The Family Curator

Handy Twitter Links for Jamboree #scgs12

2012-05-23T17:09:25Z

So Cal is rolling out the red carpet for bloggers and genealogists who will be attending the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree in Burbank. With barely two weeks until the pre-event Family History Writers' Conference and Tech-Trax Workshop, it's time to get organized and get ready for a great weekend.

I've lost track of how many Jamborees I've attended, but I know for a fact that the event continues to exceed all expectations. The GeneaBlogger presence has grown from a handful of bloggers a few years ago to mini-conference number last year. Jamboree has become THE place to meet your online friends, learn something new, and stretch yourself a bit.

Get started by subscribing to the Official Jamboree Blog and following the genealogy community on Twitter:

Official #SCGS12 Jamboree Blog - subscribe for all the latest updates

2012 Genealogy Jamboree Vendors and Sponsors on Twitter - list from WeTree Amy Coffin

2012 Genealogy Jamboree Speakers on Twitter - also from Amy

2012 Genealogy Jamboree Bloggers and Friends on Twitter - also from Amy

Adding Context to a Family Keepsake

2012-05-22T16:23:45Z

Now that I've decided to reproduce my aunt's home economics notebook, I am looking for ways to make the book more interesting and uncover any other stories related to this little keepsake. My approach isn't strictly genealogical; it's more a blend of local and family history with a dose of literary criticism from my high school English Lit teacher past.

My purpose is to add a "sense of place" to the notebook, not to overwhelm it with facts, figures, or history. I will probably need to select the most compelling information and save the other research for background. Here's my initial brainstorm list of possibilities; feel free to leave a comment if you can add to the list.

I used MindNode for Mac (free) to brainstorm possible topics:

I like using a mapping tool for brainstorming, but here it is in list format:

Franny's Food Notebook

Food Notebook

Part 1 Requirements
kitchen how-tos
50's homemaking
food trends
Part 2 Personalized
recipes
clippings
comments

Author: Frances Brown

age 13
family
parents Frank & Arline father working?
1 sister Susie
home address frequent moves
friends

Willard School

junior high
santa ana, ca
new school bldg 1931
home economics class semester or yr long?
teacher?
what was it like? girls only?

1944

home ec
wartime
orange county

With so many possibilities to make the story richer, it will be tough to choose the best. What have I missed?

Lessons from the Archive: Finding Clues to Tell a Story

2012-05-20T01:02:19Z

Sometimes you have to do a bit of snooping on the way to sleuthing.

By snooping, I mean that you just have to open your eyes to look at anything that comes along. Sleuthing seems to have a more defined goal and method, but snooping can pay off bigtime.

My Sweet Aunt Frances saved a lot of stuff. The fact that her home contained only one tiny trashcan under the kitchen sink and an even smaller one in the bathroom are evidence that she didn't throw away much. She collected twisty-ties, rubber bands, and sugar packets, and crafted scratch paper from junk mail. Drawers were stuffed with old letters and cards, shirt boxes became repositories.

Obviously, she was a saver. For the family historian and genealogist, that's all good news. People with the Saving Gene save most everything. If they saved paper clips, they probably saved photographs. If you need to tend to a Saver's home, you might be in the enviable position of curating a superabundance of stuff.

My solution was to box it up, bring it home, and unwrap each box another time. So, when I have an extra few hours or especially miss Auntie I open a box and snoop around. I don't do any serious preservation of artifacts, scanning, or archiving, that comes next. For now, I just read old letters, look at picture, and leaf through books and journals.

It might seem easy to separate the treasures from the trash, but it's not. Soon you come across the wedding guest book and wonder what to do with it. You get tired, and the old calendars and datebooks seem less important. The family photos are set aside to save, but what about the vacation albums and loose slides? Trash or treasure?

A few weeks ago I came across Auntie's home economics notebook. It looked familiar because I was required to compile almost the same book when I was in high school home economics. Nothing changed very much. It was a school assignment, overall insignificant, but I set it aside and later decided it might be a fun project to create a reproduction copy. With budget cuts in California schools, home economics is becoming a dim memory. As I scanned the pages, I decided it would be even more interesting if I could add some kind of context to the book.

Frances Louise Brown was 13 years old when she assembled the book. Her careful and beautiful penmanship testifies to a careful and good student. She carefully recorded the due dates for the book, noting extra credit points available for turning it in early. She included a Table of Contents and "My Half of Notebook" filled with recipes and clippings of foods, dishes, and products. I would say she was a bit of an overachiever!

