Digging Up the Past Together

The Book Fair is Coming!

Come browse through more than 120,000 used books in 70 categories. Lots of history and genealogy materials to aid in your research. Or pick up some light reading to help while away the hot summer days.

The book fair will be open:
Thursday, July 29 xamp; Friday, July 30
Noon - 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 31 xamp; Sunday, August 1
10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Afraid you'll miss the really good books? There should be plenty, but you can make sure by becoming a Newberry Associate and attending the preview night on Wednesday, July 28th.

Read more details about the Book Fair and check out the links to the Book Fair Blog and podcast!

On Friday, July 23, Christina Bannon, DAR Chicago Registrar, will be at the Newberry conducting Revolutionary War ancestor lookups from the DAR's database and offering advice on the DAR application process. Christina will be available in the 2nd floor General Reading Room from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm. Appointments are not necessary, though you will need a current Newberry reader's card. For information on obtaining a reader's card, click here.

by Matt Rutherford, Curator of Genealogy and Local History

Earlier this spring, I was contacted by Sravan K., a University of Chicago student who is interested in exploring his family's roots in India. He came to the Newberry to learn oral history interviewing techniques and to familiarize himself with the principles of genealogy research. Since then, Sravan has developed his interest into both an academic and personal project and he is spending the summer in Chennai, India, to interview several extended relatives.

In addition to creating a family genealogy, Sravan will also be investigating how 20th c. social developments, including urbanization, industrializatin, and the spread of higher education, have affected his family, especially in the sphere of work. As he puts it, his purpose is to "understand what changes [his] family underwent-in terms of structure, living arrangements, and individuals' identities-in the 20th century, and how the results of those changes were perceived by the members of [the] family."

It will be interesting to see how he uses genealogy and social history research techniques to inform and reinforce each other. And it will be fun to learn about his family! Follow his progress along with me on his blog, Writing a Family History, at: http://skfamilyhistory.blogspot.com

And for those interested in conducting their own oral histories, the Newberry has a lot of handbooks to help you. Two of the best (that I recommended to Sravan) are available in the second floor reading room:

• Valerie Yow's Recording Oral History: a Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences
• Donald Ritchie's Doing Oral History: a Practical Guide

The Newberry Library is pleased to announce the completion and release of its Digital Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, a dataset that covers every day-to-day change in the size, shape, location, name, organization, and attachment of each U.S. county and state from the creation of the first county in 1634 through 2000.

Nearly every aspect of American life can be described, analyzed, and illuminated through data gathered and organized by county or available in county records, and knowing how and when boundaries changed is often the key to finding and understanding great quantities of historical data. For example, a farm may have been in one family for many generations, but over the decades changes in county lines may have effectively moved that farm from one county to another. When looking for old family records, how does the modern genealogist know which county seat will hold great-grandmother's marriage certificate? How does an attorney know which county seat recorded the deed to great-great-grandfather's farm?

In addition, population figures are commonly aggregated at the county level, but comparing statistics from one enumeration to the next may not accurately reveal actual change. Was a change in the figures from census to census due to population movement or to a change in the boundaries of the reporting counties, or to a combination of both?
With the Newberry's Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, genealogists, geographers, historians, political scientists, attorneys, demographers, and many more now can find accurate county data that will greatly assist them in their research. [-more-]

The data are organized by state and are available online in four versions:

* Viewable, interactive maps (electronic analogues to printed maps) on which the historical lines have been plotted against a background of the modern county network

* Downloadable shapefiles for use in geographic information systems (GIS)

* Downloadable KMZ files for use with Google Earth

* Downloadable and printable PDF files (each full-page frame shows a map of a different version of each county, with the historical boundaries displayed against a background of the modern county network)

Supplementing the polygons and maps for each state are chronologies, commentary on historical problems, long and short metadata documents, and a bibliography.

The project began in 1988, with principal funding provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency. Additional support came from the Newberry Library, which also served as headquarters, and from other foundations and individuals. The Newberry Library is the copyright holder; all files of the Digital Atlas of Historical County Boundaries are free for use under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Creative Commons License. Queries should be addressed to scholl@newberry.org. The Website for the Atlas is publications.newberry.org/ahcbp

Normal 0

Christian, Peter xamp; David Annal.
Census: the Expert Guide.
Surrey, UK: The National Archives, 2008.
Call No. Local History Ref HA .37 .G72 C47 2008 (2nd floor open shelf)

Goethals, Jozef F.
Searching for Flemish (Belgian) Ancestors.
Baltimore, MD: Clearfield, 2007.
Call No. Local History Ref CS 793 .G64 2007 (2nd floor open shelf)

