Follow Friday: PublicDomainDay.org

Tomorrow is "Public Domain Day," which is designated to celebrate the role of public domain in our culture by highlighting authors who died in 1940 and whose work will enter the public domain on 1 Jan 2011.

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. The About page notes:

"Public Domain Day is an initiative of COMMUNIA, the European Thematic Network on the Digital Public Domain, with special support from the Open Knowledge Foundation (UK) and the Center for the Study of Public Domain at Duke University (USA). Our aim is to raise worldwide awareness about the role of the public domain in our societies and to provide resources and information. Please feel free to browse our website and related links and pages - to find greater inspiration and enjoy the creative and entrepreneurial freedom granted to everybody by the public domain."

Oh, and if you're related to:

• Isaac Babel
• Walter Benjamin
• John Buchan
• Mikhail Bulgakov
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Emma Goldman
• Paul Klee
• Selma Lagerlof
• Leon Trotsky
• Vito Volterra
• Nathanael West 

then those royalty checks are gonna stop pretty soon. :D

And now a Happy New Year to all my readers and the very best to you in your family research in the year to come.

Treasure Chest Thursday: Your Kodachrome Slides

RIP Kodachrome, 1935 – 2010

The last roll of Kodachrome film is being processed today at a lab in Parsons, Kansas. Kodak stopped producing the chemicals and the film itself on 22 June 2009. The Kansas lab – the last one in the world still developing the film – has been working around the clock to process the last rolls before the developing machine is sold for scrap.

The excellent article in the New York Times about this milestone contains this quote:  “It’s more than a film, it’s a pop culture icon,” said Todd Gustavson, a curator from the George Eastman House, a photography museum in Rochester in the former residence of the Kodak founder. “If you were in the postwar baby boom, it was the color film, no doubt about it.” 

If you've got 20th-century family photographs, then you have Kodachrome in your collection. Professional photographers favored Kodachrome because of its brilliant color accuracy and professional archivists valued its stability, particularly as compared to other color film.

To care for your Kodachrome, store it in complete darkness and in a cool, dry environment. Avoid temperature extremes found in attics, basements, and garages. 

Digitizing Kodachrome slides is a good idea because the mounts – usually cardboard – can cause deterioration of the image. But scanning Kodachrome slides can be tricky. Uncorrected scans usually have an off-putting bluish cast. Some scanning applications have presets to help adjust, but additional care must be taken because scratches, dust and defects will also be digitized.

Libraries and archives usually find it more cost-effective to out-source the scanning of slides. Look for a local firm and ask them where the scanning is done before handing over any unique family images with sentimental value.

Tuesday's Tip: New U.S. National Archives Web Site Available

The redesigned U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is now available, featuring a new home page and features suggested by the public.

NARA launched the process for the third redesign of Archives.gov as one of its primary open-government initiatives in April. The original Web site debuted in 1996 and was redesigned in 2001 and 2005.

Users polls and studies were undertaken to identify what kind of researchers were using Archives.gov and for what purpose. The largest group of users, at 30 percent, were veterans or family members of veterans, followed by genealogists at 23 percent, according to a “Redesign Participation and Results” report produced by NARA.

I think the biggest improvement in the site is for searching military records:

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/

Much more streamlined. Have you used the new site? Let me know what you think.

_________

And congrats to K. Thayer of Tucson, who is attending the Arizona Family History Expo courtesy of Sassy Jane and the Family History Expo folks. See you in Mesa!

Archives News: January 2011 National Archives Genealogy Classes

In January, the National Archives kicks off the new year with a series of genealogy-related programs highlighting records from its holdings. All programs are free and open to the public, and will be held in the National Archives Building in Washington, DC.

Tuesday, January 4, at 11 a.m., Research Center Lobby
Archives Library Information Center “Walkabout”
Learn how to use the Archives Library Information Center for both print and online genealogy research during a 1-hour library “walkabout” with the Chief Librarian. (The tour will be repeated at the National Archives at College Park, MD, main lobby, Thursday, January 6, at 11 a.m.)

Friday, January 7, at 11 a.m., Room G-24, Research Center
Introduction to Genealogy
Archives staff present a lecture on basic genealogical research in Federal records. This lecture is offered the first Wednesday of every month.

Tuesday, January 11, at 11 a.m., Room G-24, Research Center
Improving the FOIA Process: The FOIA Ombudsman’s Perspective
Staff from the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS), known as the FOIA ombudsman, discuss lessons learned in OGIS’s first year and offer practical tips to help researchers make better use of FOIA to access Government records. (The lecture will be repeated at the National Archives at College Park, MD, in Lecture Room B, Thursday, January 13, at 11 a.m.)

