Saturday Serendipity (September 28, 2019)

Here are a few recommended weekend reads for this week .  .  .

1.     The first of the so-called "miracle drugs," penicillin, was discovered and named by Alexander Fleming, a Scottish bacteriologist, on this day in 1928.  Why is this of interest to genealogists?  It took more than ten years from the discovery of penicillin to extract and mass produce penicillin as a usable drug for treatment of a number of diseases.  A need for penicillin became a priority with the onset of World War II and by 1943 production began on a large scale through enlistment of a number of pharmaceutical companies.  Pneumonia had long been a feared killer (especially among the very young and the elderly) and in WWI it accounted for 18% of the Army deaths.  With the introduction of penicillin as the vanguard of the coming antibiotic revolution in the 1940s, the pneumonia death rate in in the Army during WWII was reduced to less than 1%.  Similarly, the death rates from diseases such as strep throat, tonsillitis, scarlet fever, meningitis, and rheumatic fever (among others) were dramatically reduced.  Many of you have surely noted the alarming number of children in your genealogies who died very young from diseases that today are rarely fatal due to the availability of  penicillin or other modern antibiotics.  By way of example, in 1900, children under 5 years old accounted for almost 31% of all deaths, but by 1997 the percentage had been reduced to just 1.4%.  In 1900, 40% of the fatalities from the three leading causes of death -- pneumonia, tuberculosis, and cholera/diphtheria (with the symptoms of diarrhea, enteritis and severe dehydration) -- were among children under 5 years of age.  And those diseases together caused 33% of all deaths.   Read a brief summary of the story of penicillin here at today's The Writer's Almanac by Garrison Keillor.

2.     Janine Adams of Organze Your Family History blog had a post this week about a scan feature buried in the Notes app on the iPhone.  This was news to me and I have had an iPhone for more than 8 years now.  I followed Janine's easy directions and tried the scan feature and it works nicely and easily.  I am not sure yet what the benefits are beyond just taking a photo, but it is always nice to have an alternate tool available.  You can read Janine's post here.

3.     This week's "Genealogy News Bytes" on Randy Seaver's Genea-Musings blog highlights an article about the Justice Department promulgating new rules for the use of genealogy sites in the investigation of crimes.  With the burgeoning use of DNA tests by genealogists and those simply interested in their ethnic backgrounds, this is a must read for those who are concerned about DNA testing and privacy issues vs. the pursuit of justice.  You can go directly to the article tagged by Randy by clicking here, but the following paragraph from the article provides an idea of the limits initially established by the new rules: "The policy generally limits law enforcement to considering genealogy sites when a candidate sample belongs to a possible culprit, or when a likely homicide victim is unidentified. Prosecutors can greenlight the use of these sites for violent crimes beyond murder and sexual assault, but only when the circumstances create a 'substantial and ongoing threat' to the public. Agencies can't use the sites unless a sample has first been uploaded to the FBI's DNA profile database and hasn't produced a match. Also, the investigators in the relevant jurisdiction need to have followed 'reasonable investigative leads,' and case info need to be entered into national databases for missing people and violent criminals."

4.     If you read last week's recommendation on James Tanner's "Rules of Genealogy: Rule Five," then you might want to check out this week's "Expanded Commentary on the Rules of Genealogy: Rule Six."  Rule Six states, "Records move."  You can read the expanded commentary here.  

5.     A post by Judy Russell of The Legal Genealogist blog caught my eye this week for two reason: (1) It mentions the Larimer County Genealogical Society (LCGS), which is in Colorado, and I lived in Ft. Collins in Larimer County for almost a year back in the mid-70s; and (2) More interestingly, Judy was attending the 5th annual "Conference for a Cause" hosted by the LCGS.  The idea of a Conference for a Cause was new to me.  I had never heard of this before, but it sounds like a great idea that perhaps many more genealogy organizations should consider adopting.  As Judy succinctly explains via a quote from the LCGS website, “All profits from the conference are donated to non-profit projects to preserve, digitize, and make historical documents accessible for genealogical research.”  You can read Judy's post here and then you might consider passing on the idea of hosting a "Conference for a Cause" to local. regional, or state genealogical organizations to which you belong. 

6.     I just discovered a post by Marian Wood of Climbing My Family Tree blog from early this month (Sept. 9th -- "Grandma Minnie's 'Mistake'").  It seems twins run in Marian's family and I learned that she herself is a twin.  The post is an engaging piece on parenting and the special challenge of how to encourage twins to become individuals while at the same time making sure each twin gets equal opportunity to develop friendships, interest, careers, etc.  You can read Marian's post here.

7.     And finally, reader's of this blog will recall that as a born New Englander I have enjoyed the stories posted on Peter Muise's blog, NEW ENGLAND FOLKLORE.  This week Peter posted a piece that has a connection to the Salem witch trials.  It is an interesting read that might have notable resonance as we are about to enter the month of October and the season of the witch associated with Halloween.  You can read Peter's story here.

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Copyright 2019, John D. Tew
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Saturday Serendipity (September 21, 2019)

Saturday Serendipity returns this week with the following recommendations for your weekend reading .  .  .  

1.   Among the "Stories of Interest" in the most recent Weekly Genealogist newsletter by NEHGS is a brief article by Daniel Klein titled, "Academic Journals Help Armchair Genealogists Up Their Game."  As pointedly stated by Mr. Klein, "Genealogical education is most successful when researchers ingest as much as possible about the subject. . . One aspect of this is reading articles in the various academic journals published by genealogical organizations." And with a shout out to well-known genealogist William B. Saxbe, Jr., Mr. Klein presents the proposition that one of the important reasons for armchair genealogists to read academic genealogy journals is that it can be the first step to learning how to write one's own journal article to share research results.

