Look for the Hidden Mother in Your Family Photographs

Hidden Mother image, courtesy Retronaut

Do you know about Hidden Mothers in 19th century photographs?

According to the The Hidden Mother Flickr group, there was a photographic "practice where the mother, often disguised or hiding, often under a spread, holds her baby tightly for the photographer to insure a sharply focused image." 

There are many fascinating examples of this photographic phenomenon, dating from tintypes up to the turn-of-the-century at the Flickr group and at the Retronaut blog.

Have you found one of these in your family photos? I'm going to take a second look at mine.

President John Tyler (1790-1862) Has Living Grandchildren

Every genealogist will find this interesting:

John Tyler, the tenth president of the United States, was born in 1790. He grew up on a Virginia plantation, became a lawyer, and went on to the White House after the death of his predecessor, William Henry Harrison in 1841.

But it has been revealed that two of the president’s grandsons are still alive – and were born nearly 140 years after their grandfather was.

Read more here.

With DNA Testing, Suddenly They Are Family

Great article a few days ago in the New York Times on genetic genealogy and adoption research. It begins:

Growing up, Khrys Vaughan always believed that she had inherited her looks and mannerisms from her father, and that her appreciation for tradition and old-fashioned gentility stemmed from her parents’ Southern roots. But those facets of her self-image crumbled when she was told, at age 42, that she had been adopted.

She began searching for her origins, only to find out that her adoption records had been sealed, a common practice in the 1960s. Then Mrs. Vaughan stumbled across an ad from a DNA testing company offering to help people who had been adopted find clues to their ancestry and connections to blood relatives.

About five weeks after shipping off two tiny vials of her cells from a swab of her cheek, Mrs. Vaughan received an e-mail informing her that her bloodlines extended to France, Romania and West Africa. She was also given the names and e-mail addresses of a dozen distant cousins. This month, she drove 208 miles from her hometown here to Evansville, Ind., to meet her third cousin, the first relative to respond to her e-mails. Mrs. Vaughan is black and her cousin is white, and they have yet to find their common ancestor. But Mrs. Vaughan says that does not matter.

“Somebody is related to me in this world,” she said. “Somebody out there has my blood. I can look at her and say, ‘This is my family.’ ”

Tuesday's Tip: Using Yellow as Contrast for Faded Handwriting

Today's tip is simple but effective. When we encountered faded or difficult-to-read documents in the archives, it could be a challenge to photocopy or even read the text or handwriting. 

To increase the contrast on a faint or faded document, place it inside a yellow-tinted sheet protector when photocopying. (If the sheet protector you buy is only open on one end, slit the other side so that you won't abrade your documents sliding them in and out of the sheet protector. And never, never store documents in this kind of plastic over the long term.)

The same principle works when you're working at a downward-projecting microfilm reader. I always carry a sheet of yellow legal pad paper with me on trips to the library. Placing it on the image from the reader increases the contrast and not only helps you decipher handwriting, but also doesn't fatigue your eyes as quickly.

I don't know about you, but I got almost no research done in December and January's been busy too, so I'm eager to get back into the genealogical swing. Happy searching to all my readers in 2012.

Follow Friday: Dictionary Of Occupational Titles

Have you ever found an occupation for an ancestor and you weren't sure what the job actually was? You might find some useful information at the Web site www.occupationalinfo.org. 

The U.S. Department of Labor has compiled this dictionary of occupational titles, codes and job descriptions. Even better, because it was created by the federal government, the information is in the public domain, so feel free to copy and and use freely.

I knew my Norwegian ancestors who emigrated to Chicago worked in the garment industry, so when I found a record for my great-uncle being a "cutter," I was able to confirm the meaning of the term at the dictionary:

Draws and cuts out sets of patterns for specified ranges of garment sizes, grading (increasing or decreasing dimensions) master pattern for each size within set 

Sounds hard to do, and now I'm sure that was his occupation. Give it a try!

 

Tuesday's Tip: Accessing 70 Million Copyright Records at LC

Do you have an ancestor who published a family history or other work? If so, they may have claimed copyright with the Library of Congress. The image above is a sample from a new digitization project at the U.S. Copyright Office. Staff member Mike Burke recently wrote a blog entry about this new database, which I think may be of some eventual value to genealogists. He writes:

The U.S. Copyright Office has a comprehensive set of records about books, periodicals, music, motion pictures and other works that were registered with the Office between 1870 and 1977.  The records include transfers and assignments of rights reported to the Office.  Until now these records have existed only in paper and microfilm form, but the Office has an exciting project underway to convert these non-digital records and make them available via the web.  Over 13 million catalog cards have already been digitized as well as more than half of the Catalogs of Copyright Entries published since 1891.  This latter set is available for searching through the Internet Archive.

The Copyright Office is working on digitizing these records and has launched Copyright Matters: Digitization and Public Access, a blog to publicize the project’s goals, objectives and progress. Please visit the blog and feel free to submit your thoughts and ideas about getting the most out of these records for genealogical research.

Urge the White House to Support Digitization of Federal Holdings

A petition drive is underway asking the Obama administration to create a commission that will answer–within one year–such questions as: What are our federal holdings?  What would it take to digitize them?  How much would it cost? What are the economic and non-economic benefits?

The National Coalition for History and Society of American Archivists urge you to support this effort by signing the petition. We need 25,000 signatures by January 20, 2012, to make this happen!

In September 2011, the White House launched an online petition website, We the People, on which anyone can post an idea asking the Obama administration to take action on a range of issues, get signatures, and get a response from their government. Learn more about the effort and add your name to the petition by going to https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/start-national-effort-digitize-all-public-government-info/15vthgVB

You can also visit Archivist of the United States David Ferriero’s blog to learn how such an initiative might affect the National Archives.

