Maps without copyright

For those who worry about copyright issues with the many wonderful maps available on the internet, I know of two good recourses that do not involve delving into the arcana of either the general rules on fair use of maps or a particular source's claims of rights. These are maps produced by the federal government, making good use of our tax dollars:

the National Atlas, and especially the mapmaker part, which deserves an extended discussion in itself but won't get it here; and

the Census Bureau, which has individual state maps of counties in outline, as well as a map of the whole country with counties in outline. That last comes in especially handy when your research targets thoughtfully lived next to the state line. (Thanks to Kathy Lenerz.)

Just because these are not copyrighted does not mean you can claim you made them yourself! Stay calm and cite your source.

Common Law in Colonial America

I picked up a copy of William E. Nelson's slim volume, The Common Law in Colonial America, volume 1, The Cheseapeake and New England, 1607-1660 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), at an online Oxford University Press sale.

It's of interest to those trying to track the role of common law in American laws. I also found it an interesting quick overview of the New England and Chesapeake colonial societies, how different they were, and how they both used the English common law in shaping their different legal traditions. Virginia and New England remain interestingly different places even after centuries of change and homogenization.

Here's a taste from the introduction:

As it functioned after 1625 in Virginia, the rule of law mattered not because the law had a particular content, but because its content was known, fixed, and not subject to arbitrary change [allowing lenders to count on being able to collect debts]. In contrast, the content of the law mattered enormously in colonial New England, where . . . a key issue was the discretion of magistrates. The magistrates wanted to rule by the law of God, but most of the people in the towns found God's law too ambiguous. {9}

Spring Ohio Genealogical Society Quarterly!

The new issue of the largest state genealogical society's flagship publication boasts a handsome new format and four articles with citations:

"Researching the Family of Samuel B. Kates," by Darlene F. Weaver

"Stephen and Mary Senko of Lorain and Lakewood, Ohio," by Marianne Szabo

"Notes from William Hogan (1836-1936) of Marion Ohio," by N. James Pruitt and Kate De Wein

"Out of the Unity of Friends: The Remarkable Legacy of Abner and Mercy Heston," by Jane Dempsey Gramlich, which was the first-place winner of the 2010 OGS writing contest

Two new features of note -- a Lighton family Bible record both transcribed and fully imaged, and new editor Margaret Arnold kicks off what one hopes will become a regular series with a "Locality Guide" to twelve Delaware County repositories.

1890 census fragment backwards and inside out

Most of the newspaper squibs that people contribute to genealogy magazines are just colorful filler. Not Craig Pfannkuche's in the current Chicago Genealogist, Spring 2011, 43(3):94-98. He transcribed a Chicago Tribune article from 18 August 1890, listing 4 1/2 pages of names and addresses of Chicagoans who claimed to have been missed by census takers.

I suppose the moral is, always complain when you're missed. The record of your complaint may outlive the record you're complaining about being omitted from!

New online records from Joe Beine

If you don't know this resource, you should. If you do, you shouldn't be reading this ;-) Midwestern marriage additions to Joe Beine's "Online Birth & Marriage Records Indexes for the USA":

Illinois: Champaign County

Indiana: Statewide Marriage Index 1993-2004 (years added)

Michigan: Charlevoix, Clinton, and Emmet counties

Ohio: Cuyahoga, Hamilton, and Lake counties

Wisconsin: Langlade and Milwaukee counties

Michael Hait's new blog

Michael Hait's home base is Delaware and Maryland, so our actual research paths don't cross too often. His new blog, "Planting the Seeds," focuses on professional genealogy -- meaning that it has solid information for anyone who takes their genealogy seriously, even if they never do it for money and never attend an institute or a state or national conference. His posts are longer and more substantive than most genealogy blogs, including this one. My recent favorites include a careful dissection of FamilySearch's inadequate citation practices for their many new on-line offerings, and "Do You Have a Genealogical Project?":

By fully exploring the family and other relationships within a single community, we are able to gain insight into that community, and our ancestor’s relative place within it. But more importantly, it is through broad community projects of this nature that we are able to break down even the toughest brick walls.

Check it out.

More on endangered libraries

David Morris of the Institute for Self-Reliance:

"The word 'public' has been removed from the name of the Fort Worth Library.
Why? Simply put, to keep up with the times."
From the Media release on the rebranding of the Fort Worth Library

Fort Worth, you leave me speechless. You’re certainly correct about one thing. The public library is indeed an institution that has not kept up with the times. But given what has happened to our times, why do you see that as unhealthy? In an age of greed and selfishness, the public library stands as an enduring monument to the values of cooperation and sharing. In an age where global corporations stride the earth, the public library remains firmly rooted in the local community.

Morris has much more to say. (I was interested to learn that no public library closed its doors during the Great Depression.) He points to an alleged villain I had not heard of, the library privatization firm Library Systems & Services (LSSI).

In genealogy, we have gained useful access to a lot of information via some forms of privatization. Those who did research before Ancestry.com existed can tell stories, and do. I think most would agree that Ancestry has been a net benefit to the field, even though there are aspects of its work that do not meet professional standards. With that rather general comparison in mind, are there librarians or library users out there who have a good word for LSSI?

(Hat tip to Sam Smith's "Undernews" newsletter.)