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Illuminated Heritage

November 29, 2006

Sharing Old Photos

I was reviewing my blog yesterday and noticed that I had promised a long long time ago to share how I have helped keep peace in at least part of the family through digitization and sharing of family photos. As I think I mentioned earlier, my Grandmother passed away at the end of September, but she’d been in a home for the past few years. As we were cleaning out her house, we, of course, ran across a lot of photos and even more negatives. Some were her’s but many belonged to her sister, my Great Aunt Ethel, who, if you remember was a shutterbug of the highest order (and we are SO happy that she was!). This is all detailed about a year ago in my post on Dating Old Photos.

Anyway, I had hundreds of negatives to scan..mostly from an old Brownie camera but I also had some 35mm and those tiny little things from the 1970s. I used an Epson Perfection 2400 Photo scanner (which is probably retired now) which was about $200. The PHOTO part is important because it came with a transparancy adapter so I COULD scan negatives. It also came with a variety of trays for different sized media like brownie and 35mm negatives and slides. I’m not going to cover slides much, but I will tell you – you have to take them out of the metal carousel frames and blow them up about 600% to get decent 4×6 inch prints (that was an entirely different project!). For software I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 (we’re now at version 5, but it’s still around $100) and the native scanner software. I’d suggest you put your scanner into “professional mode” and not “full automatic home mode.”

I scanned all black & white negatives at 600 dpi (dots per inch) in grayscale. Color negatives were also scanned at 600 dpi but in 24-bit color. Why not do them all in color? Because color files take up a lot more room as there is a lot more information there! Brownie negatives were easy to scan but they had to be done one at a time. I put them in the little holder, put that on the scanner and scanned away. The quality of these negatives were outstanding and when I had them printed out they looked like they’d just been taken yesterday. The 35mm negatives also scanned nicely but you can put the entire strip in and the software would scan each image individually so I could save as separate files. Depending on how large I wanted to print at, sometimes I blew these up (during the scanning process) 400% but for the most part, the 600 dpi allowed nice 4×6 prints. For those smaller (is it 128?) 1970s negatives, ugh, those were awful. The prints have lost a lot of their color and so have the negatives. Scans of either produced a terribly grainy print. If you have any of these – scan them now – they probably aren’t going to last much longer. Fortunately I didn’t have a lot of these with this lot but I do know that a lot of my Mom’s photos when we were growing up are in that format. I’m not looking forward to scanning those… I saved all images as TIF with no compression, which is what we do for Digital Past. Then I’d save them again as JPGs since that’s what is acceptable over the internet. All TIFs and some JPGs were burned to several sets of CDs – I have a copy, my Mom has a copy, I think my aunts might have a copy of select images as well. This is for storage and disaster recovery…should the originals or my scans get destroyed, Mom or an aunt would have them.

The next step is where the real sharing comes in though…

read more »

posted by Kay at 9:54 am | Comments (0)

November 28, 2006

Tuesday’s Treasure

I recently ran across this bound book of letters from Charles Sigwalt to his brother Mathias detailing his time with Sherman from Chattanooga to Atlanta. This was bound by Mathias’ son and given to Charles later in life. It’s 36 pages long and really very interesting, especially if you are into the Civil War and Sherman’s March. I had some relative, whose name I can’t seem to remember right now, who also accompanied Sherman. I think it was a Kinsman since they were about the only ones over here at the time, I don’t think it was a Motley. Anyway, this is truly a buried treasure on Digital Past and I hope perhaps it’ll be of interest to you! It’s from the Arlington Heights Library/Museum partnership.

posted by Kay at 2:00 pm | Comments (0)

Ancestry.com Extends Free Access!

