The One Thing You Are Missing at the FamilySearch Library

I recently had the opportunity to spend a few days researching at the FamilySearch Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. As with any research trip, I had spent time before I left home to list the books and films I wanted to look at. But whenever I am at the FamilySearch Library there is something I do first thing when I get there that has nothing to do with that list. It’s a resource that some staff members don't even know about.

FamilySearch Library Subscription Portal

If you research at a FamilySearch Center (formerly Family History Center), you might be aware of their subscription website portal, which provides you free access to various genealogy subscription websites. You can learn more about the subscription websites available from the FamilySearch Research Wiki article: FamilySearch Center Portal.

The FamilySearch Library has a very similar portal with subscription websites not available at Centers. The problem is it can be challenging to find this collection when you are at the FamilySearch Library, which is probably why it's one of their best-kept secrets.

How to Find the Portal

Finding these subscription websites can be a challenge. These instructions will help.

From a FamilySearch Library computer, you will see a Welcome screen that looks like this:

On the Quick Links bar at the far right, click on Americas at the very bottom. You will then see the Americas Quick Links page.

Now click on the map of the United States and Canada.

Now, you will see a page that says "United States and Canada Quick Links."

This is the first page of the subscription website portal. As you can see, it includes the following websites:

• American Ancestors
• MyHeritage
• Findmypast
• Ancestry
• Online Maps
• Genealogy Quebec
• GenealogyBank
• Newspaper Archive
• National Archives
• Library and Archives Canada
• Fold3

Obviously, not all of these are subscription websites, such as the National Archives. But it's a quick way to access important websites. Remember that an institutional or library website subscription differs from an individual, or personal subscription. You will not be able to access everything those websites have to offer from the library subscription.

Now, at the bottom, there is a blue button that says See Additional Websites. Click that.

You will now be at a web page titled: Additional United States and Canada Quick Links. These are more academic library subscription sites that you can access. Some of these websites are shared with BYU and the Church History Library. These websites include:

• 19th Century US Newspapers[1]
• JSTOR
• Social and Cultural History (letters and diaries)
• American: History and Life (1700 personal journals covering US and Canadian history)
• American Civil War Letters and Diaries
• Original Sources
• Images of the American Civil War
• Women and Social Movements in the US (1600-2000)
• Oxford English Dictionary
• Paper Trail (Overland pioneer names and documents

It is obvious why you might choose to search a genealogy subscription website for your research, but why would you use some of these more academic resources?

It depends on your research question, but for example, let's say you had a question about your ancestor's life in their location. Beyond newspapers, there may be few resources. A database with letters and diaries, especially with those from where your ancestors lived, can help you better understand what their life might have been like. Some of these databases provide historical context to understand your ancestor's time better. In the case of a friend who used these databases while we were at the Library, she found a diary for someone who emigrated at the same time and place as her ancestor and got answers about what that experience was like. Genealogy is more than just searching names and dates.

A Library is More Than Books

There’s no doubt that when I go to the FamilySearch Library I look at books but there in some cases there are genealogical gems that are hidden. Don’t forget to take advantage of what the FamilySearch Library computers offer. It’s another resource to help you better understand your ancestors lives.

[1] When I was at the library, this subscription was unavailable; however, other databases were available.

 

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

 

Telling Your Life Story in Bullet Points

Let's face it: Not everyone is a writer or wants to be one. Family history research is fun, but writing pages of results or analysis isn't everyone's cup of tea.

As family historians, we are expected to write about our ancestors. But what about your story? Most genealogists ignore one aspect of family history: telling their own story. Have you gathered records that document your life? Have you written your story?

Numerous books, articles, and webinars can teach you how to write and give you ideas about what to write, whether it's the story of your ancestor or your biography. But not everyone is going to want to write their story. But everyone can write the facts of their life.

Recently, I remembered something that happened at a previous job and realized that although it would interest my kids, they had no idea what jobs I held before their childhood. Like most people, I'm busy, so writing my life story isn't high on my to-do list, but I realized I could at least write out a list of bullet points of the facts of my life so that they would at least have that information should I never get around to writing a more significant life story.

