4-leaf clover for good luck!
Please find a way to preserve all of your genealogy records. I recall times during my childhood when I observed people burning old bibles etc. in their yards. This usually occurred after a death. Hey! In those days, just about everyone kept their family record of births, marriages and deaths in their bible. When this went out of style, we lost many important records. What I am saying is that all of your hard research work can disappear quickly.
This sort of rendering occurred again on the Internet. Most of my websites went up about 1995. At that time, people were posting their genealogy online. Family group sheets and pedigree charts appeared like magic. USGenWeb came into being as a volunteer effort, where people could submit county records and thus help build a universe of free genealogy information. When Ancestry came into being, they scooped up small genealogy sites and most all of the free information. The wonderful family group sheets and charts disappeared. Genealogy Publishing Company, a printer who located and reprinted old out-of-copywrite genealogy books, went online where they functioned for awhile until finally bought out by Ancestry. Also, other genealogy book printers seemed to disappear over night. What did this mean to getting more data added to library shelves? I no longer had a company to publish my information. Hence, I used the Internet to store my (new and old) books and other data.
We are in dire times. Are you noticing what is happening? Did you have your DNA work done? Hmmm. All that collective DNA must have been sold to someone. Bank of America is spying on people using DNA records and the US is building a massive DNA database . Bank of America secretly turned over customer info to the FBI
Old records stored in the vault of court houses are being moved to off-site storage. An example is Chatham County, Georgia. When I was last there, I had to wait 3 days for the stored records to come to the court house. If you plan a trip to a court house it is a good idea to phone first. Do you attend library sales? That is where to purchase books purged from individual libraries. Yes, history and genealogy books can also be found there.
In 2018, American universities purged history books etc. from libraries This practice continues, replacing certain books for “woke” studies. It was recently announced (this year, 2021) that all US libraries will do a purge on books. As a starter, expect the cancel culture to purge books on the Civil War. They are already removing the monuments of interest to genealogists. As a parallel example here, I remind the reader of the tedious work of archaeologists. Were it not for the hierglyphics inscribed inside Egyptian tombs we would not know that part of our past. Consider the many years that historians have spent attempting to translate the hierglyphics of Mayan cities. Only recently have I learned from a Linkedin article, that the Creek Indians in Georgia claim descent from the Mayans. (An old written record of the Creeks dating from the days of General Oglethorpe found in the possession of Prince Charles). We want to know more about where our people came from, not simply accept an old out-dated historical concept that they lived in caves and one day discovered fire. Unfortunately, “cancel culture” has seeped through from the shadowy catecombs of darkness. Destroy the past. Re-write history the way you want it to be. It is all happening while we are asked to isolate ourselves from others. Right now, to my knowledge, all State Archives and most public libraries are closed. The purging could be happening now, while we are isolated. And, when public facilities re-open, we might find surprises.
Consider. Information in the Wikipedia is written by interested persons. It is credible when they they provide references. But we must be suspect here, because our dictionary is being re-written. Lots of woke expressions are being inserted; meanings of words changed, etc. If you have an old dictionary or history book, please value it. (It is going to become rare). This is a time to attend book sales and antique book stores.
The genealogist digs and digs into court house records, old wills, minute books, deeds, State records and correspondence, immigration records, meetings of the House of Burgess, pension and service records, military rosters, pamplets published on the London Company and Virginia Company. Just to mention a few. We learn about the era in which our ancestors lived, and how they survived. Just like today. We are experiencing the events of our own time. What will they say about us later, in a different era, when the circumstances were different? Our own personal research records will stand for truth.
I am aware that genealogists find some pretty interesting data about their ancestors as well as information about the historical past. Our task today is to preserve the records of the past. Please find a way to protect your valuable research. It is the single-most important thing to be accomplished this year.
If you are offended by my spillin’ the beans, please unsubscribe.
Best wishes to all researchers this year!