Reef of Grief

Both Megan and Nancy Bovy sent me this one.

The Neptune Memorial Reef is located in open waters 3 1/4 miles off the coast of Key Biscayne, which means any certified diver can visit. The artificial reef's first phase allows for about 850 remains.

The ashes are mixed with cement designed for underwater use and fitted into a mold, which a diver then places and secures into the reef. A copper and bronze plaque is installed with the person's name, date of birth and death. There is also a line for a message. [Link]

This makes Long Cemetery #2 seem downright accessible.

Genealogue Challenge No. 127

Today is Bea Arthur's birthday.

What were the names of her maternal grandparents, and where are they buried?

Is Cherry Garcia Kosher?

One young Hispanic man left a booth at Denver's 2008 Cinco de Mayo Festival exclaiming, "No way! I'm Jewish?" He evidently had not attended Michael Gonzales' presentation.

On one side of the booth were poster boards that displayed articles and images designed to educate spectators about the Spanish Inquisition and the violence poured out on the Sephardic Jews. On the other side of the booth was a list of 5,220 Sephardic Jewish surnames. The list contains most of the common Spanish surnames like Garcia, Rodriguez and Martinez. "However," explained Gonzales, "if your name is on the list it doesn't necessarily mean that you are Jewish. If your name is not on the list it doesn't mean you are not. Come to the presentation to find out more." [Link]

Not Even the Regular Army Was Regular

Jennifer at Rainy Day Genealogy Readings asks How Did That Civil War Soldier Really Die? The most likely answer will not be found carved on his gravestone.

You Mean He Wasn't a Hunchbacked Woman?

More news on the search for Friedrich Schiller's earthly remains. Neither of the skulls thought to belong to the poet was his, and the two accompanying skeletons were found to "contain bones from at least six people."

Five members of the Schiller family were exhumed in the process to provide the DNA samples for comparison. They found no matching DNA among either of the poet's supposed bodies.

They determined that the skull found by von Froriep was far off the mark. Instead of Schiller, a large man, it actually belonged to a hunchbacked woman, who through analysis of the bones and historical records they later showed was a lady of the court whom Schiller was known to have disliked while alive. The jawbone belonged to another woman entirely.

The other skull was so similar to Schiller's death mask that it confounded even contemporary anthropologists, leading one to say that it belonged to Schiller's "Doppelgänger." The fact that this close match had seven strange teeth inserted post-mortem has led one of the experts who worked on the documentary to the conclusion that it was fixed to look like Schiller's skull and that the real one was stolen. [Link]

The Music of the Microfiche

Why view records of your ancestors on microfiche when you can listen to them instead?

[via Boing Boing]

Money Laundering in the Kitchen

Tracy Lowe was surprised to learn that her great-grandfather Alexander Menday was convicted of manslaughter, but not surprised that he had run-ins with the law.

She was ... familiar with the tale of how her grandmother had come home one day to find her kitchen decked out with improvised washing lines from which were hanging numerous soggy banknotes.

Menday, a Thames waterman at the time, had the job of recovering bodies from the river, and he and his son had relieved an unfortunate of the contents of his pockets before the authorities arrived - on the basis he didn't have any more use for them.

"We knew they were rogues, the sort of people you would cross the street to avoid," says Tracy. [Link]