Free Military Record for Memorial Day

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This weekend many commercial genealogy websites are giving free access to some of their military and veteran’s records. Not everything is free but enough is available that you may find records for some of your family. Most are only available until Monday evening. All three of these websites will try to get to to subscribe to see other non-military results.

World Vital Records Military Collection is available until may 28th. For Revolutionary War pensions I found file numbers but then it linked to records on another website which wanted me to subscribe.

The My Heritage collection only has some of their military records for free. Other search results want you to subscribe. Look for the small green “Free” tag after you do your search.

Ancestry has the most free records available but they are mostly WWI and WWI records. Plus Ancestry always gives you too many search results.

 

 

WDYTYA to Return

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who-do-you-think-you-areThe genealogy TV series “Who Do Think You Are?” was cancelled by NBC in 2012. For quite a while, there are have been rumors that the show would return on another network. Turns out that the rumors are true. WDYTYA will be airing on TLC starting on July 23. WDYTYA follows celebrities on an adventure to discover their family history.

The series will be produced by the same team as before; Shed Media , US and Is or Isn’t Entertainment. The main sponsor for the series will be Ancestry.com. A press release from Ancestry says that they “hope millions of Americans will see just how life-changing and rewarding genealogy can be and begin researching their own family history to make discoveries that tell them who they are and where they came from.”

Only 8 episodes have been filmed. Announced celebrities are Christina Applegate, Cindy Crawford, Zooey Deschanel, Chelsea Handler, and Kelly Clarkson.

Top Songs of 1963; #9

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The next song to hit the top of the record charts in 1963 was “If You Wanna Be Happy” by Jimmy Soul. The song is based on the much realer song “Ugly Woman” that was recorded in the 1930s. The song tells that if you want to be happy that you shouldn’t take a pretty woman as a wife. The song is used in the films “Clean and Sober” (1988), “Mermaids” (1990) and “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997).

“If You Wanna Be Happy” was at the top of the Cash Box record chart for just the week of May 19 – 25. It was at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for 2 weeks. (May 12 – 25).

This was to be the only big hit for Jimmy Soul (born James McCleese). He would later join the US Army. Jimmy died in 1988 at age 45.

Partial NY Death Index Online

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Without any notice, the NY State Department of Health has put part of their death index online. So far it is very limited with deaths from 1 Jan. 1957 to 28 Feb. 1963. Gail Fischer from the New York State Archives was a speaker at the September 2012 meeting of the Rochester Genealogical Society. During that meeting she told that NY State, in a relationship with Ancestry.com, was going to put vital record indexes on-line. Is this new web page a result of that partnership? Probably; but there is no way to be sure as NY State doesn’t have any information on the web page. Note that the death index does NOT include any records for New York City which has always maintained their own records.

This death index web page needs some work as it is difficult complicated as their isn’t any directions. Instead of having a search box, there is a “filter” on the right side of the web page. The only visible filter is for “year of death.” In order to filter for other items, you need to repeatedly click on the “Add a New Filter Condition” box to add other filter boxes. I noticed that after I entered a surname that I had to check the small box to the left of the surname, twice for the page to be updated. The update will give you a smaller number of results based on your “filters.”

Data included in this index are the name, age, gender, date of death and a residence code. It took a lot of digging to find a link to this PDF file that tells what Towns the residence code refer to. That document has pages referenced by residence code and also pages referenced alphabetically by town.

This web page from the NY State Department of Health tells how to order a copy of the original death certificate if you find someone in your family. Note that the average time for DOH to send you a copy of the death certificate is around 6 months.

There are many unanswered questions about this DOH death index. Is this the finished web page? Will they be adding older deaths? Will they add marriages or births in the future? It appears that we will have to wait for answers.

