Poland: Radzilow web page additions

If you're searching for ancestors from Radzilow, former Lomza Gubernia in northeast Poland, you might be interested in these additions to the town site by Jose Gutstein:

1) Video: Beatrice Fields talks about her trip to Radzilow in 1935 (10 1/2 minutes clip). Born in New York in 1910, she describes her visit and meeting her grandfather. She was the only member of her family to visit or return to Radzilow.

2) Audio: Molly (nee Gryngras) Gottfried Reminisces About Radzilow (24 minutes, 1963). Gottfried, who left Radzilow in 1906 at age 19, talks about her young life there

3) Article: Holocaust Survivor (Born in Radzilow, surviving in the Trzcianne area), reunites with siblings after more than 50 years. Born in Radzilow, Rachael Gottfried moved to Trzcianne, most likely after marrying. She and her family survived the Holocaust by hiding in a hole in the swamp in the Biebrza marshlands. In 1965, she was reunited with four surviving siblings in Rochester, NY, after more than 50 years.

4) Detailed Street Map of Radzilow. Gutstein redrew the map to make it accurate as to scale, direction, and even angles of streets, with the exception of the cemetery inset section, which falls outside of the area. He's been able to also pinpoint more house locations exactly.

Poland: Pre-war Krakow footage

YouTube has posted some 1937 pre-War Krakow footage.

According to the poster of the silent film, it is of the Krakow Jewish Quarter, Kazimierz Market Square and street:

"Kazimierz (Yiddish: Kuzmir) is a historical district of Kraków (Poland), best known for being home to a Jewish community from the 14th century until the Second World War.

The Jewish community in nearby Krakow had lived undisturbed alongside their Christian neighbours under the protective King Kazimierz III. By the reign of King Władysław Jagiełło (reigned in Poland 1386-1434), however, relations had deteriorated and pogroms began to occur with increasing frequency.

As part of the re-founding of the Jagiellonian University, starting in 1400, the University began to buy out buildings in the old Jewish district. The Jewish community moved to the area around modern Plac Szczepański."

Click here to see the historical footage and read more of the area's history.

DNA: Personalized music, fragrance

What to get your favorite genealogist has taken on new meanings with a US patent that purports to compose music based on personal DNA and another that can capture your DNA essence as a fragrance.

Numerous companies will already take your DNA and produce very personal art and jewelry, but these two ideas appear to be new.

Read the music patent here:

"Genetic music generated by decoding and transcribing genetic information within a DNA sequence into a music signal having melody and harmony, and useful in the producion of novelty consumer products, identification systems, and diagnostic tools."

For the My DNA Fragrance press release, click here. The website takes a long time to load, but lists prices for testing and products.

Germany: Who Do You Think You Are?

The popular BBC television series, Who Do You Think You Are?, has produced some problems in its German incarnation.

Episodes of the German show on public channel ZDF have uncovered celebrities' Nazi ancestors.

An article on the Expatica.com site illustrates the discoveries.

Walter Sittler, 54, a German actor, already knew that his father, Edward Sittler, had been a US academic who moved to Nazi Germany before World War II, adopted German citizenship and wrote propaganda for dictator Adolf Hitler's Information Office.

The channel said that 8 percent of viewers, some 1.26 million viewers, watched the Sittler segment.

The other featured German celebrity, actress Mariele Millowitsch, 51, comes from a theatrical family in Cologne. She dug up movie footage of her father doing comedy shows for jack-booted Nazi German officers during World War II.

Millowitsch looked vexed as she watched, but said she could not believe her father Willy had been a committed Nazi.

ZDF, according to the article, had not made a decision to produce more episodes.

The article continues:

So far, family history has yet to catch on as a mass pastime in Germany. Its upswing under the Nazis, when people had to prove non-Jewish pedigrees, has given genealogy a bad name in Germany, many practitioners admit.

In addition, much 20th-century data in Germany is locked away under difficult-to-negotiate data restrictions.

Click here to read the complete article.

Copyright issues in genealogy

Conferences provide opportunities to see colleagues in person, and meeting fellow gen blogger Steve Danko at the Southern California Genealogy Jamboree was a high point.

Steve's recent entry on copyright issues is interesting and poses questions that all genealogists may face in their work.

His posting covers legal issues, facts (which cannot be copyrighted) versus compiled genealogies (which can), making information publicly available, receiving permission to use certain information, protecting work in various ways, ethical and moral dilemmas.

Click here to read Steve's interesting post.

Footnote to digitize Allen County Public Library content

I recently wrote about Beau Sharborough's presentation on Footnote.com at the IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy in Salt Lake City.

A subscription site, Footnote.com's recent press release announces its partnership with the largest public genealogy library in the U.S. - the Allen County Public Library (ACPL) - to digitize millions of historical records and make them available online for the first time.

"The ACPL collections feature unique American and international records including family histories, city directories, military records and historical newspapers.

“We’re excited to partner with the Allen County Public Library and are fortunate to be working with some of the finest archives in the United States,” said Roger Bell, president of Footnote.com. “The content from ACPL is a valuable addition to the millions of records we currently have on our site.”

"As part of the partnership, all ACPL records digitized by Footnote.com will be made available at the library for free. For those that cannot travel to the library, these records can be accessed from a personal computer with a Footnote.com membership.

"In addition to the ACPL, Footnote.com has agreements with The National Archives and Records Administration, the Pennsylvania Archives, FamilySearch, the Center for Research Libraries, and local archives in Goffstown, N.H., South Boston, Va., Harris County, Texas, and others.

"Footnote.com doesn’t just make history come alive, it keeps history alive. Footnote.com has created a site where people with similar interests come together to share their discoveries and insights. Visitors are encouraged to annotate documents, tell their own stories and upload content from their own shoeboxes – all for free."

And for those who see flying saucers, as of July 12, Footnote has digitized the entire Project Bluebook . This is a collection of official records covering the United States Government's investigation of UFO phenomenon (1947–1969), featuring accounts of UFO sightings from every state.

Footnote also offers a seven-day free trial, so you can see what's available. For more information, click here.

If you're wondering what Footnote holds for researchers of Jewish ancestry: A search today for "Jewish," results in 2,808 hits. I've searched for family using Footnote's free access at both the Southern California Genealogical Society Jamboree and the 28th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy. Each time, I've found some surprising hits.

Among the record groups were names in the Southerns Claims Commission, Texas births, investigative reports of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Project Blue Book and others.

Mapping Middle East DNA

Dr. Hsien-Hsien Lei's recent Eye On DNA blog postings points out a new agreement signed by Dubai's Eastern Biotech & Life Sciences to be part of the National Geographic Society's Genographic Project via Family Tree DNA.

"They plan to create a database for the Middle Eastern population. Y-DNA and mtDNA tests are offered at DNAancestry.ae although much of the information there is a duplicate from Family Tree DNA and not specific to Middle Eastern populations."

Hsien wonders "if knowledge of genetic similarities and differences between these countries could influence their relationships with one another - for the better or for the worse."

The Middle East generally includes the following countries, although some may argue that several are really Asia/Central Asia: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.

Back home again!

Traveling is great, but my present reality check reveals suitcases must be unpacked, a trip to the supermarket is essential and there are hundreds (if not thousands) of emails requiring replies.

My summer was filled with family (some very new individuals to add to the family charts) and old friends, new friends in interesting places, acquiring new books (with genealogical content, of course) and much more.

There's so much to report on, but I wanted to let Tracing the Tribe's readers know that posts will be appearing much more frequently than during my travels.

I'd also like to invite readers who have achieved genealogical goals over the summer to write in and let others know about your discoveries and how they were made. Your experiences may help other readers!