Monday, January 6, 2014

Searching for Businesses

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Genealogy tip for today: Searching for Businesses

I learned something last week, by trial and error, which I had never done. I thought I would share it with you, because you may not know you can do this - I had a patron ask me if I could find an news article about a business.

We have the local newspaper on microfilm but they are in chronological order. She didn't know the exact date, but knew it was early in the 1970’s. Still that was not close enough. A murder had occurred at this business but she also didn't remember any names involved either!

I didn't have a lot to go on. I tried googling it but got nothing. The search did pull up newspaperarchives.com but that required a subscription that I didn't want to do for the time being. I wanted to wait till “push comes to shove.”

I decided to try Ancestry.com. I’m very familiar with searching for a person’s name but I had never tried a business before. I thought I would try the card catalog. Again, it usually researches by title, or keywords in a title. But I thought I would try the business name in the keyword search.

I stumbled around a little bit at first but came across “newspapers and publications”. From there it gave the choice of newspapers or publications, of which I chose newspapers. Next it took me to a geographical list and I clicked on Arkansas, then “Northwest Arkansas Times” – just what I needed.

Once again I typed in “Empire Seed Company” in the N.A.T database. Lo and behold the company’s name popped up in a news article (besides lots of ads) with the comment about a man’s body! Woo Hoo. Bingo! I found it!

In the end I found out the murdered man’s name, who committed the crime and information on his trial, as well as the date of the event. Altogether, I was able to pull up 6 articles! YEAH!

If you want to try this, here are the steps I took:
  -click on Search
    -card catalog
      -all categories
        -newspapers and publications
          -newspapers
            -USA/Arkansas
              -Northwest Arkansas Times
                -Name of business (e.g. Empire Seed Company)

Like I said above, searching a name of a person is what we are all familiar with, what we naturally think about doing. But this is one little trick in broadening your search for more than people when using Ancestry.com*



[*Disclaimer: This is not an endorsement of any product, just the experience of the writer. This may or may not give you the same results.]


“History – it’s who we are; Genealogy – it’s who I am” sg



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Harold Goodwineson


1066

Harold Goodwineson is crowned crowned King Harold II – King of England.
1540

Henry VIII of England marries his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. The marriage will last six months.
1861

The Governor of Maryland, Thomas Hicks, announces his opposition to the states's possible secession from the Union.
1904

Japanese railway authorities in Korea refuse to transport Russian troops.
1910

Union leaders ask President William H. Taft to investigate U.S. Steel's practices.
1912

New Mexico becomes the 47th U.S. state of the Union.
1918

Germany acknowledges Finland's independence.
1919

Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, dies at the age of 60 in his home at Sagamore Hill, New York.
1921

The U.S. Navy orders the sale of 125 flying boats to encourage commercial aviation.
1937

The United States bans the shipment of arms to war-torn Spain.
1941

President Franklin D. Roosevelt asks Congress to support the Lend-lease Bill to help supply the Allies.
1945

Boeing B-29 bombers in the Pacific strike new blows on Tokyo and Nanking.
1946

Ho Chi Minh wins in the Vietnamese elections.
1958

Moscow announces a reduction in its armed forces by 300,000.
1967

Over 16,000 U.S. and 14,000 Vietnamese troops start their biggest attack on the Iron Triangle, northwest of Saigon.
1987

Astronomers report sighting a new galaxy 12 billion light years away.
2001

In one of the closest Presidential elections in U.S. history, George W. Bush was finally declared the winner of the bitterly contested 2000 Presidential elections more then five weeks after the election due to the disputed Florida ballots.
2005

Former Ku Klux Klan organizer Edgar Ray Killen arrested as a suspect in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi.
Richard II

1367

Richard II, son of Edward the Black Prince.
1412

Joan of Arc, French Saint and national heroine.
1811

Charles Sumner, anti-slavery senator from Massachusetts.
1878

Carl Sandburg, U.S. journalist, poet and biographer.
1882

Sam Rayburn, U.S. Congressman from Texas & Speaker of the House (1940-46, 1949-53).
1899

Heinz Nordhoff, German engineer, named managing director of the Volkswagen plant at Wolfsburg after World War II; under his leadership the Volkswagen Beetle became a worldwide phenomenon.
1900

