Author: Jack
I retired in 2008 and so I have more time now to devote to several of my interests The blog here is mainly for my interests in some current events but may have the occasional rant on other subjects. I have also decided to keep my genealogy posts here instead of in a second blog (and so simplify my life a little).

Haiti relief

Haiti relief

Posted on by Jack

This is becoming a very occasional blog but I felt compelled to write today about credit cards and charitable contributions. The recent earthquake in Haiti has created great needs and many of us would like to help. For most of that the best way is to contribute cash to reputable charities and many will do that by credit card. Of course, credit card companies normally take a few percent. Many credit card companies have announced that they will either wave or reduce fees for this emergency. See the Huffington Post article and updates for further details.

One offer that impresses me is that the Discover card will not only wave fees but will match contributions to the American Red Cross of their CASHBACK bonus (up to $1 million total). See the Discover Card website for full details.

Jack

Too big to fail

Too big to fail

Posted on by Jack

One of the more curious thing about and the US economic recovery efforts in general is that certain institutions have been bailed-out with taxpayer money because they were too big to fail. That is, they were so large that their failure would bring down the US economy. So the solution that makes no sense is to merge them with another big corporation so that if they fail again it could be even more catastrophic.

Am I missing something? Wouldn’t it be better to rescue them (if need be) and then force a break-up into smaller entities that could fail without bringing down the entire economy?

Cash for clunkers – the bad news

Cash for clunkers – the bad news

Posted on by Jack

I read an interesting opinion column in the Philadelphia Inquirer this morning. The past few days we’ve seen and heard about the success of the Cash-for-Clunkers program. David T. Robinson who is a professor of finance at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business writes about how this program has an unintended economic downside.

To put it very briefly – By encouraging people to spend more on cars, there may be less money left for other stuff and this may actually lengthen this economic downturn. But please read the original since it does a much better job in presenting the reasoning and possible consequences.

more on free access

more on free access

Posted on by Jack

Yesterday, I posted a notice on free access to genealogy records.

The Genea Musings Blog has posted step by step directions on subscribing to this offer.

I had some problems with the search yesterday. But that could be just because they were overloaded due to the free offer. But I will add the customer service was great. They answered my email within hours. See Dick Eastman’s post on problems that occur with some of these promos and advice on handling them.

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2009/08/why-online-promos-often-fizzle.html

free access to a lot of records for the next few days

free access to a lot of records for the next few days

Posted on by Jack

This is posted in my other blog – http://jackgenes.blogspot.com/. And the details are there but just a short note here since I assume these blogs may be read by different folks. See my other blog for details but I just heard of free access to a lot of records for the next few days. The free access is at WorldVitalRecords.com between Aug 11 and 13.

Irish Genealogy Lectures

Irish Genealogy Lectures

Posted on by Jack

There are 2 interesting-sounding lectures on Irish Genealogy coming up. Here is the quote from the National Genealogical Society:

9 August 2009
Ottawa, Ontario – Everyone welcome to a Sunday afternoon of Irish heritage and genealogy starting at 1:30 pm. Two lectures by John Grenham, M.A., well known author and professional genealogist from Dublin, Ireland (www.Johngrenham.com). Topics: “Chasing Shadows: Irish Genealogy Online” and “Whatever you’re having yourself: Irish Census Substitutes.” Admission: $10/person at door. Free parking on site: Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Dr., Ottawa, Ontario (Canada’s capital). Sponsor: British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa. Co-sponsors: Ottawa Branch/Ontario Genealogical Society; The Irish Society of the National Capital Region; Monterey Inn Resort & Conference Centre.
For more info, see www.bifhsgo.ca.

This a a quote from their blog at:

http://ngsgenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/08/events-around-united-states-as-of.html

This would be a good blog to checkout upcoming events of interest.

Helpful on current issues

Helpful on current issues

Posted on by Jack

I am thinking much about the healthcare proposals lately and often get into extended debates with friends. This morning someone mentioned that the government planned to encourage assisted suicide among the elderly to help control healthcare costs. This did not sound right but they cited a portion of of the healthcare bill. So I checked it out. SNOPES said this was false and why but also referenced a more extensive analysis in the blog called FireBrand (http://firebrandblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/cry-wolf.html ). A great post there discusses this rather extensively. Of course, this is just 1 provision in 1 bill. (This is Section 1233 of HR3200)

It is a good blog and has many interesting discussions. Please check it out.

And let your Senators and your Congressman/Congresswoman know how you think about the various bills and proposals out there. The best way to check a bill that has been proposed is http://thomas.loc.gov/bss/111search.html . That way you can read the actual text, not just an opinion.

The Proud History of the Reidy Clan

The Proud History of the Reidy Clan

Posted on by Jack

For those who missed it there was a short article on The Proud History of the Reidy Clan By Maeve Molloy in Irish America magazine a few months back. I must have been tired when I posted this last night since I forget the link ( http://www.irishabroad.com/irishworld/irishamericamag/decjan08/departments/TheProudHistoryOfReidy.asp ) as well as the tags. The article has a bit on name variants, history, and various well-known Reidys. Irish America magazine has much of interest online and it is worth looking around. This article happened to catch my attention. Happy reading!

