James J. Dutton James J Dutton ‘Jeem‘ passed away unexpectedly on Monday, August 30th, 2010, while hiking the Appalachian Trail. He passed doing something he loved, in pursuit of his dreams and, perhaps, in pursuit of his Argentinean mistress on the Appalachian trail. His wife was sad, but not so surprised by his adventures. At least we think that was what he was doing; he may have been pursuing the world’s best pizza. We’re not sure. Jeem was born an intelligent wiseacre December 21, 1956, in Albany, New York. He grew up in Naperville, IL, where he entertained the local police officers, and became close to Officer Friendly. He harnessed that power and moved on to bigger and better things in the US Navy. Jeem found his passion in deep sea diving, which stayed with him throughout his life, and was something he was excited to share with his sons. Jeem moved on to college at Illinois State University, where he continued to add to his collection of friends. His bartending at the White Horse Inn didn’t hurt there. He majored in Economics and Computer Science, because he was smart enough to realize that would provide a future for his family. He also dabbled in the Russian language, which foreshadowed his future, whether he knew it or not. His early adventures as a computer scientist at the cutting edge of the science included a bunch of guys in a room full of computer punch papers, where they alternated smoking with analyzing the genius of the computer.

Read the full obit.

Here is a link to a newspaper article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution about his Jeem’s death.

The following news release was received from Heather Erickson at Ancestry.com:

More than 1,700 first-hand audio recordings now available for free online

PROVO, Utah, September 1, 2010—Ancestry.com announced today it has launched a collection of more than 1,700 recorded oral histories from immigrants who arrived in the United States through Ellis Island. This is the first time this collection of poignant recordings has been available online. To celebrate the new addition, Ancestry.com is making its entire U.S. Immigration Collection free through Labor Day.

“As immigrants created new lives in the U.S., the stories of their homelands and their remarkable journeys to America were often lost,” said Christopher Tracy, senior vice president of global content for Ancestry.com. “We are thrilled to offer people the opportunity to hear the voices of their ancestors sharing stories of their lives.”

Ellis Island was the gateway for millions of immigrants between 1892 and 1954. The oral histories were captured by the National Park Service starting in the 1970s, and contain uniquely inspiring first-hand accounts recalling the lives these immigrants left behind, their reasons for leaving and their incredible and often-trying journeys to America. These recordings are housed at the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and until now could be heard only by visitors to the Island itself. In addition to oral histories from immigrants, the collection also includes recordings from military personnel who were stationed on Ellis Island and former Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty workers.

“To our family it is important that we in the U.S. know the origin of the people who came to this country, settled here and made it what it is today. It makes us very proud to know that our mother was part of this,” said Yvonne Rumac, daughter of oral history participant Estelle Belford, who immigrated to the United States from Romania via Ellis Island in 1905.

Other Records Added to the Ancestry.com U.S. Immigration Collection:
The Ellis Island Oral Histories are the latest addition to Ancestry.com, which boasts the world’s largest online collection of U.S. immigration records. Comprised of more than 170 million records, the Ancestry.com U.S. Immigration Collection includes lists of passengers who immigrated by ship to America between 1820 and 1960, including those who came through Ellis Island; more than 7 million citizenship and naturalization records; border crossings, passport applications and more to help reconstruct our ancestors’ journeys and early lives in America.

Ancestry.com has also added nearly 2 million new U.S. naturalization record indexes, thanks to the many individuals who are part of the Ancestry.com World Archives Project – a community effort aimed at transcribing historical records. The indexes span 11 states (AK, CA, CT, HI, LA, ME, MT, NY, PA, TN, WA) and will provide Americans greater opportunity to learn more about their ancestors’ citizenship experience.

In addition, Ancestry.com has added nearly 2 million records documenting crew members on ships who arrived in the port of Boston. The records were added to an existing collection of over 3.8 million records from Boston Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1943.

To honor our nation’s immigrant heritage, Ancestry.com has opened up its entire U.S. Immigration Collection so that it can be searched free through Labor Day. The Ellis Island Oral History Collection will remain permanently free on Ancestry.com.

To begin exploring your family’s journey to America, visit www.ancestry.com/immigration.

About Ancestry.com Inc.
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world’s largest online family history resource, with more than one million paying subscribers. More than 5 billion records have been added to the site in the past 13 years. Ancestry users have created more than 18 million family trees containing over 1.8 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, including its flagship Web site at http://www.ancestry.com.

Dale and I are working in the exhibit hall, and it’s starting to fill quickly. I’d guess there are somewhere close to 300 people here. The line-up of classes is superb, and it should be an exciting weekend.

