The legacy of Donn Devine, 1929-2019

This has been a difficult post to write. I have lost friends and colleagues in the genealogy community before, but this one has affected me the most.

Almost a decade ago, I wrote about the Pennsylvania Family History Day, held on 5 November 2011 in Exton, Pennsylvania. After the day-long event, I was invited to have dinner with Donn Devine and Curt Witcher. It was the first time that I met Donn, though we would become much closer until he passed this May.

(l to r) Curt Witcher, Michael Hait, Donn Devine, Exton, Pennsylvania, 5 Nov. 2011

Donn touched many people in his long career—or should I say careers. He worked as a chemist, an editor, an attorney, city planner of Wilmington, Delaware, and archivist of the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington, in addition to his genealogical activities. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve and the National Guard dating back to the Korean War and marched for civil rights during the 1960s. In recent years, he fought to make the Delaware state song—for which he wrote the fourth verse in 1959—gender neutral, so that it would be more inclusive for young girls as well as boys. Donn’s influence can be witnessed by reading the statement issued by the current Mayor of Wilmington, who described him as “a true champion.”

His influence in genealogy cannot be overstated either. His chapters on “Defining Professionalism” and “Evidence Analysis” in Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians are two of the most profound in that book, studied by hundreds of genealogists of the ProGen Study Group since it started over a decade ago.[1] He is thanked in the acknowledgments of such important books as Elizabeth Shown Mills’s Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian and Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual, and both editions of Genealogy Standards.[2]

For years Donn served on the boards of the National Genealogical Society and the Board for Certification of Genealogists. Most recently, he served as General Counsel for BCG. His service to BCG was rewarded this past December, when he was honored with CG Emeritus status in a small luncheon ceremony that I attended with other BCG Trustees and associates as well as members of the Delaware Genealogical Society. He had been named a Fellow of the National Genealogical Society at their annual conference in 2013.

In addition, at the December luncheon, BCG announced the creation of the Donn Devine Award for Extraordinary Service to the Board for Certification of Genealogists.[3] The first recipients of this award were Elizabeth Shown Mills, Thomas W. Jones, and Alison Hare, announced at the National Genealogical Society annual conference in May 2019.[4] The Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (GRIP) has also announced a scholarship in Donn’s name for “full tuition for one 2020 course.”[5]

The most touching tributes to Donn, however, are those written by his daughter Mary Beth, for Father’s Day 2011 and Patriot’s Day 2011, and one written for Father’s Day this year, after his passing.[6] I extend my deepest condolences and sympathies to Donn’s family, as I know that their loss must be far greater than I can imagine.

Personally, I will miss the many conversations that I had with Donn over the years since that first meeting. Even after that first dinner—-when Donn, Curt, and I discussed the recent changes to the Catholic liturgy—-Donn and I had a brief but inspiring private conversation about my growing genealogical career. We would see each other at events in Delaware and Pennsylvania, once sitting on a brickwall panel together with the two other Board-certified genealogists in Delaware, Joe Harland and Debbie Hooper. Donn was proud of asserting that Delaware had the highest per-capita concentration of Board-certified genealogists. Including him, we had five, but Delaware has a low population, so . . . .

We would both attend the NGS Conference each year, often meeting at the BCG booth in the vendor hall. When he was thinking of retiring from his archivist position, he invited me to visit the diocesan archives and gave me a long tour, showing me their full record holdings and describing his efforts to index and digitize them.

But more than anything, I will miss the drinks we would share after the Friday-night Banquet at the NGS conference each year. It was here, usually away from other attendees but sometimes with one or two other friends like Sandi Hewlett or Judy Russell, that Donn and I would have deep conversations about genealogical concepts and many other topics. It was a conversation with Donn, for example, that caused me to research the history of the Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine. I would often have to lean in to hear him over the noise of the hotel bar, but it was worth hanging on every word.

At the NGS Conference this year, just five days after he passed, I sat at the bar alone Friday night, and drank a Guinness in his honor.

I will miss you, Donn. We all owe you a debt of gratitude for your many contributions to our field. And I owe you for your years of friendship and your many contributions to my own knowledge, understanding, and career.

