An Unusual Funeral Card

[This post was written for the October 2009 Edition of the Graveyard Rabbits Carnival.]

I've written before here at Destination: Austin Family about funeral cards and the collection I've amassed over the years. Some of the cards are from the funerals of relatives where I was in attendance but the majority are from funerals which took place way before I was born.

One such example is the funeral card for my 1st cousin twice removed, Matthew McCrickert. Most funeral cards are in color and became popular with the advent of lithography in the late 1800s. They are commonly known as holy cards or funeral prayer cards since there would be a short prayer printed on the reverse and an image of Christ or a saint on the front. I remember finding these used as bookmarks by both my great-grandmother Therese McGinnes Austin and my mother over the years.

In the early days the cards would not be available at the funeral itself, but distributed by the family of the deceased at a later date. Only with modern advances of printing would the cards actually be available at the funeral home. Many of the modern cards in my collection are also laminated.

The card for Matthew McCrickert is unusual in that it is a bi-fold card and contains a small photo of him - the photo taken when he started his military service in the U.S. Army shortly after World War II. Matthew died in a military plane crash at Freehold, New Jersey on June 11, 1946 during a violent thunderstorm.

I'm curious if anyone else has similar funeral cards in their collection? Does anyone know how these were produced? I am assuming that a salesperson contacted the family of the deceased (getting the contact info from the funeral home) and sold them these cards. Any further information that I can add would be appreciated.

Photo: Funeral Card of Matthew McCrickert. Digital photograph. Privately held by Thomas MacEntee, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Chicago, Illinois. 2009.

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee

I'll Be Speaking At Mesa, Arizona Family History Expo 2010

I just received news that I will be making two presentations at the 2nd Annual Mesa Arizona Family History Expo 2010 to be held January 22-23, 2010.

I will be presenting Become a Genealogy Blog User and Twitter – It’s Not Just “What I Had For Breakfast” Anymore.

As the date gets closers I'll have more information on the exact time of my sessions. I'm wondering if other genealogy bloggers will either be presenting or attending at this or any future Family History Expos?

Social Media - Overstepping The Boundaries

What happens when you follow a genealogy-related company on Twitter - or any company for that matter - and suddenly their messages veer from being genealogy-focused to what some might consider being political or religious in nature?

Some background: many readers know that I am a big social media fan especially in terms of incorporating it with your genealogy research. I write about the topic and I speak about the topic. I mostly use Twitter to promote the GeneaBloggers site, its events and activities and to assist others with their genealogy blogs or other aspects of genealogy. To me this is all part of building a community.

In doing so, it goes without saying that I come in contact with a very diverse group of people most of whom have various opinions on many subjects. This I like. Occasionally I will follow someone on Twitter who appears to share an interest in genealogy and their recent "tweets" (messages) also demonstrate that interest. And sometimes a few of these people will feel it necessary to push a specific political or religious viewpoint. I am a tolerant person and I don't have a problem with the occasional expression of opinion on current topics or matters important to the person. It is rare that I decide to "unfollow" someone on Twitter - usually if the person's tweets are no longer focused on genealogy, that is why I drop them.

But when I follow a genealogy-related company or an organization such as a library or genealogical society, I don't expect the social media person for that company to express an opinion on political or religious matters. To me, it usually means someone new to social media doesn't understand separating the "brand" from "personal views." Even if the genealogy company were to hold a specific view, I don't expect to see it in a Twitter message. Most social media practitioners know to set up a different account for those views.

What happened yesterday is this: I began following a relatively new Twitter account under the name @un4tunatecookie. When I chose to follow, I could see the link to the website which is affiliated with Footnote.com. I purchased a Footnote subscription over a year ago and have been a big fan of their site and the research opportunities they provide to genealogists. So, I figure this "unfortunate cookie" thing is a fun way to learn about history and my followers on Twitter might like to follow as well.

After some very genealogy-focused tweets this week, this message appears: "Finally! We are represented and can do something about this economy/private sector http://www.thefreeenterprisenation.org @thefreenation"



I wasn't so much offended as I was surprised that a message like this would come from a genealogy-related vendor. So I used the "direct message" function (which is a private message which cannot be viewed by your other Twitter followers) to ask if this was a mistake and suggest that perhaps their Twitter account had been hacked. I also sent feedback to Footnote letting them know what had occurred. I also noticed that the tweet was sent using TweetDeck which means the person could be handling more than one Twitter account and simply sent the link from the wrong account.

I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with the link to Free Nation Enterprise - I tend to keep my political and religious views private or only share them with family and close friends. I may be old-fashioned but that's how I was raised - I was taught never to discuss religion or politics with strangers.