I learned all this from the notebook. To know more about teenage Franny, I had to go into my grandmother's photos and letters. Snooping led to sleuthing and now I am putting together the clues that tell the story of Franny's Foods Notebook.

I'll be back with Part 2, and more photos to share.

P.S. My inspiration for this project was planted by Denise Olson's eBook The Future of Memories. You are missing a treat, if you haven't read it yet.

Lessons from the Archive: How to Spoil a Baby Album

2012-05-11T21:35:00Z

Today I opened some old boxes in our basement and found that many of the treasures tucked inside have been damaged. The biggest culprit seems to be newsprint and newspapers that have infected other items through acid migration. This sweet little baby book, for example, was layered between two construction paper folders filled with grade school papers. The satin fabric cover of the book is stained with sad brown blotches.

Inside, a folded piece of newsprint with a hand drawn picture has permanently damaged the first pages. To the right side of the photo you can see a distinct line from the newsprint page.

In recent years I've been careful to use archival boxes when storing my ancestor's papers, but I've neglected looking back at my own things. This box was probably stashed away not long after we moved into our house in 1979, so the baby album was probably stored like this for 30 plus years, basically one generation.

The entire box is a classic case of poor storage, and a good lesson in How Not to Archive Memorabilia. The box itself is low-grade corrugated cardboard. It contained a mixture of items spanning 30 years, from the 1950s through the late 1970s, including

newspapers and clippings

grade school paintings on newsprint

school composition books

beer mats from a trip to Germany

satin covered baby album

small Bible with cover falling off

travel ticket stubs, brochures, etc.

personal letters

folders of school work and papers

I haven't unpacked the box completely, but everything seems to be speckled with brown stains, presumably from the newsprint and cardboard. I think much of the damage would have been avoided if I had separated the newsprint items from other materials and stored these separately. The box itself probably contributed to the problem, as well.

Although it's a little late to save the baby book, I plan to work my way through the contents in the next few days and try to salvage what I can.

If you are 30 years old, or older, you may have a box of treasures you haven't looked at in a while. My box is a sad reminder of what can happen under poor storage conditions. I hope your treasures fare better!

Antiques from the Archives for Treasure Chest Thursday

2012-05-03T20:16:21Z

Somewhere in my wanders I picked up this interesting but useless artifact of past life -- a soft leather drawstring bag containing two detachable men's collars and a bag of collar studs. I have no idea when, where, or why I found this treasure, but now seems like as great time to help it find a new home.

You may have seen your male ancestors posing for portraits wearing one of these uncomfortable-looking fashion accessories. Or, maybe you (or your spouse) wore one to a black-tie event? The wing-tip model from Brooks Brothers still looks pretty sharp!

Costume experts attribute the invention of the detachable collar to Mrs. Hannah Lord Montague, a housewife living at #139 3rd Street in Troy, New York in 1827. Mr. Montague and his friends were so impressed with the clever Mrs. M's invention that local wives and merchants were soon making detachable collar, and the rest is history as Troy became the "Collar Capital of America."

By 1900, collars were featured with colorful collarless shirts in mail order catalogs and available to every Tom, Dick, and Harry across the nation. According to costumes.org, the most collar style at the turn of the century was the "high-band" collar

a turndown collar with a height of from 2 to 3 inches that encased the whole neck in a smooth glossy cylinder of starched linen. Uncomfortable as these are (turning the head suddenly causes bruises in the bottom of the jaw), they look marvelous, and they made up over 60% of the collar trade in the summer of 1900

My 16-inch Brockley model collars bear the Arrow TradeMark and were manufactured by "Cluette, Peabody & Co. U.S.A." in Troy, New York.

Detachable collars and cuffs, for both men and women, were such a universal fashion staple that it's not difficult to find collars, studs, boxes and bags on eBay and etsy sales websites for less than $10 per collar. I'm curious what the prevailing estate sale price will be for this bit of American history. Any ideas?

Exciting News for Student Genealogists

2012-04-28T01:01:42Z

The Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree has a reputation for setting trends in the genealogy conference world -- Bloggers' Summit, Jamboree App, Social Media Policy, to name a few ground-breaking projects. With the just-announced Jamboree scholarship program for young genealogists, SCGS has done it again.

