DNA Genealogy Lecture in Plano TX, June 6, 2009

Collin County Genealogical Society member Michael Bassett will speak about “Using DNA Test Results to Explore Your Ancestry” at the Haggard Library in Plano, Texas, on June 6, 2009, at 10:30 am.  The FREE lecture ends at noon.

Michael will explain how DNA testing is relevant to genealogy, how the tests work, and address concerns people sometimes have with DNA testing.  Most importantly, he explains how to use the results to further your family history research, especially through surname projects. 

If you haven’t heard Michael speak before, he is an excellent speaker – able to explain DNA research so that all of us can understand it!  He gives pros and cons and will help you decide whether or not to pursue DNA testing in your research.  

So, join us at the Haggard Library! 

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Details:

“Using DNA Test Results to Explore Your Ancestry”
Haggard Library
2501 Coit Road
Plano, TX 75075
Jeanette Bickley Bland Meeting Room (downstairs)
Saturday, June 6, 2009
10:30 am – Noon
FREE

Map to Library

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“Genealogy Technology” Seminar in Plano, Texas, April 25, 2009

Want to learn more about using the latest technology when researching your family history?

 The Collin County Genealogical Society is hosting an all-day ”Genealogy Technology“ seminar April 25, 2009 exploring the use of technology in genealogical research. You will learn how to use digital cameras, portable scanners, and other technology for on-site research, combine all your favorite links into your own Web page, and Google your family history.  

Here’s the announcement from the society:

25 APR 2009 “GENEALOGY TECHNOLOGY” – All day Seminar!

Location: Collin County Community College, Lecture Hall C1042800 E. Spring Creek Parkway, Plano Texas 75074

Time: 9:00 A.M. – 4:00 P.M.  (Registration starts at 8:30 A.M.)

Topics:

• Courthouse Research With a Technology Twist
• Optimizing Your Browser For Internet Research
• File Management and How to Install Downloaded Software
• Using Google and Other Search Engines Effectively

Register (or get more information): http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txcolcgs/calendar.htm

Questions? Email ccgsworkshop@yahoo.com.

Lewis Hine Photographed Yocona Cotton Mill

In May 1911, photographer Lewis Hine, working for the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC), photographed employees of the Yocona Cotton Mill in Water Valley, Mississippi.  (See my previous post, Yocona Cotton Mill - A Brief History.) 

Lewis Hine photograph showing Yocona Cotton Mill workers, including approximately eighteen children. (1)

Lewis Hine’s caption: “Nearly the entire force, Yocona Mills, Water Valley, Miss.  Some of the smallest workers not in photo.  The three smallest ones in front row hang around and help some.  Baby doesn’t work, – yet.  The rest are steady workers.” 

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Identifying Workers

The 1910 Yalobusha County census may help identify workers in the photograph.  The census record is very light and therefore difficult to read, but I believe I have deciphered the following family names: Bilbro (?), Dugard (?), Eubanks, McDowell (?), Mason, Morgan, Murphy, Phillips, Ray, and Sanders. According to the census, Mr. Charles E. Romberger was superintendent of the mill, Mr. Gore was assistant superintendent, and Joe A. Hamby (?) was foreman. 

The census also listed the following jobs: spinner, spooler, thread twister, doffer, ballwinder, and picker.

Note: If you can identify any of the people in the Lewis Hine photograph above, please post a comment below by clicking on the “comments” link.

 

Child Workers

Notice the row of children in front.  Despite their age, these children worked at the mill and they are the reason Lewis Hine came to Water Valley.  In 1908, the NCLC hired Lewis Hine to travel throughout the United States taking pictures of child workers in cotton mills, canneries, farms, and coal mines.  The NCLC used Hine’s photographs in magazine articles, newspapers, and traveling exhibits to increase public awareness of child labor and push for reform legislation.

 

More

Visit the Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, enter “Water Valley” in the search box, and click the Search button to view all five Lewis Hine photographs of the Yocona Cotton Mill.

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Sources:

 (1) Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/I?nclc:5:./temp/~pp_85AF::displayType=1:m856sd=nclc:m856sf=02107:@@@mdb=nclc. (accessed 29 Sep 2008).