Bullet Points

What would a bullet-point life story look like? It would simply be facts or summary details of experiences. It could be done as a timeline, with facts listed chronologically with dates or years.

Some events that could be included are:

• Birth date
• Year started elementary school
• Year graduated high school (or elementary or middle school)
• Year of first car and type of car
• First job
• Years attended higher education (college, university, trade school)
• Year married

You get the idea. You can also add historical events that may have impacted you. For example, I remember hearing about President Reagan's assassination attempt when I was in 6th grade. I would want to include historical events that I knew about or impacted me in some way, not historical events that I wasn't aware of. After all, this is the story of your life, not just life in general.

What else could you include? It's really up to you, but you could include family members' names and dates of birth, marriage, or death. Your bullet list doesn't have to be, and shouldn't be, completed in one sitting. Take your time to add to it. It's a living document that will change as you experience new events and remember the old.

Leave something about you for your family to discover. Creating a bullet point list of your life story is an easy way to start.

 

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

 

5 Historical Women’s Magazine Databases

March marks Women’s History Month in the United States, so it’s a good time to explore how and what resources we use to research female ancestors. In this blog post, I’d like to focus on a source that provides some historical context for better understanding our female ancestors - popular magazines.

Researching historical magazines is different from researching a genealogical database. You are not looking for an ancestor’s name in a magazine; instead, you're reading to better understand an era. Popular magazines provide everything from fashion and recipes to advice articles and advertisements—all information that can help us better understand an era. I’ve used magazines to understand women's roles in the World War I era, food during World War II, and what consumer goods were available to my female ancestors. 

5 Historical Magazine Collections

Here are five digital magazine collections to help you learn more about your females ancestors in context.

1. Trove – Australian Women’s Weekly 1933-1982

Trove is a digital collection collaborative website hosted by the National Library of Australia. Like other digital collections, it includes magazines and newspapers. Included is the women's magazine, Australian Women’s Weekly (1933-1982). You can search by keyword or browse the collection by date (see link above).

2. University of Vermont Libraries Research Guides – History of Women in the US – Women’s Magazines

The University of Vermont Library Research Guides include links to historical women’s magazines housed on the digitized books website Hathi Trust, making it easier to find what you are interested in and discover new magazines. Titles include the familiar, such as Good Housekeeping, Ladies Home Journal, and Godey’s Ladies Book, as well as more obscure titles, such as American Kitchen Magazine.

3. Gale – International Women’s Periodicals. 1786-1933

This Gale PDF provides details about this institutional subscription database. Some academic institutions have access to this subscription, so it’s a matter of looking at the library resources of your local academic library. A list of periodicals included in this subscription can be found in the last pages of the PDF. You could “google” magazine titles of interest to see if they can be found in other places, such as digitized book websites.

4. Internet Archive – Pulp Magazine Archive

Internet Archive has several issues of historical women’s magazines, some of which can be found in the Pulp Magazine Archive collection. These magazines include Delineator, Women’s Home Companion, McCalls, Cosmopolitan, Women’s Home Companion, and the Farmer’s Wife. Searching the entire website will also uncover issues uploaded by libraries and individuals. There is also a collection for American Ladies’ Magazine 1828-1836, a periodical published in the United States.

5. Internet Archive - Canadian Libraries

Internet Archive has a Canadian library collection where you can also find assorted women’s magazines, including the Canadian Home Journal. A women’s magazine collection doesn’t exist, so you’ll need to know the magazine's name to search. There is a Candian Trade Journal collection to browse that includes issues of Canadian Home Journal.

 

Have You Researched Magazines?

Have you considered researching historical magazines for context for your female ancestor's story? I'd love to hear your recommendations in the comments below.

Happy Women's History Month!

 

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

 

 

African American Funeral Programs: A Brief Introduction

It's not unusual to receive some remembrance when you attend a funeral. Historically, giving gifts and feeding mourners was essential to the funeral. As technology advanced, the ability to print invitations, programs, and cards allowed the mourner to be provided with something to remember the deceased by and learn more about their life.

