The Christmas Tree of Memories (May 14, 2017)

EDITOR'S NOTE: Recently I attended the 2017 NERGC (New England Regional Consortium) genealogy conference in Springfield, Massachusetts. It was my first genealogy conference and during the four-day conference I stayed at a wonderful Bed & Breakfast (pictured above) in the Forest Park section of Springfield run by Carol Kerr and her husband Neville .

One morning before returning to the conference center for another day of genealogy immersion, Carol asked me and Nancy -- another guest who was also attending the NERGC conference -- how the conference was going. As part of my answer I mentioned attending a session titled, "Planning a Future for Your Family's Past: Where Will Your Research and Collectibles Go?" by New England blogger Marian Wood. Carol then shared with Nancy and me the touching and wonderfully creative solution she came up with when faced last year with her mother's passing and the need to collect and deal with her mother's possessions. Upon hearing Carol's story I immediately asked her if she would be willing to write up her story for a guest post here on Filiopietism Prism. She agreed. 

I am thrilled and honored to be able to share Carol's story and photos with all of you on this most appropriate day .  .  . Mother's Day. I suspect that -- like Carol and Neville's house last Christmas Eve -- there will be many a moist eye in the blogosphere after reading . . .    

The Christmas Tree of Memories

By

Carol Kerr

My parents didn't have much when they came to America by boat from Germany in the mid fifties. They had a few suitcases, two children, a violin.  There was never much in the way of possessions or heirlooms to pass down.

Mom lived with me for almost 20 years. When she died in August, there was really no inheritance to pass on to her children. She owned no car, no home,  no insurance money. She had a small amount of savings, but even that was not in her name.

What Mom did have was stuff. Lots of it. Old photos, items she had knitted (she was a prodigious knitter), mementos, dishes, stemware, books, tchotchkes, things that her children had given her over the years, paintings she had painted, travel souvenirs. In short, the story of her life in ephemera, trinkets, glass, and costume jewelry.

For the last couple years of Mom's life, my husband and I turned our dining room into a large bedroom/sitting room for her and provided her with a storage room upstairs and parts of several other rooms as well. Mom had lots of stuff, and we had a home large enough to accommodate all of it. After she died, it was time to repurpose the downstairs to a dining room again, and create a guest room upstairs from the storage room.

Then, I had a dilemma. I had all of it . . . everything my mother possessed. I didn't want to keep everything, yet I couldn't bring myself to just get rid of so much. Her possessions represented so much of her life . . . and so many memories. Plus, in my mind was the thought that the other children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren she left behind had nothing of her.

At some point in my mind I made a decision to give stuff to my three siblings. But then the question was what to give and to whom. And what was a fair division? Should the brother with three daughters and a new grandbaby get more than the sister with one son? Or, should the other sister who already had a son, granddaughter, and three great grandchildren receive a larger share? Would they even want any of it? There was nothing of value beyond sentimental.  

In the end, I decided to give something to everyone, and let them decide what (if anything) they wanted to keep. And with Christmas just a few months away, I had an idea to give them this stuff when we were all together for the holiday. And from there, Mom's Last Christmas came to me.

I bought 10 moving boxes (3 siblings, 4 grandchildren, 3 great-grandchildren = 10 boxes) and set them all up in a side room. Then, I started going through all Mom's things while at the same time converting rooms. As I came across her things, I would put them in the boxes. I tried to evenly distribute as much as possible. Everyone got some old photos, everyone got something she knitted, everyone got something from her china cabinets, everyone got one of her cookbooks and some jewelry. I distributed evenly and randomly, so that even I wouldn't know what was in each box.

Then I found a series of cassette recordings. Mom married for a second time in her early sixties. For their honeymoon, they went on a tour of Germany to travel and to introduce Richard to all the family. Each night they would turn on the recorder and just discuss the day they had. It was wonderful to hear their voices. My husband, Neville, transferred all the cassettes to disk and I put a disk into each box.

Filling these boxes took about three months. Seems like every room I cleaned, there was more and more. Every room had bits of Mom in it. I think that going through it all helped me with the grieving process too. At some point it occurred to me that if I stacked the boxes 4, 3, 2, 1 it made a large pyramid which could easily look like a Christmas tree if decorated. 

When the boxes were filled, I wrapped each in festive holiday paper, added lights, garland, large balls, and a few ornaments. It turned out to be, by all accounts, a beautiful Christmas tree.