Registry of Deeds Index Project

Registry of Deeds Index Project

Posted on by Jack

Those of us with ancestors from Ireland who may have owned or leased property should check out the Registry of Deeds Index Project. There are over 40,000 records indexed now and that number should grow. The index is searchable by name, location, and various other ways. So it is well worth a look if one of your interests is Irish Genealogy.

Great Book on Ellis Island

Great Book on Ellis Island

Posted on by Jack

I’m reading American Passage: The History of Ellis Island by Vincent J. Cannato. I am enjoying it. I guess I’m about half-way through. There is extensive discussion of the debates about admitting or excluding certain immigrants, changes in immigration law (and the degree of enforcement), and government officials at several levels.

In some cases these are illustrated by discussion of certain cases. For example, in 1912 Chaie Kaganowtiz (a Russian Jewish widow) and her 9 children were almost excluded. But given that milllions of our ancestors came though Ellis Island over about 3 decades, only a very small percentage can be mentioned in any book. By the way, a chapter is devoted to Castle Garden, the previous immigration station in New York.

I’m reading slowly and enjoying while I learn. I’d highly recommend this book to anyone with a interest in Ellis Island, genealogy, or immigration issues.

DownToTheSea

DownToTheSea

Posted on by Jack

I’ve just added DownToTheSea to my blogroll (at right). It is an interested blog. Well worth a visit. The author has several Irish lines so have a look. See http://downtothesea.wordpress.com/about/ to read the about page.

What attracted my attention was the recent entry on the extremely damp spring and summer we are having now in the northeast of the US and the re-appearance of the fungal crop disease that caused the Great Famine in Ireland that brought many of our ancestors of the US.

There is also quite a bit of good information on the Family Search pilot site; the NY state census was of particular interest to me.

Geocities Is Closing

Geocities Is Closing

Posted on by Jack

I just signed on to my yahoo mail and got a notice that Geocities was closing on October 26. They had previously warned this would happen before the end of the year but they are now giving some details. If you didn’t know, Geocities is a free web hosting service owned by Yahoo. The service was supported by advertising placed by Geocities on the hosted web sites.

So if you are one of the many genealogists using this service, it is time to think about options (if you haven’t already). There are other “free” hosts around. There are a number of hosts who will host your site for a few dollars each month. Generally you have many more options when you pay but a “free” site might fit your needs.

My site was on Geocities for years and after I received the warning from them a few months ago, I investigated web hosts and decided to move to my own domain.

Since the pages on Geocities will not be recoverable after October 26, you might want to download them (if you haven’t already) and start thinking about where you want your genealogy pages on the internet to move.

Here is the Yahoo/Geocities help page on the closing:

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/geocities/close/

Limerick Ireland Archives Search

Limerick Ireland Archives Search

Posted on by Jack

A while back I mentioned that Limerick City has archives online at http://www.limerickcity.ie/Archives/.

In the upper right there is a search box that will search many of the records. And it is worth noting that at least some of the records seem to be county wide, not just the city. For example, my Reidys are from Rathkeale in Limerick County so if I do a search on Reidy AND Rathkeale, 12 records are found including my gggrandmother in the 1901 census householders index. I also saw several indices of newspaper notices and some scanned newspapers.

I haven’t installed the viewer needed to view the digital records but I suspect that will make this site even more interesting.

Reidy graves in Limerick, Ireland

Reidy graves in Limerick, Ireland

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A while back John Reidy Treworgy sent me some transcripts of Reidy graves in Limerick. I thought I would add them to the blog. The original post is at:
http://www.jackreidy.com/reidy/reidymisc.htm

Killeedy Cemetery (Saint Ida’s) in Limerick:

* Margaret Reidy 1888 – 1977 Glebe, Monagea and late of Glenquin. Mary Ready.

* Erected by Patrick Riedy in memory of his father Michael Riedy who died Oct. 23 1862 aged 67 years of his mother Elizabeth Riedy alias Lacy who died April 5 1870 aged 65 y of his brother John who died August 22 1862 age 36 years and of his sister Ellen.

* Erected by Mrs. Mary Reidy of Gardenfield in memory of her beloved husband Jeremiah Reidy who died Sept the 11th 1868 aged 68 years & also of her children her son William died June the 24th 1824 her daughter Bridget died August 15th 1852.

* In loving memory of William and Catherine Reidy, Ballinaha Ballingarry died 6 Dec 1962 and 20 Dec 1975 and their daughter Eileen d. 15 Dec 1991.

* Erected by George Reedy in memory of his father Jeremiah Reedy who died January 3rd 1827 aged 83 years also his sister Mary Pickley alias Reedy died Aug 1st 1816 aged 41 years.

Cloncagh Cemetery in Limerick:

* Erected by Catherine Reidy of Mundillihy in memory of her beloved husband James Reidy who departed life March 11th 1851 aged 58 years also her daughter Eileen who died Dec 1st 1859 aged 28 years.

Irish Genealogical Society International : The Septs

Irish Genealogical Society International : The Septs

Posted on by Jack

Congratulations to the Irish Genealogical Society International (IGSI). Their quarterly journal, The Septs has been awarded first place as a major genealogical newsletter by the National Genealogical Society (NGS Magazine April-June 2009).

Visit both the IGSI and NGS :
IGSI (http://www.irishgenealogical.org/)
NGS (http://www.ngsgenealogy.org/)

There is much to see and learn on both sites!