What great news! Ancestry.com has extended it’s free access to the immigration records until the end of the year! So, if you were too busy in November, you have a second chance in December! I found some relatives from Germany but I’m still looking for those from England! Here’s their press release:

Ancestry.com Extends Free Offer to the World’s Largest Online Collection of U.S. Historical Immigration Records Due to Unprecedented Response

Free Access to the Most Comprehensive Collection of Available Passenger
List Records 1820-1960 Sparks 25 Percent Increase in Site Usage; Offer
Extended Through December 31, 2006

PROVO, Utah, Nov. 28 /PRNewswire/ — Ancestry.com, the world’s largest
online family history resource, today announced it is extending free access
to the most extensive immigration records collection online through the end
of the year. On November 9, the company released the most comprehensive
collection of all readily available U.S. passenger list records from 1820
to 1960, providing access to more than 100 million names from the height of
U.S. immigration. Ancestry.com originally offered free access to its
immigration records through November 30 to celebrate the launch of the
passenger list collection. Due to overwhelming response, the company is now
extending the offer through the end of 2006.
“The passenger list collection has struck a chord in communities,
sparking interest like we’ve never seen before,” said Tim Sullivan, CEO,
MyFamily.com, Inc., parent company of Ancestry.com. “Each record in this
collection is a memorial to what was most likely the most important day in
the lives of our ancestors and millions of people are connecting
emotionally and literally to these records. To commemorate and honor their
remarkable stories, Ancestry.com is providing free access to the largest
collection we have ever offered for the longest period of time.”
Ancestry.com has experienced its highest-ever site page views since the
launch of the passenger list collection. Average page views per day have
increased by 25 percent, from 12 to 15 million over the past month, and by
more than 30,000 page views per day from new visitors. In its first week,
the site experienced a 26 percent increase in average unique visitors per
day from the previous month.
Ancestry.com is the only source for the largest compilation of
passenger list records available and fully-searchable online. An estimated
85 percent of Americans have an immigrant ancestor included in this
passenger list collection, which took more than three years to digitize and
transcribe and includes the complete Ellis Island Collection, as well as
records from more than 100 other U.S. ports of arrival. The collection also
provides access to more than 7 million original passenger list records and
1,000 digital images of actual ships, allowing users to easily view and
print these documents at the click of a mouse from home. Of the 23,000
record sets available on Ancestry.com, this collection is one of the most
moving as it celebrates the courage, hopes, fears and memories of millions
of America’s immigrant ancestors.
To memorialize and complement the collection, Ancestry has also
launched the Ellis Island microsite, an interactive glimpse into the
immigration experience. This unique site delves into the details of the
entire immigrant experience, illustrating the story of immigration from
start to finish through original photos, maps, first-hand accounts and oral
histories from people who arrived in America during this great immigration
era. Users can access Ancestry.com’s Ellis Island site at

http://www.ellisislandexperience.com.

Ancestry.com has received numerous emails and stories from users about
their breakthrough discoveries while searching the immigration collection:
“I knew when my uncle was born, that he had lived with his father in
London and had immigrated to the United States after WW II. Beyond this, I
knew very little. I entered his name in the search, gave a 10-year span
when he might have traveled and guessed that his departure port would have
been London. Within moments, I had found that he and his family traveled
from Auckland, New Zealand aboard the S.S. Orsovaon June 4, 1956, arriving
in San Francisco 17 days later,” said Anto, an Ancestry.com customer.
About Ancestry.com
With more than 5 billion names and 23,000 searchable databases and
titles, Ancestry.com is the No. 1 online source for family history
information. Since its launch almost a decade ago, Ancestry.com has been
the premier resource for family history, simplifying genealogical research
for millions of people by providing them with many easy-to-use tools and
resources to build their own unique family trees. The MyFamily network of
family history sites, of which Ancestry is the largest, receive more than 9
million unique visitors worldwide and 450 million page views each month.
((C) comScore Media Metrix, September 2006.)

SOURCE Ancestry.com

posted by Kay at 9:51 am | Comments (0)

Death of VHS – What’s This Mean to YOUR History?

Last week Variety printed an obituary for the VHS format - what’s this mean to you? What about all the family video shot on VHS? What about the interviews at your institution stored on VHS tape? It’s time to move along with the times and get those things migrated over to a newer format like DVD before your VCR stops working and you’re scrounging for parts to fix it at the local electronics recycling or eBay!

