The dog days of summer

At the Free Public Baths, Harriett Island, St. Paul, MN

Yep, that is where we are folks.  It is hot and sticky here on the east coast of the US.  School is just a few short weeks away.  Summer time is winding down.  Which means it is party time around here!  Just joking, sort of.

There is a lot coming up this fall and if you are like me I start planning months out what I am doing genealogical wise as many months in advance as I possibly can.  Well, mainly because I am a mom and I have 4 schedules to juggle!  I bet some of you can relate to that.

Plus there is a lot of stuff going on in the community right now.  I hope you are watching WDYTYA!  To be honest, I really can't wait to see this Sunday's episode.  A behind the scenes episode with cut footage and some of our favorite scenes if we are to believe the advertising.  My husband scoffs at this, he detests clip shows in any form, but he is still going to sit there and watch it with me!  Of course, I also hope you are watching the after show IDG Chit Chat Live! that I co-host.  It's lots of fun!

Speaking of genealogy TV.  Have you submitted a story to Genealogy Roadshow yet?  They are seeking your stories, so get out there and submit!!  Go out to their casting page and fill out the application.  Quick and easy, I already did mine.

On Friday, I received news that I was selected to be an Ambassador at RootsTech this year.  I am thrilled to be doing this and know that I am going to have a great time in Salt Lake City with all of my favorite genea peeps.  Now to convince my husband that I need to get there early to do research.  2 days was just not enough time last year!  That, and I should start preparing for the trip now.

My last class for the year on Source Citations at Family Tree University started this week.  Registration is open until Friday for this 4-week long class if you want to learn more about creating good source citations.  It is designed for anyone but geared to people who are scared to death that they are going to do them wrong.  Source citations are fun, promise!

Make sure you check out my presentations page on this blog.  I recently updated it with speaking engagements for the fall and into next Spring.  As always, let me know if you are in the audience.  I would love to put faces with names!

On that note, I am off to buy school supplies and organize the kids for thier last 3 weeks.  Ah, then it is back to uninterrupted working hours (when it is still daylight) again.  It is the little things in life at times that make you smile.

Review of Interview With Mary Tedesco From Genealogy Roadshow

On Wednesday 28 January there was a great hangout I listened to which was produced by featuring Mary Tedesco.  The show focused mainly on the New Orleans shows for the new season of Genealogy Roadshow, the 2^nd of which will be shown next Tuesday 3 February 2015.  If you have not have the opportunity to watch the hangout I recommend you do so. 

BayouBuzz.com

BayouBuzz.com is a website that acts as a local news source for Louisiana.  The site is published by Stephen Sabludowsky (@BayoubuzzSteve) who hosted the show.  Co-hosts for the episode were Erin Brady (Miss USA 2013 @OfficialEBrady) and Ben Fisher.  The hangout lasted 43 minutes so make sure you budget the time to watch, it’s not a quickie.

It was really a wonderful chance to have a small behind the scenes peek into what a host, and consequently the show, is really like.  Mary acknowledged the team of researchers (she said it takes a village!) and that a lot of the magic happens later with the production team.  They are the ones who cut, snip and edit the footage into the final stories.  Those powerful stores which have left me grabbing a hankie a couple of times.  Which, by the way, season three casting is underway so go out there and submit your stories!

I particularly appreciated her candor on what it takes to be a good genealogist and pointing out how each story, and really each family, is very different.  That is so true too!  No one family has the same experience and we are such a diverse nation, with so many ethnicities and heritages blending together, it still amazes me what people can discover with a little digging.  We all have a story to share and I think if someone didn’t know a thing about genealogy they might be interested to learn more about their family after watching this video. 

Her emphasis that a grasp of history is important really hit home for me.  I cannot agree more on this subject.  Many people I know use genealogy as a jumping off point to learn more about the history of their ancestors.  Be it social, military, or political histories which is great.  Everyone should investigate what effect their ancestors and why.  However, I come at it from a different view.  The reason a lot of my brick walls were broken down was because I knew the basic history going in.  Maybe not everything I needed to know but I knew enough that I was able to lead my research to the correct countries or figure out from dates and patterns why people were migrating where and when. History (all types) goes hand in hand with genealogy research.

Of course I nearly jumped with glee when Mary was asked about how technology will help genealogy.  She used the words I love saying, and have been given the stink eye for too.  Social media and technology is having an impact on genealogists, we can’t run away from it!  We, genealogists, are crowd sourcing our brick walls.  Halleluiah!  Another person saying what I have spouted for the last several years in blog posts and lectures.  If she was there in the same room with me I would have kissed her.  Really, I would have.

So go check out the video and let me know what you thought.   

