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CAPTAIN'S LOG
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CAPTAIN'S LOG
Site Contents
Includes sites to research emigration, immigration and naturalization, 100+ passenger list sites, ethnic research, libraries and archives, passenger ship types, descriptions and images, and additional worldwide maritime information available both on-line and off-line.
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Captain's Log 3 March 2008We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Julie Case, one of the founders of Petunia Press. Julie and I became friends back in the Rootsweb days and shared many long phone conversations. Her laughter and sense of humor were infectious and she never failed to make me feel better. She will be missed very much by all in the genealogy community. You can read her complete obit here.
World Vital Records newsletter featured ISTG just a few days ago. For those of you who do not get this newsletter, the article is about halfway down the page. World Vital Records Newsletter, February 22, 2008 You can also sign up to receive future newsletters for free on the same page.
ISTG along with our sponsor, Genealogical Publishing Company is proud to partner with World Vital Records. You can read the press release I've posted on the homepage.
While you are browsing around our site, please don't forget to take a look at The Compass. It has been idle for a while since the death of Donna Jackson whom we all miss. Richard Botteron has taken over the management of The Compass and has been busy updating links and adding new information which could be helpful to all of you. Thank you, Richard!
You can receive the list of our passenger lists and passenger records as they are uploaded to our site if you have signed up to receive our digest. If you haven't signed up, you can do so by send an email to ISTG-D-request@rootsweb.com that contains in the body of the message the command SUBSCRIBE and no other text. No subject line is necessary, but if your software requires one, just use subscribe in the subject, too.
You can do more than just find out what's been uploaded recently. You can ask questions about your personal research and get help from the ISTG Staff and Volunteers. Additionally, you can help us with questions we have and we do have them.
If you have found an ancestor or someone you think may be an ancestor on one of our passenger lists, we will be happy to highlight that name (or many names as is often the case) and add your correspondence to it. You can also add diaries or journals, pictures, family trees and pedigrees on our site and while it can take a while to get uploaded, it's all at no cost to you.
Below is a photo of Harry, Libby and I when we met in Florida last October. Harry works on ships arriving in 1876 and consults with Ines who lives in Canada. Their energy spans this continent as they transcribe and format more lists each month that I can count. Libby makes sure everything they do gets into its proper place on our web site...no small task either.
My husband and I took a short voyage with our friends out to the Gulf. While I am no stranger to boating and I love being on the water, when the float in the carburetor stuck and we were stalled out there for an hour, it gave me pause as the wind kicked up and tossed us about until the men finally did whatever it is men do to engines and we were on our way again.
Even with land still in sight, and knowing we could always radio for a tow, it reminded me of the deep respect I have for those who took much longer and far more treacherous voyages in years past.
We topped off the days adventures with a drive to Pine Island,
a delicious dinner at Moretti's and just enough wine, evidenced by the picture below.
My nephew's wedding in Savannah was beautiful and it is always wonderful to spend time with family. We enjoyed the pleasure of staying at the Bride's family beach house on Tybee Island. Below are some of the women of the clan and my daughter and I getting our feet wet in the Atlantic Ocean.
I am thankful for all my Guild members, their energy, their loyalty and their patience with me.
There is so much that goes on "behind the scenes" that it would be impossible for me to thank everyone individually. However, the work begins when a manifest is sent out for transcription. While some volunteers acquire their own lists, Beverly Zanon, in addition to heading up our research team, sends out many. Two of our volunteers who live close to one another, Lora Lee Ament and Pat Kennedy work together. Not long ago, these three "silent giants" (and we have many) had a chance to get together and meet each other face to face. That's something most of us don't have the opportunity to do.
From the transcriber's computer, the manifest goes to Mary Beth Arthur (known as Betts to most of us) and she gets the transcriber's hard work into our format...no small task. She then sends it on to Libby Bessire who works her magic behind the web pages you see by adding each list to about seven different files...no small task either.
The manifest reaches the site but the passenger names travel on to Pam O'Day. Pam makes sure these passengers are found by our search engine, keeping all those files up-to-date and making changes when needed.
Pam and I got together when she was in Colorado on business about 3-4 years ago. Of course, we're older now but still...it's all relative. LOL
Another volunteer who remains quietly in the background, copies her own lists and transcribes at a remarkable pace is Fran Taylor. Fran elected to concentrate on Chinese passengers arriving on the west coast in the late 1800's to the early 1900's and she has now contributed over 600 transcriptions. I don't have a picture of Fran and for the most part, I think she prefers to stay out of the limelight but her accomplishment with the Guild is very much appreciated.
Regarding Chinese passengers: I hope to place all these manifests in their own volume by the end of the year.
I added Joanne's Story because it represents what ISTG is all about...bringing our ancestors home and reuniting our families. You can still read Joanne's story but it is with deep sadness that I inform you her brother, Andy, passed away on December 19, 2007.
I also contacted Ancestry's Family Historian, Megan Smolenyak, who was kind enough to add it to her blog, Megan's Roots World and you can also connect with Megan on Honoring Our Ancestors. Soon, Juliana Smith posted in on her blog 24/7 Family History Circle.
Joanne and her family don't have much time and I'm hoping and praying one of our many visitors will be able to help them.
In the process, I discovered an informative interview with Dick Eastman and Chris Haley on Rootsweb TV. Chris is the director of the Study of the Legacy of Slavery in Maryland and the nephew of "Roots" author, Alex Haley. I found this very interesting and admitting my ignorance, didn't know Rootsweb TV existed.
if you're searching for ancestors who may have been slaves in Maryland, please visit mdslavery.net.
