Another Lost Faces Family Photo Album online

LOST FACES is my collection of Antique Family Photo Albums. Most are from the Civil War time period with CDVs (Cartes de Visite) and tintypes. Some are Cabinet Cards from the 1880-1900 time period. Lost Faces is my way of saving genealogy treasures and preserving historical documents. Some albums that contain funeral cards, memorial cards, obituaries, Christmas cards, and hand-written genealogies.

Today I have uploaded the Alexander and Boomhauer Family Photo Album to Lost Faces. It consists of 25 Cabinet Cards and Cartes de Visite from 1870 on. 21 photos are identified by name!

Surnames include Boomhower, Boomhauer, Alexander, Simpson, Lawton, Stewart, Babcock, Dobbs, Leaman. Locations include Iowa, New York, Wisconsin

There are almost 60 photo albums online at Lost Faces for you to look through. That means approximately 3000 or more photos of possible ancestors.

Many of my photo albums are now online in their entirety for you to view and freely save photos for your own personal use.

Albums that are not online yet have the option for you to view thumbnails and order quality reproductions of an ancestor.

You can identify ancestor photos by understanding the Types of Early Photographs and during what time period each was used. Do you need help to date a treasured photo found in the attic? Do you want to learn how to Date Old Photographs through Clothing & Hairstyle? There's another trick too - How Revenue Stamps Can Date Ancestor Photos

Washington State World War I Service Statement Cards, 1917-1919 online

The World War I Service Statement Cards, 1917-1919 (Department of Veterans Affairs), indexed by Washington Historical Records Project volunteers, are available and searchable online at the Washington Digital Archives.

Information contained in the records includes full name, serial number, race, place inducted, place of birth, unit assignments, ranks attained, engagements fought in, wounds received, dates served overseas, date of demobilization, and degree of disability (if any).

Choose Military Records from the drop down "Record Series" Menu. There are other Military Records online too. I searched for MASSEY and got these hits:

* Department of Veterans Affairs, World War I Service Statement Cards, 1917-1919 4
Pierce Military Records - 9 hits

* Snohomish Military Records - 11 hits

* Spokane County WWI Soldiers Miscellaneous Lists - 2 hits

* Washington State Department of Veterans' Affairs, Orting Soldiers' Home, Member Files, 1891-1987 - 4 hits

* Washington State Department of Veterans' Affairs, Veterans' Home - Retsil, Member Files, 1910-1977. - 1 hit

Wyoming Historical Newspapers

Wyoming State Library plans to digitize newspapers from 1849 to 1922. The first batch of these Wyoming Newspapers is now online at Wyoming Newspaper Project

As of May 22, 2009,721,138 full page newspaper images were published. A complete list of newspapers and dates is available in pdf format.

The Soldier in later Medieval England: An exciting new AHRC research project

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has awarded a Research Grant worth just under £500,000 to Dr Adrian Bell of the ICMA Centre and Professor Anne Curry of the University of Southampton to challenge assumptions about the emergence of professional soldiery between 1369 and 1453.

The online muster roll database currently holds just under 90,000 service records. These are taken from muster rolls, housed in The National Archives (TNA), for the years 1369 - 1453.

The online protection and attorney database currently holds just under 20,000 records. These are taken from the treaty rolls, housed in The National Archives (TNA), for the years 1369 - 1453.

The Garrison database is in draft form at present. This is in order to stress test the database, as it contains over 110,000 service records. The records are drawn from mainly French repositories and record service for the English crown, in the occupation of Normandy from 1415 - 1453.

Search the above databases.

A pilot project database is now available for searching.

New Version of the Canadian Naturalization 1915-1932 Database

Ottawa, July 22, 2009 - Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce the release of a new version of theCanadian Naturalization 1915-1932 online database.

It now includes the names of 206,731 individuals who applied for and received status as naturalized Canadians from 1915 to 1932. This database is one of the few Canadian genealogical resources specifically designed to benefit those researchers with roots outside of the British Commonwealth. References located in the database can be used to request copies of the actual naturalization records, which are held by Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Burr Oak Cemetery Opening Online Records Database

Authorities plan to give the public access to a searchable online database of nearly 100,000 graves at the historic black cemetery where four people are accused of digging up graves to resell the plots.

The database may be available later this week according to Cook County Sheriff's office. The database was created using existing records from Burr Oak Cemetery and county death certificates.

Burr Oak is the burial place of civil rights-era lynching victim Emmett Till and several other prominent African-Americans. I

Read the rest of the story Burr Oak Cemetery Opening Online Records Database

Genealogy Family Hope Chest in Family Tree Magazine!

It was quite exciting to see an article Called "Best Hope" in Family Tree Magazine September 2009 issue.

