History Burgoo

Second Saturday Family History Workshop

Yep, the second Saturday has rolled around already, if you can believe it. And, of course, we all know what that means: time for the Second Saturday Family History Workshop at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History.

Every second Saturday of every month, the Kentucky Historical Society and the Kentucky Genealogical Society co-sponsor workshops focusing on all kinds of topics related to the “how to’s” of doing your family history and genealogy. Experts share their tips, tactics and hints. Topics range from Basic Genealogy to a plethora of more in-depth, esoteric subjects.

This month is a topic we've not yet offered before and it's a pretty cool topic, if I may toss in my 2 bits about it. We're going to be discussing how to publish your family history!

Here's the scoop:

"Publishing Print and Electronic Family Histories"

Saturday, March 13, 2009
10:30 a.m. - 11:30 am: Morning Session
11:30am – 12:30pm: Lunch. Optional box lunch available – please see registration information below
12:30-1:30pm: Afternoon Session

Session Info:

Making the move from data collecting to data publishing requires a deliberate mental shift---one that many genealogists never accomplish. In the morning session, Roger Futrell will offer insights into how he handled the transition from research to interpretation in order to publish his own family history book. The presentation will provide suggestions on compiling your research findings, selecting an appropriate format, selecting a publisher and distributing the final product.

In the afternoon, guests will have the opportunity hear from book publishers and learn about alternatives to traditional publishing for sharing their family stories.

KTIG Info:

Following the close of each Family-History Workshop at 1:45 p.m., the Kentucky Technology in Genealogy Users Group (KTIG) offers a free program to help support family-history researchers' use and understanding of technology as it applies to genealogy. This month's presentation is "Finding Family Histories Online--What Has Been Printed, Where to Find Them and Whether the Books Are In or Out of Copyright." Everyone is welcome to attend.

Registration Info:

Registration is required before noon on Friday, March 12 for this free workshop. A light lunch is available, if requested at time of registration, for $6, payable at the door. Contact the Reference Desk, 502-564-1792, ext. 4460. Learn more about Family-History Workshops.

Do come join us!

Sally Bown

Moonpies, RC, and Bluegrass? Anyone else thinking of Rosine, KY?

How many of you know that we are fast approaching the 100th anniversary of Bill Monroe's birthday? Many bluegrass communities and definitely we at KHS are gearing up for the kick-off year of this celebration--which will begin Sept 13th this year. While we are discussing ways to mark the occasion, so is Ohio County, Kentucky - home of Rosine, Bill Monroe's homeplace.

On March 1st I travelled to Hartford, KY to visit with a group of volunteers to discuss the development of an oral history project about Bill Monroe's home community and early life as a part of a year long birthday celebration developed by the Ohio County Tourism Commission. The tourism commission applied for, and received, a technical assistance grant through the Kentucky Oral History Commission here at KHS, which provided professional recording equipment for the interviews, as well as guidance on the project itself.

The interviews will be ultimately archived at the Kentucky Historical Society for anyone to access, as well as reference copies accessible in the community. 
 

Francis Johnson Harvey - History of Rosine Oral History Project, May 27, 1991

Thanks to the Ohio County Public Library for agreeing to host the workshop visit, as well as participate in the oral history project itself.

SO, IF YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO HAS A BILL MONROE STORY TO TELL, OR A ROSINE BLUEGRASS MEMORY, CONTACT the Ohio County Tourism Commission at 270-274-1090 or ohiocountytour@bellsouth.net

--Sarah Milligan

Image: Ohio County Oral History Project Volunteers

Mr. Bluehands -- redux

Okay this is freaky.  I wasn’t planning to do a blog about hands again, but along came Silvius Brabo and Druoon Antigoon.

Since the Winter Olympics have just been completed as I write this blog, I thought I would write about the Olympic medals we have in the KHS collection. In 1920, Willis A. Lee won seven medals at the Seventh Olympiad in Antwerp, Belgium.  Lee was born in Owen County, Kentucky in 1888.  He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1908.  During his time at the Naval Academy he was a member of the academy’s Rifle Team. He was also a member of a number of rifle and pistol teams throughout his career, and won over fifty marksmanship medals.

