Rochester is about 9 hours drive – 560 miles (900 km)-  from Grand Rapids when travelling via Cleveland, so we left a bit after 0830 and got to Rochester about 1730 (5:30 PM). We had a very enjoyable evening with Martin, his wife Nancy and their daughter Grace, and Nancy’s Mum Mary. Roger grilled chicken, hot dogs and shrimps, then we looked over a bunch of family photos, showed Grace some of her genealogy, and eventually to bed. Monday morning more of the same, then down to check out Martin and Nancy’s offices, then the drive to Hartford, Connecticut this (Memorial Day Monday) afternoon – 336 miles (540 km).

Out in the Cooper-Lineham back yard for pre-dinner appetisers while Roger cooked dinner on the Grill. Mary Cooper, Lisa Christensen, Nancy Cooper, Grace Lineham, Martin Lineham, Roger Moffat

More pictures below…

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

TNG 8 – under development for about a year since the release of TNG 7 – was released today.

New & Improved in TNG 8:

• Better Search: Hover over the results to see a dynamic summary of each person or family on the list.
• Look and Feel: Most pages have been restyled for easier use and a nicer appearance.
• Easier Installation: Do more right up front and hit the ground running.
• Media: Enjoy a new image viewer, plus a more streamlined slide show.
• User Roles: New labels make it simple to assign rights to members of your family or research team.
• Relationship: Now locate multiple relationships between people in your file.
• Search Engines: A few key changes should make your pages more visible.
• People: Build your tree right from the pedigree page if you’d like.
• Dates: New calendar page summarizes family events.
• “Mod Manager”: Allows you to easily add or remove custom code changes.
• Plus more than 100 other improvements! See a complete list of all changes here. Tested on all major browser platforms.

Information about the software can be found here on Darrin’s site.

I’ve been testing this for quite a few weeks now, helping iron out the kinks along with several other users and Darrin. There are some great new features and capabilities added.

I’ve got my TNG Testing site upgraded, and hope to have my main site done this evening yet.

Now we can wonder what Darrin will choose to include in TNG 9

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

Today I signed up to speak in the Public Comment part of the meeting, after listening to the Board members in their deliberations, which today largely focussed on what the contents of the report are likely to be. I had a prepared statement copied which was distributed to the Board members as I started speaking – good thing too, since as unaccustomed as I am to public speaking, I managed to miss a couple of the points I wanted to make, so hopefully they read them. Below is the text:

The main point I missed highlighting was the thought of making a single Government department responsible for the entire building (as it was under HAL) – it makes sense to me at least

I also included a printout of this page from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources which outlined the numbers behind the increase in sales and use tax they passed in 2008 (effective 1 July 2009) – a .375% increase. That .375% increase is divided into several areas, including

19.75% to a newly created Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund to be spent onlyfor arts, arts education, and arts access, and to preserve Minnesota’s history and cultural heritage (approximately $48 million in FY 2010 and $54.5 million in FY 2011).

(note that this is 19.75% of .375% = .074% = 7.4 cents on a $100 purchase).

Amazingly all we need in Michigan is a measly $1,000,000 or so!!!

Certainly means of increasing revenue for the Library of Michigan, and Archives and Museum has been a topic of discussion at these MCIR meetings, and some suggestions will be part of the final report to the Governor.

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

The Michigan Genealogical Council, in conjunction with the Michigan State Archives and Museum put on a gathering to celebrate Randy Riley’s award of the 2010 Filby Award for Genealogical Librarianship. The venue was on the 2nd floor of the Michigan Historical Center, almost in amongst the exhibits.

Looking over a table at the amazing backdrop for the evening - most of that is painted on the walls and ceiling.

Kim is a past president of the Michigan Genealogical Council, and currently works for Ancestry.com. On the left Randy is with Jan Alpert, President of the National Genealogical Society having just received the 2010 Filby Award.

Randy was the last speaker. He spoke of the honour, and of how it is about the Collection and the Staff, not just about him.

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

Randy Riley receives 2010 Filby Award. Photo by Tom Koselka.

Congratulations to Randy Riley, Special Collections Manager at the Library of Michigan on his receiving the Filby Award for Genealogical Librarianship at the National Genealogical Society Conference in Salt Lake City last Friday.

Here is the list of previous winners of the Filby Award:

• 2009: No nominees met the qualifications for the Filby Award in 2009.
• 2008: David Dearborn of New England Historic Genealogical Society, Boston, Massachusetts.
• 2007: Curt Bryan Witcher of Allen County Library, Ft. Wayne, Indiana
• 2006: Eric Grundset of DAR Library, Washington DC
• 2005: Ron D. Bryant of the Kentucky Historical Society and the Kentucky State Parks Department
• 2004: James Jeffrey of the Denver Public Library, Denver, Colorado
• 2003: Carole C. Callard (1941–2005) of the Library of Michigan, Lansing, Michigan
• 2002: Jim Hansen of the Wisconsin Historical Society Library, Madison, Wisconsin
• 2001: Martha Henderson of the Mid-Continent Public Library, Independence, Missouri
• 2000: Pamela Hall Cooper of Indian River County Public Library, Vero Beach, Florida
• 1999: Lloyd DeWitt Bockstruck of the Dallas Public Library, Dallas, Texas

So a quick look at that list quickly reveals that the Library of Michigan is the ONLY facility to have won the award twice – 2003 awarded to Carole Callard and 2010 awarded to Randy Riley. That speaks VOLUMES to the prestige with which the Library of Michigan’s Genealogical collection is held in the genealogy community.

