by Lisa Cooke | Aug 1, 2019 | 01 What's New, Research Stories |
Lessons in life often translate to lessons in genealogy. Here’s an example of how digging deeper can have you singing a happier research tune.
The Music of My Childhood
When I was a kid I had a million interests (and I still do.)
I loved art of all kinds – painting, drawing, and paper mache. I enjoyed baking and particularly candy-making. I had a teal blue easy bake oven I used constantly, and a cotton candy making machine that spun sugar into treats – Yum!
Making cotton candy with my Dad, Christmas 1970.
At the age of eight I learned to water-ski. It came surprisingly easy, so much so that my Dad got me a pair of short trick skis on which I learned to do a full 360 degree turn.
And like most kids I took piano lessons starting in the first grade. My mom bought an old upright piano for $75, and painted it bright red (you can see where I got my artistic flair from!)
My first piano teacher was a lovely lady who happened to be a paraplegic. This meant that she sat across the room from me and the piano and never actually touched the piano. I learned a love of music from her for which I’ll always be grateful. She was a patient teacher with her rambunctious student. But years later after we moved and I started up with a new piano teacher, I discovered I was clueless about fingering which was why many songs seemed unreasonably difficult to me.
It’s eye-opening to realize you didn’t know what you didn’t know.
Something else that slowed me down was not really learning music theory. Oh I had learned the basics, and became a laser-focused sight-reader of music. But my while my second teacher taught me scales, I don’t recall her ever saying why we were doing them. Needless to say, I didn’t practice them because I didn’t know why we were bothering with these notes that weren’t songs. Therefore, I never learned them or their significance to music.
One of my all time favorite songs was and still is One Less Bell to Answer by the Fifth Dimension. I first heard it on the TV series It Takes a Thief starring Robert Wagner which ran from 1968 to 1970. The song was featured in the third season episode called Sing a Song of Murder.
5th Dimension on Sing a Song of Murder
The 5th Dimension were the guest stars that week, and Marilyn McCoo sang that torch song like no one else could. I drove my mom crazy as I belted it out from the top of my lungs and begged her for 5th Dimension albums for my birthday. I still have my original 5th Dimension Live double album and the 5th Dimension Greatest Hits on Earth, both of which feature the song.
Harder than the Average Song
The other day I was falling down a rabbit hole on Instagram where I saw that Marilyn McCoo and her husband Bill David, Jr. had started an Instagram account (you can follow them here). I started following them, enjoying reading about how they are celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, and seeing old TV clips and new video of their performances.
I got to thinking about that To Catch a Thief episode and soon the rabbit hole led me to YouTube where I watched it. From there I found a tunnel to MusicNotes.com where I bought the sheet music for One Less Bell to Answer.
I sat down, excited to play it, and was stopped in my tracks. This Burt Bacharach and Hal David classic was as hard to play as any of Liszt’s classics!
Although I have continued to play piano all these years, I slogged and fumbled and scratched my way through to the end. My weakness in fingering skills and music theory was painfully apparent. I decided there and then that I wanted this one badly enough that I was willing to go back to the basics, learn what I didn’t know about music, and practice daily.
And so I found myself a good video series on music theory basics. I’ve been devoting a half an hour each day to learning the Circle of Fifths, scales and chords. I also put my husband through listening to me do another half an hour a day of practice, with an emphasis on One Less Bell to Answer. My husband says I’m getting better, though I’m still frustrated that it’s not yet quite where I want it to be.
Along the way though, something really interesting has happened.
I have noticed something wonderful after each painful, slow study and practice session. When I go back to my regular music (my sheet music stack includes the likes of Supertramp, Fleetwood Mac, Bach, Beethoven, Billy Joel, one of my favorite composers, Mr. Rogers), that music is much easier, and I’m much better at playing it! In fact, it’s more of a joy to play than ever, and I usually end up playing another hour in the evening, giving up time previously wasted on television.
So what does this have to do with family history and genealogy? Well…
Mastering the Music of the Genealogical Brick Wall
One Less Bell to Answer was not only my favorite song, but one of the toughest to master. So let me ask you, what’s your toughest genealogy case right now?
