Saturday Serendipity (July 18, 2015)

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

1.  If you have New England roots (especially in Vermont), then you should check out the new additions to the early Vermont settlers 1784 database by Scott Andrew Bartley.  The project seeks to cover every head of household that can be identified within present day boundaries of Vermont up to the year 1784.  Fourteen (14) new sketches have been added covering the following families from Springfield:  John Barrett; John Kilburn; Joseph Little; Daniel Waterman; Josian Farwell; Lowden Priest; Luxford Goodwin; Nathaniel Powers; Stephen Caswell; Coombs House; Robert Parker; Simeon Powers; William Dwinell; and George Hall.

If you are a member of NEHGS, you can get links at the NEHGS website and learn more about this project (which currently contains 48 sketches and more than 2,900 records) in the Spring 2015 issue of American Ancestors magazine (pp. 31 - 32).        

2.  James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog posted about major new features on the OldMapsOnline.org website.  Read review by James here.      

3.  One of the holy grails in genealogy research is the search for and discovery of photographic images of ancestors.  Judy Russell of The Legal Genealogist blog presents a brief, but elucidating post on why one must harness one's excitement and be careful about quickly accepting a purported photograph of an ancestor.   Read Judy's post here.   

4.  The Wall Street Journal ran an interesting article about the things people collect and what will happen to them when the collectors pass on.  You can read the article here.     

5.  The New York Times ran an article about a hoard of letters by Private Hyman Schulman that have been organized and digitized.  The letters were from Pvt. Schulman to his wife almost every day during his military service.  He served as aide to the first Jewish chaplain to arrive at Buchenwald.  This collection of letters cover the period from 1942 until the end of the war.  You can read more about this collection of letters here.      

6.  And finally, here is an interesting potential research source . . . UpFront With NGS blog posted about the FBI's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) library called "The Vault."  Read more about this resource here and get links to the site.
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Copyright 2015, John D. Tew

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