Odd Jobs

To mark the imminent Labor Day holiday, Ancestry.com has released a list of interesting occupations found in the U.S. and U.K. Census Collections. Here are some highlights:

• Some were more creative in answering census takers' questions. Rather than simply listing "laborer" as their occupation, their occupations were "Sandwich Man," "Soda Dispenser," "Inspector of Lunch," "Collector of Eggs" or "Prepares Fruit"
• The 1880 Census reveals the lure of the "Wild West" during that time period. Almost 30,000 individuals reported their occupation as "Saloon Keeper." There was also a significant number of "Cattle Herders," "Cowboys," "Saddle and Harness Makers," "Horse Dealers," "Street Sweepers" (to clean up the after the horses on the big city streets) and even an "Outlaw" appeared on the census takers list
• Some people showcased their seeming lack of occupation, listing jobs such as "Old Batchelor," "Good Talker," "Reading the Bible," "Bird Fancyier," "Buggy Riding" and "Gent at Large"

Dead Man Stalking 2

More details have emerged of Susan Sarandon's search for ancestors. She was spotted in a Wales pub recently scouting for cousins. And throwing back a few pints.

Landlord Terry Griffiths said: 'According to the researcher, John Charles Guyatt, who is buried here, was Susan's great-grandfather and she has some relatives still living in this area.

Mr Griffiths' wife Mandy said: 'When they arrived, the BBC people told Susan to stay in the car and they told us she didn't smoke or drink and wouldn't want photos taken.

'But the next thing we know, she's sat down with a fag and half a Guinness signing autographs and chatting to the regulars.' [Link]

This, of course, could not have happened in New York City, where it's illegal to sit down in a bar with a fag cigarette.

Cure for Old Age Discovered in 1951

Among the "20 Things You Didn't Know About... Death" in the current issue of Discover were these two things I didn't know about death.

3 No American has died of old age since 1951.

4 That was the year the government eliminated that classification on death certificates. [Link]

A more complete explanation may be found in Leonard Hayflick's 2002 essay titled, "Has Anyone Ever Died of Old Age?"

The cure resulted from a Public Health Conference on Records and Statistics in which all state and federal agencies were ordered to adopt a standard list of 130 contributing and underlying causes of death. In 1951, the list deleted a cause of death attributed to “old age.”

Thus, with a single stroke of a typewriter key, old age was cured as a cause of death in this country. [Link (pdf)]

No Longevity in My Genes

I have a grandmother who's 93, a great-grandmother who lived to 96, and a 5th-great-grandmother who was going strong at 103. Nevertheless, I could kick off at any moment.

Dr. James W. Vaupel has determined that genes have more to do with how tall you are than how long you'll live.

“How tall your parents are compared to the average height explains 80 to 90 percent of how tall you are compared to the average person,” Dr. Vaupel said. But “only 3 percent of how long you live compared to the average person can be explained by how long your parents lived.”

“You really learn very little about your own life span from your parents’ life spans,” Dr. Vaupel said. “That’s what the evidence shows. Even twins, identical twins, die at different times.” On average, he said, more than 10 years apart. [Link]

Dr. Vaupel obviously didn't include Chang and Eng Bunker in his study.

No Shortage of Nutters in Britain

Britain's most embarrassing surnames have been announced. The same folks who brought us the Surname Profiler have analyzed census data to determine which names have dropped most in prevalence since 1881. "Cock" heads the list, followed by "Hickinbottom," "Handcock," and "Smellie."

Glasgow was the home of the most Smellies in 1881, while Nottingham was home to the Dafts, Jellys were based in Guildford and Piggs in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Blackburn is named as the original hometown of Nutters - but their numbers have held up. The number of Nutters has only fallen by 35 per cent in more than a century. [Link]

The linked article also lists the most and least "adventurous" surnames—a measure of how far a family name has spread from its 1881 range.

First Comes Death, Then Comes Marriage...

