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Lee, late a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, against whom there has been a judgment for over $5,000 in 1838. Lee was sued in a court in Massachusetts and in 1844 still owed over $4,000. In a letter dated May |
5, 1840, the district attorney informed the office (6) that Mr. Lee is not now a resident of the district of Massachusetts, and that whether he ever returns is quite uncertain; that nothing, however, will be lost by his absence, |
as the United States have now a judgment against him, which probably will forever remain unsatisfied. Another set of annual reports that appear in the Serial Set are those for the Patent Office. The annual reports of the commissioner of |
patents often include an index to the patents that were granted that year, arranged by subject and containing the names of the invention and the patentee and the patent number. The report included a further description of the patent, and |
often a diagram of it as well. Each year’s report also included an index by patentee. Unfortunately, the numbers of patents granted in later years, as well as their complexity, led to more limited information being included in later reports. |
The 1910 report, for instance, simply contains an alphabetical list of inventions, with the entries listing the patentee, number, date, and where additional information can be found in the Official Patent Office Gazette. (7) The Civil War gave rise to |
a number of medical enhancements and innovations in battlefield medicine, and the annual report for 1865, published in 1867, contains a reminder of that in the patent awarded to G. B. Jewett, of Salem, Massachusetts, for “Legs, artificial.” Patent 51,593 |
was granted December 19, 1865, and the description of the patent on page 990 provides information on the several improvements that Jewett had developed. The patent diagram on page 760 illustrated the text. (8) This annual report relates to a |
report from May 1866, also published in the Serial Set that same session of Congress, entitled “Artificial Limbs Furnished to Soldiers.” This report, dated May 1866, came from the secretary of war in response to a congressional inquiry concerning artificial |
limbs furnished to soldiers at the government’s expense. Within its 128 pages are a short list of the manufacturers of these limbs, including several owned by members of the Jewett family in Salem, Massachusetts, New York, and Washington, D.C., as |
well as an alphabetical list of soldiers, detailing their rank, regiment and state, residence, limb, cost, date, and manufacturer. Constantine Elsner, a private in B Company of the 20th Massachusetts living in Boston, received a leg made by G. B. |
Jewett at a cost of $75 on April 8, 1865. 9 This may have been an older version of the one that Jewett would have patented later in the year, or it may have been an early model of that |
one. Either way, a researcher would have some idea not only of what Elsner’s military career was like, but also some sense of what elements of life for him would be like after the war. Congress also was interested in |
the activities of organizations that were granted congressional charters. Many of the charters included the requirement that an annual report be supplied to Congress, and these were then ordered to be printed in the Serial Set. One such organization is |
the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). As one would expect, the DAR annual reports contain a great deal of genealogical and family history information. The 18th annual report is no exception. Among other things, it includes, in appendix A, |
a list of the graves of almost 3,000 Revolutionary War soldiers. The list includes not just a name and location, but other narrative information as well: Abston, John. Born Jan. 2, 1757; died 1856. Son of Joshua Abston, captain of |
Virginia militia; served two years in War of the American Revolution. Enlisted from Pittsylvania County, Va.; was in Capt. John Ellis’ company under Col. Washington. The evening before the battle of Kings Mountain, Col. Washington, who was in command of |
the starving Americans at this point, sent soldiers out to forage for food. At a late hour a steer was driven into camp, killed, and made into a stew. The almost famished soldiers ate the stew, without bread, and slept |
the sleep of the just. Much strengthened by their repast and rest, the next morning they made the gallant charge that won the battle of Kings Mountain, one of the decisive battles of the American Revolution. Washington found one of |
the steer’s horns and gave it to Abston, a personal friend, who carried it as a powder horn the rest of the war. (10) Another organization whose annual reports appear is the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, which |
later became Gallaudet University. These reports, found in the annual reports of the secretary of the interior, contain much of what one would expect: lists of faculty and students, enrollment statistics, and other narrative. While that information can help to |
