WDYTYA Episode 2, Emmitt Smith

Paula Stuart-Warren  WDYTYA  Leave a comment

Suzanne Russo Adams from Ancestry.com reports that the tune-in numbers for the first episode of Who Do You Think You Are? have been tabulated by the ratings companies. They show that “more than 6.85 million viewers tuned in to watch it, making it the No. 2-rated show that hour.” Wow. Impressive numbers for something billed as genealogy.

Suzanne reminds us that this Friday, March 12th, the WDYTYA episode features Emmitt Smith, a former NFL football star. Some of you may remember him from Dancing with the Stars. On this week’s episode “Emmitt Smith sets out to discover his slavery roots. In this episode, look for the Monroe County Courthouse in Monroe County, Alabama, and the Mecklenburg County Courthouse in Mecklenburg County, Virginia. Lisa Kudrow calls Emmitt’s episode “unbelievable” and the most compelling of the seven.”

Check out the online teaser. I saw some of it on the Oprah show yesterday and it is going to be a dramatic episode. I think you might want to have the box of tissues handy. I will also be watching my friend Marjorie Sholes talking to Emmitt about his slave roots. Tune in on Friday, March 12th at 8 pm. (7 pm central).

Next seminar: March 27th, Monroe, Michigan

Paula Stuart-Warren  Conferences, Seminars  Leave a comment

If you live in or near Monroe, Michigan I invite you to attend an all day seminar I am presenting for the Genealogical Society of Monroe County, Michigan. Monroe is located in the southeastern tip of Michigan. The date is March 27th. For more information and registration details, please request the flyer as an email attachment from [email protected] or from me at [email protected].

Untrodden Ground: Sources You May Not Have Encountered
Genealogical guidebooks often repeat each other in the sources they teach us about. However, there are many other useful sources. Resources related to occupation, religion, poor ancestors, traveling companions, and records beyond death are filled with family data.

Major Midwestern Archives & their Records
Highlighting some major Midwestern archives and their holdings, finding aids, websites, special indexes, and available assistance for those not visiting in-person. An overview of each state archive will be covered – but those in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio will be covered in greater detail, showing the wealth of material available and how to access it.

New York State: The hanging Face of the Modern Era
New York research is not a simple matter.  However, New York research is not as bleak as many have complained. Today’s genealogists are fortunate to have an expanding array of publications, indexes, ebsites, and advice to help them along in the search. This lecture focuses on some of the “new” things in New York research that have come about in the last several years.

Newspaper Research: The Dailies, Weeklies, and Beyond
Newspapers are one of the most important research sources. The neighborhood, ethnic, cultural, foreign language, and religious newspapers are often overlooked. Learn how to locate the newspapers all over the U.S. and wring more information from them. Examples will also make you aware of newspaper indexes, both published and unpublished, and massive microfilming and digitization projects.

NBC’s Who Do You Think You Are? It has debuted! WOW

Paula Stuart-Warren  WDYTYA  12 Comments

I am typing this as I watch the premier show. I am impressed. Sarah Jessica Parker is the featured celebrity tonight and I am loving that they aren’t jumping from celebrity to celebrity with small snippets of each. That bothered me a bit with the “Faces of America” series that was on PBS recently.

While they can’t show each step of the research I am thrilled that they are showing a variety of records, both online and off. Visits to libraries, specific localities, historical societies, museums are shown. The starting point of talking with family and looking at home sources is represented in the visit with her mother. The audience gets to see Ancestry.com, census, newspaper articles, maps, old letters, original court records, and that not all is online. I did gulp a bit when I saw her pencil a bit too close to an original document. For those of you who have never used such documents, you might have to wear gloves when you use the records at some archives. This is to protect these one-of-a-kind records

If only we all could run from one part of the country to the other to research. Sigh. However, this does show that our answers are not all in one place. Nor does one person have all the knowledge. She worked with professional genealogists, historians, archivists,a librarian.

As a genealogist I was happy to see the range of emotions of the family history discovery that SJP went through — excited, sad, bouncing off the wall, guilt, scared, and more. We saw the neat feelings of walking where your ancestors walked.

SJP’s reactions to finding her ancestral places in history were shown beautifully. The editors did a great job with this show. My friends Natalie Cottrill and Joshua Taylor did great work on their portions of tonight’s show.

