tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37829619319234840922024-03-04T22:50:55.509-06:00GeneaJuliaI'm a genealogist, and the volunteer librarian at a private local and family history library. I natter about my research, largely neglected, and my library, which is undergoing some big changes trying to survive in a world of Ancestry.com and Google.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.comBlogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-69882360304207072382017-12-03T14:14:00.001-06:002017-12-03T14:15:06.469-06:00A Deep Dive into DihlesFor most of 2017, I led a workshop at the library called Writing a Profile of Your Civil War Ancestor, in which we took a deep and structured look at doing Civil War research and writing a basic profile of an individual. We had our final meeting yesterday, and I'm immensely proud to announce that we have five completed profiles! (only one is mine 😏) I promised folks would only half to write about two pages of text, and I'm the only one who kept it that short (cuz I wanted to prove it could be done.) We read each others profiles and were amazed at the quality of the work we were able to do in just a little time each month.<br />
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OK, enough with the ad for next year's workshop on WWI...(although...it starts the third Saturday of January...)<br />
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For my profile, I've been working on <b>Robert Henry Dihle</b>, born 1837, one of my immigrant ancestors. He arrived in the US from "Prussia" in 1857, enlisted in the US Army in 1858, served five years, including in the Civil War, and was discharged in Junction City, KS in 1863. He married in Junction City, and he and his wife moved to Salina, KS, where they lived for another forty years, building a successful harness shop, raising a family, and becoming quite active in the community. (You can find a more complete description of my research <a href="http://julialangel.com/genealogy/p59.htm" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
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I still have a bit to wrap up about Robert, due to some terrific finds on a last-minute research trip, but I'm already turning my attention to where he came from. During his life, he seems to have been quite consistent in saying "Prussia" when asked where he was born, starting with the 1870 census. One problem, of course, is that the name "Prussia" means vastly different things, depending on the time period. In 1850, it covered two fairly small areas east of Berlin. By 1864, it covered much of what we call Germany today. You can't do research on "Prussia" -- you need the name of a town, city, church, something more specific. I haven't found that in my research on Robert.<br />
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Time to spread out to his FAN club, specifically his siblings. Many years ago, I received an email from a Dihle researcher in Detroit which specified six siblings:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Heinrich Hermann Dihle, born ?</li>
<li>Johanna Christine Dihle, born?</li>
<li>Friedrich Wilhelm Ernest Dihle, born ?</li>
<li>Auguste Wilhelmine Dihle, born ?</li>
<li>Gustave Karl Wilhelm Dihle, born 1825</li>
<li>Johann Karl Martin Dihle, born 1826</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Gustave Dihle</b> is clearly a brother. I have lots of evidence linking him to Robert: </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Robert sold land to Gustav Dihle in 1872.</li>
<li>Cigar maker G Dihle is living with Robert's family in the 1875 census.</li>
<li>In June 1875, Dihle and Harms opened a cigar factory and store. Dihle was described as a brother of RH Dihle in the newspaper.</li>
<li>In 1879, Robert bought stock in a mining company in Rosita, Colorado, where Gustav was living.</li>
<li>In 1880, he was listed as a shoe-maker in the census.</li>
<li>In 1904, Robert's children George and Ida traveled to Colorado to help their ill uncle and aunt. The newspaper reminded readers that Gustave had been an early Salina resident.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
Unfortunately, Gustave was even less helpful on place of birth...he switched from "Prussia" to "Germany" on his answers to the place of birth question. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Johann Karl Dihle</b> might be a brother. It appears that he went by both Charles and Carl, and spelled his name both Dihle and Diehl. Evidence for brotherhood?</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>He lived in Detroit, Robert's first stop in the US. He was the only Dihle or Diehl in the Detroit City Directory for 1858-9.</li>
<li>He was listed as a "segar maker" in that directory</li>
<li>He was listed as a shoe-maker in his Civil War draft registration</li>
<li>I have Ancestry.com DNA matches with two individuals, both with trees, both with Carl Dihle as our only overlap.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<br />
Where did Carl/Charles come from?<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Prussia -- Castle Garden arrival record</li>
<li>Germany -- Michigan death index</li>
<li>Waddow, Prussia -- Ship passenger list (former residence, not birthplace.) As far as I can find, there's no such place under that spelling.</li>
</ul>
<div>
I'd call this a probable on brotherhood, but no great help on birthplace.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Heinrich Hermann Dihle</b>, also known as Henry. </div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Best link to Robert is that a Henry Dihle was married in Salina, Kansas, and owned farmland in Saline County, KS. </li>
<li>Was never linked to Robert in the Salina paper, although he became famous throughout Kansas for a legal fight he engaged in with a neighbor over a strip of land 3 feet wide; after seven years and two appeals courts, they called it a draw and split the legal fees. </li>
</ul>
</div>
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Birthplace?<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Saline County Henry claimed Hesse-Darmstadt in the 1870 census. Unfortunately, this is at least 200 miles from Prussia. </li>
</ul>
<div>
I'm starting to think that either Henry's not a brother, or Saline County Henry isn't Henry the brother.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Johanna Dihle</b>. I know nothing about her.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Friedrich Wilhelm Ernest Dihle</b>. I know nothing about him</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Auguste Wilhelmine Dihle</b>. I know nothing about her.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Obviously, I need to do more research. </div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-58920456518711352112017-04-30T16:47:00.000-05:002017-04-30T16:47:27.652-05:00MHGS Digitizing Project -- Choosing Our PlatformWe've known since we started the redesign of our society website that one of the purposes was to display digitized resources. Unfortunately, we found that WordPress, while terrific for all our other purposes, wasn't really right for a digital collections home.<br />
