Wednesday CoronaBuzz, December 23, 2020: 27 pointers to updates, useful stuff, research news, and more.
Nine month anniversary of doing this and my hair looks sillier every day. Please wear a mask. Wash your hands. Stay at home if you can. Please be careful. I love you.
NEW RESOURCES – MEDICAL/HEALTH
University of Minnesota: New online tool shows how small group gatherings can increase COVID-19 infections in MN. “When it comes to COVID-19, it can be difficult to see how small group gatherings can lead to an increase of cases across the state. Most people aren’t educated in infectious disease dynamics and hardly anyone alive has lived through a pandemic. To make the concept easier to understand, Associate Professor Eva Enns created an online tool to demonstrate how individual social gatherings can accumulate to significantly raise the number of new COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations occurring state-wide.” It looks like it could work for anywhere; there are two Minnesota-specific data points but you can change them on the “Model Inputs” tab of the tool.
NEW RESOURCES – STATE-SPECIFIC
Oil City News: UW: Covid Situation ‘improved’ Across Much Of Wyoming, Including Natrona. “The University of Wyoming are offering a new interactive COVID-19 dashboard that aims to give the public a new tool for monitoring data surrounding the pandemic in a way that is ‘tailored for rural areas.’”
Deadline: L.A. County Coronavirus Update: Mayor Eric Garcetti Announces New Interactive Covid Map, Responds To Congress’ New Stimulus Check. “On Monday Garcetti unveiled a new interactive map of Los Angeles that would provide Angelenos will real time information about infection rates and deaths in varying neighborhoods. In addition to visualizing real-time information about the coronavirus ins Los Angeles, the new map also features quick access to Covid-19 test registration.”
USEFUL STUFF
Mental Floss: Doctor’s 60-Second Trick Makes Any Face Mask Fit Better. “As face masks have become part of daily life, people have come up with innovative ways to make them more comfortable and effective. There are tricks for masking up without hurting your ears, fogging up your glasses, or breaking out. This new tip from Olivia Cuid, M.D. could be the key to making large masks fit better around your face.”
MISINFORMATION / FACT-CHECKING
VentureBeat: Studies reveal verified social media users are fueling COVID-19 fake news. “In their survey, between January 1 and October 31, the IU and Politecnico researchers canvassed over 53 million tweets and more than 37 million Facebook posts across 140,000 pages and groups. They identified close to a million low-credibility links that were shared on both Facebook and Twitter, but bots alone weren’t responsible for the spread of misinformation. Rather, aside from the first few months of the pandemic, the primary sources of low-credibility information tended to be high-profile, official, and verified accounts, according to the coauthors. Verified accounts made up almost 40% of the number of retweets on Twitter and almost 70% of reshares on Facebook.”
WRAL: Fact check: Social media mixes up COVID relief, omnibus bills. “On Dec. 21, lawmakers in both chambers of Congress passed a $2.3 trillion spending package: a roughly $1.4 trillion omnibus spending bill — consisting of 12 different bills to fund the government during fiscal year 2021 — and a separate, approximately $900 billion bill specifically for COVID-19 relief. Lawmakers also passed several other smaller bills. It’s the $1.4 trillion part of the package that included funding for U.S. policies and priorities within the country and abroad. The Facebook post conflates provisions of the COVID-19 relief bill with provisions in the omnibus spending bill.”
SOCIETAL IMPACT
American Independent: The pandemic has been great for the super-rich. “The 651 billionaires in the United States have seen their collective wealth grow by $1 trillion since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March, according to a new study…That’s enough money to be able to send a $3,000 stimulus check to every single person in the country.”
Washington Post: A rural S.D. community ignored the virus for months. Then people started dying.. “In a state where the Republican governor, Kristi L. Noem, has defied calls for a statewide mask mandate even as cases hit record levels, many in this rural community an hour west of Sioux Falls ignored the virus for months, not bothering with masks or social distancing. Restaurants were packed. Big weddings and funerals went on as planned. Then people started dying.”
HEALTH CARE / HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS
AL .com: UAB asks retired nurses to help fight pandemic as staffing levels wane. “[University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital] is calling on retired nurses and nursing students to join its pandemic efforts as the hospital faces staffing shortages and COVID-19 hospitalizations rise.”
