Links, 1.25.11

Picture this: Here’s a heads-up for old-photo enthusiasts in the NYC metro area. On Friday from 3:15 to 4:30 p.m., The New York Public Library is holding  a workshop, “Clues From Family Photos,” at the South Court Classrooms of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, Fifth Avenue at 42^nd Street. It is billed as first come, first served.

Awarded: Congrats to Ed Laput of Colchester, Conn., upon whom the Godfrey Memorial Library bestowed the Fremont Rider Award for Lifetime Achievement – only the third given in 65 years. Laput was recognized for spearheading efforts to catalogue cemeteries in the state.

Travelogue: Not all of this article on genealogy vacationing was news to me, but I did find myself deep in envy of James Derheim, founder of European Focus, which performs a combination of research legwork and travel agentry to give clients a genealogy trip to remember. Derheim’s work has taken him through Germany, Italy, Ireland, England and the Czech and Slovak republics. Talk about a dream job.

Forensic studies: If you are wondering about the world of forensic genealogy, the Council for the Advancement of Forensic Genealogy has organized its first Forensic Genealogy Institute, scheduled for October 25-27 in Dallas. It’s a seriously intensive proposition limited to 25 participants. (There’s a press release here.)

Interesting, If Creepy: ‘Invisible’ Mothers

Yes, moms are present in these vintage photographs of babies and toddlers, holding them steady for the photographer, but hidden under afghans or rugs to make it look as if the grownup isn’t actually there. I spied a pair of trouser-clad legs in one of the photos, so it looks as if there were invisible dads, too.

Irish Marriages and Deaths: A Nifty Workaround

Tom Kemp at the GenealogyBank blog notes that the New York City-based newspaper The Irish American published regular reports of marriages and deaths in Ireland between 1849 to 1914. This does not sound like a definitive listing, but apparently the listings occur often enough, and in enough quantity, to be notable. Civil registration in Ireland did not begin until 1864.

The newspaper is searchable through GenealogyBank, which is a subscription service, but is also often accessible through public libraries.

Sentimental Sunday: Musical Legacies

As someone who can’t imagine life without singing and playing music, even as the stalwart amateur I am, I think one of the nicest heirlooms a person could pass along would be a musical instrument.

I am the owner of a pretty good piano, as well as a totally mid-range guitar that for some reason has a really nice sound that impresses people who own much more fabulous instruments. I hope someday that someone in the next generations of our family will like the idea of owning them after me.

But most of all, I hope they’ll be played by somebody, anybody. Silence is not golden where musical instruments are concerned. There’s a mystique around a fabled antique like the “The Messiah,” a 1716 violin made by Antonio Stradivari that is said never to have been played, and was left to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford with the condition that it will continue never to be played. Which seems sad, but then, I don’t really get the attraction of a gorgeous violin in a glass case.

Yesterday we struggled through a January snowfall to hear my younger daughter play in her winter violin recital. The program contained a poignant footnote. One of the other young violinists was playing a three-quarter-sized violin once owned by Tyler Clementi, a young man whose tragic death made national headlines, but who is also remembered hereabouts as a gifted violinist who had an awful lot of music left to play.

It is sad beyond belief that we can’t hear more from the former owner of the beautiful smaller-sized violin. But the instrument sounded undeniably lovely yesterday, as the snow fell quietly outside the hall, and its current owner played selections from Handel’s Sonata No. 3. There is comfort, and no small sense of wonder, at the lasting power of music to touch hearts, and endure.

What I Am Reading Right Now

I am going through a fantastically interesting and useful set of posts over at The Legal Genealogist called How old did folks have to be (that link is Part One; here are Part Two and Part Three).

It reminds us that in the absence of a birth record, the legal framework in which our ancestors operated can provide important clues about their age. Knowing how old a person had to be to marry (among many things) can help us narrow the range of a search considerably.

Judy G. Russell is providing so much good information here it’s unfair to single out any one paragraph, but since this one involves my home state and really is a very good example, here goes:

In East Jersey, the 1683 Fundamental Constitutions required the ruling Proprietors to be 21 years old in order to vote (section XIII), jurors were required to be age 25 (section XIX), and whenever any names were to be drawn by lot for elections or jury service, the drawing was done by a boy under the age of 10 (sections III and XIX).

Where you find a name, and at what point in a place’s legal history, can point you to some very specific age frames, as Russell’s posts amply illustrate. Great stuff.

Links, 1.19.12

Free roaming: Kansas residents with a valid driver’s license can get free access to more than 8 million Kansas records on Ancestry via an agreement with Ancestry.com and the Kansas Historical Society. (Although I feel bad for Kansas residents who don’t happen to drive, for whatever reason.)

Village, revisited: Can you go home again? Journalist Alex Weisler had reason to ponder the question when he visited Shatsk, the shtetl in western Ukraine from which his family emigrated. A nice summary of a complex but ultimately rewarding trip.

Growth: The Family Tree app is in the top 20 of fast-growing Facebook apps, according to Inside Facebook. At No. 9, it’s several spots behind Birthday Calendar but one step ahead of TripAdvisor.  Somehow that sequence seems appropriate, I don’t know why.