Archive for May 31, 2008

Carnival of Genealogy: Gulf Coast Summer 1962

May 31, 2008 Craig Uncategorized

Right: Craig and The World’s Smartest Sister at the beach in Rockport, Texas, August 1962.


As far as I recall, my first time at a beach was in the summer of 1962. Later that year, at age 8, I did my first major writing project. It’s presented here just as it was written 46 years ago, including photographs (the notes are new).

From the book My First Vacation Trip, copyright 1962, by Craig Manson


The Book Cover

My brothers, sister, and I live in New Mexico. On July 28, 1962, my Nana1 came for a visit. She wanted to take my sister and I on a trip to Texas. Arrangements were made. So my Father, Aunt2, and I went to buy my sister and I some “swimming clothes.” When we came back, Nana sat down at the sewing machine and made us some beach jackets. Father readied my fishing line.

At last the day came. On Sunday, August 5, 1962, we left for Houston, Texas. The ride was comfortable3,. . . . .Next morning, I was up at 4:00 with Nana and later my sister got up at 5:00. I changed clothes in the men’s room. Sister combed her hair, and Nana got ready too. At 11:00 we arrived in Houston. The train backed into the station. On the platform we met Uncle Herman4,. I relaized that in Texas, it’s quite hot! Uncle Herman drove us to his house. At the house, we met Aunt Ida5.

Left: Sister with Uncle Herman Walker

[After several days in Houston, it's time for our travelers to move on!]

. . . Mrs A. Dolphin6 took us to the Greyhound bus depot where we would leave on a bus bound for Rockport, Texas. There we would meet my other Aunt Ida7 and Uncle Johnny8. It took us 5 hours to get there. . . . When we met Aunt Ida and Uncle Johnny, it was quite joyous because we had not seen each other since 1958. After we had unpacked, Uncle Johnny took us down to the beach where we went swimming as we did every day.

Above Right: We play in the Gulf

When we went fishing, I caught mostly catfish, but sometimes I caught perch and trout. Sometimes we went to visit cousin Ethel9 and Rabbit10.
One day Rabbit took us to Taft where we met Aunt Pearl11. Aunt Pearl owns a motel and cafe in Taft. So we stayed at her motel. When we got back [to Rockport], Aunt Maria12 and her husband13 came to take us to Corpus Christi.

In Corpus Christi, I long talked with Uncle Leroy14 who I had not seen once before in my life. After staying in Corpus Christi one day, we started back to Houston.

Right: On the shrimping dock

Below: Modeling the “beach jackets” Nana made

NOTES

1My paternal grandmother, Jessie Bowie Manson (1909-1973), then known as Jessie Manson Givan.

2My mother’s sister, Delorise Annrie Gines, then 22 years old, and spending her summer break from college with us.

3In pre-Amtrak times, “the ride” was the Atchison,Topeka & Santa Fe RR’s Super Chief.

4Herman Walker (1906-2002), Nana’s brother.

5Ida Mouton (1910?-1992), Uncle Herman’s wife.

6Alice Dolphin, who was a major figure in my fathr’s early life story.

7Ida Bryant (1895-1991), widow of Nana’s uncle, Sam Bryant (1881-1951).

8I have no present clue as to this person’s identity or actual relationship to me.

9Ethel Bryant (1903-1996), daughter of Isaac Bryant (1879-1936), Nana’s uncle.

10I have no present clue as to this person’s identity or actual relationship to me.

11Pearl Bryant Richardson (1897-?), Nana’s mother’s sister.

12Should be “cousin Maria.” Maria Bryant (1905-?) was Ethel’s sister (see note 9).

13I do not know his name.

14Leroy Goins, aka Leo R. Bryant (1924-1983), Nana’s brother.

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The Joys of Indexing

May 28, 2008 Craig Uncategorized

FamilySearch Indexing’s homepage
(click to enlarge)

It’s been more than a year since I first wrote about FamilySearch Indexing. That’s the volunteer project that’s’ indexing millions of new records that will be offered free on the new FamilySearch. Some of those records you can access now at FamilySearch Labs’ Record Search (which to my mind is almost the greatest thing since genealogically sliced bread! More about that later).