Can anyone tell me how to record posthumous marriages in Family Tree Maker? A traditional ritual in Korea gave bachelors and spinsters one last shot at tying the knot.

The tradition was conducted by a group of shamans, and it aimed to soothe the pain and agony of the dead and allow them to enter the next world in peace.

The ritual involved shamans summoning the sprits of unmarried men and women and infusing them into doll’s bodies symbolically, and shamans and people in a town held a wedding ceremony for them. [Link]

'Pregnant' Man Delivers Own Twin

Here's yet another story that confirms that siblings are parasites. Sanju Bhagat of Nagpur, India, always had a big belly, but by the age of 36 he had begun to look like he was nine months pregnant. When Dr. Ajay Mehta cut him open, he found Bhagat's twin inside. In a rare case of fetus in fetu, the twin had fed off his brother's blood supply, growing fingernails that were "quite long."

The case may have been a medical miracle to doctors, but to Bhagat his condition had been a source of shame and misery. All his life, people in the village where he lived had mercilessly teased him and told him he looked pregnant. Ironically, they were right in a way.

Today Bhagat is in good health and leads a normal life, but he still gets teased occasionally.

"They still ridicule him. What they say is, you went for an operation and you had the baby," Mehta said. [Link, via Neatorama]

The Hills Are Alive, But Maria Isn't

Genealogy can be tricky when your ancestors have been fictionalized. Four great-grandchildren of Captain Georg von Trapp of Sound of Music fame have a singing act, and will be appearing together in a movie next year. They have two family trees: a real one, and a second dreamt up on Broadway.

The four are the grandchildren of Werner von Trapp, the younger of the two boys -- and the fourth of seven children -- depicted in The Sound of Music as Kurt (the child Julie Andrews remembers to include in her bedtime prayers with the line, "God bless Kurt.")

The von Trapp youngsters also remain close to grandfather Werner's eldest sister, their great-aunt Agathe -- portrayed as Liesl ("I am 16 going on 17") in the musical.

Werner, Agathe and sister Maria (the real-life name of the movie's second-oldest daughter, Louisa) are the last surviving members of the original Trapp Family Singers, who fled Nazi-occupied Austria in the 1930s after their father, a widowed naval officer, married their governess.

Three children added to the singing family after Georg and Maria von Trapp were wed are also still alive. [Link]

Joe Beine blogged about the real-life Maria von Trapp earlier this month.

Woman Falls Short in Immortality Attempt

The world's oldest person has died, meaning there's one less person standing between me and the title. Maria Esther de Capovilla of Ecuador was 116, and "enjoyed drinking donkey milk in her youth." Her untimely death will undoubtedly cause authorities to take donkey milk off the market.

Her successor is presumed to be Elizabeth Bolden of Memphis, Tennessee, who has lived long enough to earn her own Wikipedia entry. Bolden resumes the title she held from August 30 to December 9, 2005, when Capovilla's age was confirmed. Despite having a clear motive, she is not a suspect in the Ecuadorian woman's death.

World's Oldest Person continues to be the most dangerous job on earth, with a fatality rate of 100%.

Didn't We Once Share a Womb?

Douglas and Holly Funk of Chicago adopted a little girl in 2004 who'd been abandoned in Yangzhou, China, and named her Mia.

Carlos and Diana Ramirez of Pembroke Pines, Florida, adopted a little girl in 2005 who'd been abandoned in Yangzhou. And named her Mia.

Last May, Mrs. Ramirez wrote about her daughter's upcoming birthday on a website for parents of kids adopted from the Yangzhou orphanage.

Mrs Funk saw the message and wrote back, 'Diana, I have a Mia as well and she is almost 3.'

The two mothers began e-mailing each other and exchanging photographs of their daughters.

The physical likeness of the two girls was too striking to ignore.

After comparing biographical details, they decided to swab the girls' mouths and send the samples for DNA testing.

The results showed that there was an 85 per cent probability that the girls were half-sisters at the very least.

