October is Archives Month - By the Sea, By The Sea, By the Beautiful Sea

The Phillips Library - Salem, Massachusetts

Yesterday I noted that October is “Archives Month” as well as a number of other commemorative things.  So, recognizing that October is also Family History Month, it seems fitting to discuss some other recent developments in the archives world that will also be of interest to family historians. After all, family historians are now recognized as a very important subset of archives users. 

This is a significant development from several generations ago, when the term most often applied to family historians in archives was “pests”.

Archivists and special collections librarians often plan on October as “target” month for significant announcements about new developments affecting their collections.  October is often the month we learn about new finding aids, new acquisitions, new digitization projects and other similar advances.

For example, yesterday Tamara Gaydos, the manuscript archivist at the Phillips Library, announced that about 2500 manuscript records in the Library had been added to the online library catalog known as Philcat. This is Big News, and will make researchers' lives a whole lot more productive.

Why? Because the manuscripts at the Phillips Library are among the most important in New England.

For researchers interested in Essex County, Massachusetts and in New England’s early maritime history, the Phillips Library in Salem has long been the “go-to” place.  The library is part of what is now known as the Peabody Essex Museum (Granddaughter – not yet three – calls it the “PeeBee Six Museum”).

Aside from their great collections of art and artifacts, P-E-M and the Phillips Library in particular are caretakers of some tremendously important manuscript & microform material, such as the records of the Essex County Quarterly Court, General Sessions of the Pleas, and Court of Common Pleas.  Interested in the Salem Witch trials?  The Library holds the records of the special 1692 Court of Oyer and Terminer which conducted the trials. In addition, researchers will find ship’s logbooks, shipbuilder’s records as well as the complete records of the Newburyport Federal customhouse from 1789 to 1910. And much, much more.

This of course, just scratches the surface.  The Phillips Library collections are both wide and deep, covering areas of interest to genealogists on many levels.

You can explore the Library’s holdings via Philcat here.

Hint: If you enter a search term in the Philcat search box, you'll get returns that include both printed and manuscript material. If you want to limit your search to the manuscript holdings only, be sure to select that choice on the search page. 

Note also that the search engine can find only the terms/names actually used in the finding aid; it is not a complete index to all the names in any specific manuscript collection.

So, while the finding aid describing a particular set of maritime records will most often record the name of a ship’s owner and the ship’s captain in a specific ship’s logbook, the ship’s crew, passengers and people encountered along the voyage are rarely mentioned.  You’ll have to go the Library and investigate the actual contents of the manuscript logbook for yourself.

Of course, that’s why we call it “research”, not “data retrieval”. Happy hunting!

October is National __________ Month

Okay, you’re jumping to conclusions…

In the event you might have missed it, I’m honor bound to draw your attention to the fact that the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council has once again declared October to be “National Sausage Month.” 

It only makes sense to have the celebration of sausages fall in October, since it’s National Pork Month as well.

October is a pretty busy month.  It’s German-American AND Polish-American Heritage Month, both of which fit nicely with the aforementioned National Sausage Month. And it’s also National Cookie Month, and National Dessert Month.  And National Pizza Month and National Popcorn Poppin’ Month.

Hungry yet?

Researchers, however, should take time out from all those eating binges to remember that October is also Archives Month.

Archives and special collections repositories around the nation, from the largest to the smallest, go all out in the month of October to showcase their collections and instruct and inform the general public about the value of archival collections.  Chances are, there’s an archives near you that’s holding some kind of special event this month.

Consider New York State, for example.  Every year, the NY State Archives spearheads a month-long campaign to raise archival awareness in New Yorkers of all ages and descriptions.  This year, the theme is “Safeguarding Your History”.  The poster features a circa 1912 photo showing a fireman trainee learning to jump at the Rochester NY Fire Department Training Academy.  (“Safeguarding” – get it?)

The State Archives website has a calendar of archives-related events around the state, with appropriate hyperlinks to the variety of exhibits, lectures and workshops taking place all over New York.

