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Here are a few questions to get you thinking about your experiences with racism. This is your history and writings of your individual experiences.
What experiences have you had with racism?
What have you personally experienced? What have you witnessed in your family and community?
How have the deaths of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd impacted you?
What are you doing to help make a change?
Here are a few questions to get you thinking about your experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. This is your history and writings of your individual experiences.
Celebrations and events, if they occur, are far different with COVID-19; I have missed a niece’s graduation, a friend’s son is live streaming his wedding in June, and a 5 day camp with 100 teenage girls I was planning is not happening as we had originally planned with actual human contact.
What events have occurred in your life during the pandemic?
How have you celebrated milestones? (birthdays, graduations, anniversaries, weddings, etc.)
Have you continued with any major plans?
How have the changes impacted the financial impact of celebrations (i.e. a friend lost all of the money she pre-paid for catering for a wedding)?
Here are a few questions to get you thinking about your experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. This is your history and writings of your individual experiences. Life has certainly changed over the past few months.
Illinois has had a stay-at-home order for over two months now. It looks like the Chicagoland area will be moving to Phase 3 of the state’s plan at the end of May or the beginning of June.
Are retailers open?
Has your work been impacted?
Is there a mask order in your area?
Are parks, recreational and other public amenities open?
Are those you come across adhering to guidelines or flouting them?
Are your favorite restaurants delivering and/or open?
The same style red journal I have been using since high school.
Below are a few questions to get you thinking about your experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. This is your history, write about your individual experiences.
Are you shopping as usual? Are you having groceries or other items delivered?
Did you panic and buy any products like toilet paper, disinfectants, rice, pasta, or other products?
Did you already have a supply of food and other products?
Have you had trouble purchasing any items?
Here are a few questions to get you thinking about your experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic. This is your history and writings of your individual experiences.
Has your state, county or city restricted the activity of those in your area?
How much of the time are you staying home?
Are you working from home?
Are you restricting your activities outside of your home?
Do you go out to get groceries and other necessities?
How do you feel about any restrictions that are recommended or required in your area?
Family History is not just about researching your ancestors and finding information on them, it is also writing your own history for those who come after you. What a great thing you can do for them, not to mention the mental health benefits you can reap, by writing your experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Join me for a live webinar April 30th at 7PM CT to discuss writing ideas, journaling prompts and more. Contact me at research@finderskeepers.family for meeting login information.
How are your hands?
Are yours in as bad of condition as mine with all of the handwashing?
What events were celebrated at home?
April Fool’s Day is a big event at house. We had to get a bit more creative since we couldn’t run to the store for supplies.
I am making some surgical hats for the nurses that work in my sister’s Emergency Department outside of Houston. They are about out of the disposable ones. The pattern can be found here.
Be skeptical of the accuracy of materials posted on-line as they have not been vetted for accuracy.
A free “one family tree” website hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In a one tree format all individuals are connected within the family tree, it is open source such that anyone can make edits. All images have a delay in their posting as they are reviewed by a human prior to going live and have to meet decency standards, which exclude explicit materials, and also hate speech, like images related to Nazi’s or the SS.
Uploaded image on FamilySearch.org for Lewis Brunson and Catherine Keaton Carling
While the image could look better, all images list who uploaded them and you can contact the contributor via e-mail or through the messaging on the website.
Another on-line family history website with individual trees. There is a fee to join, but it can be accessed at many public libraries and at Family History Centers
All US Passports Applications after 1914 have a photograph included with them. Passports would be issued to a whole family group rather than just an individual, if more than one person was traveling. As a result the photographs could be of more than one person. They are not the standardized passport photos of today and could be a portrait or a family snapshot. A database can be accessed here: United States Passport Applications, 1795-1925 on Ancestry or at My Heritage.
Carl Ludwig Ferdinand Stelter’s photo from passport application dated 9 May 1922
Local, military, and published family histories can be a source of photographic materials. It was common in the mid-19th century and early 20th-century for communities, often at the county level, to have local histories written about the history of the local area and feature short biographies of prominent people in the area and those willing to pay a fee to have themselves featured in the publication. Local histories can be found at genealogical libraries, local Family History Centers, Google Books, and Internet Archive.
Image of the Stock Farm of John H Miller found in History of Miami Country, Indiana: a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests by Arthur L Bodurtha accessed on archive.org
There were two histories written of the 99th Indiana Infantry in the Union Army, the first in 1865 and the second in 1900. Jacob E Marsh was a sergeant in Company D, his photograph and a brief sketch of his life are included in the second publication.
SGT Jacob E Marsh of the 99th Indiana Infantry. Image from New History of the 99th Indiana Infantry: containing official reports, anecdotes, incidents, biographies and complete rolls by Daniel R Lucas; accessed from archive.org
Mabel Dague with two new teachers at Classen High School, photo by Ronald Pyer, 26 August 1952, published in the Daily Oklahoman 28 August 1952 from the Oklahoma Historical Society
There are many local historical societies in the US. Many counties have historical societies whose missions are to preserve the history of the local area and the families that have lived within its borders. Many religious groups, fraternal organizations, and immigrant ethnic groups maintain histories of the people within their groups.
I will be hosting an online course LIVE on Wednesday, March 25th at 7PM CT, on finding photographic materials in your family history research. I will be discussing finding not just photographs of ancestors, but other materials such as images of churches and military units.
Please e-mail me at research@finderskeepers.family and I will send you an invite to the call.
**UPDATE** I am trying out a new platform and thought that I would need to send an invite to each person attending. That is not the case. You can call in or join via Google Hangouts Meet. I will have slides, so being able to see my screen would be useful.
Join Hangouts Meet
meet.google.com/ect-obin-rmv
Join by phone
+1 419-684-2016 PIN: 719 658 110#
Mabel Dague with two new teachers at Classen High School, photo by Ronald Pyer, 26 August 1952, published in the Daily Oklahoman 28 August 1952 from the Oklahoma Historical Society
Life has certainly changed over the past couple of weeks. There are typically a couple of ways in which to get a copy of a civil war pension file.
Electronically request one from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). According to NARA’s website, this is currently the only way to request records. The current cost is $80 for the first 100 pages of the record. If there are more than 100 pages, you will be notified regarding the cost for the remaining pages. I have had a response since they have been closed about a records request that I had put in.
When things are working as usual, you can also request the records in person at the NARA location in Washington, DC and view them for free in the records room. There is a minimal charge for making copies. As with any archive, check with the staff regarding how copies can be made.
If you are not in the area and have a large number to request, it can be cost effective to hire a professional genealogist to review and copy the records for you. The Association of Professional Genealogists has a directory of individuals by location.