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Why not? Well, first consider what we wanted to do. In our minds, a digital collections home needed to host a variety of digital file types -- documents, photographs, sound and video. We needed to be able to attach a significant amount of metadata to these files -- labels with the people, places and things included, plus information about where the items came from, copyright information, etc. All this needed to be searched easily from within the site and from Google. Everything had to display quickly and with a minimum of fuss. It had to handle lots and lots of files -- we have thousands of photographs alone. And finally, we wanted it to look at least semi-professional, which we think will help convince local organizations to let us digitize their archival materials.<br />
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So what were our problems with WordPress? First, terrible search. Sorry WordPress, but it's true. The site searching capabilities are awful. Second, WordPress isn't really set up to handle a database of images like we wanted. We didn't want to write individual posts about each photograph, which would take forever. The album plug-ins we found were targeted more for art photographers, so the image display was lovely, but didn't handle the metadata we wanted to include. And nothing seemed ready to scale to thousands of images, videos, documents and recordings. We couldn't figure out how to make a WordPress option look professional.<br />
<br />
So then we started looking in the archive community. Once we ruled out the options we couldn't afford (PastPerfect), we were left with DSpace, Greenstone, and Omeka. All three are open source programs, which means that the software is free, and targeted toward the academic archival market.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.greenstone.org/" target="_blank">Greenstone </a>was the first program I installed and tested. At the time (mid-2015) it appeared to be the least supported and functional of the programs. It was a possibility until we found something we liked better.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.dspace.org/introducing">DSpace </a> is probably the most widely used among the big boys. It actually seemed a bit too big for our purposes. (Frankly, it intimidates the heck out of me.)<br />
<br />
<a href="https://omeka.org/" target="_blank">Omeka </a>was kind of the Goldilocks product for us. Although it is used by professionals in the field, it is explicitly designed for those with very little technical experience. There is even a <a href="http://www.omeka.net/" target="_blank">version </a>you can use for free without having to install it on your own website, although you lose some control. It is actively under development and there's a good user-support base. It's not perfect, but it's what we selected.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-69698385514007159282016-11-14T11:17:00.000-06:002016-11-14T11:17:27.915-06:00Planning a digitizing projectOur society has thousands of photographs stuck in boxes and file folders. We decided we needed to locate them, digitize them, and put them in archival storage. Such a simple idea. Such a hard thing to do.<br />
<br />
After almost a year of planning, we have finally started our project. I thought I'd write up some of what we encountered -- perhaps we can cut some of the work for other societies?<br />
<br />
The issues we had to address:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>What are we going to scan?</li>
<li>How do we scan the items? What kind of scanner? What resolution? What workflow?</li>
<li>How do we manage the digital files? How to edit? Metadata? How to display on our website?</li>
<li>What is the impact of copyright and privacy laws and norms?</li>
<li>What do we do with the physical items after scanning?</li>
<li>Should we just scan the items that have been donated to us, or should we develop an action plan for identifying and acquiring/borrowing other items?</li>
</ul>
<div>
At the time we started creating a new society website, we formed a committee and had meetings. It didn't work very well. For this project, we had one person who pushed the project (me, the librarian,) one person who handled the technical issues, a group of regular library volunteers and patrons who acted as a focus group, and the board, who made the policy decisions.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For a project like this, I find it helps to start a "policies and procedures" document at the start. At first, all you can add are the major section headers, but as you research and experiment and decide, you start filling things in, so it always reflects your current understanding of the project. Ours is in a Google docs file accessible to the librarian, the tech guy, and the president. At several points during the year, I have printed it out and distributed it to the board.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Sections so far:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Overview -- our goals and some guidelines</li>
<li>Process -- soup to nuts, from scanning to putting on the web to storage</li>
<li>Photograph Scanning Standards (there will also be a document scanning section)</li>
<li>Metadata Standards</li>
<li>Copyright and Privacy Standards</li>
<li>Contributed Items (policies about items we don't own)</li>
<li>Appendix A: Julia's Notes on Copyright and Privacy </li>
<li>Appendix B: Resources</li>
</ul>
</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-31320861450700786852014-12-14T16:09:00.002-06:002014-12-14T16:09:56.214-06:00Book Review: The Invisible History of the Human RaceWow -- what a great book! I just finished reading <i>The Invisible History of the Human Race</i> by Christine Kenneally.<br />
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It's kind of hard to explain what the book is <i>about</i>, exactly. Kenneally approaches the idea of genetics by starting with an overview of human ideas about inheritance, ancestry, race and genealogy. In some of her early chapters, genealogists help the bad guys, and an in some of the chapters, genealogists help the good guys. She looks at situations where an obsession with bloodlines leads to genocide, and she also looks at situations where the denial of ancestral information is used as punishment. I learned some very interesting and disturbing things about the eugenic movement.<br />