If you’d like your very own copy of NYS Archives 2010 poster with the jumping fireman, the link to the pdf. file is here.

The big news this past week was that the New York State Archives and New York State Library in Albany instituted Saturday hours.  This is a REALLY BIG DEAL.  There's more info here.

Neither the NYS Library nor NYS Archives has been open on Saturday in most researchers’ living memory.  The fact that I actually remember those Saturday hours long ago only underscores how truly antiquated I am.

So, if you use the NYS Archives/Library in Albany and are excited by the prospect of Saturday hours, click on the “contact us” part of the NYS Archives webpage and then send ‘em a note to say thanks.

And while you’re at it, send a note to your favorite archives/archivist and say simply, “Thanks for being there for us.  Have a happy Archives Month!”

The Reconstructed "War Department" Papers - 1784 - 1800 - Online and Searchable

Back on September 19th, in honour of “International Talk Like A Pirate Day”, I briefly recounted the story of Granddaughter and Grandson’s 5th great grandfather William Sturgis (1782 – 1863) and his encounter with the Ladrone pirates in the China Sea near Macao in 1809. 

At the time, I directed readers to the many gems in the archival holdings of the Sturgis Library in Barnstable, Massachusetts.

Today, I’m directing your attention to yet another gem – the reconstructed “Papers of the War Department 1784 - 1800”

As you may already know, the War Department in Washington suffered a disastrous fire on the night of 8 November 1800, destroying the office and all of its files.  However, more than a dozen years ago, historian Theodore J. Crackel, premier military expert and editor in chief of the Papers of George Washington,  took on the formidable task of trying to reconstruct the Office’s official papers, based on the holdings of more than 200 archival repositories around the world.  More than 3,000 collections were surveyed in the hope of assembling at least part of what had been lost in the fire.

In 2006, the collection – by then numbering more than 45,000 documents - was transferred to the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.  Earlier this year, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) provided funding to continue the addition of more detailed data to the records collection, thus making it more useful and accessible to researchers.  Much of the collection has been digitized and is freely available and searchable.

You can see what great stuff is available by following the link here.

So, what does all this have to do with William Sturgis and the Ladrone pirates?

Simply this – when Sturgis returned to Boston after the pirate attack, his first stop was likely at the home of the woman who was about to become his wife later that year -  Elizabeth  (Betsy) Marston Davis.  Betsy’s father – John Davis, Esquire (1761 – 1847) -  was at the time a prominent federal judge in Boston, appointed by John Adams in 1801 and an expert in admiralty law.

However, before he was appointed the Federal judge, Davis had previously served as US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, appointed by George Washington. And before that, he had served for several years as Comptroller of the Currency, appointed by Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott.

Much of Davis’s job as Comptroller involved balancing the new nation’s books and collecting money that belonged to the treasury. As such, he often found himself with the job of tracking down money that had been allocated for war and defense. He contacted former officials and asked them about the status of their outstanding accounts.

There are a number of interesting pieces of correspondence from and to John Davis in the reconstructed Papers of the War Department referenced above.  The item below, a letter from Davis to former US Quartermaster General Samuel Hodgden requests the return of $280.42 to the US Treasury.  The actual document is in the National Archives and Records Administration: [2nd Cong, Senate, Sec Treas Reports, RG46.]

When they grow up, I hope that Granddaughter and Grandson appreciate all the efforts their 6th great-grandfather John Davis took on their behalf to ensure that their infant federal government collected its outstanding debts.

A penny saved, and all that…

Anyway, here’s the letter and the transcription:

 

[Stamped: Received/ from/ State Dep’t./Nov. 24 1894./R.P.O. 401310]

Treasurer’s Office

Comptroller’s Office

March 7: 1796.

Sir,

You stand charged on the Books of the Treasury,  as late Quarter Master General, with a balance of  Two hundred and eighty Dol[lars an]d forty two cents, as communicated to you by the late Comptroller of the Treasury in his letter of the 12: of August 1794.  It being desirable that this account should be closed, I have to request that you will make payment of said balance, as soon as shall be convenient, to the Treasurer of the United States [?] which measures will be taken to close the Account in the public Books.

