Genealogy Reviews Online

Julia Child - WW II Secret Agent

According to this Associated Press article in the Washington Post, the National Archives released, for the first time, over 35,000 personnel files of employees who worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during WW II.  The OSS was the first national level intelligence agency of the United States.  It's hard to believe, but Julia Child's file was among them.  I have the feeling however, the article title (and my post title) are misleading.  All of these 35,000 personnel were not a part of a "vast spy network."  Most were probably administrative personnel who were in the background doing those ordinary jobs necessary to keep a government agency running.  Calling all of these people spies is like calling every employee of the CIA a spy or every employee of the FBI a Special Agent - it's just not true.  If you think about it, back then every organizational process needed scores of people to manage all of the administrative functions from resourcing, to personnel, to communications and many others.  Of course all of these processes generated tons of paper requiring a big work force to move it. This had not changed very much...while the government today is completely networked and automated, we still somehow create more paper than most would believe possible - I guess this is just what the federal government does.

The release of these documents also creates a valuable genealogy resource for some people.  It sounds like they include some good descriptive information.

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History and Genealogy Jobs with the Federal Government

I read in Dick Eastman's blog about a genealogy job with the federal government.  Well, I found the companion historian position also being advertised.  Both of these jobs caught my attention because I'm already a Federal Employee (Dept of the Army Civilian), am interested in both genealogy and history, and I live in the Washington DC area.  Some commenters on Eastman's blog thought they wouldn't qualify because the job summary says they are looking for a "professional genealogist."  If you look deeper into the qualifications, there is no mention of "professional genealogist" anywhere.  You don't need one of those certifications to be selected for this job despite what the summary says.  The key criterion for these jobs, or any other federal job, is how applicants are evaluated.  Veterans get first shot at government jobs - as it should be in my opinion; then those in a federal government agency whose positions were downsized for whatever reason; then there's the Indian preference.  There are other unwritten complications, but these exist in any organization looking to hire people.

The pay seems high to those outside of the DC area, but the reality is the higher end of the salary scale is probably a hair above average.  The average cost of a single family house in the area is about $500,000 - if you want to have a decent commute.  There's cheaper housing further out, but the commute time increases and this can be problematic.  We do have a pretty efficient Metro system (subway) in the area, but I used it for 2 years prior to retiring from the Army and really got tired of it.

I think these are pretty cool sounding jobs, and if I didn't already have a decent job with a 10 minute commute, I'd probably apply.

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FBI FOIA Electronic Electronic Reading Room

I took the day off from work Wednesday, and while exploring the internet looking for entertaining sites, I stumbled upon the FBI's Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room.  My fading memory tells me another blogger wrote about this site at some point in the past, but I just can't remember who to credit with the idea.  My original plan was to blog about all of the interesting announcements I saw on Randy Seaver's Gena-Musings blog that was coming out of the big genealogy conference in Kansas City, but then I found the FBI's site.  Four hours later, the day was gone and didn't even have enough time to write this post before all of the evening family activities started.

I think because of my line of work I'm just an information freak, so when I started reading the FBI case files I just couldn't stop.   I was really surprised at the amount of information in this electronic reading room.  Browsing the site is great fun and these 6 categories are the best place to start:

Espionage, Famous Persons, Ganster Era, Historical Interest, Unusual Phenomena, Violent Crime

Some of the files have been redacted (blacked out), and it does get a little annoying, but overall doesn't change the focus of the documents.  Probably the most fascinating file I read was on Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.  This was a controversial case, but the most interesting aspect to me is to read the language of the cold war, and the fear the USSR inspired during the 1950s.  It sounds ridicules today, but at the time this fear was very real.  Out of the bunch I looked at on Wednesday, this one was my favorite. 

Unlike genealogy sites, you can't do an indexed search of these documents.  While there's probably not much of genealogical value here, it sure is interesting historical reading from primary sources.   

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National Archives Prologue - Spring 2008 Issue

My Spring 2008 issue of the National Archives Prologue magazine arrived the other day.  I always look forward to this quarterly journal and this issue has some great articles.  One thing puzzles me though...it costs $24 to have it delivered, but most of the feature articles are available online for free.  I guess I need to reevaluate my subscription next time it comes due.

There are 3 very good articles worth reading and they are available online.  The first is the cover story called Jim Crow, Meet Lieutenant Robinson.  Most everyone knows Jackie Robinson was the first African  American to play Major League Baseball, but I bet not many know the story of his short Army career and the fact he faced a court martial at Camp Hood (now Fort Hood),Texas for his actions surrounding his refusal to sit in the back of a bus.   He showed the same grit and determination here he had to exhibit when breaking into the major leagues, and because of this incident, the Army changed some of it's policies about segregation.  One fascinating part of this article is it was written mostly using documents found in the National Archives.  I know his baseball story very well, but this one was new to me.

