The Birdman of Alcatraz

Today, while hubby spent his last day of Christmas vacation binge-ing on NFL, the semi-finals of the World Juniors hockey tournament and WoW*, I spent 147 minutes watching the Turner Classic Movie Channel - specifically, the black and white classic film that is "The Birdman of Alcatraz," starring Burt Lancaster.

In 1962, Lancaster was nominated for an Academy Award for this performance.
Photo courtesy of www.imdb.com

Widely known as The Birdman of Alcatraz, Robert Franklin Stroud, spent most of his life in solitary confinement (ironically, not at Alcatraz) after being convicted on two separate occasions of murder. Although recalled to be a difficult inmate, Stroud was allowed to raise canaries in his cell in effort to make a productive use of his time. Indeed, the convict managed to author some articles and two books on ornithology and become a leading voice in the field before it was discovered some of his requested equipment was being used to create an alcoholic still. Shortly thereafter, The Birdman was transferred to Alcatraz.

Photo courtesy of www.AlcatrazHistory.com

All of this to say... I suppose if you HAVE to find a criminal in your family tree, one like this would be a good one to find. I mean, at least he contributed in a meaningful way to society at some point, right? Though I'm not sure any contribution can make up for murder...

Anyway, without digressing into a discussion about civil rights and the downfalls of the criminal justice systems of our world, yadda, yadda, yadda ---

Have you ever found a criminal in your family tree? How do you feel when you uncover someone's scandalous past? Guilty? Ashamed? I suppose it matters how close they are to you in that stuff we call wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey**...

My husband's family tree seems to be drooping from its load of "perps" and suspects*** while I have only unearthed one scoundrel in my family history so far -- the son of a crofter who shot a gun into the face of a servant girl while participating (inevitably inebriated) in a wedding parade one jolly night in the early 1800s of Scotland.

My one and only reaction to all of the above? EXCITEMENT!

I imagine this is from a movie but I found it here:
http://imgur.com/gallery/xihg38M

Huzzah! So many documents to find! New avenues of research to consider! Out-of-the-ordinary details to scrutinize, glean inspiration from and incorporate into the family history narrative! Another hopefully tantalizing tidbit with which to interest disinterested family members! And above all, another challenge!

I can't be the only one...........






Yes, The Asterisks Mean Something

*WoW = World of Warcraft, an online multi-player role-playing game created in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment. You may have seen William Shatner, Mr. T and Verne Troyer et al on some of their television ads a few years ago...

**wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey = A Dr. Who reference. I don't watch the program but do accrue points with Hubbly-Hubbard (hubby) for such geekery.

***Okay "drooping" is probably an exaggeration. Simmer down! But one side of his tree IS predominantly Italian.... Just sayin'. (hehehehe)


Reference List

Alcatraz History website, http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/stroud.htm; Ocean View Publishing Company, 2014 [accessed 07 Jan 2015; 4:30pm EST].

IMDB website, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055798/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 [accessed 07 Jan 2015; 4:30pm EST].

Wikipedia website, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman_of_Alcatraz_%28film%29 [accessed on 07 Jan 4:45pm EST].

Preparing for my First Trip to the Archives of Ontario

I'm crazy excited to be in Toronto this August for not one but TWO genealogy conferences before hubby drags me along to four days of geekery and shenanigans at FanExpo!* IMO, that much of a trip alone is cause for some serious SQUEE but imagine my surprise when I realized we're going to be staying at a hotel not 10 minutes from the Archives of Ontario.

*blink*
O.O
WHAAAAAAT?????

Let the preparations begin!!! HUZZAH!!!

First on the list: reorganize trip schedule so that visit to the zoo takes place on the only day the Archives is CLOSED, rendering all free and clear to drag hubby to a FULL day of research on a day on which it is OPEN! [Shhh!! Don't tell hubby!! lol]**

Next, determine what records they have that A) I want to see in person, B) I can't get anywhere else and C) I'm ready to look up and, frankly, understand. After all, there's much info out there, lying in wait beneath the surface of the "regular" sea of records, that I still have no clue about -- and I only have 1.5 months to be organized enough to make this one, lonely little day [sigh, I always wish there could be more TIME! ...more hours in the day, more money in the bank... ] as productive as humanly possible.

Thus began the Spreadsheet of Death -

DUHN-DUHN-DUHHHHNNNNNNN

otherwise known as a comprehensive list of all the estate files and wills in the province that I still require. Which is a lot. I think I have my father's, both my grandmothers' and that someone in my family has a copy of my biological grandfather's and hubby's great grandfather's... but that's it. So my list is pretty long.

Then I have to go through the list and, according to county at time of death and date, discern whether or not the record of each person will be available to me at the archives. For many of them - those less than 40 years old - I have to contact the local courthouse. [P.I.T.A.]. For the rest... there's a mess of microfilm indices and inter-library loans to work through so that I can obtain the correct file numbers for each record. I'm not sure if I can view the indices at the archives AND see the stuff I want to look at on the same day. It's all kinda complicated... at least for someone relatively new to it all and especially for a zombie, like me, whose brain is akin to mush at times.

So, in the interim, as I make additions to the Spreadsheet of Death [DUHN-DUHN-DUHHHHNN!] and further investigate the AO website I have a plan. I'm going to start going through the printed materials for the course on Canadian Archival Centres for which I'm registered through the National Institute for Genealogical Studies (NIGS). It will likely help me as I prepare for this EPIC JOURNEY in August.




Yes, The Asterisks Mean Something

*Technically, he's not dragging me. I even brought it all on myself when I bought him the Premium tix for Christmas (what a good spouse I am, eh?). I'm actually looking forward to going - though I'm not so thrilled with the lineup so far... but that's another post for different blog.

**Actually, I've already told him and he's fine with it. Really! For now anyway. LOL His tune may well change around the fourth hour of forced labour as my little zombie research gopher... [ha!] But, in all honesty, he is very supportive and didn't bat one eyelash at my exclamation of glee upon discovering our pending proximity to the repository into which I've been dying to dig my grubby little- erm, I mean, my gentle and cautious white-gloved paws.