INSTITUTIONS
New York Times: Will Art Lovers Open Their Wallets for Online Tours?. “Since the National Gallery’s blockbuster ‘Artemisia’ exhibition opened in October, art lovers have had to jump through hoops to see it. Travel restrictions have kept international visitors away, the fear of catching the coronavirus hangs over the city’s public transportation system, and rolling lockdowns — or the threat of them — have made life in England uncertain. The latest national shutdown closed the museum entirely from Nov. 5 to Dec. 2. If those circumstances make a visit to London sound unappealing, there is an alternative: a ‘virtual tour’ of the show on the museum’s website.”
BUSINESS / CORPORATIONS
Los Angeles Times: Shaken studios. Empty theaters. What Hollywood lost during the pandemic. “The Spanish flu of 1918 helped spur the creation of the Hollywood studio system under moguls such as Paramount Pictures co-founder Adolph Zukor, who took the opportunity to buy up failing theaters. Hollywood is experiencing another massive disruption today as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Titans of the entertainment and media business posted huge losses, with more pain to come. Industry-rattling trends that were expected to play out over multiple years — including the shift of movies from theaters to streaming services — have instead happened over the course of a few months.”
Chattanooga Times Free Press: Coronavirus takes toll on Black, Latino child care providers. “Policy experts say the U.S. spends a small fraction of federal funds on child care compared to other industrialized nations, an underfunding exacerbated by COVID-19. Soon nearly half of the child care centers in the U.S. may be lost, according to the Center for American Progress.”
STATE / LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Washington Post: Maryland jurisdictions announce tougher coronavirus restrictions as region’s caseloads surge. “Leaders of Maryland’s most populous jurisdictions pushed for unified shutdowns Wednesday to curb the surging coronavirus as some reimposed the toughest restrictions since the spring. Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) proposed banning all indoor dining, hours after Baltimore City forbade any dining at restaurants, indoors or outdoors. The city’s new protocols are the strictest in Maryland since shutdowns during the first wave of infections.”
KDKA: Pa. Dept. Of Health Launches New Digital Tool To Help Contact Tracers. “The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced new technology designed to help slow the spread of coronavirus across the Commonwealth. The Connect and Protect form is a type of digital case investigation designed to make the contact tracing process much faster.”
COUNTRY / FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
BBC: Covid: France rewards frontline immigrant workers with citizenship. “Hundreds of immigrants in France working on the coronavirus frontline have had their service to the country recognised with fast-track citizenship. The interior ministry invited residents helping with efforts against Covid-19 to apply for accelerated naturalisation. More than 700 have already been granted citizenship or are in the final stages of receiving it.”
INDIVIDUALS / BANDS / GROUPS
New York Times: 18 Days After Giving Birth, Woman Dies From Covid-19. “Erika Becerra was eight months pregnant when she learned she had tested positive for the coronavirus. Almost immediately after she got the result, her body began aching, she developed a fever and she felt tightness in her chest. When she began having trouble breathing, her husband called for an ambulance. Three days later, on Nov. 15, she gave birth in a Detroit hospital to a healthy boy, Diego. She never got to hold him, her brother told KCBS-TV in Los Angeles.”
K-12 EDUCATION
ProPublica: The Pandemic Hasn’t Stopped This School District From Suing Parents Over Unpaid Textbook Fees. “When the pandemic started, several school districts in Indiana halted a long-standing practice: suing families for unpaid textbook fees. But one school district has filed nearly 300 lawsuits against parents, and others also have returned to court.”
HEALTH
BBC: UK has two cases of variant linked to South Africa. “The UK has detected two cases of another new variant of coronavirus, the health secretary Matt Hancock says. The cases in London and north west England are contacts of people who travelled to South Africa, where the variant was discovered. Travel restrictions with South Africa have been imposed.”
Los Angeles Times: COVID-19 hit Latinos hard. Now officials must build trust around vaccine in the community. “Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, has warned that the pandemic will continue to disrupt lives unless the ‘overwhelming majority’ of Americans get vaccinated. While the process of creating vaccines has happened with extraordinary speed, he said, it has not been ‘at the expense of safety and scientific integrity.’ But as states plan for vaccine distribution, an all-too-important question has arisen: How many people will take it? That question might prove especially pivotal for groups that have seen the highest casualty rates from COVID-19.”