Hey, David, ed.
The Oxford Companion to Family and Local History.
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Call No. Local History Ref CS 413 .O94 2010 (2nd floor open shelf)

Keating, Ann Durkin.
Chicago Neighborhoods and Suburbs: A Historical Guide.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Call No. Local History Ref F548.18 .C524 2008 (2nd floor open shelf)

Miller, Julie.
Abandoned: Foundlings in Nineteenth Century New York City.
New York: New York University Press, 2008.
Call No. HV 885 .N5 M55 2008

Mitchell, Brian.
A New Genealogical Atlas of Ireland. 2nd Edition.
Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Company, 2002.
Call No. Local History Ref G1831 .F7 M5 2002 (2nd floor open shelf)

On July 17, the Newberry will be offering a series of one hour seminars in genealogy. You can sign up for all or select them individually:

60 Minutes to Better Genealogy
Saturdays, 9:30 am xndash; 3:45 pm
July 17

4 one-hour sessions, $15 per session; $50 for the full day

For Associates of the Newberry, students, and seniors, $12 per session and $45 for the full day.

Register online for July 17 (four sessions)

Sometimes 60 minutes of instruction on a focused topic can help you push through a particular question or task in your research project. This seminar series is designed with genealogy researchers in mind. You can take all eight sessions, or simply choose those that most appeal to you.

Saturday, July 17

9:30 xndash; 10:30 am
Study Up on School Records for Success
Register online (one session)
Birth date, residence, and parents' names are some of the gems in school records. Learn their genealogical value and how to access them.

10:45 xndash; 11:45 am
Tips xamp; Tricks for Cook County Vital Records
Register online (one session)
Try these alternative methods for births, marriages, divorces, and deaths. Learn about hidden sources such as out-of-state indexes.

1:30 xndash; 2:30 pm
Using Non-population Censuses
Register online (one session)
"Non-population" censuses of farmers, slaves, manufacturers, invalids, the recently deceased, and many other groups, contain a wealth of information. Learn how to find and use these often-overlooked records.

2:45 xndash; 3:45 pm
Polish Genealogy Research at the Newberry
Register online (one session)
Find Polish ancestors who lived in America and Poland using the Newberry Library's remarkable collections, including insurance application records of the Polish Women's Alliance of America.

Grace Dumelle is the author of Finding Your Chicago Ancestors and is a principal of an historical research firm. Matt Rutherford is Curator of Genealogy and Local History and Reference Team Leader at the Newberry Library.

This is the time of year when new reference books start arriving at the Newberry Library! One of our most recent acquisitions is the Dictionary of Irish Biography: From the Earliest Times to the Year 2002. This nine volume work contains more than 9,000 signed biographical articles, on individuals who were born in Ireland (such as Jonathan Swift and Oscar Wilde) or individuals who were born outside Ireland, but had notable careers on the Emerald Isle (such as Oliver Cromwell and Constance Markievicz).

The articles all begin with an explanation of the subject's significance, and then cover the subject's vital life events and relationships. Each entry concludes with a bibliography on the subject, including primary and secondary source materials.

In addition to this new resource, the reference stacks on the third floor contain many works that would be useful to people researching Irish or Irish-American ancestors.

[-more-]

The Encyclopedia of the Irish in America is a single volume work containing entries by scholars in Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, and the United States. It includes entries on topics that provide context for the Irish-American experience, such as Emigration, the Great Famine, and Ireland, 1798-1998, as well as entries on Irish-American communities in all 50 of the United States.

Researchers interested in the Irish-American community in Chicago will find a wealth of information in this resource. The article on Chicago provides excellent context for those studying Irish-American ancestors in the Windy City, detailing the community's contributions to education, labor reform, music, politics, publishing, sports, and urban development. The Encyclopedia also contains independent articles on subjects such as the Great Fire in Chicago and Chicago Politics, as well as a biographical sketch of Richard J. Daley.

Are you planning a summer research trip to learn more about an Irish-American family? If so, don't leave home without consulting Richard Demeter's Irish America: the Historical Travel Guide. This two-volume set is a guide to U.S. landmarks associated with Ireland or with Irish-American heritage. The books are divided by region, with volume one covering the Northern Atlantic, Washington, D.C., the Great Lakes, and Canada, and volume two detailing sites in the South, the Plains and Mountains, and the West and Southwest.

The sites listed for Chicago include such places as the spot where Cyrus McCormick produced the mechanical grain reaper, the Haymarket Monument at the Chicago Police Training Academy, and the reconstruction of Chicago Stock Exchange Building Trading Room in the Art Institute. The entries discuss the significance of the site, and also offer biographical information on particular individuals, such as the sketch about Louis Sullivan included in the Art Institute entry. The entries are sometimes surprising, and always entertaining and informative.

