New York Almanack

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Genealogy

Massachusetts Historical Society Featured on NBC

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Over one year ago, on January 27, 2009, there was a rare celebrity sighting at the nation’s oldest historical society, the Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS). Actress Sarah Jessica Parker, best known for HBO’s Sex and the City, visited the reading room to work with material from the Society’s manuscript collections as part of filming for the inaugural episode of NBC’s new series Who Do You Think You Are? The program, an American adaptation of the hit British documentary series by the same title, follows well-known celebrities as they discover their proverbial roots, researching their ancestors in an attempt to learn more about their families and themselves.

During her visit, Ms. Parker registered as a researcher and followed the standard MHS rules that apply to researchers working in the reading room. The one, highly unusual exception was that the Society allowed the film crew to follow her and record her as she researched her ancestors. Reference librarian Elaine Grublin spent some time with Ms. Parker in the catalog room, helping her identify and call for the material she wanted to see, and then brought the manuscripts to her in the reading room. Ms. Parker’s examination of the materials led to some surprising discoveries.

After filming wrapped, Ms. Parker stopped in the lobby to chat with a couple of Emerson College students that had also been conducting research. She stayed on into the evening for a tour and the chance to see some of the Society’s treasures, asking detailed questions about the collections. While looking at selected materials from the Adams Family Papers, Ms. Parker noted that her birthday, March 25, was the same date that Thomas Jefferson wrote his last letter to John Adams.

When an MHS staff member pointed out that a portrait of Lieutenant Frederick Hedge Webster, who was killed in action in 1864 while serving in the Massachusetts 54th Regiment, bore an uncanny resemblance to Ms. Parker’s husband, Matthew Broderick, who played Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, also of the 54th, in the film Glory, she enthusiastically agreed.

Unfortunately, the MHS cannot disclose which documents Ms. Parker requested to see or what she learned from her research. Instead, those interested will have to tune in to the series debut on NBC on Friday, March 5, 2010, at 8:00 PM to learn more about the Society’s role in Sarah Jessica Parker’s journey of genealogical discovery and enjoy the MHS and its reading room staff’s 15 minutes of fame.

For more about the Massachusetts Historical Society, visit their website at www.masshist.org.

National Archives NYC Branch Threatened?

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According to a letter by Roger D. Joslyn, a Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists, that was published at the Upstate New York Genealogy blog, the National Archives – Northeast Region, Manhattan Branch is apparently under threat. “We may be losing the National Archives–Northeast Region as a research facility,” Joslyn writes, “perhaps we can save it and not have New York lose yet another important repository for our research.”

According to Joslyn, “the supposed plan, told recently to Stuart Stahl by Diane LeBlanc, NARA’s Regional Administrator in Waltham, Massachusetts, for him to pass the word,” is not official, but here are the bullet points and the rest of the original letter from Joslyn:

•NARA-NYC will move in approximately eighteen months to about 5000 square feet over two floors in the Customs House.

•Only about twenty percent of the current collection at 201 Varick Street, textual and microform (not specifically identified to Stuart), will go to the new location in the Customs House. All or most textual material will go to a storage facility in northeast Philadelphia and will have to be transported to New York City for researchers, as off-site textual material in Lee Summit, Missouri, is now.

•Among the textual material to be retained in the new space will be the federal court naturalization petitions not microfilmed and the federal court records docket books, but it is not clear if the originals of microfilmed naturalizations will be retained.

•“Non-regional” microfilm will go to NARA-Pittsfield.

•Certifications of records on microfilm will have to be requested from Pittsfield.

Additionally, the following seems to also be in the plans for the move:

•The volunteer staff will be abolished or reduced, since there will no longer be textual records for them to arrange, index, and so forth.

•The new space will be primarily for visitors to see exhibits. There will be a few computers and, apparently, some microfilm readers and reader-printers.

•The microfiche indexes of New York State vital records will evidently go to the new space, together with associated printed material and microfiche readers.

•Nothing has been mentioned about the fate of NARA-NYC’s library, including published census indexes and so forth.

•Some of us had been led to believe there would be invitations to some of us “regular” users to help NARA staff know our needs and plan the space and collection for the Customs House. It would seem now that, while there may be a “public meeting,” it will only be to tell us NARA’s plans—too late for any changes.

When the move of NARA-NYC became more certain a month or so ago, I had a telephone conversation with Diane. She seemed very excited about the increased display space that NARA will have in the Customs House and explained the need to reduce the research collection because there will not be room. She also mentioned that the lower number of patrons using NARA these days justified the scaling down of the research facility. She did not seem to be concerned about the need many of us have for certification of records for legal matters, or that the microfilm and original textual records were still necessary even though there is much online. She was quite proud to tell me that NARA-Waltham had given all of its “non-regional” microfilm to a library in Plano, Texas. Guess who got the better deal there! Ironically, while New York City is scaling down, the Waltham facility is being expanded!!

