Another Week

Last week was a good week. It was a productive week too. I completed the Słownik entries for my Mizera family villages. :-) I feel like I did some of these translations years ago but who knows where they are now, or what format they may have been saved in. I searched my hard drive before I started on these translations last month but I could only make guesses as to what I might have called the folder(s) I stored the previous translations in. And my guesses were not fruitful. So the attempted translations will continue, but not this week.

I also spent about an hour every day checking out my ancestral villages in Poland via Google Street View. It is so fun to drive the country roads through Poland and pass through the villages that have only been dots on maps and descriptive entries in a language I don't speak before this. As I "drove" the streets I noticed that most of the images were taken in 2012 and 2013. I'm happy with that. I don't care that they aren't more current. What is a bummer though is that several of my ancestor's villages were not "filmed" by Google. It happens that they were the smallest of villages not particularly near a bigger town and not on a major road. The folks at Google probably didn't feel the need to drive all those extra miles for villages too small to have a stop light or even a stop sign. I can't help but hope they will film them the next time they send their cars out to film the roads, villages, town, and cities of Poland. Please Google! Please!

Of course as I was "driving", I couldn't help but wonder which parcels of property were owned/farmed by my ancestors. I'm certain the current house numbers don't correspond with the house numbers shown on the vital records of my relatives from 100-200 years ago. That got me thinking about how I could get that information. I got a tip from one of my best genealogy pals about online options for historical plat maps. I checked out the sites but no luck for any of my ancestor's villages. So then I thought about consulting a library local to the villages I wanted information on. I got on the internet and did some searching and found a library that looked promising. I sent off an email with fingers crossed and hoped that they could tell me where I could find historical plat maps for the area. It's been 7 days and no response. I also did a Google search for what I wanted with no expectation of actually finding anything. But much to my surprise I hit the jackpot! Sort of. I found a printed book of plat maps for the tiny villages I was interested in for the time period I cared about via World Cat. But, (you just new there had to be a "but" didn't you?) only 5 listed copies in the world, 2 in Poland, 2 in Germany, and one at Stanford University in California. I decided to try to request an inter-library loan through my local library. I filled out the request and got an email back the following day saying they couldn't find a copy available for loan. So I'm guessing that copy in the Stanford library was "reference" material. :-(  I have no plans to visit California anytime soon, and I can't really ask a genealogy volunteer to photograph an entire 258 page book for me, so I guess I'm out of luck.

On a better note, I heard from two "cousins" previously unknown to me in the last couple of weeks. They both contacted me regarding information they found on this blog. One of the many benefits of blogging! :-) One I have determined to be a 3rd cousin of mine via my paternal grandfather's line, and the other I would be related to by marriage via my paternal grandmother's line if we can in fact establish a connection. We're working on that. And that's a fun thing! I haven't had many (any) opportunities to collaborate with other genealogists on my family lines. :-)

So that's where I'm at as this first week of February begins. My plan for this week is to visit my local Family History Center to view whatever films might be available to aid my research for my Mizera, Lasky, and Lipa lines.

Translating, Research, and Webinar

Sometimes you just have to throw the plans out the window and punt. That's what I had to do this past week. I'd scheduled myself a good amount of time for genealogy, time I'd planned to use translating 5 Słownik Geograficzny entries for my Lisowski family villages. But, I was feeling under the weather most of the week and wasn't able to put in as much time as I would have liked. I did manage to get 3 of the 5 translations done, including one large one, so all was not lost. I'm content with that.

I was also able to put in about an hour of time at a local library using their Ancestry access to do some research on my mother's best girlfriend's family (Wojciechowski/Lezczynski). Her family doesn't connect to my family in any way I'm aware of but I'm curious about her Polish roots just the same.

And I attended (online) Lisa Alzo's webinar, Clutter Buster Bootcamp, yesterday. Like a lot of folks, I have lots of un-filed, un-organized, un-inventoried genealogy "stuff" that needs to be dealt with. Some of it is digital on hard drives, some of it is paper and heirlooms. It's a lot of stuff and I've been procrastinating about getting started with it because of the enormity of the project. Thanks to the webinar I was reminded about the benefits of breaking big projects down into smaller "mini" and even "micro" projects. Maybe with a little planning I can make some real progress this year. I was hoping to hear about some new software or app that would help me with any aspects of the project but I didn't hear about anything I wasn't already aware of. Oh well. It was still a worthwhile presentation. 

My goal this week is to finish the last 2 SG entries, one of which is very large, multiple pages. We'll see how far I get with that. The challenge is that the SG uses lots of abbreviations that Google Translate won't translate, and because I don't speak/read Polish I don't know what words they are abbreviations for. There are multiple guides on the net that you can use to translate the most commonly used abbreviations. That's not what trips me up. It's the uncommon abbreviations that stump me. Onward!

Genealogy and Hobbies

Hello, and welcome to 2016!

I'm dusting off this blog and sitting back down at the keyboard. I haven't written much in a long time so I know I'm rusty. I expect my writing will reflect that. My apologies. I'm not setting any grandiose goals for myself, like blogging daily, but I will try to write periodically if for no other reason but to record where I'm at with my genealogy/family history research and where I'm going with it.

