U.S. National Archives and 200+ million digitized images

Paula Stuart-Warren  Uncategorized    Leave a comment

A press release from several days ago:

“COLLEGE PARK, October 26, 2022 — The National Archives Catalog now contains more than 200 million digitized pages. 

The Office of Innovation collaborated with offices across the National Archives, as well as external partners like Ancestry and FamilySearch, to reach this milestone in August. 

Technical upgrades that improved how the agency uploads images have been critical to meeting this milestone and staying on track for the ultimate goal: 500 million digitized pages in the Catalog by September 2026.

The 205,039,338 digitized pages reflect records digitized by the agency and its partners, and the pages can be found in more than 28 million archival descriptions in the Catalog.” 

 

To read the full press release, get more links, and see an impressive chart of the growth of the digitization https://www.archives.gov/news/articles/catalog-200-million-digitized-pages

 

Farms, rivers, railroads, and all ancestral families covered in next Saturdays’ genealogy workshop

Paula Stuart-Warren  Seminars, Webinars  ,  Leave a comment

I have completed the multi-page handouts for next Saturday’s presentations and hope you will join me virtually in Covington, Kenton County, Kentucky. It’s not only the people directly involved in these occupations, but the people who supplied them, repaired them, married them, lived near them, and traveled with them. Need some ideas for where to turn next, how to figure out what else might exist, or to remind yourself that our ancestral families are varied? This coming Saturday is for you.

The day is free, but you do need to register to receive the link to join us from your computer or tablet. Click on the library’s name below for registration.

November 5, 2022. Virtual All-day Workshop. Kenton County Public Library, Kentucky. 10:15 EDT, 9:15 CDT.

  • Stuck? Have Your Tried…? Have You Overlooked…?
  • The Farmer in the Dell … and in Many U.S. Records
  • Online & On Track: Railroad Records, Indexes, and Finding Aids on the Internet
  • Researching Midwestern River People
  • A Wrap-Up Question and Answer Session to Follow

Searching for historical, cultural, and genealogical organizations in Minnesota

Paula Stuart-Warren  Historical Societies, Minnesota Historical Society  , ,  Leave a comment

Looking for a county historical organization in Minnesota? How about a genealogical society in your ancestral areas? It’s easy to do a search for keyword phrases such as St. Louis County Historical Society and be directed to the website. Did you know about the Eveleth Heritage Committee or the Virginia Area Historical Society in the same county? Try a search for the Fillmore County Historical Center and maybe find a link for the Fillmore County History Center. Not all county level historical societies have historical society as part of their title. In Fillmore County, you may need to check out the Harmony Area Historical Society or the Preston Historical Society. 

Searching for the name of a county genealogical society may not yield what you need. Many involve areas and not just one county and their names may not pop up in searches. 

The Minnesota Historical Society to the rescue with these lists of titles, addresses, emails, and websites. Check the websites to be sure each has the type of material genealogists generally seek. Some are only museums and others are more closely related to area preservation efforts. 

The Minnesota Genealogical Society has a resource list of organizations and some have a description of the research materials held. 

 

 

AskAnArchivist day is Wednesday, October 12

Paula Stuart-Warren  Archives  4 Comments

Do you have a question to ask an archivist? Wednesday, October 12, 2022 is #AskAnArchivist Day!

  • Have some things to donate? Ask about that.
  • Wonder whether there is an online catalog for XYZ archives? Ask away.
  • What’s the best archives for doing Indigenous research in Minnesota?
  • Does your archives offer classes? 
  • What’s the best way to store an old bible? Click on that link above to ask your questions on Twitter. Ask general questions or search for a specific archives. Some archives are taking questions on Facebook, too. 

Ask general questions or search for a specific archives. Some archives are taking questions on Facebook, too.

 

 

Indigenous Peoples Day in 2022. We still aren’t learning from the past.

Paula Stuart-Warren  Native American    3 Comments
I have reread the 7 October 2022 Proclamation by President Joseph R. Biden. This, the article mentioned in the paragraph above, and many others should be required reading in schools AND for adults. It begins with these two paragraphs:

     “On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, we honor the sovereignty, resilience, and immense contributions that Native Americans have made to the world; and we recommit to upholding our solemn trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations, strengthening our Nation-to-Nation ties.

     For centuries, Indigenous Peoples were forcibly removed from ancestral lands, displaced, assimilated, and banned from worshiping or performing many sacred ceremonies.  Yet today, they remain some of our greatest environmental stewards.  They maintain strong religious beliefs that still feed the soul of our Nation.  And they have chosen to serve in the United States Armed Forces at a higher rate than any other group.  Native peoples challenge us to confront our past and do better, and their contributions to scholarship, law, the arts, public service, and more continue to guide us forward.”

 
We can continue to honor the memories of ancestors who immigrated to this country but must not forget the Indigenous People who were already here, were forced westward over and over, children taken away from parents, arrests made for observing their own culture and many other horrific things. When are human beings going to learn to be kind, helpful, and respectful of everyone? Too much of that did not happen in the past and still does not happen today. I will observe Indigenous Peoples Day and continue to research this great heritage which alas, I do not have. 