Greater certainty would only be possible if one of the girls' biological parents could be tested as a comparison. But given their identical birth dates and backgrounds, it is most likely they are twins. [Link]

Sub-Terra Cell

Wayne Irby was mowing the grass at Philadelphia's Fort Mifflin when he felt the earth move under his feet.

Irby "turned the mower loose" just as the ground collapsed beneath him.

Curious, he shoveled aside a few feet of earth over the next couple of days and made a stunning discovery: a tunnel and a two-room jail cell recalling the sad tale of a decorated Civil War soldier, a murder, clemency pleas to President Lincoln, and the only execution at the fort.

The barred cell at casemate No. 11 once belonged to convicted killer William H. Howe before he was hanged Aug. 26, 1864.

A message written on a cell door reads, "Shun this place, oh man, whom soever thou art." But not everyone is heeding this advice.

William Mifflin, a descendant of the fort's 18th-century commandant Thomas Mifflin and member of the board of directors of Fort Mifflin on the Delaware, called the find remarkable, "another significant chapter in the fort's long history."

"It not only gives us one more educational and interpretive opportunity - but it's entertaining," he said before ducking down a small, muddy hole that opened into the tunnel. [Link]

Probably less entertaining for someone waiting to be hanged.

She's Not Lost Annie Moore

By mustering the power of the Internet and dangling $1,000 in front of some talented genealogists, Megan Smolenyak² has succeeded in discovering the fate of the first person to pass through Ellis Island.

The $1,000 will be split between two people -- Brian Andersson, who was the first to identify the correct Moore family, and a great-niece of Annie's who provided the critical last few clues. Credit is also due to ProGenealogists, which contributed vital research at the Family History Library and kept pace with my entirely unreasonable research requests (without complaint, no less!). And an honorable mention goes to Sharon Elliott, who did a terrific job of sleuthing and sharing her findings. [Link]

I guess I can end my page-by-page search of the 1900 census. I kind of wish I hadn't already spent that reward money on an "I Found Annie Moore" tattoo.

There's No Escaping Pat Sajak

If you need some votive effigies to burn for a late relative, Ho Chi Minh City is the best place to shop—especially if Grandma was a fan of Wheel of Fortune and high-end electronics.

HCM City’s Binh Tay Market is famous as a place producing votive subjects for export. There a man offered: “You can buy everything for the dead here. If you can’t find the thing you need, you can place an order”.

“Nowadays, no one sends ordinary TV sets to the dead, but LCDs. We have LCDs with screens showing all kinds of current game shows,” he added. [Link]

A Touch Too Much Dutch

Dutch footballer Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink isn't really of Hesselink. "Of" in Dutch means "or" in English, making his name more of a multiple-choice question than a geography quiz. And Jan isn't about to shorten it to suit television commentators.

"Other people don't shorten their names so why should I? I'm proud of the name. Shaun Wright-Phillips writes his whole name. He doesn't just put Wright, does he?"

Autograph hunters can pose a problem, however. "Sometimes if there are one or two standing alone, I'll give them my whole name but otherwise I just sign my initials. It only takes ten minutes or so to sign autographs but for the fans, they treasure them for years." [Link]

Fergie's Wild and Woolly Past

Yet another celebrity has offered sketchy details about her ancestry. This time it's a member of The Black Eyed Peas who once was the voice of Charlie Brown's sister.

Fergie, whose real name is Stacy Ferguson, discovered her relatives were sheep rustlers before they settled in the US.

She revealed: "I found out my ancestors are from Ireland. We stole sheep." [Link]

On the bright side, there are worse things her ancestors could have done with sheep.

[Photo source: Schaf by Patrick Gruban (license)]

Grab a Scalpel, It's My Lucky Day!

Many expectant women in China are opting to get C-sections so their kids will be born on "lucky days."

"Eight minutes past eight, Aug. 18, 2006, that's the lucky time my mother has chosen for my caesarean section," said Zhang, a mother-to-be, before her delivery. "I hope the doctor will let the baby be born at the exact time."