Wednesday, January 19, at 11 a.m., Room G-24, Research Center

Beyond the Basics: Discharge Certificates for the War of 1812
Archives staff teach “beyond the basic” archival research skills for genealogists on the third Wednesday of the month. This month’s topic will be discharge certificates for the War of 1812.

Saturday, January 22, at 10 a.m., Room G-24, Research Center  

Beyond the Basics: Census Strategies and Search Tips
Archives staff teach “beyond the basic” archival research skills for genealogists on the third Saturday of the month. This month’s topic is census strategies and search tips.

Saturday, January 22, noon–4 p.m., Room G-24, Research Center  

“Help! I’m Stuck”
Not sure where to begin? Has a genealogical problem stumped you? An archivist is available from noon to 4 p.m. to answer your questions. Sign up for a 20-minute appointment at the Microfilm Research desk in Room G-26.

Tuesday, January 25, at 11 a.m., Room G-24, Research Center 
Alien Files (A-Files) for Genealogy Research
Learn how the Alien Files are a rich source of biographical information for family research in a joint NARA and USCIS presentation. The A-Files are U.S. immigration documents generated and collected since the mid-20th century and contain a wealth of data, including visas, photographs, applications, affidavits, correspondence, and more. (The lecture will be repeated at the National Archives at College Park, MD, in Lecture Room B, Thursday, January 27, at 11 a.m.) 

Wednesday, April 20, and Thursday, April 21, 2011, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. National Archives Research Center      

National Archives 7th Annual Genealogy Fair: Become Your Family’s Detective                                        
 

This two-day program showcases the Federal records located at the National Archives as resources for family history research. Speakers and exhibitors include National Archives staff, historians, and genealogy professionals. The fair provides information and guidance for experienced genealogy professionals and novices alike. Reservations are not required, the fair is free and open to the public, and presented in partnership with the Foundation for the National Archives.
 

The National Archives Building and the National Archives at College Park are fully accessible. To request an accommodation (e.g., sign language interpreter) for a public program, please email public.program@nara.gov or call 202-357-5000 at least two weeks prior to the event. 

To verify the date and times of the programs, the public should call 202-357-5333, or view the Calendar of Events on the web at: http://www.archives.gov/calendar. 

Visitors to all programs in the National Archives Building Research Center (Room G-24) should use the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance, between 7th and 9th Streets, NW. The National Archives at College Park, MD, is located at 8601 Adelphi Road. For directions to both locations, see: http://www.archives.gov/dc-metro.

Follow Friday – WishbookWeb.com

No long post today, just a nostalgic trip back through the Sears Wishbook from 1964, when I got a Skipper doll – Barbie's little sister for those of you not up on your Barbie trivia – along with a carload of other longed-for Barbie stuff for Christmas. 

If you'd like to look at your Christmas Past, you can visit WishbookWeb.com and find Speigels 1933, Sears 1940, Lord & Taylor 1941, Sears 1942-1944, and dozens of others all the way up to Sears 1988. (You can also laugh at the god-awful clothes from the 1970s.) I don't know who is digitizing those giant vintage mail order catalogs, but I'm glad they are. 

Win Free Tickets to the Arizona Family History Expo from Sassy Jane

I mentioned earlier that I'll be presenting twice at the Arizona Family Expo in Mesa on January 21-22, 2011. 

As a blogger of honor at the Expo, on 28 December 2010 I will be giving away two tickets for free registration. To enter, send me an email at sassy.jane.mail   at   gmail   dot   com with "Arizona Expo" in the subject line and tell me what your biggest research challenge is at the moment. Things are crazy busy this time of year, so I'm giving you a week to get your entry in. (And please enter the contest just once.)

You can enter now through 11:59 PM PST on Monday, 27 Dec 2010. Emails will be numbered in the order in which they land in my inbox. On Tuesday, 28 December, I will randomly draw two numbers and announce the winners. 

Looking forward to meeting the winners in Mesa!

Last Day to Vote for Sassy Jane in the 40 Best Blogs Competition

I want to thank all my readers for being so supportive of this blog in the Family Tree Magazine's 2011 40 Best Genealogy Blogs competition. 

Today's the last day to vote, so please visit this link or click on the logo to the right to cast your ballots before midnight. And just like my Chicago ancestors, you can vote as many times as you like.

