Tracing Immigrant Origins - Historical Immigration & Naturalization Records with DearMYRT

For those of you who know or are familiar with "DearMYRTLE, your friend in genealogy," you'll know that she is responsible for a veritable stream of genealogical education broadcasts during the course of every week. Monday at noon eastern time, there's "Mondays with MYRT" a one and a half hour of a group of genealogists from around the world get together and discuss a wide variety of genealogical subjects.

Wednesdays have been the Google Hangout equivalent of classroom education at noon and "Wacky Wednesday" at 9 pm eastern. Both cover specific subjects, with "Wacky" being a little bit more fun and light hearted.

Occasionally, DearMYRT will host other specific subjects on Fridays at noon and once a month is "Genealogy Game Night" on a Saturday evening. "Game Night" is a modern twist of the old "What's My Line" TV program.

The Hangouts can be viewed by anyone. Simply ask to be added as a member of DearMYRTLE's G+ Community by clicking here and making the request. You will be able to watch the program live or, once you "get the hang of it," you may be interested in joining the panel. Panelist are active participants who appear live to the international broadcast.

Wednesday's class is the 3rd of 5 sessions on "Tracing Immigrant Origins - Historical Immigration & Naturalization Records." And the panelists won't just be watching, there's homework for us!! Here's my assignment: To post a document referencing an immigration or naturalization event in an ancestor's history. And below are the documents I'll be talking about on Wednesday, 4 November 2015 at noon eastern. Tune in!

This was my grandfather's 1919 "Declaration of Intention" to naturalize. There is a bounty of genealogical information here. He was single at the time and in spite of the filing, he never went through the final process. The document is only valid for 7 years so...

...he had to file again, this time in 1933. By now, he was married with 2 children. He lists Hazel, my grandmother, Beatrice my mother and Clement Jr, my uncle.

Once again, he never complete the process and died in Westfield, Massachusetts, a Canadian citizen in 1955 and veteran of "The Great War" having served in the Canadian Expeditionary Forces.

Grammar? I went to school for that!

For the record, I didn't attend a "grade" school.  I attended a "grammar" school where we learned, among a myriad of other subject, grammar.  Anyone who writes anything may be confronted with issues of "grammar." Since I have been known to write a thing or two, I felt compelled to watch these videos for a quick review. I found these little vignettes to be oddly entertaining.  Maybe I need other distractions!

See what you think... They're all very short and to the point; you may be able to binge watch the entire season in a little over 10 minutes. That's easier than taking the totality of "Game of Thrones!" She even talks about the implied diaeresis. And, by the way, that's not an intestinal disorder!

Here's the link: The Comma Queen, Series Premier

I hope she'll cover commas and quotation marks in an upcoming video.  Do they go inside or outside?

Ancestry Health? Yes, Ancestry Health

This is a little bit disturbing in my opinion.  Maybe even creepy.  But Ancestry.com is diving into the health data field which, on the surface, sounds a bit like what the FDA prevented 23andMe from doing, at least in its original form.  But that's another story!

I refer everyone to the most excellent DNA blog by scientist and genealogist, Roberta Estes.  If you have any interest in DNA whatsoever, her blog provides an excellent resource.  She speaks "English" in her blog rather than "Scientist."  Well, she does for the most part!  Some of the entries get a little long and have a tendency to cause my eyes to glaze over, but I'm always able to get the gist of her knowledge and manage to read most of the information.  Then there's the comments...hundreds of comments from researchers everywhere.

But I digress!  Here's the link where she explains with reasonable clarity the ins and outs of the beta program: http://dna-explained.com/2015/06/06/and-now-ancestry-health/ which should be a heads-up for anyone who may be tempted to jump right into the Ancestry Health pool.

She also references Judy G Russell, a very accomplished genealogist who happens to be a lawyer, a former prosecutor in fact.  That's another blog I would strongly recommend.  You can read and subscribe to her clever, informative, sometimes personal and often humorous words published daily at http://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog/.

Needless to say, I subscribe to both.  Some posts I have no interest in reading but most of the others and their comments are an education in and unto themselves.

Happy researching!

In closing, I had to share this Father's Day "card" from my kids.  Matthew, Mark and Kimi collaboratively colored this cartoon for a long ago Father's Day sometime around 1995.  They're a prescient group as I recently discovered through 23andMe that I am, in fact, 3% Neanderthal!

Thanks kids!

