U.S. National Archives in Seattle saved by Biden Administration

Paula Stuart-Warren  Uncategorized    Leave a comment

I hope you heard my big sigh of relief and that of many others. In 2016 a decision was made that this regional location of the U.S. National Archives was expendable. Federal records that are needed and used weekly were to be moved to NARA locations a distance away. I had blogged previously about that impending horrific action. Many people protested and among those who voiced loud opinions of the planned idiocy were Northwestern U.S. Native American tribes and law firms. Even though the NARA (National Archives and Records Administartion) touts digitization efforts and those of its partners, millions upon millions of original records are in archival boxes in the various NARA locations. These are records needed for many reasons, personal, historical, community, and legal. The Seattle Times carried the good news on April 8th. In part:

“The impending sale of the National Archives at Seattle has been stopped by the Biden administration. What looked like a done deal 14 months ago is no more.

On Thursday, the Office of Management and Budget, which administers the federal budget and had approved the sale of the 10-acre Sand Point facility during the Trump administration, reversed course.

“Tribal consultation is a priority for this Administration … the process that led to the decision to approve the sale … is contrary to this Administration’s tribal-consultation policy, and I am accordingly withdrawing OMB’s approval of the sale of that facility,” Shalanda D. Young, the agency’s acting director, wrote in a letter.”

The full article by Erik Lacitis is here.

 

Genealogy day-long seminars near and far: virtual all-day learning

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Webinars, institutes, conferences, and seminars. Genealogical education is vital and, in many ways, so easily accessible in 2020 and 2021 as these have gone virtual. Don’t forget to check county, regional, and state genealogical societies to see what they have to offer. Some are free, but many have a fee associated. The organization needs to pay for Zoom or other platform they use, pay the speaker, and also support the organization’s overall educational efforts. Heck, even in the case of free events, a nice donation to the society is a smart and caring thing to do! These are just two of the upcoming all-day events that might interest you, no matter where you live!

17 April 2001: Minnesota Genealogical Society Virtual Spring All Star Seminar.

Four impressive speakers: David Rencher, Pamela Boyer Sayre, LaBrenda Garret-Nelson, Michael Lacopo!

For the speaker topics and bios plus how to register: https://mngs.org/detail/eventDetail.php?er=468



24 April 2001: Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society, Virtual Spring Seminar.
Genealogical Journeys and the The speakers will be Jill Morelli and Linda Harms Okazaki

Jill’s topics: “Push and Pull: Decision-Making of the 19th Century Emigrant” and “Accessing and Using Scandinavian Records.”

Linda’s Topics: “Finding Your Japanese Roots” and “20th Century Immigrants to the West Coast and Hawaii.”

Emcee and Virtual Meeting Host: Cyndi Ingle, creator of Cyndislist.com will act as Emcee and Virtual Meeting Host. For more details and registration please visit: https://tpcgs.org/seminar.html

Findmypast genealogy website records by state and country

Paula Stuart-Warren  Uncategorized    1 Comment

I forgot that I had this page bookmarked. I probably do need to browse through all my bookmarked sites more often to see which ones still work. This page from Findmypast tells the records held by Fmp by country, state, subject , and country. I still do a variety of searches by names and some places, but this list reminds me of what I can find and search in specifically. https://www.findmypast.com/articles/world-records. Nothing for my two main states, Minnesota and Wisconsin, but there are Chicago records. Even if something can be found on another genealogy website, sometimes the search on a different one turns up something the other didn’t find or even a surprise!

Legacy Family Tree Webinars 2d Annual 24-hours Genealogy Webinar Marathon

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I’m excited to be a part of this The 2nd Annual 24-Hour Genealogy Webinar Marathon hosted by FamilyTreeWebinars.com and MyHeritage. The marathon will begin on Thursday, April 8 at 5pm eastern U.S. time (Friday, April 9 at 7am Sydney time) and end on Friday, April 9 at 7pm eastern U.S. time (Saturday, April 10 at 9am Sydney time). It’s FREE.

The wide variety of topics means something for everyone! “You will learn how to trace your ancestors from the world’s top genealogists and educators. From creating your own YouTube channel to DNA, from Cherokee ancestry to Canada and England, there’s something for everyone… in every time zone. And thanks to FamilyTreeWebinars.com and MyHeritage, the entire event is free! Pop in for a session or two, or stick around for the full 24 hours — it’s completely up to you. (We couldn’t resist – there are actually 26 hours of classes!) There will even be time for Q&A and door prizes.

My presentation is Superb Seven: Fabulous Avenues for Finding Family in Manuscript Collections. I’ll detail these FREE finding aids, provide tips on using them, and show some neat examples of what you might find.