The second article worth reading is in the Genealogy Notes section titled To Protect and to Serve:  The Records of the D.C. Metropolitan Police, 1861-1930.  The article covers the history of the department and highlights records from the assassination of Lincoln to the arrest of pickpockets.  It also shows these records contain information on people employed by the department and on the various day-to-day law enforcement activities - a very interesting article about records I never considered.

The third article I haven't read yet, but it looks tasty and is titled "No Little Historical Value" The Records of Department of State Posts in Revolutionary Russia. It's about how diplomats had to scramble to save and ship back documents during the anarchy surrounding the Russian Revolution.

All of these articles are well written and documented from records obtained in the National Archives.  There are so many unknown stories housed in those billions and billions of pages stored by the Federal Government.         

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Freedom of Information Act's Impact on Genealogy

(UPDATE:  Craig Manson reminded me of his post last August called Getting Information From the Government: FOIA 101.  It's a great primer on how to use FOIA.)

Have any of you out there used the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) to request government documents?  I know most of us use organizations (national and state archives, Family History Centers, etc.) whose purpose in life is to preserve records and answer requests from the public.  If any of you have tried to request documents from other government agencies, and have had a hard time with a response, then this article in the Washington Post may explain why.  An audit by George Washington University's National Security Archive apparently shows the government hasn't made much progress on request backlogs.  To keep this in context, the National Security Archive requests documents from government intelligence agencies so this probably impacts the time involved and the backlog of requests. 

I have used FOIA a number of times with limited success.  I've had one FOIA request in for my maternal grandfather's Veterans Affairs medical records since 2003.  I'm trying to get these because he spent the last year and a half or so of his live in a VA hospital back in the early 1960s and figure there is a wealth of information about him in the file.  For the first year the VA kept in contact occasionally with a status on my request.  After that they quit writing and I still haven't received an answer.  I've also used FOIA to request documents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and they were pretty responsive.  I'm kicking around asking for my mother's personnel records since she worked for the federal government for about 15 years.   

I'd be interested to hear what kind of response other's have received on FOIA requests to the government.

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United States Geological Survey Tools

Find Your Family Name In Historical Documents

This article pointed me to a mapping tool produced by the US Geological Survey. The article is about how you can use these mapping tools to locate place names on historical maps that were based on family names.   The article points out that many of these place names don't exist anymore, but with these USGS tools you can search for them in the database of historical maps.  I put this to the test by searching for 2 of the family names on my maternal side - Cone and Zaring.  Danial Cone was an early settler in Connecticut during the late 1600s so I searched for the surname and found a "Cone Pond" and a "Cone's Point."  I clicked on these two items and found a description of the geographic location.  There are also mapping links where you can see the location displayed on a map.  I like the Google Map option because it displays the map like you are used to seeing.  When I plugged in the name "Zaring" I found a road called "Zaring Way" and a "Zaring School" both in Missouri.  Now I don't know if these place names have any relation to my family, but I suspect they do based on the locations of each.  If nothing else, these tools give you a basis for further research...and I just love maps so I had a lot of fun playing around with this site.  If you haven't already, you should check this one out.          

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Naturalization Index Cards in Colorado

In early February I passed along a news story from the Denver Post about the discovery of a large number of naturalization index cards in Colorado.  This first article mentioned about 3000 names on index cards from 1860 to 1904.  I just found another story by Tina Griego, one of my favorite columnists in the Rocky Mountain News, where she goes to see these cards herself.  Griego says there are 40,000 names covering from  1876 to 1906.  I don't know which number is correct, but either way this is a good news story.  Another interesting part of the story is when Griego reads a part of a letter from the territorial governor to the Blackfoot Indian Nation shortly after Custer's defeat telling them that the Army is about to descend upon them...very interesting stuff.  One thing I love about this story is the way Griego describes her feelings as she is surrounded by all of this recorded history - its the same feeling I get when I visit such places.

National Archives

Has anyone noticed how efficient and quick the National Archives is getting?  A while back I wrote a review of Footnote and mentioned I found two ancestors who served in the Civil War - one I was aware of and the other I wasn't.  I went to the National Archives site and ordered both of those military records and was expecting a 2-3 month wait based on past experience.  In fact, when I placed the order it said to allow up to 6 weeks for delivery.  Well, two weeks later both records arrived in my mailbox.  I don't know if my records were just easy to pull or not, but I was very impressed.  I hope this is just how they do business now.

Bureau of Land Management Records

I think I have a different way of researching my family history then most people.  From surfing the web, it looks like a lot of people are mainly trying to build a family chart that goes back as far as possible.  I started out doing the same thing, but I kept finding very interesting facts about the lives of some of my ancestors.  I would always stop and try to dig up as much info as I could about one person.  The tool I use is a simple time-line.  I draw a line from birth to death and try to plug in as many facts as I can throughout the persons life.  One of the sites I've used is the Bureau of Land Management Land Office Records.