One example of this is found in African American Funeral Programs. Michelle J. Pinkard's article, A Conversation with Aunt Carol: The Fluid Functionality of Funeral Programs in African-American Culture, explains the importance of funeral programs in the African American community for various reasons. Regarding a Texas collection, she writes, " …the obituaries of Blacks were generally not published in mainstream newspapers in San Antonio until the late 1950s and 1960s." [1]Funeral programs provide a rich information resource for a marginalized community lacking genealogical records like obituaries.

These programs can contain genealogically relevant information and names of people in the deceased's FAN Club (Friends, Associates, and Neighbors). Today, a growing collection of these programs can be found online. 

Funeral Program Digital Collections

Funeral program digital collections exist on numerous websites. Below are some examples:

West Feliciana Parish Library Funeral Webpage on African American Funeral Programs

West Feliciana Public Library - The West Feliciana Digital History Archive- African American Funeral Collection currently includes 84 funeral programs for West Feliciana, Louisiana Parish. Initially a donation of one man, the Library asks others to donate to their archive. The website states:

African American Funeral Programs provide extensive genealogical information about the deceased, including birth and death dates, maiden names, names of relatives and friends, and place of burial. In addition to genealogical information about the deceased, the documents may contain employment information, educational history, church memberships, professional affiliations, and personal and professional accomplishments. This data can otherwise be hard to find, particularly for marginalized populations.

You can find this collection at https://www.wfplibrary.org/post/wfdigitalhistoryarchive-african-american-funeral-programs-collection.

Chatham County Funeral Programs on DigitalNC

The Chatham County Historical Society (North Carolina) – African American Funeral Collection includes 1,326 funeral programs from Chatham County. Funeral programs can be searched or browsed at https://www.digitalnc.org/exhibits/chatham-county-funeral-programs/. Items are indexed by the person's name and their birth and death year. Of the collection, the Historical Society states:

In just a few pages, each program tells the story of a valued community member. There are tributes to housewives, nurses, military members, college professors, truck drivers, coaches, businessmen, and children. There are lodge members, Boy Scouts, Sunday-School teachers, choir members, athletes, and car club members. Revealed in the programs are interesting nicknames and touching personal anecdotes.

The programs are in the collection of the Chatham County Historical Association, and are made available online by UNC's Digital Heritage program. The Chatham County African-American Funeral Program Collection documents the lives and deaths of several generations of black Chatham County residents. Covering funerals held between 1957 and 2018, the programs typically contain an obituary, a list of surviving relatives, and the order of service. Many also contain a photograph of the deceased.

Once you find the program you're interested in, you can click the result, and then you will see a card-catalog description and a link to download the program. You can also view the digitized program online.

Digital Library of GA - Atlanta funeral programs collection

The Digital Library of Georgia offers the Atlanta Funeral Programs Collection. The programs in this digital collection date from 1886-2019 and are housed at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History. The website states that the collection includes

Over 3300 funeral programs documenting the funeral services of Georgia residents, primarily from the Atlanta, Georgia area. Most of the programs are from services held during the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. A majority of the programs are from churches in the Atlanta, Georgia area, with a few programs from other states such as South Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, and New York, among others.

Archives and libraries aren't the only repositories collecting, digitizing and making available funeral programs to researchers. One example of a genealogy society working on such a project is the California African American Genealogical Society. Obituaries are also included in this collection.

How to Find Other Collections

I've only spotlighted a few of the possible funeral program collections available online. A Google search on the keyword phrase "African American Funeral Program" will help you uncover more (you can also add a state name to that search to narrow it to your state of interest). Also, consider searching the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). If the deceased's name is indexed, you might find it with a name search on their website. DPLA is a catalog of other repository catalogs, thus making it a "one-stop shop" for searches.

Professional genealogist, Diane L Richard gave a RootsTech presentation titled Funeral Programs –A 20th Century Goldmine that is available in the RootsTech Library. The accompanying handout includes links to other collections that will be of interest.

One last thing to consider. Many of these collections exist due to the generosity of donors who provide funeral programs they and their families have collected over the years for a repository's collection. If you have some funeral programs, consider donating to a collection that can digitize and make them available to the public for research.