On Christmas Eve, after dinner and after all the other presents were distributed, it was time to open the gifts from Mom. Box by box we dismantled that Christmas tree as each person took one.

Opening each box was full of joy, surprise, and memories. People kept holding things up to show what they got in their box. Mom's signed photo of astronauts from her visit to Houston, her framed wedding invitation, her paintings, her knitted and crocheted hats, sweaters, and throws, her special wine glasses, her old family photos from Germany, her handwritten recipe books, the small bibles that she saved, photos of all of us, little statues, all things Egyptian, dishes, servers, cups, her favorite books, letters, cards, everything and anything. I encouraged everyone to feel free to trade amongst themselves.

In the end, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. We cried together, we laughed, and we all felt very close to Mom and to each other. Everyone agreed it was an amazing Christmas and a fabulous way to remember Mom.  As we headed up to bed, in place of the tree was just a heap of lights, garland, balls, and ornaments left for Christmas Day. It was beautiful!

I like to think that years from now as the grandchildren become adults, this will be the Christmas that will be remembered and they will tell their children about the Christmas Tree of Memories.

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All photos by, and courtesy of, Carol Kerr.

Copyright 2017, Carol Kerr.
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Saturday Serendipity (May 13, 2017)

Following a hiatus to attend NERGC 2017 in Springfield, Massachusetts, and arriving on station in New Jersey to await the imminent birth of another granddaughter, Saturday Serendipity returns this week with a few recommendations for your weekend reading.

1.  A recent news story involved yet another use of DNA analysis to solve a family identification mystery. The story presents the solution to the real identity of the remains of a three-year-old girl who died on October 13, 1876. Her coffin and remains were found beneath a San Francisco home that was the site of a cemetery relocated back in 1902.  Read the full story here.       

2.  The Weekly Genealogist by NEHGS noted a useful piece in Barron's magazine about getting children and later generations interested in one's carefully assembled collections. The piece should resonate with those genealogists who wonder what will happen to all their meticulous research and collection of family artifacts when they are gone. You can read the brief article here and learn the surprisingly simple solution that is recommended. 

3.  Like blogger Elizabeth Handler, author of From Maine to Kentucky blog, I too resolved this year to learn more about DNA use in genealogy.  I attended the "DNA Day" at the recent NERGC conference and have taken some discrete, local lectures in my area. Unlike Elizabeth, however, I have not gone to the effort of organizing a "DNA tool box" for my nascent DNA edification. And I certainly have not done the service of posting an organized DNA tool box to generously share with other genealogy enthusiast . . . but Elizabeth has done just that! Read Elizabeth's recent blog post here and while you are there check out the new DNA Toolbox tab where she provides the links to very useful DNA resources.  You will be glad you did if you too are trying to get your head around the use of DNA in your genealogy research!         

4.  And speaking of the generous sharing of tool boxes, resource links, and the like, I met Marian B. Wood at the bloggers SIG (Special Interest Group) during the recent NERGC conference.  Marian is the author of a new-to-me blog that I have begun following -- Climbing My Family Tree.  As a late-comer to Marian's blog, I only became aware this week about her blog series Genealogy -- Free or Fee. Her most recent post in the series explains her path to a solution for a mystery divorce that occurred at the very beginning of the last century. You can read Marian's post here AND you can get a link to a summary of the other posts in this useful series.     

5.  Have you ever heard of "persuasive cartography?" I had not heard of persuasive cartography until a recent post at UpFront With NGS blog. It seems Cornell University Library has a collection of some 800 maps that are intended to influence opinions or beliefs rather than convey geographic information. Read more about Cornell's "Persuasive Cartography" collection, get some useful links, and view an interesting example of persuasive cartography that correlates incidents of drunkenness and crime rates in Great Britain by going here.  

6.  In another article recommended this week by The Weekly Genealogist, a decades-old mystery about the whereabouts of a WWI veteran is solved by some Toronto genealogists. Read the interesting genealogy detective story here.      

7.  As we all know, one of the keys to solving brick walls and genealogy mysteries can often be the simple act of becoming aware of obscure, but potentially enlightening sources. The Vault brought one such obscure resource to light in a post on May 2nd. Four admissions books from Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary dating back to the 1830s and 1840s are contained in the American Philosophical library. At least three of the books were kept by Thomas Larcombe, a Baptist minister who was the "moral instructor" at the prison.  Read more about these admissions books here and see some excerpts and get links to scans of the books that contain prisoner names and much more.