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Then she moves into history of DNA testing, and the expansion of what can be tested, who is tested, and what kinds of things can be learned. There's a lot of good background in here about the differences between deep history and recent generations, between Y, mtDNA, and atDNA, and between medical testing and genealogical testing. <br />
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One thing I appreciated was that each chapter explores one self-contained idea, while fitting nicely into the overall structure. This makes it good for bed-time reading, and for making a topic this complex digestible. I also appreciated the mix of personal anecdotes and scholarly research.<br />
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This is not, repeat not, a book that will tell you what DNA test to take or how to interpret your results. It is, however, a good book for getting a sense of the forest of genetic testing before you start losing yourself in the trees of centimorgans and IBD vs IBS. <br />
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Overall, I enjoyed this book immensely, and highly recommend it. And not just for genealogists.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-53516729751900380422014-08-30T12:50:00.000-05:002014-08-30T12:50:29.679-05:00The National Institute of Standards and Technology Digital ArchiveThis is a site that sounds dull but turns out to be fascinating...The National Institute of Standards and Technology (yawn, right?) is digitizing its <a href="http://nistdigitalarchives.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/">archives </a>-- publications and photographs. And the photo collections include their collection of aeronautical instruments and testing procedures, appliance efficiency testing projects, a collection of atomic clocks, automobile testing, and photos of the 1939 project to figure out how to preserve the original copies of the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution. I didn't have the nerve to view the collection of dental research photos. There are pictures of crystals and glass plate photography and space beads and, well, they're up to more than 150 photo collections.<br />
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In short -- if you have scientists or engineers (or dentists) in your family, you might well find a photo of them, or of tools and instruments they might have used, in this collection. And, as the <a href="http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/2014/06/19/not-a-fishy-tale/">Legal Genealogist</a> is always reminding us, photo collections produced by US government agencies are generally copyright free!<br />
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<a href="http://nistdigitalarchives.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/ajaxhelper/?CISOROOT=p16009coll12&CISOPTR=13&action=2&DMSCALE=10&DMWIDTH=512&DMHEIGHT=477&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMROTATE=0" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://nistdigitalarchives.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/ajaxhelper/?CISOROOT=p16009coll12&CISOPTR=13&action=2&DMSCALE=10&DMWIDTH=512&DMHEIGHT=477&DMX=0&DMY=0&DMTEXT=&DMROTATE=0" height="298" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://nistdigitalarchives.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p16009coll12/id/13">Herbert J. Reed of the Electrochemistry Section measuring specific gravity on a battery</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-79573301806347070882014-02-24T17:41:00.000-06:002014-02-24T17:41:34.425-06:00Book Review: Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNAThe last genetic genealogy book on the list! <i>Finding Family: My Search for Roots and the Secrets in My DNA</i>, by Richard Hill isn't really a how-to book. Instead, it's a narrative about one adoptee's search for his family.<br />
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The good: This is a story with a couple of happy "endings," as Hill was able to identify both biological parents and develop good relationships with family. The search starts in the days of phone calls and letters and ends with internet searches and DNA, and demonstrates the wide net an adoptee must cast for any possible clue. <br />
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The bad: Not to diminish Hill's work, but his case seems relatively easy -- it appears that he was just about the only person who didn't know, the adoption was handled through family connections as opposed to an agency, and only the government seems to have been trying to hide it. A huge percentage of the challenge came from logistical issues caused by the passage of time, such as tracking down people who had moved or died, rather than outright secrecy or lost records. And, it appears that a bunch of the work was done by other people, largely a volunteer with an adoptee support group.<br />
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My takeaways: This is a huge emotional minefield, not to be entered lightly. Adoptee support groups are really important. And we really need to change the laws around adoption and official records; I find the idea of certifying a falsified birth certificate repugnant as both a genealogist and a citizen.<br />
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I would suggest reading this book as a way to prepare for the mental and emotional components of an adoptee search, but not as a handbook for learning techniques for conducting such a search.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-41313871455062917572014-02-22T18:55:00.000-06:002014-02-22T18:55:03.599-06:00Don't Forget to Look for Digital Books!After receiving an email mentioning a 987 page (!) genealogy of one of my families, I was feeling sad that it's out of print. Googling didn't find anything helpful, and WorldCat.org suggested helpfully that the nearest copy was in a library 187 miles away. But...clicking on the Editions link in WorldCat brought up a list of 4 editions of the book, one of which was said to be digital. And clicking on that brought up a link to the Hathi Trust website, where the entire book is digitized, searchable, and free for anyone. <br />
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Lesson: <a href="http://worldcat.org/">WorldCat.org</a> is your friend.<br />
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And, if you're wondering, the book is <i>The Basye Family in the United States</i>, by Otto Basye, and the link is <a href="http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89062852876">http://hdl.handle.net/2027/wu.89062852876</a><br />
