Tuesday's Tip: Scanners for Your Genealogy Research

I know everybody's excited about handheld scanners these days, but I have to say I'm underwhelmed so far. If you're determined to get a handheld scanner, you might want to consult this overview is written from a genealogist's perspective.

What else is available in the scanning world? Nearly anybody with a multi-function printer has a scanner included on their desktop, but what if you want to travel?

Increasingly I use a small, lightweight, and very portable scanner I bought a couple of summers ago for a big research trip. It has all the functions of a desktop scanner and eliminates the need to knit together digital scans of larger images. Its portability makes it invaluable when visiting relatives and it also works nicely set on a coffee table so you can scan while you watch TV. The model I use is the Canon LiDE200 Color Image Scanner – $80 at Amazon. It weighs three pounds and comes in its own little cardboard box with a carrying handle. I'm impressed with the quality it produces and it's held up under many many trips at this point. For $119, there’s a faster, newer version of the scanner available – the Canon CanoScan LiDE 700F Color Image Scanner.

Tuesday's Tip: Time to Stock up on Archival Supplies at the Hollinger Winter Sale

Want to shop where professional archivists get their archival supplies? And how about a 15 percent discount at the same time? 

Then head to the Winter 2012 sale at Hollinger Metal Edge to stock up. To be completely honest, I get nervous when genealogists tell me they buy acid-free supplies at Walmart or other retail outlets that aren't in the preservation business. Archivists swear by Hollinger, the leader in this field since 1945. If they say it's acid-free, you can count on it.

Products I really like include:

 

File Folders 

 

 

Flip-top Document Storage Boxes

 

 

 

Textile Storage (also great for flat oversized documents)

3-mil. Archival Polyester Sleeves

  








 

 

If you've heard my presentation on organization, you know that this is where you should be spending your storage dollar, rather than on elaborate binders, color-coded systems, and sheet protectors from discounters and office supply stores. Please store your original and vintage materials appropriately in trusted archival supplies like the ones from Hollinger. (And I have no financial interest in Hollinger.)

Sale ends March 15th!

Follow Friday: JustaJoy.com

Have you visited www.justajoy.com? In 2005, Joy Shivar, an antiques dealer in Huntersville, N.C., started a Web site to sell her own antiques. Last year her site morphed in a listings service that connects genealogists with lost family heirlooms with a Web site she founded in 2005 to sell her own antiques. 

For an annual fee of $20, members can list or buyheirlooms that are engraved or otherwise contain a specific surname.Her About section states:

We are different [from] other genealogy sites because we are not specifically in the business of offering information or other digitally prepared images.  We are selling actual and original artifacts such as pictures, documents, etc.  These items usually have value in their own right with collectors but, presumably, are much more valuable to the families with which they connect. Family information, can, however, often be gleaned from the descriptions of the items.   Pictures can also be printed without a purchase of the item - an added value to the site.

Have you found anything at JustaJoy?

Think Like an Archivist on Saturday in San Diego

Looking forward to presenting Saturday at the Computer Genealogy Society of San Diego on primary source research, entitled “Think Like an Archivist: Finding Hidden Genealogical Materials in Libraries and Archives.”

Learn about locating genealogical materials held in manuscript and photographic collections in libraries and archives worldwide, using online archival portals and digital finding aids. Discover where family records are located in digital finding aids; effective search terms and strategies; specific URLs for institutional, regional, and worldwide archival portals and gateways; and how to search once across multiple institutions to locate family history records.

This is a great group of dedicated genealogists and I look forward to being with them again.

Fraudulent Mary Todd Lincoln Portrait Exposed

Fraudulent Mary Todd Lincoln portrait, courtesy THE ABRAHAM LINCOLN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY & MUSEUM VIA THE BOSTON GLOBE

If you come from a famous family, you may have more artifacts and records, but are they authentic? It seems this portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln, hanging in the governor's mansion in Illinois for decades, is not.

The canvas, which was purchased by Abraham Lincoln’s descendants before being donated to the state’s historical library in the 1970s, was discovered to be a hoax when it was sent to a conservator for cleaning, said James M. Cornelius, the curator of the Lincoln library and museum in Springfield. The museum is planning to present its findings at a lecture on April 26.

More here at the Boston Globe. (And happy 203rd, Abe.)

Follow Friday: ArchiveGrid℠

Thousands of libraries, museums, and archives have contributed nearly a million collection descriptions to ArchiveGrid, a subscriber database that offers genealogists and other users access to archival records and finding aids.