I do not think I need to state the obvious to all you seasoned and knowledgeable researchers about the huge loss to us if all the plans noted above are correct and go through. I know I use microfilm of the Federal Census at least once a week in order find what I cannot online or clarify what I do find online, one problem being the annotations that obscure names on the 1900 Census. This is but one example. I am sure you have all found census pages missed by Ancestry, Heritage Quest, Footnote, or “front material” and other pieces not scanned from the microfilm that someone evidently decided we did not need. Sorry! One more example: What about the original ships’ passenger lists, especially the ones where the often abbreviated copy is what is on the NARA film? What will become of these?

Who in Pittsfield will make “my” kind of decision about the best copy to be certified for the court? In the always-tight time breathing down our necks for court cases, what will Pittsfield’s turn-around time be? Will there be added costs since we can no longer get the certifications locally? Will Pittsfield staff make “groupings” of certified records that we often get here to hold down costs?

Personally, while I have enjoyed many of the exhibits at NARA-NYC, I rarely see anyone coming to specifically look at them, and even those who come to do research seem not to pause for a few minutes of viewing.

And it has always been my understanding that one of the great things about our National Archives is its wealth of material for scholarly research. Yes, personal visits are down, but we all know what the majority of those who rely strictly on the magic box are missing. And I do not see much effort by NARA to help educate the unwashed about what is there that cannot be found online.

I very much admire the position of Kathleen Roe, New York State Archives’ Director of Operations. At a meeting there last year, she told our advisory committee something like, “I know financing for archives is tight, but our mandate is to serve the public, and we must make every effort to continue to do so.”

The very upsetting plan seems analogous to a library tossing certain books because no one has taken them off the shelves over the last couple of years.

So, who wants to organize the car-pooling to Pittsfield and Philadelphia? No? Then we should organize a group effort to let our concerns be known. Genealogists have been successful in the past in changing the direction of bad thinking at NARA. Some examples come to mind: When President Reagan proposed John T. Agresto as Archivist of the United States and the genealogical and historical communities formed a loud “No!” to the inappropriateness of the candidate; and when Archivist John Carlin planned to ship huge amounts of NARA material from the regions to cold storage (and some of you were on hand to give your two-cents when he came to New York City). Another example is the great effort genealogists lent to getting NARA away from GSA’s thumb.

Are there others out there, including folks you know in the historical community, whom we should encourage to get involved?

I know after the G&B mess, many of you may not want to devote the time and energy it may take to make a difference, but I look forward to hearing from those who are concerned and want to be involved. Then we can plan something together.

Roger

Historic New York National Guard Records Online

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There are now 53,671 more pages of New York National Guard records available online on the New York State Military Museum website. Printed out, that much information would take be 18 feet high if the pages were stacked up, or reach more than 9.7 miles laid end to end.

The digital files include 197 issues of the New York National Guardsman Magazine (shown at left) published between 1924 and 1940, and National Guard annual reports from 1858 to 1955. It’s a treasure trove of information available to genealogists, historians, and military buffs with the click of a computer mouse.

“I can search across 150 different Adjutant General reports in ten seconds and to do this by hand would take me all day,” said Jim Gandy, the assistant librarian and archivist at the museum.

“Our collection is a tremendous resource and this is an opportunity to broadcast this tremendous resource to the widest possible audience,” said Museum Director Michael Aikey.

“We get 15,000 people through the museum each year, but the website is getting several million hits,” Aikey added. “I come from the public library world and the goal is to get as much information easily available, readily available to the public.”

The searchable pdf-format files can be opened online and are also downloadable. The cost of the scanning project was $12,000. Biele’s Information Technology Systems in West Seneca did the scanning work in 2005. However, the museum’s website couldn’t accommodate posting the documents until upgrades were made this year, Gandy said.

The Adjutant General’s Annual reports contain data on the number of Soldiers and Airmen in National Guard units, training exercises, officers’ names and units, and expenses.

The National Guardsman Magazine includes professional articles, reports on unit athletic events and social activities, and period advertising. Publication of the National Guardsman was suspended in the fall of 1940 when the entire National Guard was mobilized in response to the successful German invasion of most of western Europe in the spring of that year.

While the new online documents provide a window to the state’s military past that’s fascinating to any military history buff, some of the biggest users of the state’s records have always been amateur genealogy researches, Gandy said.