After serving in the Navy during the First World War, Lee was temporarily removed from duty so he could compete in the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.  It was here that Lee won seven Olympic medals in Men’s Team shooting: five gold medals, one silver and one bronze medal. These medals along with his Olympic participation medal are part of the KHS collections.
Gold medal won by Willis A. Lee at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics.  Donated by Margaret B. Allen, 1965.8

After the outbreak of the Second World War, Lee was promoted to rear admiral.  He played a pivotal role in the campaign for Guadalcanal, and participated in most of the major Pacific naval actions of the war.  Among his awards are the Distinguished Service Medal with Gold Star, the Legion of Merit and the Navy Cross.  Lee died of a heart attack in May of 1945 on duty aboard a ship in the Atlantic researching strategies to defend against kamikaze attacks.

So what does this blog have to do with hands?  Oddly enough, it revolves around the Olympics. The medals Lee won depict the Antwerp monument.  This monument commemorates the legend of Silvius Brabo throwing the hand of the giant, Druoon Antigoon, into the Scheldt River.  Apparently, according to the legend, Druoon Antigoon forced all vessels on the river to pay a toll.  If a captain of the vessel could not or would not pay, the giant would cut off his hand.  Then along came Brabo (our hero!)  He slew the giant and in revenge cut off the giant’s hands and threw them into the river.  Thus, Antwerp gets its name – Antwerp means “thrown hand.”  Or at least this is what I am told by the Olympic website.

Reverse of gold medal, note the statue of Silvius Brabo flinging the hand into the river.

So the lessons of this blog: 1) remember to wear your blue gloves when working with artifacts or a giant will come and cut them off; and 2) [this is my favorite] Eat more chocolate!

Andy Stupperich

"All About Bourbon," featuring All-Star Cast!

***SPOILER ALERT!! This post will get you in the spirit to come to this event! (Harharhar)***

Several weeks ago, I dropped hints about a bourbon event that KHS has had in the works.  Finally, patient readers, I can give you more information. 

On March 25, we will co-host with Buffalo Trace Distillery an event called “All About Bourbon: An Evening with Joy Perrine and Susan Reigler” from 6-8 p.m. at the Center for Kentucky History in downtown Frankfort.

Joy and Susan have recently released their book, “The Kentucky Bourbon Cocktail Book,” which we will have available for purchase and for signing at the event.  Susan and Joy will talk about their book and take questions from our guests.

I’ll spare you a little bit of embarrassment in case you are one of the seemingly few people in the world who is unfamiliar with these ladies. Joy is a bartending legend and works at Jack’s Lounge in Louisville. Susan is a former Courier-Journal writer and food/fun critic extraordinaire.  If any duo is more capable of putting together a book with a recipe to delight your palate, I certainly don’t know them.

 A further note on the cocktail book: Despite my dad’s assertion that the only true bourbon “cocktail” involves bourbon and a minimal number of ice cubes, this book offers many other options. One of those options is the Kentucky Mimosa, the signature drink of the evening, which will be available for attendees.  We will also have some light appetizers.

Prior to the event, Harlen Wheatley—Buffalo Trace Master Distiller and rock star of the bourbon world—will conduct a VIP tasting of various bourbons from the world’s most award-winning distillery. What an honor to have Harlen at KHS!  The VIP tasting will begin at 5:30 p.m. and is open ONLY TO KHS MEMBERS. Find out more about KHS membership here.

Tickets for the main event—which includes the signature beverage, light appetizers, and a discussion with the authors and book signing—are available for anyone to purchase and are $15 for KHS members and $20 for all other patrons. Tickets to the VIP tasting, which include both the tasting conducted by Wheatley and the main event, are $35 and are available ONLY TO KHS MEMBERS! Contact Julia Curry at 502.564.1792 ext 4414 to book your tickets.

With that, I must note the following: 

• If you are not 21, don’t even think about trying to come to this event.  We won’t sell you tickets. And if you try to pull a fast one on us with the purchase of tickets, we are also checking IDs at the door. Sorry kiddos. We have some buff historians here who, much like these tough men, can be the enforcers of the evening if necessary.
 
• These tickets are booking extremely quickly. We are taking reservations until March 22, or until all the space is gone, so if you are interested in attending, book your tickets as soon as possible.  I repeat: Contact Julia Curry at 502.564.1792 ext 4414 to book your tickets.

• Personally, I am very excited about this event. This is shaping up to be a great event and I cannot wait to talk to the authors and Harlen about their very cool and exciting jobs!

Okay, so maybe that last bullet was obvious. I think my enthusiasm is usually  pretty apparent. So book your tickets, and I’ll see you on March 25!

--Laura Coleman

First Image: Young man rolling barrel onto scales at Stagg Distillery--which is now Buffalo Trace Distillery--in 1941. Franklin Co. KHS Collections.
Second Image: Not exactly historians, but golden glove boxing group, 1940. KHS Collections.

