1 comments about The Tchaikovsky Handbook: A Guide to the Man and His Music : Catalogue of Letters Genealogy Bibliography (Russian Music Studies Published With the Kind Support of Allen Clowes).

1. Mind you I have both catalog books from this collection (Vol. 1 & 2). They're for anyone who's a die-hard Tchaikovsky fan. I've never in my life been so touched by anyone's music other than Tchaikovsky's. Great pictures are included in this book - pictures that you cannot find anywhere at the library or other places. All of his works, known to man, are in here. If you need it, this book has got it. I recommend getting both; it's hard to get volume 1 without volume 2.

No comments about Searching in Indiana: A Reference Guide to Public and Private Records.

5 comments about Bean Blossom Dreams: A City Family's Search for a Simple Country Life.

1. I grew up in the country, so I knew Sallyann was in trouble when she named her turkeys! LOL I really did enjoy this book. I now live in the "big city" (Atlanta), and often dream of doing what the Murphey's did. I hope that if I ever get the chance, I will have neighbors as great as theirs. This is a wonderful book to read.



2. Isn't quitting your boring 9 to 5 office job, moving to the country and living a quieter, humbler existence, everyone's secret dream? Well it has always been one of mine, and reading this book was absolutely a treat for me. In addition to thouroughly enjoying every page of this story, I actually learned many things from this book and was delighted to find that Sallyann included her recipes and tips from the story in the back of the book (although it did mean that the book ended too soon). I was especially dying to know the recipe for her Gorganzola and Leek Soup, and now I can't wait to try it out. I will fondly remember the Murphey's story as I try out her many wonderful recipes. I look forward to her next book, and hopefully a sequel to this story is in her plans.



3. My daughter picked this book up from a garage sale for fifty cents and left it in the "reading room" in our modest house in a modest city in the modest midwest. Growing up on a farm and being raised in a climate where work was expected and birth/life/death were daily events and where weather determined how many presents would be under the Christmas tree, and as well, how much canning would be done in the fall from the family garden, I hold little respect from someone who makes light of being an organic farmer and makes "potpourri" from rose petals.
   
   I realize it's been 10 years or so since Ms. Murphey wrote her book, but I would likely enjoy reading or listening to what she has to say today. Yes, neighbors were family and we lived and breathed next to them. The vet was next to God and God was next to the dinner table every single night when my Dad said Grace. A life on the farm is not romantic when there is no other livelihood. Too bad most people don't recognize this.
   
   I spent just today working on tearing down an old chicken coop at my folks place. The mouse dirt, the years of chicken filth and the constant wind out on the prairie are NOT romantic and not to be trifled with.
   This book goes to the next grange sale fund raiser.



4. Well, geez, the previous reviewer was a little harsh. I don't think Ms. Murphey glamorized or made light of the serious work she had to do on the farm. Rather, I thought she did a great job of showing how difficult it really is. I enjoyed the book and thought it was very touching.



5. Hi, this is Charley Murphey - the daughter :) I may be nearly twenty now and heading toward my sophomore year in college, but I remember those years which Bean Blossom Dreams so aptly describes better than I remember the past five and I can tell you completely honestly that we were never once arrogant about our ability as farmers. I can only remember my mom's infamous enthusiasm at work, her total and complete optimism and hope that we could really have a farm. We have since eased off of that - especially when my mom became deathly allergic to bee stings and we had to completely change our expectations of the garden - but my father is starting a new business producing organic plant food and I've been learning all I can about gardening to help out my mother. I'm sorry that there are those who feel that farm work is not something to be celebrated the way we do, but one thing I can tell you for sure is that we were not glamourizing our life here, or trying to pass ourselves off as great farmers. I know what real farmwork is, I've seen it at home and at the farms of our friends - and I know I'm not cut out for it. But having humor and joy for something that is underappreciated as a profession and way of life is not making a mockery of it - it is simply making it real and something people can smile about and relate to on the smaller level we were working at, so that they would understand and appreciate what we were trying to accomplish. This farm means more to me than anywhere else in the world. The things my mother and father gave to me by coming here, by trying so hard, by having the grace to giggle at themselves when they made mistakes - is priceless. I will never forget what they did for me/us and I will be a part of this farm - as well as try to make it a part of my children someday - forever.

