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Funeral Programs: A Genealogical Treasure

Newly Digitized Resource for Historians and Researchers

The Center for Local History’s online collection now includes over 100 documents from funerals of Black community members, donated by Arlington residents Birdie and Mable Alston. These materials will be an important resource for historians and genealogical researchers.

FUNERAL PROGRAMS FROM THE BIRDIE AND MABLE ALSTON COLLECTION

Using Funeral Programs

For African-Americans doing genealogical research, information such as exact dates of birth and death, past residences, place of burial, and maiden names are often difficult to find in the South due to slavery and segregation laws.

According to the Georgia Public Library Service, “The records of many in these communities were often either destroyed, kept in private hands, or never created in the first place.”

These gaps in information can often be found in funeral programs. They may often give valuable personal information about the deceased’s life including hobbies, friends, relatives, and community involvement.

Funeral Program for Evelyn Syphax, 2000, CLH Collections

Obituaries can also give context to a person’s life beyond genealogical information and provide insight to researchers that might not be available elsewhere.

In addition, large groups of obituaries give a broader view of a community's makeup and show larger local historical trends.

Funeral Program for Dr. Nathaniel R. Richardson, 1966, CLH Collections

Funeral Program for Mrs. Viola P. Chase, 1968, CLH Collections

Funeral Program for Lillian Brooks Williams, 1973, CLH Collections

Birdie and Mable Alston

Birdie (1919-2020) and Mable (née Shirley) Alston (1920-2017) were married neighborhood activists and prominent community members in the Halls Hill/Highview Park area. The Alston’s came to Arlington in 1944 and settled in Halls Hill in 1947. Both were heavily involved with the Langston Civic Association and the NAACP.

CLH Staff recently finished digitizing Series 1: Funeral Programs of RG338, Birdie and Mable Alston Collection. This includes over 100 programs from funerals of the area’s Black community members spanning from 1961-2011. Each program contains information about the deceased’s life and family, with many including photographs.

Funeral Program for Clifton Randolph Brown, 1993, CLH Collections

Obituary for Clifton Randolph Brown, 1993, CLH Collections

About the Birdie and Mable Alston Collection

Upon Birdie Alston’s death in 2017, his estate donated much of his personal files, photographs, and other materials to the Center for Local History. The materials relate to the various community organizations that the Alston’s were involved with, such as the NAACP, Langston Civic Association, Halls Hill (High View Park) Neighborhood Preservation Plan, and Calloway United Methodist Church. The material dates from 1905-2019, making it an important resource for documenting the changes in Arlington’s Black community.

Related Collections in the CLH

For other collections of active Black citizens in Arlington, see RG 11, Papers of Edmond C. Fleet, and see RG 349, Dorothy Hamm Personal Papers. There are also several oral history interviews detailing life in the Halls Hill/Highview Park neighborhood, including one from Birdie Alston in 1991. RG 48, Records of the NAACP, Arlington Branch, has more detail on this group where the Alston’s were members.

Help Build Arlington's Community History

The Center for Local History (CLH) collects, preserves, and shares resources that illustrate Arlington County’s history, diversity and communities. Learn how you can play an active role in documenting Arlington's history by donating physical and/or digital materials for the Center for Local History’s permanent collection.

Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share? 

Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

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Video: History of the American Nazi Party in Arlington

With Local Author and Historian Charlie Clark

Watch now: https://youtu.be/2m-9t8UznbQ

Since the violent protests by white supremacists in Charlottesville, VA in 2017, the threat of renewed political agitation by neo-Nazis has haunted public safety officials. There may be some lessons to be learned by looking into our own local history.

Why did George Lincoln Rockwell, a former American Navy veteran, choose Arlington County as his base of operations for his racist and anti-Semitic American Nazi Party?  This and other questions are answered in Clark’s illustrated talk, presented in partnership with the Center for Local History.