8.  And finally, for those who remember watching Captain Kangaroo on TV in the period of 1957 - 1959 (and probably later in re-runs) here is a fun trip down memory lane courtesy of Holyoke, Mass blog. 
[For those who lived in Holyoke at one time or have connections to that city (as I do having attended Kindergarten there) .  .  . there is a special shout-out to Holyoke, Massachusetts!]        
    
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Copyright 2017, John D. Tew

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What Is The Greatest Thing About A Genealogy Conference?

The MassMutual Center -- site of NERGC 2017 in Springfield, Massachusetts

Two weeks ago I attended my very first genealogy conference. It was the biennial New England Regional Genealogical Consortium's (NERGC's) 2017 Conference that took place this year in Springfield, Massachusetts from April 26 - 29.

To be sure, there were many opportunities at NERGC 2017 for learning from some genealogy experts and plenty of time to explore various tools and resources available at the Exhibit Hall. I was also able to meet several fellow bloggers who I have read, corresponded with, and recommended to others, but had never personally met .  .  . Heather and her husband Vincent, Diane, Barbara and her husband Bill, Elizabeth, and Wendy. I met new-to-me bloggers Marian, Barbara, Dan, and Sara. I sat and listened to the wisdom, encouragement, and humor of such genealogy luminaries and celebrities as Mary Tedesco, Blaine Betting, Thomas MacEntee, Kenyatta Berry, Diahan Southard, David Allen Lambert, Cherry Fletcher Bamberg, and others.  I also met and made some new friends such as Nancy from Vermont, and Carol from Springfield (about whom you will read more in a future post), Beth, and Dale.

So what was my biggest takeaway from finally attending a genealogy conference after having been a genealogy researcher and enthusiast for a few decades?

Well, it was a surprise to me.  It was not all the varied and valuable information from experts I was exposed to, or the ideas for new approaches to my research, or even the new tools and resources I learned about.  Though all these are excellent reasons for deciding to invest the time and funds necessary to attend a genealogy conference, it is now possible in this age of computer technology to seek out and obtain many of these aspects of a genealogy conference from the comfort and convenience of one's home.

The takeaway that I have come to realize is the unique aspect -- and the greatest thing -- about a genealogy conference, the ingredient that cannot be obtained other than through actual attendance, is at once subtle and yet profound. At the risk of sounding too "New Agey," the takeaway for me was the presence of so many people gathered for a single purpose and the energy and enthusiasm they generated and maintained for 3 - 4 solid days! One cannot get this online.  You have to be immersed in it and swim in it. You have to walk among the participants and listen to the patois floating up from the numerous conversations .  .  .

"my 3rd cousin twice removed"

"atDNA" (autosomal DNA)

"my 6 times great grandparents"

"the GPS"
"ancestor"

"mtDNA" (mitochondrial DNA)

"daughtered out"

"non-parental event"
"NEHGS"
"brick walls"
"artifact"
"descendant"

It is then you realize that you are truly among "your people" absorbed in the same shared interest. You realize you can talk and listen to all things genealogy and no eyes glaze over (like the eyes of many family members do at holiday gatherings). 😀  It is the same experience that die-hard sports fans have when attending a contest in a stadium rather than watching alone on TV.

And after a few days of being with your people at a genealogy conference you realize that your genealogy juices are flowing again, you are energized and motivated to get back to your research and your trees.  You want to tackle that brick wall yet again -- and probably with some new approach you learned about from others at the conference.  In short, you realize the conference and the energy generated by the presenters and the participants has rejuvenated and invigorated your enthusiasm for genealogy and you cannot wait to get back to the detective work of discovering and documenting your family history.

You have experienced the greatest thing about genealogy conferences!

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Photograph of the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Massachusetts (site of NERGC 2017) by the author.
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Copyright 2017, John D. Tew
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Saturday Serendipity (April 15, 2017)

Here are a few recommendations for your weekend reading.