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Oddly enough, while Google didn't find the digital version of the book, it did find a description of Otto's <a href="http://shs.umsystem.edu/manuscripts/invent/2505.pdf">papers</a>, which were donated to the State Historical Society of Missouri. Apparently there are approximately 4 shelf-feet of materials, largely the research for the book. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-32290358442313492752014-02-20T14:58:00.000-06:002014-02-20T14:58:28.012-06:00Book Review: DNA USA: A Genetic Portrait of America by Bryan Sykes<i>DNA USA</i>, by Bryan Sykes, is the next book in my genetic reading pile. It's a lot bigger than the others, and some of it is worth the extra heft. The book is about Sykes' attempt to follow up a project mapping the genetics of Britain with a project mapping the genetic history of the United States. It's divided into three parts: a review of the science and the history of the science, a narrative about the "road trip" he took while working on the project, and a very quick review of the results.<br />
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The good: The first section of the book is very interesting. There's a lot more here about Native American and African-American deep genetic history than I've seen in the other books I've read, and it's very easy to understand. Sykes writes just enough about his British projects to ground the reader and give a sense of why the USA version of this project would be hard. There's also some good history of the relationships between Native Americans and genetics research, and African Americans and medical researchers, that shows why large segments of the US community might not find DNA testing to be a good thing, and might justifiably consider it a very bad thing. And, finally, some of the results he gets, placed in context with the results of other studies, illustrate some very interesting points about race in America.<br />
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The bad: The second section is a drag. Sykes can't seem to decide whether it's a story about taking a road trip with his son, who's about to start college, or a story about how depressing Indian reservations are, or a description of a genetics project. As a result, it mostly fails in every respect. In the first case, he seems to have missed the fact that the trips in the great road trip movies he keeps referencing were, in general, taken by car, not by train. Descriptions of train stations do not a great road trip story make, even if he tells us what's on his son's iPod. Second, while it's useful to learn about the complicated and messed up history of Native Americans and genetics research, it's not really interesting to read about tours he took in which he neither discusses genetics research nor conducts any while on Native reservations. And finally, after making a nicely convincing case in the first section about how hard a genetics study would be in the US, he does what couldn't even be called a half-assed job of gathering samples -- he, for example, blows off visiting the entire South after gathering a couple of samples from some people from Atlanta that he meets in a hotel bar in San Francisco. The whole second section is self-indulgent and slow. And, since he doesn't have very many samples and he's wasted a ton of pages in the second section, the third section feels both rushed and incomplete. <br />
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Unfortunately, I can't recommend that you just read the first section and skip the other two, because he buries some very interesting things in with the tedious. Skimming is your friend, here.<br />
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My takeaways: I need to investigate African Ancestry, a DNA testing company; I wonder how it compares to FamilyTreeDNA, 23andMe, and Ancestry.com. I need to read up on some of the ethics issues involved in Native American and African American DNA testing and make sure they get covered in our DNA SIG meetings at the library. <br />
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...And I should never invite Bryan Sykes and Spencer Wells to the same party. Although it's covered in pretty language, both of them say some pretty nasty things about each other in their books.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-81280339946842248002014-02-17T18:29:00.000-06:002014-02-17T18:29:03.392-06:00Book Review: Deep Ancestry by Spencer WellsToday's genetic genealogy reading is <i>Deep Ancestry</i>, by Spencer Wells. I wanted to read this one after watching his RootsTech presentation. <br />
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This book isn't exactly about genetic genealogy; rather, it's about the ancestral migration of humans out of Africa and throughout the rest of the world. This is the book to read to understand what it means to get a mtDNA haplogroup result of, say, J. Wells covers both the history of the science and the history of the migrations, tying in archaeology and anthropology where appropriate. He also discusses the Genographic Project, which he directs; its purpose is to significantly increase the number of DNA tests done by members of population groups that can provide more depth to the samples used to track those migrations, including indigenous groups throughout the world. <br />
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The good: Nicely written, good balance between science and humanities, very clear explanations of the science and the history. I feel much clearer on topics like genetic drift and why genetic Eve lived so much longer ago than genetic Adam.<br />
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The bad: Written in 2006 (published in 2007), still early in the project, so there weren't any results to describe. Presumably, there are lots of very cool stories to be told now.<br />
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My takeaways: This would be a good base for understanding all those news articles about genetic discoveries. But check it out from the library -- save your money for the new book I hope Wells is writing.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-80908449339284541502014-02-16T17:53:00.003-06:002014-02-16T17:53:46.647-06:00Book Review: DNA & Genealogy, by Colleen Fitzpatrick and Andrew YeiserNumber three in the genetic genealogy reading pile -- <i>DNA & Genealogy</i>, by Colleen Fitzpatrick and Andrew Yeiser. A couple of years newer than the Pomery book, this was published in 2005. So far, I have to say it's my favorite.<br />
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The good: Wow -- much clearer explanations of...well, almost everything! The authors start at the very beginning of what DNA is, how it is passed between generations, how it mutates, and provide very clear explanations, with diagrams and metaphors. They include sidebars to talk about genetic topics you might have been wondering about, like twins, Down syndrome and sickle cell anemia. Then they move on to what DNA testing actually tests, how to compare your results to someone else, and how to compare your results to a group of someone elses, like a surname study group; again, with specific examples and lots of diagrams and charts. To cap it all off, they even explain Bayes' Theorem and how it relates to Most Recent Common Ancestor calculations, although only probability geeks like myself will read that particular appendix. <br />