This is the very same Library of Michigan that Governor Granholm is trying very hard to eviscerate by starving it of funding, and placing it in the Department of Education – a department already seriously short of the funding needed to fulfil its primary purpose – Education – where it is now hit even harder by funding difficulties.

Instead this facility should be maintained as the treasure that it is for the treasure that it holds. Let’s hope that

• the Michigan Center for Innovation and Reinvention Board realises this and makes the appropriate recommendations to Governor Granholm in their report;
• Governor Granholm recognises the value of the report and the process that led to it and acts accordingly.

1 June, when the report is due, isn’t so far away.

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

1. Sarah Jessica Parker – a good story, but too many “un-be-liev-able”s for me. It apparently set the pattern for the series – a 2 min 30 second introduction of what the series is about. Each segment ends with a “what’s coming up after the break” and then the next segment starts with “here’s what we did before the break”. But great that she did find out she has ancestry back to the earliest history of the colonisation of North America with the Salem Witch trials.
2. Emmit Smith – a great story – same criticisms as Episode 1, but it seemed a more compelling story as Emmit followed his ancestry across the “slave owning and trading South” to Africa. This was of interest to me as I have worked on the genealogy of a friend whose ancestors were born in slavery in Mississippi and North Carolina. This chart shows her ancestry. The people in the 4 light yellow boxes were all born in slavery.
3. Lisa Kudrow – also a great story of travel and discovery. Although this only covered part of the 20^th century as she travelled back to the village of Ilya in the Belarus to uncover what happened to her great grandmother and to Gdynia in Poland to meet a cousin who had bought news of the family’s terrible fate at the hands of the Nazis to New York not long after World War 2 ended.

A few observations:

• This is a 1 hour American TV show, which means there will be AT LEAST 18 minutes of commercials, so leaving at most only 42 minutes for actual content.
• The introduction in Week 2 was over 2 minutes and 30 seconds. I haven’t depressed myself further by timing the Week 3 introduction, but I assume it was at least the same. Since this isn’t a serial – like CSI or 24 etc it seems quite pointless to recap the previous episodes and “pre-cap” the upcoming ones – each episode is nothing to do with any other.
• Once you get up to speed and the actual content starts, it seems like no time when we’re approaching the first ad break that we’re getting another pre-cap – “coming up……”. Another chunk of valuable time for new content wasted.
• ….. then after the ad break (which thankfully with my DVR only lasts a few seconds!!!) we get a re-cap of what we’ve just seen – more valuable time for fresh content wasted.

Hello Lisa Kudrow:

THANK YOU for bringing Genealogy to Prime Time and the Mainstream, but

• I don’t need to be told what’s coming up – I’M WATCHING ALREADY and will continue to watch after the break;
• I CAN REMEMBER what I’ve just watched;
• I don’t need to be told at the start of the show what we’ve already seen vis a vis Sarah Jessica Parker, Emmit Smith, and what we haven’t yet seen – Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields etc.;
• This isn’t a serial like “24″ or “The Good Wife” or “CSI” where it helps to be reminded what happened last week. Apart from possibly some interest from Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s children, these episodes are NOTHING to do with each other;
• Just give me 42 (preferably more) minutes of new fresh content every week and I’ll be even happier about this show being on than I already am.
• Perhaps instead of the pre-caps and re-caps, spend a little time at least giving people an idea on how to go about genealogical research – it’s not as easy as it’s portrayed to be – would that we could all afford to hire Megan Smolenyak Smolenyak, Natalie Cotrill, Dr Josh Taylor to have the needed documents all laid out ready to go.

But kudos for bringing genealogy to prime-time TV. I’m sure this will do a lot to raise awareness of genealogy and genealogy societies amongst many of the members of the public who are not so far aware or interested in us currently.

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

What law?

And if it’s a law, why is not complying with it subject of legal action by someone – there’s no shortage of lawyers that’s for sure!!!!

So I set out to try and find out just where this “requirement” is. It turns out that this was laid down in Act 89 of 1977 – State Aid to Public Libraries, which contains a list of the requirements that must be met by libraries in Michigan, categorises them based on the population they serve and lays out the amount of state aid that they must receive. See here, here and here for several presentations of Act 89.

From State Aid Guidelines on page 3 we see this list of the funding categories required in Act 89.