I'd like to be doing more genealogy research but I've exhausted my resources for now. So for the time being I'll be working on family history research. I've started translating Słownik Geograficzny (SG) entries for the villages of my ancestors and their parishes. I'm planning to explore the churches they worshiped in too (online of course).

This past week I put in 15-20 hours on finding and translating SG entries for one family line (Lisowski). I translated 10 entries, most of them only 3-5 line entries, and I have 5 more to work on. Of the 5 remaining, 2 are very lengthy entries... multiple pages in length. For those I will probably translate only select paragraphs. My goal for next week is to finish translating the entries for the Lisowski line.

On another note, other hobbies...

Two years ago I dabbled in learning watercolor painting. Last year I took up oil painting. This year I'm learning to paint with acrylics. And, as always, I continue to work at my photography. I like having several hobbies and I love learning new things. There are only so many hours in the day though so I've had to give up other interests, reading (books and most of the blogs I used to follow) and writing (my blogs). I wish I could keep up with all of my hobbies and interests at the same time. Maybe I should take up juggling. ;-)

I've Become One Of Them...

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Or laugh if that suits you better. ;-)

After indexing thousands of records for FamilySearch, I took the plunge. Yes, I've become a FamilySearch arbitrator. As of today I've arbitrated just over a thousand names. That's not a lot compared to those who have been arbitrating for years or even months. But I feel like I'm out of the "newbie" category now. I thought I'd share a few of my thoughts and observations on the 1940 Census project since that's entirely what my indexing and arbitrating efforts are focused on at this point. 

Indexing 

I suspect there will be more "errors" in the finished product (the index for the 1940 Census that will appear on FamilySearch.org, FindMyPast.com and Archives.com) than for previous Census years. The reason for this is the poor image quality we indexers are working with. In addition to having to decipher a zillion different enumerators' handwriting, as is always the case with census records, we also have to try to read unfocused camera images. As someone who never leaves the house without a camera, I'm very attuned to focus issues. When handwriting is out of focus it creates ghosting. It's almost like having double vision. It complicates deciphering even the most precise printing and can make sloppy handwriting beyond difficult to decipher. I find deciphering ghosted handwriting much more difficult than deciphering sloppy handwriting or handwriting using "old" letter forms. There are samples galore of "old" handwriting styles to reference but I've not seen any for deciphering ghosted images. Fortunately, not all the pages are out of focus. But I would go so far as to say that most pages have some soft or blurred sections and some pages have focus issues throughout. If you've tried to look for family members among the 1940 Census images posted online you know what I mean. 

Fortunately, the folks at FamilySearch have a procedure for dealing with indexing errors. When you find one (after the indexes are published) you will be able to send them a correct/alternative spelling. I suspect there will be a lot of that going on. Hey, we're all doing the best that we can but you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. 

Arbitrating

I erroneously assumed that the most common errors I would be correcting as an arbitrator would be differences of opinion on letters within a name/location. But my experience has been that the most common errors I'm correcting are typos. Sure, sure I'm doing my share of correcting spelling but I'm doing way more correction that has to do with keyboard entry errors. 

It's nice and productive to get a rhythm going when you're entering data but sometimes that "efficiency" comes at the cost of accuracy. I'm finding that folks are often missing column changes due to the auto-fill feature. Auto-fill is really handy. It will fill a given cell with the content from the previous time you typed a word starting with a given letter in that same column saving time and typing. That's a good thing. Sometimes. But often people don't catch that the last time they typed the letter "S" to start the relationship column it was for "sister" but this time they meant "son". They type the letter "S" and hit the tab to the next column assuming the auto-fill filled in "Son" like they've typed several times on that page already. But! The last time they typed it, it was for "sister" and that's what the auto-fill remembers. It's an easy mistake to make when you've got a rhythm going. 

Probably the next most common error has to do with the city location for where people were living in 1935. Specifically, the letter "R" is the issue. "R" is an abbreviation for "Rural". The instructions to the indexers for this column of information reads as follows... (emphasis is mine)

The entry in column 17 may be a place-name, or the census taker may have written 'Same house,' 'Same place,' or 'Rural' or some abbreviation of those terms, such as 'R,' 'SH,' or 'Same H,' in this column or across multiple columns.
If a place-name was entered in this column, then index the place-name in this field. If the place-name was misspelled, spell it correctly. If it was abbreviated and you can determine what the abbreviation stands for, type the complete name instead of the abbreviation. Use the lookup list for assistance. If you are not sure what the abbreviation stands for, index what was written, excluding punctuation.
If 'Same house' or 'Same place' or some abbreviation of those terms, such as 'SH' or 'Same H,' was entered in any of the three residence columns for April 1, 1935, then index the term, as it was written, in this field.
If 'Rural' or 'R' was entered in this column, then index the term, as it was written, in this field.

It's so easy to overlook that last instruction! When it comes to an actual place-name (name of a city, village, town, etc.) you are supposed to correct spelling and type the complete name instead of the abbreviation. However, when it comes to the R/Rural designation you are to "index the term, as it was written". Which means, if you see an "R" you type an "R". You do not write out the complete word "Rural" instead of the abbreviation. I've had arbitrators miss this too and erroneously change "R" to "Rural" on several pages that I have indexed. It's frustrating and it brings your accuracy score down. And you know that's not what the instructions say to do. And you so want to send a little note along to the arbitrator to point out their misunderstanding, but you can't.

