Phishing, Scamming, and Hacking: Another Epidemic This Year

Just about a year ago, on 17 June 2019, our weekly blog addressed the issue of protecting yourself online. At that time, many of us were being inundated with phony emails asking for money, gift cards, and the phony "rescuing" of friends in need. That blog post lists ways you can protect yourself and we hope you will click on the link at the end of this post to refresh your memory on ways you can stay safe. All of those hints are still quite useful.

Some Hints on Photographing Tombstones

Summer is the perfect time for visits to cemeteries, and this summer in particular, after being cooped up indoors for months, many of us have wanderlust. Cemeteries are peaceful, outdoors and away from crowds, and potentially, the source of much-needed information on our ancestors. Before you visit a cemetery, you will want to plan ahead and think about how you can get the very best photos.

Making the Most of Quarantine Time: Organizing Your Digital Files

(Thanks to long-time StLGS member, Ann Fleming, for suggesting the topic for this week's post.)

After four months of trying to stay isolated, a good many of us are done with cleaning closets and drawers. Now that it is too hot in most places for working in the garden, how about getting some of your digital life organized? Is your computer a mess? Do you have files all over the place in no particular order? What about your auxiliary devices: external hard drives, your entire collection of flash/thumb drives? CDs or DVDs or boxes of old floppy disks? If you are nodding your head "YES!" to these questions, here are some suggestions for organizing your digital files.

Celebrating the Fourth of July!

Although this year's summer holiday festivities were restricted because of the COVID-19 pandemic, certain traditions of this holiday weekend were still in evidence everywhere. Otherwise-quiet neighborhoods exploded with the bright lights and loud roars of fireworks; backyard barbecues smoked away, filling the air with the delicious smells of food on the grill; and people flew flags, hummed patriotic songs, and searched online for Boston Pops renditions of John Philip Sousa's marches. All of these July 4th customs have a surprisingly long history; many would be quite familiar to our ancestors.

July StLGS Meetings and Events

As we mentioned in June, the first News Flash blog of each month has typically been about upcoming StLGS and other genealogy events. In March of this year, however, we went into quarantine, and had to rethink our entire 2020 calendar. Thanks to the continuing hard work on the part of our StLGS volunteers, we are able to bring you our revised schedule for July featuring more exciting online events. Stay cool during the heat of summer—no matter where you live—get comfortable in front of your computer or tablet, and soak up new ideas, knowledge, and skills from some of our most experienced genealogy lecturers this month. Here is what is coming up:

Learn About State Archives at the StLGS Summer Speaker Series

Why You Should Attend Hidden Gems at the Missouri State Archives Even if You Don't Have Missouri Ancestors . . .

Hidden Gems at the Missouri State Archives, the StLGS 2020 Summer Speaker Series, will cover a variety of topics to help you understand state archive records and how to use them, no matter where your ancestors lived.

On Saturday, 27 June and Sunday, 28 June, StLGS is presenting four online lectures for our Summer Speaker Series, and our featured speakers—John Dougan, Missouri State Archivist, Kelsey Berryhill, and Christina Miller—have informative topics that will strengthen the knowledge and skills of any family historian.

Some Weighty Matters to Measure

On 14 August 1682, Randall Vernon, a merchant from England, sailed from Liverpool to Pennsylvania on one of the ships in William Penn’s fleet bound for the new colony. Randall carried with him a parcel of thirty pounds of woolen cloth, two dozen woolen stockings for men, ten ells of English linen, and one fourth cwt. of wrought iron. It appears he was going to be doing some buying and selling with these goods, but exactly how much did he have?

Seeking the answers to these two lesser known measurements—ells and cwt—proved quite interesting! Let’s have a go at understanding Randall’s burden as well as some other measurements you are likely to encounter as you do your own family research.

An ell was a measurement used for cloth, indicating about forty-five inches, basically “from the fingertip of an outstretched arm to the opposite shoulder.” (“English Units,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_units) In Middle Low German, an el(l) was the length of the lower arm. Also, in German and Dutch, you may see the surname Ell, which was an occupational name derived from a dealer in cloth or a tailor.

Cwt is an abbreviation for hundred weight, which, today in the U.S. is equal to one-hundred pounds. However, in England it’s 112 pounds, so Randall’s wrought iron would have weighed thirty-one pounds.

Although the U.S. came to rely on English acres, early St. Louis land was measured in arpents. An acre began as the amount of land that could be plowed by one team of oxen in a day; today, an acre is 4,840 square yards. An arpent was roughly an acre, but since the French foot was larger than the English foot, yardage varied, and the arpent usually turned out to be a bit larger than an acre.

Understanding weights and measures over time means realizing that it all depended on who was doing the weighing and measuring. The French, Germans, and British all had different rules. The British didn’t begin to standardize their system of weights and measures until 1824, and it wasn’t until 1878 that the current British Imperial System was defined. Ironically, as the British were abandoning their old system, the U.S. was formalizing its system based on the old British one. Hence, our measurements vary from theirs.

(Image above shows surveying chains and fastening posts, c. 1580, Germany, public domain)

Websites for Weights and Measures

Here are some articles and charts you can use to help you decipher how many pounds in a stone (fourteen) or chains in a furlong (ten).

"Glossary of Ancient Weights and Measures" : https://www.hemyockcastle.uk/measure.html#other

"Old Units of Length" : https://mysite.du.edu/~jcalvert/tech/oldleng.htm

"Arpent" : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arpent

“Imperial Units,” Encyclopedia Britannica : https://www.britannica.com/topic/Imperial-unit

“Conversion Calculator,” Calculator.net : https://www.calculator.net/conversion-calculator.html

“English Weights and Measures” : http://home.clara.net/brianp/quickref.html