Oakwood Cemetery Program

The following article came to me today from the Rensselaer County Advertiser newspaper.

Living History Tour: Oakwood By Lantern Light
Saturday, October 14 - 6PM- $15pp

The dead come to life in Oakwood Cemetery as our guides lead you to selected gravesites on this special nighttime walking tour. In the glow of lantern light, costumed interpreters will share the stories of their amazing lives and in some cases their harrowing deaths. You will meet a Civil war soldier, a drowning victim, a suffragette, the wife of a national figure and many more. This is not a "haunted" tour, but it is sure to be a mesmerizing adventure.

Registration is a must. Call 1.800.556.6273 with your name, phone, and how many people. Pay on arrival at the chapel flagpole where you will be assigned to a group and guide. Bring a flashlight, war sensible footwear and dress for the weather. Arrive early so you don't miss anything.

This event is presented by the Friends of Oakwood, an all-volunteer organization dedicated to supporting the not-for-profit, non-sectarian 19th Century cemetery and its historic Earl Chapel.

RootsTech 2018

RootsTech, what is it? It is the world's largest genealogy conference. It is hosted yearly in Salt Lake City by FamilySearch of the Church of Latter Day Saints. I have been reading about this conference for a number of years now and I can say "I'm going!" Registration for the event, done! Hotel room, got it! Airline tickets, booked! Needless to say I am excited and look forward to this event. Last year 30,000 attendees from 43 different countries were present.

Presently there is an early bird registration special for $169. I do not know how long that price will last. With over 300 sessions to choose from, a full lineup of world renown speakers, expo hall, and much more there will be something for anyone interested in genealogy.

RootsTech 2018 will be held 28 February through 03 March at the Salt Palace Convention Center. Register early and save. With a large turnout expected, do not wait too long, hotel rooms will fill fast.

New York Chapter of Palatines to America Meeting

This Saturday 07 October 2017 the New York Chapter of Palatines to America will be holding a meeting in Schoharie, NY at the Quality Inn. The guest speaker for the event will be Christopher White. He will discuss the effects of World War I on Albany's German-American community.

The meeting will be held at the
Quality Inn
160 Holiday Way
Schoharie, New York 12157.

Schedule of Events:
08:30 Registration and continental breakfast
09:00 New York Chapter Board meeting
10:00 Speaker: German-American Experience in Albany During World War I
11:00 Report on the International Germanic Genealogy Conference in Minneapolis
12:00 Lunch at the Quality Inn
13:00 New York Chapter Membership meeting
14:00 Tour of the Palatine House Museum in Schoharie

Registration for the continental breakfast, hot lunch, and programs:
Member $35
Non-members $40

Finding Your Roots on PBS

Just a reminder that the hit show from PBS, Finding Your Roots, is returning Tuesday, 03 October, 2017 at 8 PM. This season host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. will explore the family trees of celebrities including Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, Bernie Sanders, Tea Leoni, William H. Macy, and Bryant Gumbel.

A Brief History of German Language Newspapers in Albany

The majority of newly minted German immigrants were either unable to or unwilling to read English language newspapers; therefore the immigrant press became the easiest and most important method of maintaining cultural ties with former homelands and with fellow Germans residing locally.  Foreign language organs helped preserve native languages and cultural heritage.  The German language press and literature reflected much of what was occurring in American society and served ultimately to advance the accommodation of the German-born to that society.[1] For many years the German-language press not only was the most numerous among the foreign-language papers of the United States, but the most ably edited and the most widely read.[2] In 1914 of the 1,300 foreign-language papers published in the United States, 537, or forty percent, were German.[3] The German press became interested primarily in local problems and particularly in the cultural and social activities of the German societies in their communities.[4] Thus, local social, musical, and dramatic activities were reported in detail. At the same time, German language newspapers and publications served as important sources of information about local politics; of seven thousand copies of the Albany City Record, detailing the proceedings of the Common Council and city government, published every week at the turn of the century, three thousand were printed in German.[5] This naturally occurred because German was considered a second official language in Albany.

The survival of the German press depended upon the extent that German-Americans retained their interests in the social and cultural life of their people.[6] In the beginning of the twentieth century, German immigration to America virtually ceased when compared to the number of Germans that immigrated to the United States in the 1850s and 1860s.  Earlier immigration refreshed bonds to the Vaterland on a yearly basis through the arrival of new German immigrants. Regrettably, the German language press in the United States began to falter and decline, despite its own attempts at revitalization, by reporting on national issues.  Unfortunately German immigration did not keep pace with German-American mortality.  Many second generation Germans saw themselves as American and lacked the conscious self-identity of being German.  Historian John A. Hawgood illustrated this point,

As the older German-stock died off, the younger generation of Germans discontinued the use of the German language in their own homes.  They ceased to subscribe to German language newspapers, magazines, and periodicals, and confined themselves to the English language newspapers, which had, found their way into all but the strictest German-American homes.[7]

A plan to reinvigorate the German language in Albany was suggested in early 1908.  A proposal was devised by the pastors of Albany’s German churches, who sought to promote the study of the German language by having German taught in all of the city’s schools where German children attend.  As the Times Union reports,

The pastors claim that the German language is falling into disuse among the present generation of German descended residents.  Many of the younger people, although they can understand the language when it is spoken in the home, they can neither read nor write it.[8]

A special German language teacher needed to be hired at $800 per year, who would then visit each school on different days.  The German pastors conferred with German-American Mayor Charles Henry Gaus, who approved the plan, but stated the city’s Board of Education must give authorization to finalize the proposal.  