All of these works are available in the Reference Center on the third floor of the Library. The reference librarian can help you find them in the stacks, and help you with questions about these sources.

by Grace Dumelle, Genealogy and Local History Assistant

When Eileen Douglas started digging into her grandfather's origins, she didn't know much. They'd had a very loving relationship, but he never talked about coming to America or the family he left behind. He passed away at the start of her teen years, well before she thought to ask questions and get documentation.

My Grandfather's House is Douglas's personal documentary of her search for answers into Sam Nadel's life. I was privileged to see the film at a recent screening in Chicago, attended by Douglas and her producing partner Ron Steinman. Both are veteran journalists who create commissioned films under the banner of Douglas/Steinman Productions.

The search begins with stories from Douglas's mother and old photos from cousins. Sam came from a city called Kaunas (a.k.a. Kovno), nicknamed "Little Paris" before World War II. It is the second-largest city in Lithuania.

The photos show an affluent family, at odds with the working-class occupation of butcher that Sam followed in the U.S. A neighbor coincidentally comes from the same city and provides insight as to what life was like.

It's instructive to see how the oral history from living people gets filled in and verified. Links are made, barriers overcome. Douglas travels to Lithuania with her daughter and finds rich rewards at the Kaunas Regional Archive - internal passports with photos; voting records; tax maps detailing the families living in each house. Incredibly, she's able to find relatives who were deported to Siberia, and a nephew of her grandfather who's his spitting image. Standing on the site of the family home now means so much more because of all that's been learned. It's one of many high points in a richly patterned film. [-more-]

Douglas began researching in November 1998 and took her trip the following summer, August 1999. She and Steinman created a twenty-minute pilot to raise funds, completing the film five years later. They took no salaries and paid $50,000 out of their own pockets - a true labor of love. At the Chicago appearance, Douglas discussed times when the personal and professional collided. For instance, it was difficult to get her mother to tell family stories on camera in a way that made for good filmmaking. Another instance was during editing, when Steinman had to ask Douglas to leave the room.

For current research in Lithuania, Douglas advises patience, as the archive is inundated with queries (she was given priority because of her film project). But digitization is moving forward, and an agreement with the Latter-Day Saints is in place for filming records. Fees are now charged by the archive and go to preserve materials.

My Grandfather's House is an enjoyable, instructive place to start for beginners with roots in the former USSR. 72 minutes in length, it's available as a DVD rental for groups at the cost of $75 (Cinema Guild distributors, www.cinemaguild.com). For a personal purchase, call Cinema Guild at 1-800-723-5522 and ask for the home video price.

You'll follow the same path Eileen Douglas did for the best chances of success. Talk to living relatives, gather home materials, and find all possible documentation on the U.S. lives of immigrant ancestors. Once you're ready to investigate the other side of the Atlantic, the Newberry holds many resources for your search:

Online pathfinders provide overviews of our holdings for these groups:

http://www.newberry.org/genealogy/bohemian.html

http://www.newberry.org/genealogy/jewish.html

http://www.newberry.org/genealogy/polish.html

For others, search our catalog on www.newberry.org with "(Ethnic group) - genealogy" as a subject term.

Explore our collection of gazetteers and maps to find names of towns now located in different countries. For example, our maps of Lithuania date back to 1613. Go to our online map catalog, http://www.biblioserver.com/newberry/, and search on the name of country or region.

For translations, choose from dictionaries, glossaries and other aids in Hungarian, Slovak, and Ukrainian, to name a few. Specify "(Name of language)" as a subject term in the Newberry catalog.

For vital records, see what the Family History Library in Salt Lake City holds. Records on microfilm and microfiche may be borrowed through the Newberry for a small fee ($5.50/reel of microfilm, $0.15/card of microfiche). Go to http://www.familysearch.org/eng/Library/FHLC/frameset_fhlc.asp and do a place search to see what's available.

Our helpful reference staff will be glad to guide your search. Come in soon and learn more about your Eastern European roots!

At 9:30 a.m. on July 10th, Matt Rutherford, Curator of Genealogy and Local History, will introduce novices to the basics of research with a free informal orientation. No reservations are necessary. The session will meet in the Towner Fellows' Lounge on the second floor of the Newberry Library. Click here for directions to the Newberry.

We have great news to report about the Newberry's 2009-10 Annual Fund. Thanks to our friends and supporters, we have not only achieved, but surpassed our overall Annual Fund goal of $1.68 million.

