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January 30, 2007

Tuesday’s Treasure

From a really new participant, today I thought we’d look at George Sedivec who looks so dapper in his uniform. He’s one of the veteran photos that the Cary Area Public Library has scanned. They’re adding more all the time, so if you’re looking for a relative who was in the service and lived around Cary, be sure to stop by!

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

January 23, 2007

Tuesday’s Treasure

For today I just took the image that popped up on Digital Past when I went there. It happens to be the Star Watch Case Co. from Gail Borden Public Library’s collection (in Elgin). I have no idea if it is still standing or not, but that was a big building!

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

January 17, 2007

Researching in Georgia?

As I was going through some old messages, I ran across this resource for those researching Georgian towns and cities from 1884-1922. It’s a digitization initiative focusing on the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps from that time period. I know these are popular for researchers and it’s a nice digitization effort too. It’s from the Digital Library of Georgia.

Enjoy!

posted by Kay at 1:06 pm | Comments (0)

January 16, 2007

Tuesday’s Treasure

From one of our newer participants, get a look at this gorgeous Apache (Western) 3 coil basket, mid 20th century, from the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian. The Museum has been photographing their basket collection with many of them being displayed on Digital Past with the Picture Cube so you can see all sides of the basket. You can also zoom in for a closer look at weaving patterns and materials. Go check it out!

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

January 11, 2007

Ancestors On Board Unveils Passenger Lists

Ooh my aching fingers, I’ve blogged so much today, but one more thing (I hope) to pass along today. Ancestors on Board, powered by findmypast.com and in association with The National Archives (UK, not USA) has unveiled the BT27 UK Outbound Passenger Lists. These records include people leaving the UK between 1890-1899, not just emigrants but anyone traveling abroad, “…transcriptions usually tell you name, age, occupation, destination, travel and ship details as well as other people of the same name traveling on the ship. ” This is pay-per-view, but not overly expensive, but yet another resource out there if you know for what you search!

posted by Kay at 2:41 pm | Comments (0)

Footnote – NARA Digitization Project

Gees, it’s just a busy news day for me!

The National Archives and Footnote, Inc have announced a non-exclusive agreement to digitize a significant amount of NARA’s holdings. They already have 4.5 million objects up and are working on many more. By February 6, everything will be available free-of-charge at the NARA Research Rooms and in 5 years all materials will be free through NARA’s website but for now, if you’re doing your work at home, you have to pay. You can search for free though. Some items currently available:

Papers of the Continental Congress (1774-89)
Mathew B. Brady Collection of Civil War Photographs
Southern Claims Commission
Name Index to Civil War and Later Pension Files
Investigative Case Files of the Bureau of Investigation, 1908-22

This is an interesting digitization project to watch and the interface is nicely done as well. For the full press release…

posted by Kay at 1:55 pm | Comments (0)

Dante News

If you’ve been around me long enough, you know that I am a huge Dante fan. You’ll know that I studied Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio with one of the foremost experts out there, Dr. Anthony Cassell, at the University of Illinois. You’ll know that I had a cat named Dante – a black & white longhair with the colors splitting down his nose – who died of renal failure and the next cat we got was named Petrarch (he’s still with us, he’s a Norwegian Forest Cat). You may also know that I keep an eye out for anything Dante related and how excited I was when I stumbled across the book “Dante in Love” by Harriet Rubin and the Disney comic recently released #666 “Mickey’s Inferno” (which I talked about in this blog about a year ago).

So, imagine my excitement when Dante appeared in my Yahoo! News feed today! They’ve reconstructed his face using a secretly-made plaster model of his skull from 1921. If you’ve looked at many images of Dante, he’s always portrayed with a very prominent nose, for example, this one from the German Project Gutenberg site. Through this research, using all the up-to-date technologies available, they’ve found that he didn’t look quite that way, but more like the guy-next-door. I have yet to find a photo of this reconstruction (if you find one, drop me a comment below), but if you’d like to read more about “Dante gets posthumous nose job”, you know what to do.

posted by Kay at 1:25 pm | Comments (0)

Search for Heirs to the English Throne

Can you trace your English ancestry back to 1066? I have mine back to about 1500 and one of the ancestral estates appears to be listed in the Domesday Book but I have 500 years to cover in between there and I just don’t see that happening, unless I really get busy with those Trebarfootes. Anyway, there is a call out for heirs to the English throne. They are looking for descendants of Edgar Aetheling who “..was named heir apparent by his great-uncle King Edward the Confessor but was not crowned when the King died in 1066 because he was too young. Harold II was crowned instead.” If you can, this is what they are asking you to do: “Researching what might have been, genealogists are asking respondents on www.english-heritage.org.uk/hastings to supply documentary proof along with the name of their most likely “gateway ancestor”.” Read the Full Story.

posted by Kay at 9:09 am | Comments (0)

January 10, 2007

Immigration to Canada

Perhaps this is a well-known resource, but I just found it myself. This site, Immigrants to Canada, has tons of information. I need to really look it over to see if it’s going to help me with those who came through Canada and ended up in Wisconsin before 1848. A new challenge, just what i need! There are lots of different links here including voyage accounts, letters, handbooks, ship information, and maps. At the bottom there’s also a long list of other ship sources arranged by country. I’ll be posting this one in my del.icio.us account!!

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

Looking to Buy a Castle?

Well, if you are, the Habsburg family has Bran Castle in Transylvania up for sale for $78 million. It’s famous for its connection with Dracula and at one point almost got turned into an amusement park. So, if you always wanted your own castle…details here.

posted by Kay at 9:25 am | Comments (0)

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