We drove to Knoxville and back, making the trip in about 3 days each way. We spent Monday, August 16, at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville. Coming home, we drove fourteen and a half hours each day on Sunday, and Monday, getting home about noon on Tuesday. We stayed in Rawlins, Wyoming on Monday night, and found that the next morning it was just 36 degrees. Rawlins is right at 7000 feet in elevation, at the top of the continental divide in Wyoming, making for cool nights rather early in the season.

World’s Largest Family History Web Site Continues Sponsorship of Critically Acclaimed TV Series That Takes a Personal Look at Celebrity Family Histories

PROVO, Utah, August 25, 2010 – Ancestry.com is pleased to announce it has extended its relationship with NBC for the second season of the “Who Do You Think You Are?” television series.

Ancestry.com worked with NBC on the first season of “Who Do You Think You Are?” that debuted in March 2010. The company provided important family history research for the show, including tracing the roots of the seven celebrities featured, and collaborated with NBC to promote the series. Each episode took one celebrity on an emotional, and often times soul-searching journey to discover the lives of family members who came before them.

“It is remarkable to work on this series with the leader in the online family history category, Ancestry.com,” said Paul Telegdy, Executive Vice President of Alternative Programming & Production at NBC Universal. “A show of this caliber takes a lot of research and ground work to make the celebrities stories come to life. With the valued collaboration of Ancestry.com, we’ve been able to tell seven amazing stories in the first season, and look forward to even greater family history discoveries to be uncovered in season two.”

“We are excited to continue working with NBC on this series,” said Josh Hanna, Executive Vice President and Head of Global Marketing for Ancestry.com. “The first season of the show has truly elevated awareness around the family history category and we couldn’t be more pleased to be an integral part of a television series that brings excitement to the discoveries people can make when researching their ancestral roots.”

“Who Do You Think You Are?” is produced by Wall to Wall Entertainment in collaboration with Lisa Kudrow and Dan Bucatinsky for their production company, Is or Isn’t Entertainment. NBC has announced the show will air in the 2010-11 season.

About Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com Inc. (Nasdaq: ACOM) is the world’s largest online family history resource, with more than one million paying subscribers. More than 5 billion records have been added to the site in the past 13 years. Ancestry users have created more than 18 million family trees containing over 1.8 billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, including its flagship Web site at www.ancestry.com.

AmericanAncestors.org reflects the organization’’s expanding national collection and resources.

Boston, MA – August 19, 2010: – D. Brenton Simons, President and CEO of the New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS), today announced the launch of AmericanAncestors.org, the organization’s new website that will serve as the home of its growing regional and national genealogical resources. AmericanAncestors.org will contain all of the Society’s New England and New York content, features, articles, and resources, as well as weekly updates and databases in a variety of regional and ethnic specialties, such as sources for mid-Atlantic, Irish, and African American research.

AmericanAncestors.org provides online access to some of the most important research tools and resources available, and includes a new image viewer, faster navigation and search results time, and more unique content. This expanded scope allows greater opportunity for NEHGS to bring unique content to its members and the public while establishing new and beneficial collaborations with likeminded non-profit organizations and important commercial entities.

Simons said, “This website marks a transformative experience in our 165-year history, the first genealogical society founded in America. It represents the next major step ahead as we continue to expand our resources.” Simons added, “AmericanAncestors.org is a new, dynamic platform from which we will grow in our position as a leader in American genealogy and as the nation’s largest genealogical society.”

Simons also said that NEHGS remains committed to its core strength, namely New England genealogical scholarship. “New England will always be our greatest strength and primary focus, as well as our cherished institutional name. We have much New England material to bring to the public and the new website will add 25 million additional New England names to search.”

NEHGS Board Chairman, Eric B. Schultz, said, “AmericanAncestors.org will help family historians of all levels have a much better understanding of our core assets and resources. We are proud of the fact that NEHGS has worked to define genealogy in America, and this site will help advance our important national mission.”

Among other things, AmericanAncestors.org will provide:

•More exclusive content: more unique, searchable, highly vetted materials for New England, New York, and other regions added weekly

•Enhanced search engine: an all-new, true “master search” that will search across all databases and other web-based content, with faster results and easier navigation

•Personal research profile: a social networking feature for NEHGS members to develop an online profile and input family research information, and even share them with others

•Improved images: a state-of-the-art new image viewer that will provide easier saving, and viewing of images and data

•Timely information: more news on our homepage and an enhanced blog “The Daily Genealogist” will bring our weekly electronic newsletter to the next level with stories and helpful research tips

In addition, NEHGS is inviting people to sign up for the NEHGS “Guest User” program. This free registration gives anyone access to the popular weekly news stories as well as special access to a variety of databases, resources, articles, and other tools to help with their research. More information can be found on the NEHGS website at www.AmericanAncestors.org.

