Along Those Lines...
Ways to Celebrate Family History Month!
by George G. Morgan
We're moving into autumn again, a fabulous time of year. The oppressive heat and humidity of summer has begun to ease up. The days are shortening, the evenings are getting cooler, and, in many places in North America, the fall foliage colors can be glimpsed. Autumn also brings genealogists in the United States the opportunity to celebrate October as Family History Month.
Even if you live outside the United States, why not join the celebration. "What can I do to celebrate Family History Month?" Well, in this week's "Along Those Lines...", let me offer you a few ways you can enjoy and celebrate your family history and share it with other members of your family.
Prepare an Old Family Recipe
You probably have a favorite family recipe that you loved when you were growing up. Even if you don't have your mother's or grandmother's handwritten recipe book or card file, you probably remember many of the ingredients you watched being lovingly added to the concoction. Why not visit your library or local bookstore, to browse the cookbooks to find a comparable recipe with all (or most) of the ingredients you remember?
You also can search the thousands of recipe websites on the Internet to locate a terrific recipe. If the recipes you find are missing the "secret ingredient," try a search for the recipe title and the name of that ingredient. Maybe someone else was in on the secret!
Once you have the recipe, why not prepare the recipe for your family and friends. Give them a wonderful memory of a delicious family recipe. Oh, and by the way, why not create recipe cards--as decorative as you like with a drawing, a piece of clipart, or a photograph--and share your recipe with your family for future generations.
Review, Label, and Share Photos
You've put it off far too long, you know. Family History Month is a great time to sit down with other family members to share stories. Photographs evoke memories of time, place, and experience. Why not get a group together, pass the pictures, share the stories, and, while you're at it, label these treasures at long last?
Make sure you're using acid-free storage albums or boxes and labeling the paper photos with archival-safe pencils or markers.
Don't forget the digital photos you have. Devise a labeling system or index with file name and description. Burn the pictures (and an index) to a CD or purchase one of several photo-album software programs. Don't you wish your parents and other family members had labeled all those photos?
Start Journaling
What enduring legacy do you want to leave to your descendants? What do you want them to know of your life and your thoughts? Bound journals with blank or lined pages are available at bookstores, office supply stores, and from retailers on the Internet. Why not buy one and make a commitment to fill at least one page with your thoughts. Your journal will be a prompt to you in years to come to "remember" what you've done, experienced, and felt today, and it will be a beacon of insight to your descendants and their families.
Prepare for Your Winter Research
I've been watching the squirrels outside my office window the last few weeks. They are scampering about and they seem to be getting ready for winter. I recently shopped at my nearby office supply and discount stores and found that they still have some of their back-to-school merchandise I can use with my genealogy. Overstocks in binders and file folders, plastic coated paper clips, and some other items were marked down in price.
Don't overlook a new desk, chair, file cabinet, or new lighting fixtures for your work area. Watch the newspaper ads for office supply and home improvement stores. Don't overlook thrift shops for items you can repaint or refinish! Your goal is to prepare for those deep winter days when you can become immersed in your family research.
Host a Family Cookout
While it seems I must have food on the brain today, I will share with you the joy I had as a kid of a family barbecue on a crisp autumn day. Hamburgers, hot dogs, steaks, chicken, shrimp, sausage, roasted ears of corn, potatoes, and other vegetables are all tasty treats that can be prepared on the barbecue grill. Why not toast marshmallows over the hot coals as well? I have a special memory of roasting marshmallows, dipping them in chocolate syrup, and rolling them in chopped pecans. As a diabetic, I can't consider that treat for myself anymore but, boy, wouldn't the kids (and adults) in your family love this delicacy? Yummmmmm!
Celebrate!
If you're like me, you savor every opportunity to search for more family information. Let this October be a true Family History Month for you and CELEBRATE!
Happy Hunting!
George
George is president and a proud member of the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors. Visit the ISFHWE Website at www.rootsweb.com/~cgc/.
Visit George's Website at ahaseminars.com/atl for information about speaking engagements.