Later on in the day, the message "disappeared." Well, to a point. I'm assuming the user somehow removed the tweet:



But a search on Twitter shows that removing a tweet does not exactly remove it from the timeline:



This could be a case of a social media newbie - which I once was. I'll admit that I too started out not following all the do's and don'ts as I should have. Until I can get some answers I'm willing to give the person tweeting and Footnote the benefit of the doubt and mark this up as a simple mistake. I have made several attempts to contact Footnote concerning this issue but as of yet I have not received a response.

I also know it isn't easy to build community especially when tweeting as a business or an organization. I've observed that social media is about people wanting to engage with others and that is best done on a personal level. A good example is the CEO of Zappos, Tony Hsieh, who tweets under the name @zappos. Hsieh with over 1.3 million followers has excelled at engaging customers (and potential customers) so they feel they are conversing with a person and not a company's marketing division.

For those genealogy and family history fans who use Twitter (other other forms of social media like Facebook or even blogs), how do you handle people who express political or religious views? Do you follow them even if their views don't agree with yours? Do you follow a diverse group with different views? Do you only follow people with the same interest in genealogy (or scrapbooking or blogging, etc.) and if certain messages make you uncomfortable, how do you handle it? Do you "drop" them and not let them know why? And what about businesses - do you use a different standard for following them? I'm interested to hear what others have to say - I think the dialog would be very valuable.

SNGF - Ahnentafel Roulette

This week's edition of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun has been posted by Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings:

1) How old is your father now, or how old would he be if he had lived? Divide this number by 4 and round the number off to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2) Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ahnentafel. Who is that person?

3) Tell us three facts about that person with the "roulette number."

4) Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook note or comment, or as a comment on this blog post.

5) If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then spin the wheel again - pick your mother, or yourself, a favorite aunt or cousin, or even your children!

Here are my results:

1. Well using my father's age of 70, I come up with a "roulette number" of 17.

2. Using my Ahnentafel report, the person designated number 17 is Elmira Wood, my great-great grandmother.

3. Elmira Wood was born on December 10, 1851 in New York City. On March 11, 1874, she married John W. McEntee at Guilford, Chenango County, New York. She died on her birthday - December 10 - 1882 at Gardiner, Ulster County, New York and is buried at the New Paltz Rural Cemetery in New Paltz, New York.

I have to admit that my Wood line is one that I've not pursued very much and it could use some work. To me, this is why Randy's games are not just "games" - they are exercises that spur us to take a closer look at our research and jog our memories or remind us of further work that we need to do.

My First ProGen Chat

I had my first chat with my ProGen group yesterday and it was neat to learn more about the other members of my peer group.

In case you are unfamiliar with ProGen, check out the post entitled The ProGen Study Group - An Online Genealogy Opportunity written by Amy Coffin of We Tree for the GeneaBloggers site. Amy did a great job of summarizing the value of participating in ProGen even if you aren't seeking to be a certified genealogist. ProGen is a great way to learn proper research and source citation techniques which should be a goal of every family historian.

My peer group (ProGen groups are broken up into sub-groups so that chats and feedback are more manageable) didn't have an assignment to discuss so it was nice to just relax and discuss where we lived, our past genealogy experiences etc. We have a great group and I know when we meet next month we'll be discussing our first assignment.

Have you considered signing up for ProGen or pursuing some other type of online genealogy education? Share your goals and methods in the comments!

Remembering September 11, 2001

Another Patriot Day has arrived and again I don't feel I am ready for it. How can you ever be ready to recall the events of September 11, 2001?

In last year's post I went into great detail as to how I spent that day living in San Francisco and seemingly a world away from my family in New York where I had grown up.

The conclusion for last year's post is as true now as it was then:

In those years since, time has passed quickly but not so quickly that I can't pause and take time to remember what was, what could have been and what may be because of those attacks. And as I remember I will do so as I hold my loved ones a bit tighter tonite, cherish the memory more fervently of those no longer with me, and pray not as silently as usual that we all appreciate what we have when we have it, thank those who protect us when we need it, and love those who love us despite the madness of the world around us.

Photo: Rescue workers conduct search and rescue attempts, descending deep into the rubble of the World Trade Center. September 14, 2001. Source: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 2nd Class Jim Watson. Public domain.

My Trading Card

The latest silliness, in which I am a willing participant, is the creation of trading cards for genealogy bloggers. I put the blame on Sheri Fenley at The Educated Genealogist for starting all this. Here's mine:

Get yours over at BigHugeLabs!

Genealogy Blogs - Three of My Faves

I'm getting an early jump on Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun this week. Here is this week's challenge:

1) Identify three of your favorite genealogy blogs to nominate for the Family Tree 40 list, and fill out the nomination form for them.

2) Tell us which three you chose, and a reason why you chose it, in a blog post on your own blog, in comments to this post, or in a Note or comments to this post on Facebook.

3) For purposes of this assignment, please don't name Genea-Musings as one of your three (obviously, I would be honored to be nominated, and you can do so at your pleasure). What I'm hoping is that by writing about three of your favorite genealogy blogs, that you will introduce many blog readers to more outstanding blogs, for the benefit of all of us.