provide information about one’s ancestor’s time there, there are other parts of the narrative that include information one would not expect to find. For instance, the 10th annual report for 1867 has a section entitled “The Health of the Institution.” |
It concerns not the fiscal viability of the institution but rather the occurrences of illness and other calamities. One student from Maryland, John A. Unglebower, was seized with gastric fever and died: “He was a boy of exemplary character, whose |
early death is mourned by all who knew him.” Two other students drowned that year, and the circumstances of their deaths recounted, with the hope that “they were not unprepared to meet the sudden and unexpected summons.” (11) Both the |
faculty and the student body contributed their memorials to these two students in the report. Other organizations represented in the Serial Set are the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America, Veterans of World War I of the United States, |
proceedings of the National Encampment, United Spanish War Veterans, the American Historical Association, and the National Convention of Disabled American Veterans. Lists of Pensioners The history of pensions provided by the federal government is beyond the scope of this article. |
However, the Serial Set is a source of information about who was on the rolls at various times. For instance, an 1818 letter from the secretary of war was published containing a list of the persons who had been added |
to the pension list since May 28, 1813. The list provides information on the likes of Susanna Coyle, certificate of pension no. 9, heiress of deceased soldier William Coyle, alias Coil, a private who received pay of four dollars per |
month. (12) Sundry lists of pensions appeared in 1850, related to the regulation of Navy, privateer, and Navy hospital funds. The report included four lists: those placed in the invalid list who were injured while in the line of duty; |
those drawing pensions from wounds received while serving on private armed vessels; widows drawing pensions from their husbands who were engineers, firemen, and coal-heavers; and orphan children of officers, seamen, and marines pensioned under the act of August 11, 1848. |
(13) One of the most widely consulted lists is that for 1883, “List of Pensioners on the Roll, January 1, 1883” (Senate Executive Document 84 [47-2]). This five-volume title, arranged by state and then county of residence, provides a list |
of each pensioner’s name, his post office, the monthly amount received, the date of the original allowance, the reason for the pension, and the certificate number. An example is the case of Eli G. Biddle, who served in the 54th |
Massachusetts. Biddle can be found on page 439 of volume 5 of the “List,” and a researcher can learn several things without even having seen his pension file: his middle name is George, he was living in Boston in 1883, |
and he was receiving four dollars each month after having suffered a gunshot wound in the right shoulder. His pension certificate number is also provided 99,053 and with that one could easily order the appropriate records from the National Archives. |
The Serial Set serves as a source of military registers and other lists of government personnel as well. Both Army and Navy registers appear after 1896. The Army registers for 1848–1860 and the Navy registers for 1848–1863 are transcripts of |
the lists that appeared the preceding January and include pay and allowances, with corrections to that earlier edition for deaths and resignations. The Official Register, or “Blue Book,” a biannual register of the employees of the federal government, appears for |
10 years, from 1883 to 1893. If one’s ancestors were employees at this time, their current location and position, place from which they were appointed, date of appointment, and annual compensation can be gleaned from this source. The Serial Set |
often provides unexpected finds, and the area of registers is no exception. There is a great deal of material on the Civil War, from the 130 volumes of the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion to other investigations |
and the aforementioned registers and lists of pensions. There are not, however, large amounts of compiled unit histories. One exception, however, is the report from the adjutant general of Arkansas. Shortly after the Civil War, the adjutant general offices of |
the various Union states prepared reports detailing the activities of the men from their states. The same was done in Arkansas, but the state legislature there, “under disloyal control,” declined to publish the report. Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts, chairman |
of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, brought it to the committee in 1867, and it was ordered to be printed in the Serial Set so that the loyal activities of these 10,000 men would be recognized. (14) The report |
includes brief histories of each unit as well as a roster of the unit and rank, enlistment date, and other notes on each soldier. Accessing Information in the Serial Set The indexing for the Serial Set has long been troublesome |
