More from the NERGC – MyHeritage, Ancestry and the NEHGS

Today we visit with MyHeritage, Ancestry.com, and the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

We talk with MyHeratgie about their collections and MyHeritage DNA – www.MyHeritage.com


We talk with Crista Cowan, The Barefoot Genealogist, about Ancestry’s new – Genetic Communities – www.Ancestry.com


I am pretty sure that I had not had enough coffee yet for this interview… it’s the New England Historic Genealogical Society – not Association. Gah! Anyway, we talk about their new expansion and their collection of Historic Catholic Records (which astute viewers might remember from Episode 4 – here.) – www.AmericanAncestors.org


On a side note, I may not be able to get any more videos posted before next week but stay tuned just in case.


August 22, 1943 – Merton’s War Diary

Aug. 22
Slept ashore for first time in sleeping bags on the rocks.

I can remember as a kid missing out on Cub Scout camping trips for one reason or another but to make up for it, Dad and I would ‘camp’ in the slightly wooded back yard.  There was a slight hill and the sleeping bags would slowly slide down the plastic tarp we would place on the ground to keep the moisture out.  We didn’t have a tent and it was just open air.

View on Scoresby Sund, East Greenland – by Hannes Grobe, AWI[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scoresby-sund_view_hg.jpg  Interestingly, the metadata for this photograph shows that it was captured on August 25th, 2007 so we are looking at the same time of year as the diary entry.

Later in life, Sue and I would go camping on some of our reenactment trips.  I used to enjoy the experience a lot and we had many convenience items such as air mattresses hidden away in our very non-authentic tents.  Sleeping on ‘the rocks’ sounds like it would be the opposite of fun.  Well, it just so happened that one night in July (possibly August,) while on a camping trip in Wahnapitae Ontario, Sue and I learned just how uncomfortable the air mattress could be when a cold front came in.  Like a Thermos, the air mattress retained all of the cold air and ‘insulated’ us from any warmth the ground could offer.  The remainder of the weekend we ended up in a hotel with the hopes of warming our bones.  I do hope for my Grandfather’s sake, the rocks and bag provided some form of comfort.

In 1943 and 1944, my Grandfather, Merton Young, traveled to Greenland while working for the Merritt-Chapman & Scott Company. He wrote a brief diary of his journey and this is a piece of that story.

Notes   [ + ]

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scoresby-sund_view_hg.jpg
Link

Passports from Hungary

A while ago this link to Hungarian Passport photographs crossed my path.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fekete-feher/albums

What is absolutely amazing about Flikr user mákvirág’s photo stream is the sheer number of historical photographs they have.  Over 23,000 as of this writing covering not only Hungary but India, China, Lebanon, Morocco, Japan and Sweeden just to name a few.

Several of the galleries have descriptions and names of the people in the photographs as well and all are a pleasure to look at.

32296_649063_0030-00325

[1]Photo: Flickr user mákvirág, From Album – “Passport from Japan 1917-1918, pt. 2 – Photos from “Emergency Passport Applications, 1917-1918: US Consulate in Tokyo”” at https://flic.kr/p/Cuhfcy (accessed 10 Dec 2016)

While I have only viewed some of the images, many of them seem to be courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration and I don’t see a great way to search them (though I am not a Flickr user and that may make a difference.

I’d love to know if you locate one of your relatives in these photos.  Leave a comment below if you do!

 

*** Addition ***

After posting the link in this article, I was contacted via the comments (read in full below,) by the author himself, Louis Takács aka mákvirág.  Among other insights, he let us know that the images are indexed on Ancestry.com.  There is another way to search through the images.

Unfortunately, searching for names/terms is a bit tricky. You have to open another URL:

https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=64267112%40N03&text=

and add your search term (surname, village name, etc.) in the search box. Flickr no longer provides a direct link in the interface.

Thank you Louis for the fantastic updates.

 

 

 

Notes   [ + ]

1. Photo: Flickr user mákvirág, From Album – “Passport from Japan 1917-1918, pt. 2 – Photos from “Emergency Passport Applications, 1917-1918: US Consulate in Tokyo”” at https://flic.kr/p/Cuhfcy (accessed 10 Dec 2016)

Update Your Links – We’ve switched to a self hosted site!

Exciting news, our new home is http://www.DiscoveringYourPast.com so please update your links.

Courtesy of http://www.gratisography.com/

Courtesy of http://www.gratisography.com/

On the back end of things, I have moved the Discovering Your Past Blog to a self hosted WordPress website.  What does that mean?  While the old blog at www.wordpress.org/discoveringyourpast will still be there, all of the data (should) have been transferred over.  There may be some subtle changes here and there. Please do let me know if you find something out of place.