Anybody can volunteer for FamilySearch Indexing. All you need is a computer and a bit of free time. Once you sign up (free), you go through a very helpful tutorial on the Internet which takes about 30 minutes to an hour. It has useful practical exercises for transcribing records. After you successfully pass the tutorial, you’re ready to start indexing!

FamilySearch will download an application that allows you to see and transcribe the records. You can then download batches of records to work on. Depending on the record, a batch usually is about 20 records. You can download up to five batches at a time. FamilySearch asks that you take no more than seven days for your downloaded batches. If you’ve bitten off more than you can chew, you can easily return the unfinished batches. However, you should never download more than you can reasonably do in seven days.


The “My Work Page.” I’ve downloaded four batches of Louisiana Death Records. Notice the Due Date. You can also see the goals I set for myself. In context, this is not an overly ambitious goal. (click to enlarge image)

You can download batches according to a priority set by FamilySearch or you can look and find a set that interests you for some particular reason. Depending on the condition of the records, a batch may take 30-45 minutes to complete. Once done, you run FamilySearch Indexing’s quality control agent to pick up any errors you think you may have made, then send the batch back to Salt Lake City.

Another person will have, or eventually will, transcribe the same records that you’ve worked on. The two sets of work are compared and an arbitrator will resolve any differences. You won’t get involved in this as an indexer usually, although I’ve heard that indexers sometimes are called to explain their thinking on a particular record.

This is what the records workspace looks like. Note the “Field Help” box on the right. This gives instructions about how to transcribe each field of a record. And it is very helpful, indeed! It moves from field to field as the transcriber does. That’s also where the Quality Checker appears when the indexer is done. (click to enlarge image)

Last year, I spent a number of hours transcribing census records. It was extremely educational for me. I came to understand some of the difficulties faced by transcribers of ancient handwritten records. I also strove to do my best, because I know that feeling when one comes across a poorly transcribed record of one’s family, or worse, can’t find a record that was mis-indexed because of a transcription error.

I didn’t go back to FamilySearch Indexing for a long while after my first experience, mainly because my time was being sucked up elsewhere. I did, however, check out the databases on Record Search and was thrilled with what I found. I spent a lot of time with the unindexed records of the Catholic Diocese of Belleville, Illinois. I eventually transcribed and translated for my own use some of the records of St Joseph’s Church in Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, and some of the records of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Sparta, Illinois. I put to use my experience with FamilySearch Indexing.

Recently, as school drew to a close for the summer, I went back to FamilySearch Indexing. I took the tutorial, which seems improved to me. The application interface also seems different and better.

My first venture was transcribing part of the 1870 census of Massachusetts. The portion of the records that I had enumerated sailors of various nationalities. This was quite interesting and led to a couple of insights about transcribing that I’ll mention in just a bit.

I had been assigned the 1870 Massachusetts census off the priority list by clicking on the “Download” button on the “My Work” page. However, if you click on the button that says “Download From,” you can browse a set of records and choose one of your liking. See the second image above. So when I finished the 1870 batch, I downloaded a batch of Louisiana death records since Louisiana is one of the states in which I research. This, too, was quite interesting and I found myself doing many other batches out of this set.

I found an infinite feedback loop. The experience I had gained in my first indexing venture last year had informed my solo work on the Catholic records which now helped me on the Louisiana records and each batch taught me something about transcription and indexing.

One thing I learned is that there is a bit of “informed intuition” that necessarily goes into transcribing. The better your information, then the better you can intuit, and the better you can transcribe. For example, you come across a surname that appears to be BRSSD, as best you can make out from the handwriting. Now if you’re familiar with French-derived surnames, you can intuit that’s probably BROUSSARD or BRAUSSARD. Good so far, but which is it? Well, if you also know that there’s a village nearby called Broussardville, you probably have the answer.

How would you improve your informed intuition? Well, I found it useful have open another browser tab which displayed the Wikipedia article for the Louisiana parish I was transcribing. This helped not only with intuition, but with things I simply did not know, such as the proper spelling of towns like “Tangipahoa” and “Ponchatoula” which were often misspelled by the informants on the death records.

Transcribing for FamilySearch is rewarding because it’s educational and vital to everyone’s research efforts. It’s a great way to invest in the future of on-line genealogical research.

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"Until They Are Home . . ."