The article (on page 17) is based on my blog series Genealogy Hope Chest. The Family Tree Magazine article lists my 8 steps, with a brief summary of each, and includes a photo of some of my family treasures that have been passed on through the generations to me.

I am so honoured to be mentioned and have something I wrote included in their magazine! The online site for Family Tree Magazine is at http://www.familytreemagazine.com

Online release of the Stars and Stripes historic newspaper archive

NewspaperARCHIVE,(at NewspaperARCHIVE.com) in partnership with Stars and Stripes U.S. military publication, announces the online release of the Stars and Stripes historic newspaper archive.

Stars and Stripes, the daily independent news source for the U.S. military community, has partnered with NewspaperARCHIVE to digitize and make its entire microfilm archive available online. This partnership, which also includes microfilm preservation of Stars and Stripes newspapers, gives libraries, historical societies, educational institutions and individuals online access to more than one million pages of historic newspaper content never before available.

"We are proud to be able to distribute this historic military publication," said Jeff Kiley, General Manager of Heritage Microfilm. "Researchers across the globe will now have access to Stars and Stripes, which has been reporting on major headlines from the front lines continuously since World War II. The newspaper's archive offers readers a global perspective on events that shaped the world's history, such as the Vietnam War, the moon landing, the fall of the Berlin Wall and much, much more. Stars and Stripes is a wonderful research tool for historians and genealogists, containing a wealth of information about American service members and the events which shape their history."

The archive is the culmination of nearly two years' worth of work assembling the best microfilm of the Stars and Stripes collection available, scanning it into digital form, inspecting each image for irregularities and quality issues, correcting any problem images, and building a fully-searchable digital archive website.

Content from Stars and Stripes is featured on NewspaperARCHIVE at NewspaperARCHIVE.com. The archive is divided in two editions ż the Pacific Stars and Stripes and European Stars and Stripes. The Stars and Stripes collection is integrated into almost 100 million additional newspaper pages of valuable content from the U.S. and around the world, dating as far back as 1753.

Smile For The Camera "Bling, ancestor Bling."

The 16th Edition of Smile For The Camera is "Bling, ancestor Bling." The word prompt is "Show us a photograph of your ancestor wearing their "Bling," or photographs of the pieces you have inherited. "

I have many pieces given to me by my grandmother when I was a teenager. I think my favourite is the gold pocket watch given to my grandfather on his 21st birthday by his parents (my great grandparents)

On the outside in fancy lettering are his initials CHF and inside the cover is engraved From Mum & Dad, April 24th, 1914

I also have Grandad's signet ring with his initials and I used to have his silver watch fob and engraved match case but they were stolen many years ago. I have felt great sadness ever since they were taken and have chastised myself for not keeping them locked up instead of on display in our home. I find myself looking at every case and fob in antique stores in case one day his turn up!

Caribbean Slave Records coming online

Ancestry.com Launches One of the Most Comprehensive Collections of Caribbean Slave Records

Nearly 200 Years of St. Croix-Virgin Islands Family History Records Coming Online

PROVO, UT--(Marketwire - July 16, 2009) - Ancestry.com, the world's largest online commercial resource for family history, today announced that the company, in collaboration with Virgin Islands Social History Associates (VISHA), is launching a significant online collection of Caribbean slave records detailing nearly 200 years of St. Croix-Virgin Islands history.

This unique collection is a product of the St. Croix African Roots Project, initiated in 2002 by VISHA to bring together records that document the population, families and individuals on St. Croix during the period of Danish rule. During the past seven years, VISHA collected, documented and transcribed a vast array of historical records found in American, Danish and Virgin Island archives. These records together in one collection help individuals of African descent chronicle the lives of their African and Creole ancestors as they negotiated enslavement and freedom in a New World plantation society.

To make this collection more accessible, Ancestry.com is working with VISHA to digitize and put online the St. Croix African Roots Project documents, which will help tens of thousands of people trace their ancestral roots, some to individual Africans and specific African homelands.

The first installment of this collection that went online today includes the U.S. Virgin Islands St. Croix Slave Lists (1772-1821) and Population Census (1835-1911), which together contain information on more than 700,000 slaves, owners and family members. These St. Croix African Roots Project records will be searchable for free on Ancestry.com until the end of July.