So-called lucky days are often related to the Chinese number "eight", whose pronunciation is close to a word meaning "getting rich", and to other lucky numbers. [Link]

Planet Ex

Sharon Elliott always has the best ideas for posts over at BackTrack. Today she finds Lowell Observatory astronomers enumerated in the 1930 census just a few weeks after they discovered the lately deplanetized Pluto. Her title has caused me to turn three shades of green with envy: "Panned Planethood."

BTW, be sure to check out Pluto's response to being kicked to the planetary curb.

You Must Be This Tall to Inter

The Samuel Oldham Burial Ground lies smack dab in the middle of the Kentucky State Fair midway. Sam's will provided that two acres be set aside for his family, but the yard has been whittled down to a mere quarter acre, its gate located just a few steps from the foot of a giant slide.

"It is the principle of the thing," said Dona O. Page of Deer Park, Texas, Samuel Oldham's great-great-great-granddaughter. "The man's will plainly stated…that that (land) was to be preserved for his family… 'forever.' Now to me, 'forever' means forever. It doesn't mean until somebody wants to park more RVs."

Page guessed that her ancestors would be perfectly comfortable in the middle of the state fair midway.

"They were always in the middle of everything," she said. [Link]

Dead Man Stalking

Actress Susan Sarandon is desperate to prove her ancestry—so desperate that she consented to part with some of her Oscar-winning DNA.

Yesterday, we are told, she was at Blenheim Palace with Bryan Sykes (of the ancestry research firm Oxford Ancestors) to get the results of a DNA test seeking to identify UK origins.

“She had brought a lot of her family,” says our mole behind a drinks tray. “There were about 12 of them. I gather it was for a TV show.” [Link]

Must See Roots TV

I'm intrigued by the announcement (received by way of Megan's Roots World) of a new channel devoted to genealogy—Roots Television. The website offers no info on the scheduled programs, but allow me to speculate.

• 7 a.m. - 8 a.m. — An animated series for kids based on the Elizabeth Shown Mills book Evidence! Citation & Analysis For The Family Historian.
• 8 a.m. - 9 a.m. — Barney the Purple Dinosaur reads selected obituaries from the nation's morning newspapers.
• 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. — Census records scroll across the screen while Muzak plays in the background.
• 4 p.m. - 5 p.m. — Psychic John Edward helps people get in touch with their departed ancestors, and in doing so liberates them from their common sense and spare change.
• 6 p.m. - 7 p.m. — Dr. Phil helps people cope with the divorce of their great-great-great-great-grandparents.
• 7 p.m. - 8 p.m. — The gang from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition visits the homes of genealogists and knocks down their brick walls.
  
• 8 p.m. - 9 p.m. — A Fear Factor spin-off on which people are dared to consume traditional dishes from their ancestral homelands.
• 9 p.m. - 11 p.m. — A nightly movie with a family-history theme—usually Back to the Future.
  
• 11 p.m. - 7 a.m. — Ancestry.com infomercials, occasionally interrupted by MyFamily.com infomercials.

These Olympics Aren't All Fun and Games

St. Andrews, Scotland, has been playing host to The 27th International Congress of Genealogical and Heraldic Sciences this week.

[Organizer Mark Dennis] said: "This event will be singular and quite unusually memorable event given its historic significance.

"It will be the first time since the Middle Ages that heralds of several countries have met together in State and will be a colourful affair with the university's traditional robes and maces intermingling with state dress, civic robes, tabards and armorial banners." [Link]

Called "the Olympics of genealogy and heraldry," the Congress began on a sour note after two participants tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, and a lecturer on Myth and Propaganda in Roman Papal Heraldry pulled a hamstring.

He Should Have Asked for Lottery Tickets

Missouri genealogist Scott Biondo has learned that it's not who you know, it's who you're related to.

When the power went out in much of St. Charles the first night of the reunion, the family scattered to find bags of ice. Biondo was told by a relative in a local QuikTrip store that ice was rationed because of the power outage.