Who Do You Think You Are? Ask NBC!

Ok, lest you should think I’m working on the sly for NBC or for Ancestry.com, I’ll make the disclaimer now that I’m not. The truth is that, this post is actually a blog cop-out for me this week since someone else already did the writing. The below post is an e-mail I received from the Ancestry.com listserv about a new NBC series starting this Friday called Who Do You Think You Are?   I started to write a description of the show but this e-mail already explained it so well that I thought, “Hey, why mess with perfection?” 

So, I’m sharing this info as it was sent to me with the hopes of accomplishing 2 things: 1) You’ll watch this series and learn a bit more about the world of libraries and archival institutions and the roles they play in genealogy; 2) Some kind soul might record this series for me…I don’t own a t.v.!!

And, don't forget that we have a Library Edition subscription to Ancestry.com that you can use at no charge when you come visit us in the library. Hey...no charge! That's a big deal in today's economy!

Here’s the e-mail:

Dear Friends in the Archive and Library Community,

I am really excited to let you know about this upcoming show, and what we at Ancestry, hope it will do for interest in the family history community, and in raising awareness of what you do. This is a really impactful show that takes people through the powerful discovery of who they are through the records of their ancestors; just watch the previews from the link at the bottom of this email.
 
Get Ready for the New Who Do You Think You Are? Television Series on NBC
 
Get ready for the new NBC hit show Who Do You Think You Are? The family history-focused series, which premieres on Friday, March 5th at 8/7c, leads seven celebrities – Lisa Kudrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Spike Lee, Matthew Broderick, Susan Sarandon, Emmitt Smith, and Brooke Shields – on a journey to discover more about the ancestors who came before them. Ancestry.com is a partner with NBC on the show.
 
The idea for Who Do You Think You Are? originated from a show that has been phenomenally successful in the UK for several years. Since the show aired in 2004, the UK has seen a surge of interest in family history, and we hope and expect the same reaction from Who Do You Think You Are? in the United States as viewers begin thinking about and asking questions around their own family history.
 
What does this mean for archives, libraries and other repositories?

For centuries archives and libraries have preserved our history in records, an effort that too often goes unnoticed by the average person. We believe that this program will provide an opportunity for the general public to see the invaluable role that archives, libraries, and other repositories play in the preservation of records and history.
 
If the popularity of the show in the United Kingdom is any indication, the U.S. version of Who Do You Think You Are? could potentially do the following:

• Increase public exposure of your facility
• Open doors to more funding and resources for your organization
• Help people gain a greater appreciation of the role you play in the preservation and access of historical documents and records
• Increase traffic at your archive or repository with people looking for experts in family history research
• Create more interest from the media resulting in media exposure for your archive

We are creating resources that may assist in your efforts to service and educate interested patrons about the show. In the next week or two, we will send a follow-up email with a link to these various resources including handouts, flyers, media materials, etc.
 
Tune into NBC Fridays 8/7c beginning March 5. For more information about the show, go to: http://www.nbc.com/who-do-you-think-you-are/.
 
Please help spread the news!

Posted by Sally Bown

We've done the fieldwork. Now what do we do with it?

Back again for the second week of guest blogging, this is Alisha Martin of the Kentucky Folklife Program.  I'll apologize in advance for the long post!

Hello again from Folklore land!  Last week I told you all a little something about folklore and folklife, and let you know about our recent fieldwork in Shelbyville and Louisville.  Today I thought I'd let you in on what happens after we've gotten back from the field.

Back in the office and thankfully out of the cold, it was time to buckle down and do the paperwork--not a very attractive project, but you can't just do the research and then forget about it!  We have to keep track of the documentation our fieldwork generates.  We collect it and store it not only for ourselves, but for other researchers interested in Kentucky folklife.  So, interview logs, photo logs, informed consent forms and several other things had to be completed and filed. 

Now, once that was done, what were we going to do with it?  For this instance, it was pretty simple.  The entire reason for this round of fieldwork was to present Latino artists at Kentucky Crafted: The Market.  Now, the Kentucky Folklife Program (KFP) is kind of mandated to go out and do fieldwork--it's just what we folklorists do.  We have a decent amount of work collected over the years: county cultural surveys, collections of various ethnicities, art forms, etc.  There is a smattering of everything in our archives at the moment.

