GFHC Open Thread: The State of Today's Genealogical Societies

Zwenkau for Genealogy and Family History Community

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Friday January 31, 2014 · 5:00 AM PST

2014/01/31 · 05:00

Here’s a “window” into my despair: I’ve reviewed for retention purposes a file folder in my society’s library’s vertical files that purports to offer useful information about the State of Wisconsin. It’s a random choice from the file drawer devoted to U.S. states. Here are the categories of items I found, the dates -- where dated -- of the various items I found there, and their disposition (largely according to age of material)....

Poll

14 votes Show Results

To what kinds of genealogical societies do you belong?

14 votes Vote Now!

To what kinds of genealogical societies do you belong?

National, State/Regional, Local

1 vote

National & State/Regional

1 vote

State/Regional & Local

0 votes

National & Local

2 votes

National only

0 votes

State/Regional only

2 votes

Local only

2 votes

I belong to no "genie" societies

6 votes

GFHC: Thinking about My Dad

Zwenkau for Genealogy and Family History Community

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Friday December 06, 2013 · 7:46 AM PST

2013/12/06 · 07:46

Last Friday’s “Open Thread” carried the theme of not believing everything you read. Today’s theme is: “Don’t believe everything you hear!” Or something....

December 6, 1910. My Dad was born in St. Louis, not far from Washington University in the general area of what today known as the Central West End. Today it’s a fairly posh area, but he wasn’t born into a life of wealth and ease. His people were lower middle class, working class. But it took me a long time for that reality to sink in.

When as a youngster I would inquire about his family, my father would just say that he didn’t really have a family. Taking him at his word threw me off track for years. But it was true in many ways. Follow me below the fold for a story about a family researcher placing himself within an earlier time, trying to understand what had happened then and what it means now. The names aren’t important; I’d like for you to focus on the “story” alone...

Zwenkau

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Thursday November 21, 2013 · 8:39 AM PST

2013/11/21 · 08:39

Listening to Kagro in the Morning, I became interested in the use of the word "dilatory" with respect to Roberts Rules of Order, and so decided to investigate. I didn't find mention of the word in a quick perusal of my 1878 edition of the Pocket Manual of Rules of Order for Deliberative Assemblies, by Major Henry M. Robert. But what I did find was even more interesting, IMHO.

Under Section 39. "Motions Requiring More than a Majority Vote," there is a lengthy section in small type: Note on Motions Requiring More than a Majority Vote. It concludes as follows, illustrating the reason why Senate rules do not apply in the House!:

As just stated, Congress, by rule, allows a majority to sustain an objection to the consideration of a question, but the rule has very properly gone out of use. So, too, the Previous Question,and motions to close or limit debate, while not used in the Senate, can be adopted by a majority in the House of Representatives.
On account of the immense amount of business to be transacted during each session by the National House of Representatives, and the large number of members each one of whom is entitled to the floor in debate for one hour, it seems an absolute necessity for them to permit a majority to limit or cut off entirely the debate, and thus practically to suspend one of the fundamental rules of deliberative bodies. This is the more necessary in Congress because the party lines are strictly drawn, and the minority could almost stop legislation if they could prevent the debate from being cut off.

In all bodies situated in these respects like Congress, a rule should be adopted allowing a majority to adopt the previous question, and motions to limit or close debate.

What a novel idea! The Senate was intended to foster debate, but the House was intended to move from debate to actually voting on the passage of legislation. The assumption therein was that Senators would eventually wind up debate on their own without stymieing all action. Perhaps the Republicans were a different breed back then?

Supervisor Antonovich is not our friend

Zwenkau for Los Angeles Kossacks

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Tuesday August 27, 2013 · 2:06 PM PDT

2013/08/27 · 14:06

This afternoon the Los Angeles Times is reporting that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved a resolution urging Federal legislation to undo the recent Supreme Court ruling that restricted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Board chair Mark Ridley-Thomas and fellow Supervisor Gloria Molina sponsored the motion, which passed 3-1 with Molina absent. There are four Democrats and one Republican on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors; there was one vote against the motion. You can see where this is going, can't you?

Ridley-Thomas is quoted in the report: "We want to keep democracy vibrant and make sure all those who wish to participate and have a right to participate not be denied [the ability to vote]." Antonovich, on the other hand, is reported to be pointing to the supposed "progress" in insuring equal access for minority voters that many states have made. Yeah, right. We've seen how the South is just lining up to extend voting rights as we speak.

As I suggested at one of our L.A. meetings a couple of months ago, Los Angeles Kossacks might wish to keep an eye on the race to replace Supervisor Antonovich, who will be term-limited from running yet again for re-election. No special insight here, but just sayin'.

From Measles to Polio...a wide-ranging discussion

Zwenkau

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Tuesday August 27, 2013 · 11:39 AM PDT

2013/08/27 · 11:39

This morning I opened Daily Kos on my browser and scanned for interesting diaries to read as I sipped my coffee. One that addressed the folly of a megachurch hit with a run of measles cases after having campaigned against vaccinations seemed worth a read, and it was. [Find it here....] But then I noticed something interesting in the comments. Empower Ink introduced a parallel discussion concerning recollections of Kossacks who had received polio vaccinations back in the mid-fifties and such. Fascinating! At least for me, as I am a Rotarian. What's the connection, and why might this lead to an "uplifting" further story? Please join me below the fold....

Zwenkau

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Tuesday August 13, 2013 · 12:07 PM PDT

2013/08/13 · 12:07

Let me say from the first that I'm proud of Daily Kos. Proud that more than one point of view can be expressed in a civil manner.

