#52Ancestors - Week 23 - Mistake

The discussion in Week 23 of #52Ancestors is Mistakes, and they are oh so easy to make.  As discussed in Week 14 - Check it out, one of the biggest mistakes we can make as researchers is to blindly accept as fact anything we see in someone else's online family tree or in a database or archive.  Any new piece of information needs to be checked and confirmed.  Mistakes WILL be made - by researchers, by transcribers and digitizing projects, even by those who originally created records.

In my earlier post I listed some of the things to keep in mind to help spot obvious errors - and I have seen all of these in online trees : 

• Children cannot be born before their parents. 
• Children cannot be born to a mother who is 6 years old.  Or 94 years old.  
• Children are highly unlikely to be born to a father who is 89 years old.  While this MAY be biologically possible, it is unlikely and deserves a bit of fact checking. 
• A child cannot be christened 2 months before they are born. 
• A woman cannot marry 3 years after she has died. 
• A man cannot enlist in the army 5 years after he has died.
  

Recently I discovered a transcribed record in an online database that illustrated the mistakes that can occur.  The record for the baptism of Hannah May below leapt out at me when I first located it.  Why??  Check the birth and baptism dates again.  According to this record Hannah was born 17 August 1796 but baptised6 weeks earlier on 9 July 1796.

Something has been transcribed incorrectly in this record.  Possibly the dates are transposed and Hannah was born in July and baptised in August.  Possibly one of the months was transcribed incorrectly.  With no original image to check, I will need to dig further to find out.  It is clear, however, that a mistake has been made somewhere.

Photo Restoration

Now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines is a new magazine on Photo Restoration.  Members are able to read any of our online magazines through the Libby app easily on their computer, laptop or Android or Apple device.

This new magazine provides easy to follow expert advice on how to bring your old photos back to life: – best options for scan settings, image resolution and re-sizing; – how to easily use photo editing software for Colour correction, Contrast adjustment, Sharpening, Dust and scratch removal, Clone stamp and Healing brush; – identify when it’s better to use professional restoration services; – best ways to store, organise, share and display your restored images. High quality book design and insightful case studies with sample images to provide step by step fixes for the most common blemishes in old photographs.

Inside this issue :  

• Photo Restoration
• Why digitise your photos?
• Scanning
• Software for photo restoration
• Preparing images for retouching
• Precautions when cropping
• Global adjustments
• Localised adjustments
• Editing tips
• Step-by-step restoration
• When to call the professionals
• What to do with your restored images

 Take a look at the range of e-magazines, e-books and e-audiobooks available now.

Who Do You Think You Are Magazine

The latest issue of Who Do You Think You Are magazine is now available free online for Campaspe Library members via our subscription to Libby eMagazines. 

Inside this month's issue 

• Find family for free Discover the best free family history websites
• Churchyard archaeology How to find your ancestors in graveyards
• Who Do You Think You Are? As series 19 starts, we look at what makes the genealogy show so popular
• Same-sex love How to trace your LGBT ancestors
• Eureka moment "DNA solved the mystery of my great great grandfather"
• Plus: The best websites for researching agricultural labourers, how to find Royal Navy records, finding settlement examinations and certificates and more

#52Ancestors - Week 22 - Conflict

Russell Nicholas Clark, WW2

The prompt for Week 22 is conflict, and as the world watches the devastation of war in Ukraine, the tragic reality of conflict is right in front of our eyes.  Living in Australia, so relatively isolated and seeing so little major conflict strike our shores, it truely hits home how fortunate we have been.

 

My family was extremely lucky, in both world wars and other conflicts, to have most of those who served not only come home, but come home fairly unscathed.  Once second cousin was killed in France in World War 1 ; one uncle died in the Merchant Navy in World War 2.  All the other relatives who served – my father, uncles and great-uncles and more recently several cousins - returned safely to their loved ones.  While they all had to live with the memories of the conflicts, they were mostly uninjured by their experiences and able to rebuild their civilian lives. 

Leonard Clark, WW2

 

So many others were not so fortunate.  Numerous Australian families endured the loss of loved ones on foreign soil, or the return of family members forever scarred by their service.  So many who returned faced a lifetime of ruined health or years of recovery and rehabilitation.  My family has been lucky indeed.

 

ANZAC has very much become a part of our national vocabulary.  Many of the people who lived though that campaign were ordinary volunteers, just as Australia’s current veterans were ordinary volunteers.  They put their daily lives on hold to serve and protect us all, most with very little clear idea of just what they were volunteering for.  Even as a young child I was taught the significance of ANZAC Day, attended services, and spent my pocket money on ANZAC Day badges, many of which I still have in a container at home, which I still add to annually.

Ernest Green, WW2 postcard from Egypt

Through the National Archives of Australia I have downloaded several family WW1 records and ordered those from WW2 -  the NAA has indexed and digitised Boer War and World War 1 dossiers, which you can search and view online for free. World War II dossiers have been indexed but will only be digitised if a family member has requested it.  Other websites include Discovering Anzacs Whichallows you to add your stories and images, and the Australian War Memorial, which has databases like the WW1 Embarkation Rolls and WW1 Red Cross files.  Researching  newspaper reports in Trove has also been a gold mine, with news of enlistments, farewells, news from the front, even a few letters home were published in local papers.

