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30+ free resources for finding historical California maps
Maps are a great way to see not only the history of your house, but of your neighborhood, city, and county! You can use maps to see physical changes to your house and land, see how highways and roads developed, locations of businesses long closed, and lots more. They’re a great way to understand the context of your house over the years. Maps are a necessary component to any house history research, but actually finding historical maps can be a little tricky. Luckily, archives and historical societies have taken the time to digitize hundreds of historical maps and make them available online– you just have to know where to look.…
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Weekly Wrap-up: Dec. 27-Jan. 2
Another relatively lazy week– I always feel the laziest in the days between Christmas and New Year, and since I didn’t have anything major to do, I just embraced the procrastination. That said, I did get some stuff done: This Week (Dec. 27-Jan. 2) 1. Continued to manually add in relatives to MacFamilyTree. Currently at 159/186 people (+8 from previous week). I switched back over to my mother’s side of the family and started adding people from there; this is the side that has a LOT of newspaper articles about their missionary and church work, and I will need to add all that to their Sources list eventually. However, in…
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Webinar: Ten Databases You Need to Know About (Legacy Family Tree)
Title: “Ten Databases You Need to Know About ” Presenter: Shannon Combs-Bennett, T2 Family History Date viewed: December 30, 2020 (1h20m) Permalink: https://familytreewebinars.com/download.php?webinar_id=1216 Summary: Researchers depend on the internet but often look at only a few sites. These 10 databases are not frequently visited but should be! Notes: Always love learning about niche databases for genealogy research. Also had a brilliant idea to organize lists of databases on a spreadsheet, which I’m going to start doing ASAP. I have things bookmarked, but I do find it difficult to navigate. And it’ll be easier to start from a curated list of websites that I use regularly as opposed to digging through…
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Webinar: Exploring Manufacturers (Non-Population) Schedules (ACPL)
Title: “Exploring Manufacturers (Non-Population) Schedules” Presenter: Cynthia Theusch, librarian at Allen County Public Library Date viewed: December 29, 2020 (1h) Permalink: https://acpl.libnet.info/event/4723939 Summary: As early as 1810, the U.S. government gathered basic information and statistics from a variety of manufactures. Learn about investments of owners, wages of employees, products produced and more. See how you might add some of this information to your family story. Notes: I think I must’ve attended a presentation on this topic before, because it all seemed very familiar to me. It was interesting seeing the difference between a presentation from a library versus a professional (genealogist) presenter– the tone was more overtly informative, kind of…
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Weekly Wrap-up: Dec. 20-26, 2020
This Week (Dec. 20-26) I basically took this week off and didn’t do much of anything! There were no live webinars or events happening due to Christmas, so I took a break as well. 1. Posted a transcript of Joseph E. Johnsen’s 1947 obituary as part of Amanuensis Monday. 2. Added Nicknames: Past and Present by Christine Rose to my library. It wasn’t as comprehensive as I was hoping; it’s focused mainly on English and Italian nicknames, with and appendix on English equivalents for Dutch/Frisian names. Still, it should come in handy eventually. Next Week (Dec. 27-Jan. 2) I have two webinars scheduled, and I will continue to add people…
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Obituary for Joseph E. Johnsen, 1947
Amanuensis Monday – this daily prompt, developed by John Newmark at Transylvanian Dutch, encourages bloggers to transcribe family letters, journals, audiotapes, and other historical artifacts. (An amanuensis is someone employed to write what another dictates or to copy what has been written by another.) Today’s transcription is an obituary for Joseph Edward Johnsen, my great-great grandfather. This newspaper clipping was found in a collection of scanned notes compiled as part of a family photo project from a number of years ago. Original text: Citation: [Currently unknown.] Transcription: [June 12, 1947 written at the top in pen] Joseph E. Johnsen, Sr., 58, of route 3, box 508, Duluth, died yesterday in…