A longtime journalist in the Washington, D.C. area, Charlie Clark writes the weekly “Our Man in Arlington” column for the Falls Church News-Press. He has just published his fifth book, a memoir of adolescence titled “My Gap Year–Reinterpreted.” Last year he published “George Washington Parke Custis: A Rarefied Life in America’s First Family,” with McFarland Books. With the History Press, he has published “Lost Arlington County, Arlington County Chronicles,” and “Hidden History of Arlington County.” In July 2019, he retired as senior correspondent for Government Executive Media Group, part of Atlantic Media. He previously has worked as an editor or writer for The Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly, National Journal, Time-Life Books, Tax Analysts and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. He lives in East Falls Church with his wife Ellen.

 

Attention History Buffs

The Center for Local History along with the National Archives is celebrating American Archives Month throughout October.

Although American Archives Month is coming to an end, through the Center for Local History you can always access local history.

Join us for two upcoming programs to learn about the history of the American Nazi Party in Arlington and how to use The Virginia Chronicle to delve deeper into your family history or to find information on the transformation and growth of Arlington.

George Lincoln Rockwell at former U.S. party headquarters, 1965.

History of the American Nazi Party in Arlington

Wednesday, Nov. 2, 7-8 p.m.
Online only, registration required

Join the Center for Local History and author and historian Charlie Clark for a virtual presentation about the history of the American Nazi Party in Arlington.

Since the violent protests by white supremacists in Charlottesville, VA in 2017, the threat of renewed political agitation by neo-Nazis has haunted public safety officials.

There may be some lessons to be learned from this by looking into our own local history.  Why did George Lincoln Rockwell, a former American Navy veteran, choose Arlington County as his base of operations for his racist and anti-Semitic American Nazi Party?  This and other questions will be answered in Clark's illustrated talk.

Register

News clip of The Sun, 1936.

Learn how to use The Virginia Chronicle

Wednesday, Dec. 7, 7-8 p.m.
Online only, registration required

Join the Center for Local History to learn how to effectively access and use The Virginia Chronicle in your research. Newspapers are a great source for historians, genealogists, educators and students. The Virginia Chronicle is a historical archive of Virginia newspapers, hosted by the Library of Virginia, which provides free access to full text searching and digitized images of over 2.5 million newspaper pages.

This presentation will cover:

  • Setting up an account
  • Helpful search tips
  • How to apply newspaper research to your project
  • Ways you can help The Virginia Chronicle
  • Q&A
Register

Attention APS High School Alumni

Are you an APS high school graduate and want to take a walk down memory lane? The Center for Local History holds a collection of over 350 Arlington County school yearbooks.

Book a research appointment. Come explore the Center for Local History.

Research Appointment

Remembering September 11 with Photos of First Responders

The Center for Local History has recently digitized many additional photographs from the Community Archives taken at the Pentagon at the time of September 11, 2001, by Mike Defina, a fire captain with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Fire and Rescue Department.

National Airport personnel deployed to the Pentagon Sept. 12, 2001. L to R: CCT Mike Fetsko, Deputy Fire Marshal David Norris, Captain John Durrer, Paramedic Captain David Testa, Captain Mike Defino, Tech. Ralph Cornell, Paramedic Mike Murphy, Tech. Troy Hutchinson, Tech. Paul Purcell, Firefighter. Photo: Mike Defina. 

These images are just a few of the Community Archives collection Records Related to the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on the Pentagon, which is made up of textual materials, photographs, some memorabilia, and audio-visual materials. The bulk of the collection dates from 2001-2002 and features photographs of the aftermath and days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the Pentagon. (Note: some of these photos may contain sensitive or disturbing material).

That morning a westbound plane took off from Dulles airport, was hijacked by terrorists and crashed into the Pentagon. One hundred and eighty-nine people died in the crash, including the 64 passengers on Flight 77. On the same morning two more hijacked planes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York City, and a fourth hijacked plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people died in the tragedy, changing both the country and Arlington forever.