Maria of Romania, Queen of Yugoslavia; wife of King Alexander.
1912

Danny Thomas, actor, producer, philanthropist; founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
1913

Loretta Young, actress; won Academy Award for The Farmer's Daughter (1947).
1924

Earl Scruggs, musician; popularized the finger-picking style of banjo playing; blended rock and bluegrass.
1935

Queen Margarita of Bulgaria (Dona Margarita Gomez-Acebo y Cejuela).
1937

Lou Holtz, college football coach; television sports commentator.
1944

Bonnie Franklin, actress (One Day at a Time TV series).
1946

Syd Barrett, musician, singer, songwriter; founding member of the band Pink Floyd.
1957

Nancy Lopez, pro golfer; won LPGA Championship (1978, 1985) and Mazda LPGA Championship (1989).

Order is good. Mostly. It makes sure that the earth will go around the sun in the same way as it has in the past, and bring summer to ripen the mangoes. Patterns are good too -- most of the time. They help us find our shoes easily among an array of other pairs.

But if we stick too much to the same order and pattern, we lose. We lose the opportunity to discover new lands, new paths, new flowers, new ways, and new words!

Sometimes the break in order is by choice and at times it's forced, as when you lose a job. Often it's a blessing in disguise. It's an opportunity to explore and discover what remained hidden on the old path.

This week's words have no order, pattern, or theme. But they're all interesting.

repletion

PRONUNCIATION:
(ri-PLEE-shuhn)

MEANING:
noun: The condition of being completely filled or satisfied.

ETYMOLOGY:
Via French, from Latin replere, from re- (back, again) + plere (to fill), from plenus (full). Earliest documented use: 1398.

USAGE:
"Her body tingled with repletion and yet she was somehow unsatisfied."
Susan Swann; The Ritual of Pearls; Little, Brown; 1995.


My own experience and development deepen every day my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy. -George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), novelist (1819-1880)




Today’s Recipe
Soups for Cold Winter Days
Ham and Yam Soup!
 
(This is NOT a picture of my soup, but is similar.)


The other day I posted a Spiral Ham and Sweet Potato Soup. I decided to make a version of this soup. I didn't have the exact ingredients, but I was close. I had leftover ham (I don’t remember what ‘flavor’,) and three yams I had not yet cooked. So I decided to adapt the recipe a bit. I went to the store, bought a quart of whole milk, and grabbed a container that said sour cream.

When I got home, I sliced up the ham, washed and cut up the yams to boil. After the ham was diced I put it in another larger pan with the milk and turned it on low. While the potatoes boiled, I opened the sour cream to add to the milk and ham. When I raised the lid, it looked funny. I wondered if it was spoiled. I discovered that I had bought sour cream and chive dip! I added it anyway; I figured the chives may give it an unexpected flavor. 

In 20 minutes the potatoes were cooked. I poured most of the water from them into the milk to make about a half-gallon. The potatoes I put into the blender and made them mush.

With that done, I added them to the soup mixture and stirred them until they “dissolved” in the liquid. I turned up the heat to medium, stirring constantly till the soup was hot, and then served it up in soup bowls.
I did not add salt and/or pepper, which you could, to your taste. This was surprisingly good tasting and great for a cold winter day. It also works well after the holidays with the leftovers!

Ingredients:
Ham, sliced and diced (1-2 lbs?)
3 raw sweet potatoes, cut into chunks and boiled (leave on peel)
1 quart of whole milk
8-16 oz. sour cream and chive dip
1 quart (give or take) of the potato water

Directions:
Wash and cut up the yams into 2-3” chunks, unpeeled. Boil.
Slice and dice the ham into ½” cubes
Add milk and dip to ham in large pot and turn on low. Watch that the milk doesn't scorch. Stir constantly/frequently.
When done add potato water to soup mix.
Blend potatoes till they are all mashed/pureed. (option: remove peelings)
Add blended potatoes to soup mix and stir to ‘dissolve’ the potatoes evenly throughout the milk mixture.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Option: sprinkle miniature marshmallows on top just before serving.
Serve hot.

6-8 servings

Not peeling the potatoes and using the potato water makes this soup a little healthier. You can use other milk (2%, skim), but the soup will be thinner. Fat free sour cream or dip also reduces the calories, as well as no marshmallows.







ENJOY!

Now You Know!




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