The Rowan Tree

The Rowan Tree

Hakala, Joyce E. The Rowan Tree. St. Paul, MN.  Pikebone Music, 2007

People of Finnish ancestry, Girl Scouts, and musicians would all find this book fascinating.

This book talks about the life story of Marjorie Edgar. She was best known for her part in starting the Girl Scouts of America but was also a folklorist and musician.

A few points of interest are that her original songs as well songs from Finnish tradition are featured in this book. Songs are translated for ease of use.

This book is ment for expert readers with some knowledge of music, however, the songs are ment to be shared and enjoyed by all, especially around a campfire.

 

Momento of Finland: A Musical Legacy

Momento of Finland: A Musical Legacy

Hakala, Joyce E. Momento of Finland: A Musical Legacy. St. Paul, MN: Pikebone Music. 1997.

Musicians and history buffs alike will enjoy this book as well as people of Finnish ancestry.

This book talks about traditional Finnish music. It includes the story of a Finnish instrument called a kantle and how it has evolved over many years. Also included in the book are the Perho River Valley, Saarijärvi, and Haapvesi playing traditions.

Interesting contents include pictures of the evolution of the kantle and the lyrics to many popular Finnish songs.

This book is relatively easy to read and follow. It appears to be ment for intermediate readers who know how to read music to follow some of the songs.

 

I’ve Heard Those Songs Before: Volume II

I’ve Heard Those Songs Before: Volume II

Brooks, Elston. I’ve Heard Those Songs Before: Volume II. Fort Worth, TX. The Summit Group, 1991.

 This book would be interesting to anyone who loves music and music history.

This book contains lists of all the top 10 songs for each year from 1930-1989. Also includes a summary of the music styles that were popular in that era at the beginning of each year.

This book is pretty straightforward; no pictures or special points are highlighted.

This book is a very easy read and appears to be meant for beginner to expert readers.

 

Holidays and Anniversaries of the World

Baker, Beth A. HOLIDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES OF THE WORLD.

Farmington Hills, MI: Gale Research, 1999.

CE 76 .H65 1999

JULY 1st

*Bank Holiday in Bangladesh

*St. Theodoric Day (d.533)

*1961: Princess Diana is born

*1988: Wyoming raises its legal drinking age to 21.  It is the last U.S state to comply  

             with federal laws.

*Peggy’s birthday

This book is a comprehensive catalog of detailed information on every MONTH and DAY of the year, with over 26,000 holidays, anniversaries, holy days, birthdays of the famous, important dates in history and special events in history.   The book is arranged in chronological sequence, January 1 thru December 31 with a comprehensive index that allows you to look up any particular event or name to the date it occurred.   It starts with a comprehensive outline of the development of our modern calendar (the Gregorian calendar) which was adopted in the US during colonial days, 1752. It also provides a perpetual calendar to the year 2100.

This book is fun for everyone who wants to know what happened or who was born on their birthday, but is probably most interesting to those people who are drawn to lists of facts and other tabulated minutia.   Student or adults would use this book  most likely.  It is a fast resource for events in history.  Authors of family histories might use it to add national and world events as context for their family’s events.

 

Genealogical Monsters

Today is the 26th annual Digging for your Roots Genealogy Conference.  The theme, Genealogical Monsters: Taming the Skeletons in your family closet, has eight breakout sessions and two general sessions.  Most of the topics deal with finding relatives when standard sources have come up empty, like court records, mental hospital or contagious disease hospital records, or cookbooks. 

 Lunch is just about to start, and I am really looking forward to Ed’s pasta buffet!!!

 

Welcome to the Research Center

Thanks for checking out the IRRC’s new blog.  We have a lot of exciting things going on here, and I will be updating this regularly.

 I will add book reviews, top resources on various topics, and how-to guides as well.