Sassy Jane Genealogy Blog: Archives and Family History: August 2011

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Tuesday's Tip: Google Maps and Uncommunicative Records

I've had a love-hate relationship with turn-of-the-(20th)-century Cook County marriage licenses for years now. To put it as elegantly as possible, they bite. In general, the information is limited to:

•   Groom’s name, age
•   Bride’s name, age
•   Officiant’s name
•    Officiant's address
•   Date of marriage
•   Date of license issue

By contrast, counties Iowa or Ohio in the same period collection a wealth of information. Parents’ full names, occupations, prior marriages, addresses, all of the creamy goodness of a great genealogy record are included.

Vinton County Ohio marriage license, 1900

What's a poor Cook County researcher to do? Well, the other day I was wondering how far it was from my grandmother's address to the church where she was married. And then it hit me (because I'm a little slow) – I could put all those officiant addresses in Google Maps – d'oh is me. Here's an example – the marriage license for William Donegan and Josephine Jankowski:

Cook County Illinois marriage license, 1903

Add in the officiant's address (30 E. Superior) and swivel around a bit in Google Maps and suddenly I have a church and a parish I can work with:

Nice, eh? So take another look at your Cook County (or other big city) marriage records. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Monday, August 29, 2011

New Access Procedures for Court Records at National Archives Federal Records Centers

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is now providing access to court records exclusively by online ordering or by mail/fax/e-mail. NARA will no longer provide on-site court case review services to the public at its Federal Records Centers.
This change applies to all closed bankruptcy, civil, criminal, and court of appeals case files that remain in the legal custody of the courts but are physically stored at NARA’s Federal Records Centers.
The National Archives is making this change because records can now easily be ordered electronically. It is no longer cost-effective to operate satellite research rooms to provide access to these records.

Access to court cases is now available only via online ordering or mail/fax/e-mail at the following facilities:

-Atlanta Federal Records Center

-Boston Federal Records Center

-Dayton Federal Records Center

-Denver Federal Records Center

-Philadelphia Federal Records Center

-Seattle Federal Records Center

-Washington National Records Center (Suitland, MD)

Effective October 1, access to court cases will be available only via online ordering or mail/fax/e-mail at the following facilities:

-Chicago Federal Records Center

-Fort Worth Federal Records Center

-Lee’s Summit Federal Records Center

-Lenexa Federal Records Center

-Riverside Federal Records Center

-San Bruno Federal Records Center

To order court records online:

1. Visit the National Archives “Order Online” page (https://eservices.archives.gov/orderonline).

2. Click on “Order Reproductions,” then “Court Records.”

3. Select the appropriate court (Bankruptcy, Civil, Criminal, or Court of Appeals).

4. Follow the onscreen prompts to set up an account and place your order.

To order court records via mail/fax/e-mail:

1. Visit the National Archives Court Records information page (http://www.archives.gov/research/court-records).

2. Download and complete the appropriate request form (Bankruptcy, Civil, Criminal, or Court of Appeals).

3. Mail/fax/e-mail the form to the appropriate facility (see page 2 of the request form for contact information).

Customers wishing to access the records in person can do so at the appropriate Court office (www.uscourts.gov/ContactUs/ContactUs.aspx).

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Sometimes Tombstones Just Break Your Heart

Old Mission Cemetery, San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo, California

I love a good cemetery, but this one just got to me. Beautifully executed in addition to poignant.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Have You Noticed You Only Find a Bunch of New Ancestors Late at Night?

Friday, August 19, 2011

Follow Friday: Dead At Your Age

Just a quick and fun Web site for today's Follow Friday called Dead at Your Age. You put in your birthdate (or anyone else's) and the site tells you what famous people you've outlived.

There are also sections for browsing by age of death, dying words, and it also tells you how many days you've lived so far.

Today's info for my birthdate:

You've outlived Chester Alan Arthur by almost two weeks. He was a 21st president of United States and vice president under James A. Garfield. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage on November 18, 1886, 68 years before you were born.

Dead at Your Age is from Intersect, a team that "builds Internet applications that explore how lives intersect in interesting and sometimes unexpected ways. Dead.AtYourAge.com is one small example of this. Stay tuned for more."

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Tuesday's Tip: Cloud Computing and Genealogy

I've been taking my own advice lately and using a hybrid approach to backing up my data (including all those family photos, group sheets, primary sources, and other digital genealogical records).

cloud computing should be part of this mix. Cloud computing is all the rage at present. The problem is that (as with Web 2.0) everyone seems to have a different definition. For our purposes, cloud computing is probably best defined as using virtual servers owned and managed in another location to back up your data.

