California Family History Expo on July 6 – 7

The California Family History Expo on July 6 – 7, 2012, is almost here. You can register now at this link for the pre-registration price of $69 or $99 at the door. 

This Expo will be held at the Crowne Plaza Sacramento Northeast, 5321 Date Avenue, Sacramento, California 95841. 

I'll be presenting "Think Like an Archivist: Finding Hidden Genealogical Records in Archives and Libraries " and "Managing Your Digital Environment."  

My genealogy organizing principles come from my career as an archivist, where we processed, stored, retrieved, and digitized lots and lots and lots of primary sources. So my Expo organizing session will show you how to use archival principles to:

1. Organize your information on your computer(s)

2. Use Internet tools for managing your online life

I hope to see you at the Expo next weekend!

Follow Friday: Oral History Association

Today's Follow Friday is the Oral History Association, a non-profit organization started by academic historians that has much to offer the genealogist.

The Oral History Association advocates for “the oldest type of historical inquiry, predating the written word, and one of the most modern, initiated with tape recorders in the 1940s and now using 21^st-century digital technologies.” Their Web site, Wiki and Best Practices standards are very helpful to the genealogist planning to interview a relative. 

The OHA has published Oral History for the Family Historian: A Basic Guide by Linda Barnickel 2006. Paper. 70 pages. $15.00

A good oral history, even a single interview, requires careful planning. Too often, novices and experienced researchers alike jump into an oral history project before giving sufficient thought to the technical, legal, access, and longevity issues. This seventy-page publication published by the Oral History Association provides practical guidance to the novice who wishes to conduct a family oral history interview. It is designed to help the interviewer/researcher avoid common mistakes by effectively planning, conducting, and preserving a family oral history interview. It also contains an extensive list of sample questions, a legal release form, and other suggested resources.

DNA Results in Michelle Obama's Family Tree

Interesting article today in The New York Times on continuing research on Michelle Obama's family tree, including DNA results that link her to distant cousins.

The discovery of this unexpected family tie between the nation’s most prominent black woman and a white, silver-haired grandmother from the Atlanta suburbs underscores the entangled histories and racial intermingling that continue to bind countless American families more than 140 years after the Civil War.

California Family History Expo on July 6 – 7

The California Family History Expo on July 6 – 7, 2012, is almost here. You can register now at this link for the pre-registration price of $69 or $99 at the door.

This Expo will be held at the Crowne Plaza Sacramento Northeast, 5321 Date Avenue, Sacramento, California 95841.

I'll be presenting "Think Like an Archivist: Finding Hidden Genealogical Records in Archives and Libraries " and "Managing Your Digital Environment." 

My genealogy organizing principles come from my career as an archivist, where we processed, stored, retrieved, and digitized lots and lots and lots of primary sources. So my Expo organizing session will show you how to use archival principles to:

1. Organize your information on your computer(s)

2. Use Internet tools for managing your online life

I hope to see you at the Expo next month!

Tuesday's Tip: NARA Exhibition: “Attachments: Faces and Stories from America’s Gates”

From the National Archives:

On Friday, June 15, 2012, the National Archives will unveil a new exhibition, “Attachments: Faces and Stories from America’s Gates”.  Located in the Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, “Attachments” is free and open to the public, and runs through September 4, 2012.

“Attachments” tells the stories of 31 men, women, and children who found themselves at the gateways to America between 1880 and the end of World War II.  Their stories are told through original documents and photographs that were “attached” to government forms, and draw from a few of the millions of immigration case files at the National Archives.

The exhibition explores both physical and emotional “attachments” – the attachment of immigrants to family and community, and the attachment of Americans to their beliefs about immigrants and citizenship.

“Attachments” is divided into three sections: Entering, Leaving, and Staying.

Entering examines the exciting, strange, and frightening experience of entering a new country.  For most immigrants to the United States, the actual entry processes at immigration arrival points lasted only a few hours or days.  Still, the stakes were high.  For those escaping religious or political persecution, the outcome of their immigration application could mean life or death.  Some individuals took desperate measures including forging visas; others created false families or crossed borders illegally. Many appealed detention or fought deportation in the courts.