[1] "A Conversation with Aunt Carol: The Fluid Functionality of Funeral Programs in African-American Culture" by Michelle J. Pinkard in Women and the Material Culture of Death. Edited by Maureen Daly Goggin and Beth Fowkes Tobin. New York: Routledge. 2016.

 

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

 

eBay for Genealogy: A Rescue Story

There’s no doubt that genealogically-relevant records end up in unexpected places. Sure, we find records via genealogy websites, libraries, archives, and as home sources, but they can also be found in someone’s attic or even with an antique dealer. Records can be almost everywhere.

Case in point. The Medford, Massachusetts 1905 School Census.

I’m not sure how I found the census on eBay since I usually search for cookbooks, postcards, and ephemera, but I must have conducted a search on “census” to see what I could find for a presentation. Some of the results included US federal census transcription books but amidst what was there was the original Medford, Massachusetts school census.

The title of the listing was “Medford MASS 1905 School Census Fabulous book! family listings and addresses.” As I looked at the images and read the description, I knew that this item belonged with a repository so that researchers could benefit from the information.

The school census included the following information:

• Name of the Student
• Sex
• Date of Birth
• Age (years and months)
• Name of parent or person in charge
• Residence
• Remarks

What a great resource for the names of school-aged children and their parents (or guardians).

I felt strongly about this item, but I also knew I couldn’t save everything. My personal research isn’t in Medford, Massachusetts. This record wasn’t part of any of my non-family history research interests. But I couldn’t bear to watch it not go to a repository.

I went ahead and contacted a friend who works for a library I thought would be interested. When they weren’t, I had to come up with a Plan B. I was running out of time since the auction was ending, and I risked someone buying it. So, I decided to bid on it. I ended up with the highest bid and won the auction. The question was, now what? I was the proud owner of an item I didn’t need and wasn’t sure what I was going to do with it.

Mail Call

The census ledger eventually arrived at my house, and record-wise, it was beautiful. It was in good shape, and the handwriting was legible. It definitely was something that researchers with ancestors in that area would love to see. After taking photos and keeping it safe for about 4 months, I knew I needed to do something with it. I needed to get it out of my home and into the hands of those who could preserve it and make it accessible to researchers. But who?

I had quite a few options in mind, but in the end, I decided to crowdsource the problem. I posted my dilemma on Facebook. I added photos of the school census book and tagged various friends who worked at libraries and archives. I wrote that I was looking for a home for the census and would donate it to an interested repository. It wasn’t too long after I posted that I found the census a new home. The FamilySearch Library.

Rescue Tips

Now that the school census is safely with the librarians at the FamilySearch Library (and will be available for research in the future) I can reflect on some suggestions I have if you’re tempted to rescue “lost” records or genealogically relevant items.

1. It will cost you. Whether it’s eBay or the local antique store, the item will have a cost. Even when I’ve had contact with the seller and explained my intentions for the item, at most, I’ve received a 10% discount. And that’s ok. The seller paid for it, and they deserve to make a living. They don’t care about my good intentions. The items I’ve “rescued” I’ve paid for and did not accept any reimbursement from the family or the repository I gifted them to. I chose to do this and so I accept the cost.
   
   
2. That “perfect” place may not want it. In fact, no one may want it for a variety of reasons, including duplications, not part of their collection guidelines, lack of storage space, or it’s just not what they want. I’ve had this happen more than once and, in fact, have seen collections of stuff that should be perfect, in my opinion, for a repository, and they refuse it. You have to accept that. While I decided to crowdsource my census record, if that hadn’t worked, I would have digitized the item and placed it on my own website or blog, giving me time to find a permanent home for the future.
   
   
3. It can quickly get out of hand. Rescuing anything, whether it’s correspondence, photos, or documents, can be addicting. But it can also become a burden. It will cost you money, time, and storage. And in my opinion, you have to have an end game because if/when you pass away, your family won’t be as conscientious about getting the item to the right person. My kids (and most likely yours) aren’t interested in reuniting heirlooms and records. They have their own hobbies and interests.

Rescuing orphan items isn’t for everyone, and that’s ok. In some cases, I find something and then alert a friend who works with a repository about the item, and then I walk away. I’m available if they need me to pick it up, mail it, etc., but I let them take over. Sometimes just letting others know about the existence of something can help it get into the right hands.