New York Times: Their Teeth Fell Out. Was It Another Covid-19 Consequence?. “Earlier this month, Farah Khemili popped a wintergreen breath mint in her mouth and noticed a strange sensation: a bottom tooth wiggling against her tongue. Ms. Khemili, 43, of Voorheesville, N.Y., had never lost an adult tooth. She touched the tooth to confirm it was loose, initially thinking the problem might be the mint. The next day, the tooth flew out of her mouth and into her hand. There was neither blood nor pain.”
TECHNOLOGY
Google Blog: How you’ll find accurate and timely information on COVID-19 vaccines. “As the world turns its focus to the deployment of vaccines, the type of information people need will evolve. Communities will be vaccinated at an unprecedented pace and scale. This will require sharing information to educate the public, including addressing vaccine misperceptions and hesitance, and helping to surface official guidance to people on when, where and how to get vaccinated. Today, we’re sharing about how we’re working to meet these needs—through our products and partnering with health authorities—while keeping harmful misinformation off our platforms.”
University of Missouri: Mizzou Engineers Using Twitter to Track COVID-19. “Mizzou Engineers are taking to Twitter to track COVID-19 and analyze the virus’s impact on individual health. Yijie Ren, Jiacheng Xie and Lei Jiang are using Twitter’s built-in programming interface to search tweets for key phrases such as “I tested positive.” From there, they’re delving deeper into the Twitter user’s account to log symptoms and recovery experiences.”
RESEARCH
Arizona State University: ASU student team’s fog-free mask design wins $1 million international competition. “A student team from Arizona State University has won the million-dollar XPRIZE Next-Gen Mask Challenge to redesign the face masks used to prevent the spread of COVID-19 by making them more comfortable, functional and affordable. The contest drew nearly 1,000 entries from young innovators in more than 70 countries around the world. The ASU team made the top five in early December; the grand prize was announced Tuesday.”
University of Florida: Smell tests evaluated as potential tool to identify COVID-19. “A team of University of Florida neuroscientists will analyze two different smell tests under a new National Institutes of Health grant aimed at developing inexpensive, at-home tests to help identify new cases of COVID-19 and provide a warning sign of a community outbreak in time to thwart it.”
CRIME / SECURITY / LEGAL
FBI: Federal Agencies Warn of Emerging Fraud Schemes Related to COVID-19 Vaccines. “The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG), and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) are warning the public about several emerging fraud schemes related to COVID-19 vaccines. The FBI, HHS-OIG, and CMS have received complaints of scammers using the public’s interest in COVID-19 vaccines to obtain personally identifiable information (PII) and money through various schemes.”
OPINION
Mashable: How cosmetic glitter improved my self-confidence on Zoom calls. “I’ll be honest: It’s 2020 and I feel like shit. My clothes are tight. I never feel clean. The family couch and I have developed an identical, yet unidentifiable smell. Things are dire for me and my self-esteem right now — and unless those vaccines start moving a whole lot faster, things are going to stay dire for a while. So thank god for those iridescent discs I sometimes glue to my face, the tiny scraps of plastic that have been keeping me together in these difficult, socially distant times.”
POLITICS
NPR: Mask Up! How Public Health Messages Collide With Facebook’s Political Ads Ban. “Facebook halted political advertising after polls closed on Election Day. With votes being counted, President Donald Trump and his supporters spread false claims and conspiracy theories about the results. But nearly two months later, the Electoral College has affirmed Joe Biden’s victory and yet Facebook’s temporary pause is still in place. The ad ban illustrates the difficult tradeoffs Facebook is making, with every decision carrying ramifications for billions of users.”
CoronaBuzz is brought to you by ResearchBuzz. I love your comments, I love your site suggestions, and I love you. Feel free to comment, send resource suggestions, or tag @buzz_corona on Twitter. Thanks!
Visit the Upcoming Online Family History Show
The following announcement was written by the organizers of the Online Family History Show:
While, in these unprecedented times, we are not going to be able to meet as usual at York in England during this month for the customary Family History Show at the racecourse, the good news is that we are still going to be able to safely enjoy access to many of the usual features of the show. The Family History Show has announced that it will be coming to you as an online event on the 20th of June featuring a wide range of virtual stalls from family history societies to archives and genealogical suppliers.
