Saturday Serendipity (June 29, 2013)

Saturdays often allow a more leisurely approach to life than work days. I can more easily post links to some blog posts or other materials I have discovered during the week, or even to those discovered during a Saturday morning coffee and extended surfing of the blogosphere/internet.

Here are a few serendipitous discoveries from this week that I commend for inclusion on your reading list.

1.  This week the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled in two landmark matters affecting equal rights of Americans and the genealogy blogosphere -- being fully in touch with the present and concerned about the future as well as the past -- weighed in with commentary.  I recommend two of them for your reading list if you have not already seen them.  Judy Russell at The Legal Genealogist and Thomas MacEntee at the gathering place for genealogy bloggers, GeneaBloggers.  I especially like and agree with the following quote from Thomas, "Your opinions on marriage equality (or any past or present practice such as polygamy, bigamy, murder, slavery, incest, etc.) really don’t matter.  Your task is to find the facts, prove them and then determine how they figure into your family history.  No one said anything about ‘liking’ what your ancestors did or agreeing with those practices.  It simply is what it is."

[If you missed it, my modest contribution to the subject was a "Wordless Wednesday" post here -- with thanks to Judy Russell for use of her Red, White and Blue equality image.]

2.  None of us ever really knows what we will do when suddenly faced with an emergency or crisis.  I doubt Mike Patterson could have told you with certainty ahead of time what he would do when he heard the terrified screams of a 4-year-old girl while out with his 9-year-old son.  Read this story of true heroism and perhaps you might want to help in some small way.   

3.   Upfront With NGS provided a nice tip and link to this fascinating site displaying photographs of famous landmarks during their construction stages (the Golden Gate Bridge, the Eiffel Tower and especially the Statue of Liberty are among those shown).  This is well worth the trip! 

4.  It is always good to be reminded of the need for permission and discretion when disclosing information about living ancestors or relatives.  The Weekly Genealogist by NEHGS provided a link to this article, which I commend as a quick-read reminder.    

5.  Citation in genealogy seems to be a regularly recurring topic of discussion and The Prism joined a recent dialog here this past week.  Three blog posts in particular are part of the dialog and I suggest you visit them to see what you think:  James Tanner at Genealogy's Star; Harold Henderson at Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog; and Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings.   

6.  Heather Rojo at Nutfield Genealogy posted here about the Civilian Conservation Corps Museum in Allenstown, NH at Bear Brook State Park.  It is apparently one of "the most perfectly preserved CCC camps" in the country.  As I mentioned to Heather, I have never visited the museum at Bear Brook, but I have seen many other CCC projects in parks. I am always very impressed with the stone workmanship and the fact that the structures have aged so well in most cases.  [Many of you have probably also enjoyed the work of the CCC and perhaps not realized it.  Check out more about the CCCand its accomplishments and influence here.]  Heather is making her Bear Brook CCC post the first in a new series she is calling "20th Century Americana."  I look forward to enjoying more posts in this series and suggest you visit Nutfield Genealogy regularly too so as not to miss any.

7.  Those of us who do genealogy learn again and again that one never knows when and where a clue might emerge that causes us to look anew at something we have not noticed previously.  As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, but Jana Last at Jana's Genealogy and Family History Blog gives us an example of how three simple words can lead to viewing familiar family photographs in a whole new light.  First read Jana's "Carl Albert Gillberg's Two Declarations of Intention" here and then look at her post from this past Monday, June 24th here.  Three little words can focus attention where perhaps a thousand previous views did not.  You gotta love those serendipitous clues that suddenly jump out and bite you!  

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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