Donn’s obituary was published in the Delaware News-Journal from 12 May to 15 May 2019. Another memorial to him appeared in Delaware Online on 14 May 2019. They are both worth reading.

SOURCES

[1] Donn Devine, “Defining Professionalism” and “Evidence Analysis,” in Elizabeth Shown Mills, ed., Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2001), 5–14, 327–42.

[2] Elizabeth Shown Mills, Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1997); Mills, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 2007), 11; Board for Certification of Genealogists [BCG], The BCG Genealogical Standards Manual, millenium ed. (Orem, Utah: Ancestry Publishing, 2000), vi; BCG, Genealogy Standards, 50th anniv. ed. (Nashville, Tenn.: Ancestry.com, 2014), xvii; BCG, Genealogy Standards, 2nd ed. (Nashville, Tenn.: Ancestry.com, 2019), xvi, xxiii.

[3] “The Donn Devine Award,” Board for Certification of Genealogists (https://bcgcertification.org/about/donn-devine-award/ : accessed 28 July 2019).

[4] “Board for Certification of Genealogists names first recipients of the Donn Devine award,” posted 11 May 2019, BCG SpringBoard Blog (https://bcgcertification.org/ddevine-2019/ : accessed 28 July 2019).

[5] “GRIP 2020 Courses Announced! Donn Devine Scholarship Announced!,” posted 8 May 2019, Genealogical Research Institute of Pittsburgh (https://www.gripitt.org/grip-2020-courses-announced/ : accessed 28 July 2019).

[6] Mary Beth Devine, “Father’s Day 2011 : ‘DA’ by Editor Mary Beth Devine,” posted 18 June 2011; “CaFleureBon Salutes Patriots Day 2011: Ode to ‘DA’ by Mary Beth Devine,” posted 18 April 2011; and “Father’s Day: 8100 Words – The Many Lifetimes of Donn Devine,” posted 15 June 2019, ÇaFleureBon (https://www.cafleurebon.com/ : accessed 28 July 2019).

What’s the big deal about 1890?

In an effort to collect my earlier writings in one place, I am planning to republish many pieces here. This article originally appeared in my online column “African American Genealogy Examiner” (no longer available online except through the Wayback Machine), posted 16 November 2011. Some links, as well as some text, have been updated to reflect changes since the original publication.

It usually does not take long before beginning genealogists discover the usefulness of the U. S. federal census. Not long after this discovery, they learn about the destruction of the 1890 census.

Because of this destruction, quite a few books have been published as “1890 census substitutes.” These generally consist of tax lists, state censuses, voter registration lists, city directories, and other lists of people from the years around 1890, as “replacement” censuses.

Certainly the loss of the 1890 federal census was devastating, as would the loss of any record group as universal and informative as the federal census. But why has so much effort been taken to “reconstruct” this census? (It should be noted that no effort to actually reconstruct the census as it existed has actually been made. So-called reconstructions are generally mere transcriptions or extracts of the information contained within the alternative source material.)

The federal census is useful because, after 1850, it (in theory) provides the names and other personal information concerning every resident of the United States. Created every ten years, one is able to follow most of their ancestors through decennial “snapshots” of their lives.

However, the census being taken every ten years is a fact of the record group, but not a benefit. In fact, it is a distinct disadvantage of the federal census. Most of the record groups used as “1890 census substitutes” were not created decennially. Some were created annually. Yet, because of the absence of this decennial record, only those records surrounding 1890 have been published and, in many cases, genealogists only consult these published 1890-era records.

Let us consider one common “substitute” record as an example. City directories were created annually in Baltimore, Maryland, since 1864–65, and biennially or sporadically for many years prior. Various editions are available online in several locations, including Ancestry, Fold3, Internet Archive, and the Archives of Maryland Online. The same is true for many other cities across the United States. Genealogist Miriam J. Robbins has created the “Online Historical Directories Website,” providing links to many of these city directories.

City directories, however, do not provide the same information as the 1890 federal census. In general, they provide names, occupations, and residential addresses, and occasionally the names of spouses or racial identity (through the use of separate sections for white and “colored” residents). They do not report ages, places of birth, immigration status, family relationships, or any of the other details common to the federal census.