Of course I have so many favorite genealogy blogs (most of which I already nominated over at Family Tree Magazine) and while it just doesn't seem fair to pick only three, I've decided to choose three of my faves from a specific area: African-American genealogy.

As part of my goal of becoming a certified professional genealogist I've made a list of topics in which I feel my skills should be improved. I figure if I am offering my services in the area of research, I need to understand the unique set of challenges that come when working with African-American research. While it is nice to specialize in certain geographic and ethnic areas of genealogy, I think I become a better genealogist if I am open to working in different areas as well.

What makes the following genealogy blogs my favorites in this genre are the heart-felt stories written by each blog owner. As someone with strictly European ancestry it is difficult for me to imagine trying to locate ancestors who were in bondage and were traded and sold in the 18th and early 19th centuries. But through the stories in these wonderful blogs I learn more and more about the slave trade and its impact, the role of oral history and the search for records and documentation.

Spence-Lowry Family History: with a focus on North Carolina genealogy, Allum Spence's blog is a wealth of information and resources for the researcher of African-American genealogy. Some of my favorite posts are about Allum's attempts to contact living relatives for information and her search for her grandfather.

Our Georgia Roots: besides feeling a kinship with Luckie Daniels (we are both dealing with an aging parent with Alzheimer's Disease), I just love this woman's writing and her enthusiasm for finding her roots. I check in every day to see if there is news on the search for Catie as well for posts about African-American history and geneaology resources.

Taneya's Genealogy Blog: not only does Taneya Koonce constantly give back to the genealogy community (she is heavily involved with the NC GenWeb sites) she too is an excellent writer and researcher. Taneya's blog offers insights into research of African-American ancestry and she shares some great stories - the latest is about visiting a plantation where her great-grandfather's family were held.

* * *

There are many more fine blogs that focus on African-American genealogy and I encourage you to check out the list over at GeneaBloggers!

My Daily Genealogy Routine

Lately over at GeneaBloggers, I've been working with Gini Webb (of the Ginisology blog) on the "May I Introduce To You . . ." series of posts. This has been an enjoyable experience for me since it not only allows me to get other genealogy bloggers to create content at GeneaBloggers, but I also get to know Gini a bit more with each e-mail sent back and forth.

In one email we discussed our "routines" especially when it comes to reading genealogy blog posts, checking emails etc. It got me to thinking that I should write down the routine and perhaps see if it needs tweaking:

1. Create a post on GeneaBloggers to that day’s Daily Blogging Theme – so today I had to make sure a post for Treasure Chest Thursday was created.

2. Check the national news and Chicago Tribune since I am a news junkie. Also see who died (I know I am not the only one who does this . . .).

3. Check email – usually about 50 new emails overnight.

4. Coffee is ready.

5. Go to Google Reader and quickly tag the posts that match the Daily Blogging Theme – like Treasure Chest Thursday. I know it is important for people to see their post appear on the widget so I try to do this several times a day.

6. Go through all 200 tweets on Twitter using TweetDeck – check out links and sites tweeted. Respond to Direct Message tweets. Retweet the messages I think have value.

7. Go through Google Reader posts under the GeneaBloggers account – usually 100 posts for the 570 genealogy blogs I follow.

8. Sign in as tmacentee and go through Google Reader posts – mostly technical blogs.

9. Add new geneablogs for requests I’ve received. This entails adding the blog subscription to Google Reader, adding the URL to the Google Custom Search, and adding an entry to the current New Geneablogs document in Google Documents. This will allow me to copy and paste the text for Saturday's post highlighting new genealogy blogs.

10. All those links I opened need to go into my Evernote notebooks so I can review and write later. I love Evernote and I even ponied up for the premium service. It allows me to copy and paste files, entire web pages and more into notebook pages that I can access later on from any computer.

11. Work on upcoming posts including research, creating outlines, etc.

12. Work on upcoming presentations.

13. Work on my upcoming book about genealogy and blogging.

14. Take a look at my genealogy databases. Work on cleaning up source citations. Check in on my To Do list for research.

15. Scan any photos and documents that have been received.

That's it. Some days are better than others, of course. And in case you are wondering, there are days when I don't get past #6 or #7 on my list!

Do you have a genealogy routine? Is it different for different days or on the weekend/vacation?

The Thanksgiving Letter

Last weekend my sister-in-law asked if I had thought about Thanksgiving and whether we'd like to host this year. I was surprised because usually I am the one who starts planning out the holidays in August!

While I like to host these events, I'd like to think that I make it easy on my guests and provide a relaxed, care-free environment. Unlike Marney's family as shown here in The Thanksgiving Letter.

Via Awkward Family Photos (via Back to San Diego)

© 2009, copyright Thomas MacEntee