Monday, March 28, 2005

Barbie & the Power of the Press.

Most days, I read at least a few other blogs, often those with a genealogical theme, like the Genealogy Blog.
Today, Leland Meitzler has a piece there about a new role for Mattel's Barbie.

She’s teaching U. S. A. history---well, a version of it---and a bit about the rest of the world. Her diaries from 1976 and 1964 have just been published as “Red, White, and Blue Jeans" and "Peace, Love, and Rock 'n' Roll."

Apparently, Barbie’s diaries didn’t turn out to look as her ghostwriter, Linda Lowery, intended. The story’s in yesterday’s Washington Post on-line.

Now it’s hard to think of Barbie as historically, let alone, politically correct, but I wonder how many people would know that in 1870 Barbie risked her dressmaking business to support Susan B. Anthony and women’s suffrage. Not many, I’d guess, but I have here on my shelf, The Front Window, a Grolier Special Edition book/doll set. Barbie wears an elegant, but “modest” dress, and holds in her hand an advertising card for Anthony’s The Power of the Ballot speech. (Somehow, Barbie’s figure doesn’t look quite so impossible in this costume.)

In The Front Window, when her town’s newspaper editor refuses to cover Susan B. Anthony’s visit, Barbie convinces Skipper to help her start another newspaper. Barbie won't be intimidated, and she’s even read Mary Wollstonecraft.

The townswomen don’t get the vote, but they do eventually get Main Street paved and a new roof and floors for the school, and Barbie gets a new job, as editor in chief of the local paper. The women shown in the book all look white, but there is a photograph of Sojourner Truth in this version of Barbie’s diary. Interestingly, though, the men voting at the town meeting aren’t all white.

I wonder if there were any later versions of this Barbie, perhaps depicted chaining herself to the White House fence?

See the Washington Post article, “The World According to Barbie” by Bob Thompson
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3979-2005Mar26.html

For the Genealogy Blog,
http://genealogyblog.com/

Thursday, March 17, 2005

Daughters & Mothers ---Lots of Questions

Yesterday, I found a neat book to give my daughter for her birthday in July. (Hope she doesn't read my blog every day!) It's called

Fuzzy Red Bathrobe: Questions from the Heart for Mothers & Daughters, by Carol Lynn Pearson and (her daughter) Emily Pearson. (Gibbs Smith, Publisher: Layton, Utah, U.S.A., 2000). Illustrations by Traci O'Very Covey.

We are supposed to start our genealogy research with ourselves, but how many of us really take that seriously? Here's a book to get me going! Lots of thoughtful questions & a few not so serious ones---like "What joke do I remember my mother telling me?"

Mmmmm....I will have to think back for that one. Mum wasn't really one for jokes, although her mother was. What does that mean to me &, oh dear, what jokes will my daughter be thinking of?

Lots of quotes included (& yes, some are from Canadian women).

I noticed one of Charlotte Anna Gilman's sharp sayings right away. [nee Perkins, previously Stetson]. This would be good for a framed parlour sampler:

"A family unity which is only bound together with a table-cloth is of questionable value."
from Women and Economics, 1898.

Charlotte's Women and Economics was really the first feminist book I ever read & she's always been important to me. My daughter, Annabelle, & I will have to talk about Charlotte.

Fuzzy Red Bathrobe has sections of questions for Ancestors & Family; Bodies & Health; Being a Woman; Birth & Child-Rearing; as well as for Friends; Nature; Work & Dreams & other topics.

Another, similar, book I like is

Your Way: A Guide To Writing Your Own Life Story, by Emma Mae Robbins (Murder Bay Publishers Ltd.: Sooke, B.C., Canada, 2000).

Fuzzy Red Bathrobe might be available now on sale at a local Coles or Chapters store. That's where I found it yesterday---on a clearance table.

Your Way is available from the author. See writeonspeakers.com for her information: http://www.writeonspeakers.com/emma_robbins.htm

Now I wonder if I could find out if that illustrator, Traci O'Very Covey has any Ontario, Canada or Michigan, U.S.A. Covey ancestors in her charts that might link up with mine?

