Saturday Serendipity (July 2, 2016)

Here are a few recommended items of interest for your reading pleasure . . .

1.   Do you enjoy figuring out handwritten text for transcription purposes? Are you a cryptogram fan and like trying to break codes? Well, if you have not heard, The Smithsonian is looking for members of the public to help decode and transcribe some 16,000 communiques from the Civil War. The Weekly Genealogist of NEHGS posted a link to the story this week. You can find out more about the project and get a link where you can begin participating by going here. 

2.  Janine Adams of Organize Your Family History blog has a very brief but intriguing piece about keeping up the genealogy researching pace when involved in a busy life. We can all relate to that right? Well, the very organized Ms Adams has worked out a 15-minute "first thing in the morning" research session that she actually monitors by setting a timer. I can relate to the problem of restarting after a research hiatus and the frustration of seeming to always be behind in genealogy research goals (but I think I'd need more than 15 minutes). Read Janine's post here. 
  
3.  Laura Mattingly of Old Trunk In The Attic blog follows up on her post of January 15, 2016 about some orphan photos she has and that she is looking to reunite with family members if possible. Read Laura's post here to see what might be another member of the family (or perhaps a later photo of the same child?). See what YOU think and see if perhaps you can help Laura find some living relatives to reunite with these photo gems.     

4.  And speaking of helping to solve genealogy mysteries . . . Barbara Poole of Life From The Roots blog has a post this week about doing just that. One of the great pleasures of genealogy blogging is making contact with unknown relatives and helping (sometimes unknowingly) to solve brick walls or just providing previously undiscovered genealogy data. Read Barbara's post here . . . and keep  on blogging!

5.   The NGS blog UpFront With NGS had two posts this week that I found interesting. One was about getting children interested in researching family and history. Read the post and get a link to a Vermont newspaper piece about the subject here. The second post is about library cards. I have a belief that the great majority of genealogy buffs are voracious readers and their love of reading, history, and genealogy probably began with their obtaining their first library card. I actually recall my first library card in Concord, NH as ranking right up there with getting my first bicycle. Both were markers of obtaining a measure of independence! Read the UpFront post and see various examples of library cards here.

6.  While on the subject of libraries of old . . . have a look at this post at The Vault. The post provides examples of posters from the 1960s teaching children how to use the library. 

7.  And finally, though it has little to do with homo sapiens genealogy, this diversion is quite interesting, photogenic, and even educational when you consider we are 1 of some 423 species in the mammalian order known as primates. Have a look here at "The Primate Awards" at Wait But Why blog.
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Copyright 2016, John D. Tew

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