Central New York Genealogical Society Conference - Saturday, April 16, 2011

We're Here On Saturday!

In the event that you’ve finished your income taxes AND if you have a free Saturday this coming weekend, AND if you’re going to be in the greater Syracuse, NY area (specifically Dewitt, NY, which is just a hop, skip and jump from Carrier Circle), you just might want to come to the Central New York Genealogical Society’s April Conference which will be held at the Pebble Hill Presbyterian Church, 5299 Jamesville Road. 

I’ll be presenting a three-lecture program AND I’ll have tables of books AND the folks of CNYGS will have home-made stew available for lunch.  Here’s the link to the program so you can see what’s what. 

The current weather forecast suggests that there will be a 90% chance of “precipitation”, which will probably be rain.  Still, it’s April and this is New York, so it might be anything.

Anyway, it doesn’t sound like a great day for gardening.  It’ll be rainy and damp.  Sounds like a "stew for lunch" day to me.

With a conference thrown in for good measure.  With friendly genealogists like yourself.  Who won't look at you all funny-like when you tell them what you do for fun, like lots of your other friends and relatives do...

Come join us if you can.  Registration starts at 8:30 AM.

NERGC 2011? Is It Soup Yet?

It’s Sunday.  10 April. 7:03 PM.   

Is NERGC over?

For vendors like Jonathan Sheppard Books, the 2011 New England Regional Genealogical Conference (aka “NERGC”) almost came to a close yesterday at 4 PM when the Exhibit Hall closed. 

However, that was just the “close” that the conferees saw. 

For the folks like us in the Exhibit Hall, the work continued. The guys from the decorating company arrived to dismantle and cart away their drapery, drapery pipes, tables and chairs.  Meanwhile, the vendors packed up their boxes and display equipment.  

We worked (two of us) from 4 PM till about 6 PM getting stuff packed up.  Then the fun began.  Moving stuff from the third floor to the first floor loading dock.  While the decorating company was moving their stuff out. While, at the same time, the hotel was moving stuff in for the “dance competition” the next day.

Anyway, here’s what we had to do:

A. Remove books from shelves.  Pack boxes. 

B. Load 4 or 5 boxes of stuff on hand truck.

C. Exit Exhibit Hall with loaded hand truck, turn left, head down service corridor to elevator. Pray that decorating company not using elevator.

D. Ride down three floors and exit near kitchen.

E. Navigate the “backstairs” part of the hotel, past the kitchen, past the employee breakroom, past crates of oranges, and onto loading dock.  Elapsed time: 6 minutes.

F. Lift each of 35 pound boxes and 30 pound bookcases (11 of them) down from the chest-high loading dock and put in van.

G. Repeat steps A through F about 20 times.

Thanks to the folks from our fellow NERGC exhibitors Maia’s Books and Family Chronicle, who willingly gave us a helping hand with the moving, we were able to get our stuff loaded by a little after 7 PM. 

One thing that may not be apparent to the conferees:  the folks in the Exhibit Hall consider each other colleagues, not competitors.  If we’re sold out of a popular in-print title, we refer customers to our colleagues on the floor.   Our colleagues do the same for us. That’s the great thing about this biz – genealogy is a common interest that promotes collegiality. 

None of us will ever get rich doing what we do, but none of us will be without friends, either.

About 2 hours later we were home, the van securely parked.

Today, we started at 9:30 AM with the unloading process.  Every box needed to be removed from the van, and every unsold book needed to be returned to the proper place on the shelves.  We worked until 4:30 PM, and did occasional conference paperwork in between.

There are still boxes in the van that will need to get moved tomorrow, weather permitting.  Then, we’ll do inventory, see what needs to be re-ordered, and start planning for the next event.  There will still be about two full days of accounting, inventory and general record-keeping work that needs to be done before we can declare NERGC 2011 officially “over.”

The next event is in Dewitt, New York (a Syracuse suburb) next Saturday.

I’ll be the “all-day” speaker (3 talks) for the Central New York Genealogical Society’s spring event.  Since we’re also exhibiting as “Jonathan Sheppard Books”, we’ll be doing all of the above again, but on a smaller scale.

Yeah, we both have loose screws…otherwise, if we were interested in monetary rewards, we’d wear paper hats, stand behind a counter and ask customers, “Would you like fries with that?”