Making discoveries with a family journal

 Persian Column, Perspolis, Iran
Grandpa visited this site

The last few days have seen a whirlwind visit by my h­­usband’s father and step-mother.  They of course came to see the boys, we totally understand grandparents don’t come to see us anymore, but we all had a great time.  There were driving tours of the countryside, way too much food, talking about all manner of subjects, and of course a bit of family history.

I did corner my father-in-law and ask him to go through my grandfather’s journal with me.  He is a metallurgist and rocket scientist (no jokes) and is familiar with what my grandfather did while in the military.  We spent two days going page by page reading and deciphering the journal entries.  I pulled up Google maps and traced his routes through the mountains of Iran.  When we found the entry that simply stated “killed a cinnamon bear. It’s a beauty, about 600 pounds.” I cheered, couldn't help myself. That entry dates the picture I have of him and the bear to 7 April 1957.

It was nice to have someone familiar with military abbreviations and designations sitting there with me.  He helped me figure out key phrases to search the internet with.  This was a fantastic because I gained a lot more information on the operation he was involved with than I ever would have before.

­­My grandfather was involved with the Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) Iran.  These men were military advisers who assisted the native military in the country they were sent to.  From his journal I saw that he oversaw training of several different areas of military function and wrote reports for his superiors and the corresponding Iranian officers on how the troops were progressing.  It was entertaining at times, and down right disheartening at others.

In searching for explanations and information I came across several interesting declassified documents from that time frame.  Included in those findings was this report from the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the review of the Military Assistance Program for Iran.  The review was conducted in November 1957, the month my grandfather left.  You can read the full report here. 

The real shocker was discovering an episode of The Big Picture.  It was a documentary style TV series that ran in the 1950s and early 1960s.  Essentially this was the way the Army kept the American people informed about historic events around the world.  It prided itself on current events and moments that made the Army proud.  In one episode titled “Military Assistance Advisory Group: Iran” Mike Wallace takes the American people to Iran and shows them about this important operation.  If you watch it, notice how the American’s on the ground are decidedly downplayed.

This has been a real adventure the last couple days and I have to admit fascinating too.  Sometime in the near future I will go back through the journal again.  This time cataloging all the names, places, and tid-bits that I can.  These may lead me to further clues about who my grandfather was working with and what he was doing. I love it when I can find family links with historical contexts.  Now I am off to share all this with my history loving oldest child.

Review: Family Tree by HBO

I have been anxiously waiting for the release of the new HBO series Family Tree.  Well, it was, interesting.  First, if you don’t like British comedy in the vein of Spinal Tap you will not like this show.  It was quirky, full of dry humor, and plenty of awkward situations that make you cock your head sideways.  Below is my honest review of the first episode.  

If you have not heard about its release Family Tree is a 30 minute comedy that premiered last Sunday evening on HBO.  Created by Christopher Guest (director of A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, and For Your Consideration) and  Jim Piddock this eight part series follows the main character Tom Chadwick (played by Chris O'Dowd) through his first foray into genealogy.  

The show starts with Tom and his sister Bea (played by Nina Conti) on their way to their father's house (Keith Chadwick, played by Micheal McKean) for dinner.  It is there that he informs them of a distant relatives passing and that they each have been left with something.  Tom receives an old steamer trunk and is initially less than thrilled with it.  However, it is what he finds in the trunk after he gets home that had me smiling and will have the fellow genealogists out there nodding along too.  With one item he is bit by the bug and he starts off on his first family tree adventure.

It is described a a mockumentary, but I didn't think it lived up to that description.  As a mockumentary I expected to see more of the documentary filming style interspersed with interviews and clips.  This, however, was a regular show with the occasional interview thrown in making it seemed disjointed and no flow.  At one point I was thinking what in the world was going on.  One second they are having a nice family conversation and without warning they have cut away and are getting background information from Tom   Who is there interviewing him and why?  It just cut back and forth between the 2 genres and I wanted to yell at the screen to stick with one of the other already.  Of course it has been compared to The Office... neither version of which I could stand. So maybe it is just me.

Overall, I am curious to see where it goes.  With only 8 episodes I will probably last the whole season, but the next season will be iffy unless it gets a lot better.  Now, it just may be that I prefer British comedy in the vein of Black Adder, Coupling, or Four Weddings and a Funeral and that I just don't "get" this type.  I am sure they can say the same thing about some of our shows too.

Want another opinion, and not from a genealogy perspective?  Check out a few of these:

'Family Tree' series premiere: HBO's newest mockumentary charms in spite of its meandering nature from Zap2it

Recap: Christopher Guest's 'Family Tree' Gets Off To A Promising Start & Shows He Hasn't Lost His Touch from Indiewire

Seitz: Christopher Guest's Family Tree is a Less Mocking Mockumentary from Matt Zoller Seitz at Vulture