As researchers, we depend on records, and sometimes records aren’t where we would expect. Rescoring those records or alerting others to their existence can help them get into the right hands and benefit us all.

 

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

 

Case Studies as Genealogy Learning Tools

It's no wonder that when Legacy Webinars announced their most-watched webinars for 2023, Elizabeth Shown Mills featured prominently. Aside from the opportunity to learn from an expert in the field, she teaches by example. Many of the webinars she and other speakers from that list provided were based on case studies. Case studies aren't just popular as webinars; they are essential to our genealogical education and research. Why?

How do we, as researchers, learn how to do better research? Some of the ways we know might include reading or taking courses in methodology. Working on our research, learning by doing is also essential. Case studies are another way to learn as we go beyond a knowledge of common record sets and focus on problem-solving. It's through hearing the experiences of others that we can learn to do better research.

You might wonder how you could learn anything from a case study focusing on a location like New England when your research focuses on Spain. Genealogist Kimberly Powell wrote in her article on Genealogy Case Studies:

What is so eye-opening about the research of others, especially if the individuals or places in question have nothing to do with your own family? There is no better way to learn (aside from your own hands-on practice) than through the successes, mistakes, and techniques of other genealogists. A genealogical case study can be as simple as an explanation of the discovery and analysis of a particular record, to the research steps taken to trace a particular family back through several generations. Each one, however, gives us a glimpse into research problems that we ourselves may face in our own genealogy searches, approached through the eyes and experience of leaders in the genealogical field.[1]

Choosing webinars based on the speaker or how closely the topic matches what we are researching is not unusual. However, with case studies, we want to consider how the presenter solved the problem. What steps did they take? What questions did they ask? Where did they go for answers? Asking those questions means that the places and surnames may be inconsequential. Our focus is the steps the researcher took.

In a recent Legacy webinar I listened to by Gary Ball-Kilbourne PhD, CG titled The Many Wives of Howard William Lowe: Working with Social History to Glean Genealogical Insights his subject married five times. One of the marriages ended in the spouse's death but what happened in the others? Divorce is an obvious answer, but he didn't find the divorce records he expected to. So, he used social history to better understand how couples ended marriages in that time period. He understood that he needed to look beyond his understanding of modern marriage and divorce and instead look at the time period. His research into that question provided the answer. His research and handout are a must for others who exhaust traditional records sources and need to understand an era and location better.

It's easy to discount case studies, whether written or presented. They aren't necessarily "entertaining," and they may seemingly have nothing to do with your research because they are focused on a different location and surname. But that's not the point. Case studies help us better understand how to solve problems. They are the reason we read genealogy journals such as The National Genealogical Society Quarterly and listen to presenters' explain their research. As we choose what case studies to attend, consider what the presenter's research question is and how they found that answer. Use their handout to read more and possibly pick up sources to help your research.

[1] "Genealogy Case Studies," Thought Co (https://www.thoughtco.com/genealogy-case-studies-4048463: accessed 3 January 2023).

 

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

 

From Mystery to History: The Power of Adding Details to Your Photo Collection

When was the last time you poured over your family pictures? Have you stopped to consider how they will look to future generations? Obviously, you want them stored so they last until at least the next generation. But have you also considered what the next generation needs to inherit and caretaker them?

I've spent some time this year scanning and sharing printed photos online via family tree and cloud storage websites. But there's one other step we need to consider as we protect and share those images. Who is in that picture?

Who is that?

I've been labeling a lot of family photos lately. As a family historian, some images are easy for me to label. I know who those family members are and I easily recognize them. But I've also run into some problems. There are photos of family members that I know are family members, I know what side of the family they are from, and I even know they are siblings of a direct ancestor, but for the life of me, I can't remember their names. In some cases I have problems identifying people in images if they look "different" from what I remember.

As family historians, we know the difficulty in identifying inherited photos. But have you considered the photos of your immediate family? Now is the time to label those photos your family has posed for or had taken. Sure, you know that photo is of you and your mother, but as you consider a child, grandchild, or other family member inheriting those photos, they won't have the same frame of reference that you do. Those photos may be in danger of being discarded if no one can identify the people in the picture.

