A Genealogical Logic Problem

From the Rochdale (U.K.) Observer of Aug. 30, 2005:

Parish Church goes off record after licence gap

HISTORICAL detectives in Rochdale are being forced to shell out for a full family tree because 50 years of marriage licences have been misplaced.

Records of marriages at the Parish Church between 1898 and the 1950s, are not held at the church, the Local Studies library nor Manchester Central Library.

The only place with a full record is Rochdale Register Office, which charges £7 for a copy.

[snip]

Donald Foster, deputy registrar at Rochdale Register Office, said: “The church has two registers running at the same time, one for them to keep and one they send to us.

[snip]

But the Rev David Foss, Vicar of Rochdale, said they only compile one list, which they send to Manchester Central Library when complete.

[snip]

A Manchester City Council spokeswoman said: “We hold marriage records for the church of Rochdale St Chad’s from 1582 to 1898 [at the Manchester Central Library].”

“No other marriage records have been deposited by the church.”

[snip]

A spokeswoman from Touchstones Local Studies Library said: “We’ve had Manchester Library phone us asking for the marriage records, but we get ours from the library themselves. We only have records up to 1898.”

[Read the whole story]

If only one of these people is lying, where are the missing marriage records? (30-minute time limit)

Genealogue Exclusive: Genealogy Turns Man's Life Upside Down

A Genealogue Exclusive [What's That?]

Harold Jackson of Pomfret, Vermont, thought he knew who he was. He thought he was the son of Joseph and Miriam Jackson, born July 18, 1943, in White River Junction, Vermont.

Last week, Harold discovered that he was wrong.

It began when Harold became interested in his family's history. After doing some reading online, he decided to order his birth certificate from the Vermont Division of Public Records in Middlesex. Last Thursday, an envelope arrived in Jackson's mailbox. Inside was a document which would change his life.

"As it turns out," says Jackson, "My name is not Harold Allen Jackson. It's Harold Alan Jackson. My parents were Louis and Barbara Jackson, and I was born on May first, 1943, in Rutland. Of course, I was shocked."

Jackson at once confronted his widowed mother—now 89 and living in a Pomfret nursing home.

"She denied everything," Jackson says. "She kept saying 'It's a mistake, it's a mistake!' Even when I showed her the paper, she wouldn't admit it. Just kept begging for her heart pills."

Jackson reluctantly broke off ties with the woman he had thought was his mother, and is now seeking his true parents. One detail on the birth certificate is especially intriguing to him.

"It says both of my parents were African-American. Sixty-two years old, and I never knew I was black!

Grandfather Rescued from Tin Can

From the (Klamath Falls, Ore.) Herald and News:

Discarded soul at peace

Published Tuesday August 30, 2005

By ANGELA TORRETTA

A small group of family members gathered Monday afternoon around a simple granite headstone at Linkville Cemetery.

The gleaming new headstone shone in sharp contrast to the tattered can that contained ashes which had spent close to a century gathering dust on a shelf at the state psychiatric hospital in Salem.

The ashes belonged to Oscar Caldwell, a one-time Klamath Falls resident who spent the last five years of his life at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem.

When Caldwell died in 1919, his ashes joined what eventually became more than 3,400 other unclaimed tins at the hospital.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Arresting Drama at Family Reunion

From The (Centralia, Wash.) Chronicle of Aug. 27, 2005:

Rags to riches

By Julia Nicholls
jnicholls@chronline.com

A half-wrapped mummy, a police officer and camcorder-bearing tourists may have confused Centralia drivers last Sunday.

Dwight Milne, Vancouver, Wash., rushed down Centralia’s Main Street with his head encircled in gauze and topped with a cap. Behind him trailed Dan Kolhoff, Los Angeles, wearing jeans, Birkenstocks and a Centralia Police Department jacket.
About 20 people followed in church-like attire.

The group ranged from a toddler in a stroller to a 92-year-old woman with paper-white hair.

The parade was not a cult nor a costume party, but a family reunion — with a historical twist.

