Tag: Research

Sawyer Free Library’s Gloucester Genealogy Group: “Getting Started in Italian Research” 

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

 ~ SAWYER FREE LIBRARY

Sawyer Free Library’s Gloucester Genealogy Group: “Getting Started in Italian Research” 

The Sawyer Free Library is pleased to share that the Gloucester Genealogy Group is back in action and kicking off its monthly meetings this January at 21 Main Street in downtown Gloucester. 

Researching your genealogy can provide information about where your ancestors lived, what they did, and how they may have lived.  The Sawyer Free Library holds a vast and diverse collection of resources to help you with your research. In addition, each month, the Library’s Gloucester Genealogy Group will present genealogy-related programming, including lectures from guest speakers with expertise in numerous related topics. All events are free and open to the public. Registration is required at sawyerfreelibrary.org. 

On Saturday, January 27 from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. nationally recognized professional genealogist, author and lecturer, Senior Genealogist Rhonda McClure will present virtually to the group at 21 Main Street on â€śGetting Started in Italian Research.” This lecture looks at how to start researching your Italian ancestors by examining records generated in the U.S. and Italy and what is most important in effectively researching Italian records. 

Then on Saturday, February 17, from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m., Rhonda McClure will again join the group virtually to share about the importance and details of â€śOrganizing Your Family Papers.” The March meeting will be presented in partnership with the Rockport Public Library. On March 9 from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m., the Libraries will welcome Michael Brophy, a nationally known, professional genealogical researcher, heir search specialist, and lecturer from the Boston area. This event will occur in the Brenner Room of the Rockport Public Library.

Registration is now open for all three Gloucester Genealogy events at sawyerfreelibrary.org or by calling 978-325-5500.  

Currently the Sawyer Free Library offers a wide variety of local history resources, in person and online, at its temporary location at 21 Main Street. The Library’s Local History Collection contains materials about Gloucester and Cape Ann and written by and about Gloucester and Cape Ann authors. Subjects include local history, genealogy, biography, and some fiction. Materials are in the form of books, hand-printed items, maps, city documents, and more.

The Sawyer Free Library is looking forward to officially opening its renovated, expanded, and modernized space in the fall of 2025 which will feature a Local History Research Center. This new center will revolutionize how Gloucester’s historical research materials are curated, archived, preserved, and accessed, offering an insider’s passport to the rich cultural history of the city and region.

For more information about Sawyer Free Library’s digital archives, local history resources, and services or to register for the Gloucester Genealogy Events, visit sawyerfreelibrary.org or 978-325-5500

To learn more about or to invest in the 2025 Sawyer Free Library’s History Research Center, please visit sawyerfree2025.org.

Researchers make key observation about animal behavior patterns

Posted on by Joey Ciaramitaro

From Northeastern News–

Researchers make key observation about animal behavior patterns

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March 26, 2009

Northeastern University and MIT researchers have observed—for the first time—the origin of a mass gathering and the subsequent migration of hundreds of millions of animals. Utilizing a new imaging technology invented by the researchers, they were able to instantaneously image and continuously monitor entire shoals of fish containing hundreds of millions of individuals stretching for tens of kilometers off Georges Bank near Boston.

They found that once large shoals of Atlantic herring reach a critical population density, a “chain reaction” triggers the synchronized movement of millions of individual fish over a large area. The phenomenon is akin to a human “wave” moving in a sports stadium. They also observed that the fish “commute” to the shallower waters of the bank, where they spawn in the darkness, then return to deeper water and disband the following morning.

The findings, published in the latest issue of Science, confirm general theories about the behavior of large groups of animals that, until now, had not been verified in nature. Previously, these theories for diverse animal groups, ranging from flocks of birds to swarms of locusts, had only been tested with computer simulations and laboratory experiments.

“As far as we know, this is the first time we’ve quantified this behavior in nature and over such a huge ecosystem,” said Nicholas C. Makris, professor of mechanical and ocean engineering at MIT, who co-led this project with Northeastern professor Purnima Ratilal.

Click here for the entire story

I’m asking myself “is this really news or some type of discovery?”

Any fisherman who has looked down on a school of fish from up above can tell you this.  From the dock when you see the little schools of baby mackerel and as soon as the lead fish turns the entire school turns the same direction in wave-like fashion.

These scientists must have been from the midwest or something because anyone that has spent any amount of time as a fisherman could have told you this for centuries.

They coulda bought me lunch and saved themselves a whole lot of research dollars.  I would have told them, LOL

Eagerly awaiting what Doug Maxfield (the maniac that writes my favorite blog) has to say about this.

File under: Duh!,Captain Obvious Awards