Wednesday, March 09, 2005

Using Personal Digital Assistants (P.D.A.s) for Genealogy

PDAs aren’t just for displaying or sometimes updating names, events & dates from your family tree. I love my Sony Clie (thanks to my kids for giving me this!). I usually call her 'Clio'--- for the ancient Greek muse of history.

You can also use your PDA as a photo album for pictures of family, ancestors & genealogy friends, as a compass (with a GPS receiver), as a travel log, to catch up on newspapers, or read a book, perhaps Women on the American Frontier , by William W. Fowler (1881). You can use a PDA as an alarm to get you to the archives on time, then later use it to watch a family video, or as an MP3 player to listen to favourite historical tunes while you check your e-mail (with a wireless modem). You could also record or write notes & citations, update to-do worksheets, keep track of new contacts & new cousins, or your genealogical reference collection , even plot & note cemetery recordings, take cemetery photographs, calculate or convert dates or Soundex codes, check a Latin dictionary, or U.S. state information, or the C.I.A. World Fact Book, share heirloom recipes at the next reunion, or keep track of your every-day genealogical research, correspondence or project timelines.

If you're interested, check out these resources:

Selected On-Line Articles & Forums

PDA 2005 Biannual PDA Roundup, by Beau Sharbrough: hardware/software & accessories, with glossary & comparisons.
http://www.rootsworks.com/pda2005/index.htm

Also his PDA Forum: http://www.rootsworks.com/forums/

“PDA & Genealogy”, David M. Goodman, of the Baltimore County Genealogical Society, (Maryland, U.S.A.) 2002. Lots of links & an article by Mark Howells, “Genealogy in the Palm of your hand”.
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/dgoodman/pda/pda.htm

“A Tombstone In Your Palm”, by Steve Paul Johnson, (1999)
http://www.interment.net/column/records/palmpilot/index.htm

“Pix on Your PDA”, on Computer Genealogy.com
http://www.computergenealogy.com/pix.html

Selected Articles & Books

Digitizing Your Family History: Easy methods for preserving your heirloom documents, photos, home movies and more in a digital format, by Rhonda R. McClure (Family Tree Books: Cincinnati, U.S.A.: 2004)

Hand-held Computers”, Issue 87, Dec. 2002, Family History Monthly, London, U.K.

**This book & the magazine are in the British Columbia Genealogical Society's Resource Centre collection.

Selected Software –Websites

For lots of links, go to Cyndi’s List & check the index for
Software & Computers > Handhelds, Palmtops & PDAs http://www.cyndislist.com/software.htm#Palm

MyRoots v4: (my own choice) works with Mac or PC; view & update; room for source citations, unlimited notes; also relationship calculator, filtered searches & more.
http://tapperware.com/MyRoots/

Cemetery: http://home.flash.net/~dkeiffer/Palm%20Apps/Cemetery.html

MemoWare: Free & shareware books & other documents, including histories, dictionaries, databases, literature, maps, etc. for PDAs
http://www.memoware.com/

Readerware: For cataloguing book collections, Palm & Palm compatibles (very useful if you're like me & have to check out every used bookstore you see or hear of

http://www.readerware.com/index.html

Sunday, March 06, 2005

International Women's Week-Canada-2005

To celebrate International Women's Day, or Week, as we're celebrating it here in Canada, I thought I'd pick 2 or 3 favourite Canadian women's books each week in March to re-read. That was just too hard, so I have picked six instead. (I read quickly!)

The Concubine's Children, by Denise Chong, (Penguin Books, Toronto, Ontario, Canada :1994) .
As a girl, Chong knew almost nothing of her grandmother's life. Years later, an opportunity for Chong & her mother to travel to China brought both of them an understanding of their past, and allowed her mother to meet a sister and half brother for the first time.