                                                                                                I am very respectfully

                                                                                                            Sir

                                                                                                Your Obed^t Serv’t

                                                                                                            Jno. Davis

                                                                                                            Compt.

Samuel Hodgden, Esq.

Today’s Holiday: Which One Are You Celebrating?

For some folks, today is the Monday holiday that is known as Columbus Day (observed).  The Post Office and the banks are closed. Sales abound throughout the United States, from mall to shining mall.

For some of us, however, this is the Monday that is the conclusion of the weekend better known as “Canadian Thanksgiving”. Or, for those living mostly north of the 49th parallel**, it is simply known as “Thanksgiving”.

Folks who live mostly south of that 49th parallel** might think that the Canadian version of Thanksgiving is simply some kind of Johnny-come-lately, copy-cat holiday, but they would be dead wrong.  Granted, the act of Parliament that fixed the “second Monday in October” date of “Thanksgiving” in Canada dates only from 1957, but the holiday itself is much earlier than that. 

For years, the Thanksgiving holiday in Canada occurred in early November (November 6th): in fact, the Thanksgiving holiday and the Remembrance Day observation (that’s the commemoration of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month - when that War To End All Wars ended - , in some places known as “Armistice Day”) often occurred in the same week.  Parliamentary action in Ottawa changed all that.

Folks in the United States celebrate their Thanksgiving holiday in late November. Their festivities are all wrapped up in the Pilgrims, Plymouth Rock, Indians, succotash, cranberry sauce, turkey and the harvest of 1621. “American” Thanksgiving has a decided New England feel to it, even though there are parts of what is now the United States that were settled by Europeans long before the Pilgrims. These folks also had celebratory “Thanksgivings.”

They were not English-speaking Anglo-Saxon Protestants, however.

Sir Martin Frobisher

For example, the good Spanish Catholic folks who settled in St. Augustine, Florida celebrated a similar day of thanks on September 8, 1565, several generations before the Pilgrims left Leiden. Then there was the celebration of Thanksgiving on April 30, 1598 held by Don Juan de Oñate and 400 colonists about 25 miles south of what is now El Paso, Texas.

For Canadians, the commemoration of Thanksgiving dates back to 1578, the year in which explorer Martin Frobisher held the first thanksgiving ceremony in Newfoundland to commemorate his survival of a perilous sea voyage. This, too, is a touch earlier than the “Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner: The Winthrops Meet the Wampanoags” event in Plymouth in 1621, but nearly completely unknown south of Canada.

If you’re celebrating Columbus Day, don’t forget that Christopher Columbus never actually set foot on any of the territory that is now known as the United States.  Moreover,  there is evidence that Columbus and his crew introduced syphilis to the indigenous residents of North America, all the while observing in his logbook that they (the natives) could be subjugated with a small number of  Spanish soldiers and would likely make fine servants (i.e., slaves).

Oh, brave new world!


No matter what today means for you personally in 2010, please have a happy and healthy one.  Personally, I never met a food holiday I didn’t like, so it’s hard to pass up on the idea of two (count ‘em, 2) Thanksgivings in the same year.

Besides, everybody knows that St. Brendan of Clonfert discovered the New World when he ventured forth in his leather boat from the west of Ireland during the 6th century. Then there was Leif...

** Yes, I know that three of the Maritime Provinces are actually south of the 49th parallel, but the term “49th parallel”  has served for years as the shorthand for the US-Canadian border, so, why mess with success?

You Never Know What You Might Find In an Attic, Basement or Closet!

Everybody knows that we can find our documentary history carefully preserved in our nation’s archives and libraries.

Except when those documents are stored in a suitcase in somebody’s house, hidden away for decades.

Even if you have no Gwinnett County, Georgia research interests whatsoever, here’s a link to a story in the online edition Macon (Georgia) Telegraph that will make the hair on the back of your neck stand on end. It describes a stash of letters and documents dating back to the period 1800 – 1877 that will certainly change the way some people around Macon will view their family and community history.

