(S)MOTHER

Call me crazy, but I think this image recently uploaded to Flickr would look great on a Mother's Day card.

It's Not Always That Easy

About five years ago, Pat Coppel picked up a family tree he'd created as a student back in the '80s.

An unusual name on the tree caught his eye - La Mothe. He knew this branch of the family came from the Isle of Man, and decided to try seeing if he could find any mentions of Manx-based La Mothes on Google.

He hit the jackpot immediately. The very first result that came up on the search engine was an 1895 document written by John Corlet La Mothe, high bailiff, who turned out to be Mr Coppel's great-great grandfather. It outlined the history of the La Mothe family going back 10 generations. [Link]

It should be noted that this method doesn't always work. Sometimes you have to look at the second result on Google.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Ireland Puts Bounty on Centenarians

Here's an easy way to make some extra cash. First step: Get Irish citizenship by having "at least one parent, grandparent or, possibly, a great-grandparent who was born in Ireland." Second step: Live to be 100.

The Irish government has announced that it's extending its "centenarian's bounty" to citizens living abroad.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said the Government’s decision to extend the €2,500 bounty to all citizens who turn 100, regardless of where they live, was a token of the regard of the sacrifices emigrants had to make. [Link]

€2,500 comes to about 3,150 USD—a tidy sum for doing nothing but not dying.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

The Point of No Returns

If you can't find record of your ancestor's 1841 birth in Boston, don't blame it on the NEHGS. An article from the Barre Gazette of Mar. 24, 1843, shows that the newly installed system of recording births, marriages, and deaths and returning those records to the state was failing miserably.

A report from the Secretary of State revealed that thirty-five towns had failed to return any vital records at all. Other towns provided records that were obviously incomplete.

"In Ipswich, with a population of over 3000, there have been but 22 births recorded for nearly forty years." But the climax is, that "the return from Salem, amongst a population of more than 15,000, gives not a single birth;" certainly a very modest people. The Secretary waggishly remarks that "the fact that there were 145 couples married last year in that city, is perhaps more indication that the next return will be less barren." In Boston, it appears that 19 persons have been born in the course of the past year.

This last number seems somewhat low, considering that Boston in 1840 had a population of 93,383, and—with the exception of Oct. 25, 1986—has never lacked the urge to procreate.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Live Free or Die in Prison

Milli Knudsen's new book sounds like a page-turner. Hard Time in Concord, New Hampshire: The Crimes, the Victims and the Lives of State Prison Inmates, 1812-1883 has 2,100 ne'er-do-wells on its companion CD-ROM—every one of them worth a chapter in someone's family history.

There's also some background on the law in New Hampshire, including a list from 1679 of fifteen capital offenses.

Some of those offenses involved creative Colonial spelling, such as “Idollitry,” “Blassphemy,” “Publique Rebellion” and — I am not making this up — “Chill’n Cursing Their Parents.”

My other favorite offenses involve an unhealthy affection for animals, if you get my drift, plus “Man Stealing” and “Slaying by Guile; poison, Devilish practices.” [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Will a Shopping List Do?

A former mayor of Schenectady, New York, is embroiled in a legal dispute with an 86-year-old woman over the $680,970 estate of the woman's late uncle.

Frank Duci says a will was dictated to him by Walter Sengenberger shortly before his death in 2003. It's hard to understand why the authenticity of the document was ever doubted.

The attorney general's office has raised questions about the validity of the will, which Duci wrote on a blank shopping list taken from his wife's purse and then had Sengenberger sign with an "X" because the 84-year-old General Electric retiree was too weak to write his own name. [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Chicken George's Roots

Actor and dancer Ben Vereen learned when he was 21 that the woman who had raised him was not his birth mother.

He was going to London with Sammi Davis Jr. in the late 1960s and needed to apply for a passport. When he found his birth certificate, he found the names didn’t match.

The woman he believed was his mother wasn’t listed on the birth certificate. But neither was the name Ben Vereen. Instead, he found his mother’s name listed as Essie Middleton. His was Benjamin Augustus Middleton. His birthplace was listed as Laurinburg [North Carolina].

Vereen had no luck finding his mother until he met amateur genealogist Roxie LaFever in a doctor's office last year. They planned a trip to Laurinburg, and just last Tuesday discovered that "Essie Middleton" was in fact Essie May Pearson—a woman whose baby was somehow misplaced while she was away on a trip. Pearson died 24 years ago, and reportedly was a fan of Ben Vereen, never knowing that he was her son.

Vereen will be attending a reunion of his new family next month, and is thinking of buying a house in Laurinburg.

