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Ancestry Daily News
7/22/2003 - Archive
Ancestry Daily News, 22 July 2003
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| In This Issue: July
22, 2003 |
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| New
Records for Ancestry.com Subscribers: |
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DeKalb
County, Illinois Biographical Dictionary (Images
online)
Dover
Area, New Hampshire City Directory, 1941 (Images
online)
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Historical
Newspapers Collection Update:
Nevada
State Journal (Reno, Nev.) Various years ranging
1870-1970
Weekly
Nevada State Journal (Reno, Nev.), 1875, 1881-83,
1892, and 1984
Coshocton
Tribune (Coshocton, Ohio), 1909, 1920-21, 1936,
1944, 1947-48, 1950-51, 1959, 1961, 1963, and 1967-77
Lancaster
Eagle Gazette (Lancaster, Ohio), 1927-28, 1936,
1958-60, 1962-63, and 1973-74
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UK
& Ireland Records Collection Update:
Irish
Wills Indexes (Images online)
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New "My Ancestry" Feature
at Ancestry.com |
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"Honoring Our Ancestors: A Stoop
on Orchard Street"
by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak |
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Ancestry Quick Tip Jamboree |
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Fast Fact: City
Directories at Ancestry.com |
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Today's
Map: Sweden about 1658 |
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Clipping of the Day |
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"To
be happy at home is the end of all labor."
—
Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784
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New "My Ancestry" Feature at Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com is making
life easier for family historians with the creation of the new
"My Ancestry" feature. My Ancestry can be accessed
here or by clicking on the second navigation tab at the
top of the screen on any Ancestry.com page. It offers customers
an innovative new way to search for ancestors, organize finds,
and remember where they left off last.
People I'm Looking For
The first section of the My Ancestry page includes your list
of "People I'm Looking For." You can add individuals
from your family tree here by typing in their information, or
by clicking on "Save this" link from key databases
to create a search profile. (Key databases currently are: SSDI,
1930 Census, and the Ancestry World Tree. More databases will
be added to this list in the near future.)
Using your list of "People I'm Looking For," Ancestry.com
will be an extra set of eyes searching for your ancestors in
its databases. When we find your missing ancestor, we'll send
you an e-mail alert to let you know.
When an ancestor is found in one of the key databases, the records
can be linked to the ancestors in your list, so that you can
access them again through this page for future reference—quickly
and easily without having to search for them again.
Search History Log
Recognizing that the world around you doesn't always stop for
your family history research, Ancestry.com has also added a
search history log, which will remember up to five of your most
recent searches. Now when life steps in and you have to set
your family history aside for a time, you can just pick up right
where you left off on your next visit.
Updated "My Account" Area
Ancestry.com has also made it easier for registered users to
manage their account preferences with a new, enhanced My Account
area. By clicking on the "My Account" link in the
upper right hand corner of the screen, users can log in and:
— Access data subscription information
— Choose which newsletters and communications they would
like to receive from Ancestry.com
— Select email format preferences
— Set the frequency with which you would like to be notified
about finds from the "People I'm Looking For" feature
— Access your My Ancestry profiles
— Change your password
— Change your username
— Change your e-mail address
— Update your name, address, and phone
— Update communications preferences
— Update your credit card information
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"Honoring Our Ancestors: A Stoop on Orchard Street"
by Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak
It
was his turn to reciprocate. Jay Kholos's new bride had good-naturedly
tolerated seven hours in the baking sun the day before at a
Yankees game, and now she wanted to go to the Lower East Side
Tenement Museum (tenement.org
). As an entertainment industry veteran, this wasn't Jay's idea
of a good time. He could think of plenty of other activities
he'd rather pursue during this jaunt to New York City, but it
was the least he could do.
If you've ever been to this museum, you know that it's something
of a time machine that whisks you back to the tenement world
that many of our immigrant ancestors experienced. Guided tours
through 97 Orchard Street allow you to explore the meticulously
restored apartments of actual families who lived at this address
from the 1870s to the 1930s. As you navigate the dark, cramped
staircase and try to adjust to the sweltering heat, you get
a small taste of what the Gumpertz, Levine, Rogarshevsky, and
Baldizzi families endured on a daily basis.
When Jay walked into the building for the first time, he instantly
felt as if he had lived there. And as he continued the tour,
he developed a deep appreciation for the reality of tenement
life. By the time he arrived back at the front stoop, he remarked
to his wife, "This would make a good musical." And
so—in one of those moments when inspiration intersects
with motivation and skills—A Stoop on Orchard Street
was born.
Post-Fiddler
Jay immediately set about writing the words, music, and script
for a musical, which he describes as "post-Fiddler—what
happens in 1910 when the family comes to America." Blending
his own grandfather's stories with nuggets of the reality he
had witnessed at the Tenement Museum, Jay created characters
that might have passed a few years at 97 Orchard Street. Given
that his grandfather had lived in the Lower East Side, it was
a natural fit.