May 26, 2008 Craig Uncategorized

As we honor our war dead this Memorial Day, we must not forget that some families have no cemetery to visit, no grave to decorate; indeed, no knowledge of what became of their loved ones who went off to war. They may take some comfort in knowing that America is engaged in an intensive effort to find and bring their family members home.

The effort is coordinated by the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) at the Pentagon. There are more than 88,000 U.S. military personnel unaccounted for from conflicts from World War II through the Gulf War. The DPMO sets policy and priorities for recovering persons, conducts archival research to aid in recovery, and tends to the budget matters.

The operational work is done by the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) in Hawaii. JPAC conducts investigations and analyzes evidence to locate and recover missing U.S. military personnel using state of the art forensic techniques. Key to their mission is the work done by JPAC’s Central Identification Laboratory (CIL), the world’s largest forensic anthropology laboratory. The lab is currently identifying about two individuals a week–more than 100 a year.

CIL can often identify individuals if they have a reference sample of DNA from surviving family members. CIL uses mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA, inherited only from the mother. They use this type of DNA because, as Blaine Bettinger has taught us, it is long-lasting, abundant, and doesn’t change much from generation to generation.

Genealogists can help by selecting a casualty (perhaps from your home town, home state or a man that served in the same unit as you), and researching their family history to determine if there are living relatives who might be FRS donors. Click here for a list of Family Reference Samples (FRS) required by JPAC.

At this link, you’ll find press releases announcing recent identifications.

Until They Are Home . . . .

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Decoration Day Roll Call

May 26, 2008 Craig Uncategorized

Today, we honor our war dead. If I could, I would be placing decorations on the following family veterans gravesites:

Charles Troy Bowie (1915-1945), U.S. Army, Epinal American Cemetery, Epinal, France.

Rene C. Mischeaux (1948-1969), U.S. Army, Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno, California

They both gave “the last full measure of devotion” in service to our nation.

While we’re here at our virtual national cemetery, we note the service of these other relatives, who, while not war casualties, nonetheless served valiantly:

Zeke Johnson (1847-1933), 18th U.S. Colored Infantry, Blue Ridge Cemetery, Kansas City, Missouri.

Frank William Gines (1935-1999), U.S. Army, Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver, Colorado.
Henry Edward Gines (1935-1993), U.S. Army, Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver, Colorado.

Perry Wesley Gines (1928-1986), U.S. Coast Guard, Leavenworth National Cemetery, Leavenworth, Kansas.

Richard Edward Gines (1926-1996), U.S. Army Air Forces, Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia.

Bobby G. LeJay (1938-2007), U.S. Army, Carver Memorial Cemetery, Shreveport, Louisiana.

Herman L. Brayboy (1935-1996), U.S. Army, Zion Rest Cemetery, Shreveport, Louisiana.

William G. Wells (1929-2005), U.S. Navy, Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St Louis, Missouri

There are 363 Bowies, 246 Mansons, and 168 Birdsongs buried in America’s National Cemeteries.


Epinal American Cemetery, Epinal, France
Final Resting Place of Charles Troy Bowie of Longview, Texas
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Back in the Saddle Again

May 24, 2008 Craig Uncategorized

This Memorial Day weekend has started out a bit gloomy here in Carmichael–weather-wise, that is. On the other hand, the few horrible weeks we’ve been through here seem to be resolved. So, it’s time to get caught up on a number of things!

This weekend, I’ll share with you one or two research adventures; some practical advice gleaned from the recent experience of handling my late sister-in-law’s matters; and some things specific to Memorial Day. So don’t go away (unless it’s to a holiday weekend getaway!) . . . there’s good stuff coming up!

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Armed Forces Day

May 17, 2008 Craig Uncategorized

Today is Armed Forces Day.

Curiously, Armed Forces Day seems over the years to have diminished in importance. There may be several reasons for that. It’s on a Saturday, not a Monday, so people aren’t as aware of it as they used to be. Then as security has gotten tighter, many military installations which formerly opened their doors to the public on Armed Forces Day either no longer do so, or do so with conditions and restrictions. Another factor is that with the increased use of the National Guard and the Reserves, communities are more engaged with the military than they were in the 1960′s. And on the other hand, increased Reserve and Guard deployments mean that personnel who were once available for the displays and events of the day are no longer available.

