If you’ve poked around my site at all, it’s pretty obvious that I believe in citing my sources—perhaps to the point of overkill. I won’t pretend that my citations are perfect; I’m pretty sure they’re not. However, they are sufficient to serve my purposes for including them in the first place which are:

1. To let readers know that there is a source.

That may seem like a no brainer, but when I’m searching for information online I will pass on by anything I find that doesn’t include a source. Same with any information where the only source is another FTM or GEDCOM file. If there’s no source, how can you verify the research? How can you determine the accuracy or validity of conflicting information?

I was able to correct a mistake regarding my ancestor George Hoover’s father because I not only verified the sources, but through a re-examination of the sources found a misinterpretation of the information. This led to the identification of two George Hoovers and I was able to determine which was my presumed ancestor.

2. To document where the information came from.

Since the raison d’etre for my site is to share my research and help other researchers, it’s important that I know where the information I’m sharing came from. It not only helps me keep track, but it means that other genealogists can duplicate my research and evaluate it based on their own findings and form their own opinions of its validity.

3. To make sure that it all makes sense.

When I write up a research post, it generally takes me several hours. Why? Because as I take the information from my database and turn into a narrative, I examine every fact, determine where it came from, and whether it makes sense amongst all the other information. Often, I’m pulling up and re-examining documents and sources to double-check the information. While my database allows me to collect information, a blog post requires that I pull those facts together into a logical sequence.

I’ve been able to think through a problem and reach a fairly well justified conclusion during this process for things that I either hadn’t thought through or had taken for granted previously.

3. To produce a quality post.

For me, writing these posts is the equivalent of writing a research report. They may not be up to the standard of a professional journal (and I may be the only person who ever reads them), but I want them to be the best example of what I know—at that particular moment—that I can produce. Later when I revisit the research or add new information, I want to be able to see what I’ve found, what conclusions I reached, and how I reached them. To my mind, that requires source citations.

That said, I don’t believe that every blog post out there should use source citations. Some posts just don’t need ‘em. It depends on your audience and your purpose for blogging in the first place.

How do I add footnotes to my posts?

I use a nifty plug-in called FD Footnotes. It works with self-hosted WordPress blogs. It allows me to insert footnotes simply by adding the citation directly in my text like this:

[1.This is my footnote.]*

The plug-in will automatically add the footnote reference in the text and link it to the full citation added at the end of the page.

* To actually add it as a footnote, there should be a space between the 1. and the footnote text. I removed it so that it wouldn’t be added as a footnote and you could see the format—or at least a semblance of it.

Marriage and Death Notices from the Harrisburg Chronicle, 1820-1834

Marriage and Death Notices from the Harrisburg Chronicle, 1820—1834

I’ve been working on this book on and off since my previous book was published. The editing, formatting and indexing took the longest. Then in the excitement of research successes, I forgot about it. After recently finding it again, I polished it up and decided to give self-publishing a try. And now—after some trials and tribulations in getting it ready for print—it’s available for sale!

This book includes 175+ pages of marriage and death announcements from a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania newspaper published in the 1820s. Because newspapers of the time commonly shared information, there are announcements from multiple Pennsylvania counties as well as other states.

During this period marriages and deaths were not recorded by the state, so church records, newspaper announcements, and family records may provide the only documentation of these pivotal events in our ancestors’ lives.

“Monday, 5 August 1822, Vol. X—No. 10

Married—At Huntingdon Pa. on the 11^th July last, John Williamson, Esq. attorney at law, of the borough of Indiana, Pa. to Miss Eliza Steel, daughter of Samuel Steel, Esq. of Huntingdon, Pa.”

The book is available in both paperback and downloadable formats. It includes an every name index.

Pages: 236
Binding: Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink: Black & white
Dimensions (inches): 6.0 wide × 9.0 tall

Print: $21.99
Download: $12.99

This book is a follow-up and continuation of my previous book Marriage and Death Notices in Harrisburg Area Newspapers, 1835-1845.

Preserve and Honor results page screenshot

The results provide all that information, plus a photo of the grave marker, the location of the grave and a link to the soldiers obituary. The site is beautifully and respectfully done and is a tribute to our fallen soldiers. Excellent job, Ricky!

Read about this on Dick Eastman’s blog or the full story in the Los Angeles Times.

Survivors recounted horrific stories of their escape from the building. They found locked exit doors that blocked their escape.^[2] A fire escape that bent under the weight of everyone trying to flee. Firefighter’s ladders were several stories too short and the water from their hoses didn’t reach the top floor.

The Triangle Waist Company was like many other sweatshops of the time. The workers worked excessively long hours in poor and dangerous conditions for low wages. The were young, mostly immigrants—very often women. Workers were often sourced by sub-contractors, who paid the workers and took a cut of the profit. Owners sometimes didn’t know who were working for them, or even how many people were working for them at any given time.