Kodak News; May 13 – 19

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History still in the making…

Kodak has agreed to sell its water system used in Eastman Business Park to Recycled Energy Development-Rochester, LLC RED-Rochester). In 2010 Rochester City Council issued a franchise to Kodak to sell water to tenants in the Park. RED-Rochester would own the water treatment and distribution facilities. If approved by the city, the 25-year agreement would require the company to pay the city a penny per 1,000 gallons of water that is sold.

Although Kodak has announced that their Document Imaging Group will be sold off, they were at a trade show this week in Washington, DC showing off new scanners. New Kodak scanners include the Kodak i2900 Scanner with Smart Touch and the Kodak i5800 Scanner with Capture Pro. These scanners are high production models for use in businesses.

Talk about the History of Channel 13

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This Tuesday evening Patrice Walsh of WHAM Channel 13 will give a talk on “Channel 13 Over the Years.” Patrice will tell how Channel 13 started, when the station went on the air and where the first studio was located. Patrice will also talk about the personalities on the air in the early days and those working there today.

Channel 13 (WOKR) signed on in 1962 as an ABC affiliate and still remains an ABC affiliate. They changed their call letters to WHAM in 2005.

Patrice grew up in W. Irondequoit and attended Bishop Kearney High. She received a B.S. in Television-Radio Communications from the S. I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Patrice was hired at Channel 13 in 1980 and has received several awards for her television work over the years.  Patrice and her family live in Greece.

The talk is Tuesday, May 14 at 7:00 p.m. at the Greece Town Hall.  Greece Historical Society members are free and a $2 donation is appreciated from others.

 

 

Kodak News; May 6 – 10

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History still in the making…

The Federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday released information remuneration of Kodak CEO Antonio Perez for 2012. His base salary was about $1.15 million million but his total compensation added up to $3.46 million with bonuses and other benefits added in. Then if Kodak successfully emerges from bankruptcy later this year , Perez will receive an additional bonus of $1.3 million.

The deal announced last week from the U.K. Kodak Pension Plan to acquire Kodak’s document and personal imaging groups should also include part or all of the facilities in Windsor, Colorado. The Windsor facility employs about 200 people making color photographic paper and media for photo kiosks. More details should be coming in the near future.

 

Kodak has disclosed how much its CEO Antonio Perez made in total compensation last year.

In 2012 Perez had a base salary of $1.15 million, but took home nearly $3.5 million with bonuses and other benefits added in.

If Kodak successfully emerges from bankruptcy as planned, Perez will receive an additional bonus of $1.3 million.

Top Songs of 1963; #8

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The next song to hit the top of the record charts in 1963 was “I Will Follow Him” by Little Peggy March. The music was written by Franck Pourcel (using the pseudonym J.W. Stole) and Paul Mauriat (using the pseudonym Del Roma). It was adapted by Arthur Altman. The song is a translation of the French language tune “Chariot” (lyrics by Jacques Plante) recorded a year earlier by Petula Clark, which hit #1 in France. The English lyrics were translated by Norman Gimbel.

Little Peggy March was born Margaret Annemarie Battavio. When her song hit number 1 she was only 15 years old. March’s success also came with financial trouble. It was discovered in 1966 that all the money she had earned was taken by her manager and she only had $500. She had other songs that made the charts but no further up than number 26 for “Hello Heartache, Goodbye Love.” She moved to Germany in 1969 and recorded some songs in German. She moved back to the US in 1981.

“I Will Follow Him” was at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Chart for the weeks of April 21 – May 11. It was on the top of the Cash Box chart for the weeks of April 28 – May 18.

Go to the Peggy March website.

Download Peggy March songs (for a small fee) from Amazon.

 

New Newspapers added to Fulton History

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Fulton History has added more newspapers to the millions of newspaper pages that were already on the website. All the added newspapers are from New York State.

If you have visited there before, you can limit the search to only see new “hits.”On the bottom of the search box are selections for dates called “File Creation Date.” I changed the dates to search to July 2012 – Dec. 2013 and was able to find new references for my grandparents and great grandparents. To go back to search all newspapers click on “all” and the dates will disappear.