As a kid, I lived at a semi-secret atomic weapons base on the southeast edge of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Nearby was Kirtland Air Force Base, which hosted the region’s Armed Forces Day celebrations. The gates of Kirtland were opened to the community and numerous static displays of aircraft were available to inspect. There usually was an air show, featuring the U.S. Air Force Demonstration Squadron, the Thunderbirds. In those days, the Thunderbirds flew the F-100D SuperSabre, which I thought was the coolest airplane I’d ever seen.

The air shows and static displays had their intended effect on me: I was motivated to join the Air Force and I did.

If you missed Armed Forces Day this year, check it out next year. Go and mingle with military folks and find out what they’re all about, especially if there are none in your neighborhood.

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Life as A Country Song

May 17, 2008 Craig Uncategorized

These things actually happened in the last three weeks:

  • My sister-in-law died.
  • The car’s engine seized; new car required.
  • The air conditioner stopped working on the day it hit 101 degrees.
  • And other stuff . . .

But I’m not whining. Life is like this sometimes.

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How’d My Mother[-in-law] Get So Smart?

May 14, 2008 Craig Uncategorized

My mother and my mother-in-law are both bright women, each in their own ways. But in keeping with my theme of praising mothers-in-law, we’ll leave my mother-in-fact for another day.

My mother-in-law is a descendant of the French Negroes of Illinois. Her father, Joseph Perry Micheau, was born in Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, in 1888 and married Edna Julia Lewis in 1913.
Joe Micheau probably went to the school for black children in Prairie du Rocher which was run by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, an order of Catholic nuns. Later, when the Adorers left Prairie du Rocher, Joe’s wife Edna became the teacher for the black children.

Joe Micheau was an extraordinarily literate man. After leaving school, he continued to educate himself. He had intended to become a priest, until he met his future wife.

My mother-in-law and her three siblings benefited from their parents’ interest in education and particularly in reading. My mother-in-law, born in St Louis, Missouri, about fifty miles west of Prairie du Rocher, attended the public Sumner High School for a year, then transferred to St. Rita’s High School, a Catholic girls school, from whence she graduated.

Her innate curiosity, however, is what makes her so smart. At age 50, despite not knowing how to drive or even owning a car, she took an automotive repair course, just because she “wanted to know.” The same impulse led her to learn how to make soap and glass.

She reads everything she can get her hands on. Sometimes she reads labels in the grocery store just to learn about a product even without wanting to buy it.

She’s quiet and she listens. Those traits make her seem shy, but they’re the key to what makes her smart.

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Give Another Mother A Hug

May 11, 2008 Craig Uncategorized

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in my families and yours!

I want to deal today with that most complex of subjects–the mother-in-law. Simply put, they don’t get no respect. Even Rodney Dangerfield dissed them (“I wanted to do something nice, so I bought my mother-in-law a chair. Now they won’t let me plug it in . . . .”). That one-hit wonder, Ernie K-Doe, scored a Billboard No. 1 hit in May 1961 with his song “Mother-in-law” that proclaimed his mother-in-law “the worst person I know. . . .Her name ought to be Satan.” The song was still popular when Huey Lewis and the News covered it decades later. The greeting card industry’s “Mother-in-Law’s Day” didn’t start until 2002 and is relegated to the spooky fourth Sunday in October (although this source says it was first celebrated on March 5, 1934 in Amarillo, Texas). By the way, check out this Mother-in-law’s Day Gift Guide.

The New York Times on December 10, 1923, on page 19 ran this headline: HOMEWRECKING ACE IS MOTHER-IN-LAW. The story’s lede was:

The mother-in-law, joke or no joke, is still the most potent force in breaking up marriages in America. Officials of the Legal Aid Society pronounced this judgment yesterday, with forty-seven years of providing law help to the poor as the background of experience for their statement.

You can read the rest of the story (for $3.95 from Times Select) here.

But consider that every Satan of a mother-in-law is someone else’s saint of a mother. Mothers-in-law are mothers. They deserve to be honored today not only by their children-in-fact, but by their children-in-law as well. After all, for better or worse, who would your sweetie be if not for his/her mother? So, for today, set aside the jokes and grievances (real or imagined) and give your mother-in-law (or someone else’s, if you haven’t one) a hug.

