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PR: Ancestry.com Uncovers a Bewitching Past for Harry Potter’s Emma Watson

Friday, August 14th, 2009

Researchers Discover Star of Popular Movie Franchise Is Related to an Accused 16th-Century English Witch

PROVO, UT–(Marketwire – July 30, 2009) – Actress Emma Watson, who plays an exceptionally talented witch and the best friend of Harry Potter in the blockbuster Harry Potter series, has a real-life connection to her role as Hermione. According to the family history research experts at Ancestry.com, English records show Watson’s distant relative was Joan Playle of Essex County, England, a 16th-century English woman convicted of witchcraft in 1592.

While the details around Playle’s conviction remain a mystery, records indicate she was unmarried, which could have led to the accusation of being a witch. During the Elizabethan era, women who were poor, old, widowed, single or otherwise unprotected were those most often at risk for such accusations. Based on the Ancestry.com research, it appears Playle was not executed for her alleged crimes, but she was excommunicated from the Church of England and was one of only 270 known individuals accused of and tried for witchcraft in all of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

“Researching your family’s past can have just as many twists and turns as a movie blockbuster, and this was exciting research to delve into for our team,” said Anastasia Tyler, a genealogist at Ancestry.com. “It’s not every day we’re able to trace the branches of a family tree back to 16th-century witch trials. Combine that with a celebrity connection to Emma Watson and the fact that she plays a witch in Harry Potter… you couldn’t script it any better.”

Research also revealed Playle was convicted in the parish of Great Waltham in Essex County, a town approximately 50 miles northeast of London and about 100 miles from Oxfordshire, where Watson grew up.

Magical Cast-Mate Family Trees

The family history experts at Ancestry.com conjured up even more magic in Harry Potter cast-mates’ family trees:

--  Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) -- Although Radcliffe isn't related to

princes or wizards, his family does hail from Ireland, which is magic

enough in its own right. He descends from bakers and plumbers and grocers,

respectable occupations the Dursleys would likely be proud to have in their

family. --  Rupert Grint (Ronald Weasley) -- Grint's family was employed in a

truly "Muggle" brand of "defense against the dark arts," with two of his

2nd great-grandfathers and one of his 3rd great-grandfathers working in the

Royal Small Arms Factory in London as a "barrel turner," "sight filer" and

"gun smith" respectively. --  Helena Bonham Carter (Belatrix Lestrange) -- Bonham Carter is the

cast's true "half-blooded prince," as she descends from a long line of

nobility. Her great-grandfather Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford

and Asquith, served as Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from

1908 through 1916, and her 3rd great-grandfather Sir John Carter III

received the honor of knighthood from His Majesty King George III. --

JK Rowling -- Interestingly, the author's own family tree lacks the     c

harms and enchantments of her books. Her 2nd great-grandfather Henry John

Holland worked for several years as a "car man." And in 1841, her 4th great-

grandfather John Robson was a "tea dealer."

To find out what magic your family tree might hold, visit www.ancestry.com.

About Ancestry.com

Ancestry.com is the world’s largest online resource for family history and has digitized and put online over 4 billion records over the past twelve years. Ancestry users have created over ten million family trees containing over one billion profiles. Ancestry.com has local Web sites directed at nine countries, and more than 8 million unique visitors spent more than 5 million hours on an Ancestry Web site in May 2009 (comScore Media Metrix, Worldwide). For more information on Ancestry.com and its other family history resources, visit http://corporate.ancestry.com.

Web sites:

http://www.ancestry.com/

http://www.myfamily.com/

http://www.genealogy.com/

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/

http://www.mycanvas.com/

http://www.dna.ancestry.com/

http://www.familytreemaker.com/

Posted in And More..., Bookshelf, Genealogy, Genealogy Online, News | 1 Comment »

PR:’The Turkey Feather Cape’: Tribal Elder Offers Insight into Long-forgotten Native American Artifact and Tribal History

Friday, August 7th, 2009

ADA, Okla., Aug. 6, 2009 — Cultural artifacts of historical significance are often lost with the passing of time, leaving only those things that have been made of stone or bone – or that have been expertly encased. To the Chickasaw and other southeastern Native American tribes one artifact hard-pressed to withstand the wages of time – the feather cape – was made to honor tribal elders and leaders.