1.  If you have any roots in Rhode Island or southeast Massachusetts around Narragansett Bay, then you really should get a copy of "Between Land and Sea" by Christopher L. Pastore, Rhode Island native and Assistant Professor of History, State University of New York - Albany (Harvard University Press, 2014). Prof. Pastore covers the ecological, social, political, and cultural story of the Narragansett Bay and the push and pull among Native Americans, the settlers of Plymouth and early Massachusetts, and the settlers of Rhode Island.  It is an absorbing, informative, and at times fascinating read that reveals Narragansett Bay and the story of establishing the perimeters of the Bay as part of the demarcation of the border between colonial Rhode Island and Massachusetts -- all in only 238 pages. [1]

   

2.  Regular readers of Saturday Serendipity know what a fan I am of Diane Boumenot and her blog, One Rhode Island Family.  Just a few weeks ago I finally met Diane in person while on a genealogy trip to do some on-site research on my Rhode Island ancestors and relatives.  The occasion was an excellent presentation Diane made to the Rhode Island Genealogical Society (RIGS) at the N. Kingstown Library on creating personal genealogy books very inexpensively -- complete with samples of her own work. Two days ago Diane posted the great news that her webinar titled "Find Your Colonial Rhode Island Ancestors" will be offered for free this weekend (Fri. - Sun.) at Legacy Family Tree Webinars. AND the even more exciting news is that "[t]his summer [Diane] will have several more webinars on the site, offering tips and techniques for tracing our Rhode Island ancestors." Read more at Diane's post here. If you have Rhode Island roots, then you really should avail yourself of Diane's expertise and presentation skills. 

3.  And speaking of the N. Kingstown library (which by the way has an excellent little genealogy room on the lower floor), did you know that this week was National Library Week?  There is still time to celebrate by visiting a library as the week-long celebration ends today.  Read more about this annual week in celebration of libraries here.  The theme this year is "Libraries Transform."  As all genealogists know . . . indeed they do!   
   
4.  Two weeks and counting . . . Things at mackiev.com's Family Tree Maker laboratory must be a bustling beehive of activity. Two weeks have passed since the first announced launch date for the new and improved FTM 2017 and no general launch yet for those of us who pre-ordered, or for those wanting to begin using FTM and its new features.   Bottom line is that there is still no new release date, but the April 14th status report is detailed and and provides "AN OPTION FOR THE ANXIOUS." The latest status update from mackiev.com can be seen here.

5.  I found two items of interest posted this week at UpFront with NGS blog. One is about removing damaging fasteners from historic document.  Read "Staples -- our friend and our foe!" here. The other is about a new application on a free website called How-Old.net . The app is a tool that can help in GUESSING the age of people shown in old photographs.  Read here about the application, get links, and see the examples that Diane Richard provides from her attempts to use the website (mixed results!).                   

6.  I also found that The Weekly Genealogist of NEHGS had two items of interest this week.  The first was a fun and useful one about the most distinctive baby names for each of the past seven generations. You can read the story here.  The other item was a piece in the Cape Cod Times that interviewed NEHGS genealogist Christopher Child. The article is titled "A caveat on DNA testing firms' links to lineage" and you can read it here.    

7.  And finally, today is the 11th Blogiversary for a premier genealogy blogger (and very distant cousin) Randy Seaver. Genea-Musings is 11 years old today and that is quite an accomplishment -- especially considering how prolific Randy has been during that time! Read more about Genea-Musings and its amazing numbers, find out the original name for the blog, see a screen shot of the original blog page, and more by going here.  
    
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[1]  Thank you to Steve Booth, cousin of my daughter-in-law, who brought this book to my attention and kindly lent me his copy to read!
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Copyright 2017, John D. Tew

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Saturday Serendipity (April 8, 2017)

Here area few recommendations for your weekend reading.

1.  The latest status report on the roll-out of the new Family Tree Maker 2017 is that they missed their new projected shipping date of Tuesday, April 4th. The newest launch date (as of the April 6th UPDATE) is . . . they don't have one! Mackiev is working with Ancestry to solve "some architecture adjustments."  FTM is "getting closer and will continue to keep [users who pre-paid for FTM2017] posted."  If you are an FTM user -- or think you might like to begin using FTM 2017, then you need to follow their path to launch here.

2.  Have you ever heard of "surname extinction?" It is related to the concept of "daughtering out" and of what I guess could be called "marriage deficit" where lack of marriage throughout a generation of a family also includes a failure to procreate and pass on a surname independent of marriage.  You can read more about this phenomenon here at UpFront With NGS blog and get a link to view a  5 minute video about surname extinction here on YouTube (after you click to skip the ad).      

3.  The Weekly Genealogist by NEHGS linked this week to a piece that is probably all too familiar to genealogists with long-suffering spouses or partners who end up "tagging along" on genealogy adventures. Having just returned a few weeks ago from a genealogy trip to RI and MA where Molly chauffeured me to cemeteries, a town clerk's offices, various ancestor haunts, etc. (and walked rows of gravestones assisting me in the hunt) I think she might get a kick out of this one (or identify a kindred soul at least). You can read the piece here. 