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The bad: 2005 was a long time ago, in genetic genealogy terms. This book covers Y-DNA and mtDNA very well, and autosomal DNA not at all. In addition, there are a couple of chapters that go into a lot of detail about testing companies, most of which have merged or gone out of business. It's also a little vague on the practical usefulness of mtDNA testing, although I think that may be because the practical usefulness of mtDNA testing is, well, still a little vague, so I'm not going to hold this against them.<br />
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My takeaway: Unless something better comes along, this is going to be the book I'm going to recommend at the library for people who are brand new to DNA testing, although that recommendation will come with the caveat that it omits one major type of test. I think with this book under your belt, the new book by Emily Aulicino will make a lot more sense, and will fill in the autosomal testing gap. Librarian happy dance!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-78967313974947339002014-02-14T19:51:00.000-06:002014-02-14T19:51:20.974-06:00Book Review: DNA and Family History by Chris PomeryAnother day, another DNA book. This one is relatively old -- 2004 (can you believe that something from 2004 is 10 years old?)<br />
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<i>DNA and Family History: How Genetic Testing Can Advance Your Genealogical Research</i>, by Chris Pomery, is a short book and a quick read. In some ways, that may be its best feature -- you can actually read this book without furrowing your brow. Admittedly, even I could tell it was dated -- at one point in the early chapters he declares that DNA research has conclusively established that there was no human-Neanderthal interbreeding. But, in an odd way, the fact that this was written in the early days of DNA testing makes the book easier to follow, since it's not trying to cram in quite so much material. <br />
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The good: Pomery acknowledges the existence of autosomal and mitochondrial testing, but declares them off-limits for his book; he focuses on Y-DNA and surnames only. This clarity of purpose allows him to tell a reasonably coherent story about how testing works, what questions it will answer, and the steps involved in reaching a conclusion. For many folks, nailing down Y-DNA alone would be a really good starting place.<br />
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Also good: Pomery emphasizes the interplay between DNA test results, documentary genealogical research, and general geography, history and statistics. His list of 11 factors for evaluating DNA surname project results are clearly presented and nicely illustrated. And his example of how to present surname project results are also the most clearly presented I've seen so far.<br />
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Amazingly, his list of predictions for the future of genetic genealogy are, for the most part, coming true. Much better than a lot of other lists of predictions!<br />
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The bad: 10 years is an eternity in genetic genealogy. The website Pomery established to host all the detailed examples and references has been reformatted to market his professional services (a cautionary tale for all print-web experiments!) Although he makes references to US genealogists, his focus is really on UK surname research. <br />
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My takeaways? A good surname project coordinator is probably worth his or her weight in gold, look for context in the form of geographical distributions of surnames and haplotypes, etc, and don't write books that refer to the web for critical clarifications if you're not prepared to maintain the website.<br />
<br />
Should you read this? Read, maybe. This might especially be good to loan to someone trying to understand a Y-DNA/surname project who is getting drowned in all the references to other kinds of testing. Definitely try to check it out from the library rather than buying it -- there are probably more recent books you should spend your money on first.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-67164097865162303552014-02-09T11:30:00.000-06:002014-02-14T19:51:35.399-06:00Book Review: Genetic Genealogy: The Basics and Beyond by Emily D Aulicino I finally gave in to temptation and ordered DNA tests for myself, my mother and my brother. Which, of course, requires a whole new course of reading. The announcement for this new book, <i>Genetic Genealogy: the Basics and Beyond</i>, hit my computer at about the same time that my test results did, so I ordered it...<br />
<br />
I want to say I loved it. I really do. But unfortunately, it reads like a first draft that needs some skillful editing by someone whose expertise is technical writing rather than DNA or genealogy.<br />
<br />
The bad: The chapters on what DNA and DNA testing are all about are circular and unclear. If I didn't already know something about this stuff, I'd be confused. I was also unsettled by the fact that the first references in the book all seemed to be to wikipedia...not precisely confidence-inspiring. Also disappointing -- the sections on chromosome mapping and phasing. I'm still not sure what phasing is and I certainly don't know how to do it or even if I want to try.<br />
<br />
The good: The chapters on how, exactly, to proceed with testing and what to do with your results. They include tips on what to say in emails to matches, helpful spreadsheets and documents to manage your analysis, and even advice on how to convince people you don't know to get tested. This sort of thing is sorely needed, and I got the sense that the author really knows her stuff. <br />
<br />
My takeaway: I'm going to read my way through her list of suggested reading, I'm going to work through her sections on managing matches with a spreadsheet, and I'm going to suggest that we start a DNA special interest group at the library. I'm also going to keep looking for an intro-to-DNA book to recommend to others.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-73321260979821525142014-01-17T15:50:00.000-06:002014-01-17T15:50:01.057-06:00Mulvane Historical Museum<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFDKMLf-AwKCvrTkR716DIs-W2sBMEAn7z4gAVbVKVcpfj7nB0FquLdDRJN0M0swoeRCWNE3Upd3jJyYLXWhY5aqA2Adk7BYB-zKIShftW2Qy5G05Iv6Qz2xtGOfdGcDcWJahsjagxvkk/s1600/mulvane.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFDKMLf-AwKCvrTkR716DIs-W2sBMEAn7z4gAVbVKVcpfj7nB0FquLdDRJN0M0swoeRCWNE3Upd3jJyYLXWhY5aqA2Adk7BYB-zKIShftW2Qy5G05Iv6Qz2xtGOfdGcDcWJahsjagxvkk/s1600/mulvane.jpg" height="175" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
