The cat that didn't belong - could you tell these historical photos were edited?

24 March 2024, by Sherri Mastrangelo

A local historical association member has been adding a picture of their adorable cat to the historical photos they post on Facebook, as the official Palo Alto Historical Association, without any mention that the photos have been edited. Did anyone notice? And should we care?

Palo Alto, California, established 1894, is located south of San Francisco, on the bay area peninsula. It is the self-declared “birthplace of Silicon Valley”, as the founding location of many well-known tech companies, and is home to Stanford University. On their homepage, pahistory.org, the Palo Alto Historical Association says “Our mission is to collect, preserve and make available to the public information about the history of Palo Alto.” Their Facebook page has 1.4k followers.

Recently, when browsing Facebook, I noticed something odd about their images….

At first glance, would you think this cat was original to this photo?

Honestly, I didn’t think anything was strange about the above photo of the feline in the pharmacy, until I saw a few of the other “historical” photographs - like the well-dressed kitty in the below image:

This one made my six-year old laugh. A joke to be sure - but at the time of the event, or when it was posted here?

As you can see, these images are part of a Facebook post. Does the post mention anything about the cat? Well, yes and no.

1929?

In this example to the right, the Facebook post describes the images in the post. With regards to the photo shown above, the post mentions “a cat in an off-the-rack, untailored suit, 1929…”

Obviously this is meant as a bit of humor. When reached for a comment, the poster, who stated he is a board member of the Palo Alto Historical Association, replied that “Adding my cat to selected photos is a fun pastime that I hope draws viewers in to explore what the photo represents to our local (Palo Alto) history.”

He also says “I've placed my cat Kiara in photos for a year now since adopting her from a rescue.”

It’s unclear if those in the group are even aware of the adorable additions, aside from one or two comments about noticing a cat in the image. What do you think?

If historical photographs are edited in any way, should that be disclosed to the audience? Even if it’s meant to be amusing?

Furthermore, how can we as researchers trust any historical images we find online these days? And what counts as a reputable source?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. I’ve included a few more photos of Kiara the time-traveling cat below. These images can also be accessed on the Facebook page of the Palo Alto Historical Association.

Matching hats of the time.

The cat appears in the doorway in the center of the image above.

Kiara, not afraid of heights.

At first glance I didn’t see her in this one…

The sepia-toned cat going for a ride.

Share your thoughts below.

Reader Question: What does "do7" mean on this record from 1749?

27 January 2024 (updated 28 Jan), by Sherri Mastrangelo

Today’s reader question is: “What does “do7” mean on this record from 1749?”

In this book of U.S. Dutch Reformed Church Records from Albany, New York (as found on Ancestry.com, linked below) from the mid 18th century, there are pages of baptism records. There are three handwritten columns per page. The first column has the infant’s name, and a date. The second has the parent’s names, and the third has the names of the witnesses.

In place of some of the surnames is an abbreviation that appears to be “dol” with the “o” character raised superscript and the last character perhaps a number “7”, or the letter “I”, or letter “L”, as seen in the examples below:

The example above is from the “U.S. Dutch Reformed Church Records in Selected States, 1639 - 1989” on Ancestry. under New York, Albany, Albany Vol. II, Book 2.

It appears that this abbreviation is replacing some surnames, but not all - only the surnames that are the same as the person above has the abbreviation. I think it is safe to assume that this abbreviation, whether it is do7, doI, or doL, means some form of “ditto”, or same as above.

Can we take it further? We’ve seen “do” as an abbreviation for “ditto” in the past, but not usually with any extra letters or numbers.

We know these are based on Dutch records, and a quick google translator search tells us “ditto” in Dutch is “Idem Ditto”, meaning the same. Therefore I believe the abbreviation is of “doI” meaning “idem ditto”, or this person has the same surname as the person above.

Looking back a few years, the earliest example of the use of this abbreviation seems to be in 1725 (page 238 of Albany, Vol 1.) though the records seem to jump from 1700 to 1725. While the records of 1700 continue in Volume II, page 82, they are written after the 1740s records so it makes me question the time frame when they were actually written down. The 1700s recorded in the second volume may have been copied from an earlier record, but actually written in the book in the 1740s.

POST UPDATE Jan 28: A comment brought up a great point - this is a collection of transcribed records by “The Holland Society of America”, which you can see if scroll to the beginning of the collection with the book cover image and interior stamp. I don’t see a creation date, but a quick search for The Holland Society of America tells me they were created in 1885 and most likely added the ditto at the time of transcribing sometime after that date. We’d have to look at the original records to be sure.

Of course all this sent me down the rabbit hole on the origins of the phrase “idem ditto” as well as the use of “ditto”. It seems “idem” is a Latin word, though “ditto” is Italian (Tuscan) based on an earlier Latin word, and the phrase “idem ditto” is specifically Dutch. The latin verb “dicere” (to say) became “dire” in Italian , conjugated as “detto”, which then became “ditto” in Tuscan dialect, when referencing the same month as written before.