Leaving shares the stories of immigrants who - willingly and unwillingly- left the United States.  While some immigrants came for only a short time and left by choice; others wanted to enter, but were turned away.  For some immigrants who successfully entered, the ultimate punishment for a criminal past -- which may have included financial trouble, a disability, or “moral turpitude” -- was deportation.

The final section, Staying, examines what it meant to leave behind the familiar and stay in America.  While not all immigrants chose to stay, for those who did, making a life in a new land presented both opportunities and challenges. Feelings of loss and nostalgia over “the old country” balanced the thrill of greater freedom and the chance to begin again. American ideals of inclusion, democracy, and individual rights faced off against the reality of prejudice, discrimination, and stereotyping. For many, these struggles were resolved, in part, by taking the steps to become a U.S. citizen. For others, it was enough to live as an alien in America for the rest of their lives.

In “Attachments,” visitors will discover dramatic tales of joy and disappointment, opportunity and discrimination, deceit and honesty. They will learn about these stories through original documents and images, and will have the opportunity to look into the eyes of the immigrants through large photomural portraits. Entering the gallery, they will pass by a large (8 x 26 feet) panoramic photograph of Angel Island, the immigration station in San Francisco Bay which was sometimes called “The Ellis Island of the West.”

People you will meet in “Attachments” include:

·         A woman from Michigan, married to a Chinese man, who learns upon trying to leave the country that under U.S. law at the time, when she married her husband, she lost her U.S. citizenship and “became Chinese” for immigration purposes.
·        A Hawaiian boy taken by his parents to Japan who returns years later wanting to work in California.  However, U.S. immigration officers doubt his story and detain him at Angel Island, despite his Hawaiian birth certificate. 
·         A Chinese woman who sails for the U.S. in 1927 with her new husband. The couple devises strategies that allow them to successfully negotiate prejudices about Chinese women trying to enter the country for immoral purposes. Seventy years later, their granddaughter discovers their wedding photograph in her grandmother’s immigration file.
 ·         A young Polish child - whose parents are murdered by the Nazis - hides for two years in the Polish forests with an uncle and cousin.  The boy survives the war but then spends six years in four refugee camps.  Finally, in 1951, he is able to leave Germany and comes with his cousin to the U.S.  He ends up in Cleveland, Ohio, where he is placed in a foster family, and becomes a U.S. citizen.

The Archives Shop will also feature an exhibition catalog and new Genealogy Tool kit in conjunction with “Attachments: Faces and Stories from America’s Gates.”  All Archives Shop proceeds support the National Archives Experience and educational programming at the National Archives.

The National Archives is located on the National Mall on Constitution Avenue at 9^th Street, NW.  Spring/summer hours are 10 AM – 7 PM (March 15-Labor Day). 

Managing Your Digital Environment the Sassy Jane Way

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On Saturday at 5 p.m., I'll be presenting "Managing Your Digital Environment" at the Southern California Genealogical Society's Jamboree in Burbank.

My genealogy organizing principles come from my career as an archivist, where we processed, stored, retrieved, and digitized lots and lots and lots of primary sources. So my Jamboree session will show you how to use archival principles to:

1. Organize your information on your computer(s)

2. Use Internet tools for managing your online life

Because it's a fairly complex topic, the presentation has a lot of detail that can seem too dense just for one session. So I've put together an e-book, Sassy Jane's Guide to Organizing Your Genealogical Research Using Archival Principles. The $10.50 e-book is a 40-page PDF file. It covers in detail the ideas and solutions from my presentation, including file folder structure; file-naming conventions for downloads, scanned documents and photographs; the authority file; and how to digitally label your family photographs.

To order via PayPal, visit my Web site:

http://www.sassyjanegenealogy.com/organizing-e-book.html

Questions? Email me at: sassy.jane.mail [at] gmail.com.