“Everybody’s been wonderful,” he said, tears in his eyes. “Mom has led me here.” [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

ABC Greenlights Genealogy Sitcom

A Genealogue Exclusive [What's That?]

In a move meant to bolster its lackluster comedy lineup, ABC has greenlighted a sitcom starring veteran actor Abe Vigoda as a dedicated genealogist, and Cloris Leachman as his shrewish sister bent on keeping the family secrets secret.

In the pilot episode of Uprooted, Vigoda's character discovers that their great-great-grandmother was not a "Cherokee princess" as his sister hoped, but rather a German prostitute with unusually dark complexion. In an uncredited cameo role, Marie Osmond appears as a Family History Center volunteer who helps Vigoda rewind a reel of microfilm during the closing credits.

"This show can't miss," says executive producer Jay Barnett. "People love genealogy almost as much as they love Abe Vigoda. It can't miss!"

TV critic Mandy Crommett is not so sure.

"The genealogy angle has been tried before in sitcoms, and it's always fallen flat. Remember the time on Seinfeld when Jerry, Elaine, and George spent the whole episode waiting for a tour at Ellis Island? Or the time on Happy Days when Fonzie taught Chachi the importance of family history by jumping his motorcycle over Grandma Nussbaum's grave? Of course you don't. They were instantly forgotten."

Barnett thinks Uprooted will prove the critics wrong.

"The time is ripe for genealogy-based television. Once Uprooted takes off, we'll have a dozen other projects ready to roll. In fact, we have a comedy based on Alex Haley's Roots already in production. It was skewing 'urban,' so we recast the Kunta Kinte part," Barnett confides. "With Clay Aiken as the lead, there's no way it can miss!"

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

WeRelate.org is Wiki-Wonderful

WeRelate.org is a promising new wiki genealogy project beta-launched just last month. The site features a genealogy-targeted search engine that singles out websites with names and places. You can help improve the searches by adding new sources, tagging sources for removal, or contributing usage notes for a source already included. The site also features family history articles, which anyone can edit, and user pages, which only the creator can edit. A GEDCOM-import option might someday be available.

As Phil Windley notes, the site's name is "WeRelate.org," not "WereLate.org"—a domain better suited to a support group for habitual latecomers.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

The Importance of Middle Names

Tim Horsch of Jackson, Michigan—owner of The Loyal Handyman General Contracting—seems always to be in trouble with the law. Just last Sunday he was reported to have been sentenced to six months in jail for criminal sexual conduct. Except it wasn't Tim Horsch of Jackson who did the crime and will do the time, but his distant cousin Tim Horsch of Jackson.

Timothy Michael Horsch is 40, works as a contractor, and stands about six feet tall. Timothy James Horsch is 39, works as a contractor, stands about six feet tall, and is due to spend 180 days somewhere up the river.

Timothy M. Horsch's mother once had to come to her son's rescue when the police arrived at their door, ready to arrest the wrong man.

After she explained the two had different middle names, the officers apologized and left.

Leo Lalonde, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections said it isn't the first time two names have been confused, but it usually happens with more common names.

"What can be done about the confusion, I don't know," Lalonde said. "It would be different if it were a John Smith." [Link]

All the more reason to keep the middle names of your ancestors straight. You wouldn't want your great-grandfather Alphonse Terwilliger Capone confused with his distant cousin.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Neither Heroes Nor Villains

Following up on a story from last February:

The governor of Montana has agreed to pardon nearly eighty men and women convicted of sedition in 1918 and 1919. University of Montana students mounted the Montana Sedition Project last year seeking posthumous pardons for people whose only crime was speaking their minds about World War I—and sometimes straying beyond the bounds of good taste.

A Rosebud County farmer got 8 to 16 years for making the curious remark that, “These free taxi rides given to the soldiers at Miles City were just for the purpose of getting them into private houses, so that they may have intercourse with women (meaning the wives, sisters and daughters of the citizens of Miles City) and get war babies.” [Link]

E. V. Starr was sentenced to 10-20 years for refusing to kiss the American flag, saying, "I will not kiss that thing. It might be covered with microbes."

The Project is still looking for information on the seditionists—on their lives before conviction and after—and invites comments and contributions of research. If you have one of these scapegoated scoundrels in your family tree, speak up. Or show up at the pardoning ceremony in Helena next Wednesday and tell those assembled what you think of the war in Iraq.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

MSM Type Seeking Like-Minded Genealogists

If you felt your ears burning on Thursday, there's a simple explanation. A panel of news executives were griping at a conference in Seattle about diminished access to public records when someone brought up genealogy.