Try the Goose Grease! written & illustrated by Mary Isabel (Dolly) MacDonald Tuplin in the 1950's?, (published by her daughter, Ann Nunes & the Aldergrove Publishing Company, Aldergrove, B.C., Canada: 1990) . Tuplin wrote of her nursing experiences, sometimes sad, sometimes amusing, in Prince Edward Island & other places from 1917 on.

Raisins & Almonds, by Fredelle Bruser Maynard, Penguin Books, Markham, Ontario, Canada: 1985 ) . In this 1964 memoir, Maynard describes her childhood in Saskatchewan & Manitoba.
Writing a preface for the 1985 edition, Maynard said that "This book changed my life...I recovered my past. And, I realized, after long confusion, who I was and wanted to be." p.ix

Your Mouth is Lovely, a novel, by Nancy Richler, (HarperCollins Publishers, Toronto, Ontario, Canada: 2002). So painful & so hopeful at the same time.

Mamie's Children: Three Generations of Prairie Women, by Judy Schultz (Red Deer College Press, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada: 1997). This is a lovingly told family history.

The River Midnight, a novel, by Lilian Nattel, (Alfred A. Knopf Canada. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: 1999)
Magical; you have to read it.

Thursday, March 03, 2005

Genealogy Reading- 03 March, 2005

Here's what I'm reading this week:

The Danger Tree: Memory, War, And The Search For A Family's Past, by David MacFarlane (Vintage Canada, Division of Random House of Canada Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada: 1991)

and

The Family Tree Problem Solver: Proven methods for scaling the inevitable brick wall, by Marsha Hoffman Rising (Family Tree Books, Cincinnati, Ohio, U.S.A.: 2005)

The Danger Tree isn't your 'average' Canadian family history. There are no descendancy charts (although I would have liked one at least), but there are a few wonderful photographs. MacFarlane has taken the stories of his mother's Newfoundland family, (her own name was Goodyear), as told mainly by the women, and he's set them against the national & international events of the times---politics & the economy, disease, & World War I.

The Family Tree Solver, on the other hand, is a no-nonsense text, well written, with extensive examples, for instance, "Sorting Individuals Of The Same Name". Yes, these examples are all from the United States of America, but the process of planning searches for evidence, searching, then analyzing that evidence, will be the same or very similar for any place or time. This book isn't meant for the beginner, but Rising does include sections like "Ten Mistakes Not To Make In Your Family Research" which will be useful to everyone.

The Family Tree Solver is brand new & available from any 'new' book bookstore. I got mine from LifeTimes Books in Sidney, B.C., Canada. LifeTimes specializes in auto/biographical & genealogical books, new & used. www.lifetimesbooks.ca

The Danger Tree is an older book, and I see over 100 copies available from various used bookstores, mainly in Canada & the U.S.A. through
www.abebooks.com

(I should write something about bookstores very soon.)

Wednesday, March 02, 2005

International Women's Day coming soon

It's almost International Women's Day, March 8th, 2005

Canada’s Theme: “You Are Here: Women, Canada and the World”

Canadians are celebrating International Women's Week (IWW) from Sunday, March 6 to Saturday, March 12, 2005, with the highlight being International Women's Day on March 8th.
There are IWD events all over B.C. this year, from Burns Lake, to Coquitlam, to Dawson Creek, Kelowna, Langley, Nanaimo, New Westminster, North Vancouver, Parksville, Prince George, Richmond, Terrace, Vancouver, Victoria & Williams Lake. See details in the 2005 IWD calendar (National & British Columbian listings) on the Status of Women website at:
http://www.swc-cfc.gc.ca/dates/iwd/index_e.html

and, at Womennet.ca! the Canadian Women’s Virtual Information Centre
http://www.womennet.ca/news.php?browse&67

Especially for IWD this year, “Women’s History A-Z”, a free e-course with Jone Johnson Lewis, of About.com, but only for the month of March 2005. A tour of world women's history from A to Z -- from Australia, Bella Abzug, and Agnodice, to Zenobia and Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Great stuff!!
To subscribe: http://womenshistory.about.com/c/ec/12.htm?nl=1