"When I told the clerk that we were having a Biondo family reunion he told me his grandmother was a Biondo and to take all the ice we wanted," Biondo recalled. [Link]

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Forget about liquids on planes (or snakes, for that matter). A much greater threat to our nation's security has been identified: the genealogy blogger.

Craig Manson noticed that someone from the U.S. Department of Justice had spent 20 minutes visiting GeneaBlogie during work hours.

Now I don't mean to alienate any genealogy fan, but come on now: 20 minutes at work? At the Department of Justice? Either someone doesn't have enough work to do or I'm under investigation! Was my visitor Big Brother or kindly old Uncle Sam? [Link]

They'll Wear Blue and Gray on Alternate Days

Eight members of a Sons of Confederate Veterans camp in Luray, Virginia, have chartered a new Sons of Union Veterans camp in the same town. They haven't abandoned the South: they're just honoring ancestors who fought for the other side.

The formation of the Union camp by the members of the Confederate camp, said Gregory Kelly, 40, of Luray, will help promote understanding.

"Many people see us as rednecks because we are in SCV," Kelly said. "This shows we are not that way at all."

Kelly, manager of the Food Lion in Stanley, said the members will likely be ostracized by many people because of the creation of the Union camp.

"[But] if it will help in any kind of way to bring issues to rest," he said, "that is great." [Link]

Governor Lags Behind His Ancestors

The Salt Lake Tribune has turned up plenty of polygamists in Mitt Romney's family history, but the Massachusetts governor insists that marriage is between a man and a woman—not between a man and seventeen women.

Romney's great-great grandfather on his paternal grandmother's side is a famous Mormon from the settling of the western realm of Deseret (part of which later became Utah), where followers fled in the 1800s to escape anti-Mormon persecution fueled, in part, by opposition to polygamy.

Parley P. Pratt was one of the influential LDS Church leaders during the early years. He married 12 times, though his first wife died before he took a second. A former husband of one of his plural wives eventually killed Pratt. [Link]

... thus proving that polygamy can be fatal.

And No Battlefield Amputations, Either

Participants in a Civil War re-enactment at the Iowa State Fair this weekend had to cope with a few modern realities. For instance, the price of gas.

"We are in artillery, so you have to have a pickup or something, and they don't get the gas mileage of a Ford Festiva," said organizer Roger Shannon of Woodward, uttering words not heard in the Civil War days. The gas prices have cut down on the number of road trips for the group.

In a day of insurance concerns and such, the brave soldiers were not allowed so much as a small fire to warm their coffee, for fear they would burn down nearby Pioneer Hall. Oh, and they couldn't fire blanks either. Not enough room to do it safely. [Link]

Domain Names Expire

Two of the three PETA activists who changed their names to website addresses have decided that even principled publicity stunts have expiration dates.

"I think maybe its time had come and gone," said Karin Robertson, formerly known as "Goveg.com" until last month.

Robertson led the way, changing her name in March 2003 to get people focused on animal rights and vegetarianism.

Her success inspired others. Last fall, [Christopher] Garnett and Brandi Valladolid went to the courthouse and, with the stroke of a judge's pen, became "Kentucky fried cruelty.com" and "Ringling beats animals.com." [Link]

Only Valladolid has kept her new name, probably because it sounds better at job interviews than "Brandi."

Two Easily Confused Christians

Christian James Tinory and Christian James Doskocil met while waiting in line for Boston Red Sox tickets on Friday morning. The 12-year-olds soon discovered that they had more in common than first and middle names.

“I went to play catch with him,” said Doskocil, who spied Tinory throwing a football. They quickly found out they shared more than a love for sports.

Doskocil’s older sister, Laura, couldn’t believe the similarities.

She joked it would be weird if the two shared a birthday and sure enough, they did - April 18, 1994.

