Tag Archives: New York City

Webinar: “The History of the Geography of New York City”

16 Monday Nov 2020

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Short notice, but there is a webinar happening in two days that sounds really interesting! Information is below. 

 

We invite you to attend another free presentation in our series of JewishGen Talks webinars, with our speaker, Dr. Stephen Morse.

The History of the Geography of New York City
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
2:00 PM Eastern Time (New York)


New York City has undergone numerous changes in its geographical boundaries over the years. An understanding of these boundaries is important in order to know what archive to search in when looking for vital records. This talk shows the changes to New York City’s geography, and describes the difference between New York City and the City of New York. The origin of the counties and their changing boundaries, along with the early geographies of Brooklyn and Queens, are presented. And finally, the consolidation of 1898 that created the City of New York and defined the five boroughs is discussed.

Dr. Stephen Morse is the creator of the One-Step Website for which he has received numerous awards, including both the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Outstanding Contribution Award from the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies. In his other life, Morse is a computer professional with a doctorate degree in electrical engineering. He is best known as the architect of the Intel 8086 (the granddaddy of today’s Pentium processor), which sparked the PC revolution nearly 40 years ago.

Advance Registration Required!
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_3IZVjxWcQougrNIFSzQbDQ
Please click the above link 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about how to join the webinar.

Questions? Go to:
https://bit.ly/JewishGenTalks-FAQs

Historic Video of New York City

05 Thursday Mar 2015

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There are a lot of snippets of old film clips taken in New York City around the turn of the twentieth century. Many pop up on YouTube. Yestervid assembled a selection ranging from 1905 back to 1896, and included notes about locations shown and a map of where the clip was filmed.

Of note to “Newsies” fans is the clip shown at 5:59 to 6:08, of a fight between two newsboys. It’s actually a short snippet from the end of a film showing newspapers being delivered to a distribution point by a World van, possibly in Union Square. The Library of Congress notes that it was recorded on May 1, 1899.

Also of note in the Yestervid video is the clip of Sheepshead Bay Racetrack, shown at 6:49 to 7:05.

The clip following that, from 7:05 to 7:17, shows a newsboy wandering in front of the camera.

The oldest footage in the video—taken in 1896—begins at 7:41.

Song Lyrics: “The Sidewalks of New York”

15 Saturday Feb 2014

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Written in 1894 by James W Blake & Charles B. Lawlor, “The Sidewalks of New York” is such an iconic song. It’s also known as “East Side, West Side” because of the first line of the chorus.

As a bonus, I found a video of a player piano with the lyrics included on the roll!

“The Sidewalks of New York”
Original lyrics by James W. Blake.

Down in front of Casey’s old brown wooden stoop
On a summer’s evening we formed a merry group
Boys and girls together we would sing and waltz
While Tony played the organ on the sidewalks of New York

Chorus:
East Side, West Side, all around the town
The tots sang “ring-around-rosie,” “London Bridge is falling down”
Boys and girls together, me and Mamie O’Rourke
Tripped the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New York

That’s where Johnny Casey, little Jimmy Crowe
Jakey Krause, the baker, who always had the dough
Pretty Nellie Shannon with a dude as light as cork
She first picked up the waltz step on the sidewalks of New York

Things have changed since those times, some are up in “G”
Others they are wand’rers but they all feel just like me
They’d part with all they’ve got, could they once more walk
With their best girl and have a twirl on the sidewalks of New York