Kathleen Carroll, senior vice president and executive editor of The Associated Press, suggested partnering with genealogy experts, who rely heavily on public records laws to mine historical data.

"We don't talk to that group of people very well, and they could be very powerful allies," said Carroll, one of four executives who spoke on a freedom-of-information panel at the ASNE annual meeting. [Link]

So, if in the next few weeks an AP reporter starts throwing you "come hither" glances, you'll know why.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

SSNs Issued by Woolworth's

Sharon at BackTrack has found further proof that 078-05-1120 is the most misused Social Security number of all time. The number has been traced to wallets once sold at Woolworth's five-and-dime stores.

The wallet came with a fake Social Security card with a preprinted Social Security number on it, empty spaces where the name and birthdate would go, and the word SPECIMEN stamped across it. When these people died, their next of kin opened the wallet and pulled out the card. They gave the social security number on the card to the person who filled out their loved one's death certificate. [Link]

The number wasn't arbitrarily chosen: a wallet company executive used the SSN of his secretary, Mrs. Hilda Schrader Whitcher.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Cohanim Beware!

An expansion project at the Knesset complex in Jerusalem recently ground to a halt when a cave containing Second Temple period graves was discovered on the property. The concern wasn't archaeological, but religious.

Dating back to traditions formed nearly three thousand years ago, when the Jewish Temples in the Holy Land were standing, priests who served in the Temple are forbidden to have any contact with the dead.

Three millennium later, Jewish law stipulates that their descendants - commonly identified with the last name Cohen - are still enjoined from entering, or even passing over, a cemetery. [Link]

Problem is, at least six parliamentarians are cohanim (or kohanim), and the whole Parliament building could be declared off-limits to them. Officials have come up with a solution that might save the day: they're covering up the tomb, and keeping the Knesset windows closed "to prevent any exposure to the impure winds from the adjacent burial cave."

The care that cohanim must take is evident from this plaque affixed to a wall in Krakow:

COHANIM BEWARE !!!

ONLY THE OPPOSITE SIDEWALK CAN BE USED FOR WALKING ON THIS STREET !!!

THE SIDEWALK ON THIS SIDE AND A PART OF THE ROADWAY HAVE BEEN PAVED OVER GRAVES.

See The Tribe: Cohen-Levi Family Heritage for a history of the cohanim, an account of their family-specific privileges and responsibilities, and a very good article on the discovery of the "Cohen Gene"—a remarkable confluence of science and tradition.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

A Name That Will Live in Infamy

Three sons of Adolf Hitler's "loathsome nephew" Willy live on Long Island, New York, and are planning to write a book. All three are childless, as was a fourth son who died in 1989. Among the questions left to be answered are whether the eldest really was given the middle name "Adolf," and whether the brothers made a pact to let the Hitler bloodline peter out.

After coming to America in 1939 and serving in the U.S. Navy, Willy changed his surname to "Stewart-Houston" (later "Stuart-Houston"), and was understandably reticent about his father's infamous half-brother. Teresa Ryther grew up in the Patchogue neighborhood where the family lived, and never made the connection.

Photographs of Willy as a young man show some likeness to Adolf Hitler, but most friends and neighbors in Patchogue remained unaware of the connection until Willy revealed it to them shortly before his death. Still, Ms. Ryther said her father noticed a resemblance.

"My father used to say to my mother, 'Doesn't Patty look a lot like Adolf Hitler?' " she recalled. "Once, my father told my mom, 'I just saw Patty mowing the lawn, and he turned around real quick and, my God, he looked exactly like Hitler.' And I remember thinking, 'Oh, Hitler — he was that bad guy.' " [Link]

Karolina's Survey

Polish grad student Karolina Walczyk—whose first attempt to elicit the help of genealogists was met with skepticism—has now very wisely created an online survey.

The multiple-choice questions she asks don't always cover all the possibilities (I started my genealogical research more than five years ago, but after elementary school), but the open-ended questions further down will give you a chance to lay out the details more fully. Unlike her previous attempt, this survey is completely anonymous—unless you want her to send you the results.

And as for those of you who doubted her good intentions, For shame!

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Genograms: They Work for Cartoons, Too

A recent post at Megan's Roots World mentioned genograms, which put me in mind of a shareware program called GenoPro that lets you diagram your family's dysfunction quickly and easily.

A GenoPro genogram can be a simple family tree with some additional medical information, or a complex web of diseased relations and regrettable affairs. Every sort of relationship is allowed—including "Non-sentimental cohabitation" and "Temporary relation/One night stand." You can also specify the emotional relationship between any two individuals, whether healthy (In Love, Best Friends) or unhealthy (Hostile, Indifferent/Apathetic). Even pets can be listed—in which case being "In Love" might also be unhealthy.