The Society’s “American Ancestors” identity was announced earlier this year, when its quarterly member magazine was rebranded American Ancestors: New England, New York, and Beyond. In October 2009, NEHGS began publishing American Ancestors Journal, an annual supplement to its quarterly journal, The New England Historical and Genealogical Register.

About NEHGS
The New England Historic Genealogical Society is the country’s leading resource for family history research. We help family historians expand their knowledge, skills, and understanding of their family and its place in history. Founded in 1845, NEHGS is today the oldest and largest non-profit genealogical organization, with more than 26,000 members nationally. The NEHGS research headquarters, located at 99-101 Newbury Street in Boston, is home to some 28 million books, journals, manuscripts, papers, photographs, documents, and other artifacts, many of which date back centuries.

Its award-winning website offers access to more than 135 million names from 2,400 databases. NEHGS staff includes some of the leading expert genealogists in the country specializing in American, Irish, English, Italian, Scottish, Atlantic and French Canadian, African American, Native American, and Jewish genealogy.

Circuit Clerk Pam Simpson asked the DeKalb County Commission for a place to move the records, which are being housed in the old county barn.

“They don’t have much protection from the outside elements, and some are beginning to deteriorate,” Simpson said. “The dates range from the early 1800s, when records were written with a quill pen, on up to the 1970s, and they can’t be replaced.”

Simpson said members of the DeKalb County Genealogical Society have volunteered to help organize the records and get them moved to the new location, which will be the old county health department facility on Grand Avenue in Fort Payne.

Read the full article.

Following is an excerpt from an article in the August 16, 2010 edition of the Daily Lobo.

UNM Libraries received a more than $350,000 grant to resurrect hundreds of thousands of New Mexico newspapers, some of which are 150 years old.

The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded UNM Libraries the grant to digitize 100,000 pages from New Mexican newspapers that date between 1860-1922.

Michael Kelly, director for the Center of Southwest research, said a board will select which of UNM’s collection of newspapers will be digitized.

“Since UNM Libraries hold the largest collec­tion of New Mexico news papers on micro­film, we want to take the initiative and make these and other unique resources freely available to every one in New Mexico,” Kelly said, in an Aug. 2 news release.

UNM Libraries employees will make the digitized newspapers available for the Library of Congress’ “Chronicling America” online database as well as a New Mexico’s digital database.

Read the full article.

(Toronto: August 16, 2010) The National Institute for Genealogical Studies is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, and Louise St. Denis, Managing Director of the Institute, will be at the FGS Conference.

Louise will be there on Thursday, August 19th from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Friday, August 20th from noon to 7:00 p.m., and Saturday, August 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m..

This year, the Institute will be offering a special package of nine courses to be drawn on Friday night. Value $850. Winner must be present to win.

Plus, we will also be offering a FREE course to everyone who visits us during the conference.

So please drop by Exhibit Booth #406 in the Exhibit Hall, and say “Hello!”.

We would love to see you, and we appreciate the chance to tell you about the great courses we have lined up for the fall season.

The Intensive Short Term Courses started this year have been a fabulous success, and there will be three courses starting in September -

• Investigate: Adoption Records (Basic)
• Investigate: Lost Friends and Family Records (Basic)
• Research: Australian and New Zealand Ancestors (Intermediate)

The registration fee for each Intensive Short Term Course is under $50!

In addition, there are many other courses for you to take, from US Cemetery and Mortuary Records, to US Migration Records, to Understanding and Using US Vital Records.

There are also courses dealing with the records for many other countries including England, Germany, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Poland, and the Ukraine.

To read a detailed description about a specific course, please go to our website at <www.genealogicalstudies.com>, click on the menu item “COURSES”, and click on “COURSES” again. Then click on “ALPHABETICAL LISTING” to make searching through over 175 courses a little easier!

And to learn more about our instructors, please go to our site at <www.genealogicalstudies.com>, click on menu item “INSTITUTE”, then click on “FACULTY”, and click on the instructor’s name.

If you need more information, please call us 0151 — The National Institute for Genealogical Studies — toll-free in North America at 1-800-580-0165, or send us a message at admin@genealogicalstudies.com.