Van's Ready: Time For "Speaker Mode"

Now that the van is packed, I'll be heading east to the New England Regional Genealogical Conference (NERGC) momentarily.  Meanwhile, I’m in full NERGC “speaker” mode, at least for a while. 

Fortunately, my first talk isn’t until late Friday afternoon – in that last time block before “Happy Hour” (4:45 PM – 5:45 PM)

That talk (which, in your program is F231-   “Sixty Hours a Week, Ten Cents An Hour:  Records of New England’s Industrial Heritage”) takes on a topic that doesn’t often get much serious attention by genealogists. Still, it’s important to remember that if your ancestor – male or female – worked as a mill operative, a factory worker, even as a shoemaker or hatmaker, or any number of jobs, he or she probably spent more time with co-workers and bosses than with spouse and family. 

Decisions about where to live, where to move, where to shop and where to worship were often heavily influenced by a person’s job.  Job-related records were created that can help today’s genealogists in a number of ways.  Reports were written that can today provide insight into an ancestor’s daily life.  Things were published that contain key genealogical facts, most of which are never looked at by genealogists.

I’ll be showcasing several key industries and pointing you in the direction of records that can help you in your search for more complete information.  Plan on joining me late Friday afternoon.  I’ll work hard not to cut into your “Happy Hour” time.

The next morning, you can drop by for my “wake up” talk at 8:30 AM.  The topic might well pop your eyes wide open when you learn about all the records dealing with both public and private charity that still exist.  If the terms “outdoor” versus “indoor” relief, and the “law of settlement” are not in your vocabulary yet, or if you’re not sure about when the “Age of the Asylum” began or what it meant, plan on dropping by.  The talk is called “When The Trail Leads To The Almshouse And Cold Charity” (it’s S-304 in your program). 

One of the most important concepts that I’ll keep trying to underscore is that the records of charity don’t just deal with the poor; lots of folks find themselves in these records because of their occupations, empathetic natures or specific skills.  Think of it this way:  when we talk about the records of “medical care”, for example, we’re usually talking about more than just sick people.  We’re more often than not also talking about health care providers, hospitals & clinics and the folks who build and staff them, nurses, the drug industry, the medical equipment engineers, the whole ball of wax.  “Medical Care” is more than sick people; it’s a whole industry.   

The “public and private charity” thing I’ll be talking about as a lot like that.  A whole industry, producing voluminous records, naming names from all walks of life.

Chances are, you’ll find something of interest in each of these talks. Hope to see you there!

The End Of Packing Is In Sight! The Van Is Being Loaded! (well... sort of...)

Things are going a bit more slowly than I expected.  

The morning rain was supposed to stop by noon.  It didn't.  Now, it's raining and lightly snowing, with a touch of sleet mixed in for good measure. 

Did I ever tell you that Upstate is delightful in early April? Yeah, we have mud season here, too.

Since books don't like to get their little book feet wet, we're waiting for a break in the weather and planning out our next loading move in the event the rain keeps on falling.

When we load the van, the trick is making it all fit inside in a non-hazardous way.  In other words, avoiding driver and front passenger concussion or decapitation from flying wooden bookcases is the basic idea. That’s one of the reasons we use uniformly sized boxes.  That way, it’s kind of like an exercise in bricklaying. Done right, the weight is equally distributed and nothing shifts (too much).

The first things to go in are the aforementioned folding wooden bookcases, and that’s already done.  Next are the boxes of out-of-print books, the contents of some of which I drew your attention to earlier this week.  Maps, manuscripts, ephemera bins, display panels, folding tables, table covers, bookends and book stands – they’ll all go in last, along with the luggage, the LCD projector for my talks and other odds and ends.

In between, we’ll pack the “new” in-print books.

What sort of things, you ask?  Well, we’ll have copies of a new book by Christine Rose (FASG) on using military bounty land records.  The book was just was released two weeks ago.  If you think that this would be outside your “area” since you had stay-at-home New England ancestors, you’d be dead wrong, especially if one of your guys served in the Rev. War, the War of 1812 or anything before the Civil War and thereby received a sale-able warrant.  We’ll also have Ms. Rose’s books on courthouse research and courthouse indexes, her book on nicknames and her handy book on the Genealogical Proof Standard.   

You also find a stack of Elizabeth Mills’ “Evidence” and “Evidence Explained”, as well as her “Quick Sheet” guides to source documentation.  And yes, we’ll also Diane Rapaport’s “New England Court Records.”

