Why was the first public orphanage built in 1790 in Charleston, South Carolina?

In the Winter 2015 issue of the Utah Genealogical Association's quarterly Crossroads, I review John F. Murray's book, The Charleston Orphan House: Children's Lives in the First Public Orphanage in America. "No nuance, no child, no foster mother is left behind in this revealing and riveting book."

Cynthia Inez Thrall Klein from Illinois to Texas

The Utah Genealogical Association quarterly Crossroads has just published my account of my grandfather's second cousin Cynthia Inez (Thrall) Klein. The story spans three states so it is a good fit for Crossroads, which is aiming for a more national audience and recently began paying for articles. (Those with multi-state articles take note!) I like the layout and the professionalism of the staff.

The magazine is a benefit of UGA membership; since they also offer a member discount for their week-long Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy in January, it's an investment worth considering.

A few other branches of this mostly New-England-to-the-Midwest Thrall family went to Texas. Someday I hope to get to them. For that matter, I know there is more information on Cynthia and her family in Wharton County, Texas, where they settled.

For those interested in procedure, this article is based on roughly the last third of my Kinship Determination Project submitted to BCG last year. Don't forget to publish those puppies once the judges have had their say!




Harold Henderson, "Cynthia Inez Thrall Klein (1867-1932): An Enterprising Illinois Woman in Texas, with Allied Families Reavis and Whyde," Crossroads 8, no. 2 (Spring 2013), 6-17.



Harold Henderson, "Cynthia Inez Thrall Klein from Illinois to Texas," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 17 May 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.] 

In praise of research travelogues

It can't do everything, but a research chronicle can teach as much as a logical reconstruction. Two of my favorite genealogy periodicals reminded of this recently.

Malissa Ruffner, "The perfect puzzle piece," NGS Magazine vol. 39, no. 1 (January-March 2013), 40-43. "Recently I found a piece that didn't belong to my puzzle but it was so unique and well-defined that I was compelled to look for a puzzle that needed it" -- in the Green and Lanterman families.

Tami K. Pelling, "In Search of Medda," Crossroads vol. 8, no. 1 (Winter 2013), 26-30. "To prove or disprove Medda Sissie Hay as a child of Rubin and Mary, a timeline for the family was created, and the quest for Medda began" -- in Vigo and Vermillion counties, Indiana.

NGS Magazine is a benefit of membership in the National Genealogical Society. Crossroads is a benefit of membership in the Utah Genealogical Association.




Harold Henderson, "In praise of research travelogues," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 10 April 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

2013 Updated List of Paid Writing Opportunities

Read the publication first, then inquire or submit something appropriate. Expect to be edited. This list will be updated as needed, in hopes that it will outgrow the size of a blog post!
** indicates editor is certified by BCG or accredited by ICAPGen.


PROFESSIONAL

Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly

NATIONAL

**Archives.com "Expert Series"

Crossroads, published by Utah Genealogical Association

INDIANA

The Hoosier Genealogist: Connections, published by Indiana Historical Society

Indiana Genealogist (one prize per year), published by Indiana Genealogical Society

TEXAS

Pegasus, published by Dallas Genealogical Society beginning Spring 2013

COMMERCIAL

Internet Genealogy



Harold Henderson, "2013 Updated List of Paid Writing Opportunities," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 3 January 2013 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

Calling All Writer$

Besides the remaining commercial print magazines, I now know of a grand total of three on-line or non-commercial genealogy venues that pay writers for their contributions:

Archives.com's expert series

Association of Professional Genealogists Quarterly

-- and now, the Utah Genealogical Association's quarterly Crossroads. UGA's newsletter emailed last week reports that it is now soliciting "quality feature articles about case studies, research projects and methodology." More information from the editor at GenaOrtega@gmail.com. Content is not limited to Utah.

Feel free to use the comments to promote other venues of which I am ignorant. I do hope UGA is setting a trend here.

I should probably say what should go without saying: you will have better luck submitting as a writer if you have been reading the publication for a while and have got the idea of what kind of material the editor(s) like to publish.

We all need to write more in order to prove our families, to preserve the results of our research, and to propagate the information. (Am I repeating myself?) And when our articles get edited, that too is a learning experience. (We all need it, and we should ask questions if we don't get it.) Getting paid is frosting on the cake, but it's nutritious frosting.


Harold Henderson, "Calling All Writer$," Midwestern Microhistory: A Genealogy Blog, posted 17 December 2012 (http://midwesternmicrohistory.blogspot.com : accessed [access date]). [Please feel free to link to the specific post if you prefer.]

September Crossroads from UGA

Leslie Albrecht Huber has the cover story in the current issue of Crossroads, published by the Utah Genealogical Association and executively edited by my friend Christy Fillerup, on "How to Write a Page-Turning, But True, Family History."

Also to be found inside are Rondina Muncy on a very important six-letter word in land platting, and my review of Gordon Wood's marvelous Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Reupblic, 1789-1815, under the heading "Re-Learning History."

Genealogy has its familiar handful of top-notch scholarly magazines, and -- even in this day of the internet -- many that publish whatever comes in. Crossroads is aiming to occupy some middle ground, and welcomes contributions and inquiries. As UGA's statement of objectives says, it seeks to "raise the standards of genealogy and family history research."

Midwestern genealogy in Utah

The Utah Genealogical Association's quarterly Crossroads (December 2009, volume 5, no. 1) has two articles featuring Midwesterners:

"An Illinois Farmer in Utah Territory and Subsequent Return of the Native," by Gerald M. Haslam, who uses a diary and other sources to reconstruct the gritty lives of ordinary people in the coal-mining area of Peoria County, Illinois, (the Edwards and Hanna City area) in the 1890s, when A. J. Rynearson returned to proselytize among his neighbors and relations for his Mormon faith. In retrospect the author acknowledges that Rynearson was more successful as a historian/genealogist than as an evangelist. If you have research targets in this area, you know that candid descriptions of daily life in communities like this are hard to come by -- don't miss these! Even allowing for the fact of Rynearson's being present during the worst depression before the 1930s, it still sounds pretty rough.

"When the Name's Not the Same," by yours truly, focusing on the intertwined problems of identity, relationship, and nomenclature in the family of Lorson/Larson/Lawson/Lewis Barnum, of DuPage, Whiteside, and Cook counties in Illinois.