The cache of about 3,000 documents references about 1,300 people, including 242 Confederate soldiers, spread out across 51 Georgia counties.


Quick! Everybody check your basements and attics!

Evacuation Day's Comin' Soon! Will There Be Cake?

Today’s mail brought my author’s copies of New York Archives magazine, the quarterly publication of the New York State Archives Partnership Trust (NYSAPT).  This issue (Fall 2010 – Volume 10, Number) has a particularly striking cover, portraying General George Washington returning to the City of New York on 23 November 1783 after the departure of the British.

The cover illustrates Jennifer Steenshorne’s article on the New York City holiday known as “Evacuation Day” that commemorated this event. Since it’s the feature article, you can read it online here (and also examine the cover close-up).

There are also articles on an early trip along the Erie Canal by two famous scientist/educators (Amos Eaton and Asa Fitch), historic criminal case files in Westchester County, Governor’s Island, Soujourner Truth, the scientist Charles P. Steinmetz, and for the aging flower-children readers – Woodstock 1969. Each one is a great read, contains valuable information and draws heavily on archival sources.  After all, what else would you expect from a magazine with “archives” in its name?

My genealogy article, titled “Brave New World” is on pages 34-35. In it, I discuss how archival repositories and the genealogical communities worldwide are embracing what’s known as “Web 2.0” technologies to make things better and easier for all researchers.  I point out some interesting “crowd-sourcing” projects being done in Brooklyn and in Europe, focus on the building of “researcher wikis” and comment on the variety of blogs, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts that are popping up in the archival world.

No, you can’t read all of it online.  It’s a real, honest-to-goodness, print-and-ink magazine, sent to every member of the NYS Archives Partnership Trust. You only get to read the lead article for free.

Of course, to get your very own copy of New York Archives, you should consider becoming a member of the NYS Archives Partnership Trust. For $35.00, you’ll get all four issues of the magazine every year and a whole lot more.  There are discounts to events, discounts in the online gift shop, discounts from some major NYS university presses, and more.  Here’s the info about membership.

Perhaps you live too far from New York to take frequent advantage of the event discounts, et cetera.  Don’t despair! When you get your membership card from the NYS Archives Partnership Trust, you’ll discover that you’ve also become a Time Traveler, and that your membership card will get you all kinds of discounts, freebies and other goodies much closer to home.

For more information about the Time Travelers reciprocal benefit program, check out the details here – the Time Travelers site maintained on the Missouri History Museum’s website.   There are 270 institutions and locations in 41 states that participate in the Time Travelers program.  Poke around and see how much you might save simply by signing up for membership with the NYS Archives Partnership Trust.

And lest you’re thinking –oh sure, Mel gets a cut or commission… not true.  I’m under contract, and produce “works for hire”.  I get paid exactly the same whether the magazine has 10 readers or 10,000 readers. And my per-article contract amount has been exactly the same since (ahem) 2005.

In fact, through your membership, you help make the research world just a little bit better for everyone.  To see what the Partnership Trust does with your dough, check out the details here.

Oh yeah, if you’re really into instant gratification, you can call and get a membership over the phone.  (You can call the NYSAPT office at (518)-473-7091, Mondays – Fridays, 9 – 5)

By the way, mention my name when you call to become a member.

It won’t get you anything special, but it will get the person on the other end of the phone thinking, “Who the hell is he??”

(Sometimes, I just like messing with people’s heads…)

Did Your Folks Come From "Sow's Wallow" in "Germania"?

For my map-loving friends (and especially for those with German/Central European roots): 

The German publication Der Spiegel reveals the secrets hidden in Ptolemy the Cartographer's second century map of "Germania" here. A team of Berlin researchers broke the map's code and discovered some amazing things.  It appears that some Germanic settlements are very much older than they were thought to be. 

Perhaps your ancestors lived in Fürstenwalde back when it was called "Susudata", a word that roughly translates as "Sow's Wallow" - which was no doubt the early central European equivalent of "Dogpatch". It's a fascinating article.  And in English, too!