Saturday Serendipity (June 24, 2017)

Following another brief hiatus due to the birth of our second granddaughter up in New Jersey, Saturday Serendipity returns this week with a few recommendations for your weekend reading.

1.  Many investors like to follow a general rule that they should invest in companies that produce products or services that they actually use. Many of us are users of Ancestry.com on a very regular basis and so the recent news about an Ancestry IPO (initial public offering) might be of interest to many of us. On June 19th, Dick Eastman of Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter (a newsletter sponsored by MyHeritage), noted that Ancestry.com "confidentially" submitted a draft registration statement to the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) on a proposed IPO. You can read more about the proposed IPO and see the entire (very brief) official announcement here.      

2.  If you want FREE access to British and Irish records on FindMyPast, you have two days left to take advantage of their offer. Free access (with required registration!) began on June 22nd and will end on June 26th. Read more about the offer and get a link here at UpFront With NGS blog.  And speaking of UpFront With NGS blog, if you are not familiar with the blog and what it offers, you might want to read the June 21st post titled, "What Upfront with NGS is all about . . . "  You can read the brief post here.   

3.  At one time or another we all get stalled in our genealogy research. Amy Johnson Crow offers her "3 Effective Ways to Jumpstart Your Genealogy Research" here.
        
4.  Do you have ancestors or relatives who worked in the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) during the period 1934 to 1941? If so, then you might want to check out the recent announcement by the Virginia Newspaper Project of the Library of Virginia here. The LoV has an ongoing project to make its collection of CCC camp newspapers from 1934 to 1941 available on Virginia Chronicle. You can go directly to the current listing of camp newspapers that are available already by clicking here.
     
5.  Anyone who was into superhero comic books in the late 50s and early 60s will certainly remember The Flash .  .  . but have you ever heard of "The Black Flash?" No, he is not -- in this era of updating and expanding classic comic book superheroes -- an African American version of Barry Allen who as The Flash possessed superhuman speed as his particular superpower. The Black Flash is apparently a mysterious character who first appeared in P-town (Provincetown, Massachusetts) back in the fall of 1938.  Learn more about this unusual piece of New England folklore here at New England Folklore  blog by Peter Muise. 
    
6.  And finally, Diane Boumenot of One Rhode Island Family blog, did the service of recently posting  an article from an out-of-copyright publication Collections of the Rhode Island Historical Society, Volume X (Providence: RIHS, 1902). The article, by Clarence S. Brigham, provides a list with information about obscure names of places and natural features of Providence County, Rhode Island. Anyone with Rhode Island roots will want to know about and consult this article via Diane's post. You can do so here.
         
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Copyright 2017, John D. Tew

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