Firefighters and first responders from Arlington County, Fort Myer, and Reagan National Airport were essential in coordinating the Pentagon rescue and response, arriving within minutes of the plane crash.

Arlington County Fire Department took the lead, establishing an Incident Command System across the region to respond to the emergency. Firefighters were able to get the fire under control on the first day, but it took three days to fully extinguish.

Fire fighters taking a much-needed break at the National Airport fire station at 10 p.m. on September 11, after a daylong rescue effort at the Pentagon. Photo credit: Mike Defina. 

The images in this collection depict both the horrific nature of the crash and Pentagon fires, the resilience and bravery of the first responders, and many spontaneous memorial events.

Firefighters display a large American flag on the front of the National Airport fire station, two days after the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon. Photo: Mike Defina. 

The two foam units, along with their crews, that were on the original call to the Pentagon on September 11, parked in front of the American flag displayed on the front of the National Airport fire station. Photo: Mike Defina. 

A memorial of flags, flowers, and signs near the Pentagon following the September 11 terrorist attack. Photo: Mike Defina. 

View All Images

Additional physical materials in the collection are held in the Arlington Community Archives for research use, including many thank-you cards written by school children to the firefighters of the Arlington Fire Department, County Manager Ron Carlee's papers used during the response, after-action reports, ephemera from memorial services, and VHS tape recordings of memorial events.

While these additional items have yet to be digitized, those who wish to research them may use the online finding aid to determine which boxes or folders would be useful and/or contact the Center for Local History to make a research consultation appointment.

Oral histories from the five-year anniversary of September 11, 2001 are also available online in the Center for Local History's digitized Community Archive.

Arlington County Fire Department members pose with children in front of a mural created to thank them for their service. Photo: Mike Defina. 

Do you have Arlington materials related to the events September 11, 2001 that you would like to donate? 

The Center for Local History (CLH) collects, preserves, and shares historical documents that tell the history of Arlington County, its citizens, organizations, businesses, and social issues. Learn about how you can help to build Arlington's community history on the CLH Donation webpage.

Search Thousands of Historic Arlington Papers Online for Free

Discover Arlington's history and browse newspaper content online from 1935 to 1978.

During the past year, Arlington Public Library’s Center for Local History (CLH) has been working with the Library of Virginia (LVA) to make five decades of Arlington research material available online.

Spanning the years from 1935 to 1978, the materials include historic articles, photos, and news clippings from four Arlington newspapers: the Columbia News, the Daily Sun, the Northern Virginia Sun and the Sun.

Previously, these publications were only available in the Center for Local History as microfilm and digital scans, which were not easily searchable.

These newspapers are a fantastic resource for historians, teachers, genealogists and anyone curious about Arlington's past through the eyes of local journalism.

“Delve deeper into your family history, find information on the transformation and growth of Arlington and discover more of its unique history,” said Arlington Public Library Director Diane Kresh.

The free news archive is 100% keyword searchable by location, date, title and issue and features a clipping feature that allows researchers to save an image or text block of an article.

To access the new source materials, visit the LVA ‘s Virginia Chronicle, which is a large online depository for historic newspapers from across the Commonwealth.

The CLH collects, preserves and shares historical documents that tell the history of Arlington County, its citizens, organizations, businesses and social issues. The CLH operates the Research Room at Central Library and the Community Archives program.

Center for Local History to Curate 2020 Time Capsule

2020 UnBoxed

Photo of colored cloth face masks with a typographic logo of "2020 UnBoxed."

The Center for Local History (CLH) will curate a time capsule, “2020 UnBoxed,” which will contain objects and material representing the major events and themes of 2020 in Arlington County.  

“The time capsule is a snapshot of today as well as a gift for the future, preserving an account of a particular period in time,” said Library Director Diane Kresh. 