Register on this page. The attendance for each session is limited to the first 1,000 attendees. If you can’t join us in real time, we’ve got you covered: all recordings will be available afterwards absolutely free for a week. Beyond that, you can watch them anytime with a FamilyTreeWebinars.com membership!

The Interior Department now led by a Native American: Deb Haaland!

Paula Stuart-Warren  Uncategorized  ,  2 Comments

Opinions ahead. Some of you may know that I am involved with Native American historical and genealogical research and related work. I have been working with Tribes and law firms since the early 1990s. I have read thousands of pages of documents in the National Archives, historical societies, other archives, and online that have made me both sad and infuriated at how other human beings were treated.

National Public Radio today stated “Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo, has become the first Native American Cabinet secretary in U.S. history.”

Finally, this country has a Native American heading the Interior Department! Think about that. A Native American heading the agency that oversees land in this country. Land that was largely taken from Native Americans. The new Secretary of the Interior is also female. I am doubly happy. Congratulations to Deb Haaland of New Mexico. She has been serving her state in the House of Representatives.

I truly hope there is cooperation and healing that will start to take place. Congress, are you listening? Everyone?

25 years of Cyndi’s List of Genealogy Sites on the Internet. 25!!

Paula Stuart-Warren  Uncategorized    2 Comments

I remember hearing about this Cyndi’s List. I checked it. Then I met the creator, the owner, the person who added all those links to genealogy and history websites, the adjustor of links as places kept her busy by changing their URLs, and I saw one of these persons sitting at the computer doing the job. Would you believe these are all the same person? It’s true. She doesn’t even charge us to do a search on the website or to then click on an interesting link. Cyndi Ingle is a one-woman wonder. I love to seek out a neat website, database, buried index, or other item that she probably doesn’t have. Dangitall, 99% of the time she already has it.

She tells us she has more than 300K links. Under each of those links are many more links on the specific websites she tells us about.

It’s the Silver Anniversary of Cyndi’s List. She has kept it up through changing a baby’s diapers, cooking meals, taking care of parents, adding her Mom to her household, raising her beloved Boston Terriers, teaching others about websites, helping others understand HTML, and so much more.

One way to thank her is to look for Cyndi’s List on social media and like the page, tweet, or post. Use the “Submit a New Link” or “Report a Broken Link” buttons on the left side to add to the List. Then look at the upper right side of the page and click on the Donate button. What would be an appropriate 25th Anniversary gift? 25 years. 25 or 25 or 25 or maybe 25. You get the idea.

Oh, the link? https://www.cyndislist.com/

p.s. She’s also one of the main administrators of The Genealogy Squad on Facebook. A great place to post genealogy questions, get help, share help, and more. It’s a drama-free page! https://www.facebook.com/groups/genealogysquad

Feb 17, Wednesday, as in tomorrow is GRIP registration

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It snuck up on me, too. Have you chosen which course(s) to take? Two weeks of GRIP this year and lots of courses to choose from. GRIP is going virtual again tas it celebrates its 10th Anniversary. Zoom worked exceedingly well last year for the classes, networking, asking questions, and even for the hands-on sessions.

Of course, I recommend the course I developed “Digging Deeper: Records, Tools, and Skills.” I also teach in the Great Lakes course. Both are taking place in the June week.

Are you ready? Have you read the registration and courses pages on the Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh’s website?

The directors of GRIP have some Strategies for Registration. These are important as some courses fill up in only minutes.

Sales and free genealogy stuff examples for this long U.S. weekend

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This long weekend includes Valentine’s Day and also the U.S. President’s Day. I am self-employed in the genealogy profession, so I still work on both days but my weekend is extra-long because of the extreme cold temperatures. Here in Minnesota we will have temperatures in the -20s and the “feels like” will be in the -40s. It had been a pretty mild winter, but that has changed. I am looking forward to our spectacularly beautiful spring and summer. Here are some deals and free things to keep us occupied for at least a couple more days. As always, check the details and also the content of any website before signing on or subscribing. Many subscription-based genealogy websites offer free trials.

  • Check the DNA websites for lots of sales this weekend.
  • Ancesty.com is giving free access to Newspapers.com this weekend. http://nwspprs.com/barefoot
  • Findmypast has been adding Welsh records and many newspaper titles https://www.findmypast.com/blog/new. My grandkids have Welsh ancestry.
  • MyHeritage is giving free access to marriage records this weekend. https://www.myheritage.com  It has added United States, Border Crossings from Canada, 1895-1956 to their lineup of records.
  • The Board for Certification of Genealogists is sponsoring a free webinar on Legacy Family Tree webinars. A Family for Suzanne” by Ruth Randall, CG, Tuesday, February 16, 2021, 8:00 p.m. EST.
    http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=6264