Furthermore, city directories, tax lists, and other annually created record groups are often best used by looking at a large number of years across time, to accentuate changes in the local population. The correlation of this multi-year evidence can be an important source of indirect evidence concerning an individual’s identity or relationship. Looking only at 1890 is virtually useless.

These annual records are not limited by the decennial nature of the federal census, and we are only doing ourselves a disfavor by limiting our access and use of these records as a substitute for another record. Instead, we should take advantage of the benefits these annual records hold.

“Sir Edward Coke Collection”

This post was originally published on my former Online State Resources for Genealogy blog. That blog is no longer active, but I am reposting some of the more valuable posts here.

Leon E. Bloch Law Library Sir Edward Coke Collection (University of Missouri Digital Library)

As my friend Judy G. Russell, “The Legal Genealogist,” would surely agree, no study of the past can be complete without studying the laws of the past. The legal systems of most of the British colonies in America were of course based on the English common law system. The most commonly cited source for information on English common law is Sir William Blackstone’s 4-volume Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769) and its many later abridgments. Published just prior to the American Revolution, however, there may be significant differences between the laws in Blackstone’s day and the laws of the earliest American settlements 150 years earlier. The common law was often amended by later colonial statutes in ways quite different in, say, Virginia than in England proper.

According to the introduction to the “Sir Edward Coke Collection,”

Sir Edward Coke, also known as Lord Coke, was a prominent British jurist and politician of the late sixteenth to mid-seventeenth centuries. He is remembered as, among other things, the author of a four-volume legal treatise titled Institutes of the Lawes of England, which set forth the then-evolving common law of England and which has played a significant role in the development of the common law system worldwide. Lord Coke also generated a 13-volume collection of Reports, which included his commentary on cases he had heard as well as information on prior precedents.

The “Leon E. Bloch Law Library Sir Edward Coke Collection,” presented by the University of Missouri Digital Library, includes digital copies of all four volumes of the Institutes and all thirteen volumes of the Reports. The first volume deals with land tenure, a subject that certainly affects the early colonial settlement of America in profound ways. It begins, “Tenant in fee simple is hee which hath Lands or Tenements to hold to him and his heires for ever.” This concept itself is easily familiar to any with experience in colonial (and later) land records. Volumes two through four focus on “Ancient and Other Statutes” (Vol. 2), “High Treason, and Other Pleas of the Crown and Criminal Causes” (Vol. 3), and “the Jurisdiction of Courts” (Vol. 4).

Finding references of interest is through a “Table” (index) at the end of each volume. Though dealing ostensibly with land tenure, one might be surprised by some of the subjects addressed in Volume 1. Some of the topics appearing in this first volume include “Names,” “Marriage,” and “Inheritance.” Reading Coke’s commentaries on these various subjects may provide great insight into the origins of colonial laws. These discussions should be studied together with the colonial laws of interest for the most benefit to genealogists.

Explore the “Leon E. Bloch Law Library Sir Edward Coke Collection” at http://digital.library.umsystem.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?page=home;c=klc.

U. S. Genealogy Writer’s Market

19 August 2013

Dear Genealogy Periodical Editors:

How do genealogical authors find your publication?

Genealogy periodicals—from popular magazines to state and national journals to the newsletters of local genealogical societies—are vital to the genealogy community.

Among other vital roles, periodicals

• educate genealogists about records and research methodology;
• enable genealogists with similar research interests to communicate with each other;
• share local, national, and international news of concern to genealogists; and
• allow researchers to publish the fruits of their research efforts.

Despite this central position in the genealogy community, there exists no central resource bringing together all of the genealogy periodicals published in the United States.

To do this we plan to publish the first U. S. Genealogy Writer’s Market in early 2014. This book will list basic details about genealogy periodicals, so that genealogical researchers and prospective writers can quickly and easily locate their ideal publishing markets.

In order to do this we need your help—just fill out the short online questionnaire at this address:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GWM-Editors

Please feel free to alert other editors to this project. If you have any questions or comments, please contact either of us at our respective emails.