Ancestry.com has set up a remote scanning operation in St. Croix to digitize more of this collection and in the coming year, the site will add more than a million family history records from the project including:

-- Slave Trade Shipping Records 1749-1802 -- Names and prices of enslaved
Africans sold from slave ships to purchasers on St. Croix
-- Property Inventories 1755-1848 -- Names, occupations, property values,
locations and family relations of enslaved individuals
-- Free Persons of Color Records 1740-1834 -- Periodic censuses, lists
and freedom charters for the free colored population and other special
censuses and papers
-- Church Records 1744-1917 -- Records of baptisms, marriages, births and
deaths of slaves and free persons belonging to the Lutheran, Dutch Reform,
Anglican, Roman Catholic and Moravian churches in St. Croix
-- Vital Statistics 1820-1917 -- Records of births, death, and marriages
on an annual basis with information about family relations
-- Vaccination Records 1823-1853 -- Smallpox vaccination records for all
plantation slaves for the years 1823-1824 and annual vaccinations performed
in both towns and plantations 1829-1853
-- Emancipation Records 1848 -- Compiled for all plantation slaves freed
in order to establish compensation amounts for the owners
-- Movements of Plantation Workers 1848-1870 -- Traces the movements of
ex-slaves around St. Croix and off-island in the years after emancipation
-- Immigration Records 1850-1917 -- Documents immigration of people from
other Caribbean Islands to St. Croix after emancipation
-- Laborer Lists 1849-1917 -- Lists of laborers working on the
plantations

Continue reading Press Release

Dating Old Family Photos

You've found a box of old photos in your great-aunt's attic. She doesn't want them and tells you to go ahead and take the box. Some of the pictures are identified by name but you've no idea when the photos were taken! What do you do now?

The first thing you need to do is figure out the approximate time period of each photo. Is it 20th century, or 19th century? Mid 1800s? Late 1800s? How do you figure it out?

You can date photographs through various clues:

1. Type of photo - Tintype, daguerreotype, Carte de visite, cabinet card, 1900s home photos - narrow your time frame by first identifying the photo type.

2. Photographer's name (if there is one). Research the photographer. Find out when he or she was in business.

3. Photographer's mark and logo on the back of a CDV (Carte de Visite). Marks and logos changed over time from none to simple to more elaborate.

4. Fashion, especially women's fashions. Are the skirts full? Do they have hoops? Crinolines? Do they simply fall from the waist? Does the dress have full sleeves? Tight tapered sleeves? Dropped shoulder? A Yoke effect? High collar? Low collar? Natural wwaistline with belt? Dropped waist? Bustle? All these and more indicate fairly specific years.

5. Hairstyles. Women's hairstyles in particular changed over the years. Look to see if the ears are exposed or covered. Is hair parted in the middle and swept back severely? Is it low on the nape of the neck? Is it in sausage curls or ringlets? Is it gathered high on the top of the head? There are many variations and every one is typical of a fairly specific time period.

6. Is there a Revenue Stamp on the back? This dates your photo to 1864-1866. If you're lucky, the photographer date stamped his revenue stamp as he was supposed to.

There are many details you can also look for when attempting to date an ancestor photo. See Hints For Dating an Ancestor Photograph for information on Photo Corners (round versus square cut), quality of photograph cards (thin, thick), colured backings versus non-coloured etc.

It's a great feeling to get a box of old family photos and be able to slot them into time periods! Why not join us on Lost Faces: Ancestor Photos & Albums on GenealogyWise. This is a group I created to talk about our old photos and to help each other identify the years taken.

Air Canada offers flight for remains of woman left in London

Isn't it amazing what people will do to help? When this story first came out I thought poor Gladys would never come home. I was wrong! Read the story from

THE CANADIAN PRESS

FREDERICTON – The incredible tale of the unclaimed remains of a Canadian woman at a London cemetery, and efforts to send her home after almost a century, has caught the interest of a major airline.

Barry Smith of The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery says Air Canada has offered a free flight to ship the coffin from London to Halifax.

Gladys Winifred Fowler was 18 when she died in April 1917.

... Continue reading

Anomaly of Ellis Island Ships Passenger Lists

Some time ago on a ships passenger lists mailing list, my friend Sue Swiggum of TheShipsList.com discovered that the total number of passengers on a filmed Ellis Island list matched the number of third class passengers only. All other passengers were missing.

Investigations and consultation with a knowledgeable colleague gave us the answer to the puzzle of the missing passengers. There are always exceptions, but in general from about June 15th 1897 until approx. March or April 1903, the lists for first class and second class passengers were not collected at Ellis Island and do not survive, so therefore will not appear on microfilm, nor in the Ellis Island online database.

So if you are looking for ancestors and you are 100% positive they arrived at Ellis Island between 1897 and 1903, be aware that if they travelled first or second class, you might not find their names.

I Got Wise... GenealogyWise that is....

I got wise. GenealogyWise that is... yesterday I joined GenealogyWise.com. GenealogyWise is a new social network site and when I first heard about it I thought "Oh no, just a Facebook wannabee..." I didn't expect to like it. I decided to give it a try though before giving it the thumbs down.

I am giving it one thumbs up and reserving that second thumb until more time has passed. I want to see if the initial euphoria and excitement of it wears off over time.