Themes for the collection will include:   

  • The 2020 Census 
  • The COVID-19 pandemic 
  • Racial justice and civic unrest 
  • Arlington County’s naming centennial 
  • The 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage

The CLH, whose mission is to preserve and share the history of Arlington County, its citizens, organizations, businesses and social issues, will reach out to community organizations and leaders over the next 9 months to obtain items that represent the major events of 2020. 

The time capsule will also draw from items donated to the COVID-19 Archives project. Residents are encouraged to continue to submit donations that illustrate how Arlington life has been affected and altered by the pandemic. 

The time capsule collection will be exhibited online in October during American Archives Month, which celebrates and raises awareness about the value of archives and archivists. The items will then be sealed and deposited in the Arlington Community Archives for preservation and future research. 

Preservation Week: Preserving Your Family’s Documents

To celebrate Preservation Week this year, the Center for Local History is offering some tips and resources that will help ensure that your family documents and photographs will be available to future generations!

191022-preservation-week-10-year-anniversary-logo

In 2010 the American Library Association organized the first Preservation Week to highlight the importance of preserving cultural heritage materials, to raise awareness about collecting and preservation, and to provide information and guidance to the general public about preserving family collections.

Here is a guide to preserving your documents and photographs:

Part 1: Physical Documents and Photographs

When you start working on your documents/photos keep in mind the four enemies of paper and photographs:

  • Heat
  • Humidity
  • Light
  • Careless handling by people

Make sure to have a clean, clear space prepared to place the originals before you get them out and do not eat, drink, or smoke around originals.

Papers and Documents

  • Wash hands before handling paper and don’t apply lotion as it can stain paper. Paper can be handled without gloves because clean, lotion-free hands will not stain the paper, and gloves can make it hard to handle delicate paper.
  • It is best to handle important, fragile paper items by their edges
  • Remove paper clips and rubber bands which can cause permanent damage to paper
  • Turn pages carefully, don’t force.
  • Store papers opened and flat rather than folded
  • Separate highly acidic pieces of paper, e.g. newsprint, from other items by sandwiching blank sheets of archival quality paper between them, or if possible, make copies on acid-free paper and throw the clippings away.
  • Store items in protective enclosures such as archival folders or polypropylene film sleeves in acid-free boxes
  • Always store paper records in a cool, dry place, generally not in attics or basements. A temperature of 68 degrees or less and 35%-40% humidity is best. Wide fluctuations in temperature and humidity are the most harmful and to be avoided.
  • Display framed items on interior walls away from sunlight and keep indoor lighting exposure to a minimum. Use UV filtered glazing for frames. Alternately, make copies for display and keep the originals stored away from all exposure to light.
  • Always store paper away from bright light. Damage from light is cumulative and irreversible and can cause fading of inks, yellowing as well as darkening of paper.

Photographs

  • As with paper always wash your hands and don’t use lotion before handling photographs. However, unlike paper, photographs should be handled WITH  Fingerprints can cause permanent stains that may not show up immediately.  If gloves are not available, handle photos by the edge.
  • Store photographs and important documents in a cool, dry place where there is minimal fluctuation in temperature and humidity. Avoid attics and basements. Damp conditions encourage mold and cause photographs to stick together. Hot storage can speed deterioration
  • Temperatures of about 68 degrees and 30% to 40% humidity is fine. Below 15% humidity and photos can become brittle.
  • Store individual photographs and slides in polyester or polypropylene pages or sleeves.
  • When purchasing albums or storage boxes, look for those that are acid-free.
  • Never use an adhesive on your photographs. Use photo corners, polyester mounting strips, or sleeves to mount photographs in albums.
  • Store negatives in a separate location from albums and prints. That way you will ensure that one copy will survive in case of a disaster.
  • Use a soft #2 pencil to label photographs if you must label on the back. For photos with a slick back you can use light blue art pencil such as a “Prismacolor non-photo blue.” DO NOT label with a regular pen.
  • If the photos are encapsulated in a sleeve you can write the information on a piece of acid-free paper and place with the photo. It is very important to label photos so your descendants will know who is who! If you can’t identify someone, try to find a relative who can help.