And again, many thanks.

Follow Friday – Spokeo.com

I'm always interested in new sites that help in the search for living relatives. My long-time favorite is ZabaSearch, which I think does a nice job of providing enough detail to be useful without seeming intrusive. 

I can't say the same for a fairly new site called Spokeo.com that bills itself as a "efficient people-search utility. Simply put, it is a search engine that scours the web in search of published information."

I think of it more as a data aggregator that searches nearly 50 databases, such as phone books, property tax rolls, magazine subscriptions, census, mailing lists, and marketing surveys, plus everything you've posted to social networking Web sites like Facebook, MySpace, Amazon.com, LinkedIn, Flickr, and many others, and then gathers the information together in one location by name.

Searching on an individual name returns a list of choices that includes street addresses and cities. Clicking through to an individual record then reveals a phone number and the names of others living in the same household. Additional boxes on the same screen reveal gender, broad age range, and marital status, and the promise of more information for paid subscribers, including email, "wealth data," hobbies, and business information.

Spokeo's About page states, "Spokeo’s unique and powerful algorithms can swiftly navigate, sift through, and collect multitudes of scattered data that are spread across hundreds of locations, and synthesize that information in one convenient summary, delivering the most comprehensive snapshot of people-related, public data offered online to date. The search results represent an unparalleled mosaic of the vast stockpiles of public information accessible, and can offer invaluable insight into both the individual being searched, as well as the different types of information published."

I'm probably from the age demographic that automatically considers most of Spokeo intrusive. Being able to see the names of others in the same household would be valuable for genealogical research, but the rest just feels like a bridge too far, in my opinion. Fortunately, one can opt out of being included in Spokeo. (I suppose it's enterprising of them to also offer a product called Reputation Defender, which promises to purge any online negatives that appear about you.) And of course Spokeo already has competitors.

Have you used Spokeo for your research? Are you going to opt out?

Sassy Jane Nominated in the FTM 40 Best Blogs Competition

 

There are so many good genealogy blogs out there, so I'm delighted to see that Sassy Jane has been nominated in the Best New Blogs category in the Family Tree Magazine's 2011 40 Best Genealogy Blogs contest. 

So I'm asking my readers to vote for Sassy Jane to win. Please visit this link to cast your ballots. Voting is open until 11:59 p.m. Monday, Dec. 20. And just like my Chicago ancestors, you can vote as many times as you like.

Thanks on behalf of Sassy Jane!

Blog Caroling with footnoteMaven: "I Yust Go Nuts at Christmas" by Yogi Yorgesson

I'm pretty sure nobody else is going to choose “I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas” by Yogi Yorgesson* for their favorite carol. But this novelty song is my favorite and also very appropriate for my genealogy blog because my Scandinavian grandparents played this old 78 for us every Christmas Eve. My father carried on the tradition until his death a few years ago. I can still hear him singing along and laughing at his favorite lines.

You can read the lyrics, but for the full effect I highly recommend the original 78 performance on YouTube linked in the title below:

“I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas”
 
Oh, I yust go nuts at Christmas,
On that yolly holiday.
I'll go in the red, like a knucklehead
'Cause I squander all my pay.
Oh, I yust go nuts at Christmas,
Shopping sure drives me beserk.
On the day before, I rush in a store,
Like a poor bevildered yerk.
I looked at nightgowns for my vife,
Dose black ones trimmed in red.
But I won't know her size, and so,
She'll get a carpet-sweeper instead.
 
Oh, I yust go nuts at Christmas
Ven each kid hangs up his sock.
It's a time for kids to flip der lids,
While der papa goes in hock.

On da night before Christmas,
It's still in the house.
My family is sleeping,
I'm quiet like a mouse.
I look at my vatch and midnight is near,
I tink I'll sneak out for a cold glass of beer.
Down at the corner, the crowd is so merry,
I end up by drinking about twelve Tom & Yerry.
I get to bed late, and gee vhiz how I'm sleeping,
Ven on to my bed, dose darn kids, day come leaping.
Day sit on my face, and day yump on my belly,
And I'm quivering all over, like a bowl full of yelly.
Day scream “Merry Christmas!” My poor vife and me, 
Ve stumble downstairs, and she lights off da tree.
My head is exploding, my mouth tastes like a pickle,
I step on a skate, and fall on a tricycle.
 
