This and That

Reading through my e-mail this morning, I came across these little snippets of interesting items to share with my readers:

• *The Dowagiac [Michigan] Daily News has a fascinating article about Verge Hawkins, who is lecturing on African-American history at the Museum at Southwestern Michigan College's spring lecture series. He encourages families to study genealogy together "because if you have different generations, they can focus on some things and tell their story. When you tell your own story, you're a much stronger person."

• *"Today Michigan lawmakers will begin contemplating one of the most heated questions within the adoption community -- should upwards of 20,000 people be allowed to access family information that has been kept secret for decades? Bills in both chambers of the Legislature would allow people adopted between 1945 and 1980 to obtain their original birth certificate. It also would allow birth parents to tell the state whether they want to be contacted, and how. A hearing on the matter will be held today before the House Families and Children's Services subcommittee." My paternal grandmother was one of the "lucky" adoptees whose adoption was finalized in 1940 (when she was 16), so she was able to access her own birth certificate. Thousands of Michigan adoptees have never had that chance. Read more here.

• *From Cyndi's List Mailing List, a website where you can do an Irish placename search, Irish Ancestries.com. The placename finder is on this page.

• *Looking for Michigan newspapers that might carry obituaries online? This list appears to have current--not historical--papers, but some have archived obits, so check it out.

• *From the Oakland County Mailing List at RootsWeb came this terrific news: "Later this year the State Library will be putting digitized death certificates for Michigan on its website. The years covered will be 1900-1910. Granted its not as much as some states but for Michigan that's a major step!"