Early uses of “ditto” in English writing include:

In fact, I found it even earlier than 1625 - which I’ll post in a follow-up to this!

What’s the earliest written example of “ditto” or “idem ditto” you’ve found? Might these Dutch records from New York be the first example in the US?

Have you seen this use of “doI” or “idem ditto” on records elsewhere? Share with us!

Sources and Further Reading:

How to do a "Binary Search": Applying Computer Science Algorithms to Genealogy Research

6 January 2024 by Sherri Mastrangelo

Let’s take the ideas and concepts from certain computer science algorithms, break them down into simpler terms to understand them better, and learn how we can apply them to our genealogy research. No tech skills or coding required! In fact, you may already utilize some of these methods without even recognizing them.

The first algorithm we’ll discuss is called a “Binary Search”.

A binary search reduces the search to half at each step, to save time. Think of it as “divide and conquer”.

If you’ve ever tried to go to a certain page number in a book, say you are looking for page 343, you may have implemented a form of binary search by opening the book in the middle. You’re at page 201, so you know you need to go higher. Instead of turning the pages one by one, you estimate another chunk of pages and now you’re at 356, so you need to go lower. This is basically the concept behind a binary search. You would continue dividing the sections into smaller and smaller results until you find the target page.

Instead of working in a linear pattern, i.e. starting at the beginning of a list and reading the values all the way through the end, a binary search would start in the middle and either ascend or descend the list depending on if the resulting value is greater or less than the target value, repeatedly dividing each new search area, until it either finds the target or determines it is not there. Of course there is more to it when it comes to the writing the formulas to make the algorithm work, and the computer algorithm may be more precise in terms of dividing each resulting search array in half while you have roughly estimated, but I think this explains the general concept we need to implement.

It’s important to note that a binary search will only work with an ordered set of data, like an alphabetized list or a set of files organized chronologically. The list can be sorted ascending or descending, as long as its ordered. If the set of data is compiled randomly this method would not work successfully.

Image above generated with in part with AI tools.

Another example I’ve heard to describe binary search would be that of a detective watching security footage tapes (as pictured above), trying to figure out when a car was stolen overnight. This example might be a bit outdated with today’s technology but the same idea applies. Let’s say there is perfect high resolution video, aimed directly at the car, that disappeared sometime between when the owner parked it at 8 pm and when they noticed it was gone at 7 am. Instead of sitting down and watching eleven hours of video footage from start to finish, which would take all day, even sped up, the detective is going to implement a form of binary search. He will fast forward the video halfway to 1:30 am. If the car is still there, fast forward half of the remaining time to 4:45 am. If the car is no longer there, go back and divide the previous time between 1:30 am and 4:45 am, and so on until the target time is discovered. This method of searching would take significantly less time than watching hours of video footage!

So how can we apply the concept of binary search to our genealogy research?

The best case scenario for applying this method to genealogy research, would be when you have to look through records that are not indexed, or not transcribed correctly (but are still in some order - alphabetically, chronologically, or otherwise) and you need to narrow down your scope quickly.

Some examples of this and additional scenarios:

  1. A large set of record images in a database online, like FamilySearch, that is not indexed (therefore not searchable by name) where you need to find the year in order to narrow down the hunt for your record. I know it can seem overwhelming when you come across these huge image-only datasets to browse - but using the binary search method will help save a lot of time! First confirm there is an order within the collection - are the surnames alphabetical? Or is the information organized by date? Look at the first few pages to give you an idea, then skip ahead to half. Depending on what you need, either skip ahead by another half or backwards by half. Note your page numbers to remember where you have searched. Just be aware often these collections have other, smaller collections within them, and there is usually a small note on the microfilm image when a new section starts.

  2. An alphabetical City Directory where you need to find a certain surname. Maybe it’s a physical book in your hands, or a digital copy you found on Internet Archive or Google Books. You wouldn’t start with “A” and flip page by page if your surname started with an “R”, you’d skip ahead, and then back, as needed. And once you got to the “R’s” you would do the same for the full surname.

  3. You don’t have a date of death for your ancestor, but you know their address and can look them up in City Directories. You know she must have died sometime between the birth of her youngest child in 1931 and the 1940 Census, where her husband is widowed. Instead of looking at all the city directories in a linear fashion, 1932, 1933, 1934, and so on, you can start with 1936 (about halfway), and you’ve likely just cut your search time in half. If she’s alive, you only have 4 more years. If she’s not alive, you work backward - cutting each new search in half.

    Of course you could “get lucky” when searching in a linear fashion, if the information you needed was in first City Directory you checked, for example. This is just an example to illustrate the search method. And remember to check the printing date on City Directories to be precise.

Can you think of another case scenario where this might come in handy?

More computer science algorithms coming soon!

Sources & Further Reading