More good news for Ohio genealogy geeks

Chris Staats strikes again! and unearths a promising resource on Ohio legal history, which may be as complicated as its land history. Worldcat will tell you where copies exist, and the Newberry Library's Atlas of Historical County Boundaries will show the size of certain relevant territorial counties' jurisdictions.

Useful information -- not necessarily good news -- for Ohio researchers

From Chris Staats.

Get a GRIP and Go Read Another Blog!

 I have been well educated and nurtured and networked at the Salt Lake Institute and at Samford Library's IGHR, but there's a special place in my heart for the new kid on the block . . . because it's closer to home -- all but Midwestern. The Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh opened its first session this week, and here are the three bloggers I know about who are chronicling a sliver of their experiences. Give links in the comments if you know of more!

Shelley Bishop at "A Sense of Family"

Cathi Desmarais, CG(sm) at "No Stone Unturned"

Chris Staats at "Staats Place"

Between them, they should help explain why institutes may sometimes be a better fit for your genealogical learning style than conferences, especially when you need in-depth education.



Harold Henderson, "Get a GRIP and Go Read Another Blog!," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 24 July 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Moderately Recent Blog Posts That I Have Enjoyed

I don't pretend to cover the profusion of genealogy blogs, nor to produce a legitimate "best of" list, hence the title. But I did enjoy these in their different ways.

Debbie Parker Wayne ("Deb's Delvings in Genealogy") did something I almost never do -- commented on a newsworthy development in genealogy -- and in her soft-spoken way cut right to the bone.

Joy Neighbors ("A Grave Interest") gave a nicely illustrated appreciation of Oak Hill Cemetery in Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, Indiana.

Chris Staats ("Staats Place") inquired about the various pronunciations of his surname. I'm thinking there may be ways to research this if you can find the right records. (If only some of his male-line forebears had written rhyming doggerel about themselves!)

Judy G. Russell ("The Legal Genealogist") offered a touching remembrance of the least-known member of her family who shared a May 5th birthday. This post is also a model for those bloggers who want to combine personal reminiscences with good source-citation practices. May their tribe increase!


Harold Henderson, "Moderately Recent Blog Posts That I Have Enjoyed," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 8 May 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Resources: Akron, Ohio City Directories .... and vaccines

There's a potato chip that used to have the slogan: "You Can't Eat Just One."

The same should be true for genealogists checking out city directories: "You Can't Read Just One." That's why I'm so pleased to learn that the Akron-Summit County Library Special Collections has digitized about 100 Akron city directories from 1858 to 1969.

"Selected years" just doesn't cut it, because in any given year people were missed or misspelled, or an extra tidbit of information about their workplace, spouse, or death might have been included. Those with Summit County research targets should think of this, not as 100 separate volumes, but as a movie of Akron people with each volume a single image. You can't get the good out of a movie by watching a single still. Enjoy!

(Hat tip to Chris Staats on Facebook)

For your context file: The AHA Today newsletter points to a well-documented site from The College of Physicians of Philadelphia on The History of Vaccines, including a history of anti-vaccination movements in the colonial US, Victorian England, and more recently.

Puzzles and proof

Most researchers have trouble with the idea that you can prove an identity or relationship even if you never find a piece of paper that says it. Even those of us who know that it's true have trouble applying it to our real-life genealogy problems.

Industrious Ohio researcher and blogger Chris Staats comes out of the recent Ohio Genealogical Society conference and in his blog takes up Tom Jones's favorite puzzle analogy for genealogical "proof," which was discussed there.

This point needs to be made more often at the grass-roots level where we all start. For the full dose, pick up a CD of Jones's lecture "Inferential Genealogy" from JAMB Productions, (it's F-95 in the Philadelphia 2008 FGS listing, and no, I don't get a commission!) or read the underlying National Genealogical Society Quarterly article, “Uncovering Ancestors by Deduction: The Husbands and Parents of Eleanor (nee Medley) (Tureman) (Crow) Overton,” NGSQ 94 (December 2006): 287-304 -- (available in good genealogical libraries or free to NGS members on the web site). And of course, you can find the Genealogical Proof Standard in all its non-metaphorical glory at the BCG web site.