PLACES, FACES, & SOCIAL GRACES - wnygs. · PDF filePLACES, FACES, & SOCIAL GRACES: TIPS & TECHNIQUES FOR RESEARCHING NEW YORK NEWSPAPERS Jennifer Liber Raines Goals for.....

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PLACES, FACES, & SOCIAL GRACES: TIPS & TECHNIQUES FOR RESEARCHING NEW YORK NEWSPAPERS

Jennifer Liber Raines

Goals for Today

¨  Better focus and execute our newspaper research ¨  Accurately “Cite What We Sight” ¨  Better organize our materials

Ahh, Genealogy…

¨  Growing list of physical collections, resources, and archives – in person and online

¨  Expanding access to paid and unpaid digital genealogical and historical records

¨  Both are necessary for best and most thorough research.

Some Important Caveats

¨  Information is only as good as what was reported AND recorded. ¤ Difficult to know what is inaccurate or misleading. ¤  It is only partial picture. ¤ Assume nothing.


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Keys To Research Success

¨  Patience ¨  Thoroughness ¨  Creativity ¨  Understanding the period

¤ historical terms ¤  spelling and hyphenation ¤ geography and place names ¤ history and laws ¤  societal and cultural “norms”

Keys To Research Success

¨  Understanding the publications ¤ date ranges ¤ name changes ¤  format changes ¤ biases

Following The Paper Trail

Potential Information

¨  Vital Record Information ¨  Birth ¨  Marriage ¨  Death

¨  Religious Affiliation/Membership ¨  Military Service

¨  draft/recruitment/enlistment/service accounts/injury/casualty

¨  company and unit


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Potential Information

¨  Legal Matters ¤  Land/Property ¤  Criminal/Civil Courts ¤  Probate ¤  Divorce

¨  Organization Membership ¨  Political ¨  Social ¨  Occupational

¨  Immigration/Origin ¨  “FAN” Relationships ¨  Advertisements ¨  The Totally Unexpected

?

Developing Your Strategy

What’s Even Available?

¨  Library of Congress – Chronicling America (1690-Present) ¤ Free

n  chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/search/titles/ n  2096 of 153,913 Digitized n  Only 14 for New York and all NYC based


¨  Stanford’s “Journalism Voyage Westward” ¤ Free

n http://web.stanford.edu/group/ruralwest/cgi-bin/drupal/visualizations/us_newspapers


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¨  New York State Library Newspaper Project (Closed 2007) ¤ Free

n www.nysl.nysed.gov n NYSL microfilm/Statewide microfilm and print by county or

city n  ILL requests

Repository Search


¨  Worldcat (worldcat.org) ¤ Free ¤ extensive though NOT complete catalog ¤  find closest repository by zip code

Regional Libraries

¨  Buffalo & Erie County Library System ¤ www.buffalolib.org

¨  Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System ¤ www.cclslib.org

¨  Nioga (Niagara-Orleans-Genesee) Library System ¤ www.nioga.org


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Repository Resources

¨  Pioneer (Livingston-Ontario-Wayne-Wyoming) Library System ¤ pls-net.org

¨  Southern Tier (Allegany-Chemung County-Schuyler County-Steuben County-Yates) Library System ¤ www.stls.org

¨  Local Branches

Repository Resources

¨  University and College Libraries ¨  History Museums ¨  Historical Societies ¨  Historians ¨  Genealogical Societies

Repository Search Tips

¨  Librarians ¨  Finding Guides ¨  Catalogs

¤ General search terms ¤ Advanced Search

n  “Subject” field [su:] n  Buffalo (N.Y.) n  Erie County (N.Y.)

n  “Format” field: n  “Newspaper”

n  usually includes print and microfilm

Digital Collections


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Online Resources

¨  Fulton History ¤ Free

n  fultonhistory.com/Fulton.html

Online Resources

¨  NYS Historic Newspapers ¤ Free

n Northern New York Library Network in partnership with the Empire State Library Network

n nyshistoricnewspapers.org

Online Publication Resources

¨  Google News Archive ¤ Free

n news.google.com/newspapers n no plans for future expansion

Online Resources

¨  Newspapers.com [Permira/Ancestry.com] ¤ Paid

n www.newspapers.com


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Online Resources

¨  Newspaper Archive [Heritage Archives, Inc.] ¤ Paid

n newspaperarchive.com

Online Resources

¨  GenealogyBank [NewsBank] ¤ Paid

n http://www.genealogybank.com

Online Resources

¨  FindMyPast [formerly DC Thomson Family History] ¤ Paid

n www.findmypast.com

Online Resources

¨  New York Times Article Archive ¤ Paid

n www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/nytarchive.html n 1851-1980


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Techniques for Digital Age

Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

¨  Specially designed software attempts to capture data from image and translate into text

¨  A developing technology ¤ What you see is not always what you get ¤ Will include typesetting errors