No comments about Kentuckians in Ohio and Indiana.

1 comments about Indiana Genealogical Research.

1. The series by Mr. Schweitzer covering a number of states is an excellent starting point for most researchers as well as a handy reference to have. Mr. Schweitzer begins with a brief historical overview of the state's settlement, geography, industries, migration and the like which helps to paint a picture of what likely drew your ancestors there. Mr. Schweitzer's writing style is very plain and direct and he includes a wonderful county by county listing of resources for each state as well as overall statewide resources and records available at the Federal level. There are undoubtedly books that go into greater detail on each state but the Schweitzer series are a great starting point and well worth the money if you're researching there. His titles usually have to be ordered at local booksellers so Amazon is your best bet at getting these quickly and painlessly. One particular note is that this title was written years ago and some telephone numbers and addresses have changed and some groups or societies may be dormant or closed. Additionally Mr. Schweitzer does not make reference to internet sources or email addresses, which is just as well as they tend to get out-of-date quite quickly. I've gotten considerable use out of this title on Indiana and it continues to be very helpful.

5 comments about Passing the Time in Ballymenone: Culture and History of an Ulster Community.

1. This wonderful book allows the reader to experience a place and a people now gone. The "stars" of Ballymenone come alive again in story, song and the descriptions of their lives by Henry Glassie. Unlike most academic books, this one is written by a poet...lyrical, powerful and evocative prose by a writer with suberb descriptive powers and spiritual impact. My husband and I recently visited Ballymenone and spent the day searching for what we had read about...but the people described are mostly gone, the landscape altered, the old replaced by new. For anyone who loves Ireland and wants to understand its ways and its culture this book is a must.



2. This wonderful book allows the reader to experience a place and a people now gone. The "stars" of Ballymenone come alive again in story, song and the descriptions of their lives by Henry Glassie. Unlike most academic books, this one is written by a poet...lyrical, powerful and evocative prose by a writer with suberb descriptive powers and spiritual impact. My husband and I recently visited Ballymenone and spent the day searching for what we had read about...but the people described are mostly gone, the landscape altered, the old replaced by new. For anyone who loves Ireland and wants to understand its ways and its culture this book is a must.



3. For years anthropologists and folklorists have often "looked down" on the subjects of their studies, attempting to fit their subjects into preconceived boxes and categories. Unfortunately some anthropologists and sociologists continue to regard their "subjects" with condescension or even amusement. Henry Glassie's work is a much needed antidote to such practices. _Passing the Time in Ballymenone_ is a jewel. Henry Glassie regards the people of Ballymenone with respect and affection, allowing them to describe their ideas, life-ways, and values on their own terms, not his. Recognizing that theirs is a mindset and lifestyle that must be seen as an integrated whole, Glassie studies everything about Ballymenone from traditional songs to entertainment to religious beliefs to architecture, liberally quoting from the people who welcomed him into their homes over his extended stays. Some of his insights are pure brilliance, such as recognizing the way the poets and storytellers of a rural Irish district have adapted ancient Gaelic metrics to the English they use today. You will learn more about Ireland and its people in this one book than in a host of others. You may also find yourself re-evaluating your own lifestyle after encountering the wisdom of these tradition bearers. The book also serves as an excellent model for those who plan to work and study in folklore or anthropology.



4. I read this excellent book over a year ago and am amazed at how often my thoughts return to visit. I find that many of the folkways described by this extraordianary observer are part of my own everyday life as American Scotch Irish over two centuries removed from roots in Ulster, Ireland. The descriptions of the kitchen hospitality, even the arrangement of the kitchen furniture are very familiar to me. The gifts of storytelling and musicmaking so vividly described are as frequently celebrated in my current mileau. Thanks for an excellent piece of research and writing.



