NARA has passenger arrival records and other documents of historic significance online

 

The National Coalition for History (NCH) reports the following:  http://historycoalition.org/2008/02/29/nara-makes-some-passenger-arrival-records-available-online/  “This week, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) announced that it has made available for the first time online more than 5.2 million records of some passengers who arrived during the last half of the 19th century at the ports of Baltimore, Boston, New Orleans, New York, and Philadelphia. The records can be accessed through NARA’s online Access to Archival Databases (AAD).The records were transcribed from original ship manifests into electronic databases by Temple University’s Center for Immigration Research at The Balch Institute. The Center donated the digital records to the National Archives. The records are known as Data Files Relating to the Immigration of Germans to the United States, 1850-1897; Data Files Relating to the Immigration of Italians to the United States, 1855-1900; and Data Files Relating to the Immigration of Russians to the United States, 1834-1897.”

 Besides the passenger lists, the NARA website also includes a ”What’s New?” section. There are Central Policy files that consist of telegrams, and indexes to air grams, memoranda, correspondence, reports, diplomatic notes and related material of historical significance.                                              

The “AAD Highlights” section includes the records of the use of ammunition by the 527th Military Police Company in the defense of the U.S. embassy in Saigon during the Tet offensive, Jan 31, 1968.

Some of the more popular documents are WWII Army Enlistment Records, Records for passengers who arrived at the Port of New York during the Irish famine, and records with unit information on military personnel who died during the Vietnam War. 

 

Dublin’s 1st Library

  Here is a picture of Dublin’s first library.  It was established in 1914, closed in 1948, and was reestablished in 1966 in a portable building on Vomac Road. 

  Local Historian, Virginia Smith Bennett, states in her book “Dublin Reflections and bits of Valley History” the following:  “The first Dublin Library was on Dublin Blvd in the one story addition to the General Store.  It was in operation from 1914 to 1948.”  Ms. Smith-Bennett continues, “W.S. Lawrence was operating the general store at the intersection of Dublin Blvd and Donlon Way.  This is the same store that John Green had built.  Mr. Lawrence agreed to build a one- story addition to the two- story building for the use of the County Library.  His wife was the first library attendant in Dublin.  That set a kind of pattern so that in the years to come the library attendant was usually related to the owner of the store.  The library section had two big windows that flanked the front door and a big shaded porch that faced Dublin Blvd.  The  day of the opening a newspaper reporter commented with some surprise at the number of people in attendance and wondered from whence they all had come.”

This photograph is part of the California Local History Digital Resources Project (LJDRP) grant received by the Dublin Library to scan and digitize historical photographs and documents. 

More than 40 public, academic, and special libraries have participated in the LHDRP.  These historic items are now viewable over the Internet through the research Web portals Calisphere and the Online Archive of California.  

You can help! We need to show how this project will benefit the Dublin community.  Did you know that the Museum has historical photographs of the community available for use? Would electronic access to these photographs be helpful to you?  How would you use the photographs?  For school, work related research, personal research, genealogy?  Drop us a line and let us know what you think!

 

“Dublin Reads” Chautauqua Program features William Harlan, Sunday October 14

This photograph is Jacob Harlan who, along with other family members, traveled with the Donner Party in 1846.  Coming up this Sunday, one of his descendents, William Harlan, will be speaking at the Dublin Library, talking about the Harlan wagon train and the forces that contributed to their successful arrival at Sutter’s Fort, 10 precious days before the Donners. Those 10 days made all the difference; the Harlans arrived during the same rainstorm that became the blizzard that trapped the Donners in the mountains.Their story is described in Bernard AugustinDeVoto’s book The Year of Decision (owned at Castro Valley Library and Fremont Main), and in a new, recently published book Eyewitness to the Settlement of the West, by Bruce E. Mowday. The photograph of Jacob Harlan is taken from Mr. Mowday’s website.

 The Harlan Family eventually settled in Yerba Buena (San Francisco), opened the first general store in the gold diggings in 1848, and landed in southern Contra Costa County in 1852; in fact the county line with Alameda County ran right through their ranch house! 

Mr. Harlan gives a fascinating talk about the Donner/Harlan wagon trains and subsequent fortunes of the Harlan family.  This is the first in a series of Chautauqua programs celebrating Dublin Reads.  Please join us, Sunday, October 14 at 2:00 p.m. in the Library’s Community Room!

 

Dublin History

           This photograph shows Dublin in about 1940 with the original Lincoln Highway 50 merging with the new Lincoln Highway 50.  It is an example of the kind of photograph that will be scanned and digitized as part of new project that the Library and the Dublin Heritage Center are currently engaged in. 

The California Local History Digital Resources Project (LJDRP) offers grants to libraries to digitize photographs like this one of Dublin.  The grant provides funds for scanning and digitizing the photographs, as well as $5,000 in project costs. 

More than 40 public, academic, and special libraries have participated in the LHDRP.  These historic items are now viewable over the Internet through the research Web portals Calisphere and the Online Archive of California.  

We are excited that our grant application was successful! Over the next year, Elizabeth Isles, Director of the Heritage Center, and I will be working to create online access to the core collection of photographs at the Museum.

You can help! We need to show how this project will benefit the Dublin community.  Did you know that the Museum has historical photographs of the community available for use? Would electronic access to these photographs be helpful to you?  How would you use the photographs?  For school, work related research, personal research, genealogy?  Drop us a line and let us know what you think!