 

Hey genealogists! Legacy Family Tree Webinars top picks for September!

Paula Stuart-Warren  Webinars  ,  Leave a comment

Regular readers know that I love to present educational webinars for Legacy Family Tree Webinars. Then I love to listen to the presentations of others, both live or recorded if I missed the live times.  Each month, Geoff Rasmussen releases a list of the top webinars from the preceding month. My 14 September presentation on “Michigan: An Upper Midwest Researcher’s Dream” is number 18 on the list which is pretty good for a state-specific topic. Read the full September list here https://news.legacyfamilytree.com/legacy_news/2022/10/top-10-genealogy-webinars-september-2022.html

 

Grants to history organizations in Minnesota that impact genealogists

Paula Stuart-Warren  Uncategorized    Leave a comment

From a 20 September 2022 press release from the Minnesota Historical Society:

The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) is pleased to announce the newest recipients of 28 Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Small Grants ($10,000 and less), totaling $264,831 in 15 counties. Small grants are awarded quarterly to help nonprofits, educational organizations, government units and federally recognized tribes to preserve and share Minnesota history. This cycle of awards was approved by the MNHS Executive Council on Sept. 7, 2022.

Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Grants are made possible by the Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund through the vote of Minnesotans on Nov. 4, 2008. The Legacy Amendment supports efforts to preserve Minnesota land, water and legacy, including Minnesota history and cultural heritage.

A Selection of the Minnesota Historical and Cultural Heritage Small Grant Recipients and it will be immediately evident why family historians should be excited.

Brown County Historical Society, New Ulm, $8,691
To provide better organization of the museum’s archival collections, allowing for greater public access to the community’s historic resources.

Cannon Falls Area Historical Society, Cannon Falls, $10,000
To hire qualified professionals to produce the second half of a manuscript on the history of the Mineral Springs Sanatorium.

Historical and Cultural Society of Clay County, Moorhead, $10,000
To provide better organization of the museum’s archival collections, allowing for greater public access to the community’s historic resources.

Le Sueur County Historical Society, Le Center, $9,875
To purchase a microfilm reader/printer/scanner to make microfilmed records more accessible to the public.

Washington County Historical Society, Stillwater, $10,000
To hire a qualified historian to research and write the history of brewing and breweries in Washington County.

To view more of the grant recipients click here. 

 

Updated speaking calendar with my next genealogy presentation on October 4 for Family History Month

Paula Stuart-Warren  Uncategorized    Leave a comment

I have added several new presentation dates to my Speaking Calendar. Click on the Speaking tab above or click here to see the full list even into 2023. Next up is this free webinar as we celebrate Family History Month in October here in the U.S. 

October 4, 2022. Free webinar. Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research, Houston, Texas. 2:00 p.m. CDT. My presentation and handout “Researching Midwestern River People.” It really applies to research on all river connected people, captain, dock workers, storekeepers, engineers, and their families. Wait for a special connection between Texas and the Midwest!

 

Researching Minnesota Newspapers

Paula Stuart-Warren  Minnesota  ,  Leave a comment

Need Minnesota historical newspaper research? Check out these pages on the Minnesota Historical Society’s website. 

 Don’t forget to check newspapers in bordering states and provinces, too. City and county libraries, college and university libraries, and county historical societies have a variety of indexes, microfilmed newspapers, and some have digitized newspapers. Some have subscriptions to major newspaper collection sites. check what is available that way before paying for a subscription. This blog post is not meant to be comprehensive coverage of locating newspapers related to Minnesota but do a bit more digging and you may find some neat surprises. Way before the advent of online newspapers, we had many indexes and abstracts in print form and those are still on many library shelves.

Some major sites with links to, indexes to, and/or searchable images of newspapers covering Minnesota. Don’t forget to check newspapers in bordering states and provinces, too. 

Final reminder, though MNHS is the main repository for historic and current newspapers in the state, many are still in paper format there and at other repositories. Copyright laws also mean many newspapers are not yet free to be digitized unless an active newspaper makes special agreements with a newspaper website. 

 

Chronicling America newspapers now includes all 50 states and more

Paula Stuart-Warren  Newspapers  ,  Leave a comment

A press release from the U.S. Library of Congress surprised me. I had not known we still had someThis image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Chronicling-50-1.jpg holdout states in the National Newspaper Project/Digital Newspaper Project in recent years. It now covers all 50 states+! “The success of the program over the past 18 years has extended the collection scope to the current date range of 1777-1963, to include any language published in the United States, and to include newspapers published in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands.”

 

 

From the website:

“The following is a guest post written by Robin Pike, Head of the Digital Collections Services Section in the Library’s Serial and Government Publications Division.

The National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP) has reached two major milestones this September: the inclusion of New Hampshire as the 50th state to join the program and making 20 million pages freely available to the public on the Chronicling America website.

Dartmouth College will serve as the New Hampshire state hub, partnering with the New Hampshire State Library, the New Hampshire Historical Society, and the University of New Hampshire Library to identify historical newspapers that reflect the state’s political, economic, and cultural history for inclusion in Chronicling America. Among the first newspapers to be digitized and added to the online repository are