What can you do? Chin up. Carry on. Keep the big picture in mind and don't sweat the small stuff. Don't let the letter "R" issue keep you up at night, lol!

My Part
I'm a part of the Michigan Genealogical Council group, the third most productive group of indexers according to the latest statistics. At this point, I am indexing and arbitrating the 1940 Census for the state of Michigan only. I've indexed census sheets from 21 counties so far, Alcona, Allegan, Arenac, Baraga, Barry, Bay, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Charlevoix, Chippewa, Clinton, Delta, Dickinson, Eaton, Emmet, Genesee, Gladwin, Gogebic, and Grand Traverse. More counties have been done but I skipped indexing for several days last week when I was out of town. There are a total of 83 counties in Michigan.

I've come across a good number of Polish surnames with all their many consonants. It must be a nightmare for those indexers and arbitrators who aren't familiar with them. And for the enumerators too for that matter. For me, when I see them, it brings familiarity. Not that I haven't come across some unique Polish surnames, I have. But most of the names I've some across have common letter combinations.

The indexing for Michigan has been moving along at a good pace. However, we haven't gotten to the really densely populated counties yet (Wayne/Detroit, Oakland and Macomb/Detroit suburbs, Ingham/Lansing, and Kent/Grand Rapids). I'm sure the rate at which we move through the counties will slow down when we do.

It feels good to be contributing to the cause and knowing that I will be helping others find their family members in the 1940 Census. Have you thought about helping out with 1940 Census indexing? It's not too late! We can always use more help. You can download the software to get started here.

The First Find Revisited, Part 2

In Part 1 I told the tale of how the Social Security Application of one John Lipa, someone unknown to me, led to my discovery of the ancestral village of my great grandparents in Poland. I'd call it a lucky find to be sure!

The name on the application, "John Lipa", didn't mean anything to me. I wasn't looking for anyone by that name. My grandfather's name was Szymon Lipa and he died long before the Social Security program was created. Looking at this application, I noticed the address John Lipa gave at the time of this application was from a west-side Detroit Polish neighborhood. His place of employment was on the west-side too. My great grandparents and most of their children lived on the east-side of the city but their daughter, my grandmother Carrie, and her family lived on the west-side. However, Carrie lived no where near John Lipa's address.

Next on the application was John's age and birth date. Age 47, born June 16, 1889 in Bobrowa, Austrian, Poland. I knew from having found my great grandparent's ship manifest that they were from "Austria". They immigrated in 1881 and specific cities/villages were not listed on manifests back then. But I knew at this point that both John Lipa and my Lipa great grandparents were from the same partitioned section of Poland, the Austrian section.

The next bit of information on the application is the name of John's parents, Matthew Lipa and Katherine Lipa. Under Katherine's name it indicates "mother's maiden name same as married". I found that a little odd. Not often you find someone marrying someone else with the same surname. I'd never heard of Matthew or Katherine Lipa so these individuals were also unknown to me.

The thing that made me go ahead and order the Bobrowa films from my local FHC after seeing this application was the "Austrian" connection. Both John and my great grandfather Szymon had the same surname and were from the same partition of Poland. It seemed pretty unlikely to me that John and my great grandfather were related but at the time I had nothing else to go on to find the village of my great grandfather's family. So what the heck?

I got lucky, very lucky! I found my great grandfather as well as my great grandmother in the Bobrowa records and from there I was able to piece together a nice little genealogy. Over time, I was able to fill out that genealogy and I've added more and more to it over the years since my discovery. (I think my discovery of Bobrowa was in 1999. If I could figure out how to find the date I recorded the information in my FTM or Legacy software I could tell you for sure. If anyone knows how to find the date you recorded information in Legacy please let me know!)

So here's the thing. I found John Lipa's birth record in Bobrowa but couldn't connect him to my line of Lipas in Bobrowa. Now Bobrowa is not a big village. And there are many, many Lipas in Bobrowa. I'd go so far as to say that Lipa is either the most common surname or one of the most common surnames in Bobrowa. My theory is that they are all related from a common ancestor named Lipa but I can't prove it. That common ancestor would have lived back before records were kept in Bobrowa. The records start in the late 1700s and from the beginning of those records there are multiple Lipas.

No matter how many times I run the Relationship Calculator in Legacy it comes up the same. There is no relationship between me or my great grandfather and John Lipa.

But we ARE related!

It turns out we're related by marriage not by blood.

John Lipa married Jadwiga "Hattie" Ziobro in Detroit, Michigan on July 17, 1911. I found the marriage record fairly recently (a few months ago) when FamilySearch.org posted the Michigan Marriages 1868-1925 record collection. And it turns out, Jadwiga is my second cousin twice removed. She is my great grandfather Szymon's first cousin once removed. When I saw John and Jadwiga's marriage record I recognized the surname "Ziobro" as one I'd seen before in the Bobrowa records. I looked her up and sure enough, she was born in Bobrowa. Then on a hunch, I ran the Relationship Calculator and BINGO! Jadwiga and I are cousins!