Written in the voice of tribal elder Robert Perry, The Turkey Feather Cape: My Creation from Beyond History (published by iUniverse – http://www.iuniverse.com), explores the materials, design, and preparation needed to go about making the traditional feather cape regalia while preserving the unique history of the Chickasaw tribe. Complete with detailed patterns and photos of the construction of a turkey feather cape, the guide encourages visualization, prizes inspiration, and introduces the hidden reward of personal development appropriate for anyone interested in Native American history.

“My thoughts are broader than how to make feather capes,” explains Perry in the introduction.”The hope here is to reawaken skills and attributes that will carry Chickasaw Nation through the 21st century … Today, living at a hurried pace in a ‘fast food’ culture, only a time-out will give us enough pause to recover the senses. I am suggesting a project that will take months to make. You, like the ancient artisans, will be working alone to make a turkey feather cape. Succeed, and you will have a cape and, perhaps, the courage to take a creative path to other complex projects.”Perry suggests the arduous project of making a traditional turkey feather cape – cultural knowledge that had been long-forgotten – while describing the strong spiritual life of his ancestors.

To give substance to the task, “The Turkey Feather Cape” explores past written history of Colonial Times, back to 1540 when the Chickasaw met Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto. Going back to the roots of the Chickasaws steeped in the Mississippian Era of 1000- 1550 AD, Perry adds knowledge – from a unique Native American standpoint – to what modern archeologists have “dug up” from the past.In a recent Foreword Magazine review, Laurie Sullivan wrote, “While the painstaking recreation of this craft seems a rather singular pursuit, a quick online search reveals that there is current interest for early American history buffs, artisans, and Native American communities for learning this forgotten skill.

The author, a Chickasaw elder, sees “… the effort as useful for gaining skills with visualizing and problem-solving, not to mention cultivating patience!”

About the Author

Born of Chickasaw parents, Robert Perry left Ada, Oklahoma to pursue a long chemical engineering career, one that earned eight U.S. Patents. He and his wife Faye retired in his hometown, the headquarters of the Chickasaw Nation where Perry is a member of the Council of Elders that advises on tribal cultural issues, an emeritus board member of the Chickasaw Historical Society, and is on the board of the Chickasaw Press. He is a member of the Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers. Other books by Perry include Life With the Little People (Frank Waters Memorial Publication Series , No 3)and the upcoming biography Uprising: Woody Crumbo’s Indian Art (to be released in 2009). For more information, visit http://www.TurkeyFeatherCape.com.” The Turkey Feather Cape: My Creation from Beyond History is at http://www.iUniverse.com, http://www.bn.com, and http://www.amazon.com ISBN: 9781440101205 – 6 x 9 – Paperback – 88 pages – $15.95

Posted in Bookshelf, News | 1 Comment »

Book Review: Social Networking for Genealogists by Drew Smith

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

Social Networking for Genealogists by Drew Smith is a handy guide to making interaction on the Web work for you as a family historian.

The author is well-qualified to guide you through the maze of RSS feeds, virtual worlds and genealogy-specific social networks. Drew Smith, MLS, is an academic librarian with the University of South Florida in Tampa. An expert in digital genealogy, with a lifelong interest in family history research, he is Director of the Federation of Genealogical Societies and President of the Florida Genealogical Society of Tampa. He is also a regular contributor to Digital Genealogist magazine and is co-host of the weekly Genealogy Guys Podcast.

The best part of online genealogy has always been the interaction with other family historians, professional and amateur, that you find online. Prior to this decade, that meant mainly message boards and mailing lists. Now, blogs, wikis, podcasts, and even genealogy-specific social networks add depth and breadth to the experience of collaborating with genealogists all over the world.

Smith defines and describes all the social networking services that are now available online and highlights how these services can be used by genealogists to share information, photos, and videos with family, friends, and other researchers. Each chapter guides you through a unique category of social networking services using genealogy-related examples. Then, at the end of each chapter, he gives you specific steps to get involved with such services to help you launch yourself into the realms of cyberspace without getting hopelessly lost.

