Saturday Serendipity (December 2, 2017)

After a two week recess for the arrival of several family members during the Thanksgiving holiday and a celebration of my father's 95th birthday days later, Saturday Serendipity returns this week with a few recommended reads for this weekend .  .  . 

1.  By now anyone interested in U.S. history and/or in genealogy has heard the story of Sally Hemmings, an enslaved woman on the Thomas Jefferson estate, and the genetic connection to Thomas Jefferson (or perhaps another close Jefferson male). The Weekly Genealogist of NEHGS brings us a similar story about the "Father of the Constitution," James Madison, and an enslaved woman on his plantation named "Coreen." With the current exposure of the sexual offenses by men who exploit their power advantage to violate women, this story reminds us that such iniquity has been with us far too long, but it also illustrates how modern genetic analysis can begin to unravel very complicated family stories. You can read the full story here.           

2.   Also from NEHGS this week is an article that highlights the new website inaugurated by NEHGS to allow Mayflower descendants to post their names, photographs, and other information about being a Mayflower descendant.  The site conatins the names of the 108 Mayflower passengers and crew members with brief biographies.  You can read the very brief article here and access the NEHGS website directly by going here. 

3.  Diane Boumenot of One Rhode Island Family blog does an annual holiday list of potential gifts for the genealogists in your life. Diane's list of 50 gift ideas for 2017 can be seen here.               
        
4.  Nancy Messier of My Ancestors and Me blog shares a new discovery about images for FamilySearch film. Images from the film can now be obtained online from the comfort and convenience of your favorite home-based research nook. You can read Nancy's explanation and hints here.  Nancy also posted this week about the fairly recent availability of digital images of civil birth and death records from the U.K. Government Records Office.  The price of obtaining them is less than paper copies.  Read the details here.         
  
5.   The musings of James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog are almost always interesting and thought provoking. As a Facebook avoider, I found Mr. Tanner's musings yesterday about the use of FB in genealogy to be interesting, but as he points out, "There is a tradeoff." Have a read here and see what you think.  James Tanner also posted a very interesting and thought provoking piece this week about the preservation of genealogy data with respect to "data migration" issues and -- most ominously for those of us with hundreds or thousands of genealogy images in JPEG format -- the possibility that this near universal image format could be replaced. You really should read this post. You can access it here.

6.  The Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell, posted today about the entertainment app known as "We're Related." Judy is dead on when it comes to the app and I can only believe that her many critics are simply not serious genealogists familiar with the GPS (no use trying to explain the acronym to the critics Judy refers to -- they obviously do not understand).  It should go without saying that relationship means much more than simply sharing the same surname(s). Use the app if you like its entertainment potential, but don't think you are doing anything close to real genealogy research.  Astronomers do not study horoscopes and zodiac charts they are based on in order to learn about the true nature of the stars and planets.  Genealogists (professional or serious amateur) do not go to We're Related to find or establish true family relationships.  You can read Judy's post and the comments it generated by going here.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 

Copyright 2017, John D. Tew

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