So even though I didn't realize it at the time that I ordered the Social Security application, John Lipa does in fact have a place on my family tree. :-) John and Jadwiga lived in Detroit after they married and had 5 children, a daughter and 4 sons. John died in Dearborn, Michigan (the town I grew up in) in 1969. Jadwiga died there too in 1974.

And just for the record, John's birth date listed on his Social Security application is incorrect. According to the Bobrowa birth and baptismal records he was born on May 13, 1889 not June 16, 1889. But that error didn't matter. All that mattered to me on that application was the town where he was born... Bobrowa, Austria-Poland!

Notes and Announcement

Burn out. I'll admit it, I've been suffering from blogger burnout. It's not that I haven't been doing anything genealogy related over the past few months, it's just that I haven't felt like writing about it. But I'm back in the saddle at the computer and ready to ride write again!

~*~

I've made a discovery recently that has me rethinking all of my genealogy research since day one. I'm not going to go into that discovery right now but I'll probably write it up at some point. Anyway, as a result I've spent some time at my local Family History Center reviewing films again over the past summer. I expect to be doing more of that in the weeks to come.

~*~

I went to a family reunion last month. It was a very small reunion (< 30 people) but a reunion none the less. It was the second get-together this branch of my family has had, the first I was able to attend. It came on the heels of the death of one of my cousins who died suddenly at the age of 58. It was an emotional time.

~*~

I'm closing down my web design business. I hope to be finished with it by the end of the calendar year. It's a lot of work and it's required my focus and attention for a couple months now. I'll be glad when that's over.

~*~

And, (drum roll please) I've saved the best news for last. I'm finally doing something I've been wanting to do for several years now. I'm collaborating on a website/blog with my friend Ceil Jensen. Together, we are creating a web site for the parish of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Detroit. Ceil and I both have family roots in this parish which was closed in 1989. The church/school, rectory, and nun's residence have been torn down and all that's left of this much beloved Polish parish is memories and memorabilia. So we're going to roll up our sleeves and combine our memories and memorabilia and put it out on the internet for others to learn about, remember, and enjoy. We'll put up what we've got, hopefully other interested parties will find our site and contribute what information they've got about the parish too. We'll use Blogger, Google Docs, and Picasa Web Albums to create our site (totally FREE ;-). When we've got everything uploaded our "blogging" will be done and it will become a more or less permanent web site for years to come.

I've started the site with Part 1 of the history of the parish which was translated from Polish to English by our good friend and fellow blogging buddy, Steve Danko. Many thanks Steve! I wouldn't know how to begin this site without this basic information. His efforts too have become a part of our collaboration. I love the idea of  working together to create a resource that will be greater than what any of us could have done individually. It's is a great way to create an online archive of information and images about this church and the Polish community that loved and supported it. I hope it will inspire other genealogists and bloggers to think about doing the same thing for a church, school, or organization from their family's past. If you don't know where to start just watch us and see how we do it. Let the archive begin!

Assumption BVM Catholic Church

Oh yes, and I've created a Face Book page for the parish too!



Assumption BVM Church, Detroit, Michigan

Promote Your Page Too

---

Michigan Genealogy Resources

I just love it when I come across a new database or other resource that is relevant to my genealogy research. So you can imagine my delight when Miriam published her 52 Weeks of Online American Digital Archives and Databases: Michigan  blog post a couple days ago. So many great resources all in one place! Miriam has been writing this weekly series for each state since the beginning of the year and I've been waiting and waiting for her to get around to "Michigan's week". It's finally here! I don't know how she finds the time to put each of these resource guides together but she really does a great job with them. If your ancestors had ties to Michigan, you'll enjoy and appreciate Miriam's hard work.

You're sure to find some helpful information in Miriam's other helpful resources for Michigan too!

 Michigan Online Historical Directories

 Michigan Online Historical Newspapers

Let's hear it for Miriam! Hip, hip, hooray!

On behalf of all the genealogists researching in Michigan, THANKS MIRIAM!

I Won't Be Going Bald Anytime Soon!

It's true. I won't be going bald anytime soon! I can stop pulling my hair out in frustration. My prayers have been answered. Yippee!

What is the reason for my joy and glee you ask?

I now have what I have longed for for many years... a complete Polish / English dictionary. It's not an ordinary Polish / English dictionary, it's a COMPLETE one. What do I mean by that? I mean I can look up a Polish word in any of it's glorious conjugations or cases and find out what it means. This is terrific because in the past I'd have had to know the root of a word to find it's meaning and with 7 cases in the Polish language, believe me, that was often a challenging task. Here's an example of what I mean...

mieć = to have

Present Tense-Actual

ja mam = I have
ty masz = you have (singular)
on/ona/ono ma = he/she/it has
my mamy = we have
wy mamy = you have (plural)
oni /one mają = they have

Present Tense-Frequentative

miewam
miewasy
miewa
miewamy
miewacie
miewają

Past Tense-Actual

ja miałem/miałam
ty miałeś/miałaś
on/ona/ono miał/miała/miało
my mieliśmy/miałyśmy
wy mieliście/miałyście
oni/one mieli/miały

Past Tense-Frequentative

miewałem/miewałam
miewałeś/miewałaś
miewał/miewała/miewało
miewaliśmy/miewałyśmy
miewalicie/miewałycie
miewali/miewały

Future Tense-Actual

ja będę miał/miała
ty będziesz miał/miała
on/ona/ono będzie miał/miała/miało
my będziemy mieli/miały
wy będziecie mieli/miały
oni/one będą mieli/miały

Future Tense-Frequentative

miewał/miewała
miewał/miewała
miewał/miewała/miewało
miewali/miewały
miewali/miewały
miewali/miewały

Conditional-Actual

ja miałbzm/miałabym
ty miałbyś/miałabyś
on/ona/ono miałby/miałaby/miałoby
my mielibyśmy/miałybyśmy
wy mielibyście/miałybyście
oni/one mieliby/miałyby

Conditional-Frequentative

etc. etc. etc.

