Destination: Austin Family

The Pressner Brick Wall Has Fallen

6:02 PM

And although you may not be able to tell, I am doing a mad genealogy happy dance as I also try to type this post! I received an e-mail from my 2nd cousin Wendy (whom I've only met on Facebook - go social media!) late this afternoon with some very interesting information based on the marriage certificate for Frances Pressner and Richard Henneberg, my great-grandparents:

Frances' father was Robert Pressner . . . and his name was spelled "Pressnir", which may have been a shortened version of "Pressnirvinsky".
Frances' mother was Anna Haring, but misspelled "Herring" on Frances' marriage certificate to Richard Henneberg.

Wendy provided much more information than I can digest and include here right now. I will follow-up with more information later in the week but I can now say that I have the names of all 16 of my great-great-grandparents!

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Respect For The Dead

11:32 AM

The past fews days have not brought good news for those who work hard to preserve cemeteries and other places where our ancestors are buried: - In Oxford, Alabama as I write this a 1,500 year old Indian burial mound is being desecrated so it can serve as fill for the construction of a Sam's Club. Oxford, Alabama Destroying A 1500-Year-Old Indian Mound To Build A Sam's Club State Laws Offer Few Protections For Mound - In Alsip, Illinois (outside of Chicago), four people have been charged with the uprooting more than 300 bodies and dumping them in a corner of the cemetery in order to resell the burial plots. 4 charged. 300 graves desecrated Till's kin on neglected casket: Get it out of here Cemetery workers made $300K in gravedigging scheme

Parents can't find graves in Burr Oak 'Babyland' What these stories have in common is that greed seems to triumph even after death. As the saying goes you can't take it with you, but now you can't even rest in peace. Terry Thornton of Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi has highlighted the Oxford, AL story and I've been helping him publicize it. The best way for you to get involved as a reader is to tweet this blog post or any of the links included here if you are on Twitter. Or e-mail the post to someone you know who is a fan of cemetery preservation. For genealogy bloggers, try to take a minute and think about how you would feel if your ancestors were involved in one of these awful situations. In order to keep the preservation of burial locations in the forefront of peoples' attentions, consider posting at your blog about how important cemeteries and other burial sites have been to your family and your genealogy research.

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Upcoming Summer Events at Historic Huguenot Street

4:46 PM

As many readers know, I can trace my Huguenot heritage back to Hugo Freer (d. 1698, New Paltz, NY) who was my 9th great-grandfather. I am a far-flung member of the Huguenot Historical Society and I wish I could be in New Paltz this summer to attend one or more of these great events. Take a look: Wickets and Wine, Wednesday, July 8th Movies on the Lawn starting Thursday, July 16th Special "Bare Bones" Tour of Locust Lawn on Saturday, July 11th Moonlight Magic Tour, Saturday, July 18th Mad Hatter's Tea, Sunday, July 19th Get all the details here.

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Justice, Choices and Freedom

6:51 AM

Photo: Headstone of Matthew McCrickert, date unknown, Calvary Cemetery, Queens, NY. Digital photograph. Privately held by Thomas MacEntee, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Chicago, Illinois. 2009. [This post was written for the 75th Edition of the Carnival of Genealogy hosted by Colleen at Orations of OMcHodoy]

As I get ready to celebrate our nation's 233rd birthday, I'm reminded of all my ancestors who were willing to risk their lives in military service defending their country for causes in which they believed. At least I'd like to think that this is the reason they served - they had a strong held belief in the basic tenets upon which the United States was formed: justice, choices and freedom.

If it were not for all my ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War (David Everett, Jonathan Everett, Cornelius Krom, Wigglesworth Messenger, and Frederick Visscher) and the Civil War (Alonso Sylvester Austin, Crandall William Austin, Franklin Duane Austin, Grinman Austin, Harlow Austin, Seymour Austin, Phillip DeGroodt, and David O'Keefe), I along with the rest of their descendants would most likely be living under much different conditions than we are today.