Details:

Publisher: Genealogical Publishing Company

Format: Paper

Pages: 129 pp.

Published: 2009

Price: $18.95

ISBN: 9780806317953

Item #: GPC5446

Posted in Bookshelf, Genealogy, Genealogy Online, Genealogy Sites, News | 3 Comments »

Bookshelf: The Sleuth Book for Genealogists-Emily Anne Croom

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

Another good book for your genealogy bookshelf is

Genealogy is great fun, but you’d never know it from reading about 80 percent of genealogy how-to books. This one is different: using quotes from various mystery novels from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, Croom helps the reader feel the joy, the intrigue, the puzzle-solving rush of genealogy. In reading this book, you understand that it’s not the ”research” as in writing a dull, dry term paper…it’s the evidence and clue finding that makes genealogy so addictive. Just like good detectives, we must look for the information by asking the right questions and looking in the right places, carefully collecting and documenting as we go. It’s like living your own mystery novel!

Just one example of how well this metaphor works: Chapter Three, “Broadening the Scope: Cluster Genealogy” uses quotes from various fictional detectives to make the point that our ancestors did not exist in a vacuum: they were part of communities, churches, clubs and more. Looking at the records of their neighbors, friends, cousins and business partners might help you find that next chink in the brick wall. Wills, deeds, court records, even being “called out in church for selling spirits on the Sabbath” hold clues to who are ancestors were.

Great information, great fun to read, this is a must have to add to your genealogy book collection!

Posted in Bookshelf, Genealogy, News | 1 Comment »

Review: QuickSheet Citing Ancestry.com Databases& Images

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Last year, I reviewed Elizabeth Shown Mills’ excellent Quicksheet Citing Online Historical Resources. I just received a new QuickSheet from Genealogical Publishing Co. , “Citing Ancestry.com Databases & Images” and it is just as good!

Mills’ QuickSheets are four-page, laminated, folded, 8.5 X11 publications which can be easily carried in a briefcase or laptop case to a library, or kept right on your desk next to your computer monitor. The source citations for Ancestry.com databases and images in this QuickSheet are based on those in the book Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007).

With this newest QuickSheet, color coded “Ancestry green” (the original one is red, like the cover of Ancestry’s Red Book: American State, County & Town Sources, Third Revised Edition), Mills shows you specifically how to create citations for Ancestry.com databases and images. Each page has footnotes with comments about specific examples to help the user understand the subtle distinctions of the records and their citations.

The first page has an overview called “Basic Principles” about Ancestry.com database types and the requirement to create citations for both the source that Ancestry used and the database/image that Ancestry provides as a product. It also has Basic Templates that can be used as a guideline for any other Ancestry.com database which might be created by an outside party.

The rest of the first page and the other three pages are devoted to the models for each type of resource (similar to Evidence Explained models). The pages are set out in a easy to use table of Source List Entry, Full Reference Note and Subsequent Reference Note format samples for everything from databases to images to maps.

The 20 record type models provided on this QuickSheet include:

* Basic Format: Databases – Created by Ancestry
* Basic Format: Images – Manuscript Collection
* Articles (at Learning Center) – Staff article, unsigned
* Articles (at Learning Center) – Online archive for print publications
* Books: Database Extractions
* Books: Images
* Censuses: Databases – 1890 Substitute
* Censuses: Images
* City Directories: Databases
* City Directories: Images
* Draft Registrations: Images
* Family Trees – Documented Data
* Family Trees – Undocumented data
* Immigration-Emigration Rolls – Databases
* Immigration-Emigration Rolls – Images
* Maps: Images
* Military Records: Databases
* Military Records: Images
* Newspapers: Images
* PERSI: Database

For the beginner, this handy reference will show you what you should be searching for, and how to note when and where you found it. For the more proficient genealogist, if you often use the Ancestry.com census, military, newspaper, family trees and maps in family history research, and have struggled to place correct source citations in your genealogy databases, then this publication is your ticket to that wonderful place where all your evidence is sufficiently cited and organized. at $7.95, it’s a must have!