I've used Dropbox to upload my really precious stuff, but I haven't sprung for a subscription that would allow unlimited data backup.

This is in addition to Time Machine, which I've used on my Macs for years and love it with much love. It creates an automatic backup of your entire system every hour the computer's active and keeps weekly and monthly data sets as your backup life progresses. I back up to a 2 TB external Western Digital that I've been very happy with. It has over a year of backups at this point. I also have another WD smaller drive that has quarterly backups stored at a friend's house across town.

Vendors for cloud computing aren't hard to find: Gator, Dropbox, Mozy, and now titans like Apple, Google, and Amazon see a business opportunity. Costs and pricing plans vary. Some services charge per volume of data, but you should look for a flat rate with no data-size limitations.

It may take some research to find a vendor that's right for you. Don't lock yourself into a long-term plan until you're sure you like the service. And even then, competition will probably continue to drive costs down.

In addition to the obvious factors of cost and ease of use, also consider the security and privacy of your data. Dropbox recently experienced some unwanted publicity over the ambiguous wording of their privacy statement, which reads i part:

you grant us (and those we work with to provide the Services) worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable rights to use, copy, distribute, prepare derivative works (such as translations or format conversions) of, perform, or publicly display that stuff to the extent reasonably necessary for the Service.

So financial data and other sensitive data does not belong on any cloud computing platform.

A final word on this from NDIIPP: "Consumer cloud storage is still in its infancy and business models are still being invented, so take your time and make an informed decision before you open your wallet or start uploading your precious stuff. Ask your friends, relatives, neighbors and co-workers about their experiences and recommendations."

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Tuesday's Tip: Scan Your Scrapbooks

Vintage scrapbooks in your family papers can be one of the most charming and evocative kinds of records passed down from one generation to the next. But archivists tread carefully around scrapbooks because they present a number of preservation challenges.

Scrapbooks sold commercially usually used very cheap and highly acidic paper for a foundation. And scrapbooks by nature have a lot of glue – also very acidic – used to add items to pages. The bindings of scrapbooks tend to fail and that makes the book unstable. And some of those mementos, especially organic items like flowers, can present additional preservation challenges.

The New York Times recently had an excellent article about preserving scrapbooks in the papers of famous people.

So what can you do with your family scrapbooks when you don't have thousands of grant dollars or a professional conservation lab available?

The three most important things are: 1. scan or photograph the pages to create a digital surrogate, 2. store the originals flat in an acid-free container in a stable environment away from light, and 3. use acid-free tissue paper to interleave between the pages to prevent further migration of acid.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Follow Friday: The Poznan Marriage Project

The URL for this site has changed recently. Please visit:

http://poznan-project.psnc.pl/

Today's Follow Friday post is about the Poznan Marriage Project, a splendid database of extracted nineteenth marriage records. Headed by Łukasz Bielecki, the Poznan Marriage Project contains 651,594 records from civil, Lutheran, and Catholic parishes within the former Prussian province of Posen, now Poznań, Poland.

In addition to the search function available by surname, location, and date, the site also provides a wealth of information about what records are available for various villages and towns.

An example (for Rawitsch, the village in Posen where my ancestors are from) of the detailed record and repository information available:

Rawicz Rawitsch 5137 1652 LE

District capital

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Tuesday's Tip: When Acid-Free Isn't Good Enough

We got calls all the time asking for advice on preserving family papers. And one of the most persistent misperceptions we dealt with was that acid-free products equate to archival-level preservation quality.

The truth is a little trickier. There are very technical standards for what constitutes an acid-free product, but acid-free isn't always good enough.

The fact is that standard paper and matboards for framing are made of wood pulp paper, which inherently contain acid. (That "inherent vice" is what causes yellowing and, eventually, deterioration.)

During manufacturing, a chemical buffer, usually calcium carbonate, can be added to paper and matboard. If calcium carbonate sounds familiar, it's because it's the main ingredient in stomach antacids like Tums. The calcium carbonate absorbs acid, whether it's in the paper or in your stomach. And therefore, the paper or matboard can be labeled the "acid-free."

The problem is that it works only for a limited time; then the acid, still in the board, resumes its damaging effects.

The only archival preservation quality paper or matboard are those made of 100 percent rag (usually cotton) or alpha-cellulose (highly purified) paper, making them inherently non-acidic. Buying "acid-free" isn't good enough – use 100 percent rag for best results.

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