Tips from the Pros: THE National Archives. Which National Archives? from Paula Stuart Warren, CG

National Archives, Washington, D.C., from LOC Photo Collection at Ancestry
I recently saw two different titles that were not clear until I read the introduction to the books. Simply titling something “Research in the National Archives” no longer works.  Is it the National Archives of the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, or South Africa? Or maybe it is the National Archives of India, Scotland, Cambodia, Japan, Ireland, Kenya, or Norway. Your sister who moved from Pennsylvania to London, England, five years ago has caught the genealogy bug. She tells you she is going to the National Archives. Wow! Is she coming to Washington, D.C. to work on the family? She may mean the UK.

When you talk about a national archives be clear about which one you are referencing. When you cite the source of a document or database, be clear about which national archives it is from–even in the case of a microfilmed record. Don’t be the one to send your future great-grandniece to Scotland instead of Hungary, France, or Nigeria after she reads through your old papers. Genealogical writers, researchers, lecturers, bloggers, historians, and cataloguers alike need to pay close attention so we don’t cause additional confusion.

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Your Quick Tips, 06 August 2007

View of Pottsville Taken from Sharp Mountain & respectfully dedicated to the enterprising citizens of the Coal Region by J.R. Smith, ca. 1833Place Names of Tennessee
Tennessee has a book entitled Place Names of Tennessee, by the Tennessee Division of Geology, and another book which lists all the present and former post offices in Tennessee. I own a copy of the former and I check the library frequently for the latter. Perhaps other states have similar books, if you check libraries.
 
Roy Howard, Chattanooga TN Continue reading

The Year Was 1922

Dog with radio headphones, 1922, from LOC Photograph Collection at AncestryThe year was 1922 and the world had entered the radio era. While the first radio broadcast was in 1906, it had taken a while to go mainstream. In the early 1900s, radio was for the most part in the hands of curious amateurs. However, with the arrival of WWI, the government shut down amateur radio and operations were largely restricted to military activity. Following the war though, the industry blossomed and in 1922 President Warren G. Harding became the first U.S. president to deliver a message via the new medium. Across the pond in England, six radio manufacturers received a license to form the first radio station in the UK–the British Broadcasting Corporation, or BBC as most people know it.

In Ireland, 1922 marked the beginning of the Irish Civil War. Trouble had long been brewing over the issues of Home Rule, and the division between Protestants and Catholics. After the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 6 December 1921, which established the Irish Free State, pro- and anti-treaty forces erupted in violence in June 1922 and the bloody war would last into May of 1923. Continue reading

Photo Corner

Anna Hanna Kuntz, at age eighteen in 1893.Contributed by Bob Pfeifer
Attached is a picture of my grandmother, Anna Hanna Kuntz, at age eighteen in 1893.

Click on the images to enlarge them.  

William Taylor. William moved from Lancashire to Manayunk, Pennsylvania Contributed by John E. Taylor
I believe this picture to be of my great-grandfather, William Taylor. William moved from Lancashire to Manayunk, Pennsylvania with his brother-in-law, Thomas Thomasson, around 1862–the time of the cotton famine. William was deaf and dumb from childhood and was still in Manayunk in 1870 but married in 1874 back in England.
 

FindFamily Registry Launched to Help Reunite Families with Institutionalized Loved Ones

Today I ran across a very touching CNN article on a brother who searched for and has been reunited with his sister, who had been institutionalized when she was three years old. According to the article,

It’s unknown exactly how many children were institutionalized in the last century. In 1967, at the height of institutionalization, as many as 100,000 children were housed in 162 state facilities across the U.S., according to Charlie Lakin, a professor at the University of Minnesota who studies the history of institutionalization. Other experts put the number of institutions as high as 200.

The ARC, an orgainzation “devoted to promoting and improving supports and services for all people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” has launced a National FindFamily Registry  to help facilitate reunions for families separated when a member was institutionalized. Family members and disabled persons and their advocates can register for free, but donations can be made to help support this wonderful project.