Visit http://www.oldbones.info for more information about yours truly then "Like" my Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/OldBonesSearch?ref=hl

Lots to Talk About in New York Research

Seal of New York. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today, I learned a few things that should be of interest to anyone researching in the State of New York, the veritable "Black Hole" of genealogical research!

First, here's a post I put up at http://bit.ly/WestMassGen, the Facebook page of the Western Massachusetts Genealogical Society:

The New York State Family History Conference is being held this September in Syracuse, New York. Similar to the recent New England Regional Genealogical Consortium conference held in Providence, Rhode Island, this event is a regional conference, “A Federation of Genealogical Societies.” Early bird rates apply until May 31, 2015. The full 3-day conference is only $150 (early bird) or $175 after May 31st. Read all the details here: http://www.nysfhc.org/index.html where you can see the extensive list of outstanding speakers, the rates for partial registrations, hotel rates, exhibitors and sponsors.

I’m planning on registering myself and would be happy to travel with someone. I’m going to spend some time with my sister and her family while I’m out there….save a little on hotel expense!

Let me know if you’re interested at dave@oldbones.info.

*******

And here's the other New York genealogy research item I need to mention:

More good news for New York researchers....well, sort of...www.GenealogyBank.com has

just announced a large addition to their already huge collections of newspapers. They've

added 12 newspapers from th 18th and 19th centuries including the New York Gazette

(New York, New York) for 1730 through 1738. It is a paid subscription site, but it is one I

have subscribed to for many years. I don't know of any newspaper sites that could help me

any better than Genealogy Bank! And that includes Google! This link should get you to the

specific announcement: http://bit.ly/GenealogyBank-1700-1800. 

Knit Genealogist: Meet Dave Robison

Knit Genealogist: Meet Dave Robison: The 13 th New England Regional Genealogical Conference (NERGC) will be held in Providence, Rhode Island, April 15-18 2015. Their theme th...

Goal Setting Workshop with Marian Pierre-Louis

It is an understatement for me to say that the workshop I attended today with Marian Pierre-Louis and 13 other talented, dedicated, professional genealogists was an excellent way to spend 3 hours on a day when there is certainly no lack of many projects to attend to.  For those who know Marian, you'll agree with me that she is as professional as they come.

Today's workshop was aptly entitled, "Setting Business and Marketing Goals for 2015."  As the workshop opened and all the participants came into the webinar, we all had already come to know just a little bit about each other.  Since Marian always comes prepared, she wanted all of the rest of us to come prepared as well.  Part of our pre-workshop preparation was to visit each other's website, blogs and any other social media pages such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.  That was a great strategy to get to know each other before any of us met.

But that's not the only part of our pre-class assignment.  A little soul-searching was in order. Describe your strengths; your weaknesses. Did you have goals written for 2014 and did you have a plan to achieve them?  And it certainly didn't stop there.  Not painful, just introspective.

Here are a few of Marian's websites and blogs:

Fieldstone Common: www.fieldstonecommon.com/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/marianpierrelouis
The Genealogy Professional www.facebook.com/marianpierrelouis
On-Line House History: www.fieldstonehistoricresearch.com/
Marian's Roots and Rambles: rootsandrambles.blogspot.com/


She'll be presenting the same workshop webinar to another group on Saturday.  I'm not sure if there's room, but if there is and I know it's short notice, but I recommend you sign up! Click here to read about it. 

I believe I speak for every participant that it was a great 3 hours, especially being led by a professional of Marian's caliber. If nothing else, it's a name to remember.  If the opportunity presents itself to spend some time to learn with her, make sure you put in your schedule.  

As a matter of fact, make it a goal!

Updated Website at NEHGS

New England Historic Genealogical Society headquarters at 99-101 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Tonight I received an announcement that the New England Historic Genealogical Society has completed an update to their website www.americanancestors.org which will launch sometime on Tuesday, 9 December 2014.

Now, there not just throwing it out there as some search sites do thinking that we're all smart enough to figure it out ourselves!  NEHGS has a great deal more sense than that!  You may register for an informational webinar here which will be broadcast 16 December 2014 at 2:00 pm eastern.

See you there...

Now, go climb your family tree!

Related articles

• Our Library Has Just Added The American Ancestors Database From The New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) To Our Collection Of Genealogical Databases; Available Only From Within The Library; You Can Access The Database From The Electronic Refe
• Serendipity in Genealogy from NEHGS Readers
• NERGC Conference, 15-19 April 2015, Providence, RI