximize your research. While some are fairly well known the use of an iron rod to probe for open spaces, and grave dowsing said to be able to identify whether the grave is of a male or female, adult or child, I'd not heard of before.

The Mysterious Consul
Helene Munson, a creative non-fiction writer, recounts researching her great-grandfather and his time as Consul for Austria, Hungary in the British colony of Rangoon at the British Library.

Quips, Passions and Quirks
Sue Lisk says learning what makes our relatives and ancestors seem unique may be as simple as studying their peculiarities, be it "porcupines, possums, or peacocks."

Jewish Genealogy In New York City: Discovering Cultural Survivals
Michael Chaplan wanders the streets of the Lower East Side to revisit the places where his immigrant ancestors lived, worked, played and prayed.

Genealogy for Lunch
Gail Clifford takes a break from a conference to visit an archive and gather valuable family information

Irish Research: Finding Lost Children
Kevin Cassidy researches the genealogy and missing children of a family who emigrated in the late 19th century through census, baptismal and other records in New York and Ireland.

When Memories Linger
Stimulated by her father's passing Sue Lisk looks at how that of a relative may provide you with opportunities to illuminate and expand your family history in unexpected ways.

Saving Harrie and Nellie
Stephen L. W. Greene and Monica Schirmer Eshelman recount their efforts to save treasured family films and the understand the events recorded.

No Girls Allowed!
Judy G. Russell looks at the long road to equality in the jury box pointing out that the genders weren't represented in anywhere near equal numbers until recently. Judy reviews the situation in some US states, Canadian provinces and England. While the inequality is true there are precious few jury lists, nine collections on Ancestry for a total of some 627,000 entries, two English counties accounting or 87% of those. And even then many men were excluded because of the property ownership qualifications needed to serve.

Making a Gift of Your Genealogy Collection
Dave Obee suggests with the right planning, archivists will welcome your offer. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. Sometimes we don't appreciate what's of value — like my grandmother's stepfather who left her his "valuable collection of corks." And let's face it if you had material handed down from every 15 times great grandparent and the subsequent generations you'd go bankrupt just funding a place to store it all.

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