**Tidbits from Coroners’ Records

**Is Your Desk A Mess?

**Finding Online Newspapers

**Death Records for U.S. Citizens Dying Overseas

**Why Does Our Hair Turn Gray?

A dear friend who lives in Lake Co, Ohio, and is very active in her genealogical society, has completed a project to index the Coroner’s Records for Lake County. She’s not sure when these will be publicly available but she’s proud (and rightly so) to have completed this monumental task. She shared some of the tongue-in-cheek things she learned from these records….that might apply to any county?

• Bathrooms, and especially toilets, are dangerous to your health.  An amazing number of people are found dead sitting on the throne.
• The worst place to be for longevity is the bed.  More people die in, on, or near their beds than anywhere else.  Sleep in the car.
• Marriage is the best thing for longevity.  The majority of coroner cases are of people who are divorced or never married.
• A huge percentage of people who die in Lake County are born in Cleveland.  I suggest Clevelanders stay in Cuyahoga County.
• Fracturing a hip will make your death an accident if you die within a year of the fracture, no matter what you really die of.  It must be a law.
• Exercise is not all it’s cracked up to be.  People die after mowing the lawn, jogging, hiking, and in locker rooms at the gym.
• Low fat diets are for the birds.  Most people die of sludge in the cardiovascular system no matter what they ate.

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Continue reading →

** DNA: Summer Reading

** Ancestry: Summer Learning

** Welsh Newspapers

**eBay…for Genealogy?

**Red Clover Miracle Tonic

Realizing that my understanding of DNA, et al, was at the level of first grade, I have added two books to my summer reading pile. Genetics for Dummies (2005) and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Decoding Your Genes (1999). Bought them both from Amazon.com for under $10.00 (because they are ancient). I have the books; I’ll have the time; I have a desire. Now will I study these books and learn?

What about YOU? Is this a subject about which you want to know more? What are YOU doing about that lack of knowledge?

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If you don’t want to delve into your genes, then perhaps learning more about Ancestry.com would be your summer thing? Do you want to better understand:

• Ancestry Academy?
• Difference between public and private trees?
• Inviting family or friends to view and/or collaborate?
• Watching Ancestry YouTube videos? (There are over 95,000 to view!)

Here is a starter list of websites where you can learn these answers:

• ancestry.com/learn
• ancestryinsider.org
• ancestry.com/academy
• YouTube.com/ancestry
• ancestry.com/privacycenter
• ancestry.com/guestregistration

One cannot camp, boat, swim, hike or roast marshmallows only all summer long!

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Good news for those of us having Welsh ancestry. Quoting from Your Family Tree magazine, September 2015:  “The National Library of Wales’ Welsh Newspapers Online website (http://newspapers.library.wales) has a new look and now boasts more than 120 newspaper titles published in Wales between 1804 and 1919. First launched in 2013, the free website has recently been updated with an extra 400,000 pages, including many new titles.”

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This same magazine mentioned above, had a good read titled “Get Started: The Salvation Army.” This beneficial organization was founded in London’s East End in 1867 by one-time Methodist Reform Church minister William Booth and his wife Catherine. Originally, Booth named the organization the East London Christian Mission. Much of the same information appears on this website:  www.salvationarmyuse.org/usn/history-of-the-salvation-army.

My purpose here today is to share the research resources that Doreen Hopwood listed in her article. “Step-by-step: Trace an Officer: lists (1) Salvation Army Yearbook;  (2) 1911 Census;  (3) Ship Passenger Lists. The Top Three sources for “Finding a Salvationist” would be (1) Salvation Army Periodicals; (2) International Heritage Centre; and (3) Newspapers.

Hopwood’s article was aimed at records in England; to trace your Salvation Army ancestor, U.S. sources will vary but they are out there!

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“You wouldn’t think this online auction site would be the place to go for genealogy, but the truth is you can find family trees, books, photo albums, old postcards, family Bibles and much more. Some genealogists even scour eBay to rescue orphan heirlooms they can return to family members. Typically, items are listed in the Everything Else-Genealogy category. But check other categories such as books, collectibles, antiques and jewelry. In your eBay profile, you can follow Favorite Searches and get email alerts and updates in your eBay feed. For example, I follow Duquesne, Pennsylvania high school yearbooks.  Create searches like Smithson family Bible or Riser genealogy.”

This blurb was penned by Liza Also in the Mar-Apr 2016 issue of FamilyTree Magazine. What good advice! Like I said in an earlier Serendipity, I am looking for a Potter family Bible….I must set up an auto-search-notification on eBay for that! What about you? Think eBay might have benefit for you?

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“WE ALL KNOW that water never runs up hill; that kisses taste better than they look, and are better after dark; that it is better to be right than to be left; that those who take Dr. Jones’ Red Clover Tonic never have dyspepsia, costiveness (constipation), bad breath, piles, pimples, ague and malaria diseases, poor appetite, low spirits, headache or diseases of Kidneys and Bladder. Price 50 cents of E. Johnson.”  This “miracle drug” ad ran on May 17, 1883, in the Ohio newspaper the Piqua Miami Helmet. Too bad (hahaha) we don’t have cures like that today!