Tag Archives: Dan Niemiec

Let’s discuss how this all works. Most records are hand-written. Problem number one. So for them to be indexed on-line, someone has to read them and type them in. This, of course, is called “indexing.” I know they are working on computer technology to try to read handwriting and convert it into computer text, but let’s presume that such technology is a long way from perfection, especially when reading handwriting from a century or two ago. So who is indexing the billions of records so we can search them so easily? We could probably end all unemployment if people could …

For the past two months, I have been writing about how we need to talk to our older relatives and learn everything you can, because once they leave us, their memories of those who are long gone will no longer be accessible to us. That happened on Nov. 3 when our family matriarch, Mary Purpura, finally succumbed to old age just short of 101 years old. Technically, she was my grandfather’s kid sister. In reality, she was “Big Nonna,” grandmother to practically everyone whose lives she touched, including me. Why “Big Nonna”? Well, she was mother of 11 children and …

Last month, I told the story of a young man named Paolo who died so long ago that nobody remains who can tell anything about him. There are a few impersonal government documents and a grave monument that acknowledge his presence on the earth, but today there is simply no way to ask anyone anything about him. Today, I want to put a sense of urgency on talking to your living relatives who are old enough to remember people who died long ago. I have lost several relatives in the past couple of months. They lived far away and they …

I am reminded every day at work that my memory isn’t what it used to be. When I was a kid, I could remember which baseball card numbers I needed to complete the set of 660 Topps cards. I didn’t need a written list. I guess they would call that a photographic memory. Now, I leave my house without remembering to comb my hair! Or I get in my car and try to start it only to discover that I left my keys on the table! There’s a term for the status of my current memory, but I can’t remember …

Good day and I have missed writing for you all! Once public libraries and family history centers closed, most of our access to records was cut off along with most of what I write about in these columns. Let me explain. Most Italian civil records 1809-1929 and Cook County vital records can be browsed on familysearch.org, but the web site only allows you to browse them if you are in a Family History Center or an affiliate library. (Not all public libraries are affiliate libraries.) Familysearch has to have a certain router address in order to permit computers on that …

Familysearch has done it again! (If I had a nickel for every time I’ve written that, I’d have $2.85!) I have not been on Familysearch much, due to the fact that the records I need are only accessible from a Family History Center or an affiliate library, both of which are closed as of this writing. So when I got in and saw the menu, I was perplexed. The Search menu starts with Records but then says “Images.” I didn’t know what it meant so I skipped it. My curiosity finally got the better of me, and I clicked on …

A number of people have written to me with the same question, which means it’s a good time to address this for everyone. (Please write questions to me at italianroots@comcast.net at any time.) Readers have looked up films in the catalog on Familysearch.org, and the catalog tells them that the images for those films are online. So they go to look at the images, and Familysearch tells them “Nope you can’t see these!” Well, that stinks! To explain this situation, we need to talk about legal agreements for a moment. Familysearch has to negotiate with each repository of documents for …

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I’m a stubborn person. Most people who don’t know me well believe I’m stubborn, too! Every so often, I write a column to ask you to do something that I’m not that good at, partly to push myself into getting better as a genealogist. I have been spending a lot of hours going through records I already have, in an attempt to better document my research. Why should we do this? I know where all my copies are. The papers are in piles and in boxes, and the digital images are all named …

I trust you’re all familiar with children’s book series, “Where’s Waldo,” in which kids are tasked with finding the titular character, who’s hiding in an enormous crowd. I have spent the better part of the past two months playing a genealogical game called “Where’s Waldo Buried?” It’s easy to keep track of the relatives you see frequently or you stay in touch with through social media. However, the relatives in your tree who you’ve never met and haven’t “friended” are another matter. These people may be distant relatives but you do not know them and they do not inform you …

Last Thursday, I stopped at a local microbrewery to try their new chocolate stout. There were eight random seats throughout the place but every one had someone sitting next to them. I picked one at random and sat down. The guy sitting next to me was talking through my head to three men on the other side of me, and they were discussing politics and economics. I had no interest in discussing these subjects with strangers drinking beer with high alcohol content, so I stared at “Wheel of Fortune” with no sound on the TV across the way so I …