Yocona Cotton Mill – A Brief History

The Yocona Cotton Mill, also called Yocona Mills or Yocona Twine Mill, was located in Water Valley, Mississippi, from the 1880s until it burned in April, 1926.

According to various descriptions in Water Valley newspapers and Sanborn insurance maps, the mill produced yarn, batts, mop cord, and twine.  It employed anywhere from 50 to 200 people.

The Yocona Cotton Mill was located in the north end of Water Valley – just north of North Court Street.  It was east of the Illinois Central Railroad tracks and just west of a street called College Street.  (Today College Street is the part of Jones Street that curves into North Court.)  It appears that the current street called Campus Drive and/or the houses along Campus Drive may have been built on top of the remnants of the mill.

The mill was started and owned by local investors, primarily the Wagner family, a prominent family in Water Valley.  Charles E. Romberger was the superintendent of the mill for many years.

I will soon post photographs of the mill taken by famed photographer Lewis Hine in May 1911.  Until then, check out A Young Workforce In 1911 Was Under Scrutiny by Jack Gurner, Jr., of the North Mississippi Herald newspaper.

If you have any information about the mill or the people who worked there, please respond.

Student Blogs

You can always tell a student blog because it ends the last day of class!  That’s what happened to this blog.

However, I’m going to restart this blog - to write about a project I’m currently working on – the Yocona Cotton Mill in Water Valley, Mississippi.

My degree program combines history and technology. For my final project, I will be creating a Web site about the Yocona Cotton Mill focusing on photographs of the mill taken May 1911, by documentary photographer Lewis Hine.

More about the Yocona Cotton Mill and Lewis Hine photographs coming soon!

Including Transcripts With Oral History Podcasts

I think it is important to include transcripts with oral history podcasts.  Transcripts help everybody:

• Listeners
• Researchers
• Deaf users

At the Oral History Association’s annual meeting in Little Rock (see previous post), Rebecca Wright emphasized this point in the “Introduction to Oral History” workshop.  She said words to the effect:

“Given a choice between audio and a transcript, researchers will choose a transcript.  Given a choice between audio and nothing, researchers will choose nothing.”

Researchers need to scan quickly to determine if an interview has relevant information and quotes.

To make scanning easy, there are two techniques:

1. Index - which contains a timestamp and a brief description of what is being talked about.  This helps all listeners find the audio clip they are most interested in. 

2. Transcript – which contains a word-by-word copy of what is being said.  This is very useful for researchers.

So far in my project, I’ve been doing a hybrid of these two techniques.  I started by listening to the raw audio (anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours - broken down into more than one audio file.)  As I listened in Windows Media Player which displays a running timestamp, I created an index. 

Then, as I decided which parts of the interview to include in a 12 to 15 minute podcast, I found myself going back and transcribing some of the detailed conversation to make editing easier.  This was helpful because I sometimes selected audio out of sequence and needed exact words and phrases to make it sound plausible.  (For example, I frequently asked the person to expand on something they said earlier). 

I intend to upload either the index or my hybrid document with all of my podcasts.

Balancing Access and Privacy in Oral History

The good news about posting a podcast is that everyone can access it.  You can reach a very wide audience.

The bad news about posting a podcast is that everyone can access it. You might not want a completely unrestrained audience.  

So, the question is - how / where do you create a page for a podcast so that it’s easy to access and others can see it.  But, if you are doing oral history, it protects the privacy of those who were interviewed.

This is part of a bigger problem oral historians face as they move oral histories to the Internet — oral histories that were conducted decades ago, before the Internet was imagined. 

WordPress offers a couple of options:

1. Password protect the entire blog.  The disadvantage is that each individual who wants to view the blog has to have an individual account with WordPress.  As the administrator, you have to enter each person’s Login ID to allow them to see the blog.  This can be time consuming, especially if you want a large audience to be able to view the page with the podcast.
2. Password protect a single page using a single password.  With this approach, as the administrator, you send the same password to everyone you want to have access to the page.  Something you can probably accomplish with a mass email.