Yust before Christmas dinner, I relax to a point,
Den relatives start svarming all over da yoint.
On Christmas, I hug and I kiss my vife's mother,
Da rest of da year, ve don't speak to each other.
After dinner, my aunt and my vife's Uncle Louie,
Get into a argument; dere both awful screwy.
Den all of my vife's family say Louie is right,
And my goofy relations, day yoin in da fight.
Back in da corner, da radio is playing,
And over da racket, Gabriel Heatter is saying,
“Peace on earth everybody, and gudvill toward men!”
And yust at dat moment, someone slugs Uncle Ben.
Dey all run outside vhooping so da neighbors will hear.
Ohhhh, I'm so glad Merry Christmas
Comes yust once a year.

Oh, I yust go nuts at Christmas,
But I still have lots of fun.
Yust the same as you, I enyoy it too,
Merry Christmas, everyone!

*Yogi's real name was Harry Stewart (1908–1956) and he had a successful career performing in radio, recordings, and nightclubs as his alter ego, the comically stereotypical Swedish-American Yogi Yorgesson. I think he was pretty big in Chicago radio in the 1940s, where my grandparents would have encountered him.

See You at the Arizona Family History Expo in January

I've been invited to present at the Arizona Family History Expo in Mesa on January 21-22. I had a great time in Pleasanton, so I'm really looking forward to the Mesa gathering.  

Stay tuned to Sassy Jane and in the next few days I'll announce a contest for two tickets for free registration at the Arizona Expo.

More at the jump.

Follow Friday - Histopolis.com

Today's Follow Friday post is about a site called Histopolis.com: Collaborative Genealogy & History. I discovered it recently when I was trying to puzzle out two cemeteries in Cook County in Illinois called Oak Hill. 

Histopolis not only helped me figure out the correct cemetery and provided a Google map, but it also delivered a township name (very important in the Midwest), GSP coordinates, nearby cities, and nearby cemeteries. Double-click on the image below to see a screenshot of my search result.

Screenshot of Histopolis search results for Oak Hill Cemetery, Cook Co., Illinois

I think Histopolis.com is an incredibly well done aggregator site. When you search on Histopolis, it fetches data from these sources: 

•    Board on Geographic Names (BGN), USGS
•    Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing system (TIGER), US Census Bureau
•    GeoNames.org
•    User Data 

The example I used above was for a cemetery, but Histopolis also provides information on virtually any geographic location in the United States and Puerto Rico. This information on Truro Township in Knox County, Illinois, would have been so helpful when I was planning my trip there last spring.  

The site is supported by advertising and donations, so it's free to users. You can search without registering, but if you want to contribute information, you need to set up a free account.

Another thing I like about Histopolis is that the 350,000 names in its database are arranged using a place hierarchy, working from states to counties to townships, districts and towns. While it's not necessary to understand how Histopolis organizes its data, a visit to that page can help you construct effective search strategies.

Obviously I'm quite taken with Histopolis. Give it a try!

Tuesday's Tip: U.S. National Archives Web Site Redesigned

The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) will launch a redesigned Archives.gov Web site on next Monday, December 13, 2010. 

You can take a look at an interactive preview of the redesigned Archives.gov at:   archives.gov/open/redesign/preview/ 

This interactive preview explains what has and has not changed and gives you the opportunity to walk through the redesign. NARA is soliciting input at webprogram@nara.gov.

 

The new Archives.gov web site will feature:

• A new home page determined by public voting last July;
• A new interactive “Our Locations” map of NARA facilities nationwide;
• Historical documents and streamlined access to military service records (81 percent of Archives.gov visitors are looking for this information);
• Single topically organized sections focused on the needs of both casual browsers and professional researchers; and
• Easy links to National Archives’ social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and both the Archivist's AOTUS blog and other National Archives blogs.

Want to learn more about the redesign? Visit http://www.archives.gov/open/redesign/.

Prince William and Catherine Middleton's Shared Family History

The Daily Mail put up the chart below that shows the common ancestral line of Kate Middleton (through her father) and Prince William (through his mother's Spencer lineage). They share Sir Thomas Leighton and Elizabeth Knollys as great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents, making them 12th cousins.

I posted the other day about another line of Catherine Middleton’s leading to Edward III in 1312. Until we start hearing some more details about the big day, there should be lots of space for more articles on Catherine Middleton's family history. I just wish I could get 12 generations back as quickly!

Double-click for a larger view:

The common ancestral line of Catherine Middleton and Prince William. ©Daily Mail.

Visualizing History

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes: they never taught history like this when I was in school.