I had a chance to drop in to the historical museum while I was in Mulvane, KS, today. I was impressed -- it's a very nice little museum that makes very good use of the little rooms in its old railroad depot. <br />
<br />
They don't have genealogy resources, per se, but they do have a LOT of photographs, and many of them are accompanied by a little one paragraph profile of the people or organizations in the picture. In addition, they have some old yearbooks and school pictures, and copies of a history of Mulvane that was done about 1975. Mulvane started as a railroad town, and there's a lot of information about railroad life there, as well.<br />
<br />
I'm told that the Mulvane newspaper is being digitized and should start being available this coming year.<br />
<br />
If you have Mulvane research questions, you should definitely call the museum -- Vicki would love to try to help!<br />
<br />
Mulvane Historical Museum<br />
300 West Main<br />
Mulvane, KS 67110<br />
316-777-0506Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-14048986011246338172013-11-25T12:27:00.001-06:002013-11-25T12:27:22.069-06:00Interested in Photo Archives? You Should Be Reading ThisThe <a href="http://www2.archivists.org/">Society of American Archivists</a> has several subgroups that focus on archiving particular types of materials. One of the these is the Visual Materials Section, which focuses on, well, visual materials like photographs and other images. Their most recent newsletter, <a href="http://www.archivesinaction.com/Views_November_2013.pdf">Views</a>, has a few articles of no interest whatsoever to genealogists, relating mostly to academic conferencing, and several articles that are very interesting to anyone interested in visual materials. <br />
<br />
First, a quote I liked: "...every two minutes, the same number of photographs are made in the world today as was made during the entire nineteenth century." Stephen Fletcher, in a review of a symposium called <i>Magnum Photos into the Digital Age. </i>Imagine! <br />
<br />
Second, the newsletter has a listing of new books and exhibits on photography, photographers and photographs. I wish <i>Twentieth-Century Color Photographs: Identification and Care</i> by Sylvie Penishon wasn't $65. (And why aren't academic publishers making ebooks? Seems like scholars, of all people, would be sympathetic to making books cheaper and easier to store!)<br />
<br />
And third and best of all, the newsletter includes a listing of new digital archive projects. For example, The American Museum of Natural History Research Library Digital Special Collections has an image website that includes, among other things, "the Julian Dimock Collection which documents moments in the daily lives of African Americans in South Carolina, new immigrants at Ellis Island, and the Seminole<br />
Indians of Florida at the turn of the last century; and the Lumholtz Collection which documents four expeditions led by ethnographer Carl S. Lumholtz to northwestern Mexico between 1890 and 1898,<br />
with important portraits of the indigenous peoples of Mexico." Check it out at <a href="http://images.library.amnh.org/digital/">http://images.library.amnh.org/digital/</a><br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-74811309121478175372013-10-04T15:10:00.001-05:002013-10-04T15:11:35.261-05:00You're Watching Genealogy Roadshow WrongAnother genealogy television show, another round of comments online about how the show doesn't reflect how genealogy really works and is doing a disservice to new genealogy recruits. Aside from the obvious response, which is that watching a real genealogist doing "real" genealogy would be a lot like watching grass grow, I think there's another way to look at this:<br />
<br />
Those critics are watching it wrong.<br />
<br />
They are assuming that the goal for the genealogy community is show people how rewarding it would be to be genealogists. They are assuming that we want lots of new genealogists. I think they're wrong.<br />
<br />
Think about your own family and your own genealogy hobby. Do you honestly want a lot of members of your family to become active genealogists? Really? Do you really want to share your files? Your online tree? Looking forward to the meeting where all 12 cousins want grandmother's family photo albums...and have 12 different ideas about how to digitize and display them?<br />
<br />
I don't. I think that sounds crowded. In my ideal genealogy world, I have a few genealogy buddies, at a nice 2nd or 3rd cousin distance, each of which is also working on one of my major lines. It would also be nice to have someone in the next generation of my closer family who looks like they can take over my research when I'm gone. <br />
<br />
What do I want from <i>Genealogy Roadshow</i>? I want it to model great family conversations. I know that when I make a major discovery, my family doesn't stand around a table waiting expectantly for the great reveal...but wouldn't it be great if they did? I don't expect <i>Genealogy Roadshow</i> to turn my family members into Kenyatta Berry...I want it to turn them into Kenyatta's audience!<br />
<br />
I also want to use it to train myself to do a better of job of communicating my research to my family. Think of the way they structure that conversation: One simple question, a bit of context, maybe a tree, a couple of original documents and photos, and <i>an answer to the question</i>. No long narratives about research methods. No points for tree size. One or two stories per session, strongly tied to the interests of the audience and, if possible, with an emotional payoff. Since it's a new show, some segments are more successful than others...and I think we can learn from that, too.<br />
<br />
Of course, more genealogists would be a good thing in a general sense. More researchers = more money for records access and preservation, developing cool tools, and helping to dust the genealogy library. I'm exaggerating to make a point. Mostly.<br />
<br />
But it would be cool to have an audience act like that, wouldn't it?Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-27642747166459185402013-06-12T21:05:00.001-05:002013-06-12T21:06:31.554-05:00An Interesting New Memorial The National Teachers Hall of Fame has added a memorial to teachers who have died in the course of their teaching duties. While recent teachers such as the Sandy Hook victims and <span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;">Christa McAuliffe come immediately to mind, the earliest teacher on the list (currently) is Enoch Brown, who died in 1764. </span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.kansas.com/2013/06/08/2838384/national-teachers-hall-of-fame.html">http://www.kansas.com/2013/06/08/2838384/national-teachers-hall-of-fame.html</a><br />