The relatives had come from all over the West Coast to reenact one of the most pivotal moments in their family history: the capture of Roy Gardner, played by Milne, by Officer Louis Sonney, played by his great-grandson, Kolhoff.

[Read the whole story]

Hat tip: EOGN

technorati tags: genealogy

The ABCs of Exhumation

From Slate:

How Do You Move a Cemetery?
Also, what happens when a grave gets flooded?

By Daniel Engber
Posted Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005, at 2:51 PM PT

On Sunday, Israel Defense Forces began relocating remains from a cemetery in the Gaza Strip. By the end of the week, 48 graves will be moved to new sites across the border. How do you move a cemetery?

In Israel, with coffins; in America, with boxes.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

For those interested in this sort of thing (you know who you are), check out this 1998 Slate article on exhumation.

Montana Prospector Excavated

From The Billings (Mont.) Gazette:

Zortman's namesake exhumed after 72 years

Posted Aug 26, 2005

People and Places By MIKE STARK
Of The Billings Gazette

BIG TIMBER - Tall, square-jawed and confident, Pete Zortman spent half his life scouring Montana's badlands and beyond in search of treasures.

[snip]

Although his death on July 17, 1933, was noted in the local newspaper, Zortman was buried in a pauper's hand-dug grave beneath 4 feet of thick chocolate-colored dirt.

[snip]

But this week, Zortman came home.

Seventy-two years after being lowered into the ground, his yellowing bones were dug up, placed into a freshly built pine coffin and driven to Zortman in the bed of a pickup truck.

His remains will be reburied Saturday in the Zortman cemetery with all of the pomp and ceremony befitting a local dignitary.

[snip]

The remains are being kept in the fire hall in his namesake town until activities this weekend.

"We've used it for everything from funerals to potlucks," Candy Kalal said. "We might as well use it for Pete."

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Interracial Interaction in Intercourse, PA?

From The (Hanover, Pa.) Evening Sun of Aug. 29, 2005:

Volunteers sought for study on Pennsylvania Dutch dialect

By JEFFREY B. ROTH
For The Evening Sun

Speech is telling, and Jennifer Bloomquist can tell if people are from southcentral Pennsylvania by the words, phrases and idioms they use.

She is collecting this linguistic harvest from the area under the auspices of the National Science Foundation.

Bloomquist, an assistant professor of linguistics and African-American studies, and her student assistants at Gettysburg College are beginning their final year of the two-year, $40,000 grant.

They're investigating if the language of rural and urban blacks in Adams, York, Lancaster and Dauphin counties has been added to or influenced by the dialect peculiar to this area, she said. That includes Pennsylvania Dutch's influence on black Americans and vice versa.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Village of the Damned Weird Names

From The (Bangkok, Thailand) Nation:

The Name Game

Published on August 27, 2005

Shunning the auspicious name he was born with, a devout Buddhist of the Asoke sect has changed his name to Tai-Nae Mungmajon (Dead-for-Sure In-Search-of-Poverty) as a repudiation of this worldly life. “I am not being sarcastic,” the 28-year-old former leftist student said.

[snip]

“More than 90 per cent of residents in this village have changed their names,” Tai-Nae said.

If Tai-Nae is not weird enough, then there are other strange names too such as Kon-Hin (Piece-of-Stone), Kla-Tai (Dare-to-Die), Yen-Yen (Cool-Down) and Palang-Jit (Psychic-Power).

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Family Tree Maker: Totalitarian Edition

From the (Tokyo, Japan) Mainichi Daily News of Aug. 24, 2005:

Report: North Korea computerizes personal information to tighten control

SEOUL -- North Korea has started computerizing personal information about its citizens in an apparent move to tighten control of the population, a news report said Wednesday.

[snip]

The software registers each citizen's gender, age, birth and death records, marital status, as well as changes of residence within the country, [South Korea's Yonhap news agency] said. The computer program, which works in the Windows 98 operating system, also keeps track of citizen's political activities and detailed criminal records, it said.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

This is just what I need to compile my family history. Where can I buy a copy?