I've been busy working an a series of ships that carried prisoners of the Jacobite Rebellion to this country (and some others as well). It's a wealth of information which was generously contributed to the Guild by Hugh Tornabene.Hugh began his "mission" when he was researching his wife's ancestors; that lead him to London where he found the "motherlode" which he was able to scan, transcribe and pass on to the rest of the world. I'm formatting them now and I will be including the scans of the source documents. Hoping they will be online in another two weeks, it's something to look forward to.
Once we get the Jacobite ships online, we'll be working on other very early ships to Maryland. Hugh is an amazing researcher and I'm honored to be working with him.
As you're shopping around, trying to decide where to spend your money, consider checking out the free areas (in the Basic Membership) of Footnote.com. There is a social side to Footnote.com and they encourage family historians to contribute. What's nice is the data you might add belongs to you and you can remove it whenever you wish.
You can create story pages too. Right now there are over 1200 pages contributed by people just like me and you. I enjoyed reading some love letters, between a young soldier and his family, that were sent during World War II. Then create your own story page and tell everyone about your Uncle Vito's first pizza parlor, your great-grandad's farm, and your great-grandmother's success at the local county fair. Great reading!
The new logo includes pictures of my mother and me and my maternal grandmother's family - she is on the far left with her parents and two brothers.
Advantages of Interactive Genealogy Websites
Some websites you can just visit, on others you can interact in one way or another with the data. ISTG is one such site where you can contribute what you know about any passenger on any of our ships to make the data richer for others.
Another interactive genealogy website is Footnote.com. You can annotate documents you find there and when you do, the information you add will then come up in a search. Adding your 2 cents worth, with a simple annotation, will help the next person just as those annotations made before your visit will help you.
Let me give you an example from my own family history. My great-great-grandmother came to "America" on a ship with her children. Everyone in the family always believed her husband came with her but his name does not appear on the manifest. Truthfully, I don't know if he was on the ship. A page may have been lost in the archives and never microfilmed. It's also possible he came before her as family history, getting passed down but often not written down, isn't always right. But, since I know his name, I know he was her husband and the father of all those listed, I can add his all this and more to the manifest and he will come up in a search once I add it. It's a wonderful way to preserve information that would otherwise be lost.
You can do the same on Footnote.com
My dad's 84th birthday was August 3rd. Happy Birthday, Daddy !!! Our family "roasted" him when he turned 80 years of age.
The stories that were told that day, most of which I'd never heard before and all of which brought much laughter, are well worth keeping.
Your family tree is your unique piece of history to be passed down through the ages and enjoyed by great-grandchildren you have yet to meet.
In this age of technology, it's important to preserve some of the past so that it is long remembered. I say this because we think even the most everyday things will be or are a part of our children's lives.
Short anecdote:
A few years ago, one of my son's friends was at our house playing and asked if he could use the phone to call his Mom. "Sure, anytime" I said. I watched him stare down at the phone with the most puzzled look on his face. When I asked him if anything was wrong, he just looked at me and admitted he didn't know how to use the phone. "Oh, it's really simple," I assured him, "you just put your finger in the hole by the number you want to start with and drag the dial around until you hit the finger stop. Then do the same for each number in sequence." The boy had never seen a dial phone. I'm sure he never knew we once picked up the phone and waited for "central" to say "number please."
I always liked that phone and kept it over the years because it had actual bells inside and when it rang I could hear it from anywhere in the house. It made me realize how quickly things that we know and love become out-dated and get lost in our "progress."
The same thing happens to our history if we don't preserve it - and it's very much worth preserving. The facts about where your ancestors came from as well as the stories that detail their everyday lives are a gift no one else but you can pass on. Don't let it go unrecorded.
Start today with what you know even if you don't have a lot of information. It's a beginning and it's free.
Once you put in some information, Ancestry Hints automatically starts searching for records to help you. Those records might include census data, military records and immigration records.
Ask other family members to fill in the gaps, add photos and stories, events that made you laugh or cry - and you will create a keepsake for all time.
I recommend you register for free at Ancestry.com and begin working on your family tree. Later, you can purchase software to use on your home computer, but I'd wait unless you can find a copy of Family Tree Maker 16 in one of your local stores. The new FTM 2008 has not been well recieved in the genealogy community and until it's much improved, I cannot personally recommend it.
Familylink.com is offering a FREE genealogy social network where you can communicate with other genealogists in 1600 cities and 20 countries. It's rare that anything is free these days, so take advantage of this wonderful new opportunity. Here are 5 things you can do for free on FamilyLink right now.
Send messages to genealogists in more than 20 countries Upload photos of your favorite ancestors Visit our city pages where your ancestors lived Find genealogists who read and speak other languages Ask a genealogist in over 1600 cities to do a local record lookup for you Connect with genealogists that live in the cities of your ancestors for FREE!
I want to thank all the ISTG Volunteers for their exceptional work as we move into Volume 9 - having finished 8,000 passenger lists which are now online for you.
If you find one of your ancestors on our website, please let us know. We are happy to add information about your family, where they came from, why they came, where they settled, their children and other relatives, including photos. This information is linked to the passenger name on the list and can include a link to your email. Others researching the same family name will be able to contact you.
We are been expanding our research to become more personal. If you are searching for an ancestor and you know the name of the ship, the date and port of arrival, we will do all we can to locate and publish on our site, the passenger list from that ship.
The Research Team, headed by Beverly Zanon, is now back to work after Beverly has recovered from surgery. It's good to have her back and you can contact the team by emailing ISTG23@aol.com
We are still taking on new volunteers, so if you're interested in joining the Guild, you can find our Guild Application here. If you have send in an application to which you received no response, keep in mind that this may be a slow process and will try to get back to you soon.
Peace to you and those you love,
Patty McCormack, Founder/Coordinator
If you don't find what you need here at ISTG why not check out the books and CDs at - Genealogical Publishing; and the Databases at - Footnote.com Just click on the logos below:
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