Men like my cousin Matthew McCrickert who died on July 11, 1946 in a military plane crash in Freehold, New Jersey served in peace time as well, not only to pursue a career but also to make certain that the freedoms for which my ancestors had fought remained in place.

Whether their surnames were Austin or Everett or McCrickert, whether they had been in this country since its founding or had just arrived from distant shores, these men had commonality in this:

that in order to ensure that future generations are allowed the same opportunities of justice, choices and freedom, one must be willing to put one's life in jeopardy in defense of those opportunities

I am certain, like my cousin Kenneth VonRonn who was killed in Iraq in 2005, the choices were not easy. Families were left behind, careers were disrupted, and some never came home. But those choices continue to exist - for me and for all - only because of the sacrifices made by these men.

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Wordless Wednesday - SoCal Jamboree 2009 Badge

1:54 PM

Photo: Badge from Southern California Genealogical Society’s 40th Annual Jamboree, July 2009, Chicago, IL. Digital photograph. Privately held by Thomas MacEntee, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Chicago, Illinois. 2009.

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Ancestry Canada's Free Canada Day Offer

1:06 PM

From Ancestry Canada:

Canada Day is not only a great day to spend with family - it's the perfect time to get together and learn more about how your family came to be Canadian. For the first time ever, Ancestry.ca is making available The Canadian Passenger Lists Collection, 1865 to 1935, FREE* until July 3rd, 2009. Don't miss this great opportunity to discover your Canadian story in The Canadian Passenger Lists today.

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A Jamboree Recap

12:14 PM

If you follow any of the major genealogy blogs, you know that the Southern California Genealogical Society held its 40th Annual Jamboree this past weekend in Burbank, California. I along with close to 40 other genealogy bloggers attended from as far away as Tel Aviv, Israel!

Here is a list of those genealogy bloggers that I know were present and all of whom I was able to say hello to:

Lisa Alzo The Accidental Genealogist http://theaccidentalgenealogist.blogspot.com

Bruce Buzbee Roots Magic Blog http://blog.rootsmagic.com

Amy Coffin We Tree http://wetree.blogspot.com

Lisa Louise Cooke Genealogy Gems Podcast; Genealogy Gems News http://www.genealogygemspodcast.com http://genealogygemspodcast.blogspot.com

Stephen Danko Steve's Genealogy Blog http://stephendanko.com/blog

Illya D'Addezio Live Roots Blog http://www.liveroots.com/blog

Schelly Dardashti Tracing The Tribe: The Jewish Genealogy Blog; International Jewish Graveyard Rabbit; MyHeritage Genealogy Blog http://tracingthetribe.blogspot.com http://jewishgraveyardrabbit.blogspot.com http://www.myheritage.com/blogs/genealogyblog

Elyse Doerflinger Elyse's Genealogy Blog http://elysesgenes.blogspot.com

Kathryn Doyle California Genealogical and Historical Society http://calgensoc.blogspot.com

Dick Eastman Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy

Sheri Fenley The Educated Genealogist http://sherifenley.blogspot.com

footnoteMaven footnoteMaven; Shades of the Departed http://www.footnotemaven.com http://www.shadesofthedeparted.com

Jean Wilcox Hibben Circle Mending http://circlemending.blogspot.com

Ruth Himan Genealogy Is Ruthless Without Me http://genealogyisruthlesswithoutme.blogspot.com

Paula Hinkel It Just Never Came Up; SoCal Genealogy Jamboree http://itjustnevercameup.blogspot.com http://genealogyjamboree.blogspot.com

Jay Holladay Jay's Genealogy Blog http://jaygenblog.wordpress.com

Janet Hovorka The Chart Chick http://thechartchick.blogspot.com

Ancestry Insider The Ancestry Insider http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com

Thomas Jay Kemp Genealogy Bank; Ask The Genealogist; Genealogy Librarian News http://blog.genealogybank.com http://askthegenealogist.blogspot.com http://genlibrarian.blogspot.com

Susan Kitchens Family Oral History Using Digital Tools http://familyoralhistory.us