Some of the institutions contributing to ArchiveGrid include:

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
• Art Institute of Chicago
• Bostonian Society
• Chicago Symphony Orchestra
• Cornell University Library
• Harvard University
• International Institute of Social History (IISH)
• Minnesota Historical Society
• Museum of Northern Arizona
• National Library of Australia
• New York Public Library
• Orthodox Church in America
• Putnam County Historical Society
• Radio City Music Hall
• Smithsonian Institution - Archives of American Art
• State Library of Massachusetts
• University of Minnesota
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• University of Warwick

Researchers searching ArchiveGrid can learn about the many items in each of these collections, contact archives to arrange a visit to examine materials, and order copies.

ArchiveGrid was founded in 2006 by RLG, a not-for-profit membership organization of libraries, archives, and cultural organizations worldwide. It is now managed by leading bibliographic utility, OCLC. Look for ArchiveGrid at your local library.

Tuesday's Tip: Questions on the 1940 Census

1940 Census poster, courtesy NARA

Anticipation about the release of the 1940 census on April 2 is growing every day. Let’s take a look today at the questions that were asked and the information you can expect to find in this new treasure trove.

Citizenship: Starting with the 1900 census, questions were asked about individual naturalization status with three possible responses: naturalized, papers filed, or alien. The 1940 census adds a field for “American Citizen Born Abroad” as a new category.

Education: For the first time, the specific highest grade of schooling completed is included.

Employment: There are 17 questions about employment in the 1940 census, reflecting the preoccupation with the Great Depression. Answers on employment as of the week of March 24-30, 1940, were given for every individual over the age of 14. New questions include information about wages and salary and if the person made more than $50 moonlighting. Questions were also asked about anyone in the household who earned income from New Deal projects, such as the National Youth Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps, or the Works Progress Administration.

Migration: The Census Bureau was interested in migration within the U.S. as a result of the Great Depression, so the 1940 census asked each individual where he or she had been living on 1 April 1935. If the person was not living at the same address in 1935 and 1940, the name of the city or township (with a population of more than 2,600 persons) and state is given for the 1935 location.

Supplemental Schedule: Five percent of census responders were chosen (two individuals on pre-selected lines of each page) to respond to additional questions. These included inquiries about military service by veterans of World War I, Spanish-American War, Boxer Rebellion, or Philippine Insurrection (this is the first census that no longer asked about Civil War service) and if the person had had deductions made for Social Security or the Railroad Retirement Board.

For more information on the 1940 census, including the questions asked by enumerators and FAQs about the release of the census, visit www.archives.gov/research/census/1940/index.html. Additional information about the 1940 census is available in the Family Tree Friday blog from the National Archives at http://blogs.archives.gov/online-public-access/. Stay tuned!

Top Three Tips for Organizing Digital Research Files for Genealogy

Genealogists create lots of digital files in the course of their research. Some are downloads, some are scans of paper records in our research collections. But all of them need consistent processing if future search results are going to be useful.

1. Use consistent naming conventions.

Here are some file-naming conventions I use:

Baptism Records: SurnameFirstNameBaptism.jpg

Birth Certificates: SurnameFirstNameBirth.jpg

Christening Records: SurnameFirstNameChristen.jpg

Death Certificates: SurnameFirstNameDeath.jpg

Marriage Records: GroomSurnameBrideSurnameMarriage.jpg

Obituaries: SurnameFirstNameObit.jpg

2. Use the only the surname at the time the record or photograph was created.

Let’s follow an example for records on one person, Anna Schumann Kirschstein Kahns, throughout her life:

SchumannAnnaBaptism.jpg – A baptism record file for Anna Schumann

KirschsteinSchumannMarriage.jpg.– First marriage record

KahnsKirschsteinMarriage.jpg – Second marriage record

KahnsAnnaDeath.jpg – Death record

3. Match the surname on the digital file name to the name you use in your family tree software.

I name all files consistently to match the main name for that person in my family tree software. Then, within that person's profile on the software, I note variant names and their sources. This works well for me, allowing for records to be retrieved quickly and easily through consistent naming, but still retaining the variants needed for continued research.

Because it's a fairly complex topic, my presentation on organizing your research has a lot of detail that can seem too dense just for one hour. So I've put together an e-book, Sassy Jane's Guide to Organizing Your Genealogical Research Using Archival Principles. Because professional archivists manage vast paper records as well as digital files, their standards and practices are useful to consider when organizing your research. The $10.50 e-book is a 40-page PDF file. It covers in detail the following:

• Top Ten Organizing Ideas You Can Borrow from Archivists
• Controlled Vocabulary
• Organizing Digital Files on Your Hard Drive
• File-naming Conventions for Digital Files
• Metadata for Organizing Family Photographs
• Managing Paper Files
• Citing Records
• Scanning Tips

To order my e-book via auto download, click the button on the top right of this post.