As today marks the 80th anniversary of the Feb. 19, 1942, presidential order authorizing the internment of Americans with Japanese ancestry, I recalled an April day in 2016 in Bridgeton, NJ. On that Wednesday as spring got underway, I spent a delightful morning talking with 92-year-old Frank Hitoshi Ono. At the time I was doing…
Category: Oral History
Old Digitized Somerset County Newspapers a Great Help to Genealogists and Historians
The Somerset County Library system has digitized its collection of research materials in order to make the resources more broadly and easily available to researchers. The just released e-products include newspapers from Princess Anne and Crisfield, and records from the county court system. The old, original microfilm was professionally scanned and software was used to allow…
Incorporating Oral Histories into Dynamic Public Programming Workshop
I was pleased to work with UMBC’s John Willard to present a workshop for participants in the Museum on Main Street program on May 17 As museums around the state get ready for a Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit, John and I talked to participants about the stories of communities. Most have plenty of little-known, but intriguing stories from local tradition-bearers…
Project Scholar For New Study Asking What Happens When Big Government Moves In and Families Move Out
I have just started working on an exciting new investigation that is seeking to answer questions about the impact the military has on people and communities when it uproots long-established families to create a wartime reservation. This particular migration occurred in Harford County, Maryland, as the government established Aberdeen Proving Ground in 1917, six months…