June, 2008
Linn County, Iowa, Courthouse Closed Indefinitely
The Iowa state Judiciary announced today that the Linn County Courthouse in Cedar Rapids will be closed indefinitely. The courthouse, along with city hall, is located on Mays Island in the Cedar River. Reports say that these buildings as well as the federal courthouse were severely damaged in the recent flooding. Emergency procedures are now in effect for the Linn …
June 16, 2008 Monday at 11:58 pm
National Czech and Slovak Museum & Library
As the days go by, we’ll learn of a number of historical, cultural, and genealogical resources which have sustained losses or damage due to the Midwest floods. One such resource is the National Czech and Slovak Museum and Library located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. There is no telephone service to the facility as of now. Here’s what it looked like …
June 16, 2008 Monday at 11:43 pm
Iowa Floods Exact High Toll
Yesterday, we ran a piece about how the Iowa floods had shut down NewspaperArchive.com, a site that many family historians visit frequently. Today, Jeffrey Kiley, general manager, left a comment on that post. It’s so compelling that I thought it should be up front. Here it is: Thank you very much for your concern. We are slowly bringing our systems …
June 16, 2008 Monday at 7:03 pm
Top Cat
Top Cat! The most effectualTop Cat! Who’s intellectualClose friends get to call him T.C. Providing it’s with dignity. Yes he’s a chief, he’s a king,But above everything, He’s the most tip top, Top Cat. In September 1961, Hanna-Barbera premiered another of their primetime cartoons on ABC. Like The Flintstones, Top Cat was a hit that the whole family could watch …
June 16, 2008 Monday at 4:45 am
Flooding Shuts Down NewspaperArchive.com
I received the following message early Sunday morning, June 15, 2008 (Central Time): Dear Valued Member, The situation in Cedar Rapids has reached levels never before thought possible. The flood waters surged past the 500-year flood line yesterday and continued to rise to catastrophic levels. A large portion of the downtown area is underwater and will continue to be so …
June 15, 2008 Sunday at 5:44 am
Today is the 232d Birthday of the United States Army
And to mark the occasion, Geneablogie has asked Jill Daniels, “England’s No. 1 WWII/1940s Entertainer,” to favor (or as she says, “favour”) us with a celebratory reminiscence of a great Irving Berlin tune. Draftees from New York City report to Camp Upton, Yaphank, Long Island in 1917. Among the soldiers trained at Camp Upton was a Russian emigre born Israel …
June 14, 2008 Saturday at 7:15 pm
Flag Day 2008
The Flag at Raton, New Mexico Courtesy of YouTube poster “gully42″. Free for non-commercial use.
June 14, 2008 Saturday at 5:24 pm
Sticks And Stones, There’s N—’s Living with the Bones!
The role of the historian is to report things as they were found, not as the historian or the rest of modernity wish they had been. In the last post, we discussed using racial descriptions as names to search for African-Americans. We were successful using “slave,” “colored,” and “Negro” to find records that if combined with othe records could resolve …
June 14, 2008 Saturday at 1:49 am
Research Tip: Slaves and Slavs in the U.S. Census (and how to tell the difference!)
“No census taken between 1790 and 1860 contains even one slave’s name.” Harriet C. Frazier, Runaway and Freed Missouri Slaves and Those Who Helped Them, 1763-1865, (McFarland & Company: 2004), p. 12. Most genealogists will not find this statement particularly surprising. We all know that, except for a very few free blacks, African-Americans were not enumerated by name in the …
June 14, 2008 Saturday at 1:05 am
William George Micheau, 1880-1949
Born 31 Dec 1880, Prairie du Rocher, IllinoisDied 15 Nov 1949, St Louis, MissouriOccupation: Barber*Parents: George Micheau, Sr. & Mary Emma RoySpouse: Clara Robinson (or Roberson), 1885-1938 *“It will doubtless be observed by the reader, that a majority of our colored aristocracy belong to the tonsorial profession; a mulatto takes to razor and soap as naturally as a young duck …
June 12, 2008 Thursday at 1:30 am