It is set up just for genealogists and it is rather nice to be connected to others who are passionate about genealogy too!

Not that I will give up Facebook. I have hundreds of friends, family and colleagues on Facebook and I enjoy everything I do there. But the more time I spent on GenealogyWise yesterday, the more I realized I can use both of them.

And GenealogyWise is the hottest thing in cyberspace right now. It took off like a rocket. When I joined there were about 200 members. 24 hours later there were over 1,000. You can link to me as Friend on My Page if you decide to pop over and give GenealogyWise a try.

Last night there were 332 Genealogy Groups. I've never seen so many genealogist set up so many groups so quickly! It almost became a race to see who could grab a good genealogy group name first. Here are a few of the groups I set up for genealogists to join:

Olive Tree Genealogy

Ships Passenger Lists to Canada

Lost Faces: Ancestor Photographs & Albums

Ontario Canada Genealogy

Ships Passenger Lists to USA

Naturalization Records

I hope you'll consider joining me, and other genealogists, in these groups. And there are hundreds more run by other genealogists!

There's lots you can do on GenealogyWise - Blogs, Forums, Groups, Videos, Photos.. you name it you can look at it or participate in it. It's free and easy to register, being part of the NING social network sites. If you are already registered with NING all you'll need to do is log in with your NING ID. Otherwise all you need do is give an email address, a password and fill out a brief profile page.

Hope to see you there! Be sure to look me up at My Page

Featured Genealogy Resource: Coffin Plates (a Death Record)

Today's featured set of little-known Genealogy resources is Coffin Plates. Yes - coffin plates, also known as Casket plates, coffin plaques and casket plaques.

The history of Coffin Plates or casket plates is a long but not very well documented one. Coffin plates are decorative adornments that contain free genealogical information such as the name and death date of the deceased.

Sometimes the coffin plate was attached to the coffin and removed before burial, then given to the family to take home as a remembrance token. Other times the coffin plate was placed on top of the coffin in a stand, then given to the loved ones after the funeral.

Brian Massey of AncestorsAtRest.com has a very large collection of coffin plates online. There are over 500 individual coffin plates on Brian's website and they are all free for visitors to look for a Coffin Plate of an ancestor.

OGS Quinte Branch Updated Searchable Database

The Quinte Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) covers Hastings, Prince Edward and southeastern Northumberland counties was one of the first areas settled by United Empire Loyalists in 1784.

Their Searchable Names Index has been updated and now has over 1,014,600 Names

More than 514,000 names have been added from cemetery transcriptions, baptism records, newspaper indexes and genealogies

If you are searching for Canadian ancestors in other parts of Ontario see Ontario Genealogy for online databases and links.

Reformed Dutch Church of Woodstock, Ulster Co. NY Baptisms 1805 to 1889

Reformed Dutch Church of Woodstock, Ulster Co. New York Baptisms 1805 to 1889 are online as part of an ongoing project on Olive Tree Genealogy to bring New York Church records online

Looking for other New York Church records? See Church Records of New Netherland (New York) on the Olive Tree Genealogy website

NewspaperArchive offering all July 5th newspapers free today

Do you have ancestors who may have made their mark on July 5th any year? In an interesting concept, for today only NewspaperARCHIVE.com is offering all newspapers in their archive from July 5 FREE!

It's worth looking to see if any July 5th newspapers have mention of your ancestor's name.

Bill of Treason from 1837 Rebellion Found

A historical glimpse of Canadiana – a bill of treason connected to the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837 – has been found among the archives at McMaster University.

Written on parchment and dated March 1838, the bill was filed against William Rogers, a yeoman living in or near Albion, York Township, Upper Canada.

Rogers was arrested for treason on December 13, 1837, for plotting an insurrection against the Queen, persuading others to join him, and assembling with about 50 other people.

In the indictment, Rogers is described as "not having the fear of God in his heart but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil."

He was tried April 18, 1838, and ultimately acquitted.

Read more about the Rebellion of 1837 and see a list of names of those Canadians tried and convicted of treason at The Canadian Military Heritage Project

Continue reading this story Bill of Treason from 1837 Rebellion

Footnote.com Partnership to bring more newspapers online

Footnote,com announces an exciting new partnership between Footnote and the largest newspaper publisher in the US, the Gannett Company. Gannett, publisher of 84 daily newspapers including USA Today, will be able to digitize their vast archives for the first time by working together with Footnote. Through this partnership Footnote Members will be able to access valuable historical newspapers never seen before on the internet.

Footnote has this to say

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Moon Landing and Woodstock, we have kicked off our partnership by digitizing the newspapers covering those events. We have recently launched the first runs of Florida Today and the Poughkeepsie Journal (NY). Footnote will continue to digitize the full run of those newspapers including all of the Poughkeepsie Journal, which goes back to 1785.