The Tennessee page on the FamilySearch Research Wiki has recently been updated and now includes a wealth of new information and resources to help people find their ancestors in the Volunteer State. The link for this revised page is: http://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Tennessee

Background
The FamilySearch Research Wiki is a free resource created by the genealogy community. The core content for the Tennessee page was contributed by the expert researchers at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. The page also includes tips and research advice from local experts.

The Wiki staff is currently working on updating all of the state pages; Tennessee is one of the first because the 2010 Federation of Genealogical Societies Conference will be held in Knoxville August 18 to 21. For more information about the FGS conference, please visit: http://www.fgs.org/2010conference/index.php .

Page Highlights

• A clickable county map on the main page
• Easy navigation at the bottom of each page
• How to find Tennessee sources in archives, libraries, in print, and online
• Information on substitute sources when records are lost
• Local lists of published family histories
• Links to published Tennessee county tax lists
• Audio files of locals pronouncing Tennessee county names
• Contact information for volunteers who will look up information in local resources

Quotes
“These pages are beautiful and contain a wealth of valuable information.”
Charles Reeves Jr., Cartographer and TNGenWeb County Coordinator for Bedford, Clay, Jackson, and Putnam Counties

“We’ve pulled together Family History Library staff and local experts to create outstanding research guides for Tennessee genealogists. The web 2.0 format allows new information to be added as soon as it becomes available, unlike printed guides, where updates wait until the next edition. If you were to print all 154 Tennessee Wiki county, topic, and archive guides found on this site, and bind it into a book, this Tennessee genealogy encyclopedia would be more than 1000 pages long.”
Nathan W. Murphy, MA, AG, Tennessee Wiki Project Team Leader

THOSE of us among the living all know New York City can be maddeningly expensive, whether one is shopping for a $40 million mansion on Fifth Avenue or a $2,500 studio walk-up in a former tenement on the Lower East Side.

For the dead, however, virtually no amount of money will secure a final resting place in the heart of a city that is fast running out of graveyard space.

And in the parts of town where a burial plot is still available, the cost has in some cases more than tripled in less than a decade; aboveground mausoleums can fetch upward of $3 million. Cemeteries are scrambling to create more space, and as plot prices have soared, the number of cremations has also risen, with a quarter of New Yorkers choosing the less expensive alternative.

Trinity Church Cemetery in Washington Heights, the last operating graveyard in Manhattan, has stopped selling plots, offering burial only in the most “extraordinary circumstances,” or to people with long-held reservations.

The largest Jewish graveyard in Brooklyn, Washington Cemetery, ran out of land in the winter after tearing up roads and pathways to utilize every cubic inch of ground. Evergreens and Cypress Hills, also in Brooklyn, may sprawl, but not enough, and dozens of smaller cemeteries spread across the five boroughs are squeezed, too. The city’s largest Catholic cemetery, Calvary in Queens, is close to capacity. And even the most famous of them all, Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, has only about five more years before it will be forced to stop selling plots.

More than 50 years have passed since a major cemetery was established within the city, and no new burial grounds are planned. But New Yorkers continue to die, some 60,000 a year.

Read the full article by Marc Santora in the August 15, 2010 edition of the New York Times.

Thanks to Pat Morrow for alerting me to this fascinating article.

MOCKSVILLE [North Carolina] - A local group wants to establish a driving trail to connect historical sites in several North Carolina counties that relate to folk hero Daniel Boone.

When finished, the trail would span Alexander, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Iredell, Rowan, Watauga, Wilkes and Yadkin counties. It would include Joppa Cemetery in Mocksville, where Boone’s parents, Squire and Sarah Boone, are buried.

This spring, the group decided on a proposed path, and plans were announced for the first time at the Yadkin Valley History and Genealogy Fair and Conference in Mocksville yesterday. Organizers hope that the trail will spur tourism to the area.

“Daniel Boone has a high brand name. When you hear the name ‘Daniel Boone,’ people feel good and they want to know more,” said Andrew Mackie, a past president of the Yadkin Valley Historical Society who is active in planning the trail. “They’ll Google it, and they’ll find Yadkin Valley.”

Boone is undoubtedly best known for exploring the Appalachians and Kentucky, but Mark Hager, a professor at Lenoir-Rhyne University, said that Boone’s contributions to present-day Davie County were equally impressive. The county is home to many of his descendants.

“He was an average guy, but he had one heck of a family,” Hager said.

In the spring of 1750, when Daniel Boone was a teenager, his parents sold their land in Pennsylvania and moved south to settle in the Yadkin Valley.

