Genealogy in June just got a little more exciting. MyHeritage, a subscription genealogy site, is offering free access to a different record collection every day in June. Genealogy blogger Dick Eastman has a list of what record collection will be available on what day. example from Swedish Household Examination Book Many of these record collections…
State Emigrant Landing Depot, Castle Garden, New York, from Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration, by Fredrich Kapp (New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1969 ).When you think of your ancestors coming to this country, you probably picture them coming through Ellis Island, with the Statue of Liberty in the background. But…
What is Zoom? Zoom is a video conferencing software that can be used on your internet browser or in the Zoom app that's downloadable through their website. This software has become an incredibly useful tool, especially in the time of social-distancing, for companies (and individuals alike) to keep in contact. With this app, one can…
“You can escape a town, but you cannot escape blood. Somehow, the Vignes twins believed themselves capable of both.”The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett The 16 year-old Vignes twins disappeared from their small Louisiana town in the night after the Founders Day Dance in 1954, and Brit Bennet’s brilliant new book The Vanishing Half opens…
Phil Christman is the author of the new book Midwest Futures - a collection of interconnected essays about the Midwest. The book expands on Christman's 2017 essay for The Hedgehog Review On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality. Both the essay and book start with a dissection of writing cliches about the Midwest as a…
Last week in this space, I considered the difficulty that many of us have been having concentrating on anything these days, including reading. There have been many articles in the book-related emails that come into my box every day. For many of us, reading is just something that we do---eat, sleep, play, work and read.…
During times of national crisis, we often look to our leaders for guidance and reassurance. Perhaps that is why, during these uncertain times, I was compelled to read two recently-published books about wartime leaders who, though very different in personality and upbringing, were both cognizant of their responsibility to the people they represented, and extremely…
Part our job as Bookies at Cook Library is to read books---even while we’re quarantined and working from home. Early on in the quarantine, we Bookies (professional readers all!) found it difficult to concentrate on much of anything, and apparently we weren’t alone. In fact, I’ve read several articles about why some of us are…
Casey Peabody did not expect adulthood to be like this: she did not expect to be drowning in student debt or waiting tables at a pretentious Boston-area restaurant at the age of thirty-one. She did not expect to be living in a moldering garden shed -- and paying rent for the privilege. She did not…
The Cook Genealogy Networking Group met virtually last night. Eighteen of us Zoomed with each other, and after having missed a month in April, it was great to "see" everyone again. As usual, fun stories were shared. One person shared how she had connected with someone on a historical society's Facebook page and helped them…