Kiril Kundurazieff Musings of a Mad Macedonian http://www.madmacedonian.com

Denise Levenick The Family Curator http://www.familycurator.blogspot.com

Thomas MacEntee Geneabloggers; Destination: Austin Family http://www.geneabloggers.com http://destinationaustinfamily.blogspot.com

Craig Manson Geneablogie http://blog.geneablogie.net

Leslie Mehana La Donna Bella http://www.Squidoo.com/LaDonnaBella

Leland Meitzler GenealogyBlog http://www.genealogyblog.com

George G. Morgan George’s Genealogical Gleanings; The Genealogy Guys http://georgegmorgan.livejournal.com http://genealogyguys.com

Elizabeth O'Neal Little Bytes of Life; The Graveyard Rabbit of the California Central Coast http://www.littlebytesoflife.com http://centralcoast-graveyardrabbit.blogspot.com

Cheryl Palmer Heritage Happens http://heritagehappens.blogspot.com

Dear Myrtle Dear Myrtle; Teach Genealogy; Internet Genealogy http://blog.dearmyrtle.com http://blog.TeachGenealogy.com http://blog.Internet-Genealogy.com

Randy Seaver Genea-Musings; The Geneaholic; Chula Vista Genealogy Cafe http://www.geneamusings.com http://www.geneaholic.com http://cvgencafe.blogspot.com

Drew Smith Social Networking for Genealogists; The Genealogy Guys http://snfg.blogspot.com http://genealogyguys.com

Maureen Taylor The Photo Detective http://photodetective.blogspot.com

Gini Webb Ginisology http://ginisology.blogspot.com

Diane Wright The Graveyard Rabbit Travels Wright http://travelswright.blogspot.com

I will have much, much more on Jamboree all this week here at Destination: Austin Family and over at GeneaBloggers.com.

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Federal Trade Commission Cracks Down On Bloggers

11:00 AM

This information may have flown under the radar of most genealogy bloggers but it is important and could seriously impact the way some bloggers construct their posts. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed new guidelines which could make bloggers responsible for misleading claims when they review products.

As highlighted in The Wall Street Journal and other news services, the FTC intends to regulate a fairly common practice among bloggers: how they review products and whether or not they are paid for such reviews (either outright or through free products and services).

Personally I have not reviewed many products although back in February I did review a YDNA kit which was provided to me for free by familybuilder. At the end of the review I did include a full disclosure of how I was asked to provide a review and how the product was provided to me at no cost:

"Disclosure: familybuilder sent me their YDNA kit at no charge for purposes of reviewing the process of taking a DNA sample, using a DNA kit for genealogy purposes, and to receive and interpret results. I am disclosing this as a matter of transparency and honesty of my opinion. My intent is to give a good review (meaning a well-researched and written review) not necessarily a favorable review of all products I receive gratis."

As a rule, I don't solicit free items for review from vendors, they usually approach me based on a recent post at my blog. I am very upfront about my disclosure policies and I tell them that my intent is to provide a good review - meaning it is thorough and my opinion of my experience with the product. This is not the same as a favorable review - if the product fails in my eyes or is less than what I or an ordinary consumer would expect I will convey such information in the posted review.

I am waiting to hear from other genealogy bloggers as to their past experience with product reviews, how they are contacted by vendors, what disclosure policies they use and what the proposed FTC guidelines might mean for their future review practices.

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thisMoment - Social Media Scrapbooking

3:28 AM

I stumbled upon a new site this morning called thisMoment which bills itself as a way to "save and share life's moments" allowing you to easily create multimedia journal entries and then share them with friends and family.

With the concept of "you over time" thisMoment wants users to capture a moment such as a graduation ceremony or a day at the zoo and build a mini digital scrapbook using video, photos and commentary. There are some great privacy features built in so you can only share your "moment" with those you desire. And thisMoment is collaborative meaning you can have others add content as well as comments via Facebook connect.

It will be interesting to see if and how the genealogy community embraces thisMoment as a way to transform their research into multimedia presentations. Another interesting concept would be to create a collaborate scrapbook of a genealogy event like the upcoming Jamboree in Burbank this weekend.

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