Part 2: Scanning and Organizing Your Digital Photographs

Planning it Out

Take some time to figure out what you have and what you want to do with your digital images. Everyone’s home collections are different; you know best what you have and what your end goals are. Planning out your home digitization project can help you make decisions about storage and organization of digital images farther down the road.

  • What do you have?
    • What physical materials do you have that you want to scan? How many digital images do you have? And what formats are they all in?
  • What’s your goal?
    • Sharing and displaying – how do you imagine using these images?
    • Storage – you will need enough room to hold all your current digital images with space for future ones. You’ll also want to organize them in a way that you can find them later when you (or someone else) need them.
    • Information – where and when were the photos taken? Who is in them? Images have more value if you know that information.

Doing the Work

For your photos at home, you’ll want to use a flatbed scanner. Do NOT throw those photos away after you scan them! Those originals are the link to your history. Scans are just copies.

Scanning of Physical Media

  • Scan to a format that is well established (nowadays, that is TIFF and JPEG).
  • You will need two copies of every scan – a master and an access copy.
    • The master is your original scan, at a high resolution with great detail. It’s the parent of any access copy you make.
    • Access copy is the smaller copy you can play with. Its easier to send and save. You can play around with this copy: make it black and white, crop it, do effects, etc. If you mess up or need a clean copy for a new project, you can go back to your master and start again.
  • Scan your master and create your access copy with editing software according to the following specs:
    • Prints – 400-600 dpi TIFF files, 16-bit depth, always in color (master); 300-600 dpi JPEG (access copy)
    • Slides (aka Transparencies) – 3000-4000 PPI TIFF files, 16-bit depth (master); 2800 PPI JPEG (access copy)
    • Negatives – 3000-4000 PPI TIFF files, 16-bit depth (master); 2800 PPI JPEG (access copy)

Naming Files

  • Before you start scanning, plan ahead on how you would like to name your scans and how you would like to organize them. How do you look for your photos? How do you organize them in your brain? Your folder organization can reflect that.
  • File names are important. Each image should have its own unique name. However, make sure that the file name for your master and your access copy is the same, maybe with a suffix added, like “access.”
  • When using dates for file or folder names, use the YYYYMMDD format so items will show up in real chronological order.
  • You will want to rename your born-digital files too since the camera or phone does not do a good job initially.
  • You can create a separate list with file names and image descriptions.

Digital Images

  • Photos from your phone are 1-2 MB. A RAW file from your SLR (like a digital negative) can be up to 40 MB (more commonly 20-30), and JPEGS made from that are around 7MB. RAW files can be turned into TIFFs as your master using photo editing software.
  • Access copies should be around 600 PPI JPEGs, which is good for printing but can be a lower resolution for images that will only be shown online.

Storing Your Images

The 3/2/1 Rule

  • You should have three copies of everything (primary copy and two backups), on two different types of media (hard drive and separate storage) and have one backup in a separate location.

Where To Store It All?

  • The Cloud: Cloud storage acts like your hard drive, where you primarily store your images instead of on your computer or laptop. Cloud backup replicates your hard drive, so you are saving everything on your hard drive, but there is a backup copy in the Cloud.
  • Pros: makes your images accessible anywhere, from any device, and makes it easy to share images with other people. Puts the onus of maintenance on the provider – save it and forget it!
  • Cons: some providers take copyright of your images when you upload them into the cloud, can cost money for subscriptions for better service. You have little control – your images are subject to hackers or the whims of the company and the free market.