Then there are the new GPC “At A Glance” laminated reference guides (much like the “Quick Sheets” in style and format) on Irish, Scottish and French Canadian research.

Of course, we’ll have many of the NERGC speakers’ books.  There will be books by Colleen Fitzpatrick, John Colletta, Maureen Taylor and Leslie Huber.  We’ll have books on a variety of ethnic topics - Irish, Italian, Welsh, Scottish, African American, Hispanic and …, oh, well, you get the idea.

 Plus, there will be a number of new books that we’re fond of, but that you may have never heard of, since they’re not talked about much in genealogical circles.  Nonetheless, they’re great references.

You can see them for yourself when the Exhibit Hall opens Thursday night.  Now you know why we have four (count ‘em, FOUR) booths. 

In my next reincarnation, I’m going to concentrate on rare stamps. Or maybe autographs. Anything lightweight that doesn’t require a strong back and a van to get ‘em from place to place.

PACKING FOR NERGC – PART DREI (Okay, So Maybe We Should Just Bring Everything!)

Around here, we’re suckers for ephemera.  

For those not completely familiar with the term, it means (at least, in bookseller-speak) something – either printed or handwritten – that was produced for a very specific reason, but was not intended to be saved for any long period of time.

For example, those receipts you get from the grocery store with coupons printed on the back?  That’s ephemera.  Your cell phone bill? Ephemera.  A party invitation or the junk mail selling you lawn fertilizer?  Ephemera, too.  Today, they’re worthless.  Three hundred years from now, historians will drool over today’s junk mail and will use it to document 21^st US culture. 

These days, however, most booksellers take a broader view of what ephemera is, since 18^th century junk mail is hard to come by.  Ephemera can be a pamphlet, a small notebook or even small book. It can be a handwritten 18^th century receipt for lumber. In our NERGC booth, we’ll have three crates of interesting  ephemera with pieces relating to each of the New England states,  New York and eastern Canada, along with some handsome display pieces.

For example, I just finished writing the description for two long handwritten and signed account receipts for blacksmithing work by Zaccheus Pond of Watertown, Massachusetts for a man named Samuel Stearns.  There’s a list of all the jobs performed for Stearns from 1810 through 1814.  I also finished a 1795 “love and affection” manuscript deed from Eleazer and Abigail Mitchel of Southbury CT to their daughter Hannah, wife of Zephaniah H. Smith of Glastonbury.  

Last night, I described a tailor/seamstress accounting sheet from Camden, Oneida County, New York for sewing jobs performed for local residents between September 1841 and July 1842.  A day and a quarter’s work was valued at 38 cents.  

Anytime you can find a list of rural residents in between census years in mid 19^th century central New York, you have what could well be a genealogically significant item.  Think documenting an individual in a particular place and a particular time by finding his/her name on a tailor’s accounting record.

We’ll also have a copy of the September 1938 Rhode Island “Hurricane” book with great photos of the damage done and lists of the cottages destroyed.  Plus, I catalogued a number of funeral sermons just for NERGC.  There will also be lots of pamphlets on local history, church history and the like.  There’s a truly rare piece that documents Armenian-American soldiers in World War II, with photos and capsule biographies. There are no copies in WorldCat and none being offered for sale anywhere.

Later today, I’ll sort out some original maps and prints.  One of the ones I’ve already picked is an original Thomas Worth woodcut that was published in Harper’s Weekly showing the 1870 census-taker interviewing folks on the porch.  This link will show you what it looks like.   Note that ours is the original engraving from Harper’s, not a reproduction.

You have to admit it would look great framed and hanging in your office.

If you’d prefer something a bit older, we’ll also have a circa 1791 copperplate engraving of “View of the Attack On Bunker’s Hill, With the Burning of Charles Town, June 17, 1775”.  Yes, there’s some minor foxing and light wear.  Still, if you were born in 1791 like this engraving, you’d be foxed and lightly worn, too.  The print is triple-matted and ready for your frame.

The list goes on and on.

Today is Monday and we’re getting down to the wire.  Next, we'll have to make sure it all fits in the van!

PACKING FOR NERGC – PART DEUX

It's getting crowded around here.

The work tables are brimming with books, old and new.

The stacks of packed book boxes are growing.  It’s getting harder to navigate between the piles.

