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Date Published: Nov. 13, 2010

Click here to download the Show Notes pdf

NEWS:

GENEALOGY IN THE NEWS:

In this episode we take a twist on the genealogy news by talking about genealogy that appears in the news.  These are “feel good” stories, which is the best kind of news, don’t you think?  And I have to say, as I searched for these stories it was really nice to see family history making it’s way into the main stream media on a pretty regular basis.

A Celebration of Maps
From the Westport Patch at westport.patch.com
In her article Placing Westport on the Historic Map, author Nancy Burton covers a terrific map making exhibit put on the by the Westport historical Society in celebration of Westport’s 175^th anniversary as a town.

The Postman Surfaces Twice
From the Press of Atlantic CityThe article by Donald Wittkowski is called Photo Reunites First Atlantic City Mailman with Family

The article features a photo of the two Harrold’s sitting next to a humungous blown up version of the photo.  And you can click a thumbnail of the photo to see it full screen.  It’s really pretty incredible the size of the sack of mail he’s carrying.

Like the map in our first story which was found in an old mailing tube, this photo was found in a time capsule that had been buried back in 1936 under Atlantic City’s old post office which was being demolished.  And what’s really neat is that John Harrold Sr. saw the photo in the newspaper and recognized it as his great grandfather!  If you happen to live in the Atlantic City, New Jersey area you’re in luck because it looks like they are going to put the photos and the other time capsule items on display in the Atlantic City Free Public Library.
22 Siblings
From the Bexleytimes, South London, England.  Author wanted to pen history of Plumstead woman with 22 siblings by Kate Nelson

This is quite a story.  Doreen Fifield of Plumstead had an extraodinary childhood.  She was one of 22 siblings, and back in 1951 their mother was jailed for child neglect and the children were taken to a children’s home called Pilgrim House.  Some of the kids were adopted, some left, and only 15 made it to adulthood.  All the children lost touch, so in 2004 Doreen had some very important family history work to do – finding her brothers and sisters.

The real point of this story: She says “ I have so much information now.  I need someone to help me write it all down.  It would make a brilliant book.”

Contact information can be found at the end of the story.

The Power of Patience
As you may know by now, I’m a huge fan of Google Alerts and I’ve had an alert set up for quite some time for the phrase “horseless carriage exhibition.” And that’s because my husband’s great grandfather Harry Cooke lived and worked in Tunbridge Wells England at the turn of the 20^thcentury.  He was a carriage maker, and worked for Sir David Salomon who owned a large estate and bought one of the first automobiles brought to England, or certainly at least to Kent.

It’s been quite some time since I set up an alert on “horseless carriage exhibition,” but suddenly I got a Google Alert email saying it had a webpage result for me.  I clicked the link and it took me to an article called:

Charting the beginning of a revolution on four wheels in the county which appeared on the thisiskent.co.uk website.

“One evening, quite late, Sir David phoned dad from Paris.  He told dad he was buying a French buy anti depression medication online automobile and would bring it across the English Channel the next day.  Dad was to go to Dover on the train and meet him. It was dad’s job to walk ahead of the auto, a distance of 40 miles, waving a red flag as a warning to people driving horses as the horses became quite frightened by this infernal machine.”

Raymond’s story was confirmed by the quote from the book Motoring Around Kent: the First 50 Years in the article.

Full Circle
From the CambsTimes24 website, Cambridgeshire, England 
March Family Reunited with a Piece of Family History by Maggie Gibson is the story of how a Genealogy Gem ended up on the doorstep of a building hundreds of miles away from where it began.

Back in 1927 Railwayman Clifford William Pollington received an ornate scroll.   Clifford died at the age of 88 and his brother inherited it.  Somewhere along the way the scroll disappeared until recently when it landed on the doorstep of a lodge in South Wales.  So it was a happy ending for the traveling scroll as it was finally returned to Clifford Pollington’s son Cliff.

MAILBOX:
Premier member Linda Tisdale Manson wrote in about how a previous episode helped her draw out new information from relatives that lead to genealogy gems.

”I just wanted to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU for that podcast. I might never have asked her about someone else (extended family) and never connected with my cousin Jimmy and his wealth of information. And he lives 60 miles from my Mama, so we have a lunch date next time I am in West Tennessee!!! I love the podcasts an listen to them over and over, and still hear something I missed the first time, or forgot. Thank you again!” Linda

Google Earth Question
Lois Shaffer Burton wrote in with a question about how X is marking the spot where a Google Earth map overlay should be!

“When I add an overlay all that appears is a box with a red X.  Why can’t I see the map overlay?  Is it the format of the picture?  I have it in .jpg.”

Lisa answers:  The red X means the image can’t be accessed by Google Earth.  Here are a few things to check:

1) Did you move the location of the image?  If you saved it to your hard drive, created the overlay, and later moved the image on your hard drive to another folder or location, perhaps to organize things, Google Earth will continue to check the original location and when it doesn’t find it the X appears.

2) When you created the overlay, did you save it?  Google Earth will temporarily save the map and overlay in My Places, but when you close the program it will ask you if you want to save your work.  You should save the “temporary files” when you exit.

3) Another thing you can do is create the overlay and manually save it yourself to a specific location of your choice on your hard drive.  Do it through the menu under FILE – SAVE (demonstrated in the video)  Make sure you don’t move the image on your hard drive later on because even a saved overlay must know where to access the image.
GEM: Private Investigation Intersects with Genealogy
Interview with professional genealogist and private investigator Alvie Davidson  

Alvie is the winner of the Association of Professional Genealogists Certificate of Appreciation in 2009 for continued generosity and involvement in the support, planning, and execution of APG’s 30th Anniversary Celebration and the 2009 Professional Management Conference.