Start today. Identify those printed photos. Write what you know on the back of the photo. Use a soft lead pencil on older photos like cabinet cards that are mounted on cardboard. Don't use a hard lead pencil, which can indent. For newer photos, use a waterproof, photo-safe archival pen or marker. Don't use ballpoint pens because they will cause you to create indentations in your photo. They can also smudge.

What information should you label your photographs with? At the very least, identify the people in the picture. Make sure to use their names and not something like "grandma" or "dad." That won't help family members in the future since they don't know who labeled the photograph. Depending on what the image is of, consider information such as:

• Date: To help place the photograph in a year range or specific date. It can also help to understand who is in the photograph
• Location: Even if it's in front of someone's house, identify who's house and the address
• Event: Why was the photo taken? Was it for Thanksgiving or other holiday celebration? Was it at a funeral or a wedding? Was it just an annual school photo (what grade/what year/what school?) Providing a little context will help descendants understand the image better.

Depending on the size of the printed picture, you might be limited to what can be included. Include what you can, the most important being identifying people.

To learn more about preserving and sharing family photographs, visit the Legacy Webinar Library category Photos and Digital Images.

 

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

 

3 Things to Know About Using Hathi Trust for Genealogy Research

Are you using the website Hathi Trust for your research? Hathi Trust's mission is "…to contribute to research, scholarship, and the common good by collaboratively collecting, organizing, preserving, communicating, and sharing the record of human knowledge." They do this by providing digitized books and periodicals scanned from partner institutions. Like any website, diving in and exploring is a great way to learn more, but here are three things you need to know as an introduction.

#1 Hathi Trust is a collaborative website

Two hundred member libraries worldwide help Hathi Trust users access 18 million digital items. Member libraries include "research libraries, community colleges, liberal arts schools, government agencies, and more." If you want to see if one of your local libraries is a member, visit their Member List web page.

#2 Membership has its privileges

Hathi Trust is not a subscription website. Individuals cannot pay for a subscription. Users accessing Hathi Trust from a member library or with a library card from one of those libraries benefit by being able to download digital items and having access to the entire collection. Don't worry if you do not have institutional access. 40% of Hathi Trust is available to anyone. You do not need to sign in to the website. This chart on the How to Search & Access web page breaks down what public users can and cannot access.

One tip I have is that because Google digitized 95% of the collection if you come across an item you cannot access, go to Google Books and see if you can find it there.

To learn more about accessing the collection, see the web page How to Search & Access: https://www.hathitrust.org/the-collection/search-access/

#3 Hathi Trust is more than books, but it's not Internet Archive

Unlike Internet Archive, Hathi Trust does have limits in regards to what materials are available. Hathi Trust includes "Books and book-like items. This includes books, magazines, newspapers, sheet music, journals, and government documents. (There are no audio/visual files.)" Internet Archive is a collaborative website, but anyone, libraries, museums, and even individuals, can contribute. Internet Archive also includes video and audio files.

To start searching Hathi Trust, consider a keyword you want to use. This could be an ancestor's name, a location, or any keyword that describes them or their life. Search using the top search toolbar. Once you have your results list, use the left-side menu to narrow or focus your search. You can also access an Advanced Search tool at the top of your results page.

Access to multiple digital collection websites can help you find the needed resources. If you haven't used Hathi Trust before, try it and see what books you can find that can help with your research.

 

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

 

3 Websites to Learn More About Preserving Your Family Records

Family historians research, but we also collect. We collect and inherit documents that tell the story of our ancestor’s lives. As the curator of these items, we are tasked with not only interpreting and sharing but ensuring their preservation for future generations. It’s a job that most of us have limited knowledge or experience with, but there are websites that can help.

The Library of Congress

The Preservation page at the Library of Congress offers resources for everything from getting preservation questions answered to learning more about preserving various types of items. Explore the menu found on the left-hand side to learn more about preservation. One of the topics in the menu, Resources, will help you to find educational materials that will be helpful for you, your family, and even any presentations you may provide. If you have items that need a professional to repair any damage, this website includes information on finding and hiring a conservator. For those in Canada, consult the Canadian Association of Professional Conservators website.

