Saturday Serendipity (May 2, 2020)

Here are some suggested reads for this first weekend of May.

1.   For me, next to the "Eureka moment" of finally making the connection to an unknown or suspected ancestor or relative is the "revelation moment" of learning a new research method or source to assist one's genealogy quest.  Janine Adams, of Organize Your Family History blog, provides just such a moment with her post about ICD codes on death certificates.  As Janine discusses, often there is much information to be gained from a death certificate -- name of deceased (of course), place and date of death, who reported the death, parents names perhaps, and cause of death.  I agree with Janine that so often the cause of death is handwritten and is all but illegible.  But then there could also be the ICD codes!  What are ICD codes?   ICD stands for "International Classification of Diseases."  If you are not aware of these tidbits of information, then go here and read Janine's post -- you will be happy you did.

2.   Here is just a sporadic reminder to discover Randy Seaver's regular "News Bytes" series on Genea-Musings blog.  Access the latest Bytes using this link.

3.   And speaking of searching out death certificates and wringing all the information possible from them, Jacqi Stevens, of A Family Tapestry blog, posted about a search for a death certificate and how the effort lead to a trip down a rabbit hole.  Read the instructive and entertaining post here. 

4.   For those with genealogy interests situated in New England, Heather Rojo, of Nutfield Genealogy blog, periodically provides a list of genealogy events related to New England.  The post this week provides online genealogy and local events for the month of May 2020.  Access the post here and regularly look for this feature of Heather's blog if you have New England genealogy interests.

5.   The Weekly Genealogist newsletter of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS). announced a very interesting new database that might be well worth exploring as part of your genealogy research.  The database is the collection of NEHGS membership applications from 1845 - 1900.  The applications back then contained requested biographic and genealogical information.  You can learn more about the database here, but a membership is required to gain access to search.

6.   Two other articles of interest were highlighted in The Weekly Genealogist this week: (1) "How Museums Will Eventually Tell the Story of COVID-19," which can be accessed here; and (2) "Amid the Pandemic, a Family Learns their Neighbors Are their Long-Lost Relatives" found here.    

7.   Part Four of James Tanner's series "How to Analyze Genealogical Sources" was posted this week.  You can read the post here.

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Copyright 2020, John D. Tew

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