The online event gives benefits other than safety, those from distant shores and those that have disabilities that make it difficult to attend, can now visit with relative ease.
The Family History Show – Online will, mirroring the format of the very successful live shows, feature an online lecture theatre, the popular ‘Ask the expert’ area – where you can put questions forward to their specialists – as well as a whole host of stalls where you can ask for advice as well as buy genealogical products.
Q&A Expert Session
Attendees are invited to submit questions via the website and a selection will be put forward to the panel in a multiuser Zoom session that is streamed on a linked video channel for the show.
To make this online experience as useful to family historians as attending the physical show would have been, you can “visit” a stall in the virtual exhibition hall. With over 85 present there will be a wide variety of societies and companies.
Built into the website is the ability to talk to some of the stallholders by text, audio or video from the comfort of your own home. With this facility, you can ask them for advice regarding their family history society/business and also purchase from their online stall various downloadable and physical products to help you with your research.
In the virtual lecture theatre, there will also be the chance to watch talks premiered on the show’s Youtube channel from the same expert lecturers who would have been at the physical event and are on the ‘Ask the Expert’ panel. These presentations will cover a wide variety of family history topics.
Tickets to attend the online Family History Show are available for just £5.50 each. All ticket holders will also receive a digital Goody Bag worth over £10 on the day.
To find out more about The Family History Show – Online, and buy your ticket visit https://thefamilyhistoryshow.com/online/
Added and Updated Record Collections at FamilySearch.org – Week of 27 October to 2 November 2019
The URL for this post is:
Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the “Comments” link at the bottom of each post. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.
Colour Tithe Maps for Warwickshire added to TheGenealogist
The following announcement was written by the folks at TheGenealogist:
TheGenealogist has just released additional sets of Colour Tithe Maps to join the previously available greyscale maps in their National Tithe Records collection. This release for Warwickshire is of high-resolution colour digitised maps which will provide the family historian with highly detailed maps sourced from both The National Archives as well as the Warwick County Record Office.
Researchers searching for owners or occupiers of Warwickshire land surveyed in the 19th century for the Tithe Commutation Act 1836 now have a choice of plans linked to the fully searchable apportionment schedules. Subscribers to TheGenealogist’s Diamond membership can select to view The National Archives’ grayscale maps, The National Archives’ colour map, or the Warwickshire Record Office colour maps when using the Tithe & Landowner records for this county. The Warwickshire Record Office maps are, in many cases, less faded and more vibrant in their colours having had less wear and tear than the alternatives.
Colour Tithe Map of Wasperton, Warwickshire
The new data includes colour tithe maps showing plots of land covering the years from 1837 to 1855 with some much later plans where there was an altered apportionment recorded.
These tagged colour maps join the previously released apportionment record books, national greyscale maps and colour maps for Rutland, Huntingdonshire, Buckinghamshire, City of York, Middlesex, Northumberland, Surrey, Westmorland, and the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire.
The National Tithe Records collection gives the family history researcher the ability to search by name and keyword (for example parish or county) to look for all levels of society from large estate owners to occupiers of tiny plots such as a cottage or a cowshed.
Read the article, Warwickshire Colour Tithe Records discovers the house that went to America, at:
https://www.thegenealogist.co.uk/featuredarticles/2019/warwickshire-colour-tithe-records-discovers-the-house-that-went-to-america-1198/
About TheGenealogist
TheGenealogist is an award-winning online family history website, who put a wealth of information at the fingertips of family historians. Their approach is to bring hard to use physical records to life online with easy to use interfaces such as their Tithe and newly released Lloyd George Domesday collections.
TheGenealogist’s innovative SmartSearch technology links records together to help you find your ancestors more easily. TheGenealogist is one of the leading providers of online family history records. Along with the standard Birth, Marriage, Death and Census records, they also have significant collections of Parish and Nonconformist records, PCC Will Records, Irish Records, Military records, Occupations, Newspaper record collections amongst many others.
TheGenealogist uses the latest technology to help you bring your family history to life. Use TheGenealogist to find your ancestors today!