This system made it difficult to identify the victims. No newspaper or city agency at the time had a complete list of the victims’ names. Many of the names on the existing lists were found to be misspelled, belonged to survivors of the fire or even people who’d never worked at the factory.^[3]

Now, thanks to the hard work of research Michael Hirsch all 146 victims have been identified. Mr. Hirsch, a co-producer for the upcoming documentary “Triangle: Remembering the Fire,” consulted approximately 32 newspapers from the time period, including both mainstream and ethnic papers. He, then, matched his discoveries against census records, New York vital records, records kept by unions and relief agencies, and spoke with descendants. He was able to identify the last six victims as:

1. Josephine Cammarata (age 17), possibly a cousin of Concetta Prestifilippo
2. Dora Evans (age 18)
3. Max Florin (age 23)
4. Maria (Tortorelli?) Lauletti (age 33), her younger sister Isabella Tortorelli also died
5. Concetta Prestifilippo (age 22), possibly a cousin of Josephine Cammarata
6. Fannie Rosen (age 21), changed her name from Faiga Reznik

Many of the techniques used by Hirsch can aid in family research—compiling and comparing information from a variety of sources in an attempt to positively identify an individual. What fascinates me about this story is the wider benefit that family historians can create with their research. An acknowledgment and some sense of closure as we learn about the tragedies that befall our family members. The descendants and relatives of these six victims will now have the public acknowledgment of the loss their families suffered that terrible March afternoon in 1911.

You can learn more about the Triangle Factory Fire at the Remembering the Triangle Factory Fire website or the website for the HBO documentary Triangle: Remembering the Fire.

“The most likely explanation, say the researchers, is that there was limited mating, or “gene flow”, between Neanderthals and the ancestors of present-day Eurasians.

This must have taken place just as people were leaving Africa, while they were still part of one pioneering population. This mixing could have taken place either in North Africa, the Levant or the Arabian Peninsula, say the researchers.”

What genes might they have passed on to us? The most telling differences between the two species are found in our physical appearance. The Neanderthals had stockier, more muscular physical frames. But there were likely behavioral differences too. Those traits that were carried on were likely those that proved useful to survival in our gene pool.

“So when we see that their anatomies are gone, this isn’t just chance. Those things that made the Neanderthals apparent to us as a population – those things didn’t work. They’re gone because they didn’t work in the context of our population.”

You can read the full article on the BBC News website.

In June construction crews working on a development in Penn Township, Lancaster County uncovered 21 gravestones for Ritter children and other members of the Ritter, Longenecker, Wolff and Minnich families, wood and what may be bone. The stones were all stacked on top of one another, indicating that they’d been moved at some time, possibly in order to till the plot. Work at the site immediately stopped.

Now it’s time to decide what to do with the remains. The final decision may be based on determining where the cemetery actually was. So far, the lawyers for the developer have not been able to find a record of the cemetery. The farm was owned in 1869 by Jacob Ritter and in 1879 by Peter Longenecker. Through deeds they’ve determined that some of Peter Longenecker’s heirs were Minnichs. They attempted to contact possible relatives in the area via mailing, but received no response.

The developer would like to move the headstones to Mellinger Mennonite Cemetery, 12 miles away. Grave Concern believes the burial site should be preserved and would like the area fenced off. A Lancaster County Judge has asked them to look into a compromise. A Penn Township manager has suggested the artifacts could be moved to one of two lots on the site that were slated to remain open ground.

What do you think they should do?

For more information you can view an article in the Harrisburg Patriot-News or a follow-up in the Lancaster Intelligencer.

“New research shows that people with blue eyes have a single, common ancestor. A team at the University of Copenhagen have tracked down a genetic mutation which took place 6-10,000 years ago and is the cause of the eye colour of all blue-eyed humans alive on the planet today.”

Unlike green eyes—which, according to the article, are only a variation of brown—blue eyes are not merely a variation of the amount of melanin in the iris. The genetic mutation actually “resulted in the creation of a ‘switch’, which literally ‘turned off’ the ability to produce brown eyes.” The switch doesn’t completely turn off the ability to produce melanin in the iris, but reduces the production of melanin in the iris to the point that brown eye color is completely diluted to blue. Any variation in the amount of melanin in the iris in a blue-eyed person would then only change the shade of blue. Cool.

So, I wonder how that got passed on. The trait is a recessive, meaning you need to get it from both parents. Does that mean that our blue-eyed ancestor had brown-eyed children, and they had brown-eyed children and so on until brown-eyed descendants who carried that gene got together and started producing blue-eyed children and then those blue-eyed children got together…?

I have blue eyes. I’m the product of two blue-eyed parents. However, three of my four grandparents had brown eyes. I have brown-eyed aunts and uncles. In my family just in the last two generations we show the results of chance in genetics. Both my parents just happened to get the blue-eyed gene from their parents. Then they could only pass on the blue-eyed gene…

Makes you think, huh? How has this played out in your family?

But I like to gather new information and I like to share it. It’s kinda hard to do that through email since you can only share with people you know. I’ve been using WordPress on another site and it finally hit me that I could use it to share this stuff. It’s wicked easy to use and there are a ton of great themes out there (like this one) that could get me up and running very quickly. Great idea. So, I’m moving my old content over to this new site and hopefully, adding more research and photos in the future.

You can, too. I’d love to post new information and photos from any relatives — there are LOT of surnames I’ve covered. If you’d like to add something let me know.