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Monticello Group: No Hemings Allowed
The official association of President Thomas
Jefferson's descendants voted this week to keep the kin of Sally
Hemings, Jefferson's slave and mistress, out of the group. The
Los Angeles Times reported that the 700-member Monticello
Association decided there was "not sufficient evidence"
to prove Hemings' children were fathered by Jefferson, despite
DNA tests and historic documentation that indicate they were.
In 1998, scientists showed through DNA analysis that a male Jefferson
fathered one of Hemings' sons. In 2000, the foundation that owns
Monticello (Jefferson's estate near Charlottesville, Va.) came
out with a study concluding that Jefferson himself likely fathered
all six of Hemings' children. Without membership in the association,
Hemings' descendants cannot be buried in the family graveyard
at Monticello.
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California Slave Insurance Records Made Public
Hundreds of slaves and slaveholders are listed
in insurance records that were released last week in California.
Though California never allowed slavery, it is the first state
to require the release of slave-related records held by insurance
companies doing business in the state, according to the San
Francisco Chronicle. More than 1,000 slaves and slaveholders
are named in the records, provided by a dozen firms. The records
have been posted online and put on display in San Francisco, Sacramento
and Los Angeles.
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Breaking the Handwriting Code
A tip from Marie Owen of Redmond, Ore.:
"It may seem rather obvious, but when deciphering some of the older writing such as in the census, I often look at other letters on the same page to make it out. If you think that may be a 'J,' look for another name such as John, Jack, Josiah, etc. Are they the same? BINGO! I work in a Family History Center, and it has surprised me about how few people fail to compare other words on a page to the ones they are trying to decipher."
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Chinese Catalog Now Online
As Asian Pacific American Heritage Month continues,
a new, important resource for Chinese family historians has hit
the Web. The Chinese Language Catalog, one of the world's largest
collections of Chinese family histories, will now be available
for searching through ChineseRoots.com. Cybersia, which owns ChineseRoots.com,
partnered with the catalog's owner, the Genealogical Society of
Utah, to post the microfilm collection. Before, it was only available
at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.
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Campaign Begins for Franco-American Heritage Museum
Though Americans of French heritage are outnumbered only by the Irish in New England, their heritage and culture are in danger of being lost due to assimilation. That's why a nonprofit group is raising funds to build the Franco-American Heritage Museum: to preserve the history of 1 million French Canadians who immigrated to the United States between 1840 and 1930. A location for the New England museum has not been determined, but its planners intend to provide information, exhibits, artwork, writings and genealogical research facilities. Learn more about this museum (and how to contribute) at this Web site.
For a guide to tracing your French roots, use this Toolkit from Family Tree Magazine.
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Organizing Your Research
It's important that you begin organizing your genealogy research soon after you start collecting. Wait too long, and organization becomes a daunting task. If you're comfortable with computers, invest in a computer program to keep track of your family. Having your data in a computer genealogy program can be especially helpful for long-distance research, as you can easily print an up-to-date pedigree chart or family group sheet to send to correspondents.
At the very least, use paper pedigree charts and family group sheets. Pedigree charts show all of a person's ancestors, usually for three or four generations back. Family group sheets show detailed information on one nuclear family: a married couple and their children, with the children listed in birth order, if you can determine it. You can buy printed forms from genealogical publishers (look for ads in genealogical magazines), download forms from the Internet, or photocopy them from genealogy handbooks. These forms help you see what information you have and what you still need to look for. They allow you to see various people in the family in relationship to each other and may highlight problems such as improbable dates.
Many how-to genealogy books include information on organizing your files. Don't feel compelled to follow one system. Choose a system you like, or choose pieces of several systems. The most important things about your method of organization are that you're comfortable with it and you can find material you want relatively quickly.
-Excerpted from Long-Distance Genealogy
by Christine Crawford-Oppenheimer, $18.99. Reprinted here with
permission from the publisher, Betterway Books. Available in bookstores
or online.