About The National Archives
The National Archives is one of the world’s most valuable resources for research and an independent research organisation in its own right. As the official archive and publisher for the UK government, and England and Wales they are the guardians of some of the UK’s most iconic national documents, dating back over 1,000 years. Their role is to collect and secure the future of the government record, both digital and physical, to preserve it for generations to come, and to make it as accessible and available as possible.
The National Archives brings together the skills and specialisms needed to conserve some of the oldest historic documents as well as leading digital archive practices to manage and preserve government information past, present and future.
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ http://www.legislation.gov.uk/
Added and Updated Record Collections at FamilySearch.org – Week of 22 to 28 September 2019
— Collections with images removed —
— Collections with records removed —
The URL for this post is:
Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the “Comments” link at the bottom of each post. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.
Added and Updated Record Collections at FamilySearch.org – Week of 11 to 17 August 2019
The URL for this post is:
Please comment on this post on the website by clicking the URL above and then the “Comments” link at the bottom of each post. Share it on Twitter, Facebook, or Pinterest using the icons below. Or contact me by email at randy.seaver@gmail.com.
New Records on FamilySearch from May 2019
The following announcement was written by FamilySearch:
FamilySearch expanded its free online archives in May of 2019 with almost 14 million new indexed family history records from all over the world. Over 387,000 new digital images were added as well. New historical records were added from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cape Verde, England, France, Italy, Nicaragua, Peru, Poland, Scotland, South Africa, Spain, the Ukraine, and the United States, which includes Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah,and Washington. United States records also include Confederate Officers Card Indexes, Native American Eastern Cherokee Indian Reservation Rolls, and Obituaries from the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. FamilySearch also added digital images from Alaska, BillionGraves,and Spain.
Find your ancestors using these free archives online, including birth, marriage, death, and church records. Millions of new genealogy records are added each month to make your search easier.
Country | Collection | Indexed Records | Digital Images | Comments |
Argentina | Argentina, Corrientes, Civil Registration, 1880-1930 | 37,753 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Argentina | Argentina, Corrientes, Catholic Church Records, 1734-1977 | 72 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Australia | Australia, South Australia, School Admission Registers, 1873-1985 | 1,717 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Australia | Australia, South Australia, Will and Probate Records | 3,229 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Brazil | Brazil, São Paulo, Civil Registration, 1925-1995 | 207,754 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Brazil | Brazil, São Paulo, Civil Registration, 1925-1995 | 1,848,685 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
Canada | Canadian Headstones | 1,882,916 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Canada | Canada, Nova Scotia, Records of Aliens pre-examined at Halifax, 1923-1933 | 16,175 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
Cape Verde | Cape Verde, Catholic Church Records, 1787-1957 | 9,631 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
England | England, Hampshire Parish Registers, 1538-1980 | 40 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
England | England, Northamptonshire, Non-conformist Records, 1840-1894 | 3,020 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
France | France, Vienne, Census, 1836 | 3,362 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
Italy | Italy, Trento, Diocesi di Trento, Catholic Church Records, 1548-1937 | 33,197 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Nicaragua | Nicaragua Civil Registration, 1809-2013 | 59,266 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Other | BillionGraves Index | 338,467 | 338,467 | Added indexed records and images to an existing collection |
Peru | Peru, Amazonas, Civil Registration, 1935-1999 | 5,618 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Peru | Peru, Lima, Civil Registration, 1874-1996 | 123,377 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Poland | Poland, Radom Roman Catholic Church Books, 1587-1966 | 13,835 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Scotland | Scotland Census, 1901 | 4,437,987 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
South Africa | South Africa, Pietermaritzburg Estate Files 1846-1950 | 1,547 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Spain | Spain, Soldier Personal Service Files, 1835-1940 | 0 | 48,650 | Added images to an existing collection |
Ukraine | Ukraine, Kyiv Orthodox Consistory Church Book Duplicates, 1734-1930 | 438,196 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United Kingdom | Great Britain, War Office Registers, 1772-1935 | 309,802 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Alabama, Southern Claims Commission Approved Claims, 1871-1880 | 5,248 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
United States | Alabama, World War I Service Cards, 1917-1919 | 1,058 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Alaska, Pioneer Home discharge index, 1913-1958 | 3,973 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