2.   It is to be hoped that many reader's of Randy Seaver's prominent blog Genea-Musings (and perhaps Saturday Serendipity on this blog) are familiar with Randy's weekly feature "Best of the Genea-Blogs," but readers should also be aware of Randy's "Genealogy News Bytes" feature.  While the "Best of . . . " feature is a weekly survey of posts in genealogy blogs that catch Randy's interest, "Genealogy News Bytes" aggregates more broadly and provides links to news articles of interest to genealogists, new or updated record collections, webinars, podcasts, videos, DNA stories, and bargains to check out.  If you are not yet familiar with this feature on Genea-Musings, you can go here to see Randy's latest genealogy potpourri installment.      

3.   James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog has a "time-to-time series" called "The Rules of Genealogy."  I was not previously aware of this series, but I think the list and Mr. Tanner's commentary make for interesting reads.  The most recent entry in the series is Rule Five: You cannot get blood from a turnip.  To see a listing of the twelve Rules of Genealogy and read about Rule Five, surf here and have a read.  If you find the recent Rule Five post of interest, you can also find Mr. Tanner's earlier July 1, 2014 post about his first six Rules here.     

4.    Long time readers of this blog know that from time-to-time I recommend posts that stray from any direct connection to genealogy, but can be very interesting and have a deeper tangential relationship to history, genealogy, or biology.  Many times this means recommendations to the writing and blog postings by Tim Urban of "Wait But Why" blog.  My older son recently asked if I had seen Tim's latest series and I had to admit I had not due to our move and my absence from blogging.  Well, during my absence Tim took on a huge project to write about "society."  I am still making my way through the accumulated posts, but have seen and read enough to recommend it to past readers who found Tim's posts to be thought stimulating.  Go here to see the full content of "The Story of Us: Full Series."

5.   Another sometime recommendation on Saturday Serendipity has been the writing of Rebecca Onion at "The Vault" on Slate.  An intersting piece by Rebecca during my absence from blogging is this August 2019 article on the complicated history of Emma Lazarus, author of "The New Colossus" poem that is on the Statute of Liberty.

6.   For those who use Family Tree Maker to sync with their trees on Ancestry, you should check out the very recent (and very brief) post by Russell Worthington (aka "Cousin Russ") of Family Tree Maker User blog titled, "Reader Question: What is included in the FamilySync."

7.  And finally, a brief cautionary tale by Nancy Messier of My Ancestors and Me blog.  Have a look at "When It Seems Easy You May Be Making a Mistake."  Most, if not all, of us at some time have leaped at a Eureka moment when we think we have solved a brick wall in our genealogies and belatedly find out we should have looked before leaping.  Nancy gives us a reminder to look hard (i.e. do more research) before leaping.  This is a reminder we all need to have perioically. 

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Copyright 2019, John D. Tew

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A 232nd Genealogy Anniversary

[After living in Washington, DC and northern Virginia for 40 years, my wife and I moved to New Jersey almost exactly one year ago.  Preparing to sell our home of thirty years, going through the sales process, moving a household of more than three decades of accumulated "stuff" into a four-month rental in New Jersey, and then finding a new home to purchase and renovate to our needs and tastes necessitated an unexpectedly long hiatus from blogging.  The adjustment continues, but today marks what I hope will be a slow return to blogging after an absence of essentially eighteen months.]

The well-known painting above illustrates an assembly of some thirty-seven or so early American genealogists.  It marks the celebration of a monumental moment of creation -- the gift of a hugely important resource for future genealogists.  It also, by the way, marks the creative launch of a new form of self-government based on a written charter.

Two hundred thirty-two years ago the governmental charter known as the Constitution for the United States of America created a new government of three branches with powers intended to exist within a system of checks and balances.  Today we are watching almost daily in real time a contest that is testing the balance of power between at least two of the branches of government and stressing the concept of checks and balances.  But amid this political chaos, we present-day genealogists should step outside the political maelstrom today and take a moment to appreciate and celebrate the gift that the 18th Century genealogists gathered in Philadelphia in September 1787 gave to us on this day 232 years ago.

Inserted in the opening Article of the Constitution, Article I, Section 2 provides that the members of the House of Representaives in the legislative branch of the new government will be chosen every two years "by the People of the several States."  And the number of such "Representatives" was to be apportioned among the states "according to their respective Numbers," which meant according to an actual enumeration of persons within every state.*  The first enumeration had to take place within three years after the first meeting of the new Congress of the United States "and within every subsequent Term of ten years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct."  And this was the gift to given to future genealogists -- what we now know as the U.S. Census!

So today, in addition to celebrating Constitution Day, we genealogists should raise a glass to the unintentional genealogists pictured above.  They unknowingly presented us with one of the most significant record resources for genealogy research -- which is not to say that Census records are flawless.  [For example, see "Federal Censuses -- Purveyors of Fake News?" posted here on March 12, 2018]  It is true that Census enumeration records must be examined and analyzed closely, but it is also true that the enumerations, as they have evolved over time, are a rich source for a variety of information and hints about our ancestors and relatives. Among the evolving information that the decennial enumerations have presented us over time are: marital status, relationships within households, education levels, number of children, number of marriages, occupation, property ownership v. rental, citizenship/naturalization, parental birthplace, etc.

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*  This requirement being refined by section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment (that removed the iniquitous three-fifths of all non-free persons calculation from enumerations) and the Nineteenth Amendment (that expanded the pool of eligible voters to included women). 

The scan above is of the painting by Howard Chandler Christy.  It is in the public domain.  It is a 20 x 30 ft. oil on canvas that was completed in 1940 and hangs in east grand stairway of the House wing of the United States Capitol.  For a larger version and more information go here.

Copyright 2019, John D. Tew

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