Here's a quick example I threw together for the Simpsons. As you can see, Homer and Marge are very much in love, but Homer has a "Close-Violent" relationship with his son ("The two individuals have frequent contacts, yet argue and have violent behavior when together"). Communication is limited between Homer and daughter Maggie, probably because of "lifestyle differences." And Bart and Lisa's relationship is characterized by distrust—as is that between the family's dog and the latest incarnation of their cat. I've colored one corner of Homer's symbol blue to signify an ongoing addiction to alcohol. Dead pets are omitted.

GenoPro is free to use for 30 days, and free to own for $39.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Roberts' Royals

If the blueness of your blood concerns you, you should probably consult Gary Boyd Roberts' freshly updated The Royal Descents of 600 Immigrants to the American Colonies or the United States. Dick Eastman has a review and ordering info.

Among the notables with newly established royal roots are Madonna and actors Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Coincidentally, Madonna is often called the "Queen of Pop," while Jake Gyllenhaal is often called "Tobey Maguire."

Be aware that Roberts might puncture your dreams of taking tea at Buckingham Palace.

A new indexed Addendum and a Coda outline descents from kings for nineteen additional immigrants, improves the lines of eighteen more, lowers the descent for eight others, fully disproves one, and suggests disproof for a further seven.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Mummy Dearest

The New Hampshire mummy story has inspired the most watched video at CNN.com. Charles Peavey insists he is "not a freak," and I am inclined to believe him. Until I'm reminded that he cuddled a mummified baby and gave it a pet.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Top Ten Signs Your Child Will Be a Genealogist

10. Checks the newspaper each morning for grandparents' obituaries.

9. Asked if Disneyland has its own Family History Center.

8. Theme of last birthday party was "Ellis Island: The Immigrant Experience."

7. Cried for days when told by a kid at school that the 1890 census doesn't really exist.

6. Kicked out of kindergarten for swabbing the cheeks of little girls.

5. Always asking impertinent questions like "How old are you?" and "Did your maternal grandfather die intestate?"

4. Recorded and transcribed your "birds and the bees" lecture.

3. Reenacts Civil War-era schoolyard fights.

2. Caught rubbing the family stones with a neighborhood boy.

1. First two words were "Mommy" and "GEDCOM."

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Posthumous Debauchery Banned in China

During the Qingming Festival each spring in China, people visit the resting places of their ancestors, sweep their tombs, and burn fake money so their deceased relatives won't get caught short in the afterlife. But the government is cracking down on some burnt offerings.

China will ban the burning of paper villas, condoms and mistresses as sacrificial articles to curb the "vulgar" practice in [the] future, a newspaper reported yesterday.

Those who burn these things will be punished, the Huaxi Metropolis Newspaper reported, citing Dou Yupei, vice minister of civil affairs, without elaborating. [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Grave Robbers Offered Amnesty

Jeremy Nichols is a cemeterian with a mission. And he's started Tombstone Amnesty to carry it out.

Tombstone Amnesty, a new endeavor of the Sonoma County Historical Society, exists to return lost, strayed, or stolen tombstones to their rightful cemetery. Tombstone Amnesty will accept, no questions asked, tombstones that someone has at their home or where ever. If the possessor knows where the tombstone came from, so much the better. If not, we will figure it out and return the tombstone.

Last Thursday, the program had its first success, returning three wooden grave markers from a barn near Guerneville, California, to their proper home in Calistoga. And no one went to jail.

Tombstone Amnesty is not a police organization. It is not our intention to go around questioning people as to the origin of the tombstone that happens to be in their back yard. We don't want people ratting on their neighbors. If someone has a tombstone and wants to keep it, fine. Tombstone Amnesty was created to take in unwanted tombstones, so they're not lost or destroyed forever. [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Hundreds and Wapentakes: The 1841 UK Census

Ancestry.com has the 1841 UK Census up and running—16 million names from England, Wales, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man. This makes the UK Census Collection (1841-1901) complete. You'll need a World Deluxe Membership to take a peek, or else sign up for a free trial.

Since people were enumerated "at the location where they spent the night on census night," don't forget to check the local brothels for your hard-to-find ancestors.

A Treat For the Census-Diggers

Michael Neill is handing out prizes over at Rootdig.com. Be the first to find Hank Williams, Sr., or B.B. King in the 1930 census and you'll win a copy of Family Tree Maker. Here's a hint: neither lived in Ottumwa, Iowa.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Searching for God at RootsWeb.com

With all the controversy over The Da Vinci Code and its premise that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, it's easy to forget that, according to Catholicism, Christ has had many brides.

