Saturday Serendipity (November 1, 2014)

The following are a few recommendations for inclusion on your reading list this weekend.

1.  If you have ancestors and/or relatives who lived and died in County Kerry, Ireland, then you need to know about an amazing new resource for you to explore. NEHGS in The Weekly Genealogist tipped us off to the 50,000 photos of most of the headstones in County Kerry taken by Joe Maher.  Read about the project here and visit Mr. Maher's website here.   

2.  Registration is now open for the April 2015 New England Regional Genealogical Conference (NERGC) to be held in Providence, RI. Anyone who is interested in attending should certainly read Diane Boumenot's recent post at One Rhode Island Family blog on what to see and do in Providence while attending NERGC. You can see the Conference program and registration materials here and read Diane's post here.

3.  Present day expert consultants and contractors have nothing on those of yesteryear who tried to use flow charts to distill very complex and complicated matters into graphic explanations that are supposed to simplify the problem. As an example, see the chart diagramming the structure and function of the federal government in 1861 created by N. Mendal Shafer, a Cincinnati lawyer. Mr. Shafer wanted to educate north and south on the government's purpose and functioning in the hope that understanding and familiarity would lead to "peace, happiness, prosperity, and security. . ." Have a look at the Shafer chart here  as posted on The Vault and see if you think it could serve its intended purpose then or now.      

4.  Barbara Poole is continuing her series, There Is A Lot to Like About Lowell [Massachusetts] at her Life From The Roots blog. She has some wonderful photos as always. I suggest you start here with the Swamp Locks photos and scroll back through the earlier posts in the series. 

5.  From the Mini Bytes series at UpFront With NGS comes a tip this week (with link) about maps that show the most common religions in the various states based on 2010 Census data.  You can see the maps here.

6.  And finally, Family History Month ended yesterday so I take this last opportunity for some shameless self-promotion. I do this by asking readers, "What did you do to pay it forward to descendants by creating and preserving some family history as part of the celebration of Family History Month this October?"   If you are not sure what I am talking about, I refer you to these posts on The Prism during October:  http://filiopietismprism.blogspot.com/2014/10/pay-it-forward-create-your-own-family.html; http://filiopietismprism.blogspot.com/2014/10/google-maps-street-view-and-genealogy.html; and http://filiopietismprism.blogspot.com/2014/10/family-history-month-and-another.html.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _