Oneida County Bulletin                                
 

March 2004

What's New at our website, www.NewYorkAncestry.com:  At no cost to you, you may view and print out the approximately 100 page book, “Historical Sketch of Hamilton College published at Clinton, NY, class of 1870.”  This is part of our new effort to build an Online Library. We hope to upload a (rare) book per month.

As editor of an annual newsletter published since 1997 (The Genealogical Journal of Oneida County, New York), Pat (Patricia R. James) is introducing a free online Bulletin of items she's found along her route of discovery that ‘can’t wait’ until October when the next Annual, 125 page newsletter is published.  Such items are likely to include:

1. Lost & Found - miscellaneous vital records found in out-of-the-way places.  Example:
     Rev. Fred WIDMER, of Rome (trustee) p.3
     Malona M. SMITH of Rome, editor of The Rising Sun and New York Recorder (alumni of the class of 1861) p.7
     Freeman A, VANDERWALKER of Camden (student) p.15    
     Source: “Annual Catalogue and Prospectus of Ives Seminary” located at Antwerp, (Jefferson County) New York, published in 1877.

2.  Website WeView - websites possibly influencing your Oneida County research.  
    Example:   (This is too good to miss!)
ArchivesUSA.  This a division of ProQuest.com.  It features search engines capable of looking for either location or surname housed an incredible 5000+ repositories and 132,000+ collections in the United States.  For more information, go to http://archives.chadwyck.com.  (There is a link to “free trial” at the archives.chadwyck website, but it’s faster and cleaner going through the ProQuest website.)

Right now, ProQuest is offering a FREE 10 DAY TRIAL for individual use via their product, XanEdu.  (Three databases are offered.  I chose the general Research Engine.)  Go to www.ProQuest.com, enter “ArchivesUSA” in the Product Search box, click on the link “request a free trial,” click on “my individual use,” click on the icon for XanEdu at the bottom of the page, choose the search engine you prefer (I chose the general research engine), register (free) by creating your account profile (for ‘institution’, I chose ‘other’) and you’re in!

Here’s an example of what I found when searching in Arts and Humanities on keywords “history utica new york.”  Among the many results was “Unequal Justice: The Metis in O’Donoghue’s Raid of 1871” at the Hudson’s Bay Company Post in Manitoba, Canada.  I learned that American sympathizers from the United States participated in more than one Canadian popular uprising (the first one being the Patriot War of 1837 in Ontario, Canada.)  It seems that one J.J. DONNELLY from Utica was a ‘colonel’ in the American Fenian Brotherhood.  The Fenians were composed of Irish Catholics who opposed the British Empire.  Although this particular raid was not ‘officially’ sanctioned by the Fenians, the Canadian government still took these relatively minor skirmishes seriously.  The fear was that Manitoba might withdraw from the Confederation and join the United States. Now, to find out more about ‘Colonel’ J.J. Donnelly!

 3.  Eye Spy - books found at www.ABE.com featuring rare (out-or-print or otherwise valuable) books that have a genealogical or historical Oneida County slant.  (Keyword: Utica)
     Examples: See the end of this Bulletin for a more detailed description.

4.  What's New - brief summary of additions to NewYorkAncestry.com.  
        Order an item just by sending us an email requesting this item.  Put "Purchase Order" in the subject line of the email. You may also ask for a free sample issue sent to your postal address or received via email as an attached Excel file. (Exclusive to Jefferson and Oswego county newsletters.)

The Genealogical Journal of Oneida County, New York for 2003 ($20.00 plus $4.00 p&h)
The Genealogical Journal of Jefferson County, New York for 2004 ($10.00 plus $1.50 p&h)
The Genealogical Journal of Oswego County, New York for 2004 ($10.00 plus $1.50 p&h)

5.  FYI – What the Oneida County (or Rome) Historical Society is doing real-time:
(The announcements repeated here are slanted to the specific interest of family history researchers.)  Examples of Presentations held at the OCHS:
March 27, Saturday at 1 PM: Clinton and Kirkland History by Richard Williams
     and exhibit(s) worth mentioning:
April 18, Sunday, 2 PM:  The Underground Railroad in Oneida County
  
The Oneida County Historical Society is located at 1608 Genesee St. in Utica.
1-315-735-3642.  Email: ochs@midyork.org

************************************
The plan is to send this bulletin out quarterly. 
If you'd like to be on our list, return an email with the word "subscribe" in the subject line.
If you wish to discontinue at any time, return an email with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.

Sincerely!

Pat James, editor of The Genealogical Journal of Oneida County, New York
    and website coordinator of www.NewYorkAncestry.com
    (We sell on eBay, too - at reduced prices!)  

 ***************************************

   And by the way --

These books are free for the taking ...  Just send us the postage.