Both the National Guardsman Magazine and the Adjutant General’s reports are full of names and dates. This kind of information is valuable to people trying to flesh out their family histories and find out exactly what rank Uncle Bill held, Gandy explained.

The demand from amateur genealogists for information is so great that the museum is working on a deal with Ancestry.com, a popular genealogy resource, to make online documents available there, Aikey said.

Putting the documents on line makes them accessible to people around the country, and also allows researchers to look through them without damaging the originals, Gandy added. Too many fingers opening and closing old books and magazines, even when done carefully, eventually wears those documents out.

The collections of the New York State Military Museum date back to 1863 when an officer in the Adjutant General’s office was assigned to collect press clippings and other memorabilia about New York regiments serving in the Civil War. Today New York has one of the outstanding state archives of Civil War material, much of it available on line, as well as the largest collection of unit battle flags in the nation.

The Unit History Project section of the Military Museum website includes extensive on-line historical information on all New York Civil War military units, as well as in other conflicts.

To view copies of the New York National Guardsman and the Adjutant Generals Reports on line click on “research” on the New York State Military Museum homepage on the left hand side of the screen. Links to the magazines and reports are below on the Research page.

2009 Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards

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Iconic quarterback Joe Namath; Nobel laureate Dr. Eric R. Kandel; comedian and producer Jerry Seinfeld; and music superstars Gloria and Emilio Estefan are this year’s distinguished honorees who will be recognized during the Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards to be held at 11 a.m. on tomorrow (Tuesday), May 19, 2009 in the Great Hall at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. Candice Bergen, Emmy and Golden Globe-winning actress, will serve as Host.

In its eighth year, the Ellis Island Family Heritage Awards are presented by The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Inc. to celebrate exemplary Ellis Island/Port of New York immigrants or their descendents who have made a major contribution to the American experience. The B.C. Forbes Peopling of America Award, sponsored by the Forbes Family, honors the lives of immigrants who arrived at another time or through another port of entry. The Foundation’s database of ship’s passenger arrivals available at the American Family Immigration History Center® and online at www.ellisisland.org documents the arrivals of 25 million immigrants, travelers and crew members who came through America’s Golden Door and the Port of New York between 1892-1924. For more information on the Awards, visit http://www.ellisisland.org/genealogy/2009_recipients_intro.asp.

Getting there:

From NYC: Check-in 9:45 a.m. Statue Cruises Event boat departs 10:20 a.m.

From NJ: Take Statue Cruises ferry from Liberty State Park. For schedule, call (877-523-9849) or visit www.statuecruises.com.

Northern NY Discusses Interviewing and Oral History

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The Clinton-Essex Counties Roundtable will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 9, 2009 at the Northern New York American Canadian Genealogy Society, Keeseville Civic Center, 1802 Main St., Keeseville. The topic will be “Community Scholars Training: Interviewing & Oral History” and will be presented by Traditional Arts in Upstate New York (TAUNY) Executive Director Jill Breit.

Breit will share examples of successful oral history projects and demonstrate the many ways interviews can be used for different outcomes. She will focus on how to organize an oral history project, the basics of an oral history interview, the importance of field notes and follow-up interviews, recorders and other equipment for collecting oral history.

There will also be a tour of NNY American Canadian Genealogy Society Library and the Anderson Falls Heritage Society. Lunch will be provided at a cost of $5.00, payable at the roundtable.

The roundtable is provided free of charge to the public on behalf of the Northern New York Library Network, Potsdam, and Documentary Heritage Program. To register for this event contact the NNYLN at 315-265-1119, or sign up on-line at www.nnyln.org and click on “Classes.”

Online Resource: Immigrants to Canada (1803-1865)

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The Library and Archives of Canada has just announced a new online resource, Immigrants to Canada (1803-1865). According to the site:

In 1803, the British Parliament enacted legislation to regulate vessels carrying emigrants to North America. The master of the vessel was required to prepare a list of passengers. Unfortunately, few such lists have survived and therefore, there are no comprehensive nominal lists of immigrants arriving in Canada before 1865.

Some lists have been identified and indexed by name in this database. It also includes other types of records such as declarations of aliens and names of some Irish orphans.

Here is the link.

The Big 400: Champlain Descendants Still Local

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2009 will mark the celebration of the 400th Anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s arrival on the big lake, Henry Hudson’s on the big river, and the 200th Anniversary of Fulton’s steamship. Both New York and Vermont will be celebrating Champlain. [Read more…] about The Big 400: Champlain Descendants Still Local

New York Genealogical and Biographical Society Gives Up Collection

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Now that the news has trickled down that the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, popularly known as the “G & B,” has given its enormous genealogical collection (75,000 volumes, 30,000 manuscripts and 22,000 reels of microfilm) to the New York Public Library – I thought we’d take a look at the fall out.