Imperative... Particples... on and on...

All those words in bold print... they are versions of "mieć" which means "to have". But if I come across any of them when I'm reading I won't be able to find them in a standard dictionary. Just like in an English dictionary you won't find "parties" as a separate word. You have to know that it is a version of the root word "party" and then you'll find the meaning of it in the dictionary. Same is true here. But if you don't know the language, like I don't know Polish, when you see "będziecie" you don't think, gee, I wonder what "mieć" means. You look up "będziecie" (not realizing it's paired with "wy" and "mieli") and you come up with nothing. Now I can look up "będziecie", be referred to "być" and learn that it's a version of "mieć" which it tells me means "to have". Yay! :-D

I know this is not unique to the Polish language, having to know the root of a word to look up the meaning. But yee-gads that makes it tough to translate a Polish document for research!!!

If you are researching ancestors with Polish roots you're bound to come across this same problem. And now you too have the means to solve your problem. You can find it for free on the University of Pittsburgh web site...

Online Dictionary, Polish>English, English>Polish

Hat tip to guest blogger Barb, writing for Anna's Polish Blog.

Family History Month events at the Library of Michigan

Family History Month events at the Library of Michigan

Please join us in October as we celebrate Family History Month!

Free Family History Month workshops will be held in October at the Michigan Library and Historical Center in downtown Lansing. Each week, two sessions will be offered Tuesday morning, and these sessions will be repeated Wednesday afternoon.

To register, please go to http://www.facebook.com/l/72ff1;www.michigan.gov/familyhistory, e-mail librarian@michigan.gov or call (517) 373-1300. For more information about these events or to let friends know you'll be attending, please see the Facebook Michigan Genealogy group. The complete schedule of events is:

Tuesday, Oct. 6
10:15 a.m.: Beginning Your Genealogy Research
11:15 a.m.: Michigan Vital Records

Wednesday, Oct. 7
2:15 p.m.: Beginning Your Genealogy Research
3:15 p.m.: Michigan Vital Records

Tuesday, Oct. 13
10:15 a.m.: HeritageQuest
11:15 a.m.: Look @ Seeking Michigan

Wednesday, Oct. 14
2:15 p.m.: HeritageQuest
3:15 p.m.: Look @ Seeking Michigan

Tuesday, Oct. 20
10:15 a.m.: Ancestry Library Edition
11:15 a.m.: The Ultimate Civil War Resource

Wednesday, Oct. 21
2:15 p.m.: Ancestry Library Edition
3:15 p.m.: The Ultimate Civil War Resource

Tuesday, Oct. 27
10:15 a.m.: Michigan Roots: Research in the Wolverine State
11:15 a.m.: Genealogy of a House

Wednesday, Oct. 28
2:15 p.m.: Michigan Roots: Research in the Wolverine State
3:15 p.m.: Genealogy of a House

Is Technology the Way Forward for the Library of Michigan?

What's to become of the Library of Michigan? I don't have the answer to that but like many people I am concerned about it. I wish the State of Michigan hadn't fallen on hard times. I wish our unemployment wasn't the highest in the nation. I wish our state budget had money to fund the Library of Michigan and all it's wonderful collections. But recent actions by our Governor suggest that we don't.

Reality is hard to swallow sometimes. Like now. But you know what they say, "trying times are for trying". I'm thinking it's time for us to be trying something new. Even as I write this I am anticipating the groans from people who don't want to go beyond their comfort zones when it comes to technology. But groan if you will, I'm going to suggest that it's time to digitize he holdings of the Library of Michigan.

Google is in the process of digitizing the entire library system of the University of Michigan (et al) which is much larger than the Library of Michigan. They have the equipment and the know-how to scan massive quantities of printed books. Michigan should be the first state to have it's library holdings digitized, out of necessity, and Google is the perfect partner to take on the digitization of the printed books portion of the library's holdings. In the genealogy collection, many of the books are out of print and their copyright has run out. Having those items available online would be adding to the goldmine that already exists in GoogleBooks. Yes, many of the Library of Michigan's books would still be inaccessible due to copyright protection. But isn't it worth considering the idea for the many books that would be accessible?

And what of the all the reels of microfilm at the Library of Michigan? I would propose that Heritage Quest is in the perfect position to deal with those. I believe they already have the equipment to scan films and put them online and they already have an agreement with the State of Michigan (Michigan residents already get free access to Heritage Quest). What about the cost involved in indexing the microfilms? Don't do it. Don't index the microfilms any more than they already are. There's no database index of the microfilms now so it wouldn't be any different than if you were on site doing research. Heritage Quest would still have some costs involved but they could recoup the cost with the increase in subscribers from out of state who would love to have access to all of the Library of Michigan's microfilm holdings.