External Hard Drives

  • External hard drives are under your control and the preferred location for your masters. Make sure you open the drive on a regular basis to make sure everything is working correctly.
  • How much space do I need?
    • 1 TB = 1000 GB
    • 1 GB = 1000 MB
    • If you have scanned physical photos and/or images from a digital SLR camera, a 1 TB drive may be a good option, giving you some room to grow.
    • At the very least, put your masters on an external hard drive!!

WHERE TO BUY PRESERVATION SUPPLIES:

Hollinger Metal Edge
9401 Northeast Dr.
Fredericksburg, VA 22408
www.hollingermetaledge.com
800-634-0491

Gaylord Bros
P.O. Box 4901
Syracuse, NY 13221-4901
www.gaylord.com
800-962-9580

University Products Inc.
517 Main Street
Holyoke, MA 01040
www.universityproducts.com
800-628-1912

How to Research Local History from Home

Our Library buildings may be closed, but the Center for Local History has a wide variety of digitized materials that are an excellent resource for local research.

Whether you’re diving into a new project, continuing down a longstanding research path, or just browsing for interesting material, here is a round-up of some of the great materials we have available online:

Oral Histories

Oral histories are used to understand historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of real people’s personal experiences.

The Center for Local History has hundreds of oral histories in our collections, with many of those transcripts available online. These are rich primary sources featuring interviews with civic leaders, government officials, and business owners, painting a vivid picture of what Arlington was like through many decades and perspectives.

Start exploring with interviews from civil rights leader Dorothy Hamm, renowned bluegrass musician Roy “Speedy” Tolliver, or civic activist and beekeeper Floyd A. Hawkins, or any of the many other interviews available.

Historic Newspapers

Newspapers are a great first stop for delving into a given time period. The Center for Local History has copies of the Northern Virginia Sun-Gazette available digitally:

Front page of The Sun from November 5, 1936, after the election of Franklin Delano Roosevelt to a second term. Available in the CLH’s Community Archives.

The newspapers are accessible by individual issues, and you can browse by an exact date or keyword. (For future use, the Library of Virginia will eventually have these newspapers in their digital collections with extended search capabilities, but this addition is still forthcoming.) These papers are robust resources for Arlington news and other events in the broader NOVA/Washington area.

Our online collection includes copies of the Sun-Gazette from 1935-1978. More recent editions of the Sun can also be found online at insidenova.com.

Genealogy Research

Ancestry Library Edition is currently available with your library card number and PIN, and includes a wide variety of genealogical sources. Ancestry also offers a series of free research guides for those getting started.

Other resources available for genealogical research with your library card include HeritageQuest, and newspaper databases including:

Photographs

Many of our photographic collections have been scanned for online viewing. These visual materials are an excellent way to see how Arlington has changed over the years.

Inspection of Barn at Dairy Farm, 1938

The photos in RG 21 feature the work of the Arlington County Department of Health, 1938-1973. Arlington's Department of Health was the first of its kind in the nation.

"West Side Story, " 1970

Peruse the colorful and creative posters in RG 188, which features about 90 posters made by students at Wakefield High School, primarily from the 1969-1970 school year.

Explore the full list of photographic collections available in the Center for Local History's Community Archives.

Online Exhibits

The Center for Local History has compiled numerous resources around topics relevant to Arlington history in the form of digital exhibits.

Project DAPS is both an online exhibit and searchable database that looks into the desegregation of Arlington Public Schools, with almost 2,000 scanned primary source materials the focus on many aspects of desegregation, including news coverage, legal proceedings, and reactions to this historic event.

The Nauck/Green Valley Heritage Project features a large selection of primary sources, focusing on the history of the Green Valley (formerly Nauck/Green Valley) neighborhood. The goal of this digital repository for images, memories, and documents is to make the history of the neighborhood available to the community.

Through objects donated to the Community Archive, Women’s Work: Stories of Persistence and Influence is an online exhibit that tells the stories of Arlington women and women’s groups who contributed to our community.

Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share? 

Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

Center For Local History - Blog Post Message Form

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