He peppered the script with other details from his own family's
history, bestowing characters with relatives' names and borrowing
specifics, such as the name of the ship they arrived on (the
Gerty). Consequently, A Stoop on Orchard Street
will introduce you to twenty-two Lower East Siders, including
Benny, Sam, Sarah, Mrs. Lipschitz, and of course, Bubbe.
But Jay's aim was to create an uplifting musical that would
express the universality of the immigrant experience and emotionally
appeal to a wide spectrum of theatergoers. Just as My Big
Fat Greek Wedding captivated audiences of all stripes, Jay
hopes that the ups-and-downs of the Russian-Jewish family featured
in Stoop will resonate with "all whose ancestors
didn't come over on the Mayflower."
Stoop opens with a song appropriately called "Melting
Pot," which weaves its way through a variety of moods and
immigrant life circumstances. "In the Hands of Strangers"
is a melancholy rendering of the struggle to bring loved ones
over from the old country, while the comical Lipschitz captures
the name-change dilemma that many of our ancestors confronted.
And the Bubbe song is one almost all of us with an old-world
grandmother can relate to: "Four foot nine of sanity, the
backbone of the family…"
Even the set—a replication of the stoop at 97 Orchard Street
and one of its apartments, down to the exact wallpaper—is
designed to invite the audience into the lives of Ellis Island-era
immigrants, who appear at least once in the family trees of
more than 40 percent of Americans.
If you've ever wished that you could journey back through the
generations to peek into the lives of your ancestors, here's
one of the best opportunities you will ever have (short of subjecting
yourself to months of privation as a participant in one of those
time-travel reality shows such as Frontier House or The
1900 House!). Why not plan a quick trip to New York City
to visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, see A Stoop
on Orchard Street, and perhaps take the ferry over to Ellis
Island? Better yet, snag a few buddies from your local genealogical
society and make a special event of it for Family History month
(coming up in October).
Off-Broadway on Broadway
This so-called off-Broadway musical will be housed in the Mazer
Theatre, which happens to be located on Broadway (197 East Broadway).
It's hard to imagine a more fitting venue, as this building—just
six blocks from the Tenement Museum—is also home to the
Educational Alliance, where many of the tenement's residents
would have gone to learn English and American ways. It was not
by design, but just a happy accident that our immigrant ancestors'
lives will be commemorated in the very building where many of
them made their first attempts to adjust to the New World.
A Stoop on Orchard Street opened on July 8th and is scheduled
for an indefinite run. Tickets are on sale now via www.ticketweb.com
or by calling 800-965-4827 (the surcharge is lower via the Internet).
There are nine shows a week: Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday
at 2:00 p.m., Sunday at 3:00 p.m., and Tuesday-Saturday at 8:00
p.m. Tickets can also be purchased at the Tenement Museum's
Visitor Center at 90 Orchard Street, at the corner of Broome
Street, and Museum tour and show packages are available for
groups of ten or more people by calling the Group Scheduling
Department at 212-431-0233, extension 241. For those who can't
make the trip, you might want to consider book marking www.tenement.org
so you can order the CD when it becomes available shortly
Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, author of Honoring Our Ancestors
(HOA) and In Search of Our Ancestors, can be contacted
through
honoringourancestors.com.
Resources
for rescuing orphan photos can be found online, as can about
her monthly
HOA grants.
Upcoming Events
In upcoming weeks, Megan will be at:
— Family History Fair
(12 October 2003, New York City)
— New York Genealogical & Biographical Society
(14 October 2003, New York City)
— NGS Gentech04
(22-24 January 2004, St. Louis, Mo.)
Details
and links to upcoming events.
ACCESS
A PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE, e-mail it to a
friend, or submit your feedback on it.
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Ancestry Quick Tip
It's time for this week's Ancestry Quick Tip Jamboree!
Thanks to everyone who has sent in a Quick Tip. Please keep
them coming so that we can keep this tradition going. You
can send your tips to: ADNeditor@ancestry.com
Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the
submitter, in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not
want your tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry
Daily News and Ancestry Weekly Digest, please state
so clearly in your message.
Have a great day!
Juliana
Reunion Ideas
Our family reunites 2 times per year, once at Christmas and
once our summer family reunion. Our Christmas get-together
of over 200 family members was shared
in the Quick Tips at Christmas time. We are now finishing
our plans for the reunion.
We have asked every married couple to send a photograph of
their wedding, and we have asked each person to send a photo
of them as a baby. All of these photos are then made into
decorative placemats and laminated. (You don't have to laminate
them) We are placing these under clear plastic on the picnic
tables and securing the plastic with clips to keep them from
blowing away. We did this at Christmas with old photographs.
This was the highlight of the Christmas get-together. We had
over 200 different old photos made into placemats that will
now be used each Christmas.
We have also printed our 42-foot long family tree with everyone's
most recent photo, birth, marriage, and death date; and we
have put together many picnic tables upon which to lay this
large family tree. We cover the tree with plastic and clip
it to the edges of the table.