The proof is as close as the WorldConnect Project, where several genealogists have listed "Jesus Christ" or "God" as the spouse of their convent-dwelling relatives. Relatives like Gertrude Griffin (Sister Mary Margaret), and Elizabeth Eugenia Vannucci (Sister Betty).

Searching for God references at WorldConnect shows how creative family historians can be when recording nonstandard information. His birth and death dates are given as "Alpha" and "Omega," and as "Always Was Always Is Always Will Be" and "Never." Ian Thomas reveals that God is "Deceased," but omits the date. The GEDCOM format allows for no easy explanation of God's begetting children centuries apart—in some cases leading to confusion over Adam's relationship to the Virgin Mary and to Jesus.

And then there is this entry, which lists God only as an uncooperative witness.

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Oh, Canada!

A Genealogue Exclusive [What's That?]

The upcoming Canadian census will ask respondents whether they want their answers made public in 2098. Now comes news that privacy zealots in Canada want to make headstones optional as well.

Ontario MP Paul Morrison explains: "We've read that identity thieves sometimes practice 'tombstoning'—copying the names and dates from gravestones and creating false identities with the information. Before it ever happens here, we must stamp it oot . . . I mean out."

A measure before Parliament would require Canadian citizens to declare whether they want their graves marked. Those who "opt in" will have stones placed on their graves 92 years after their deaths. Those who "opt out" will lie forever in unmarked graves. Those who fail to respond will be deposited in a mass grave somewhere within the icy bounds of Nunavut.

"This is just unacceptable," says genealogist Claudine Boucher. "We have a responsibility to leave our descendants accurate and complete records of our lives and deaths. How will they trace their ancestries without these resources?"

"There's a flaw in that logic," counters Morrison. "If your identity is stolen, your descendants won't be yours—they'll be somebody else's. We're just trying to keep somebody else's descendants from thinking you're not their ancestor—even if that means keeping your own descendants from knowing who you are. It's really that simple."

God is in the Details ... and in the Index

Rob Manderson's wife received in the mail an Alexander family history whose author was nothing if not thorough.

I have to say that I consider it 50 bucks well spent; it was worth every cent for the laughter it gave us both. Here's a sample of the Table of Contents.

Introduction...
The earliest of early records...
God
Adam
Seth
Enosh
Cainan

and so on...

you have to admire the presumption of someone who sets out to catalogue a list of ancestors and traces it all the way back to God! [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

Grave Situation Not So Grave

The headstone of 5-year-old Leo Goldman once stood in the Sandpointe Mobile Home and RV Park in Gold Canyon, Arizona. The stone said Leo died in 1911; local legend said he died while traveling through with his parents. Park residents looked after Leo, setting out flowers and weeding his plot.

One can understand, then, how upset they were to witness Leo's apparent removal last year.

Last summer, before the property was sold to a California firm, people were alarmed to see a backhoe near the grave. There was digging, and the stone was moved to a fenced storage area, amid cinder blocks and assorted junk.

Sandpointe's residents kept quiet about what they had seen, not wanting to upset the new owners. When the new owners handed out eviction notices in January, the residents were free to report the suspected crime, but . . . was there really a crime?

As it turns out, the carefully tended grave was not a grave at all. Leo Goldman's death record says he died and was buried in Kelvin, Arizona, where his family was then living—35 miles from Gold Canyon.

Former Sandpointe property manager Geff Gunsalus knows what really happened last summer. He says that the new owners "wanted Leo gone." When consulted, state health officials told him to check if it really was a grave by conducting a simple test: dig until bones appear, then stop. Gunsulas did as he was told, and found nothing.

But what about the headstone?

[H]istorians brought to the site cast a wary eye on the stone. Ninety years old? Hardly, they said to Gunsalus. It probably dates back to the 1960s or ’50s.

But who would create a fake tombstone? Gunsalus said the property’s old-timers, never believing there was a body, told him it may have been the work of a long-ago owner, Ed Kosak. “You have to know Ed,” they said. [Link]

[tagged: genealogy, family tree, ancestry]

What, Not Blogging Yet?

This has been a good couple of days for genealogical blogging. Three new blogs turned up on my radar last night, and today I see that Cyndi's List has a new Blogs for Genealogy category, and Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter has adopted an even bloggier design, which looks great.

I encourage every genealogist to start up a blog—free and easy to do at Blogger or WordPress. Before you decide that you have nothing to write about, consider these possibilities:

• Personal Research Blog — Keep an online journal of your genealogical life. Share both your successes and you