A group called “Yes We Scan” is leading the petition drive to have the federal government analyze the cost effectiveness of digitizing holdings from the National Archives, Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and scores of other federal agencies. “Yes We Scan” is an effort by the Center for American Progress and Publicresource.org to promote digitization of all government information in an effort to make it more accessible to the world.

According to the “Yes We Scan” organizers, to date, thinking about digitization has been piecemeal. Individual agencies have initiated their own projects or thought about the problem in terms of prototypes and pilots. Only the White House can bring these efforts together under one roof and begin to think in terms of a national digitization strategy for our federal government. While funding to undertake such an ambitious goal in the near future is admittedly not available, an analysis could provide the basic scope of what it would take to start the process.

“Yes We Scan” is asking the Obama administration to convene governmental and non-governmental experts, perhaps in the form of a Presidential Commission, Interagency Task Force, or other mechanism. Under the proposal, the “Federal Scanning Commission” would be tasked to answer 6 questions and deliver a report within a year:

1. What are the holdings of our national institutions? How many images, documents, videos, and other objects are there?

2. How long would it take to digitize these materials?

3. How much would it cost given current technology? Is there directed research or are there economies of scale that would bring those costs down?

4. What is the strategy for digital preservation of these materials? How will we avoid digital obsolescence?

5. What is the strategy for identifying restrictions on use of the material? How does one identify and safeguard materials that have copyright restrictions, contain personally identifiable information, or contain classified materials?

6. What are the economic and non-economic benefits of such an effort?

·         What are the cost savings to government?

·         What are the economic benefits?

·         What are the non-economic benefits?

Follow Friday: Using Archives PDF at archivists.org

The Society of America Archivists has published Using Archives: A Guide to Effective Research, by Laura Schmidt. Intended as a guide to researchers, especially those who may be new to archival research, you can down the pdf by visiting http://www2.archivists.org/usingarchives.

The content includes:

• How archives function
• How to identify appropriate archives for your research
• How to access historical materials and research at an archives

Repositories and their collecting scopes and practices may differ, but the principles in this guide should assist you in accomplishing your research goals at any archival institution.

The table of contents:

• What Are Archives and How Do They Differ from Libraries?
• Types of Archives
• Finding and Evaluating Archives
• Requesting Materials Remotely
• Planning to Visit an Archives
• Typical Usage Guidelines in Archival Repositories
• Notes on Copyright, Restrictions, and Unprocessed Collections
• Visiting an Archives
• A Final Word/Additional Resources
• Appendix: Sample Annotated Finding Aid

National Archives YouTube Channel Features New How-To Videos

For the first time, the National Archives has launched online videos of its most popular genealogy how- to workshops.  These videos cover genealogical research topics, including census, immigration and military records.  Now, these popular workshops led by National Archives experts are available on the National Archives YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/usnationalarchives.

The National Archives-produced Know Your Records video shorts cover the creation, scope, content, and use of National Archives records for genealogical research. "The National Archives is proud to make our most popular genealogy lectures available online and ready for viewing by anyone, anywhere, at any time," said Diane Dimkoff, Director of Customer Services. 

Genealogy Introduction: Military Research at the National Archives: Volunteer Service (8:22) www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zgKBrsVpxY   

Archives specialist John Deeben discusses compiled military service records at the National Archives.

Genealogy Introduction—Military Research at the National Archives: Regular Service (6:11) www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OMO-PbmMEw   

Archives Specialist John Deeben explains how to use Army and Navy registers of enlistment and rendezvous reports for research. 

Genealogy Introduction—Military Research at the National Archives: Pension Records (9:04)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT-AgYFhX1k   

Archives Specialist John Deeben discusses how to research military service using pension records dating from 1775 to 1916.  Deeben shows samples of both Revolutionary War and Civil War pensions.

Genealogy Introduction—Immigration Records at the National Archives (11:57)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCZTSrSvxyc 

Archives Specialists Katherine Vollen and Rebecca Crawford provide an overview of immigration records from 1800 to 1957, including Customs Service and Immigration and Naturalization records, as well as records of ports and border crossings.

Genealogy Introduction: Census Records at the National Archives (11:57)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl54NX_H1ko

Genealogy expert Constance Potter shares tips and strategies for researching U.S. Federal Census Records 1790 to 1930, and explains how they can be used for genealogical research.

Public Domain Day

Today is Public Domain Day, which is designated to celebrate the role of public domain in our culture by highlighting authors who died in 1941 and whose work will enter the public domain on 1 Jan 2012.

A little fuzzy on the concept of public domain? When an author's copyright expires, his or her works enter the public domain where they can be used for any purpose without prior permission.

Copyright usually extends from the life of the author plus a certain number of years after his or her death (or pma: post mortem auctoris). In the United States and the European Union, the copyright terms for authors expire 70 years pma; in Canada and New Zeland, copyright ends 50 years pma.

The intellectual property rights enshrined in copyright are complex, but genealogists (and their research) can benefit in particular from an understanding of public domain. Probably the most obvious benefit is the ability to use privately published family histories that were written by authors who died 70 or more years ago.

Genealogists also understand that works deserve proper attribution and citation, even if those works are in the public domain and do not require prior permission for use.

To learn more, visit www.publicdomainday.org. Famous authors entering the public domain today:

• Robert Baden-Powell
• Henri Bergson
• Louis Brandeis
• James Frazer
• James Joyce
• Gaetano Mosca
• Rabindranath Tagore
• Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva
• Virginia Woolf