We wish you and your family members a safe and happy holiday season. Thank you for subscribing to The Weekly Genealogist, and for supporting our mission to promote and advance the study of family history. Happy holidays!
Give the Gift of Family History—Special Offer
This holiday season, give the gift of family history—and get a little something for yourself, too! When you purchase an American Ancestors gift membership, you'll also receive a FREE coupon to the NEHGS Bookstore.
Note: Member Services will contact you to deliver your coupon after your purchase.
In Case You Missed It: Spend Christmas at Castle Howard
Don’t miss experiencing a winter wonderland at Castle Howard, one of England’s finest country houses! Watch Castle Howard Curator Dr. Christopher Ridgway give a virtual tour of its extensive gardens, storied interiors, and precious collections as they prepare to “deck the halls” for Christmas.
Is your closet full of boxes of old family photographs? Is your basement bursting with letters, diaries, and other documents from your family history research? Do you have family memorabilia that you want to make sure is around for generations to come? This virtual preservation roadshow will teach you best practices for surveying, handling, and storing family materials and provide you with expert advice on how to care for items in your collection.
Each week, American Ancestors introduces a new theme in our Instagram feed to celebrate our ancestors. This week's theme is "Break Down the Brick Wall." Do you have a brick wall question on an ancestor? Send photos (census, records, portraits) and a short description of your top brick wall ancestor to instagram@nehgs.org by Tuesday, December 29, and we will share them on our social media platforms.
New! American Inspiration Author Events Announced
American Inspiration is presenting more inspiring stories of family, history, and culture in the coming new year. Don't miss Eric Jay Dolin with his account of history-changing hurricanes in America's past; Nadia Osuwu with a globe-spanning memoir of immigration and identity; Janice P. Nimura with the true story of pioneering woman doctors in America; and more!
The township of Cimarron is located in Gray County, in southwestern Kansas. The Cimarron City Library has made Gray County cemetery resources available on its website. There are two burial records databases for Cimarron Cemetery. One file is sorted by cemetery sections/lots. The other lists the deceased alphabetically by last name. The data fields in both listings are last name, first name, section/lot/space/extension, date of birth, date of death, and comments. The comments field contains information such as military service, marker status, and parents’ names. In addition, the library has digitized and uploaded Cemeteries of Gray County, Kansas, which provides an overview of cemetery locations, when they were established, and their histories, as well as some burial listings.
Winter Holidays JSTOR Daily presents a number of history-related articles on winter holidays that have been published over the last several years. New stories for 2020 include “The Rise and Fall of Montana’s Christmas-Tree Harvest,” and “Santa and Mrs. Claus and the Christmas War of the Sexes.”
What’s Behind the Pandemic Puzzle Craze? “Puzzles, or “dissected maps,” were invented in Georgian-era England, probably by a mapmaker named John Spilsbury in the early 1760s.”
The Weekly Genealogist Survey
Last week's survey asked about donating ancestral artifacts to institutions. We received 2,841 responses. The results are:
40%, Yes
26%, Not yet—but I intend to
34%, No
This week's question asks about your winter holiday celebrations. Take the survey now
Want to share your thoughts on the survey with us? We are always happy to hear from our readers. Email us at weeklygenealogist@nehgs.org. Responses may be edited for clarity and length and featured in a future newsletter.
Readers Respond: Donating to Museums and Societies by Lynn Betlock, Editor
Last week's survey asked whether you have donated any ancestral artifacts, photographs, or documents to a museum, historical society, or genealogical society. Thank you to the many generous donors who replied. Below is a selection of reader responses.
Jackie Bishop of Portage, Michigan: After about thirty years of working on my husband's genealogy, a DNA test led to an NPE (“not parent expected” or “nonpaternity event”). As a result, I now had a lot of information on an unrelated family. I created a book with that information, which includes clippings, photos, etc., and will be donating it to the Montgomery County History and Archives in Fonda, New York, in the town and county where the family lived for many years. I just could not throw that work away! I hope that descendants will be able to build on what I started.
Carol Ubosi of Silver Spring, Maryland: A manumission document dated September 14, 1827, was found in a Bible belonging to our family in Harrison, New York. The document freed a slave named “Lewis.” No last name was given, and we are continuing to research Lewis’s identity. The document was signed by Richard Hatfield and registered in New York City. We donated the document to the Jay Heritage Center in Rye, New York, since John Jay had formed a manumission society which assisted enslaved and freed persons at that time.
Mary Arnott of Keene, New Hampshire: After my father died in 1957, my mother donated many items to the Maine State Museum in Augusta. Mother was determined to avoid family disagreements over things. She donated several of Father’s violins and paintings of Hopestill and Martha Bisbee, and Martha’s father, Seth Sturtevant, who all lived in Sumner, Maine. Seth Sturtevant served as one of George Washington’s Commander-in Chiefs Guards and was with Washington at Valley Forge. Also donated were Seth’s account book and his favorite rocking chair.
Nancy Avis of Arlington, Virginia: My great-aunt was a teacher in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania, from about 1930 until about 1974. She had dozens of class photos and, luckily, had identified each student on the back. I donated those photos to the Upper Moreland Historical Association. I donated her 1926 high school yearbook from Kensington High School in Philadelphia to Ancestry for their yearbook collection; I figured that would allow it to be seen by the most people.
Phil Gourley of Hooksett, New Hampshire: In 1913, when she was 16, my grandmother, Helen Gross, received a diploma from the American College of Dressmaking, a correspondence school in Kansas City, Missouri. She made and altered clothes for the rest of her life. When I bought the family home in Hudson, Massachusetts, I inherited her dress form. I didn’t want to discard it, but no one wanted it. Sometime later, when I visited the Hudson Historical Society, I noticed World War II uniforms displayed for men but not women. After graduating from college, my mother had taught home economics in Hudson and then served in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II. I asked the staff if they would like a women's uniform, and they said they had no way to display it. I said I could solve that problem. Thus, after my brothers and sisters agreed, I found a way to preserve both my mother’s uniform and Grandma's dress form.
DNA Expert Bryan Sykes Passes Away at 73
We were saddened to learn of the recent death of Bryan Sykes, the Oxford geneticist who wrote the groundbreaking book, The Seven Daughters of Eve:The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry (2001). We were fortunate to have had Dr. Sykes lecture for us on multiple occasions and host him at NEHGS while he worked on his book DNA USA: A Genetic Portrait of America (2012). He was also a longtime member of our Council and recipient of our lifetime achievement award in 2012. He will be missed.