Here are some more of the items that have already “made the cut”, so to speak, in addition to the many town histories, etc. that our customers have come to expect.

BOOKS

Most genealogists know that historian David Hackett Fischer has a way with words.  While his classic “Albion’s Seed” is probably his best known work in the genealogy world, there’s another much less well known work that is well worth reading too.  We’re bringing a copy (that’s right, just one) of his 1996 “The Great Wave: Price Revolutions and the Rhythm of History”, which is a must-read for anyone wanting to understand the economic factors – especially the rise and fall of prices –that influenced and determined our ancestors’ life decisions.

In keeping with this idea that mundane “getting and spending” activities– jobs, money, profit - were also  keen motivators that influenced our ancestors’ decisions on such matters as spouse selection (“her father’s filthy rich”), migration (what, you think your farmer ancestor moved to Ohio for the scenery?) and job choice (had he been able to read and write, he would have been a great attorney…), we’re also packing some business histories, a number of “westward migration” books and a couple of copies of a fascinating study of early “commercial travelers”, also known as “traveling salesmen”.  It’s called “100 Years On the Road: The Traveling Salesman in American Culture.” It covers the 1830 – 1920 time period and makes use of letters and diaries, etc.  It’s also the first book on the subject.  We’ve also got a title or two about the ubiquitous “Yankee” peddler and his wagonsful of “notions.”

Oh…and about that “spouse selection” reference above – we’ve got two copies of “I Do I Do”, about American wedding customs and then, cognizant that things didn’t always work out, we’ve packed a single copy of “Framing American Divorce: From The Revolutionary Generation To The Victorians.”  Plus, we’ll also have a few copies of “Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from The Underground Railroad.”

Then, continuing along the same line – but a bit farther away, I just packed a pristine hardcover copy of Asa Briggs “A Social History of England” which has a chapter entitled “The Quest for Wealth, Power and Pleasure” and another on “Poverty and Progress.”

Very frankly, if you’re not reading and studying the background material, you’re likely missing a whole lot about your ancestors’ lives and times.  It’s not just collecting names and dates, you know.  Really.  It isn’t.

DOCUMENTS AND MANUSCRIPTS

We’ll also have a small selection of interesting original prints, maps and documents.  Some of the documents are intensely family-specific, but are absolutely fascinating pieces of history in their own right. For example, I just packed (1.) a letter from Alfred Lennox to his brother Patrick back home in Wiscasset, Maine.  In his “blue paper” letter dated “New Orleans, Sunday, December 30^th 1849”, Alfred discusses his health, his Thanksgiving dinner of well-seasoned salt pork, the loss of another Lennox vessel, the “Mary T. Randlett” and much more. The Lennox brothers dominated the Maine “coaster” business several decades later.  There’s also (2.) a large partially printed document (an 1830 militia appointment, making John T. Knapp a major in the NY 167th) signed by NY Gov. Enos T. Throop, (3.) a striking large broadside referencing the collection of the State of Maine Tax for 1829,  some deeds, … well, you get the idea.  

These, of course, are the “real one-of-a-kind deal” – not copies.

THE DOOR PRIZE

Finally, there’s a sneak peek at the door prize quilt close up (below).  

It’s 42” X 68” overall and ideal for keeping the chill off your knees and lower extremities come those cold New England (or upstate NY) evenings.

The quilter refused to let me put her in the picture, but she’ll be in the NERGC booth.

PACKING FOR NERGC - PART ONE

Today was NERGC Packing Day – Part One.

As some of you know, next week is the New England Regional Genealogical Conference, and, in addition to yours truly doing two new lectures, we’re also exhibiting in the Exhibit Hall, wearing our “Jonathan Sheppard Books” hats.

Okay, no actual hats, but you get the idea.

We have a pretty large space (four booths) and we plan on bringing lots of hard-to-find, out-of-print titles as well as a select assortment of in-print items, too.  There will also be one-of-a-kind 19^th century original manuscripts. There will be original documents.  There will be maps.  There will be… whatever I decide to pack at the last minute.

We’re concentrating on items that relate to the six New England states, plus New York State and Canada, along with some Irish, English and Scottish titles, social history, genealogy, reference material and ethnic history.  Some of the titles are pretty obscure, but then, I like to introduce genealogists to things that may not usually appear on their research radar. 