For any blogger that wishes to switch from a WordPress hosted to a self hosted, it is actually a pretty easy process.  WordPress itself has a built in tool to help you export your posts, pages, and comments as well as an import tool to get them back into place.  The troubles I ran into were somewhat minor, but I have some knowledge in HTML and CSS coding.

When you import your data file, I noticed that it had a limit on the file size and while mine came no where near that you may want to look up what that size is. (I honestly don’t remember what it was and I should have take a note but to me the size seemed small.)  This file though is only text items.  Your images and such are imported from your existing WordPress hosted site.  You do have the option to not import them as well.  The import module allows for Blogger, Blogroll, LiveJournal, Movable Type and TypePad, Tumbler, and an RSS Feed

This site has but one blogger (for now.)  In order to set up the initial WordPress installation, I needed to create an admin account.  When you import your data from your previous blog, it assigns any former user (in my case myself,) be they editor, author or admin, to with the role of ‘Author’ and you need to remember to change your main account over to ‘Admin’.

The most difficult problem for me was with my theme.  I had chosen the ‘Fictive’ Theme [Link]  from the WordPress.com site however I did not have the color choices that I had before under settings.  I found that I had to delve into the CSS coding of the site with the help of a friend of mine Dave Seah [link] and the WordPress forums.  Other themes I am sure behave different, and I would do a bit of research on the one you use currently.  For me, the theme customization took longer than the actual importing of the data.

Self hosting a WordPress site opens up other options one of which is plug ins.  I have installed a plugin called ‘footnotes’ [1]Here is a sample – https://wordpress.org/plugins/footnotes/ that allows me to create them inline as I type by adding a double set of parenthesis around text so they will show up below.

I should now go back through old posts and just double check everything and look for any mistakes and format them as needed for the Footnotes plugin.

If you do switch to a self hosted site let us know how it went and don’t forget to update your links.

Notes   [ + ]

1. Here is a sample – https://wordpress.org/plugins/footnotes/

August 16, 1943 – Merton's War Diary

August 16, 1943
Dower arrived with supplies and mail. Eskimos from village over mountain around camp all the time.

The Dower must have been another one of the ships and it looks like Cape Dan is at the southern most part of the island.  It is possible that these Eskimo’s are from the village of Kulusk itself.  I am still looking for a weather station there and when I find it you’ll be sure to know.

In 1943 and 1944,  my Grandfather Merton Young traveled to Greenland while working for the Merritt-Chapman & Scott Company.  He wrote a brief diary of his journey and this is a piece of that story.

Next Entry – Aug 18

Aug 10, 1943 – Merton's War Diary

Aug 10, 1943
Arrived at Cape Dan (Kulusuk) and started unloading ship. – Saw Eskimos turn over their kayaks while in them and then upright them again, also tip over accidentally and nearly drown. Trading with Eskimos and working 14 and 16 hours a day.

Cape Dan!  What a great name!

Kulusuk Winter – By Algkalv (Own work) [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The other thing I would like to leave you with is this video of Greenland Kayak Rolls by YouTube user Andrew Elizaga.  If you scrub through the video, you will see some of the various techniques which Merton most likely saw.  It even looks like they mounted a go-pro to go under the water on a few of the rolls.

I have to say – that looked extremely cold… but I think I’d be up for trying it someday…  perhaps someplace warmer though.

In 1943 and 1944,  my Grandfather Merton Young traveled to Greenland while working for the Merritt-Chapman & Scott Company. He wrote a brief diary of his journey and this is a piece of that story.

Next entry – Aug 13

Aug 3, 1943 – Merton's War Diary

Aug 3, 1943
Worked cutting a new door opening into radio officers room on the Iris.

Just the journal entry for today I’m afraid. I will leave you pondering as I am, how thick are the interior walls of a ship?

In 1943 and 1944,  my Grandfather Merton Young traveled to Greenland while working for the Merritt-Chapman & Scott Company.  He wrote a brief diary of his journey and this is a piece of that story.

Next entry – Aug 5

July 28, 1943 – Merton's War Diary

July 28, 1943

Left #1 on the Iris, a Norwegian freight and passenger boat.

image

The Iris - from www.sjohistorie.no

#1 was the code name of the base that Merton had been staying at.  I believe there were 7 in total.

The site warsailors.com has a great page on the history of the Iris including a crew list and convoy records. She rescued several sailors from ships sunk to U Boats over her carrer.

It is these old photos and documents that bring these journal pages to life for me.

The Norwegian site www.sjohistorie.no has another great photo of the ship as well.

In 1943 and 1944,  my Grandfather Merton Young traveled to Greenland while working for the Merritt-Chapman & Scott Company. He wrote a brief diary of his journey and this is a piece of that story.

Next Entry – July 30, 1943