Digital Preservation of History

Some believe we may be headed for a dark age if we aren't diligent in preserving digital history.

Back from NGS

I spent last week at the National Genealogical Society's Conference in the States in Richmond, Virginia. It was a great conference. I only had a few minor complaints. The syllabus and program book needed a better proofreader. They didn't schedule shuttles often enough during the hours when most folks were leaving for the outlying hotels. Most of the area near the conference seemed to be boarded up so it was at least a mile to an area where you could get food at a reasonable price. The convention center's skyway to the Marriott made you go too far out of your way to get to the sessions being held there so most of us dodged the traffic along 5th Street. The exhibits were numbered consecutively instead of by aisle, and there was no map in the program book showing where exhibits were. This made it particularly difficult to locate some of the exhibitors who were not on the main floor, but you had to "guess" which aisle to go down if you only wanted to hit one exhibitor quickly between a session to pick up something that a speaker had promoted. It was a great conference though, and none of those things kept it from being enjoyable.

Is handwriting become obsolete?

A very interesting article from the Boston Globe.

Poet's Epitaph

I enjoyed Amy Kane's posting of a 20th century poet's epitaph. Here in the Southern U.S., that type of grave marker would be unusual for a marker as late as that one.

Exciting Archaeological Find

A researcher has discovered Herod's tomb.

Update: Photos.

Magnolia Plantation Foundation's Online Archive

Dear Myrtle is reporting that Magnolia Plantation Foundation (Charleston, SC) is going to sponsor an online archive of plantation records concerning the slaves who worked there. This is very exciting! Magnolia Plantation and Gardens is my favorite of the Charleston Area plantations. The project called Lowcountry Africana is expected to launch in March 2008.

The photos here were taken in June 2006. The first is the Ashley River which meanders along the plantation's property. The second is a photo of one of the slave cabins. The third photo is the plantation house. The Drayton family were the owners of Magnolia Plantation. (There is also a Drayton Hall plantation along the same road.)

I am looking forward to this new resource. It promises to be one of the most informative online resources for those with African-American heritage (and interesting reading for the rest of us to understand more about the plantation culture.)

Carnival of Genealogy #23

. . . is up at Creative Gene! I didn't submit something this time. I just couldn't think of a good entry that didn't involve living persons.