Carolyn Obertein
Saginaw, Mich.
Editor's Note: This quick tip has been edited for length.
The entire tip can be found in the printer-friendly version,
available by clicking on the link below.
Easy
Family Wall Chart
My family reunion was the second after my "lost family"
was found after over 100 years. The standard wall chart would
be over 400 pages. There wasn't a wall long enough for that,
so I used "Family Group Sheets!" I included all
facts—birth, death, marriage dates and places, and all
spouses. Then, beginning with the Patriarch and Matriarch,
place that on one part of the wall. The next would be the
oldest child, their oldest child, etc. through the present
generations.
We had each of six children and their families on various
walls. It was a delight to see everyone looking at their family
lines. At the next reunion, I will only have to print out
a page for those who have had changes and corrections. This
saves time, ink, and paper.
Because there would be no ancestors of the Patriarchs and
Matriarchs present, I just printed out a simple "Ancestral
Chart" for each family line back as far as research has
led. Those lines were placed above the Patriarch & Matriarch
to which each line belonged.
An additional tip: The signs were a different color for each
of the six children. Each of the nametags for those children's
descendants were written in the same color, with the child's
name in the upper corner, and the family member's name and
relationship to that child in the same color. This made it
very easy to know which family each attendee belonged to.
Wilma Fields
Family Calendars
Our Henderson Family is having a reunion this August.
Everyone has been asked to bring an item for the auction that
will be held on Saturday night.
Many of the children have never met the family that was alive
when I was a child. I decided that the item I donate to the
auction will be a calendar with pictures of our deceased ancestors.
Since the photos are black and white, I dressed them up with
scrapbook cartoons. The end result is a very cute calendar
that is also a keepsake for whoever gets it at the auction.
It will be in a book form once the months are torn off. On
the front cover I found a cartoon that states "Branches
of My Family Tree." This cartoon includes a tree, animals,
and butterflies. My family had a ranch in Montana, so I tried
to stay with that theme in cartoons.
With black and white photos, it is best to use white paper
as a background. The cartoons help dress up the white background.
Harriett Morley
Looking for Suggestions
Do you have any suggestions on the best means of copying black
and white photos (they're on photo paper)? The photos in question
are part of a township history collection, and they cannot
be removed from the building. I tried copying them on an office
copier using regular copy paper, but the result is not very
good. Any suggestions?
Phyllis Pawloski
Editor's Note: I would think that taking digital photos
of them would be one solution, but I suspect that our readers
have some tips on how to best do this. If you have a solution
for Phyllis, send it to: ADNeditor@ancestry.com.
Quick Tips may be reprinted, with credit to the submitter,
in other Ancestry publications, so if you do not want your
tip included in a publication other than the Ancestry
Daily News and Ancestry Weekly Digest, please state
so clearly in your message.
ACCESS
A PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION OF THIS QUICK TIP JAMBOREE, e-mail
it to a friend, or submit your feedback on it.
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Fast Fact:
City
Directories at Ancestry.com
Ancestry.com has a growing collection of city directories
online— including some that are accompanied by images
of the original directory.
Check
out the Ancestry.com Directories
and Membership Lists online.
Subscribe
to Ancestry.com and enjoy access to city directories
and much more—over one billion records!
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Clipping of the Day
From the Montana Standard (Butte, Montana), 22
July 1934, page 1:
HEAT
TOLL REACHES CALAMITY PROPORTIONS
106
MORE FATALITIES REPORTED AS WAVE SWEEPS 19 STATES
KANSAS
CITY, MO., July 21 (AP)---Suffering acutely from the worst
drought in its history, the Midwest and Southwest tonight
counted its crop loss in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Officials
and semi-official sources, reporting the widespread damage,
said each additional day of the withering heat would add
thousands of dollars to the tremendous toll already exacted
and the weather forecast said the blazing, rainless spell
would continue indefinitely.
WATER
IS SHORT
A shortage of water in some sections added to the suffering.
Springs and wells dried up. Rivers and streams were low.
The situation in Western irrigation districts was acute.
Barren
pasture land, and lack of water, caused distress among livestock.
Thousands of head were sold to the government for processing.
Forced selling because of the water shortage and burned
meadows brought a heavy influx of livestock that threatened
demoralization of the Kansas City livestock market.
. . . .
In Nebraska alone, the crop damage was estimated officially
at $156,000,000
NO
PARALLEL SHOWN IN RECORDS
Another assault from a persistent heat wave yesterday boosted
the death toll of three blistering days to calamity proportion
and burned more havoc in the nation's fields.
One
hundred six more deaths were reported as the thermometers
climbed far past normal July marks in 19 states. The toll
for the superheated three days stood at 206.
. . . .
Subscribers with access to the Historical Newspapers
Collection can view
this clipping online.
SUBSCRIBE
to the Historical Newspapers Collection at Ancestry.com.
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