We all have a brick wall or two that has plagued us. I get emails every day from listeners of the Genealogy Gems Podcast outlining the family history challenge that has them stumped. Sometimes I think their hope is that I might have a genealogical silver bullet, or that I might be aware of some low-hanging genealogical fruit that they’ve over looked. I always encourage listeners to write in because many times there is a quick source or strategy that I can offer that they just may have missed. Or I can refer them to one of our articles, videos or podcast episodes that can provide a more in-depth answer. There’s always value in sharing with others the research challenges we face, and soliciting ideas and input.
However, in many cases, the answer is not so simple. Many of the cases described go well beyond a quick search at one of the Genealogy Giants websites. (You can learn more about them here.) These are cases that don’t have an easy answer. There isn’t one source just waiting to be found.
Sing a Song of Genealogy
Genealogical brick wall cases are much like the most glorious torch songs. They will require more education, steady relentless work, and a willingness to end each research session (like a piano practice session) unsatisfied with the current results. But when we stay focused and persist, we can remain optimistic that the end result will be worth it.
This answer to tough genealogical questions isn’t a popular one. That’s due in part to the increased tech tools and vast online databases (which are all fantastic boons for the genealogist by the way), that appear to offer instant gratification. This auto-generated “genealogy” can actually dilute our research edge when we really need it. We can be lulled into believing there should always be a quick fix. We find ourselves not as willing to stop, create a research plan, set up a tracking spreadsheet, and execute a plan to find the answer.
Many a family tree (particularly online) is filled with errors created by an unwillingness to take the time to dig deep. For example, are we really sure we have the right ancestor when there are several men by that name in that county at that time? Did we really prove it?
Genealogy Research Plans
Is creating and using a genealogy research plan new to you? That’s not usual.
These days, many people first come to climbing their family tree through a genealogy app. Several of the popular genealogy apps allow you to instantly start adding what you know already about your family to your family tree on the app. Then the app starts serving up record hints and matches – genealogical records it thinks may match the people you have added. It may also connect you to other users who share branches of your family tree.
While there’s a bit of instant gratification in all this, it doesn’t help us see the bigger picture, or develop our skills as a researcher. In a sense, we are following the app’s research plan (and I use that term very loosely here), rather than developing and conducting our own research plan.
When we finally take up the baton, and start leading our own research, we will gain more satisfaction and end up singing the right song.
To learn more about genealogy research plans, read my article Which Way Do I Go Now? Organize a Genealogy Research Plan. Genealogy Gems Premium members can watch the Premium video Using Evernote to Create a Research Plan here. (Membership and log in required.)
Finding Genealogical Answers
If you’re facing an imposing genealogical brick wall, why not set aside all your other searches, and just work on this one? Slog along, fight your way through it! Do it for an hour every day. If your knowledge is lacking, go find the answers. Get up to speed on the areas you don’t know enough about.
It helps to accept that this genealogical answer that you seek, like a really wonderful song, is going to require more learning and practice than the average answer. But when it’s done, you’ll have the satisfaction of having conquered a really tough one, and the confidence that you got it right.
I can promise you this. When you take the time to craft and work a real and true genealogical research plan, you’ll be pleasantly surprised that when you go back to your other research, you will find it easier, and more enjoyable.
And yes, I’m still working on mastering my favorite song. Follow me on instagram and when I have it mastered, I’ll play it for you.
Please use the social buttons at the top of this post to share it with your genealogy friend.
by Lisa Cooke | Mar 23, 2021 | 01 What's New, African-American, Elevenses with Lisa, Records & databases
Elevenses with Lisa Episode 48 Show Notes.
One of the great things about genealogy is that there are always new records. Well, not really new records, new OLD records. These records have been around sometimes hundreds of years, but they may have been languishing in the basement of an archive, library or even a private collection. Every day, old records are becoming available, and often right from the comfort of our own home. Who doesn’t love that?! When we can get our hands on those records, it can throw the doors open to new possibilities. Our genealogy brick walls start shaking in their boots because it can take just one record, the right record, to knock it down.
In this article and video we will explore two major genealogy record collections. They are very unique, and yet have some important things in common. Both the Ohio Memory collection and the Freedmen’s Bureau collection are online, and they are both free. Click below to watch the video. We start with Ohio Memory, and the Freedmen’s Bureau discussion begins at the 23:58 mark. Follow along with the show notes below.