The 2:1 challenge program of May and June was an integral part of our success. We surpassed our $100,000 challenge goal by more than 30 percent. Because our Trustee extended the match, the impact of every dollar raised in May and June was tripled.

Thank you to all those who contributed to the Annual Fund this fiscal year. Your enthusiastic support of the Newberry is a vote of confidence in our mission and the work of our staff on behalf of promoting understanding and research in the humanities.

If you have any questions about the Newberry's Annual Fund, contact Vince Firpo at (312) 255-3599 or via e-mail at firpov@newberry.org.

On July 10 and 17, the Newberry will be offering a series of one hour seminars in genealogy. You can sign up for all or select them individually:

60 Minutes to Better Genealogy
Saturdays, 9:30 am xndash; 3:45 pm
July 10 xndash; July 17

8 one-hour sessions, $15 per session; $100 for both days; $50 for July 10 or July 17.

For Associates of the Newberry, students, and seniors, $12 per session; $90 for both days; $45 for July 10 or July 17.

Register online for July 10 xndash; July 17 (all eight sessions)
Register online for July 10 only (four sessions)
Register online for July 17 only (four sessions)

Sometimes 60 minutes of instruction on a focused topic can help you push through a particular question or task in your research project. This seminar series is designed with genealogy researchers in mind. You can take all eight sessions, or simply choose those that most appeal to you.

Saturday, July 10

9:30 xndash; 10:30 am
Tools to Dig Deeper: Probate and Inquest Records
Register online (one session)
Probate case records can provide relatives' names, lists of property and furnishings, and bills from service providers. Likewise, a coroner's signature on a death certificate, or a newspaper account of an accidental death, can lead to inquest records, which provide information on the circumstances of the death.

10:45 xndash; 11:45 am
Going Straight to the Source: Pointers on Oral Histories
Register online (one session)
Learn how to prepare, interview, and preserve crucial stories of family members on audio tape.

1:30 xndash; 2:30 pm
Chicago Research at the Newberry Library
Register online (one session)
Receive an overview of the Newberry Library's collections of Chicago city directories, compilation biographies, local histories, maps, and newspapers.

2:45 xndash; 3:45 pm
Genealogy Materials in the Newberry Library's Special Collections Department
Register online (one session)

Learn how to locate genealogy and local history materials through an often-overlooked part of the Library: Special Collections.

Grace Dumelle is the author of Finding Your Chicago Ancestors and is a principal of an historical research firm. Autumn Mather is Reference Librarian at the Newberry Library.

Saturday, July 17

9:30 xndash; 10:30 am
Study Up on School Records for Success
Register online (one session)
Birth date, residence, and parents' names are some of the gems in school records. Learn their genealogical value and how to access them.

10:45 xndash; 11:45 am
Tips xamp; Tricks for Cook County Vital Records
Register online (one session)
Try these alternative methods for births, marriages, divorces, and deaths. Learn about hidden sources such as out-of-state indexes.

1:30 xndash; 2:30 pm
Using Non-population Censuses
Register online (one session)
"Non-population" censuses of farmers, slaves, manufacturers, invalids, the recently deceased, and many other groups, contain a wealth of information. Learn how to find and use these often-overlooked records.

2:45 xndash; 3:45 pm
Polish Genealogy Research at the Newberry
Register online (one session)
Find Polish ancestors who lived in America and Poland using the Newberry Library's remarkable collections, including insurance application records of the Polish Women's Alliance of America.

Grace Dumelle is the author of Finding Your Chicago Ancestors and is a principal of an historical research firm. Matt Rutherford is Curator of Genealogy and Local History and Reference Team Leader at the Newberry Library.

For views of Chicago and other American locales in the 1940's, check out the collection of "Traveltalks" videos posted on YouTube. Produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and narrated by the "Voice of the Globe" James A. Fitzpatrick, these films were produced to boost travel and tourism. They serve as a fascinating glimpse of, and into, the past. The two Chicago videos are both from 1948: "Chicago the Beautiful" and "Night Life in Chicago."

The Newberry's Reading Rooms will be closed this Saturday, July 3rd, in observance of Independence Day. The rooms will re-open at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 6th.

Happy Fourth of July!

As of today, 588 donors have contributed $88,900 toward our $100,000 goal. This is an important milestone toward achieving our overall Annual Fund goal.

We are not done yet, however. There are still four days left in which to raise $11,100. Please continue to spread the word about the challenge grant to friends, family, and colleagues. All contributions made by June 30th will be matched 2:1!

If you have any questions about the challenge grant, please visit http://go.newberry.org/challenge2010 or call us at (312) 255-3599.

Thank you for your continued support!