Harold Henderson, CG

librarytraveler@gmail.com

Michael Hait, CG

michael.hait@hotmail.com

2010: Did I meet my goals?

Last year I reviewed my ten favorite moments of 2009, and set some personal goals for 2010. First I would like to see how successful I was at achieving my 2010 goals:

“1.  Continue to write more articles.  My goal will be to have at least ten articles accepted in 2010 (if not necessarily published during the year, due to editorial lead times).  You know what, why sell myself short?  Let’s make it twenty articles!”

Made some pretty good progress here. In 2010, I had the following articles published in various magazines:

• “Social Networking: Unplugged.”  Discovering Family History.  Jan/Feb 2010.

• “‘Tweet’ Your Family History: Using Twitter for Genealogy.”  Internet Genealogy.  Feb/Mar 2010.

• “Autopsy of a Death Record: What You Need to Know.”  Discovering Family History.  Mar/Apr 2010.

• “Indirect Lineage.”  Family Chronicle.  May/Jun 2010.

• “Social Security Applications: What You Need to Know!”  Family Chronicle.  Jul/Aug 2010.

• “Research and Collaborate: MS Live Workspace.”  Internet Genealogy.  Aug/Sep 2010.

• “Understanding Passenger Lists.”  Family Chronicle.  Sep/Oct 2010.

• “Crafting an Effective Research Plan.”  Family Chronicle.  Nov/Dec 2010.

Two other articles have been accepted, but not yet published. Keep your eyes open!

“2.  Become a Certified Genealogist.  My “clock” is up at the end of February, and I am steadily working on my portfolio.  Hopefully, the results will come back in my favor, to demonstrate my commitment to the highest research standards.”

I filed for a year extension, in order to give myself more time to cross the t’s, and dot the I’s. The clock ends in about a month, so we’ll see how quickly I can finish it up, or if another extension is on the horizon. ;(

“3.  Present for local historical and genealogical societies, and local conferences….”

I took off like a champion in 2010, presenting 12 times (including two lectures on one of those occasions). I currently have just one lecture scheduled so far in 2011, but if anyone is looking for a lecturer for their genealogical society, library, or other organization, I am available!

“4.  Publish a few books.  I currently have several books in various stages of planning and completion, including one on the Civil War draft in Maryland (containing the names of over 20,000 free and enslaved men) that will be published within the next month or so.”

I didn’t finish that Civil War draft book in the “next month or so,” but I did finish it in October 2010. I also published two other books, containing transcriptions of the first two registers of the Slave Claims Commissions, for a total of four print books. I also wrote and published an e-book Research Guide for Prince George’s County, Maryland, the first of a series of research guides on all of the counties of Maryland.

“5.  Publish at least one article in a scholarly journal.”

I had one article published in the Maryland Genealogical Society Journal in the April 2010 issue, entitled, “Identifying the Last Slave-Owner of Freedmen in Maryland Using Local Records.”

“6.  Complete more research into my study on the slaves of Prince George’s County, Maryland.  My notes currently contain the names and final owners of over 6,000 slaves.  I want to flesh out the details of the lives of many of these people this year.”

I was able to finish extracting information on the slaves identified in two of the Prince George’s County Register of Wills Inventory Books. Where possible, I have matched these slaves from the estate inventories with later records.

“7.  Publish my Examiner.com column more often.  Since 22 April 2009, when the first article was published, I have published 79 articles.  This is an average of 1 article every 3 or so days.  I will try to bring that average up to about 1 article every 2 or so days.”

I won’t even try to calculate the average. I know it went down.

“8.  Contribute more often to my Genealogy Trails websites for Maryland:  Prince George’s Co., Charles Co., and St. Mary’s Co.”

In the springtime, due to time restraints, I made the decision to give up administration of these Genealogy Trails websites. However, I would like to recommend the sites to all researchers—don’t just check them for information on your families, but please contribute as well. These volunteers work very hard to make information available online at no cost.

