My Blog

Carnival of Irish History and Culture

The latest Carnival of Irish History and Culture is now up over at the Small-leaved Shamrock with a lot of tasty articles on all things Irish.  I intended to submit a post to this edition...I even planned it out and dug up a bunch of photos of a trip we took to Ireland, but I just couldn't seem to get time to write - maybe another time.

Immigrant Passenger Manifests

I was over at Steve's Genealogy Blog going through some of his older posts and found an exciting gem I wanted to resurface.  Have you ever wondered what all of those marks, numbers, initials and other annotations were on the lines of immigrant passenger manifests?   I know I did because my grandmother, and a few other relatives, had curious notes in the margins next to their names.  I always wanted to find out what these meant, but never got around to it.  Steve has a post dated June 9, 2006 and titled A New Look at Immigrant Passenger Manifests that goes into detail on what those marks mean.  Sometimes I'm guilty of only looking at the current posts of the various genealogy blogs I read...sometimes it pays to do a little digging.

Christmas - A Really Good Story

My previous post talked about the origins of Christmas from an historical point of view.  This essay, from the Daily Mail in the United Kingdom, discusses it from a different angle.  While historians, atheists, and religious officials argue and debate the origins of the Christmas celebration, the one thing none can deny is it actually is a really good story.

World War II Letter to Home Delivered 64 Years Later

Sometimes you read these kinds of stories about an American family receiving a letter mailed by a Soldier decades ago.  This story is a bit different because the letter was mailed by a Japanese Soldier while fighting in Burma in 1943.  Somehow the letter got into the hands of an American Soldier who brought it home with him after his war time service.  Eventually the American Soldier's son gave the letter to a Japanese exchange student who spent two years searching for the addressee, discovered he was still alive, and made the delivery.

Western State Historical Societies

Find Your Ancestors In History

This is the final post on state historical societies.  In case you missed them, here are links to my East Coast State Historical Societies and State Historical Societies - Continued posts.   For part of this post I used the site at U.S. State Historical Societies and State Archives, but found a couple of the links were bad, so I guess writing this is actually worthwhile.   

I was a little disappointed with the western state societies.  Very few had online resources and I think only one had a genealogy link.  I also found that the Utah State History site is actually a division of the State government, but only has a couple of online collections - this surprised me because I figured this site would be the best of them all.  If I had to pick a favorite it would be the Oregon Historical Society.  They have more online content then any of the other western states, but still doesn't come close to those in the mid-west or east.  Hopefully I hit all 50 states.

Genetic Genealogy of Christopher Columbus

I love a good historical mystery - especially one that may never be solved.  I found a great article in the New York Times about using DNA to determine the origins ofChristopher Columbus.  Apparently Columbus didn't leave behind very much information on his family history.  Theories of his origins range from an Italian from Genoa; to an illegitimate son of a Portuguese prince; or the son of a Jewish couple who converted because of the threat of the Spanish Inquisition.  I know Native American's don't really care and probably wish he had no origins at all.  The article is interesting in that DNA is being used to try to determine these origins, however Columbus' own DNA (extracted from remains in his grave) will probably not be used because there is so little of it...this probably means the mystery will never be solved.  However scientists are conducting DNA tests of competing families - the Colums of Spain and the Columbos of Italy - to try and narrow down the genetic possibilities.

Roots Television Turns One

I want to echo Randy Seaver's birthday wishes to Roots Television!  This was a risky enterprise because there was no other genealogy resource like it on the web.  I have to admit when I first read about the concept I was skeptical that something like this would work, but after viewing a few of the early videos, especially the Annie Moore story, I was hooked.  Right now, after only a year, Roots Television has a huge variety of content to choose from.  They've filmed many very interesting conference lectures, but their strength, as Randy says on his blog, are the pieces on real people and the great humor videos.

So, Happy Birthday, Roots Television - I hope you have many more!   

Eastern Shore Genealogy Conference Mystery

A very interesting genealogy conference will take place next weekend on the eastern shore of Virginia.  Sponsored by a society called the Genealogy and Historie of the Eastern Shore, or GHOTES,  the maindraw for the conference will be the revealing of the identity of the body of a 13 year old boy found in an iron coffin by a utility crew in Washington DC.  Apparently the body, studied by experts, is well preserved and has Eastern Shore descendants.  The theme of the conference is "Discovering our Jamestown Ancestors" and will have seminars and speakers focused on this theme.  This sounds like a very interesting and fun conference with a great mystery angle to draw a good crowd.  I found two GHOTES websites.  One has Historie in the name and the other has History...not sure which is the official site, but both are good.

Genealogy Tops Bowling as 2nd Favorite Indoor Sport

Participate in the 2nd most favorite indoor sport at World Vital Records

The last part of this article...way down at the bottom...has a short couple of paragraphs stating that, according to experts, genealogy has replaced bowling as the second favorite indoor sport.  The author does not cite who these experts are, or his source of information, but it's gratifying to know genealogy is more popular then bowling...hmmm...I wonder what the MOST favorite indoor sport is??

Family History Secrets and Surprises

I've found a number of articles this past week about family history surprises mostly in the UK.  This article on The Telegraph website talks about a study at Ancestry.co.uk that shows  1 out of 6 Briton's have found skeletons in their family history closets.  The article's author, Nick Barratt, discusses how one of his great uncles "had disappeared mysteriously in 1932 and none of my living relatives knew what had happened to him."  It turns out, after some research at the UK's National Archives, this great uncle was actually a Soviet spy and committed suicide.

I know many of my fellow genealogy bloggers have found their own skeletons and I have as well.  I discovered my grandfather spent a year in the Colorado State Penitentiary back in the late 1950s.  Some people are embarrassed by these discoveries, but I love them and think they are one aspect that makes genealogy such a compelling hobby...after all, my family's history is what it is and I accept it that way.