SCGS has announced a new Jamboree scholarship program for aspiring genealogists and family historians between the ages of 18 and 29 as of June 8, 2012. The scholarship will offer reduced Jamboree registration of $15 per day or $25 for all three days for young people registering online with government issued ID by May 28, 2012. A limited number of scholarship slots are available.

In 2010, SCGS generously provided full conference registration to the recipient of the Suzanne Winsor Freeman Memorial Student Genealogy Grant, sponsored by The Family Curator. This award is one of a very few scholarships available aimed to assist young genealogists pursue education in family history.

I am so excited that my local society, SCGS, has taken on this much-needed project. Unlike many professional and academic fields, most genealogy conferences do not offer a reduced registration rate for students or young persons working in the field. This can, and does, deter young people from attending professional conferences. I hope other genealogy seminars, workshops, and conferences will join SCGS in offering reduced registration to young people. If you agree, add a note in the comments and forward an email to your local society.

Contact SCGS for registration and more information.

www.genealogyjamboree.com

jamboree@scgsgenealogy.com

Shades: Birthday Edition -- Finding footnoteMaven in the 1940 U.S. Census, a Dreadful Tale

2012-04-22T13:11:43Z

It's a Holiday! Today is the birthday of footnoteMaven, editor/publisher of the award-winning Shades of the Departed Online Magazine. The Shadettes and Shades-dudes Staff Writers are pleased to present this Special Birthday Edition of the magazine as a tribute to their dear friend. Long may your tiara sparkle, fM!

Visit the blogs linked below to read more and feel free to join the party by posting a tribute on your blog and adding the link in the comments.

Finding footnoteMaven in the 1940 U.S. Census, A Dreadful Tale

from the pen of Miss Penelope Dreadful

"Curses, foiled again!," Penny exclaimed, tossing aside her pen and spattering indigo ink across the pages spread before her on the table. She pushed back her wooden chair and stood up, indifferent to the cascade of paper tumbling to the floor.

"Who do you think you are, footnoteMaven?" she cried, "trying to hide from me in the United States Census!"

As she paced the room with long, thoughtful strides, Penny pushed her spectacles to the top of her head and rubbed her brow thoughtfully. Where is she hiding? Where can she be? Her words became synchronized with the clock ticking on the mantel and her shoes clicking across the carpeted floor. Where? Where? Where can she be?

Abruptly, the pacing stopped and she returned to the desk. "Of course," she cried. "I'm decades too early, and making this much too difficult. The family… the family…" and her questing eyes returned to the pages before her, skimming line after line and name after name until they found their prize.

A few days later, when Penny shared her story of discovery, I asked about her sudden change in search tactics.

"I was going about it backwards," she exclaimed with a laugh. "I assumed -- most incorrectly -- that footnoteMaven was our friend's married name. After all, we know so well her affection and deep esteem for her dear Mr. Maven that it seemed elementary the two should share the groom's name."

"But, I was WRONG!" Penny added with a smile. "Think," she said to me, "think."

When I threw up my hands in answer, Penny grinned and sat back in her chair to recount the rest of the story:

I wondered if it were possible that our friend footnoteMaven, like another well-known researcher, could have married someone unrelated by blood who shared her surname. Two Mavens, one name. To test my theory, I searched the Census for a Maven family in southeastern Missouri. I didn't expect to find fM's family of six, after all those Censuses won't be available for another decade. But what I did find was nearly as interesting -- the Maven family in it's earliest years.

The Census shows the Maven household with four residents -- fatherMaven, motherMaven, grandfatherMaven, and auntMaven. The full transcription reveals that young fatherMaven aptly worked as an Enumerator while his wife, motherMaven, stayed home Keeping Sources. We also learn that grandfatherMaven's occupation is given as Tallyman working with the Customs Office.

As expected, the young footnote, eldest of the four Maven siblings -- sisters footnote and bibLio, and twin brothers citation and endNote -- has not yet been born; nonetheless, her namesake appears in the document. Look closely and you will see a young Aunt Maven who surely must have been tagged with a nickname in honor of her very interesting job as "Footnote Checker," a job and nickname she may have still held years to come when her first niece was born.

In case you're wondering --

Who is footnoteMaven and who are all those other Mavens? Who's Penny Dreadful, and why is she writing so strangely? What are those odd occupations listed for the census?