I'm referring to this diary: "Even if Mark Ficken didn't egg the crowd on...."

The two points of view relate to the question of whether this man should lose his job as Superintendent of Schools over his role as MC at the Missouri State Fair rodeo (that featured the "Obama clown" who has himself now been banned from the Fair), or whether the action (or inaction -- See: "The Ox-Bow Incident") should be punished "with a slap on the wrist," after which we all should "move on." I can see both sides, but I've been recommending diary comments in favor of the former choice. And that's largely because of my perspective as a Show-Me resident in the not-too-distant past. To explain, I have to create my own diary.

Zwenkau for Genealogy and Family History Community

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Sunday August 04, 2013 · 5:12 PM PDT

2013/08/04 · 17:12

This is really a response to a comment in a very recent Genealogy & Family History Community diary, Books So Bad They're Good: Defenders of the Bell Curve, by Ellid. Specifically, it is my response to the reply titled “Family Trees,” by quarkstomper, who said:

“My own German ancestors came to America in the 19th Century, so I don't know if we have any relatives who became Nazis. We think that Johann Sebastian Bach's second wife, Anna Magdelene, might have been related to our family, but my more genealogically-inclined relatives have never been able to trace our lineage quite that far.”

And because I haven’t wanted to impose on that exchange, I’ve taken my two cents into a separate diary. So, here’s what I have to say....

IF you have an unusual German surname in your family tree, by which I really mean one that is very likely primarily associated with a particular small region of pre-1945 Germany, and IF you not only have your immigrant German ancestry pegged to a specific hamlet, village, town or city, BUT ALSO have gone back (usually via that locale’s church books as filmed by the Family History Library) a generation or two before the emigration, THEN I have a suggestion for your further research into your German ancestry.

Back in a moment....

Zwenkau for Genealogy and Family History Community

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Saturday August 03, 2013 · 12:39 AM PDT

2013/08/03 · 00:39

It's late at night. The G&FH Community has already had a successful Friday Open Thread. So why am I writing a diary? I guess because I started to ponder how learning more about my ancestors has shaped to a large degree whom I've become, and how I view myself today. In one sense, I feel as though I've been in an extended conversation with several of my ancestors. And I wonder if others feel they've had a similar experience. More below the fold....

Zwenkau for Genealogy and Family History Community

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Friday July 12, 2013 · 9:00 AM PDT

2013/07/12 · 09:00

I can’t really explain it. I don’t have a childhood memory that relates either to a cookie jar, or to some furtive pleasure that’s connected with breaking through a barrier (brick wall?). But when I pause to consider why I enjoy genealogy so much, I always seem to come back to this metaphor:

Every time I make a breathtaking discovery, it seems as though I’ve just snatched a cookie out of a cookie jar...one that I wasn’t supposed to raid. [Heh, heh.]

Is that the feeling you get, or is it different?

Henry Z. “Hank” Jones, Jr. writes about “Psychic Roots,” and he argues that the ancestors WANT us to find them. I can’t take issue with that, because I often end up feeling a “connection” of some kind with some of the individuals I research.

But the way that I describe my glee, at snatching some discovery away from the black hole of lost family history, suggests something entirely different. I feel as though “someone” has been hiding something from me -- something that I was NEVER supposed to know -- and that, against all odds, I’ve managed to seize this prize!

So, for today’s Open Thread, share with me your own thoughts about what it feels like to make a significant breakthrough. I’ll give an example below the fold, and cite a real-life road block to my getting results in my paternal line.

Poll

12 votes Show Results

My ancestors....

12 votes Vote Now!

My ancestors....

want me to find them!!

5 votes

wish I'd just go away.

1 vote

expect to meet me.

2 votes

are oblivious to my "brick walls."

4 votes

"a very ignorant illiterate Dutchman"

Zwenkau for Genealogy and Family History Community

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Thursday June 13, 2013 · 8:27 AM PDT

2013/06/13 · 08:27

This is my first diary, and it isn’t flashy. It’s pretty much a repost of a piece I prepared for weekly column I write for my Rotary Club newsletter. [Yes, I received permission to repost from the newsletter editor.] Because I’ve been active in genealogy since 1975, I frequently use my column to write about my efforts.

So, why did I choose this particular topic, aside from the fact that it’s been on my mind? The selection is motivated by two factors. First, it’s so very difficult to find enough about long-ago ancestors to get a true insight into who they were. Second, I’d like to recommend the means by which I most easily find the answer to this quest -- depositions!

With a legal deposition, one gets the written transcript of what someone said. It can be a statement by an ancestor, or a statement about him or her. Either way, it’s much more about your person than mere vital statistics information can ever hope to convey. I’ve found depositions in state legislative journals dealing with contested elections. I’ve found them in the case files of state supreme court archives. And, as you’ll see (below the fold), I’ve found them in chancery court records. The latter deal with financial matters, and often with questions of land inheritance or property disputes. So, here with some appropriate editing, is what I wrote for my Rotarian friends....

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GFHC Open Thread: The State of Today's Genealogical Societies

GFHC: Thinking about My Dad

Nuclear option...because House!

Supervisor Antonovich is not our friend

From Measles to Polio...a wide-ranging discussion

The Mark Fickin Controversy and Missouri Racism

Unusual German Surname? Got your German pedigree? How to check SS files to extend that pedigree...

Conversations with Ancestors

GFHC Open Thread: “Hand in the Cookie Jar”

"a very ignorant illiterate Dutchman"