4.  This week The Legal Genealogist, Judy Russell, reminded us of the 100th anniversary of the United States entry into World War I -- the supposed "war to end all wars." In reminding us, Judy also points out that  . . . many men = many records. She provides lists of many links to sources each genealogist should consider exploring at some point. You can read Judy's post here and surf the many useful links she provides.                       

5.  The New England Regional Genealogical Consortium (NERGC) bi-annual conference is just over two weeks away. It is being held in Springfield, Massachusetts this year. Heather Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy blog posted yesterday about the NERGC conference and you can read all about it (with many links to other blogs that have covered it) by going here. As Heather says, this is a major genealogy conference and will be of special interest to those having New England roots, but the topics are useful for anyone with a serious interest in genealogy. 

6.  Amy Johnson Crow posted a reprise and update of a post she first published back in 2015. The title says it all. . . "5 Photos You Should Take at the Cemetery." See Amy's list here.    
    
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Copyright 2017, John D. Tew

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Saturday Serendipity (April 1, 2017)

NO FOOLING around today at Saturday Serendipity .  .  .  here area few recommendations for your April Fool's Day weekend reading.

1.  For those with Connecticut roots, NEHGS just announced this week that they are updating the Connecticut Marriages and Deaths, 1790 - 1833 database. The database now has images and can be searched by first name, last name, parents' and spouse's names, location, date, and record type. Learn more here.              

2.  The Weekly Genealogist newsletter of NEHGS brings to our attention this week a very interesting article published at Smithsonian.com. This month marks the 100th anniversary of the entry of the United States into World War I. As author Stephen Fried's opening line states, "Just weeks after joining World War I in April 1917, the United States was in deep trouble -- financial trouble." The article is titled "WORLD WAR I: 100 YEARS LATER How the Liberty Bell Won the Great War." Read Mr. Fried's informative article here.      

3.  Those who follow Saturday Serendipity know that I use Family Tree Maker (FTM) and that I have followed the acquisition of  FTM from Ancestry.com by Software MacKiev.  Yesterday, March 31st, marked the planned roll-out of MacKiev's new FamilySync to replace the former TreeSync .  .  . and as a result syncing between FTM and Ancestry.com trees ceased on March 29th and will not resume until today. Family Sync will only be available in MacKiev's FTM 2017 edition, which was planned for release yesterday. Without FTM 2017 no previous FTM versions will sync with trees located on Ancestry. UpFront With NGS blog has a good explanatory post here and anyone with trees on Ancestry.com and on FTM software residing on a home computer should definitely read that post. [NOTE:  I preordered a download of the new FTM 2017 for Mac on March 23rd and had my purchase confirmed with a reply email, "Your order is processing. You will receive additional information via a separate email."  The roll-out was to have taken place yesterday.  I have yet to receive any additional email or information from MacKiev.]        

4.  We genealogists are always on the lookout for possible sources to advance our family genealogies and so speaking of World War I and the blog UpFront With NGS, the blog brings to our attention this week the partial digitization of The Stars and Stripes newspaper. The current online collection of the newspaper includes "the complete seventy-one week run" of The Stars and Stripes during World War I. Read more about this collection and get links here.                  

5.  In another in a long line of "food for thought posts" by blogger James Tanner of Genealogy's Star blog, Mr. Tanner posted a piece on privacy -- what is and what is not "private."  The post is worth a read and you can do so here. [While Mr. Tanner makes some very good points about the amount and type of information that is available on living people, he also illustrates the varied sources that would be required to compile a profile of living people. It can be done by searching out and using openly available information after expending varying levels of effort, inconvenience, and expense, but I think it remains true that we in the genealogy community (who are, after all, trying to compile at least basic profiles on our ancestors and relatives -- dead and living) have a heightened and special responsibility (absent explicit permission) to avoid providing in a public forum or repository (such as public trees) a compiled profile that would otherwise require considerable effort, inconvenience, and expense to assemble.]  

6.  A post by Elizabeth Handler at From Maine to Kentucky blog reminded me of a website I learned about a few years ago and somehow always forget to check out periodically. The site is called DeadFred and it is a photo archive where folks upload old photos in the hope that they can be reconnected with descendants or relatives. Read here how the site provided a real genealogy gem for Elizabeth and get a link to the website.  