“9.  Find a good balance between professional/client research, and research for personal publishing projects.  …”

Due to uncontrollable circumstances, I am now a full-time, self-employed professional genealogist. This change has forced the balance to shift to much more client research, in order to pay the bills. However, this has so far been a great experience, and is providing many more projects for use in case studies, etc., as well as the income that it provides directly. Somehow I have also made the time to work on publishing projects, etc., publishing four books in 2010, with at least three more coming in the first quarter of 2011.

“10.  Continue to explore new and innovative sources for revenue based in genealogical and historical research.  If my desire to become self-employed in this field, then I will have to be able to generate enough income to support myself and my family.”

See #9. Still looking and still working.

Looking Back on ‘09, Forward to ‘10

This has been a rather momentous year for me, in terms of my writing and genealogy goals.  In no particular order (how could I choose my favorite?), here are my favorite parts of 2009:

1.  Presented my first lecture on 17 October 2009, at the Mid-Atlantic Family History Conference in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, on researching your Civil War veteran ancestors.

2.  Began teaching a course in African-American genealogy for GenClass in April.  The course ran again in June and November.  Unfortunately, GenClass has closed its doors, but I have been accepted to present the same course for the National Institute for Genealogical Studies (NIGS).  See www.genclass.com for more details.

3.  Began writing the “African American Genealogy Examiner” column on Examiner.com.  This column has been widely accepted by much of the “Geneablogging” community of genealogy bloggers, and was even nominated for Family Tree Magazine’s “40 Best Genealogy Blogs.”  The final list will be released in the May 2010 issue (the current issue is March), so keep your fingers crossed!

4.  Had three articles published in Family Chronicle magazine in 2009:  “Breaking the Chains: Researching Former Slaves” (Feb); “Sourcing Your Sources” (Jul/Aug); and “Small Worlds: Researching Social Networks” (Sep/Oct); and one article in Discovering Family History magazine:  “Social Networking: Unplugged” (Jan/Feb 2010, released this past Tuesday).

5.  Met many great new genealogy friends as I started attending local chapter meetings for the Association of Professional Genealogists (National Capital Area chapter) and the Afro-American Historical Genealogical Society (Baltimore chapter).

6.  “Met” and became acquainted with many great new online genealogy friends on the social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.

7.  Became the Coordinator of the Resource Library for the site Lowcountry Africana (www.lowcountryafricana.net).  With a more specialized audience, I have been able to delve a little deeper into many of the research concepts that I have explored in my Examiner column.

8.  Published digital images of the 1867 Voters Registration Lists for all available Texas counties, as e-books on Scribd.

9.  Joined the ProGen Study Group (ProGen 5), and the NGSQ Study Group.  Both of these groups will challenge me to raise my level of research and professionalism, as well as acquainting me with many other aspiring genealogists like myself.

10.  Bought stock in Ancestry.com (ACOM).  If I am going to give them so much of my money each year, it seems only fair. 😉

And now, for my goals for 2010:

1.  Continue to write more articles.  My goal will be to have at least ten articles accepted in 2010 (if not necessarily published during the year, due to editorial lead times).  You know what, why sell myself short?  Let’s make it twenty articles!

2.  Become a Certified Genealogist.  My “clock” is up at the end of February, and I am steadily working on my portfolio.  Hopefully, the results will come back in my favor, to demonstrate my commitment to the highest research standards.

3.  Present for local historical and genealogical societies, and local conferences.  I already have two presentations on African-American research coming up in New Jersey on 6 February, and in Kensington, Maryland, on 17 April.  Once I have a few more presentations designed, I will try to start shopping them around to other local societies.

4.  Publish a few books.  I currently have several books in various stages of planning and completion, including one on the Civil War draft in Maryland (containing the names of over 20,000 free and enslaved men) that will be published within the next month or so.

5.  Publish at least one article in a scholarly journal.

6.  Complete more research into my study on the slaves of Prince George’s County, Maryland.  My notes currently contain the names and final owners of over 6,000 slaves.  I want to flesh out the details of the lives of many of these people this year

7.  Publish my Examiner.com column more often.  Since 22 April 2009, when the first article was published, I have published 79 articles.  This is an average of 1 article every 3 or so days.  I will try to bring that average up to about 1 article every 2 or so days.