¨  Human brain can extrapolate low/high contrast and partial images

OCR In Action

"Interest in genealogy is increas- ing, and is one of the finest forces! ^»» moulding the new Americanism," says Miss Amie S. Woodcock, head of the genealogy department of the Groavenor library, and she ought to know, for she has been pursuing the l<nowledge of genealogy for twenty^ nlne vesrs, and it is due to her long^ end painstaking' efforLs that the "family tree" department of the Grosvenor library is one of the most efficient anywhere. Requests for information come to it from everywhere. New/ York, New England, the south

Buffalo Courier 5 April 1925

Search Techniques


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In Search of Evidence

¨  Start as broadly as possible - limit and filter as needed ¨  Place Matters

n  Broaden your geographic horizons n  Family from where? n  Other ties to where? n  Organizational ties?

n  Coverage area of larger/regional publications n  Reuse and Syndication

¤  Date Range ¨  Closest to event is generally best ¨  Described and recount after event ¨  History recaps

¨  “This Day In History” ¨  10/25/30/50 “years ago today”

Tips and Techniques

¨  Name Variations ¤ Spelling ¤ Abbreviations

n  “Chas.” “Benj.” “Danl.” “Jno.” n  “D.B. Walker”

¤ Title n  “Mrs. Edward Jackson” “Rev. Mitchell” “Dr. Graham”

¨  Addresses only

Tips and Techniques

¨  Common Search Query Fields ¤  Date or Date Range

¤  Location ¤  Publication

¨  Common Search Filters ¤  AND ¤  OR

¤  AND NOT ¤  “with any of the words” ( cat dog bird )

¤  “with all of the words” ( “cat” “dog” “bird” ) ¤  “with the phrase” ( “cat dog bird” )

¤  “with the words within x number of spaces” ( “cat” w/2 “dog” ) ¤  “without word/phrase” ( “cat” -dog )

Tips and Techniques

¨  “Fuzzy” Searching ¤ Predetermined algorithm function that “blurs” search ¤ Often level choices

¨  Stemming ¤ Allows searching by word or partial word root ¤ “fish”>"fishing", "fished", and "fisher” ¤ “argu”>"argue", "argued", "argues", "arguing",

"argus”, "argument”, and "arguments”


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Tips and Techniques

¨  Character Confusion and Substitution ¤  rn > m ¤ h > b ¤ d > cl ¤ v > y ¤ S > 5 ¤ K > l <

Wildcards

¨  ? – one character (L?ber>Liber, Leber, Laber) ¨  * - multiple characters (Liber*>Liberson, Liberman) ¨  ~~ - Numeric range (1873~~1903>1882, 1890)

¤ Fulton History : Exact File Publication Title often yields better results

Fulton History

¨  How do I manual advance pages? ¤ File name number + or -1

n Buffalo NY Courier Express 1951 a - 5307.pdf > Buffalo NY Courier Express 1951 a - 5308.pdf

For Keeps


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Capturing The Image

¨  Clipping and Snipping ¤ Windows

n Snipping Tool n Control + Print Screen

¤ Mac n Command, Shift and 3 – full screen n Command, Shift and 4 – Targeted capture

¨  Saving ¤ PDF

n  true vs. amended

¤  jpg

File Naming Structure

¨  Create rules for how you label certain types of files ¤ Dates that are sortable (Year-Mon-Day) ¤ Publication name with location ¤ Names ¤ Provides an understanding of what is contained in the

file without opening it ¤ Determine use of meta tags ¤ Use of document index

Where Did I Find This?

Citations

¨  EE: 14.22 Newspaper Articles ¨  Format: Print Edition, Online Archives, or Online Images?

¤ author ¤ article title ¤ newspaper name ¤ publication location (city and state) ¤ date ¤ appearance (section, page, column) ¤ website ¤ date accessed ¤ collection name


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The Archivist In All Of Us

Good Administration

¨  Create a consistent step-by-step process that involves: ¤ Organizing ¤ Naming/Labeling

n  Including Metadata

¤ Storing ¤ Backing up

Why Do I Need A System?

¨  Provides a systematic approach ¤ one that reflects your style and use of both print and

electronic resources and materials.

¨  Maximizes research efficiency ¤ easy to locate ¤ keeps you on track ¤ prevents duplication

¨  Improves documentation and citation ¨  Allows for better sharing and collaboration

Research Log/Calendar/Journal

¨  Date ¨  Repository or Website ¨  Call number ¨  Physical description ¨  Web address

¨  Permalink if possible

¨  Full Citation ¨  Comments/Results

¨  positive and negative

¨  Search Method ¤  search terms and phrases ¤ page by page ¤  index

¨  Surnames ¨  Locality ¨  Time period searched ¨  Expense


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Suggested Sites

¨ Family Search ¤ http://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/

Research_Forms ¨ Ancestry

¤ http://www.ancestry.com/download/charts ¨ Family Tree Magazine

¤ http://www.familytreemagazine.com/freeforms

Questions

¨  Happy Searching!

¨  Jennifer Liber Raines ¤  [email protected]

PLACES, FACES, & SOCIAL GRACES - wnygs. · PDF filePLACES, FACES, & SOCIAL GRACES: TIPS & TECHNIQUES FOR RESEARCHING NEW YORK NEWSPAPERS Jennifer Liber Raines Goals for.....

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