PA89, §13 Public library cooperatives shall receive 50¢ per capita for their served population.

PA89, §16(2) Public libraries shall receive 50¢ per capita for their served population if minimum standards are met.

PA89, §16(4) Public libraries that meet minimum standards and are members of a cooperative library shall receive 50¢ per capita to pay for services provided by the cooperative.
All or part of this amount shall be used to purchase these services.

PA89, §16(4) A cooperative shall receive $10 per square mile for the area it serves if the area has less than 75 persons per square mile.

PA89, §16(5) County public libraries serving a population of 50,000 or less with a director who meets educational requirements can receive a maximum of $400 per month or $4,800 annually for salary reimbursement. A form must be filed quarterly by the county library to claim the reimbursement.

So while I’m certainly no lawyer, one has to wonder why if there’s a law, then this law can’t be enforced?!?!

The main thing I got out of the Rally at the Capitol was just how important it is that Michigan Libraries receive $10,000,000 in funding – “only” 2/3rds of the required $15,000,000 – so that they then receive the $5,000,000 in Federal money which is what by and large seems to pay forMeL and MelCat. The Governor is proposing $7,500,000, while the Senate is proposing $10,000,000.

How hard is to to realise that for a further measly $2,500,000 they would be able to treble their money, since that last $2,500,000 would trigger the Federal $5,000,000. That’s a return on investment that it ought to be criminal to turn down.

This page MHAL – Significant Dates in Michigan Library History should be required reading for all decision makers before they decide to underfund the Libraries of Michigan, so that they might get even a small grasp of what they’re about to undo before they go and undo it!!!!

And finally (maybe) this from writer Anne Herbert

“Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.”

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

The theme of the day was RED – people were encouraged to show their support for Libraries by wearing a red shirt – and there were a LOT of RED shirts. Thanks in no small part to Gale Group of Michigan who were giving out free red shirts that said on the front “Protect Michigan Libraries”. Others were wearing red shirts from the Grand Rapids Public Library that said on the back “I ♥ Grand Rapids Public Library”.

Roger Moffat and Shirley Hodges on the Capitol Steps

It was also the day chosen for Michigan Fire Services Awareness Day so there was a large presence of Firemen, and firetrucks present with displays of firefighting and HazMat equipment. I hope they knew we were coming, or else they got a large surprise when a crowd that was about the same size as the “Hands Around the Library” event a month earlier.

Below is a photo gallery of some photos from today with the “Sea of Red” or is that the “See of Read” perhaps?

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

This first picture is of Lot 228 in Greenwood Cemetery where the only headstone is that of George E Thomas who was killed in action in World War II. But also buried here is Marie Christensen, and her 2nd husband John Chancy Thomas and Bobbie Macigewski (a grand-daughter of Marie ) who was born premature.

Kyle, Kathy and Zoe Christensen at headstone of their half great great uncle George E Thomas, who was killed in action in World War II. George's mother Marie Christensen is the great great grandmother of the 3 kids.

Kyle, Kathy and Zoe Christensen at the headstone of their great great uncle William Christensen, and his wife Florence Krumm.

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.

The proposition is to figure out the percentage of your nationality/ethnicity you are at each generation back starting with yourself, with the aim of identifying at what generation you became 100% of the nationality that you identify with today.

So for me

1. born in New Zealand = 100% Kiwi
2. both parents born in New Zealand = 100% Kiwi
3. 4 grand parents born in New Zealand = 100% Kiwi
4. 8 great grandparents – now it’s a mixture:
   • 1 great grandparent born in Australia
   • 2 great grandparents born in New Zealand
   • 2 great grandparents born in England
   • 3 great grandparents born in Scotland
   • = 12.5% Australia, 25% Kiwi, 25% English, 37.5% Scottish
5. 16 great great grandparents – less mixed now:
   • 10 great great grandparents born in Scotland
   • 6 great great grandparents born in England
   • = 37.5% English, 62.5% Scottish
6. 32 great great great grandparents – now the list is not completely known:
   • 17 great great great grandparents born in Scotland, plus 1 almost certainly = 18
   • 8 great great great grandparents born in England, plus 2 almost certainly = 10
   • 2 great great great grandparents probably born in Ireland^[1]
   • 2 great great great grandparents unknown – their daughter was born in England^[2]
   • = 56.25% Scottish, 31.25% English, 6.25% probably Irish, 6.25% Unknown

[1] – I haven’t tracked down Peter Mulvey’s parents yet, but in the 1841 and 1851 Census for Haddingtonshire where Peter was born, a large number of the Mulveys listed indicate born in Ireland.

[2] The births of Thomas Jennings and Ann Burgoigne have not been actively searched for yet.

So how many generations of this can you complete for your family, and how far back can you go and still be 100% of the nationality you identify with today? For me it’s 4 grandparents all born in New Zealand. Their parents were born in New Zealand, Australia, England and Scotland.

©2010 Roger’s Ramblings. All Rights Reserved.