An Errant Stone Gathers No Slime

From The Barre-Montpelier (Vt.) Times Argus:

Submerged tombstone a recent mystery in Barre

August 27, 2005

By Joshua Larkin Times Argus Staff

BARRE – Eleven-year-old Tory Stoltz plays along the brook that runs behind her Eastern Avenue home regularly. That's why she knows the World War II veteran's gravestone that appeared in the brook this week hadn't been there long.

"I was just looking around in here and I just saw it," Stoltz said while standing next to the brook. "And I haven't seen it here before."

Moreover, Stoltz said there was another reason why she knew the stone was a new addition to the brook: "It wasn't too slimy, it was just wet."

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Warning to Genealogists: Don't Flush

From The (Provo, Utah) Daily Herald of Aug. 27, 2005:

Sewer backs up into 15 homes

Rashae Ophus Johnson DAILY HERALD

Friday morning wasn't the first time Paul Dalebout discovered a foot of raw sewage in the basement of his Timpview Drive home, but it was no less horrifying the second time. He screamed.

"It was just gushing up out of the toilet like a geyser," Dalebout said.

[snip]

As firefighters walked door-to-door notifying residents and asking them to avoid flushing, the Dalebouts recounted the roughly $6,000 worth of losses from their first disaster. That time, at Provo city's expense, restoration contractors tore out the flooring, replaced drywall around the lower perimeter and cleaned any salvageable items, but genealogy records, family photos and other priceless belongings were destroyed.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Top Ten Worst Family History Titles

10. The Dummy's Guide to Finding Mute Ancestors

9. Manson Family Memories

8. 101 Creative Crafts with Cremains

7. Puritans to America: An Erotic Journey

6. Guys Grandma Slept With (abridged edition)

5. Waiting to Exhume

4. Surprises in My Father's Genes

3. They All Were Horrs: A Genealogy of the Horr Family

2. They Came to Rape, But Stayed to Pillage

1. The Donner Party Digest

What About O. J.?

From Brainsnap:

No Relation to Homer, says Jessica Simpson

Submitted by Nikolai Stephens on 25 September, 2005

Los Angeles, CA - Famed starlet Jessica Simpson held a special press conference today in order to deny any rumors of her relation to cartoon celebrity Homer Simpson.

[snip]

The blonde reality television star and amateur pop singer told press that she'd been dumbfounded to learn she was not related to Homer Simpson.

"Just like everyone else, I'd assumed that if we had the same name, we were obviously related!"

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Genealogy an Effective Anesthetic

From The Toledo (Ohio) Blade of Aug. 25, 2005:

Bowling Green: Cemetery tales told as living history

By JENNIFER FEEHAN
BLADE STAFF WRITER

There are nearly 9,000 stories tucked away inside Bowling Green's Oak Grove Cemetery.

Ten of them will be told on Sunday during the second Oak Grove Living History Day sponsored by the Wood County Genealogical Society.

[snip]

Whenever possible, the Oak Grove committee lined up descendants of the deceased to play their relative's part.

"They do it in the first person and we try to limit it to four minutes," [Dorsey] Sergent said. "We keep the genealogy out of it because if you get into too much of that, pretty soon people's eyes glaze over."

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Posted By Red-Hot, Churlish Ape-Men

If you ever get tired of slogging through the names in your family tree, you might take a break and visit Anagram Genius. Plug in a name, and a scrambled version is rendered. You might gain new insights into your family.

In my own case, I discovered that my father is either "Humbling or talented," while my mother is a "Humane, drab Arab." Concealed in my late grandmother's name is the message "I am the prime and mean ill will," but I don't remember her as such.

One wonders about the webmaster's political leanings. "George Bush" becomes "He bugs Gore," while "George Walker Bush" returns "Blush, war geek ogre." The current president's father was evidently a "Huge berserk rebel warthog." Ronald Reagan gloats from beyond the grave: "No, darlings, no ERA law." Richard Milhouse Nixon and William Jefferson Clinton should have seen their names as warnings: "His climax - ruined honor!" and "Jilts nice women. In for fall."