For example, if you’re doing any Civil War related research and are not yet familiar with Drew Gilpin Faust’s recent “Republic of Suffering”, you’re missing a lot.  Dr. Faust is a top-notch historian, writes a mean, well-documented book (this one’s about caring for the CW dead), and in her spare time is President of Harvard.  We’ll have copies. Need the one-volume edition of Seymour Dunbar’s 1915 classic the “History of Travel in America” (probably the best study of how our ancestors traveled from Point A to Point B)?  We’ll have that, too.

I could go on and on about the stuff we're bringing, but you're much better off coming to look it over yourself.

We’ll also have lots of original-edition 19^th and early century local histories and genealogies.  Many of these will be the original first editions, more than a century old, with real steel engraved illustrations, printed on real paper with honest-to-God metal type that is pressed into the paper so that you can feel the words when you run your fingers across the page.  Do I make myself clear?  Think original antiques.  These books are to “reprints” as the original DaVinci “Mona Lisa” in the Louvre is to a magazine illustration of the same painting.  Or as an original antique chair is to a chain store reproduction.

If you’re coming to NERGC, plan on allowing plenty of time to browse our booth(s); my guess is that we’ll have well in excess of a thousand or so titles on display before we’re done packing.

And, as a special thank-you to our loyal customers over the past 34 years, we’ve discounted a large number of our out-of-print titles, just for NERGC attendees.  Not everything, mind you, but still, a very significant number.  Look for the special orange discount cards.

It’s always hard breaking the news to the books that don’t get to go to NERGC.  Those poor books have to stay home and sit on the shelves, waiting to be adopted by other means.  Pennsylvania? Nope.  Ohio?  Sorry, guys.  Virginia?  Not this time!   It’s NERGC, so it’s mostly New England.

Plus, these stay-at-home books are suffering since everybody seems fascinated with e-books and digital stuff.

Don’t worry, I tell them, the really serious types know that digitized titles are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.  There’s lots more stuff that is essential to research that exists only in paper-ink-glue format.  You’ll get your turn to find a new home soon!

Oh, yeah. The Jonathan Sheppard Books NERGC door prize. 

This year, we’re offering an original, one-of-a-kind, artisan-designed lap quilt.  Come check it out!

Genealogy Conference - The Berkshires - September - (What's Not To Like???)

It’s September. Listen. Those aren't crickets.

The clock’s ticking.

If you haven’t already done so, it’s still not too late to register for the seventh annual all-day genealogy conference called “Life in the Past Lane”, hosted by The Friends of the National Archives–Pittsfield, Silvio O. Conte National Records Center on Saturday, September 18th. As in recent years, the event will be held at the Williams Inn on the Green in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

This year, the Friends have lined up three great presenters: Leslie Albrecht Huber, Jean Nudd and Gregory Pomicter. Topics to be covered include “Get Organized! Get Control of Your Research Projects”, “Electronic Scrapbooking”, “Writing A Family History Your Family Will Want To Read” and “Using Footnote.com”.

Plus, the ever-popular “Ask the Experts” Roundtable will close out the day, with the panel fielding audience questions.

We’ll be there (as Jonathan Sheppard Books) with our tables laden with books, both new and out of print, along with lots of other businesses and societies that provide those things that genealogists just absolutely have to have.

Here’s the link for more info and a registration form for Life In The Past Lane VII.

If the speakers, topics and exhibitors weren’t enough to fully motivate you to action, here’s another big plus. It’ll be in mid-September and it will be (as I may have already said…) in WILLIAMSTOWN, MASSACHUSETTS. IN THE BERKSHIRES.

Those of us who live in these parts can attest to it being one of the best times of year to be in western Massachusetts, just down the road from Vermont and just over the line from “Upstate New Yawk”. Weather’s usually perfect, views are always great, natives are friendly and lots of the summer folk have gone home to the Big City.

When you come by for the conference, be sure to save a minute or two to check out the memorial stone on the green in front of the Williams Inn. It was erected in 1916 by the members of the Kappa Alpha Society from Williams College and is dedicated to the memory of the original settlers of the area and specifically to Sergeant William Chidester, his son James and Captain Elisha Chapin, who were ambushed and massacred at the West Hoosac blockhouse during the French and Indian War.

And, just in case you didn’t know, the Kappa Alpha Society is the oldest college social fraternity in North America, founded at Union College in Schenectady, New York in the fall of 1825.

See you there?