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Lynne "Angel" Harvey, 1916-2008, Good Day!

May 8, 2008 Craig Uncategorized

As both my regular readers know, I’m an old radio guy–that is, an old guy who used to be on the radio (more than thirty years ago!). So I was especially saddened to read the following press release from Washington University in St Louis.

Following in bold type is Washington University Press Release

May 6, 2008 — Legendary news producer Lynne “Angel” Cooper Harvey, wife of broadcaster Paul Harvey, died Saturday, May 2, at the couple’s home in River Forest, Ill., following a long battle with leukemia. She was 92.

“Angel Harvey was a distinguished Phi Beta Kappa alumna of Washington University in St. Louis and also the recipient of an honorary doctor of humanities degree,” said Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. “She was a role model and inspiration for our students and graduates, and her stellar achievements in the field of journalism and broadcasting are equaled only by her love for education and by a deep concern for the arts and for those in need.

“She was a woman with a gracious, generous heart and she will be missed by this community,” Wrighton added. “Washington University extends its deepest condolences to her husband, Paul Harvey, and their son, Paul Harvey Jr.”

Born and raised in St. Louis, Angel — as she was universally known — earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in English from Washington University. Hired to develop a program on education for St. Louis radio station KXOK-AM, she soon met Paul, then a young reporter at the station. On their first date he proposed and the couple married in 1940.

During World War II Paul joined the Army Air Corps and Angel moved to his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she took a job with the local CBS affiliate. There she became one of the first women in the nation to run an entire radio broadcast, spinning records and reading the news from 4 p.m. to midnight.

In 1944 the Harveys moved to Chicago and soon launched “Paul Harvey News” on ABC affiliate WENR-AM. With Angel as producer, the program quickly became the most listened-to newscast in Chicago and helped pioneer the 10 p.m. newscast, which soon became a national standard.

In 1951 the ABC Radio Networks began broadcasting “Paul Harvey News and Comment” on stations coast-to-coast and in 1976 expanded “The Rest of the Story” — a long-running feature on “News and Comment” — into its own broadcast. Both shows would reach an estimated 25 million listeners on more than 1,200 radio stations as well as 400 Armed Forces Network stations around the world.

In 1968 Paul and Angel launched “Paul Harvey Comments,” a nationally syndicated television series that ran for 20 years. It was soon joined by “Dilemma,” a prototype for the television talk-show genre. In 1997 Angel became the first producer inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame and in 2001 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from American Women in Radio and Television.

A dedicated alumna of Washington University, Harvey was a Life Member of the William Greenleaf Eliot Society’s Danforth Circle and a member of the Phoenix and Chicago Regional Cabinets. In 1997 she received a Founders Day Distinguished Alumni Award and in 2001 received the Robert S. Brookings Award for her support and advocacy on behalf of the university.

In 1999 Harvey established the Lynne Cooper Harvey Distinguished Chair in English, held by Wayne Fields, professor of English and director of the American Culture Studies Program, both in Arts & Sciences. In 2000 she created the Lynne Cooper Harvey Fellowships, which support graduate students in American Culture Studies, and in 2003 created the Lynne Cooper Harvey American Culture Studies Scholars program, which supports undergraduate students.

The annual Lynne Cooper Harvey Writing Prize, awarded for outstanding writing about American Culture Studies, is named in her honor. In 2004 Harvey dedicated the June S. Courson Courtyard, part of the university’s new Earth & Planetary Sciences Building, in memory of her sister.

-30-

What a remarkable woman! I was raised on Paul Harvey News and Comment on the ABC Radio Networks. Every day when we came home for lunch, Dad would already be there for his lunch and Paul Harvey was always on. We heard him on KDEF, 1150 AM in Albuquerque. [Note the images from a bygone era--Dad home from work, kids home from school, all for lunch; no TV on, just the radio]. And we had no idea that a woman played such a key role in that program. Even later as a radio guy myself, I did not comprehend the full extent of her talents. As Paul might say on another of their programs, “Now you know the rest of the story.”

Condolences to Paul Harvey and son, Paul, Jr. (himself a radio producer). And may the “Angel” of the airwaves rest in peace.

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