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Ann Portman
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Memorial Day Weekend at Gettysburg
Greetings from Gettysburg, PA where we will be spending most of the Memorial Day Weekend. We usually never travel anywhere on these long weekends because the traffic is horrible when everyone tries leaving the Washington DC area at the same time. This holiday weekend is different because my son's soccer... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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France Declares War on the English...
Well, actually the French are up in arms about the "hegemony" of English language around the world. Thisis not new - in fact I think the French government has an agency whose job is to protect the purity of the language. The current problem stems from a European song contest... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Website for Aspiring Writers - WEBook
I found an interesting article in yesterday's Washington Post about a new business start-up calledWEbook.com. What this new web business intends to do is "leverage the community of would-be authors to write books, or at least improve them." This company is basically a social networking site for aspiring writers where... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Northern New York Historical Newspaper Project
Yesterday Randy Seaver posted an article about historical newspapers in Northern New York and included a link to the free Northern New York Historical Newspapers project. There are a growing number of freeand subscription newspaper archives online having thousands of newspapers available for searching, but they've been disappointing because I've... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Stress Management Secret to Long Life?
Edna Parker is turning 115 today and is a part of a study to find out the secrets of a long life. Edna was widowed in 1938 and lived alone until she was 100. She has 5 grandchildren, 13 great grandchildren, and 13 great great grandchildren. Her grandson said "We... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Reader Search Terms - Again
I was looking at reader search results again and found some interesting links to information on Italian immigration in the early 1900s. One of my visitors on Saturday used the following search phrase : why Italians moved to the us in 1904. I chose this one because the subject was... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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3rd Edition of "Who Are These People?"
I was really looking forward to this edition because it involves one of my all-time favorite family photos. As I was preparing to write this post a few days ago, a couple of Google searches lead me to informationthat solved my mystery, but I decided to write the article anyway.... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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World War I Was in Color!
Did you know World War I was fought in color? I never new this until a few minutes ago. According to this website titled appropriately World War One Color Photos, it "contains hundreds of photos taken by the French in the last two years" of the war. The fact they... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Happy Saint George's Day!
I apologize for being a day late in this celebration. Maybe it was my Irish and Scottish heritage subconsciously keeping me from acknowledging the day where the English celebrate their Englishness. Saint George's day is on April 23 so the English were partying yesterday. According to this article, Saint George's... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Director of Basic Instinct and Robocop Writes Biography of Jesus
Paul Verhoeven, who directed two forgettable films (although Robocop has some great quotes), now has written a book called "Jesus of Nazareth: A Realistic Portrait." According to this article, Verhoeven claims Jesus' father was a Roman soldier who raped Mary during a Jewish uprising in 4 BCE. Verhoeven does have... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Times are Changing in Ireland
The Washington Post has an interesting article about Ireland today about how the modern world is changing a country once so poor millions risked everything to leave. The headline talks about how rural pubs, once the center of Irish life, are closing, but it also discusses other interesting statistics: -... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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The Demise of the Semicolon
Is the semicolon an anachronism in writing? The New York Times has this discussion in an article on this little understood punctuation mark. Apparently it's not used very often these days because most people don't know how to use it. I happen to like the semicolon. I didn't really learn... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Book Review - This Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust
As I was reading the Washington Post this morning I came across a review of This Republic of Suffering , by Drew Gilpin Faust. It just so happens I'm about half way through the book and thought I'd post myimpressions so far. The Washington Post review does a good job... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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NY Times Archive - No Longer Free?
Boy was I disappointed this evening. I went to the New York Times Archive to search for some Ellis Island immigration articles and I discovered this is no longer a free service. You can now buy a single article for $3.95 or a 10 article pack for $15.95. Am I... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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George Washington Trivia Question
This story is driving me crazy right now. It's about four strands of George Washington's hair being auctioned for $17,000. The part of this story driving me crazy is where it says " The hair is believed to have been snipped from Washington when he was briefly disinterred in 1837."... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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US Immigration Laws Too Lax...in 1904
After I rediscovered the New York Times Archives were still free, I did some searching and found this little gem about the influx of immigrants into the US in 1904. This is a "letter to the editor" and it probably captures the general views towards Italians common during the time.... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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World Vital Records Cancellation Policy
I was browsing around World Vital Records this morning looking at how far this resource has come since I first subscribed shortly after they opened for business. One database particularly caught my eye -Regimental Losses in the American Civil War 1861-1865 (free until March 8th). The LDS Biographical Encyclopedia is... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Blog Discovery - Scandalous Women
I stumbled upon a blog today perfect for the Women's History theme during March. It's simply calledScandalous Women. Now, this is not a porn site...it's a biography blog with fascinating stories about women "...who were considered scandalous in their day. Women who weren't afraid to dare or to stand up... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Chicago's Ethnic West Side (1890-1930)
Last month I wrote about the Unlikely Genealogy Resource of using search terms of other people, and how I discovered information about my family I'd never seen before. Today the traffic to my blog was mainly from people searching for things so I thought I'd check out their results to... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Wanted: Volunteer Indexers at Ancestry.com
Just read an interesting post on 24/7 Family History Circle where Ancestry.com is seeking volunteers to index and transcribe new records collections. This is a curious effort for a commercial company. All voluntary indexing programs I know of belong to sites offering their records for free. Will volunteer indexers get... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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NEHGS Locates Rare Photo of Hellen Keller
A New England Historic Genealogical Society staffer located a rare photo of 8 year old Helen Keller, and her teacher Anne Sullivan, in a recently acquired collection according to a story in the Associated Press. An NEHGS press release has a bit more on the photo. According to the article,... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Search is on for Descendants of the Battle of Culloden - Scotland 1746
When I first read this article in The Inverness Courier, I was almost positive I had seen it in a genealogy blog somewhere. I did a couple of searches, but still didn't find a post with this topic. I usually don't like to write on a subject someone else has... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Photos of the Civil Rights Movement
Time Magazine is showing some interesting "rare and unpublished photos" documenting the Civil Rights movement taken from the Life Magazine archives. Although I know we still have many problems today, I find it amazing some of the activities depicted here took place in my lifetime and in my country. When... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Hitler's Beginning 75 Years Ago Today
Seventy-five years ago today Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany leading to 12 years of horror, war and death. The interesting part of this Associate Press article marking the anniversary isthe discussion on how Germany deals with its Nazi past. Unlike many other country's forced to surrender by military... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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Catching Up...
I don't know why, but I just haven't been able to do much blogging or blog reading lately. It's probably a combination of a busy life and lack of good ideas...probably more a lack of good ideas. I am somewhat surprised, however, that the traffic to my blog has actually... Continue reading
Posted Nov 29, 2013 at My Blog
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