Is this plan a "no brainer"? No. Of course not. There are legal issues and financial issues to be taken into account. But if the idea were given serious consideration and all interested parties could sit down at a table together I'll bet they could come to some sort of agreement that would allow this to happen. The residents of Michigan would be the big winners here. Let's face it, it would be awfully convenient to have online access to the Library of Michigan's holdings.

It's likely that the Library funding will be cut and the holdings could well be dispersed. But if we could get some sort of agreement in place in short order, perhaps the funding could be found to keep the library open until it's holdings have been digitized. Like it or not, we may not be able to continue doing business (and our hobby) the way we've always done it here in Michigan. I think the time has come to take a digital step forward and let current technology help us out here.

What do you think?

Sad Days for the Library of Michigan

Let me start off by saying that it breaks my heart to think of the wonderful genealogy collections at the Library of Michigan being broken up into parts and sold or distributed to other institutions. It has taken many years and lots of tax payers' dollars (not to mention the tremendous efforts of dedicated employees and volunteers) to amass this collection that we genealogists in Michigan value tremendously and are darn proud of.

The library building is wonderful, the holdings are wonderful, and the staff is wonderful.

Where would we genealogists be without it all? I haven't a clue.

Having said that, our state is in the position of having to make drastic budget cuts to essential services. Reality check time. We just don't have the money to support non-essential services in the way we have in the past. I've been asking myself for some time now how we can continue to operate the state supported cultural programs while we eliminate Michigan State Police officers and close posts.

It's easy to wink and say we could do with one less State Police officer when we see them in the median of the interstate with their radar guns in action. But if you've ever been stranded on an icy freeway or caught in a 20-car pileup, you know what essential services they provide. And the state crime lab is waaay behind on their cases, especially since the crime lab in Detroit was shut down. And what about budget cuts for state prisons? Does anyone think we should shut more down and have more felons on the streets? Not me.

Please don't brand me as a traitor here. What I said in the beginning is truly what I feel. But I also know that we can't keep doing business as usual here in Michigan. We simply can't afford it. Personally, my safety is a higher concern for me than my hobby. But that doesn't mean I'm willing to turn my back on my hobby altogether.

There is a group of concerned genealogists here in Michigan who is planning an assembly on the steps of the State Capitol followed by a walk to the Library of Michigan where they will hold hands encircling the library in a show of support. The date is August 5th, 2009, time 9:45am. I urge you to be there to show your concern for the Library of Michigan. I'm going to try my best to be there to show my support.

I seriously doubt if the Library as we know it with all it's wonderful collections can be spared the chopping block given the current economic situation here in Michigan. And I don't necessarily think it should. But it is my most fervent hope that those in a position to determine the outcome of this situation can find a way to keep the collections together as they are now. I don't know what kinds of options there might be for this to occur but I sincerely hope they are seriously considered and prioritized. I also think it is essential that the collections continue to be made available to the public for free as they are now. That makes the task all the more difficult. But, we have some very intelligent and talented individuals working on this at the state level and I'm sure they'd like to feel some support from their constituents. I say we show them that we care about the resources in our library and we don't want them to be redistributed.

If you can't be at the Capitol on August 5th, please show your concern and support by contacting Michigan legislators. You can find the House Reps here and the Senators here.

For more details about the August 5th assembly, see the Michigan Genealogical Council web site.

Please try to get the word out to as many people as you can. Thank you!

New Web Site: St. Casimir Church, Detroit

Those who have ancestors who attended St. Casimir Catholic Church on the west side of Detroit will be pleased to know that it now has a new web site, and a very nice one at that!

Tom Wozniak has done a beautiful job of putting this site together. It has composite photos of every graduating class from the first in 1931 till the last in 1969 and yearbooks too! Tom has included the jubilee books for the parish and loads of photos from the reunion in 2007. This site has obviously taken a lot of time to put together and is still a work in progress. But don't wait for it to be finished, go check it out now!

SaintCasimir.com

Free Genealogy Presentations Right in My Own Backyard!

Your Ancestors in Volhynia and Poland, 1700-1900:
How They Got There and How They Lived
Monday, July 13th, 7:00pm
Join us on Monday, July 13th, for a discussion on Polish ancestry presented by William Remus: Volhynian descendant, graduate of the SJHS Class of 1962, and University of Hawaii Professor Emeritus. Maud Preston Palenske Memorial Library, St. Joseph, MI (Thanks Apple!)

Berrien County Genealogical Society:
July 15, 2009 ~ Wednesday ~ “How to Organize Your Family Data”
Time: 7:00 p.m. at the Berrien Springs Community Library 215 W. Union St.

I was going to return to Detroit this weekend but since these interesting sessions will be offered here next week I just may have to stay another week!

Abrams Genealogy Seminar at the Library of Michigan

The Library of Michigan is pleased to announce that the 2009 Abrams Genealogy Seminar will take place on Friday and Saturday, July 17-18 at the Michigan Library & Historical Center in Lansing.

This fourth annual Library of Michigan signature event represents a unique opportunity for researchers to spend two full days at the Library utilizing our vast array of genealogy resources and learning about specific topics of interest including cemetery research, Michigan death records, online research for the British Isles, New England area research and much more.