Use the search box at lower left to view archived user-submitted anagrams of famous names. Or download a free trial of the software and make your own. Only then will you learn whether Pat Robertson (born Marion Gordon Robertson) is a "rant-sore brooding moron."

Cause of Death: Bureaucracy

From The (Surry Hills, NSW, Australia) Daily Telegraph:

Immigration blamed for elderly woman's death

August 24, 2005

IMMIGRATION officials are facing possible legal action after being accused of contributing to the death of an elderly Syrian woman seeking to extend a visitor visa due to ill health.

Melbourne GP Dr Chris Towie said 79-year-old Azize Agha died of a heart attack on August 10, two days after being forced by officials to travel 30 minutes into the city for a medical examination.

He said he had written to the department, warning it Ms Agha was unfit to travel.

"And so I wrote on her death certificate that the cause of her heart attack was being harassed by the department of immigration," he said.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Grave Desecration Taken to New Low

From the Boston (Mass.) Globe:

Man, 19, accused of desecrating Civil War corpse

By Cristina Silva, Globe Correspondent | August 25, 2005

NEWBURYPORT -- A 19-year-old man from Salisbury was supposed to be cleaning up a cemetery last week as part of court-ordered community work after he broke into an apartment building last fall.

Instead, officials said, Neil J. Goodwin Jr. invaded the tomb of a Civil War veteran, pulled apart the 142-year-old skeleton, and then played with the bones, balancing the skull on his shoulder and posing for pictures.

"It's bizarre, absolutely bizarre," said Lieutenant Richard Siemasko of the Newburyport police. "I can't even imagine what was in his head. This is just a whole new level of weird for me."

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

It's the Thought That Counts

From the (Elizabethtown, N. C.) Bladen Journal of Aug. 24, 2005:

Much of her world is more than two centuries old

BY JACK McDUFFIE Staff Writer

White Oak resident Laurie Smith lives and has lived most of her life only a few hundred yards from where she was born into a family with deep roots in Bladen County.

[snip]

The daughter of Roland and Winefred Beard Robeson, Smith grew up on a farm in a remote part of the county that was one of the last to get wired for electricity.

[snip]

"I remember one thing that sticks out as particularly amusing from that time," she said, with a hint of a smile. "We had an uncle who lived in Fayetteville who gave us an electric lamp five years before we got electricity. It was a really nice lamp, and when we moved across the millpond where the house had electricity, I remember how pretty it was when we were able to use it.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Genus Envy

From the Tri-Valley (Ariz.) Dispatch of Aug. 23, 2005:

Historical reunions descend into madness

Mark Bazer, Tribune Media Services

August 23, 2005

From time to time, you'll hear about how the descendants of one of America's Founding Fathers are holding a reunion. I've always been puzzled as to what goes on at these get-togethers. I suppose today's Adamses, Madisons and Jeffersons just shoot the breeze, maybe compare passed-down anecdotes, and then wind things up by reflecting on how far the family name has fallen.

Still, I must cop to feeling a tad jealous of these folks, with their distinguished lineages and automatic entry into such exclusive gatherings. The most I can ever hope for is a meeting of all the descendants of people who complained in 1922 about the quality of the cantaloupe at Murray's Fruit Stand.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

A Stone-Cold Case in Toledo

From the Toledo (Ohio) Blade of Aug. 24, 2005:

GRAVESTONE FOUND

Police seek clues to marker's home

By CHRISTINA HALL
BLADE STAFF WRITER

It's a case of a missing person.

But all Toledo police have to work with in this caper is a gravestone carved with "Conard Yahn 1876-1898."

"If only it could talk. We could take it home," property room Sgt. Jerry Heer said yesterday as he turned the approximately 80-pound marker over to expose a few grass stains on the bottom.

The modest, unweathered stone was found July 22 in an alley behind 124 West Park St. in North Toledo. The marker - which police believe is made of granite and has a more modern polished face - is being kept in the large-item storage area in the old alarm building on Erie Street downtown.

[snip]

An oddity the marker is. Most items found by police are more practical - safes, bicycles, lawn mowers, license plates, and basketball hoops. Some have serial numbers to help track the owners.