8.  Contribute more often to my Genealogy Trails websites for Maryland:  Prince George’s Co., Charles Co., and St. Mary’s Co.

9.  Find a good balance between professional/client research, and research for personal publishing projects.  In 2009, I cut down greatly on the number of client research projects that I accepted, in order to focus more on other projects, such as the above noted project (#6).  I would like to create

10.  Continue to explore new and innovative sources for revenue based in genealogical and historical research.  If my desire to become self-employed in this field, then I will have to be able to generate enough income to support myself and my family.

Assuming that I am still writing this blog this time next year, we’ll see how successful I have been at meeting these goals.

Happy New Year, and to everyone, have a great 2010!

Current Activities

I know I haven’t posted to this blog in a while.  I have been quite busy.  Thought I would take the time to let everyone know what I’ve been up to.

April marked the first offering of my course, “African-American Genealogy”, available through GenClass.com.  The course is email-based, and lasts for one month.  It currently includes 8 email lessons, though we are currently putting the finishing touches on a bulleting board system and a chat room function to enrich the learning experience.

I was also accepted to Examiner.com as the National African-American Genealogy Examiner.  I have already posted two articles:

• “Alex Haley’s ROOTS revisited”
• “The genealogical value of runaway slave ads”

Many more are still to come.  I look forward to this being a long-lasting endeavor.

Also, look for two articles I have written coming in the next few issues of Family Chronicle.  The first one is called “The Sources of your Sources” and explores the importance of identifying the informant for your record sources, and using this information to judge the reliability of the source.  There are examples using the major record groups.  The second article is called “Small Worlds and Clusters” and discusses the history of the development of network theory, in terms of social networks (and I don’t mean Facebook), and how to use the current knowledge to improve your “cluster genealogy” skills.

Finally, I have taken over the reins as administrator of the Prince George’s County, Maryland, and Charles County, Maryland, Genealogy Trails websites.  I have also taken over St. Mary’s County, Maryland, but have not yet been able to update the site.  These sites are dedicated to providing free record transcriptions for the benefit of genealogists.  If you are researching any of these three counties, and have records that you would be willing to transcribe or even just donate to the site (I’ll transcribe it!), please contact me at michael.hait@hotmail.com.  I’ll appreciate all of the help I can get!

There are a few other things that I have been working on, but I have to keep them under wraps for now – I will let you know about them as soon as things are finalized!

P. S. For any philatelists (stamp collectors) out there – I have also launched a store with mostly First Day Covers from around the world – and many other stamps and covers soon to come!  Visit Hait Stamps and Covers at http://www.haitstampsandcovers.com for my fully searchable catalog.  Check back often, as I add new products on a regular basis!

Remember our Troops this Christmas!

First, I would like to send my love and support to my younger brother Shawn Hait, currently serving the U. S. Army in Iraq.  He has already missed the birth of his first son, and will spend Christmas and New Year’s serving our nation.  He is in my thoughts and prayers, and I ask that you keep him in yours as well, together with all of the other young men and women serving abroad. 

 

In honor of our soldiers, let’s explore military records.  Beginning with the American Revolution, the originals of most military records prior to World War I are held at the National Archives and Records Administration headquarters in Washington, D.C.  The two basic record groups are service records and pension files.

 

Compiled service records contain details of the soldier’s service, put together from their appearances in muster rolls, clothing rolls, prisoner rolls, hospital rolls, etc.  Many Revolutionary War records were destroyed, so these CSRs often contain much less information than those of later wars.

 

Pension files contain information from applications for pensions from either soldiers or their widows.  These files can contain an enormous wealth of genealogical information, including birth, marriage and death records, and affidavits from friends, family members, and neighbors, on many different topics.  The bulk of the file will usually contain information on any injuries sustained while in military service (if this is the basis of their application).

 

Both service records and pension files for the U. S. military from the Revolutionary War through 1917 are held at the National Archives and Records Administration headquarters in Washington, D. C.  From World War I onwards, these files are held at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri.  Additional information, including necessary forms, is available on the National Archives’ website:  http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/get-service-records.html

 

Merry Christmas, and God Bless You!