| Show 4--The Herald JournalCache Sunday June 28 1 i 3 i Reader seeks 1842 birth record Dear Myra: My grandfather waa bon in Leeds Yorkshire England on July 16 1842 How caa I obtain a copy of his birth certificate? — AB Everett Wash Dear Researcher: Write to General Register Office St Catherine's House 100 Klngsway London WC2B UP England It has civil registrations of births marriages and deaths since July L 1837 for England and Wales Be sure to ask for the full certificate It will cost more but is usually worth it Fees constantly change and these records are expensive It may cost 10 pounds for fids one certificate You must give as many details as possible to identity your ancestor Often there are many persons with the same name born on the same day in the same locale A more economical method to obtain this informs film would be to use the International Genealogical Index (IGI) available at an LDS (Mormon) Branch Genealogical libraries Many of the Leeds (West Riding) records have been entered on this microfiche If your family was stfll in England in 1151 consult the 1851 English census records which would show probably living with your grandfather as a his parents These records are available through Jntenibrary loan from Salt Lake City's famous pwiiMitfi libraryResearch available from Summit English Family Publications Box 222 Munroe Falls Ohio 44282 is an excellent booklet for beginning researchers whose roots are in England often asked residents to bring in their originals for recording Genealogists DAR members and county historians frequently have copied many records and these may be available in libraries and archives Many DAR records including family Bible and cemetery records are available on microfilm through the LDS libraries Georgia State Archives may have genealogical information about your Lacy family Other sources to check would be old newspapers county histories federal censuses and military records Dear Myra: I read that life insurance companies can be a genealogical source How could I find these records that might have information pertaining to my greatgrandfather? — DR Independence Mo Dear Researcher: Most of the recalls are in corporation archives and a brief letter to the home office will usually enable you to locate the records A current agent of the company might help you gain access to these old records However you may have to search the files yourself and usually wfll have to show proof of descent About 18 major life insurance companies began between 1848 and 1858 with If more founded by 1875 The names and addresses of these companies who started business prior to 1872 and were stul active as late as 142 can be found on page 848 of “The Source" Dear Myra: I plan to visit Salt Lake City’s Genealogical Library fids summer What sources can I consult there to delve into my Polish ancestry? — Rev JP San Diego Calif Dear Researcher: Many records from the former areas of Brandenburg Pommern Ostpreussen Posen Schlesiea and Westpreussen have been filmed as have records from Polish areas now in Russia and Austria Write to the library 85 North West Temple Salt Lake City Utah 84150 and request its current hyEakleandCerny Dear Myra: I am at a loss to find information about my ancestor Jasper Newton Lacy He wu from Georgia but the courthouse burned down and I cant locate any records — DL Sacramento Calif Dear Researcher: Had you provided the county’s name and some dates I could help more While burned courthouses are great hindrances to genealogical research very few them have had all their records destroyed You should check for postrfire records Deeds are often recorded many years after the original transaction When records were burned the court research paper on Poland For a beginner’s how-t- o genealogy kit (with charts) send 4 (postage paid) and address your questions (please include a stamped envelope) self-address- ed to Myra Vanderpool Gormley Box Wash 88484 e war 64816 Tacoma LoaAngatai Times Syndicate George Seldes: It’s never too late to correct history By Ken Franckllnq HARTLAND FOUR CORNERS Vt (UPI) At home on a rolling Vermont hilltop with his striped cat Peepers his vintage typewriter and his mailbox George Seldes remains a true iconoclast This grand old man’s memory is etched with famous and Infamous moments of the 20th century Seldes knows because Seldes was there With a firm voice and a mischevious twinkle in his eyes at age 98 he will tell you about the time a bunch of reporters were sitting in a Milan cafe in 1919 and one Italian journalist talking about a strike at the Fiat plant proclaimed: “What Italy needs is a blood bath’’ The colleague was Benito Mussolini whom Seldes soon Interviewed in a different role And Seldes years later narrowly escaped with his life after H Duce's Blackshirts tried to take him off the Orient Express after he exposed the Italian leader’s role in the assassination of a political rival Socialist Party head Giacomo MatteottL Seldes also tells visitors in peat detail how he was one of five reporters kicked out of Lenin’s Russia for bypassing the censors of his year with Ernest Hemingway covering the Spanish Civu War and how his good friend Sinclair Lewis bought him his first home in Vermont in 1988 a time that Seldes had little money and Lewis had plenty arettes and lung cancer He was a persistent and shrill critic at a time there - were many thin-skinne- news- d paper barons In doing so he Veralso carved out a mont exile of sorts because tee 40-ye- ar media intended Seldes his weekly and his books didn’t exist He couldn’t buy an ad in a major newspaper let alone get one of his many books reviewed The passage of time proved Seldes right in many of his so it so seems complaints fitting that he has outlived his mostfervent detractors And Seldes is finding a new kind of fame these days with publication of his latest book ’’Witness to a Century: Encounters With the Noted the Notorious and the Three SOBi" It is chock full of vivid vignettes of Mussolini Lenin Marshal Tito Iudora Duncan and a sobbing Paul von Hindenberg after the German field marshal’s troops lost World Wu I UPI Now admirers make their Journalist and author George Seldes 96 has witnessed many events way up the winding Vermont backroads to the brick 1880s Within 10 years of landing his tion of the news So he became farmhouse where Seldes has “Everyone would first newspaper job on the old one of the nation’s most out- items suppress for lived alone since his wife distorted or corrupted by busi- Helen’s death in 1979 Pittsburgh Leader in 1909 he spoken press critics He began the world's first ness interests all over tee Unitwu at the pinnacle of his Studs Terkel and Bill Moyers profession— a roving European journal of preu criticism a ed States I had more items have stopped by to talk so have e weekly called In Fact than I could use’’ he says advice expert Abigail van correspondent for Oil Robert Seldes wrote about political Bunn and Warren Beatty who that lasted from 1940 to 1950 McCormick’s Chicago Tribune He trotted the continent when the liberal publication fell involvement by the Catholic cast Seldes as a “witness’’ in victim to Seldes Church the American Legion’s his 1982 movie “Reds’’ about a 1920s and '80s the throughout Then Seldes soured on daily printed stories other papers support of the Fascism moveJohn Seldes contemporary journalism because of those wouldn’t and tods them to task ment in Europe and in 1942 Reed eyewitness historian of distortions omissions and became the first newspaper to the product who yellowed document the link between cig or dlstor outright lies See SELDES on page 5 through suppre 20th-centur- four-pag- rod-baiti- to ng y |