United States | Alaska, Vital Records, 1816-1959 | 0 | 92 | Added images to an existing collection |
United States | Arizona, Mesa LDS Family History Center, Obituary Index, 1959-2014 | 852,446 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
United States | California, Pioneer Migration Index, Compiled 1906-1935 | 241 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Delaware, World War I Servicemen Records, 1917-1919 | 5 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871-1920 | 10 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Kansas, Gove County Enumeration Books and List of Residents, 1909-1950 | 1,703 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Mississippi, World War I Service Cards, 1917-1919 | 528 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Missouri, Confederate Pension Applications and Soldiers Home Applications, 1911-1938 | 368 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Montana, Rosebud County Records, 1878-2011 | 108 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Montana, Sanders County Records, 1866-2010 | 10 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | New Jersey, Jersey City, Holy Name Cemetery, Card Index of Interment, 1849-1984 | 42,736 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
United States | New York State Census, 1905 | 30,556 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Ohio Tax Records, 1800-1850 | 1,670,429 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Ohio, Columbus, Union Cemetery, Burial Records, ca. 1878-1980 | 54,081 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
United States | Ohio, County Naturalization Records, 1800-1977 | 145 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Ohio, World War I Statement of Service Cards, 1914-1919 | 1,420 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Ohio, World War I, Enrollment Cards, 1914-1918 | 230,784 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
United States | Oklahoma, School Records, 1895-1936 | 165,566 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Oregon, Yamhill County Records, 1857-1963 | 82 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Board of Health Birth Return Records, 1908-1911 | 9,198 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
United States | Texas, Cooke County, Deeds, 1895-1924 | 1,738 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Texas, El Paso Alien Arrivals, 1909-1924 | 6,722 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Texas, Gonzales County, Birth Records, 1878-1945 | 74,466 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
United States | Texas, Gonzales County, School Records, 1910-1970 | 447,043 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
United States | Texas, Swisher County Records, 1879-2012 | 70 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | United States Confederate Officers Card Index, 1861-1865 | 104,563 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | United States, Florida, Index to Alien Arrivals by Airplane at Miami, 1930-1942 | 183 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | United States, Native American, Eastern Cherokee Indian Reservation Rolls, 1848-1970 | 9 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | United States, Obituaries, American Historical Society of Germans from Russia, 1899-2012 | 374,380 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Utah, Salt Lake County, Enrolled Militia, 1895 | 8,901 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
United States | Utah, World War I Army Servicemen Records Abstracts, 1914-1918 | 18,884 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
United States | Utah, World War II Index to Army Veterans of Utah, 1939-1945 | 42,317 | 0 | New indexed records collection |
United States | Washington, Pierce County Marriage Returns, 1891-1938 | 378 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
United States | Washington, World War I Veteran’s Compensation Fund Application Records, 1921-1925 | 258 | 0 | Added indexed records to an existing collection |
Serfin’ U.S.A. with Benjamin Franklin
Yesterday I examined the facts and logic of a recent USA Today opinion essay, “Killing the Electoral College Means Rural Americans Would Be Serfs” by Trent England. I found them unconvincing.
The portions of the essay that invoke history are more alarmist and equally slipshod. England writes:
…history shows that city dwellers have a nasty habit of taking advantage of their country cousins. Greeks enslaved whole masses of rural people, known as helots. Medieval Europe had feudalism. The Russians had their serfs.
That’s laughable, and not just because this conception of world history appears to be confined to the western half of Eurasia.
Before the Industrial Revolution, the overwhelming proportion of people in all large societies worked in agriculture. Cities were relatively small. Urban elites didn’t just head out to the countryside and enslave the people they found there. Rather, local strongmen forced the bulk of their neighbors to work the fields for them in exchange for protection. Only over time did elite families take urban dwellings as well, and only later did urban traders turn themselves into country aristocrats.
Notably, England doesn’t discuss the U.S. of A.’s own history of enslaving and oppressing people to make them work on agricultural production. In the ante-bellum period and then in the Jim Crow era, the Electoral College preserved the power of the local elites who maintained and benefited from that exploitation. Nobody looking at U.S. history should think that the Electoral College system has protected the rural Americans who actually did the work.