Ohio Memory
Website: https://ohiomemory.org
Special Guest: Jenni Salamon, Ohio Memory Digital Services Manager
If your family has any connection with the state of Ohio – and sometimes I think it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t have at least one ancestor who did – then you’re going to love the Ohio Memory collection and website.
Even if you don’t have a direct connection with the state of Ohio, like all collections its worth taking a peek. Records don’t care about state lines, and many items in the Ohio Memory collection touch far beyond the Ohio border.
OhioMemory.org was featured in Family Tree Magazine’s 75 Best State Genealogy Websites list in a recent issue of the magazine. I host the Family Tree Magazine podcast, and recently had the opportunity to interview Ohio Memory’s Digital Services Manager, Jenni Salamon for that audio show. Since there’s so much to see at Ohio Memory I’m excited to share the video of that conversation.
What is Ohio Memory?
Ohio Memory is the collaborative digital library program of the Ohio History Connection and the State Library of Ohio. Established in 2000. It was originally established as a bicentennial project they wanted a way to capture some of Ohio’s history and share it more broadly. Ohio turned 200 years old in 2003.
Ohio Memory worked with institutions around the state to build the online collection. They picked their favorite collections which were then digitized and made available as an online scrapbook. Initial submission by 260 institutions resulted in over 13,000 contributed items, and Ohio Memory continues to grow.
Most of the contributing organizations are public libraries, and some are university libraries. Other organizations such as historical societies, government institutions, special libraries, religious archives also contribute to the collection.
What kind of genealogical resources are available at Ohio Memory?
A wide-variety of materials make up Ohio Memory including:
- Early Ohio state history
- American Indians
- The Civil War
- World War I
- Maps
- Drawings
- Paintings
- Archaeological artifacts
- Photographs
- Journals
- Objects
- Oral Histories (audio and video)
- Newspapers
- Yearbooks
- Present Day government records
All 88 Ohio counties are represented in the Ohio Memory collection.
Tips for Searching for Records at Ohio Memory
Everything at Ohio Memory is digital and keyword searchable thanks to Optical Character Recognition (OCR). However, they do sometimes connect back to other catalog records.
Search Tip: Finding Images at Ohio Memory
When you use the search box on the home page you will be searching both the text and the metadata provided by the contributor. If you want to search just visual items (photos, images, etc.) select “exclude full text sources.”
It’s important to use keywords relevant to the time period that you are searching. Restrict your format to what you want right from the homepage.
Historical Newspapers at Ohio Memory
The newspaper collection of Ohio Memory does not overlap with the Library of Congress’ Chronicling America collection, but they are all part of the same story and collection. They have contributed a large amount of newspapers to Chronicling America over the years. At last count there are a million pages between the two collections.
Ohio Memory focuses on titles and time periods different from the content on Chronicling America. At Ohio Memory you’ll find deeper runs of newspapers and more recent newspapers. New newspaper content is being added regularly.
They also have some very early newspapers that are significant to Ohio history such as the Ohio State Journal which was the paper of record for Ohio during the 19th century. The Ohio State Journal collection covers 1830-1875 an important time period in Ohio’s growth and the Civil War.
The Lebanon Western Star newspaper from southwest Ohio near Cincinnati and Kings Island is another important newspaper. It covers Ohio history from a more rural area.
Old Yearbooks at Ohio Memory
A lot of Ohio Memory’s public library partners have access to yearbook collections through their partnerships with local schools. Many have worked to digitize their materials and put them on Ohio Memory. Some are quite early, some more recent although not very recent due to privacy concerns.
Many of the yearbooks at Ohio Memory come from northwest and northeast Ohio. You’ll also find student histories from southwest Ohio from a couple of universities, as well as other related materials such as student photos.
Is Ohio Memory Free?
Yes! They used to have one collection that was behind a pay wall. That was the Underground Railroad Wilbur H Siebert collection which features information about underground railroad activities in Ohio and beyond. It’s a strong resource for looking at research methods of the era, and the stories of how the underground railroad operated. That collection was opened up a couple of years ago and has remained free.
Ohio Memory Help Resources
Videos, an FAQ and search guides are available to help you learn how to dig into the Ohio Memory website. You can also reach Ohio Memory by email for additional assistance.