Good questions. To begin at the end… Miss Penelope Dreadful is the pen name of Denise Levenick, The Family Curator, so christened by footnoteMaven, Publisher and Editor in Chief of Shades of the Departed Magazine, the premiere online photography magazine.

footnoteMaven, or fM as her friends call her, writes two award winning blogs, footnoteMaven and Shades of the Departed, and is the creative spark generating the highly-acclaimed online magazine, Shades. fM is also known as an advocate for source citation and excellence in genealogical research. She's Tops!

Today, Sunday, April 22 is fM's Birthday, a special day in the blogosphere. I'm pleased to dedicate this day's post to my dear friend with my deep appreciation for her friendship and encouragement. In addition, I'm dreadfully delighted to repay fM for the Birthday Surprise she so masterfully accomplished with my mom in 2009.

Happy Birthday, dear fM. May all the best be yours today and always.

Read more Shades: Birthday Edition stories from your favorite Shades authors at --

Shades: Birthday Edition - Captured Moments of footnoteMaven at CreativeGene, by Jasia

Shades: Birthday Edition - A Very Speial Birthday Surprise at The Educated Genealogist, by Sheri Fenley

Shades: Birthday Edition - Your Family Story at For Your Family Story, by Caroline Pointer

Shades: Birthday Edition - "It was a dark and stormy night. . ." at Geneablogie, by Craig Manson

Shades: Birthday Edition - Lost Images Found? at Landailyn, by Janine Smith

Shades: Birthday Edition - ladies in glasses at A Sense of Face, by Rebecca Fenning

Shades: Birthday Edition -- A Teacup Throne at Moultrie Creek, by Denise Olson

Shades: Birthday Edition - The Fountain of Youth at What's Past is Prologue, by Donna Pointkouski

Image Source:

footonoteMaven. "Earth Day - Birthday Graphic." footnoteMaven, 22 April 2009. www.footnotemaven.com/2009/04/earth-day-birthday.html : 2012.

Lessons from the Archive: Clutter or Collection?

2012-04-19T00:23:38Z

Things have been quiet around The Family Curator lately, but not because there's nothing to write about. My idea notebook is filling up, but time for writing has been severely limited by a new/old project and a looming deadline. It seems the time has come to clear out the in-laws' home.

This is a task that many of us will face in our lifetime, sometimes more than once. It can be emotional, exhausting, or just another thing to do, but it must be done. And one of the biggest challenges in clearing out anyone's home is deciding What to save? What to toss?

We are now going on Year Six since my mother-in-law passed away. It's time. So, for the last several weeks, Mr. Curator and I have spent many hours each day sorting and sifting through the remnants of 54 years of living in one house.

Today's Lesson from the Archive is one I read somewhere, and it's making more sense to me every day:

What's the difference between clutter and a collection?

In a word, it's all about curating.

A collector brings together things with some pattern of meaning and usually assembles the collection for display, for competition, or for personal enjoyment. If the stuff just sits around in boxes, closets, and drawers it can easily become clutter. This definition rings pretty true with me.

My mother-in-law was an Army wife who lived in the Far East, Hawaii, and Europe before settling down in Pasadena. She loved buying local art, books, and decor. She had a great collection that she displayed and enjoyed. On the other hand, she also accumulated a considerable amount of clutter, stuff that filled the closets and drawers with random things that are "interesting" but What the heck do you do with 15 miniature cannon keychains??? and How many carved shells does a person need? That can't be a collection, can it?

She saved every camera she ever owned, including the projection equipment to enjoy it. If we assemble them all in a glass cabinet we have a collection of vintage photographic gear. If we throw it in a box and keep it because it's "cool," we're saving clutter.

Today, after a marathon session I am ready to make some serious decisions. Now, if I could just convince Mr. Curator that we don't need six vintage wooden clothes brushes, even if it is a collection!

Princess Diaries: Looking for Answers in the 1940 US Census

2012-04-02T17:22:12Z

Princess Usha Holkar, The Maharani of Indore India, was one of my mother's playmates during the years that the Princess lived in Santa Ana, California with her father, the Maharajah of Indore and his second wife, American Marguerite Lawler.

Mom remembered playing with the Princess's fabulous toys and dolls in a corner playroom under the watchful eye of her governess and birthday party snapshots show the girls together in party dresses. But, memories are a tricky thing, and it's been hard to pin down dates and places. I am looking for answers with the release of the 1940 U.S. Census to help figure out who lived where, and when.