The Board rejected the proposal as being too costly to both the school district and the students.  They held that it might hinder the pupils’ comprehension of the English language.

To keep pace with English-language news organs and to hold and attract new readers, many German-language newspapers appeared to become more American than German.  Many articles were printed in both German and English.  They began to report on national issues, the activities of Congress, as well as local news.  Another device used by the German-American press to hold its readers was the promotion of German-Americanism as a self-conscious identity among German-Americans as participants in a sub-society that was expressive of a superior culture.[9] Therefore, after the turn of the century cultural chauvinism became the norm.  Many extremely chauvinistic German ideologies resembled the beliefs of the ultra-nationalistic Pan-German League in Germany.  The practice of exaggerating the German contribution to American history became even more quixotic.  Assertions such as the Germans had nearly single-handedly saved the Revolution in 1776 and the Union in 1861 were transformed into lessons from the past to inspire and guide the present day immigrants to exercise an equally strong influence in shaping the destiny of the nation and the community.[10]

1886 Albany City Directory Advertisement

The first German language daily evening newspaper in Albany was the Albany Freie Blätter.  It was first published in June 1852 by Augustus Miggael.  

Its offices were located at 44 Beaver Street.  The Albany Common Council considered the Freie Blätter as one of the three official city newspapers.  The city allotted printing patronage to the Freie Blätter from 1874 to 1896, and in 1893 the Freie Blätter received $1,253.37 from the city.[11]  The other two newspapers were the Albany Argus and the Albany Evening Journal.  The organ had a Democratic platform from which “many a hard political battle was fought.”[12]  The paper ceased to exist in 1913 with a circulation numbering 2,480 copies when it merged with the Albany Herold.  The Freie Blätter was not published on Sundays, but the Sonntagsgast was printed between 1885 and 1897 as the Sunday edition of the Freie Blätter.  The Sonntagsgast held independent views.  Between the years 1898 and 1909 the Albany Freie Presse was printed as a supplement to the Albany Freie Blätter.  The author of this work discovered an obscure German newspaper or periodical that was also printed in Albany, the Albany Volksblatt.  It was first published in 1856 by George Herb.[13]

1889 Albany City Directory Advertisement

Albany’s second German language newspaper was founded by Jacob Heinmuller on May 1, 1868- the Albany Herold.  It was first printed on February 11, 1869.  The organ was located at 346 Broadway and was run as a daily morning paper with no Sunday printing.  The newspaper’s printing ran on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  As time passed, the circulation estimates for the Albany Herold greatly increased; (see Table IV.)  The paper had Republican views.  The Sunday edition of the Albany Herold was printed as the Sonntags Correspondent.  It was printed between 1885 and 1911.  In 1913 the Albany Herold and the Albany Freie Blätter merged, and their union produced the Herold und Freie Blätter.  In 1915 circulation numbered one thousand papers; but unfortunately the newspaper ceased to exist in 1920.  

1915 Albany City Directory Advertisement

World War I hammered the final nail into the coffin of Albany’s Deutschtum.  Another German newspaper was the Taeglicher Albany Herald.  It was first published on October 10, 1871, as a daily.[14]

Table IV: Circulation Estimates for the Albany Herold[15]

Year	Total Circulation Estimate
1875	400
1880	680
1890	1000
1900	2162
1910	2000

Yet, another German language newspaper in Albany was the Albany Sonntags Journal.  The paper was founded by Charles Hildebrandt.  It was first published on May 11, 1887, and ran weekly until 1911.  

1894 Albany City Directory Advertisement

A note in the Albany Argus congratulated the Sonntags Journal for entering its fourth year as “an able, well managed newspaper, admirably adapted for the needs of our German fellow citizens, bright and newsy and bearing all the qualities of well deserved popularity.”[16]  Between the years 1890 and 1903, the paper held Democratic views and later changed to Republican tendencies from 1904 to 1911.  Unfortunately as time passed, the Sonntags Journal did not increase its circulation; its circulation shrank; (see Table V.)

Table V: Circulation Estimates for the Sonntags Journal[17]

Year	Total Circulation Estimate
1890	2700
1900	2500
1910	1800

Regrettably, the German newspapers from Albany were not kept.  They appear to have been disposed of after reading; today only a few miscellaneous copies remain. 

