Links, 3.7.12

Sad aftermath: So many stories of destruction from the recent devastating tornadoes in the Midwest. Springfield (Ill.) columnist Dave Bakke writes a poignant piece about a ruined church and the hole it leaves in a small town’s past.

Vigilance pays: A man charged with stealing dozens of memorial vases (with bronze stripes)  from a cemetery in Port Angeles, Wash., was turned in by the alert owner of a metal recycling business, who became suspicious when the vases were offered to him for sale. Well spotted.

Risky legacies: Interesting article about medical researchers using a Family Tree Mortality Ratio to analyze risk of sudden death through inherited cardiac arrhythmias.

Links, 2.15.12

Apologizing: Very interesting article in the Deseret News about the LDS addressing the case of a church member “who last month had a posthumous proxy baptism performed for the parents of famed Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal.” Said church member’s access to the church’s genealogy database has been suspended, and an apology issued.

Prognostications: At Genea-Musings, Randy Seaver posts some thought-provoking words from Jeffrey Bockman (among other things, a past president of the Illinois State Genealogical Society) on The Future of Genealogy.

Generationally Speaking: Oh, thank you, Dick Eastman, for pointing out this exceptionally cool extended generation story! It is almost better than the one about John Tyler’s grandchildren!  U.S. News and World Report has a story on the last two Civil War pensions still being paid, both to children of veterans. The recipients are reportedly in poor health. The article notes that the last Civil War veteran died in 1956, aged 109, and the last Civil War widow died in 2003, aged 93.

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.)

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.

Links, 1.11.12

Linking away …

Networked: Popular research workshops from NARA are now online, and DearMyrtle gives an informative writeup if you are interested in learning more.

Class Consciousness: Registration for classes at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research opens on Tuesday, Jan. 17; so says their Facebook page. For those with the time and means, this institute at Samford University (from June 10-15), is a wonderful opportunity to pursue in-depth study with top names in the field. These include Elizabeth Shown Mills, whose “Advanced Methodology and Evidence Analysis” seminar is in the kind of demand usually associated with getting a breakfast reservation at Cinderella’s table at Disney World. (A commenter at Dick Eastman’s place said that it has been known to fill up in 15 minutes. Wow!) But I digress. Here is the link to the course listing.

Simpler Steps: The month is still young … time remains to take on Lorine McGinnis Schulze’s Write an Ancestor Tribute challenge. I especially like Lorine’s suggestion to keep it to one page. Not only does this encourage focused writing, it keeps the project down to a manageable idea, as opposed to the massive family history tome so many of us swear we’ll write someday, but never do. Imagine if we just tackled it one profile at a time!