Migration is an issue in digitization as well…just because you digitized it today using the best practices and standards of the day, you have to keep in mind that some day, that too will change. How many 8.5 inch floppies do you see around today? Or even 3.5 inch ones? We’ve been very fortunate that JPG and TIF are still around…

posted by Kay at 8:53 am | Comments (0)

November 22, 2006

Don’t Forget Those Genealogy Societies!

Yes, more Trebarfoote stories! So I was alerted to a Trebarfoote family history deposited at a library in Canada. Through some internet sleuthing I got ahold of the local Genealogical Society and dropped them an e-mail. After a couple e-mails a fantastic volunteer was able to send me the information I was after – charging only copy costs and shipping. It sure saved me and my fellow researchers a trip to Canada!

So, what did I find out? I was able through the pedigree at the College of Arms to go back 2 more generations. I have names and locations, but no dates. Also, I was able to get all the children of the ancestor I did have (who got married in 1588 in Kilkhampton, Cornwall) with their baptismal dates plus all my ancestors’ siblings’ names (with a few dates and spouses). I also found that the name was shortened to Barfitt/Barfett which makes me really glad my link to the family was before that and female! Susanna Trebarfoote married Phillip Oke in 1628 in Poundstock, Cornwall which is where the line I come from fits in. Susanna was the daughter of Degorius/Digory/Degory who was the son of John (married to Margaret Penfound) who was the son of Thomas (married to Agnes Tole). Lots of new twigs to follow!

posted by Kay at 10:36 am | Comments (0)

NGS Members Only Section Open for Weekend

Hot off Dick Eastman’s blog, NGS is opening it’s Members Only section Nov 23-Nov 26th free of charge to all comers! For all the juicy details, go to his blog: http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/11/ngs_opens_membe.html

How am I going to find time to spend with my family if I’m surfing the NGS goodies and then the Ancestry immigration databases?

Happy Thanksgiving!

posted by Kay at 8:38 am | Comments (0)

November 21, 2006

Tuesday’s Treasure

In honor of Thanksgiving I dug up this Thanksgiving edition of the “The Rays”, a newsletter written by Lloyd Ray containing information about and from friends and family stationed around the world during World War II. It’s an interesting read and I love the turkey on the masthead. Be sure to visit and read some of it! The stories are pretty amazing. This is from the Lake County Discovery Museum.

posted by Kay at 2:00 pm | Comments (0)

November 14, 2006

Richmond Daily Dispatch Newspaper Available Online

From an announcement on the RUSA and DIGLIB listservs:

Through support from an IMLS grant and in collaboration with Project Perseus at Tufts University, the University of Richmond has digitized the Richmond Daily Dispatch newspaper for the Civil War years. The project is still a work in progress. However the newspaper is now available for use and exploration; it is fully searchable. Please bring it to the attention of faculty who study or teach about the Civil War era at your school or college. We welcome your comments and feedback on this project; just click on the survey link on the newspaper’s homepage at http://dlxs.richmond.edu/d/ddr/index.html. We hope this will be useful to a broad audience encompassing scholars, students, genealogists, Civil War buffs, re-enactors, and more. Please feel free to bring it to the attention of other librarians and interested parties and to link to it from Civil War and history Web sites.

This project was the subject of a presentation at the Virginia Library Association conference this past Friday.

This fits nicely with the ever-expanding Civil War materials on Digital Past from Arlington Heights, Lake Forest Academy, and Lake County Discovery Musem, among others!

posted by Kay at 2:32 pm | Comments (0)

Tuesday’s Treasure

It’s never too late to celebrate our Veterans so I found this great photo of some Spanish-American War veterans visiting Ft. Sheridan in 1963. We have so many wonderful pieces of information relating to veterans of all wars that it is very difficult to choose just one for Veterans Day. We have lots of resources for the Civil War and WWII. We might be a little low on WWI, Vietnam, etc, but I’m sure that will pick up in the future.

posted by Kay at 2:00 pm | Comments (0)

November 9, 2006

Free Access to Ancestry Immigration

In case you haven’t heard, Ancestry.com is offering free access to their Immigration records until the end of November. You just go to their front page and follow the arrows…

Good Hunting!

posted by Kay at 1:33 pm | Comments (0)

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