Swedish Death Cleaning

 Think how much easier it will be to do your genealogy when you've cleared out the "genealogical clutter"!

-  Maggie

"Swedish Death Cleaning is the brainchild of author Margareta Magnussen, who coined the term in her 2017 book The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter."-  https://www.thespruce.com/swedish-death-cleaning-4801461

"[This] can actually provide some real benefits in the here-and-now, helping you decide what items are truly important and what you’d be willing to part with. ... think of it as a Scandinavian twist on the Konmari Method."

With that in mind, you’ll need a framework for evaluating which of your items are worth keeping. First consider how much space you can comfortably allot for genealogy research and items. Then comes the hard part—determining what items are worth keeping and what aren’t.

For family historians, your sorting criteria should include assessments of an item’s value and its ability to be passed on. Here are five important questions you might use to evaluate each item in your collection:

• Is this item irreplaceable (i.e., one-of-a-kind)?
• Is a digital version available? Would it be just as useful?
• Who will inherit the information or item when I die? Will it be easy to store, and have others shown any interest in it?
• What practical value is associated with the item? Is it worth a lot of money, or does it provide some intangible research benefit to you or descendants (for example, proving an ancestral line)?
• What sentimental value is associated with the item? Does it represent a meaningful memory or person?

- From an article by Lisa A Alzo, Family Tree Magazine, August, 2022

Do you use Sanborn Maps?

A recent article in Family Tree Magazine started me thinking about all the ways Sanborn maps can help us in our genealogy.

"Sanborn fire insurance maps were published for insurance companies to assess a structure’s risk of catching fire. They were published in different years for different places, and usually after 1920, a set of maps for a particular town might be updated by pasting over a new building.

The maps show subdivision names, streets, buildings, and building details such as address, purpose, composition, windows and doors. You can locate your ancestor’s address before renumbering and renaming that might’ve happened, and you get a good look at your ancestor’s neighborhood at the time."

The San Francisco Public Library has a full collection of maps for SF, but you can also find them online for most towns and cities in the US. 

I started with my gx2 Irish grandparents' tenement on Telegraph Hill in San Francisco. It's Prescott Court, and they lived in the back of number 26, next to the Garibaldi Livery Stable.  Where do you think the children went to school?

Notice that industries and house materials are featured. These were fire insurance maps, designed to help the fire departments assess risks, as well as to let insurance companies know how much to charge you.

 

Look at the amount of detail you get on a close-up.  I wonder what 26 1/2 was.

Here's a full section on Telegraph Hill.  Note the number of tanneries, factories, and other industries in the area.  Can you imagine what it would have been like living there?

Make sure you look at the keys to labeling.  Those are usually found on the first page of the town book.  For example, they will tell you the material used in the structure

Where can I find these?  The maps are online at the Library of Congress Website.

Here's where you'll enter your information to start searching.

Of course, you want to know where my gg grandparents' tenement was.  It's still there!  Here's a photo of the alley.  It's on the left.

Maggie

Summer Events at MCGS

For those of you looking for something to do in August, here's the Marin County Genealogical Society roundup.  And if you're vacationing in the Wine Country this week, you can join them for Breakfast!

More information at https://www.maringensoc.org

Maggie

 

Union Cemetery Tour Saturday, August 6th

Kathy Klebe of the Historic Union Cemetery Association is planning a walking tour of the cemetery this Saturday.  Registration is not required, but I suggest you contact her at kkboxlady@gmail.com if you're bringing guests. 

You can find more information about the cemetery at https://historicunioncemetery.org