The next update of Fulton History will be in the fall.

The new indexed newspapers added are:

  • Schuyler County Democrat (Watkins, NY;  1870-1876)
  • New York Sabbath Recorder (1844-1888)
  • Daily Long Island Farmer (Jamaica NY; 1908-1926)
  • Ballston Spa Daily Journal (1913-1987)
  • Daily Saratogian – Republican (Saratoga Springs, NY; 1844-1864)
  • Saratogian (Saratoga Springs, NY; 1856-1970)
  • Daily Saratogian (Saratoga Springs, NY; 1884-1910)
  • Schuylerville Standard (1884-1903)
  • Cicero Patriot (2000-2013)
  • Saratoga Springs Sentinel (1872-1885)
  • Mechanicville Saturday Mercury (1895-1920)
  • Hudson Valley Times (Stillwater, NY; 1904-1923)
  • Brooklyn Weekly People (1901-1973)
  • Long Island Daily Press (Jamaica, NY; 1926-1945)
  • Buffalo Courier (1888-1926)
  • NY Daily Advertiser (NYC; 1820-1835)
  • New York Weekly News (NYC; 1856-1897)
  • Attica News (1887-1966)
  • Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth (NYC; 1880-1884)
  • Clifton Springs Press (1886-1946)
  • Buffalo Express (1866-1874)
  • Shortsville Enterprise (1919-1976)
  • Belmont Courier (1898-1927)
  • Belmont Dispatch (1913-1966)
  • Buffalo Evening News (1881-1928)
  • Angelica Advocate (1908-1949)
  • Bolivar Breeze (1892-1965)
  • Whitesville News (1895-1953)
  • Alfred Sun (1884-1980)
  • Belfast Blaze (1924-1969)

Kodak News; April 29 – May 3

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History still in the making…

It was a busy week for Kodak.

On Monday Kodak reported a first quarter profit of $283 million. Revenue was down a little less than 10% at $849 million. The quarterly profit includes a $535 million gain recorded on the sale of Kodak’s digital imaging patent portfolio.

We reported here a couple of weeks ago that Kodak had a bid to sell their document imaging group to Brothers Industries. That deal is now off as Kodak got a better deal that includes both the document imaging and personal imaging (AKA film) group. The new deal is from the U.K. Kodak Pension Plan. That will settle pension claims of approximately $2.8 billion from the U. K. retirees and will give Kodak $650 million in cash and non-cash. The pension plan will be able to use the Kodak name for things like film and film camera.

Late on Tuesday Kodak filed a plan to the bankruptcy court for their emergence from bankruptcy. The Bankruptcy court must approve the plan and then Kodak will schedule a vote on the plan by their creditors. Kodak’s plan is to swap $2.7 billion in unsecured debt for shares in a new company. That will make current Kodak stock worthless. Kodak expects to emerge from bankruptcy as early as July.

Steven Ross, the head of the U. K. Pension Plan, was in Rochester Wednesday to reassure employees that will be moving from Kodak to the new, as of yet, unnamed company. Roughly 3,200 Kodak employees worldwide and numerous Rochester area physical assets, such as the million-square-foot Building 205 will be moving to the new company.

Approximately 1,200 retirees with unfunded pensions will be treated as creditors. Those retirees are mostly management level positions. This will not effect retirees that are part of the KRIP plan, which is safe.

Scenes for The Amazing Spider-Man™ 2 have been filmed all week long in downtown Rochester. The scenes are being filmed on Kodak Vison3 Color Negative Film. The scenes being filmed are chase scenes and do not include any of the stars of the movie.

Kodak stock price fluctuated greatly this week. After good news Monday the stock price jumped up to a high of 45 cents per share. Then after analysis of the emergence documents revealed that current stock would be worthless, the stock price dropped to about 9 cents per share. The stock price ended the week at around 15 cents.