Test Run of Final Podcast Project

I played a test version of my final podcast in class last week to hear how the audio sounded.  I had conducted several one-on-one interviews using the Audio-Technica Pro 24 microphone.  All the interviews were done around a kitchen table (or smaller table).   (See previous post.)

My concerns were:

1. After uploading the audio files to my laptop, the audio sounded much softer that what I was used to when using the Sennheiser MD-46 mike.

2. The Audio-Technica Pro 24 is a double-cardioid mike which means that my voice sounded much louder in one speaker, while the interviewee sounded louder in the other speaker.

During editing (in Audacity):

1. I started by trying to use the “normalize” effect.  But it increased all the background noise, so I decided not to use that.

2. Instead, I used the “gain slider” to increase the volume to 9db, which sounded about right. 

3. I used the “noise removal” effect, which worked great.  It’s a two-step process.  I selected a portion of the audio that had background noise, but no voices.  I clicked the “Get Noise Profile” button.  Then I selected the entire track and clicked “Remove Noise”, after moving the slider about one-fourth of the way, so that it would only remove about 25% of the noise. 

The results:

1. Dan, the instructor, had to turn up the volume all the way.  However, after doing that, the audio sounded fine.  So, the next questions are:

- What impact will increasing the gain even more have?

- Dan suggested trying a compression filter (in place of gain?)

2. In regards to the stereo effect, Dan said not to worry about it, but that I could try to flatten the recording after I finish all the edits.  Not sure what feature that would be in Audacity.  He suggested listening to the podcast through speakers, rather than just through headphones.

3. Dan also suggested using the blog to clarify sections of the podcast that need more explanation.  For example, my interviewee talked about going to U.T. (meaning the University of Tennessee).  It’s not obvious from the interview, but the blog post could clarify that point.  That’s a great idea and will make editing much easier!  I won’t feel as compelled to cram in a snippet of voice that really doesn’t belong.  

Interactive Women’s History Timeline

The Women’s History Timeline is a clever feature found on the BBC Woman’s Hour Web site (see previous post).

Across the top is a series of thumbnail photos, each representing a decade in British women’s history.  Clicking on a thumbnail launches a narration of major events illustrated by a series of photographs.  Each narration is approximately 90 seconds long.  The site includes a transcript as well.

I thought the timeline was intriguing and motivating.  It’s a great way to get an overview of British women’s history.  Being from the United States, I liked being able to compare women’s experiences in the U.K. to women’s experiences in the United States.

I would love to include something like this as an introduction to my podcast project about my mother’s experience in World War II, but alas, no time to learn more software.  The timeline appears to have been created in Flash. 

Podcasts About Women in World War II

My class project, Soldiers Without Guns: The Patton Girls in World War II, is a series of interviews with my mother and aunts about their experiences during World War II. 

I decided to look for similar podcasts – whether done as family history or oral histories.  I found a couple of examples I’ll describe over the next few posts.

First, Women Welders in World War Two, is a podcast from a BBC Radio Show called Woman’s Hour.   The 8:05 minute podcast describes the work of Dr. Margaretta Jolly, who found letters written by women welders in Yorkshire, England, and turned the letters into a book, Dear Laughing Motorbike.  Although this podcast focuses on women in the United Kingdom, whereas my family is all in the United States, I found one point particularly interesting:

“We don’t want to exaggerate the idea that this work was, in any simple sense, liberating.  We often tend to do, now, looking back.  That’s one of the images.  Rosie the Riveter is standing for some kind of simple image of women going into the workplace or being liberated.  I realize through interviewing the women today and through reading the letters that it wasn’t in any way glamorous or romantic.  They did it, first of all, for money.  And they went into those jobs because they were called up by the Labor Exchange.”

But as one of the woman welders emphasized,

“When you were doing it, you felt that you were helping the war.”

I found similar sentiments in my interviews.  My mother and aunts recognized it was a good opportunity, especially to make money, which was important because they had grown up relatively poor.  However, they believed they were helping the war effort in their own way and were proud of it. 

Woman’s Hour: History and Science Archive lists other podcasts regarding women’s role in history.