“The idea that every vote should count equally is attractive,” England writes. Yes, that’s why his state of Oklahoma and every other counts votes equally for local elections. I have yet to see proponents of the national Electoral College demand a similar system for their own states. The U.S. Supreme Court has even ruled that state and local elections must be based on the principle of “one person, one vote.”
England goes on:
But a quote often attributed to Benjamin Franklin famously reminds us that democracy can be “two wolves and a lamb voting on what’s for lunch.” (City dwellers who think that meat comes from the grocery store might not understand why this is such a big problem for the lamb.)
England snidely suggests that “city dwellers” don’t know where meat comes from, but really he destroys his claim to speak for rural America by treating “two wolves and a lamb” as the norm.
There are more than 5,000,000 sheep in America and fewer than 25,000 wolves. Lambs would be well off in a “one animal, one vote” democracy where sheep could easily outvote wolves. The only time wolves outnumber sheep is when they maneuver to create that situation for their own advantage. Likewise, politicians worried about losing fair votes manipulate electoral districts (gerrymandering) or cling to an old imbalanced system (the Electoral College).
Franklin never made that mistake about wolves and sheep because Franklin never said what England quotes him as saying. The line appears nowhere in the Franklin Papers at Founders Online. Wikiquote not only notes that lack of a credible source but also how the word “lunch” appeared well after Franklin’s lifetime. England’s phrase “a quote often attributed to” hints that he recognized how unreliable this attribution was but decided to use it anyway because it served his purposes.
Likewise, the present Electoral College system continues to serve the purposes of some Americans, so they’ll use any argument to make it appear to be fair, logical, or beneficial. But those arguments melt on scrutiny.
Plus Edition Newsletter Has Been Sent
To all Plus Edition subscribers:
A notice of the latest EOGN Plus Edition newsletter was sent to you a few minutes ago. Here are the articles in this week’s Plus Edition newsletter:
(+) What is the Purpose of a Genealogy Program?
Ancestry.com is under Fire as new DNA Algorithm Drastically Changes the Ethnicity of Some Users
Follow-up: Ancestry.com is under Fire as new DNA Algorithm Drastically Changes the Ethnicity of Some Users
See Long Hidden Historic Photos of the Gritty, Compelling Lives of Tough Maine Fishermen
Archival Grant Opportunity: Historical and Archival Records Care Grants in Pennsylvania
Churchyards become Lawns in Sweden as Tombstones are typically Removed after 25 Years
Multnomah County (Oregon) Estates, Wills and Guardianship Abstracts 1852-1901, 1904, 1908 are Available from the Genealogical Forum of Oregon
New Free Historical Records on FamilySearch: Week of April 29, 2019
New Records Available To Search This Findmypast Friday
Donn Devine, R.I.P.
Prediction: The Dead Will Take Over Facebook in the Next 50 Years
Press Release: New Records Reveal Those Imprisoned for Debt in England
Press Release: SLIG Announces New Scholarship Opportunities
Press Release: The Genealogy Squad Facebook Group Announced
Leonardo’s Hair to be DNA Tested
American Ancestors and New England Historic Genealogical Society Present Lifetime Achievement Award to Dan Rather
A Genealogy Cartoon about Queen Victoria and Her Relatives
It is the First Day of the Month: Back Up Your Genealogy Files
Recent Updates to the Calendar of Genealogy Events
NOTE: If you are a Plus Edition subscriber and yet you did not receive the email notice in your in-box, take a look in your spam folder. It probably is there. Most email programs have (optional) filters that you can specify to make sure future Plus Edition notices get sent correctly to your in-box. For instance, GMail users can find instructions at https://blog.eogn.com/2014/09/07/how-to-make-gmail-always-place-this-newsletter-in-the-in-box-not-in-the-spam-folder/. Most other email programs have similar capabilities.
To all non-subscribers:
If you would like to read this week’s Plus Edition newsletter, you can sign up for a subscription by looking at the menus to the right and clicking on “Subscribe to or Renew the Plus Edition Newsletter.” Once you subscribe, you will be given immediate access to the Plus Edition web site and will be able to read the latest Plus Edition newsletter, along with the two previous weekly Plus Edition editions.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Dick Eastman at https://blog.eogn.com/contact-dick-eastman.
Recent Comments