Welcome my friend to the podcast where we take joy in the discovery of your family’s history! This is Genealogy Gems Podcast episode #226 and in today’s show we’ll cover research strategies and new resources that will help you find your way, plus I’ve got a tech tip and a fascinating bit of military genealogy for you.
GEM: They Shall Not Grow Old
There are so many things I want to cover every month, but I try really hard to sift through it all and bring you the best of the best, the genealogy gems. And I LOVE when you bring me Gems! Just like Betty did recently.
Betty is taking my online course at Family Tree University this month called Google Earth for Genealogy which I told you about in our weekly newsletter. You’re all signed up for that right?
Well Betty was so excited about something she found that she wrote the following on our course discussion board.
She says: “My husband and I just saw the movie "They Shall Not Grow Old" about the soldiers in WWI. We saw it in 3-D, which was amazing! The whole movie is remastered, colorized video and audio from the newsreels and also the soldiers' interviews in the 1960's and 70's. The director, Peter Jackson, introduces the movie and then, the best part is after the show.”
I saw her message at about 8:00 that night, and I immediately grabbed Bill and jumped in the car and for the 9:30 pm showing. I couldn't agree more that it was spectacular.
From Betty: “When I read that you went straight to the movie, I almost cried I was so happy! I knew you would like the last 1/2 hour the best. When Peter Jackson talked about everyone finding out about the history of their family, I was so excited! Wasn't it amazing what they could do with old video, still shots, cartoons, and audio interviews? It has so much potential for genealogists. The most important thing is to gather the information and digitize the videos we already have. In the future, maybe the technology will be more accessible to us, non-professional family historians. What a treasure that movie was! I hope it inspires more people to do the same with other aspects of WWI or other historical subjects.”
GEM: The History of Baby Clothes
Valentine’s Day brings to mind visions of cupid, a baby dressed only in a nappy shooting arrows of love at unsuspecting couples. While this little cherub celebrates the holiday au natural, let’s take some time to talk about the fashion statements the babies in our family tree have made through the centuries.
To help us visualize the togs those tots wore we could turn to our grandmother’s photo albums, but there we may find a surprise: lots of photos of female ancestors and surprisingly fewer of the males. Why is that?
Allison DePrey Singleton, Librarian at the Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center unravels the mystery and stitches together a delightful history of baby clothing.
Read more here from Allison on baby clothes.
Sources:
Baumgarten, Linda. What clothes reveal: the language of clothing in colonial and federal America: the Colonial Williamsburg Collection. Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg.
Calvert, Karin Lee Fishbeck. Children in the house: the material culture of early childhood, 1600-1900. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1992.
F., José Blanco, Mary D. Doering, Patricia Hunt-Hurst, and Heather Vaughan Lee. Clothing and fashion: American fashion from head to toe. Vol. 1-3. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2016.
Hiner, N. Ray., and Joseph M. Hawes. Growing up in America: children in historical perspective. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1985.
Paoletti, Jo B. "Clothing and Gender in America: Children's Fashions, 1890-1920." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 13, no. 1 (1987): 136-43. doi:10.1086/494390.
Paoletti, Jo Barraclough. Pink and blue: telling the boys from the girls in America. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012.
"When Did Girls Start Wearing Pink?" Smithsonian.com. Accessed January 10, 2017. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-did-girls-start-wearing-pink-1370097/.
MAILBOX:
Mary Lovell Swetnam, Special Collections Librarian Virginia Beach Public wrote me to tell us all about a new online resource. “I was able to determine that hundreds of records of enslaved persons were not included in either of the two previous abstracts of the Overwharton Parish Register. They have now been abstracted and are available free on our site.
Please see the link below. I have also included a copy of the explanatory material for the project here.”
Dana wrote in with one purpose in mind: to share her genealogy happy dance with us. And I think that’s an awesome reason to write! Email or leave a voice mail at (925) 272-4021 and share your genealogy happy dance with me!
This free podcast is sponsored by:
GEM: Scottish Genealogy
Amanda Epperson PhD shares 3 strategies for finding and ancestor in Scottish records. Read Amanda's article: 3 Strategies for Finding an Ancestor in Scottish Records
Amanda Epperson is the author of the book The Family Tree Scottish Genealogy Guide. Since completing her Ph.D. in history from the University of Glasgow in 2003, Amanda has taught history at the college level, researched and edited family histories, most recently for Genealogists.com, and written articles for a variety of publications including Family Tree Magazine and Your Genealogy Today.
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TECH GEM: Backblaze’s Locate My Computer
Backblaze executive Yev Pusin explains a little known feature that just might get you out of a jam! Learn more about Backblaze computer cloud backup and get your computer backed up today at www.backblaze.com/Lisa
Learn more: Premium Members can watch Your Guide to Cloud Backup. (Log in required)
GEM: Military Minutes with Michael Strauss
Deciphering Draft Registration Cards
We are revisiting Draft Registrations for both World War I and World War II. You will recall that this was the subject of our first "Military Minutes" together; since this aired several listeners have had questions and comments regarding the numbering on the cards, draft classifications, and how to dig deeper into other records of the Selective Service System whose office was responsible for the registering of all the men during both wars.
Click the images below to see all of the draft registration documents Michael discusses in this episode:
GEM: Profile America – America’s First Hospital
Monday, February 11th. Among his very many achievements, Benjamin Franklin played a leading role in the founding of America’s first hospital. Together with Dr. Thomas Bond, he obtained a charter for a hospital to serve the poor, sick and insane in Philadelphia. The Pennsylvania Hospital opened on this date in 1752 in a converted house.
Sources:
Joseph Nathan Kane, Kane’s Famous First Facts, Fifth Edition, H.W. Wilson Co., New York, NY 1997, 4868
Hospitals and employment, County Business Patterns, NAICS 622
Hospital revenue, Economic Census, NAICS 622
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