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Genealogy Blog

11 March 2013

Iraq National Library Destruction: The Incredible Fight To Save Iraq's Collective Memory

The 2003 invasion of Iraq had many casualties, not the least of which was the collective memory of a nearly 5,000-year-old civilization, stretching from ancient cuneiform on clay tablets to the voluminous personal records of Saddam Hussein's secret police.

In the second issue of the magazine Document Journal, art historian Zainab Bahrani gives a first-hand account of the destruction of the National Library and State Archives of Iraq, an institution that collected thousands of historical documents, legal papers, manuscripts, clay tablets.

Source & Full Story

8 March 2013

Japan Burnt 8,000 Classified Documents Before WWII-End

Japan's Foreign Ministry burnt about 8,000 files of highly-classified documents shortly before the nation's surrender in World War II on August 15, 1945, according to Japanese diplomatic records declassified on Thursday.

It is rare for the destruction of such records by Japanese authorities to be clearly stated in public documents. In early November in 1945, the Allied Forces' General Headquarters began questioning senior ministry officials on the condition of the confidential materials.

Source & Full Story

7 March 2013

National Archives Examines Theft of America’s National Treasures, Methods To Prevent It

The National Archives will host a discussion regarding the theft of America’s national treasures and ways to prevent them. Officials say that Archivist David S. Ferriero will provide the opening remarks at Thursday’s event.

Mitchell Yockelson, an investigative archivist with the National Archives Office of the Inspector General, and Jim Warwick, an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Department of Justice, will also make presentations.

Source & Full Story

28 February 2013

Revolutionary War Generation Lives In Photos! Follow Maureen Taylor As She Uncovers Their Stories In A New Film

Maureen Taylor: "At some point in our lives we have all studied the American Revolution.. For most of us it seems long ago and far away, but it doesn’t have to...

Ten years ago, I was presented with an old photograph and asked to analyze it. Suddenly, I realized that I was looking into the face of someone who was a young adult during the Revolutionary War! While it may seem surprising, many of our founding countrymen and women lived into the photographic age…and I discovered that more than 200 years later, I could look directly into their faces."

Source & Full Story

25 February 2013

'I Have No Friends Of My Own': Last Desperate Letters of 19th Century Mass-Poisoner Known As The Black Widow Before She Was Executed

A set of desperate letters penned by a 19th Century poisoner known infamously as the 'Black Widow' before she was executed will be sold at auction next week. Serial killer Mary Ann Cotton was hanged in March 1873 for murdering her seven-year-old stepson Charles with arsenic.

Cotton, who married four times, was suspected of poisoning 21 people in total, including her own children, husband, lovers and mother. At the time of her death, three other murder charges and an accusation of bigamy were left to lie on file.

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Edinburgh WWI Trenches Suffer Flood Defence Damage

Part of the Capital’s historic First World War trenches have been damaged by botched flood defence works. A channel was dug through one of the training trenches at Redford Woods in Colinton to provide an outlet for water from a nearby stream.

The works also saw a manhole covered up, resulting in the blocked drain discharging into the Braid Burn against SEPA regulations. It comes amid a campaign backed by the Evening News to see the nearby Dreghorn trenches, which are part of the same network, preserved.

Source & Full Story

22 February 2013

Rare Photos Show Civil War Life

Rare Civil War images of African American life and battlefield scenes appear in the new exhibit, "The Civil War in Photographs: New Perspectives from the Robin Sanford Collection."

The exhibit, at Southern Methodist University’s DeGolyer Library, runs through February, African American History month, and ends on March 15.

Source & Full Story

15 February 2013

California Couple Reunited With Their Stolen WWII Love Letters

Lloyd and Marian Michael, now 89 and 88, thought the missives of their love were gone forever until a stranger came to their aid just in time for their 70th wedding anniversary.

World War II era newlyweds captured the pangs of long distance love, amplified by fear of enemy fire, in a series of love letters that they cherished dearly for decades - before someone stole them.

Source & Full Story

7 February 2013

Crippled by Sandy, Ellis Island Sends Archives Packing

Tens of thousands of archival papers. Nineteen thousand artifacts. The thousands of donated items, carefully chosen by immigrants to bring to America—from Bibles to pasta makers to musical instruments.

In all, one big packing job for the Ellis Island Immigration Museum. The magnificently restored 113-year-old building, where the story of America’s great immigration is told, is now largely empty, its walls stripped of exhibits of passports, steamship posters, immigrant manifests and much more.

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4 February 2013

State Archives of North Carolina Offers Assistance for Document Preservation

Many items in North Carolina’s nearly 1,000 cultural and historical repositories are at risk as a result of normal deterioration, environmental damage, negligence or improper handling. The State Archives of North Carolina can help through its Traveling Archivist Program (TAP).

The TAP encourages best practices in collection preservation and access by providing onsite, hands-on assistance to institutions that preserve North Carolina’s history and culture.

Source & Full Story

1 February 2013

Priceless Timbuktu Manuscripts Escape Burning

The majority of Timbuktu’s manuscripts is safe, according to experts involved in the preservation of the ancient texts.

After French-led forces on Sunday recaptured Timbuktu, the northern city of Mali on the edge of the Sahara desert, the city’s mayor Hallé Ousmane Cissé made a shocking announcement. He reported that fleeing Islamic militants had set on fire several buildings, reducing thousands of priceless manuscripts kept inside the structures to a pile of ashes.

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Canada: Halifax Theft Probe Turns Mounties Into Antique Appraisers

The house at the end of the snow-covered cul-de-sac in an isolated neighbourhood seemed an odd place for a museum.

But that’s what police officers found inside — hundreds of antiques, rare books, pieces of art carefully displayed, part of a trove that included a suit of armour, a large oil painting of a seascape, old marriage certificates and papers associated with the historic schooner, the Bluenose.

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30 January 2013

World War I Officer's Letters Home Reveal Frustration

A writer believes he has uncovered how a middle-ranking Welsh army officer may have helped to alter the course of World War One. Llewelyn Alberic Emilius Price-Davies, VC, CB, CMG, DSO is best-remembered by followers of Welsh military history as a war hero from the Boer War, who won the Victoria Cross.

On 17 September 1901, as a 23-year-old lieutenant with less than two years' experience, he mounted an audacious horseback solo counterattack on around 400 Boer troops in south Africa; sowing enough confusion in their ranks to allow the British artillery at Blood River Poort to regroup.

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25 January 2013

Rescue Project For Dutch Archives in Guyana

The Dutch records in Guyana, registered as UNESCO Memory of the World in 2011, are in a very poor condition. Ink corrosion, insects and the tropical climate have made the documents very fragile over time, UNESCO reported.

The Rescue Project of Dutch Records in Guyana is an example of how the UNESCO Memory of the World label can act as a catalyst for international cultural cooperation.

Source & Full Story

21 January 2013

New Jersey Student Replaces WWII Veteran's Stolen Medals

They were born seven decades apart, but fate brought them together. It's a love story, but not the kind you think. Workplace friendships are generally generational. The young blond at the front desk rarely has time for the old geezer who can't figure out the copier.

But, at an Avis in New Jersey, Jack Morris and Allison Eyres are inseparable. "Everybody says, 'Why is a 22-year-old girl sitting around with some 90-year-old at work?'" Eyres said. The answer is because she enjoys it, she explained. Basically she loves history -- and he is history.

Source & Full Story

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