Find-A-Grave Needs to Take Heed

The vast majority of contributors on Find A Grave have the best of intentions — to help others. At its best, the site can be a boon for Family History researchers.  Being able to view the grave/headstone of a relative buried overseas or in a place we cannot easily access ourselves is a huge treat.  That this website is completely free makes it even better.  Several times I have been delighted to find a relative has a memorial on Find-A-Grave, complete with dates and details.  Always I am amazed at the generosity of people out there, giving their time to help make researching easier for others.

Within the Find-A-Grave community, however, there has emerged a small group of users who seem more motivated by competition. The top contributors have added over 200,000 memorials each, and there are some who have over a million each.

As competition took hold among many Find-A-Grave contributors, examples have arisen of less-than-ethical behaviour.  There are some who haunt the obituaries and death notices, eager to be the first to add memorials for the recently deceased.  Often even before family members have been notified.  They add memorials for people they do not know with no thought to the families and their wants/needs.

For years, the wider Genealogical community have asked Ancestry, who own Find-A-Grave, to stop incentivizing this behavior by reporting the statistics: the numbers of memorials created by total strangers, not reporting on actual graves of genealogical interest, but the obits that hit the online news sites at midnight.

Earlier this year, Find a Grave initiated a new system meant to address this issue. Under the new system for the posting of memorials for the “recently deceased” (defined as anyone who has died within the past year), anyone could still create a memorial, but only limited information was to be displayed for three months if the person creating the memorial wasn’t a family member.  While acknowledged as a step in the right direction, many felt it did not fully address the issue, and unfortunately there is a loophole.  It turns out that Find a Grave only made that rule effective on the web-browser-based platform. People using the mobile app could - and do - get around the rule entirely.

This was borne out after the tragic school shooting in Texas which claimed the lives of nineteen fourth graders and two teachers.  Before the ink was dry on the headlines, complete strangers had added the details of the dead to Find-A-Grave.  Along with the husband of one of those teachers who died of a heart attack upon hearing the news. They even added the shooter.

THIS HAS TO STOP. 

In another wonderful post, The Legal Genealogist Judy Russell has summed up the feelings of the Genealogical community brilliantly.  She has also suggested we all contact Ancestry, who own Find-A-Grave, and let them know that further changes must be made to protect the families and loved ones of the recently deceased.

Take a look at Judy's post - Judy G. Russell, “Ancestry, this one’s on you,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 31 May 2022).  And make your voice heard.  Because THIS HAS TO STOP.

Irish Lives Remembered

The latest edition of the free online magazine 'Irish Lives Remembered' is now available.

Articles: 

• Fiona Fitzsimons – Maureen the Scarlet-haired O'Hara's Roots!
• Brigit McCone – The Celt and the Cossack: Connecting Irish and Ukrainian Nationalism
• Eamonn P. Kelly – Imbolg: Brigid and the Rites of Spring
• Nathan Mannion – Playing the World: Gaelic Games Abroad
• Paul MacCotter – The Cotter (or MacCotter) Family of County Cork
• Brian Mitchell – Derry~Londonderry: Emigration from the Foyle by sail and steam
• Gerard Leen – The Surprisingly Political History of Cahersiveen, County Kerry
• Katharine Simms – The Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Clans of Ireland Prize in History 2022
• The Four Courts Press Book  Excerpt – Roscommon:The Irish Revolution 1912-23 (published 2021) by John Burke
• The Genealogical Publishing Company Book  Excerpt – Irish Relatives and Friends: From “Information Wanted” Ads in the Irish-American 1850-1871, (published 2001) compiled by Laura Murphy DeGrazia and Diane Fitzpatrick Haberstroh
• The Four Courts Press Book Excerpt - Crime and punishment in nineteenth-century Belfast: the story of John Linn (published 2020) by Jonathan Jeffrey Wright
  
  

Regular columns: 

• Dear Genie (Our Genealogists help you with your research block)
• Photodetective (Jayne Shrimpton analyses one of your family photos)
• FMP Roundup (Jessie O’Hara lets us know of the new Irish genealogy records that have been added to Findmypast)

#52Ancestors - Week 21 - Yearbook

This week's prompt 'Yearbook' had me fossicking through storage in my garage to try to locate my old High School yearbooks - where had I stored them??  After a short search I located them in a box, safely stored away.

When had I last glanced at them?  I don't remember.  I probably had a quick look as I packed them in their box over 5 years ago as I prepared to move to my current home.  Prior to that, I probably haven't even thought about them in years.  Having found them now, I settled down to relive my High School days, laugh at some of the hairstyles and fashions, recall great teachers and some not so great, and reflect on how few of my High School yearmates still live locally.

Those old yearbooks - from the 1980's - certainly brought back memories.  Participating in school plays, playing flute in the school band, reading long forgotten short stories and poems I had written, seeing how many classmates I could name from school photos - the yearbooks were quite a blast from my past and I am so glad I have kept them.

The next job on my list - to scan my personal contributions to the yearbooks into my family history archives, along with any casual photos in which I appeared.  I have already scanned all my class and individual photos, and once I have digitised the relevant parts of the yearbooks I will find them a better storage place to keep them preserved for the future.