First a recap of the news from the New York Times:

Faced with a dwindling endowment, the members-only G & B, as it is known, sold its four-story building on East 58th Street in Midtown Manhattan last year for $24 million. It bought an office condominium in Midtown where it will now focus on grant-giving, tours, lectures and other means of encouraging genealogical research. One of the first grants was about $1 million to the library for a four-person staff to process and catalog the G & B collection within two years.

The heaviest criticism comes from members themselves. Dick Hillenbrand of the Upstate New York Genealogy Blog has been following the struggle inside the G & B for over a year. Members posting to the blog decried last year what they called a plan to “disenfranchise all members of the NYG&BS and absolutely and forever empower a board of 15 to unilaterally make decisions about the NYG&B’s assets and future.” They were apparently right about that.

Hillibrand’s latest post laid out some of the opposition positions:

Looks like the present total membership of the G&B of 15 members, made an unrecoverable decision. If you are a former member and donated your time, money, effort, books and manuscripts to the G&B because you thought that they would be there forever, guess what? When you voted your rights away and became former members it was all over.

The statements that we were told about moving the society to new quarters to be able to keep the collection available to all former members, well would you consider those as untruths? . You will never be able to roam through the open stacks of your old friends. At the NYPL you must fill out a call slip of the book you want and wait for a runner to bring it to you. You will never again have the pleasure of finding the rarity treasure sitting on the shelf right near the item you were interested in.

The official blog of Genealogy Bank, took no position, but had this context to add:

The NYPL’s genealogy collection – more formally called: The Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy has long been known for its strong collection of research materials gathered for over a century – from the founding of the NYPL in 1848.

When I first began using the NYPL in the 1960s it was administered by Gerald D. McDonald who served from 1945-1969 and then by Gunther Pohl (1969-1985) and John Miller (1985-1987). The Division is currently under the capable leadership of Ruth Carr long serving Chief of that Division.

Randy Seaver, blogging at Genea-Musings said: “I welcome this move since it brings records out of the ‘members only’ repository into a public repository. Of course, I wasn’t an NYG&BS member and I don’t have an emotional attachment to NYG&BS or NYPL.” He also called on the NYPL to:

1 – Put the NYG&BS catalog on their web site – either as part of the current NYPL catalog or as a separate catalog until the NYG&BS material can be integrated into the NYPL catalog. That way, researchers in the genealogy world can identify records of interest to be searched.

2 – Digitize as many unique records as possible and make them publicly available on a web site, subject to copyright restrictions.

3 – As NYPL catalogs and/or digitizes the NYG&BS collection, index the names in the manuscript and/or estate papers collections? The records that nobody knows what’s in them. If they can’t or won’t do that, would they please request volunteers to do it with them or for them?

Schelly Talalay Dardashti at Tracing the Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog condensed the NY Times historical context:

G&B was founded in 1869 and moved into the recently sold building in 1929. Early members were interested in 17th-18th century Dutch and English roots. Holdings include censuses, deeds, baptisms, births, deaths and wills. However, after WWII, the group had almost disappeared with members conflicted about its direction, despite the increasing popularity of genealogy following the major impact of “Roots,” Ellis Island’s restoration and database, and commercial websites devoted to family history.

Here is the press release from the NYPL.

Schnectady County Historical Society Genealogy Talk

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Schenectady County Historical Society is Hosting a Talk by Jean Nudd of the National Archives

Revolutionary War Records at the National Archives, a talk by Jean Nudd, Archivist, NARA, Northeast Region, Pittsfield, MA, will be held on Saturday, June 28, 2008, at 2:00 p.m. at the Schenectady County Historical Society, 32 Washington Avenue, Schenectady, NY.

The talk by Jean Nudd is free and open to the public. The library at the Historical Society will be open without charge to researchers from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Refreshments will be served at 1:30 p.m. The Schenectady County Historical Society is wheelchair accessible.

For more information contact Katherine Chansky at (518) 374-0263 or via email at librarian AT schist DOT org.

A Western New York Online Historical Resource

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Forwarded from Tim Stowell who posted it to the NYDUTCHE (Dutchess County NY) genealogical mailing list, is notice of this massive online archive from the Western New York Library Resources Council. It includes a tremendous collection of maps of the Holland Patent area which are held by the State University of New York at Fredonia.

According to Stowell, “These maps are mainly about New York state and western New York at that – from Herkimer west, but also contain early maps from Pennsylvania to Maine to Georgia and points in between.”