German Publishing Company, 13 Beaver Street

---

[1] Robert Henry Billigmeier, Americans from Germany: A Study in Cultural Diversity (Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1974), p. 121.

[2] Wittke, The German-Language Press in America, pp. 6, 209.

[3] O’Connor, German-Americans, p. 360.

[4] Wittke, The German-Language Press in America, p. 237. Rippley, The German-Americans, p. 165.

[5] Rabrenovic, Community Builders, p. 41. John McEneny, “The Melting Pot,” in Experiencing Albany: Perspectives on a Grand City’s Past, ed. Anne F. Roberts and Judith A. Van Dyk (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986), p. 34. Times Union, July 6, 1986, Supplement, 57:1.

[6] Wittke, The German-Language Press in America, p. 220.

[7] Hawgood, The Tragedy of German-America, p. 290. Wittke, The German-Language Press in America, p. 222. Guido A. Dobbert, “German-Americans Between New and Old Fatherland,” American Quarterly 19(4): 669.

[8] Times Union, March 29, 1908, 4:2.

[9] Frederick C. Luebke, “Three Centuries of Germans in America” in Germans in the New World: Essays in the History of Immigration (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990), p. 171. Melvin G. Holli, “Teuton vs. Slav: The Great War Sinks Chicago’s German Kultur,” Ethnicity 8(4): 423.

[10] Dobbert, “The Disintegration of an Immigrant Community,” pp. 92-93.

[11] Reimer, “Ethnicity in Albany, N. Y., 1888-1908,” p. 49.

[12] Reynolds, Albany Chronicles, p. 616. Times Union, April 25, 1914, 4:1. n. a., Geschichte der Deutschen in Albany und Troy, p. 101.

[13] Howell and Tenney, eds., History of the County of Albany, N. Y., p. 377.

[14] Ibid., p. 378.

[15] Karl J. R. Arndt and May E. Olson, German-American Newspapers and Periodicals, 1732-1955: History and Bibliography (Heidelberg: Quelle & Meyer Publishers, 1961), pp. 313-314.

[16] Albany Argus, May 18, 1891, 4:3.

[17] Arndt and Olson, German-American Newspapers and Periodicals, 1732-1955, pp. 313-314.

Albany History Race 2017

Coming up this weekend, Saturday, 30 September, is the fourth annual Albany History Race 2017; sponsored by the Albany Public Library. We participated in last year's race taking first place and also in the previous year's race taking third place. This year we are unable to participate. The event is a lot of fun! Check it out!

The following information is cut from Albany History Race Facebook page.

The Fourth Annual Albany History Race is an Amazing Race-style afternoon scavenger hunt for history experts, novices, & visitors interested in learning about Albany's past!

The event is free & no prior knowledge is needed. This year, to support the efforts of the future Albany Firefighters Museum, Albany Public Library is partnering with Albany firefighter Tim Blaney & City Historian Tony Opalka, who are researching the history of the Albany Fire Department. All locations visited in the race will have connections to the fire department & historic Albany fires.

*Here's how YOU can participate & win:

- Make a team! All teammates must fit in ONE car. You provide the car.

- Meet at the Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center (25 Quackenbush Sq.), not the library, at 2pm on Saturday, 9/30 to receive clues directing you to historic locations in Albany.

- Plan the quickest route to visit the locations that afternoon.

- Hop in your team's car, race to the spots, & document your visit with your cell phone camera or digital camera.

- The final stop is the Albany Distilling Company’s new bar (75 Livingston Ave.), where teams that complete the race will get pizza. Stay to purchase your own drinks. The fastest teams to arrive will win Albany themed prizes!

**The starting location for this event is the Albany Heritage Area Visitors Center (25 Quackenbush Square).**

To sign up, have only ONE member of your team register by clicking the ticket link. For more details, please email localhistory@albanypubliclibrary.org or call (518) 427-4376.

Overstretched

Lately, for many reasons I have not been able to post to this blog. Having a full plate is usually good but sometimes we can overstretch ourselves. I have been wrapped up in too many things all at once. Work had me scheduled for numerous extra shifts. We hosted a large Oktoberfest party for family and friends. Home remodeling projects were in the mix also. The evening before Oktoberfest I gave a presentation at the Historic Society of Esquatak and have another lecture planned on October 7th for the New York Palatines to America German Genealogy Society. The kids had to be brought here and there. It was discovered that one of my great great great grandmothers, Caroline Gertrude Rifenburgh, is descended from 1710 Palatine immigrants to New York. Sources and data on this will obviously need to be verified. Finally, numerous trips to the dermatologist resulted in two procedures where melanoma and basal cell cancers were cut from my face and neck. Photos are purposely omitted. Thirty plus years of working outside finally caught up to me. Cemetery work will now include the application of sun block. Things are now slowing down and getting back to the old routine therefore blog posts should become regular again.