Saturday Serendipity (January 31, 2015)

We were visiting our son, daughter-in-law, and baby granddaughter in NJ this weekend. As a consequence of getting back to Virginia much later than expected, this week's Saturday Serendipity is very abbreviated. The following are just a few recommendations for inclusion on your reading list this weekend. 

1.  If you know about the "Orphan Train riders" or if one of the riders happens to be a member of your family history, then you will want to read this article about the death at age 98 of the last known living Orphan Train rider. Thanks to a link provided by The Weekly Genealogist newsletter of NEHGS, you can read the article here.   You can learn more about the Orphan Train here.    

2.  Have you ever heard of "guano notes?"  Learn here in a piece at The Vault about one of the most unique and notorious form of debt in U.S. history and how it trapped Southern farmers into dangerous debt. Perhaps an ancestor or relative of yours had the misfortune to have been caught in this web?      

3.  We all heard of the "snow event" (otherwise known as a blizzard) that hit Long Island and coastal areas of New England this past week. Have you ever wondered how large amounts of snow were handled in the past? You can learn how Boston dealt with large snow storms in the past and see some very interesting photos of the equipment that was used here.

4.  And speaking of handling snow in years past, The Legal Genealogist also had an interesting post on the topic complete with photos.  You can see Judy Russell's piece here.             

5.  Are you familiar with the Internet Archive yet? It is "a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music and more." If you have not visited the Archive before, learn more about it and get some links at Upfront With NGS blog here.  

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Copyright 2015, John D. Tew

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