"Party Picture, 1912 N. Spurgeon, Santa Ana, Ca, Front Row L-R Patty Bright,
Kathy Bright, Susie [Brown], Usha, Fran in back sticking out tongue"

This birthday photo shows Mom and her sister Frances with Princess Usha and three other little girls. In recent years, Mom remembered the event as her own birthday party, although when assembling her photo album in the 1940's she noted it as "Frances Party." Both sisters had January birthdays, and the address on the back of the photo adds to the confusion. I wrote more about this puzzle in Wordless Wednesday: Dating a Photo of Princess Usha at the Brown Girls' Party. The 1940 U.S. Census may hold a clue to the mystery.

The Brown Family moved frequently, the census should help pinpoint where they were living on the census date and we can work back from there to January, 1940.

More About the Brown Girls and Princess Usha

Happy Birthday Princess Usha from your friend Susie Brown

It's the Holiday Season at Princess Usha's Orange County House

Photograph: "Party Picture" photograph, in Susie (Brown) Freeman Photo Album, ca. 1942, unpaginated;
privately held by Denise Levenick, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Pasadena, Caliifornia, 2010.

Meet Mr. Palmer: A Very Excellent Reason to Index the 1940 U.S. Census

2012-03-21T16:49:05Z

Example of Palmer Penmanship

1940 marked the end of the era of academic penmanship instruction in most American schools.

Instead of learning the long-taught Palmer Pensmanship Method perfected by Austin Palmer which engages the entire arm and shoulder to form smooth, fluid pen strokes, students were taught the simpler block manuscript alphabet, otherwise known as "printing," followed by cursive handwriting when they reached mid-level elementary grades.

Beginning in the 1940s, simple "Ball and Stick" manuscript printing
replaced basic Palmer penmanship instruction in many U.S. schools.

Today, many schools have dropped all pretenses at formal penmanship or handwriting instruction. Students learn to print and are taught basic cursive, but there is little reinforcement or training as a follow-up. The emphasis has shifted from handwriting to keyboarding, and basic computer skills. But all is not lost!

Although 1940 rang the death knell for Palmer Penmanship in the academic curriculum, the adult enumerators of the United States Census of that very year were, no doubt, previously prepared for their particular temporary vocation by the standard penmanship instruction of their youth -- the Palmer Method.

Your participation as an indexer for the 1940 U.S. Census will give you a rare opportunity to personally examine remnants of past perfect Palmery with surviving examples of exemplary embellishment as exhibited throughout the 1940 U.S. Census by enumerators who were surely schooled in the standard of their time. This alone is reason enough to offer one's services in the indexing project. When one considers the added benefit of contributing one's time and talent to a most worthwhile project, it's the biggest no-brainer in the history of volunteerism.

Until the pendelum swings back perfecting personal penmanship, we will have to enjoy such random glimpses of the past as demonstrated in the careful lines of the 1940 Census Ennumerator.

Austin Palmer

Ode to the Palmer Method

Perfectly practical Palmer, master of muscular movement

A classic style, a business skill that always paid the rent.

We wrote with ease and speed, accuracy, endurance

Lessons and drills were our employment assurance.

And then came 1940, a new month, a new year,

Progress marched in, Palmer's out on his ear.

Block-letter Manuscript was the chime of the hour,

Smooth cursive followed, nothing like Palmer Power.

Dick and Jane were the model, for perfecting one's script

Alas, Granddad Palmer was cut free and adrift

To float away on the tide, proud, straight, and strong,

Until April 2, 1940 at last rolled along.

Then the world knew, saw with its own eyes

The delightful legacy of the Palmer Penmanship Prize.

Page after page in the United States Census

Bore witness to Palmer and his good senses.

Remarkably legible, long line after line

The ennumerators handwriting could not be more fine.

[well, mostly :>)]

Sign up now to index the 1940 U.S. Census when it's released April 2, 2012, and enter the community project indexing practice contest for a chance to win a VISA Gift Card. No poetry required! It's easy and fun. Don't delay, this contest ends March 30, 2012.

1940 U.S. Census Project Website -- Sign up to help index the census, participate in contests, learn more about the 1940 U.S. Census

Gear Up to Index Game (March 19-30) -- Practice indexing a simulation census and you will have a chance to win a VISA Gift Card. Rules and registration information here.

As part of the 1940census.com ambassador program this blog post enters me into a drawing for weekly prize.