to researchers. Various attempts have been made to provide subject access, with varying degrees of success. Many of the indexes in the volumes themselves are primarily title indexes to the reports from that Congress and session. The Checklist of United |
States Public Documents, 1789–1909, does provide information about what reports listed therein do appear in the Serial Set, but the researcher has to know the name of the issuing agency in order to access that information. The Document Index provides |
some subject indexing by Congress, and other efforts such as those by John Ames and Benjamin Poore can also be used, but none index the tables and contents of many of the reports that have been discussed in this article. |
(15) The best comprehensive print index is the Congressional Information Service’s (CIS) U.S. Serial Set Index, produced in conjunction with their microfilming of the volumes through 1969 beginning in the mid-1970s. In this index, a two-volume subject index covers groups |
of Congresses, with a third volume providing an index to individual names for relief actions, as well as a complete numerical list in each report/document category. The index, however, does not index the contents of the documents. For instance, although |
the title given for the Archibald Jackson land claim includes James Gammons’s name, the latter does not appear in the index to private relief actions. In addition, users must often be creative in the terms applied in order to be |
sure that they have exhausted all possibilities. In the mid-1990s CIS released these indexes on CD-ROM, which makes them somewhat easier to use, although the contents are essentially the same. The indexing problems have been rectified by the digitization of |
the Serial Set. At least two private companies, LexisNexis and Readex, have digitized it and made it full-text searchable. [The Serial Set and American State Papers are available in GenealogyBank. Click here to search them online] This article can only |
hint at some of the genealogical possibilities that can be found in the Congressional Serial Set. It has not touched on the land survey, railroad, western exploration, or lighthouse keeper’s reports or many of the private relief petitions and claims. |
Nonetheless, the reports and documents in the Serial Set provide a tremendous and varied amount of information for researchers interested in family history. Jeffery Hartley is chief librarian for the Archives Library Information Center (ALIC). A graduate of Dickinson College |
and the University of Maryland’s College of Library and Information Services, he joined the National Archives and Records Administration in 1990. 1 For a more complete description of the American State Papers, and their genealogical relevance, see Chris Naylor, “Those |
Elusive Early Americans: Public Lands and Claims in the American State Papers, 1789–1837,” Prologue: Quarterly of the National Archives and Records Administration 37 (Summer 2005): 54–61. 2 H. Rept. 78 (21-2), 1831, “Archibald Jackson” (Serial 210). 3 H. Rept. 818 |
(25-2), 1838, “Land Claims between Perdido and Mississippi” Serial 335. 4 S. Doc. 3 (16-2), 1820, “Reports of the Land Commissioners at Jackson Court House” (Serial 42). 5 H. Misc. Doc. 32 (48-2), 1882, “3rd Annual Report of the Bureau |
of Ethnology” (Serial 2317). 6 H. Doc. 35 (28-1), 1844, “Annual Report of Solicitor of the Treasury” (Serial 441), p. 37. 7 H. Doc. 1348 (61-3), 1911, “Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1910″ (Serial 6020). |
8 H. Exec. Doc. 62 (39-1), 1867, “Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the Year 1865″ (Serial 1257-1259). 9 H. Exec. Doc. 108 (39-1), 1866, “Artificial Limbs Furnished to Soldiers” (Serial 1263). 10 S. Doc. 392 (64-1), 1916, |
“Eighteenth Report of the National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution, October 11, 1914, to October 11, 1915″ (Serial 6924), p.155. 11 H. Exec. Doc. 1 (40-2), “Tenth Annual Report of the Columbia Institution for the Deaf and |
Dumb” (Serial 1326), pp. 429–430. 12 H. Doc. 35 (15-1), 1818 (Serial 6), p. 17. 13 See H. Ex. Doc. 10 (31-2), 1850, “Sundry Lists of Pensioners” (Serial 597). 14 See S. Misc. Doc 53 (39-2), 1867, “Report of the |
Adjutant General for the State of Arkansas, for the Period of the Late Rebellion, and to November 1, 1866″ (Serial 1278). 15 A good discussion of how some of these indexes work can be found in Mary Lardgaard, “Beginner’s Guide |
It is obvious that some people are more successful in different intellectual domains than others. Gardner's Multiple Intelligences suggests eight different domains of intellectual skill people can identify with. The |
domains consist of the following, in which people can score any level in all categories: linguistic, logico-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal and naturalistic. Although his model is impossible to |
falsify, this idea is important because it serves as a good starting point in which scientists can begin distinguishing what qualifies as an "intelligence" versus a talent. However, it is |
possible that talents and intelligence are actually the same, when intelligence is defined among Gardner's approach. It is impossible to say Einstein had a talent in math yet didn't identify |
