Royal Family Trees

I spotted this amazing urn at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on a trip to New York.

Writing Your Family History

I have been throwing around the idea of writing a book about my grandfathers. They were both trail-blazing Texas guys with enough stories on either side to fill a library.

Where to begin?? I know there are tons of books on the subject of How to Write About Your Family, etc..., I guess I could start there, but it feels more natural to just start pouring it all out on paper and fixing it up later.

Has anyone reading this ever attempted a written family history or biography of a family member? Care to share any insights?

Oh My, A Whole Summer with No Posts!

The Summer just flew right by! Since I stopped my work at the San Antonio Public Library's Texana/Genealogy Dept., it seems my thoughts have not been turning to the past as much as they did before. I've got to do something about that!

Something I hope to do soon, that will definitely put me in that nostalgic frame of mind, is to visit my aunt in Austin, who's attic has become the holding ground for the entire family's history. She wants us to digitize everything so that we can 1) preserve it and 2) share it between the many branches of the family more easily.

SNL Timberlake Genealogy

I adore this skit.

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

Genealogy TV Show!

Maybe this is old news to everyone, but I was surprised to stumble upon this story about a TV series about celebrity genealogy. OK, this is combining 3 of my favorite things: family history, TV and celebrity gossip. I'm already hooked.

"Based on the award-winning British documentary series, "Who Do You Think You Are?" unearths the family trees of a variety of celebrities, tracing their ancestral histories along with the history of the United States. In addition to Lisa Kudrow, other participating celebrities include Susan Sarandon and Sarah Jessica Parker.

'This show personalizes history and turns it into a gripping narrative," says Kudrow in a network statement. "The most striking thing about the show is the realization of how connected we all are.' "

However, I was a little worried when I noted this:

"NBC has set an April 20 premiere date for "Who Do You Think You Are?," a new alternative series executive produced by Lisa Kudrow. The series will air in the 8 p.m. hour on Mondays"

I hope this doesn't mean the show's already dead in the water.....I guess just check your local listings on Monday nights and see if it ever pops up. Is it already on, has anyone seen it yet?

Here's the link for the BBC show:

http://www.cbc.ca/whodoyouthinkyouare/

And the link to the article:

http://www.hitfix.com/articles/2009-1-27-lisa-kudrow-returns-to-nbc

Repairing Adventures with the Keach Collection

I got to the point in my work with the antique Keach Collection that I needed to repair some of the loose spines and brittle covers. This is an example of a common thing I ran across: scrap paper seemed to be used as reinforcement for most of the spines and covers of the cloth-bound books.

These random bits of printed clippings seemed secret and it was almost a shame to glue them back on. I was one of the only ones to see these hidden snippets - though now you are in on the secret too.

Exploring Footnote

I finally took some time to explore the Footnote database. It is an addicting treasure-trove of historical information and the interactive aspect makes it especially fun.

By typing in my Grandpa's name in the search box, I received hundreds of results from newspapers, census records, social security records and much more. I limited the results by state and then found my Grover Simpson in the more-pared-down results.

The fun part is adding and approving the information on his page - what power! I was able to add his occupation and primary residence and approve (or "agree with" to use their terminology) his last residence and death date. In the image above you can see the green check marks that indicate I have "agreed with" the displayed information.

Then I looked up my recently-deceased and beloved aunt Sharon and connected her to Pa so that anyone looking at either of their Footnote pages can see that they are related. I was warned by the Texana staff members that anything you add their is accessible to anyone, but I have no problem with that. Sharing genealogical information is important and as the Simpsons are dwindling, it's time to record our family history before everyone who remembers it is gone.

I encourage you all to do the same and Footnote is so easy to use (there's also a Facebook app for it called I Remember), it really is more fun than work.

Astounding Trees from Flickr Commons

I was looking for more Roots pictures to post and stumbled upon this one.

Perhaps this was a clever bit of trick photography, but it certainly is a striking picture.

Sifting through the Flickr Commons

Any serious junk hound or antiques collector

will tell you there is no greater pleasure than sifting.

A box of old photos, 4 for $1, or a a big rack of good stuff at a thrift store - it's all about the hunt, the thrill of discovery or the satisfaction of knowing you looked through everything, even if you didn't find anything spectacular.

The Flickr Commons is the same to me when I'm looking for images for the blog. You have free range to use the images there for blogs......I'm pretty sure. I have found so many great photos that I have no reason to share other than they are neat. I think I'll do more of that.

I found this picture and used a "Hockneyizer" (in the style of the artist David Hockney) on it using this free image generating site:

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/hockney.php

I love how the little boy ended up framed in the middle - randomness is often so perfect.

19th Century New York City Coroner's Reports

Coroners' reports, New York City, 1823-1842 by Kenneth Scott

My review

Stumbled upon this book in the Texana/Genealogy stacks. Talk about some lurid reading - just little one-sentence lines: name, age, gender, cause of death, murderer/site of accident/random extra info.

It's so weird and archaic and tragic and I just can't stop reading it when I'm supposed to be doing inventory of the genealogy collection. Unfortunately, this picture is not from the book, it is a silly bit of early trick photography from the Flickr Commons.

The weird thing is there were a lot of entries in Coroner's Reports noting the cause of death as "suicide by slitting the throat." I find that very strange and hard to believe. What a way to go - I wonder if it was really gangsters and the coroner's office was covering for them?

I think I've been watching too many cop shows.

Sorry the posts have been so gory lately, I'll have to lighten it up now!