A highlight of the seminar will be a keynote address, co-sponsored by the Eaton County Genealogical Society, featuring Stephen Morse, famous for his outstanding One-Step Webpages at stephenmorse.org. These online tools are an invaluable resource for genealogists for topics as diverse as Ellis Island ship lists, U.S., Canadian, and British census records, and even calendar conversions and language translation.

As in previous years, the Abrams Seminar will include a library and archives research track, in which facilities with extensive genealogical and historical holdings will outline their collections. Participating libraries and archives include the Library of Michigan, the Archives of Michigan, the Burton Historical Collection at Detroit Public Library, the Capital Area District Library in Lansing and the Allen County (Ind.) Public Library.

The schedule for the seminar is as follows:

Friday, July 17

12:30 - 1 p.m.

A. Archives of Michigan Tour

1:15 - 1:45 p.m.

B. Library of Michigan Tour

2 - 3 p.m.

D. Researching Your Female Ancestors

- Edwina Morgan, Library of Michigan

E. Michigan Biographical Index

- James N. Jackson, Professional Researcher

F. Genealogical Research at the Library of Michigan

- Randy Riley, Library of Michigan

3:15 - 4:15 p.m.

F. Cemetery Records: Dying to Get in There!

- Karen Krugman, Professional Researcher

G. The Ultimate Michigan Civil War Resource

- Mark Harvey, Archives of Michigan

H. Resources from the Forest Parke Library & Archives Collection

- David Votta, Capital Area District Library, Lansing

Saturday, July 18

9:30 - 11:30 a.m.

I. Welcome & keynote address: One-Step Webpages: A Potpourri of Genealogical Search Tools

- Stephen Morse

11:30 a.m. - noon

J. Presentation of the Carole Callard Genealogy Appreciation Award

Noon - 1 p.m.

Lunch

1 - 2 p.m.

K. One-Step Webpages: A Hodgepodge of Lesser-Known Gems

- Stephen Morse

2:15 - 3:15 p.m.

L. Casting the "Net" Over Your British Isles Ancestors

- Richard M. Doherty, Professional Researcher

M. Genealogy 2.0: Social Networking and Family History

- Gloriane Peck, Library of Michigan

N. Treasures for Researchers at the Genealogy Center in Fort Wayne

- Curt Witcher, Allen County Public Library

3:30 - 4:30 p.m.

O. Researching Your New England Ancestors

- Charles Hagler, Library of Michigan

P. Seeking Michigan Death Records? A New Digitization Project

- Kris Rzepczynski, Library of Michigan

Q. Research at the Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library

- Mark Bowden, Detroit Public Library

Additional information and the registration form are online. Questions? Please contact the Library at (517) 373-1300 or librarian@michigan.gov.

New Hours at the Library of Michigan

New Public Hours at the Library of Michigan

The Library of Michigan's has new hours of operation starting Tuesday, July 7. The change of hours provides a more consistent schedule of hours of operation than the library was previously open. The changes will also help the facility to control overall costs.

Library hours will be:

• Main Library 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday
• Law Library: 1 p.m. - 5 p.m., Monday through Friday
• Rare Book Room: 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. Monday through Friday (other hours by appointment)
• Services for the Blind and Physically Handicapped: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., Monday through Friday.

If you have questions, e-mail the Library of Michigan at librarian@michigan.gov or call (517) 373-1300.

Livonia (MI) Celebrates Family History Month

The Livonia Public Library is offering a couple of presentations on historical times/events that may be of interest to genealogists.

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER: The Civic Center Library welcomes Craig Mestach, a member of the Titanic Historical Society, on Monday October 6th at 7:00 pm. Mr. Mestach will present "Titanic: The Ship, Voyage and Legend". For more information, call the Civic Center Library at (734) 466-2197.

DETROIT'S NEFARIOUS PAST: The Friends of the Livonia Library welcome Paul R. Kavieff to the Civic Center Library Auditorium on Sunday October 19th at 2:00 pm to discuss "The Purple Gang", the ruthless and infamous Prohibition era organized crime gang from Detroit. Mr. Kavieff has authored four books on the history of organized crime in Detroit, including the recently published "Detroit's Infamous Purple Gang" and copies of this book will be available for purchase after the presentation. Refreshments will be served in the Michigan Room after the program. For more information, please contact the Civic Center Browsing Desk at (734) 466-2197

And also from the folks at the Livonia Library:

DATABASE OF THE MONTH OCTOBER 2008: The Livonia Public Library, the Library Network and the Library of Michigan continue to offer more databases and information for you to access from the internet in the library and at home! Each month, this newsletter will explore one or more of these databases and give an idea of what's available! October is Family History Month, and there are some databases available to you to help you in your genealogical research. Heritage Quest is accessible from your home computer. Heritage Quest has some U.S. Census records, books, periodicals, and revolutionary war era records, all searchable by name. Ancestry.com's Library Edition can only be entered from a computer at your local library, but it is an extensive resource including census information, vital records and public directories from the United States and other countries, drawn from the Ancestry.com website. This is not complete access to that website, but it is a wealth of information and a good starting place for your family tree search. (Also visit our web site at http://livonia.lib.mi.us/genealogy for some of the resources available at the Livonia Library and some links to other helpful websites.) To access the Heritage Quest database and others from home, you will need your library card, but accessing them from any Livonia Library is as easy as walking up to any catalog station! To take a look at the genealogical databases or any of the other databases available, visit the Livonia Library web site at http://www.livonia.lib.mi.us/mags.html.