7.  Diane Boumenot of One Rhode Island Family blog posted another informative and useful piece this week. Her post of March 30th titled "A Sense of Place" provides tips on resources that help scratch the itch that many genealogists have to learn as much as possible about the places where ancestors and relatives actually lived. And as Diane notes, "If you want to solve a brick wall, one best practice is to learn as much as possible about the nearest locations you can find." For those with Rhode Island roots, Diane identifies the wonderful work and guides done by the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission. Read Diane's post here and get the convenient and useful links she provides. [NOTE: I have used one of the RIHPHC guides myself and posted about how it solved a problem for me -- with a little help from my mother too. You can see that post here if interested.]
    
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Copyright 2017, John D. Tew

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A Genealogy Artifact for Others -- The Atlantic Division Little League Tournament, August 12 - 15, 1964 in Concord, New Hampshire

When you are a card-carding member of the fictitious International Order of Packrats (IOOP), you never know what you might find when it is time to do some long-delayed spring cleaning. And so it was that -- procrastinate as I might -- when spring arrived on March 20th this year I just stared at some boxes of "stuff" that my father shifted back to me years (and admittedly maybe more than a decade) ago when my parents sold the home they had lived in for more than 30 years and had to empty their attic.

Finally, just before March turns to April I could stare no longer and sat down to sift through the boxes and make those impossibly hard decisions about what was a genealogy treasure and what was really just accumulated "stuff." Of course the ever patient Molly (who is not a card carrying member of IOOP because she has not quite reached the level of accumulation needed for membership) would have had no problem deciding for me and the whole process would have been over in less than the time it took to bag it all up for the trash; whereas for me it took literally hours to go through two small boxes a little larger than a shoe box. But what treasures there were to mull over, to generate memories, and to place in the "Definitely Keep" pile!

Above is Exhibit A from August 1964. It is the front and back pages of the program for the 1964 Atlantic Division Little League Tournament held in Concord, New Hampshire -- where my family was living at the time.

Neither I nor any member of my family is mentioned in the program, but as will be shown below, the program does list the individual players on the competing teams from: Smithfield, Rhode Island; Waterville, Maine; Laconia, New Hampshire; Vermont; and Puerto Rico. In addition, the sponsors, patrons, and local advertisers are also listed along with the Director, Deputy Director, and Chairman of the tournament.

Among the twenty-nine listed sponsors of the tournament is Sears, Roebuck & Co. My father was at the time the Assistant Manager of the Sears store in Concord and usually handled requests for such donations or sponsorships on the part of the local Sears store. I honestly have no recollection of attending the tournament, but it is quite likely that my father and I and perhaps the older of my younger brothers did attend as an extended part of Sears's sponsorship. [My Little League participation began and ended in Concord, but that is an entirely different story.] 

Another reason I might have this program is that I believe the tournament Chairman, John Fraser, was a neighbor who lived two houses down from us on Essex Street Extension in Concord -- and so he might have enlisted boys from the neighborhood to attend.

So why did I place this old, stained, 53-year-old, 10c program in the Definitely Keep pile if the connection was so tenuous for me or anyone in my family?? It was for three reasons: (1) It brought back some memories of Concord for me; (2) It preserves the names of people, local businesses, and local advertisers who acted as officials, sponsors, or patrons for the tournament . . . and many of them might no longer be around; and (3) It states the names of all the individual players on the competing teams who surely must remember this event as one of the highlights of their young lives! It is not very likely that many of these 10c programs exist anymore. It is even possible that this could be the only one. So while this might not rise to the level of "genealogy gem" for me personally, it could be just that for some of these players now in their mid to late 60s. It could also be just that for those connected to the many local businesses mentioned that might have passed out of existence or passed down to family members. And it might for similar reasons be a minor "historical nugget" for the business history of Concord, NH in the early part of the 1960s.

How many items like this get tossed out without any thought to what they could mean to others? The memories things like this could restore to others is worth the honored place in the Definitely Keep pile -- even if it is only for so long as it can be shared here to perhaps bring some joy to others. [But shhh, don't tell Molly. It has already graduated and found its way into one of the permanent (?) genealogy artifact boxes!]   😀

So, for all those boys of summer who so long ago earned their way onto one of the five 1964 Atlantic Division Little League Championship Teams, here are your names and one of your moments of glory preserved on a 53-year-old 10c program. Show it to your children and grandchildren and regale them with some stories to prove you were once a boy and enjoyed baseball so much you earned your way onto one of five teams to compete for the Little League Atlantic Division championship in Concord, New Hampshire during a few August days more than half a century ago!