I saw some reviews of the show in newspapers from across the country — most were negative. I hope some of them change their minds after watching it on TV or learning more about SJP’s reactions and feelings. On the other hand, I have no interest in stamp collecting, refurbishing antique cars, or bird watching. But I know the folks who do are passionate about what they do and I respect them for that. 

Will I watch the rest of the series. You bet! As a non-genealogist Facebook friend of mine just said, “It’s a cool show.” Thank you Ancestry.com and others for the support that enabled this to be on in prime time!

Cyndi’s List of family history websites is 14 years old today!

Paula Stuart-Warren  Anniversary, census, Cyndi's List, Internet, Websites  Leave a comment

Right at your fingertips — more than 270,000 live and quick links to websites related to family history. How long would it take to you compile such a list? And sort each link into the proper category. And check the link to make sure it is what it should be. And update the link when the webmaster or site owner changes their URL. And change the description of the website when that needs to change. And. And. And. Well, breathe easy. You don’t have to do this work — it has been done for us at Cyndi’s List.

Today is the 14th anniversary of this list. Cindy Ingle Howells began this list of helpful websites for herself and for fellow members of the Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society in Washington State. Lucky for the rest of us she began to share the list with other genealogists.  

The links are categorized. Among the 180+ categories are: adoption, Africa, Beginners, Canada (and by province), Census, City Directories, Ellis Island, Genetics, Lutheran, Military, Newspapers, Organizing Research, Passports, Poorhouses, Schools, Scotland, Ships and Passenger Lists, nd divisions for many other countries and for each of the states in the United States. Bookmark this list now and use it as the great tool it is for finding helpful websites.

March 8th: deadline to save $35.00 on NGS Conference registration

Paula Stuart-Warren  Conferences, National Genealogical Society  Leave a comment

The National Genealogical Society reminds us to register now for the 2010 NGS Conference being held 28 April – 1 May in Salt Lake City.  The early-bird registration discount ends on Monday, 8 March 2010. In addition to enjoying a $35 discount, only early birds have the opportunity to order a printed syllabus. (Everyone will receive a syllabus on CD.)

“The opening session at this year’s conference will be held on Wednesday morning, 28 April 2010, at 8:00AM. The keynote address is the premier of a video tour that provides a behind-the-scenes look at the world-famous Granite Mountain Records Vault.
FamilySearch stores microfilmed and digital genealogical information at this archival facility located in the mountains outside Salt Lake City. This secure facility was designed to protect the collection of genealogical records from decay, natural disasters, and manmade calamities. The vault includes 65,000 square feet of space carved 700 feet into the side of a solid granite mountain. The climate in the facility is carefully controlled to maintain optimal storage conditions for the records, which represent 100 countries and 170 different languages. The Granite Mountain Records Vault currently stores approximately 3.5 billion images on 2.4 million rolls of microfilm, plus nearly a petabyte of digital data. And there is still room for growth as FamilySearch continues to preserve and share the records of the world. The vault is not open to the public, so conference attendees will be treated to something they cannot see in person.

Following the video, Jay L. Verkler, president and CEO of FamilySearch and managing director of the Family History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, will continue the tour with an exploration of trends and resources that will enable these and other records to be viewed worldwide.

All full-conference registrants will be entered in a drawing to win a seven-night stay at the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel at Temple Square, courtesy of the Salt Lake Plaza Hotel, which is located right next door to the Family History Library. Be sure to attend the opening session to find out if you are the winner. The winner must be present at the opening session to claim the prize. Registration details and the conference program can be found online at http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/cs/attendee_registration.

Faces of America ends tonight

Paula Stuart-Warren  Faces of America, PBS  Leave a comment

Tonight, Wednesday March 3, 2010 is the series finale for Faces of America on PBS. It’s been an interesting, but somewhat low key, overview of tracing the heritage of a variety of celebrities. I love seeing the family history background of a variety of people. For such a show the emphasis is naturally on the history that will be a neat part of the show. Yet it still show that in our family history quest, we all use the same types of records. And that until you delve into the records you just never know what you might find. That includes the exciting, quiet, highly mobile, bank robber, oft-married, married, unmarried, poor, rich, fighting, or ill ancestors or collateral lines.