Having all of this research done is pretty cool because it means we can pull from our sources as needed for projects.  Now, we’ve established that folklorists do research, but what do we do with it afterward?  That’s the distinction that makes us into public folklorists!  Saying that you’re a public folklorist is fairly self-explanatory.  After all, we work for and present to the public. 

Our current big project is, of course, Kentucky Crafted: The Market.  It’s now in its 28th year and this year’s theme is ART FULL LIFE.  I’m told there will be nearly 200 artists selling fine art and craft, publications from authors, DVDs from our talented Commonwealth filmmakers and CDs from Kentucky musicians.  There will be performances throughout the days (mark your calendars for March 6th and 7th!) as well as family activities.  And, one of the things that caught my attention: specialty foods!  While there will be all sorts of fun stuff for adults and kids alike, KFP will be holding court in the aptly named Folklife Area.  For this year, we wanted to present the wide range and diversity of Latinos here in Kentucky.  I mentioned last week that we interviewed two artists, Rita and Jorge, but we’re lucky to also have three artists we’ve worked with before: Jose, Edgar and Ana. 

Jose and Edgar will be creating alfombras: a kind of sawdust carpet that is brightly colored and arranged into religious symbols, designs, and words.  Evidence points to how they are a blend of Central American and Spanish cultures; Mayan priests walked on carpets made of flowers and feathers, and early Spanish Christians are said to have had processions over floral carpets. Ana is another seamstress in our group.  She’s known for creating items known as tela and huipil.  See, Ana is an indigenous Mayan from Guatemala.  Don’t know what those items I mentioned are?  Come to The Market and you can find out (totally shameless plug).

It’s these kinds of events that the Folklife Program thrives on.  One of our past projects was the Kentucky Folklife Festival.  We presented all sorts of traditions and communities at our last Festival in 2007: aging communities, the Chinese-American community, the Louisville German-American game of Dainty (trust me on this, there is nothing dainty about it!), and many more.  We took up all of the grounds around the Old State Capitol and down by the river!  More than 30,000 people visited over the course of three days.  We’re serious when we say we’re celebrating Kentucky’s living traditions. 

When we’re not putting on the festival, it gives us time to do other things like The Market, or work on exhibits like "Made to Be Played: Traditional Art of Kentucky Luthiers." It’s currently touring around the state, introducing visitors to the skills of luthiers (stringed instrument makers) and the beauty that they create.  While it is currently visiting libraries, museums and historical societies, "Made to Be Played" was also a major concert series at the Kentucky Historical Society’s Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in the summer of 2009.  Several bands held jam sessions or complete concerts and the Folklife Program conducted narrative stages with artists to give audience members an inside look into the lives and livelihoods of luthiers and musicians. 

We also like to help teachers out with ways to incorporate folklore into education.  We even have a guide for teachers, aptly named A Teacher's Guide to Kentucky Folklife(let me know if you want a copy!) that includes lesson plans on folklife and where they fit in to Kentucky’s academic expectations.  We also teach them how to use a narrative stage.

Narrative stages are fairly important in our public programming.  In fact, if you come to The Market you’ll see one in action!  So, the narrative stage is one giant conversational interview piece.  We provide the starting context, and then ask questions of the artists about their tradition.  If there is one thing we’ve found, it’s that people will talk when brought together.  Get three or four tradition bearers up on stage to chat about their art forms, and you have the potential for hours of discussion!  Don’t worry, though, we don’t aim for something that long! 

We like to give our artists an introduction before they start performing or presenting.  As many a folklorist has said, it’s all about context!  Look at it this way: it’s not just the person, performance or item that’s being shown that’s important, it’s what helped to shape that performance, person or item.  How is this piece ultimately a product of the environment?  Why did this artist choose bluegrass over jazz?  You get the idea.  I think in this case, folklorists are about the journey as much as the destination. 

Folklorists can be a verbose lot, can’t we?

Not only will we be there at the Market, but KHS’s Education department will be part of the children’s activity area creating miniature alfombras. Not only will visitors get to see masters in action, they will get the chance to make their own sawdust carpets to take home. 

If you’re interested in coming to Kentucky Crafted: The Market to see us, here’s a little information:

KENTUCKY CRAFTED: THE MARKET
Kentucky Exposition Center, South Wing B
Louisville, Kentucky

Open to the Public:
Saturday, March 6, 2010 9 a.m. – 6 p.m.
Sunday, March 7, 2010 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Admission: $8 Adults, Children 15 and under free.
$3 off admission with coupon from www.kycraft.ky.gov
Parking at Kentucky Exposition Center is $6.

Hope to see you there!

--Alisha Martin