Ernest Thode
For 22 years I was a local history & genealogy librarian at the Washington County Public Library in Marietta, Ohio, a fact which impacts both of my talks.
Wednesday, 7 May 2014, W146
Ohio: Virginia's Next-Door Neighbor"Ohio: Virginia’s Next-Door Neighbor" is an appropriate topic because my library is located six blocks from the Ohio River, old Virginia’s border, also her daughter West Virginia’s border. There is much interaction across the river. Some of the implications for genealogy include vital records laws, land surveys, slave vs. free, ownership of the river, the Underground Railroad, occupations in natural resources, and the clash between New England and southern ways of life.
Friday, 9 May 2014, F324
Using Historic German Newspapers OnlineMy talk on "Using Historic German Newspapers Online" got its start from from a patron researching his Washington County Schneider family. After we found his ancestor’s place of origin in local church records, on a whim I searched online for “Bledesbach” plus “Daniel Schneider.” We found a notice in a Bavarian official newspaper announcing the sale of the family’s land prior to emigrating. To test whether that was a fluke, I looked for my colleague’s “Jacob Jung II” plus “Ehweiler” and found his emigration application. I was on to something! There are more German papers online than I dreamed. Historic German newspapers are a huge untapped resource with millions of pages from hundreds of titles worldwide, digitized, online, some searchable, for vital records, emigration records, land sales, military records, court summonses, and lists of appointments.
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