Copyright 2004, MyFamily.com. All rights reserved.
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Ancestry Quick Tip
Consider Using Shortened Citations
As an editor, I find the use of "ibid." in documentation to save both time and space. However, if used without caution and thought, ibid. can also cause great confusion and need for additional research.
Because ibid. tells the reader to refer to the previous citation, adding new sources may alter the source to which your ibid. refers. In the following example, ibid. refers the reader back to Morgan's book:
1. George G. Morgan, How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy (Publication Information), page number.
2. Ibid.
In the next example I insert a new source between Morgan's book and the ibid.
1. George G. Morgan, How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy (Publication Information), page number.
2. Loretto Dennis Szucs, Chicago and Cook County: A Guide to Research (Publication Information), page number.
3. Ibid.
The ibid. should refer to Morgan's book, but now it now refers to Szucs's book instead--obviously causing confusion and misdirection.
One remedy for this possible confusion is to use a shortened citation (rather than ibid.) for subsequent references. Here is an example of a full citation, followed by a short citation for the same source:
Full Citation:
George G. Morgan, How to Do Everything with Your Genealogy (Publication Information), page number.
Short (subsequent) citation:
Morgan, How to Do Everything, page number.
If shortened citations take up too much room or you prefer to use ibid., just remember to keep close track of which source each ibid. refers and change to a full or short citation when needed so that you will never have to duplicate research.
Anastasia Sutherland
Online Editor, Ancestry Daily News
Thanks to Anastasia for today's Quick Tip! If you have a tip you would like to share with researchers, you can 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 tip, e-mail it to a friend, or submit your feedback.
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Clipping of the Day
From the New York Herald (New York, New York), 10 October 1871, page 5:
FIRE AND DEATH IN CHICAGO
Most Disastrous Conflagration That Ever Occurred in America---Over One Third of the City in Ruins---Map of the Destroyed City.
[Article includes a large map showing the streets with dark lines noting the burned sections.]
In the above map will be conveyed an idea of the ravages of the fire devil from the starting of the fire up to a late hour yesterday evening, but it is regrettable to add that even the wide area of desolation shadowed in its dark lines does not embrace the whole extent of the calamity owing to the veering of the fickle wind from the northwest to the north. This occurring too late to be indicated on the map, it must be imagined that the entire portion of the city south of Harrison street and between the south branch of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan, if not already devastated, is doomed. Hundreds of thousands of people of all ages and sexes are homeless, hungry wanderers. Ten thousand houses are, at least, wrecked and the city yearns for relief....
[Followed by a description of the path of the fire and other reports on relief efforts underway to aid the victims from cities all over the U.S.]
DESTRUCTION OF THE GOVERNMENT RECORDS
Washington, Oct. 10, 1871
From the despatches received here to-day it is learned that the records of the Custom House and internal revenue offices at Chicago have been destroyed. Even if it be any longer possible to ascertain the public debtors and the amounts of their indebtedness, collections can scarcely be enforced against a bankrupt community....Seventeen national banks, representing a capital of $1,000,000 are threatened with insolvency through the destruction of the material security for their investments and the collateral basis of their large temporary loans. The records of the Military Division of the Missouri, including those transferred from General Sherman's former headquarters at St. Louis, have shared the common fate....Chicago was one of the largest depots of the Quartermaster and Commissary Departments for supplying the posts in the Northwestern Territories, and those departments have probably lost considerable quantities of army supplies.
From despatches received here this evening it appears that the county land records of Cook county have been destroyed and it will be impossible to escape much future litigation over titles to real estate in Chicago. . . .
[Coverage of the fire continues on the sixth and ninth pages.]
Subscribers with access to the Historical Newspapers Collection can view this clipping.
Subscribe to the Historical Newspapers Collection at Ancestry.com.
For more on the Great Chicago Fire, see:
- American Memory, Great Chicago Fire
- Chicago: 1871 The Great Fire (Chicago Public Library timeline)
-
History Files: Chicago Fire (Chicago Historical Society)
-
The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory (Chicago Historical Society)
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