<br />
The organizers are eager to hear about other teachers who are eligible for the memorial. Contact them at <a href="http://www.nthf.org/">http://www.nthf.org/</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-32169052286511502332013-04-25T13:36:00.000-05:002013-04-25T13:36:00.680-05:00And Another Book with Color Pictures!Still no city directories, but look at this book by Fred Harvey: <a href="http://openlibrary.org/books/OL23360060M/Wichita.">Wichita</a><br />
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<a href="http://ia700807.us.archive.org/zipview.php?zip=/34/items/olcovers611/olcovers611-L.zip&file=6112861-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="http://ia700807.us.archive.org/zipview.php?zip=/34/items/olcovers611/olcovers611-L.zip&file=6112861-L.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-46807329389286069732013-04-24T13:22:00.000-05:002013-04-24T13:22:01.079-05:00A Nifty Book About Wichita HistoryFound while looking for something else, which is how the best things are always discovered, the <i>Illustrated History of Early Wichita</i>. <br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://ia700807.us.archive.org/zipview.php?zip=/34/items/olcovers611/olcovers611-L.zip&file=6114636-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://ia700807.us.archive.org/zipview.php?zip=/34/items/olcovers611/olcovers611-L.zip&file=6114636-L.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
A variety of digitized versions is available from this <a href="http://openlibrary.org/books/OL23363036M/Illustrated_history_of_early_Wichita">page </a>at the Open Library. Very cool pictures.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-21519837720697315632013-03-22T11:04:00.000-05:002013-03-22T11:04:25.403-05:00Dear Kyerstin, with Deepest ApologiesThanks to a free weekend trial at ArkivDigital, I recently discovered digitized parish records for your son, Magnus, my great-great grandfather, and your family in Soraby, Sweden.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil6ycBNfhxSlNltisb3BgPGCzSIhZJmfZLRUAUrpu0Y0KWt0jLcAQZPYeu82ShtZKbuTgVO2ODuPGtGWXvWD-OhK5Y29iu4g-_lEIo4ImZrL-UAizNh7fXS8S8LsVlJOyHzDq-iLBe3tM/s1600/Gummesson_Magnus_Birth_zoom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil6ycBNfhxSlNltisb3BgPGCzSIhZJmfZLRUAUrpu0Y0KWt0jLcAQZPYeu82ShtZKbuTgVO2ODuPGtGWXvWD-OhK5Y29iu4g-_lEIo4ImZrL-UAizNh7fXS8S8LsVlJOyHzDq-iLBe3tM/s320/Gummesson_Magnus_Birth_zoom.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
This is where I discovered that the name our family has recorded for you, Soora Rottne, is actually the name of the neighborhood you lived in.<br />
<br />
As a small gesture of penitence, for the rest of today I will refer to myself as<br />
<br />
Yours truly,<br />
Rocky CreekAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-10647380552348904752013-02-15T13:28:00.000-06:002013-02-15T13:28:09.249-06:00Swedish Genealogy Workshop in Lindsborg, KSGotta sign up for this workshop! <a href="http://www.mcphersoncountyks.us/DocumentCenter/View/1552">Swedish Genealogy in Lindsborg, KS</a> just seems so appropriate, especially since my Swedes settled right around there. <br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-86947533662622896552013-01-31T14:30:00.000-06:002013-01-31T14:30:16.160-06:00Genealogy in Local NewsThe Wichita Eagle reprinted an interesting article from the Kansas City Star about some genealogists who solved a riddle that more mainstream historians hadn't resolved (not clear whether the historians couldn't solve the riddle or just hadn't bothered.) Benjamin "Pap" Singleton was born a slave, escaped to freedom, and was instrumental in encouraging former slaves to move to Kansas and other states to escape the Jim Crow south after the Civil War. The riddle? What happened to him after his prominence faded? Some Kansas genealogists and historians found his death certificate and cemetery records. <br />
<br />
It's an interesting article that gives genealogy a positive shout out. Read it <a href="http://www.kansas.com/2013/01/28/2653513/important-black-historical-figure.html">here</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-964544731262093502013-01-01T21:32:00.000-06:002013-01-01T21:32:13.238-06:00Wichita Women's GroupsYowza, it's been a while since I last posted. My excuse? The stuff I've been doing with my genealogy time, while worthwhile to me, is unutterably dull to write about. I've been labeling vacation photos and making backup disks at home, and conducting inventory at the genealogy library. Yawn, right?<br />
<br />
Anyway, I don't want to talk about that stuff now. Tuesday, while I was staffing the front desk at the library, I was asked a question I totally failed to answer. And, since I hate being clueless, I've been doing a little research.<br />
<br />
The question: Could I help identify this picture?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXeUVt0V9RdF7AN_78oIrw_1w5pevIu9rnhzFglS-t1sWsIDgTAi6AcYrTpBDXft0GHpff2geTOHkirp7pyAOXNAG42Hxb_wNnPqGC4xMMymvduJEcZOFpKUfBwO-Dd5Jm7gKD1AqURGc/s1600/20121218_131904.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXeUVt0V9RdF7AN_78oIrw_1w5pevIu9rnhzFglS-t1sWsIDgTAi6AcYrTpBDXft0GHpff2geTOHkirp7pyAOXNAG42Hxb_wNnPqGC4xMMymvduJEcZOFpKUfBwO-Dd5Jm7gKD1AqURGc/s320/20121218_131904.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
Known: The known woman in this picture moved to Wichita in the late 1910s and died in 1942. The picture has a Wichita photographer stamp on the back. The woman's husband worked for a railroad.<br />
<br />
Observed: The dresses are almost identical, the women each have a dark ribbon tied in a bow on the left shoulder, they don't seem to have any other common jewelry or insignia, and the room looks more like a hotel banquet room than a church or home.<br />
<br />
Answer: I have no idea what group this is. It appears to be an organized group, and, if they went to the trouble of matching dresses, it's probably an on-going group. The women are too old to be graduating from high school. The consensus of the folks at the library was that it is probably some sort of women's group, like Eastern Star.<br />
<br />
So what women's groups were active in Wichita during the 20s and 30s?<br />
<br />
