I Wear Tight Genes

Wherein I attempt to relate the trials and tribulations of tracking down information on people who are dead, but bear some resemblance to me...when they were alive.

Friday, October 06, 2006

Photos Of the Departed

Posted by Picasa It's done. I've scoured my grandfather's complete collection of slides and photos and I've scanned in every one of them that included a family member. While some of the landscape shots were certainly interesting, and probably added to the story he was trying to tell at the time, they've lost their relevance over the decades, and what's remained is the value of the person that may have posed in one or two of the shots.

There are some real gems, like what I found at the bitter end, last night (great pictures of my great-grandparents, Fred and Anna).

If you want prints of any of those pictures, you can do a few things:
1) At the bottom of the gallery page, click the link "Download Picasa". It may require that you register as a Google user, but that's pretty painless.
2) Once you've downloaded and installed Picasa, you can click the "Download" web link while looking at the page for any particular photo, and it'll load it into Picasa for you.
3) Now, when you view the photo in Picasa, there's an icon at the bottom of the screen that's labeled "Order Prints".

If the resolution or quality of any of the photos you see isn't where you'd like it, I have the original high-resolution version on my hard drive, and would be willing to email them to you. Some of the really old pictures I've scanned are in really high resolution, so the file sizes can get pretty big. If your email account can't handle it, I can still burn it to a CD and send it to you via snail mail.

I've now begun scanning in my own personal photo collection. While certainly not as extensive, it contains a wider variety of relatives than just the Carlson clan.

If you've got a collection of family related photos you'd like to see in the gallery, please let me know, as I'd be willing to get those digitized as well. A couple of things to remember:
1) I had a hard time identifying even some moderately close relations, due to what they may have looked like at various times in their life. The best thing to do is label your snapshots and/or slides with the subject matter, so I know who it is I'm scanning into the system. If there's a relationship of which I'm not aware (like a 2nd wife, the 3rd cousin of a distant uncle, etc), then you'll need to inform me of that as well, so I can properly link them up on the site.
2) You can go ahead and mail me anything you want, but I'm only scanning in family members, right now. The job is big enough without scanning in yet another photo of the White House or some pretty flower.
3) I'm willing to send the photos back to you by USPS parcel post when I'm done with them. It's a slow method of shipping, but it's good and cheap and reliable, and it's not like you need the photos immediately, right?

If you're having trouble working the galleries or any of the software I've set up, please drop me an email.

Monday, October 02, 2006

Bragging Rights to William the Conqueror

William of Normandy was known as William the Conqueror (and, incidentally, King of England) after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. Any student of history will tell you how pivotal and important that battle was to the population of Europe at the time, and how the echoes are still being felt in the genealogical archives today.

Hell, I keep reading the Bayeux Tapestry over and over again. I just can't put it down.

Why am I suddenly embarking on a history lesson? Well, as it turns out, anyone with a bit of the UK in their genealogical makeup is actually related to everyone on the island in 1066. How is that possible? Statistics, my friend.

Joseph Chang has an interesting study posted here, where he says:
"with high probability for large n, in each generation at least 1.77 lg n generations before the present, all individuals who have any descendants among the present-day individuals are actually ancestors of all present-day individuals."


That means if the UK had a population of 1 million people in 1066, it would take only 35 generations between you and 1066 for you to be related to everyone on the island if you're related to at least one of them.

I'm mentioning this because I've heard from at least 3 relatives that they can trace back their family name (Comyn/Cummins, Fitzgerald, and Williams) back to knights that came over from Normany with William to conquer the island and set himself up as king. You can probably find one or two of your own direct ancestors noted in the Doomsday Book

So, the next time some old lady down your block claims that she's got better genes because she's related to some knight in William's court, let her know how you're related to all 999,999 other residents of the isle at the time.

Hey, I Should Play the Lottery


Have you ever experienced one of those coincidences where you're forced the question the nature of the event over and over again until it's solidly in your mind as a good reason to go down to the local convenience store to play the lottery? Either that, or just stay out of lightning storms.

Well, a few months after I created my family tree site, my brother forwarded me a URL for an obituary. It was the announcement of the death of my great uncle, G.E. Valley. Because of a falling out between my grandfather and his brother, I never knew much about my great uncle. I read through the obituary in awe: Not only had George been instrumental in helping the Allies win World War 2, but his interests and lifestyle seemed closely matched to mine. I only wish I'd known him when I was in A.P. Physics in high school. That would have been a trip.

At the bottom of the obituary, it lists the "survived by..." section, which genealogists all over know is a true goldmine of information, particularly when you're dealing with an unknown person. My brother had forwarded the obituary in the first place because of one name on the list: John W. Valley, who's residence was listed as Madison, Wisconsin.

I googled him and quickly found that he is a professor at the University here in town, and I got his office phone number. One email and a phone call later, and I'd found my cousin (once removed).

Having never met before, and coming from families where even his generation of cousins had never met him personally, it was particularly interesting to both of us to meet up. After finding out that he lived about 5 blocks away from me, I started to have those lottery feelings again.

Anyone got a scratcher?