IT'S FAMILY HISTORY MONTH GET STARTED DIGGING UP YOUR ROOTS: Doing genealogical research? The Livonia Public Libraries offer access to the database "Ancestry/Library Edition", a library version of Ancestry.com available at your local branch. This database covers census records, available birth, death, marriage and immigration information, books and periodicals and much more. If you'd like some help learning how to access this information and use this database effectively, the Civic Center Library will be offering one-on-one assistance on occasional Saturdays. In September, help will be available on Saturday October 4th. Registration for these sessions is preferred, and you can register at the Adult Reference Desk or by calling (734) 466-2490. For more information on these training sessions, please contact Carl Katafiasz, Head of Adult Services, at (734) 466-2480.

Michigan Daily Obituaries

I came across a new blog that is listing obituaries from Michigan. It's called Michigan Daily Obituaries but I don't think the obits are from the Michigan Daily newspaper of Ann Arbor. They seem to be from all over the state. Anyway, if you're interested in the Michigan Daily Obituaries blog check it out here.

Library of Michigan Celebrates Family History Month

October means Family History Month in Michigan. And in that spirit the Library of Michigan will once again be offering a series of genealogy workshops at the Michigan Library and Historical Center, 702 W. Kalamazoo St. in Lansing. These workshops are held Tuesday mornings and Wednesday afternoons throughout the month. You can see a list of the workshops being offered and register online. The workshops are all free but you do need to register.

Feelin' the Love!

I am certainly feeling the love from my Genea-blogging sisters here in Michigan! First it was Jessica (Jessica's Gene Journal) who honored me with the "I Heart Your Blog" award and then Brenda (Grand Traverse Area Genealogical Society) was kind enough to send the award my way too :-) Thank you, ladies, for thinking so favorably of my blog!

I wouldn't say there are a lot of us blogging from Michigan but what we lack in quantity we make up for in quality! So I am especially delighted to share the stage with the few, the proud (of our state and heritage), the Marines esteemed Michigan Genea-bloggers! Yeah! And on that note, I'm going to pass this award on to a few of my other Michigan Genea-blogging sisters, Ceil Jensen (Polish Pioneers of Calument Michigan and Photo Studios of Detroit's Pol-Ams 1875-1950), Waleria (Niwiska, Poland), and Cheryl (Two Sides of the Ocean). Together we are all the sisterhood of Michigan Genea-bloggers! Woo Hoo!

~*~*~*~

Before I had a chance to post this, I got this award from yet another esteemed individual. She is not from Michigan but she's a star in her own right and I appreciate the award from you, Professor Dru (Find Your Folks)! Thanks!

A Series on Immigration to Detroit: Ethnic Groups

Metro Detroit area genealogists, rejoice! For coming this fall to the Lorenzo Cultural Center (aka Macomb Cultural Center) is a wonderful series of lectures and presentations on the immigration of various ethnic groups to the Detroit area. Polish, German, Arab, Jewish, Irish, African, Greek, Scot, and more will all have their day (some more than one day :-) . This is a great chance to explore the immigration issues that your ancestors had to face and what the neighborhoods they lived in looked like. Here are the offerings that may be of interest to Polish genealogy researchers:

Poles in Michigan

Oct. 3 (Fri.) 11:00 am & 1:00 pm

Born and raised in Hamtramck, author and professor emeritus at Northern Michigan University Dennis Badaczewski highlights the four waves of Polish emigration to Michigan and their assimilation, and discusses Polish surnames and their meanings.

Mosaic of Migration: Michigan 1701 - 2001

Oct. 5 (Sun.) 2:00 pm

Thaddeus C. Radzilowski, Ph.D., president of the Piast Institute, explores how Michigan was shaped in unique ways by the migrations of the last three centuries.

Hamtramck: Soul of a City

Oct. 9 (Thu.) 11:00 am & 1:00 pm

Lifelong Hamtramck resident and chairman of the city’s historical commission Greg Kowalski discusses the evolution of Hamtramck from a dusty farming community on the edge of Detroit into a nationally recognized multicultural town.

Michigan Immigration and the German Settlements

Oct. 10 (Fri.) 11:00 am & 1:00 pm

Jeremy W. Kilar, professor of history at Delta College, explores the social forces that transformed Germans from inward-looking immigrants to Michigan to citizens in the cultural mainstream.

A Polish Girl Becomes Americanized

Oct. 18 (Sat.) 2:00 pm

Born Ludomira Zaremba, Mira Green shares the story of her escape from Poland during the German occupation and starting over from scratch in Detroit.

German Oktoberfest Celebration

Oct. 25 (Sat.) 1:00 - 4:00 pm

A celebration of German culture highlighted by the Oktoben German Band. German food available for purchase.

This is only "a slice of the pie" of offerings. Check out the events schedule for a complete listing of presentations, dates and times for all the ethinic groups. Enjoy!

(Thanks to my cousin Mary Ellen for passing along this information to me!)