Do you know who was on the land where you now live about 200 or more years ago? I’m betting that then or way before, it was Indigenous people who lived on “your” land in what became the United States. You may be a descendant of that group of Indigenous people whose land was taken away by force and by treaty by immigrants to the U.S., aka the federal government. Finally, more and more states, counties, and cities are paying some attention to the original inhabitants. This second Monday in October is being officially recognized as Indigenous Peoples Day. Unfortunately, the federal government has not made it an official “holiday.” My home state of Minnesota definitely has. https://mn.gov/indian-affairs/indian-affairs/indigenous-peoples-day-2024.jsp. The educational aspect noted in the graphic below is important, but only an hour? There needs to be more education and not just on one day.
Part of my work schedule for today is working on updating handouts and PowerPoint slides for a bunch of presentations I am doing in October and November. It’s always enjoyable to share my knowledge with groups around the world, but I am staying in the U.S. for the next several months. While I’m working on these, I hope you’ll allow me a bit of bragging. My Webtember presentation for Legacy Family Tree Webnars, “The Neighbors Knew: Strategies for Finding YOUR Ancestral Details in THEIR Records” made the month’s top ten!
Legacy Webinars is filled with almost 2,300 webinars that you can view from home. Most are free the first time presented. A one-year subscription allows you to watch them at any time and see the almost 9,000 pages of syllabus material. I’d appreciate it if you would use my affiliate link to join the thousands of us who have a membership as we keep learning. http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=1739
A recent newsletter from the University of Minnesota reminded me to look at other parts of the Minnesota Digital Library. The MDL is best described directly from its website. MDL “supports discovery and education through access to unique digital collections shared by cultural heritage organizations from across the state of Minnesota. Our contributors include libraries, historical societies, museums, and archives.”
Sounds good, right. “Begun in 2003, the Minnesota Digital Library includes digital content from over 200 participating organizations from across the state. Together we have digitized more than 60,000 photographs, postcards, maps, documents, letters, and oral histories. These materials are available online in a free searchable database.” Sounds more like excellence, right?
I was reminded about oral histories that are becoming accessible online via MDL. In a September 24, 2024, post about Minnesota Digital Library News, Stephanie Hess wrote about 135 historical oral histories made in 1950-1955 about Beltrami County that are now available. https://minitex.umn.edu/news/minnesota-digital-library/2024-09/beltrami-county-historical-society-audio-recordings-now . Bemidji is the county seat. Many of the audio recordings include references to area Native American reservations, area businesses, occupations, and many other states are mentioned. Just one collections example:
Every day and every month I learn about some other event, designation, or awareness label in states, provinces, countries, and I can’t keep track of them all. The three in the title of this post are examples of some that apply to me and my fellow history/genealogy researchers. These and others apply to people all over the world. Where would we be without an understanding of history in general and specifically of our own families? Most of my friends are descendants of immigrants, as am I. I have friends who are descendants of the Native Americans who were here before my own ancestors.
What archives will you visit this month? What archives websites have you thoroughly investigated? What archives have you advocated for at state and federal levels? We need to interact with elected officials to be sure our archives and historical societies are fully funded so history can be preserved carefully. Think about one aspect of Hurricane Helene this past week. What historical materials have we lost along with people, homes, and government buildings?
For Family History Month, be sure to watch an online webinar and attend a presentation by a local genealogical society. Then take the handout or other material from that presentation and be sure to check the books and websites mentioned in it. Oh, the education we are able to get from that alone. Hundreds of webinars are available for free or low cost from all around the U.S. Hint: check Conference Keeper for links to tons of webinars and seminars. https://conferencekeeper.org/
I highly recommend Legacy Family Tree Webinars and my affiliate link for a membership is http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=1739. For a year’s membership, we get access to 2,281 webinars and 8,947 pages of syllabus material. Most webinars are free when first presented and then for a week afterward, even without a membership. The syllabus material is only available to members. Well worth it as several new ones are offered each week.
German Heritage fits into the other two categories as far as my tips. It’s all a continuing education sequence. We never give up, never say we are finished, nor do we negate any clues we get unless thorough research proves the clues as wrong.
My research career has taken me to the National Archives in Washington, DC and other locations many times over the past 30 years. Much of my time was spent in Bureau of Indian Affairs records for individuals, law firms, and directly for Tribes. The direct reading of hundreds upon hundreds of pages of correspondence, student and family records, social workers commentary, and school superintendent letters was sobering. All these were related to U.S. government run Indian Boarding Schools. I’ve also consulted records related to day schools and boarding schools run by religious groups. As recently as last week, I was reading some of the heartbreaking correspondence.
What did I gain by reading these? Details on names, ages, relationships, and much more. But what has stuck in my mind are the awful details. Imagine an 8-year-old child removed from their parents, forced to travel by train or bus to such a boarding school, often far from home. The child’s traditional clothing was removed, replaced by what was proclaimed to be that of white children. That was followed by a haircut, again to the style of a white child.
Three months into the school year, the child has an appendicitis attack and has surgery. No parental permissions were sought. The school superintendent or other official might later send a letter to the parents and tell that their child had surgery and was doing ok. There may have been some other medical issues involved, but the hospital and school would take care of it. Not the parents, not the tribe, note Grandma.