"It's not often property has a person's name on it," Sergeant Heer said.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Update (Aug. 27, 2005): Mystery solved.

Update (Sept. 10, 2005): Marker laid to rest.

Modern-Day Braveheart: Death March Not So Bad

From Telegraph.co.uk:

700 years on, a funeral is held for William Wallace

By Sally Pook
(Filed: 24/08/2005)

There was little of William Wallace to bury after he was strangled by hanging, released near death, drawn, quartered and beheaded.

His head was placed on a pike on London Bridge and his limbs displayed across Scotland to serve as a terrible warning.

Seven hundred years later, a symbolic funeral service was conducted for the Scottish rebel leader in London yesterday, close to his place of execution.

[snip]

Tied to horses and stripped naked, he was dragged for six miles through the city in 1305 to a site next to St Bartholomew's church in Smithfield, where he is commemorated by a plaque dedicated to his "immortal memory".

[snip]

Colin Hay, 32, a youth worker from Perth, who walked the death route from Westminster to Smithfield, said: "It was the easiest six miles of my life. I didn't feel it. We were walking for a purpose, in honour of Wallace."

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Could Snoop Dogg Be Next?

From The (London, U. K.) Times of Aug. 24, 2005:

Dog days over as villagers recover their lost respect

From Jane Macartney in Beijing

AFTER a thousand years, the ridicule and barking provoked by the mention of their surname finally proved too much for families from a village in central China. They won permission this month to change their name legally from Gou, a word that means "humble" but is pronounced the same as "dog".

[snip]

Police chief Guo [Junchao] defended his decision against scholars who disapproved of the name change — an unusual move in a society where tradition is to revere ancestors and to ensure the transmission of the family name. He said: "I think these people don't understand the feelings of the villagers. They would know better if their name was Gou."

[Read the whole story]

What's a War Without a Slogan?

From the Chicago (Ill.) Tribune:

Troops' Gravestones Have Pentagon Slogans

By DAVID PACE
Associated Press Writer
Published August 23, 2005

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Unlike earlier wars, nearly all Arlington National Cemetery gravestones for troops killed in Iraq or Afghanistan are inscribed with the slogan-like operation names the Pentagon selected to promote public support for the conflicts.

Families of fallen soldiers and Marines are being told they have the option to have the government-furnished headstones engraved with "Operation Enduring Freedom" or "Operation Iraqi Freedom" at no extra charge, whether they are buried in Arlington or elsewhere.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Some suggestions for retroactive slogans:

• American Revolution— Operation White-Guy Freedom
  
• Mexican War— Operation California Dreamin'
• Civil War— Operation Surplus Population Abatement
• Vietnam War— Operation Enduring Quagmire
• Invasion of Grenada— Operation Foregone Conclusion

Man Prefers Deportation to Marriage

From the Yorkshire (U. K.) Evening Post of Aug. 23, 2005:

Back at the court of our Aussie ancestor

BY CHRIS MURPHY

WHEN mischievous John Naylor stood before magistrates in Ripon after pinching a bag of coal in 1836 he was warned another misdemeanour could result in his deportation down under.

But quick as a flash, Naylor informed the bench he wanted to go to Australia immediately – just to get away from his wife.

And his wish was granted when he was sentenced to a seven-year stint working as part of the Gold Rush. He went on to become a successful farmer and married again twice.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Genealogue Exclusive: National Archives to Hold Yard Sale

A Genealogue Exclusive [What's That?]

In an effort to close a projected $331 billion dollar gap in the federal budget, the National Archives will hold a yard sale Saturday on the Mall in Washington, D. C.

"This is a day we hoped would never arrive," says Archives spokesman Jeff Huffle. "But when the call came, we agreed to do our part."

Workers will be busy this week placing yellow price tags on thousands of historic documents. But not all of the nation's treasures will be available at the sale.

"You won't see the Bill of Rights lying out on a picnic table," Huffle says. "We sold that last week to the Sultan of Brunei."