Posted in And More..., Bookshelf, Genealogy, Genealogy Sites, News | 2 Comments »

Wordless Wednesday: Unearthing Pensacola

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

Posted in And More..., Bookshelf | 1 Comment »

The Genealogist’s Bookshelf: Ancestry’s Red Book

Monday, November 24th, 2008

Ancestry’s Red Book is a standard reference for United States genealogists.

People who own this book rave about the organization, the maps, the easy to understand explanations, and most of all the ability to look up not only where a county is, but WHEN it became a county. Many US counties were formed when a territory became a state, but almost as many were carved out of original counties. That’s how the Commonwealth of Kentucky wound up with 120 counties.

Just as important, every state has a different set-up as far as county/parish records. The Red Book tells you who keeps what records, not only state by state but county by county. Also, it has an extensive bibliography on background sources for even more detailed information on each state.

Keep it on your desk. Take it with you libraries, courthouses and on genealogy research trips.

And ask Santa Claus to put one in your stocking!

Posted in Bookshelf, Genealogy | 1 Comment »

The Genealogist’s Bookshelf: The Source.

Monday, September 29th, 2008

The Source A Guidebook to American Genealogy is an important addition to your genealogy bookshelf. Edited by by Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebkin, this illustrated guide to records, techniques and best practices was updated in 2006 to include electronic media and sources. Special subjects such as tracing urban ancestors help you break down brick walls. Other esoteric resources covered include tracking immigrants, Native American, Spanish/Southwest, Black, Asian, Jewish-American, computers and heredity & lineage societies.

It also guides you to published genealogical sources: city directories, newspapers, genealogy indexes and compiled biographies. Appendices include addresses of regional Federal Archives, state historical archives, historical societies, research libraries, “Where to Write for Vital Records”, genealogy societies and genealogy book publishers.

Many genealogists refer to this book as their “Genealogy Bible,” the first place they turn to for inspiration, direction and help for genealogy. DearMYRTLE says of this edition, “I especially like to curl up and read it when I get stuck in a rut using just one or two types of records. This book reminds me to broaden my scope of research!”

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Note to readers: I will blog today and tomorrow, then take the rest of the week off to go to a funeral in Tennessee. —EPC

Posted in And More..., Bookshelf, Genealogy | 1 Comment »

Good Read: Team of Rivals

Wednesday, September 24th, 2008

Last night, I finished reading Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and I want to recommend it to anyone who loves politics, Lincoln, and/or history. Or, psychology. It was published in 2005, but I just got around to reading it (hurricanes, graduations, etc. etc.)

Thoroughly engrossing, this is not just another Lincoln biography. It’s about things you know, but from a perspective you may not have seen before. It is an in-depth look at the personalities and atmosphere of the middle of the 19th century, and the effects they had on us all.

Using direct quotes from diaries, letters, public documents, newspapers and more, complete with original abbreviations and misspellings, it is like being part of the “in crowd” at one of the most important junctures of American history. And because of the quotes, it’s as if you are hanging out with all these people, with all their quirky habits, watching them live their lives and change the world.

I hope you find time to read and enjoy it.

Posted in And More..., Bookshelf, Writing | 1 Comment »

The Genealogist’s Bookshelf: The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008

The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenwood

The Researcher’s Guide to American Genealogy by Val D. Greenwood is a treasure trove of genealogy sources, techniques and methods. Greenwood himself describes it this way:

“… when I was teaching genealogical research at Ricks College in Idaho. At that time, there was no good text on American research, so I wrote one. The book, THE RESEARCHER’S GUIDE TO AMERICAN GENEALOGY, was published in 1973 by Genealogical Publishing Co. Since that time there have been two more editions, the third edition being published in 2000. It is still the most widely used textbook on American genealogical research and is considered by many to be a classic. It has sold more than 100,000 copies through the three editions. (Can you imagine how much space 100,000 books would take up if you stacked them all in one place? Neither can I.) ”

My Mother’s 1973 copy sits on my desk. The text is underlined, highlighted, notated and marked, reminding me of how often she used it. The most recent edition has good chapters on evidence, personal computers, and family historians. As it is a textbook, it is accessible to the most beginning of genealogists. Add this to your list of “must have” genealogy references.

Posted in Bookshelf, Genealogy | 3 Comments »