That child was ill, in pain, placed in a dank hospital room lined with other beds, taken into surgery, sent back to that bed. No mother, father, or sibling to provide a hug, tell them that all would be ok, or provide other support. NOTHING. If the child died, the burial was likely on the school property. Again with no knowledge or permissions from the child’s parents.
In both the United States and Canada, efforts are being made to repatriate the children thus buried and bring them home to parents, other family, and to the land of their Tribe. Some are being brought home but not quickly enough and many still remain far from home.
by LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, JD, LLM, CG, CGL, FASG
Tuesday, September 17, 2024, 8:00 p.m. (EDT)
I know this is a last-minute posting. Sorry about that, my fault totally. BCG’s next free monthly webinar in conjunction with Legacy Family Tree Webinars is “A Myriad of Slave Databases” by LaBrenda Garrett-Nelson, JD, LLM, CG, CGL, FASG. This webinar airs Tuesday, September 17, 2024, at 8:00 p.m. EDT.
When you register before September 17 with our partner Legacy Family Tree Webinars (http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=9015) you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Anyone with schedule conflicts may access the webinar at no charge for one week after the broadcast on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.
“Education is one of the most significant ways of achieving BCG’s mission for promoting public confidence in genealogy through uniform standards of competence,” said President Faye Jenkins Stallings, CG. “We appreciate this opportunity to provide these webinars that focus on the standards that help family historians of all levels practice good genealogy.”
Following the free period for this webinar, BCG receives a small commission if you view this or any BCG webinar by clicking our affiliate link: http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=2619.
Not yet joining us? There aren’t many seats left! Join well-known main speakers Judy G. Russell and Blaine Bettinger along with more than a dozen other speakers for this extravaganza of learning. I’ll be presenting sessions on Friday and Saturday and participating in the Northland Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists “Ask a Genealogist” panel. https://mngs.org/North-Star-2024
A news release from Cyndi Ingle of Cyndi’s List. about this great online opportunity. These groups have been receiving praise all over social media (That statement is from me not Cyndi!). Registration is now open for the MGD Study Group – Mastering Genealogical Documentation, an eight-week beginning principles course, led by Cyndi Ingle of Cyndi’s List. The course runs from Oct 2/5 – Nov 20/23, 2024 – 7 weeks, plus an optional 8th week to review optional homework. The fee is US$95.00. You must own a copy of Mastering Genealogical DOCUMENTATION, available through NGS, https://www.ngsgenealogy.org/mastering-genealogical…/
There will be two different sessions to choose from:
Each class will be about an hour and a half, but sometimes may go over that if the discussion requires it. This is for those who have never studied this book before. We will be studying this from a beginner or slightly intermediate level. It is recommended that you have studied the book Mastering Genealogical Proof, but not a requirement for taking this class. If you’ve done one of these groups before and want a refresher, that’s ok too! I will take 25 students in each class.
If you attended my presentation yesterday (Friday, 13 September) as part of Legacy Family Tree’s Webtember, you learned a little about a maternal Great Grandaunt Johanna (Walsh) Healy Griffin. My session was titled “The Neighbors Knew: Strategies for Finding YOUR Ancestral Details in THEIR Records.” A slide toward the end of the hour showed an 1881 newspaper article about a neighbor accusing her of “using indecent and improper language.” Johanna countersued her with the same charge. I already had done additional follow up on the family to see what else might be in the Winona, Minnesota newspapers. Then, I used the United States Newspapers from OldNews.com™ which is part of MyHeritage.com. Thank you MyHeritage! I learned several new but unhappy things about this part of the family. I’ve been fortunate that several Winona newspapers are digitized on other websites, but had not looked in the St. Charles, Minnesota newspapers. I already knew that several lawsuits involved Johanna, her second husband David Griffin, and a challenge to his will by David’s son, also named David Griffin. The clip below provides another unsettling detail.
St. Charles Union, (Winona County, Minnesota), 4 September 1878, third page, column 7, bottom of column. OldNews is definitely worthwhile.
Watch or rewatch (free!) any of the recorded Webtember Friday presentations at any time through the end of September. Two more September Fridays of live presentations left! The syllabus materials for each of the Webtember presentations and others on Legacy Family Tree Webinars requires an annual membership.
News Release for today. MyHeritage has just acquired MesAieux.com, a popular family history service that specializes in French Canadian genealogy. Founded in 2004, MesAieux.com has grown to become Quebec’s most popular family history service, with over one million users. The website offers an online family tree builder with automated features to add ancestors and is also home to approximately 15 million historical records from Canada, primarily from Quebec, and several exclusive collections. I hear my French Canadians calling!
“We are delighted to welcome MesAieux.com to the MyHeritage family,” said Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. “Canadian genealogists will have much to gain from the combination of the two companies. We’ve been impressed with MesAieux.com’s accomplishments, and this acquisition reinforces our commitment to expanding the resources for French-speaking genealogists. Together we remain committed to the mission of helping everyone discover and preserve their family history for the benefit of future generations.”
As a MyHeritage company, MesAieux.com will soon benefit from MyHeritage’s resources and technological expertise, which will facilitate the publication of new historical record collections and provide greater value to MesAieux.com users, who will be introduced to the wide array of MyHeritage services. All historical record content from MesAieux.com will soon be published on MyHeritage, and its users will benefit from the capabilities of MyHeritage’s innovative tree-to-tree and tree-to-record matching technologies.