<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=_fk0AQAAMAAJ&dq=wichita+hypatia&source=gbs_navlinks_s">The History of Wichita and Sedgwick County</a>, published in 1910 by Orsemus Bentley, provides a whole <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=_fk0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA386&lpg=PA386&dq=wichita+hypatia&source=bl&ots=THW-LhB3dJ&sig=lRVnEDdXHbpiwQ9sKs28eIB1-v8&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Y57jULDVNKXw2gX2mYH4Cw&ved=0CFIQ6AEwBDgo#v=onepage&q=wichita%20hypatia&f=false">chapter </a>on Wichita women's groups. These include the Hypatia club, started in 1886 (and only recently ended), the Twentieth Century Club, the Wichita Musical Club, the South Side Delvers, the DAR, and the Fairmount Library Club.<br />
<br />
There were many Masonic lodges in Wichita, and many wives and daughters joined Eastern Star.<br />
<br />
There were trade organizations, with female auxiliaries, including the Peerless Princess Lodge auxiliary of the Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, and the Peerless Princess Division auxiliary of the Order of Railway Conductors. <br />
<br />
Many of the same organizations are mentioned in Helen Winslow's <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=uUkMAQAAMAAJ&dq=wichita+south+side+delvers&source=gbs_navlinks_s">Official Register and Directory of Women's Clubs in America</a> from 1913.<br />
<br />
So, I have the beginnings of a list of possibilities, but no pictures, which might help narrow things down.<br />
I'll have to keep looking in to this...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-11580779650417647532012-09-11T11:18:00.000-05:002012-09-11T11:18:14.749-05:00I remember 9/11I got a phone call from my father: "Are you watching TV? We're under attack." I was studying for a research statistics class; my parents were on a cruise. That's where I was when the twin towers were hit.<br />
<br />
My parents were on a New England and Canada cruise. They had steamed out of New York harbor, sailing past the twin towers, just the evening before. The ship was buzzing with folks trying to get phone connections, internet connections, even television signals. Later, my folks commented on how eerie it was to see completely empty, contrail-free skies. Several days into the trip, when they landed at a town in Canada, the locals were on the dock, greeting them with American flags.<br />
<br />
I was at home in Kansas. My research statistics class had a test that evening, and it took a while to get through to the university to find out if we were still having class, which we were. I felt a strong sense of dissonance -- the images on the television were of a disaster, very severe and very personal, but in Kansas it was a lovely day and there wasn't really any reason not to carry on with our business. My friends and I drove to Manhattan (KS) to class, speculating on what the consequences were going to be.<br />
<br />
Kansas State University is in Manhattan, KS, which is only a few miles from Ft. Riley. Our graduate program has very strong ties to the Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth. About a third of the students in my class were former or current soldiers. It was clear that they shared our shock, grief and anger, but added an additional factor -- they didn't know when, they didn't know where, but they were all sure that they, personally, were going to war, and soon. Several had children who were also in the military. It wasn't that they had any inside information -- they said they didn't, and although I know they wouldn't have told us if they did, I believed them. It was just that these were men (and that day it happened to be all men), who were teachers of military history and strategy and officers learning to lead, and they had a very good idea of what was going on behind the scenes. They shared what they felt they could. It was a very sobering evening, and the things I learned had nothing to do with statistics.<br />
<br />
Looking back, I'm glad I spent the evening with my fellow students, rather than with CNN. Even without all their video and interviews with "experts," I learned much more about what the fall of the twin towers was likely to mean to all of us.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-8894799678262796542012-07-26T20:25:00.000-05:002012-07-26T20:25:26.134-05:00Native American Genealogy ClassIn my inbox today from the Indian Center in Wichita:<br />
<br />
Tracing Indian Genealogy<br />
<br />
The Mid-America All-Indian Center is pleased to offer two <img align="right" border="0" height="156" hspace="5" name="ACCOUNT.IMAGE.555" src="http://ih.constantcontact.com/fs079/1102397697047/img/555.jpg" style="text-align: left;" vspace="5" width="159" /> free lectures by Choctaw Indian Jason Felihkatubbe on Saturday, Aug. 18. The public is invited. <br />
<br />
From noon-1 p.m., he will speak on the "History of the Choctaw." It will be followed by a "Genealogy" presentation at 1:15 p.m. that emphasizes the Five Civilized Tribes, ways to trace ancestry through Indian records and enrollment policies/procedures. <br />
<br />
Felihkatubbe is a project director at Wichita State University and instructor at Butler Community College. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3782961931923484092.post-16889156312705460202012-07-19T14:50:00.000-05:002012-07-19T14:50:18.311-05:00I Can't Believe a Word I SayIf you were reading this blog (both of you <grin>) a few months ago, you will remember my rant about <a href="http://geneajulia.blogspot.com/2012/01/remaking-genealogy-library.html">remaking my local genealogy library</a>. prompted by the resignation of the librarian. You might even remember this line: </grin><span style="background-color: #ccddee; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 21px;"> I have zero interest in the job</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.999999046325684px; line-height: 20.833332061767578px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.999999046325684px; line-height: 20.833332061767578px;">You can see where this is going, can't you? Yup! I'm now the "associate librarian," which means that I've agreed to take on about half of the librarian's responsibilities for the rest of her term, with the understanding that I will most likely run for and be elected librarian at the next election (the librarian is an elected member of the society board.) I did this partly because the current librarian is suffering from a severe mismatch between the workload and her available time, and partly because it turns out I kinda like being a librarian, especially the organizing part. I've also found that several other members of the society have been harboring some of the same ideas about change, and we've already started to implement some of the smaller, easier ones. </span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.999999046325684px; line-height: 20.833332061767578px;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.999999046325684px; line-height: 20.833332061767578px;">Wish me luck! And don't believe anything I say...</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10600697855703962782noreply@blogger.com1