March 5th, 2010: 7:00 p.m. Central Time

Paula Stuart-Warren  WDYTYA  1 Comment

I don’t know if I can wait three more days. This Friday evening the U.S. edition of Who Do You Think You Are? premiers on NBC TV. In the Minneapolis/St. Paul area that is KARE, channel 11. At 7:00 p.m. my bowl of popcorn and I will be sitting in front of the television.

As a firm believer in the pursuit of family history and our place in history, I applaud Lisa Kudrow’s dedication that enabled this series in the U.S. As a genealogical educator I applaud the sharing of the journey. I also congratulate Ancestry.com for their sponsorship of the series. Last weekend I presented a genealogy seminar in Whittier, California and this series was the talk of the day.
 
I did an earlier blog posting about one of my friends who is featured on the March 5th show as one of the people who worked on Sarah Jessica Parker’s family history. Josh Taylor works at the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Click here for a clip from that show.

Many print, radio, and television outlets are spotlighting this show over this week and the coming weeks. Ancestry.com, a major sponsor of the show shared this info today:

Here’s a list of a few shows to watch for (all dates/times are subject to change):
*        Wednesday, March 3
o       Today Show (NBC) – 8-9 am
o       The View (ABC – check your local TV listings)
o       The Joy Behar Show (HLN – Headline News) – 9 pm ET

*        Friday, March 5
o       Today Show (NBC) – 10-11 am

*        Monday, March 8
o       Martha Stewart (check your local TV listings)

*        Tuesday, March 9
o       Oprah (check your local TV listings) [this will be an entire hour about family history]
o       Craig Ferguson (CBS late night)

*        Friday, March 19
o       Bonnie Hunt (check your local TV listings)

An enticing video preview of Who Do You Think You Are?

Paula Stuart-Warren  WDYTYA  Leave a comment

I enjoyed watching this video montage from the upcoming series Who Do You Think You Are? It shows actual records, people looking at manuscripts, at microfilm, finding an ancestor’s tombstone, and experiencing emotion at what they find. That emotion is the same whether you or your ancestors are dirt poor, middle class, or a celebrity. We all use the same records for the research. We all find the good, bad, exciting, boring, and ourselves when we research our family history.

After watching this show I hope that others begin the journey to discover their family history. I hope that they read the guidebooks that are on library shelves, subscribe to online databases, check others at their public library, join a genealogical society for more help, and attend a genealogy seminar, conference, or institute for more learning. Perhaps they will seek some assistance from a professional researcher.

Tons of info is online, but there are still billions of pieces of paper in libraries, historical societies, archives, and courthouses that are not microfilmed or digitized. Nothing compares to holding a diary written by great grandpa during the Civil War, a letter penned by your great great granduncle, the pages from a Civil War pension record, reading through that case file of a family member’s divorce case from 1899. Nothing compares.

There are many parts to the whole research process. Thankfully, we have several shows today that are sharing the joys, tears, and thrills of family history.

Cemetery cannot be destroyed for O’Hare International Airport.

Paula Stuart-Warren  Cemeteries, Chicago  4 Comments

For some time now, I have been reading about Chicago’s plans to add a runway to O’Hare International Airport. Sadly, this necessitated the moving of many bodies buried in St. Johannes’ Cemetery on the land. Today’s Chicago Tribune carries a story that the court has put a stop to this, even for some families that had agreed to the bodies being moved. The city can no longer move any bodies at this site. The 161 year old cemetery belonged to St. John’s United Church of Christ.

“A state Appellate Court today temporarily barred the city of Chicago from acquiring a historic cemetery and relocating its graves to make way for a new runway at O’Hare International Airport. . . “

The comments are quite dramatic. It made me stop and wonder what my feelings would be. I know that this did happen in a cemetery where a maternal ggg grandmother is buried. In that case, the cemetery records burned to make the problem even worse. I guess I feel a need to go visit where my ancestors are buried. It also makes me wonder how many bodies might have been left under the runway. Cemeteries, especially burial places of Native Americans, have been given far too little respect in this country. How many Indian burial mounds have been bulldozed in the name of progress? My parents are buried right next to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Nope, I don’t want them moved.