Daniel Boone later married Rebecca Bryan, who was descended from some of the earliest settlers of the Davie County area; at one point, the family owned more than 5,000 acres in the county.

Read the full article in the August 15, 2010 edition of the Winston-Salem Journal.

I see their point. While we are getting access to digital documents by the million, we’re losing the records produced - or should I say “not produced,” today. When was the last time you got a personal letter from a friend, let alone one of your relatives? It’s all e-mail today it seems, and noone ever saves that for posterity… Too bad. We can communicate faster, and far easier than before, but it’s never saved… That’s just one thing that may point to a “genealogical dark ages.”

The following is a teaser from Betty’s article.

Are the genealogical ‘Dark Ages’ coming?
Sounds ominous doesn’t it?—“The genealogical dark ages.” The Dark Ages followed the decline of the Roman Empire as Europe experienced cultural and economic deterioration.

Intellectual curiosity was stifled for hundreds of years until the Renaissance in the 14th century.

A recent article in the Deseret Times (Salt Lake City) reports an address given at BYU’s Conference on Family History and Genealogy by Curt B. Witcher, manager of The Genealogy Center at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Ind.

He believes we may be entering a new dark age in genealogy with vital records and memories of people alive today lost forever.

…

Most alarming is his statement that courthouses are engaging in “radical sampling”—keeping a few samples from large record collections and destroying the rest.

…

This week, Camden, N.J. announced plans to close all branch libraries.

The Arizona State Library is currently open weekdays only from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

…

“Publish,” he [Withcer] says, “locally to family or even on a website such as werelate.org.” taking care not to post personal information of living individuals as you create records for descendants … History (is) in our hands. What are we going to do with it?” If we wait for someone else to take care of it, our history is endangered and may be lost. Good advice from a respected librarian who cares about history including our individual family histories.

Read the full article in the August 14, 2010 Green Valley News.

Korea’s genealogy is gaining global attention with the unveiling of a digital database of genealogical records by the Paik Inje Memorial Library of Inje University at the 76th World Library and Information Congress in Gothenburg, Sweden.

During the congress, Director Park Jae-sup proudly introduced Inje’s Digital Genealogy Library, after three years of dedicated preparation. The genealogical materials have been collected by the library since 2007 in an effort to preserve Korea’s ethnic history.

In association with the Utah-based organization Family Search, the library has digitalized hundreds of records and created the Digital Genealogy Library http://genealogy.inje.ac.kr or http://jokbo.inje.ac.kr which allows users to search for their genealogical records.

Currently about 500 genealogy e-books are available online, with page-turning and zoom features that allow users to freely explore these records. They include Gimhae Kim and Gimhae Heo clans, which are representative regional families in Korea.

Read the full article by Chung Ah-young at the August 15, 2010 edition of the Korean Times.

Boxford {Masachusetts] - Tucked into the heart of West Boxford Village is an unassuming building that houses many of the town’s treasures — the Boxford Historical Document Center.

The modest one-story brick building, situated next to the Second Congregational Church at the corner of Washington and Main streets, is jam packed with historical records, photographs, maps, genealogies, microfilm, models and numerous artifacts that have meaningful connections to the history of the 325-year-old town.

Built in 1930 as a library in memory of Catherine Ingalls, the structure was transformed 46 years later into a historical document center at the time of the country’s Bicentennial in 1976 thanks to the efforts of Dick Hopping, Rosamond Price Gowen and Dorothy Woodbury who “recognized the need for a center to preserve the town’s records and documents,” explained Boxford Archivist Martha Clark this week.

…

Taking the Tri-Town Transcript on a tour of the Document Center this week, Clark pointed to the oldest document in the archives — the first Book of Records from the First Congregational Church of Boxford, dating back to 1702-1703. The original book lists names of the church’s earliest members including Lt. John Peabody of Topsfield, Lt. Perley’s wife of Rowley and the widow Hannah Peabody. It also lists baptisms and Town Meeting notes from the early 1700s.

…

“All church records are on deposit here,” added Clark who pointed out the Second Congregational parish formed in 1736 and a Third Congregational Church formed briefly in the 1800s in response to a disagreement between the parishioners and the pastor of the First Church over sheep ownership.

Other interesting documents at the center are the early 1800 papers of Moses Dorman, an 1830s personal account book of resident Isaac Hale, an autograph book owned by Myra Day and the business records of Charles Chaplin’s Depot Road Saw Mill from the late 1800s.

Read the full article in the August 13, 2010 edition of Wickedlocal./com/Middleton