5. As a study of the folklife and history of a community in Ulster, this book is full, rich, fascinating, and moving. I've used it as a first reading for graduate classes in fieldwork because it merges useful ethnographic research techniques with insightful analysis and eloquent prose. Students find the book both practical and inspiring, and it is a tour de force of the best of folklore research. Glassie's insights are more than relevant today for thinking through contemporary concerns about a range of important social and political concerns including what it means to foster healthy community life and provide honor and respect to old masters and stars. It is also a wonderful read for anyone interested in storytelling and Irish history and culture.

No comments about Posey County Indiana One Hundred Seventy Fifth Anniversary 1814-1989: 175th Anniversary History.

No comments about Finding Indiana Ancestors: A Guide to Historical Research.

1 comments about Who's Your Hoosier Ancestor?: Genealogy for Beginners.

1. Clear and accessible, this Indiana specialist covers so much information that it is useful for both beginners and old hands. No internet here, but quite a few resources with addresses. (Many are now on the net, so you may be able to avoid some of the agony of putting pen to paper.) Very comprehensive, but in only 217 pages (including notes, bibliography, suggested readings, index, and a few black and whites), some topics are only touched on. You can always supplement with such specialized books as the by the Indiana Historical Society. Chapters include history, the land, natives, boundaries, emigrant trails, who the emigrants were, military, church and cemetery, census, county histories, and more, including basic research principles. There's an excellent gallup through county records, which almost painlessly explains many abstruse goodies such as deed records, antenuptial contracts, ministers' returns, etc. There's also information about what is and is not available or useful, and why.

2 comments about The Nazi Ancestral Proof: Genealogy, Racial Science, and the Final Solution.

1. This is another in a long line of books that shed no new light on the unfortunate events of WWII. Not one I would make a must read to understand the Holocaust.



2. In the first third of the twentieth century, Germany was the most technologically sophisticated and scientifically advanced nation in the world. How could such a nation have produced the Third Reich, the author asks. But before 1933 Germany was not the country where antisemitism has its deepest roots, and this book avoids contributing something to enlighten the causes of antisemitismus in general and in Germany in particular.
   Up to now "race" has in many languages two meanings: First, it means a nation as a whole, second, it means a distinct human type with specific, hereditarily based physical and mental characteristics. In its first meaning, racial hygiene could be unterstood as synonymous with social hygiene, in its second, race was a term of physical anthropology. Leading Nazis were well aware of this ambiguity of the term race and played in words with this ambiguity.
   Despite Jews were never a race in the sense of physical anthropology, anthropologists tried to discern Jews from non-Jews on the basis of racial characterics. The strongest part of this book by Ehrenrich is documenting this dissonance between racial scientific theory and racist practice. The author draws upon a rich body of original sources from German archives and publications. His knowledge of such sources is extraordinary exhaustive and his conclusions are of high originality.
   
   In 1933 the democratically elected government of Germany institutionalized the racial ideology of the Nazi party. In the following years millions of Germans had do proof their "Aryan" descent. But because the Aryans were never a race, since 1935 The Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honor prohibited marriages and extramarital intercourse between "Jews" (the name was now officially used in place of "non-Aryans") and "Germans. The German Blood Certificate (Deutschblütigkeitserklärung) was a document provided to those with partial Jewish heritage during the Second World War that allowed exemption from Germany's racial laws. Hitler insisted on reviewing each application personally. Thousands of soldiers exempted in such a way from the Nuremberg laws, served in the German Army (see Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story Of Nazi Racial Laws And Men Of Jewish Descent In The German Military (Modern War Studies))
   
   However, even after 1935 in the language of the ordinary people, someone had "to prove his Aryan descent". It was not a proof belonging to a race, but a proof of genealogical descent from non-Jews.