The Future of Ohio Memory
They continue to digitize and add new materials based on their strategic goals. Recently they focused on President Warren G. Harding since it is the 100th anniversary of his election. They are continuing to add more content to that collection.
Ohio Memory has about 40 active partners around the state that are choosing items from their own collections for inclusion. Examples include Wood County in northwest Ohio, Mount Saint Joseph University and the Sister of Charity in the Cincinnati area. They welcome new partners every year.
Copyright and Usage at Ohio Memory
While you may or may not find things specifically about your ancestors, Ohio Memory offers a wonderful opportunity to find things that help fill in their story and their community.
You are free to use items for educational and personal use without needing extra permission. If you’re a family historian and you are wanting to put a picture in a presentation for your family or you just want to keep it with your own research records, you are welcome to do so.
Jenni Salamon, Ohio Memory’s Digital Services Manager says that if you want to post something on social media, simply include a link back to the Ohio Memory site so others know where it came from Ohio Memory. If you want to use an item for a formal publication or commercial use, contact Ohio Memory. Copyright varies by item and research is required.
Record Collection #2:
Freedmen’s Bureau Records
FamilySearch’s Freedmen’s Bureau Project website: http://www.discoverfreedmen.org
Guest: Thom Reed, Deputy Chief Genealogical Officer FamilySearch International
FamilySearch is always busy bringing new, exciting and unique record collections to genealogists, and the Freedmen’s Bureau records certainly fall into that category. FamilySearch Deputy Chief Genealogical Officer at FamilySearch, Thom Reed spearheaded the project.
What was the Freedman’s Bureau?
The Freedmen’s Bureau (known as The Bureau of Refugees Freedmen and Abandoned Lands) was established shortly after the Civil War to help newly freed individuals and poor Southerners get back on their feet and start anew.
The Department of the Army established the Freedmen Bureau field offices and local offices in 15 states and the District of Columbia where people could seek assistance. Many African Americans who had been enslaved were on their own and they needed, work, food and housing. In the course of administering that help the government kept great records. These records were sometimes the first records of African Americans in this country. Many had not been documented before, or perhaps were only listed by first name. These records form a sort of bridge between the “1870 brick wall” often found in African American research and earlier records.
Freedmen’s Bureau Years of Operation
The Freedmen’s Bureau operated between 1865-1872. It was difficult to maintain. After it closed, other programs surfaced. In some cases, states took over the programs.
What types of records can be found in Freedmen’s Bureau Records?
While not all the records created by the Freedmen’s Bureau are genealogically relevant, many are.
Freedmen’s Bureau Records Include:
- Labor contracts
- Apprenticeship records
- Solemnized marriages
- Education records
- Hospital records
- Court documents and complaints
- Food Ration records
- Correspondence (this is the majority of the records and may name people)
- Banking records
The Freedmen’s Bureau Project
The Freedmen’s Bureau Project extracted the genealogically relevant information so that volunteers could index it and make it searchable. This effort resulted in 1, 783,463 names being made searchable.
There’s also pages and pages of documentation that are not yet indexed. They didn’t index a lot of the correspondence. You will need to use the finding aids, descriptive guides and pamphlets and go through and look at the images. All of the images are available online to view.
The Freedmen’s Bureau Project was completed in 2016, just 366 days since it began.
FamilySearch partnered with many organizations and 25,550 volunteers to complete the project including:
- The National Archives and Records Administration
- National Museum of African American History and Culture
- They opened in 2016, and as a gift FamilySearch gave them the database.
- Societies include the Afro American Historical and Genealogical Society – several of their 35 chapter across the United States assisted with the indexing.
How to Access the Freedmen’s Bureau Records
You can access the Freedmen’s Bureau records though FamilySearch or the Discover Freedmen website.
Where you start depends on what you want to do and what you know. For many people, Discover Freedmen is a good place to start. You can simply enter your ancestor’s first and last name and it will search all of the indexed collections that they have available at FamilySearch including the Freemen Bank records which was a separate entity from the Freedmen’s Bureau. It will allow you to search all of those record collections together and show you where that name appears.
If you know the location or the specific type of record you are interested in, you may want to go directly to FamilySearch and start searching.
The Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Bank
The Freedmen’s Bank was a separate entity from the Freedmen’s Bureau. It was based in Washington D.C. After the war it allowed newly freed individuals to deposit their funds in a bank account and start to establish some kind of wealth.
The Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Bank operated from 1865 to 1874, just a little bit longer than the Freedmen’s Bureau.
The interesting thing about their deposit records is that to be a depositor you had to include information about your family and where you lived. This means that in these records you may find entire family groups listed in a depositor’s application. You could find a husband and wife, all their children, where they lived, and in some instances who they were formerly enslaved by.
Unfortunately, due to mismanagement and other financial issues, they closed. However, the records remain. The National Archives and Records Administration held those records for years, and FamilySearch indexed them back in 2001. Over 469,000 names and the associated digitized images can be found in the collection database at Familysearch.
Learn more about the Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Bank Records here.
Part 3: Photo Restoration and Animation Video
In celebration of St. Patrick’s Day I did some restoration work on an old photograph of my great, great, grandmother that was taken in the 1920s. She came to American from Limerick Ireland in the 1850s. Here’s the process I followed to create it:
- Digitize the image at the highest resolution possible.
- Restore the photo first – I use the free Adobe Photoshop Fix app on my phone.
- Head to MyHeritage and use the Enhancer tool to further improve the image.
- Then use MyHeritage’s Colorization tool if desired.
- Apply MyHeritage’s Deep Nostalgia tool to animate the face.
- I compiled the images and rendered the final video using Camtasia. This video software program made it possible to transition from photo to animation and back again.
(These are affiliate links and we will be compensated if you make a purchase using these links. Thank you for supporting the free show.)
Learn more about Irish Research and how I busted my brick wall in Elevenses with Lisa Episode 18. (Premium membership required.)
Resources
by Lisa Cooke | Nov 28, 2013 | 01 What's New, Collaborate, Inspiration, Publishing
One of the most important things we do as genealogists is share! We share research findings, family stories, trees, heirloom photos and more. These days, sharing online is often the way to go. It’s fast, it’s relatively organized, it gets things into the hands of those who want them and (often) it’s free!
To wrap this series of blog posts on collaborating, I offer 4 ways to share genealogy online (in addition to Dropbox and Evernote, which we discussed in previous posts).
1. Attach scanned documents, photos and stories to your online tree. Whether you keep a tree at MyHeritage, Ancestry, FamilySearch or another site, beef it up with everything you have. That only enriches the body of knowledge out there and gives others a leg up on the next bit of research. You can also include links to applicable notes in Evernote.
2. Post gravestone photos and other burial information at online cemetery sites. BillionGraves and Find A Grave are the two big ones, of course. These sites provide searchability and a platform for collaboration between descendants.
3. Post meaty queries that show what you know and what your questions are. RootsWeb and USGenWeb are two enormous sites, organized by location and topic, where you can post questions about people, places and more. Check out this page on how to write a good query and this Cyndi’s List portal to various message boards. TIP: Remember to include all important related keywords, name and location spellings, and dates in your messages so they are easily found by your long lost cousins using Google!
4. Publish your research. Genealogy newsletters, magazines and journals of all levels (from the local to the national and beyond) want your well-researched, well-written research. What’s a chunk of research you could share? Look for publications that are indexed in PERSI, the Periodical Source Index, because other genealogists are most likely to find your work when it’s indexed there. Of course, family history websites, blogs and books are all great ways to publish your research, too. Just get it out there!
As the online genealogy community continues to grow, our opportunities to grow bigger, better family trees also grow. So my question to you is: What do you have to share? And have you begun?
Check out the magazine article that inspired this series of posts on collaborating. It’s “Teaming Up,” and it appears in the December 2013 issue of Family Tree Magazine. Sharing genealogy files is just one topic we cover. The article itself was a cross-country collaboration between myself and Genealogy Gems Contributing Editor Sunny Morton. To write it, we relied on a lot of the same tips and tools we recommend!
Finally, check out my previous blog posts in this mini-series on collaboration:
Tips for Collaborative Genealogy: Research with a Partner
Tips for Collaborative Genealogy: Dropbox for Genealogists
Tips for Collaborative Genealogy: Evernote for Genealogists