Genealogists will be eager to paw through the stacks of census records, passenger manifests, and pension applications. Those looking for a more personalized purchase can buy their own FBI file for $5. File folders of unindexed records from the Carter administration will be offered as "grab bags" for the kids.

The Archives has put in place a few rules for the sale: Cash and carry, no returns or refunds. Merchandise is offered "as is"—including any documents scorched when Washington was burned in the War of 1812. Papers with presidential signatures are subject to a ten-percent surcharge—waived if the president in question was unpopular or served less than six months.

And no early birds.

Descendants Make a Mockery of War Hero's Funeral

From The (Columbia, S. C.) State of Aug. 22, 2005:

Mock funeral honors de Kalb

Revolutionary War re-enactors, German soldier’s descendants attend

From Staff Reports

BATTLE OF CAMDEN

In August 1780, Baron Johann de Kalb was laid to rest among others felled in the Battle of Camden.

As part of the celebration of the 225th anniversary of the battle, the German who led colonial troops against the British was buried again in a mock funeral Sunday by Revolutionary War re-enactors. Observing were his descendants from Leipzig, Germany, and Rock Hill.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Ancestors by Gooooogle

There is no better way to peer into the hidden corners of the web than to type a query into Google. But Google's utility to genealogists depends on the rarity of the terms searched for.

Take my hometown of Greenwood, Maine. There are 86 populated places named Greenwood in the United States (not including variants and trailer parks), and three Greenwood Counties. Pennsylvania alone has three Greenwood Townships. There are Greenwoods in British Columbia, Ontario, and Queensland, Australia. And it is a fairly common American surname (1276th in 1990). Searching for "Greenwood" is pointless: I have to search for "Greenwood ME" or "Greenwood Maine" to produce useful results. (Try Easy Google Genealogy Searcher for some other good tips.)

On the other hand, take the nearby town of Dixfield, Maine. Dixfield's claim to fame has resulted in the adoption of a slogan: "The Only One." It is the only Dixfield in the world, and far easier to research than Greenwood. Searching for "Dixfield" in Google (or searching for "dleifxiD" in elgooG) yields 81,200 results—almost all of which would be found relevant to the town. Compare this to search results for the smallish towns neighboring Dixfield, which include Carthage (1,670,000 results), Peru (47,600,000), and Mexico (168,000,000).

The same problem applies to surnames. My own name, Dunham, provides good search results, but try searching for surnames like "House," "Thing," "Work," "Small," or (God forbid) "Bush." Including both first and last name in the query will sometimes work, but not if the person searched for is Miles Long—a settler of Buckfield, Maine, who does not merit 768,000 Google results.

Often, though, a given name can save an individual from obscurity. That is the case for an early resident of Paris, Maine, who bore the most common surname in America: Smith. His Christian name? Merodachbaladan.

If You've Got the Time, We've Got the Ahnentafel

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

In champagne of families, some are on beer budget

Posted: Aug. 20, 2005

Ashley Clausen, 15, stood on the front steps of the mansion that her great-great-great grandfather Frederick J. Miller built and told me she's proud of her heritage but hesitates to tell people she is a sixth-generation descendant of the beer baron.

"They say, 'Are you like rich?' And I'm like no," said Ashley, of the Cleveland area.

And, sorry, but she can't get you any free beer, either.

She is one of more than 100 descendants of Miller who assembled in Milwaukee last week for a family reunion timed to coincide with the Miller Brewing Co.'s 150th anniversary celebration.

[snip]

[Read the whole story]

Top Ten Genealogist Pick-up Lines

10. "Come to this gravesite often?"

9. "I haven't felt this way since the 1930 census was released."

8. "Should I pencil you into the family tree, or can I use ink?"

7. "What do you say we merge our collateral lines?"

6. "You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen . . . except for my great-grandmother. Want to see a picture?"

5. "Ever been to the archives after closing? I know a guy who can get us in."

4. "Enough about me. What about your immigrant ancestors?"

3. "Is there a Mr. Smith . . . and if so, is he related to the Smiths of Paducah?"

2. "Why don't you come upstairs and check out my rubbings."

1. "I know this is our family reunion, but I just can't help myself."