The National Archives (U.S.)

The U.S. National Archives has an illustrated brochure from a previous virtual Genealogy Fair that can help you know the basics of preserving your heirlooms. You’ll find it in the PDF at https://www.archives.gov/files/calendar/genealogy-fair/2017/1-smith-handout.pdf. The general information about handling, storing, and displaying are good reminders for everyone tasked with storing family heirlooms.The U.S. National Archives also has a webpage that explores how they preserve records and how you can preserve your family archive. Learn more about digitizing and storing paper documents and photographs. They even tackle the problem of paper items that hold mold or are infested with bugs. The Storing Family Papers and Photograph section discusses storing individual pages, albums, and rolled documents.

The Smithsonian

The Smithsonian has a blog post entitled Six Tips for Preserving Family Archives that includes tips by archive staff. One tip that would help future genealogists is to label photographs with not only the name of the person but also their birth/death dates. Doing so helps in clearly identifying people, especially those who share a name with someone in the previous or next generation. Clear identification is part of preserving items for the future.

It’s important that we keep our family heirlooms and documents in a way that preserves them for the future. Digitizing and archivally storing items can help. Sometimes, a conservator might be needed to repair damaged items; consult the websites above for an expert.

 

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.

 

Do You Remember the Telephone Operator: Capturing Your Telephone Memories

Sometimes, writing about our lives can be difficult. After all, we may believe we haven't done anything of note. Genealogists trace lineages, so why write about ourselves? I believe our descendants and families are more interested in something when they have context. So why not write about your experience with something they are familiar with?

Let's take the telephone as an example. Depending on your age, the phone has gone through many changes over your lifetime. Today, a phone is part of a more complex device that offers the internet, an audio/video recorder, GPS, and a camera. That's a far cry from when I was a teenager, and you had to use a pay phone if you were not home, and if you were, you had to share the phone with your family. Private conversations were rare since a pesky younger sibling might pick up the phone in a different room and listen to your plans. And for my mother's generation, party lines meant no private conversation.

Photo Courtesy of Gena Philibert-Ortega

So, how has the phone changed in your life? If you consider telephones, there is so much you can write about. Phones have historically been expensive, and at one time, they had to be rented from the phone company. That means that not all of our families would have owned or rented a phone, meaning immediate communications during disaster or emergency would have been limited. 

Photo Courtesy of Gena Philibert-Ortega

My story with the telephone from my teenage years includes details of my dad's work. My dad worked for the railroad and didn't have a regular "shift." He was on the "extra board," meaning that he would be called in to work when needed. Answering the phone meant making money. He lost work that day if he didn't answer the phone. So, in those days, having a teenager who LOVED being on the phone with friends was a problem. We had call waiting, but that wasn't enough to ensure he got the calls our family needed. So my parents spent the extra money to get me my own phone number. I was the only teenager I knew with my own phone number. That allowed me to be on the phone, and my family didn't need to worry about missed calls. Today, having your own phone number isn't seen as that uncommon, but in those days it was.

Photo Courtesy of Gena Philibert-Ortega

What's your telephone story? How has technology changed through your lifetime? Some prompts you could write about include:

• Do you remember your childhood phone number?
• What did the phone you use look like (rotary dial, buttons, etc.)
• Did your family have a phone? When did they get a phone?
• Did you have family who worked for the phone company?
• What features did your phone have (call waiting, etc)?
• Who could you call and who could you not call (for example, what was long-distance? What was the cost?)
• How did pay phones work?
• What were your family phone rules (no calls after a certain time, how long you could be on the phone, etc.)
• What phone etiquette were you taught?
• Do you have any phone stories?
• What photos do you have of you on the phone or the phone in your home?

What are your phone stories? Please share them in the comments below and share them with your family.

 

Gena Philibert-Ortega is an author, instructor, and researcher. She blogs at Gena's Genealogy and Food.Family.Ephemera. You can find her presentations on the Legacy Family Tree Webinars website.