with that intelligence. A causation approach seems to be inapplicable because research points towards intelligence being considerably stable, while talents can be improved... yet those talents remain in the same |
realm as its partnering intelligence. This article talks about how there is a controversy on the misuse of his idea into new teaching methods. However, who said that just because |
someone is intelligent in music means that they will all of a sudden learn geography classes significantly better based on singing the information? They would simply just excel in the |
musical part of tasks, further concluding their continued talent/intelligence. As suggested in the text, I prefer to conclude I have an intelligence in humor, but one could beg to differ. |
Overall, I now wonder if someones IQ could actually be the degree in which every arguable intelligence is taken into consideration, then somehow calculated. The WAIS test seems to imply |
Reflecting on the story of the Internal Revenue Service targeting groups with names that included tea party, patriot or any other name that marks a group as pro Constitutional, pro Freedom or pro Bill of Rights, leads us to consider |
the history of the IRS. Why would you even approach the IRS for blessing? Your group is, itself considered to be an enemy of the Fed to which the IRS owes allegiance. Any way they can, the IRS will cause |
opposition to its perceived enemy. Did the American army ask the enemy governments to finance them for WWI or WWII? The federal income tax was created in 1913 with the ratification of the 16th amendment to the Constitution. Before that |
time the Fed ran on “tariffs.” Using only tariffs was wise, it kept the government constrained to its Constitutional duties. There were some high tariffs, which did cause some anger and resulted in the “Tariff of Abominations,” but even that |
was not so high as to stifle the free enterprise system. And the Fed had plenty of money to run what is properly within its scope. In arguments during the consideration of the 16th amendment (1909), Representative Samuel McCall (Mass.) |
stated “….leads me to believe that the chief purpose of the tax is not financial, but social. It is not primarily to raise money for the state, but to regulate the citizen and to regenerate the moral nature of man. |
The individual citizen will be called on to lay bare the inner-most recesses of his soul in affidavits, and with the aid of the Federal inspector, who will supervise his books and papers and business secrets, he may be made |
“In nine months, a group of children left alone with a computer in any language will reach the same standard as an office secretary in the West.” ~ Dr. Sugata Mitra One fine day on 26 January 1999, the Chief scientist at NIIT and his team plan to dig a hole in their office wall adjacent to the Delhi Slum Area. They ins... |
freely accessible computer and observe the rest. This computer created instant ripples and the inferences were revolutionary. The slum children not only learn basic computer skills but teach other children as well. This experiment known as the Hole in the Wall is the discovery of Professor Sugata Mitra. He also coined ... |
curiosity and peer support teach themselves and others. Professor Sugata Mitra had always been fascinated with the idea of unsupervised learning and computers and when finally he put it into practice, it won him another award. On Tuesday, February 26. Dr. Mitra was given the TED Award 2013 which grants him $1 million t... |
Dr. Mitra plans to set up learning spaces that would be totally automated and controlled from the Cloud. The supervisor will not be a teacher or a computer expert but only a safety and health supervisor. Probably set up in India, these learning spaces would take the Hole in the Wall Experiment to the implementation sta... |
learners of the new age need two things. A broadband connection and a teacher to stand back. He says, “The Victorians were great engineers. They engineered a [schooling] system that was so robust that it’s still with us today, continuously producing identical people for a machine that no longer exists.” We were fortuna... |
WizIQ Conversations. You can revisit his works and words anytime. Professor Mitra was self-taught and has a firm belief that others can do the same through technology and the Internet. Finally I leave you with a reiteration of the topic: Are teachers really keeping students from learning in the digital age? |
Get the Today’s Document App Tag: October 10 On February 27, 1951, the Twenty-Second Amendment was ratified, officially limiting Presidents to two terms. This cartoon satirizes Theodore Roosevelt’s reversal of his anti-third term promise during the election of 1912. After |
his victory in the 1904 election, President Theodore Roosevelt promised that although his first term had lasted only three years (beginning after the [...] Posted by Darren Cole on February 27, 2011, under Documents, February, October. Highest Rated Documents Find |