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Scan from an original program in the Definitely Keep/genealogy artifact collection of the author.

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Copyright 2017, John D. Tew

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Saturday Serendipity (March 25, 2017)

Since I was in Newport, Rhode Island and a few other Rhode Island and Massachusetts locations doing some genealogy research and photography, Saturday Serendipity was on a brief hiatus the last couple of weeks. During my sojourn north, I finally had a chance to attend my first RIGS (Rhode Island Genealogical Society) meeting. The meeting was held in the North Kingstown Library and the first speaker was Rhode Island blogger extraordinaire, Diane MacLean Boumenot. I have corresponded periodically with Diane for a few years now and often recommend reading her always informative and well-written blog posts -- but I had never met Diane until last Saturday. Diane did a wonderfully informative and illustrated presentation on how to produce genealogy-related books at an extremely reasonable price.  If you ever have a chance to see a reprise of her presentation, make sure you do so!  

And with that recommendation, Saturday Serendipity returns this week with the following recommended reads . . . 

1.  As we all know, the foods we are exposed to and learn to either enjoy or dislike are heavily influenced by our ancestors. Foods and recipes favored by our grandparents and great grandparents have a way of being passed down the generations and so food is also an interesting subject for enhancement of family history and genealogy. In the case of our family, a favorite dessert is "Sailor's Duff" that my wife's great grandmother, grandmother and mother made on occasion and often by special request.  Our sons are now both great fans.  The dessert and the family recipe are now being enjoyed by a fifth generation. And, UpFront with NGS blog recently addressed the subject of food, family recipes, genealogy cookbooks.  Read about it here and get some links to pursue the subject further.          

2.  Heather Rojo of Nutfield Genealogy blog posted a thought-provoking piece recently about what she calls genealogy "close calls." We probably all have them and it is simply a matter of whether we know of them or they are simply yet to be discovered. Learn about "close calls" here and see if you have any you can identify in your genealogy -- or perhaps begin to be on the lookout for them as your research continues.     

3.  It is amazing how the advent and advancement of scientific DNA analysis has solved or made significant progress on questions of history, anthropology, and genealogy. A recent article that was highlighted by NEHGS in The Weekly Genealogist explains how DNA analysis has helped solve the mystery of how and when humans first came to Australia. You can read the article here.      

4.  And, speaking of NEHGS and The Weekly Genealogist, for those who are members or otherwise have access to the NEHGS databases, it was recently announced that the Vital Records collections for Londonderry, NH and Plaistow, NH have been updated and are now searchable by first name, last name, record type, year, and parents' and spouses' names. You can learn more about these changes by going to the Database Blog here.  Two other interesting articles were highlighted by The Weekly Genealogist this week.  Read here about a USAF veteran who was shot down in his F-105 fighter jet over North Vietnam in 1965.  He was rescued, but his helmet and other gear were found and taken by enemy soldiers. Fifty years later he and his helmet were reunited. . .  read how here. Then there is the story about a photographic quality portrait of a man who died over 700 years ago. You really need to have a look here and read about how this amazing depiction was created.                 

5. UpFront With NGS provides information and a link to a collection of 170,000 photographs from 1935 to 1945 created by the U.S. Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information (FSA-OWA). The photos depict life in the US during the Great Depression and WWII. Who knows what you might find in the collection? If you don't find photos of ancestors or relatives or their homes and farms, you might find photos that would help illustrate your genealogies (with the requisite permission if applicable, of course). See the post here.  

6. For those of you who choose to use Ancestry DNA, you really should read Judy Russell's March 21st post about the updated Ancestry DNA consent form for voluntary participation in research studies. You can read it a The Legal Genealogist here. 

7.  James Tanner once again provides food for thought in his recent post "What is a genealogically significant document?? Read his post on Genealogy's Star blog here. 

8.  Planning to visit a library to do some genealogy research? Won't you just hate it if the library is some distance from your home and you arrive to find it is closed the day you arrive or that it closed just minutes before you arrived? Amy Johnson Crow has a very useful post to help you avoid this and other frustrations when heading to a library for your genealogy research. Read "6 Ways to Have a Better Library Visit" here.   
    
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Copyright 2017, John D. Tew

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