“Then we found out he was born in the same two minutes,” Christian Doskocil said. “That was pretty crazy.” [Link]

And yet the two differ in one important way: Tinory loves the Red Sox, while Doskocil is a Yankees fan. Which means that, were they long-lost brothers, the latter would be the evil twin.

They'd Never Seen a Wilder Tomb

A California couple found Gertrude M. Wilder hanging around in their backyard. They wouldn't mind her staying, but would just as soon reunite her with her husband.

DeeDee and Dan Armenta thought the odd-looking brick-and-stone structure in the backyard of the house they bought a year ago was a barbecue pit, or possibly a fountain. But when they started jackhammering through it while landscaping late last month, they found it was something they'd never expected: a tomb.

The couple found a headstone with the names of Gertrude M. Wilder, 1878-1941, and William R. Wilder, with a birth date of 1882 but no date of death. A decayed cardboard container, bearing a barely legible "Gertrude" and "Dec. 11, 1941" in typing, accompanied cremated remains in a disintegrating redwood box buried inside the 4-foot by 4-foot round brick structure. [Link]

Update (Sept. 30, 2006): A descendant of the Wilders has been found, and Gertrude is staying put.

The Bride Wore ... Nothing

I've just run into an instance of a "shift marriage" in the published vital records of Newbury, Mass. Stephen Mitchel married Mrs. Katherine Brown on Jan. 4, 1774. The record of intentions (2:66) indicates that "the said Stephen takes said Katherine naked and so will not be obliged to pay any of her former husband's debts."

Aside from giving the pastor a thrill, a shift marriage (or smock marriage) served as a do-it-yourself legal proceeding. The idea was that, if the bride came to the marriage with no possessions (she was sometimes allowed to wear a shift, or chemise), she wouldn't bring with her the debts of the deadbeat she'd previously wed. Sometimes the unclothed bride was allowed to participate by sticking her hand through a "widow's hole" in a door.

When Major Moses JOY married Widow Hannah WARD of Newfame, Vermont, in 1789, she was stark naked. She was in a closet, her hand extended through a hole cut in the door. Then she put on a fine set of clothes and emerged from her closet in style, to the general admiration of the assembled. [Link]

Other times, the ceremony was held on a public road for all to witness.

Thomas Calverwell was joyned in marriage to Abigail Calverwell his wife the 22 February, 1719. He took her in marriage after she had gone four times across the highway in only her shift and hairlace and no other clothing. [Link]

A notice from The Fredonian of May 15, 1810, demonstrates that the British were not above causing their brides public embarrassment.

In England, Mr. Joshua Cossack, to Miss Mary Lofts; to secure her swain against the gripe of her unfeeling creditors, the bride crossed the highway, in a state of perfect nudity previous to going into church.

Would this debt-forgiveness plan have stood up in court? John Buckman wasn't eager to test it, according to a 1659 deposition in Essex County, Mass.

Jno. Blany [...] deposed that about Michaelmas time he heard Joseph Armytage demand of John Buckman five pounds which Wm. Butler owed him; he said he would pay it, although he took his wife bare, without anything. [Link]

As someone who hates sitting through weddings, I think this is a custom that deserves to be revived—so long as the widows are under thirty and go to the gym once in a while.

Imagine What She Named Their Pets

One Florida 16-year-old has a name that commands respect. Yourhighness Morgan ("Hiney" to his friends) was "kind of named" for his mother's great uncle King Thomas Crews.

At a track meet last spring, one of South Sumter's coaches called him over:

"Yourhighness, come here," he said. A coach from another school overheard and asked the South Sumter coach, "Why'd you call that kid Yourhighness?" The South Sumter coach answered simply, "That's his name." [Link]

Yourhighness has a brother named Handsome, and cousins named Prince and Gorgeous. His mother had a hand in naming all of them, and admits that people "probably think I am crazy."

It Didn't Have the Ring of Truth

Edward McNair inherited a signet ring with a family legend attached. He recently placed the ring on eBay with a "buy it now" price of $75,000, mostly because of the tale he'd heard as a boy.