HPV virus is linked to 25,000 cancers over five years. The human wart virus known as HPV caused 25,000 cases of cancer in the United States between 1998 and 2003, including not only cervical cancer but also anal and mouth cancers, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Monday. The study suggest... |
to be expanded for human papillomavirus, or HPV, said another team of researchers, who did a similar study. HPV includes about 100 different viruses, and they are the leading cause of cervical cancer. The viruses, transmitted sexually and by skin-to-skin contact, can also cause anal and penile cancers, as well as cance... |
and Co. and GlaxoSmithKline make vaccines against some of the strains of HPV most strongly linked with cervical cancer, but not all. The vaccines are recommended for girls and young women who have not yet become sexual activity. ”Currently available HPV vaccines have the potential to reduce the rates of HPV-associated ... |
for which there is no effective or widely applied screening programs,” the CDC’s Dr. Mona Saraiya, who led the study, said in a statement. “This gives us baseline data to measure the impact of HPV vaccine and cervical cancer screening programs in reducing the incidence of cervical cancer and other HPV-associated cancer... |
good night’s sleep may help protect children from becoming overweight adults, a study published Monday suggests. Researchers found that among more than 1,000 people followed from birth to age 32, those who got too little sleep as children were more likely than their well-rested counterparts to become obese adults, Reut... |
life held up even when the researchers figured in things like the impact of a child’s weight or TV habits, and adulthood exercise level. All of this supports the idea that early sleep habits have a direct effect on weight in the long term, according to Dr. Robert John Hancox, the study’s senior author. “Although we can... |
he told Reuters Health, “this study provides strong evidence that it probably is.” Eating more fish can help you control diabetes. Centering your dinner around a fish dish at least twice a week might help people with diabetes lower their risk of kidney disease, a study suggests. In the November issue of the American Jo... |
more than 22,300 middle-aged and older English men and women who were part of a large European cancer study to determine the effect of fish on kidney disease. What they found is that of the 517 study subjects who had diabetes (most of whom had type 2), those who on average ate less than one serving of fish each week we... |
likely to have albumin in their urine than people with diabetes who ate fish twice a week. Adler speculates that the nutrient content of fish may affect kidney function and improve blood glucose control. But the researchers could not say what type of fish had the biggest impact, reports USA Today.To get more help with ... |
Mississippians know the strength of longleaf pines. These native trees braved Hurricane Katrina 48 percent better than their loblolly cousins. Even so, the ancient longleaf pine forests of the South are a threatened ecosystem. These forests once dominated the region, spanning 90 million acres. Now, they cover just 3 mi... |
endangered species, like the gopher tortoise, which rely on it. The gopher tortoise is considered a keystone species in longleaf pine habitat, with more than 300 different vertebrate and invertebrate species relying on burrows dug by the reptiles for their homes. Longleaf pine forests are home to at least 122 endangere... |
can contain as many as 300 different species of groundcover plants per acre, and about 60 percent of the amphibian and reptile species found in the Southeast. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) wants to restore longleaf forests to their former glory with the help of landowners like Orby Wright of Purv... |
by NRCS allows Wright to manage his tall stands of longleaf pines and the blanket of legumes and forbs across the understory of his Quail Hollow Ranch. HFRP is one of several programs in the tool chest of the Longleaf Pine Initiative, a nine-state effort to bolster longleaf pine forests. Forbs are clovers, sunflowers, ... |
of the Mississippi forest floor. Both forbs and legumes provide sustenance and cover for a wide range of wildlife. Wright purchased about 2,000 acres four years ago from a pecan company. The land boasts longleaf pines of different ages—some are decades old, while others are just saplings. With the help of NRCS, Wright ... |
care of his older, taller trees. A healthy longleaf pine ecosystem requires occasional fires. Many years ago, wildfires frequented the longleaf landscape, creating food for wildlife and providing other benefits. To help maintain this rugged habitat, Wright has installed fire lanes and carries out prescribed burns, all ... |
longleaf pines in Mississippi and assisted in prescribed burns on 1,812 acres. In Lamar County, where Wright lives, 669 acres of longleaf pines were restored in 2010. Approved participants receive financial assistance for implementing conservation practices including planting longleaf pine, installing firebreaks, condu... |
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